Disclaimer: I don't own KOF, but if I did, you'd bet that XIII would have had a much more substantial story mode.

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New Blood AS - Winds of Change

Chapter 5: Nothing Special

/ / /

"This is bullshit. Total. Utter. Bullshit."

"I'm sorry, but we can't continue this project of yours. This has cost more money than it should, and is based on extremely flawed science."

"Genetic Engineering is not 'flawed science'! This could be the breakthrough for the fucking ages, and you want to take away MY funding because you don't want to deal with the fact that one of your clients, who, by the way, put herself as a test subject out of her own free will, ended up dying because her body couldn't take it?"

"You reduced a formerly healthy, 20-year-old young lady into a quivering invalid who could barely respond to her own name before she died! This is dangerous stuff you're dealing with here, but you're only concerned with being a scientific superstar! That's why we're cutting you off!"

And with those words, the man who had been charged to give the news had a quick but productive meeting with the business end of a violet-haired woman's fist.

"GET THE HELL OUT!" Akane Nakahara was enraged. As the man stumbled to the ground outside her door, scrambling to avoid her wrath. "And tell those pricks that I we can get our funding from a lot better companies than you bastards!" She said as she slammed the door closed.

But she was absolutely furious, not just as a person, but as a woman of science. Everything that she had been working for the past few years was about to go up in smoke, and if she didn't have any funding…

"Don't worry so much, Akane." A young man said, leaning against the doorway where he had observed the entire confrontation. "I'm sure that some other company will be itching to get a chance at this."

"You don't understand, Kirou. Genetic engineering is a bit of a touchy thing to a lot of people. If shit starts hitting the fan, no reasonable company will want to be caught up in the backlash of having reporters and watchdog groups asking if why they gave financial support to scientists for highly controversial and potentially illegal experiments. We need to find someone that would be able to deal with that stuff."

"That could be quite a task. But…" Kirou trailed off, but Akane was already intrigued.

"But what? If this will help us, then spit it out already."

"I've been hearing some rumors that there's a group of people that are interested in research like ours." He continued, "I'm not sure if they're all that well known, but they don't seem to be a public company, so they might be a bit more lenient when it comes to what we do."

Akane pressed her lips together slightly, considering her options. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to inquire further, at least. You think you can hook us up?"

"Hmm. I'll try calling my contacts and see what happens next." Kirou headed towards the door. "Anyway, I'm going to go pick up my son. I'll talk to you later if I come up with anything."

"See ya." Akane gave him a rather half-hearted hug before he closed the door. Her rage had utterly dissipated, leaving her exhausted. If it weren't for the fact that her daughter would be home any minute, she wouldn't hesitate to start drinking that instant.

"Mommy?"

She rose from her seat on the bottom of her step as her daughter timidly entered their home. "Hey, kiddo." The young mother called out as soon as she saw her, "How were things at school?"

"…okay, I guess." The girl said quietly. Akane scooped her up and gave her a big hug. "Is everything okay? You look sad."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Just having some issues at work. I'll have it settled soon if we're lucky." She gave her an affectionate nuzzle, "In the meantime, since I'll have some time off from work for a while, how about tomorrow we go to the amusement park?"

A bright smile appeared on her face. "But doesn't daddy get upset when I don't go to school?" She said.

"Your daddy gets upset when I let you drink soda during breakfast; that's why you're with me, and he's probably at his new girlfriend's house wishing he was dead." Akane lifted her daughter up and the two of them headed toward the kitchen. "Come on, I'll fix you something to eat."

Violeta sighed as she sat in the bed, the alarm clock Haru brought for her room blaring in her ear for a few seconds before turning itself off. This wasn't the time to be having these memories replaying in her head. A lousy way to start the day indeed.

As her bleary eyes turned to the now silent clock, she suddenly found herself completely awake when she saw the clock and realized that she's a half hour late in getting up for school. Haru was going to get some hell for this.

"Uh, Anya? You awake yet?"

Anya woke up to the sounds of Xion stirring about in the apartment, gathering this and that to get ready for school. She was currently sleeping on the (thankfully comfortable) futon; an arrangement that she insisted on despite Xion's repeated assurances that it was okay for her to take the bed. It made no difference. Compared to some of the other things she'd slept on, this was like lying on a pool of feathers.

She peeked her head from behind the couch; her hair scraggly from sleeping on the futon. "Hmm? Is there something wrong, Xion?"

