The sun touched the horizon, and the group had their dinner against the dark Radiance of its dying light.

In their hands, they held bowls of thick stew flavoured with artificial bacon bits, as well as toasted bread, dried figs, walnuts, and other nuts. This was today's dinner.

And it had costed everyone pretty penny.

Lucifer looked at the bowl of stew in his hands. It appeared to be very salty. He could not feel the heat of the bowl through his metal gauntlets, but judging from the way everyone else was digging into it with big mouthfuls and not blowing on it to cool it down, it should have been just the right temperature.

"Now then, what shall I do?"

Lucifer was a demon, and he did not need to eat with this body of his. In addition, this was unknown food and drink from an unknown world (future). Though the dishes before him were plain fare, Lucifer felt that it was a shame to not be able to enjoy them.

Though he no longer had a need or desire to eat, it wouldn't hurt to eat, he could not stop himself from consuming the delicious-looking food that piqued his curiosity.

"Ah~ is there something you're scared of eating?" Saul asked as he noted that Lucifer had not touched his food.

"No, it's just a personal matter."

"Is that so? Then you don't need to force yourself, right? Although, we're eating now, so could you take off your helmet?"

"I'll pass. Also, my stomach is not welling that well at the moment, I'll wait a bit before eating my dinner."

"Well, make sure it to eat it before it gets cold."

Then, he asked Saul.

"As i recall, your team's name is 'the Blood Wolves' but I don't see a crimson wolf among you."

"…Huh? Ah, you noticed."

As Saul chuckled, he finished the last bite of his bread and wiped his mouth.

"Well, you could say that 'Blood Wolves' sounds more like a clan's name than a regular team's name, don't you think?"

"…"

That was a bit awkward. He had a point, Lucifer thought but then Nomi spoke up.

"It doesn't really have a deep meaning behind it. Before the name, we just called ourselves Saul's crew but the—"

Saul interrupted her.

"Well actually, it does hold a meaning. The blood wolf's are a clan of druggies in Neo-Tokyo. My parents died by their hands. So, i want to take revenge on them one day, kill those bastards one after the other but i wasn't strong enough just then, so i build this — we will kill them all. That is our goal."

"…That's quite the past you have," Lucifer said. He felt somewhat sympathetic, although he didn't know much about Japan's under-world so he couldn't be sure if these blood Wolves we're a big group who was infamous or a small street clan. Just then, oxy asked a question.

"How big are they?"

"Wonderful! That's the way to go oxy!"

Lucifer cheered inside his head.

Saul sighed and then said:

"They're a big crime org. They control the red-light district of Neo-Tokyo. Ruthless bastards, last time I checked, there were around a 1000 all over japan."

A thousand people was a lot of members.

Saul smirked as if that was to be expected.

"With our current strength, we're not quite ready to face them, so we've just been doing side missions as mercenary for quite some time now. We're saving up money so we can get stronger and face those bastards."

"I see… I see. I hope your goal is reached then."

Lucifer smiled faintly, but deep down he doubted it and then he asked something else.

"So, is everyone just here for the same goal?"

Luna raised her hand.

"Count me out, i just want money."

"And mine is for the fun of it."

Taguchi said as he bit into the last piece of bread he had in his hand.

Nomi then began to speak in a shush tone.

"Poor Luna over here needs so much money becaus—"

Nomi was abruptly cut off as Luna hit her on her hand.

"Don't."

She muttered in a icy cold tone.

"Look at my ice princess over here."

Another smack followed soon.

"And don't say that nickname."

"What's wrong? Is it embarrassing?"

"Of course it is."

"But why? It suits you."

Luna looked annoyed, and Nomi smiled smugly at her.

"No, i hate it."

"Yeah, but you're adorable when you're angry."

The mercenaries all laughed, it was fun.

The dinner conversation continued, and blood wolf's, having the advantage of numbers, tossed questions out at Lucifer and oxy.

