"Children of Pain has reached 1st position in the International Music Charts, making their mysterious debut known all over the world. Today, we have their manager here, Christian Anders."

"It's a pleasure, Rick."

"Well, Christian. Tell us a little about the group with no face."

"Children of Pain are a quite energetic band, they keep their identities secret for personal reasons, but are willing to make the world happy with their music."

"We really have no idea of who these people are, but everyone is waiting impatiently for the 'Secrets' videoclip. Will they show themselves in it?"

"Indeed, they will. But their faces and distinctives will be covered."

"Well, I guess we can't expect more. At least, can you tell us about them?"

The manager stayed silent a few seconds, before smiling.

"Of course. The band is composed by 7 people; all of them quite young. They are survivors of brutal styles of life that a normal person wouldn't be able to get through."

"Oh.. That's... Terrible."

"You don't have to say anything you don't mean." The manager glared at the reporter, having noticed that he really didn't. "Anyway, as I was saying... Children of Pain's members go by nicknames; Umbra, Joker, Chain, Reaper, Skull, Queen and King."

The screen behind them powered up, showing a group photo of 6 people. I observed it carefully through the TV, each one of them wore a different mask and all were covered by bandages in some parts of their bodies. The manager pointed at each of them and said their nicknames.

After the explanation, the people in the screen changed, they were the same but this time they were holding instruments.

"Joker; guitarist and bassist." The manager said, as the screen zoomed in and showed a boy with feminine-looking broken masquerade mask holding an electric guitar. He wore a scarred white-skinned (literal white, not type of skin named white or black) woman's face with a golden mask over her eyes and red feathers coming out of its top. The guy himself was skinny and I could easily confuse him with a girl. He wore a sleeve-less black tee and simple jeans. He had shoulder-length dark brown hair and barely visible brown eyes.

"Reaper; guitarist, bassist and female singer." He kept going. The zoom came in again, this time changing to a girl wearing black clothes that hung over her body loosely, she was around 165 cm tall, judging by the objects she had by her side. She was wearing a half-face Minotaur horned masquerade, covered by black and golden feathers. Her lower face, was covered by normal bandages, only showing her lips. Her left arm was also totally covered by bandages, but they were pitch black. She had brown hair, ended in rainbow coloured wicks and her striking emerald eyes were quite visible through the mask.

"King, the leader of the band. One of the main male singers and bassist." A boy holding a mic appeared. He was wearing a shining golden mask with blue reflections. His wavy black hair hung over the mask, making it less visible.

"Umbra, main male singer and backup guitarist." This time, a boy that captivated me showed up. He had long blue hair and striking emerald eyes, just like Reaper's, making me think they were siblings or cousins. He was extremely tall, around 200 cm, he was really thin but at the same time, visibly fit. His mask was also horned, a silver fawn-like half-face mask. He was covered up in black bandages; on his neck, face, arms and legs. He was wearing a Three Days Grace tee and ripped jeans, along with some black combat boots. A silver mic on his hand.

"They work under Kannadashi Productions." The manager snapped me out of my trance, making me notice he had already presented Queen, Skull and Chain, whose masks were a literal steampunk-looking skull mask, an electric blue classical masquerade mask with white bandages covering her lower cheeks and a half-face mask with some chain representations on it.

Kannadashi Productions was my father's property. He was quite proud of it and had recently convinced me to work with him in it, as future heir and actual simple worker in it.

As I thought about it, my phone started receiving messages.

DAD:
Meet me in KP in 10. I have a big project for you.