"Shut the fuck up."
Arin's father was dazed for a moment after hearing those words. His son, who had been so excited to learn the members of his Campaign that he was unable to sleep for days on end, had ended up with his dreams of finally living up to his noble last name crushed by a mere piece of paper.
As the momentary shock faded, he realized he that he should stop his son from leaving. Considering Arin's current poor mental state, it was probably one of the worst ideas to allow him to go on such a long and treacherous journey. Especially since his sole company would be the only person in the world that he currently despises more than himself.
But this realization came a few moments too late, as the front door had long already been slammed shut.
Outside of the Tetsuya Family's house—or rather, the Tetsuya Family's manor—Arin had already made his way to the sidewalk, which was currently being illuminated by elegant black light poles. Of course, Arin made an effort to avoid the bright street, instead preferring to revel in his depression within the shadows. He also had another, somewhat more grounded reason for avoiding the light.
As he made his way to his neighborhood's local Campaign Center, Arin noticed many of his neighbors were running out their houses, all equipped with a daunting load of countless tools and preparations, alongside obnoxiously joyful expressions. Of course, these Campaigners were all going to the same place as he was, but he wanted to avoid confrontation for as long as he was able to. In the best-case scenario, their excitement is strong enough that they don't even notice his presence.
For a while, Arin's questionable best-case scenario was his reality. The various boys, girls, men, and women walking in the light with big grins were completely oblivious to his presence, too caught up in their own intense happiness. But his reality suddenly crumbled as a soft hand lightly grabbed his shoulder and a familiar, somehow even softer voice spoke behind him, radiating pure kindness.
"Arin! It feels like an eternity has passed since I've last seen you! How have you been? If you don't mind me asking, of course."
Arin turned to face the beautiful blonde girl as she spoke and instinctively tried to force a smile for his childhood friend, but he was unsuccessful.
With a voice devoid of humor, Arin spoke. "I've been terrible, thank you for asking."
Misinterpreting his response, she closed her eyes and covered her mouth as her face reddened with light giggles. Regaining her composure, she playfully pinched Arin's cheek and asked,
"You were always so funny... So, who's in your Campaign? Any heavy hitters, or are they all merely no-name losers?" She giggled at her own joke and almost fell into another fit of laughter before she was able to recompose herself.
"I don't want to talk about that, Juline."
Juline pinched Arin's cheek just a little harder and asked once more, "Come on, just tell me! It can't be that bad..."
Arin, struggling to keep himself calm as he recalled his grim circumstance, replied in a defeated voice.
"My Campaign consists of me and an Ishog."
As Arin finished his sentence, Juline's arm recoiled back and her carefree smile turned into a light frown, textured with hints of pity and disgust. She even, without realizing it, took a step back from him. Arin didn't blame her. After all, if he was in her shoes he would've done the same.
Her casual tone disappeared, and she now spoke to him as though he was a complete stranger.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I wish you luck on your campaign."
Arin did not respond, and the two nobles turned away from each other, with Juline returning to her friends a little bit behind him on the road and Arin continuing onward in darkness, somehow managing to feel even worse than he had before.
'Just the mention of that damn Ishog's existence is enough to ruin my relationship with my closest friend... That bastard!'
***
Arin had reached the Campaign Center. It was a quaint and elegant wooden building lodged in between two comparatively monolithic mansions. It had a small and unfurnished porch raised above the ground by a wide two-step staircase, with two gold-framed glass panes of each side of the ornately carved front door. Each plank that made up the Center seamlessly connected to the next, offering the illusion that the building had actually been carved from a single-giant tree. And given the extravagant nature of the noble neighborhood, there was a non-zero chance that 'illusion' was simply the truth.
Inside was the clamor of excited Campaigners and the ever-present glow of a soothing, yellow light. Occasionally, a bright white flash would resound from within, and the clamor would become about one person quieter. Once the flashing and clamor stopped completely, which Arin made an effort to be absolutely sure of, he stepped out of the shadows and onto the small porch. He was hesitant to open the door. What's the point of Campaigning if you know your time will be wasted with a worthless, good-for-nothing excuse for a living creature?
As Arin was drowning in his own egregious despair, the soothing yellow light within was flipped off. Arin's base-level instincts to never pass up an opportunity kicked in as he violently swung the front door open.
Inside, he heard an obviously exhausted woman sigh and groan dramatically before the light was flipped back on.
The interior of the Campaign Center was completely unlike the exterior, possessing a very simplistic and modern design. The floor was comprised of many small, ever-so-slightly reflective, and clean white tiles, as was the roof. The walls broke this pattern, instead appearing to be made of one giant reflective and white tile, with a 4-inch thick yellow line wrapping around all four walls two thirds up from the ground. What surprised Arin wasn't the odd architecture, but the fact that not a single light fixture was visible in the room. Yet it was still illuminated by that soothing, yellow light. The room was also weirdly empty, save for a wooden desk and chair in front of him.
