Kanae and Kaito were now in the basement, a dark room, full of tech and tools. The walls were dark grey and there was some sort of prison cell in a corner; more of a cage, where there was a huge, purple cat with shiny golden eyes.

Kanae sat at her desk. She turned on her fancy computer and the first thing she did was check her silly video game. She seemed excited and she was bouncing on her neon pink gaming chair. She kept it like that for more than 10 minutes until Kaito had the nerve to turn the chair around and hold it so Kanae could look at him. She groaned and stared in Kaito’s eyes with spite.

“You idiot! Not the game is your priority right now! I need you to take care of Jia tonight. No arguments on this subject are accepted!” he said.

“Listen up. I lied about that someone. I was the one who wanted to make a point. And I need you to listen! This Jia is in our way! Your little sister is dead! Move on! There are a lot more problems out there! Yet you pretend to be “Kaito” and act like a father! Get your sorry ass to work and forget about Jia!”

He gave Kanae a cold look. He punched the desk hard. He was so angry at her. He hated the fact that Kanae reminded him of his youngest sister. It hurt him. And after all, he didn’t seem to care about Kanae’s other problems. She was just teasing him and at this point she became his new problem.

“Enough! Get out of here, NOW!” he shouted. Then, Kanae finally reacted. Many times, she never gave a dime about his threats or warnings and she never listened to him. All until he would start yelling at her.

Kanae stood up and smirked. “Alright, mister “Kaito”!” She giggled as she walked out. She knew he was upset because of his little sister’s death and she didn’t struggle to make anything better for him. For some reason, she enjoyed seeing him suffer. She had such a cold heart.

 She took the stairs to the ground floor. There, she saw other people, around ten. She walked towards a short guy with brown hair and green eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in three days, his hair was so messy, he looked pale and tired. He was wearing a dark blue neon battle suit with green patterns. He had a multitude of knives and pockets where he was holding them.

He gave Kanae an annoyed glance, showing he was clearly not delighted by her presence. But she just stared at him smiling like she was so innocent.

“So, anything bad, Reiji?” she asked.

He gave her a forced smile. “No, Xankaria is just marching towards us…!” he said, sarcastically. Reiji was usually the guy who would give the report. He had the ability to transform and it allowed him to leak information from many sources. He was not very skilled in combat and that was the reason he was disliked by Kanae, who was a very fancy and cold-hearted woman and also a skilled fighter. She had a manipulative power called the Red Strings and that was not easy to use unless she was strong enough to control her energy. And she was. She was always ready for unpredictable battles such as Xankaria’s night attacks.

She growled in anger. “Dammit! It’s been a year since she last fought us! And that had been right after Night Raid! Neo is already busy with that stupid Jia, we can’t just let him handle it on his own!”

Before anyone could respond, they heard a loud meow coming from behind. That big, purple cat showed up and rubbed its fluffy face on Reiji’s leg. It was purring. Another man bent over and started petting the cat.

“Aww, he’s so adorable!” he said.

Kanae groaned with impatience. She seemed to be in a hurry. After all, she had always been short tempered and wanted to get things done as quickly as possible. “Ugh, we have some enemies to fend off, Katsuki! Plus, how can you tell it it’s a guy or a girl? With those long lashes it has, it looked like a girl to me…”

Katsuki along with the other people had been part of Night Raid, the great battle that occurred after the Galactic War. They had been taken in by Kanae and given another chance to live. But at that rate, with that Xankaria after them, it was totally worthless and they were close to die anyway because they were not strong enough.

Yet nobody gave a dime about that death task they had to complete. Now that Kanae asked about the cat, they focused on the cat. 

Katsuki laughed. “Bet you haven’t noticed those nice balls over there, have you?”

Everyone else burst to tears of laughter. Kanae sighed. She felt like she was going to go insane. She didn’t find that funny and she never found anything funny except her silly game. But in a situation like that, laughing needed to be saved for after they’d win. If they would win… After all, that Xankaria was a real threat… A powerful flame user with the appearance of a devil, the soul filled with rage and a corrupted mind. She had a small army, but she had chosen the fiercest of them.

