Disclaimer: I don't own King of Fighters. If I did, we would still be waiting for KOFXII to be released.
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Kurai Tenshi: Keppaku
Chapter 8: Synthesis
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It wasn't raining at the moment, but he kind of wished it was.
Epsilon stumbled out of the door, making sure that no one had followed him. When all seemed safe, he started to walk to the hotel where the room he was currently residing in was located. He was thankful that it was so dark out, or else there would have been the chance that someone would notice the light specks of blood on his face. Of course, it wasn't his blood…
It was good planning that he had the hotel that provided more than one way of getting in, so he'll have the least chance of running into someone. Of course, if he had used a shoddy old inn it would have probably worked better, but the people who had hired him offered to pay for the rooms (and it's expenses), and Eli wouldn't have refused that no matter how much the risk. He was grateful that Izumida would be willing to give him this opportunity in the first place, so it wouldn't have made a difference.
But most of his thoughts were about what he had just done. It wasn't complicated: Just go in, kill the guy and leave. Having never saw someone die in front of his eyes before; however, it was an overwhelming experience. The smell of freshly spilt blood made him a little ill, and the sight…..he nearly blew his cover trying to leave. That image was now seared into his mind…
Before he even knew it, he was at the hotel room. Eli threw his coat off his body and he nearly dashed into the bathroom. Turning the water on, he washed off the trace amounts of blood off his face. He quickly stripped the bloody shirt off his body, dumped it in the trash. Thankfully, his pants were too dark to show any blood, but to prevent it from getting on the sheets, he put them away as well; he could wash them later.
With that, the feeling of apprehension left Epsilon, replaced by exhaustion. This mission took a lot out of him, and all he wanted to do was have a nice long nap….
---
Epsilon woke up somewhat startled. As his brain tried to adjust to his surroundings, he calmed down a bit.
"Why did I dream about that of all things?" He thought to himself. "My first assassination...The day poor Eli changed forever."
Despite the situation that led to him being an assassin, Eli always thought about that day as a high point in his life. Whether it was because of his heritage or because all the killing has screwed up his personality, he wasn't really sure anymore.
It was still a little dark out, and Eli didn't exactly feel like getting up. Shifting over, he looked to see Malin sleeping sound in her sleeping bag, a content smile on her face. Somehow, that made Eli happy and miserable at the same time. Not wanting to wake her up this early, Eli forced himself to go back to sleep for a bit.
---
"Malin, do you know how to drive?"
Epsilon rather abruptly came up with that question a few hours later, relaxing in his seat while he watched Malin fix up breakfast. He would have never would have thought that she would turn out to be a decent cook, but alas, looks were usually misleading.
"Huh? Drive?" She replied while struggling to get a package of flour open without covering herself in it. "No, I haven't gotten my license yet. How about you?"
"Obviously, carrying around a glorified name tag isn't very smart idea for an assassin." The platinum-haired boy answered. "I learned to drive a few years ago, though I don't really have a car."
"You don't? Don't hired killers usually ride around in fast, expensive cars?" Malin gave him an inquisitive look.
"You've been watching too many movies, Malin." Eli shook his head. "You need to be feared by everyone for that to happen. Once you reach that status, you could be wearing a sign that had your name and address on it and no one would want to take you out. Alas, that isn't a very proactive way, especially to those assassins who rely on stuff like 'anonymity' to complete their missions."
"Considering your situation, I don't think that you know much about 'anonymity' to be talking about it like it's simple." Malin stated.
"It's not. Anonymity also kinda makes it hard for people to trust you. In order to get my name out, I had to thrust myself out there in spite of the dangers." Eli explained. "You have to start somewhere, and sometimes, you can't get by with some kind of mysterious, shadowy identity at this point. "
"Oh…I think I get it now…." Spending time with Eli, among other things, had given her a slightly better grasp of the criminal world. "Wait a minute….why was you asking me about a license for in the first place?"
"Because the place we're going to visit is quite a ways away, and I didn't think you would want to walk all the way there."
"Visit? You mean that person you wanted me to see?" Malin had a look of hesitation. "You're not introducing me to some kind of weirdo, are you?"
"Hardly. I really don't like to associate with nut-jobs unless I really have to. This is someone I've known for a long time…"
"Like who?"
"You'll see. If I tell you now, it'll ruin the surprise." Eli smirked in a way that made Malin that much more uneasy than she was before.
