Chapter 1: The Worker who dreamed of fighting
The artificial sky seemed to shine with unknown beauty. Right now it was a pitch blue as fake clouds appeared. It seemed to stretch on and on forever out of reach.
A carriage moved slowly through the winding path as it seemed to travel forward. To most, it would look like a normal carriage. That's because it was completely normal. It was wooden, seemed a bit run down, full of hay, and had two elderly men riding on it. Nothing out of the ordinary.
It wasn't the carriage that was of interest. No, what caught most people's attention was the hooded figure who seemed to be pulling it. An impressive feat when you considered just how much it would weigh.
"See there!" Tom, one of the elderly men in the carriage said point to a sign.
The hooded figure stopped slightly and glanced at the sign up ahead. "What is it?" He questioned. His voice came out young indicating that he was very likely a child. He had black messy hair that was all over the place in his hood and, black eyes that held a look of curiosity.
"Oh right," Tom said chuckling slightly. "I forget that you floor negatives don't know how to read." He said as he looked at sign more closely now. "It reads 'floor zero. Twenty miles ahead.' If you hurry we should be able to make it halfway before dark." He announced.
"Good." The other Elderly man said sighing. "I'm already sick and tired of these slums." He said glancing around at the piles of trash that covered the floor. "And you started all the way at the bottom right?" He asked the teen.
"Yep!" The hooded figure spoke nodding. "I was in floor negative one hundred. " If you think this is bad you should have seen that floor. It was full of trash." He spoke.
"You are really odd," Tom spoke chuckling again. "Most workers don't tend to leave the area they are designated to." He said raising an eyebrow at the teen.
"That's because I don't want to be a worker!" The teen said. "My name is Gin Ciel!" He said going into a typical shonen jump pose that he had seen in that weird book he found. "And I'm going to become a Fighter and reach the top!
The old men just rolled their eyes having heard this all before already.
Heaven's Gate was the worlds largest battleground. It had a total of ten thousand, one hundred, and one, floors. It started at floors negative one hundred to ten thousand. The negative one hundred was where the workers lived. They lived in the slums and had to fix any problems the tower had. Occasionally if they were lucky they would be allowed to go up to some of the positive floors to fix a problem there.
Floors zero to one hundred was where the commoners lived. After floor one hundred you entered the fighter zone. Here fighters tried to move up the floors. The goal was to make it to floor ten thousand. It's said that whoever makes it to floor ten thousand gets to meet the Angels.
Gin carried the carriage as he took step after step. It was heavy but he sucked it up and dragged it. By now a few hours had passed and the artificial sky was starting to become darker.
"Damn it!" Tom said sighing when he saw the sky. "We won't make it to a checkpoint before nightfall."
"What's the big deal about that anyway?" Gin asked curiously.
"A level two monster was spotted down here a while ago." Tom sighed out running a hand through his hair. "I was hoping to be at a safe point so we wouldn't have to worry about it."
"How do you think it got down in the negative floors anyway?" The other old man asked. "Monsters are supposed to only be floor one hundred and above things." He asked shrugging.
"Probably some jackass who thinks he's funny," Tom said shaking his head. "Decided to play a little prank on the workers and threw one down here. I swear. Some kids can be dumber than a bag of rocks. Luckily the chances of it finding us should be pretty-"
A growl could be heard in the distance silencing them all. It sounded far away but still close enough to be scary. The thought of it being nearby was still enough to send a shiver down Tom's spine.
Gin looked around confused slightly. His nose burned as a horrible smell filled his nostrils causing it to twitch. "Gross!" He snapped covering his nose instinctively.
"What?" Tom questioned.
"That smell!" Gin said rubbing it. He took off his robe and wrapped it around his head covering his face entirely. "I can still smell!" His voice came out muffled as he dropped his robe forgetting about it for the moment. He grabbed the carriage and began to move forward quickly.
"I didn't smell anything?" Tom said confused.
"It's getting worse!" Gin whined. He took his black T-Shirt moving it up slightly so it would block his nose. The Bushes up ahead rustled causing the old men to jerk up staring at it. Gin stopped looking at the bush as well. "It's coming from inside the bush!" He announced dropping the carriage and pointing triumphantly.
As if to prove him right something large jumped out at them. The thing resembled a bear but seemed to have deer antlers and scales instead of fur. It was also covered in what was obviously sewage, and various other trash.
It smelled of death and disgust to Gin and now that the old men could see it the smell quickly enter their innocent nostrils as well.
"That's the big scary monster?" Gin questioned raising an eyebrow. The only thing that terrified him was the smell. As he spoke the creature seemed to start rolling around in the mud collecting up more of the trash that was littered around the entire floor which, was a lot. Within moments it was covered in wrappers.
"Yes now hurry up and kill it!" Tom announced quickly moving towards the back of the carrige to get away. "It's so disgusting!" He yelled.
"Sorry, but I can't fight it!" Gin announced struggling not to puke from the odor.
"Why not!"
"I refuse to fight something that isn't a threat. It's just an innocent creature!" Gin said shrugging. "If it proves to be a danger to others then I'll step-"
"It's covered in trash, sewage, and I'm pretty sure blood!" Tom yelled going into a long rant. "It's a monster which means it's dangerous!" As he spoke it began to wonder to them look curiously at Gin who had his back turned. "It is classified as a monster for a reason!" The creature lifted its right paw. "They are a danger to everyone and if you really want to become a fighter then you will have to fight and kill these-"
The creature brought its paw down intending to rip off Gin's head but right as its claw reached his neck his body reacted on instinct and elbowed the creature sending it flying back through several artificial trees. The creature exploded in a black mist coating the dirt ground with all the trash that it was covered in.
"Gross!" Gin screamed rubbing his elbow against a tree as he tried and failed to get the wet disgusting stain off of his arm. "This is why I didn't want to fight it! Eww! It smells so bad!" He whined.
Tim didn't say anything though. Tom just stared wide-eyed at the broken tree the creature had been forced through. Slowly but surely Tom reached out his hand to one of the trees as if to convince himself they were real. His fingers felt the cold metal of the fake trees.
Gin came back a few moments later picking the carriage back up and beginning to walk again. "Well, now that I have felt with the monster we won't have to stop right?" Gin said as if to look on the bright side.
"Well, that's good right Tom?" The other old man asked.
Tom still didn't say anything as he stared at the boy. "You said you were a worker right?" Tom questioned hesitantly.
"Yep!" Gin announced smiling slightly as he took a few steps forwards going back into a rhythmic motion of one foot after the other as he dragged the carriage. "About a year ago I got bored of cleaning up trash and decided to wander around. That's when I noticed those signs with those things on them. You call them numbers? Anyways I just kept following them and accidentally found my way to the next floor. Then I decided to just keep going." He shrugged as if he didn't know what else to do. "After I made it to floor negative fifty a few people began to discuss people called fighters. I asked them what that was and they explained the floor system!" He smiled slightly. "Though I don't really understand it. It kind of goes above my head." He laughed as he scratched his head sheepishly.
Tom set back confused slightly. "Umm... Gin have you always been this strong?" He questioned.
"I guess?" Gin said concussed. "I mean I never had a problem with anything why?"
"I'm starting to think that you shouldn't have been assigned as a worker."
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