Disclaimer: I don't own KOF, but if I did, I would force the writing crew to try and remake the NESTS saga with a much more satisfying ending.
How long has it been? Two years? Er….Shit.
\ \ \
Kurai Tenshi
Chapter 10: Inexpressive
/ / /
Eh…none of this stuff is any use to me if I can't cook. Eli frowned as he closed the fridge.
It was early in the morning. As Malin was taking her morning shower, Epsilon, not wanting to be anywhere near her room when she got out, decided to look for something that will satiate his hunger for the time being.
Assassinating could be a pain, but if one good thing that came out of that situation, it was that it gave him an excuse to never learn how to cook anything complicated. His diet pretty must consisted solely of vending machine food and take out, and most of the time, he ate just enough so the burning sensation in his stomach would go away and he could concentrate on his job. Synthesis had to teach herself how to cook just so her brother wouldn't die from malnutrition.
If need be, he can cook for himself, but Japanese breakfasts can be quite a pain for him sometimes. So far, all he managed to find was a box of…something, some soybeans, a few pieces of pork, and some leftover cabbage.
Eventually, Malin went down the steps, dressed in loose blue shorts and a white tee; Her hair still damp from the shower. "You're not about to try and cook with just that, are you?" Malin asked as he walked over to the kitchen counter where Eli had dumped all the food he found.
"I think…I think I might be able to work with this." Eli looked at the spread he laid out. "Maybe with a little soy sauce, I could-"
"No!" Malin shoved him out of the way, "Let me handle this. Something tells me whatever you were planning probably would be considered a biological weapon in some states."
Eli opted not to comment, choosing to take a seat by the table. As the sounds of cooking food started to permeate the room, he stared aimlessly out the window as he tried to reconcile what had happened yesterday.
He had gotten his first real assignment in quite a while in exchange for potential information on his mark, but said mark ended up being one step ahead of him and proceeded to murder one of the few contacts he undoubtedly trusted. Now here he was, too paranoid to leave the house, with a girl that he still didn't know that well, trying to regain a sense of sanity in the 12-car pileup that was his life.
The road is cruel… Eli thought to himself, wondering what was in store for him from his blonde friend. He liked her, he really did, but there was still the fact that she was a very pretty girl, and Epsilon wasn't especially well versed with the ways of women that wasn't his sister. He was grateful that Malin treated him like any other person and not as some weirdo or a hot boy that she took in solely to try and have her way with him.
"Ha-ha! Once again Malin amazes you with her awesome cooking prowess, am I right!" Malin slid a plate of food in front of the starving assassin, who scarfed it down without any thought of etiquette whatsoever. "So…." She continued, "…are you feeling better after yesterday?"
"A little." The assassin replied, "I suppose I got a bit too antsy yesterday. Sorry about that."
She shook her head slightly. "You don't have to apologize to me for anything…"
"But I do. An assassin should be able to handle stuff like this. I shouldn't have got all panicky and stuff." He continued to eat. "It wouldn't look good if clients thought I ran away at the first sign of trouble. Stuff like that doesn't really extol confidence from them."
"Hey, that's just what I was taught." He took another bite, "You know, I'm glad I got stuck with someone who can cook well, because to be quite honest, I can't do it for shit."
Epsilon was obviously trying to steer the conversation away from his violent life for the time being; Malin decided to go along with it. Trying to get him to open up might be easier if she eased him into it. "You don't know how to cook?" She continued to eat.
"I can make a few things, but I live off junk, mostly." Eli replied, "I don't really have much time to cook, obviously, so I just live off of junk food and microwavable stuff. It's just easier that way."
Malin looked him over. If he really ate that so often, then it's a miracle he hadn't gave himself a heart attack from all of that fat. She assumed having to run from people all day can be good for his metabolism.
"You make a half-decent breakfast, Malin." Eli said, "Maybe you can work as some kind of short order cook if that whole fighting thing doesn't work out for you."
Malin opted to not throw her fork at him. "I'll stick with what I'm good at, thank you very much."
