Mikoto looked up at the starry night, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and he could probably see some of the constellations if he looked carefully enough; however he was only out here because he was feeling the pinch of loneliness throb in him once more.

He took a deep drag of his smoke, before he exhaled and closed his eyes;

This is the burden of being a King. You were told of this, you have such power that you could kill anyone who gets too close to you. He reminded himself remembering the former King's words, how he had tried to mould Mikoto into being someone like himself; which failed in the end although the King didn't realise it at the time.

He would be rolling in his grave if he knew what I did to his precious clan. Mikoto thought to himself, having removed all of the rather strict rules that the former King had placed upon his followers and instead, he allowed himself to be the threat. It worked though, not one member of the clan dared do something out of line because they knew that Mikoto would deal with them, their King was the most violent of the whole group, even if not everyone was completely aware of it when they first joined.

"Ah so this is where you've decided to hide out Mikoto," The blonde haired man climbed up the stairs to join him on the roof top of the bar; "Nice night, but it's a bit cold,"

"Only you would think that Izumo," The red head replied drily, never turning his eyes away from the stars above their heads.

"You know, I worry about you," Izumo admitted and Mikoto finally looked at him wondering why the man; who he considered his friend and to an extent his advisor; would worry about him; "I mean you are distancing yourself from the clan, you never used to do that. You aren't the only one affected by Totsuka's death,"

"I know,"

"Before we all used to go out, play baseball… Just hang out like friends would do. Well, aside from the ass kicking we'd give to those who messed with one of us," Izumo smiled at the memories before it dropped off his face; "But instead… It feels like bitterness is coming over us,"

"We all want to find his killer, the sooner we do that…"

"What will it accomplish?" Izumo asked him, once he had said that Mikoto turned to look at him fully; "Will that make the bitterness and hate go?"

With a sigh the Red King admitted to himself that he was right; the death of Totsuka had changed the dynamic of the clan, for the worse it seemed. However he remembered how different the clan had become after Totsuka joined them;

"You remember what it was like before he came here,"

"Yea I do,"

"Why do you expect it to remain as it was? Once he died, whatever he brought to us, the light hearted-ness disappeared as well. Why should it remain when the only person who was able to bring it to us, to lighten the whole clan, is gone?"

Izumo slumped back and slowly nodded his head, he understood what Mokoto meant; no one in their clan was anything like Totsuka, there was no one out there who could replace him, it didn't even matter that he had tried, Totsuka had a magic touch that no one could replicate.

"It's just; you know this revenge won't make anything better. I doubt Totsuka would have wanted us all to be thirsting for the blood of the man who killed him,"

"The so-called Colourless King,"

"Yea, but you know what Totsuka was like, he never held a grudge, do you think he would want us to?"

"He knew what this clan is like; if anyone died we'd be wanting the blood spilt of the one who killed them,"

Izumo looked at his King, seeing the red aura of his power whip around him and he understood that the man felt a terrible anger towards the killer but right now he could see just how much hatred he held within him.

Mikoto, if you aren't careful… You could kill yourself.

"He did," Izumo decided to continue on, but kept his distance, he didn't want those angry flames to touch him. He had never seen them flicker so much on Mikoto before and he didn't want to risk getting too close to him; "He was a good friend to us Mikoto, he was the best person to get people to talk without any sort of violence…"

"What of it?" Mikoto growled out, yet Izumo just carried on.

"It's clear that you miss him because he could always defuse the violent tendency that our clan has, he was always able to get people to open up with just a few words and somehow he always knew the right words to make people open to him. I think you liked that, the fact that no one got hurt because of him simply talking. That was the reason why you always had him deal with the new clan members,"

"I made the mistake," Mikoto told him and his gaze returned to the night sky once more; "I was the one to send him out to meet that guy… That colourless king,"

"Mikoto," Izumo took a moment to figure out what to say; "It's not your fault. No one would have known, anyone of us would have thought that it was just a normal human, we wouldn't have had time to attack," The look his King gave him made him back track; "All right maybe not all of us, but you would never send Yata to deal with them, or me. You wouldn't have gone either, if it was one of the other's it would have been the same; they don't have the same reflexes as we do,"

"Still, his death is my sin; I will atone for it,"

"You have nothing to atone for," Izumo sighed in frustration, knowing full well that Totsuka would never have blamed anyone for his death.

Chances are he would want his killer caught and learn why he did it. He's… He was that kind of guy.

"You can't blame yourself for this, it will only become a distraction," He tried to advise his King; although he knew that Mikoto probably wouldn't listen to him.

"I have an idea, it will however involve you being in charge for a while," Mikoto said, ignoring what he said and Izumo tried not to feel frustrated at that fact.

If he has an idea then I had better listen closely.