---
Somewhere else, Alek and Tanna were currently lounging around in their apartment, doing what some would see as a mix of doing homework, watching TV and looking up bounty reports on the Web. Tanna was currently sitting on front of the couch; going through various bounties on the websites they frequented, while her roommate-slash-boyfriend, Alek, was lying on the couch, channel surfing.
"Information's too vague….not enough money….too far away…" Tanna said to herself as she scanned through the current listings on the website. "Shit….shit….shit….way too much trouble...Ah…here's a good one."
Alek glanced over her shoulder. "'…Wanted for assault, car theft, burglary….illegal possession of a weapon….I'm not sure about this one."
"It's paying a lot of cash….and that's what we want, right, Alek?"
"We also want to live to see graduation. " The man sighed. "It's times like this I wonder if we've made the right choice…"
"Oh, be quiet. We've gone through this before. We're only doing this to help pay for school. Once we graduate, we'll never have to worry about hunting down criminals again."
"Yeah, yeah…I'm surprised there isn't any suspicion about our age."
"Well, as long as we catch bad guys, the police couldn't give two shits about our age." Tanna rolled her eyes as she closed the laptop. "Anyway, we shouldn't worry about that now. We got a lot of stuff to cover for school, so get us something to snack on, okay?"
Alek sighed and retreated to the kitchen to get something to eat. He and Tanna had known each other since middle school, and had initially gotten together as a couple in high school. College, however, was a big problem. Their families were caring but not rich, and since they didn't have any rich friends or relative to leech money out of, they had to get money fast.
One of Tanna's relatives used to be a bounty hunter, and through that she learned how to catch bounties, though at the time she didn't think much about it. She toyed with the idea and threw it out there to Alek, but he questioned the idea of risking their lives to catch hardened criminals at such a young age. Tanna reasoned that they would only do people that they considered in 'their range of expertise', and if a job was seemed too outside of their 'range', then they wouldn't do it. Alek eventually, relented on the terms that it would only last until they got out of college, at the very most.
Alek and Tanna had a very successful run so far, and what they received was enough to pay for schooling, and a nice little apartment in the city. The advent of Epsilon's bounty, it was becoming clear that this would be different than the others. The reward was huge enough that if they caught them, they would have more than enough that they wouldn't have to risk their lives anymore. But the boy was younger than them, and he didn't look all that evil, certainly not like the bounty said he was. This was way more than they should be handling, and since Kandori had (unwillingly) gotten involved, then they would definitely be in trouble, especially if he got seriously hurt (they haven't exactly told his parents that he had been hunting along with them.) Speaking of which…
"Have you heard from Kandori recently?" Alek said as he returned to the main room, snacks in hand.
"He called earlier; mentioned that he was going to be doing some questioning to a few of his 'friends' about this whole Epsilon thing." Tanna replied. "I told him not to concern himself with it, but he insisted on doing so."
"Don't you think we should do something?" Alek sat down next to her and wrapped his arm on her shoulder.
"I have faith in him enough that he'll do the right thing." The girl smiled. "He'll let us know before making any rash decisions."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Alek could only agree with Tanna.
"Of course I am." She kissed him gently on the lips. "Now stop being pessimistic and help me with this problem…"
---
Later that morning, Eli and Malin left the house. Malin couldn't get the feeling of dread in her stomach to leave. She was basically letting Epsilon lead her to a mysterious place to meet a mysterious person and who knows what would happen after that. Her faith in Eli wouldn't wane, however. If he said whoever they were going to meet was okay, then he or she will probably be normal.
"I can't believe we have to ride on a bus." Eli complained as they rode to the location. "I almost wish I did have a sports car to ride around in…"
"Well, it was either this or walk, Eli." Malin reminded him.
"But this place takes a while to get there by foot. We'll be too tired by time we get there to do anything."
"Well, you maybe. I've trained my legs enough to run long distances, so a long walk doesn't really bother me anymore."
"Thanks for making me feel out of shape, Malin." Eli muttered. Malin only smiled at him.
A few minutes later, the bus stopped, and they got out. After a minute of walking, they finally arrived at their destination: A plain looking house. Malin looked at it with a surprised look. This is where the mystery person lived? Who was she going to meet, his grandmother?
While Malin contemplated all that, Eli knocked on the door. "I'll be there in a minute…." A female voice said through the door.
