The New Bloodline.
Orthogenetic evolution, finally applied to humans - but not for any one physical trait.
Sicks had explained it a hundred times in the ten or so years Kasai had been at his side, whether to him, or to some new recruit, or to a few new humans who dared to try and bathe in the ever-glorious light of He the Leader of the New World. Seven thousand years ago, the first leader of the New Bloodline had drawn a sword from ... something, and had been granted the blessing of power that came from their to-be genetically prioritized trait:
Evil.
After that, in various places around the world, the evil, the foul, and the disenfranchised began to take control of their unborn descendants by arranging matches that brought together people of truly evil intents. And, just like with physical traits, the evil began to multiply, advancing intelligence and destroying the moral compass.
Horses needed to run fast to escape their predators, so they grew long, powerful bodies. Anglerfish needed to eat in the dark, so they gained the power of light in the pitch black of the ocean floor. Pepper moths needed to survive in the newly-industrialized world, so the dark ones bred and lived and darkened in the soot-covered streets while the pale ones fell prey to the birds. Animals evolved to suit their needs, based on one necessary trait.
The Bloodline's trait wasn't necessary, but it followed the same path. Humans who chose to be evil - to make their children evil - gained the power over that which everyone feared.
And there was a lot of fear in the world, so they got control of a lot. Which was why everyone was so damn lucky that there weren't more than a hundred of the Bloodline in the world, or else they'd all be well and truly fucked.
Of course, to really subscribe to all of this, you had to believe in a few things that Kasai wasn't entirely sure of, physical evidence as a part of his body notwithstanding. First, you had to believe that mental traits were passed through genetics - nature over nurture and that kind of thing. The concentrated power of wanting to kill, wanting to see the world burn, wanting people to fall at your hands had to carry from generation to generation. Secondly, you had to believe in the very process of orthogenetic evolution, which was a somewhat older and more radical form of evolutional theory. Finally, you had to believe that 7,000 years ago, someone pulled a King Arthur millennia before his time and ripped a sword from a stone, starting a dark and foul bloodline that would corrupt the world for ages to come.
... if his research was right, science had thwarted the first and disproven the second, leaving the last up to people's common sense. And he had long ago stopped believing in even the cruelest of fairy tales, so why would this one be any different? It should have been hard to believe in the entire idea for anyone, not to mention a jaded old man who used to have a death wish.
But hey. Sometimes, shit just didn't make sense.
.-.-
There were the five of them, and then there was Sicks.
It was sort of a fucked-up family, the Five Fingers. Genuine was the evil stepmother who, having actually succeeded in killing off that pesky little stepdaughter, was free to do whatever she liked with no fear of retribution, earthly or otherwise. DR was the distant uncle who people talked about in strained tones thanks to his ridiculous bipolar mood swings. Tierra was the fashionable older brother who could have passed for a sister if he wasn't so adamant about wearing his shirt open 24/7. Vijaya was the little brother that had been ignored for long enough that he'd fallen into weird occult shit and was only normal if you stayed away from topics relating to the supernatural.
Kasai? He was that older uncle that nobody ever talked about or invited to family reunions because he'd set the last one on fire. Not that he'd be caught out in public anyway, with his multiple outstanding warrants, but nobody wanted to even be associated with him from a distance. He was just too old and too eccentric for them to want to publically share their last name or their genetics.
Depressing, sure, but infinitely preferable to playing the father role, especially because being the father meant having to spend more time around Genuine. No, he was happy to leave that role to be distorted by Sicks, who was, in a weird, horrifying way, kind of fatherly. He certainly seemed happy to treat his successful minions well, and the rest of the Fingers looked up to him adoringly. Right up until he smiled and told them to kill themselves because they'd worn out their usefulness.
Admittedly, he'd never had to tell one of the Fingers to go do that, because the order always came down to someone else. Kasai, usually. He was the one who held the dubious honor, bestowed on him the day after Genuine joined the ranks, of being the man who rammed the knife into the backs of his fellow Bloodline members should they not do exactly as they were ordered. Sicks trusted him with this. Trusted him absolutely.
Which was terrifying. Who wanted to be in the confidence of a megalomaniacal, genocidal maniac?
Anyway, the other four Fingers, and all the less powerful members of the bloodline, and the number of humans that had proven themselves at least partially worthy of being let in on the plans - they all practically worshiped Sicks. As a god, or a father, or just the head of the bloodline, it didn't matter. They followed his orders to the letter and murdered those who didn't, kissed ass and sucked up and fought with each other for higher positions. It was a wonder that the Fingers managed to avoid being killed, but then again, they were all on a sort of equal platform. And who would dare to try and kill those that had been hand-picked by Sicks himself as the worst degenerates, the most evil of the depraved, that the world had ever seen?
Aside from sane, rational people, that was.
