Lies in Deceptive Shadows

[skyacezero]

(Interval Voice Over)
"New Demon Lords are born as clean slates. Knowing nothing of their previous lives, left only with their instincts from that life. They are naturally drawn to certain places, places that give them a sense of security, choosing to reside in solitude. In four centuries, a new warrior must now take center stage and await the final battle. This Fallen Demon Lord, is no exception...."
(End Voice Over)

"You sure he's reliable?" Two men were walking down and alleyway. "Of course he is. Make sure your press ID's out. I want him to see we're legit," the tall man said. "This is some ugly stuff we're talking about here. I mean if what this guy has is true, we got ourselves the byline of the decade, " the shorter man in glasses replied. A man in a brown suit stepped out of the shadows, looking quite frightened. "Oh, Mr. Owikawa, we spoke on the phone?" the tall man said. A gunshot rang through the alley. The brown-suited man fell to the ground, dead. "Holy..." the smaller man dropped to his knees, shocked. "Looks like your meeting's been.....cut short," a man in a trench coat holding a gun said. Another man in a trench coat, holding a shotgun appeared and put the barrel up the the short man's temple and squeezed the trigger. The tall man took off running, but was shot in the calf. "Now, do I look like I wanna run a marathon, huh smart guy?" a car pulled up and a man in sunglasses stepped out with a can of gasoline. "Well?" he asked the other two. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," the man who shot the tall man said. "Alright, let's do this," the guy in sunglasses said and started pouring gas on the man who was shot. "Please, don't do this...." he pleaded. "I won't tell anyone. I have a family. You know, a wife, kids..." the man in sunglasses bent over and looked eye-to-eye with the man on the ground. "And for their sake, I hope decent life insurance," the man in sunglasses said with a smirk.

"Let him go..." a gravely voice said from the shadows. "Huh? Who's- gyoh!" the man with the shotgun was pulled into the shadows by a tree-fingered, decayed claw. The sound of fists landing blows was heard. The man who was pulled in was flung from the shadows into the car windshield. The man with the hand gun started shooting in all directions, only to have his arm grabbed and hyper-extended to point at his head. The claw squeezed the trigger and the gun went off. The man in sunglasses pulled out his own hand gun, a pair of glowing green eyes peered at him. "Ge-ge-get away!" he threatened. The claw reached from the shadows and grabbed his throat. He chocked for a while before his neck was snapped. A rattling sound was heard. the pair of green eyes rested on the tall man, pointing one of the fallen hitmans' hand gun at the thing. "You don't want to do that," the creature warned. Forgetting that he was covered in gasoline, the tall man fired, a spark fell on gas and he was set ablaze. The scene was left would have police stumped, but would be unaware of the creature who tried to prevent it....

[skyacezero]

Keera watched from another turn in the alley about what was going on. She was wearing a black trench coat, much more flowing even the slightest wind would sway it, and her black slightly gothic dress made a slight noise as she walked over to the dead, burning man. She didn't try to stop anything, because she felt the prescence of someone else watching them. As she saw claws, which would make part of that other person, she figured it was under control... until the idiot fired and caught himself on fire at the same time. As he burnt to a crisp, and she figured the other guy was gone, she went closer to the scene to inspect the body. If he was there... he probably wasn't going to hurt her...

A police car pulled up behind Keera. Two officers stepped out, officer Kimura and his partner, an american transfer officer who was just called "Stick" due to his skinny frame. "Miss Kaze? What are you doing here? Nothing human is up at this hour," Kimura said.

"I was walking home, I stayed at the last scene pretty late tonight and thought I'd take a quicker route and it looks like we have another crime scene to look into. A man burnt here," she pointed to the obvious burn mark that still had some bodily remains with the ashes. "They all seemed to be involved in the same situation. They aren't stiff and the blood is still slightly warm... I checked their major veins that's all. I haven't moved anything."

"Well, we did get reports of gunfire back here, now I can see why," Kimura stepped closer and observed the scene. "Jeeze, what was this? An alley or a slaughterhouse? Hey, Stick! Get Forensics on the horn, tell em' to get down here!" Stick nodded his head. "Right away, sir,". Kimura turned back to the scene, "So, what do you think happened here?" Kimura asked Keera.

"Well, my guess is that these ones in the trench coats were against the ones that weren't... the two over there got it first," she said pointing to the other two who were laying a little ways away. "Or if it was going the other way, this burnt one was shot first, then as the ones over there were running away, they were shot... or no... I don't have enough information just yet on how everything went, I should know better later. What do you think?" 

"Well I recognize those trench coats anywhere. These were hired hitmen from a big shot named Ryo Tanaka, head of the Japanese Mafia. Tanaka's gonna need some serious drugs though, these were his best men," He turned to the two bodies further down the alley. "Those two and crispy here, I have no idea, who they were," Stick approached Keera and Kimura. "I just got off the radio with Forensics, they're on their way here, sir," he said.

"Probably some guys that were wanted dead... obviously. I mean, why else would they be murdered? Though if I didn't say so myself... crispy killed himself. Look where the gun is, it's right beside where his body should be if weren't in ashes. Could've been on purpose, could've been on purose... who knows." Keera looked at Stick and smiled. "They'll know a lot more later, of course." 

"Miss Kaze, is there something you're not telling us? 'Cuz if there is, you might want to. It might shed some light on this," Kimura said. Just then, several trucks came to stop by the scene. "Oh, the Forensic guys are here,". Stick was by the man in the car windshield. "Sir, you may want to see this," Stick said. Kimura walked over to Stick. "Look there, sir," he pointed at the man's fist. Clutched in his fist was something that looked like black-tinged crimson cloth. "What in the hell could that be?"

Keera walked over to Stick and Kimura, and raised her eyebrows at the cloth. "Well, there was someone else there... I'm not sure if it was human or not because he didn't come out of the shadows..." She crouched down to get a better look at the cloth. "Some sort of gang maybe?"

Kimura looked puzzled at the cloth. "I dunno. Never seen any gangs that fly this color," Kimura said as he put on a surgical glove. "They could be new if it is a gang, sir," Stick said. Kimura gently pulled the cloth out of the man's fist with his gloved hand. "Maybe, but I'm not so sure-ahhhhhhh!" he flicked his hand back and forth rapidly. "Sir! What happened?!" Stick asked. "It was the damn cloth! It was wrapping around my thumb like a snake!"

Keera looked at the cloth on the ground and her expression became blank. She snatched it quickly and in such a way that it couldn't wrap itself around her. She held it tightly and looked like she was stuggling with it to keep it in her hand. "I would burn it, but I think it might be important, whatever it is," she said and looked for something to put it in. "Any one bother to bring a metal box?" she asked the forensics awaiting their answer as she put her other hand over the hand holding it, as if to add extra force to her grip. "I don't plan on holding this all the way to the lab, and I'm pretty sure it'll end up killing one of you forensic guys. I'm lucky to be holding it right now..."

"Hey! Sombody get a strongbox!" Kimura demanded. One of the forensics came back with one. "Okay, Miss Kaze, there's your metal box," Kimura said. He went back to Stick. "I'm telling ya, Stick, this has got to be the weirdest case ever, we got three John Does, and three hitmen of Tanaka's,". Stick nodded his head "Indeed, sir," he simply said. After Keera had put the cloth in the box, Kimura walked up to Keera. "Miss Kaze? May we offer you a ride home?" he asked.

"Oh, well... I guess it is late isn't it? Yes, I suppose... I do need sleep to show up again tomorrow. How long are you all planning to stay tonight, or are you going to come back in the morning when we can all actually see?" Keera asked gave the box to one of the forensic scientists that was watching in amazement that she could actually hold whatever the cloth was and put it in the box safely. After they walked away, she looked back at Kimura.

"You're probably gonna have to cover this scene, tomorrow morning I gotta go to the station and file a report on this," Kimura said as he approached the car and opened the driver's side. Stick went the passenger's side and said to Keera "Your chariot awaits, ma'am," as he opened the door for her. "Now aren't you just a kiss-ass, Stick?" Kimura chuckled. "I'm perfectly content riding in the back, sir," Stick said as he closed the door when Keera got in. "Alright, that's fine. So, where do live, Miss Kaze?"

"Do you know where the Trinity Buildings are?" Keera asked after she got in and smiled at Stick, who got in the back. "I'm in building one," she added, figuring that he knew, a police officer should know where every building is in the city that they work in, and if they can, the cities and towns surrounding it.

"Oh yeah, sure. I know where that is," Kimura said as he started the car and pulled out of the alley. On the rooftops, a creature with glowing green eyes observed them as they pulled out. It turned around and jumped off the ledge, using it's claw as a brake by sliding it down the side of the building. It landed on it's feet and walked back into the shadows. "So, Miss Kaze? What do you think that cloth that Stick found was? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was alive," Kimura said, yawning afterwards.

"Do you believe in witches?" Keera asked quietly. "I don't, really, it's just that certain things seem to... unrealistic I suppose for a lack of better word other than supernatural. Like that that cloth for instance. I'd say it's alive too but material, as much as lunatics like to think, can't suddenly get up and walk away. I'm not saying that you are of course, I'm just saying that the only reason I could think of for that cloth, is either that someone possessed it, or... well... someone possessed it. There really doesn't seem to be any other explanation." Keera watched the stores they passed and the few stray people that got off work late slowly making their way home, or eat before starting a new shift.

"Witches? No, I don't really believe in witches," Kimura said. "But I will admit that what we saw defies logical explanation, guess we'll have to wait for the lab reports tomorrow," he continued as he made a turn. "But it also puzzles me that if the hitmen killed our John Does, then what killed them?" Kimura said thoughtfully.

"I dunno, but I could have sworn that there was someone else there. I'm not altogether sure, but I don't think it was human..." Keera said as she looked to Kimura.

"If it wasn't human, was it an animal?" Kimura asked. The pulled up to the Trinity Buildings. "Here we are, Building one," he said. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Kimura asked as Keera got out.