"So what's first up on the agenda?" Eli asked as soon as they were finished with breakfast. "Do you want to spar for a little bit?"
"I don't really feel much like fighting…" Malin yawned, "Let's just watch some TV for now."
"Meh, I guess." Eli wasn't one for weekday morning television to be honest. "So what's on at this time of day?"
"Silver Slasher! The knife wielding hero of justice." Malin announced proudly. "It's just so happens that they're doing a marathon today of the Hedonistic Elemental Schoolgirls arc."
"Uhhhh…." He never heard of that show, and it sounded ridiculous just by her description alone, but he didn't have much else to do. "Fine. It might be decent."
An hour later…
"Okay, so this guy has been fighting bunch of girls with elemental powers, because one of them had been attacking guys in his school, you know? So he sneaks in, and when he starts questioning them, they get aggressive, because it's a girls only school and they assume any man in there is some creepy pervert, so they start using their elemental powers to try and take them down, but then Somori, the girl that has a crush on him but he doesn't know it and she won't admit it starts going insane after he falls on this one girls chest and…"
"This is the stupidest shit I've ever seen…" Eli muttered. The entire show was nothing but overused tropes and inane character types. "Isn't there something else we can be watching at the moment?"
"Yes, but I want to watch this. Be grateful that there are only 3 more hours of this left." Malin smirked, and Eli just groaned as the incredibly annoying theme song started up again.
\ \ \
Jirosai Toska exited the car and took a deep breath as he looked at the run-down building that stood in front of him. The meeting place was nothing more than a rusty old warehouse, but that was the only location in the area that they could come up with in such short notice. After his little trip yesterday, the police was on high alert for anymore gang activity. In hindsight, Jirosai figured he could have tried to frame Epsilon as Izumida's murderer, but the deaths of crime bosses didn't get much attention if civilians were involved, and Epsilon would have probably slipped away till the police stopped caring.
"Jirosai, don't you think this is going a bit overboard?" A younger man next to him asked. He had a bit of short, spikey blonde hair on his head.
"Nothing great has ever been accomplished without the risk of failure present." Jirosai stated calmly, "In order to take care of someone as crafty as Epsilon, we'll need something more substantial than thugs with guns."
"If that's the case, then I hope you picked some good ones, because this might be quite the battle we're about to wage."
"I never come to battle without the right weapon, Takuhi." They entered the place, and Jirosai noticed a somewhat unwelcome surprise. "Why are they're only four of them?"
"Four? I called in a lot more people than that!" Takuhi stated, "I had a whole two pages of numbers, and I called ALL of them personally!"
"Be that as it may, there are still only FOUR people here, Takuhi." Jirosai's tone didn't waver, but Takuhi could tell that he was irritated. "What happened to the rest of them?"
Takuhi was about to try and contact someone to get an answer when one of the people there, a tall, brown haired main wearing a dress shirt and slacks, cleared his throat. "I think I might have the answer..."
Jirosai looked at him. "And you are?" He asked.
"Name's Gokuchi, but anyway, From what I heard, one of them got arrested for drunk driving, two of them are in jail for starting a shootout at a restaurant yesterday, and I think the big guy next to me killed the last guy in the back of this building…" He stated, pointing to a huge, muscular man that towered over him.
"I don't take kindly to those who mock me." Was all that he said. "Smartass thought he could try and cheap shot me, but I showed him that I take punches real good."
"Okay, and what's your name?"
"Sosaira, bodyguard and hitman for hire. Once I get my hands on you, it's all over, and ain't no one been able to get out of my grip yet." He said.
"Of course, that might be because your stench sucks the strength right out of them. Phew!" A younger man waved his hands in front of his face. "What, you can't fit in a shower or something? Geez!"
"Watch your mouth, kid."
"Anyway, my name is Mozuki, the man who's about to be the next big thing in the crime biz!" Mozuki pushed the sunglasses up on his black hair. His casual clothes and arrogant demeanor just screamed of someone who had no idea what they were really getting into.