She went back to the basement to report that the villain was coming. Seeing that Kanae was no longer there, the other people decided to get ready too, realizing the danger was getting closer. They knew Kanae was the only one they could rely on in a fight. She was the most powerful in their group. Well, except her older brother who was their real leader…

Later, around midnight, four people were standing in the yard. They were looking so similar. They had dark outfits with flame patterns. Three of them were women and there was one, young boy next to them. Their leader had big, fiery wings and gray armor holding a long robe over her suit. Her crimson eyes were burning with rage and the expression on her face was quite changing. From a sinister smirk to an impatient and furious phiz. She had long, flamy hair and her face half covered by it on the right side. Then, that one, big horn she had on the right looked like it was burning from the inside. That was Xankaria. Then, there was Xanii. She had short, black hair and a mask covering her eyes. Her tight, black suit was revealing the fit shape of her body. She had a creepy smirk on her face. She was excited about the fight. It seemed like she was confident and knew she could rely on her powers. Next was Xena. She was shorter than the other two women. She had long, flamy hair like Xankaria and big, crimson eyes. She didn’t show any emotion. She was staring blankly. She was very calm usually and she was mostly dreaming with her eyes opened. She was a careful analyzer and she didn’t seem as confident as her comrade. She knew something bad would happen. The young boy was standing next to Xena, looking at her from time to time. He had an innocent look on his face and he seemed a bit confused about the situation. He was moving in all directions; he was bored. Xena flashed a smile and grabbed his hand.

“Relax, KQO. Everything will be alright.” she whispered. KQO smiled back, then looked away, blushing.

“I’m not scared, just a little nervous…” he muttered. His low voice sounded adorable. After all, he was not older than 10 years old.

Xanii gazed at them and growled. “Idiots, this is an important mission! You can make love when we get back! And Xena… You’re disgusting, dammit!” she whisper-shouted.

Xena sighed. “Why, because I treat KQO nicely?” she replied. She kept calm for now.

Xanii raised one eyebrow. She didn’t seem to agree with what Xena said. “Really? Just “treat him nicely”? You fucking kissed him passionately last night and you are 21 years older than him!” she hissed. (Xanii has a very short-tempered personality and takes almost anything too seriously. That is the reason why she dislikes any jokes on certain topics like love and on top of that, she is totally disgusted by Xena for almost no reason at all…)

Xankaria suddenly turned to them. She gave them a cold look. Their voices in the background were disturbing her and she was already focused on something. “Shut up, dammit! Someone’s coming!” she growled.

Indeed, they heard footsteps approaching them, suddenly covered by a creepy, hysteric laughter. A tall man, who had his whole body covered in a long, black robe showed up. The pale light of the stars in the sky was illuminating his face, revealing his big, scary smile and his shiny, green eyes.

Xankaria made a step back upon seeing him. She grabbed the enormous blade she was caring in her back and pointed it at the man. He just laughed. He didn’t find that threatening. Xankaria growled in anger. She stepped forward.

“Stop acting so careless! You scaredy-cat! You ran away from Night Raid that day! Oh, you were afraid to die! I shouldn’t have saved you!” she yelled.

The man giggled evilly. He had a lot to argue about on that subject, but he knew just how impatient and careless Xankaria was. “Oh, my apologies. You saved me?! You weren’t even there! You ran away from the Crimson Blast while I managed to infiltrate into the enemy’s base. To be honest with you, I was even spared from my fate and they had been the ones who saved me! Now stop creating stories about how strong you think you are and just accept your fate, Xanky!”

Xankaria felt her blood boiling in her veins. Her rage was triggered. “How did you just call me?!” she growled. She jumped at him and struck with her blade. The man created a starry shield to defend himself. He smirked. Then, he cut Xankaria’s chest with his claws. She made a step back. She pressed on the wound that was slowly regenerating. She silently groaned in pain. She looked in his eyes and saw that pleasure he had when he was watching her bleed in a corner…

“Don’t be too harsh with yourself, Xankaria. You and I will have plenty of time to settle this. But hey, it’s never enough. In the end, one of us will have to die.” he said, as he laughed hysterically.

“That will be you!” hissed Xankaria. She got her act together and jumped at him again. He dodged and vanished into the woods, leaving behind sparks of green flames. Xankaria groaned in anger and decided to follow him. Yet she gave a quick look to all her teammates. She had one last announcement to make.

“Xanii! You are in charge until I return! Eliminate everyone else that will stand in your way! Xena, watch her back! KQO, you will defend the area and make sure nobody will interrupt!” she shouted. Her crewmates glanced at her and nodded. Then, Xankaria rushed into the thicket, following the sparks.

She followed the flames all the way to the edge of the forest, near the ruins of the city… She saw him standing on a pile of boulders. He had a spark of evil in those green eyes of his. He had the silhouette of a Devil and he made Xankaria shiver. She was more scared of the surroundings and the thought of who could have possibly caused that sent cold chills all around her body. Yet she gripped her enormous sword tight and jumped at him.