-

To you, it always seems that you can go from going to events as the one you attended earlier that day and go right back to work with what seemed like thousands of responsibilities on your back to handle all at once.

It wasn't always your ideal way to go about your work, so you were glad you at least had help from the rest of the people around you so you didn't feel completely alone handling it all at once.

Going back to reality after moments like the ones from the earlier that day were something you had already gotten used to, but it didn't get any easier. And by that, you mean having to keep up with every news outlet and articles that seemed to love twisting the words of your work.

You silently stood in the halls of the venue of the award show after you changed from your dress to your everyday work clothes and you stared down blankly at your assistant's tablet, who you'd met up with after the ceremony was over, reading a news article that went over your new beauty products that you launched over the last couple of weeks.

The moment you saw the headline that went on to say; Eldia Fashion and Beauty's new beauty products are harmful? Read more below". The article went on to say how the skin products you released had unusual amount of properties that are not suitable for usage.

But, that wasn't the case at all, and it was so far from the truth. Just before, you had seen how one of your other products were a hit amongst the atendees of the award show, so the contrast from the satisfaction you felt then, to what you're reading now felt incredibly anticlimactic.

You were aware not all your products were going to do well all the time, because what the public wanted changed constantly. But it was different when lies were began to be spread this way. The article confused the chemical property that was allegedly used and not the actual one used in the products, wrongly devaluating the products you've put all of your efforts into. But it wasn't anything new, it happened every time you launched a new product or line and articles like that were the first ones to suddenly release statements like that.

You sighed and lightly rolled your eyes as you turned your head back and handed back the tablet to your assistant, Hange Zoe, who had been waiting to see your reaction to the article after they had come across it. Hange took the tablet back and observed your reaction.

They were your most trusted advisor and went everywhere with you, always by your side. Having been worked with you for so long, they know exactly what you like, what you don't like, and so on. They were very good at their job but also knew how to be a friend at the same time.

While they were wearing a suit, and looked extremely professional, and with their hair put up as their glasses adorned their facial features, you were dressed in an outfit that exuded power and confidence. Your heels were not high, but you were wearing wide-legged black pleated pants and a white, almost see-through, button-up shirt with a white top underneath. Your hair was styled accordingly to how you wanted it that day, keeping it professional and flattering at the same time.

"So, what do you think?" Hange asked with expectancy and slight concern for how you'd taken it. They know how strong-willed you are, though. But still, always made sure to make sure you were okay. You weren't made of stone. As you began to start walking again, Hange followed behind you and held their tablet on their side.

As you walked, your heels softly clacked against the marble floor of the lobby of the venue. You exhaled and shook your head lightly. "They always do this, it's tiring. They deliberately blur the lines between two completely different chemical properties. It's the same tactic every time" You said with exasperation laced in your tone.

"Who did this?" You questioned, and Hange knew exactly what you were getting at and what you were asking them to do, not needing you to elaborate any further. The two of you were always on the same wave length in terms of thought processes or perspective. It's what made the relationship as boss and assistant between the two of you work so well.

"I'm looking into it right now. I knew you'd want to know after I found that article" Hange assured you and you nodded, but then another question suddenly surged in your head, but it was more something that you were wondering out loud and get Hange's opinion on it, and less to actually do something about it. "Who would be more threatened by our performance right now?" You said out loud, and Hange was once again quick to answer.

It seems that they were one step ahead of you and had been thinking about this too. "It could be other companies that we're currently competing with, or even associates to the company. Looks like they're not exactly shy about how they're going about it either" Hange said as they raised their hand and put it on your shoulder.

You sighed and briefly placed your hands over theirs. Hange knew that even if you put up an image for your company, they knew it affected you to see your work being discredited like you just saw.

Your work was everything to you, and Hange always made sure to keep you level-headed. Hange dropped their hand from your shoulder and the two of you continued walking across the halls. But then suddenly a guess on what this might be about suddenly crossed your mind.

"It could be a power grab within our own group. Make sure to look into that too," You pointed out and Hange nodded as they continued to walk side by side with you. "I'll prioritize the search for that possibility, I'll keep you updated on that too" Hange assured, so a small and subtle smile of satisfaction came upon your lips as you heard the words of your assistant. You could always count on them with anything.

But as the two of you approached the revolving doors, you felt your phone buzz against your pocket and you suddenly came to the realization of what time it was. You panicked, and immediately made a bee-line for the exit and getting ahead of Hange, because you couldn't wait to leave, so you walked as fast as you could.

"Let's just head back to the office, okay?" You said as you turned your head back to send Hange a smile, pulling your phone from your pocket and see that the name of the person you expected to call you had their name plastered in the caller ID.

You didn't notice since your gaze was stuck looking at the screen of your phone while it continued to vibrate, but at your words, Hange deadpanned at you and sighed through her next words, knowing what you were trying to avoid. "Y/n, honey, you know we can't" They said, and you turned back around to face them to see that they were looking at you sympathetically.

You groaned inwardly and your eyes kept darting down to your phone. "I am not doing any more blind dates, Hange" Your eyebrows furrowed and a subtle frown appeared on your face, still knowing well that this was  inescapable. You raised your phone so Hange could see and your assistant saw the name 'Grisha' on the caller ID.