"'Crime Biz?" Jirosai frowned, "You look like you haven't even gotten out of high school yet. But I suppose you must have some skill if you're willing to face Epsilon. Anyway…er, miss?"
The last person was actually a girl, which wouldn't be any big deal for him. Unfortunately, this girl was currently on her cell phone, texting some one in the middle of what was supposed to be a serious meeting. Her hair was mostly brown, but it had a stark strip of green going down her right side bang.
"Ooooh. Shit, I didn't know you were here!" She made a few more texts before putting her phone away, "KuroGenesis."
"Wait, that's supposed to be your name?" Takuhi spoke up.
"Yep. If I told you my real name, you better either be dying or sleeping with me; because that's the only way I'll share it with you."
"I suppose this is the best we can get for now." Jirosai didn't want to deal with this much longer, "So, you know why we called you, right?"
"That Epsilon kid, right?" Sosaira answered, "I heard that he has quite a big bounty on his head thanks to you."
"Of course. But unfortunately, things aren't going the way I had initially hoped."
"How? This is some punk kid, why would it be so difficult to deal with him."
"Gokuchi, he's not a kid, he's an expert assassin. Most people who've tried ended up coming back severely maimed, or just don't come back at all. The guy who got the closest to catching him ended up as an unidentifiable corpse rotting in an alleyway, and the second closest got murdered in his own home. He's scared off quite a lot of people who would otherwise be salivating for a chance at this much money, so I need some people who are sure to get the job done."
"Soooo….what this boils down to is this: Epsilon is so badass that not even massive amounts of money can get people to catch him? Sounds tough."
"Quite. But that's why I have you here. I've decided to hang up the bounty for now, and do something different. Basically, that money will go to the first one who gets him to me ALIVE." Jirosai said, "And the key word being 'Alive'. We have some things to settle, and I can't do that if he's dead. Got it?" Everyone nodded, "Good. Now, he's currently hiding with this girl called Malin…"
"Did you say 'Malin'?" KuroGenesis suddenly blurted out, "That's the girl from KOF!"
"Huh?" Jirosai hadn't kept up with the King of Fighters tournament as of late; the past few had all seemed a bit...boring. He scoped his mind to see which one the girl was referring to before realizing it. "Oh, the girl with the giant hammer?"
"Yep! She's pretty awesome if you ask me!" KuroGenesis bounced in excitement.
"I'm hoping that this isn't going to make you hesitant if the time comes, right?" Jirosai asked, but KuroGenesis just shook her head.
"Not a chance. If I have to beat the shit out of her to get that cash, then I won't even blink. A job is a job." She had a huge smile on her face.
"I doubt you'll be able to accomplish such a feat, little girl." Gokuchi smugness was evident with his remarks, "This isn't the kind of thing some middle schooler should be caught up in…"
"I'm NINETEEN, you bottom-feeding dipshit!"
"You're hostile towards one another. Good; makes me know that you'll work all that harder to beat each other to the target." Jirosai stated, and then decided that he should continue. "Anyway, he's hiding with her somewhere. I don't have a clue where she lives, and going to her house would make too much commotion, so I'm hoping that by taking down this bounty, we can lure him out with a false sense of security."
"How are we going to know who he is?"
"If you see Malin, it'll probably be him that is tagging along for the ride. If he goes out alone, it's unlikely you'd know about it. With that, I believe that should be it for the more essential specifics about him. The rest will be explained by Takuhi."
"Right," Takuhi stepped forward, "Once you capture Epsilon, you are to inform us immediately. Don't torture him, don't dilly dally around, and if I find out you're attempting to extort money from him in exchange for letting him go, I swear I'll come over there and kill you myself. The moment we receive him, you'll get the money on the spot."
"What about that girl, or anyone else that might be present when we find him."
Laughing, Takuhi just shrugged. "Do as you wish. As long as it doesn't get traced back to us, we could care less what you do to her or anyone else. Just don't screw up, or you'll be shit out of luck with us."
"Alright. Now that we've gotten our message across, I'll leave it to you to decide your course of action. Farewell."
