Reaper's Purgatory-Chapter 40: New friends?

Megumi continued being pulled through the tiled halls of the academy with Sayko leading the way. they passed by door after door and lockers of people who were clearly using the. After running through the academy halls for so long, Megumi finally spoke up. "H-hey. Where are we going?"

They stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall where several different lockers and doors to classrooms resided.

Sayko then turned back. With flushed cheeks and a wry smile. "I have no idea!" she announced.

Sayko glanced around. "Where do you think we are?"

"She's asking me!?"

Sayko laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess it doesn't matter. We could probably do something fun out here." Sayko said.

"Uh.... What did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don't know." Sayko released Megumi and immediately started snooping around the hallway, leaving Megumi to chuckle nervously.

She watched as Sayko opened and shut lockers and peeked through the ongoing exams. "To be honest I thought it'd be fun just to hang out. you seem pretty cool."

"Uh, Hey, didn't that Sar guy say not to disturb the other exams."

Flames suddenly erupted from the door, nearly hitting Sayko. She quickly shut the door, amazingly maintaining her smile.

"Oh, yeah." Sayko chuckled.

At the corner of her eye, Sayko caught sight of the staircase that led to the roof tops. "Oh...? Hey, follow me."

"W-wait." Megumi reached her hand out seeing Sayko dashing to this newly set destination. With some hesitation, Megumi quickly followed behind, unsure where they were now going. Eventually following up the new set of stairs they reached the top of the academy.

The roof was an old day fort with high stone walls and small windows. The area seemed completely empty and desolate with pathways that seemed to stretch around the building to other parts of the academy.

"Over here!" Sayko called.

Locating Sayko, Megumi joined her as she looked at a far-off view of Arc. It was an astonishing sight to behold. A city of modern and old combined like some strange dream world fantasy. They both gaze upon the view for a good few minute. afterward, Sayko broke the peaceful silence.

"I hear that worlds from those other rifts are like this too." Sayko said.

"Like what?"

"Oh, you know, like that conglomeration of all the memories of everyone, old and new, combined into one to make a whole strange world!" Sayko had spread her arms out in excitement.

She settled down, now leaning on the smaller stone ledge. "I think it's kind of interesting that these worlds are just made by all our memories."

"I... I didn't know that..."

"Really?' Sayko chuckled a little. "Maybe take a stroll around the city or something. You might end up finding some familiar place-. Oh wait, nevermind."

Megumi glanced at Sayko a little more confused.

"Sorry, I almost forgot about the blanketing, so you probably won't see anything from your own memories for a while now."

Megumi looked at Sayko even more confused than before. "The... Blanketing?". At that moment Sayko finally realized that Megumi was a newcomer.

"Oh... You're new here to purgatory, aren't you?"

Sayko rubbed the back of her head, smiling more gingerly at Megumi. "Haha Sorry. I guess I got a little too excited."

Megumi brought her hands up. "O-oh no. no. It's alright. I think that's kinda cool too..." Megumi gazed back to the city before them. "I still have a lot to learn about purgatory. And it's... still a little surreal if I'm being honest. But with everyone I've met so far, I think I can get through."

"Sounds like you got some good friends."

"Yeah... Yeah you can say that..." Megumi's thoughts turned to the people that she's met that either helped her or treated her kindly.

"Wanna be friends?" Sayko suddenly asked.

Megumi shocked, took a step back, unsure how to process the question. "Y- You want to be friends with... me?

Kailey nodded her head 'yes'.

The only other people that had ever asked her to be friend was Eric and Cider. after a moment of recovering from the shock, Megumi blurted out her answer. "Yes."

Megumi was surprised that the words came out as easy as they did. looking back at Sayko, she seemed to have become much happier. "Nice!" She exclaimed. "Since your still new here I'll try to help you the best I can. Oh, and by the way. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out teach's sin?"

"Eh? O-oh. Uh. S-someone just taught me some of the basics about sins... I guess." Megumi thought back to the night before when Liang was lecturing her and Dino about sins.

In truth Liang actually went more depth with sins than either her or Dino had expected. By the time they were done, both of their brains were fried, from the overload of information.

He even gave them a refresher course that very morning. She could still remember it clearly.

********

"Remember, each sin has three different aspects, two of which share similarities of other associated sins."

Megumi and Dino sitting back at the table with some refreshments sitting at the table. As they listened to Liang's lectures again Cider was causing mayhem in the living room forcing K to intervene with his bone tentacles.

Liang pointed to his sin on the heptagram. "Let's take my sin for instance 'Pride'. We can chalk it up to three aspects. The one it shares with sloth which is about bending and manipulation. And the one it shares with rage which is about feeling and transmitting sensations."

Megumi started to nod off in the chair as Liang continued. "Last but not least is the core aspect of my sin." Liang called Megumi, forcing her upright. He repeated himself and continued.

"The pure aspect of energy conversion."

"Huh?" Megumi's attention was not grabbed. She looked back up at Liang curiously, not recalling his ability to convert any type of energy. The closest thing she saw to that was with Kailey and her barrier.

"Wait, but you haven't manipulated any kind of energy that I saw. Can you actually do something like that?"

Liang gave a quick demonstration of his sin. He held out the palm of his hand and generated some type of purple energy within that was bent into several different shapes before dissipating.

Even Dino was left intrigued by this. Soon after, Megumi raised a question for Liang. "In the past when you got hit by those demons... You transfer the damage to them, right? Is that part of your power too?"