"Wait, it's a GIRL?!?" Malin confusion quickly turned to outrage. "He has a girlfriend! I should have known…." She could feel herself getting jealous.
The door opened slowly, and a figure slid into view. It was a young girl, of course, wearing a brown sweater and a short jean skirt, her legs covered in black stockings. But one of the things that stood out the most was her jet black hair that went down to her shoulders.
At first, she had a look of confusion, but it slowly turned into relief at the sight of Eli, and she proceeded to jump into his arms."ELI!!!!"
Eli stumbled back a bit from the force of the girl launching herself at him. "Haha…Yeah, I'm glad to see you too." He gently put her back down. "We're you worried?"
"You idiot. Of course I was worried." She said. "I had thought you actually died...please don't scare me like that again…"
"Don't worry….That was just a silly mistake." Eli gave her hair a quick tousle. "Oh, and this is the girl I was talking about."
Malin watched as the girl turned to her, a smile on her face. "So you're the girl that Eli's been staying with?" She bowed. "I owe you my gratitude for keeping him safe."
"Uh…thanks, I guess." Malin didn't really know what to say to this girl.
"Oh, I should really get you two inside before someone sees you." She insisted, and pushed the two of them into the house.
Once inside, Malin glanced around the house. Everything seemed to be normal; she had a neat little kitchen, a nice living room to sit around in, and not a suspicious thing to be found.
"You should be careful not to knock that over…" The girl called out suddenly. Malin turned around to see what she was talking about and found that she was standing next to a rifle that was leaning against the wall. "What the heck??!"
"Yeah…" The girl gave a nervous smile. "I usually keep that there just in case I answer the door and end up getting shot at. It shouldn't be loaded right now, but I wouldn't tempt fate either way."
That only seemed to make Malin go back to being uneasy, however, and she gave a look to Epsilon that said "You better start talking or I'm going to hurt you".
Apparently, the girl decided to spare the other anymore questions. "I'm sorry. I really should have introduced myself to you." She started. "My name is Synthesis, but most everyone just calls me Synth."
"Synthesis? What kind of parent names their daughter that?" Malin couldn't help but ask her.
"I don't really know. I guess the same kinds of parents that name their son Epsilon."
It took a moment, but Malin eventually got the hint. "Wait…You mean you and Eli are related?"
"Yep." Synth's smile never left her face. "I'm his sister."
---
"So…no-one knows anything about this Epsilon deal?" Kandori said as he spun around in his chair lazily, talking on his phone. "You've only been able to get your info from what others had told you, so I understand. Thanks for the assist anyway." He hung up and threw the cell on his bed across the room. "Damn. It doesn't get any more irritating than not having any info on a bounty."
After spending all of yesterday afternoon talking to Kasumi, Kandori had gone home and nearly forgot about the bounty. The next day, however, the thought came back to him, and he spent most of the day calling all his 'contacts', asking for any information they could give him about Epsilon, but most of them only managed to come up with either nothing, or unreliable rumors they heard 'on the street'. It was a big disappointment, especially if you needed more information on exactly who you were supposed to be hunting.
The mere fact that information has been coming through by word-of-mouth and not an official posting on a bulletin board was a sign that this wasn't someone that the police was interested in, but a man a crime boss or organization wanted to get rid of for some reason. Either way, they were offering an extraordinary amount of money, and that was hard to refuse, no matter how complacent you are with your current lifestyle.
"What are we going to do?" Kandori continued to spin around a bit. "We've never hunted down someone so young before. And he has friends; dangerous, weapon-wielding, martial-arts-loving friends." He instantly started to regret ever meeting Kasumi yesterday. She was a nice girl (and a cute one at that), but if she was friends with the person that was currently protecting Epsilon, what could he do? Either they let him go, or they turn him in and she leaves Kandori a crippled mess on the ground for making her friend upset.
"Fuck this…." Kandori got up. "I need to find this girl who's helping Epsilon hide and confront her myself." He knew that it probably wouldn't be a good idea, considering what she did to his friends, but it was worth the risk. Maybe if he heard her side of the story then it'll give him a better view of what was going on. Or he'll get the hell beaten out of him. Whatever comes first.
"Wait…where do I find her?" He suddenly realized. He had no idea where she would be at. Judging by the location where Alek and Tanna first saw them, however, he could come up with a good guess.
