1 You got a Job?

'Tink Tink Tink' The sound of a red lump of iron being hit by a hammer, sweat pouring down on the red hot iron which was getting one step ahead to becoming a fully fledged sword with every strike. This sound was coming from the best sword selling shop in this small city 'Areon'.

Even though it was the best shop, there were only two men making the swords in the shop. Many tried and failed to get a job in this shop even though they held up a sign saying 'Looking for a Job as a smith..?'.

Then he appeared, a man in a dark clothing who was starving to death, he entered the shop and walked towards the middle aged woman who was looking after the shop.

"They label out in the front says, you got a job."

"Yes, we do, but getting a job here is very hard. Many have tried and failed" She sighed as she recounted and declared that he was the 17th man who came here since the last week for the job.

"Why is it hard to get a job here?" The man asked without a hint of backing down.

"It's because my husband and son won't let you work here unless they approve of your strength and skill." The woman answered as she sighed.

"Then I will prove myself, what am i supposed to do?"

"Follow me" The women led him to the master-smith, her husband. "Honey, we have another person who wants to test his luck in our shop."

The middle aged man suddenly stopped in his tracks and put the lump of iron he was hammering away.

"You want to test your luck ha..alright then." The master-smith stood up immediately and placed a hammer in the visitors hand. He signaled him to hit the lump of red burning iron.

The man gripped the hammer and swung it back to hit the iron.'THUD' It wasn't the sound of the iron being hit, it was the sound of him collapsing due to hunger.

------- TWO HOURS LATER -------

The man in the dark clothing woke up to see three people in front of him discussing what to do about him.

"Ahh....What happened..".

"What happened?, Nothing much, you just COLLAPSED IN MY SHOP...!!!" The master-smith was very pissed off and wen't on a full on rage mode.

"Knock it off Dad....He just woke up." A teenager no more than 18 years spoke. He was the son of the master-smith.

"How are you feeling?"

"I might have collapsed due to hunger. I am sorry, I dragged you into helping me." The man said with remorse.

"Come, I have some leftovers from our lunch, we can't just leave you to die in front of us." The middle aged woman spoke.

He followed her and as soon as he finished eating, they heard the man say "Thank you for the food, I wan't to try my luck once more, please".

The master-smith hearing his firm words led him to the shop, placed a hammer in his hand and a rod hot iron in front of him. He swung the hammer back to increase the impact caused and in the next moment, the hammer landed on the red iron.

"What the hell just happened" The master-smith wasn't able to see him swing the hammer, he only saw him swinging it back. The iron which got hit was instantly sized down to a thickness of a sheet of paper. The whole family of the smith watched in awe.

The master-smith had only few words to say "Hey son remove the label saying, we got a job offer."

He had only three words for the man in front him "You are hired."

"Then can we talk about, what I get paid." He asked.

"Okay, what do you want ?" The master-smith seemed eager to know what he demands and if he could afford it, but what he asked astounded him.

"Just some food to survive, a place to sleep and give me some money every now and then, if you think I did a good job."

The master-smith understood he had quite a story tell, he nodded in agreement.

The master-smith realized he skipped their introduction. "I am sorry for the late introductions, my name is Ryu Takahashi, this is my wife, Lia Takahashi and our only son, Ken Takahashi and I agree to your request, you can stay here with us. So what's your name?"

The man in black slowly spoke "I am going to be honest, I don't use my name anymore, I am not who I used to be, so please call me whatever you want to."

Ryu decided not to pry, he would normally suspect a shady character such as him, but his instincts told him that he didn't need to. "Alright then, we will call you Shin, short for Shinigami, cause you look like a god of death in those clothes."

Shin nodded in agreement and thought, how close that name defined his past.