Hange smiled as their shoulders slumped and looked at you with  compassion, understanding how frustrating this must be for you. Love and taking time to meet a guy wasn't a priority right now for you and you weren't looking for anybody. Your career was at its peak and going on blind dates was the last thing on your mind.

"You can't avoid it forever. You know he'll insist and keep arranging them for you. He only wants the best for you. You know how the chairman is-" They started, and you lowered your hand that you were holding your phone with, but you were quick to interject and spoke up.

"I do know what he's like. Doesn't make it any easier to pretend I enjoy going on my hundredth blind date he's arranged for me" You said, and then decided to just take the band-aid off, pressing the answer button, put on your best smile and convincing voice and put your phone up to your ear.

"Hi, Grisha" You said as you held back your need to drop the act and tell him how you were feeling. You gave Hange a look, and your assistant pursed their lips as their eyes softened. They knew that no matter how frustrated you were, you always tried to be respectful and understanding of him, because you knew he didn't mean any harm.

"Y/n! Are you on your way?" He asked, referring to the blind date and wanting to know if you'd already made it to the restaurant he arranged for it. You held back a sigh, and knowing that you would have to go anyway, you just told him a little white lie.

"Uh, yeah. I just got here" You said as you looked at Hange silently and gestured with your head to go back inside the building. You walked through the revolving doors and headed back inside, with Hange following right behind you.

"How did your checkup go? Is everything okay?" You asked, as your voice went from frustration to genuine concern. Besides, you knew what he was going to want to talk about the dates so you tried to stray him off topic.

You may be irritated now, but you deeply cared about his health and his well-being. He was your biggest role model and you looked up to him. You owe him so much and the whole blind dates issue was very minimal, as much of a nuisance as it was.

In that moment, Grisha had some appointments at the hospital to get some CT scans and to see if his health was still in order. There were some concerns from him a couple of weeks ago and after you finally convinced him to go get checked up, that was exactly what he was doing now. You had been so relieved when he finally agreed to do it.

He had been brushing it off, but you did not put his health to chance. "It's starting soon. I just wanted to call you before it started," Grisha said as he sat at the edge of the table where he would be laying down for the procedure. He had security employees of his in every corner of the room to look over the entire process to ensure it went well.

You closed your eyes briefly, pursed your lips and then attempted to get out of what he arranged for you. It was worth a shot.

"Hey, look...I have to tell you something but an issue came up at work so I have to head down to the office, and-" You started and upon hearing this, Grisha deadpanned as his face fell and his suddenly face became serious. You hoped that he'd believe you at least tried to go to the date, but something arose, and hopefully that would be enough.

Still in the room that he was in where he'd have his CT scan, he was quick to raise a hand to the doctors to have them pause the preparation of the machine The doctors looked at each other with confusion, but still did what Grisha had signaled them to do. "Y/n, are you cancelling the date?" He cut you off, knowing what you were trying to do. He knew how hesitant you were to agree to another one, so he had been expecting you to say something along those lines.

You bit back your true feelings and immediately answered him to not make his suspicions rise any more. "No, not at all! I just have to go and take care of something, and we can just reschedule-" You started and quickly gave Hange a brief glance, with a look that begged for help, and your assistant stifled a laugh knowing it'd be heard on the other end.

You rolled your eyes playfully and went back to the call, only to be cut off, as you should have expected. He wasn't going to let you skip this one so easily. "Then, I'll do the checkup some other time" Grisha said as he started to get off of the table for the CT scan and you fought the urge to groan. He knew how to push your buttons and how much you wanted him to get checked up. It mattered to you. He knows exactly what to say after having known you since you were a little girl.

If it meant he got his check up and he took care of his health, then you would go on this blind date, as bothersome as it was. You'd try to get through it as fast as possible and not spend more time in that date for a second longer than you had to. You had to get out of there quick, and knowing the men he sets you up with, you doubt they'd care. The only reason they agree is to get on Grisha's good graces knowing how well connected and powerful he is as a CEO, that was it.

Grisha meant well but somehow he always found the guys who were the most self-involved, boring, horrible listeners,  greedy, money hungry, arrogant and with a total lack of self-awareness. It was such a pain. It was one of the many reasons you did not enjoy going on these dates. Besides, today of all days, this is the last thing you wanted to do.

It was always so unpleasant, especially knowing you had to pretend to be interested and waste precious time of your day to deal with men like that again. "Okay, fine! I'll do it. I'll go on the date, alright?" You said, trying your best not to let your irritation not to show through your voice. But you knew it made him happy in the end so it was worth it.

On his end, when he'd heard your words, Grisha had stopped in his tracks when getting off the table, and stayed there for a second before he continued to speak into the phone. He sighed, and decided to take another approach, so that you could see eye-to-eye with him somehow. "Forget it, It's fine, y/n. You hate blind dates, I get it. You don't have to go. You know I hate these checkups too" Grisha said, saying the elephant in the room and reading you like a book.