"It's been a few days…You think we should get you out of the house for a few?" Xion said as he struggled to put on his tie, "I don't know if that Rier guy is still looking for you, but I doubt he's the type of guy that would go after someone if they had backup. Besides, I know you're bored sitting around all day, aren't you?"

Anya nodded; though she liked being able to spend the day watching MTV and eating the various sugary cereals that he kept stock in his cabinets, it got a bit boring really quick. It had been a few days since Anya 'moved in', and it was still very awkward for the both of them. "Could you take me to the mall?" She said, still slightly drowsy.

"The mall? Sure, if you want." Xion answered, "I'll just pick you up after I get off from-"

*SLAM!*

The sound of the door being kicked open stopped their conversation dead in its tracks. Aira casually walked inside as if she didn't just wake up half the people on his floor with that noise. Kayane trailed close behind, the expression on his face implying that he was being dragged along against his will.

"What the hell are you doing?" Xion's irritation was quite evident, but Aira barely acknowledged it.

"Good morning Xion. Sorry for barging in, but you owe me coffee and-" Aira stopped at the sight of the strange blond girl on his couch. "…the hell?"

Just my luck. Knowing her, Aira will not hesitate to tell the whole school about this. Xion had opted to wait a bit before mentioning it to his friends, but that was turning out to be a gross error in judgment. "I'm pretty sure the two of you are wondering what this girl is doing here…"

"Oh no, I'm pretty sure what you've been doing with her," Aira crossed her arms, "I'm more curious about who she is."

"You mean Shiori didn't tell you?"

"I've been hanging out with her the past few days, but she's usually coy when it comes to what the two of you are doing." Kanaye started to rummage through his fridge, trying to look casual and spare him some of the embarrassment. "Whatever Shiori's doing, I'd probably only know through you."

"That is to be expected." After the 'incident' that happened a short time ago, Shiori and Xion decided to be a bit more cautious about what they did in public while things with her family cooled off.

"Long story short, she's staying with me for a while till she gets settled in Japan," He explained, "Shiori just so happened to feel that my small, cramped apartment would be perfect for two people to try to live in together."

"So this is another wacky scheme that girl has roped you into?" Aira gave a slight shake of the head. "Why do you still involve yourself with her like that, Xion?"

Xion was about to give an answer, but Anya decided to put it upon herself to break the ice with his friends. "Er, Hi. My name is Anya Sorenstein..."

However, the foreigner had neglected to take into account that her attire currently consisted of a white t-shirt, and slightly clingy blue shorts and little else. Not the most revealing attire one could be seen in, but it didn't help Xion's story a single bit, either.

Kanaye faked a cough as he tried to avoid looking at her, while Aira held her hand in front of her mouth to hide the widening grin that was growing on her face. It was only that time Anya realized her current state of dress. She quickly leapt and hid behind Xion like a child seeking the safety of their parents. Aira and Kanaye just stood there, resisting the urge to snicker.

"It's alright, Anya. I've hung out with Xion long enough; half-dressed girls walking around his apartment are the norm around here." Kanaye reassured.

Xion rolled his eyes at his friend's remark. "Thank you for that remark, Kanaye. Now if you two could please get out while I finish getting ready, that would be a big help."

"Alright, alright." Kanaye said as he opened the door. "I think I know Shiori's train of thought enough to know the real story. Don't worry about it. We won't spread any rumors. At least I won't; Aira is will probably blab this to about five people before she even leaves the building."

"Shut up." Aira shoved him out the door. "I'll be waiting in your car, Xion." Kanaye and Aira left the room, leaving Xion and Anya to stew in their embarrassment.

"You certainly have quite the set of friends." Anya finally said once she was sure they were long gone. "Are they always like that?"

Xion could only shrug his shoulder in utter defeat. "Unfortunately, yes."

/ / /

"Ugh. How long is Vio going to be all pissy about that?" Haru murmured as he climbed the stairs to the roof. Lunch had just started, but with his friend still sour about nearly being late for school, he decided that the best plan of action for him was to hide somewhere remote till Vio cooled off. Of course, it could be hours before that happened, so that plan really wasn't as viable as he would have wished.

To try and give her as much space as possible, he decided to stay up on the school's roof till lunchtime passed by. Hoping to see some girls that he'd be able to have a chat with, instead he found himself standing there alone.

Figures. I guess it's a bit too chilly for anyone today. After setting out his lunch, Haru pulled out a notebook from his bag. Instead of school notes, however, he had all of the information he had learned about the two brothers so far during his stay. Obviously, most of the information was absolutely meaningless for his mission, but there were a few items that they found interesting. Strangely enough, those items were revealed not by them, but by one of his classmates…

( ( (

"You sure do eat a lot of cake."

