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This is a fanfic based off a roleplaying site I made 4 years based off an anime. This topic is for FANFIC POSTS ONLY. Anything discussing the fanfic can be posted in a separate topic I will post and link to once I am back from my vacation. How this will work is every Friday I will add a chapter to this thread. The following Monday I will update this post with updated history, should it need changing, updated character bios, and adding new characters. As a prequel to chapter 1 on Friday, I am going to post the history now.

The Discussion topic

Warning: This fanfic features mature content, including (but not limited to) foul language, racist remarks, sexual implications and conduct, drugs and alcohol references. Viewer discretion advised.

History:
Throughout history, men were slaves to a race of 9 demons, each possessing unbelievable power. Out of boredom, the demons decided to make men into gladiators, giving selected few magical powers and making then duel for their lives, the winner able to live with their new found power. Over the course of thousands of years, the race of humans without powers eventually died out and those whom the demons gave powers too, along with their offspring whom inherited different powers in their chromosomes, became the dominant human race. Years passed and a small rebellion began, humans had decided they were sick of killing one another for the demons' amusement. The rebellion, though small, conquered one of the 9 demons, sealing it away in a young child. With this, humans became confident and over the course of 5 years, overthrew the demons, sealing each one into a young child.

Without demons to rule them, humans created 10 different countries, each with a king to rule over them. However, due to the natural greed of humans, wars started to break out over country boundaries, gold, and power. Twenty years of wars brought chaos to the lands, but defined the superpowers. Some superpowers grew, ruled by good honest kings whom wanted their country to prosper, and some ruled by tyrants whom wanted nothing more than power.

Characters
Sirus Kumori
-20 years old, Sirus is a telepath with a mastery over electrical energy, and has three very distinct abilities. His most destructive ability is his ability to focus electrons and create bolts of lightning which he shoots from his hands, whether in a wide weak burst or a narrow concentrated bolt. His other major abilities are telepathic, the ability to open wormholes connecting any two points around the world, and the ability to read minds and memories of other people. Sirus is also believed to control a small amount of ability over time itself, though he has little mastery of it currently. Sirus’ history is one of solitude, going right from a parentless and friendless childhood through adulthood where Sirus sticks to only himself, his girlfriend and his son. Sirus is currently employed as a city guard of the capital of his country, Domino of Lano Shi.

Sirus seems to have some sort of secrets about him that even he does not understand. Since his birth he has had a tattoo of what looks like vines on fire on his right shoulder. During times of great distress, this same tattoo burns and Sirus feels a surge of power but starts to lose control of himself. Additionally, Sirus seems to be able to recover extremely quickly, faster than anyone else can without using their own powers.
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Spoiler:

Hina Roiyaru
-17 years old, Hina has an ability to shut down other powers upon contact with a target. As a result she specializes in hand-to-hand combat on the battlefield. Hina, however, tends to stay away from fighting and people in general after her childhood. Hina grew up in a rich family with parents who wouldn’t let her get close to anyone, and an older cousin whom would spy on her and keep her from being close to anyone. At age 16, when Hina learned of her pregnancy she ran away from home to live with Sirus as a stay-at-home mom. Though now she tries to open up to others, she still has the constant fear of her family and therefore is usually quiet. Despite her fear of interaction, she is willing to do anything for her new family, her boyfriend and son.
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Spoiler:

Akura Kumori
-4 months old, Akura is the son of Sirus and Hina. His powers are unknown at this time.

Raviel
- 21 years old, Raviel is originally from a village in the country of Lano Shi, residing in the town known as Hidekaim, a small war-destroyed town which was nearly burnt to the ground during a war battle. Raviel specializes in fire, mostly with the ability to conjure and breath fire, along with the ability to mold the ground into different shapes. Raviel is also very experienced in telepathic psychological illusions, including the ability to make his opponents believe he is in one place when he is in another and making them hallucinate. As a child growing up, Raviel displayed amazing qualities in his abilities and was chosen by Hina’s parents to be her suitor. Raviel traveled to the capital to marry Hina. He traveled with only his sword and the clothes on his back.

Spoiler:

Mikoto-Ousama
- 47 years old, Mikoto is the emperor of Lino Shi. He is often referred to as a generous and noble king, though others refer to him as a tyrant. Mikoto has ruled Lino Shi since the death of the previous emperor at the beginning of the last war, 6 years ago.

Spoiler:

Kara Ashitaka
- 20 years old, Kara is an expert in hand to hand combat. Combined with her speedy and agile movement, Kara has many physically defensive powers. She can heat up her own body temperature without hurting herself making physical contact painful for the opponent. Furthermore, Kara can redirect light around her, rendering herself physically invisible to her opponents. On top of her physically defensive abilities, Kara can heal others with her own energy. Finally Kara has an astonishing intellect and memory, having a photographic memory down to the last detail.

Spoiler:

Jinsoku Hakati
- 28 years old, Jinsoku Hakati is an army trainer and elite soldier, training many of the elites of Lino Shi’s army, including Sirus and Raviel. Jinsoku is extremely quick and agile on the battlefield, allowing him to take down several stronger opponents whom cannot catch him. Unlike most others, Jinsoku doesn’t possess many abilities, however where he lacks in powers he makes up for with his speed and knowledge. Off the battlefield Jinsoku can be described as sarcastic and wanting a good laugh.
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Spoiler:

Hitsugaya Haruto
- 23 years old, Hitsugaya is one of Kobura-Ousama’s greatest warriors, considered one of Kobura’s “Band of Three”. Not much Intel is known about Hitsugaya, except his primary element of choice is ice, though it is believed he is able to control other elements. Like the other members of the Band of Three, Hitsugaya usually leads large armies to attack other countries when Kobura-Ousama chooses not to be involved.
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Spoiler:

Chapter 1 - Meeting Destiny

His young eyes awoke to see a familiar sight, the black hair and the black eyes, the dark coat and gloves leading down to him, young four month old Akura knew his dad was there to protect him. Sirus noticing his son had awoken, picked Akura up and headed toward the kitchen to get his son a bottle. He heard the door close and a familiar voice.

“Sirus, I’m home!”

“I have Akura in the kitchen.” Sirus yelled back at the familiar voice. In a few seconds, the young four month old’s mother walked in the kitchen, placing the grocery bag on the table and taking off her shirt to toss in the laundry and grabbing a clean one from the folded clothes on the table. The seventeen year old mother kissed her boyfriend and took her son from his hands while he finished making the bottle.

“It’s almost eleven, why is Akura still up?”

“I went to go check on him and I may have accidentally woke him up. Don’t worry Hina he’ll go right back to sleep.” Sirus answers, taking their son back and giving him his bottle. They return to the baby’s room and Sirus lays Akura down in his bed as he drinks his bottle and closes his eyes.

“I remember last year when you thought you wouldn’t be able to be a good father.” Hina says with a smile, embracing her boyfriend.

“I still wonder how good a father I am. How good a father I will be.” Sirus responds with a slight worry in his voice. “I didn’t have a family, and your family wants nothing to do with me or our son. Who do we turn to if we need help?”

“Honey don’t worry. You’ve been a better father in the last four months than my father was in sixteen years.” Hina says as they leave the room. Sirus heads toward the door. “It’s kind of foggy tonight, make sure to be extra vigilant.”

“Of course, I always am.” Sirus responds with a smirk. When Hina frowns, Sirus puts his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Besides it is only a few hours. I’ll be home by three. Trust me, nothing is going to happen.” Sirus opens the door.

“I hope you’re right. It’s just that it’s been really quiet lately. I mean I know that Lino Shi won the last war, but I can’t help but think that only makes up the first target of another war.” Hina responds, fear in her voice.

“Don’t worry baby, I will be back in a few hours. I promise.” Sirus says with a smile. Sirus and Hina kiss, and Sirus leaves out into the darkness outside.




As Sirus walks out into the night, he puts his hood on to help shield himself from the rain as well as provide some cover as his black coat matches his surroundings. Sirus walked along the outer perimeter of the city toward his post. Something was different though, as Sirus noticed a cloaked man walking in the rain. At this time of the night, only city guards were allowed out, so this was someone whom was breaking the law.

“You there, identify yourself.” Sirus said walking up to the stranger.

“My name is Raviel, I travel here from the small city of Hidekaim to claim the woman promised to me.” The stranger responded with a smile.

“Got any form of ID?” Sirus asked. Raviel gave his ID, Sirus examined it, and gave it back to the stranger. “Okay I need you to come with me to meet senior administration members. Please relinquish your sword.” Raviel gives Sirus his sword and follows him toward the Central Administration Building, or CAB for short.

“So, how is life here in Domino?” Raviel asks, trying to start conversation.

“Meh. It’s okay I guess.” Sirus responds, not really wanting to talk.

“So do you have a special someone?” Raviel asks, again trying to get some form of conversation.

“Yes, a girlfriend and a son.” Sirus responds quickly.

“Engaged or just dating?” Raviel continues asking

“Not engaged yet.” Sirus responds

“Well I was chosen to marry a beautiful woman. I haven’t met her yet, but she is of a rich royal family. Her father came to me himself telling me that I can marry her once I finished my training.” Raviel says with a smile. He pulls out a photograph, which Sirus catches a glance of. Sirus stops and takes the picture from Raviel’s hand.

“You won’t have a chance with this one.” Sirus says firmly.

“What makes you say that?” Raviel questions.

“Because she is both my girlfriend and the mother of my son.” Sirus says firmly. “This picture looks like it was taken about three years ago, before her father knew of our relationship. You will only be wasting your time if you try and take her.” Raviel starred at Sirus, anger growing inside him. “However if you wish to continue moving into this town, we should keep moving.”


Rage consumed Raviel as he watched this man whom has taken the girl he thought was his destiny. Raviel grabs his sword from Sirus’ hand, grips the handle, and withdraws his sword from the sheath, pointing it at Sirus whom had turned to face him.

“What is this?” Sirus asks in a almost taunting voice, placing a finger on Raviel’s sword and pushing it down.

“You and me, here and now. Winner takes Hina.” Raviel says firmly. Sirus chuckled at this challenge, and closed his eyes. “What’s so funny? Defend your woman, your family, and duel me!”

“Let me ask you something. Even if you did somehow manage to defeat me, what would that do? Do you think Hina would want anything to do with you for separating her from her boyfriend, and her son from his father? You have nothing at all to gain from this, how about you just put the sword away, avoid getting hurt, and find someone else?”

“Sounds like your scared.” Raviel says with a slight chuckle. Sirus pushes the sword down as Raviel pulls it back and tries to slice the sword across Sirus’ stomach. Sirus pivots his stomach, kicks out Raviel’s knee, and goes for a quick jab at Raviel’s face which Raviel catches beautifully and ducks his head back.

Raviel goes for a quick stab at Sirus’ head with his sword, which Sirus dodges by moving tilting his head to the left quickly. Sirus goes to sweep Raviel off his feet, but Raviel jumps Sirus’ sweep. Sirus, preparing for this simple dodge, quickly back flips, catching Raviel’s sword with his foot and separating it from Raviel. Sirus catches the sword, turns, and throws it so it gets wedged into a tree.

“Now the real fight can begin.” Sirus says with a smirk. Raviel smiles, then breathes in before blowing fire in Sirus’ face. Sirus uses his left arm to cover his face while he tries to back out of the fire. Sirus starts to generate a bolt of lightning in his right hand, shooting it toward Raviel, Raviel jumps out of the way as the bolt hit’s a tree, incinerating the tree.

“That… could have hurt… A lot.” Raviel says, looking at the tree. Raviel turned back to Sirus and attacked again, attempting to sweep Sirus’ feet. Sirus jumped the sweep and Raviel blew a fireball, nailing Sirus hard in the chest. Raviel followed this up with a roundhouse kick sending Sirus spiraling through the air and making him land hard against the ground.

Raviel glanced at the fallen foe, shrugged his shoulders, and walked to his sword. “You put up a good fight kid.” Raviel said to himself while pulling his sword out of the tree. Suddenly a bolt of lightning zips passed Raviel and disperses between Raviel and the tree less than 3 feet from Raviel. Immediately Raviel knew Sirus was standing, and felt unthreatened enough to tease Raviel with this lightning bolt.

“I’ll admit, that hurt. But I am still standing. The only way you will leave here with Hina is if you kill me where I stand.” Sirus says, readying his guard. Raviel was baffled by this, he had hit Sirus with enough to knock anyone out, yet Sirus completely walked it off like it was nothing.

“Hmm so your still standing. Im quite surprised to be honest. What is it that drives you? Your love for Hina?” Raviel asks, closing his eyes. Raviel then proceeds to return his sword to the sheath and walks up to Sirus. Raviel offers Sirus his sword. “I surrender. Your willing to go this far for Hina, and I have yet to actually meet her. I hope the two of you are happy together.”

Sirus looks at his foe with distrust. “So that’s it?” Sirus asked uneasy. Raviel nods. Sirus lowers his guard and takes Raviel’s sword. “Fine, lets go see Mikoto-Ousama (King Mikoto) about your moving into this town.” Sirus responds, leading the way.

“You seemed to believe me a bit easily back there.” Raviel mentions as the two are walking into the council building. Raviel looks around at the large foyer decorated in gold trophies. Raviel walks around the room looking at the fabulous designs while Sirus speaks to the receptionist.

Raviel looks at the large portraits of war heroes, golden sculptures, and antiques from past historical battles. Raviel notices something that catches his eyes, a beautiful sword that with the name tag saying “Avel Pyrosis’ sword, used in the crusades against Kouseitani, the demon of nature.” Reading this, Raviel closed his eyes to prevent tears.

Sirus walks up to Raviel and stands next to him. “You okay?” Sirus asks, knowing the answer. Raviel nods and looks at Sirus as Sirus says “We can head right in to see Mikoto-Ousama.” Sirus leads Raviel to Mikoto’s office when he hears a Mikoto’s voice.

“No! Absolutely unacceptable! We will not be intimidated by such vague threats from anyone, even at your level of authority! Now get out of my office and my country!”

“Fine, you have my conditions. You cannot blame me for whatever happens to this country.” The stranger walks through the doorway and looks directly at Sirus. It was a man that Sirus had never seen before, but he had a gut feeling he should know this man. Suddenly Sirus’ shoulder started to hurt, really bad. The stranger looked away and started to walk and Sirus’ shoulder pain ceased. Once the stranger left the hallway, the two entered Mikoto’s room.

“Mikoto-Ousama, I am sorry for this late meeting.” Sirus apologizes.

“No need for apologies boy, I am still here from my last meeting, which Im sure you overheard. Did you read anything from him?” Mikoto asks, referring to Sirus’ telepathic abilities.

“No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.” Sirus says, looking down.

“No worries. Now, what brings you to my office at 3:15am? And who is your friend?” Mikoto inquires.

“My name is Raviel Pyrosis. I have traveled from Hidekaim to be wed to young Hina Roiyaru, though I have learned since that her heart belongs elsewhere. However, even still, I wish to join this beautiful city and take up a job in the military. I received training in Hidekaim by the militia there, along with private instructions for a few months from a military general from Domino, Jinsoku Hakati.” Raviel explains, pulling out documents from his back pockets backing up his claims. Mikoto looks at Sirus who simply nods his head slightly.

“Well, since you already know young Sirus here, he will walk you to your new home. Jinsoku will meet you in the morning with your job assignment.” Mikoto says, handing Raviel a key.

“Thank you Mikoto-Ousama.” Raviel yes with a smile. Sirus heads for the door while Raviel puts his documents away and grabs the key.

“Sirus, I just realized, do you know where I am going to live?” Raviel inquires about 25 minutes into the journey to see his new home, realizing Mikoto never said anything about where Raviel was going to stay. “Furthermore, something I have been thinking about lately, how come you trusted me when I offered you my sword? By your stance I knew you were in a defensive position.”

“Yea, I know exactly where you are going to live. I also knew you did not mean to betray be after offering me your sword, or else your subconscious mind would have been screaming death trap.” Sirus smirks, following the road. Sirus inserts the key into a building about 30 minutes from Mikoto’s office. The key unlocks the door and Sirus lets Raviel in.

“My subconscious mind? What do you mean?” Raviel inquired, wondering what Sirus meant.

“I’m a telepath, one of my many abilities. I have access to your every thought, I knew you weren’t going to betray me. You realized when I got up that I wouldn’t stay down, and decided it wasn’t worth the fight. You didn’t want blood on your hands again.” Sirus explained.

Raviel didn’t expect Sirus to be a telepath. However, Raviel, being skeptical, closed his eyes and smirked. “If that’s true, why did you fall for my sweep fireball trick? If you could read my mind why didn’t you expect it coming?”

“I knew it was coming. I also knew that it would be easier for me to prove to you that I wont give up than make you give up by force.” Sirus smirked.

“Well, I can block out my mind. Next we duel, it will be without telepathic abilities.” Raviel said, looking at Sirus with a challenging eye.

“Next we duel I won’t let you win anyway. Well here you are, welcome home.” Sirus turns to leave.

“Wait, Sirus.” Raviel calls as Sirus turns back. Sirus sees Raviel offering his hand. Sirus meets Raviel with a handshake. “Best of luck to you and Hina, and I hope to see you again soon.”

“You will.” Sirus confirms. Sirus turns and walks out, toward his home.

Sirus arrives home around 4:05am to find Hina still waiting for him. “Your late.” Hina says, worry in her voice. Hina kisses Sirus at the door. “Did something happen?”

“Nah, I just got into a fight with this new guy who wanted your heart and dueled me for you. Your father’s hired suitor.” Sirus says with a slight laugh. Sirus pulls off his shirt while Hina sits on the bed. Sirus turns away from Hina, revealing his back shoulder tattoo. Hina gets up and runs her finger down the tattoo, examining it.

“It started hurting again didn’t it?” Hina asks.

“Yea, it did. It’s fine now though. Does it look any different?” Sirus follows.

“Not that I can tell. Come, lets get to bed, Im tired.” Hina says, sitting back on the bed. Sirus tosses his shirt in the laundry, turns off the lights, and lays in bed with Hina, going to sleep.

Chapter 2 - Mother's Tomb

Red = Flashback


“Akura! No! Leave him alone! Akura! AKURA!”

Sirus wakes up, shaking. He immediately gets out of bed and runs to his sons room, seeing Akura sleeping soundly. Sirus puts his hand on Akura’s head and lets out a breath of relief. Hina walks in behind him, putting her arms around him.

“Is everything okay?” Hina asks, half asleep.

“Yea… they are now. I just… I just had a nightmare.” Sirus says, looking at Akura. Sirus looks at the clock and realizes the two of them had only been asleep for about an hour, it was only 5:15am.

“I’m going back to bed, you coming?” Hina asks, holding Sirus’ hand while turning toward the door.

“I can’t sleep, I’m gonna go for a walk.” Sirus says. Hina nods, lets go of Sirus’ hand and returns to their bedroom. Sirus follows her, grabbing a shirt while Hina lays back in bed. Sirus walks to the door, looks back at Akura’s room, opened the door, and walked out into the dawn.


A young woman, age 20, named Kara Ashitaka, dressed in her tight shirt and leggings, walked through the city and out of the city limits. Kara carried a bouquet of roses with her as she walked through the small amount of plains on the outside of Domino. About a mile away from the capital city, Kara entered a graveyard. Kara walked through the graveyard, looking at the tombs, and finally stopping. Kara bent down, placing the bouquet on the grave.

“Hello mother, it’s been a while…” Kara paused to wipe her tears. “I’ve followed your footsteps, I just hope I’m making you proud as you watch down on me. I haven’t found Kyoukei, and I’m sorry, but I am tracking his brother now. I promise I will avenge you.”

“Kara, is this your mother?” Kara turns to see Sirus sitting in a tree. Kara immediately put up her guard, and tried to keep herself from thinking about what she knew Sirus wanted. Kara knew Sirus was a telepath and that Sirus knew she was a spy.

Kara, walking through the streets, follows an ally toward the record keepings building. Patrolling the streets, Sirus noticed the awkward behavior that this girl was displaying. Kara made sure there was no one that could see her in the ally, jumped from wall to wall to get on top of the building. She was only 4 buildings from her destination.

“Looking for something? I doubt you lost something on these roofs, spy.” Kara turned to see a patrolling officer.

“Who are you?” Kara asked, calmly. Kara wasn’t nervous, she knew that even if she was under suspicion for being on top of the building, this patrolling officer had nothing against her. She couldn’t be arrested.

“Kara Ashitaka, here in Domini as a spy to recover war documents for your government in Hisakata.” The stranger says with a smirk.

“What proof do you have?” Kara asks

“Your thoughts. I’m a telepath, and I have access to your every thought. So, are you going to come quietly, or by force?” Sirus asks, cracking his knuckles. Kara smirks.

“So what are you going to do? Assault me, take me in and imprison me? Without any hard evidence, without any documents that I stole, all you would do is put Lano Shi into another war. Face it, even if you are a telepath you’ve got nothing on me.” Kara was very confident, she knew she couldn’t be taken away. Sirus smiled and nodded.

“Your good. Don’t worry though, I know you’re a spy, and I will take you down.” Sirus says with a smile. “By the way, my name‘s Sirus.”

“You… Sirus…” Kara trembled.

“I’m not going to fight you here, in a cemetery, in front of your mother’s grave.” Sirus says, as he hops out of the tree. Kara sighs, and lowers her guard. “I just want to know what happened to your mother.”

“Why would you want to know about my mother? Furthermore why should I tell you when I barely know you?” Kara asks, wondering why Sirus wants to know, believing he hates her.

“Because, Kara, I never knew my parents. I was found on the doorstep of an orphanage, a note on me saying that both my parents were found dead and the person who found me wanted me to go to a good family. I grew up alone. Besides I don’t hate you. When I tried to stop you six months ago, I was on duty. I was doing my job. Right now I’m not doing my job. I’m not working now, and I have nothing against you. I just want to know more about you.” Sirus explained. Kara lowered her head and blushed. She had spent all her time in Lano Shi alone, and perhaps Kara found someone she might be able to call a friend.

“Fine, I will tell you while we are here, at her tomb.” Kara started, before pausing for two or three minutes to think. “My mother’s family was very powerful. They trained from birth since my great grandfather to be the most powerful warriors in the world. My cousin, Kyoukei, was a prodigy. He was so powerful, so talented, so gifted. He excelled in everything. No matter the challenge he was faced with, he dominated it. He graduated in Combat Training Academy at a younger age than anyone in Lano Shi history, at age 10. As he grew older, he became a city patrol officer, like yourself. However he was so good, he became a squad leader by age 13. He was truly one of a kind. However, Kyoukei soon grew emotionless. He became awkward to be around. We all knew he was changing. It wasn’t long after that…” Kara wiped away a tear. “It wasn’t long after that Kyoukei killed my mother, along with everyone else in his immediate family. I was with my father in Hisakata at the time, so I was spared. I promised my mother I will find Kyoukei, and I will kill him.”

“Is that why you came back to Lano Shi?” Sirus asked. He decided against reading Kara’s mind for the answers he wanted, he had a sudden respect for her.

“Yea. I was looking for documents about Kyoukei, anything I can get. Officially, to get funding from Hisakata, I am here as a spy, but my true mission is to find my cousin, and to kill him. I have hope, I know I‘ll get him.” Kara responds with a smile.

“Hope…” Sirus lowers his head and clenches his fists. “Hope is useless, it’s meaningless, it’s a lost cause. I had hoped my entire life, until I was 14, that I would find my parents. I hoped that I would find my parents, or at least hoped that I’d find out what happened to them. Instead I just grew up fighting, fending for myself, taking what I wanted by force. I’m sorry if I sound harsh… but the truth usually is.”

“No… I hope to find Kyoukei because I know I will. All I need is to track his brother, and I know I am bound to find him. It is only a matter of time.” Kara says.

“What will you do when you find him? If he was strong enough to kill your whole family, what makes you think you can kill him now?” Sirus asks. Kara trembles, she hadn’t thought about that.

