Izumi wakes up as the sun rises, he stares deep into space, slowly trying to wake his sleepy mind by jogging some thoughts. He doesn't want to get up, but he has no choice. He looks at his dirty room dazed, thinking whether he should clean it or not, he decides not to. He goes to the washroom to brush his teeth, and stares at his mirror, he then notices the belt of his kimono hanging there, where his face towel should have been. The bright white belt symbolises his rank in the army, rookie, he then holds it in his hands feeling it and then hangs it back and takes a shower. He then wears his kimono and then his white belt and looks in his mirror. His black kimono is the perfect contrast to his white belt. He then combs his curly jet-black hair and opens his house's door and just before leaving, he hesitates, gripping to the handle of the door tightly, and then quietly whispering to himself,
"I'm leaving, Mom and Dad, bye."
Izumi walks through the city, the Cloud City is a big metropolis which has withstood the force of demons and devils, longer than any other city in the world. The city's defence is impenetrable thanks to the captain's excellent leadership, strength and knowledge against the demons. Izumi walks by a lot of shops that have just started opening up for their daily business. The smell of alcohol was still strong from yesterday's celebration of the captain's 35th birthday. The same day, he received his white belt. Izumi was now a soldier, his only sole purpose in life now was to kill demons. He walks and stands outside of the entrance of an inn. There was a massive wooden sign, where Evan's Cavern was etched deeply with fire magic. He enters the inn, and the moment he does, someone bumps into him, and both of them almost fall down. Izumi's jaws tighten, fists clenching from both sides before he realises it's Ren.
"Sorry Izumi, when I saw you were coming through the entrance, I got excited, and I couldn't control my momentum."
"Yeah, it's fine, I was hoping we could walk together to the colosseum, for our squad assignments."
Ren's eyes brightened.
"I was thinking the same thing!"
"Now wait a second Ren, who's going to clean up the mess in the room you have left?"
Evan, the inn owner looks down from the second floor with an annoyed look on his elfish face. He was the result of an elf and a human having a child together, which was a very terrible crime, cross-species reproduction was frowned upon, some towns even upright charged execution for it, but for the sake of merchants not feeling welcome, the captain passed a bill which said that cross-species people were allowed to stay in Cloud City.
Evan's hair colour changed according to his mood, and it was rose, which meant he was feeling very irritated.
"Sorry, I will clean it up when I get back."
"You better."
Evan's hair colour went from being rose to a hint of sky blue. He smiled warmly towards Izumi and said,
"If Ren gives you trouble today, tell me I'll straighten him up."
"I will remember that."
Said Izumi, now making a mental note that if Ren annoyed him today, he would just threaten him by using Evan.
"Aww c'mon Evan, I am the most innocent guy you have ever met, what will I do?"
"That's just an outright lie."
"C'mon Izumi, we're going to be late if we stay here any longer."
Ren grabs Izumi's hand and starts running with him to the Colosseum.