Entice - Part 1

The rain in Japan refused to let up and Jesus and his friend, Buddha, were stuck inside of their small one-room apartment. Leaning against the window, Jesus sighed.

"I'm bored, Buddha. It has been raining for the past week now." The other man turned from the stove, frowning at Jesus.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. I thought you were on your blog?" Another sigh.

"I was. Now, I have a headache and I'm bored out of my mind." Rising up from his spot, he made his way towards Buddha. Jesus leaned over into the pot on the stove.

"Rice, again? Can we go out to eat?" Jesus urged, clasping Buddha's hand. Please, please, please...

"No. I'm still busy managing our finances from last month." Buddha turned back to the pot and turned it off to prove his point. "You need to learn how to spend your money carefully," Buddha advised, pouring the hot rice meal into two bowels. "Do you want to live in poverty?" Jesus crossed his arms.

"You've done it before. When you were living an ascetic life, remember? When you ran off into the woods from your family, from your child, to some woman-"

"We are not talking about me, Jesus," Buddha interrupted firmly. "I'm being serious. You need to work on your spending habits. You spend way too much on trivial things."

"And you don't?"

"I said too much. Too much is not good. We want to save our money so we can use on practical things, such as bills-"

"That's all you think about, isn't it?" Jesus hissed lowly. It's about 'let's save every single penny, Jesus', 'not now, Jesus; maybe another time', 'pay the bills, Jesus'!" Annoyed, Buddha pushed his rice bowl away.

"I'm not doing this for myself, Jesus. I'm doing it for us. I'm trying to keep us from going poor." Jesus looked away in disgust.

"By the way we live, eat, and spend our money, you'd think so!" Jesus shouted.

Angry, the Buddhist handed him his serving of rice. Instead, Jesus had gotten up and grabbed his rain coat. Buddha stood as well, frowning.

"Jesus Christ, where are you going?" Buddha questioned. Jesus pushed the front door open.

"Out". The door slammed behind him.

Still fuming, Jesus kept his head down low, moving through the streets of rainy Japan. . He came across and entered a shop that had sold ramen. Buddha has been a real downer today. I guess it is because of the gloomy weather. I'm sure Buddha-san wants to get outside as much as I do. Jesus ordered a bowl of chicken-flavored ramen noodles. However, Buddha-san is right. I spend my money on trivial things. He also acknowledges that he himself had blown things completely out of proportion. I should go apologize to him. Knowing Buddha, the guy's probably worried sick about me! Jesus laid the money on the counter and slipped off of the shop stool to bump into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I-" Jesus looked up and gasped.

"Hello, Jesus Christ." The man greeted.

"W-what are you doing here, Lucifer?!" Jesus gasped, tumbling backwards in shock.

"I'm here to... help you."

Jesus had a bad feeling about this.