Manning the desk was a woman with deep bags under her eyes and tied-back brown hair. Her glasses were so far down her nose she wasn't even really using them anymore. Her eyes looked even more bloodshot than Arin's. It was clear that her work was tiring. She took a deep breath, rubbed her eyes, and pushed up her glasses before addressing the tardy noble before her.
"Okay. I assume you've signed the acknowledgement form?"
Arin's face looked both shocked with horror and also relieved. At least he wouldn't have to Campaign with an Ishogian anymore...
The woman seemed to only notice the horror in his expression, however, as she pulled out a flyer and a pen from one of the desk's drawers and placed them in front of Arin. She clicked the pen open.
"You're not the only one who forgot. Just sign this, I'll deal with it tomorrow."
Arin looked down at the flyer to sign it.
On the flyer was a very tall man with volumetric slicked-back black hair, deep azure eyes, and azure gems pierced into his earlobes. The man was feigning a heroic expression and was mockingly pointing at Arin through the flyer. A call to action was written in bold lettering below the portrait.
"Every day, our realm steps ever closer to its untimely doom. The Ungodly Energy seeping out from the realms of Hell threaten to corrupt our world and assimilate us into itself! Only you courageous Campaigners can save the world from this grim fate!" - Tetsuya Shun
Arin gripped the pen very tight as he wrote 'ARIN TETSUYA' over his brother's face.
The woman took back the flyer and pen and put them back into the drawer while simultaneously asking, "What's your Campaign?"
"...Shippai."
The woman opened up a different drawer and rummaged through some folders and other miscellaneous items. Eventually she found the folder labelled "Shippai" and she placed it on the desk. Her eyes showed a bit of a pity when she opened the folder.
"That's rough, kid."
Alongside the information about his Campaign, was a small ball about twice as large as a marble. It was supposed to look something like a pearl, but his was very tarnished and non-reflective. The woman held her hand out while holding the ball and began reading off the script she'd memorized by now.
"This is a Campaign Core. It's... supposed to be... a completely pure object to be brought into the Realms of Hell. It collects Ungodly Energy from life in the realm, and uses some of that collected energy to transport you out of the realm once it reaches Collapse. Only thing is that yours looks to be just a little impure."
Arin knew what a Campaign Core was, but he didn't know that impure Cores were actually ever used! As far as he knew, impure Cores were an extreme risk and could result in a Campaigner getting stuck in a Collapse! Arin was trapped in thought imagining just how terrible such a calamity would be.
The woman, finally reaching the last of her energy, quickly said, "If you don't have anything else to say, I'll send you out." Arin was too wrapped up in his fantasies of suffering that he didn't notice what she said.
With a great deal of effort, the woman reached her arm out to Arin and tensed it. Slow white sparks began pooling in her palm, before extending out to her fingers, and reaching towards Arin. Before long, he was hugged by a warm and calming sensation. He looked down at his body and saw that it was wrapped in a blanket of warm, white sparks. All of the bad thoughts in his mind were gone.
Faintly, Arin could hear something behind him. A door opening? People talking, maybe even someone he knew. In his calm state, he had no trouble focusing in on the conversation behind him.
"What's up with Arin? He was hiding from everyone, and acting so depressed. Wasn't having a Campaign, like, his dream?"
"He told me that he ended up campaigning with an Ishog. I feel bad for him, but then again... I don't want to associate with someone like that. It's obviously a bad omen."
Arin's blissful state quickly faded.
"I'm not surprised that pathetic excuse for a Tetsuya would campaign with a pathetic excuse for a human. In fact, I think they're perfect for each other."
Even Juline was laughing.
Then everything before him disappeared. Now, he was lying on a ground of jagged stone, looking up to an eternally gray and cloudless sky. Surrounding him was the sound of distant roaring tides and howling winds. Arin sat up to gauge his surroundings, he saw everything he had been dreading to see.
It was a taller man with moderately dark skin, although it was much darked
The man had somewhat dark skin, much darker than the pale Arin, dirty, explosively tied-back, and long black hair, alongside a grin filled by teeth yellower than pi- Well, his teeth were actually much cleaner and well-kept than Arin had expected, but they were still yellow. The thing that gave it away most, however, were his eyes. His iris was a normal color, brown, but the 'whites' of his eyes were not. In fact, they were yellower than Arin had expected his teeth to be.
There wasn't a single doubt in Arin's mind- he knew that this man was the man he currently hated most in the world, Renota Ishogi.