You never expressed out loud that you hate them, but they way you kept avoiding any date he set up for you and looking for excuses to not go on them told him everything he needed to know. You didn't need to say it, your actions spoke for you he just knew full well how you felt about them. But just like every other time, you denied his claims, unable to leave your pride behind to admit that he was right.

"I never said I hated them. Where did you hear that? I-I really like the blind dates you set up for me, I mean it" You said as convincingly as you possibly could, but you just couldn't hide the hesitance in your tone. You rolled your eyes knowingly and a smile tugged at your lips as you heard a snort coming from behind you. You didn't need to turn around to know who did it so you continued on with the call to try to convince Grisha.

"Why wouldn't I want to go out and meet someone over a lovely meal?" You said as your lips twitched and you scrunched your eyes shut briefly while you raised a hand to press your fingers against the bridge of your nose at the blatant lie you just told, because at this point, not even your own body couldn't even fake it anymore.

When Grisha suddenly went silent and you waited patiently as the other line went silent, making your nerves spike at what he'd say. The suspense was killing you, and you knew nothing got past him.

A satisfactory smile appeared on Grisha's face as he got back on the table and doctors assisted in preparing him for the scan.

"Really? Is that so?" Grisha asked rhetorically, knowing he'd gotten through to you. He wanted to help you, because who knows if would meet the person you'll end up with in one of these and find your match?

It was all he wanted. He has a relationship with you that has grown and bloomed for years and he could see right through you. He also knew what day it was and hoped you'd take advantage of this opportunity to make it even more special.

He'd do all the checkup's you wanted, and he would go through with them, as long as you did this for him. He's not as young as he used to and wants to see you fall in love and live a long happy life. In his mind, this was the way to do it since you were so focused on your career and practically married to your work at that.

"Yes, I'll do it and enjoy myself on the date. We can even meet up for drinks later after your checkup and I'll tell you all about it, okay?" You said through a sigh of defeat, and a genuine smile appeared on your lips as you realized that you could never say no to him.

He's done so much for you, and in many ways, blind dates were a small price to pay to make sure that he could be happy and his wishes for you could be fulfilled. He's your role model to follow after all. Hearing commotion in the phone call, you could assume that the procedure was about to start so you decided to give him a last couple of words.

"Make sure they're thorough, okay? Call me after" You said, and you heard a chuckle on the other line, easing your mind a little and it reassured you that he was okay.

"Don't worry, y/n. I always do," He said and you nodded to yourself as you exhaled, closed your eyes for a moment and felt yourself relax a little at his words and reminded yourself that he knew what he was doing.

You didn't know why you were so worried, because he was the pillar of health and these checkups have never gone wrong, and not only that, but was he was extremely thorough on how his procedures go and picks carefully who are a part of them. But you still worry, you always do. You couldn't help it. You cared too much about his well-being.

"Alright, bye" You said, telling yourself in your head to relax and also mentally preparing for yet another blind date you needed to get to. "Bye, y/n" He said and you could hear the faint smile in his voice. That evoked a smile from you too, despite the true feelings you were shoving down.

Before you knew it, the line cut off which means he hung up. On his end, the moment he hung up, with a huff, he shut off his phone and handed it to one of his security guards. "Let's get this over with" He exhaled and positioned himself better on the table. After that, all of the nurses and doctors in the room got to work and one of them placed a pillow behind him to support head. They began to instruct him to lay down on his back, and he did so accordingly to finally begin the scan.

As for you, the moment he hung up, you pulled your phone away from your ear and stared at the screen blankly knowing what was coming. You turned your head to look at Hange with a gaze that exuded two emotions; frustration and defeat. There was no way out of this, was there? "This is ridiculous. How long do I have to keep this up?" You huffed as you locked your phone and put it back in your pocket.

Hange's lips lightly tugged upwards as they held their tablet in front of them, finding it amusing how badly you wanted to avoid the situation and somehow still got roped into it again. They adjusted her glasses lightly before answering.

"Come on, let's go. It'll be over before you know it" They said as they gestured with their head over to the revolving doors. You turned your head to where they gestured, and with a sharp inhale, you began walking forward and through the revolving doors with your assistant following behind you and back to the car.

Halfway to the car that Hange had parked outside before the award ceremony, you turned your head towards them.

"You should go and eat something, Hange. I'm not spending more than 30 minutes sitting like a doll for some guy" You exhaled the breath you had been holding, as your assistant caught up with you and once again, the two of you walked side by side to get to the car. The faster this went, the better.

And with each step, you prepared yourself for what was coming. By the time you and Hange got to the car, with them getting in the driver's seat and you in the backseat, you looked out the window. You sat patiently as they turned the ignition, they turned the car on, shifted gears, and began driving out of the curb in front of the venue building and towards the restaurant that the date had been arranged on, dreading it more every second.

-

The Scouts Foundation was an organization created centuries ago to bring tribute to the Scouts of the island of Paradis that gave their hearts and their lives to rid the world of titans to give future generations the chance to live in peace and with prosperity all thanks to their efforts, overcoming adversities no one would even dream of today.

