Kito stared at the front door, only barely comprehending. Did he even know they had a doorbell before now? He wasn’t sure. He was almost certain he’d never heard it before now. But there it was, a nice little jingle that travelled through the mansion quite soothingly. Blinking a few times, Kito managed to snap out of the daze he was in and walk over to the large double doors. He ran a hand over the surface, hearing the click as they unlocked and moved out onto the patio between the front doors and storm doors. They opened for him as he walked over and the sun threatened to blind him with how bright it was. A hand up at his head and the other in the pocket of his housecoat, he appraised his visitors. He’d always wanted to do that. Appraise visitors.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Hiralda Fel, a tall, thin woman with red hair dressed in tight leather asked.

“It looks like a bright pink dressing gown with fluffy white trim and a hood with cat ears. That he has up.” Sapphire, a short, petite girl with long blue hair and deep blue eyes grinned.

“A very short dressing gown…” An accent quite similar to Seiko’s connected to a tall, thin man in bright armour said. Kito’s eyes fell on this man, as he had never met him before in his life, yet here he was, standing on his porch and insinuating Kito wasn’t being as professional as he could be. Kito was suddenly annoyed at this man’s perfectly swept back golden hair and his chiselled, sharp jawline.

“Come on in,” Kito said, shuffling back into the house with the three of them in tow. They hadn’t mentioned his fluffy cat slippers. Of course, he says his. These pieces of clothing actually belonged to Katy of course. He had just misplaced his own housecoat and couldn’t really be bothered finding it. He pointed to a room on their left, and turned to his guests, “Head in there. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Sapphire laughed, Hiralda rolled her eyes, and the man frowned slightly, “We have important business to discuss--” The man tried, but was cut off by Kito pressing his finger to the man’s lips.

“I am very hungover, young man,” Kito said in a serious tone, “I did a lot of drinking last night. So if you attempt to speak to me again before I’ve had my coffee, there will be consequences. Now go into the living room and sit down, before I rain down righteous fury.”

This time Hiralda joined Sapphire in laughter as they shrugged and strode over to the living room, the man following, clearly incredibly confused. Kito simply put it down to culture shock and made his way back upstairs.

Kito yawned as he tossed the housecoat onto the bed and stretched. His hangover wasn’t actually that bad, that armoured guy’s armour was just too shiny. It annoyed him. Kito began searching out appropriate clothes for whatever nonsense was about to be spewed at him when Katy came in from the walk-through wardrobe that bridged their master bedroom and en-suite. She was pressing her hair with a towel and wearing Kito’s long, black housecoat.

“Did I hear a doorbell?” Katy asked, brow furrowed.

“Aye.” Kito nodded, pulling on a pair of dark jeans.

“Was it ours?”

“Apparently.”

“We have a doorbell?”

Kito managed to push his head through his T-shirt, “You know, I was thinking the exact same thing. Some losers want our attention, I told them they’d have it when we get ready.”

Katy grumbled and cursed about needing to entertain guests as she stopped drying her hair and just pulled it up into a ponytail, beginning her own search for clothes.

“It’s people from where you work, this is your fault.”

Katy grunted

“Aye, aye,” Kito waved his hand dismissively, “They probably want me.”

A slightly longer grunt as Katy whipped the housecoat off and tossed it onto the bed.

“I’ll let Seiko know too, aye.” Kito grinned, getting another grumble from Katy as he ran through the mansion towards Seiko’s room. Of course, he wasn’t there, he didn’t need to sleep, they had found out the previous night. He also couldn’t get drunk, the poor bastard. Kito checked several places, including the kitchen, dining room and cellar. Of course, he wasn’t there either. He had eaten so much, ‘savouring being alive again’ as he put it. Kito couldn’t imagine how good it must have felt to taste again, after being dead. He didn’t much like imagining it either. It made him feel funny. He figured Seiko wouldn’t have gone for a swim or anything, so there was only really one place Kito thought he could potentially be. He walked through the garden, towards the training building they had sparred in the previous day. The door was of course open, and Kito could hear the unmistakable sound of fist meeting leather. Kito entered the building and watched as Seiko thoroughly thrashed the punching bag. Flames exploded against the surface, bursting outward then licking at the air around them. Wind pushed the bag further than his fists, and darkness writhed around his lower arms and hands. He glowed blue and blurred, for split-second several after-images of Seiko rained down a barrage of punches and kicks to the bag, all of the blue after-images sinking back into Seiko in less than a second before Seiko leapt, turning in mid-air and lashing his leg out. Flames and wind exploded, sending the bag flying from the chains and slamming against the wall. Kito nodded in appreciation as Seiko turned to him, unwrapping the bindings from his hands.

“I sensed some people enter the mansion about fifteen minutes ago,” Seiko said, pulling on a loose vest.