“I know I can. I have to…” Kara trembles. Kara looks at Sirus, whom is looking away. Sirus looks at the grass beneath his feet.

“Who knows. Maybe it is possible.” Sirus opened his hand and turned away. Kara notices a tear on Sirus’ face. “I’ll see you again. Be careful.” Sirus turns to leave.

“Sirus, wait. Are you… crying?” Sirus ignores the question and walks off. “Sirus…” Kara said to herself quietly, thinking about how his life must have been. “So alike… and yet so different.” Kara knelt down, paid her last respects, and left the cemetery.

Kara returned to Domino and unlocked her home. She walks in, closing the door behind her. Kara notices something on the table, a packet. She opens the packet and notices a note.
“Dear Kara,
This is everything the Domino records vault has on Kyoukei. Best of luck to you.
-Sirus”

“Sirus…” Kara says, closing her eyes thanking him. Kara also picked up a rose sitting next to the envelope, and places it into a vase with water. Suddenly Kara heard a loud alarm from outside her home. Kara went to the window, and was scared at what she saw.

Chapter 3 - War Begins

After only getting a few hours sleep, Raviel is woken by a knock at his door. Sleepily, Raviel gets out of bed and walks down the dark hallway toward the door. With no clocks or anything yet, Raviel had no idea what time it was. Raviel opens the door to see a man a little taller than himself wearing a familiar facemask.

“Jinsoku!” Raviel says with delight, meeting his trainer at the door.

“Ah Raviel, I’m glad you have finally made it to the big city. May I come in?” Jinsoku requests. Raviel moves out of the way and stretches his arm, gesturing for Jinsoku to come in. “So Raviel, you’ve been here for about…” Jinsoku checks his watch. “three hours, got a girlfriend yet?”

“No sensei. I was actually asleep.” Raviel answers.

“I’m disappointed. Anyway lets get to the business at hand. Mikoto-Ousama spoke to me about you moving in, he asked me about your traits and where you excelled and were lacking. Naturally I told him you didn’t have any weaknesses when I was training you, which delighted him. Mikoto-Ousama wants you to be an overnight city guard and, of course, a soldier, should the need arise. For your first few nights to learn the ropes, Mikoto-Ousama wants you to team with someone else.” Jinsoku explains.

“You’re gonna be training me again?” Raviel asks with delight.

“No, your trainer is going to be the man you first met when coming to this village, Sirus Kumori. I am not a city guard, I am an army trainer. I would like you to go to his home now and speak with him and set up an arrangement.” Jinsoku explains.

“This early?” Raviel asks. Jinsoku nods and heads toward the door. Raviel, uneasy about going to Sirus’ so early, follows Jinsoku. “So where does Sirus live?”

“I’ll take you there, its not far. About 10 minutes from here.” Jinsoku explains

Raviel follows Jinsoku out, locking the door behind him. They walk about 3 blocks before turning and following the road to Sirus’ home. “So, sensei, do you trust Sirus can train me? Is he as good as you are?”

“Well I hope so, I trained him too. Just be careful, Sirus has a rage issue, and when he’s mad, he seems to get a lot stronger, so I’d stay on his good side if I were you.” Jinsoku says with a wink. “Well here we are.” Jinsoku points. Raviel nods and walks to the door as Jinsoku leaves.

After knocking on the door, Raviel sees it open rather quickly, much faster than he thought. In front of him was a beautiful woman, whom he had a picture of just a few years younger. But the resemblance was completely there, this was Hina. In her arms was a young baby drinking a bottle with his eyes closed.
“Can I help you?” Hina asks Raviel

“My name is Raviel Pyrosis. I met your boyfriend, Sirus, last night, when I came to the city. My trainer from my days in army training told me to seek your boyfriend for on the job training as a city guard. May I come in?” Raviel asks sincerely. Hina backs up and allows Raviel in.

“So you’re the one my dad chose to wed me?” Hina asks, pulling out a chair from the table for Raviel to sit on.

“Yea, but after meeting your boyfriend and seeing your beautiful son, I wouldn’t dare try to pull you away from your life as it is.” Raviel says as he sits down. Hina grabs a glass and fills it with water and offers it to Raviel. Raviel takes it graciously and takes a drink.

“Unfortunately Sirus isn’t here right now. He had a nightmare last night and went for a walk in the middle of the night. He’s been gone for about 2 hours so he should be back soon.” Hina says as she crosses the kitchen. “Let me just put Akura back to bed.” Raviel waits in the kitchen for Hina as she leaves to put Akura to bed. Raviel hears a door open and close as he sees Sirus enter the kitchen.

“Hey Sirus!” Raviel says as Sirus walks in.

“Raviel? What are you doing here?” Sirus asks as he gets a glass of water. As he’s asked, Raviel sees Hina re-enter the kitchen and embrace Sirus from behind.

“Jinsoku said that Mikoto-Ousama decided that you are to be my on-the-job trainer. I know it’s early but Jinsoku told me to come to see you.” Raviel laughs. Sirus sits down across from Raviel to address him.

“The job is simple. I’ll show you the ropes for the first few weeks, but basically you will be given a particular section of the city perimeter to patrol. Furthermore we are always on call during times of war. If the city is ever invaded an alarm will go off and we must report to action. During war where we take offense, Mikoto-Ousama will assign a squad to invade enemy territory, as I’m sure you know from your training.” Sirus explains. Raviel nods as an alarm begins to blare. “As if on cue. That’s the alarm I mentioned, someone is in the city, Domino is under attack.” Sirus says, getting up from his chair.

“Sirus, be careful.” Hina says, and kisses him.

“Baby I’m always careful.” Sirus smirks.

“Promise me you’ll come home.” Hina requests.

“I promise.” Sirus answers.

Raviel follows Sirus as they head outside. The two of them join the other city guards as they see a flood of soldiers from another country running in through the gates of Domino, swords drawn. Raviel draws his sword and runs in, meeting an enemy and swinging his sword toward the enemy. Raviel takes off the head of the enemy and goes after another. This soldier ducks the sword and Raviel continues his swing before stabbing another soldier through their chest. Raviel turns to the one who ducked his shot and shoots a fireball from his mouth, taking out the soldier. As Raviel pulls his sword out a bolt of lightning zips past him.

“Hey Raviel, watch your back! I cant do it for you!” Sirus says with a smirk. Raviel turns and sees a soldier laying behind him, the entry point of the lightning clearly visible.

“Thanks Sirus! But you wont need to watch my back anymore!” Raviel replies. Sirus runs passed Raviel.

“Handle the situation here, Im going out of the city to find their commander.” Sirus tells Raviel.

“How can you be certain their leader is here?” Raviel inquires

“With an army this big for an invasion, their leader needs to stay close by to make sure things go well. He cant be too far off.” Sirus explains. “Raviel, no matter what, protect Hina for me if I don’t come back.” Sirus runs off behind Raviel and out of the city.

“You better come back then damn it!” Raviel yells toward Sirus before turning back in toward the city and running back in to fight the army. Raviel grabs an enemy and blows a fireball and nails the target hard in the chest, sending them down against the dirt. Raviel turns and draws his sword as he blocks an enemy soldier. Raviel pushes his sword up before blowing a fireball at the enemy, taking down yet another soldier.

“Wow kid, your good.” An enemy compliments as he approaches Raviel. His outfit was different from the others. Wearing jeans, a white shirt and a jacket, Raviel knew this guy was different. This stranger drew his sword and held it across his chest. “Now how about you try your skills against me.”

“You’d be foolish to underestimate me.” Raviel smirks.

“And you’d be foolish to underestimate me.” The stranger replies.  Raviel meets his sword with the strangers before striking. The stranger blocks the strike and Raviel feels his a sharp pain in his hand. He notices he cant move his fingers, and that his hand is frozen to his handle. He jerks the sword away and does a quick roundhouse kick to get distance between him and the stranger. Raviel blows a small amount of fire to heat up his hand and get it separated from the sword. Raviel then turns to see his opponents sword covered in icicles, and decides to send the fire from his body into his sword and sets his blade on fire.

“Fire and ice. This should be fun.” The challenger smirks and charges at Raviel. Raviel blocks the attack but sees his fire start to extinguish. Raviel pushes his opponent but feels a sharp pain as his opponent kicks him in the ribs, hard. Raviel feels the wind of his breath leaving his mouth in a chillingly low temperature. His ribs begin to tighten and freeze up as he begins to separate from his challenger’s foot. In that split second, Raviel felt more pain than he’s ever felt in his entire life from a single hit.

Raviel is forced to release his sword as he goes a few feet off the ground. Raviel lands on his feet and slides a few feet before hitting a wall. As he tries to regain his composure, Raviel feels another sharp pain in his arm as it is pinned to the wall. Looking over, he sees blood gushing out as an icicle is pinning his arm to the wall. Raviel grips the icicle and begins to melt it, watching his challenger walk toward him with Raviel’s sword in hand.

“I’ll give you this kid, you fought well. However I told you not to underestimate me.” Raviel needed to beat this guy, he couldn’t fall, not here, not today, not against ice. Raviel blew a small fireball as he melted the icicle and pulled off the wall. Raviel follows the fireball with a roundhouse kick that’s blocked by the challengers sword. As if a taunt, Raviel realizes he’s as good as dead when his sword pierces his leg.

“Gahh!” Raviel screams. He feels another powerful strike as his ribs freeze again from the ball of ice that was just thrown, sending him through the wall of a building nearby. This is it, after clawing his way up, after fighting training his entire life, after coming all the way to Domino, Raviel was going to die, here, now.

“Raviel! Raviel! Are you ok? Raviel?” Raviel can barely make out the voice as he slips out of consciousness.


Raviel opens his eyes to see himself in a hospital bed. Raviel moves his head to look around as he feels a huge amount of pain from his arm once again. He sees Jinsoku nearby, speaking to a nurse, before they notice he’s moving.

“Easy. Easy.” The nurse requests, keeping Raviel from moving. “Your injuries haven’t healed. Your leg is already healed up, but your arm is broken.”

“Who… Who did I fight…?” Raviel asks as the nurse begins to heal his arm again.

“That was… Hitsugaya Haruto, one of Kobura-Ousama’s greatest assassins. In fact, Hitsugaya usually leads attacks like that. However, scouts claim Sirus found Kobura himself.” Jinsoku starts to explain

“Sirus? Where is he? Is he ok?” Raviel jumps

“He… hasn’t come back. Mikoto-Ousama has pronounced him dead. As great a warrior as he is, the chances of Sirus living a fight with Kobura is slim, if not impossible. Kobura isn’t known to keeping prisoners, and I don’t know of anyone who has fought Kobura and lived to tell about it.” Jinsoku explains. Raviel punches the bed with his non-broken arm.

“Damnit… he had a son… and a girlfriend. I think… I think he knew he wasn’t coming back. He told me to protect Hina if he doesn’t return. I… I need to go to her.” Raviel explains, trying to sit up in his bed.

“With your injuries, you’re not going anywhere.” The nurse assures.

“You can’t stop me.” Raviel says, pushing himself out of the bed. Jinsoku walks to Raviel and helps him up.

“I’ll go with you.” Jinsoku assures. Raviel nods and the two head out the door.

“How far is Hina’s home from here?” Raviel asks. Jinsoku points.

“Literally two blocks away.” Jinsoku answers as the two cross the road. They get to Hina’s house and Raviel knocks on the door. No answer. Raviel knocks again.

“Hina, are you home? I need to talk to you… about Sirus…” Raviel calls in. Hina opens the door, tears in her eyes.

“Sirus… hasn’t come home…” Hina cries. Raviel hugs her.

“I promised Sirus… if he didn’t return… I’d look after you.” Raviel explains. Hina just grips Raviel’s shirt as she cries. Jinsoku pats Hina’s back.

“He gave his life to save you. No one quite knows why Kobura called back his army, they were winning. Sirus must have injured Kobura enough to save you today.” Jinsoku explains, trying to show that Sirus sacrificed himself to save her. Hina just continues to cry as a cry is heard from inside the house.

“Hina… Akura is crying…” Raviel reminds her. Hina nods, lets go, and teary eyed goes to Akura’s room. Raviel and Jinsoku walk into the kitchen and sit down, awaiting Hina’s return. Suddenly a scream is heard, causing Jinsoku and Raviel to jump to their feet and run to Akura’s room. Raviel sees something he never imagined… Sirus charging a thunderbolt… pointed at Hina.

Chapter 4 - Band of Three

Having just packed her bags, Kara was ready to leave her life behind here in Domino. She was told that as soon as a war started her mission was over, and any information she had she would need to bring back. Kara had only spent about a half hour packing when she looked out the window and saw the enemies retreating, and a young man with white hair with a sword through his leg being carried to the hospital. Kara looked at the rose Sirus had given her on the table, and tied it into her hair so she could bring it home with her. Kara looked back out her window and saw tons of dead bodies on the ground, more of them that she recognized from around the village than those from outside the village.

“Why did the enemy retreat? Domino was clearly overrun, and according to these documents from Sirus, most of the Lino Shi army is down south. About a six hour walk to get back to Domino.” Kara asks herself. Kara opens her door and looks out, pointing at the bodies with two fingers, calculating where the army must have come from. The army came from the East, if she left now she would likely encounter them on her way back to Hisakata. Kara returned inside her home and walked upstairs, deciding to take a hot bath before leaving for Hisakata.




“Mikoto-Ousama, Kobura-Ousama’s armies are retreating.” One of the scouts reports.

“What can you report?” Mikoto requests.

“Kobura-Ousama’s armies were advancing heavily. We have reports of two members of the Band of Three inside the army ranks. They could have probably brought down Domino if they hadn’t retreated.” The scout informs.

“Is that all you have to report?” Mikoto requests.

“Some of our scouts claim to have seen young Sirus Kumori leaving the city limits. We have also found traces that Kobura-Ousama was outside the city. Scouts believe he may have killed Sirus.” Mikoto bit his lip at this news. “Sir…? I know you and Sirus never saw eye-to-eye, you seem more upset than I would have imagined.”

“Kobura brought his armies here to find something, and I believe he found it.”



“Ahhhhh!” The scream echoed through the house as Jinsoku and Raviel jumped up and ran into Akura’s room, from which they heard Hina scream. Standing in front of them was Sirus, Akura’s father and Hina’s lover, charging a bolt of lighting, and pointing it at Hina.

“Sirus! Stop this!” Jinsoku demands. Sirus turns and shoots Jinsoku quickly, piercing his body and knocking him through the wall.

“Hina! Run! I’ll hold Sirus off as long as I can!” Raviel instructs. Hina, full of terror, confusion, and depression, takes Akura and runs. Raviel attacks Sirus quickly and relentlessly, but Sirus quickly takes him down with a strong kick to Raviel’s injured leg. Despite being healed, the leg was still a huge weak point, as Raviel learned first hand. Sirus kicks out Raviel’s leg before delivering a strong round-house kick on Raviel, sending him into the wall.

Sirus steps up to Raviel, whom is on the floor seemingly out cold, and charges a lightning bolt. Suddenly a cry is heard, the cry of his son. Sirus looks over his right shoulder at the door, listening to the cry. Sirus closes his fist, disabling the lightning, and opens a wormhole in front of him.




Kara reached down into the tub and pulled the drain out. She had lost track of time, but she assumed she had been in the bath for about an hour. Kara looked at her fingers, they were pruned. However Kara didn’t care, she didn’t expect to have this opportunity again for a long time. Kara stepped out and soon realized in her quick packing earlier, she packed her towels already. Kara splashed her hands over the tub to air-dry them, grabbed her clothes, and opened the bathroom door. On her way out, Kara stops, and returns to the sink, grabbing the rose she nearly forgot, and tying her hair around it.

Feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, Kara walks down the stairs of her two floor home, humming a bit. She enters her living room and crosses to the kitchen when she hears a voice. “Kara, I need your help.”

“Sirus?!” Kara shrieks. Kara tries to cover herself quickly as she sees him sitting at the table, reviewing the notes he had given her about Kyoukei. “What… are you doing here?”

“The attack here today, I need your help. I fought Kobura-Ousama and I went toe-to-toe with him. His armies fled today, and I believe they may have stolen some key documents.” Sirus explains.

“Before you continue this, can you pass me that bag behind you?” Kara requests in a more of a demanding kind of voice. Sirus grabs the bag and looks at Kara for the first time since she came down and notices she is naked. Sirus quickly turns away as Kara blushes, and throws her the bag.

“You… should have warned me you were naked. Why are you naked?” Sirus asks.

“I was taking a bath. I wasn’t expecting you to break into my house while I was bathing.” Kara explains while she opens her bag and searches for a towel. “Now explain why you’re here.”

“Well I…” Sirus says turning back to Kara whom is still drying off from her bath. “How about you get dressed then we talk?”

“Or you can stop looking at me and explain why you broke into my house.” Kara snaps back.

“Technically I didn’t break in, I teleported in.” Sirus corrects, turning away. “But fair enough. I’m here because I need the best. Kobura thinks I’m dead, and for all intents and purposes, I am. However, today’s attack was too large to retreat while they were winning. The armies just got here from southern Lino Shi, Domino would have been annihilated by now had they not run. They weren’t here to take over, or they would have. They weren’t here to slaughter, or we’d all be dead. They were looking for something, Kobura was looking for something. The most destroyed building is the record keepings building, so whatever they were looking for, they found. I need you to help me get it back.”

“You can turn back now.” Kara tells Sirus, now fully clothed. She sits across the table from Sirus. “Invading Slieza is a suicide mission. Slieza is known to have a powerful army, especially in times of war. Even if we get into the country, what do we do next? Breaking into Kobura’s palace is completely impossible.”

“I’m going, whether you are or not. I was hoping to bring in reinforcements, but if you don’t think your good enough…” Sirus starts. Kara jumps up and smacks her hands on the table.

“I am good enough! Fine! I’m in!” Kara exclaims. Sirus smirks as he gets up. Sirus opens a wormhole connecting to an abandoned building in Slieza.

“After you.” Sirus says, allowing Kara to go first. Kara seems a bit worried. “I’ve been into Slieza before, and I always use this building. It’s completely abandoned.”

“You’ve broken into Slieza before?” Kara asks, now semi-confused why he needed her.
“I was sent by Mikoto-Ousama to collect things a few times. However I never broke into the palace, which is why I need your help.” Kara still seems a little uneasy, so Sirus steps through first, then offers Kara his hand. Kara smiles and grasps Sirus’ hand, entering into the wormhole.



Kara walked around the abandoned warehouse, running her hand across the walls of it while she explored. “So, what’s the plan?” Kara questioned as Sirus peered out the door. She saw Sirus bobbing his head, and assumed he was counting. Sirus returns to Kara, pulling out a folded map from his back pocket. He unfolds it and lays it across the floor.

“From this point, here,” Sirus points to a building on top of a high cliff above Slieza palace “I can see six patrolling guards. As I guessed, the guard numbers are high tonight. Considering the attack ended about an hour and a half ago, give or take a bit, Kobura-Ousama is probably back in his palace by now. Here is what you will need to know before anything else.”

Kara nods as Sirus gets up and grabs a few folders laying against the wall. “What are those?” Kara asks as Sirus returns.

“I’ve kept these here for a while, fearing a Slieza invasion for months. Here they wouldn’t be able to get a hold of our intelligence on them if they try.” Sirus explains. He opens a folder and pulls out a photo. “Kobura has a small ‘army’, The Band of Three. This is Hitsugaya, our records say that he controls ice, but there is evidence that shows he seems to have some other control than just ice, as he can redirect fire. Aside from his powers, Hitsugaya is extremely quick and skilled, always knowing where his allies and opponents are on the battlefield.”

Sirus grabs another envelope and opens it. “This is Fairdaku, the leader of The Band of Three. Fairdaku, like me, can conjure wormholes. Fairdaku can also create matter, making him extremely dangerous, along with being able to dissolve the matter he creates. Be prepared for anything should we meet him.” Sirus closes the file, returning to the map.

“Wait, you said there were three. Who is the third member of the Band of Three?” Kara asks.

“We don’t have any documentary on the third member, all we know is he is new, as the original member was killed by Kobura himself when he failed a mission.” Sirus explains. Sirus returns to the doorway and looks out the door at the guards. As he calculated.
 “Okay, we need to be extremely precise on this.” Sirus says returning to the map. Sirus draws six circles in different sections near them on the map. “Each of these guards are patrolling. By my calculations, at the speed they are walking, the best time is to move in about three and a half minutes. At that point only this guard…” Sirus points to one of the circles “and this one…” Sirus points to one right in front of the palace “Will be in the way. We will need to kill both of them without attracting the attention of the other four. If Kobura learns that we are here, we will be in the fight of our life.”

Kara nods as Sirus folds up the map and places the folders and the map in a dark corner of the abandoned warehouse. Kara looks out the door and watches the guards. She was impressed at how big the palace was and how complex the town was. “Sirus, how do you know where they will be in about three minutes?” Kara questions.

“I’ve watched their patrol routes for about two months now, I have it pretty well memorized.” Sirus says, walking to Kara and watching out the door. “Watch, that one will turn left in about two blocks, thereby getting out of our way.” Sirus points at the one closest to them. As predicted, the guard turned left and into an alleyway.

“If we kill the two in our way, wouldn’t the other four find their bodies and alert Kobura?” Kara questions, thinking Sirus hadn’t thought about that. “Wouldn’t it just be easier and safer to kill each one individually?”

“All we need to do is drag their bodies into two distinct alleyways, it will give us about 25 minutes before anyone would notice they are gone. They don’t pass any of the other patrol officers until then, and even then it may not be too much of a problem since they will likely assume the others are just behind. However I have considered a more stealthy approach to try to dodge the patrol completely, if your up for that.” Sirus explains, examining the guards.

“It may be harder to get in, but I think that will pay off more in the long run, it won’t give us a small amount of time to find out what they stole. After this though, you owe me. Come with me to Hisakata, tell the high-council about Slieza’s invasion. Hisakata and Slieza have been enemies for years.” Kara mentions. Sirus nods as he starts to go through the doorway. Kara follows, noticing that it hasn’t quite been three and a half minutes since the original plan and thinking Sirus has a new plan.

The two cut through a back alley, then another, then another. Sirus stops and turns to Kara. “Jump onto the fire escape above and be quiet, no one can see or hear us.” Sirus explains as he kneels down to give Kara a jump up. Kara jumps onto the ladder, and climbs up. Sirus jumps up, grabbing the ladder and climbing up himself as a guard turns the corner.

“How far are we from the palace?” Kara whispers. Sirus points at the corner the guard just turned from, moves his finger to signify the street, turns, and turns again. Kara nods, only 3 turns and they will be at the palace.

The guard turns the corner and Kara goes to hop over the railing. Sirus grabs her and pulls her back, telling her to wait. Sirus points down the alley in the opposite direction, where Kara sees a guard about to turn a corner off the street. Kara sighs in relief, then jumps over the railing and back to the ground. Sirus jumps down with her.

“We shouldn’t have any more guards to worry about from here into the palace.” Sirus says as they follow the alleyways down into the palace garden. Sirus looks at the palace garden and sees a bunch of guards.

“This is the part where the mission turns impossible, got a plan?” Kara asks.

“Yea, a wormhole. We just need somewhere that I can visualize to make one. Like… there!” Sirus creates a wormhole behind them connecting to a dark corner of the palace garden. Stepping through, Sirus and Kara creep around the garden and to the door. In front of the door is another guard.

“Now what? Do we fight?” Kara asks. Sirus smirks.

“Watch this.” Suddenly a wormhole opens under the guard and he falls through too fast to make a sound. The wormhole closes and the two run up the stairs and into the palace. Sirus looks around before they move through the hallways. Kara notices that the hallways seem vacant, it is almost too easy.