"Heheh…I guess I kinda do. But it's so good." The young girl took another enthusiastic bite. "I usually have to beg Karas-sempai to buy me some, so it's great that you're willing to do this for me."

"Well, we have a bit of extra money, so it's no big deal." Vio replied. "Your name was Eiko, right?"

"Eiko Hisakawa." She corrected. "But please feel free to just call me Eiko."

While most of the other kids had gone home, Vio, Haru and Eiko had opted to stay a bit longer, after Vio had inquired about Raven and Krysten. Thankfully this girl seemed to know quite a bit about them, and buying her more cake was an easy price to pay for valuable information.

"Okay, Eiko. What do you know about Raven and Krysten?"

"Karas-sempai and Krysten-kun came to our school a few years ago." She said, "I remember Krysten was really shy, so Raven did a lot of talking for the both of them. He was friendly enough, but he didn't seem to like going there at first."

"Why's that?"

"His amnesia. He found it hard to relate to people sometimes because his memories only went back a few years beforehand. Some things that other kids did with their parents confused them and some of the kids would make fun at them about it. For a time, Karas-sempai didn't bother to come to class. He'd just stay up in the roof, listening to music all day. Krysten eventually opened up, however."

"But a short while after he came, our school had come across a bit of trouble. A few thugs from another school had decided to come over there and start some trouble for some reason. I think it had something to do with some other schools and students getting assaulted-I don't remember the exact details. But anyway, my friend was being harassed by these guys, and I tried to calm the situation down, but one of them smacked me away.

"Out of the blue, Karas-sempai showed up. He started telling them off, but all they managed to do was rile them up. I didn't get a chance to see because my friend was busy tending to me, but I heard a few hits, some strange sound, and when I finally got to my feet, the two guys were knocked out, slumped on the ground. Karas-sepmai was scratching his head, as if he didn't have a clue what just happened. He walked up to me and asked me if I was alright…"

Vio and Haru listened closely as the Eiko continued her story. It was obvious she herself had to hold back the obvious blush that was forming. "Then Krysten came around and ran the guys off the school. I don't think I ever found out what the whole situation was about, but after that, things started to improve between them and the other students. Since then, anytime there's a problem, they're usually the ones that help us the most."

"Really?" Vio said.

"Yep. I must confess…it was kinda my idea to start this whole 'King of Fighters' thing in the first place." Eiko lowered her voice, not wanting the entire store to hear, "I'd heard rumors about a new tournament, and I thought it would be fun to pester them about it for a bit. But eventually, the whole school started to get on it. I think that's how they got noticed." She smiled. "But I guess it worked out for them well. They didn't seem too upset that they lost. I'm happy for them."

) ) )

Haru closed the notebook, making a personal note to thank Eiko the next time he saw her. There were still a lot of questions that needed to be answered-the origin of their powers, for one thing-, but Haru didn't want to go to the well too many times in such a short time. He certainly wished he could ask NESTS to give him some of the video footage they recorded, but that spread too much risk of leaks to the public.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" A voice behind him asked. Haru jumped to his feet, extremely startled. It was Raven, leaning over him with no lack of curiosity on his face.

"Not really that pleasant a place to have your lunch, is it?" He continued "Did you piss Violeta off or something that you're trying to avoid her?"

"Y…You could say that." Haru quickly shoved the notebook into his book bag.

"Figures. She looked pretty irritated when we saw her at class earlier today." He leaned against the fence that surrounded the rooftops, "You should probably be a bit more persistent in waking her up on time."

"Yeah, whatever." Haru started to finish the rest of his lunch "Anyway, what's going on?"

"…Do you wanna meet the other members of my team?" Raven asked plainly, but it was enough for Haru to stop eating at mid-bite.

"W-what?" The possibility of them meeting Zyon and Xion was high, but Haru hadn't expected for Raven to just out and ask that without any needling from the two of them. "Really? You'll have us meet them just like that?"

"Well, yeah." Raven placed his hands behind his head. "I mean, you'll probably be seeing them around here sooner or later; might as well introduce them to you now when everyone has a bit of free time. So, what do you say?"

Not really what I expected, but can't refuse this chance. "S-sure! I'd be honored to meet your friends!"

Raven smiled at the answer. "Cool. Now then, I suppose we can meet up tomorrow at LO-RI?"

