Peering through the door that lead to Chrona's dark room, Kray stood there, staring at her unmoving body that simply stared into the blue hologram. The hologram was the only thing that lit up the room at all, casting a slight blue hue on the walls. Chrona always had bags under her eyes for as long as Kray could remember, but they have now gotten much more visible. How long have they been in this world anyway? Kray didn't remember. He lost track of time because time was still.

The blue light of the hologram was reflected in Chrona's bloodshot eyes. Kray let out a sigh and walked away from the door, stepping outside. He felt that she had become too obsessed with watching over Saneko. From the outside, the room Chrona always stayed in simply looked like a severely damaged concrete cube. Around it were the remains of some sort of building that once housed this room. It looked to be a destroyed school. Only a few remnants of the outer walls remained of the building itself. The rest was rubble on the ground. The room was the only part that hadn't been destroyed.

As Kray continued walking away, he looked down to think to himself. His footsteps echoed down the empty road he walked on. All around him were destroyed buildings that seemed to once be a sprawling metropolis. The sky was perpetually dark and there was not a sign of life anywhere.

"Why does she care so badly about these banana smoothies anyway? Ever since that girl was born 19 years ago, she just won't stop watching that damn hologram!"

It sounded like an exaggeration, but it was hardly one. Kray and Chrona had no concept of time, or more accurately, they forgot what time meant. Watching a hologram for 19 years wasn't as long as it seemed from their perspectives, but it still upset Kray as Chrona didn't always act like this.

Kray rarely ventured away from the room Chrona was in. As far as he knew, it was the only intact building, so there was no need to leave. No time meant never getting hungry and never getting old, and of course, since they were from a world above, they had innate powers to do many things normal people couldn't, such as creating holograms. As boring as it seemed, that little room was usually all he needed, but right now, he needed to get his mind off of how obsessed Chrona was being with killing Saneko. He went down an alleyway he had never went down before, not really paying attention to where he was going. He suddenly tripped over something and almost fell, causing him to let out a surprised gasp.

"What the hell was that?"

He looked over his shoulder to see what he had just stepped over, and right there on the ground was a dead body that was severely burned and unrecognizable.

"Another one? I thought I got all of them already."

Bending over, Kray picked up the body and walked out of the alleyway. The sound of clanking metal was heard as he walked over to what seemed to be a machine of some sort that was producing the knights that they had sent just recently. They would come out on a conveyor belt, standing up straight, but lifelessly. Kray stood up to a deep hole right next to the machine and dropped the body inside. Grinding and churning was heard, and the massive machine produced steam. The conveyor belt moved slightly and another knight was pushed out.

"I guess we never do run of these bodies do we?"

Realizing that he was talking to no one, he cleared his throat and walked away from the machine. He scratched his head as he started trying to think about what he was saying just a minute earlier.

"What was I thinking about again? Oh yeah. Those damn banana smoothies. I mean if she would just descend to the Mortal Realm, she could get one herself. Why worry about that demon-horned girl? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Kray wanted Chrona to return to how she was before the birth of Saneko. Before all of this happened, she was still a rather lazy person, but at least she would talk about other things than just Demon Babe this, Demon Babe that. Kray missed having someone to talk to in this desolate world. Thinking about how much she seemed to care about these smoothies actually ended up giving him an idea.

"I guess I could go down and get one for her myself. It shouldn't be too hard. Of course, I'd have to be quick. Entering a world with time flow would probably start aging me after a few hours. And of course, there's the possibility of Chrona seeing me on the hologram. Eh whatever. It's worth the risk if it'll bring her back to her sanity."

He exited the world above, embedding himself into the Mortal Realm. Since he spent most of his time with Chrona, watching over Saneko, he knew exactly where the ice cream shop was. He appeared in the Mortal Realm behind the shop where he knew nobody would be.

"Okay. This should be easy. Just in and out."

Walking around the corner, he made his way to the front door. When he opened the door, everyone in the shop looked over at him. He had forgotten he had black wings that made him stand out like a sore thumb. He looked down, his cheeks burning red with embarrassment. He walked up to the line and the people in front of him stepped aside.

"Please go ahead. Just don't hurt us!"

"Great, they think I'm a beast."

He was upset, but he wasn't going to just let the opportunity to cut the line pass him by. He walked up to the cashier, still looking down, not daring to make eye contact with anyone.

"Could I get... just uh... a banana smoothie."

The cashier surprisingly wasn't afraid. Unlike everyone else, he assumed this person was a cultivator with a strange ability rather than a beast.

"Sure. Small medium or large?"

"Large I guess."

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"Okay, then that'll be $5.65."

He felt his heart sink as the cashier mentioned the price of the smoothie. He didn't bring any money because he hadn't bought anything in the world above.

"Oh uh, about that... I don't have any money."

"Oh. Well I guess you can sweep the parking lot and take out the trash if you really want the smoothie."

Kray took a deep breath, realizing that this wouldn't be as easy as he originally thought.

"Alright."

The cashier walked away to get a broom from the back. As he left, Kray couldn't help but notice a TV in the corner of the room. The events displayed a horrible fire and the headline read, "At least 10 killed in an explosion in Mexico City. Culprit is theorized to be a rogue cultivator who specializes in pyrokinesis."

"Wow. So this world has super villains now huh? I'm honestly surprised it took so long."

The cashier came back with a broom and handed it to Kray.

"Here's the broom for the parking lot. You don't have to be too meticulous. Just get the trash off of the lot. Also, like I said. Take out the bags of trash as well. The dumpster is in the back."

Before he knew it, Kray was carrying out a giant bag of trash out to the dumpster. As he lifted it over his head to put it into the dumpster, it suddenly ripped and spilled all over him.