He was probably the only one who didn't have to kiss ass to retain his position. Everyone else was disposable, and he was sure that in Sicks' mind, he was, too. But he had freedoms that the rest of the Bloodline didn't have. They proved their loyalty on a daily basis; they changed their names to better fit their new lives; they committed atrocities in Sicks' name, waiting to be noticed and given that horrible passing smile. Kasai was free from all of those little depravities.
People wanted to know why, though. Tierra asked him once, casually and offhandedly, probably so he could carry the information back to the other jealous subordinates. Why didn't he have to declare his loyalty? Why was his name the same as it had ever been, even written down in police records across Japan? Where were his numerous atrocities, his grand theft of human life, his number sixes left smoking for all to see? Why was he so trusted despite being what seemed like the least loyal of them all?
Kasai had smiled and told him and left it at that, and Tierra didn't seem too pleased with the answer, but he had never been required to answer any questions posed to him. Especially if they came from an idiot like Tierra. He didn't have to explain himself. None of them did. They were part of the New Bloodline, singularly self-centered and arrogant to the very last. Secrets were their forte. That and senseless slaughter, but that wasn't really the point.
Maybe they thought it was unfair that he was so trusted while being so secretive because he knew all about them. He knew the stories of the other four Fingers - what they'd done before joining the Bloodline, where they'd come from, what their powers were, why they were so blindly loyal - and even knew where the other, less important members came from, but nobody had any idea about him. They could have known if they'd just taken the time to do a little research - his name was still in police records, after all - but no, they just bitched about it. Someone who hadn't even changed his name to join the Bloodline shouldn't be so high up in the ranks, right? Why, anybody could figure out who he was and trace him back to Sicks ...
Whatever. Nobody had. Nobody would. As far as the world was concerned, Kasai Zenjirou was just another mysterious criminal who appeared and disappeared as he saw fit. Fine by him, and more than everybody else needed to know. DR could glare and plot all he wanted, and Genuine could bitch and nag to her heart's content, and the others could try their subtle best to figure him out, but he had no intention of letting them think they had the upper hand on him.
Besides, he didn't need to change his name. It was already ironically fitting.
.-.-
There were no more than a hundred of them across the entire planet. Evil - real, true, pure evil - was hard to find and even harder to create. It was proof that if there was a God, he wasn't a malevolent bastard who enjoyed seeing people die; otherwise, there would have been way more members of the Bloodline popping up all over the place and committing random crimes until Sicks got his hands on them. Then again, the fact that they existed at all was a contention point. Was evil a choice you made, or just natural? After all, not every member of the Bloodline followed Sicks. Some actually worked to improve the world.
And then died horribly, like that Sickson guy.
If the world was really going to fall at Sicks' hands and leave them the sole masters of an unfathomably dark future, roaming among the ruins of history and humanity, Kasai had a few thoughts on the matter he didn't make public. While everybody else was out there exulting in the idea of a world all their own, he wondered how they planned to keep the population levels constant. A hundred people was not a lot. He knew villages in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere with more people than that. Were they supposed to live forever or something? Did Sicks have plans to get all the female Bloodline members (one of them to every three or four guys, he'd noticed) knocked up to continue the evil line? Incest could only be staved off for so long. Immortality was out of the question - the older family heads, the ones that came before Sicks, had obviously passed away. Seven thousand years of evil had to have died here and there, or there would be way more of them running around. And they obviously aged, or else he wouldn't be waking up some mornings feeling like his joints were ready to snap apart if he sat up.
Plus, how were they going to survive? Ever member of the Bloodline had started out as a regular if slightly-less-than-moral human (Sicks excepted ... probably). They were used to the comforts that humanity provided. If everybody else was dead, they would have to start living through their own means. And knowing the arrogance of those bastards, it wouldn't be long before hierarchies were established, a caste system was introduced, and discontent started brewing among the ranks. They'd wind up in endless civil wars and more slaughter. These people weren't ready for a world of their own.
But they didn't realize it. They just went on imagining the glory of Sicks' individual rule and a world free of unnecessary humans. They didn't think, they didn't plan ahead; they stayed shortsighted and bloodthirsty, determined to achieve the goal that Sicks had set for them. There was only one future, and it was adorned by a bloody sunrise. Even Sicks didn't think ahead, or maybe he did and just didn't care; after all, watching his own subordinates struggle to survive while simultaneously pleasing him had to be a pleasant thought.
These thoughts were seditious, though. Or just too intelligent for everybody else. Kasai kept them to himself, knowing that he'd be cursed at or attacked if he dared to bring them up. The Bloodline wanted glory and slaughter, not rational thought - that, after all, was a human trait. And only human, apparently.
If they ever did get where they were going, he thought, could deal with their panicked idiocy then. Once he stopped laughing at them.
If he stopped laughing at them.