Gene tried desperately to block all of Komo’s hits. He was able to block about seventy percent, give or take. But those thirty percent of hits to his body came out faster than anything he could react to. He was being toyed with, and it wasn’t a matter of if he would pull the killing blow, but when. Vivian was behind him, sending out a dwindling stream of ice energy to his legs in an attempt to slow him down. And while his legs were freezing, he was breaking out quicker and quicker. She knew she’d die of dehydration if she kept this up, but she had no other options. Komo unleashed one more punch directly into Gene’s sword.

Gene felt like he was hit by a rampaging bull. He was flung into the air, with Vivian barely able to catch him by freezing the air behind him. She felt the cold sweat get colder around her body before her legs stopped working. She fell to the floor in a defeated heap. Komo grabbed her body and flung it against the wall.

Lainey opened the door carrying two handfuls of water bottles.

“Vivian!” She yelled. “This good enough?”

Vivian mustered up all her remaining energy to nod at her. Lainey nodded back, and began pouring water into her mouth, pulling her head back to ensure she swallows it. Komo sauntered over to her casually, raising a fist over her and Vivian. Lainey desperately lifted her left hand to block, hoping that here, in all moments, her demon would come out to help her.

Komo swung his fist down. Lainey braced for impact.

And the attack never came.

“You’re working with God, right?” A woman’s calm voice asked, with an accent she couldn’t place down.

“Y-yeah.” Lainey replied, struggling to get the words out.

“Cool, just checking.”

She pushed her hands upwards, and Komo was pushed back. In anger, he let his fist down, and the woman quickly moved Lainey and Vivian out of the way.

“Okay, which one of you is Vivian?”

“That would be me.” Vivian announced slowly, struggling to get up. She stumbled forward, being brought back up by a cold force below her.

“Okay, cool. I’m gonna need you to unleash one last ice blast when I say so. Got it?”

“Clear.” Vivian nodded.

Komo charged towards the girls once again, only for his fist to slow down just shy of the new girls face. She thrust her hands forward, and a bursting noise was heard. Lainey’s eardrums popped, and Vivian’s face said hers did too.

“Okay, ice wind! Now!”

Vivian did as instructed, sending a small set of ice forward, which sped up once the new girl thrust her hands outwards. It started slow, but Komo was soon facing his own personal hailstorm. His legs were slowly freezing, as were his arms.

“Okay, hold back. I can take him.”

The girl thrust her hands forwards once more, and Komo fell off the building. The girl jumped off the building, and Komo saw the girl moving towards him, moving both her arms in a circular motion. And just when they were about to collide, she thrust her arms downwards, and Komo felt the air around him fall towards him. The pressure was immense. And as it closed in on him and he felt like his head was about to disintegrate, he did the only thing he felt he could.

“Boss?! Boss!”

A portal opened underneath him. The girl landed safely on her feet, stepping back from the growing vortex and watching Komo sink into it.

“Boss!” She heard Komo scream from inside the portal. “You gotta take em out!”

“Well, yes. The demons were planted, but we should still…”

“On…on second thought, maybe you don’t need to check.”

And the portal shrank to the size of the woman’s hand. The few remaining demons dissolved into purple spheres and went back in. Once all of them were, the portal closed completely.

“Seems we won, everybody!” The girl yelled out of breath while falling to the floor. “Good job.”

Gene nodded from the rooftop, and quickly passed out. Lainey almost did, but her demon came out to cushion her at the last second.

“So we won.” Lainey moaned, giving out a faint laugh. Only for a few seconds, however. It hurt to laugh.

“We did indeed.” Vivian responded, picking Gene up and placing him on her back. “Thanks for everything.”

The two of them joined the new girl as the town started opening up. People were leaving their homes to see the sun peering out from under the clouds. People were hugging their neighbours, and the three girls went over to Bartholomew’s car. The boys were asleep but breathing. Vivian drank all the remaining water she had and got to work on healing them. Once she was done and the boys opened their eyes, the cold sweat came back to her. She felt nauseous and ended up vomiting behind Bartholomew’s car. When she came back, the boys left the car. When she came back, the four of them were talking.

“I feel like you have something to say to us.” Bartholomew started, cigarette in hand.

“We do?” Dominic asked, his usual cocky attitude coming back. “I mean, we basically killed the king for you. And I feel the need to say I saved more people from demons than you.”

Bartholomew was slowly losing his composure. “Not that you imbecilic…” He buried his free hand into his head and gestured towards Gene.

“I think Bartholomew was expecting an apology.” Gene answered. “You know, for…basically everything.” His tone wasn’t angry, more disappointed than anything else. “You know, running away from your responsibilities out of…spite, or whatever.”

Dominic looked at Gene like he already had another grandoise speech prepared. “Well, maybe if you weren’t such weirdos about it, we wouldn’t have to run and…”

“Sorry, Gene.” Ulrich cut Dominic off, leaving him stunned.

