Disclaimer: KHR ish not miiiine~

Taking their first step into the mansion, the scent of home-baked chocolate chip cookies was the first thing that hit the group. The second thing that hit them, or more correctly Esa, was a flying water bottle.

"Ow!" Esa growled as the flying projectile smacked her square in the face. Then muttering under her breath, Esa looked up to see who threw the water bottle at her, and was met with an odd sight. Standing at the top of the staircase was a gray haired girl in glasses who looked very pissed. Sprawled on the stairs was another gray haired girl, or was it a guy?, who also wore glasses. The two people looked identical.

"Whoa guys," Ace said, "calm down. Gray, Gris, if you're going to fight, go do it somewhere else."

The girl at the top, Gray, turned a sharp eye toward Ace and said, "We're not fighting baka. My brother here tripped and fell halfway down the stairs, scattering all our research papers."

"Well, you didn't have to throw a water bottle at me," Esa huffed.

"My condolences," the girl, Gray, frostily replied. Then turning back to Ace, Gray said, "Oi, why are you telling me what to do. You're not even part of this family, and plus, I'm older than you." Steadily walking down the stairs, Gray picked up the scattered papers, grabbed her brother, and stalked away.

"Well then," the brown haired girl said with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Feisty," the maroon haired boy with the green tips commented. "But I've got to say, she did have nice features. A little less sharp and she would've been my type of girl~"

Esa glared at this comment, while Jasmine coughed, Crystal rolled her eyes, the brown haired girl smirked, and Ace laughed.

"Ok guys. Let's go meet your boss." Leading them towards the kitchen, Ace looked around for someone, most likely their boss. "Huh, your boss isn't in here." Looking around Ace said, "Hm, maybe in the living room then." Taking the group back out of the kitchen, Ace brought them into the living room.

Sitting on one of the couches, back again the group, was 'A' with a book in one hand. 'A', realizing that there were people behind, closed the book, stood up, turned around, and said, "Hey guys, nice to meet you."

The moment 'A' turned around, Esa's eyes popped out of her socket. She said, "What the heck?!" and Jasmine gasped and said, "Anrya!?"

"Hey," said Anrya nonchalantly. "Long time no see."

Jasmine wasn't sure how to react to this. Feeling confused, Jasmine glanced at Esa to see how she was dealing with this situation. Esa…had an interesting facial expression on. It was a mixture of WTF and an I-haven't-seen-you-in-a-long-while-but-I'm-not-sur e-if-I-want-to-hug-you-or-smack-you-across-the-fac e-repeatedly-while-strangling-you look.

"Hehehe, shocker huh. Well, sit down guys," Anrya said, sitting back down. The group, excluding Ace, took a seat on the available couches. "Ok, before anyone can ask any questions, I'm just gonna give you a little summary on what's going on. Ok…um…I'm the boss, your boss, of this family. My name is Anrya. About a year and a half ago, a random guy just came up to me and placed the position of family boss on me. I still have no idea why, but yeah…So anyways, I needed guardians, so I traveled around to look for some skillful and potential people. And this is how I found you guys." Turning towards Esa and Jasmine, Anrya said, "For one year, I went to your middle school as a seventh grader and hung out with you guys. Then I moved." Turning away from the two girls, Anrya looked at Crystal. "During the summer break of my seventh grade, I went to Korea with another person and found you. I passed by you a couple of times somewhere, but other than that, you didn't notice me." Glancing at the maroon haired boy behind Crystal, Anrya continued, saying, "During that same summer vacation, I came to Japan. One day while walking around the neighborhood, I saw you Rai. I followed you around for some time to see what you were like." Looking away from Rai, Anrya focused her eyes on the brown haired girl. "Selina, I came to your school as an eighth grade transfer student. I've crossed paths with you a couple of times and was surprised when one day, you casted an illusion." Anrya grinned. Facing toward the last unmentioned person in the room, Anrya said, "Darke…" then glanced at the pink haired boy and added, "…and Ryo, I saw you guys… about three months ago in a library. It was interesting to see that you two knew how to use your flames. I was lucky enough one day to see you guys show some interesting teamwork, skills, and abilities…" Anrya trailed off. "Well that's basically what happened so far. Are there any questions, comments, concerns?"

