Chapter Text
“There’s an extra door,” Neil said, staring down the hallway of apartment 1031.
“What?” Ira asked, peeking out of his room.
The young devil pointed at the door in front of him. His skinny vampiric roommate joined him in staring. Neither knew what to do with this information. As they both tried to come up with responses they found themselves joined by Damao (the werewolf) and Abu (the mummy). Damao was even more alarmed than Ira or Neil, as the new door was beside his room.
Abu, whose bedroom was on the other side, was rather less concerned. The ancient Egyptian man was so rarely disturbed by anything. Neil envived his chill.
“Ah, I see you all have noticed the new room,” Lynn’s calm voice said, drawing all eyes to the angelic holder of the apartment lease.
“How does—where did—what?” Neil stammered, gesturing towards the door.
“I received a delightful applicant for an old posting regarding the apartment. When I mentioned it to the landlord he agreed to make some space to allow that young man to move in,” Lynn explained, walking over to the door.
The angel opened it, as the three concerned tenants hovered behind him, looking in to find an alarmingly normal empty room for what was a space-time anomaly. Lynn gave a nod before closing the door and turning around to the others, who scrambled back.
“The new tenant should be here this evening. I trust you will all make him feel welcome?” Lynn asked.
“Uh—sure! Of course!” Neil replied, forcing a grin.
“Could we get some info on him? It’d make planning the welcome party easier,” Ira asked.
“I suppose that’s true,” Lynn said, pausing on his way to… something important. Probably cleaning the apartment. “He’s Japanese, a Shinigami training to be a Reaper.”
Neil swallowed nervously. He remembered the things Nick’s ex-boyfriend apparently did in his job as a Reaper. That was a… mildly terrifying person to gain as a roommate.
“Japanese? We should probably get drinks then?” Damao asked.
“Probably? I know Momo is an outlier, but… I’ve still heard they have a pretty strong pub culture over there,” Ira replied.
The pair headed off, dragging Neil along as the young demon remained frozen with fear. It was only once they were out of the apartment building that he decided that it was indeed in his best interest to buy the new roommate something nice. If you had to share an apartment with someone terrifying, it paid to give a good first impression.
“I—I think I’ll go get a cake!” Neil declared, hurrying off.
-b-
Neil had only just finished putting up the welcome banner when there was a knock at the door. Damao rushed over, the large and muscular man’s wolf tail sticking out and wagging away as he opened the door.
“Hello and welcome!” the large Russian man said in a happy tone.
The new arrival surprised Nick by having bright red hair, not something the Australian devil had expected from someone Japanese. Even if said someone was supernatural. Moving past that, he seemed about Neil’s—well, he looked about the same age as Neil, though how Shinigami aged relative to Devils was not something Neil could guess at.
“Hello, I am Rokudo Rinne,” the new arrival said, bowing before entering the apartment. Something about his way of speaking made Neil think of Lynn, but… Japanese. “Oh. Very spacious…”
“The common area is quite generous,” Lynn said, walking over to the redhead. “I hope you’ll—is that a pet carrier? The listing said ‘no pets’…”
Rinne blushed slightly. “I can explain. He’s my, well, assistant is probably the word? The airline insisted that he had to—it’s probably easier if I show you?”
The young man bent down, placing the pet carrier on the ground and popping the door open. A small black cat clambered out, receiving a glare from Lynn. Until it stretched, rising onto its back legs, and a shimmer revealed the cat to be more like a small child, though… rather feline. He was clearly some sort of jing.
“My name’s Rokumon! I’m Rinne’s black cat assistant,” the cat-jing said with a smile.
“Cuuute,” Neil said, unable to resist.
“Ah… well, as long as you handle feeding him,” Lynn muttered.
“C’mon, we’ll show you your room!” Ira said, waving Rinne and Rokumon over.
