December 19th was supposed to be the day that the Red King, Suoh Mikoto, got his revenge for Totsuka Tatara by killing the Colorless King. Afterwards, the Blue King, Munakata Reisi, would kill him before his sword hit the ground and made another disastrous crater.

That didn't get to happen.

The him dying part, that is.

Instead, as he smiled sadly at his long time friend and fellow King, halfway through his heartfelt apology for making him kill him, the Gold King's tower exploded-blinding white light blasting from the upper floors and stopping both Kings in their tracts. When the light faded, so visible even off the mainland, and Mikoto hadn't felt a blade slice his skin he panicked. But when he opened his eyes he was met with a stunned Reisi standing in front of him with his sword in the snow, staring up above them with his mouth slightly open. He followed the man's train of sight and found that his Sword of Damocles, which just moments before had been dull and falling apart, in perfect-absolutely perfect condition, even brighter and more put together than when he had first become a King years ago.

So on December 19th Kings were killed, but Suoh Mikoto was not on that list.

However it was the day that Fushimi Saruhiko went on the Missing Persons List.

No one knew where the raven had gone, although Misaki had tried his damnedest to find him, scouring every inch of the city and suburbs for weeks until Homra held an intervention for him to actually get some sleep. Reisi was worried, horribly so, but he also had to worry about the blowout of the Dresden Slate. The Silver King, truly the Immortal King, had come back and been dumbfounded at the Red King's Sword suddenly restored.

The Gold King reported that he had fallen unconscious and woken up outside the chamber room along with Weissman's body. The glass floor and windows had been shattered, glass raining on the street below like deadly rain. The Slate itself wasn't damaged in the slightest, but even Weissman couldn't put a name and face on who or what had done such a thing. Clearly the light explosion and Mikoto's Sword were linked, and in the back of his mind Reisi wondered if Saruhiko was involved as well. All the security cameras in the upper floors had been blown out from the explosion and the other cameras didn't detect anything, or anyone, out of place.

That night no one from Scepter4 had noticed him go missing, the last person who had seen him was Awashima Seri and she reported that he had been standing along the bridge rail and watching the Red Clansmen down below. Homra didn't report anything, no one had noticed him staring in the first place, too preoccupied with what most of them thought would be the last moments of their King's life.

A year passed and no one was the wiser on anything that had transpired on the night of December 19th. Misaki Yata had gone from desperation into depression, convinced he had been abandoned once more by the one he once called his best friend. Homra, the Red Clan, continued on causing trouble but to a lesser degree, Reisi sure that Mikoto was trying to stay alive this time.

The Red King had learned his lesson from his short temper, that and he wanted to live on for Totsuka's sake now that he could. Of course, he still bitched and moaned to Reisi in private about how much he hated being a King, that the life was better suited for someone else. The Blue King would just smiled and light a cigarette, his personal opinion that there could be no better King than Suoh Mikoto.

Life went on, no leads on the third-in-command's whereabouts no matter how many camera satellites Reisi searched in his spare time, no matter how many world wide credit card checks and 'borrowed' security footage he binged through. A part of him wondered if the boy had died, because it was much easier to die than go off radar in their day and age.

And then suddenly the Green King was murdered, Scepter4's radio going haywire as they rushed to investigate. Nagare Hisui, the Fifth King, was found eviscerated in Jungle's base of operations. His Clan members hadn't received a distress call or even noticed there was a fight going on despite all being in the same building. Their King lived on the top floor of their self-built eighteen story headquarters and when Reisi arrived at the scene the ceiling was still dripping blood. It was almost like the man had exploded, guts and bone fragments splattered everywhere in a gory spray that proved to be too much for his lieutenant as she ducked out of the room with a quick apology.

This time the security cameras were intact and the film easy to spool through, and by the fifth frame Reisi was choking on his tea and his hand flew for his cellphone.

Because Saruhiko Fushimi was clearly on the screen, doing what seemed to be conversing amiably with the King, and in the next frame it was just utter gore, with blood smeared against the lens. Saruhiko stared back at the camera with the same bored look he would wear whilst getting water from the cooler at Scepter4, let alone standing in a mess of what used to be a human being.

Thus November 7th became the day Saruhiko Fushimi was moved from the Missing Persons to the Most Wanted List.

It being the boy's 20th birthday wasn't helping anyone's mood.