It was 8:15 pm.
The sky had already turned dark.
The sun had already set.
The darkness engulfed the city of Nagazora in a sea of night as the sounds of two people were heard as they walked to their destination.
Alexander was dressed as formally as usual, with a full length black shirt and a full sleeved white overcoat and long white pants, long with dark shoes to match the occasion.
His eyes glowed in the dark, seemingly and his well kept curly black hair swayed with the wind.
Sitting on a wooden chair, within a decently popular restaurant, he sat opposite to Raiden Mei, whom he had offered to have dinner with him.
They chose this restaurant because it was not too expensive but not low quality either. This restaurant had very good reviews and Alex knew they served very good quality food here.
The cheapness and it not being overly popular, just made it a lot more suitable since not only would it not cost much, but they two would also be left in silence.
Mei was happy to spend time with her new friend. She happily talked to him during this time and they laughed over their small talk.
Surprisingly, Mei recently found out Alex was very interested in technology and was insanely smart as well. His mathematical and academic intelligence was inhumanely high and he seemed very experienced in technology.
Photographic memory and high speed processing power had its benifits.
As the daughter of the former owner of ME Corporation, she was also quite well versed in technology.
They also recently began going to a dojo to practice their sword fighting skills. Alex was a surprisingly curious person who wanted to try out a lot of things.
He even turned out to be an expert gamer and had even watched a lot of shows and things on the internet. Mei found this cute and they shared experiences and preferences with each other.
Mei offered to teach him how to cook and Alex was very pleased with her offer. Naturally, he accepted her good will and eventually, he would start learning the art of cooking from a master chef.
Mei did find it disappointing that she lost their most recent spar though, especially considering she's been trained for a long time on how to wield a blade.
But she did not feel bad about it. If anything, she was surprised by his ability to learn so many things at once. And most of all, she was surprised by his stamina.
No matter how much exercise or sparring they did. No matter what kind of physical activity was conducted. He never seems to get tired or feel any fatigue.
Mei has still yet to see him even so much as sweat, something which she knows isn't possible.
Since he wasn't really human, he naturally didn't have the ability to sweat or feel tired. But she didn't know that...
The truth is, Alexander, being an artificial human, was designed to be incapable of getting tired. One of the many benefits granted to him, courtesy of PROMETHEUS.
He can still feel fatigue, yes. But if we're talking about stamina — one's ability to do something without feeling exhausted or tired — then Alex's stamina was basically unending.
It's a "design feature" and he's not sure why he has that, but he appreciates it's usefulness. He remembers Otto saying something about how it was something that he originally possessed, even in his real body. And he's not complaining. When it comes to fighting the honkai, the ability to not get tired like normal humans is pretty invaluable.
Almost as invaluable as the ring he wore on the index fingers of his left hand.
It was his most prized possession.
And his deadliest weapon.
Mei had previously questioned why he always wore that ring. Though, it took her a long time to muster up the courage to ask him such a personal question, but she did still managed to eventually do it.
Alex on the other hand, simply answered her question with his usual kind and stable voice.
"It was a gift from a close friend of mine. It's very important to me. Materialistically and sentimentally. And I'll cherish it to the end of time." He looked at Mei dead in the eyes and kept talking.
"I won't let anything happen to it. It's the most precious thing I have in the world."
He never said anything else after that.
Nor did Mei ever question him like that.
Mei understand just how much he valued the ring his wore. Which would explain why he never removed it, not even when he went to school.
They had a classic plate of sushi, an oyakadon, tonkatsu, yakitori and okonomiyaki. Mei also had some miso soup for herself.
Natural, Alex was the one that ate most of the food, while Mei ate in smaller quantities. Lucky for them Kiana wasn't here, or the bill would be a lot higher than whatever they got.
Both of them, after all, had a normal appetite. Unlike the Kaslana.
They returned home after spending over an hour together at the restaurant of their choice and finally parted ways at the dead of night, the moon shining over their heads.
But Alex still made sure to walk Mei home instead of letting her leave on her own. After bidding farewell to his good friend, he turned around and began walking away from her home, which was very big since Mei was still rich.
Inside her home, Mei sat on her bed and her serene face fell into deep thought, her gentleness eyes momentarily closing so she may focus on her thoughts.
She had already made up her mind. She's been thinking of this for a while and now, she's made up her mind.
Aside from teaching him how to cook in the future, Mei would now start making food for him. She was determined and decided to make bento's for her friend to take to school.
Before they parted ways, she even offered to walk to school together. Although in different schools, Alex would walk with her to Chiba Academy and then go off to his school, which was only a ten minute walk from Chiba Academy.
While walking home after his little "date night" with Mei, Alex stopped in his tracks and turned his head to the right. His sharp eyes noticed a sudden energy surge.
Honkai.
To be more precise, a honkai beast. It was only an archangel, but still a honkai beast nonetheless.
It made his brows furrow and his face frown.
Not too far from the honkai beast in question, was a white haired girl. The girls hair was tied into two long braided twin tails. Alex's senses were sharper than the average person and he had perfect night vision, due to which he could clearly see her beautiful blue eyes.
The girl in question was wearing a sweater and walking down the dark streets by herself. She didn't seem to recognise the honkai beast that wasn't too far away from her.
The archangel noticed her presence and quickly tried to spring into action. Fulfilling its purpose of killing humans around it.
Unfortunately for the honkai beast, Alex had already set his sights on it. And ones his sight was set, the archangel had become the prey.
Not wasting any time, Alexander flung himself off the bridge he was at and ran at the honkai beast with unimaginable speeds.
With a hand outstretched, his eyes glitched and glowed momentarily, followed by his outstretched left hand flickering brightly.
The archangel bounced against a blue force field, which managed to rattle it's senses as it hadn't sensed the presence of another individual.
A red flash was scene and the honkai beast was gone. Violet particles painted the night and disappeared into the wind, leaving absolutely nothing behind. A cloud of dust had been kicked up, but it wasn't to big.
The honkai beast has been dealt with, and Alexander stood up straight with a serious expression.
Normally, Alex would have taken his sweet time. It was only one archangels after all. It was basically not a threat.
But not here.
He was curious and also suspicious.
Why was there just a random archangels in this place ? First of all, archangels always come in groups. That's how they make up for their low vitality, aside from their agility.
Additionally, why was there a honkai beast here ? There was no fluctuations in the honkai energy levels to the city, or even this alley.
It didn't make any sense for an archangel to suddenly appear, unless it came from some place else. But that still wouldn't explain why it was by itself.
If it had been any normal circumstance, Alex would have approached it without caution to try and extract information instead of just ending it on the spot.
Alex did not wish to take any chances though.
He noticed the presence of another civilian, a teenage girl with white hair. Knowing that there was an innocent in the area, Alex did not want to take any chances of putting her in danger or him being seen with the honkai beasts.
As such, he chose to immediately execute the honkai beast.
After all, ordinary people don't know about the existence of the honkai. At least, their ignorant to the honkai beasts and the herrschers. They know that honkai is associated with plague, disease, disaster, destruction and death.
They also know about the infamous corruption caused by the honkai, which is excruciatingly painful and can prove to be fatal. It also has no cure and can turn ordinary people into soulless zombies who attack humans.
But their knowledge is limited.
Only the higher ranked individuals of society, the large companies of the world, the defence forces and the organisations that fought the honkai, were aware of the honkai and what it actually was.