“Sirus, I have a bad feeling, this is almost too easy.” Kara says as they enter a large room. Across the room she sees Hitsugaya, whom she recognizes from the picture, and a man sitting on a throne, whom she assumes to be Kobura. Behind them, Kara hears the door shut, turning and seeing Fairdaku, whom she also recognizes from his picture. “Sirus… now what?” Kara requests. No answer. “Sirus…?”

“Kara… do you remember when I told you I didn’t know who the third member of the Band of Three was?” Sirus asks. Kara turns to see his arm extended toward her, a lightning bolt charged in his palm. “I lied.”

Chapter 5 - Counterattack

“Ms Roiyaru, open up!” A few soldiers were around Hina’s home, knocking on her door. “Ms Roiyaru, open now! Break it down.” One soldier says to another. The other soldier breaks the door down and the soldiers head inside cautiously. They find Akura’s room with Jinsoku and Raviel knocked out. The guards follow the babies crying to the kitchen where they find Hina, staring off into space, holding Akura, whom is crying. Mikoto approaches Hina.

“Hina Roiyaru, you need to come with us.” Mikoto says. Hina doesn’t move. Mikoto walks up to her. “Hina, you’re in shock. I need you to come with me.” Mikoto explains. Hina slightly nods and gets up. “Hina, I promise everything will be okay.”

“Sir we just got word that Tara has entered Domino.” A soldier tells Mikoto.

“Good, get Raviel, Jinsoku, and Hina to the hospital so she can look at them.” Mikoto tells the soldier.







Raviel opens his eyes and blinks a few times, unsure if he was dreaming or not.

“You leave for a day and you already got your ass kicked? What the hell did you do?” A girl asks, healing the rest of the wound on Raviel’s leg.

“T… Tara?” Raviel asks.

“Damn right! Did you miss me so much you had to shove your sword through your leg? I should beat your ass!” Tara jokes.

“Pff, I was glad to be rid of you.” Raviel says back. Tara laughs and pulls her hands away from Raviel’s leg and smiles.

“Your good to go soldier.” Tara says with a smile. Raviel gets up and hugs her.

Raviel looks around and sees Jinsoku talking to a few soldiers. However Hina is nowhere to be found. “So… Whats going on? Where is Hina?” Raviel asks.

“Hina? You mean the chick you came here to marry? Are you already with her?” Tara asks

“No, she’s got a son… and she had a boyfriend before he attacked us a little while ago. Seems all like a bad dream to be honest.” Raviel replies. He notices Jinsoku is walking over to him.

“Ah, Raviel, I see you met Tara. She is the best healer we have in Lino Shi, and we brought her, actually from your village.“ Jinsoku explains “She was summoned as soon as the war began.”

“Yea, I’ve known her for a long time… she was my neighbor.” Raviel says.

“Oh, ok. Well Raviel, after today’s assault, Mikoto-Ousama is organizing a small army to attack Slieza. We need a few small assault forces to invade Slieza quietly. Mikoto has organized three squad leaders to choose soldiers to lead their own assaults with. Your in my squad.” Jinsoku explains.

“Where is Hina?” Raviel questions.

“She has been talking to Mikoto-Ousama since I‘ve been conscious. Apparently Mikoto-Ousama has information just for her about today.” Jinsoku explains.

“Okay. Who else is going to be in the squad?” Raviel asks.

“It will be the two of us, a woman named Karei Atsui, and two brothers I trained named Noroi and Yuki Kuwashii. To be honest… Noroi is kind of… well… stupid. He’s not bright but he has passion and is willing to fight. To be honest… bringing him might hurt our chances at stealth but at some point we need to be discovered anyway. Yuki is… well… lets just say the two don’t have the traits that they probably should for this mission.” Jinsoku explains.

“Then… why are we taking them?” Raviel request.

“Have you ever known me to make a bad decision?” Jinsoku asks

“No… I suppose not. But… you said it yourself, bringing these two might not be the best choice.” Raviel expresses his concern.

“Trust me, I have my reasons.” Jinsoku tells Raviel. “Come, let’s go meet your partners.”

“Hey asshole I better not find out your dead out there.” Tara tells Raviel. Raviel smiles, turns around and hugs Tara. Tara whispers “You come back.”

“I will.” Raviel whispers.

Raviel turns and walks out with Jinsoku. Raviel follows Jinsoku, thinking about what they just went through. “Sensei… what do we do about Sirus?

 “Mikoto wants him brought back alive. However, if he attacks you, and you are forced to do so…” Jinsoku looks at Raviel with the first serious look he has ever given Raviel. “Kill him.”

Raviel had a gut feeling that something was wrong with this whole situation. Hina had a kid with Sirus, and Sirus was going to kill her. Why did he leave? Why isn’t Raviel, Hina, or Jinsoku dead? What was Slieza looking for? Why didn’t they just win the war? What the hell is going on?

Raviel follows Jinsoku to a fast food place, where they walk in and see two men and a woman eating. Jinsoku walks up to them as they stop eating and stand to greet Jinsoku.

“Sensei!” the woman says first.

“Raviel, meet your partners for this mission, Karai, Noroi, and Yuki.” Jinsoku says, pointing to each one.

“Nice to meet you.” Noroi and Yuki say. Karai turns quiet, giving a glare to Raviel.

“So this is the new guy? Looks scrawny to me. Don’t tell me this is your champion sensei.” Karai tells Jinsoku, glaring at Raviel. Yuki walks up to Raviel, putting his hand on Raviel’s shoulder.

“Don’t mind her, she’s on her period or something.” Yuki says with a smile. He turns to see Karai’s knife cut part of his hair as it flies passed him and into the wall. Yukis face looks like he just saw his life pass before his eyes, as he loses his smile and sits down next to his brother.

“Karai I’m taking your food!” Noroi says as he grabs her bowl. Raviel looks down, pinching his nose.

“We should get moving.” Raviel says, looking at Jinsoku.

“No, foods more important.” Noroi tells Raviel. Raviel pinches his nose again.

“So… I’m partnered with a smart ass, an idiot, and a brute?” Raviel asks. “Maybe it should just be you and me Sensei, we’d be more successful.”

“Listen to me.” Karai says, walking up to Raviel. “You might think your some hot shot because Jinsoku talks about you all the time, but as far as I’m concerned, I’ve never met you before so your just the same as a new soldier. Get in line, shut your mouth, and listen to your superiors.”

Raviel stares Karai down as Jinsoku gets between them, speaking. “Perhaps I should explain. You see, Raviel, Karai has been my apprentice for a long time. However after I trained you, I was so impressed with your abilities that I bragged about you. Karai is jealous.” Jinsoku explains.

“I don’t care what you said about this guy, he can’t live to the hype! Besides I am your ultimate assassin! And you know it!” Karai exclaims. Raviel stares her down.

“Oh really? What can you do that you can make such a claim?” Raviel asks. Behind Raviel, a shadow forms along the ground. Karai walks back into a shadow against the wall before vanishing into the shadow. She reappears behind Raviel with her knife drawn around his neck.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be dead right now.” Karai tells Raviel with a whisper. Karai then vanishes from being around Raviel and out of another shadow in the room. “I am not only a shadow assassin, I am the shadow assassin.” Karai then throws her knife at the first shadow she walked through, and puts her hand behind her as the knife goes through the shadow and appears behind her, which she catches between two fingers, showing off to Raviel.

“Fine, your good.” Raviel admits. Noroi gets up quickly.

“But Im better! Watch this!” Noroi yells out, running at Karai. Karai side-steps Noroi, grabs his arm, pulls it around his back, kicks out his knees, and pushes his arm, nearly dislocating it, to get him on the ground. “Ok! Uncle! Uncle!”

“Sensei… do we need to bring these two? They will just get in the way.” Raviel complains.

“A good warrior can fight even with useless troops around the battlefield. Come on Mr Pyrosis, show us what you got and let the morons come. Or are you just not good enough?” Karai dares.

“Well, I guess we have the team. Now all four of you sit down and listen while I explain the plan.” Jinsoku says, pulling up a chair.







“How long have you known all this?” Hina requests

“For a very, very long time.” Mikoto tells Hina, looking out the window.

“And you never told me?” Hina asks

“I’m sorry, I didn’t feel the time was right.” Mikoto explains.

“So instead of telling us, you kept something this important to the both of us secret? Does Sirus even know?” Hina asks.

“No, but Kobura does, and that’s all that matters.” Mikoto answers, turning to Hina. Hina looks down at Akura, sleeping soundly in her arms.

“So Sirus is… and that means Akura…” Hina closed her eyes, thinking about what she was just told.

Chapter 6 - The Rose

“Plan seems simple enough, Sensei.” Karai says, getting up from the table. Jinsoku gets up with her and looks at her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“There’s one more thing, Karai. Raviel and I have reason to believe…” Jinsoku couldn’t get this out.

“Sensei?” Karai asks

“Sirus… He’s one of the Band of Three…” Jinsoku gets out. He looks at Karai who looks down.

“Your lying! Why would you say such a thing?!” Karai yells.

“It’s true. Sirus attacked Jinsoku and I earlier today.” Raviel explains, getting up from his seat.

“Shut the hell up! Sirus would never do such a thing!” Karai yells at Raviel, before looking down saying to herself “He wouldn’t…”

“Sirus has turned against Lino Shi, we need to treat him like any other soldier.” Raviel says sitting down.

“Sirus and Karai… they trained together for years. Karai is Sirus’ son’s godmother. They were best friends.” Yuki explains to Raviel.

“The way I see it, this is good. Sirus was a dick anyway, this just gives me reason to beat his face in! Haha!” Noroi exclaims. Karai slams her fist into the table. Jinsoku puts his hand on her shoulder again.

“Karai… Noroi is right. If we fight Sirus… you can’t hold back. We want to take him alive… but that doesn’t mean he won’t try to kill you. Karai… you need to prepare for anything, your going to need to hurt him… and maybe even kill him.” Jinsoku tells Karai. “So… are you ready?” Karai nods.

--------------------

“Sirus… This whole thing was a trap?” Kara asks “What is it about me that’s so important that you need to go through all this?”

“If you returned to Hisakata, the Hisakata army would attack Slieza. We can destroy Lino Shi, but two wars at once? Not the best idea for Slieza.” Sirus explains.
 Kara looks at Sirus with heartache. Here she thought she found a new friend, someone she could trust, but all he wanted was to kill her. Kara pulls the rose out of her hair, starring at it, rage building. She threw it onto the ground and put up her guard.

“Sirus, kill her.” Kobura said while smirking. Kara readied as Sirus attacked her quickly, attempting to punch her in the face. Kara jumped back and kicked at Sirus who ducked the kick and punched her in the gut. He then quickly kicked her in the face while she was bent over, knocking her back and breaking her nose. Kara landed hard on her back and slid across the room into the wall. She quickly got to her feet wiping the blood from her nose as she saw Sirus charging at her.

Kara rolls out of the way and Sirus punches the wall behind her, crashing his fist into the wall. Kara runs at Sirus who quickly spins around launching a lightning bolt at her. Kara ducks the lightning bolt and heats up her foot, jumps in the air and kicks at Sirus. Sirus sidesteps and shoots a small bolt of lightning, catching Kara and shocking her. Kara falls to the ground, it wasn’t enough to stop her heart but it hurt. A lot. Kara falls to her knees and looks up as Sirus approaches her.

Kara knew she needed to do some damage, she hasn’t gotten a hit in and she knew she cant take much more. She needs to catch a slipup here. Sirus goes to kick her in the face and Kara catches Sirus’s foot, heating up her hands. Sirus pulls his leg back as Kara gets to her feet and kicks Sirus square in the chest. She then follows it with a kick to his face, the heat in her foot leaving a burn in his face. Sirus spun through the air and landed on both his feet, using one of his hands to support himself. Sirus immediately charged back at her.

Kara dodged Sirus’s attacks as she kicked out his knee and kicked him square in the jaw. Sirus flips in the air before rolling on the ground. Sirus rolls across the room as he pushes his palm on the floor and uses it to push himself up and to his feet while he slides. Sirus smirks and tilts his neck, cracking it. Kara noticed the burn was already gone, healed much faster than she would have predicted. This was bad, he was healing himself, or someone else was. It didn’t matter who was healing him, only that it meant more trouble for her. She needed to get a lot of damage at one time. She needed to stop playing defensive and get aggressive.

Kara charged at Sirus, sliding into his knee, followed by an uppercut which knocked him into the air. Still sliding, she got under him and grabbed his arms, jamming her knee into his back. Kara then quickly got to her feet and kicked Sirus hard in the temple of his head, spinning him into the air. Kara followed this by catching Sirus in the air with a kick to his ribs, sending him across the room. Sirus slid a few feet and laid face down. After a few seconds, to Kara’s surprise, Sirus hadn’t gotten back up.

“My lord, Sirus isn’t getting up. Should I finish the job?” Hitsugaya requested, readying to attack and kill Kara.

“No. Sirus is fine. His natural abilities will let him fend off anything the girl can throw at him. Kara cant defeat him even if he was an infant.” Kobura tells Hitsugaya. Kara’s anger boiled, not only was she betrayed by her friend but now she’s being underestimated!

Kara crossed the room to the fallen Sirus and picked him up, noticing no real damage seemed to be in effect. Under him was the rose she had dropped, completely unharmed, as if Sirus did everything he could to make sure he didn’t damage it when he landed on it. Kara was about to stomp out the rose when she heard a whisper.

“Help… me…” Kara looked at Sirus who still didn’t seem hurt at all, but his voice told other stories. It sounded like he was in a lot of pain. “Kobura… is…” Sirus was now looking at her and quickly his mood changed, spinning out of her grip and sweeping out her legs. Kara back flipped and landed on her feet, putting together her suspicions.

---------------------

“Sensei, I have found Kobura.” Karai informed, standing in the shadows. Her eyes were black, as she watched through the shadows. Suddenly she clenched her fists and punched the wall. “And I’ve found Sirus.”

“Remember our objective Karai. We need to take Kobura alive, but more importantly find out anything they could be planning. What can you hear?” Jinsoku requests

Karai’s ears blackened as she listened through the shadows. After a few minutes, she punched the wall again, now angrier than ever. She understood exactly what was going on.

“Karai what is it?” Jinsoku asks

“I am going to kill Kobura.” Karai answers with nothing but vengeance in her voice.

--------------------

“Why did his mood change my lord? Why is he suddenly fighting back? Why did he play possum?” Hitsugaya asks.

“He is resisting me. Being as its still a new connection, I don’t quite have complete control yet, and everything Kara does helps Sirus fight it.” Kobura answers.

“Then let me kill her.” Fairdaku interjects.

“The more she hits the boy, the angrier he gets. The angrier he gets, the easier he is to control. He needs to learn to kill those he cares about.” Kobura explains.

--------------------

Kara figured it out, and based on the little snippets of what she just heard from Kobura speaking with Fairdaku and Hitsugaya, she was completely sure. Sirus was under Kobura’s control. Kara picked up the rose that had started breaking Sirus from Kobura’s control and held it as Sirus attacked her again. Kara kicked Sirus in the back of his knee, knocking it out. She grabbed Sirus and pulled him up to her.

“Sirus, remember who you are! You’re being controlled! Snap out of it!” Kara exclaimed, shoving the rose in his face. Kara started to see Sirus’s expression change. He seemed to be tired, as apposed to the aggressive Sirus she’s been seeing.

“Kara…” Sirus whispers. Kara was so relieved… he knew who she was. He was broken free! Kara freed him from Kobura’s control! Kara let go of him as he stumbled for a minute. Kara was so happy now, knowing that she had a chance here and that she still had a friend.

As her legs were swept from under her, Kara realized she was wrong. She felt Sirus’s palm catch her stomach and push her into the ground. She felt a little electricity going through her stomach, and suddenly she couldn’t move. It was getting hard to breathe. Couldn’t blink, nothing. Kara just starred at the ceiling of the room. Sirus… was going to be her executioner. She was finished. All she could do was listen on as she heard Kobura and his elites.

“Good boy. You see Hitsugaya, you worried for nothing. Sirus is completely mine. He has slain his friend there, and the threat to our dominance.” Kobura explains.

“My lord, who shall be my next victim?” Sirus asks

“Kobura! Its all over! Mikoto has sent his elite to capture you and slay your band. You have nowhere to run!”

“Oh, I thought I killed the one on the right. Strange, usually blasting someone through a wall while he bleeds out from his own sword is all it takes. Kids these days.” Hitsugaya jokes. Kara wished so desperately to see what was going on, but all she could do was hear voices.

--------------------

“Hina, there will be several guards around you and Akura at all times during this war. Jinsoku, Hitoki, and Desnock have been sent with groups small groups to capture Sirus, and Kobura, if possible. When he is brought back I will be able to break Kobura’s hold.” Mikoto explains

“What if someone kills Kobura? And he transfers bodies? Will he take Sirus’s?” Hina asks

“I hope not, if he does, all hope will be lost. The raw power in Sirus… and the evil in Kobura… the world will fall into the hands of a truly evil demon. All of the members of the offensive force have been instructed of Kobura’s ability to change bodies, and were told to take him alive. If he dies, he will have about a half-hour window in the spirit world before he can connect with another body. When he is captured and brought back here, I will enter the spirit world and kill him myself.” Mikoto explains. “Then he will be exterminated from existence all together.”

“Will anything happen to Sirus after he is broken from Kobura’s control?” Hina requests

“No, he will be completely fine… actually…” Mikoto picks up a picture of Sirus and Hina in their bedroom, noticing Sirus’s tattoo on his back. “Actually… Kobura might have another way of controlling Sirus… should his rage build too high. I will be on my way, your personal body guards should be arriving shortly.”

--------------------

“Were going in. Everyone grab onto me.” Karai instructed. Jinsoku and Raviel grabbed Karai’s left shoulder, Noroi and Yuki grabbing her right. Karai stepped forward as the group disappeared in the shadows. Karai walked them right into Kobura’s fortress.

“Kobura! Its all over! Mikoto has sent his elite to capture you and slay your band. You have nowhere to run!” Jinsoku exclaims

“Oh, I thought I killed the one on the right. Strange, usually blasting someone through a wall while he bleeds out from his own sword is all it takes. Kids these days.” Hitsugaya jokes. Raviel, angry of the joke and wanting revenge, charges at Hitsugaya. Karai can’t help but face palm when Raviel trips as he’s running at Hitsugaya.

“Raviel… your pathetic.” Karai told Raviel, glaring at him. Karai then turned her attention toward Sirus and stepped toward him.

“Sirus! Kill the girl!” Kobura ordered. Sirus smirked and charged at Karai, whom dodged him. Sirus grabbed her wrist and pulled her in front of him.
 “Trust me.” Sirus whispered as he shoved Karai away. Karai was a bit confused, but she turned and charged at him. Sirus suddenly opened a wormhole, sending her to an unknown building. She looked around in what looked like a living room connected to a kitchen. There was an open bag full of clothes on the couch in the living room. She noticed a table in the kitchen with documents spread across it. She approached and quickly glanced over the documents. They were all documents on a wanted man, Kyoukei Udukei. Suddenly Karai hears a sound she could only describe as a whooshing sound. She recognized it immediately and spun around, seeing Jinsoku, Sirus, Raviel, Noroi, Yuki, and a strange girl in Sirus’s arms. Sirus laid the girl on the couch.

“What… What’s going on here?” Karai asked.

“Kara here snapped me out of my hypnosis from Kobura. To keep the illusion that I was under his control, I paralyzed Kara, to make it seem like she was dead. I was going to try to get as many documents as I could before you morons screwed it up on me!” Sirus explained, humor in his voice. Karai ran to him and hugged him tightly.

“I knew you weren’t evil! You could never be evil!” Karai yelled.

“So how long will she be paralyzed?” Raviel asked.

“Probably a few hours. However a good healer could speed that up.” Sirus told Raviel.

“I’ll get Tara.” Jinsoku told the group as he approached the door. Jinsoku noticed the documents on the table and stared at them.

“Jinsoku, don’t worry about those documents.” Sirus ordered, approaching the table. “While they are in her possession, Kara did not steal these. I did. She is merely looking for Kyoukei, and I was helping her.”

Jinsoku nodded and walked out. Sirus approached the opened door before turning back to the group. “Thanks for everything guys. I need to go return home… to find Hina and Akura.” Sirus left, closing the door behind him.

Karai looked at the table again before turning to Raviel. Raviel, Noroi and Yuki were all laughing and joking around. Karai closed her eyes before speaking to Raviel. “Raviel… you’re truly pathetic. You tripped over your own two feet, attacking a member of the Band of Three. You’re lucky you aren’t dead! How Jinsoku could ever want to willingly give you a minute of his time is beyond me.”

Raviel didn’t respond to her. He decided it would be easier to shut her up with action than with words. One slipup here didn’t mean anything in the long run. Somehow Raviel had a feeling he would spend a lot of time with Karai.

--------------------

Hina heard a knocking at the door and thought it must be the guards sent to protect her. Hina opened the door and saw her love. “Hina… I was being controlled by Kobura… the king of Slieza… but I’m free.” Sirus explained.

“I know. I know everything.” Hina replied, hugging Sirus tightly. She brought Sirus into the house, closing the door. She led him into the bedroom and kissed him, pulling him onto the bed. Hina wrapped her arms around her love as he kissed her back. Suddenly the moment was ruined and she was terrified as the two heard a crash from down the hall. Sirus and Hina looked out to see their door knocked in. Hina followed closely behind Sirus as they searched the house. They got to Akura’s room and entered seeing Kobura standing over Akura’s crib, smiling.

“Well well well, isn’t this a surprise?” Kobura taunted as he turned to face them holding Akura in his arms.

Chapter 7 - The Curse

A few knocks at the door caused Raviel to get up and open it, seeing Jinsoku and Tara. Tara shoved Raviel on her way in, and Raviel tripped her, as what they usually do to each other. Tara laughed and approached Kara.

“Shes the paralyzed one?” Tara asks, examining Kara. “This definitely was meant to wear off shortly. Won’t take more than a minute or two.” Tara explains as she starts healing Kara.

“So Jinsoku Sensei, what is the plan for catching that mad man?” Noroi requests

“I don’t have one.” Jinsoku responds.

“I do. We need to -” Raviel starts before being interrupted.

“We need to corner him and restrain him. Kobura can change bodies should he die, so he wont be afraid of a fight. We need to beat him down until he can’t continue without killing him, and restrain him. The hard part will be transferring him back to a prison.” Karai explains, cutting off Raviel. “And we need to do it without tripping over our own feet.”

“If you must know the floor was iced over, and if you weren’t busy getting your ass kicked by Sirus you would have seen me catch myself and flip back to my feet.” Raviel explained, glaring at Karai.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you f*cked up. If Sirus hadn’t used his wormhole to get us all out of there who the hell knows what would have happened? We aren’t dealing with some thugs or a group of mercenaries! We’re dealing with the Band of Three! And let me remind you that the last time you fought one, Hitsugaya put you in the freaking hospital!” Karai explodes, approaching Raviel. “I don’t know why Jinsoku would waste his time with a nothing like you when he has talent such as myself. God your more pathetic than Noroi!”

“Hey!” Noroi shouts.

“I’ll admit, I messed up. I slid on the ice, I should have bee more aware of the situation before jumping in. I let my feelings cloud my judgment. But correct me if I wrong, but you did the exact same thing when you went after Sirus.” Raviel responds calmly. A few coughs are heard, which catches Raviel’s attention as Kara sits up coughing.

“Who are you people?” Kara asks
 “We are the group of soldiers that attacked Kobura’s palace. Sirus brought us all here.” Jinsoku explains.

“Where is Sirus? I heard most of what was happening.” Kara requests.

“He went home.” Raviel replies

“Maybe you should go home too. We’d be better without you.” Karai snips. Tara looks at Raviel, then at Karai, then back at Raviel.

“I see what’s going on here. Sexual tension. Come on guys lets let these two get about two minutes of private time, should be more than enough time for Raviel.” Tara jokes. Raviel glares at her. “Okay, okay, three minutes.” Tara says as she walks passed Raviel. Raviel lightly shoves her and they both laugh.