"LO-RI?" Haru was a bit confused. He was more than familiar with most of the restaurants in town-Vio could attest to that-but he hadn't heard of that one before.

"It's the restaurant that Zyon works in." Raven explained. "He's real tight with the owner, so she'll make room for us. The food is pretty good as well."

"Sounds good." Haru was absolutely not going to refuse the offer, even if it wasn't for the mission. "You've got yourself a deal."

"Awesome! I'll let them know…" Raven motioned behind him. "And you might want to look out, because I think I hear Violeta coming your way. Later."

Raven departed into the school, and a few minutes later, that time that Violeta appeared, having been looking for Haru for a few minutes. "Yo Haru, I'm not upset anymore, so you can quit hiding..." She said. "Where are you two talking about? Boy stuff?"

"Uh, no…" Haru made sure to check if anyone else was lurking about before he continued, "Raven just invited us to meet those other two guys tomorrow night after school."

"That was kinda quick." Vio said, "I was going in expecting it to be a few months before this happened; we've clearly underestimated how trusting they are."

"Right. The faster we get familiar with them, the easier our job is." Haru leaned back against the fencing that surrounded them; wanting to enjoy the last few minutes of peace before it was time to go back to class.

/ / /

"Hoooo boy…" Tera stretched out her arms as far as she could. "Another meaningless day of school is over."

The past few days came and went by with little incident. Yuki, cautiously optimistic that whoever was stalking her was scared away from what happened the other day, decided to walk with Tera home, not wanting to annoy Zyon by continuously guilt-tripping him into bodyguard duty. Besides, it was looking like he wasn't going to be here at the moment.

"What In the world is Zyon doing right now?" Yuki asked, "I've haven't seen him at school all day."

"If I was to guess, I'd say he's mucking about in town somewhere." Tera said, "Or over some girl's house. I think the other day he spent the night over one of his co-workers after he got off from LO-RI."

"Why?"

"He said something on the phone about how a bunch of people ended up staying past closing, and she offered to let him stay over her place while her dad was on a business trip." She frowned up, "I want to go under the assumption that he's telling the truth, but the way she was all giggly when I talked to her that next day, I can't help but have some suspicions."

"Always the playboy." She said jokingly. "As long as he keeps it away from school, I'm fine."

"I wouldn't be sure about that, either."

As the two girls talked, the subject of their conversation was actually much closer than they had assumed.

Zyon was walking a reasonable distance from them, on the other side of the street. Even though he hadn't heard anything further about this supposed 'stalker' for a few days, Zyon was still a bit hesitant to let her go home by herself. While he usually would trust his sister to be a decent protector, Zyon figured that following them just this one last time wouldn't hurt.

If nothing happened, then it meant that whoever it was that was tailing her got spooked and probably wouldn't go after her again. Otherwise, assuming Tera didn't take care of things herself, he'll simply come in and put the offender into traction before anything bad happened.

His eyes kept watch for any suspicious looking vehicle and/or people that might be lurking around the vicinity, but it was only when they got to a less active part of town that he noticed one person who had been walking the same route as the two girls for a while, and he was starting to quicken his pace in order to keep up with them. Ducking behind a parked car, Zyon wanted to see what happened.

"Hey, Yuki. I think we have company." The two of them stopped and saw the mysterious figure heading towards right towards them.

"Oh no…" Yuki wished that Kyo was beside her more than ever. Tera, however, wasn't going to let this pass without a fight. She stood right in front of them the moment the man had gotten into grabbing range.

"Hey there, what do you think you're doing-," A sharp shove from the perp sent her to the ground. "Hey!"

"Tera!" Yuki, fearing for her own safety, opted to try and smack the man with her school bag, but he caught her wrist in mid swing.

"Finally." The man sounded relieved. "Sorry girl, but you're juts the bait we need. You'll be good bait for getting Kyo Kusanagi back in our clutches again."

At the mere sound of her boyfriend's name, her eyes widened. "K-Kyo?! What are you talking about? Do you know where he is?"

"No. But I'm sure he'll come running if he knows what we'll do to you. Let's get going, there's a ride waiting for us up ahead…" His tone didn't have any malice in it, but she knew that his intentions where far from noble.

Yuki struggled, but the grip of the man was too strong for her to break. As she felt herself slowly being dragged off to who-knows-where, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Tera came out of nowhere and gave a flying kick to the man, releasing his grip and sending him staggering to the ground.

