Ball of Nothing

Zero was exhausted and groaned in the hot tub. Baal didn't speak about the fiasco that happened a few hours ago. He didn't think his friend would be foolish enough to accept the request of hundreds of fox spirits. Even if the Demon Lord didn't want to interfere, he eventually had to and drew the line for the overly excited vulpines.

Zero sighed through his nose and groaned as another message popped into his head. The system was very active in relaying messages and Zero wondered if he made the mistake of opening the can of worms. These girls were RELENTLESS!

"Ask for a mute function," Baal suggested after seeing his friend zone out in the tab for the umpteenth time.

Zero groaned. Mii was still working on it so the young doctor had to deal with the prompting of system messages about every new message he received. At least giving administration rights to one friend in his list was better than adding the whole village into his list. At least it was organised chaos instead of an unmanageable one.

"I can't speed up the research process, Mii is still coordinating with Steve Jobs... Apparently, even the God of Technology requires time to understand this strange magic coding that was left behind. It's not something Steve is familiar with."

Baal didn't know how the 'coding' science worked but if Steve Jobs couldn't figure it out then nobody could. "Can't you fix it with magic?" he asked.

Zero sighed and massaged his temple. The frown deepening. "No, Merlin's magic isn't more powerful than my past self. If only I could remember how I created the system..."

Baal didn't say anymore. Truth be told, there was one other solution to making that message prompt stop but Zero wouldn't like it. The two friends stewed in the bath for a little longer before Baal excused himself and got out of the hot tub. Zero waved lazily at his friend, choosing to relax a little more.

***

"Shittomi..."

The Snow Queen looked up, not very surprised to see the Lord of Laziness. "How is Zero?"

"He succeeded in the mission," Baal reported and after a little hesitation, decided to give a little more details.

Shittomi couldn't hold in the peals of laughter as she listened to Baal's sardonic recount about Zero's generosity. While the young doctor was a real gem full of generosity, the vulpines were shameless demons who would use everything at their disposal to rip their victims off.

"How did he react to their enthusiasm? They didn't bother concealing their fangs and claws back there... I would have to retrain the whole lot of them before they're ready to join the ranks of my Hannya House."

Baal shrugged. Hannya House was a group of very skilful demons who collected information from their targets and reported it back to Shittomi. Many demons under Shittomi's domain had one foot in the Energy Plane. They do not always possess a physical body and if not for Shittomi's unique Domain Ability as a Demon Lord, none of these souls who had departed from their bodies could remain in the abyss. To them, the Envy Domain was a rare sanctuary. Unable to return to other Planes without escaping judgement from King Yama and unable to continue living in the abyss without being returned to the void, Shittomi's domain was the only other place they could turn to. Many of these beings had unfinished business and the only pass to other planes was to enter into a soul binding contract with Shittomi.

"Will you take in those girls? You do know that their wish to transverse to the mortal realm will only result in heartache. Qin Yun wants to become a human and by doing so, she is subjected to the cycle of reincarnation without exception."

Shittomi smiled mysteriously. "The soul contract is more complicated than you know, my boy. But to answer your question, I will not be taking these girls in until they've proven their loyalty to me. Zero's offer to play the messenger was a little out of my calculations but it doesn't put a wrench in my plans. You just need to fulfil your part in this plan and we can stop this never-ending cycle of misery. Don't let Zero's efforts go to waste, the gate hasn't been fully closed yet. We can still use it to access Earth with a more peaceful campaign."

The Demon Lord nodded. Lucifer's grand plan hasn't changed. Demons were still going to break out of the abyss. The plane was starting to reject them with the threat of the void pulling it in. Beelzebub's birth was no coincidence. The power of six Lords wasn't enough to hold it together any longer. While Zero's plan to introduce mana producing flowers and terraforming the plane was a great idea, they were running out of time.

"I will send him away first thing tomorrow morning. The portal to Half Moon will be ready soon, Hua Tuo has spoken with the villagers and they have agreed to help us guard that portal. Will you stop Qin Yun from leaving? If she stays in that village, she could live forever even as a mortal."

Shittomi was silent for a while. "As a sister, I want her to pursue her own happiness. As a Queen, losing my closest confidant is a huge tragedy. I cannot tell her what to do, I can only watch over her soul and hope for the best."

Baal didn't say anymore. He bowed and took his leave, teleporting over to the village of foxes. Zero might not like what he was about to do but comparing the importance of his friend's sleep and his anger? The answer was a no-brainer.

***

Zero didn't know when the noises in his head stopped but he didn't question it, very thankful that even fox demons slept. He remembered that as a child, staying past the midnight mark would be incredibly tough for him. His eyes would involuntarily close and staying up past the midnight mark in his teenage body was a whole new experience. Zero never knew how quiet and eerie the night could be. In the eyes of his child self, the night was always peaceful and calming.

The click of the door opening slowly made Zero jump a little before he felt that familiar mana and smiled.

"You're back!"

Baal nodded and climbed into bed beside Zero. For some reason, Zero and Baal decided that if the bed was big enough for two, they wouldn't sleep separately. The Demon Lord didn't know if he would be able to get reaccustomed to not having someone else sleep beside him now that he'd gotten so comfortable with Zero's warmth beside him.

"You're not asleep yet," Baal pointed out and Zero looked sheepish.

"They were noisy till a while ago but once the notifications stopped I couldn't seem to sleep in ease... have you ever thought that the night was a scary thing?"

"How so?" asked Baal. For Zero to say such a thing... Baal didn't know if he was meant to feel offended as someone who once lived in the continuous nights back in the graveyard.

Zero squirmed a little under Baal's staring. "I just feel like it's different after midnight. I don't know if that happened back in Coux's castle or even yours but it's a little strange here."

