Chapter X: Tigress

The blonde haired swordswoman and Kai break away from each other, they both leaped to a safe position, away from the sharpened edge of each other's sword. "I see your unnatural power," said Sumomo as she set her saber to the Ready-To-Shove pose "And I can ensure your painless death!" she continued angrily.

Kai, on the other safe position, lowered his Katana and grab it by his right hand while his left hand is inside his pocket, it's a very casual fighting stance, but it still seemed deadly anyway. "Well then, let's just put an end to this meaningless fight, shall we?" he asked gently and politely, even to his confronting enemy.

"Hmph, you had underestimated me, and the cost will be your life!" Sumomo just pissed and bravely dashed toward Kai who is standing firm and ready.

"Oh, yes?" Kai responses coldly and briefly then draw his left hand out of the pocket on his trousers, along came with his drawn hand, is his precious Colt's Revolver pistol, he quickly points its 4 inches long barrel at the incoming attacker and pull the trigger so frequently that six .45 revolver bullets flies to Sumomo in a matter of seconds.

Sumomo suddenly halts her advance and slashes her saber to deflect the bullets to the other directions, some bullets are being deflected near the others. The closest call is just a few centimeters away from the sleeping Retasu.

"Tch! Coward! Ranged weapons have no place in this fight!" Sumomo cursed at Kai, who appeared to fight dirty at the moment.

Kai still on his gun-swordsman stance with a Katana in his right grip and an unloaded magnum in his left, while Sumomo stood still, paying attention to the demon-man's 'cowardly' attack.

Eventually, Kai does make a move, but it's just that he uses his magic to summon a pocket book entitled 'The Ways to Win a War' he opens the book and read it calmly as if his opponent was not in his sight "Let's see, Page: 1, 2nd Paragraph, Line: 5 'those who gets the first successful attack always have a tactical advantage' huh?"

Sumomo, pissed off by Kai's provoking stance, bursts out an anger explosion "Stop that arrogance pose at once!" she commanded Kai, who's just simply closed the book and threw it into the air where it disappeared and without any sight of hesitation, he changes his fighting stance.

Placing his Katana back into its sleeve once again and lowered a little, Kai wraps his left hand around the sword sleeve after placed his pistol back into his pocket, he sets the other hand near the sword's hilt and ready to draw. Kai looking toward is enemy who is stunned by the look of his stance; calm, still, but seemed deadly. The Katana shines with cold blue light that passes through the sleeve and radiates around Kai's body.

"My intention is still the same, let's just end this fight" Kai said calmly and this time with fierce, wolf-like eyes.

Sumomo set herself on guard and murmurs to herself "This final attack will be for Raimu"

Kai, on the other hand heard what the blonde haired girl whispered Raimu, huh? That presumably is the name of who she seeks revenge for, but that's not my problem. He thought.

The two fighters look at each other for a long period of time, Sumomo must take a long time to decide how to attack the calm-looking Kai. And Kai, he can wait as long as forever in this pose for his enemy to attack and fall into his trap.

Sumomo eventually find a way to attack, she leap back from where she stand to one of the lab's pillar behind her and clings to the pillar for a brief moment. "Youseemed to bea good strategist, then, you supposed to know that another way to gain the upper hand in a battle is to attack from a higher position, right?" She grins and dashes down from the higher position than her opponent and approaches the demon-formed Kailike a dive-bomber.

Kai glanced at the incoming threat and when Sumomo reaches the effective range of his Katana, he draws it out of the sleeve and slashes it heavily and as quick as a flash. The Katana hits nothing but the empty air as Kai looks at his disappeared target in shock.

Sumomo reappeared a few feet behind Kai, who seemed to be defenseless at the moment "Ha? Flash-Step?" Kai exclaimed, Sumomo doesn't leave Kai confused for so long, she slashes her saber down, aiming at Kai's neck, but to her surprise, her saber hit something solid and hard, it was the sleeve of Kai's Katana, he used it to parry Sumomo's saber "Tch, Steel sleeve?" Sumomo exclaimed in disbelief. Kai never let the avenger waits for long, the opportunity thatshe is unguarded will not happen easily. Without any hesitation, Kai turned to Sumomo with his Katana in his grip, he flips his Katana to its bold edge and slashes it onto the blonde haired girl's stomach. With an inhuman impact force from Kai, Sumomo has been sent floating boundlessly into the air and drifting to the other side of the hall, numerous meters away. It was her luck, Kai had slashed her by the bold edge of his Katana, not the sharpened edge. Now, Sumomo is lying on the ground, neither a will to move, nor the intention to perform a counterattack.