"I expected better. How sad." Tera stood in front of him, eyes defiant. "Now, would you like to put your hands on me again? Go ahead. I dare you."

"Tera? What are you doing?" Yuki stammered at the boldness of her friend, but she merely stood her ground.

Embarrassed, the man answered Tera's bluff and got up to take care of the girl. Before he could even attempt to make a grab for her, however…

"Boom!" Tera thrust forward a palm, and a quick pulse of ki shot out in his direction. The blast sent him flying a good distance away from both of them, and by the way he was convulsing, he wasn't getting back up anytime soon.

Tera let out a sigh of relief. "Certainly didn't plan to do that." She said; her hand felt like fire for a few seconds from the sudden attack. "Yuki, are you alright?"

Yuki was still trying to comprehend just what had happen in those brief moments. "Er…Uh…Di-Did Zyon teach you how to do that?" She managed to squeak out.

"What? Oh…Yeah. I managed to learn that kind of move, at least." Tera suddenly became quiet, as if she was feeling a bit hesitant to talk about it, "I won't be throwing out massive energy balls anytime soon, but hey, gotta start somewhere."

"Couldn't you have done a low blow or something? That seemed a bit excessive, even considering the circumstances…" She said, "You and your brother scare me sometimes."

"I spent too much time learning these fancy techniques to settle for some cliché move they teach middle-aged women at the community center for self defense classes." She rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get you home already."

As Yuki was helped up to her feet by Tera, she was still trying to figure things out in her head. Who was that man, and what did he have to do with Kyo? Was something going on with him that contributed to his disappearance? Was he okay? She had inquired a few times to Zyon when he told her about KOF, but he merely brushed off the subject. While normally Yuki didn't pry into his personal life too much, something told her that he was hiding something.

"Yuukiii~! Move it already before that guy realizes we're still here!" Tera's complaining kicked her out of those thoughts. The two walked away with a bit more speed than before.

The man, still trying to recover from Tera's impromptu assault on his stomach, slowly started to come to. Using a nearby car to try and get back to his feet, he realized that Yuki and the other girl were long gone. Any further action he would have taken, though, was quickly nullified. He felt the grip of someone holding him by the back of his neck before a surge of pain spread throughout his body. Within seconds, he dropped to the ground for the second time in a short period.

"Candyass." Zyon said in English as he stared balefully at the unconscious man, "If you had gotten a lot farther than just shoving my sister, you'd be a lot worse off. Next time, however, I won't be so kind."

He knew that a reaction from him wasn't going to happen, but he didn't want to be caught here in case someone saw him. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he headed towards home.

/ / /

"Uh, Anya?" Xion said with the slightest hint of discomfort. "Are you almost done?"

"Just need to check out this last row of CDs and I'll be ready."

After the young foreigner got home from school, as promised, he took Anya out of the house, trying to prevent her from feeling a bit cooped up in his train wreck of an apartment. He'd let her have the choice of where to go, and she chose the mall. As such, he'd spent the last hour or so standing in the middle of a game store while Anya took her sweet time observing every item on the shelf.

"I can't really read any of this print, but all of these games look really good!" Anya said, "I don't know which one to get…"

She has about five games in her arm already. Why would she want any more? Xion looked around. There weren't enough people here for her attire to cause a scene, but he was aware of the few stares he'd received over the past hour or so. He certainly hoped that no one from school was here, or else it would be a total mess.

"Yo! Xion!"

Oh for the love of… Xion turned around to see the Raven walking into the store Not that they were the worse people that could have seen him, but it still would be a bit awkward at the moment, especially when Anya was walking around with that outfit.

"I didn't expect to find you here today." Raven said as he approached him. "What's up?"

"I'm just...doing stuff." Xion acted as casual as he could. "Where's your brother?"

"Gaming, as usual. I decided not to bug him into coming with me this time around." He said.

The two chatted for a bit, and Xion was hopeful that Anya would be too busy looking at games to notice the two of them. He didn't want to have to explain this situation to anyone else today.

"All done, Xion!" Anya abruptly entered into his peripheral vision. "I think this should be enough, don't you think?"

But of course, luck wasn't something he was too familiar with as of late. Xion held back a sigh as Raven's expression shifted to slightly confused. This wasn't a very good day for him, was it?

"Er, who's the girl?" The older Kirishima raised an eyebrow as he examined the girl standing next to Xion.

Xion was about to reply, but once again Anya took the initiative. "My name is Anya Sorenstein."