---
Of all of the things that could have came out of Malin's mouth that moment, the only thing she could think of is: "Sister?"
"Yes. A year and a half younger than him." Synth stated.
Malin found herself tripping over her own words. While her own previous perceived jealously of Synthesis was gone, the fact that Epsilon had kept this from her was shocking. Shocking and very infuriating.
"WHY IN THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT YOU HAD A SISTER, YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!?!" Malin turned her fury on Eli, who was taken back a bit, but quickly regained her composure.
"Well, it's pretty simple." Eli coughed before continuing. "If you have a very large amount of money hanging over your head like a giant sign that says "Please Shoot Me!", and are being chased by criminals who would run over their own mother to get what they want, would you want risk having your sister threatened or kidnapped in order to try and draw me out?"
"Don't you think that question would be better for someone who isn't an only child?" Malin gave him a deadpan look.
Eli let out a long sigh. "Listen. I know I shouldn't have kept this from you, but Synth is my only family left, and I will not let anybody hurt her as long as I am still walking on this Earth. If you're upset because of that, I'm sorry, but I had to protect my sister."
Malin calmed herself down. "No…I'm sorry, Eli. I didn't mean to get so upset; I just thought you were lying when you said you trusted me."
Eli laid a hand on the blond girl's shoulder. "I do. The entire reason I brought you here was because I trusted you enough to reveal my sister to you. As far as I know, there are only three people I know now that knows about Synth, and you're one of them."
"So if she's supposed to not exist, doesn't that mean she can never leave the house?"
"Ah, no. As far as everyone is concerned, I have no connection to Eli either. This is a relatively safe part of town, so I don't really have to worry about someone hurting me unless they were really, really desperate to get my brother." Malin motioned at the gun on the wall. "Oh, that's only because I didn't expect anyone to be here today."
"Are you all by yourself?"
"Of course not. Eli lives with me, but when he got caught up in that 'incident' a few days back, he decided to hide out in a safe house till things calmed down a bit." Synthesis made her way to the kitchen. "Eli, why don't you show her around, and we'll meet in my room to talk some more?"
"I guess I could show you my room." Eli said as he went up the stairs, Malin following with enthusiasm.
Eli's room was up the stairs and to the left. It wasn't extravagantly big, but it was far from small. It was surprisingly decorated for someone like him, with various posters and stuff on the wall, and a nice sized TV sitting on a stand across from his bed. It was a little unkempt, but not as dull as Malin would have thought.
"It's boring, I admit it." Eli said as he threw a shirt lying on the bed into a basket. "I wish I could buy me a nice luxury apartment in the city, but those kinds of things draw too much attention. Not to mention that their windows are so big that it's easy for someone to fire a rocket launcher right into your room."
Malin couldn't think of an intelligent response to that, so she decided to change the subject. "Do you hide any weapons in your room?"
"Well, there's a sniper rifle that needs to have its scope fixed." Eli said casually, "But my employers usually provide me with the things I request for, in order to keep anything from being traced back to me. I can usually make stuff like knifes and blunt objects to an extent with my power, don't ask me why, but the only real weapons we have is a taser, that gun downstairs, a few handguns and a pellet gun that belongs to my sister."
"He says that like it's perfectly normal for a teenage girl to be wielding a gun." Malin thought to herself. "So, where's your sister's room at?"
"Right down the hall." Eli said. Malin walked over and found that Synthesis' room looked pretty good as well. It was white with black trim, but there seemed to be random spots of black that looked like paint splats on the walls. Besides the mandatory stuffed animal and the shelf full of manga (that featured the Gravitation comics that she had teased Eli about buying, though the majority contained more action and violence than love and romance), there was a neat little collection of stuff on the various stands that ranged from porcelain dolls to expensive looking crystal figures.
"Eli must really spoil his sis with all this stuff." Malin mused to herself, before something caught her attention.
It was a picture. Upon closer inspection, it was two kids, a girl and a boy, and their parents. Malin could only assume that it was Eli and Synth when they were younger, but the boy in the picture had black hair, not that unusual light shade that he had right now. And his eyes weren't that dull color, but looked more vibrant and lively. The parents had that graceful look them, but the father seemed to have strangely graying hair that didn't go with his young look. The mother had her hair up in some kind of tied up knot in the back of her head.