--------------------

“Kobura let him go! It’s me you want isn’t it?!” Sirus screams, his anger boiling.

“Oh my my my look at this. Is big daddy getting upset that his precious son is in the hands of the next ruler of the world? Maybe daddy doesn’t want his son to live in such a world.” Kobura taunts.

“Don’t you dare harm him!” Sirus yells.

“You just don’t get it, do you Sirus? This thing, between you and me? It didn’t start this morning when you felt me calling to you from outside the city. It didn’t start when you and I passed each other in the halls yesterday. It didn’t start when I told Mikoto that if he doesn’t give you to me then Slieza will retaliate. No no no my boy, this thing between us? This has been an entire lifetime that we’ve been destined to meet. To be…” Kobura looks up and pinches his fingers together. “one.”

“You’re insane!” Hina yells. “Your plan will fail! Sirus wont be your puppet!”

“Oh silly girl, silly silly girl. You both don’t seem to realize that everything in Sirus’ life has led to this moment. I found you in the deserts 19 years ago. I brought you here where you would be under the discipline of Mikoto. Where your attitude would take shape. Where you would be denied any kind of companionship. Where your cold heart would grow. Hina, right?” Kobura asks, now looking back at the two. “Does Sirus love you?”

“Of course he does! We wouldn’t be a family if he didn’t!” Hina responds.
 “Oh really? Are you sure this… “ Kobura lifts Akura by his arm, waking Akura and causing him to cry. “this insect isn’t the only thing keeping the two of your together? Do you truly think he loves you? Or is it out of sympathy, knowing he got you outcast from your own home, knowing your stuck with this vermin, that he stays?” Sirus was silent. “You see, my dear girl, if it wasn’t for this thing, Sirus could realize his full potential. Sirus could become a god among men, and deep down he knows it, and I know that you know it too. You are holding Sirus back, and the more you hold him back, the more frustrated he gets.”

Hina’s rage was at a boiling point. Her mind was swirling around this concept. Does Sirus really love her? Or is it really because of Akura? They fight, but don’t all couples? Out of the corner of her eye, Hina glared at Sirus. After everything she had learned about Sirus today, maybe Kobura was telling the truth. People like Sirus are incapable of love… Hina closed her eyes as a tear dropped from the feeling of Sirus’ hand grabbing her own. She was letting Kobura into her head.

“So my question, Sirus, is do you know your own secret?” Kobura returns Akura to his left arm and cradles the child. He approaches Sirus and Hina. “It is obvious young Hina knows, probably from Mikoto telling her your secret.” Kobura tells Sirus, putting his index finger on her chin and pushing up lightly. Kobura then steps back to the crib. “Just read her mind, and learn what dear old Mikoto has kept secret from you for so long.”

“Sirus don’t! I promise you I will tell you, but not now! Not while this mad man gets into our heads! All he needs is for you to let your anger get ahead of you! I promise you I will tell you everything.” Hina exclaims.

“Start talking.” Sirus says sternly, releasing Hina‘s hand. Hina remains quiet.

“Later… please. This isn’t something that you are ready to learn, not while Kobura is here.” Hina pleads. Sirus closes his eyes and Hina grabs his hand again. “Please…”

“Oh boy oh boy! So you mean I can ruin all of this by revealing a small little secret about Sirus? A secret that will, of course, change his whole life. Boy maybe it’s time for you to learn a little more about yourself.” Kobura grins.

--------------------

“So… Kara is it? Mind explaining what these are?” Jinsoku asks, approaching the table and the documents scattered across them.
 “Well… I’m not a citizen of Lino Shi. I am a spy from Hisakata, sent here to gather intel on Lino Shi incase a war was to break out.” Kara explains, approaching the table. “But my real purpose for coming here was for these.” Kara grabs a few documents from the table about Kyoukei Udukei “This man killed my mother, and the majority of my family. Sirus gave me everything that Lino Shi has on Kyoukei, along with documents for Hisakata, so they don’t brand me a failure.”

“So doesn’t this mean we should arrest you?” Noroi chimes in.

“Slieza is afraid of war on two fronts. If I return to Hisakata early, they will know a war has broken out on Lino Shi. Hisakata and Slieza are mortal enemies, and that will unite our two governments, at least for the war. By letting me return to Hisakata, Lino Shi stands the chance of not only an ally, but a chance at survival.” Kara explains.

“Kara’s right. Slieza’s army is powerful enough to tear us apart, they proved it before. Even if the majority of the Lino Shi army wasn’t here, the fact still remains we got destroyed. Morale is going to be down and a lot of soldiers are already dead. We need Hisakata’s army.” Yuki says, stepping forward. Jinsoku looks down, thinking.

“Plus sensei, if we turn Kara in, we make Sirus into a wanted man for treason.” Karai says.

“We need Sirus for the counter attack. Sirus has worked with Kobura while under his control, he may know things about the army, and more importantly the offensive plans. If we imprison her, we will likely cause a war with Hisakata once Kara’s mission return date is over.” Yuki explains. Jinsoku nods.

“We never saw anything here today, on the condition that Kara returns all the documents Sirus stole, excluding anything on Kyoukei.” Jinsoku says, looking up.

“If I return to Hisakata without anything, they will brand me a failure. I don’t know if they will back up Lino Shi without any intel.” Kara explains.

“That’s a necessary risk.” Jinsoku replies.

“Actually we may be able to finish this war quickly. With Sirus’s ability to wormhole small assaults, we can easily capture Kobura and slay the Band of Three.” Yuki explains.

--------------------
 Kobura was looking down at Akura, cradling him. “Everything in your life has been by my hand. Because I have wanted to mold you into the warrior you have become. I have, either directly or indirectly influenced your every action. I brought you here knowing full well you’d blame Noroi for the death of your parents. However, Sirus, would you like to know the truth?” Kobura asks, looking up at Sirus. “When I found out what you were, and all the power inside you, I killed your mother. Funniest part of it, she trusted me, as your godfather.”

Sirus was about to explode. Sirus ran at Kobura who quickly sidestepped as Sirus crashed into Akura’s crib. Sirus’ back was hurting but he didn’t care.

“I think it’s time for your control to end. Its time for you to learn a secret. On your back, is a curse. It’s a little bit of my soul, bound to your body. What does it mean? It means that when your rage gets to the point where you can no longer control your actions, that curse will take over. You will attack everything and everyone, as long as the curse controls you. Then… after just a few hours… you…” Kobura hissed. “will be mine… There is only one thing between you, and me.”

Kobura holds up Akura and pulls a knife out of his pocket quickly. Faster than Sirus could react, Kobura slices Akura’s throat and drops the baby to the floor. Sirus’ anger got to be too much, and his tattoo started spreading, down his arm where it was visible from under his shirt. Sirus couldn’t control his body anymore, and Kobura just stood back and smirked.

Chapter 8 - Reckless Intent

Karai turns toward the door. “I’m going to get Sirus, we need to discuss a plan.” Karai opens the door and steps out. In the distance a large lightning bolt shoots out into the sky. That looks like Sirus’ lightning bolts… whats going on? Karai runs into the shadows and instantly travels about 3 houses from Sirus’ home. She didn’t want to appear inside his home and be caught off guard in confusion. Karai looks up and sees a figure jump on top of Sirus’ house, unrecognizable as the evening sun was being blocked by the person. However two bolts of lightning shot out of the figures hands, across the ground, through two buildings, and up into the air. Karai jumped to dodge one of them.

“Sirus…” Karai looked back at him as Sirus jumped off the building and continued to attack the town. Karai ran into the home as a figure jumped out through the same hole. From her point of view, it looked a little like Kobura, but she wasn’t certain. Laying against the wall, Karai sees an unconscious Hina. Karai awakens Hina who, after a few seconds, hugs Karai and cries.

“Hina… what happened? Why is Sirus attacking the town and killing people?” Karai asks.

Hina sobs and tries to explain. “Ko… Kobura… he cursed Sirus. When Sirus gets too angry… he… he… he loses control and attacks everything he sees. Kobura will pay for this… I will kill him. He…” Hina breaks down and cries again.

“Don’t worry, Ill get Sirus back, I promise.” Karai hugs Hina slightly and runs out, looking for Sirus. Karai steps into the shadows and uses the shadows caused by the evening sun to search the city quickly. Karai runs through the shadows, finding Sirus, and kicks him in the back. Karai notices the visual effects of this curse on Sirus, the tattoo he has had spread across his arm.

Sirus spins around and shoots lightning at Karai with little accuracy, making it easy to dodge. Sirus charges at Karai like a rabid dog, no thought behind his attacks. Karai easily dodged Sirus and swept out his legs before jumping backwards. Her plan was simple, lead Sirus out of town so people won’t get hurt, and take him out from there.

“Karai! Whats going on? You okay?” Karai looks and sees Raviel running toward her. Oh shit… he‘s coming. Karai sighs and jumps back as Sirus attacks her again. Sirus shoots a few large lightning bolts, bigger than any Karai has ever seen Sirus shoot before. Sirus’ power was feeding off this curse, this was obvious to her. Karai continued to dodge as she led Sirus, and unfortunately her follower, Raviel, out of the city.


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 “My lord, we have a situation. There is someone, or something, destroying the city. Scouts have seen him shooting lightning bolts, destroying entire buildings in their path. Scout have also reported seeing a young girl chasing after the assailant. We also have suspicions that Kobura-Ousama is in the city.”

“Hmm, it seems Kobura had to resort to that.” Mikoto stands up from his throne and approaches the general reporting the information. “Find Karite and Jinsoku and bring the two of them here.”

“Jinsoku? He is merely a teacher, why is he needed?” Mikoto merely glares at the general questioning him. The general nods and leaves to find Karite and Jinsoku.”

--------------------

Karai sees a bunch of army soldiers and city guards running toward them. !@#$, just when things were working. These idiots are going to get into my way! “Raviel! Keep the guards and the army off of us, I’ll handle Sirus myself!.” Karai calls toward Raviel, while dodging another lightning bolt.

Raviel runs off toward a few of the guards to try to make them leave Karai and Sirus alone, but he can’t get to enough of them fast enough. The soldiers run toward Sirus, whom notices the army. Suddenly a powerful rain begins, a nearly torrential level rain. Quickly a large bolt of lightning drops from the clouds and lands on one of the army squad formations. Sirus turned toward the other squad as lightning struck again. The rest of the army disbursed, retreating out of fear. Karai knew what this was, Sirus had done it before when fighting Noroi, when Sirus’ anger gets too high he causes weather to change like this.

Sirus’ rage returns to Karai, which made her thankful. Now she had Sirus one on one, just how she wanted it. They were at an abandoned part of the city, close to the city limits, no one would get hurt here. Sirus’ attacks have been reckless, he wont be hard to dodge, but a single hit might be enough to kill her. Karai grinned, finally a true challenge.

Karai charged at Sirus who launched a lightning bolt. Karai slid under the lightning bolt and kicked Sirus in the shin, knocking out his leg. She then flipped up and kicked him square in the face. Karai’s smile turned into shock as her foot was stopped in her kick, Sirus’ face wasn’t budging. Sirus shot an easily predictable, and Karai quickly dodged lightning bolt. Karai flipped over him and kicked him hard in the stomach, but again it had the same effect. Sirus wasn’t showing signs of the attacks doing anything.

Karai jumped back and created some distance. This was bad, she was extremely quick and agile, the perfect assassin, but she wasn’t strong. Her hits weren’t doing anything. She needed to draw a weapon, but she refused to risk killing Sirus. On the other hand, Sirus can probably kill everyone in Domino. Karai drew her knife and looked down at the dirt for a second before back at her opponent. If it was her going mad, Sirus would do whatever it meant to get her back, but he wouldn’t risk killing her. Karai withdrew her knife as she watched Sirus.

--------------------

Raviel approached one of the army squad leaders. “You need to call off the squad, the attacker is extremely powerful and extremely dangerous. He needs to be led out of the city.”

“And you are?”

“My name is Raviel, and I am one of Jinsoku’s apprentices. I have seen the assailants abilities up close and he is too dangerous to fight here in town.” Raviel explains. Suddenly Raviel hears thunder and feels a strong rain begin, soaking him in seconds. A loud bang is heard, like lightning crashed into the earth. Raviel turned to see an entire squad engulfed in the lightning before it dissipates, no bodies left. “You need to scatter and leave this alone. The assailant will be easiest if fought one on one, outside the city. Less lives will be lost.” Another bang, another squad gone.

“All troops disperse and retreat! Reform in the town square to formulate a new plan.”

--------------------

“My lord you wanted to see me?” Mikoto turns around to see a young man, about thirty, wearing white silk robes over heavy armor.

“Karite, you have been my apprentice for a long time, and you are next in line for the throne, should anything happen to me.” Mikoto assures.

“What are you saying Mikoto-Ousama?” Krylin requests.

“Slieza’s attack was tremendous. For the first time in my life, I fear for my own life. Kobura is on the front line and if he fights our warriors, he will likely win. I need to meet him myself, and kill him. Should I not come back, you need to be ready to take control of Lino Shi, you need to win the war.” Mikoto explains.

“My lord, I am honored to have served by you. I am so gracious you would give me this privilege, no, this honor. If you don’t come back I promise I will win this war, not only for Lino Shi, but for you.” Karite smiles. Jinsoku enters the building and Mikoto walks toward Jinsoku.

“I know you can do it. I have faith in you.” Mikoto assures as he passes Karite. Mikoto meets with Jinsoku and the two begin to walk out.

“Mikoto!” Mikoto turns to see Karite. “Goodbye my friend, I will never forget you.” Mikoto smiles and leaves.

--------------------

Sirus charged at Karai, launching lightning bolts with each step. Karai spun and flipped between the lightning bolts, followed by spinning on the ground and sweeping Sirus’ legs out. Karai’s back was covered in mud as the ground was already starting to give to the rain. Karai was able to get Sirus off his feet, and he didn’t get up right away, giving Karai a few seconds to think about her next move. Karai needed to get some kind of momentum if she wanted to take Sirus down. Karai jumped back about 20 feet as Sirus got back to his feet.

Karai charged at Sirus and went for a quick kick to his head, hoping the speed will help get him down, but once again she was stopped in her tracks. Karai cursed under her breath as she jumped back, sliding on the muddy grass. This thunderstorm that Sirus conjured up was started to give him an advantage, if the ground gets too muddy she wont be able to move as quickly due to the inability to keep a good footing. Moreover, the rain was starting to form large and deep puddles.

Sirus attacks Karai quickly and recklessly, launching a lightning bolt out of his hand. Karai dodges it and decides her best bet is to get into a shadow and use it to try and stall Sirus until she could think of a new plan. The only problem is that if Sirus is cursed, and the curse is feeding off his anger like she believes, the longer this takes the harder it will become. Sirus is quick to get frustrated when he cant do something, and the more she dodges him the angrier he’ll get. Deep down Sirus is in there, and that deep down Sirus’ short temper is going to get Karai killed.

Karai ran toward the forest, an area covered in shadow, in hopes of avoiding Sirus’ attacks while she thought up a strategy. Suddenly the rain stopped, the clouds dispersed and it got bright out, extremely bright. If Sirus could somehow control the weather, this was the proof, as it was much too bright considering the sun was setting about twenty minutes ago. More importantly it was too bright for shadows to set in the forest, Sirus had trapped her. Karai heard a small sound of electricity and ran up a tree, back flipping off of it as a lightning bolt hit the tree. Karai landed on the soft muddy grass and turned to look at Sirus.

“This is it, now or never.” Karai said to herself. Karai ran at Sirus, whispering to herself again. “Sirus, please, forgive me for this.” Karai drew her knife and jabbed it toward Sirus’ stomach, piercing him and making him bend over as a reaction. Karai pulled it out and kicked him in the face, sending him back a few feet. Sirus’ shirt was already bloody, and the loss of blood should knock him out soon. She merely prayed that she had time to get him healed before he died.
 Sirus caught his footing and attacked Karai again, this time with a flurry of punches. Karai dodged the punch before punching him in the gut. What she felt surprised her, as Sirus didn’t budge, and she felt nothing bloody. Karai was stunned, not for long, but long enough for Sirus to kick her in the face. The next thing she knew, Karai was flying through the air, back into town, and into a cement wall. Karai left a body print into the wall as she fell to the mud beneath her, unconscious and barely breathing.

--------------------

“Sirus! What the hell are you doing? I just don’t get you man! First your good, then your evil, then your good, then your kicking your best friend into buildings? What the hell is going through your head?” Raviel asks in a more of a joking manner. Sirus shoots a reckless lightning bolt toward Raviel, completely missing him.

“So that’s it then huh? Fine, you and me, one hour right here. No one else has to get hurt before I kill you.” Raviel orders before another lightning bolt shoots passed him. Raviel knew he wasn’t going to get Sirus to stall the fight, this whole situation seemed a little weird. Sirus was pinpoint accurate, yet he was missing Raviel by yards. Raviel readied himself. “Fine, then lets settle this.”

Chapter 9 - The Plan

Raviel rushed at Sirus drawing his sword. The events in the last 24 hours were just getting to be to the point where all Raviel wanted to do was kill this kid. Sirus grabbed Raviels sword and broke it in his hand before kicking Raviel in the leg. Raviel felt the pain from this hit surged through his leg as Raviel lost his footing. Raviel tripped and slid across the muddy grass, before quickly getting to his feet and turning to see a lightning bolt missing him.

Suddenly the bright sun turned into a dark clouded sky with a high wind. Raviel looked around and saw a tornado starting to form in the city. Raviel looked at Sirus who seemed to be in control of the tornado. Raviel notices a strange black tattoo running down Sirus’ arm that he never noticed before. However what made it strange was the fact that this tattoo was glowing brightly.

--------------------

“Its not as hard as you made it sound Mikoto-Ousama, its really a quite easy technique.” Jinsoku tells Mikoto

“Good, I knew you’d master it quickly. Find Hina, quickly. She is the last key to stopping the destruction.” Mikoto explains. Jinsoku nods and runs off. Mikoto walks into a large building and starts ascending the stairs.

--------------------

“My lord, are you going to be able to control such power in the boy’s body?” Hitsugaya asks, standing with Kobura atop a large building, overlooking the city, and more importantly, Sirus’s rampage.

“Hitsugaya, you continue to question my judgment?” Kobura snaps back, without looking away from Sirus. “You have continued to fail me over the last few weeks, and quite frankly I am wondering if I should throw you to the beast and let Sirus kill you.”

“You’re joking… aren’t you my lord? I’ve been loyal to you since the forming of the Band of Three.!” Hitsugaya panics.

“You know I never joke. You have failed time and time again.” Kobura looks at the door to the roof he is standing on. “You have one last chance, kill the girl. If you fail, I will personally kill you.” Hitsugaya glares at Kobura before jumping from rooftop to rooftop toward Hina’s home.

--------------------
 Raviel charged at Sirus before feeling the strong winds of the tornado pulling him. Raviel fought the winds for a few minutes before coming up with an idea to use the wind. Sirus shot a lightning bolt from his hand that Raviel had to jump to dodge. Raviel’s body is caught in the wind and brought toward the tornado, which Raviel uses to kick Sirus in the face with the force of his own tornado.

Sirus flew backwards about thirty feet before landing on the mud and sliding another two. Sirus gets back to his feet a lot quicker than Raviel expected, showing no sign of any damage at all. As Sirus got back to his feet, the weather changed from tornados to hailstorm. The hail was about 4 inches in diameter on average and was dropping at what Raviel estimated as 65 kilometers per hour, more than twice as fast as hail usually falls.

The hail sliced Raviels skin as it hit him, though nothing too serious. What isn’t sliced is quickly bruised as the hail pounds down on him. Raviel needed to stop the hailstorm quickly before it becomes a major issue. Raviel charged at Sirus as he got back onto his feet and punched him in the stomach. Raviel tried to follow this punch with another one to the face, but something in Sirus’ face changed. Raviel noticed that Sirus’ eye color changed as he looked at Raviel to a deep red color and suddenly it seemed like Sirus was in control of his actions as he blocked the second punch.

Raviel then felt himself lose his breath as Sirus kneed him in the stomach, followed by a back flip knocking Raviel off his feet and onto the muddy ground. Raviel got to his feet as fast as he could before feeling Sirus’ right hand come across his cheek, and he felt his jaw crack as he spun off the ground and through the air. Something had taken over Sirus, and whatever it was, it was in complete control of him.

--------------------

Jinsoku traveled the ally toward Hina’s house as he saw a shadow pass him. Looking up he saw Hitsugaya jumping across the rooftops toward Hina’s home, and went from a walk to a sprint. Jinsoku turned a corner to a small, tight ally, and used the two close building to wall jump onto the rooftops. Hitsugaya was four buildings away, only two from Hina‘s house. While he was faster than Hitsugaya, Jinsoku wouldn’t have the time to catch him. He just needed to get to Hina’s home as fast as he could.

Jinsoku jumped across the rooftops as and landed inside Hina’s home, through the whole Sirus had made earlier. Standing in the remains of Akura’s room, Jinsoku looked down to see a site that made him nearly lose his stomach, the corpse of Hina’s young son. Jinsoku didn’t see Hitsugaya or Hina immediately, and was on his guard. Jinsoku found Hina in her room, holding Akura’s bottle in her hand, crying. Jinsoku approached her nervously, knowing Hitsugaya could be anywhere.

“Hina… Are you okay?” Jinsoku asks. Jinsoku approaches Hina before feeling a drastic drop in temperature. Jinsoku turned to see Hitsugaya behind him, in the doorway.

“What do you think your doing?” Hitsugaya requests.

“Mikoto-Ousama says that Hina will be able to stop Kobura’s plan, as I trust you know.” Jinsoku responds, readying his guard. “I will lay my life down to defend her here if I must.”

“Do you even know how she is supposed to save him?” Hitsugaya asks. When Jinsoku doesn’t respond, Hitsugaya begins to explain. “Sirus is cursed. His curse feeds off anger. When Sirus gets angry, this girl becomes his anchor and keeps his anger from shooting out of control. Kobura claims that Sirus has been using her as an anchor since they first met. In the instance when Kobura killed their son, the anchor wasn’t strong enough to keep Sirus’ anger under control.

“Someone needs to hit the curse with a strong de-cursing spell. The only problem with that is that there is no human strong enough to break the curse with a single spell. Your king knows this, and hopes that his spell, combined with Sirus’ anchor being there with him during the spell, will be enough to pull him back. I was instructed to kill the girl, as Kobura knows that such action will succeed.” Hitsugaya steps into the room and then to the right of the doorway. “Take her to him, bring Sirus back, !@#$ with Kobura’s plans.”

Jinsoku stared at Hitsugaya. “What are you planning?”

“I’m planning on stopping my king. Kobura threatened to kill me if I don’t succeed today, and while I could easily succeed right now, the thought that runs through me is ‘what about next time?’ I cant have a leader like that. I have been his loyal follower since the creation of the Band of Three, and yet he treats me like a failure, and a traitor. So if that’s what he wants out of me, so be it.” Hitsugaya explains. Somewhere deep down, Jinsoku believed Hitsugaya. Jinsoku grabbed Hina and pulled her from the bed. Hina seemed almost lifeless, she had given up on everything. The only thing she had left was Sirus, and Jinsoku was going to make sure she gets him back. Jinsoku approached the door.

“One more thing…” Hitsugaya starts

--------------------

Raviel felt like he was going to throw up as he was punted in the stomach by Sirus, causing him to role in the mud and landing on his back. Raviel could barely stand, and as he feared, the hail was starting to become a major factor. Raviel looked over at his approaching foe, and he saw a sadistic smile on his face, similar to Kobura’s smile. Raviel also saw the tattoo that was glowing early as now a deep black, as if it was sucking the light away. It was getting to be dark, the sun was fully setting now, and with the dark hail clouds, it was getting hard to see.