Elsewhere, in a dark office, someone was shouting so many obscenities over the speaker phone that if it were fabric, it would make a quilt large enough to cover all of Japan. "Just relax, Tanaka. Now tell me what went wrong," a calm voice said. On the speaker, a disgruntled voice answered. "What went wrong is that someone took three of my best hitmen, and threw them into what must've been a walking woodchipper!". The man in the office grinned as if entertained. "So were they ambushed? Is that what you're saying?" the man asked. "They're wearing they're damn heads on backwards is what I'm saying!" Tanaka's voice shouted. "I see," the office man simply said. "Yeah I see, too. I see me doing you a favor, then suddenly my cleaning crew gets scrubbed by some asshole that thinks they're The Terminator," Tanaka replied. "Am I sensing a accusation here?" the office man asked, his voice having slight irritance in it. "Look, all I'm saying is that this looks like the work of a government-trained assassin. And that just happens to be your stock and trade,". The man pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. "It wasn't any of mine I can assure you," he said as he lit it. "And if I were you I'd be careful about making such strong implications without the facts. So, what of the journalists?" the man asked. Tanaka sighed "In tomorrow's obits," Tanaka said. The man smiled "Good. Call me if you find anything out about this mystery assassin," the man finished. "I'll send you his liver, and maybe a few fingers," Tanaka said, then hung up.

"I don't know that either, it was definately tall enough to be human but it had some sort of claws. I'll try to figure out what it was later," Keera replied and got out of the car. Before closing the door though, she bent down to look at Kimura. "I'll see you tomorrow, I'll be there by seven. I'll try to answer and questions if the news people show up while you're not there, and all the rest of them." She stood up and closed the door, walking into the building and sighing. She got to her room, closed and locked the door. She turned and walked to her large window in the living room as she took off her cloak and cracked her neck, turning her head from side to side. She layed it on the couch and went to get a glass of water.

Back at the office, the desktop intercom rang. The man pushed the TALK button. "Yes? What is it?" he asked. "Someone's representative is here to see you," a female's voice said. "I know who you're talking about, let her in," he replied. The door opened an a lady in a black suit with blonde hair entered. When she stepped into the shadows for only a second and when she stepped out her suit was replaced with black robes and her hair turned black as well. She let out a relieved sigh. "So glad to be out of that suit, it was too tight around my chest," she said. "I would rather not hear your complaints in my office," the man said, taking a drag on his cigarette. "So, any good news, I hope?" she asked in a serious tone. "The journalists have been dealt with," he said. The woman smiled, slightly showing her fangs in the process. "That's good," she said in a voice that sounded both innocent and sinister at the same time. "Who'd you use?" she asked sitting on his desk. The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled smoke, "Mafia elements, nothing traceable," he said, putting the cigarette back in his mouth. "Good," she simply said with a smile. "Is that all you came by for, or was there something else?" the man asked raising a brow at her. "Oh," she giggled "I almost forgot," then her tone got serious again. "Brimstone breath is getting impatient and if I were you I wouldn't keep him waiting any longer,". The man sighed. "I haven't made all the proper connections yet. Tell him that these things take time and that he'll have what he wants, soon," he explained. "Will do," the woman said. She changed back into he suit on the way out. After she got to the door she turned around "If anything else goes wrong, don't hesitate to call," she said with a wink and left.

Keera went to bed and sighed, closing her eyes. She needed to find that demon, whoever it was. She knew it wasn't bad, but no one else knew about it except Kimura and Stick. She wanted to keep it that way and not talk to anyone else about it.

The streets weren't busy this time of night as the woman from the office walked down the street. She pulled out a pitch-black cell phone and punched in a number on the keypad. "Hello?" a worried voice answered. "It's me," the woman said in her innocent/sinister voice. "C-c-can I sleep tonight?" the voice studdered. "Of course," she said with a smile. "The journalists are no longer of this world,". A sigh was heard and the voice on the other end went from worried to relieved. "That's good. You have no idea how grateful I am. Thank you,". The woman closed her eyes and sighed. "How long are you going to keep covering for him?" she asked. "As long as I have to," the voice replied. The woman frowned "He's a schoolgirl killer," she said with a stern tone. "Look we've been through this before. You don't have a son, let alone one you can't give your name to. What he does is my problem," the voice explained. The woman giggled. "Those reporters won't be the last, you can't keep this a secret forever,". The voice on the other line scoffed "That's where your wrong. I can because you see, the dead keep their secrets," then hung up.

Keera was only asleep for a few hours before she got up again and went off to the scene where all the men were murdered. She stood watching the detectives at their work, seeing as this really wasn't her case to be detective in, she was placed as police officer because she did both jobs. Unfortunately, the job wasn't to be both at the same time which, in her opinion, sucked really bad. She was one of the first on the scene that morning and everything was exactly the same as they'd left it earlier, not a thing was moved, she made sure of it. She walked around the scene, mentally taking in problems with the whole scenario, and trying to find solutions for said problems.

At the station, Kimura and Stick were busy writing up reports of the incident. "Okay, so we got three positive IDs on the victims. Two were reporters for the Yomiuri Shimbun. And the other was some guy named Kaji Owikawa, an ex-reporter for the Kobe Shimbun," Kimura said to Stick. "Hey, Stick! I shouldn't be the only one typing up these reports you know,". Stick turned around, "Just looking into the records of the reporters to see if there are any connections, sir," Stick said. Kimura sighed "Take a quick break from that Stick, I need some breakfast, something with chocolate sprinkles," Kimura said. Stick was quick to take his order "Two dozen, sir?" he asked as he went to the door. "Half a dozen, Stick you know I'm on a diet,"

"So what do you think Miss Kaze?" asked one of the detectives.
 
"It's not my job to say this time, but I can tell you there was gas used for this victim, which should be obvious," Keera replied and the detective nodded. "Those two over there were shot," Keera pointed out. "I know I'm pointing out the obvious but these three in the trench coats had a different problem."
 
"Yes, I know what you mean. They look really bad. Do you suppose there was someone else there?" The detective asked.
 
"I see that to be the only other explanation."
 
"Say, shouldn't you be on the other scene we found last week?"
 
"I was transferred to this one, and they told me that if we get this one cleared up and dealt with before the other one is done, I can go back to it."
 
"I see... do you think we will?"
 
"No."


There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Kimura called. "It's Kamiya, from Forensics," a voice responded. "Oh, come on in," Kimura said. The door opened and one of the men from Forensics last night came in. "Where's the skinny guy?" he asked. "Who, Stick? He's out getting doughnuts," Kimura said, returning to his report. "Well, here's the preliminary from that cloth from last night," Kamiya said handing the papers to Kimura. "Oh boy," Kimura said after looking over them. "She's definitely gonna want to hear this,". He picked up the phone and dialed Keera's cell. "Miss Kaze? Yeah it's Kimura. I just got the preliminary report from that cloth we took off the victim's body. You're not gonna believe this. That cloth, is a living organism,"

Keera opened her cell phone and walked away from the scene. "Talk to me," she said before he spoke and she stopped dead in her tracks. "It's a what?!" She almost yelled and tried to keep her voice down from the rest of the people who happened to look at her when she said that. "Are you serious? Like what? I've never seen something like that before." It was true, in the many centuries she'd been alive, she'd never seen something like that, not actually alive anyway.

"I haven't seen anything like it either. This thing is alive. You know, like you and me kind of alive. Other parts of the report state that it may be symbiotic, like a part of something," Kimura said. The door opened, it was Chief Nasaki. "Kimura, if that's Miss Kaze your on the phone with, tell her to get down here right now and go to the briefing room along with everyone else," Nasaki said. "Alright Cheif," Kimura nodded and the Cheif left. "Keera, the Cheif wants everyone in the breifing room, you included. So get down here this sounds big,"

"I don't know how- Okay, I'll be there," Keera said and hung up the phone. She turned to one of the detectives that was nearest her. "I need a ride to the station, muy pronto," Keera spoke and the detective nodded and Keera didn't speak all the way down to the station, and when she got out she gave him a simple smile and ran inside, straight past the front desk and into the briefing room, as it probably just started...

"Okay, now that everyone's here, let's get started," Chief Nasaki addressed the officers. "As we all know, a piece of cloth was discovered at last night's crime scene by Miss Kaze, officer Kimura, and officer Stick. It is in fact a living organism and we have discovered something else. During the recording of the Forensic reports while the tests were being conducted, the mic picked up stray sounds from the cloth," an officer raised his hand. "Yes, question?" the Chief asked the officer. "So the sounds were coming from the cloth, is that what your saying?" the officer asked. "Yes, and with a high-powered mic we recorded the cloth's sounds..." he held up a tape recorder. "And this is what we got..." he hit PLAY and eerie echoing, screeching and whooshing sounds were heard for 3 seconds before he hit STOP, leaving all the officers dumbstruck. "What the friggin' hell was that?" Kimura said.

Keera seemed to be calm about it, compared to most of the officers. She was trained to be calm about every situation, no matter how bad or unbelievable it may be. "What do you suppose... oh," Keera raised her hand. "Does it bleed?" she asked without a second thought about her question. "If it does, did they take blood tests?"

"Well, Miss Kaze, if it bled, we would've done blood tests,but it doesn't have any blood," Chief Nasaki said, acknowledging Keera's question. "After running this recording through several filters, we isolated what appears to be a voice," he inserted another tape and hit PLAY. As he said, an almost indistinct voice was heard. "I doubt that even qualified as language," Kimura blurted out. "Latin, sir," Stick spoke up. "Huh? Wha'd you say, Stick?" Kimura asked. "That sounded like Latin, sir," Stick said. "Can you translate it?" Naskai asked. Stick went up front. "I'll try, sir," he said and heard the recording again. "That sounded like 'Servo me'," Stick said. Kimura looked puzzeled. "'Servo me'? What the hell does that mean?" he asked. Stick replied "Save me,"

Keera's eyes narrowed at the tape, and her mind began thinking in overdrive. She didn't mean to glare at it, as her eyes became empty the glare disappeared and she was in her own thoughts. This happened every once in a while, when she was figuring out things that seemed impossible to find a solution for. She already knew the questions, what is it, and how do they save it? Now she needed to think of the answer...

An elderly-looking man walked through the doors of the police station, his cane clicking in front of him. Nobody was at the service desk due to the current meeting. He smiled and a whoosh was heard. He was gone. A whispering voice started echoing in Keera's head. "You may feel some pain.....but I know you can hear me...." it said.

Keera looked at the man before he disappeared and was about to ask him why he was there, and then he was gone. Keera blinked, a little freaked about by that, and then heard the whispering accompanied by some small but sharp pain in her head and her hand went up to her forehead and she got up. Yeah I can hear you, what do you want? She asked and opened her eyes, with a slight smile. "I need some tylenol, I think I'm getting a headache... I'll be right back," she said and left to go to her office.