Whether or not this was right, he didn’t know. He still didn’t trust Vivian, nor did he know enough Bartholomew to fully like him. But Gene was good. He had twelve years to tell him otherwise.

“Yeah, I was just angry. Angry that someone let my mom die. Let Mina die, too. But if it wasn’t for Vivian freaking out when she did, you would have stayed too, right? After all, your parents died there as well.”

“Well, Ulrich. My…parents are still alive. They went to a business trip to Japan the day before.” He shifted his gaze to Dominic to avoid Ulrich’s look of astonishment.

Ulrich accidentally set a shot of fire on the grass, which Dominic quickly stomped out.

“Look, I know you have reasons not to like us. I’ll accept all of them. But I feel that if we team up, we can stop what happened to us from happening to anyone else. And that’s all we want, right?”

“You guys talking about something?” Lainey asked, appearing behind Dominic.

“We want to ally with you.” Bartholomew said calmly.

“Interesting.” Lainey replied, taking a puff out of her electronic cigarette. “Any ideas, man?” She asked, looking at Ulrich.

“It’s more power, right? It’s probably just safer.”

“Got a point.” She nodded. “I’ll go if you do.”

“More power and better analytic potential of our rivals.” Dominic said with folded arms. “I say we take it.”

“Seems like a unanimous decision.” Gene chuckled, stretching a hand out. “So, we in?”

Ulrich shook it, with a half-hearted “Be sure not to die.” Attached to it.

“I’ll be sure not to.” Gene nodded.

“So anyway, what’s next?” Ulrich asked.

“Well, we’ll be separated again.” Vivian added, appearing between Gene and Bartholomew. “Gene and I have to go to Iceland to complete Gene’s training. The next gemstone is in Japan, so I’ll have you stake out the area for us.

“Sorry, did you say Japan?” Dominic asked.

“Yes.” Vivian replied with a slightly strained voice. “Sapphire will fill you in on the details.”

“New girl? Yeah, I’ll ask her.” Dominic nodded, visibly shaking with excitement.

“Sorry, mind if I come with you two?” Bartholomew asked. “Boats don’t agree with me. And I don’t feel like daily duels with bad hair day over there.”

“Sounds good, Bartholomew.” Gene replied. “Ulrich, you want to come with? Because I’m pretty sure you get seasick too.”

“I’ll manage.” Ulrich blurted out quickly.

“Alright then, see you in a week.”

Vivian placed her hands on Gene and Bartholomew’s shoulders, and the three of them were covered in light, before vanishing.

“They gone?” The girl asked.

“Yep.” Ulrich nodded, turning to face her.

“Alright! Well, name’s Sapphire! And I’ll be your guide to Japan!”

“Uh, cool.” Dominic said. “Actually, can we delay this by like, half an hour? I need to collect something back home.”

“Uh, sure.” Sapphire replied calmly. “Go ahead.”

The three waited, making small talk about nothing in particular. Ulrich was forgetting the conversation points as soon as the topic moved on, and the girls were probably the same. But after around twenty-five minutes, a sweat drenched Dominic came back, holding a broken anime figure.

“Is this seriously what you delayed us for?” Lainey asked.

“Hey, it’s pretty hard to find and my Japanese isn’t that good.” Dominic snapped. “And besides, they’ve been out of print for a while now, Space Commander Hayato went way out of style.”

“Well, I hope you find it.” Sapphire replied calmly. And she began leading them to the boat.

On the surface it seemed like a pretty simple houseboat, with the only difference being a pretty massive deck. Very spacious place to walk around, anyway.

“Hm, nice place.” Lainey said to Ulrich, who nodded.

“If you think this is good, you should see the inside.” Sapphire replied with a look over her shoulder. “But just before that, I need to get changed really quick. So nobody come in.”

“I promise not to.” Dominic nodded with a confident thumbs up.

“You mind looking after them, pink?” Sapphire asked.

“You got it.” Lainey nodded. "I'll hold Dominic back if I need to."

“Cool! I’ll only be a second, anyway.” And with that final message, she darted into the boat.

“What the hell was that?” Dominic asked. “You make me seem like I belong on a register!”

“I’m sorry dude, but you just give those types of vibes off. Because of the hair, the anime girl figure, the fact you duped us into committing possibly the largest crime of the last millennia. Sorry, you just aren’t the most likable person I’ve ever met.”

"I-well-I…you suck, Lainey. "Dominic spurted out of him.

“I don’t. But if I did, I doubt I’d spit as much as you.”

“Alright guys, how we doing?”

Sapphire left the interior of the boat.

The hat and sundress were completely gone, replaced by skinny jeans and a turquoise bikini top, with a Sapphire necklace in the shape of a teardrop over it, with the sun reflecting off her brown skin and wild black hair going down to her chest, which is…what they were all focused on.

Lainey was completely silent.

Ulrich merely gave a quiet "Oh, damn."

Dominic dropped the anime figure, while also adding his own statement.

"This is gonna be the best week of my life."