 Raviel struggled to his feet as he felt Sirus grab the back of his shirt and pick him up with one hand. Raviel spun and kicked Sirus in the face, causing him to release and creating a bit of distance. Raviel took this time to charge at Sirus, kneeing him in the gut before dropping his elbow into the back of Sirus’ neck. Sirus landed hard on the mud as Raviel backed up. Sirus got to his feet pretty quickly, it almost didn’t seem like Raviel was doing anything to him.

“Raviel!”

Raviel didn’t turn to the voice, as he couldn’t take a single second to glance away from Sirus or he was going to end up like Karai, or worse. Raviel charged at Sirus, jumping into the air and kicking him in the face, taking him down. Raviel uses this time to check the voice that called to him, and sees Jinsoku running over, Hina in his arms.

“Raviel, tag out. I’ll deal with Sirus. Take Karai and get out of here.” Jinsoku orders.

“Why is Hina here?” Raviel asks.

“To help break Sirus of his curse.” Jinsoku responds. Jinsoku puts Hina down who watches from a few meters away as Sirus gets back to his feet. “Go!” Jinsoku orders.

Raviel grabs Karai and walks off, trying to run but his injuries from Sirus were too much for him to run.

--------------------

“A hailstorm huh? It would seem your curse is bringing all of his power out.” Mikoto says, approaching the edge of the roof.

“Yes, just as I had believed it would.” Kobura responds.

“So this is how far he forced you to go? The curse mark that you set on him years ago?” Mikoto requests.

“You knew this was coming, old friend.” Kobura answers, turning away from the battle. Kobura approaches a chessboard that had a few missing pieces, and many out of place, a game that had never been finished. “You honor me by keeping our game from 19 years ago exactly how it was. Who’s move was it?”

“Mine I believe.” Mikoto answers, turning toward the chess board. Mikoto moves one of his pawns into position. “So is this how you always envisioned it?”

Kobura moves his queen over the pawn, taking it off the board. “No, in fact it is even more beautiful.”

Mikoto places his rook into a position two spaces away from Kobura’s knight, which stood between Kobura’s knight and his queen. Four spaces above the rook was Kobura’s king, with nowhere to move. “Check.” Kobura moves his knight between the king and the rook. If Mikoto chooses to take the knight, Kobura will take the rook with a pawn. “It would seem your knight has just cost you your most valuable piece.” Mikoto says, almost tauntingly as he takes the queen with his rook.

“So it seems.” Kobura replies. Mikoto stands and looks back at the battlefield, now seeing what looks to be Jinsoku fighting Sirus.

“It would seem our match is done for now, we shall finish this later. Nineteen years of planning, and yet nineteen years I have waited to stop your plan.” Mikoto says as he approaches the door off the roof.

“Good luck.” Kobura says. Mikoto nods as he goes through the door. Kobura moves his other knight into position on the board. “Checkmate.”

Note: In chapter 9 Sirus was possessed. Any speech by him is the possessed Sirus.

Chapter 10 - The Student and the Master

Raviel moved as fast as he could toward the hospital, carrying the unconscious body of Karai in his arms. He heard an explosion from behind him as his legs gave out, causing him to drop Karai as he fell to the ground himself. Karai rolled on the ground and started to wake up. Karai immediately reached for her back, which was in tremendous pain. She couldn’t feel her legs and feared paralysis.

“Kar…Karai… I’m sorry. I tried to get you to the hospital…” Raviel says, more to himself than to her. He can barely get a word out, he was in tremendous pain himself. Raviel got onto his knees and pulled off his shirt, looking at the bloody site of the open wound leading to his broken ribs. Raviel put his hand on the wound, to apply a bit of pressure and hopefully stop the bleeding. Raviel looked up into the sky, praying for a miracle, for help, for… anything.

--------------------

Sirus charged a lightning bolt as Raviel fled with Karai.

“Sirus let them go. I am your opponent now.” Jinsoku orders. Sirus looks at Jinsoku and smirks, almost laughing.

“So you believe that you can defeat me, the man who taught you how to fight? I will do whatever it takes to weaken and bring you down. You will not destroy this city or this country while I’m still breathing. I taught you ninety percent of what you know, but only a mere twenty percent of what I know. So, come at me boy.” Jinsoku orders. Sirus turns and shoots his lightning bolt at Jinsoku, whom easily dodges the lightning bolt and charges at Sirus.

Jinsoku kicks Sirus hard in the gut before an uppercut, knocking him off his feet. Sirus lands on his hand and flips onto his feet. Jinsoku smirks and charges again, punching Sirus in the face, followed by a gut punch. Jinsoku follows this with a swift roundhouse kick, knocking Sirus into the air and onto the mud. Sirus slides across the mud while rolling his body backwards, rolling onto his feet. Jinsoku continues the aggressive assault, kicking Sirus in the gut again, followed by an uppercut, quickly by a sweep taking out Sirus’ legs from behind him. While Sirus is in the air, Jinsoku flips and kicks him in the face, flipping Sirus through the air as he lands on his stomach. Jinsoku backs up and lets out a breath.

Sirus gets back to his feet, as if nothing happened and stares down Jinsoku. Sirus smirks. “Is that all?” Sirus asks, his voice was more dry and a bit deeper than it was before. “If that is all you can put out, then I am disappointed.” Sirus tilts his neck to the left, pointing his chin to the right, cracking it. Sirus then glances back at Jinsoku. “Now it’s my turn.” Sirus charges at Jinsoku.

--------------------

Following orders of the military, Noroi and Yuki return to their home. “So bro, what’s the plan?” Noroi asks.

“The military won’t let anyone out to see what’s going on, if we want to get to that monster and stop whatever it is that is destroying the town, we need to sneak around. On the way here I spotted seven guards whom were at a post and four whom were walking. According to my calculations, we’ll have a clear path to the city gates in about six minutes, judging by the walking speed of the patrolling officers.” Yuki explains.

“Six minutes? Too heck with that! Lets get in there!” Noroi yells. “Ill barrel through any guards that I need to! I wanna get in on the action!”

“Noroi stop being so rash. If we cause a distraction by fighting our way to the battle, we’ll only cause more problems.” Yuki explains. Noroi doesn’t listen and opens the door, running out. Yuki decides to run after Noroi, out into the hail-filled night.

--------------------

Raviel struggled to his feet as he heard someone running. Raviel called out for help, but he could barely get anything out. Raviel grabs his knife and throws it at a building at the crossroads of where he hears the footsteps. The knife makes a small clicking sound when it hit’s the building before falling to the ground. The footsteps begin to be faster and louder as the person runs. Suddenly they stop and someone peers around the corner.

“…Raviel? Raviel!” Tara runs around the corner and to Raviel. “What the !@#$ did you do to yourself?” Tara asks, pinching her forehead in disappointment. “Why cant you keep yourself in one piece? I’m getting sick of healing you.”

“Not the time for jokes.” Raviel says as he falls against the building behind him.

“Then sit still and let me heal you.” Tara says

“No… her first. Karai is in worse condition than I am.” Raviel orders, pointing to Karai, whom was still holding her back. Tara saw the blood on the side of her head where Sirus had kicked had dried up.

Tara walked up to Karai and put her hands on her back. “This is going to hurt, a lot. Grind your pretty little teeth together and get ready.” Tara says as her hands glow around Karai’s back. Karai let out a blood hurtling scream as Tara went to work. Karai felt like her back was being crushed and every bone in her spine was disintegrating. Karai bit her lip before letting out another blood hurtling scream. Tara’s hands stopped glowing as she pulled away from Karai.

“Get up you pussy.” Tara orders. Karai gets to her feet. Her back hurt a bit, but not nearly as much as it did a few seconds ago.

“That… really hurt. But… thank you.” Karai says to Tara, whom stumbles. “You okay?”

“A break like that… took a lot out of me. I’m starting to feel dizzy. Oh god… my hangover is coming back!” Tara exclaims as she leans against the building that Raviel is sitting against. Karai feels the cut on her head from when Sirus kicked her, while it wasn’t bleeding it still hurt a lot. Karai’s head was pounding.

--------------------

Noroi runs down the street as they see a line of soldiers. “Get outta my way!” Noroi orders.

“Return to your homes immediately. This situation is too dangerous for any pedestrians.” The guard orders.

“Hey! We aren’t just anyone! We are Jinsoku’s personal trained warriors and members of his personal attack squadron against Slieza today!” Noroi exclaims.

“We have strict orders to not let anyone pass. Return to your homes now or the two of you will be arrested.” The guard threatens.

“Please excuse my brother, he’s an idiot.” Yuki explains, grabbing Noroi but the back of his shirt. “Lets go.”

“To hell with that!” Noroi exclaims as he breaks from Yuki’s grip. Noroi jumps at the guard, kicking him and using him as a jump to get passed the blockade.

Noroi you idiot. Yuki runs over the fallen guard and follows Noroi’s example deeper into the city. Yuki catches up to Noroi, whom stopped running. Yuki sees him staring down an enemy from earlier in the day, Hitsugaya of the Band of Three.

--------------------
 Sirus charged at Jinsoku, sweeping out his legs. Sirus quickly follows this up with a strong uppercut, launching Jinsoku high in the air. Sirus opens a wormhole under himself and above Jinsoku, which he falls through and grabs Jinsoku on his way back down to the earth. Sirus knees Jinsoku in his back twice before back flipping, kicking Jensuki even higher in the air. Sirus falls through another wormhole that he opened, reappearing above Jinsoku again. Sirus uses his speed to hit the ascending Jinsoku with a diving kick in the head, spinning Jinsoku in the air. Sirus lands on the ground before Jinsoku, and spins, kicking the upside-down Jinsoku in the ribs, sending him flying across the mud.

Sirus approaches his fallen prey, licking his lips. Sirus cracks his neck as he steps closer. “Is that all? It can’t be over already.” Sirus taunts. Jinsoku doesn’t move. Suddenly a blood hurtling scream is heard, one that Sirus recognizes as Karai. Sirus turns his attention toward the scream for a few seconds. Sirus turns back, charging a lightning bolt in his hand. A second blood hurtling scream is heard, causing Sirus to disperse the lightning bolt.

“It would seem the boy is still in there somewhere.” Sirus turns to see Mikoto. “It appears I have underestimated you, I did not think you would take over so quickly.”

“Last time we met in combat, you needed four others to bring me down. You think you can defeat me all alone?” Sirus asks.

“Last time we fought you weren’t in the body of this boy. You are still adapting to his abilities.” Mikoto tells Sirus.

“No, I mastered his abilities eighteen years ago. I have more control than the boy does.” Sirus explains. “I am going to kill you here, once and for all.”

“Even if I fall, your defeat will fall into the hands of another.” Mikoto claims.

“Ever the optimist. Optimism is for those whom cant accept reality.” Sirus says grinning.

“Then let’s finish this, the way it started.” Mikoto tells Sirus, readying himself.

--------------------

“Tara will you be alright here by yourself?” Karai asks, approaching Raviel, whom has slipped out of consciousness. “I can shadow walk Raviel to a hospital and bandage him up to stop the bleeding. Then I’ll come back for you. My head hurts too much to carry you both at the same time.”
 “Get the dumb prick bandaged up, I’ll be here when you get back.” Tara orders. Karai nods and grabs Raviel, tossing his arm over her neck so she can walk with him. “Hey, do me a favor. Get me a bottle of sake will ya?” Karai just blows it off and steps into the shadows. “I’m serious!” Tara yells.

--------------------

“I knew Slieza had something to do with this! Now I’m gonna finish you off!” Noroi exclaims. Hitsugaya smirks as Noroi runs at him. Hitsugaya sidesteps Noroi, grabs his arm, and shoves him into a broken down building wall.

“Hey! Get off of me! Why you?!” Noroi yells.

“Shut up and listen to me.” Hitsugaya orders. Yuki takes the opportunity to run up and shove his body into Hitsugaya’s back, causing him to release his grip on Noroi. Yuki then knees him in the back and shoots a small fireball from his hand into Hitsugaya’s chest. Hitsugaya is pushed back slightly before spinning and kicking Yuki in the face.

“I’m going to crush you!” Noroi yells jumping at Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya grabs Noroi’s arm as he drops from onto his back, launching Noroi like a catapult into the wall behind him.

“Both of you shut up. I remember seeing you at the palace, so I suppose Lino Shi has some sort of use out of you.” Hitsugaya begins. “We share a common enemy, Kobura. He wants to kill me and you.”

“Lier! Kobura is your boss!” Noroi says, getting back to his feet. “Now feel my wrath!” Noroi charges at Hitsugaya, whom simply kicks Noroi in the face, sending him onto the floor. Yuki steps back from Hitsugaya.

“Why should we trust you?” Yuki questions.

“Because if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” Hitsugaya says.

“Then what do you want?” Noroi asks, wiping his lip.

“I want to stop Kobura, same as you.” Hitsugaya answers.

“Then lets get going.” Noroi says, getting up. “So does this mean were friends now?”

“No. While we share a common enemy, I would never associate myself with pathetic vermin like you.” Hitsugaya snaps, walking away from them toward Sirus.

“Hey! Wait up!” Noroi yells, chasing after Hitsugaya. Yuki chases Noroi.

--------------------

Karai carries Raviel to the hospital, in a dark room full of supplies. She grabs a needle and thread, some bandages, some wipes and gloves. She puts the gloves on, uses a wipe to push on Raviel’s wound, slowing the bleeding. She threads the needle and begins to sew him up. After a few minutes, Karai wipes down the amateur sewed wound and takes off her gloves. Karai kisses Raviel on the cheek.

“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Karai says to herself. She leans over Raviel, listening to make sure he’s breathing. Raviel opens his eyes and blinks a little, before trying to sit up.

“Karai? What’s going on?” Raviel asks.

“Tara healed me, and I sewed you up. We need to go back and get Tara.” Karai explains. “I’ll be right back.” Raviel nods. Karai turns to him. “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough to hear what you said., and feel what you did.” Raviel tells Karai.

“If you tell anyone about that, Ill kill you myself, got it?” Karai asks. Raviel nods and Karai walks into the shadows.

--------------------

Sirus charged at Mikoto, extending his arm for a punch. Mikoto blocked him, pushing Sirus’ arm toward the ground. Sirus opened his hand and shot a quick thunderbolt, getting himself off the ground. In the air, Sirus spun, attempting to kick Mikoto in the face. Mikoto blocks the kick before grabbing Sirus’ leg and kicking him in the ribs. Mikoto knees Sirus in the face before throwing him up in the air and shoving his shoulder into Sirus’ stomach, knocking him into the muddy ground. The hail began to speed up and change into a heavy rain.

“Come now, your getting sloppy. Don’t think for a minute that in my old age and in the peaceful time I’ve lost my step. You can’t defeat me being this predictable.” Mikoto taunts. Sirus is back to his feet already.

“Don’t make me laugh. I was hoping that you would prove that you are still as weak as ever. Don’t you forget the last time we met on the battlefield, I killed your son.” Sirus says with a smirk.

“And today I honor his sacrifice.” Mikoto exclaims.

“Then come at me.” Sirus taunts.

Chapter 11 - Final Clash - Mikoto vs. Sirus

“So what should we do with the boy?” Kobura asks, approaching a young infant crying in the desert sands.

“With his kind of power we can’t leave him out here to die, or worse be taken by bandits. One of us needs to watch over him.” Mikoto says, approaching Kobura and the young boy.

“Slieza is in the middle of a war, it is far to dangerous for me to take him.” Kobura explains, picking the young boy up, cradling him. Kobura hands the infant to Mikoto. As soon as he is in Mikoto’s arms, the baby stops crying.

“It would seem he agrees. What should we name him?” Mikoto asks.

“Considering that power inside him, how about Sirus, after Sirus-Ousama?” Kobura suggests.

“Though evil, Sirus does sound like a good name for the boy considering everything.” Mikoto agrees. “Sirus Kumori then.”

--------------------

Mikoto charges at Sirus, attempting to punch Sirus in the face. Sirus side stepped as a rock came out of the ground, forming a spike out of the ground that shot up, hitting Sirus in the chest. Sirus pushed off the spike and into the air. Mikoto waved his arm across his face as five knives shot out of the air in front of Mikoto, toward the airborne Sirus. Sirus opens both hands and sends out a wave of electricity, destroying the knives as he descends back to the ground.

Sirus landed and charged at Mikoto, charging his foot with electricity as Sirus went to kick Mikoto, whom pulled a small pillar out of rock from the ground to block the attack. Mikoto took a deep breath before blowing knives at Sirus. As quickly as the knives came toward him, Sirus conjured a storm right between him and the knives, raining hard enough to push the weapons to the ground before they could reach him.

Sirus opened his mouth and shot a small lightning bolt, which the heavy rain made a path for, going straight for Mikoto whom took the lightning bolt right into his left eye. Mikoto covered his eye and retreated back, reacting to the lightning bolt. Mikoto’s left eye was blinded by the lightning bolt. Mikoto turned to defend himself but took a electrically charged roundhouse kick to his right cheek, flipping him through the air and hard onto the mud.

--------------------

“Sirus I need to speak to you.” The orphanage director instructs. Sirus, now age four, gets up from the corner and walks over to the director. Sirus follows the director into his office. The director closes the door and Sirus sees a tall man wearing a white robe. Sirus sat on the chair opposite this stranger.

“Who are you?” Sirus asks.

“My name is Mikoto Chikyu. I am Higumia-Ousama’s right-hand man, and I found you when you were a baby. I brought you here where you would be raised until I could take you home. I am here to adopt you.” Mikoto explains. “I have already filled out the paperwork.” Mikoto smiles. Sirus is unsure if he is ready to go with this man, but decides to follow him out anyway.

“So, should I call you dad or something?” Sirus asks.

“Mikoto is fine, or dad. Either one is good. So I heard that you were very distant from the other kids at the orphanage.” Mikoto questions.

“The other kids are stupid.” Sirus replies.

“Now Sirus, I’m sure you just don’t understand them, or they don’t understand you.” Mikoto says, looking at him with a smile.

“Mikoto, you said that you found me as a baby. What happened to my parents?” Sirus questions.

“They were killed.” Mikoto says, looking up from the boy. “By a demon.”

--------------------

Mikoto pushed a pillar from the mud, launching him into the air and back to his feet before his approaching opponent could continue to attack him. Mikoto landed, staring down his opponent through his only working eye. Mikoto launched a pillar under Sirus as he ran toward Mikoto. Sirus was launched up and continued toward Mikoto, putting his hands together launching a large lightning bolt toward Mikoto. Mikoto jumped out of the way as Sirus landed on the ground, fist pushed into the ground splitting it toward Mikoto.

Mikoto clapped his hands together, closing the break in the earth, stopping Sirus’ earthquake. Mikoto opened his hands, pulled them up, and closed them, forming two pillars which slammed shut. Sirus blew a large hole in one of the of the pillars, giving himself a way of avoiding being smashed between them. The two had a stare down again.

--------------------

Sirus was panting as he was knocked back from his personal trainer. Sirus charged at his personal trainer, jumping at the trainer and kicking his ribs, too small to get to his face. The trainer caught Sirus’ leg and pulled him into the air, then slammed the four year old into the ground.

“Enough. You have improved quickly, my dear boy.” Mikoto comments, walking toward the two. The trainer reached down for Sirus, helping him up. Sirus got to his feet and shook his trainers hand.

“Same time next week?” Sirus asks

“Mikoto said that next week your off the hook, says its your birthday! I’ll bring you a present though.” The trainer answers.

“A present?” Sirus asks, putting his hand behind his head. Mikoto noticed something under Sirus’s torn shirt, and quickly moved the sleeve.

“Sirus where did you get that tattoo?” Mikoto asks, his voice stern for the first time in the eight months since Sirus had known Mikoto.

--------------------

Hitsugaya, Yuki, and Noroi arrived at the scene of the fight, watching as Sirus and Mikoto stared at each other. Hitsugaya grabbed Hina, whom was sitting against a brick wall.

“Yuki, Noroi?” Hina asks, without taking a glance off the fight.

“Hina right?” Hitsugaya asks, stepping up to her. “Mikoto is doing what he can to help your boyfriend, but at this point it is too late for Mikoto to do it by himself. Im going to help you to save him. When Mikoto tries to seal Sirus’ curse, you need to run in there and do whatever you can to make him remember who he is, do you understand.?” Hina nods.

--------------------

“Kobura?!” Mikoto yells, walking into the Slieza palace. “Kobura?!”

“What can I do for you?” Kobura asks, walking toward Mikoto. The new king of Slieza was accompanied by several guards, incase Mikoto was an assailant. Mikoto got close to Kobura, getting into his face.

“You cursed Sirus. You little bastard, you cursed Sirus!” Mikoto was fuming.

“Come now Mikoto, relax yourself. This is the first day of my reign over Slieza, no ‘congratulations, great job, etc?’ Come now my old friend is that a way to greet a king?” Kobura asks, almost taunting Mikoto.

“You are no king to me. Why the hell did you curse Sirus?” Mikoto demanded an answer.

“Come now my friend, don’t you know this already? The boy is so powerful naturally, his body is perfect for me. I’m going to control the world with his body as my own.” Kobura snickered.

“I will kill you myself!” Mikoto exploded. “I adopted him as my son and now you’ve cursed my son!”

“Oh no no no no, I cursed him the first night he was at that disgusting orphanage. Don’t worry, he is merely going to embrace his inner-self.” Kobura snickered.

--------------------

Sirus charged at Mikoto, electrocuting Mikoto when Sirus had punched him. Sirus kicked Mikoto hard in the face, whom slid across the mud. Sirus continued to charge at Mikoto, and Mikoto knew it was over. Sirus was getting overconfident, careless.

“I'm sorry it had to come to this Sirus. You were a son to me, I will never forget you.” Mikoto said, more to himself than to Sirus. Mikoto swept at Sirus’ legs, whom flipped over Mikoto. Mikoto used this opportunity to create a spike from the ground which pierced Sirus’ stomach and lower chest. Mikoto sighed as he heard Sirus exhale his last breath.

--------------------

Sirus, age sixteen, punched Noroi in the face. Sirus was fighting Noroi for his test to become a city guard. At this point in his life, Sirus knew Noroi harbored a demon, one of the nine demons, and blamed Noroi for the death of his parents. Sirus knocked Noroi onto his back and Sirus got on top of the fallen teenager. Sirus clenched his fist, charged a small lightning bolt into his hand, and punched Noroi square in the face, again, again, again, again, punch after punch, Sirus’ hand began to be covered in Noroi’s blood. Sirus felt his anger grow with every punch.

Sirus’ back started to hurt, specifically his shoulder that his tattoo was on. He felt his power grow with his anger as he continued to punch his foe repeatedly. His eyes changed from black to red. Jinsoku Hakati, Sirus’s trainer, Karai Atsui, Sirus’s best friend, and Mikoto-Ousama pulled Sirus off of Noroi as three medics and Yuki ran to the bloody boy.

Mikoto pulls Sirus out of the arena and pulls him backstage, where a young thirteen year old girl awaited for him. Sirus, among seeing the young girl, calmed down and hugged her, kissing her cheek. “Hey, Hina.” Sirus whispered.

Sirus looked up at Mikoto whom was watching the young couple. “How long have the two of you been together now?” Mikoto asks, with a smile.

“Three months.” Sirus answers, happily. In the long years that Mikoto had been raising him, Sirus was never as happy as he was when he was with Hina. “By the way, Mikoto, I’ve seen how busy you have been. I don’t want you to continue worrying about me, I am moving out.”

Mikoto looked at Sirus, and smiled. “Fine, I understand. Just remember, even when your on your own, I’ll always protect you.”

--------------------

Hina ran to Mikoto, crying after seeing the end of the battle. “Mikoto-Ousama, you said you would help him! You promised you would return him to me!” Hina screamed, crying.

“I’m sorry Hina, I did what I could, but I couldn’t save him.” Mikoto said, a tear falling from his eye.