"Yup." Liang raised a finger to his mouth. "But that's a trade secret of mine that I haven't told a soul yet. It's kind of a mix between my own lived life experience and understanding the woven links of my sins. But that's jumping down a large rabbit hole of discoveries and a wide range of speculations."

"The bottom line is that to find a person's primary sin you have to pay attention to the aspects of the power. Here, take this and study it on the way to the academy." Liang passed both Dino and Megumi a slip of paper with a list of aspects and the associated sins. Included was a slip of their rooms.

They studied the lip of paper carefully. Each one listed had an accompanied doodle too, which seemed better to display the true meaning behind each aspect of the sins

"Whoever becomes your examiner, they'll always know what their sin is for their final question. So, you two better be prepared."

Both Megumi and Dino nodded in understanding.

"Oh, and remember," Liang brought his finger back to his mouth again. "I never said anything about this. So, this stays our little secret okay."

"I promise I won't tell anyone either," Cider yelled. He was now hanging upside down and was quickly gagged by K. He conjured his book back to hand and went back to reading without a care.

Megumi could only force a chuckle seeing the situation in the living room.

********

"Hey Megumi, are you listening"

"Oh." Megumi was brought out of her thoughts of what had occurred in the morning.

"Did you hear me about the teach and his sin? I was asking about how you figured it out."

"O-oh. Well, someone taught me and- oh wait no. I. I was paying attention to what he was doing when he was asking all those questions, like how we each gave a different answer and when he would make the words float. They all seemed like aspects of pride and sloth with greed as the core."

Sayko looked at Megumi a little befuddled with her smile plastered face. "Aspects?"

"W...Well how did you figure it out?"

"Oh that. I took a wild guess."

Megumi stood frozen in complete shock. "You... Guessed"

"Yup and it all worked out in the end!"

Sayko was so blunt that her honesty felt like sharp razors. Sayko had seemed to have passed by dumb luck and chance.

Sayko patted Megumi hard on the shoulder. "Anyways, great work with the exam! I just know we'll pass the next part. It'll be a dozy for sure!"

"R- right..." Megumi gazed down from the rooftops, finally realizing that they were also overlooking the courtyard of the academy.

She quickly caught sight of Kailey sitting on the courtyard bench, looking at a pendant she was carrying.

Megumi quickly called out, waving her hands fiercely. "Kailey! Hey Kailey!"

Sayko glanced down to the direction Megumi was facing, seeing Kailey also. "Who's that?" she asked.

"She was with me in the same caravan when we were attacked by demons."

"Really?" Sayko's interest piqued.

Finally reacting, Kailey closed her pendant and gazed up at the rooftops where Megumi was. She Clearly saw her and said nothing. Instead, Kailey got up and walked back inside the academy building.

Megumi was left in shock by Kailey's attitude, leaving her speechless.

"Maybe she's on her way up?" Sayko cocked her head, with a puzzled smile.

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Somehow Megumi doubted this and sighed. "Why was she acting like that? Did I do something wrong?"

At the corner of her eyes, Sayko caught a glimpse of a man with blonde hair, roaming around in the hallway balcony. Her hers glinted brightly and she leaned hard at the roof wall,

"Look! There's a cute guy over there!" Sayko Pointed straight at him.

Megumi looked in the general direction, only to realize that the guy in question was dino. "That's Dino..."

"He's done too?" Megumi wondered.

"Dino, eh?" Sayko's mouth, curved like a cat, eying its prey.

"Hey, hey. Wait, you're going to fall off."

"Sorry Megumi, Let's catch up later." Sayko likes her lips. Her wide grin quickly returned as cyan blue color formed around her very being. Her hands and feet were cloaked in with a beast like ethereal claws and her head sprouted out ears like a cat. She even had a tail to boot.

Megumi watched in awe as, second later Sayko launched across the courtyard like a rocket, crashing into the building. Dino, who was in the hall, looked on in shock as Sayko rose from the dust with her red piercing eyes.

"W-what the hell???"

"Hey, you... Become my boyfriend."

Dino could only look on in complete and utter bewilderment. "Huh?"

"If you don't, I'll kill you."

Dino knew all the red flags when he saw them. And all of them were present at that very moment.

"Uh... No thank you." Dino said.

He quickly placed his hands on the wall conjuring a wall of crystal. But to his shock, she broke through it!

She slid in his path, ready to hear a new answer. Instead, Dino bolted away from the deranged women. Not long after a chase ensued between the two with Sayko chasing him like a beast on all fours from the wall to the floors.

********

Megumi watched the entire event unfold. Even as they both left her view, she was left in complete disbelief, unsure what to make of the situation that just occurred.

"Sorry Dino..."

Megumi sat herself down on the floor gazing into the cloudy skies. "Why do I always find weird people...?"

********

"Aw man, that was a close one. for a sec I thought I got that last question wrong..."

A man with curled black hair, round nose and brown skin walked out from a class with just two other people. he started roaming the halls.

"I wonder where that woman went...: He quickly fixed his hair. and sported a newly smug expression. "I can't keep her waiting forever."

"What are you doing now, Axen?"

"Peh. None of your business." Axen puckered his mouth like a child caught red handed.

He ignored his fellow examinees, running down the hall. "She's gotta be around somewhere. I'll find her for sure! hehehe."