Events have been and are held their regularly by performers that bring light to all the lives sacrificed for the good of humanity centuries ago and also successfully stopped the Rumbling.

The history behind this foundation goes back to the years of Scouts wanting to learn the truth about the outside world, having this desire to fight back against the oppression they faced against the titans, and fighting against the rest of the world upon finding out how much bigger the horizons beyond the walls truly reached.

This foundation was started by Eldians who wanted the lives of those Scouts to have meaning in the future, and that is how the organization has lasted for as long as it has, because the people who felt like it was important to keep the legacy, have kept it alive.

The current director for the Scouts Foundation is Levi Ackerman, a demon that has been alive for over 200 years and the cause of the Scouts and what they stood for has always been something he has been passionate about, so decades ago, he was the one who founded it and has been running it ever since.

He felt that it was important that the legacy was never lost and that he could use his immortality to keep the efforts of the Scouts for as long as he lived. But this foundation also served another purpose for him.

His job and whole purpose as a demon was to make deals with humans in their most vulnerable moments, taking advantage of their distress, utter desperation, and hopelessness to make their biggest wishes come true, but at the cost of going to hell 10 years later with no exceptions.

And right now, he had some deals that were started 10 years ago expiring and coming to term, so now, he needed to go and do just that. Right now, Levi was walking along this enormous hall that laid hidden just behind his office.

This hall was exactly how he kept track of all the deals he made. Along every wall, every column, and every single corner, there were clocks mounted to them that were consistently ticking.

Each clock kept track of the 10 years of each person who made a deal, and Levi was silently making his way around the hall, looking at the clocks that were about to reach their limit.

How it works is that whenever the clocks show that 10 years have passed, they disappear and turn to dust and that's when Levi knows it's time to give that person a visit in order to come through with his end of the deal.

To get to the hall, you had to get through his office, go through the opening behind his desk and walk across a long pathway that was surrounded by water on the sides.

As Levi made his through the staircases the reached almost every corner of the room, his narrow, steel-grey eyes darted across the room. He could sense that it was time for one of his deals to be fulfilled and that it would come to the end of its term soon.

His bangs of dark raven hair fell lightly over his face, his hair was lightly tousled and disheveled but also looked decent and put together at the same time. He continued to search for the clock that would be closest to reaching its limit.

Levi was wearing a black trenchcoat, a black dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the top and showed off his sharp collarbone and left to the imagination for anyone to assume he had a very fit physique.

He also wore leather dress shoes as well as black slacks that hung on his body nicely. His choice in clothing was able to highlight his broad shoulders and toned arms even through the layers of his outfit, but the color choice also brought out the color of his eyes and brought not only attention to his physical attributes but also his striking facial features as well.

Levi briskly walked down the spiral of stairs of the hall of clocks and realized that the clock that was about to run out was not in that area and was probably somewhere else.

As he came down the stairs, his eyes fixated on every clock and what point in time they showed, so upon reaching the end of the stairs and he began walking across the pathway that lead back to his office, he saw something on the corner of his eyes and he slowly stopped in his tracks as his eyes narrowed at one specific clock that was mounted on the wall closest to the entrance back to his office.

His gaze fixated on the clock for a few seconds until he noticed that this one was in fact the one that he had been sensing was about to end.

He watched carefully and noticed how there were a couple of seconds left in it. Levi then waited in silence as the long handle continued to turn as it was about to catch up with the smaller handle, and the clock ticked and ticked away.

And soon enough, the clock clicked when the two handles caught up with each other and stopped, completely aligned with one another. It was time. Without wasting another second, Levi began to walk out of the hall and into his office to head out to the city and complete his deal.

He remembered exactly who this person was, and he had an idea of how this closing of the deal would go, because its how most people reacted when they realized that the deal they made 10 years before and that they probably forgot they even made was about to end their life. Most of the people that agree to these deals do it without thinking, forget what it would entail, ignoring what they agree to and that their fate would be set to stone.

And that is where Levi found himself now. The clock that ended its term belonged to a gang leader that made a deal with Levi 10 years before. The man had wished for wealth, power, and everything he could ever want at his fingertips.

But as everyone does, he forgot that this was the day that his fate had been sealed and that he would have an encounter with the demon that gave him what he has now. The gang leader was now at a sauna and was finishing up with the session he had reserved there, and his gang was waiting for him right outside as his bodyguards.

Sitting of the bench of the sauna, he turned his eyes to the side and noticed that the hourglass had emptied on the top and the sand was now all at the bottom, which meant that the session was over. He had a tattoo of a tiger on his back, and as he put his white robe back on to start heading out soon.

As soon as he put it back on and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes to relish what was left of the session, he heard a knock on the door of the sauna room.

He opened his eyes once he heard that the door opened, and saw that his second in command, Marlowe Freudenberg, had come into the room with a brown envelope to hand over to his boss, which was about a business affair that they had been waiting for a response from.

"Boss, I'm back with the paperwork" Marlowe said as his boss glanced at him and adjusted his robe around his body a little better. The gang leader nodded and exhaled deeply, watching as his second in command walked closer.

Marlowe approached his boss and handed the envelope to him, and stood with his hands behind his back as he waited for a reaction to what he brought to him.