“You seem to underestimate me.” Mikoto and Hina turned to what they thought was the corpse of Sirus. Sirus gripped the spike and pushed, pulling himself off of it. Sirus pushed off of the spike and stood in front of them. His stomach was red, covered in blood. Mikoto was shocked, but not surprised.

“I was hoping you were still alive. Your control over Sirus ends now.” Mikoto says with a smirk. Mikoto pulls up his hands, causing a pillar to push into Sirus’ back, pushing him into Mikoto’s hand. Mikoto pushes hard on Sirus’ chest and his cursed shoulder. Sirus screams as a large burst of energy starts to blow out of his body. Sirus’s eyes started return from red to black, but kept a red tint. Sirus’ curse started to retreat to his shoulder.

Finish him. He is pushing you back, finish him! Sirus heard the voice of someone in his head, someone whom he knew but could not recognize. Hina ran forward and grabbed Sirus, hugging her love as tightly as she could, trying to snap him out of the grip of his curse. Sirus raised his arm toward Mikoto before yelling as a burst of energy emitted a bright light, causing everyone to need to cover their eyes. The energy was so powerful it was felt around the world.

--------------------

“You will give me the boy!” Kobura demanded, slamming his hands on Mikoto’s desk.

“You will never have Sirus! I told you fifteen years ago and I’ll tell you now, you will never have Sirus!” Mikoto yells.

“You and your country will pay for this! You have my demands, if you do not bring me the boy, Slieza will retaliate.” Kobura demands.

“No! Absolutely unacceptable! We will not be intimidated by such vague threats from anyone, even at your level of authority! Now get out of my office and my country!” Mikoto explodes.

“Fine, you have my conditions. You cannot blame me for whatever happens to this country.” Kobura threatens, walking out of Mikoto’s office.

--------------------

As the light cleared, Hitsugaya, Noroi and Yuki saw Hina kissing her love, whom was missing the curse from his arm, though it was still on his shoulder. Sirus was in his own control again. Sirus fell unconscious, and fell. Hina caught Sirus as he fell, embracing him. Noroi and Yuki ran to Mikoto, whom was on his back, his eyes wide, and his chest with a large hole. Sirus had shot a lightning bolt into Mikoto’s chest as his last action before the curse gave out.

“Mikoto-Ousama! Mikoto-Ousama!” Noroi screamed as he and Yuki tried to help the lifeless corpse.

Hitsugaya bent down next to Hina, whom was holding Sirus. “I want to help the two of you. Sirus needs to learn how to control his curse, and to use it against Kobura. If he controls his curse well enough, he will be able to finish Kobura and avenge your son.” Hitsugaya turned to see Hina crying. “I’m sorry he was an unfortunate victim in this war.” Yuki and Noroi, having overheard, were shocked.

--------------------

“That energy, finally I’ve found you, father.” A wormhole opens and a shadowed figure steps through.

Chapter 12 - A New Leader

It has been a few days since the chaos caused by Kobura’s curse on Sirus. Sirus has gained control of himself, and Sirus and Hina have tried to get their lives back on track. They moved into a hotel room while their home is repaired. The loss of their son has left a scar on the young couple. While Sirus seems to be able to function, Hina has been lost in a daze, staring into space all the time since the incident. Jinsoku has been hospitalized due to severe wounds and hasn’t awaken since his fight with Sirus. Raviel and Karai are fully healed and back on their feet. The whole capital city has gathered around for Mikoto’s funeral in the graveyard outside the city.

“That son of a bitch. I’m gonna kill him, Yuki. I’m gonna kill him!” Noroi screams, looking at Mikoto’s body with tears in his eyes. Yuki puts his hand on Noroi’s shoulder and pays his respects to Mikoto. Yuki pulls Noroi away from the body.

“You can’t kill him, Sirus didn’t mean to do this. Kobura cursed him, he didn’t know what he was doing.” Yuki explains calmly. “Don’t you remember Hitsugaya explaining?”

“I don’t care! That bastard murdered Mikoto-Ousama!” Noroi screamed, crying.

“Mikoto-Ousama raised Sirus, he was the closest thing Sirus had to a father. I guarantee you that Sirus is feeling worse than you are.” Yuki explains.

“I spoke with Sirus earlier today.” Karai tells the boys, walking up to them.

“I talked to him yesterday.” Raviel says, approaching the group. “He surprised me, he didn’t seem upset at all. With his son and Mikoto dying, I thought he’d be a wreck.”

“Sirus cried today.” Karai says solemnly. She looks down before continuing, as if talking more to herself than to the group. “He tries to be strong, especially with Hina in her condition. If it wasn’t for the relationship that we have, I doubt Sirus would have shown his true colors to me. Sirus…” Karai looks up.

“What did that bitch say?” Noroi asks

“I promised him I wouldn’t repeat any of it, not even to Hina.” Karai said, looking back down. Karai muttered to herself, soft enough that the rest of the group couldn’t hear it. “Your not weak Sirus…”

--------------------
 Sirus watches the funeral from atop a nearby hill, sitting with Hina. Sirus had his eyes closed, preventing tears. Hina was staring off into space, which she has been doing a lot in the last few days. Sirus wrapped his arm around Hina and pulled her to him, causing her to lay in his lap.

“Not gonna go?” Hina says, slowly. Hina hasn’t talked much at all, and when she does it is always slow.

“No, I already did enough. The whole city hates me because of this incident.” Sirus says quietly. Sirus has been very quiet since the incident. However he tries to hide his true depression to be strong for the worse off Hina. The only person he’s opened up to was Karai.

“You should.” Hina tells him.

“I paid my respects this morning, before the funeral.” Sirus responds. Sirus looked away from the graveyard, at Domino, which was a large portion of the village was still heavily destroyed.

“Were you serious?” Hina asks. Sirus knows immediately what she’s referring to.

“I’m not sure, maybe. Would you come with me? We have too many bad memories here.” Sirus explains.

“Yea, I would.” Hina tells Sirus as footsteps can be heard approaching.

--------------------

Black jeans and a black jacket, Karite Zetsumei steps in front of the casket containing Mikoto’s corpse. Karite Zetsumei trained under Mikoto for several years, and was chosen by Mikoto, before he left to fight Sirus, to be Mikoto’s successor.

“Ladies and gentlemen of Lino Shi, listen to me.” Karite yells over the crowd. There were several people attending the funeral whom were not from Domino but lived in neighboring villages. “Mikoto-Ousama led a great rule over this land in the short years he was in power. I will follow in his footsteps. I promise you all that Kobura will die and Slieza will burn for the crimes they have committed here just a few days ago. I will lead us into a new golden age, and the entire world into this same golden age, an age without Slieza. We need to stand up again and fight. We need to march into Slieza and burn them to the ground. Slieza thinks we are afraid and weak, but we aren’t. We are prideful, we are powerful, we are determined, we are Lino Shi!”

Many people cheer for Karite. Chants begin “Karite-Ousama! Karite-Ousama!” Karite has motivated his country and brought the morale back to the lost souls. Karite was determined to avenge his mentor’s death.

--------------------

“Who is this guy?” Noroi asks

“Yuki, your brother’s an idiot.” Karai tells Yuki.

“Hey!” Noroi yells

“Noroi, she’s right.” Yuki tells Noroi. Noroi punches Yuki in the arm.

“Karite harbors one of the nine demons, making him extremely powerful.” Hitsugaya explains, joining the group. “I’ve heard rumors of his strength, he fought a demon right here in Lino Shi, only a few kilometers out.”

“Yea, in Hidekaim, Karite-Ousama fought alongside my brother to stop a demon twenty years ago.” Raviel explains.

“Karite is extremely powerful, I just hope he is strong enough to kill Kobura.” Hitsugaya says.

“How about you get out of here?” Noroi tells Hitsugaya. “None of us trust you, we all know your just a spy for Kobura.” Hitsugaya looks at the group whom is all nodding. Hitsugaya turns and walks away.

--------------------

The next day Sirus met up with Karai in the ruins of the battlefield where Mikoto died. Karai was carrying a bag with her, filled with baseballs, and a rope around her shoulder.

“Morning.” Karai says with a smile. “You ready to begin your curse mark training?”

“What’s with the bag?” Sirus asked cautiously.

“Well you need to control your anger to control your curse.” Karai starts.

“Am I going to like this?” Sirus asks

“Probably not.” Karai tells him.

“Is it going to help me?” Sirus asks

“Hopefully.” Karai answers.

“Is it going to hurt?” Sirus asks.

“Definitely.” Karai says with a smile. Sirus braces himself as Karai ties his arms behind his back and to a tree. Karai stands back about 10 meters, and pulls a baseball out of the bag. Sirus sees the baseball and clenches his teeth and prepares, it was obvious what was coming next. Sirus closes his eyes as he feels massive pain in his groin. Sirus looks down and sees a baseball dropping from his groin, and his pain was immense.

“That… fucking… hurt!” Sirus yells.

“Control yourself.” Karai taunts.

“!@#$ you!” Sirus yells. Karai throws another baseball, hitting him in the chin.

“What the !@#$? Get me the !@#$ down!” Sirus was fuming,

“We’re training. Control yourself.” Karai taunts again. Sirus’s curse is seen growing from his shoulder down his arm. Karai drops the baseball and runs to Sirus, hugging him. “Okay, we’re done. I’m sorry, this was cruel.”

“Get… the !@#$… away from me.” Sirus says. Karai looks at Sirus while untying him and notices his eyes have a red tint that they never had before. Karai unties Sirus, whom shoves her, causing her to fall on the ground. Sirus approached her, clenching his fist. Karai got back to her feet and begged Sirus to control himself.

“Stop! Stop! Don’t let the curse take control! Stop Sirus!” Karai begged. Sirus grabbed Karai and pulled his hand back to punch her, but opened his fist, let go of her, and turned away from her.

“I’m going to Hitsugaya for help.” Sirus said coldly. Before Karai could stop him, Sirus opened a wormhole and was gone.

--------------------

“How’s he doing?” Raviel asks, approaching Tara and Jinsoku.

“He’s recovering. Slowly, his damage was enormous, but hes recovering. Even with my power I cannot rewind time enough to fix his wounds, they are too severe. Jinsoku has yet to awaken.” Tara says, solemnly. Out of the corner of her eye, Tara notices Karai walk out of the shadows.

“Hey Karai… what’s up?” Raviel asks.

“Well Ill let the lovers get private time.” Tara says, walking out with a laugh.

“Lovers? What did she mean by lovers? You didn’t tell her did you?” Karai asks, with a glare.

“Tara’s just a douche, I didn’t tell her anything.” Raviel answers. “Anyway what’s up?”

“Sirus is worrying me. I took Sirus out to help him train to control his curse, and I guess I was a bit cruel.” Karai starts. “I threw baseballs at him, to make him control his curse by controlling his anger. However, it went bad, he quickly began losing control. When I went to help him he grabbed me and almost punched me before controlling himself. However he left…” Karai stopped and took a breath. “He left to go train with Hitsugaya.”

“I don’t like this. I did research into Hitsugaya, he was in the original Band of Three, I have doubts that he really changed his allegiance and wants to bring down Kobura.” Raviel tells Karai.

“That’s why this worries me. What if Hitsugaya is giving Sirus to his curse, to allow Kobura easier control?” Karai asks.

“We just need to keep an eye on this. Sirus, under his curse, was strong enough to kill Mikoto-Ousama. I doubt Kobura has given up with Sirus.” Raviel explains.

--------------------

“Ahh, Domino. I never expected to find you here, father. Now the question is, where are you? And more importantly, where am I going to kill you?”

Chapter 13 - Domani

“More power! Don’t be scared! Embrace it!” Sirus clenches his fist as he charged a large lightning bolt. Sirus opened his hand, shooting a large lightning bolt, bigger than anything he’d shot before, into the sky. The lightning bolt split the clouds and caused a loud clash of thunder. Sirus was panting as he felt his curse burning lightly.

“That was good, but your still not embracing your curse enough.” Hitsugaya says, his arms crossed in slight disappointment. “You can’t be afraid of your curse, you need to bring it forth, as it is what is going to make you strong.”

“The more I try to embrace it, the more I feel Kobura’s grip on me.” Sirus explains.

“That is because you are afraid of him taking you again. You need to eliminate your fear.” Hitsugaya explains. Sirus nods, and gets ready to charge another lightning bolt. Hitsugaya grabs Sirus’ shoulder and shakes his head slightly. “You have been launching lightning bolts for two hours now. You have improved, you have started to use your gift of the curse. Now you need to take time and rest.”

“Okay. Same time tomorrow?” Sirus asks, extending his hand for a handshake.

“Yea.” Hitsugaya says, not shaking his hand. “Its gonna get harder tomorrow though. I wont accept steps backwards.” Sirus nods, pulls his hand away, and opens a wormhole, stepping through it. “You are gaining control, there was more anger and more power in each of those shots. Good.”

--------------------

“Raviel…” A weak voice broke up the discussion between Raviel and Karai. Raviel walked over to a barely conscious Jinsoku.

“Sensei!” Karai said loudly. “I’ll get Tara and the doctors!” Karai ran out of the room quickly.

“Sensei?” Raviel asked, stepping toward Jinsoku.

“Raviel…” Jinsoku spoke very softly, very weakly. His voice sounded like he was choking.

“Sensei, rest. Your weak, the doctors say that your lucky to be alive. Tara used so much of her power, reversing the time of your wounds, that she nearly passed out because of it. If she wasn’t so powerful, you wouldn’t have woken up.” Raviel explains.

“I need to teach… teach you how to… to beat Kobura.” Jinsoku coughed.

“Mmm… mmm… mme? Me? Beat Kobura? How can I beat Kobura?” Raviel shouted, trembling.

“You have… to be… the one. You are… the only one… strong enough…” Jinsoku tries to explain. A few doctors and Tara come into the room, hurdling around Jinsoku. Raviel nods toward Jinsoku, then walks out of the door, meeting Karai on his way out.

“What did he say?” Karai asks as Raviel passes her. Raviel didn’t answer, he was in shock. Karai noticed Raviel tremble, and let him leave the room.

--------------------

Sirus reappears back in the city and approaches an alleyway. Sirus looks around, looked up at the sky, looking at the sun. It was roughly 4 pm, judging by the sun’s position. Sirus frowned, and turned away from the alleyway. In front of him stood a man, about his height, with a shining ball in his hand. The man threw the ball, which as it left his hand, Sirus recognized it for what it was. A ball of lightning. Sirus, confined between two buildings and not having much room to dodge, jumped from wall to wall of the buildings and out of the alleyway. Sirus looked back as he heard an explosion, and saw a hole where one of the buildings used to be.

“What… who the hell are you?” Sirus yelled. The assailant drew in a blue light from his hand, and threw a ball of water from his hand. Sirus ducked under it, but felt the water splash off the ball and land on him. The water landed on him and Sirus felt a jolt of lightning go through his body. The water was electrocuted. Sirus yelled and fell to his knees.

The assailant took three steps toward Sirus, then suddenly vanished. As fast as he vanished, Sirus felt an impact to the left side of his head. As Sirus spun through the air, he saw the assailant next to him. Sirus couldn’t figure out how, but this man was faster than Sirus could keep his eye on, and has enough impact behind his attacks to pose a serious threat. The assailant disappeared again and reappeared in front of Sirus, punching him in the face. It seemed, almost at the exact same second, the assailant was also kicking him in the stomach. Sirus flipped through the air and into a wall. Sirus’s left eye was cut.

“Who… why… who are you? Why… what are you… you doing?” Sirus asked, watching his assailant out of his right eye, his left eye swelled shut.

“I finally found you, father.” The assailant said, a smile on his face.

“Father?” Sirus questioned. Sirus struggled to get to his feet.

“Don’t recognize me? I am Domani, your executioner.”

--------------------

Raviel walked down the street toward a coffee shop. He needed to sit down and think, think about how in gods name he’s going to be able to bring down Kobura. Raviel turned the corner and sees a stranger whom, at a distance, he had mistaken for Sirus. Raviel approached, and soon realized it wasn’t Sirus. Raviel saw the stranger disappear and reappear quickly, halfway out of view, blocked from a building. Raviel shrugged and continued walking along the street toward the coffee shop.

Raviel ordered a cup of coffee and sat down waiting for it to be delivered. He looked out the window at the building across the street, thinking. Defeat Kobura? How can I defeat Kobura? He’s the king of Slieza for a reason. If he command’s troops like the Band of Three, how powerful must he be?

“You’re coffee sir.” A young woman places a cup in front of him. Raviel smiled, thanking her. Raviel pours two packs of suger into his coffee and a small bit of milk. He stirs it but stares out the window again.

Maybe he’s not as powerful as it seems. Just because he surrounds himself with powerful soldiers, does this make him powerful? They say no one has ever met Kobura in battle, and lived to talk about it. Well, aside from Sirus, but he wanted to control Sirus. Raviel sips his coffee.

--------------------

Sirus felt a strong kick to his face as his head bashed into the building behind him. Sirus felt this assailant, Domani, grabbing his shirt and pulling him to his feet.

“Come now father, you are disappointing me.” Domani taunts. Sirus spits in Domani’s eye. “Stubborn huh? You can hide the pain all you want, and be as cocky as can be, but your face shows the pain you are in. Don’t worry, you will be dead soon.” Domani throws Sirus and disappears, reappearing behind Sirus, kicking him in the back and toward a building. Sirus hits the wall and falls to the ground.

Domani approaches slowly, tauntingly. Under the influence of his curse, Sirus charges a large lightning bolt, as large as Sirus was, it flows from his hand and toward Domani. From Sirus’ perspective it seemed to have connected with Domani, but just as it should have. Sirus sees Domani reappear in front of him. Domani grabs his arm, pulls him forward and knees him in his face. Sirus’s head bounces off the wall behind him as he feels something strange. He sees Domani’s hand on his throat, but he wasn’t choking. Sirus tried to get out a sound, but heard himself gargle. Sirus realized what he was feeling… his lungs were filling with water. Sirus was drowning.

--------------------

“Okay get up, try to walk.” Tara instructs. Jinsoku pushes himself off the bed and sits up. He gets off the bed and stands up. Jinsoku felt light headed, and fell back onto the bed at first. On a second attempt he was able to stand.

“Tara, you are a miracle worker.” Jinsoku comments.

“Of course I am, you didn’t think Raviel would have lived passed the age of 4 without me did you?” Tara laughs.

“Sensei, Raviel seemed really out of it.” Karai says, approaching. “What did you say to him?”

“Where is he?” Jinsoku questions.

“I don’t know, he left in a fog of thought.” Karai explained.

“We need to find him, I need to teach him…” Jinsoku started as he started to walk. He grabbed his side and grunted. “…teach him how to chase Kobura… in order to kill him.”

--------------------

Raviel looks out the window and sees someone holding someone else by their neck, against a nearby building. Raviel recognizes the man whom is holding the other as the man he had mistaken for Sirus a few minutes ago. Raviel immediately jumped up and ran outside, taking in a breath. He ran to the man whom was holding Sirus down, and exhaled a breath of fire, knocking the man off of Sirus. Sirus fell to his side and spat out water. Coughing, Sirus tried to catch his breath.

“What the hell is going on?” Raviel asked, concerned about Sirus. Seeing Sirus cough up water, Raviel got down to try to help him.

“Who might you be?” Sirus’ attacker asked. Raviel looks up at him.

“I am Sirus’ friend. If you mess with him, you mess with me.” Raviel smiled.

“Fine, I’ll kill you too then. Its almost funny. You are defending a monster, like father, without knowing who or what he truly is. If I don’t kill father now, the world will turn into turmoil, with his power ruling over this entire world.” Domani explains, with a grin.

“I don’t know who the hell you think Sirus is, but he’s not your father. Sirus is only 20, you look to be older than he is. This fight ends now.” Raviel said sternly. He suddenly felt a realization. Wow… did I just say that? I think I understand why Jinsoku picked me.

“You just wouldn’t understand.” Domani says, looking down and closing his eyes. “It’s a shame, your future was so bright. I refuse to take your life, Tokumata. The world needs you to guide it.” Raviel draws his sword, and readies to charge. Sirus sticks his arm in front of Raviel.

“No, Raviel, this is my fight. Thanks for the help, but I think I’ve got him figured out. He moves fast, too fast. He’s reactions cannot be fast enough to allow him to move that fast. I got to thinking, and I realized, this whole thing wasn’t making sense. He’s able to block his mind well, he doesn’t want me reading something. However, due to his blocking of something specific, he cant block everything.” Sirus says with a smirk, too low for Domani to hear it, but for Raviel to make it out. Sirus gets to his feet, and looks at Domani. “I’ve got you figured out! Your not faster than me, you are able to manipulate time. You can freeze the time around you and move through it. You reactivate it and slow it down to hit me, causing your force to be astronomical.”

Domani grinned. “So you have me figured out, eh father? I was afraid this was going to be too easy, but this will still be over soon. You know I can manipulate time, how can you expect to defeat me?” Sirus merely grinned.

--------------------

Karai and Jinsoku traveled the streets looking for Raviel. Karai was puzzling over a few thoughts, and stopped Jinsoku. “Sensei, why? I have been your pupil for years, why did you choose Raviel? What does that kid have that I don’t have?”

“What do you mean? You will always be my loyal apprentice. Raviel is one of my pupils, but you are my apprentice. You don’t need to be jealous of him.” Jinsoku explains.

“Why did you choose him? Why are you teaching him how to kill Kobura?” Karai asks.

“Who is going to kill Kobura?” Jinsoku and Karai turn around to notice they were followed by Karite.

“Karite-Ousama? What are you doing here?” Karai asked.

“Raviel is going to kill Kobura.” Jinsoku tells Karite. “It is Mikoto-Ousama’s request. He taught me a technique to teach Raviel, to allow him to fight Kobura in his own level.” This pissed Karai off. Karai punched the wall next to her.
“You know he’s not as strong as you keep making him out to be! For god sakes he’s just a god damn person! Maybe he is a powerful warrior, but he’s not a freaking god!” Karai yells. She chucks her knife at the wall, and runs off. Jinsoku walks over to the knife and picks it up, looking at it. It was inscribed, Jinsoku read it out loud, to himself.

“You have proven yourself as the greatest student I have ever had. Take this knife as a relic of all your hard work, and only use it when you must. You will always be number 1. -- Jinsoku” Jinsoku looks up toward the direction in which Karai and run, talking to himself again. “Karai, please understand.”

--------------------

Sirus stares down Domani, takes four steps back, and launches a lightning bolt. Domani disappears and reappears about two feet from Sirus, giving Sirus enough time to kick him in the head and launch a small ball of lightning from his mouth. The ball of lightning connected with Domani, whom was in the air, and knocked him into the cement, where he slid a few feet. Sirus jumped back a few feet, creating distance.

“Raviel, get out of here. You being here right now will only make his job easier.” Sirus orders. Raviel nods and walks back toward the coffee shop, watching the fight.

“So you have me figured out.” Domani smiles.

“I can read your mind. I’m sure you know, since you’ve been blocking something this entire fight. Its kind of funny, your using all your mental power to block one memory, instead of your current thoughts. You are letting me read your every attack. What are you hiding?” Sirus asks.

Domani runs at Sirus, whom launches a lightning bolt. Domani stops time and reappears next to Sirus, whom had already read the move and launched another lightning bolt where Domani reappeared, catching him in the stomach. Domani flies into the air and lands hard on his back. Sirus approaches, his anger growing. Sirus charges another lightning bolt, but stops and steps back. If he gets too close, Domani can stop time and get him. Reading his mind isn’t going to work twice on him.

“You win this round, father. I refuse to let your evil rule over the world. I promise you, you shall die from my hands.” Domani tells Sirus, getting to his feet. Domani opens a wormhole in front of him and walks into it. Sirus runs after him but the wormhole closes before Sirus could get to him. Sirus punches the nearby wall, in frustration. Sirus opened a wormhole, and went home.