Lucifer responded as best as he could, but he still felt a barrier separating him from the blood wolf's. This was because Lucifer lacked knowledge about this world, and he could not engage too fully lest his ignorance be revealed. Thus, Lucifer kept quiet about things he did not know, which in turn led to him drawing even further away from the mercenaries in a vicious cycle.

Though the adventurers tried to chat up oxy, all he did was respond with the verbal equivalent of a home run, leaving them with no way to respond.

Eventually, they slowly stopped trying to speak to her.

"…It's nothing. I had friends like these once."

These childish thoughts, almost like a tantrum, ran through Lucifer's head as he watched the others chatting happily in the campfire's light.

They seemed very close to each other, but that was only to be expected of a group of comrades who trod the edge of life and death in each other's company.

Lucifer had a look of envy on his face as he looked upon them. Lucifer recalled his friends from the past, and under his helmet, he quietly ground his teeth in jealousy.

—Once, he had been like them.

Lucifer's mood sank once again, and his thoughts turned dark.

"Hmm? Sato-san, were you in an mercenary party before?"

Lucifer did not know how to answer Taguchi's question, but right now, he had no need to make up some strange excuse to cover it up.

"We probably didn't count as… mercenaries."

He could not help but take a somber tone as he thought about his past friends. After all, he still had emotions — even though his body was non-human — and his friends were the people that Lucifer treasured most.

Sensing Lucifer difficulty in answering, nobody pursued the matter, and silence fell upon the group.

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Amidst this quiet, so deep and so total that it felt like they were the only people in the world, Lucifer unconsciously raised his head and looked into the smog and cloudy night sky.

"When I was still a weakling, maybe 14-15, i got into a car accident, the driver who was driving me died and I barely made it out alive myself. A group of kids my age saved me, their hand's saved me. Through them, I met four more comrades. And so, we formed a team that numbered ten people, including myself. In addition, after that, we met three more weak people like ourselves, and we ended up as a team of thirteen people."

"Ohh—" someone exclaimed quietly, amidst the crackling of the campfire.

However, Lucifer was not bothered, and he continued recounting the story of the original member's of what would become The Angels of Hell.

"They could be described as a bunch of weaklings. Their talent, their strength, hell, they weren't anything special in the slightest. But for me, they were my precious friends. We played around, ate, slept, and trained together. We also quarrelled, fought, and made up over trivial arguments. We really lived together as a single family and were almost inseparable from each other… I thought that It was a normal thing, to be like that with the people you cared about."

"However, as they say, 'the good things don't last.' Things are going peacefully around you but they could change in the blink of an eye; that's one of life's cruelest truths."

Lucifer paused and then continued.

"We had countless adventures together and even now i still can't forget them. It was a beautiful friendship, but…."

Lucifer let another pause, and the voices of the night animals quieted down to listen.

"I should have foreseen this outcome, but in the end, our team split up, and the friends I treasured so dear all left me. No, rather, i left them."

Through them, he had learned the meaning of friendship. As a child, he had shifted schools many times because his dad was a cop and often got transfers, he thought he would be alone all his life but then. They ended up being the best of friends, who would extend a helping hand to each other at any time. And so, as the number of group members steadily increased, they shared their joys and their sorrows together.

Therefore, the guild called Angels of hell was a treasure to Lucifer. He would ensure its brilliance was never diminished, even if he had to discard or destroy everything to do so.

"I'm sure you'll find companions like them again someday."

In response to Saul's comforting words, Lucifer snapped:

"No."

The hostility in Lucifer's tone startled everyone, even himself. Alarmed by what he had said, Lucifer slowly rose to his feet.

"…Forgive me. Ox, I'll have my dinner over there."

"Then I shall go too."

"Really… well, then it can't be helped."

There was a hint of regret in Saul's voice, but he did not insist on their staying.

Although Lucifer noticed the depressed look on Saul's face, Lucifer did not intend to say anything more to him, but he muttered to himself.

"I don't know. Maybe, maybe I'll find others like them. One day."

Unbeknownst to him, Luna had heard this.