"The business waivers are signed, those are the original copies" Marlowe clarified as he watched his boss open the envelope, open the contents and let his eyes trail over what was on the paper.

He carelessly raised an eyebrow as he seemed to be rather impressed with the result of the business deal he initiated, he nodded as he read over the words of the paper over and over.

"Seems like we're not in business with a complete idiot. He must knows what's good for him" The man said lowly as he slid the business papers back into the envelope and handed them back to Marlowe.

The dark haired second in command nodded, and silently showed himself out of the sauna room, given how the heat of the room had been uncomfortable. The gang leader leaned back in his seat went back to finishing what was left of his session, and Marlowe had made it out of the room to wait for his boss to finish, which shouldn't be long.

Marlowe made it out the door of the sauna and was met with the rest of the members of the gang that acted as bodyguards for their leader, so the second in command handed the envelope to one of the members who was right outside the door and he redirected his eyes back to what was in front of him.

There were two lounge chairs, and one was being occupied by the second person that their gang leader trusted the most, Hitch Dreyse.

She looked peaceful and was lounging back as a row of other gang members stood side by side, looking expressionless, and stayed alert. She opened her eyes when she saw that Marlowe had made it back. She raised an eyebrow watching him let out a huff as he grabbed a towel from a side table and dab his forehead.

He sat down on the lounge chair next to hers and layed down next to hers, and saw as one of the members behind him handed him his book and then held his drink close to him.

As he opened he book, he moved his head to drink from the straw of his drink. In front of their two lounge chairs, the rest of the members were standing on opposing rows for protection, leaving a path in the middle.

Hitch eyed him carefully, and decided to speak up. "What did he say to you this time?" Hitch asked as she leaned back against the lounge chair and closed her eyes, still listening to Marlowe.

The said man looked at her quizzically, but then remembered that it took a long time for Marlowe to get to this position and to get good at his job and not feel ridiculed, until he finally toughened up and was able to get on his boss' good graces.

He had finally gained the respect of his leader, like Hitch did as well, ad the girl still liked to tease him about. "Nothing, he didn't say anything. It happened a long time ago, Hitch. Let it go" He said as he took another sip from his drink and didn't peel his eyes off of his book.

Hitch turned her head to look at him for a second before she closed her eyes and lightly shrugged with a smile tugging at her lips. He knew it, she knew it, but her teasing was harmless and it didn't affect their friendship as co-leaders.

The two went back to relaxing in their chairs and waiting until their boss was finished. But the tranquility of the other gang members outside was nothing compared to what was about to happen inside.

The moment Marlowe left and the gang leader was left alone, after trying to sit in silence by himself in the sauna for a little bit more, he stood up with a choked groan and began to walk over to the window of the sauna, which was a tinted one-way mirror, so it wasn't possible to look inside from the outside.

The man walked over to the window's ledge, where an hourglass that timed his session in the sauna was sitting. He got to it, grabbed it, flipped it over so that the sand that was at the bottom was now at the top would start to go back down again, resetting his time. Only it didn't.

When he flipped it over, and the sand was at the top once again, it didn't go down. The sand was stuck at the top. The man was about to head back to his seat but did a double take at the hourglass when he saw that no sand was coming down. His eyebrows furrowed and looked at it quizzically.

Maybe the sand got stuck? But that wasn't possible, it was working perfectly fine before. What was going on? "What the hell?" He muttered as he grabbed the hourglass again and began banging on the side of it to try and get the sand to come down, but it wasn't working. He began walking back to the center of the room as he continued to try and getting to work.

In the far end of the sauna room, there was a hallway that was very dimly lit and it was pitch black at the end of it. The gang leader hadn't given any attention to it and paid no mind to it now either. "What's with this thing?" He muttered to himself as he continued to shake it but to no avail.

How did it get stuck if it was working before? Muttering a couple curses under his breath, he sat back down on his previous seat, failing to notice what was coming and the figure that was approaching from across the hallway.

Coming from around the corner, the very man that was coming back 10 years later to have this gang leader follow up with his part of the deal was walking across the hallway and with every step he took and the closer he got, every light above him lit up completely, slowly revealing him.

The shadows still aided in concealing Levi and only showing his silhouette, and as the gang leader looked up and noticed that the lights had been turning on, he had also noticed the figure of a man coming closer.

He stopped what he was doing and froze when each light turned on according to each step Levi took. "Who is that?" The man mumbled under his breath, and soon enough, when Levi reached the end of the hallway, his face and entire figure came into light, with a look of indifference that made the gang leader's blood drain from his face as it paled entirely.

His face dropped, recognizing completely who the man in front of him was. Someone he met 10 years before and got him everything he had no. Seeing Levi's steel eyes pierce into him with no mercy made the gang leader stumble back in his seat as his breathing began to pick up.

He watched with horror as he realized what was about to happen. Levi raised his hand, and in the blink of an eye, a scroll materialized in his fingertips from thin air. The gang leader looked at the scroll that contained the deal he made with Levi, and everything came rushing back to him.