"So…ren…stein…" Raven said slowly, trying to make sure his pronunciation was correct. "Okay, Anya. I'm Raven Kirishima. I wonder why you're hanging around with Xion, though. Coming from a costume party?"

"Er..no I'm not."

"It's rather complicated; all I'll say is that she's staying with me for the moment." Xion said. Raven glanced back at Anya before going back to Xion again.

"Oh, I get it…" A sly smile appeared as he realized what his friend was doing, "Glad you've finally recovered from that whole Shiori debacle. I swear, I've never seen anyone stir up so much shit just for being with a girl …"

"Anyway…" Xion forcefully interrupted as he reached for his wallet, giving Anya some cash, "Go ahead and purchase those games while I talk to this moron right quick."

Anya earnestly took the cash and bolted off. Xion turned back to Raven with a look of irritation. "You mind not going on about what happened with Shiori right now?"

Raven shrugged with one arm, "Hey, what can I say? Zyon had to go through a lot of stuff to keep those Diamant from ripping you apart like wolves." He snickered. It was quite a event for the four of them, "Anyway, she's staying at your place? What's up with that?"

"Shiori pretty much forced me into it, to be honest, but I suppose things could be worse." Xion said. "Apparently, some guy is stalking her so he can drag her back to Europe or some shit like that, so I'm keeping an eye on her till she feels the coast is clear. That's it, got it?"

Raven looked at the girl in question. He had a hard time believing that girl was just staying over Xion's as a 'favor' of Shiori. However, he didn't really want anymore unnecessary fights on his record, so he chose to just take his word for it. Of course, there was another question that arose. "Did you tell her about KOF yet?"

"Of course not." Xion said matter-of-factly.

"Well…" Raven drifted off a bit, "I want you to be careful, but maybe I was a bit too strict about the whole 'don't mention it to everyone' especially since I told the kids in my school about it…."

"What?!"

"Just the main tournament itself, mind you Not about the clones or what's-his-name or all of that other stuff." Raven wilted a bit under Xion's glare, "I really don't want anything to happen to Irena because I blabbed about it to the public, but I don't think it would hurt if we just told them we were a part of the tournament. It really hadn't gone public yet, so what harm could it do?"

Xion eyes narrowed at the mention of Irena Toryu. He was still slightly peeved about Raven dragging them into a potentially fatal situation because of a crush he refused to admit he had, but he had no arguments that he could bring up to stop it. "Fine. Just be careful. I'm not getting shipped back to Hong Kong because you couldn't keep your trap shut."

"Always so harsh…" The younger man scratched his dirty blonde head, "Anyway, I told these two new students that came here a few days ago that they could meet you and Zyon tomorrow at LO-RI. So, are you feeling up for it? Zyon said it wouldn't be a problem."

"Eh. I'm fine with that. Just let me figure out what to do with Anya, first." Xion relented. "I just brought her some clothes, so she'll probably be able to go without attracting attention, so I'll have to see."

"Awesome!" Raven said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Later."

Xion watched as his younger friend bounded out of the store. Shortly after, Anya rejoined him, bags in hand.

"Xion, do you know where's a music store at?" She asked. Xion could only nod, wondering if he'd have enough to pay rent later this month at this rate.

/ / /

"So, Xion…where should we go next?" Anya said as she walked a step or two behind Xion as they brushed past crowded city streets in the twilight hours. "You want to get something sweet? I could go for something sweet right now…"

"I'm not exactly a fan of sweet things…" Xion replied as he struggled with the bags of clothes she brought. "But I guess there's an ice cream place in here somewhere. You sure you want to eat this stuff before we have dinner?"

"There's nothing in society's rules that state that ice cream can't be used as an appetizer, Xion." Despite the smile on her face, Xion could tell that she was dead-set on her plan for sweets.

"Alright. Let me put this stuff in the car and I'll pick up some ice cream for you." Xion turned and faded into the sea of people, leaving Anya alone; something that didn't really sit too well with her, but she could manage. It's not like anyone could recognize her in his massive crowded area, could they?

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone familiar walking around, a drink in his hand, looking a bit uninterested. None of that would be much interest if it wasn't for the fact that said person happened to be…

"…Rier?!"

Anya's voice was loud enough that Rier came to a dead stop. "Aw, shit…" He mumbled. It was clear that this encounter wasn't intended, judging by that reaction. "Of all the times to come across you, it had to be at the one time that I wasn't trying."