When Keera got to her office the old man was there, sitting in a chair in the corner. "If figured this would be better as a face-to-face," he said while getting up. "You see, when you asked me what I wanted, it's not what I wanted, but what someone else wants with you," he turned to her and smiled nastily, "Keera,"

Keera stayed silent and stood still as she looked at the old man, wondering why he was there in the first place. She figured she'd find out pretty soon though. "How do you know my name?" she asked quietly, closing the door, "and what does this someone else want with me?"

The old man chuckled. "As to what this someone else wants, why find out now, when you can find out later, say, tonight at the docks," he said. "And as to how I know your name, well, we've had our eyes on you since the day you were born, all leading up to the One Day War," he continued with a grin. "Oh, I forgot. Where are my manners? Seeing as how I already know who you are, you should at least know who I am. My name is Mephistopheles,"

Keera's eyes widened. "The... One Day War? But how- how the hell do you know about that?!" Keera asked, outraged and now actually scared that she'd been watched by someone all her life, by people other than Naraku. "That was over one hundred years ago."

"Don't be fooled, Keera, I'm as old as time itself. All seven of us are," Mephistopheles said. "That piece of cloth you found belongs to one of our own. Or rather, he used to be one of us," Mephistopheles continued. "You remember the V-3 incident six weeks ago? Right?"

(Flashback to a news report on TV)
"In other news, we now go live to the White House Press Room where Secretary of Defense Samuel Applerouth is expected to comment on the V-3 missile incident," the picture cuts to man in his mid 30's. "As many of you know four days ago, a United States V-3 nuclear missile was detonated in the upper atmosphere. While no negative effects are apparent, myself and the President assure all U.S. citizens and our neighboring countries that this was an accidental launch and that the missile was destroyed via our own safety countermeasures. Rest assured a full-scale investigation is underway,". People started trying to get the Secretary's attention. "I can answer no more questions at this time,"
(End Flashback)

"You have the Fallen One to thank for that little miracle," Mephistopheles finished.


"Yes I do remember that incident... the Fallen One?" Keera asked curiously.


"That's what we call him. He's the one who set off the bomb and got caught in the explosion. But he's a Hell-born entity what could a nuclear explosion do to him?" Mephistopheles explained. "In fact you, in a way, met him last night. Do you remember?" he said with another grin.

"I di- oh, that was him?" Keera asked , becoming a little calmer the more she talked to him. "So what exactly are you here for?" Keera needed to get back to the conference room, but of course she wasn't going to forget what he told her about the docks tonight. "Just to tell me to go to the docks later tonight?"


"Yes that was all I came here for, but I guess I got carried away," Mephistopheles said. "We'll be waiting," he said as he went out the door.

"I'll be there," she said as she sat down at her desk for a moment. "It's to early in the morning for this... what am I doing? I need to get back to the conference room," she said and got up, then walked brisly into the conference room again. "Sorry I took so long," she whispered and sat down.

"Chief, you can't be serious!" an officer said. "I'm afraid I am serious, everyone on patrol duty has double shifts. We cannot afford to have any more incidents like the one last night. If the media gets a hold of this, it may cause a public panic and we don't want to get everyone worked up," Nasaki explained. "Everyone is dismissed, this conference is over,". After the conference Kimura was complaining "Double shifts, Stick can you believe that!" Stick was calm as usual "He said that only officers on patrol duty get double shifts, sir,"

Keera laughed a little. "So unless your on patrol duty, you don't have to worry about," Keera said as she put on her police jacket and then her trench overtop. "I'm going back over to the scene, I'll probably be there most of the day."

"Alright, Miss Kaze. If you find anything let us know," Kimura said. "Me and Stick here will be here working on these reports,". Kimura got a doughnut that Stick brought back and took a bite as he got back to typing his report....

The creature stood in the dark alleys as if waiting for something. In actuality, he wasn't waiting for anyone, just wanting time to himself. "Uhhh...excuse me?" a voice said, a homeless man. "I don't mean to intrude but, some of us were wondering. Just what the hell are you?" he asked. "Somebody who doesn't like to be bothered," the creature responded. "Well, that's what I told them, I said 'When he's ready to talk, he'll talk'," the homeless man said. The creature turned slightly. "Don't hold your breath," he said. "Well, you must be hanging around these alleys for some reason, maybe you just, need a friend?" the homeless man said. "I've got nowhere else to go, that's all," the creature said.

Keera watched and surveyed the area for the rest of the day, and when it started getting dark, she figured she'd start going down to the docks. She walked over to the forensics vehicle where they running some more tests on bullets and bullet casings and so on. "Anything new?" Keera asked.
 
"No, unfortunately not... we figure the one that burnt to death killed the trench's and then killed himself afterwards," said one of the women in the van tiredly.
 
"I see, well, I figured it would be something like that, he was shot in the leg after all, he probably didn't figure he'd get home."
 
"Maybe, we might never know," the woman replied and turned back to her test.
 
"Well, I'm going to head off, that anyone can leave when they want to now, just make sure the place is still taped up so no one will go in."
 
"Of course."


Well, the folks around here don't look or smell so nice, but we're actually good people. We share what we have, and you're welcome to it," the homeless man said as he walked off. Around a trashcan fire, the homeless people were talking a bout their current problem. "I'm telling you, the guy looks like something out of Stephen King!" one of them said. "It's not his fault, he just has problems," the homeless man who spoke to the creature said. "I know, did you see that left arm of his? God!" the other homeless man said with his eyes wide. "No, it's not that, Kenji, he's just, troubled," the homeless man argued. "Look, Shinoske, we can't sleep with that thing down here, he looks like a damn nightmare!" Kenji shouted. "Well maybe we could scrape together some food for him," Shinoske suggested. "Alright, you know what? Fine! Let him stay, but if you wake up in a pool of blood with your head on backwards, don't come crying to me!"Kenji said as he walked away from the fire. "LOOK OUT!" a van crashed into the alley and three men in trench coats got out holding machine pistols. "Alright you alley pukes!" one of them said. "Who's gonna win the prize and stay alive tonight?" The three men walked up to a random homeless man. The main man pointed his gun at him, it was equipped with a silencer. "You know who whacked Tanaka's men, right?" he asked. The homeless man studdered. "W-w-well I-I-I don't-" he chocked out. "Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer!" the man said and shot him. He walked over to Kenji and Shinoske, "You look like a couple of smart turds with eyes. If you win, you live, if you lose, you get a consolation prize: parting gifts made of Teflon, and I ain't talkin' cookware," he said and turned to walk away. "And the question: who is-" he turned back around only to be an inch away from a pair of glowing green eyes. "-About to take your head off?" the creature finished for him.

Keera walked down to the docks, and walked all the way to the very edge, where she looked over into the water, and sighed. She figured she had a quiet life to take her along smoothly and see things she wanted to see in the world as it progressed and killed the world even more than it was doing now. Go figure she'd be caught up in some other demon related incident this far into the present she was in.

The creature grabbed the man and the other two fired on him. The creature leapt out of the way and put the man he was holding in the way of their fire. The creature, having taken the man's gun dropped down and shot them both in the head. He turned to the man who was shot, coughing up blood and lying on the ground. "All right, your gonna deliver a message to your boss, what's his name?" the creature asked, picking him up. "T-Tanaka," he strained. "You're gonna tell Tanaka that his business in these alleys is done, their off limits," it continued putting him in the van's driver seat. "You're gonna give him my message. As far as I know, I'm already dead, which means I'm waiting for your sorry ass in the afterlife," it finished, putting the van in reverse and the van backed out. Kenji and Shinoske walked up to the creature. "I told you, Kenji, he's something, ain't he?" Kenji approached the creature timidly. "Uhhhh....name's Kenji.." he said. "Necrolon," the creature responded. "Everyone, meet Necrolon," Shinoske said as more homeless people gathered around Necrolon.
(Interval Voice Over)
"Fallen Demon Lords often find allies in those damned by Society. For a while it gives them a sense of security, but they couldn't be more wrong..."
(End Voice Over)

In a room, Tanaka's phone rang, he picked it up. "Yeah?" He answered. "What?! When?! Is he still alive? Did he say who did it? Hey I don't give a damn if he needs a doctor, you find out who whacked my men, or you're gonna need a priest!" he hung the phone up, picked it back up and dialed a number. He started speaking Italian: "It's Tanaka. Yeah, I'm calling in my marker. Hey, don't give me that, you owe me. Well send him over. Today, right now! By the time I hang up this phone, he'd better be over the U.S."

At the docks, a woman in black robes came out of the shadows to greet Keera. "So you decided to come after all,"


Keera turned to the woman in black robes, "Well, what is it I'm here for? I want to get straight to the point, I'm tired and I'd like to go home."

"Straight to the point I like that, Barbatos," no sooner did she say Barbatos' name, a darck blue circle appeared under Keera and emitted a light that froze her in place. A young man with black wings appeared from behind a crate carrying a golden staff with a red crystal at the end. "Good evening, miss. Mt name is Barbatos," he said with a bow.

Unfortunately in Keera's case, she wasn't quick enough to move out of the circle and was caught in it, barely able to try and get out before it froze there. Oh well this is wonderful, she thought and gave a little growl, that was totally out of character for her, but it slipped out unvoluntarily. "I figure this is quite unnecessary," Keera said through clenched teeth. "What do you want? Actually, good evening Barbatos. My name is Keera, I'm sure you know that already," she said acting friendly, like nothing was wrong and then at the end it was laced with malice.

The woman walked casually over to Keera. "Congratulations, Keera, I've chosen you be be my new avatar," she said. The woman grabbed Keera's arm and moved it so that the underside up facing up and pulled her sleeve down. "All I have to do is put some of my blood in you," she started as she used her nails to make an open slit on the underside of Keera's forearm, "And then the process starts," she said as she sued her left hand to hold the wound open, and using her right thumbnail, she made a small incision on the tip of her index finger and held it over the wound. A few drops of blood fell into it and the wound closed and healed. "Release her," she ordered. The circle vanished and Keera fell to the ground. "You may feel just a little drowsy, but that's normal. The transformation should begin in two weeks, so when you're ready, I'll come back for you, in the meantime, Barbatos you know what to do," Barbatos placed his staff on her forehead. "We have to wipe your memory so you don't remember that this happened,"

After she was released and fell to the ground, she emmited a louder growl and as she felt the staff touch her head, she acted instantly without thinking. She tackled Barbatos to the ground and her whole body was engulfed in a clear fire as she took off, so they wouldn't be able to touch her if they tried, not caring if the woman and Barbatos were going to go after her. Shit! What the hell?! This is insane! For once, she was actually scared of something. Transformation? Great, first I'm destroyed, then I get a body I can barely use, and once I'm about to use it years later I'm going through another transformation? I'm sick of this already!!! Actually I was sick of it the day I got back on this damned planet, and now I figure I should just go commit suicide for all it's worth. She didn't dare look back, but knew she could run all she wanted, but they knew where she was and it wouldn't do anything to keep trying to get away from them for very long. "I'd much rather know what's going on, not go out of my mind wondered why the hell I'm transforming!" she whispered and angrily and ran into an alleyway not too far from Necrolon. She stopped and wondered how long she had until they caught up with her, or if they were waiting for her somewhere in the ally, watching her right now.
 