"Well?" Kai asked as soon as he reaches where Sumomo is lying "Can you stand up?" reaching out to the swordswoman, he never wait to show sympathy to his enemy who almost killed him in the passed struggle.

"Tch!" Sumomo, even without any strength left, pushes Kai's hand away angrily "Let me tell you something" she said calmly as her vengeful eyes started to calm down.

"When I was injected with animal DNA," she said, looking frailly at Ryou and the other Mews, including Retasu, Masaya, and Sia, who has awaken from their unconscious state "I was injected with Siberian Tiger's DNA" she continued then paused to breathe "A tiger will prefer to die with honor, rather than live as a loser, so be it, Kai-kun, just kill me and finish it"

Kai, with his Katana still not placed back into its sleeve, sighed in slight annoyance, "You sure have a desperate background" he said, "Now, you should hear mine" he placed his Katana back into the sleeve, shows Sumomo that he won't do what she wanted him to. "I served many armies since I was 16, and has been sent to many war zones, Afghanistan and Iraq is the latest" he said.

"8 years in the military, it will be a lie if I say I haven't kill anyone, yes, as a fighter jet pilot, I have killed many people" Kai sighed after he ends his sentence, he is not very fond of his bloody past, but he has to reveal it to give himself a reasonto spare Sumomo's life "For many people, I am a specter who take the life of their precious one, and as I expected, my sin of past has take its toll, I've lose my precious one, my first love has been killed" he said, at this point, for the very first time, tears begun to build up in his eyes and slightly flows down his cheeks "Funny huh? I've killed many people in war, mostly soldiers, but my love has been killed by a group of lowlifes, jerks that deserves nothing but pitiful death" He said with a half sobbing- half angrytone. Kai soon rubs his tears off his face and tries to reduce his voice tone to normal "The point is, if you are important or precious to anyone, then I won't kill anymore people who have someone that want them to live"

Sumomo, listen to what Kai said, exclaimed in a pissed tone, "Hah, then just kill me, no one would allow such a foul person like me to live"

"Are you sure about that?" asked Kai, crossing his arms.

"Onee-chan!" came a soft female voice from the lab's entrance. A girl runs down to the lab's hall with a boomerang in her right hand. She throws the boomerang at Kai, who steps away and catch the incoming projectile with his bare hand. The girl's hip-long, brown-blonde hairs blown by her own force as she turned toward Kai"Don't even touch her!" The girl cried out a commanding word to the demon-man, tears begun to fill up her green eyes. Kai, who smiled slightly for he has foreseen this event by his demonic ability, asked up "So, if no one would want you to live, then what is this little lady doing here, huh?" he then reaches out for the two girls, this time, Sumomo accepted the help "Thanks…" she said calmly. Kai, after propping the red dressed swordswoman up, turns to a space where Pai appeared out of a dimensional portal "Pai, these ladies are not very fond of the Red Data DNA's side effect, is there any way to remove them entirely?" he asked, but Ryou, who followed him, shakes his head in reject, "That will be fruitless, as we all know, the DNA will deplete themselves only when all threat has been eliminated" he said. However, Pai managed to counter Ryou's theory, he snaps his fingers and a machine that looks like a chemical mixer appeared behind him, along with it, is Taruto and Kisshu who seemed to be surprised by the summon of their 'eldest brother'

"What the…" Kisshu exclaimed as he being called upon the underground lab. "Nothing particularly special, I just need your help" said Pai, crossing his arms, then, he turns to operate the machine. "Ano…, what is this machine?" Raimu asked in curious, her innocent eyes sparked in both interest and concern. Kisshu, who finished turning the machine up, walks toward Raimu, who still in her cutely-curious state, he leans his face down to the blonde haired girl and stares at her innocent eyes for a moment, then, he smiled naughtily "Well, why don't ya try it yourself, little Konezumi?" he asked the girl with his unique teasing-style speech pattern, "Kyaa!" Raimu screamed shyly and blushed as Kishu closing his face in, Sumomo, as she saw her sister being 'threatened' by Kisshu's presence, she jumps from a long distance away and lands between Kisshu and Raimu, protect her sister from the black-green haired alien. "Konezumi?" Kai asked up doubtingly, "We now have the ability to predict if there's any Red Data DNA in one's blood, and also, the ability to specify which DNA it is. In this girl's case, it's the DNA of a Desert Rat" Pai replied "Please, both of you, take these medicines" he makes a request to the two new girls as he prepares two small pills of medicine. "What is this?" Sumomo complained as she looks at the pills, she is still wary and pays attention to almost everything she encounters.