"Good evening, Rier." Her tone was low and slightly irritated, but she remained polite. "What do I owe the pleasure this time around?"

Rier turned around to look at the woman that was his target. "Cut the smartass act, girl. This isn't a very good time for either of us to meet, as you can see." He said, "We stopped looking for you hours ago. I'm merely spending the evening enjoying the sights tonight. Wouldn't want to waste a trip like this stewing on a mattress in a hotel room."

"That may be true, but it doesn't make your current presence any more desirable."

"Maybe. But either way, I can't really do anything to you in front of all these people. Especially with that guy you got following you around…"

"Wha-what?"

"You thought I didn't know? Right after I left, I overheard you talking, so I decided to do a little eavesdropping. Heard about how she was going to send you to some guy's house."

The young girl looked away from him. "He's….He's helping me out. That's all you need to know."

Rier could feel the tenseness from Anya. An idea popped into his head; a risky one, but it may give him the advantage in the future. "Heh. I suppose that's the case then. Just a good Samaritan helping out the poor girl with no home out. But…"

"'But' what, Rier?"

"…Have you told him why exactly you're running in the first place?" The sudden look of shock on her face told him that she'd taken his bait. "Well, maybe you've told him something, but I'm not referring to any vague half-truth you've said to keep him from asking too many questions; I'm talking about cold hard facts here, girl."

"Let's face facts here; no matter how much you'd like to present yourself as an poor, innocent victim who is constantly demonized by people who don't understand her, we both know that you're not nearly as helpless as other people might assume you are." A smile crept on his face as he kept going, "Or are we forgetting the fact that you've killed people with your own hands?"

Anya turned her head away from him, trying to shut his words out. "S-shut up…" She couldn't keep her voice from shaking.

"Maybe I should find Xion and let him know about all your misgivings. There's quite a path of chaos you've left in your wake back in Europe. I wouldn't believe it myself if I'd didn't see the pictures. The way those corpses where mangled up seems almost inhuman. But then again, you're not a normal girl…"

She still refused to look at him, but Rier noticed her hands trembling as she struggled to repress her rage. "What's wrong? Certainly you're not going to try and cut me apart here are you? Not that it would be a surprise; you have so little value for human life that it's almost disturbing. The way you slaughtered those men…"

"Shut up!"

Anya head snapped towards him again as she said that. Her eyes suddenly had a bit of an animalistic quality to them; he knew that Anya was close to the edge. "Whatever happened in the past deserves to stay there." Her voice returned to normal. "I've found a place here in this country, and I'm not going to let it be ruined by you or anyone else."

"Not me or anyone else, but what about yourself?" Rier continued to taunt her. "Something tells me that he'll find out the ugly truth through your own actions, not mine. Think he'll be so generous when he finds out what kind of monster he let into his home? I doubt it."

Those eyes seem to burn brightly for just a split second. "I will end you, Rier…" The sheer hatred in her tone was enough to tell Rier he had gotten what he wanted from her at the moment. He merely shook his head and walked away, disappearing into the ever-growing crowd. With his words still ringing in her head; images of her hand wrapped around his throat flashing in her mind.

It would be easy, wouldn't it? That voice spoke to her from the deepest parts of her subconscious; the part of her mind that she desperately wanted to drown out. Grab the little maggot and squeeze his neck, letting enough air to hear his pathetic pleas for mercy just before you crush his throat and dropped his lifeless body on the ground. She cringed at her own sadistic machinations. She wouldn't go to such extremes again, but her mind wanted blood. A small part of her couldn't exactly blame herself for thinking those things.

He called her a monster. She had spent the past four years alienated from nearly everyone because of situations that were way out of her control, yet she was the one who was called a monster. No matter how hard she tried assimilating herself within society, things went to hell. And as always, in the end she was the one with blood on her hands…

"Hey, Anya?"

The young girl turned to Xion, carrying a bow full of strawberry ice cream and looking very concerned.

"Er, sorry. I was lost in my thoughts a bit." She said, her previous worries stuffed into a small part of her mind.

"I would like to believe that…" Xion said, "But it looked like you were crying a bit there. Did something happen?"

Anya blinked, her hand brushing against a cheek. It was wet. "Oh good lord." She muttered, "I must have looked like a lost little girl. I'm sorry, I should have more…"

"You don't need to apologize. It's not my place to ask." Xion interrupted. "Probably just a bad memory or something. Don't worry, I have enough of them to last me a lifetime." He handed her the ice cream. "Here. I hope I picked a good flavor."