At first, no one said anything as one word floated through the air: Stalker

Crystal frowned and said, "Comment. You're a creepy stalker. Who follows random kids around and keeps a picture and a profile of them? I don't think you should be a boss."

Anrya looked at Crystal and said, "True, but I'm not that bad. Those were just necessary for me to pick out good guardians."

Still frowning, Crystal shrugged.

Raising her hand Selina said, "Concern/question. Is this mansion safe?"

"Security wise, pretty much, but with the potential possibility of danger anytime and anywhere, nowhere is 'safe'."

"I have a question," said Jasmine. "Can I trust you?"

"Nope. Anymore questions?"

Rai raised his hand.

"Good, looks like no one has any more questions."

Ace, standing by the doorway, cleared his throat and said, "I think the chocolate chip cookies you were baking are ready in the kitchen."

Anrya quickly got up and went to the kitchen to take out the cookies from the oven. In a few moments, she came back saying, "It'll take a while for the cookies to cool down. In the meanwhile, let me give you a tour of the mansion."

Anrya, Esa, Jasmine, Crystal, Selina, Rai, Darke, and Ryo all got up and the tour began. Anrya briefly showed and explained each floor of the mansion. The first floor had a huge kitchen, living room, a dining area, a rec room, three bathrooms, some spare guest bedrooms, a grand staircase, and a restricted area for the technicians/scientists. The second floor belonged to the girls of the family. All the bedrooms were there, each containing its own bathroom, study rooms, a girls lounge, and a huge closet full of various shampoos, conditioners, body mist, toilet paper, paper towels, lotions, and other things a girl needed were available. The third floor was exactly like the second, except that the third floor was for the boys. Finally, on the top floor, there was a library. It had various books, computers, rooms, study materials, desks, etc.

After the tour had ended, Anrya brought everyone back down to the living room. "Oh yeah, by the way, a guy that I know wants to give us some kind of physical test thing…I don't know what it is or when it is, but I just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Um, I'm going to be getting the cookies now." Anrya walked out of the living room and went into the kitchen.

Ace, who had not gone along with the group for the tour, asked, "So, how do you guys like this place?" He was answered with some comments like: "I like this place" or "This place is huge" and so on. As Ace opened his mouth to ask another question, a yelp was heard from the kitchen followed by the shattering of glass. Sighing, Ace said, "Wait a moment guys, I'm going to go help Anrya with the broken glass," and walked away.

After five minutes passed, Ace and Anrya came back from the kitchen. Ace held a tray containing glasses of milk, and Anrya held two plates of home-baked chocolate chip cookies. "Sorry for the delay guys," Anrya said with an embarrassed smile. "Here, have some cookies and milk." She placed the cookies on the table and Ace handed the milk to everyone who wanted one. Everyone took some cookies and/or milk except for Darke and Ryo. Selina paused before taking a bite out of her cookie and glanced over at Darke and Ryo. "Aren't you guys going to have some too?"

Both boys remained silent and did not answer.

"Um, ok then…"

"C'mon, at least have a cookie guys," Anrya said, pushing the plate of cookies towards them. Ryo hesitantly picked up a cookie and nibbled on it without emotion. Darke rejected the offer…kindly or not, it couldn't be told since Darke's scarf and goggle covered two-thirds of his face. It was quiet for a couple of seconds as everyone ate the delicious snack.

"These cookies are delicio—"Crystal started, but then suddenly collapsed. Everyone just stared at the unconscious Crystal in dumbfounded stupor.

"What the—"Selina said, and then she slumped over as well. One by one, everyone began to pass out.

"What's going on…" Jasmine mumbled before her eyes fluttered shut. Everyone began to slip out of consciousness. By now, the only people conscious were Anrya, Darke, and Ace. Darke suspiciously glanced at the cookies and then back at Anrya and Ace. Anrya and Ace calmly stood as if people passing out right and left were their everyday normal. Darke thought over the situation calmly. After a few moments, the pieces clicked together.

"You," Darke said in a deadly calm voice, "you're not—" Darke felt a sharp prick in his neck. His vision began to blur and the surrounding area warped. Falling to his knees, Darke tried to stay conscious but failed. Slumping forward, the last thing Darke saw before hitting the ground was a flash of white.

*Dramatic music (not)*