She figured if she went into a store or something it would stop them from doing anything infront of the humans, but knowing them, they'd just wipe the minds of the humans too, so they wouldn't even know it happened. Either way, if they really wanted to it, there wasn't much she could do.

"Awwww," came the woman's sympathetic voice and she clicked her tongue at Keera. "Why run? It wont do you any good,". She was waiting right in front of Keera. It started to rain.

In the same alley, Necrolon was curled in a ball and leaning against the wall. A truck pulled up and someone threw a trash bag out from the back. The truck drove off and Necrolon got up to look at the bag out of curiosity. It opened and a slender arm fell limply out. "Dear God," Shinoske's voice." Not another one," Necrolon turned and faced Shinoske. "Another one? What do you mean?" he asked. "Schoolgirls get dumped here, never had a chance. Horrible isn't it?"

Keera swore and backed herself against the wall and leaned her head back. "What the hell is up with you?" she growled angrily, as the drowsiness started to set in. "Give me a damned break and leave the memories alone." Her heart was racing and so was her mind as she looked at the woman. "My life is already screwed up enough, you know that."

There was a buzzin in the back of Necrolon's head. 'I know this feeling...' he thought and walked past Shinoske. "Wh-where're you going, Necrolon?" he asked. "To tie-up some loose ends," Necrolon responded and kept walking.

"Of course your life would seem screwed up if you lost everything you held dear to you in just one day," the woman said, emphasizing on the 'one day' part. A fireball flew past her she looked in the direction it had come from. "Leave her alone, Lilith," Necrolon was standing at the end of the alley. Lilith smiled, slightly showing her fangs again. "So the interloper finally shows," she said.

Keera opened her eyes and growled at the 'one day' comment, because she knew what Lilith was talking about only too well. As the fire ball flew past her, she looked to the point of where it came from and saw the 'Fallen One' she'd seen the night before. Keera swallowed and lunged at Lilith, deciding to fight back whether it was a bad idea or not, her fist plowing itself into Lilith's face, issuing a burning blast as it made contact. "Screw you and your one day comments!!!!" Keera yelled, angered energy filling her body.

Lilith merely chuckled and looked at Keera, rubbing the area were she had hit her. "I knew I wasn't making a mistake when I decided to make you my avatar," she said with a smile. "Although if you want to enjoy your humanity longer, I'd refrain from using your powers. That will only speed the process up, I'm afraid," Lilith smirked. Necrolon's eyes narrowed. "An avatar? You're after her to make her into a new avatar?!" he roared. "As a matter of fact, she will be in two weeks time," Lilith said.

Keera looked like she was ready to kill Lilith but she did stop attacking her. Keera glared at Lilith and turned from her, far enough away that if she attacked, she'd have enough time move, unless Barbosa got in the way and did that freeze thing to her again. It was hard not to turn around and burn the damned woman to ashes, or atleast pummel her until she wasn't angry anymore. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and wondered something: would she remember who she was after the transformation? She'd have to find out... later.

A red crystal touched the back of Keera's head. It emitted a red flash and Keera fell forward. Barbatos caught her before she fell any further. "Good work Barbatos. Now get her home," she ordered. "Right away," he said and a yellow circle formed underneath him and he was gone. In Keera's room, Barbatos laid her down on her bed. Mephistopheles was waiting there. "Are they gone?" he asked. "Yes, even her little chat with you was erased. When she wakes up, the events at the docks and in the alleys tonight will only seem like a bad dream to her,". At that, they turned around and vanished. "With her out of the way, I can do some real damage," Necrolon said to himself and charged at Lilith. "Fool," whispered and her right arm became a four-fingered claw that started to emit a black light. She slashed her claw horizontally and four black rays slashed across Necrolon's body and sent him flying through a brick wall. Lilith approached the Fallen Demon Lord and said "She will become my avatar. Two weeks, I hope she enjoys her humanity until then. Oh, and a word to the wise, laying down there all twisted up like that, isn't good for your back," she walked off laughing, everything went black...

Keera woke up the next morning rather late than usual, and had the angry feeling still in her body, but no memory as to why she felt that way. She ignored it, but it bugged her all through the day as she thought about the demon she'd seen in the alley that night, and figured she should try to find him. She showed up for work almost two hours late, but was forgiven because it had never happened before now. She was at the site again and sighed, wondering where the demon had gone and decided to start walking the alleys, walking past homeless men, and not much more than them. Althrough the time she'd been awake, she was abnormally tired and hoped that the day passed by quickly so she could go home again and sleep this 'flu' off, or so she figured that's what it was.

Kimura and Stick were at the other scene that took place last night. "Great, more of Tanaka's men," Kimura sighed. "Troubleshooters, guy sent in to settle scores, but it looks like they got settled instead. Yet still, a trail of blood and tire tracks..." Kimura's voice trailed off. "Perhaps he was allowed to leave, sir," Stick suggested. "Sending a message to Big Ryo himself. Tanaka doesn't like getting spanked this hard. So, any thing on those reporters, Stick," Kimura asked. Stick shook his head. "Nothing yet, sir. Rumor is they were tracking someone high up in the government," Stick said. "A scandal or something?" Kimura guessed. "We don't know, sir," Stick simply said. "Alright, let's go, I need some breakfast," Kimura said, getting to his feet. "I have a map of the local colors, sir. Do you prefer grease or sugar?" Stick asked. "Both," Kimura said while walking away, "I'm feeling tense," he added as they got in the car. As they drove off a limo passed them. It was Tanaka's limo. "Hehehe...Officer Kimura, he's definitely gonna give a damn about this," he Tanaka chuckled as his phone rang. He picked it up "Hello? He's here? Well when's he landing? When he gets off, pick him up and bring him to me," Tanaka ordered.

Keera was in the same restaurant that Kimura and Stick were going to, and she had her head down on bar table. This was a horrible day... she couldn't wait until it was over. All the late nights were startingto bite her back, though not as hard as she figured they would. "A really strong coffee please," Keera said as the barman came over to her and asked what she'd like this morning. "Three sugars and two creme, no that's all, thank you."

"Hello, Miss Kaze," Kimura said as walked in and sat next to Keera. "You alright? You look like you've had a rough morning," he added. When asked what he wanted Kimura just answered, "The usual,".

Back at Tanaka's office, a giant of a man with a glowing red eye was sitting in the shadows, his features were covered by the shade. "So, you know I figured you were just a rumor. Ex-CIA killer turned ruthless mercenary, little more than a skeleton on a respirator," Tanaka said to the man. "Your not too far off," a growling, mechanical-toned voice said. "So, Killzone, how'd you escape that?" Tanaka asked. "The rumors you've heard about me.... are all true," Killzone said. Tanaka's eyes widened. "So I see. They say you have no conscience, no soul when it comes to killing," Tanaka continued. "What I have is a hungry bank account, and someone's paying me top dollar on your behalf. So, what seems to be the problem?" Killzone asked as he got out of the chair. "You keep up with current events?" Tanaka asked, raising a brow. "Only where death is concerned. You're men have, had rough week," Killzone said, faking sympathy. "Well, I want the bastard responsible, bring me his bones in one bag, and his organs in another," Tanaka ordered. "Of course," Killzone said, delight in his voice "but I willbe keeping the heart for myself," Killzone added. "For what?" Tanaka asked. "Dinner," Killzone responded. Tanaka chuckled. "I like how you think,"

Keera gave a sigh and nodded, looking over to him, sitting up. "I guess I just didn't sleep well last night..." she said tiredly as she got her coffee and took a sip of it. "Thank the world for caffeine..." she said and gave a little laugh. "So I heard there's another scene... they're not transfering me this time though. How'd your night go?"

"Well, it was a night full of typing reports, going over case files, and wouldn't you know it? There was another scene this morning," Kimura said. "The victims at the new scene were more of Tanaka's men, troubleshooters. There were three of them, but it looked like one was allowed to leave," he explained.

"Really? That's weird... so two scenes with Tanaka's men now," Keera said making her brain think. "So obviously they're both connected in some way. I mean... his men are starting to die left and right, but why would be let go?" She pondered to herself, her regular attitude coming back again, though she still looked quite tired. She wondered if it was that demon she'd seen two nights ago, but not quite sure. It was possible, that was for sure.

"We figured that he was allowed to leave to send a message to Ryo himself. Tanaka doesn't like getting beat that hard, it's gonna be a war zone in those alleys if we don't figure out what's going on" Kimura said. "And on top of that, another dead schoolgirl was found near dumped near the scene, so that makes three cases in all. I swear this whole thing is getting out of hand,"

"I know, this is getting crazy, I'm going to stay out tonight, walk around for a while, see if I notice anything, if I can talk to anyone. We can't afford to have anymore turn-outs like these," Keera said taking another sip of her coffee after she spoke. "I'm sick of it."

"Yeah, that makes two of us. And Chief's all over this alleyway murder thing, too. Thank you," his order had come. "We got some new developments on the three victims from the first scene, they're all reporters," he continued, taking a bite

“For some reason, I think that if we dismiss the people being reporters, and said they were anything else in the world, this still would have happened. It just seems to me, that Tanaka's people are going to keep taking the hits as long as he's sending them in. That's just my opinion though, because if you think about it, did these guys come in to kill more people, or get answers from the last killings? If they came in to get answers, they most-likely did it with force and I doubt they were being nice to whoever they were talking to, so therefore, if the same person that killed Tanaka's other men was in the same alley at the time, he probably took care of them too for the reason he did the last ones."

"Astute as always, ma'am," came Stick's voice. "One of the reporters was recording phone calls made by people in high status in the government," Stick continued. "Yeah, yeah, that's nice, Stick. So, Miss Kaze, if you're saying that whoever killed Tanaka's goons did it for the same reason both times, what reason do you think that is?" Kimura asked.