He lowered his head, closed his eyes shut and cursed under his breath, looking away from the demon. Levi's eyes narrowed as he watched the reaction the man in front of him had to his appearance and the scroll he had in his hands. It was always he same. Humans never learned, did they?

"You know what this is, don't you? Don't tell me you forgot" Levi in a low and cold tone as the gang leader looked up at the man before him once again, full of fear of what was about to happen. He thought he had more time, and a part of him truly believed that this day would never come. But he should've known it was too good to be true.

"Is it today already? I thought I had more time" The gang leader partly lied, but Levi saw right through him, and knew he didn't actually expect him to ever come back. His body language said it all, especially with how he was cowering back in fear.

"You know what? I don't believe that. How is it possible you'd forget a day like this. Guess I was the only one who cared about following through" Levi said as he moved the scroll in his hand to point it at the fearful man in front of him, taking a couple steps forward.

And just as he expected, as it tends to happen with humans such as this man, the gang leader was taken over by anger and the need to prevent from the demon in front of him to force him to meet his demise. The man stood up, threw his arm back and attempted to throw the hourglass at Levi in order to try and deceive him and make an escape. But he should've known better than to try to leave.

When the gang leader threw the hourglass at Levi and attempted to make a run for it, Levi rolled his eyes, and in a second he made the scroll disappear into the thin air.

He not only moved his head and effortlessly dodged the hourglass that was thrown his way but also managed to catch it so that it was floating over his hand, and his back was now to the man trying to escape.

Levi's eyes were blankly focused on the hourglass and didn't even need to turn back around to know what the man was trying to do, since he heard the rattling of the door knob behind him, but the man didn't know that Levi had locked it beforehand to make sure he couldn't escape.

Knowing that he had no escape, Levi turned back around to face the man trying to get out, with the hourglass still hovering over the palm of is hand as he looked at him with a look so dark and full of venom behind them. Levi began to walk back towards him, slowly, which made the man's terror and panic rise even more within him.

He was going to die there, like it had been set in stone a decade before, and there was no way to escape it no matter how much he tried or how far he ran, because Levi would always be there.

From the outside, neither Hitch or Marlowe or any of the other gang members knew what was happening inside. They couldn't hear the rattling of the doorknob from their boss trying to escape, because to get in, there was a door, and then you passed by a small corridor that lead to the actual door of the sauna.

So as much noise as he tried to make, nobody outside actually heard. Hitch and Marlowe laid in their chairs, waiting and lounging, being completely unaware of what was about to happen to their boss.

The gang leader continued to maneuver the doorknob as hard as he could, with all his strength, but it wasn't budging.

His blood ran cold and he turned around slowly when he heard footsteps getting closer, turning his head back slowly as his eyes were riddled with dread upon hearing Levi speak up again and get closer and closer, still not leaving behind the hourglass he stopped.

"Trust me, I know what's like to have unlimited time at the flip of an hourglass. Unlike you. So, why don't you take it like a man and let's get this over with. Let's make this quick and give up already" Levi said as he twirled around the hourglass in the air, looking the man directly in his eyes, knowing that he wouldn't give up his life, his riches, and everything he has so easily and would try to get out of it. As most people do.

Which is why Levi didn't want to waste any more of his precious time trying to listen to bargains and alternate proposals that people like him try to offer.

The gang leader raised both of his hands in the air in surrender, trying to not only buy time but also to try and sway the man before him. "W-Wait!" The gang leader said, making Levi raise an eyebrow and stop twirling the item floating in his hand, as he let it fall into the palm of his hand.

"P-Please, It doesn't have to end like this, there has to be another way" The man pleaded helplessly and with desperation, and it made almost made Levi want to laugh. They were all truly the same. "Let's extend our contract, alright? 10 more years? Or even better! We can sign a new one" He said, with a hopeless smile on his face, hoping Levi would agree, but he should have expected that the man before him wasn't so easily swayed and there were no exceptions. For anyone.

That was how it worked and how it has worked for almost 200 years. And he wasn't going to change his rules for a scumbag like him who would only extend it to live further so he can gain more power.

Levi scoffed and his eyes hardened. "You know that's not how this works. Stop resisting and why don't let's have a nice goodbye, shall we?" He said with an eerily calm tone that seemed to piss off and enrage the gang leader even more.

With an angered yell, the man wind up his fist and swung a fist at Levi, but the demon stepped back and easily avoided it.

The man fell forward and it only ticked him off how unbothered Levi was about taking his life away so easily. Grabbing the nearest item to fend himself off, the gang leader grabbed some of the towels that were in the center table of the sauna and threw them at Levi one after the other, but the man himself was simply unfazed but was also starting to get irritated.

He was trying to make it easy for him, but the gang leader didn't know that even if he ran and escaped, he could end his life with the snap of his fingers.

"I'm not going anywhere! Go away! Leave! Right now! Don't come any closer!" The man said as he continued to try and fend off Levi, who was standing calmly and whose patience was running thin.

The gang leader backed himself up in the corner by the door and Levi sighed exasperatedly, finally setting down the hourglass on the center table of the room, and then turning back around to face the man in the corner.