As the two men departed, the rest was left to figure out exactly how they were going to try and attempt such a task. To say that there was any hesitation or misgivings from them would be a total fallacy.
"Welp, looks like I'll be seeing you three losers later. Feel free to look me up once I made my money, I could always use someone to scrub the floors in my apartment." Gokuchi waved a hand up in there as he headed out.
"I doubt you two kids will be much trouble. Looks like that cash is as good as mine." Sosarai lumbered off in the other direction, leaving Mozuki and KuroGenesis alone in the warehouse.
"Woooo! Looks like this is going to be a wild ride!" KuroGenesis seemed to be a bit more hyped than any normal person should who'd just been ordered to try and catch a brutal killer. S
/ / /
"Booooooring."
"Shut up already. I had to sit through that mess you call a show, you'll sit through this and like it."
After enumerable amounts of gratuitous violence, Epsilon finally was free of Silver Slasher's grasp. As a bit of a punishment, he was now playing through a relatively unknown shooter much to Malin's disinterest.
"I think the aiming in this game is a bit on the lax side." Eli said as he performed his fourteenth headshot in a row, "guns like that usually takes a bit of effort to maintain steadiness, this game makes it a bit too easy to snipe someone in the head from far away." He blew away another thug, "Not to mention it doesn't do a good job of accounting for distance, wind, enemy moment and…"
"Why do I have the feeling that you got your assassin skills from playing video games all day?"
"I didn't. My father was an expert." He stated, "But you can learn a thing or two if you're careful. Stealth, proper hiding. How to stab people in the neck and hide bodies without people noticing…"
"Ugh…I'm buying you an RPG the next time we go to the mall, alright?"
"That's fine with me, but for now, you'll have to stick with-Aw man! I got shot from behind by some thug talking to you!"
"Ha ha. Now turn that stuff off. There's something I want to talk to you about." Malin said.
Epsilon turned off the console and sat next to her on the couch."Alright, you got my attention. What's up?" He said.
Malin mumbled a bit as she tried to come up with the best way to get this across. "Wellll…I figured that now would be a good time for the two of us to talk a bit. You know, because if we're going to stay here, I think you could tell me a bit more about…you."
"Open…Open up?" Eli was a bit confused with Malin's intentions for a bit, but he realized this was one of her attempts at trying to dig into his life. It kinda bothered him how persistent she had been with the subject, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to at least hear her out.
Epsilon stared out into nowhere. "Alright, Malin, I'll bite. What do you want to know about me?"
"Your….your parents…." Her voice trailed off at the end, but Eli could easily make the words out. That subject again.
"If you really want to know…" Eli ran his hand through his platinum hair in a rough fashion as he started his tale. "My dad accidently shot some guy in a crime syndicate that doubled as a teen pop idol who had a rather meager fanbase. Needless to say, when his fangirls found out who did it, they weren't very happy." Eli put on his best 'sorrowful' expression as he acted as if he was suffering from the horrible memories, "I can still remember that day. My parents, cornered on the street by pre-teen girls with pocket knives, sharpened pencils and paper fans, stabbing and bludgeoning my parents to death with magazines that had his face on the cover. It still gives me flashbacks whenever I pass by his album in a music shop…"
Malin sat there quietly for the briefest of moments, trying to reconcile what the assassin just told her. "Eli?"
"Yeah?"
"That's not true isn't it?"
Eli shook his head. "Not one bit." He chuckled a bit, but Malin was clearly in no mood for his jokes.
"Why are you such an asshole?!" Her voice was loud enough that Eli was taken aback a bit, but he wasn't about to relent. "Stop being so mysterious and open up a bit more, damn it!"
Malin's rage did little to faze the assassin. "Nope." He said simply, his head turning back to the tv as if he wasn't going to go further with this discussion. "It was a nice little plan, but an assassin never reveals his personal life to people that could be considered a risk."
"A risk?!"
