Eraba walked forward to the next floor, buildings and architecture blocked their view of the night sky, torched illuminating the city in front of them. A light tune played in the background, an Oracrina that blessed the ears of survivors that cleared ten percent of the Tower.
Eraba stretched her legs, raising her arms up as her shirt raised with them, revealing her torso. She let her arms back down and sighed.
"Alright..we're here…"
"Woah…This has a whole different vibe from the other floors!"
Matsumi scurried in front of the group and back again, his head snapping to every thing that could catch his eye.
"What's that sound too?"
"Long ago a technique was developed from the Cerī…The tower use to be much more brutal..much more dangerous. That was until that family introduced these floors. The song you hear now is the last of their techniques that still exist in today's world..The music heals your wounds and satiates you with Mana."
"It heals me?"
He looked down at his still bare chest, the wound he had suffered had stopped hurting as much. You could barely see it now.
"You're right! Does it also heal Trops?"
"Any living creature, since all creatures have Mana."
"Oh, then I guess I'll have to take it to someone to fix it up!"
He had now named his backpack armor, Trops, it wasn't any normal backpack and he felt he needed to differentiate it more from the ordinary ones. It did take some damage in their previous fight and he had no clue how to fix it.
"Matsumi..I'm going to try and find some kind of doctor to help Kibō. You can find someone to fix…..Trops…"
She rubbed her head, her hair messy from the chaos.
"Can you stay safe until then?"
"Wait, shouldn't we go together? You said we had to be in the frontlines."
"Well I want to get some sleep…I feel like my mind is slipping…eight days is a lot. You can come if you wish..I thought you'd want to explore more though."
"You sure? You don't need anyone with you? Last time we separated some of us went missing!"
"It's not likely she'll go missing on this floor. Mana for the most part is actually disabled and Violence is prohibited. So anything like that would cause any competitor to be sent back to the first level of the tower."
"So, there's no fighting on this floor? Awesome! Then, if you find a place to rest make sure to save me a spot, Kurai!"
He got an idea, a pretty genius one to him. He extended his hand for a small whistle to appear.
"Look, from Trops! If you get lost or something, just whistle!"
He held it over for her to grab.
Kurai grabbed the whistle and smiled.
"Okay i'll try my best."
She walked off with Kibō in her hands, leaving only Eraba and Matsumi.
"Bye bye!"
He waved them off.
"Take care of Kibō, I'll come by later."
He turned to Eraba, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
"As for us, we gotta do something!"
"I'm going to eat something. I haven't had a meal on earth in years. You can join me if you want..or you can go get some rest…"
"But you gotta tell me more stuff! You're family! You're like…my cousin!"
"Can't we do that over a meal though?…I'm fine with telling you things."
"Sure, I can get down with that! I'm actually starving!"
He sure didn't look like it.
Eraba smiled and walked over towards a restaurant, pushing the door open. It was a small diner, one that you could find at a pit stop in the mortal realm.
"Ah…I remember these! Haha…"
Eraba laughed to herself. She took a seat in the booth and waited for them to be greeted.
"Oh man, I barely eat at these. Did you go to diners a lot before?"
He sat down with her.
"Oh yeah..when they were first opening up they were my favorite. That was a while ago though."
The waiter walked over and laid two menus in front of them, before giving them both some cups of water.
"Beforehand humanity mostly ate in the streets or in the park…there weren't that many restaurants until they started opening a bunch and if there were they were packed to the brim and were rowdy…Kinda like you in a way."
"Hello! May I start you two off with an appetizer? Any other drinks besides water?"
The slender pink girl stood in front of them, smiling and keeping her eyes on the two.
"You lived before restaurants? How old are you?"
He went to take a sip of the water before spitting it out to the side after seeing who their waiter was.
"You're the announcer girl! What the heck are you doing here?!"
"Ah…You may be confusing me with another Tobit. We are androids designed to aid humans in their affairs…Let me see if I can pull your data from another Tobit…"
The Tobit's eyes flashed and small lasers flashed up and down Matsumi, ones that indicated he was being analyzed in some form or fashion.
"Ah..Matsumi Ryokō..You're a student who took part in the volleyball game in Ashina."
"Hm. I never thought about it but at least a few hundred years old. Though if you want to be technical i'm probably around your age."
"You have clones? I wish I could do that too! But yeah, that's me!"
He continued to have a conversation with the both of them.
"Few hundred? How'd you live so long? You gotta tell me!"
"I'll have two steaks..and a side of greens and macaroni and cheese…Give me some tea as well…"
Eraba folded the menu before giving it back to Tobit.
"Well..when our family went into hiding I was the next inheritor of the blood moon…there is no concept of time or space in that world. So I haven't technically started aging until I came here with you. That's the only reason why…Though we do age slower..or so i've heard."
"Yes we are all made the same way in order to appease humans…Would you like something to eat Matsumi?"
"Give me a pizza and two sodas!"
He didn't even bother to look at the menu.
"So you've just been stuck in there? Why didn't you ever come out?"
"Well I thought that we were extinct as far as I was concerned. It would've been best for me to stay away if I was the last of us…Or else our family blood would be completely gone ."
"But you had to come out eventually! Good thing we showed up when we did! I can't imagine staying in that empty space for so long. Didn't you get bored?"
"Hm…well not really….I traveled sometimes but it was never familiar to me if that makes sense.."
"You traveled? Where'd you go? What'd you see?"
"It might be hard for me to explain to you…but there is more than just what you experience…there are an infinite amount of worlds..and my eyes allow me to see all of them."
Their food arrived even despite Matsumi's absurd request and Eraba perked up.
"Alright! I haven't had steaks like these in so long!"
"For real? I wanna see all those worlds too! There's so much to see! I never knew there was so many interesting things outside Leordoba."
Matsumi waited for the food to be ready on the table before immediately grabbing it and stuffing it in his mouth. Still talking even with a mouth full of food.
"I wonder if Dad knows about all that."
"I guess it just depends on who your dad is…but a lot of people don't know that…Anyways nothing beats this world's food. You can travel to one hundred more and they still wouldn't have as great of a steak as this!"
"I'll see that for myself! By the way…I gotta ask, you keep saying about being the last of our family. Why are there so little of us?"