"I'm well aware no human would give themselves up to die so easily. But at the very least, it's refreshing to see you act like one in your last moments" Levi said as he began to take slow, yet intimidating, steps towards the man, still trying to resist what was coming for him, but with every second it became apparent that he would die in this room at the hands of this raven-haired man.

He looked at Levi with a mix of fear and defensiveness at the same time. So, as a last resort, the man resorted to the last thing he could do. First he bargained, then he tried to fight back, and now he'd beg.

The man put his hands together and forgot about his pride. "Please, I need one more chance. I can't lose everything I have. You don't know what It took me to get to here and I can't lose it all now" The man pleaded, and Levi looked at him, completely amused as a smug look came across his face.

It was almost pathetic how this man acted all tough and untouchable but was now resorting to begging of all things.

This man had nothing when he found him, and the audacity to say that he didn't know how he got to this point in his life, because he did. More than anyone.

"Oh, trust me. I do know. All of this..." Levi started, using his hand to gesture around the room, and then looking back at the sorry excuse of a man before him. "...Is because of me" Levi said, and the man's face dropped as reality hit him like a truck.

"Your wish was to get wealth, power, respect, and everything you could ever want at the palm of your hand, wasn't it? I made that come true for you, despite anything that you did. All you did on your end was how you chose to make it happen" Levi explained calmly, in comparison to how distressed the gang boss was, so he watched as the man visibly racked his brain for any sort of alternative that might sway the demon before him. Anything at all.

"I'll give you anything! What do you need? I'll make it happen! How about 10 lives- no, 100! 100 lives instead of mine? Wouldn't that be a good deal? It doesn't sound too bad, right? O-or money! Women! Anything!" The man rambled with panic, hoping Levi would agree, but it only made him hate this man even more.

It just goes to show how selfish and greedy this gang boss is, and that proposing for him to live so 100 others could die meaninglessly was not the way to convince Levi. He wasn't interested in any of that.

Sure, he took lives, but it wasn't how this man thought it worked. What he needed was to find a purpose, a meaning, and even if did he make deals with all kinds of people, it was mostly people like him who usually fell victim to his deals.

The most ungrateful and the ones who never wanted to give up what they got, despite having agreed to the deal fair and square.

"You should know how much I love to do what I do, and do you want to know why? The deals are fair to everyone, including you. You don't get to choose whether to live or die after you agreed on the latter.

And it is precisely that I get to rid the world of scum like you that I enjoy it so much. People like you truly disgust me and it makes it all the more easier to do this job" Levi said coldly as his eye and his face showed that there was no remorse for this man.

"And what I want...is the other party's soul and nothing else. It's that simple" Levi stated, as his eyes held nothing but the need for this man to meet his part of the deal, no matter what.

Still filled with rage and seething, not wanting to give up so easily as this man was telling him to do, the leader's breathing got heavier and heavier to the point where he screamed and lunged at Levi and try to use physical strength instead, but the moment he tried to tackle the demon, the gang leader phased through him and Levi was unaffected.

He disappeared and reappeared in seconds. Levi was losing his patience, he had to end this now. He had given him a chance to surrender himself peacefully but that clearly wasn't happening.

Due to ramping up so much of his strength and force, when the man went through Levi, he stumbled forward and fell with a loud thud on his side onto the benches of the sauna. And that was a noise both Hitch and Marlowe were able to hear and feel from outside, and it startled them a lot.

Not only them, but all of the other members also turned their heads with alarm at the sudden thud that they heard, which came from inside the room their boss was in.

The room outside turned quiet and they all looked at each other with worry. Hitch and Marlowe looked at each other with their eyes wide. "What was that?" Hitch asked as she lifted her head from her chair and she looked at Marlowe, and then turning her head to look at where the sauna was.

Without another word, Marlowe stood up, deciding to go and be the one that finds out what was going on. All eyes were on him as he tried to look through the tinted window and see if he could catch a glance of what was happening, but he couldn't see anything past it, it was too blurry and the steam of the room clouded the window even more. Hitch stood up and walked over to stand next to Marlowe as her face was beginning to grow with worry.

"What's he doing in there? Sounds like he's a little too energetic" Hitch said as she lightly snorted a laugh and crossed her arms, but Marlowe was still squinting his eyes and rubbing them to see if he could see past the tint of the window.

But when he couldn't see anything, he sighed and moved to lay back down on the lounge chair with Hitch following his actions and laying back down as well.

He let out a sigh as he grabbed his book again after he'd dropped it before when they heard the thud. "I wouldn't blame him if he was. I'd be in a good mood too if I were him after he got that nuisance of a business deal off his back. Let him be" He said, and Hitch shrugged, agreeing with him and wanting to go back to her power nap she had been taking before.

Back inside, Levi had briskly walked across the room to lean against a wall and as he watched the gang leader convulsed in pain, not only from from the hit he just took, but also from the impending death that was catching up to him after everything.

There was no sympathy behind Levi's eyes. He raised his hand again and out of the thin air, the contract with this man's deal materialized from flames and into the palm of his hand.