The pair of new arrivals followed, Ira and Neil still not comfortable with actually entering the new room, but Ira was willing to open the door at least. Rinne walked in, pausing in the middle, before turning back to the entrance with tears of joy in his eyes.
“There’s heating!”
The other two blinked.
“Uh… yeah?” Ira offered.
“I haven’t had such luxury in years!” the redhead said, while his feline assistant hurried over to stretch out by the heater.
Neil and Ira blinked, not really sure how to respond to that. Neil could only guess the new tenant was from one of the warmer parts of Japan where you didn’t need heat.
That, or… Neil was very concerned about his background.
“Anyhow, let’s head back down to the party,” Ira said, waving the new arrival back to the stairs.
“There’s cake. I hope it’s a flavour you like,” Neil added. Although this new Reaper seemed less terrifying than he’d braced for, he still wanted to make a good impression.
Rinne and Rokumon’s eyes both sparkled at that, the pair hurrying down in pursuit of cake. By the time Neil caught back up they were both in the kitchen, staring in reverence at the chocolate cake on the table.
Damao, for his part, had pulled drinks out of the fridge, and was trying to offer Rinne his choice of drinks. The young man seemed rather flustered by the idea.
“I am only 19,” Rinne replied.
“да? That is of age in China?” Damao replied.
The redhead stared down at the bottles of alcohol making a face. Neil was fairly certain he was trying to find a polite way to decline when the front door of the apartment burst open.
For a brief moment Neil thought Momo had been summoned by the smell of alcohol, but, no. This girl was too short and young to be Momo. She was also dressed in a very lolita style that reminded Neil of some of the outfits Lily talked him into wearing in girl form.
“Oooh! Lots of people! こんにちは!” the small feline girl declared, charging into the apartment. “My name’s—Rokumon?? And Mister Rinne!?”
The two new arrivals turned to look at the girl, both blinking with recognition.
“Suzu?” the kitten boy asked.
“Don’t tell me Kain is here,” Rinne muttered, a shiver seeming to go down is back.
“No, no. Master Kain has lent me to Lady Renge,” the lolita kitten girl replied. “Her old granny black cat had to retire.”
“You know this gi—” Ira started to ask, when the door slammed open again.
This time it was Momo, their black haired Nekomata neighbour holding a squirt gun in one hand while vengeance lit up her eyes. She was hissing a string of Japanese that Neil couldn’t even begin to follow, though he was pretty sure he heard the word ‘sofa’ in there.
The new cat girl, Suzu, leapt away from a spray of the squirt bottle, clinging to Damao’s head for safety.
“Miss Momo, would you please explain what’s going on in a language the rest of us can understand?” Lynn said, stepping in with his wings spread before any more chaos broke out.
“Ooh, feathers,” Suzu said, still sitting on Damao’s head.
“I’ve resisted scratching that leather couch for a whole eight months! Then the first thing she does when she moves in is scratch it!” Momo hissed, trying to aim the bottle around Lynn’s wings.
“I said I was sorry!” the new girl said, giving the largest innocent kitten eyes Neil had ever seen.
He didn’t think anyone could remain angry at a face like that, but… it seemed cats were immune to other cats’ cuteness as Momo yelled something in Japanese at her.
“You know, this building has a no pets rule!” Momo shouted. “Maybe I’ll make Miss Renge find you a kennel to stay in or something!”
Suzu let out a gasp of shock, her claws coming out to bet hold on to her perch. Which led to a sad puppy-like whine from Damao.
As the pair of cat girls tossed a few angry Japanese phrases between them the apartment saw the arrival of a few more guests. Neil noticed Lily first, his heart racing as he did so. She was such angelic perfection…
Then he realised Crystal was with her (the unicorn woman in human form at the moment). As well as a strange girl with small horns and long black hair that he’d not seen before. Oh… and his brother Nick in female form. Really, between Crystal and Nick the new girl’s horns seemed almost non-existent.