Keera shrugged. "Hard to say, really. He could have been on the reporter's side, maybe a really strong guy that happened to become homeless, or maybe just some guy that saw what was happening and decided to help and had the upperhand... both times..."

While Kimura and Keera discussed the current case, a woman in a black suit with blonde hair was sitting at the corner table. Her cell phone started ringing. She pulled out a black cell phone and answered it. "Hello? When? Okay, I'll be right there," she hung up and left. Turning into an alley, she disappeared.

"Yeah, strange business," Kimura said. "So, Stick, you said that one of the reporters was listening in on government calls, did he record them?" Kimura asked Stick. "Yes, sir, he did. Owikawa had a library of pirated conversations, at least fourty to fifty hours worth," Stick replied. "Christ, we don't have that kind of time!" Kimura said, surprised at how long Stick said the library was.

Keera smiled. "We can split up the time, what, 15 hours each? We'll listen to them while we're on the job. We could easily do it a few days, what do you think?" she asked looking back and forth from Stick to Kimura and back again. She did notice the woman in black leave the restaurant, but she didn't seem to care at all.

"An excellent idea, ma'am," Stick said. Kimura's cell phone rang. "Hello? Oh, hey. You serious? Okay. No, she's right here, I'll tell her," Kimura hung up. "That was the Chief. Miss Kaze, it looks like were gonna be working together on the alleyway case,"

On a yacht in the harbor near the docks, a helicopter landed on the yacht and a man was dragged out. "You don't just bust in, drag me out of my vacation house, throw me in a helicopter and fly me all the way out here!" he angrily yelled. A woman in a black suit with blonde hair stepped out of a doorway. "I's sorry for the inconvenience, but I figured this needed a face-to-face," she said. The man gasped "Oh, it's you Lilith. What's this all about?" the man asked. "It's about us, ambassador, our.....relationship. I heard your going to take a pass on the Senatorial position," Lilith said. "H-how do you know that? I've barely told my wife.." he responded. "I want to put you in a higher state of power," Lilith simply said, taking a drag on the cigarette in her hand. "Right... exactly how many skeletons do I have in my closet?" he asked. "Per our arrangement, I've been holding the key to that closet for a while now, gouging the eyes out of anyone who so much looks in it's direction," she explained. "You serious?" he asked. "Always," Lilith said as she exhaled smoke. "Say I do get the position. What do you get?" he asked. Lilith smiled "A friend in a very high place," she said. "And if I refused?" the man asked. "Well, ambassador Fujiwara, I see a closet door swinging wide open, your own personal Pandora's Box. Last I checked, you had friends an family. I can make them suffer, too. More importantly, who do you think's been protecting your little bastard son Michiru from the Japanese Police Force? I heard they are a lot of people in this country who despise schoolgirl killers. The way I see it, you should just relax, and enjoy the ride,"

"Oh," Keera said slightly surprised. "Alright then, shall we get working?" she asked downing the last almost half a cup of coffee. "We should start right away I think, on the tapes. Then I'd like to go see the scene myself."

"Then let's get to the station, the tapes are in my office," Kimura said. "If we find something, it should help clear most of the questions about these alley murders," Kimura continued. He went out the door with Stick. "And on top of that-" Kimura stopped. "Uhhhh, Stick?" Kimura asked. "Yes, sir?" Stick responded. "Where's the car?"

Keera raised an eyebrow as she got up and walked over to them, looking outside. "You guys aren't fooling around with me are you? Did you walk or something because it isn't out here..." Keera smiled. "I guess there's another case to file a report on. A stolen police car," she laughed a little and walked past them, onto the sidewalk and started walking to the station. "You're not going to get anywhere by standing there all day boys, or is it just that you can't keep up?" she asked.

"Hey, did I ever tell you that I ran track in high school? Junior and Senior Varsity?" Kimura asked to answer her question and kept up with Keera. "So how do we tell the Chief that a police car managed to get stolen?" he asked her.

"Oh don't worry, I'll take care of that..." Keera said smiling as he kept up with her. She always tried to keep to humans speeds, otherwise she'd run faster than a car could ever go. "By the way, it wasn't stolen. It was skillfully aquired by someone not in the police profession or industry. If we say it was stolen, it sounds a little... stupid, for lack of a better word."

"Good point. We're supposed to be the ones catching these guys, then they turn around and jack us," Kimura said. "What's the world coming to, sir?" Stick asked.

Keera laughed. "It's not what the world is coming to Stick, it's what the world already is," she said as she waved to two little kids who waved at them. "I love kids, they're so cute, then they grow up..." she gave a small laugh and kept walking

Necrolon's eyes slowly opened. He was lying on his back in a dimly-lit room, enough to protect him from the sun. There was an old man leaning over him. "That was pathetic, but not altogether unexpected. You must choose your battles more carefully," he said. Necrolon sat bolt upright. "What am I into here?!" he shouted, rubbing his head. "You tell me," the old man said. "What do you think?". Necrolon got to his feet "I think it's insane! Am I dead or am I alive? What am I?!" he started shooting off one question after another. "You're going to have to trust yourself for the answers," the old man simply said. Necrolon's eyes narrowed, "If you know what the hell's going on old man, you'd better tell me straight!" he said angrily. The old man sighed. "There are seven inexplicably evil demon lords who already have their sought-after prize, she'll be in their grasp within a week and four days," the old man explained. Necrolon scoffed. "Who?! Who are you talking about?!" Necrolon continued to shout. "Her name is Keera Kaze. She was once the queen of the Western Ocean. Now that Lilith's blood is in her veins, you must help her or she will meet a fate worse than death!" the old man explained. "What am I supposed to do?" Necrolon growled. "If I told you, it wouldn't matter. But you still have a choice, I trust you will make the right one..." he said as he walked through a door filled with sunlight that Necrolon quickly retreated from. "How am I supposed to know what choice is the right one?" Necrolon asked. He received no answer, only the closing of a door.

(Interval voice over)
"The most pressing question about Fallen Demon Lords is: 'How long can they hold on to their humanity?' Some last longer than others..."
(End Voice Over)

Keera walked around the site they were at now, listening to the tapes. A lot of crap was on it, she could tell that much. It was a bunch of jibber-jabber that sounding a lot like arguing and debating about laws to be passed. What exactly were they looking for again? Oh right, something to do with why he and his fellows might have been murdered. "Poor girls..." Keera said walking past the body of the one girl, that was being prepared to be taken to do an autopsy on.

Kimura inspected the site while Stick and Keera listened to the tapes. "What is it about these alleys?" he asked himself. "Hey, Stick! Anything new?" he asked. Stick took the headphones off. "No, sir. But as to why politicians would share such innuentive and sexual thoughts over a cell phone, I may never know," Stick said, shaking his head. Kimura looked over the site. "So we've got two dead troubleshooters and another dead schoolgirl. I swear, Stick, that's the sixth one this month!"

"Six... just school girls or altogether?" Keera asked, hearing what Kimura said. "This is horrible... we should put up servailance camera's around here to watch if anything goes on..."

"Six schoolgirls this month, Miss Kaze," Kimura said to clarify what he meant. "We could get cameras in here if we got a permit for them, but we keep getting denied," Kimura continued. "The schoolgirl case on the other hand, we've been trying to get this sicko for a while, but we're still kicking up dirt. I mean, we found the last two schoolgirls without any fingers or-" Kimura noticed the shocked expression on Keera's face as he explained. "Oh, sorry, Miss Kaze," Kimura said.

Keera really was shocked at this. "That many?" she asked quietly. She looked at the van as it started to drive away, bringing the body of the sixth girl to the center for tests. She looked at him, "We have to get them in here..." She looked down the alleyway and sighed

A homeless man was thrown into a bunch of trashcans. "P-p-p please, I-I-I don't know anything!" he pleaded as he was piked up. "Shut up," Killzone demanded. "I am looking for someone who very recently killed several wise guys in these alleys. Are you aware of such a person?" Killzone asked, his mechanical eye glowing. "I-I-I I keep to myself," the homeless man continued. "Are you aware of such a person?!" Killzone asked again, irritated at this point. "Please, don't kill me. I'm not worth it, I'm nothing, less than nothing," he started to strain out as Killzone started to squeeze his neck. "Alright-alright-alright! There's this someone who's been hanging around these alleys. Scary-looking guy, you can't miss him,". Killzone's human eye narrowed. "Are you sure this is the person?" he asked. "Y-yeah, he even seemed to enjoy it a little, ya know?". Killzone grinned "I DO know," he said. The homeless man was frightened at this point. "C-c-can I go now?" he asked. "In a minuet. First I have to.....borrow something," Killzone said as he tore the man's arm off and used it as a paintbrush to leave a message on the wall.

Keera got home that night, at about 9:00pm and was completely pooped, yet couldn't figure out why. She figured it must just have been a long day. "Ugh, I'm not even going to stay up tonight to watch the news... I'll get everything on it tomorrow... wonder what else it going to happen in the next few days..." she said as she walked into the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. She noticed she was a little paler than before, and considered it simply as a possible flu coming along and decided to snatch her first. "At this rate, I'm going to have to get a few days off work to get rid of this illness... wonder if I can... I'll wait until tomorrow to see what happens though, just incase it goes away..." she washed her face, and brushed her teeth, put her hair in a braid and went to bed.

(Posts 2-105

[skyacezero]

Necrolon landed in the alleys where everyone was crowded around the dead homeless man. On the wall was Killzone's message: 'HERO, MIDNIGHT, BE WAITING'. "What happened here?" Necrolon asked. Kenji spoke up. "He was torn to bits by this guy, a BIG son of a bitch. He had weapons and other crap coming out of his arms, and this eye...." Kenji explained. "Glowing red, like blood," Shinoske finished. Necrolon put his right hand on the message, a rumbling sound was heard, Necrolon jumped away just as Killzone burst through the wall. "It's exactly twelve midnight," he said and spotted Necrolon on the ground and picked him up by his angel wing. "Please tell me you're not him," Killzone said. "Please tell me it's someone with some balls and not a weirdo in a Halloween costume!" Killzone finished as he slammed Necrolon into the wall. Killzone aimed his auto-cannons at Necrolon and started firing. Necrolon rolled out of the way and continued dodging his auto-cannons until they clicked uselessly. Killzone armed a missile at him, Necrolon lunged forward, just barely missing the missile and slamming his left claw into Killzone's mechanical eye. Killzone backed out of the alley and fired five mortars into the alley, bringing a pile of debris down on Necrolon and left. Shinoske started calling out: "Necrolon! Necrolon! Are you alive!?". Necrolon's left claw burst from the rubble.