Levi had put into motion the way this man would die, and the leader was now clutching his chest as choked breaths left his mouth as well as agonizing pain ran up and down his body.

"I can't b-breathe" He gasped as his chest rose and fell rapidly, and his eyes closed shut as he tried to endure the pain but it was getting more and more painful. Levi's hair brushed over his eyes and he tilted his head to the side ashe continued to watch this man meet his demise.

"You'll die of a heart attack. I would've made this painless if you'd cooperated" Levi said lowly as he saw the gang leader clutch his chest through his robe even harder, trying to make the pain go away, despite knowing that he would die at any moment now.

He should've known he couldn't have made this go away, and needed to have accepted it when he had the chance, so now he'll embrace his fate instead.

"What..." He started but groaned in pain as he tried to talk. "What is hell like? Is it like they say?" He asked, knowing that if this was his end he'd want to know what the place he'll go to will be like and what he should be expecting. Levi tilted his head back as he began to ponder a little over his question.

If he was going out this way, he might as well talk him through it. "I can't say for sure, it's different for everyone," He started, but then he moved away from the wall and walked over to stand over him as the man about to meet his end looked up at him hopelessly, wanting to get an answer before he went away.

"The lazy and the majority burns so intensely in hellfire that they wish they never even made this deal in the first place. But that's all in the past," A smile tugged at Levi's lips as he knew that he'd enjoy what he was about to say.

"But for you...that's child's play compared to where you're headed" Levi smirked and his smile grew, watching as the man grinded his teeth in pain, trying to hold onto his life for a little while longer.

"Why would you not mention that to me in the first place?" He said through gritted teeth, trying to endure the pain that was getting harder and harder to endure. Levi moved his face closer to the man convulsing in agony, and the sadistic look on his face grew.

"You never asked" He whispered, loudly enough for him to hear. The man's eyes widened and then groaned loudly as he clutched onto his body harder.

"Either way, you would've ended up in hell with or without our deal. I just speeded up the process, and you had nothing to lose. I'd say you made a good choice, don't you think?" Levi said as his eyes began to follow every single sign of body language that indicated that his life was ending.

What surprised Levi was how the man started chuckling as he held onto his life with everything he had, as pointless as it was to do that because there was no way to undo it.

"It's funny, because...somehow that sounds very comforting to hear" The man said as he let out a couple more laughs as he turned his head to look at Levi, who had a look of accomplishment on his face. He didn't expect anything less than that. And after seeing that the gang leader let out a long and breathy sigh, as well as his eyes fluttering closed, he knew that he was gone.

To make sure he's really gone, Levi raised his hand and hovered it over his face and over his eyes, and when he took his hand off and saw that there was no life in his eyes anymore, he stood back up.

Feeling that his job was done at last, Levi began to take his leave and head out back from where he came from, with a smirk grazing his lips and his features morphed into one of accomplishment.

Feeling that were was something wrong, outside, Marlowe had felt something nagging at him the entire time. He couldn't relax even if he wanted to, and kept thinking of what had caused that thud.

Not taking it anymore as his mind made up what seemed like thousands of possibilities, he decided to make his way inside and bring along Hitch and a bunch of the other gang members, entirely unaware of what he was about to walk into. And when he did, his and Hitch's  hearts dropped and their blood ran cold with the scene in front of them.

He was the first one to react, being in front of the group as they all rushed into the room, he was the first one to react when he panicked and he saw his boss, lifeless, against one of the benches of the sauna.

Him, Hitch and the other members were quick to rush to his side and check if he was alive, but they gasped when they saw his eyes rolled to the back of his head and felt no pulse.

While Hitch was kneeling in front of her boss with horror, distracted, along with the other members and even more entered to room to see what was going on, Marlowe was at a loss.

His eyes were wide, his breathing was heavy, and he felt short of breath as he took many steps back. But when he looked to the side and saw that the hallway to his side and his features dropped when he saw a dark figure holding what seemed like a scroll was walking across the hallway and get farther and farther away.

The person's figure was darkening as it got closer to the end of the hall, and when he did, the only thing that Marlowe could see how the man threw the scroll into the air, dissipating into flames as if it was nothing.

Marlowe's eyes widened further and stood frozen as the only thing he saw from this man was his piercing silver eyes cut with a venomous glare through the darkness until he was gone, leaving Marlowe with revenge growing inside him to make sure to remember those eyes and avenge his boss.

Back in Levi's hall of clocks, behind secret doors that were just behind his desk, that same clock whose time had come to its end and belonged to that gang leader, suddenly began to disappear into dust and flames, leaving that space on that wall empty.

There would soon come a time where that space would come to an end and a new clock would take its place and a new countdown would begin yet again.

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Okay I think I decided and I think Im going to
start posting weekly on Sunday's! It gives me the entire week to prewrite and to make the changes necesssary! I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :,)

I loved how it turned out and I hope your guys did too! Im so excited because of some upcoming scenes I can't wait to write! Levi and y/n will meet soon!

I also think I want to keep chapters at this length for the rest of the book too. Around 10k words or so. I think its a good balance!

Okay I love you all so much! :,) Hope you guys enjoyed it and see you in the next one!

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