"Do not worry, just take it" Pai replied calmly and look directly into the green eyes of the two sisters.

"W…Wait a minute, those pills haven't been prove to be safe, what will happens if it has any side effect?" Ryou asked up, conflicting with the aliens.

"Enough for this 'Scientists' Cold War' already" Kai interrupted and turn to Sumomo "Well, the choice is yours now, choose it, it's now or never" he asked.

Sumomo stares at the pills for a while, still unsure about the safety from the pills. Gulp Raimu swallowed the pills instantly without hesitation. "H…Hey! Raimu! Wait! Don't you think there's something behind this?" Sumomo tried to stop her sister, but it's too late, Raimu had already taken the pill. Sumomo sighed "Hah, looks like nothing happened, then, Gulp" she then took the pills and swallowed it like her sister did.

"Well? Nothing happened, are you sure that those pills works" Ryou asked after he saw the result of the alien's pills.

BANG! Kai, returned to his normal form, fired his Magnum up into the air, but no bullet is fired out of its barrel because he uses a dummy ammo this time.

"Kyaa!" the girls screamed in chorus and covered their ears from the banging sound, Ichigo's cat ears and tail popped up as usual, and after the sound of the gunfire silenced, everyone stared in single direction toward the silver haired man.

"As expected, no animal ears or tails popped up when feeling threatened, looks like your medicine works, Pai" said Kai as he approaches Raimu, who tries to cover her head, preventing her Rat's Ears from popping up. Ryou stood still, a bit pissed that he had loss to another researcher. "I believe this belongs to you, err…" said Kai as he hand over the boomerang in his hand to its owner, who he didn't know her real name yet. "Raimu, my name is Raimu, I'm Sumomo Onee-Chan's Oath sister" Raimu said cheerfully as she takes her boomerang back from Kai.

Sumomo touched her sister's shoulder to remind her of something, they turns to nod at each other and then turn to the demonic man, Kai.

"We, Raimu and I, were not biological sisters, we swore an oath that if we found anyone who matches our skills, we will invite them to join our oath-family. So, what will you say?" Sumomo asked up, inviting Kai to her oath bound reckoner group.

Kai starts his thoughtful pose "Mmm… I already have two annoying siblings…" he said and glanced at Kim and Sia who appeared to be a little surprised to what their big brother said. The Silver haired Semi-Demon then smirks in delight "…Two more sisters won't be an overburden" he said.

"Very well, then…" Sumomo said as she puts something out of her saber's sleeve, it's a small turbine that is filled up with something that looked like blue-green shimmering liquid, she then shakes the turbine lightly to mix the liquid together. "Please give me your hand, Kai-Kun" asked Sumomo, opening her turbine. Kai, on the other hand, reaches out his palm and flips it, showing the back of his hand. 'The Tigress' Sumomo chant something solemnly and then pour the liquid onto the back of Kai's hand. The liquid gathers in the middle of Kai's backhand and then they expand and form a Greenish Blue symbol that looked like a complicated magic circle, the liquid soak into Kai's flesh and become one of him, Kai's backhand then glows in greenish blue light at where the liquid sink into him.

Sumomo take a deep breath, take Kai's hand, and say "We are many, yet one, we are now under the'Order of the White Lillies'my life is yours, yours is mine, harm one, harm all, the survivor must avenge tenfold" she ended her words and release Kai's pale hand, and the light on his hand stops glowing. Kai looked at his hand again and asks "Finished?" Sumomo then nodded, "Yes, Onii-Sama" she replied "Yay! An Onii-Chan!" Raimu yelled out in delight, but Siana, on the other hand, exclaims with slight anger "Mou! Only me, myself can call him 'Onii-Chan'!" then she rushes to her brother and hold his left arm, "Right? Kai Onii-Chan?" she said and sticks out her tongue at Raimu, smiling a bit. The blonde haired Raimu, too, rushes to Kai and hold his right arm "But he is my Onii-Chan Too! Tee hee hee," she giggled and sticks out her tongue at Siana and smiles in delight again.

"Anyway, this is what I should ask you, as a big brother, did you have a place to stay? If not, then you may stay at my home, there are plenty of rooms left there" Kai invited the two girls to stay at his family's mansion. Raimu smiles cheerfully and turns to her oath-sister, and then turns to Kai, nodded "Yes!" she said in delight.

End of Chapter X