The foreign girl stared at the cold concoction before taking it in her hand. "Don't worry," she gave him an appreciative-if not somewhat hollow-smile. "I'm not very picky."

/ / /

"Come on. Burn already."

Zyon sat on the side of his bed and stared into his glove hand as if he was trying to burn a hole in it. Unfortunately, the only thing that was burning was his eyes from not having blinked for so long. It was late in the evening and his sister had already gone to bed, but he wanted to practice a bit before settling down for the night.

"…Shit." He muttered, taking off the glove that protected him from the flame's intensity. "This doesn't seem to be working. There's has to be some way for this to work…"

Shortly after getting home from the tournament (and letting the various injuries he suffered heal), Zyon had gotten back to working on using his own energy to try and make flames without the need for an outside source. So far, all efforts have come up short. There was nothing that seemed to be able to help ignite these flames. Looking back at what happened at the tournament, he was starting to toy around with the idea that actual combat might be the thing to awaken these flames. That was a bad thing for someone who rarely had the opportunity to fight outside of general sparring matches.

It looks like the best I can hope for is that another tournament is announced soon. Zyon got up and stretched the tension out of his muscles. Or I could start fighting people in the streets, but that wouldn't do anything but get me arrested.

"Zyonii…"

His sister's voice broke his concentration. "What is it, sis? I thought you went to bed."

"I did, but I heard you mumbling to yourself in your room." Tera poked her head inside. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just lamenting my lack of progress." Zyon walked towards the door. "Dumb flames still don't do anything without outside help."

"Don't you think it's time you put that aside, Zyonii." Tera yawned, "You're going to hurt yourself if you focus too hard on that."

"It's nothing for you to be concerned with. It'll come eventually; I just need to find a trigger to this, like I found it with the electricity." Zyon's fingers tapped the doorframe. "I swear, if this ends up being some stupid shit like 'it's fueled by the power of love', I'll probably will have to quit."

"Athena…" She trailed of, before quickly adding, "Have you thought about asking her for help?"

"Eh, I've humored the idea. The nature of my powers doesn't make me very sure she can do it, though." He admitted. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt. But not now, since she has tour stuff to worry about. Anyway, it's time for you to get back to bed, sis."

"Alright…" Tera found herself dozing off again. "Good night, nii-san."

"Good night." Zyon sat down on the bed; the sound of her sister's door closing letting him know she really did go back to sleep.

Looks like her lessons are starting to pay off. He was pleased Tera was quite capable of taking care of herself at this point. She'd always wanted to fight like her brother, and while she couldn't use electricity like him, regular Ki stuff seemed to be much easier for her to grasp. With a bit more effort, she might be able to give him a run for his money. She's certainly has grown.

He lit up the stray cigarette that had been tucked behind his ear and leaned against the window; dull blue eyes staring out into the city lights.

Zyon never did confront her about what happened earlier that day; he didn't want to explain why he'd had followed them and beaten up the would-be kidnapper even further when he was already incapacitated. There was still the idea of who exactly he was, but Zyon didn't want to risk getting spotted by someone who'd call the cops, so he departed the scene as fast as he possibly could.

There was something that was bothering him, though. While he couldn't hear a lot of what was said, he did manage to pick out one name that was very familiar to him…

"…Kyo Kusanagi…"

/ / /

Shikkoku: And another chapter done. We're officially at the halfway point, (or even more than that, depending on how the next chapters turn out, I might be able to hold off on one or two), so stay tuned.

Notes:

- Meet Akane Nakahara. She's, if you couldn't tell, Vio's mother, and she has a bit of an hand on Vio and her reasons for being a young girl in a shady criminal organization at the moment. We'll be seeing bits and pieces of her as this series goes on.

- Expect next chapter to be primarily more exposition about the SSC, particularly how these four kids end up meeting in the first place (hint: it wasn't a very good first impression for any of them.) Though what does happen will set the tone for the final few chapters.

- It's been a while since we saw our favorite ice princess? Perhaps she'll be making an appearance soon?

Per usual, let me know about any oddities you see here so they can quickly be addressed. Legacy of Arthias should be updated soon, but that depends on how long it takes me to edit the next chapter, so no guarantees.

Next Chapter: Vio and Haru meet the rest of the SSC, but when Zyon suddenly brings up Yuki's situation, they find themselves in a potentially compromising position. Also, Zyon runs into two people that know him quite well, though he'd never tell anyone.

Until Next Time, keep calm and rock on. Sayonara.