Necrolon moved along the shadows created by a searchlight. He was at the Japanese National Guard armory. He used his claw to pry open the main weapon storeroom and gathered several weapons until a light shone into the room. "Attention! You are in a restricted storeroom! Come out with your hands high or we WILL open fire!" a voice warned. Necrolon did not comply. As soon as the men saw him, they opened fire. Necrolon started to feel many bullets puncturing his body. Even though he knew it couldn't kill him, a darkness started to envelop him as he got out of their line of fire and was swallowed by the darkness.

(Interval voice over)
"The first teleportation is always the worst. The act of the cloak saving it's master in the first place...."
(End voice over)

In a garage, a mechanic was working on Killzone's mechanical eye. "I can get your full UV specs back online and your infared. You may experience significant red-shifts in your fast-scan. This is patchwork at best," the mechanic explained. "Can I use the eye, yes or no?" Killzone asked, irritated. "Yes, just no extended night vision or x-ray graphing," the mechanic finished. The was an explosion at the door. When the smoke cleared, Necrolon was seen with two assault rifles in his hand and claw. "Knock knock..." he said.

Back in Tanaka's parking lot, he seemed irritated. "I want someone monitoring the phones all day, if Killzone doesn't call back, I want him found and brought to me. What is this? I hire people and they get killed or go missing.....find out what my horoscope is for this month," he said. One of Tanaka's men opened the door to his limo and and assortment of blood-drenched mechanical parts poured out. "Killzone..." one of them said, shocked. "Awwww, ain't this a bitch!" Tanaka said, equally shocked. A thump was heard. Necrolon was on the roof of the limo, holding an assault rifle. "That he was, but then again, so are you," Necrolon said and shot both of Tanaka's men in the leg before they could shoot at him. Tanaka fell on his back due to tripping over one of his men. Necrolon pointed the gun at Tanaka. "Who are? What do you want? Anything, anything at all...." Tanaka said pitifully. "I want you to stay out of those alleys, Tanaka, as of now, they're off limits," Necrolon explained. "Whatever wild hair you had up your ass about that place is officially plucked," Necrolon finished. Tanaka came to a realization "You....you slaughtered my men!" he said. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Tanaka, they were doing some bad things. But don't worry, I'm through killing your men. Next time if I see one of your brain-dead thugs so much as spit in the direction of those alleys I'm gonna come back and pay you another visit, Tanaka," Necrolon said. "And trust me, it won't be as pleasent as the one I've paid your hired cyborg," Necrolon continued, refering to the pile of bloody mechanical parts that used to be Killzone. "Here's how it works. As of now you work for me, understand? And your job is simple. Give me my space. All I want is peace and quiet. Got that, fatboy?" Necrolon asked. "Y-yes," Tanaka said weakly. Necrolon's eyes narrowed "Say it!" he demanded. "I work for you, and all you want is peace and quiet," Tanaka said. "Do you know who I am?" Necrolon asked Tanaka. "No, I don't!" Tanaka said, scared at this point. "That's right, you don't know," Necrolon said as pulled the gun away from Tanaka. "Let that little mystery keep you up at night," Necrolon said as he walked into the shadows.

Keera tossed and turned all night long, waking in her sleep with a cold sweat, but remembering nothing of her dreams as of yet. She growled as she got up, and walked into the kitchen, to take an asprin, hoping that she'd sleep properly after that. She looked at the clock, and it read 3:29AM. Keera moaned tiredly and went back to bed.
 
By 6:00AM, Keera was awake again, exactly half an hour before it would go off. She decided to stay up this time, because if she didn't, she'd sleep through her alarm. She got dressed, and headed to the coffee shop down the road to get some breakfast and another nice strong coffee with a lot of sugar and creme in it. The bar tender smiled at her arrival, but soon looked concerned. "Miss Kaze, you look a little pale this morning... would you like a green tea instead? I heard they heal a lot of illnesses," he told her and Keera smiled, nodding.
 
"Might as well give it a shot, I guess," Keera replied and sat down at the bar. He brought her a bagel, which she asked for, and a small bowl of soup, which she didn't ask for. "Umm, I didn't-"
 
"It's on the house," he said smiling, "don't worry about it." Keera smiled in a thank you and began to eat the bagel while she let the soup cool down. She watched the bar tender make the green tea, and bring it over, setting it infront of her too. "I hope you start to feel better than you look," he added. "You look a terrible mess this morning, I haven't seen this pale since about a year and a half ago. Do you remember?"
 
"Yes, I do remember that actually. It wasn't a very great time for me."


The door to the Mystery Man's office opened and Lilith stepped in. "Thank you for coming, Lilith," the man said. As Lilith approached his desk, her business suit was once again replaced by her robes and her hair color changed from blonde to black. "So what did you call me for?" she asked as she sat on the edge of his desk. "I've made a few of the proper connections, within three weeks, I will have your master wants," the man said. Lilith smiled, "Wonderful, I knew you'd come through for us," she said. "Yes. However, there is something that may increase the waiting time before I give it to him. Look at this," he picked up a remote and turned the T.V. in his office on. It was showing a news report of the break-in at the Japanese National Guard armory. "A very large shipment was weapons was stolen from the armory late last night," the man said as the image shifted to the inside of the armory, which was bullet-hole ridden. "Look at that. They had the son of a bitch cornered and still he got away, weapons and all. Impossible!" he said, aggravated. "Seems more incredible than impossible," Lilith said. "Just as well, it may make your master have to wait longer, I can't bring in what he wants right now without attracting too much attention," he continued as he picked up an envelope addressed to him from Tanaka off his desk and opened it, a disc fell into his palm. "Recovered images from Killzone's internal camera," he said as he put the disc in the dvd player. "Rome is going to want Tanaka's fat ass for this," he sighed as he pushed PLAY. A black-and-white picture of Necrolon appeared on the screen. "I thought you were dead!" Killzone's voice was heard. "I am," came Necrolon's gravely voice. "You've got some balls coming here, hero!". The man's eyes widened in shock from the brawl that was taking place between Killzone and Necrolon. Lilith recognized Necrolon, but kept her mouth shut and decided not to tell the man about him. "What the hell is that thing?!" he said. "And what is it doing with MY weapons!?" he finished. Killzone's camera was facing the ceiling. "Who's laughing now?" Necrolon asked as he pointed the assault rile at Killzone's camera. The tip of the barrel lit up for a fraction of a second before the screen went to static.

After Keera's wake up at the coffee shop, she left and headed down to the police station, to get more tapes and her earpiece which she'd purposely forgotten to bring her with her. She walked into her office, picked up the things she needed, and walked out and off to the scenes again, checking by every one that she'd been at, and most of them were almost done being cleaned up, and they obviously decided to leave the case alone for now, until they could get some proper information on what was going on. All sorts of people from different social status' were being murdered, and there was nothing they could do about it right now. The people being killed had no connection to every single scene, howover, the school girls seemed to be coming from the same school, and some of the people were Tanaka's men, and others were reporters... there was definately something weird about this. This was the highest kill rate in Japan since... well, Keera had to smile to herself at this one. This was the highest kill rate since feudal japan, back when she roamed and killed and destroyed and saved people and demons.
 
She went to the last scene, and looked around to see if she could see Kimura around anywhere, or Stick, because if you find one, you usually find the other.

Stick was at the same site the Keera was at. He spotted Keera, "Oh, hello, Miss Kaze," he greeted her. Kimura approached Stick. "So, Stick, how many this time- oh, hey Miss Kaze," Kimura greeted Keera as well, then noticed something different about her. "Are you okay, Miss Kaze? You seem more pale than usual,"

Keera dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "It's nothing, I'm probably just getting a cold. I'll be alright," she said with a friendly smile and walked over to them. "Anything new?"

"Take a look for yourself," Kimura said as he gestured to the torn-up alleyway. "First we got bodies everywhere in the last scenes, now the latest one looks like a war zone," Kimura said. "So how many this time, Stick?" Kimura asked. "Just one sir. A homeless man. Looks like his arm was ripped off and then he bled to death," Stick responded.

"What?" Keera asked, one eye twitching. That was it, she was going to figure out what was going on here, even if meant staying the night with no sleep. She wasn't going to clean up after the mess anymore. That was through. She wasn't going to resort to using her powers again for a very long time, and she wasn't entirely sure she could use them, properly, anymore either. It had been years since she used her powers for more than a bonfire, but if she needed to, she was definately going to. "This is insane," Keera said taking a deep breath and walking down the alley to go look at the dead, one armed man. "Oh geez," she said, covering her nose. She hadn't smelled blood of a dead person for a while, not in that quantity anyway. She looked around, to get her focus on something else, and just happened to look on the wall. "What happened to the wall anyway? A regular man wouldn't be able to smash that by himself would he?" If that's the case, she thought to herself, then this world is going downhill faster it was before all the demons disappeared...

In a junkyard elsewhere, Tanaka's limo pulled in and he stepped out. "Hello, Mr. Tanaka," a bald man in glasses greeted him. "So what can I do for you?" he asked. "I need you to go to Rome and ask for The Man, you know who I'm talking about, right?" Tanaka said. "Of course," the bald man responded. "I want you to get over to him, and say that we're very sorry about what happened to Killzone, and that we will pay in compensation. You kiss his ass, his balls, and anything else that needs to be kissed to get us off the hook, you understand?" Tanaka explained. "Yes, Mr. Tanaka, you can count on me,"

"No way, someone would have to be a walking tank to bust through that wall," Kimura said to Keera when she noticed the wall. "Either a walking tank or someone who took one too many steroids, sir," Stick added. "Ha ha, always a comedian eh, Stick?" Kimura said.

"I bet in America they have people that might be able to do that sort of thing, but I don't believe that it's possible for someone around here," Keera said thoughtfully. Not anymore atleast... I don't think... Keera looked around and noticed that on some of the rubble that was left by the humanoid-tanker, was blood. "Why is there blood on these ones, and not so much on the ones around the body?"

"I have no idea," Kimura said, just now noticing the blood on the rubble. "The again, everything about this case has been weird," he said. "Sir, I think you should see this," Stick said. There were bullet casings and mortar shells littering the ground. "Jeez, looks like there was a small war going on here," Kimura said. "And that would also explain all the bullet holes in the vicinity, sir," Stick added.