--------------------
Hina felt arms around her waist, and looked up, kissing Sirus’ cheek. “I’ve finished packing.” Hina informs Sirus.

“Good. We should be leaving in a few days.” Sirus tells her. “I can’t wait to get out of this country.” Hina turns to Sirus. Hina notices Sirus’ eye is swollen, but not swollen shut anymore.

“What happened?” Hina askes.

“I was attacked by someone whom claimed I was his father. He was delusional, but powerful. He manipulated time, and almost drowned me.” Sirus explains.

“He claimed you were his father?” Hina asks. The mention of father, the idea that someone had mistaken themselves as Sirus‘, and thereby her son, made her think of Akura. “Am I a bad mother?”

“Why would you think such a thing?” Sirus asks.

“You’re so strong. You’re devoted to killing Kobura, to avenging our son. Me? I’ve been lost in space since the incident. You’re not scared, you continue to be strong. You’re just, so perfect.” Hina tells Sirus. Sirus frowns. “What’s wrong baby?”

“I’m not strong. I’m scared. I feel weak. I watched our son die, and there was nothing I could do about it. Mikoto kept something from me, he raised me my entire life and never told me any of this. He knew I was cursed and he let me fall under Kobura’s control. That’s why I want to get the hell out of this town.” Sirus explains. “I am going to do exactly what Mikoto didn’t want. I’m going to embrace my curse. I’m going to use it, it is going to empower me. I’m going to kill Kobura with the gift that he gave me.”

Hina smiled at this. She kissed Sirus, and grasped his hands. Hina pushed Sirus onto the bed and continued kissing him. Hina pulled off her shirt and climbed on top of Sirus.

--------------------

Raviel approached the battle scene, where he just watched Sirus and Domani both wormhole away. Raviel looks around at the scene, confused. “A king wanting Sirus’ body. A curse that gives him more power than can be imagined. A dead king. Now this new assassin, that knows my last name? What in gods name is going on?” Raviel asked himself. The only thing that was obvious was that everything that had happened in the last week since he had come to Domino was all related to Sirus somehow, in one way or another. He was the key to all of this.

Chapter 14 - Finally Home

Its funny, how much things feel different when you are away for a few months. Approaching the brick building, with five beautiful statues in a pentagram in front of the door, crafted in gold with such precision that matching them was no parallel, Kara placed her hand on one of the statues. These five statues were exactly symmetrical, of wolves howling toward the moon. Kara looked up and saw the beautiful moon in which she was accustomed to. Hisakata is a strange land, where the sun and moon patterns don’t exactly match with everything else. On average, there was twenty-one days of dark in a row, before seven days of light.

Kara opened the gilded door, golden crusted and jewel embezzled, which stood about 14 feet high and about three feet wide per door. The door in which Kara’s hand lay was worth more than her entire home in Lino Shi and here in Hisakata combined. Hisakata is known for having an extremely wealthy government, but those whom are not directly in the counsel, or in direct relation of one of the members, have just enough to get by. Living in Lino Shi for so long, Kara was disgusted by this door. This door was worth more than the entire ‘civil’ district of Tsuki, the capital of Hisakata, where she was.

Kara sighed, and entered the palace. The foyer of the palace disgusted her. So much wasted wealth, and yet, the people are so poor. The foyer was beautiful, filled with statues of wolves and owls, diamonds for eyes, gold for fur or feathers, depending on the statue. The rugs were made with rare materials, with patterns that lit up the room. This room was so full of life, and yet all it did for Kara was make her want to throw up.

Kara approached the winding staircase, with its golden handrails and silver steps which, with every step, made an echoing sound heard throughout the quiet foyer. As she got to the top of the staircase, Kara was greeted by a man standing outside the door to the counsel’s meeting room.

“Greetings miss Ashitaka, I assume your mission went well? You weren’t expected back for a few more weeks.”

“Is the counsel in?” Kara questioned. The greeter nodded and opened the door. Kara walked into the room and approached a round table, crafted in silver, with four men and a woman around sitting in leather chairs around the end of the table furthest from the door. Kara places a pile of papers on the table and steps back.

“Ahh Kara, a successful mission it seems.” One of the men said. When looking from left to right along the counsel, the man whom was speaking was the second from the left.

 “I have a request father. The ‘Mad King’ has done as we have feared, he has started a pursuit to invade another country. Lino Shi’s capital has nearly been leveled due to the power of the mad king.” Kara started to explain.

“You wish for Hisakata to get involved in the war and prevent Slieza’s advance?” the same man, Kara’s father, assumes.

“Indirectly. The mad king has a vested interest in one of the residents of Domino, a young male named Sirus Kumori.” Kara begins. The five members of the counsel begin speaking amongst themselves at the name, in a hushed tone.

“Why has the mad king taken an interest in this boy?” The woman, sitting in the fourth chair, when looking from left to right, asks.

“I don’t know exactly why.” Kara answers.

“Then how do you know this boy is of interest?” The man sitting in the center asks.

“The mad king had taken control of the boys mind, and under the mad kings control, brought Sirus into the band of three. Sirus also claims that, contrary to what is officially stated by Lino Shi, it was Sirus whom, under the mad king’s control, killed Mikoto.” Kara explains.

“The mad king’s army is powerful, Lino Shi won’t survive alone. We need to send in our army.” Kara’s father says, standing from his chair.

“Leaving Sirus in Lino Shi could pose problematic. If the mad king has such interest in him as your daughter claims, Okami, then we need to bring him to Hisakata, under our protection.” The woman explains.

“Agreed, if the mad king believes the boy is hidden in Lino Shi, he will likely send his armies in searching for him. This will allow our army to invade Slieza and stop their advances, restoring stability to the world.” The counsel member on the far left explains in agreement.

“Then we are agreed. Sirus trusts me, he helped me to acquire these documents a few days ago. I will escort him here myself.” Kara says.

“Agreed.” The five counsel members all say. Kara nods and turns to leave.

--------------------

Hina reached down and pulled her bra off the floor. She stepped to the mirror and started to put it back on.

“I’m sorry Hina… I’m just… not ready.” Sirus explains, approaching her.

“I know. I understand.” Hina tells him. “Can you get this clip for me?”

“You sound disappointed.” Sirus tells her while helping her.

“I’ve wanted to make love with you… since yesterday. You’re still depressed over Akura, as am I. I understand, your not ready to do this yet.” Hina tells Sirus. Hina walks over to Sirus, whom was sitting on their bed.

“What if… if you got pregnant again?” Sirus asks.

“We can always use protection if you want, you know that.” Hina assures him.

“I want another baby… being a dad was the greatest thing I’ve ever done. However… I’m scared. I’m scared Hina!” Sirus says, standing up and taking a few steps. “I couldn’t stop Kobura! That bastard was out to get me for my entire life! We lost our son… and it’s my fault!” Sirus punches the wall. Hina immediately gets up and hugs Sirus, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Please, stop…” Sirus’ rage turned into guilt. Hina was scared of all of this, and Sirus was only making it worse. Sirus needed to put up a strong front, so Hina could lean on him.

“I’m sorry. I need…” A knock was heard from the door. Sirus looks at Hina before approaching the door, dropping Hina‘s shirt in the laundry hamper along the way. Sirus checks who is at the door through the peephole. “Its Karai.”

“Okay.” Hina says. Sirus opens the door and Karai walks in, hugging him. Hina approaches the two. Karai looks at Hina, and lets go of Sirus.

“I’m not interrupting… am I?” Karai asks.

“Why would you feel like your interrupting anything?” Hina asks.

“Well… only time your not wearing a shirt is when your about to shower or make love.” Karai says, rolling her eyes. Sirus looks at Hina, then back at Karai. “I think I come over to see you two too often.” The three laugh and Hina kisses Sirus’ cheek.

“A shower sounds like a good idea.” Hina tells the two, before turning away.

“Good. Do you mind if I take your boyfriend for a walk?” Karai asks.

 “Have him back before bed time.” Hina says, in a joking motherly tone, turning back to the two. Sirus glares at her for a second before smiling. Hina turns back and walks into the bathroom. Sirus grabs a light jacket and meets Karai outside, closing the door behind him.

--------------------

Kara walked down the steps and toward the big doors out of the foyer. She looked around at the magic, the beauty, the awe inspiring wealth used just to design this room alone. Kara pushed the large door open to leave the palace, and walked out and into the palace garden. Due to the sun and moon patterns, the only plant that is able to grow in the country is nightshade.

“Kara! Welcome home!” Kara turned around to see her younger brother, Shiro. Shiro was only thirteen, about to turn fourteen.

“Shiro!” Kara said with a smile, and hugged him.

“Kara look look look!” Shiro said, excitedly, taking off his shirt and showing her his back. Kara saw a tattoo of a wolf’s claw on his back, and smiled.

“Congratulations Shiro! What did dad say?” Kara asked.

“Nothing, he hasn’t seen it. Part of me is afraid of showing him.” Shiro tells her.

“Did I just hear correctly?” A man comes around the corner of the brick fence around the palace, sees Kara, and runs over to her. Kara catches him, a huge smile on her face, hugging him. Kara looks him in the eyes before kissing him.

“I’ve missed you, Suta.” Kara says with a smile.

“As have I.” Suta tells her. “Are you back to stay?”

“Not yet. I need to return to Lino Shi’s capital and bring someone back with me, I will probably be back in a few days.” Kara explained. With her speed, she could travel across the countries in a few days time, thousands of kilometers in a day.

“You’re fast, but bringing someone back with you, that will slow you down.” Suta says, a frown on his face.

“Sirus, the person I need to bring back, can open wormholes and transport here instantly. Even if he can’t, it’s only a months travel at an average speed.” Kara said. Suta’s frown stayed.

“Are you staying for my birthday party?” Shiro asks. “I turn fourteen tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I will be spending the night.” Kara tells Shiro. Kara grabs Suta’s hand, and begins to walk out of the garden with the two of them, and toward the city. Looking at the buildings made her sick. Most were worn down, damaged, and missing windows, roofs, basic things. Holes in sides of buildings were very common. However, the people were content. This was considered upper class when compared to the rest of the country. In Hisakata, Kara still lived with her brother and her father, mostly because the home was in the upper class section of the city, and not an eye sore like the rest of the town. Approaching the door, Shiro pulled out his key and opened the door, allowing the three of them in.

“So, Kara, tell me about your time in Lino Shi!” Shiro tells her.

“In a bit, I’m gonna lay down.” Kara says, pulling Suta. Shiro laughed.

“I’m not a little kid anymore, I know exactly what your gonna do. Haven’t seen your boyfriend in nearly a year, you want what any horny adult wants. Have fun!” Shiro says, nudging her. Kara blushed in embarrassment, brought Suta into her room, and closed the door.

--------------------

“Raviel!” Raviel was walking toward his home, pondering what was going on. “Raviel!” Raviel turns and sees Karite and Jinsoku behind him.

“Oh, sensei, Ousama, what’s up?” Raviel asks.

“I need to teach you how to fight Kobura on his own level.” Jinsoku tells Raviel. “After you’ve killed him, he can change bodies. You need to learn how to stop him from doing so.”

“Please follow us Raviel.” Karite orders. Raviel sighs, still unsure of his abilities, and follows the two. “So what were you thinking about, that you didn’t hear us call you the first time?”

“I’ll explain later.” Raviel tells them.

--------------------

Out of energy, Kara laid on top of Suta, breathing heavily. Placing one of her hands on Suta’s shoulder, Kara kissed his neck. “That was… magical.” Kara says with a smile.

 “A year is a long wait, but well worth it.” Suta says, agreeing with her. Kara smiles, kisses Suta’s neck again, pulls her hair back and sits on her knees. She smiles at Suta again before getting off the bed. Kara approaches the door to her room and opens it, stepping into the hallway. She looked toward the bathroom and saw the door open. She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a can of soda, not seeing Shiro along the way. More likely than not, Shiro is in his room. It wouldn’t have bothered her if Shiro saw her naked, she commonly walked around the house naked. As far as Kara was concerned, since she was the adult of the house, her dad living in the palace, she had the right to do what she wanted in her home. Kara walked back to her room and over to her dresser, grabbing out underwear from a drawer. She then walks to the closet and opens it.

“I’m gonna shower. Traveling across the world for a few days with no shower makes me feel dirty.” Kara tells Suta, looking for something to wear. “What should I wear to the party tonight?”

“What you wearing right now is good enough of a party for me.” Suta says with a grin.

“Seriously babe, what should I wear?” Kara asks.

“It’s gonna be a formal party, wear that green dress you wore to your graduation.” Suta tells her.

“Formal?” Kara shrugs. “I’ll just wear underwear until its time to get changed, I don’t want to have my dress wrinkled. Get dressed by the way, I ain’t closing the door.”

“’Get dressed’ says the naked woman.” Suta says sarcastically.

Kara hears the sound of the shower starting. “Damnit… Shiro’s in the shower.” Kara walked back to her lover and sat with him. “Mikoto’s funeral is tomorrow… I should probably head back now to be honest. Shiro will be crushed… but I won’t make the funeral if I wait. Plus Sirus is going to be looking for me afterwards. What should I do?”

Suta wrapped his arms around her, making sure to rest them on her breasts. “Stay for you brother’s party, Mikoto wasn’t your ruler, your family, or anything. Don’t worry about his funeral. Besides, your dad is bringing a bunch of alcohol.” Kara sighs, nods, and lays against Suta. The sound of alcohol sounded really good for Kara. In Hisakata there was no drinking age, Kara has been drinking since she was only nine years old. However, in Lino Shi there was a drinking age of 22, so she couldn’t get her hands on alcohol while she was living there. She was planning on getting hammered. Kara got up and closed the door. While she didn’t care about Shiro seeing her naked, she didn’t want him watching her make love.

--------------------

“So, what’s wrong?” Sirus asks.

“Reading the anger in my mind?” Karai asks.

“Are you kidding? Anyone with half a brain can tell your pissed off. What’s wrong?” Sirus asks, pulling a small package out of his pocket.

“Just read my mind then. I don’t feel like explaining it.” Karai grumbles. Sirus sighs and listens to all of her thoughts.

“Listen to me Karai… Jinsoku does think of you as his apprentice. I know that it may seem otherwise, because of Raviel, but you can’t be jealous of him. Raviel is… different. I don’t know what it is about him, but when I look at him…” Sirus takes a minute to choose his words carefully. “I feel like he’s got something else, that even he doesn’t know about. Jinsoku probably chose Raviel because he is stronger than you are. You excel at speed, stealth, agility, and cunning.”

“Exactly! I’m not str-…” Karai started shouting, before looking at Sirus and noticing something sticking out of his mouth, and her anger boils. “What the !@#$ is that?!”

“A cigarette.” Sirus said calmly, taking a puff before blowing it out.

“Oh no, you better not be smoking!” Karai yelled.

“Karai, I’m not a child. I can smoke if I want to smoke. Besides, after everything that’s been happening lately, I need something to relax myself, I need to be strong for Hina.” Sirus explained. Karai sighed. “So, as you were saying?”

“I’m not strong Sirus. I can’t be Jinsoku’s apprentice if I’m not strong.” Karai tells him, solemnly.

“But your fast. You’re the perfect assassin or even the perfect spy. Your smart, stealthy, and cunning. You have more qualities than strength. What you lack in strength doesn’t matter when your behind someone with a knife around their throat. Don’t worry about what Jinsoku or Mikoto want, especially Mikoto. He’s a liar, and will say whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants.” Sirus’ soothing, compassionate voice, which was helping Karai, was turning into anger, hatred. Karai grabbed his hand and held it.

“Thank you Sirus. But you need to understand, whatever Mikoto didn’t tell you, was because he was worried about you.” Karai starts.

 “Bullshit!” Sirus yanks his hand away. “If he was worried about me, then why didn’t he tell me a mad man was going to kill my son to get to me? Why didn’t he tell me I was hunted my entire fucking life?” In his anger, Sirus launched a lightning bolt into the sky. A loud boom of thunder was heard when the lightning bolt hit the clouds, causing them to begin to empty. Karai saw the curse mark slowly spreading down his arm, but stopping. Sirus was starting to learn to control it’s power. Karai hugged Sirus from behind. Sirus, starting to calm down, took a puff of his cigarette.

“Calm down Sy. Calm down.”

--------------------

Kara woke up the next morning, and turned over to lay with her lover. When she felt the pillow instead, Kara opened he eyes and didn’t see Suta. Kara jumped up, looking for him, and found a note by her bedside.

“Kara,
Last night was beautiful, but I don’t want to wait for you again. There is another. Thank you for one last night of fun, but its over.”

Kara threw the note on the ground and got up from her bed. Kara opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway. The air conditioner was pumping, which, against her naked body, made Kara shiver.

“Hey morning sis!” Shiro says, full of joy. “You got smashed at the party last night! You were so out of it that Suta had to carry you to bed!”

“Don’t mention that assholes name.” Kara said, holding her head.

“What’s wrong sis?” Shiro asked.

“Suta left this note for me.” Kara says, handing Shiro the note. Upon reading it, Shiro crumpled it and threw it onto the ground.

“Kara, go back to bed. You can’t make the trip in your condition. Sleep for a bit longer, then go back to Lino Shi.” Shiro tells her, sympathetically.

“I… Fine I is.” Kara says, holding her head more.

“You still sound slightly drunk, or at least extremely hung over. You were only asleep for about two hours. Go back to bed.” Shiro instructs her, leading Kara to her bed. Kara lays down, crying. Shiro sits with her, putting her blanket over her and rubbing her back until she cried herself to sleep. After Kara was asleep, Shiro left her to sleep, checking on her every hour.

After about a four hours, Kara opened her eyes, blinking. She got out of bed, looked at the crumpled note on the floor, and tossed it into the trash. She opened the door and went right into the bathroom, getting medication.

“How ya feelin‘?” Shiro asks.

“My head… is pounding…” Kara tells him. Kara put her head up and opens her mouth, dropping a few pain killers into her mouth and swallowing them. “It’s a long walk back to Lino Shi, and I won’t be able to run as fast. I want to be there by tonight, I want to bring Sirus back tonight.”

“Are you going to shower first?” Shiro asks.

“No.” Kara tells him, stepping out of the bathroom, down the hallway, and into the kitchen. “But I am going to eat.” Kara grabs a bowl and a box of cereal.

“Okay. My friends are coming over, so here.” Shiro tells her, tossing her some clothes from off the table.

“I don’t care, I’ll get dressed when I’m ready to leave.” Kara told him.

“You never let other people see you naked…” Shiro asked, confused.

“I haven’t been single for a few years. Now I can show myself off.” Kara said with a smile. She got up, grabbed a bottle of sake, and sat down again, taking a gulp of her drink. Kara commonly walked around her home naked, even with company present, until she became a girlfriend, and felt that she would be unfaithful by letting others see her body. Shiro, however, was family, she didn’t care.

About ten minutes later, Shiro opened the door to the house and let a few people in. Kara finished her food and walked to the sink, to place her bowl in it. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, one of Shiro’s friends starring at her. This made Kara giggle. Ahh teens. Kara turned to the teen boy, whom tried to play off that he wasn’t looking at her, and ran down the hall to Shiro’s room. Kara laughed again and went back to her room, getting dressed.

Kara walked into Shiro’s room, seeing the boy whom was earlier watching her blushing. She chuckled to herself. “I’m leaving, I will likely be home in a few days, unless Sirus cannot open wormholes here. If that’s the case, I’ll probably be home in about a month or two.” She explained to Shiro. Shiro hugged his sister.

“Be careful, okay?” Shiro requested, very concerned.

“I will, I promise.” Kara tells him. She kisses her brother’s head, then walks out, seeing her dad running to the house. “Dad?”

“Kara, I have some bad news. The Counsel has altered their decision, Sirus cannot live here. Due to the secrecy of Hisakata and The Counsel’s abilities, we cannot trust outsiders, under any condition. I am sorry baby.” Okami tells Kara, solemnly.

“What?” Kara yelled. “Forget Slieza and the mad king! He gave me those war documents! He risked his life, his job, his position in Lino Shi! If he was caught he’d be imprisoned, or worse put to death, and you wont let him into the country because of ‘secrets’?”

“I’m sorry Kara, but The Counsel’s decision is final.” Okami told her. After Kara didn’t respond, Okami continued. “I need to get back to the palace.” Okami went to hug Kara, whom pushed him off of her. Okami, realizing his daughter was angry with him, decided to leave her be and went back to the palace.

Kara went inside and grabbed a bag, stuffed it with soft clothing, and put a beautiful statue she had on her dresser, a woman blowing fire, which her mother had given her, on top of the clothing. She placed a few more pieces of clothing on top of the statue, as a protective covering so it wouldn’t get damaged. She grabbed a necklace out from her jewelry box, the same one her mother gave her right before she was murdered, and put it on. She stepped outside with her bag, looked at the house, and whispered under her breath. “I’m sorry Shiro, forgive me.” Kara sprinted for Lino Shi‘s capital, not looking back at Tsuki.

--------------------

Sirus walked Karai to her home. “Thank you so much Sirus.” The two were talking the entire walk, about so many things on their minds. Sirus, with Karai’s permission, dropped his first cigarette in her trash, and was smoking his second one.

“Do me a favor. Hina doesn’t know about this.” Sirus tells her.

“I won’t tell her, I promise.” Karai says with a smile. Sirus and Karai hugged, but Karai seemed concerned. “Sirus… your eyes are tinted red… they look bloodshot. Are you… doing anything aside from smoking cigarettes?”

“Are you saying I’m using drugs?” Sius asked, defensively.

“I’m not accusing you of anything, but if you are…” Karai laid against Sirus. “Please… I can’t control you… but for me… clean up.” Sirus hugged Karai. He turned away, heading home.

Sirus got home and opened his door. He walked in and kissed Hina, whom was on their bed waiting for him. Sirus laid with Hina, and cuddled with her.

“Kara should have been here this morning, so she will likely be here sometime in the near future. Are you ready to go?” Sirus asked.

“I am. Are you sure you want to do this?” Hina asked.

“I can’t stay here. I killed Mikoto, and the entire city thinks it was Kobura. I can’t risk them learning the truth. Plus, too many painful memories here. It’s truly best if we just go.” Hina nodded and Sirus turned off the light, snuggled up with his love, and closed his eyes before hearing a knock on his door. Sirus got up, looked through the peephole, and opened the door, letting Kara in.

Chapter 15 - Slieza Invasion part 1 - Counterattack

“So that’s it huh?” Sirus asked. Sirus was sitting on his couch, across from Kara whom was sitting on another couch in the same room. Hina was in bed, asleep. Sirus stood up and took two steps away from Kara. “I can’t stay here, I killed Mikoto. Eventually word will get around, Ill be resented, hated by everyone, and likely executed.”

“Yea, I know. And my lease will be up in a few weeks, I won’t be able to stay either. I will need to officially move here, but when I try to apply for citizenship, they will see I have lived here for a while, but wasn’t a citizen. I’ll be arrested. However I refuse to go to Hisakata, after living in a fair country like this one, I am disgusted by the wasted wealth of the government.” Kara explains.

“The three of us could move to another country, but which?” Sirus says, more to himself than to Kara. Kara leans back on the couch, before leaning forward and using her hands to push herself, causing her to jump up.

“Well, it’s getting late.” Kara says, yawning. “I’ll tell you what.” Kara reaches in her pocket, pulling out a key. “Come by my house tomorrow whenever you want, here is the key. Due to how far the door is from the rest of the house, as you saw the last time you were there, I likely won’t hear you knock. Just let yourself in.” Sirus smiled, took the key, and walked Kara to the door. Kara smiled at him for a minute, hugged him, and left for home. Sirus turned around and went back to bed.