The two of them had their dinner in the corner of the roped-off campsite area. The ones who stayed behind discussed the pair which had left. It was only to be expected, given what the absent people had accomplished today.

Then, the conversation grew to a halt, and silence descended upon the group. The campfire crackled and spat glowing embers which danced into the sky. As Saul watched the glowing traces vanish into the air, he muttered in a self-chastising tone:

"I.. think I said something I shouldn't have."

"Umu. It seems like something happened in their past."

Aoi nodded deeply, and then Taguchi continued:

"I guess they were all wiped out. I've seen that sort of reaction from people who lost all their friends in battle."

"Is that so…"

Saul closed his eyes, his expression becoming solemn. Sato had said he had met comrades in the past. That likely meant these comrades were no longer with him. Furthermore, the anger that had flashed into Sato's eyes when he said, "No," clearly indicated that he harbored deep-seated guilt and still hadn't let go of his past.

"…He was quite hostile when he said he wouldn't find friends like that again."

"It's understandable. The loss of all those important people at once is too much for anybody. Even if someone claims to have 'accepted it,' I doubt that's actually true."

"I think you're right about that. All of us would be devastated if we lost a good friend, and the grief that comes from multiple losses would be…"

Saul could not utter the word, and he was silent.

"that's right, Saul. The words spoken just now were not the best that could have been said."

"Well, what's said cannot be unsaid. Therefore, we need to do something that makes him change his mind about those words."

Luna looked quite depressed as she replied, and then she quietly continued, "I know what it's like to lose someone, so why didn't I put myself into his shoes?"

However, nobody responded to her.

The campfire's logs cracked loudly and spat embers amidst the silence. In an attempt to lighten the heaviness in the air, Aoi gingerly spoke:

"…Sato-san's fighting was really spectacular."

As though waiting for these words, nomi immediately added:

"Yeah, I didn't think it would be so amazing. He cut an werebear clean in two…"

"That was seriously over the top."

"Beating an werebear in one blow is amazing in its own right, but how good do you have to be to cleave it in half?"

The Blood wolf's looked at each other after hearing Luna puzzled question.

Luna was a young women who was famous for her innate Talent, as well as an excellent Hacker. Although she might well shake the world with her abilities, it was difficult for her to understand the full extent of Lucifer's prowess without another warrior for comparison.

With that in mind, Saul began explaining to Luna, in a way that was as easy to understand as possible:

"Normally, broadsword's are used in a hacking fashion, but he employed a slashing method. Usually, when using a broadsword one-handed, it would be very difficult to sever the limbs of enemies as large as werebear's… but it would seem there's an exception to that now."

Luna gasped as she heard Saul's words. Peter felt that Luna was not sufficiently awed, and decided to name someone he might be more familiar with:

"Honestly speaking, I think Sato-san is on the same level as the second strongest mercenary in Japan like Setoshi Hellosch."

Luna's eyes widened in astonishment. She finally understood what the blood wolf's thought of Lucifer abilities.

"…That is to say, he could be an diamond-ranked mercenary… those people who are the highest-ranked mercenaries, living legends, in other words, the strongest human beings."

"…Huh? That strong?"

As Luna stared at Saul in disbelief, Taguchi nodded.

"There's no other way to put it. I was shocked when I saw the actual skill, and I think it's fair to say that he could rank amongst the elite… in regards to physical combat."

Indeed," Saul replied as he nodded gently. Luna looked around at the other members of the blood wolf's, who were also nodding in approval.

She was dumbfounded.

Diamond-ranked mercenaries possessed company plates made of diamond, a rare material which was the hardest metal known to man. If mercenaries and their numbers formed a pyramid, then diamond-ranked mercenaries adventurers would occupy the peak, and would be correspondingly scarce. Both Japan and the Korea only boasted two teams of Diamond-ranked mercenaries each with China having four.

Their abilities were at the zenith of human potential. One might even call them heroes.

And Sato was a person who could rival them.

"That's incredible…"

One could hear the utter amazement in those words.

"I wonder If I'll ever be that good?"

"Don't even think about it, you idiot."