Five seconds later, he was clutching his face, rubbing the spot where Malin slapped him. Looking into her eyes, Eli could tell that he had inadvertently pissed her off. He stood guard and got ready for any physical act she might unleash on him. Thankfully, Malin merely stomped away; He could hear her go up the steps and into her room, the door closing with a slam that reverberated in his body.
In the silence that followed, Epsilon sat there, a look of confusion etched on his face. What the hell just happened?
\ \ \
"Are you some kinda bounty hunter or something?"
The two of them were drinking sodas as they sat on the empty parking lot outside of the warehouse.
"I'm a lot of things to many people, but I'm mostly in the business of killing people." The girl stated, "I suppose that technically, you could all me an assassin, but it wouldn't be entirely accurate, ya know?"
"YOU are an assassin? Are you one of those girls who look cute and innocent, but are secretly an insane, bloodthirsty maniac?"
KuroGenesis' face scrunched, slightly offended by his remarks. "I have no qualms about killing, but I'm not a sadistic nutjob who gets off of violence. This is just what I'm good at; why not make money off of it?" KuroGenesis reached for her phone, fiddling around till she found what she was looking for. "You know that crime boss that caused a riot in Osaka a few years back? Here's what he looked like when I got done with him."
Mozuki was slightly sickened. "Okay, okay! Get that thing out of my face already." He turned away from the gruesome picture. "Geez, I'm not that much of a sicko that I find dead bodies appealing to look at."
"Never said it was cute, but you want results, right?" KuroGenesis stated.
"Touche." Mozuki suddenly had a bit of an idea forming in his head, "What did you say your name was?"
"KuroGenesis. Ku-ro-Genesis. That's all you get from me at the moment." She teased, "And you're Mozuki?"
"Mozuki Tamashii." He said, "Anyway, I know this is a bit out of nowhere, but what do you think about the two of us teaming up?"
"Team up?"
"This is going to be a tough job, and those other guys seem fit to try and do it on their own. Teaming up could work to our advantage if we do it right."
KuroGenesis was obviously skeptical about the unexpected offer for help, but had an open enough mind that she figured it couldn't hurt. "And what about the money?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You can take it all. My family has a decent enough cashflow already, so I really don't need it." He downed the rest of his soda before chucking it to the street.
"Actually, that sounds like a plan." KuroGenesis said. "But to make sure you don't go home without some reward, so if we capture him, I'm willing to let it slip and tell you what my real name is. Deal?"
"Kind of a strange offer, but what the hell. You got a deal." They shook hands, making their partnership official.
KuroGenesis looked at her phone's clock. "I guess I'll be seeing you later then, Mozu-kun." She waved at him before turning around and speeding off.
"I'm 'Mozu-kun' now?" Mozuki said to the empty space where KuroGenesis just left. Maybe he was getting over his head, but this opportunity was just too great for him to ignore. Bringing down the mysterious assassin named Epsilon was his ticket to being immortalized as a feared figure in the crime world.
*beep beep boop*
Mozuki's phone went off in his pocket. Checking his messages, he discovered that KuroGenesis has already left him something.
Forgot to tell U: hack'd ur phone and took ur nmbr, so I can call u anytime! 3 Kuro
Mozuki sighed. This had a good chance to be a total disaster as well.
/ / /
Epsilon had distracted himself for a few hours by watching a few movies; all of them much more entertaining than the slop Malin tried to force feed him that morning. However, when it was over, he was stuck thinking about Malin and what exactly he did to make her so angry. He tried to go through his limited experience with girls as if to find something he could use, but everything came up empty. All Epsilon could do was lean back in the couch and stare up at the ceiling. Dealing with girls can be hard.
"Eli..."
Malin's voice caused him to look up. There she was; looking a bit disheveled, and eyes somewhat puffy, but the aura of anger was long gone from her, replaced by somberness and regret. "Uh…what's up?" Epsilon replied.
"…I'm sorry…" She muttered. "I guess you figured out by now, but I agreed to this mostly because I hoped that having you around all day would be a good chance to get to know you a bit better. But instead, I got frustrated and hit you."