--------------------

Unlocking her door, Kara entered her home. Kara’s apartment was an upper floor apartment, so the door was at the bottom of a staircase. At the top of the staircase was a perpendicular hallway, making an uppercase “T” shape. Traveling left down the hallway led to Kara’s room, where she rarely spent time. The right side led to her kitchen, which, if your standing at the entrance, was connected to the living room on the left side. Kara spent most of her time in these two rooms, either eating or watching TV. She usually fell asleep watching TV. At the far end of the living room was a door on the left side, when standing in the entrance of the living room, which held a small hallway, with a small restroom and an ascending staircase immediately to the left, if you are standing in the doorway. This lead to another “T” shaped corridor, with the left side having a full bathroom, directly above the kitchen, and the right side having the laundry room, directly above her room.

 She traveled to the laundry room, stripping naked and dropping her clothing in the washing machine. Feeling a bit cold now, Kara walked downstairs and into her living room, and over to the pumping air conditioner. Shivering as she approached it, Kara turned it off. Kara walked into her kitchen and opened her fridge, grabbing out a bottle of sake which she had brought with her from Hisakata. She only could bring a few bottles, so she would need to make them last as long as she could. She opened the bottle, tilted her head back, and took a gulp. She put the bottle back in her fridge, hoping it wont lose its taste in the fridge overnight.

Kara grabbed a few papers she had on her kitchen table, and walked over to her couch, laying against the arm, putting her feet up behind her. She laid one of the papers on the floor below her, but held the other one in her hand. She had a pen on the table next to the couch, circling a few things. She was reading over alcohol purchasing ages in different countries, circling each country she could buy alcohol at, being only twenty. After circling three of the nine countries, though she would have circled Hisakata if she considered returning, she grabbed her other papers, which were notes on each countries government. She was given this when she was chosen to spy on different countries around the world. Of the nine countries, she had only been to four: Hisakata, her home, Lino Shi, where she reside now for her current mission, Kazetochi, where alcohol was strictly forbidden, where she was sent to steal relics from the government, and Slieza, with Sirus. In Kazetochi, she got her hands on the list of drinking ages in the nine countries.

Of the three countries she‘d circled, Kara strongly considered Slieza as to be the country of choice to move to. However, Kara knew she wouldn’t be able to get Sirus to move there, not while Kobura lived. Plus, if Kobura learned that the three of them had gone to Slieza, they would likely be in danger due to Kobura’s desire to find and take Sirus for himself. Kara sighed, and looked at the other two government structures. Slieza, being a dictatorship, was the best of the three, in Kara’s opinion.

Kaminari was far north, and wasn’t quite civilized. While they had no alcohol age limit, they didn’t have a stable government, and was a well known war country, being in four civil wars in the last six years. The government was unstable, and therefore unable to maintain order. Every year and a half or so, a new government would take over. Not an ideal place to start a new life.

Shizen, like Hisakata, was a government run by a counsel, but of seven as apposed to five. While the counsel members of Shizen were elected by the people, it was known to be very corrupt due to the counsel not caring much for the people. There were rebellions, though not as bad as Kaminari. More importantly to Kara, however, the idea of a counsel bothered her, due to her history in Hisakata. She got up, walked to the table, and placed the papers on the table, and returned to the couch. Kara flipped on the TV with the remote, sitting on the table, laid down on the couch, and closed her eyes.

--------------------

The next morning, Sirus awoken and walked into the kitchen, finding Hina whom was making breakfast. Sirus hugged Hina from behind while she was at the stove, scrambling a few eggs in the pan. Hina smiled, and spun around, hugging Sirus.

“Morning baby!” Hina said with a smile. “How many eggs you want?”

“I’m not hungry hun, I’m sorry.” Sirus apologized. “You seem to be in a good mood.”

“Well you said Kara had come by last night!” Hina said, excitedly. Sirus hadn’t heard Hina be so excited since he told her that he’ll stay and raise his baby, after she told him she was pregnant nearly eleven months earlier, Hina was often shy, quiet.

“Yea, I need to speak with her today, she was too tired from the travels.” Sirus told her. “I’m gonna go ahead and head over to her house ok?”

“Okay, I’ll be ready when you are.” Hina told him. To Sirus’ surprise, Hina had gone from worried about leaving Lino Shi to excited. She couldn’t wait, perhaps merely because Sirus wanted to leave and she wanted to be with Sirus. Sirus approaches Hina and kisses her.

“I’ll be back in a little bit. I love you.” Sirus says with a smile. Hina smiles back, and Sius steps out the door, closing the door behind him. Sirus walked down the sidewalk, turned the corner, and came face to face with Raviel.

“Sirus! I need to discuss a counterattack with you, Mikoto-Ousama‘s final strategy.” Sirus nearly blew him off and kept walking passed him. This bothered Raviel, whom grabbed Sirus’s arm and pulled him back to Raviel. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t give a shit about Mikoto or his fucking strategy.” Sirus said, bitterly.

“Sirus? Are you… ok?” Raviel was concerned. He hadn’t known Sirus long, but he’d never heard Sirus blow his stack, especially not over something like this. In the short time that Raviel had known Sirus, he felt the two had become close. Sirus turned away from him, pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and stuck it into his mouth. This shocked Raviel, he never saw Sirus smoke before, and Sirus didn’t seem like a smoker to him.

“Mikoto knew about Kobura’s plans. He knew for a long time. And he never told me.” Sirus clenched his fist, punched the nearby fence. “If that bitch told me about this, maybe I wouldn’t have fallen under his control! Maybe my son wouldn’t have died in front of me!” Raviel put his hand on Sirus’ shoulder. Sirus took a puff of his cigarette, pulled it from his mouth, blew out smoke, and put it back into his mouth.

“Sirus, your mad. I get it. But Mikoto-Ousama isn’t to blame for this.” Raviel starts.

“Mikoto is completely to blame for this!” Sirus yells. The cigarette falls from his mouth, but he catches it between his fingers. “If he hadn’t kept this curse a secret from me, I would still be a father! Perhaps this city wouldn’t be nearly leveled! The stupid bastard is to blame for all of this!” Sirus’s voice was causing people to walk outside and see what was going on. Many of them heard the slander Sirus was yelling about Mikoto.

“So… what are you going to do?” Raviel asked, in a calm voice.

“I’m leaving this country. I couldn’t care less about this country, or the war it is involved in. Hina and I are leaving as soon as possible, perhaps tonight.” Sirus said, calmly but with a hint of despise in his voice.

“Sirus, sure you can blame Mikoto-Ousama for the lack of a warning, but when it comes down to it, Kobura killed him. Follow with this invasion plan, and we will avenge your son. Both people you blame for his death will be dead.” Raviel explains.

“I’ll think about it.” Sirus tells Raviel. “I’ll meet you at your house in three hours, and give you my final decision.” Sirus takes another puff of his cigarette, and blows it out. “I need to meet Kara.” Raviel nods, and lets Sirus go. Raviel turns away from Sirus, and hears lightly “She likes you, you know.” Raviel didn’t have the chance to ponder what Sirus just said, and ask him about it. By the time he turned around, Sirus had turned another corner into an alleyway, and was out of site.

--------------------

Stepping into the apartment complex where Kara lived, Sirus walked up to her apartment door and debated about just letting himself in. He pulled the key she had given him from his pocket and held it in his hand, staring at it. This wing of apartments had twenty separate apartments, ten on each side of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a pool room, which anyone renting a place here could use. The apartment building felt like a hotel, which it was designed after. Sirus heard a couple laughing as a door closed behind them. Looking over to his right, away from the exit to the street and the other parts of this complex, Sirus saw the couple. Two young kids, no older than eleven, laughing and giggling as they were leaving. Probably brother and sister, their parents were likely inside, on their way out. The kids were wearing swimming gear, and they ran toward the back of the hallway, toward the pool.

Having regained his attention on the key, Sirus thought about whether or not he should use it. Yes, Kara had given him permission, but he doesn’t live here, he shouldn’t just use the key. It may have been a different story if it was Hina’s apartment, had the couple not been living together for about a year. Sirus closed his eyes for a minute, before deciding to close his fist, keeping the key in his palm, and knocked on the door.

After just a few knocks, Sirus waited a moment before hearing someone on the steps behind the door. After just a minute, the door opened, revealing Kara wearing only a towel. Her hair was wet, she must have just taken a bath. With a smile, Kara invited him in, and walked back up stairs and into the kitchen. Sirus entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. When Sirus got to the top of the steps and into the kitchen, Kara was nowhere to be found. Sirus figured she was probably getting dressed, and dropped the key on the table. Sirus then crossed the living room and made a left, into the doorway leading to the staircase, and passed the staircase and went into the bathroom. Leaving the bathroom a minute later, Sirus was shocked to find a naked Kara laying on the couch.

“Kara? Shouldn’t you put clothes on?” Sirus asked her, turning his head for fear of embarrassing her.

“Nah.” Kara says, getting up like a child, jumping into the air and laughing. “I rarely, if ever, wear clothing at home. I feel it restricts me, I want to be free.” Kara raised her hands into the air at the word free.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time I saw you naked, you yelled at me.” Sirus told her.

“Last time you saw me naked, I wasn’t single. I wasn’t free.” Kara says with a delight that even surprised herself. She couldn’t believe she was already over Suta, whom shed been with since she was Shiro’s age. Kara then sighed. “You feel like your being unfaithful to Hina, don’t you?”

“Kinda. Technically I’m not cheating on her, I’m not touching, but being as shy as she is, she wouldn’t like it if she knew you weren’t wearing anything.” Sirus tells her. Admittedly though, seeing Kara naked didn’t bother him, though he doubted it would bother any man.

“Would you like me to get dressed?” Kara asked, now crossing her legs and covering her breasts.

“I don’t want Hina, or anyone for that matter, to get the wrong ideas.” Sirus tells her. “But I can’t tell you what to do.” Kara sighed, and walked into the kitchen, then into her room. Sirus stayed in the living room until Kara returned a few minutes later with a bag in her hand. Kara dropped the bag and opened it, looking for something to wear.

“While I find something to put on, lets discuss the matter at hand.” Kara says. Sirus grabs a kitchen chair and sits across from the couch, with the table between them. Sirus looked over the papers. “Do I need to wear a shirt and pants, or will underwear do?”

“I don’t care,” Sirus said, looking through the papers. “To be honest, it doesn’t bother me that your not wearing anything. I didn’t come over here to be unfaithful, I didn’t know you walked around naked, so I didn’t do anything wrong.” Kara nods, and pulls out a loose fitting shirt and pair of pants, allowing her to feel free, unrestricted, and yet keep Sirus from feeling uncomfortable. Under other circumstances, Kara wouldn’t have gotten dressed, but Kara wanted Sirus to be okay with being over here, as they are going to need to figure out how to get out of the country.

“Okay, well as you can see in those papers, I have been debating about which country to go to.” Kara explains while walking into the kitchen. “Thirsty?”

“Sure, I’ll take water.” Sirus told her. Kara grabbed her bottle of sake from the night before, and a glass which she filled with water. She returned to Sirus and handed him his glass, and laid on the couch across from him. She tilted her head up and took a large gulp of the sake.

“My only condition is I need a place where I can buy alcohol. I’ve been an alcoholic since I was nine.” Kara explains. “There are only four countries where you can buy alcohol at twenty, three if you don’t include Hisakata.”

“Slieza?” Sirus asked, looking through the papers and thereby Kara’s choices.

“Government and country-wise, that would be my first choice. However, the mad king rules Slieza, and with him there, you can’t be.” Kara explains.

“Don’t worry about that. Raviel has a plan, we are going to bring down Kobura. I don’t know the plan yet, but I want you to come with us. Once we are done, we will return here, with Hina, and finalize these plans.” Sirus told her. He had been thinking about joining Raviel since he had walked away from him, and made his decision before he entered Kara’s home.

“Fair enough. After he tried to make you kill me, I want to help you kill him.” Kara says with a smile.

“Awesome.” Sirus told her, leaning back. “However, the more I think about it, the more I think Slieza is a bad idea. Even if we bring down Kobura, the government will be in turmoil, it will only make it harder in the long run. That only leaves two choices, Kaminari and Shizen. I have never been to either country, but I see you have notes on them.”

“Yea, and of the two, I’d say Shizen is the only one which we can settle in. Kaminari doesn’t have a stable government, there are constant civil wars. It would be easier to live under a counsel than to live in a war torn country.” Kara explains.

 “Then Shizen it is.” Sirus said with a smile. “I need to meet with someone, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.” Kara said with a smile. “I’ll walk you out.”

“I’ll just open a wormhole.” Sirus tells her. Kara shrugs and gets up. Sirus walks over to the wall and opens a wormhole. “Meet me at my home in about two and a half hours, and we can meet with Raviel to finish this war.“ Sirus waves at her and turns to leave. Kara grabbed Sirus’s wrist, spinning him back to her. Kara hugged Sirus, shocking him, but only for a moment before he hugged her back. Kara let go of him and stepped back. As Sirus turned and entered the wormhole, Kara gave him a smile.

--------------------

Raviel walked up to his fridge, opened it, and pulled out a few cans of soda. Raviel returned to the living room, giving a can to Karai, Yuki, Noroi, and Karite. The five of them were waiting for Sirus, so they can finalize the assault on Slieza castle, and more importantly, Kobura. Sirus was, at the least, needed to gain access to the castle. Even if he decided not to attack, Raviel needed Sirus to open a wormhole to get there. Knocking was heard from the door.

Raviel opened the door and saw Sirus, Hina, and Kara. The sight of Hina and Kara surprised him, but he allowed the three visitors into his home. “I’ve decided that I will help end this war. Kobura will die.” Sirus said sternly.

“Okay, then the plan is simple. We simply need to wormhole into the palace, right into Kobura’s office. If we have luck, we will find Kobura waiting for us, and his two active Band of Three members. You and I will take out Kobura. Kara, Hina, Yuki, and Noroi can take down Hitsugaya, Karite, Karai, and Hina can take down Fairdaku.” Raviel explains.

“No. Hina is not getting involved in this, she is just here to wish me off. Furthermore, Hitsugaya is no longer serving Kobura.” Sirus explains.

“I doubt that to be honest. If he is against Kobura, then the plan is easier. But if not, we have a plan to take him down.” Raviel explains.

“Plan is simple enough I supposed, lets do this.” Sirus says. Sirus kisses Hina, and opens a large wormhole, allowing the group to walk through, and into Slieza palace.

--------------------

This is bad. Karite’s first thought, upon entering the palace. Kobura wasn’t anywhere, no one was. “Spread out, check the hallways. Don’t stray anywhere that you can be jumped. Look for anyone.” Karite ordered.

“Sir, the palace appears to be abandoned.” Yuki reported, searching the palace. This bothered Karite, he expected that Kobura would be here. Kobura was probably in Lino Shi, planning on leveling Domino.

“The army is beginning to march outside!” Noroi yells, peering through a window.

“Then new plan, we need to attack them, cause a distraction, chaos. In the chaos, we can get Kobura. If you find Kobura, do not confront him but try to lead him here. Do whatever you can to get the attention of everyone else if you do so, we need to bring him down.” Raviel explains.

“Some plan…” Sirus says, pulling out a cigarette. Lighting it, Sirus continues. “Your sending us into suicide.”

“We’ve come too far to back down now. If your gonna chicken out, then get out! We don’t need you anyway, you’ll just get in the way!” Noroi yells. Sirus grabbed Noroi and shoved him against the wall.

“You think I’m gonna get in the way? What the !@#$ have you done this entire war? You’re pathetic, you’ve never won a fight with me, and yet you think you’re better than I am? Why? Because you have a demon?” Sirus’s anger was growing with each word. Karai grabbed Sirus’s shoulder, but Sirus didn’t stop. Sirus threw Noroi across the room, having him land between Kara and Raviel. Sirus gasped for breath. “Let’s finish this.”

Karite smiled. He knew Sirus was going to be a wild card, but this made Sirus the most valuable member of this assassin team. “Then lets go.” Karite says, walking down the hallway, and out of the palace. Karite ran toward the army, as did Noroi. Raviel and Karai moved together, jumping into the crowd. Sirus runs off on his own, as does Kara. Yuki stands back for a few minutes, calculating, before he runs into the crowd with more thought in his assault than the others.

Karite was accustomed to a weapon of a scythe which had a four foot chain on the opposite side of the blade, which ended off into a kunai, which was able to be flung around on the chain. Karite spins his scythe, and cuts down three people, but with the kunai attached to the chain stabbing eleven people and choking two. Karite kicked a warrior and backed up. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed he had a fan club.

“Get into the game!” Karite yells, launching his chain so it wraps around Noroi and stabs a soldier behind him. Noroi turns around, having been in a cloud of awe by watching his new king, whom was just destroying soldier after soldier.

--------------------

Sirus punches a soldier in the face before using the soldier’s face as a surface to spin on, and launches a lightning bolt, slaughtering twelve soldiers around Sirus. Sirus peers over his shoulder, and sees a face that he recognizes. Sirus chases this person down, and into a building, abandoning the fight. Sirus rushes into the building behind him and corners his target in a room.

“Please… Sirus please… don’t kill me!” the man begged.

“I’m disappointed. I thought Fairdaku taught you better.” Sirus says with a grin. Sirus approaches slowly.

“Please sir, I know I can’t beat you, please let me go!” the man begged again.

“Jikata, I am severely disappointed. You were training to take Fairdaku’s spot, or mine I suppose, with Fairdaku himself trained you.” Sirus said, approaching. Jikata waits for Sirus to get close, then attacks, generating a sword of energy in his hand. Sirus ducks the sword and sweeps Jikata, causing him to fall flat on the floor.

“I… I… What… What do you want?” Jikata asks. Sirus approached him, lifted him, and threw him across the room. Landing on his back, Jikata moved quickly before a small lightning bolt hit where he had landed. Sirus was toying with Jikata. “Please sir, please. Anything. I’ll give you anything!” Jikata was petrified of Sirus.

“Where is Kobura?” Sirus asked, coldly.

“If I tell you, you will spare my life?” Jikata asked. Sirus nodded, and Jikata continued. “In his throne room is a secret entrance, under the throne, which leads to an underground bunker.”

“An underground bunker?” Sirus asked.

“Kobura-Ousama knew that Lino Shi would attack. He prepared his army to attack, but he’s been hiding out, hoping you people would be stupid enough to assault us.” Jikata says, tauntingly. “Me telling you where he is doesn’t mean anything, you’re gonna die.”

Sirus smiles. “Oh?” Sirus shrugged.

Jikata noticed a lightning bolt stating to form in Sirus’s hand. Sirus took a few steps toward Jikata, whom was on his knees. Jikata started to panic again. “You promised! You promised you would spare me!”

Sirus places his hand on Jikata’s forehead and smirked. “I lied.”

--------------------

Raviel drew his sword, slashed three soldiers, and blew a breath of fire into the crowd. Raviel blew away about seven soldiers, before returning to his sword to attack. Raviel then ducked as Karai jumped over his shoulder, kicking one of the soldiers in their face, before pulling her knife from her pocket, and slicing the throat of a soldier. Karai had retrieved her knife at Raviel’s house, as Jinsoku had left it for her.

Karai threw her knife at a soldier, hitting them in the head and killing them. Karai then jumped up, using the knife as a stepping stone, and jumped over the crowd before kicking soldier in the head and spinning the soldier through the air. As she landed, she pulled her knife back and jumped backwards, returning to Raviel.

--------------------

Kara attacked a soldier, creating a whirlwind with her leg, launching a hole in the crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, Kara noticed Sirus running off after someone. Kara decided to run after him, but got distracted when a group of soldiers surrounded her. Kara spun around, kicking a few in the head but was quickly overpowered. Strangely Kara was relieved when a soldier had grabbed her, but didn’t kill her. Instead a second soldier walked forward and put his hand on her shirt, trying to rip it off of her. She was about to be raped, but she was relieved by it, it was an easy situation to escape from.

Karai kicked the man touching her top by back flipping. When she couldn’t flip all the way, she let herself drop, freeing herself from the hold of the soldier whom restricted her, and allowing her to sweep out his feet. Kara quickly got to her feet and kicked another guard, whom was running after her, using all her speed in one kick. The strength of the kick, due to the speed, gave it enough force to blow a hole in the soldiers chest, killing him instantly.

Having a few minutes to breath, Kara ran off, looking for Sirus. She explored the desert town, as Slieza was a country known for sand, as apposed to grass. She looked at the sand, hoping to find footprints which she could recognize. Nothing, too many footprints to decipher Sirus’s. Suddenly Kara heard a loud clap, like a clap of thunder, coming from a nearby building. Kara ran inside, and found Sirus standing in a crater, over a dead guard whom, due to the force of the blast, was missing his head and part of his shoulders.

“You okay?” Kara asked, concerned. Sirus approaches her, a smile on his face.

“Yea, thanks. We need to regroup inside the castle, I know where Kobura is.”

--------------------

“Hmm… nice bunker.”

“Who the hell -” Kobura starts asking, seeing a stranger approach.

“Don’t worry my lord, I know him. Domani, what are you doing here?” Fairdaku asks, approaching the stranger.

“Well then, Fairdaku, I shall trust you to hold this position.” Kobura says, turning to leave the room. Kobura seals shut the door behind him.

“Fairdaku? That’s the name you’re going by now?” Domani asks, with a chuckle. “Does he even know your real name?”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Fairdaku asks, in an angry hushed tone.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Domani repeats, in a soft, happier tone, taunting tone. “You know what kind of power our father possesses, why are you helping this man to claim it?”

“Kobura is weak, pathetic, when compared to the boy. As soon as Kobura takes father’s power, I can take it from Kobura.” Fairdaku explains. “And I will be strong enough to rule the world. This is not going to be father’s world, it will be my world.”

“You may think so, but I won’t give you the chance. We both know Kobura’s future, and father’s future ends before it begins.” Domani says, sternly.

“You know that if you kill father, you’ll die too.” Fairdaku reminds Domani.

“I’ve accepted that.” Domani tells him. The sound of something large scraping across a surface above the two can be heard. “Well, they are coming.” Domani opens a wormhole next to him and turns to step into it. “Today the world will take a step toward the better.”

--------------------

Raviel, Karai, Sirus, Kara, Yuki, Noroi, and Karite return to the palace throne room. Sitting on the throne, to the groups surprise, was Hitsugaya, whom was smiling. Hitsugaya stands and approaches the group, whom all backs away, aside from Sirus.

“About time you got here.” Hitsugaya says, tauntingly.

“You never mentioned a bunker. We had to find it on our own.” Sirus responds, with a slightly annoyed attitude.

“Perhaps if you had waited for me, like I told you to, this wouldn’t have taken so long.” Hitsugaya explains.

“What’s going on?” Raviel asks, approaching Sirus.

“I told Hitsugaya we were planning on invading the palace, and killing Kobura. He said he’d meet us here about twenty minutes ago.” Sirus explains, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Sirus takes a puff of the cigarette and approaches Hitsugaya.

“So, I suppose you know how to get into the bunker?” Sirus asks.

“Of course.” Hitsugaya says, walking toward Karite. Karite prepared his guard, a bit worried. Hitsugaya pulls out his sword and points it at Karite, with a smirk on his face. Karite grips his scythe before Hitsugaya throws his sword, which skims past Karite’s neck, and into the wall. The sword sticks in the wall and a loud scraping sound can be heard, as the floor under the throne, and thereby the throne itself, opened to reveal a hidden tunnel. Sirus immediately runs and jumps down the tunnel and lands in a large room, about a ten foot fall. Sirus landed on one foot and one knee, not feeling much of an impact. Raviel follows the group down the hole using the ladder on the side, and sees Sirus and Hitsugaya staring down the final obstacle between them and Kobura, Fairdaku.

This post is a small preview of Chapter 16, similar to a "next time" thing at the end of an episode of a show. This post will be edited and replaced with Chapter 16 when it is released, on March 2, 2012.

Fairdaku: All these years, all the hard work, and it all comes down to this. The traitor, Kobura‘s little bitch, and me. I can kill the both of you in one sitting.