The doorbell rang.
"Just a minute!" Emiko called and opened the door. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Kikuko.
"Ekisha . . . sama," she said slowly.
Kikuko nodded. "It's nice to see you . . . Emiko-chan."
Both women stood gazing at each for quite a long time. Risa interrupted the silence.
"Um, do you two know each other?" she asked.
The sound of Risa's voice seemed to break whatever trance Emiko was in. "Oh, you're here, too? Well, come in, everybody."
Kikuko, Riku, and Risa followed Emiko into the living room. Daiki looked up from the paper he was reading and stared at their guests.
"It's been years since the last ceremony, Kikuko. What brings you back?"
Kikuko sighed. "Sana."
Emiko gasped and sat down. "Sana? Papa, but you said that Sana had been sealed years ago."
"Well, she was sealed, but I guess the magic of four families just wasn't strong to contain her," Kikuko said.
"Does the Shinchu family know?" Daiki asked.
"I'm pretty sure it was them that broke the seal. Even though they knew Sana was more dangerous than all the angels, they still wanted to keep her encoded in their DNA. We practically had to hold down Kaiein to separate them, remember?"
"Uh, not to be rude or anything, but what are you talking about?" Riku asked. "What exactly is going on?" Risa added.
Emiko stared at the girls and then turned her gaze back to Kikuko. "Were they the ones that saw, Ekisha-sama?"
Kikuko nodded. "Yes, so I guess it's unfair to leave them out of the loop." She turned to the girls and began explaining. "There are four families involved in all this: Niwa, Hikari, Ryoyu, and Shinchu. I'll talk about the first half first. One family was composed of great artists and the other family of great thieves. The artists were trying to bring to life one of their prized sculptures, but the thieves tried to steal it. This disrupted the ceremony and two separate entities were born. Thos entities were then integrated into the DNA of each family as a curse. Now, the two remaining families were called upon to create two other beings to combat the curses. Something went wrong with their ceremony as well. Those beings that were created were also integrated into the DNA of the families."
"Ekisha-san, is one of those entities Dark-san?" Risa asked.
"Yes. The others are called Krad, Anas, and Sana. Dark is in the Niwa DNA, Krad is in the Hikari DNA, Sana in the Shinchu DNA, and Anas in the Ryoyu DNA."
"Ryoyu DNA!" Riku exclaimed. "Isn't that---Wait, are you saying that someone in your family is Anas?"
"Yes."
"And Niwa DNA means---"
Kikuko stood up, interrupting Risa. "Let's go, you two. It's getting late and I need to close the bakery."
Riku and Risa stood up.
"But Chie---?" Riku started.
"She'll be fine," Kikuko assured them. "She's not stupid, you know?"
Silently, Kikuko walked the girls home, hoping her words were correct.