"It's no big deal. It's not the first time I had a girl slap me in the face." He said, "But, why are you so interested in my past?"
"I thought since I got to know your sister that you'd be a bit more willing to talk about it. The whole 'trusting me' stuff and all of that." Malin sat on the couch gingerly next to him, still not wanting to look directly into his eyes. "I know this is the most cliché thing a girl like me could say to a boy, but we've known each other a short time, but I feel like I'm being pushed away from you, even if you're not trying to be mean.
And with those words, it suddenly came to him; Malin was upset because she thought Epsilon still didn't trust her. That had been her main peeve with him since they met, was his constant need to be secretive about such things all the time. He hadn't thought there was anything wrong with it, but then again, other than he had exactly two people who he was really close to, and both of them had known about his lifestyle from the beginning, and one of them was his sister. As much as he preferred to keep to himself, Eli could be a bit more understanding of Malin's intentions.
Epsilon scratched his head as he tried to come up with something interesting to say. "I suppose I am still a bit uneasy about revealing myself to you. My past isn't exactly a feel-good story of the year, to put it lightly."
Malin turned to him, "Oh, I don't want you to say anything you aren't comfortable with. I just wanted to learn more about you, that's all." She said quietly, and Epsilon suddenly felt like the biggest jerk in the world. At the very least, he could be a bit more expressive about things. "I know you're still not really that social, but…"
"That's not much of an excuse. This thing between us is a give and take kinda thing, and I've been doing a lot more taking than giving, if you catch my drift." Eli said. "You've been kind to me, despite the whole 'assassin' thing, but I think I've been taking that for granted just a little bit."
"What? Oh no, you haven't! Or at least not yet." Malin said, "Granted, there were several times I wanted to toss you out on your ass, but I'm like that with most of my guests."
Eli laughed. "Anyway, I guess there are some things I can tell you…" Eli sank back into his seat. "My childhood. How about we start with that for now?" Malin nodded earnestly, "Okay. Where to start…"
And so Epsilon humored her with some stories. He told her about his relatively sublime home life, how his mother taught him hand-to-hand combat in order to fight off bullies that had been messing with him at school and how she was often a bit clumsy when it came to cooking, how his father would often come back from missions with some absurd story about situations that happened in the middle of his trips, like having to beat down some guys who were making a fuss at a bar, and bring home souvenirs as his way of making up for the time he would be gone, how his sister used to cry a lot to the point that he wanted to move his room into the basement so he wouldn't go crazy.
It was merely minor details of his childhood, but to Malin, these things helped her to paint a better picture about the young man next to her. Epsilon seemed to have such a low view about himself sometimes, which made Malin wonder how anyone with such great parents and such a sublime childhood ended up like he was now. She brought that subject up to him, yet again, but…
"I'm sorry, but I don't really want to talk about it just yet." Eli closed his eyes, "I just-I just can't, okay?"
Malin placed her hand on his arm and she instantly felt the tension in his body. It was obviously a wound that was still quite raw to him. "I understand. I won't push you anymore."
Epsilon slowly eased up when he heard those words. "Listen, I swear to you I'll give you everything you want to know about that period of my life, but just not today." Eli said, "It's rather grim, and I don't want to kill the mood right now, but you're my friend and you deserve to know eventually."
Malin felt a small tinge of success at Eli calling her a 'friend', even if the day didn't go as well as she planned. "I'll hold you to that." She said, "Don't break your promise, or I'll hammer you into a pancake."
"And I certainly don't want that." Feeling like the situation had been resolved, Eli got up from the couch, hoping to try and find something to eat for dinner. With a quick tug that he was barely aware of, however, he was pulled back to the couch. Malin wanted more from him, apparently.
"Hold on a minute, Eli." Malin shoved him back into his seat, "There's just one more thing I have to ask you."
Eli was confused as to what else she wanted, but chose not to make a big deal out of it. "Uh…of course. What do you want?"