"By the way you're staring at that picture; you must have found the photo with our parents on it." Eli said from the doorway, which spooked Malin so much she nearly dropped the frame.
"Don't do that!" She hissed.
Eli just rolled his eyes. "I'm betting that you want to ask me about the hair thing, right?"
"Hair?" Malin said before realizing what he meant. "Oh, that's right. Your hair is black in this picture…."
"Yeah, yeah…I wish I could tell you that I dye my hair to get it this way, but if that was true, it would probably have fell out, considering it's not a normal color to use on human hair."
"So your hair turned that color by itself?"
"I guess. It's not like it's falling out, so I don't worry about it. I can always dye it back to normal, but I was never bothered by it." Eli tugged at his hair a bit for emphasis. "My father had the same problem as well. I assume it must be hereditary."
"I always though it made you look cute." Malin smiled.
Eli tried to hide the slight blush from his face and coughed again. "Anyway, yeah, those are my parents, Yuina Katsuo and Naoki Arata."
"But those are normal Japanese name; Why did they give you and your sister such funny ones?"
"Like I told you, I was born in Greece. At the time, my father wanted me to have a unique name because he thought it would make me 'stand out'. Mom didn't really agree with him, thought. She called me Eli because she thought it was cute. As for my sister, I don't really know what they were thinking then. I think they didn't want me to be stuck as the only child with a crappy name. My mom started calling her Synthia, but Synth doesn't like being called that."
"What did the kids think?"
"Everyone teased us for a while, but once I started beating people up, it stopped pretty quickly." Eli answered. "You'd be surprised how much trouble you could get from smashing someone's face into the window of a school-bus."
"Ouch…." Malin couldn't help but say that. It was around this time that Synth walked into the room.
"If you want, we can talk right here." She suggested, pulling out a chair. Malin sat down on it; Epsilon opted to sit on the floor, his back resting against the closed door.
Synth sat cross legged on her bed. "So, how do you like my room?"
"It certainly has a lot of unique stuff in it." Malin confessed. "Did Eli buy all of this?"
"Yep, all stuff from his various travels and stuff. He usually brings me something back, though occasionally, if he has a job that requires him to be in a house of a victim, he'll steal something from them and gives it to me."
Malin glanced at Eli. "So I've heard." She said. "If he's not there, what do you do all day?"
"I go to school, per my brother's request. Eli is a part time student, but he reached a deal with the school that he would take off for a year in order to get 'his finances in order."
"Wait, he goes to school too?"
"I need something to fall back on in the case that my assassin job runs its course." Eli spoke up. "I love my sister to death, but I don't really want to be freeloading off of her the rest of my life."
"Well, that's something I never knew about him." Malin said.
"Yep, he's pretty good, but he procrastinates a lot, so his grades aren't quite up to par yet. But I can't really say anything, because I'm guilty of that too."
"That's because you would rather spend all day reading comics or watching TV." Eli said. "You don't have an excuse, unlike me."
"How mean…." Synth pouted. "I can't help it that I get distracted sometimes."
"She nearly had to be held back last year because she was too busy going out with friends and did all of her homework on the way to school the next day…."
"That's enough, Eli!" Synth said in a desperate attempt to change the subject. "Let's talk about something else."
Malin decided that it would be a good time to try to learn some more about Epsilon. "Okay….I'll probably regret asking this, but does it ever concern you sometimes that he's going out killing people to take care of you?"
"Ah…don't worry. I knew that question would come up, eventually. Basically, my answer is like this; my daddy killed people to take care of me, and for a while, so did my mom. I understand the reason they do it, and I definitely understand the reason why my brother does it. It doesn't bother me at the least." Synth said in the most serious way she could say without losing her kind tone. "It's a strange thing to wrap your head around, understandably. You've been kind of thrown into this thing with no real knowledge of what's been going on for the most part."
"Well, I have tried asking, but your brother has been ducking my questions."
Synth gave her brother a glance. "Well, Malin, that is kind of a sensitive subject. In order to get a better understanding, you'll need to know how my brother became an assassin in the first place, and I can tell you right now, it's not a very happy tale." Her face turned into sort of a frown. "Just thinking about what has happened the past few years….It's been a while now, but I still have trouble talking about it."
Malin cringed inwardly at the grim turn the conversation took. Maybe she had gotten to personal with her questioning. Synth noticed it however and immediately returned to her bright self.