“Yeah, Sapphire and Hiralda,” Kito replied, turning to walk out, Seiko keeping pace, “Some guy I don’t know. From the empire though, I clocked the Lemoura coat of arms on his armour.”

“So we got representatives from the two largest factions of the alliance, huh? Mission, I’d presume.”

“They did always send important people when they wanted us to risk our lives.”

“You think I’m still up for that?”

Kito observed Seiko for an age, “I don’t just think you’re up for it, I think you need a mission.”

“Oh yeah?” Seiko’s eyebrows rose, “You a psychologist now?”

“I dabble,” Kito gave a wry smile, “You’ve been punching things in there a lot. Hours yesterday. All night I assume? Your room’s barely touched.”

“I did a bit of reading but you know how it is,” Sniffed Seiko, “You’re probably right. I feel at home in the thick of it. In the middle of the action. A mission will probably do me good.”

“We’ll ease back into it,” Kito said evenly, “I still haven’t been on a big mission myself since Yhor’Dheel.”

“We’ll manage,” Seiko gave the barest hint of a humourless smile, “How bad could it possibly be.”

They ran into Katy in the entrance hall, just coming down the stairs dressed in a basic white blouse and black knee-length skirt. Her hair was loose again, falling over her shoulders. Kito smiled at her as she touched down, taller than him in her heels.

“Ew,” Seiko said, face scrunching up.

“What d’you mean ‘ew’,” Katy turned to him, frowning, “Asshole?”

“You look so…” Seiko looked her up and down, “Professional.”

Kito almost snorted a laugh, “God, what even is this…” He sputtered, making his way to the living room he had banished the entourage. The door opened smoothly and Kito strode in, smiling, followed closely by Katy, who was still glaring as Seiko came in last. Sapphire and Hiralda gasped, leaping up from the sofa they had been sitting on. The armoured man looked back and forth from them and Seiko.

“What’s up? What’s going on?” The man asked, tone urgent.

“Seiko!” Sapphire exclaimed, looking him up and down as Hiralda walked up to him, then around him, observing him.

“Hey guys,” Seiko said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s good to see you again. Rumours of my demise have been grossly exaggerated I guess.”

“This was the disturbance at Iaetria?” Sapphire’s gaze flicked to Katy, who shrugged.

“It was.” Kito nodded, sitting on an armchair and leaning back, crossing his legs.

“Who - or whatever brought Seiko back used enough power to reanimate all of the dead in the village. Everyone’s dead.” Katy said, falling onto the sofa and gesturing for Sapphire and Hiralda to join her.

“We were going to report to the boss,” Seiko paused, perching on the coffee table and looking at his hands, “But we were spending yesterday trying to get used to… Well, me.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Hiralda blinked, still looking Seiko up and down.

“Seiko?” The armoured man said, leaning against a bookshelf, his helmet still under his arm, “Seiko Mukai?”

“That’s me,” Seiko looked at the man, suddenly frowning, “And you are?”

“James Draco,” Said the man, “The newest commanding general of the Archedian empire. A pleasure to meet all three of you.”

“Commanding general?” Katy raised an eyebrow, “You must be tough.”

“I manage.” James grinned, shrugging.

“Draco…” Kito tilted his head in thought, then looked up at James, “You serve alongside your brother, Daxs?”

“Yeah,” James was the one to frown now, “My big brother. How did you know that?”

“Kito knows things.” Katy waved her hand like this was just obvious common knowledge.

“I fought alongside Daxs at the mines of Arkhaten,” Kito smiled nostalgically, “He’s a good man. Tough as a behemoth, he is.”

“Yeah.” James returned the smile, positively surprised

Hiralda was clearly still too dumbfounded over Seiko to have taken notice of the conversation going on around her, “How is this possible?”

“We don’t really know,” Seiko shrugged, “But Kito said he’d work on it. Find out why I’m so lucid.”

“It’s incredible…” Hiralda blinked some more.

Sapphire observed her fellow general for a few moments before turning to Kito, “We have business to discuss.” Her tone was suddenly serious, something Kito wasn’t really used to.

Kito straightened in his seat, “Go on.” He said.

“We have a mission for you, as I’m sure you’re probably aware,” Sapphire said, “But it’s not just any mission. Only you can do this Kito. We tried to reach Talya but she’s on a mission right now. Even if we had gotten ahold of her, we know the both of you would want in on this, so we came to you first.”

Katy was frowning and sitting forward now too, “What kinda mission can only a Tiko do?”

“I’m listening,” Kito said, his jaw clenched tight.

“It’s about your father, Kito,” Sapphire said, raising her eyes to meet Kito’s gaze. The whole room seemed to go cold, and Kito felt his brows knit together tighter. This couldn’t be good.

“What happened to him?”