“Lady Renge! Help me!” Suzu called out, bounding off of Damao’s head, over Lynn and Momo, and at the new girl.
Renge leaned out of the way, causing the lolita-kitten to fly past her and collide with one of the couches in the living room.
“I’ve told you not to jump at me like that,” Renge said flatly. “I—wait, Rokudo Rinne!?”
“Shima-san,” the redhead said with a nod. “What are you doing in Beijing?”
Before she could reply, Momo charged past, firing away with her spray bottle, resulting in a destructive chase across the living room by the two black cats. Lynn’s eye twitched, before he grabbed his halo, blasting the room with purifying light.
Neil let out a sad bleat, stuck as a (demonic) goat for the next few minutes. Ira and Damo had been turned into a bat and a wolf respectively. Nick was also a goat for the moment. Crystal was unaffected. Unicorns being considered pure and just and all that.
Momo, Suzu, and Rokumon were all turned into black cats, however. Which made the former two more manageable for Lynn and Lily to scoop up and separate. Despite the unpleasant yowling and hissing coming from both of them.
“Now then, while those two are cooling down, I am curious how you know each other,” Lynn said to Rinne and Renge.
Looking at her again, Neil noticed Renge had turned blue and her skirt had become tiger-striped. Otherwise she seemed the same, though. Rinne was unchanged as far as Neil could tell.
The pair of new arrivals both began to give a rundown of their situations. As the various other attendants returned to humanoid forms the pair explained that they were both Shinigami, who had been working in Japan, but struggling to make a living. Then, not long ago, a Reaper had somehow accidentally ended up in Japan (Nick muttering to herself that it was probably Axel), and Rinne had ended up talking about pay rates with the man. They’d then discovered Reapers were paid roughly three times as much per spirit guided to the afterlife as Shinigami were, and so had both applied to work for the International Grim Reaper’s Guild. They had then both been assigned to Beijing.
“Well!” Nick said, hopping to her feet with a clap. “Since we were both doing housewarming parties, let’s combine them into one big party! We’d have a pretty good spread if we pool all our food.”
“I like the sound of that,” Ira said.
“I will guard the alcohol from Momo!” Lily announced.
The black cat in question let out a sad yowl as she squirmed in Lily’s arms.
“Woo! Party!” a male voice declared, before a man who looked like Rinne but slightly older and slightly… well, prettier, burst into the apartment with a box of delivery sushi in one arm and a bag filled with bottles of alcohol in his other hand.
“Mister Rokudo?” Renge said, her eye twitching.
“Father!?” Rinne added, sounding even more annoyed to see the man.
“Can’t a dad be supportive on the day his son moves to a whole new country for a better job?” the elder Rokudo asked.
“I… as long as you’re going right back to Japan after this,” Rinne muttered.
“How did you get past customs… there should still be a warrant for your arrest,” Renge added, the elder Rokudo waving off her concerns.
-b-
Nick yawned, stretching as he woke up. He’d somehow made it back to his own apartment last night. That was nice. His hangover also wasn’t too bad, even if last night was a blur.
Blinking a few times, he slowly realised someone was in bed beside him. He closed his eyes, silently hoping it was Lynn at long last, before turning and checking.
He spotted a head of very red hair and worried he’d slept with the new tenant of 1031. That would make things awkward with Lynn, and… well, 19 was a bit young by Nick’s standards.
Luckily the other man rolled over, groggily looking around, and revealing he wasn’t Rokudo Rinne. He was Rokudo Sabato, the new tenant’s dad. Much more appropriate.
The man stared at Nick for a moment. “I swore you were a woman last night…”
“Mhm, I was,” Nick replied with a shrug.
Sabato gave him a slow one over, eyes lingering on Nick’s muscular torso, then up to his slight stubble.
“Nice… and there I was, limiting myself to twinks all this time,” the other man said. “What do you say we clear our heads and then have a little more fun?”
Nick found himself blushing.