"Ough.. I was only considering the possibility, but you really don't need to be so mean about it…"

"Even a fool can understand that there's no such possibility for you, so just give up on trying to become strong and stick to what you're good at."

The mercenaries smiled and laughed.

At the same time —

The thrust went through the steel helmet, along with the forehead beneath it.

The body shook violently, and then collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The exoskeleton armour clanged loudly in the night. He prayed that someone would hear the sound, but nobody would come to Neo-Tokyo's slum district, which had practically been abandoned by the residents. That was why the client had arranged to meet them here, after all.

The man glared at the borged out monster before him. However, it was clear that he was just putting on a brave front. He had lost the will to fight after seeing the borg killed fifteen of his men.

The man stared at the metallic, borged out creature, wondering what he could do.

This borged ogre had completely disregarded the bullets that had been fired at him earlier. The man clenched his bloody teeth — he had no chance of winning,

And he knew it. The borg took a step forward.

In a desperate moment, the man pointed a revolver at the borg and fired.

Bang!

The sound of a revolver breaking the night echoed through but the bullet merely glanced off the borg's metallic skin as it continued forward.

"W...why are you doing this!?"

"Where is my target."

"Like I'll ever tell you!"

"…You will."

The man stared at the borg.

The borg's words had been spoken with absolute certainty, and that alone brought fear to the man's heart. This borg was not a mere machine. It was more similar to a person than anything else.

He — Takemichi Sugi had never came to Neo-Tokyo's before — he didn't have any enemies here.

"…"

The borg's footsteps echoed in the night, creating a sinister aura of death and dread. It slowly approached the man who could only back away one step at a time.

"Don't come any closer!"

The man was a older then his opponent, and his face was lined with the wrinkles of hard labor. But in this moment, any sense of toughness on his face had completely disappeared, replaced by terror and pleading

"Where is my target?"

"W..who do you want!?"

"I've heard there's a very talented hacker in this city working as a mercenary but I can't find her anywhere. Where is she?"

"I... don't know... I don't know okay…"

The borg did not pause, continuing to slowly walk towards the man who was slowly retreating.

"Where…"

Step.

"Where."

Step.

"Where."

The borg's footsteps echoed, as if to drive the man into the dirt.

"I don't know...Please! Stop! I don't know anything! I have nothing to do with any of this! I don't even live in Neo-Tokyo! I'm telling the truth!"

"But you do have the database of everyone who is a mercenary don't you, ex vice president of the mercenary company?"

Takemichi Sugi stiffened. He had been an important man in the past, with a good job of working in a company which focused on mercenaries. But one mistake and he had lost everything. He'd been driven out of that company, his life becoming like hell, and his job a lowly errand runner with no hope of a return to glory and now, it was meeting his end.

"Look! Look! The database is in my Neurochip, but it's been locked and i can't access it, if I try to, I'll die!"

The borg's footsteps stopped, and for a moment, Takemichi felt a ray of hope that he might be able to live a little longer, but it was a false light.

"Then I'll take it from your head."

The ogre reached his hand out faster than sugi's eyes could track it and grabbed his throat, lifting him up into the air.

"G...gh…"

Takemichi's strength left his body. He tried, but there was no way he was ever escaping from those metal fingers, which were wrapped tightly around his fragile neck!

And then, after applying just a little bit of pressure, his neck was crushed like an bug underneath a truck's tires.

The borg's metallic fingers were dyed red as he removed his hand from the man's neck, dropping his corpse. The borg put his hand on the man's head and a small knife came out of his forearm.

"…"

He began stabbing the corpse's forehead, eventually prying open a hole in its skull.

"….Found it."

A metallic chip was attached in between sugi's brain by a thin wire.The borg carefully took it out, avoiding damaging the chip or breaking the connector. Once the chip was out, he raised it and stared at it.

However, he was not concerned about the data it held, merely the fact that this contained information on any and all of Japan's mercenaries. He could find the one he was looking for using this chip's information alone.

A faint hint of a smile formed on the borg's face.

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