Understanding flickered in Baal's eyes and he chuckled. "You're right. It's not normal to feel this way at my place or at Coux's. Shittomi's domain is slightly special and midnight till the early hours of the morning is when things become most lively. You're just feeling the tension of the energy lingering in her domain, nothing to really worry about. Besides, I'm here. Go to sleep already, nobody will disturb us until it's time to go."

Zero didn't understand everything Baal just said but nodded anyway, too tired to care. His brain did pick on the words leaving and it made him slightly sad.

"Are we finally going to Roth Village?"

Baal nodded. "Yes. I believe your vampire will be waiting for us there. It's not very far from here so I can teleport us there in three or four tries."

Zero yawned and snuggled into the blanket. It didn't take long before he was asleep and Baal followed soon after.

***

The morning was cold and silent. Zero took a minute to admire the pure white view outside the window. The snow had piled up over the night and everything sparkled. It felt very tranquil and the young doctor decided to change back to his usual travelling garb complete with the fashion trainwreck.

Baal woke up to see Zero already dressed and ready for the day. Zero must have guessed that they would be leaving for Half Moon Village today with his getup. The Demon Lord chose to be oblivious to the choice of wardrobe and clambered out of bed before cleaning his teeth.

Once the two friends were presentable, they made their way down to the dining where Queen Shittomi was already waiting with a trail of servants behind her. They were all wearing veils over their faces. Zero couldn't make out their faces at all but he recognised some of the characters stitched onto the cloths covering their faces.

"Good morning, Zero."

"Good morning," Zero returned the greeting but still had his eyes stray curiously at the people waiting motionlessly behind the Queen as he dug into the food. It was a little odd eating shaved ice for breakfast but the young doctor wasn't complaining. Baal also seemed to enjoy the food so it was all good.

They ate in a light-hearted mood with Shittomi listening to Zero's stories and Baal's friendly jab at his friend's intellect. They made quick progress and it wasn't even near noon when the maids came to clear the dishes away. The mood took a turn for something more sombre after that and Zero sat a little straighter.

"Zero, thank you for your assistance with the fox village. I would also like to thank you on behalf of all the demons in the abyss that you helped save with your actions back at the Academy. Your plan to terraform Hell and the negotiations that happened with Heaven after were things that couldn't have happened if not for you. as such, there is one gift I would like you to have before you return to Earth."

With a flick of her wrist, the ten mysterious servants took a step forward and removed their face masks. Zero didn't realise it earlier but the room was cleared of other servants. Looking at the servants made Zero slightly surprise. He'd seen his fair share of different races and had no problems accepting their individual uniqueness. However, seeing ten exact same copies of the same person standing side by side just made his mind freeze.

"This is the face of the Hannya House's investigators. It doesn't matter what origin they had. When they become an investigator this is the mask they wear. Of course, what you are looking at is a physical puppet with a soul contained in it. The Hannya House has a very long history and we specialise in information trading. For the right price, there is no information we cannot gather. The price of our services is usually too steep for regular people so our customers are mostly Gods and some of the more prominent figures like King Yama and even archangels. As the saviour of Hell, although we are unable to provide information for free due to a contract, we can offer it to you for a special price. This is my gift to you."

Zero blinked at the ten 'puppets'. "Information? You can answer any questions?"

Shittomi nodded. "If it is within our capability, we will do what we can."

The young doctor didn't say anything for a good while and Baal gave Zero an anxious glance. He wasn't going to ask dumb questions now, would he?

"I have a few requests. How much do you normally charge for each request?"

Shittomi raised her brow. She didn't think Zero would cash in the favour so quickly.

"It depends on the difficulty of your request."

Zero nodded. "My first request is to locate a person or a being or soul. I'm sure as a Divine Fragment, you have some sort of connections to the Divine Entities. I'm looking for Duu."

Baal choked on his saliva when he heard that.

"Request accepted. This will take a while but it can be done. I will collect the payment from you when we know where Duu is."

Zero nodded. "My second request is to find out about Venn's story as well as his whereabouts. I need to know about his regrets."

Shittomi nodded. She knew now where Zero's requests were coming from. In fact, she owed him one free of charge seeing that her creator's wish was going to be one of Zero's requests.

"My third request is to find all the stores that Gugu and Jevy had hidden their spoils of war as well as the people they've offended or caused inconvenience to."

Shittomi nodded "I'll bear the cost for this request as this is an issue concerning my creator. It will take a long time before the list is ready, the damage of their hoarding is extensive and some records may be missing due to the destruction of the planet and witnesses."

Zero cringed hearing that. "Thank you... I'll be counting on you to do your best. And for my last request, I would like you to find the whereabouts of Solo."

Shittomi blinked and Baal froze. Solo... that was a strange thing to ask for. "Zero..." Baal started but stopped when he saw that strange clarity in his best friend's eyes.

"You do understand that you are Solo, right?" Shittomi asked, perplexed at the strange request.

Zero shook his head. "No, I am Zero. Solo is somewhere out there. I managed to talk to Solo once, I need to talk to him again."

Both Demon Lords looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Although Hannya House was the most powerful information house, there were still many things that remained a mystery to even Gods.

"Understood, I'll see what I can find. Would it be alright to collect the payment from you only when we have solid findings for your requests?"

Zero smiled. "Thank you, it would be for the best. I understand if some of these requests are impossible to fulfil but you are the only person I could ask for help with them."

Queen Shittomi looked at the youth before her and saw the Great One's aura radiating. Her soul resonated with the pull and she lowered her head in a bow. "I shall do my best. Safe travels and may we meet again, Zero."