"Like I said before, don't worry about it. We'll be willing to tell you everything in due time. For now, just enjoy yourself." She said. "It's not often we get a visitor that we don't have to lie about ourselves to. The fact that Eli was willing to let you meet me means that he thinks very highly of you, Malin."
"He does, doesn't he?" Malin resisted the urge to blush.
"Yep. And that's pretty special, considering how he freezes when he is with girls…" Synth continued.
"That's coming from the girl with no boyfriend." Eli interrupted. "The closest you got to relationship is eying the boy that sits five seats down from you in your science class and him smiling back."
"At least I show an interest in boys! You got hugged by a girl in middle school and you almost fainted!"
"You brought a Valentines Day gift for a boy at school, but when you were about to give it to him, you chickened out and said you brought it for me!"
And so, like siblings do, they started to argue, leaving Malin to watch in relative interest.
---
After a few hours with Synthesis that consisted of her showing Malin the rest of the house, a light lunch, more arguments between Synth and her brother and a healthy amount of TV watching, Malin had opted to leave the two to discuss personal matters while she went home. Since she knew the way to her house, and the sun was still out, she decided to walk home.
Halfway there, however….
"Excuse me, miss." A voice said from behind her. Malin turned to see a boy that looked sort of familiar…
"Uh…yes?" Malin responded.
"You wouldn't happened be Malin, would you?"
"Someone recognizes you! It must be a fan!" Malin smiled brightly. "Of course! I'm the infamous girl herself!"
"Finally. That's the last time I do something as stupid as search for a girl in a crowded city." Kandori thought in relief. "I was looking for you, because I wanted to talk to you about Epsilon."
Malin's face went from happy to 'Oh shit!" in a second. "I knew it. You're after that bounty too, I guess. Well, you're going to have to go through me." She sent a sharp, unfriendly look towards Kandori.
"Actually, that's not what I'm here for. I'm not concerned about the bounty; I just want to know what the hell is going on that someone like him has such a high amount of money on his head."
"Wait…you mean you don't know why?" Malin had assumed that everybody knew that he was an assassin, but apparently that wasn't the case.
Kandori shrugged. "Nope. Nothing besides the obvious."
She didn't really know what to do at that point. If she told them that Eli was an assassin, then they would probably go ahead and capture them. Though, they were bounty hunters, so they probably wouldn't be willing to go after a dangerous criminal so rashly. Suddenly, the proverbial light bulb lit up in her mind.
"How about you fight me for it?" She suddenly asked.
"What?"
"If you beat me, I'll tell you what you need to know, but if I beat you, you leave Eli alone."
"Eli? Wait…you want me to fight you? I'm not just some random person on the street; I do have some experience in fighting." Kandori said.
"Maybe. In all honestly I haven't been in a real fight in a good while, and since you decided to stick your nose in my business, I decided that you would be good for a little sparring session."
The boy let out a loud sigh. "I knew this would happen." He resigned himself to the idea that he was going to have to fight her for information. "Alright, I accept." He said. "Where do you want to fight?"
"I know a place that won't have a lot of people in it. Follow me." And with that, Malin took off. Kandori just shook his head and followed her.
---
Shikkoku: It took me about a good 43 days to make this chapter, kinda fast. I still might edit this chapter further if I find anything that needs to be changed, but priority no. 1 will be KOFNB till Act 1 is finished.
Notes:
-Please don't give me any grief about Synthesis's name. I had made this stuff way before I knew that giving OCs funny names wasn't the right thing to do.
-Speaking of names, Eli's explanation about his name was just something I threw out there at the last minute to try to make it more plausible. Same with Eli's hair, but there is something else to blame for that….
-I'm sure that the little interlude with Alek and Tanna seemed kinda pointless, but since they ended up being more important to the plot than I initially intended them to be, I thought it would be better if I gave them some background.
-And as for Malin's little request for a match against Kandori, for a story that's in the King of Fighters section of the site, there sure hasn't been a lot of actual combat in it.
One last thing to note is that I went back and edited some of the older chapters a bit. Nothing that really sticks out, though (with the exception of that I made Eli's conversation with Rikuto in the last chapter a bit more longer, since that ties in with something else I'm planning to start soon.)
Next Chapter: Malin and Kandori fight, Eli makes his visit back to Izumida and gains some new info, and his true enemy finally emerges…
Until Next Time, Sayonara.