"DAMN IT!"

He was soaked with the liquids that were in the bag, which caused him to recoil in disgust. People who walked by and noticed the soaking angel-winged boy had looks of both fear and amusement. Upon seeing people giggle at his misfortune, he seethed and started to mumble to himself angrily before bending over and picking up the trash that had fallen to the ground, putting it into the dumpster piece by piece.

After he had accomplished putting all of the trash away manually, he started sweeping the sidewalk and parking lot with a broom. He was sweating and panting as the sun beat down on his back. He saw a piece of plastic on the ground and attempted to pick it up, but the wind started moving it away. With a frustrated look on his face, he started walking after it, only for the wind to continue blowing it.

"Damn wind!"

He was now jogging after it and pounced on it, but it was just out of reach and continued being blown around the parking lot.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

He dropped the broom and started chasing the piece of plastic around the parking lot. As people passed, they no longer had any look of fear on their faces. They ignored his wings and just started straight up laughing at him.

"I HATE THIS WORLD ALREADY!"

The piece of plastic started to fly away, but he was determined at this point. He jumped up as high as he could and finally grabbed the plastic and held it up triumphantly.

"YES!"

His excitement was short lived however, as out of the corner of his eye he saw the last thing he wanted to see. The silver hair and demon horns were unmistakable.

"Crap crap crap! I forgot she's always late for school! Of course she comes at this time."

Saneko tilted her head side to side, looking as if she didn't have a worry in the world.

"I think I'll get just one banana smoothie before I go to school."

She walked inside the shop, and Kray hid behind a car in the parking lot. He was scared that if Saneko saw him, she would think he's a beast and kill him. But he was also scared that Chrona would see him on the hologram. He waited and waited until he saw Saneko exit the building, sipping on the smoothie. He watched as she walked down the street and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god."

He carefully stepped out from behind the car and walked up to where his broom was. How was it that he had been here for less than ten minutes, and was already going through hell?

After a few more minutes, Kray returned inside, covered in both sweat and trash, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Can I have that smoothie now?"

"Well, I was going to check on how well you did, but looking at the condition you're in, I'll just say you've earned it."

"Thank the heavens."

The cashier handed him a large banana smoothie and he took it before walking back outside and going around the building to the back again. Once he was there, he took a few breaths and exited the Mortal Realm, hoping he'd never have to return.

In the dark room, Chrona watched Saneko like always. She hadn't seen Kray on the hologram thankfully. The door creaked open and he stepped in. Chrona glanced over at him and nodded, as if to welcome him in.

"Hey Chrona, I have a surprise."

He had his hands behind his back, concealing the banana smoothie with both his back and his wings.

"Hmm? Now I'm interested. What is it? And why do you smell so bad?"

"It's a long story. Anyway, ta da!"

He presented the banana smoothie to her. She stood up quicker than he had ever seen before. She walked around the table and approached him. Her mouth was wide open as she stared at it.

"Now you don't have to watch Saneko anymore. You literally have one of the items that you wanted. I'm not dumb. I knew this was what you were talking about. And if I'm not mistaken, it will last forever since time doesn't flow."

Chrona did not respond. It was if she was unable to speak. Kray looked down at the cup to make sure nothing was wrong with it.

"What, do you not believe it's real? Look, I'll take a sip if you don't believe me."

She immediately slapped the smoothie out of Kray's hand, letting it spill to the ground. He flinched and gasped a bit before looking down at the spilled smoothie.

"DON'T EVER DRINK ONE?"

"What the hell was that for? I thought you wanted one."

"What I want is irrelevant. Do NOT drink one EVER!"

"Why the hell not?"

Chrona huffed and turned around. She sat back down and moved her bangs away from her eyes.

"Just never do it again."

"You're going to have to explain why. I'm not going to just sit here and let you boss me around."

"I don't like bossing you around. I'm not your boss. You can do whatever you want. It's just something I don't feel comfortable discussing."

Kray was about to retort but instead he just exhaled in aggravation. He turned around and opened the door to leave.

"You sure do feel like my boss sometimes."

He left and closed the door behind him. Chrona looked over at the door with her bloodshot eyes. She also exhaled and her breath was shaky. She continued to stare at the the hologram, but she couldn't help but think about how bad she felt for how she acted. If Saneko was never born, her and Kray would probably be using this hologram to play video games which was something they used to do before, but Chrona wouldn't stop observing Saneko. The hologram showed her drinking a banana smoothie of her own which only caused Chrona to scowl with rage. Still though, she felt remorse for making Kray upset. She looked away from the hologram and bowed her head, angry with herself.

"I'm... I'm sorry."

Saneko entered the HRS classroom at Anetop Academy, and like usual, Mrs. Gaud rolled her eyes at her appearance.

"Oh great."

Saneko sauntered over to her seat, feeling satisfied as she had just finished her banana smoothie. Mrs. Gaud spoke up to her, informing her about some events she had missed.

"You were late like usual, so you didn't hear me say this, but there will be a field trip to the cultivation center tomorrow."

Saneko smirked when the teacher said that. The cultivation center was a building in Northern Cintianta. It was not destroyed from any of the beast attacks as Cintianta was separated into three districts. Downtown, North, and South. Only Downtown had been severely damaged. The building held sports competitions, but the twist was that there were rules based on magic abilities that could be used.

"I would love to compete and represent our school. After all, who else could be better than Demon Babe?"

"No Saneko. We are just there to watch. Get over yourself."

Saneko kept her smug smile. She didn't respond, but in her mind, she couldn't help but think, "Is that supposed to stop me?".