Keera pulled out a pair of the latex gloves they use in crime scenes. She picked up a couple of the bullet shells and looked at them. "They all seem to be coming from the same gun, oh, look, another one from the same gun." She said picking up another one and smiled. "This one too."

"Would you look at all these? Looks like someone went crazy with a fifty back here," Kimura remarked. "Even though these shells aren't from a fifty, sir," Stick replied. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," Kimura responded.

"I just want to blow all these alley's to shit," Keera whispered dropping the shells looking around. "Atleast it would all stop, but I don't do that. They want to kill themselves, I say go to it. Just stop wasting my time..." she said quietly and sighed. She was so tired... she looked over to Kimura and Stick. "Hey Kimura, we should go talk to Tanaka... if he'd stop sending people in here, I'm sure this would stop... it started with his people did it not? Maybe it could end with them never stepping foot in here again."

"Well we could, but we'd have to go through a sea of red tape before we could even get a chance to look at him," Kimura explained. "And on top of that, there was a break-in at the Japanese National Guard armory last night, we'd have have our hands too tied up," Kimura continued. "I'm telling ya', I'm really starting to hate this case, it's pissing me off,"

"Oh yeah, it's pissing me off too," Keera growled as she walked away, completely frustrated. She wanted the night to come, and quickly. Maybe she'd be able to catch something going on and try to stop it. "What we need to do it make an unofficial visit with Tanaka, catch him on the street, or getting into his car or something, then talk to him about it."

"I can't. Chief wants me and Stick filing these reports all day," Kimura said. "I'm sure you can pay him a visit, though," Kimura continued. "But you'd have to find him first, this guy protects his civil information like it's his balls, but ask around and maybe someone can point you in the right direction. In the meantime, Stick and I will try and cover for you so the Chief doesn't suspect you're paying Tanaka a visit with out a warrant, okay?" Kimura explained.

Keera smiled. "Thanks guys," she said and quickly went off, in search for some clue as to where Tanaka might be at the moment. "This is going to be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack... or a guy on a crowded subway..." she said and turned the corner, and decided she'd go home first, and change out of her uniform to make herself look more inconspicuous compared to everyone else in the city. Once she was changed, she left the buildings and looked around. "But where to start..."

The sewers were echoing with the sound of running water. Necrolon was curled up and leaning against the side wall behind a waterfall of treated water. There were footsteps approaching him, he looked in the direction of the noise and saw that it was the old man from the other day. "I figured I'd find you here," he said. Necrolon looked away from him and just looked straight ahead. "What the hell do you want?" he simply asked. "He's still mentally unconscious, isn't he? Your human vessel, I mean," the old man said. Necrolon looked at the old man and his eyes narrowed. "How do you know about him?" he growled. "I know many things, I'm nothing more that a shadow of my former self, as you are now," the old man said, his words not making any sense to Necrolon. "Yes, he is. He's been unconscious since I landed in this place," Necrolon said. The old man approached him. "She only has a week and three days left," he said. "Who does?" Necrolon asked. "Who do you think? The former queen of the Western Ocean," the old man reminded him. "And what do you want me to do about it?" Necrolon asked.

Keera walked aimlessly around the city, then she got a bright idea that might get her in touch with Tanaka. She found a phone booth and looked through the phonebook, hopeful to find atleast his company listed. No such luck. She called the operator, no idea what the hell she was talking about. "Oh come on!" Keera breathed as she went off looking again. "It's a MAN for goodness sakes! I could find a demon easier back then better than I can find a rich man's phone number now!" She sighed in frustration and walked into a high-end restaurant.

"Anything, just do something," the old man said. "Any choice you make has repercussions you couldn't possibly understand, for instance all the men that you killed," the old man said, reminding Necrolon of his nightly deeds. "The men I killed deserved to die!" he said, enraged. "You may think you're doing the world good by getting rid of the bad elements, but you're just doing what they would have wanted you to do," the old man explained. Necrolon kept looking straight ahead. "Why is this girl so important?" Necrolon asked. The old an leaned down to him. "Think about it. The Seven Demon Lords with the Queen of the Western Ocean by their side, the results will be catastrophic, can't you see that?"

A man on a podium noticed Keera walk in. "Can I help you?" he asked her.

Keera looked at him and smiled. "Do you reservations here? If you do, I was wondering if you had a reservation for Tanaka, but if not, I'd like to make one for later this evening."

Just as Keera finished speaking, Tanaka came throught the doors. "Hey! Can I get my booth over here!" he said to the man at the podium. "Oh, Mr. Tanaka, this young woman here was asking if you had reservations," the man said to Tanaka, "Reservations? I don't need no reservations, I own the place. You new here?" he asked the man. "Uhhh, yes sir, I was hired just last week," he said. Tanaka took a look at Keera. "So, you were askin' about me?" Tanaka asked her.

"Umm, yes, actually, I would like to talk to you about something important," Keera said as she turned to him, with a half smile, but she meant business, and her eyes showed it was something that was obviously about him. "Would you mind if I joined you?" she asked, wondering if that pushing her way into talking to him a bit too much. "I understand if you would rather not, of course." She said not a single word more, and waited for his reply.

"Hmmmm, I think I could squeeze you in," Tanaka said. He looked to the man at the podium, "You know where my private booth is, right?" he asked the man. "Uh, yes, Mr. Tanaka, right this way," the man said. "Alright, just follow me, gorgeous," Tanaka said to Keera.

Keera smiled at his comment, and she blushed a little in her pale cheeks. She followed at him and followed him to his booth. He oviously didn't know she was a police officer and a detective. She'd have to tell him though, after a little while.

"Your private booth, Mr. Tanaka," the man said gesturing to a booth that look like a compartment. Tanaka and Keera entered and the main door closed, everything was silent. "Soundproof," Tanaka said. "Helps me when I have bad days, or bad hangovers," Tanaka said and sat down. A waiter came in through a back door. "What will you be having today, sir?" he asked. "The special," Tanaka said. The waiter turned to Keera, "And, you, Miss? Will you be having anything?"

"Umm, I'll have a glass of orange juice and maybe a small salad please? Thank you," Keera said and smiled politely at the waiter. After the waiter left, Keera looked at Tanaka. "It's a hard time trying to find you, Mr. Tanaka, I've looked all day. You certainly know how to keep yourself hidden from unwanted people." She looked at the doors and smiled, knowing no one could here them. "I suppose this booth comes in quite handy a lot," she added. 

"Yeah, it does. Cuz if I didn't have it, and I had a bad hangover, I'd be yelling my lungs out at everyone to shut up, then how would I look?" Tanaka said. He lowered his sunglasses slightly. "So, were you lookin' for a job? I could always use more chicks like you," he said.

Keera smiled, and gave him a little smirk. "I'd be glad to, but the job I have is already full time with no extra time to spare. I'm actually here to talk to you about your men, Mr. Tanaka," she said. "I am Keera Kaze, the only full time officer and detective in Japan that does both jobs at once everyday of the year. Your men, Mr. Tanaka, were in the alleys a few days ago, we found them dead with a few other men, reporters I do believe they were. The next day, there was more of them, and same with the next. Do you have any idea who might have murdered them? Also, why did you keep sending them in? I'm not here on official business, and this is completely off the record and will not be told to anyone. What is said in this booth, stays in this booth. I want to know on sheer curiousity, and to hopefully stop this from happening again in the future. No one knows I'm here with you, as far as my boss knows, I'm still circulating in the crime scenes, trying to connect loose ends."

"Heh, a cop, huh?" Tanaka said. "I'll tell you what I do know," Tanaka started, he seemed unusually calm for a mobster who was talking to police officer. "I was called by some guy in the higher ups, asked me to nail a few reporters, never told me why, but he paid me handsomely. Well as I'm sure you know, the reporters were dealt with, but then suddenly my cleaning crew gets scrubbed by some asshole the thinks he's The Terminator and my troubleshooters go in to settle a score with this guy, they get settled instead," Tanaka explained. the waiter came back with their orders, Tanaka's plate had an enormous lobster on it, and Keera got her small salad. However, the waiter, having heard everything, slipped a odorless, colorless and tasteless sedative in Keera's drink before bringing them their orders. "Here you are, enjoy," the waiter said.

"Thank you," Keera replied and nodded at what Tanaka said. "Do you have any idea who this guy was that murdered your men?" she asked taking a bite of her salad. Suddenly her phone started beeping and she sighed, aggravated. She looked at it, to only frown. "I'm sorry, I have to take this... can you give me two minutes?" she asked as she got up, walked out of the booth and went just outside the restaurant. "What is it?" she asked annoyed. "No, I haven't found him yet, if I had, I would have told you already. Look, I'm going to go home, and get an early rest, I'm sort of tired. I'll talk to you in the morning. No, I'm not looking for him tomorrow. We'll have to deal with the rest of the cases on our own. I'm sorry, but this city hides him pretty well. Night." She said and hung up the phone before she was asked any more questions. "I'm terribly sorry, that was rude of me to just walk out. Well, I'm trying to find this guy who's murdered your men, I don't want anymore trouble in the alley's again," she said as she came back in and sat down, taking a small sip of her orange juice, not feeling any affects right away. "I can't stay too long, I plan on staying out for a while longer, to look in the alleys." At this point, she knew she was talking too much. Not that she was giving away any information, but that she was pretty much jabbering.

"Well, to answer you're question I'm just as much in the dark as you probably are on who killed my men," Tanaka lied. He took a piece of meat out of the lobster's tail and ate it. He almost shuddered thinking back to how that thing threatened him at gunpoint to stay out of the alleys and he had to hope the Italians would forgive him for what happened to Killzone.

Keera sighed, "Alright..." She drank more of her orange juice and began to eat a bit more of her salad. "I was just hoping to get a little more information... I'd really like this to stop... I think it is interrupting my sleep," she said half joking half not. Keera was visibly looking looking like she was getting a bit drowsy, and she went to finish her salad but found she couldn't. She finished her orange juice and looked at Tanaka. "I think I should be going now," she said in just above a whisper. "I'm suddenly not feeling very well..."

"Maybe you're just workin' too hard," Tanaka suggested. "Come to think of it, you do look like you need a short vaction, ya know?" Tanaka continued. "Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't help much, but you have my word that I'll stay out of the alleys," Tanaka said, even thought he had already been told to.