"Why are you so shy around girls?" It was an innocent question, but those words sent a sort of weird feeling down his spine, one that told him that he should choose his words wisely…
"Er….I'm not very good with females, unfortunately." He scratched his cheek with a finger, "That is, when I'm talking to them normally I'm usually fine. It starts getting sketchy when they become all flirty and stuff."
"So you've never even kissed a girl?"
"Is it a bad thing if I said 'no'?" Eli had no confidence in his voice whatsoever..
"Don't worry. To be perfectly honest, I've never really kissed a boy either." Malin tone was starting to be less playful and more sinister by the second. "But that's no reason that I can't start now."
"W-what?" Eli found himself in the compromising situation of having Malin slowly creep up till their faces were level. Her body was just hovering above him, and he had to work really, REALLY hard not to take a glance at what lay beyond the loose collar of her t-shirt.
"Eliiiii….Don't you want to try it?" Malin's hot breath was sapping his resistance away with each word she spoke. Eli tried to maintain a straight façade as possible, but he was losing badly.
Of everything that the young assassin had experienced in his short but full life so far, this was by far the scariest. Not only because of his general shyness towards girls, but because, in the cold, bare, relatively unused part in his subconscious, there was a voice in his head telling him that he wanted this.
"Hahaha…I'm just kidding!" Malin laughed as she got off of him, earning her a dirty look from her flushed-face friend. "Ah, don't be upset because I got you all worked up like that. It's just for fun, after all…"
"Not really my idea of 'fun', Malin." Eli sighed as his body temperature returned to normal.
"Oh shut up." Malin turned and walked towards the kitchen. "I'm going to order us some food right quick."
Malin disappeared, leaving the assassin, for about the third time that day, to stew and lament on how much of a complete pussy he was when it came to the opposite sex.
Meanwhile, Malin herself stood in the kitchen, her face a bright red as everything she had just did finally registered in her brain. What the hell did I just almost do?! She slapped her cheeks to try and get her mind back in order. It was supposed to be playful teasing…right?
/ / /
Shikkoku: *Mumbles incoherently about the amount of time it took to update this story* This chapter isn't that great, but I wanted to get it out so you'd know this story isn't dead.
Okay, this is the thing: Kurai Tenshi is a total mess. The problem is that, unlike the other stories, I really had no idea where I was going with this. In a way, I still don't (though I do have more of a general idea of where this is heading in the near future, but the details behind those events changes constantly) and the plans I DID have for this is now non-existent. You know that 'Keppaku' thing? That was because it was supposed to be a two-parter. But the story I had originally planned to tie this in with for the sequel is now just gonna be its own different monster. As such, this is now just going to be 'Kurai Tenshi' from now on. Don't worry, you aren't really missing much.
Anyway, the point I'm making is that Kurai Tenshi is going to need edits. Lots of edits. And I'll be scrapping the first few of chapters and rewriting them completely. The rest of them will be edited (some quite severely), and certain plot points might be changed to make a bit more sense. Nothing mind-bendingly major, though. I'll probably won't update it again till I at least have most of them done, but I hope to have it figured out sooner than later.
As for the story going forward….
Notes:
Those four guys-well, three guys and one girl-you see there? Those are going to be the focus of the next few chapters as we lead to this story's halfway point. Wondering why there's not been much fighting in a 'King of Fighters' fic? Well, no need to worry about that any longer.
Of course, the main ones you should be concerned with are Mozuki and KuroGenesis, as they will have a huge role to play in the rest of the story.
And of course, Kasumi, Hinako, Kandori, Alex and Tanna will play roles as well. Speaking of Kandori, his story will be revise a bit to make him much more familiar to Kasumi to prevent him from seeming forcibly shoved into the plot just for the hell of it.
So stay tuned. Remember what I said in the first chapter of this story: I am HELL-BENT on finishing Kurai Tenshi.
Next Chapter: When Epsilon finds out his bounty has been suspended, Malin uses that as an excuse to drag Eli out of the house. But what happens when a big, burly mountain of muscle gets in the way? Massive amounts of violence, of course.
Until next time, Sayonara.