After a few hours, Jia got dressed and walked downstairs, at the ground floor. She wanted to look for Kaito. She needed to find her answers to the questions she asked him this morning and she was hoping to find him talking to a certain someone about it. After all, she knew that Kanae was involved as well…

She began her search on the first floor where she knew was his room, but she was surprised neither him nor Kanae was there… She didn’t see him anywhere around the kitchen or outside, but all of a sudden, she heard his voice coming from the dark hall. She hid behind a crystal pillar that was close to the entrance. She also distinguished Kanae behind him. They were yelling at each other. The topic was actually… her…

“I am telling you, Kanae, she is not safe here without you and I! This is why I asked you to protect her that night!”

“You idiot, the main problem is the fact that she is completely powerless! Defenseless! Weak! And hear me out, mister “Kaito”, I will not struggle to do anything about it! She is all yours to take care of, buddy!” replied Kanae.

Jia found it scary. The way they were looking at each other and the way Kanae spoke his name… She sounded sarcastic… She saw it herself that they did not have any good relationship. She saw that cold and terrifying side of that man, who was so sweet and so warm around her… Then the way Kanae talked about her… How hateful her tone truly was… It broke Jia’s little heart. She began to feel bad about being there. She felt like a real burden now…

Their conversation was not over yet. He was so mad at Kanae. The way he looked at her appeared to be reflecting his desire to kill her; to get her out of his way. He began to feel that desire more and more intensively the more he was staying around her lately…

“You don’t get my point, worthless piece of junk! I asked you to be there to protect her! I relied on you! You were powerful enough! Don’t blame her! Off course she’s defenseless! She is just a traumatized child! You have no idea how that feels! Being completely left behind, having your whole life ruined and being forced to accept living with someone like you!”

“Is this how you feel?! Well, if she knew who you are and what you’ve done, she’d rather want to go to Hell than be here! You brought her along! She trusted you! Why weren’t you specifically there to protect her?! She fucking trusted you! Yet you didn’t do anything for her! You cared more about defeating Xankaria!”

He growled in anger. He looked away. He knew Kanae was right at this point… Jia did trust him. She merely started to enjoy his company, to feel safe around him. Yet the event last night appeared to have changed the way things worked. If he didn’t prove that he cared, Jia would begin to lose her trust in him and everything would fall apart. He was already affected by the fact that his youngest sister was gone and having to deal with Kanae was probably a living nightmare. He had no one to be there for him, nobody to accept him except little Jia. If he would lose her, he would lose his mind. He was not acting, he was actually suffering deep down; that pain was slowly eating him alive and nobody was able to see that. Jia was the only person he felt happy around; for some reason, she became very special to him. And maybe that was what broke Kanae’s trust in him and his plan… But in just one day…? No, she must have known something before he brought her there…

As he saw Kanae walking back to the basement, he cleared his throat to get her attention. She tilted her head back and gave him a creepy look.

“What do you want now?!” she growled.

“Do you know Nexxis School? Or perhaps somebody that works there?”

Nexxis School was a hero training center where children with powers were sent in order to work on mastering their power natures. But a new question arose and it was why exactly did he ask Kanae such thing? Was there something about Jia? Did he intend to send her away to deal with his troubles? That seemed the most logical thing to say. But maybe it was not exactly what he was thinking. Mostly what Kanae thought, because that scary face of hers seemed to brighten up a bit.

The little girl was no longer paying attention to them. Many thoughts were spinning in her mind and she didn’t know what to handle first. She didn’t know what to feel… The situation was getting more intense by the minute, with Kaito waiting silently for Kanae’s response, all without noticing Jia. Well, more likely without looking her way and paying attention to her actions… He seemed well aware of her presence…

Kanae smiled as a response, but she was only happy to think that he had finally found the way to keep Jia out of their way... She took her phone out of her pocket. “Well, let me see.” she giggled. That was rather an evil giggle. She knew what to do from then on.

Kaito no longer cared what she would do, so he discreetly moved away towards Jia’s hideout… She snapped out of her delusions and deep thoughts when she heard his footsteps. She didn’t even think about what she should do to avoid him because she stormed out of the mansion through the glass doors and hid in the yard, behind a big tree. Kaito knew how terrible she was feeling about it. Not about seeing him act so coldly, but about Kanae and her hateful words.

 He stood there, keeping the distance. He didn’t dare to say a word, not wanting to hurt her more, but Jia caught some nerve:

“What was the meaning of that?!” she cried. “If you knew I wouldn’t be safe here, then why the fuck did you even bother bringing me along?! I knew it! I was a burden! Why did you even pretend to care about me?! Why didn’t you let me die in my own misery?! Why did I have to witness your suffering?!” She sunk her face into her palms and started sobbing.

He realized she was going to be mad at him for quite a while but he had no way to get out of that sticky situation. And Jia’s question made him overthink his decisions. She asked the right question: why did he even adopt her while having all the other problems to deal with? Was it just to burry the pain caused by his little sister’s possible death? Or he just did it because he truly cared? Indeed, he did care about her. He felt bad seeing her like that; she was suffering because of him and he couldn’t do anything to change that. He knew how bad it hurt. Something from his past, a terrible event, made him understand that pain… The pain he had hidden from everyone… but the pain he had seen in Jia’s heart…

He decided to leave her alone for a minute to rethink about the situation she was into. After all, she barely met him the day before and he already raised her suspicions.

 He went inside and saw Kanae talking on the phone. Her voice was so high-pitched and lousy. She was only trying not to make it seem like she just finished arguing with someone before…

“Alright, thank you too! She will be there tomorrow at 9am with mister Vantablack.” she added.

After a few moments of silence, Kanae hung up and gazed at him. She didn’t smile. There was no reason why she should be happy. It made her feel at ease that she found a way to keep Jia away, but at the same time she didn’t think it was the best thing to do either. It was that first time she heard the idea that made her slightly happy, but after she made that phone call, there was something that was whispering to her: ‘it’s not a good idea. It’s not a good idea and the plan will fail!’

But he seemed to feel that way too. He only wanted to hide his feelings from Kanae. She was no person that could understand his desires. Even if they were involved in the same plan and even if they were siblings, he knew that the real reason Kanae was doing this dirty job was to get to live a normal life after it was all done with. She was a skilled fighter and an amazing hacker as well, but all she wanted to do in her life was to relax and play video games. And maybe to find a potential partner… In Kaito’s eyes, she was delusional. To want to live like that in such a mad world and doing nothing about it was stupid…

A few moments later, as Kanae went to the basement and started playing her game, he went to check on Jia. She was still in the yard, playing with a long stick that looked like a sword. She was brutally hitting everything around her. She was showing she was very mad at him… She just couldn’t bare that thought; she didn’t want to think what was so important that he had to do that he would even give up on her just to handle it… And everyone’s only desire when mad was to blow some steam and relieve themselves from all the pressure and bad thoughts… Kaito couldn’t do anything but watch. He didn’t want to step out there and hurt her… He had in mind to wait until the next day to try and reason with her…