Keera seemed to barely be able to keep her eyes open while she was listening to Tanaka talk, she went to stand and found she couldn't. That wasn't normal. How was she going to tell Tanaka that she wasn't going to be able to get up and leave? She was too tired to even think about that. Then a headache started to come on, and that made everything worse. "Tanaka..." she whispered as though she was going to accuse him of something before she passed out in her seat.

Tanaka was actually surprised at what had happened. "Jeez, talk about being overworked," he said to himself. "Actually, sir," the waiter had come into the booth. "I slipped a sedative into her drink before I brought your orders," the waiter said. "Well you didn't have to do that, everything in here was off record. Christ," he said through gritted teeth. "Okay, her name's Keera Kaze, find out where she lives and we'll drop her off there, discreetly," he said. Later, several of Tanaka's men came in, picked Keera up, put her in a limousine and drove to the Trinity Buildings. Tanaka walked through the doors and asked about her room. "I'm sorry sir, I cannot release that information," the man at the desk said. "Okay, look, that chick fell asleep at my restaurant and now I've gotta get her home," Tanaka said. "She fell asleep did she? Actually, she has been looking rather pale lately. I'll have someone show you where it is," the man at the desk said. Later a maid showed Tanaka to Keera's room and set Keera down on her bed and left. "What is this shit? Things go wrong for me, and now this? What did I do wrong in a past life?" he asked himself as he left.

Keera woke up the next morning and the effects of the sedative still hadn't worn off and she felt like she was die... she almost wished she had actually. She made it to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She paler now than she was before, and she noticed a slight purple tinge in her regularly sky blue eyes. She remembered falling asleep in Tanaka's booth at his restaurant, so how did she get here? No one is supposed she lives here... so who brought her, and she figured Tanaka had brought her back, but... why was she given that drug? It was obviously in her juice, seeing as it couldn't have been put in her salad... did Tanaka do it? If he had... it didn't really matter anymore. It was just the fact that she was at home, rather than shoved in a dumpster or a back alley.
 
She smiled, thinking about that, but her head was beating on her skull and she couldn't possibly go to work today. She had to call in and tell her boss she just simply couldn't make it. She walked out of the bathroom and just barely made it to the phone beside her couch and fell to her knees beside the little side table in which said phone was sitting on. She picked up the phone, punched in the number and waited for someone to pick up.

Cheif Nasaki was sitting at his desk going over reports when his phone rang, he picked it up and answered it. "Hello, Chief Nasaki," he answered. "Oh, miss Kaze. You think you be getting sick? Well now that you mention it, Kimura did tell me that yesterday you looked paler than usual, so why not take a few extra days off?" he said.

Keera half smiled into the phone. "That would be wonderful, I'll try to be back as soon as possible though. I don't want to miss too much... thank you Chief. Bye," Keera replied, relieved that he was alright with her taking a little while off. She hung up the phone and layed her head on the couch, quickly falling asleep where she was... only to be brought into horrifying nightmares that should scare the crap out of her.

In Keera's nightmare, a single line was spoken by a deep, booming voice echoed through her head. "This is not your grave, but you are welcome.. in it" the voice said. It was soon followed by a sinister laugh by a silhouetted woman.

Keera shot awake and she realized it was late afternoon. She smiled, almost laughing at her dream, but she was still very tired and couldn't figure out why. Was the sedative that strong? Or was she getting extremely sick? She managed to get up, and she walked slowly into the kitchen to get something to eat. She still had a headache, and the dream was still in her head, along with the silhouetted woman. Had she seen her before?
 
She was thinking too much about a silly dream. "Come on, this is a ne age of Japan, people don't haunt people's dreams like they did back then. My subconscious is just acting weird..." she said and after she'd finished her sandwich, she went back and layed down, knowing that any form of medication wouldn't help her, and that it would probably not work because of the drug in her body that was slowly leaving.
 
Then she remembered something... it couldn't be the sedative... her body fully healed itself when she slept if it something that was inflincted by someone and not a natural thing. That's also probably why the tylenol didn't work on her, she fell asleep right away before it had any chance to work. She sat on her bed and wondered for a few moments about what could possibly be draining her energy the way it was.

There was a knock at the door. When Keera opened it, Kimura and Stick were standing in the door way. "Hello, Miss Kaze. Just stopped by to see how you were doing," Kimura said warmly.

Keera smiled, seeing them infront of her. It warmed her inside to know that they cared about her well-being. If they didn't show up at all, she knew probably go nuts, especially if she kept having those dreams over an over. She'd go through her brain so much she'd go crazy trying to figure out why she was having them. If they didn't come over, she'd have nothing to take her mind off the dreams either, which wouldn't help at all. "I'm not really feeling the greatest, I guess. I couldn't find Tanaka, and I think that maybe we'll have to wait until I get better to find him again... unless you two want to try, but I don't think our chief would like that very much." 

"No, I don't think he would," Kimura said. "Anyway, what do think you have? A cold, flu?"

"I don't know," she replied and smiled, opening the door wider and moving out of the way. "Do you have time to come in?" she asked and gave them a small smile. She was so tired, but she'd keep herself awake. She wondered if her eyes were still a blue-violet or if they were back to their normal blue yet.

"Yeah, we got time. We're on our break right now," Kimura said as he and Stick walked in. "Nice place by the way," Kimura added. "Uh, ma'am, is there something wrong with your eyes? They're starting to turn red," Stick pointed out.

"What?" Keera asked in a small voice, and almost ran to the bathroom. She looked into the mirror, and her eyes widened. They were almost red now, and she put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. "No," she whispered. "Why me?" she asked herself and cleared her throat. She walked back out to them and looked a little more pale than when she went in. "So they are... maybe there's something else going on I don't know about... I think if this doesn't go away I'm going to need contacts or really dark sunglasses..." Many things were running through her mind while she stood there, embarrassed and competely freaked out by the color change in her eyes. She wanted them to be blue again! What was going on with her? She gulped. "I don't know what's going on..." she whispered and sat down on the couch, her head in her hands. "I can't go to work looking like this... good thing I have a few days to figure this out..." she yawned. That was another thing. "I'm unusually tired too, when I wake up I'm up for a few moments and then I'm tired again. I don't want to go to the hospital for this, I've never heard of something like this happening, or even seen it. Any ideas boys?" she asked, looking at them with tired, turning reder, eyes.

"None whatsoever," Kimura said. "I've never even heard of someone's eyes changing color all of a suden, maybe it's some genetic disorder or something? I don't know I'm taking stabs in the dark here," Kimura continued. Time suddenly stood still. Keera was seemingly unaffected by this. There was a blonde-haired woman sitting in a chair. "So, have you been enjoying your time so far?" she asked.

Keera's head snapped in the woman's direction. Just because she was tired didn't mean she wasn't up to full powers... and her reflexes certainly showed she was up to almost anything. "Who are you?" she asked, almost angry. "How did you get in here?" she asked and looked at Stick and Kimura, then back to the woman. "What's going on?"

"I'm not surprised you don't remember," the woman said. She got up and walked through a shadow and she revealed herself as Lilith. "After all, I did have Barbatos erase your memories of that night," Lilith approach Keera, laid a finger on her forehead and all Keera's memories of that night at the docks returned to her. "Am I ringing any bells, yet?" she asked.

Keera gasped. She did remember... she remembered running from them too, and seeing... the Fallen Demon Lord there as well... the one she'd seen in the alleys when the reporters were killed and Tanaka's men as well. She looked up at Lilith and glared at her. "So why do I have to change like this?" she asked, her same manner coming back from that night. "That and why take away my memories if you were just going to let me have them back?" she growled.

Lilith smiled at her, "Your body was only adjusting to my blood, that's all. As for why we had to erase your memories, well, we didn't want you telling everyone any unnecessary information," Lilith explained. "And didn't I tell you I'd come for you when you were ready?" she asked. "Though I didn't count on you being ready so quickly," Lilith added.

"I adapt quickly," Keera growled and stood, walking away from her into the kitchen, and got a glass of water. "So what exactly am I ready for?" she asked walking back out, but not going too close to Lilith.

"Why, to become my new avatar, of course," Lilith said. Keera gave her a defiant look. "Refuse, however, and....well, last I checked you had friends and family in MY master's domain, I can make them suffer even more than they already are, allow me to show you..." Lilith placed her hand over Keera's head and an image her sister, suffering was seen. "There will be no more sadness, no more envy, no more pain..." Keera's sister was heard muttering then came that same booming voice: "SUBMIT! END HER TORMENT AND MY OWN!"

"Kaori!" Keera gasped unvoluntarily. "Let her go!" she growled and moved away from Lilith. "Let her go!" she repeated, angry. "I won't refuse if you let her go!"

"I knew you wouldn't refuse. Very well then," Lilith simply snapped her fingers and a dark vortex appeared behind Lilith and an anchor-looking thing dropped into it and pulled out Kaori, she was bound in chains. Kaori fell forward onto the floor and the vortex vanished. "You have my solemn word that once you become my avatar, those chains will release her and she will once again be of this world, so all you have to do is come closer.."

She wanted to burn the chains that bound Kaori, but figured that it probably wouldn't be any good. "Kaori," she whispered sadly. She walked closer to Lilith, glaring at her all the while.

Once Keera was close enough, Lilith put her hand on Keera's chest and a black haze entered. Immediately, Keera sprouted a pair of black, feathered wings, and black armor started to weave over her. Keera feel on one knee. The haze had stripped her of all emotions and she knew only one thing: obedience. "Now rise, Keera," Lilith said. Keera rose lifted her head. Her face was covered by a white, faceless mask with red eye slits. "As promised," Lilith said. She turned and with a wave of her arm, the chains on Kaori vanished.

"Keera! No!" Kaori yelled as Keera walked closer to Lilith, and was over taken by her. "No!" she screamed and as she was let go, she got up and ran to Keera, trying to shake her and snap her out of whatever trance Lilith put her in. "Keera! Wake up! This isn't you! I'd rather be chained up and tortured than to see you like this!" She looked at Lilith angrily. "Stop it! Let her be! She didn't do anything to you!"

"So true, she hasn't done anything to us," Lilith said with a sadistic glint in her eye. "But we need her for our own purposes. Of which I can't disclose to any of the likes of you," Lilith said to Kaori. "Keera, your first job is to wait in the alleys until night. When you find the Fallen One, fight him, but don't kill him, do you understand Keera. Don't forget I kept my end of the bargain, so don't forget...." Lilith said as she went behind keera and leaned her head beside Keera's "You're mine now..." Lilith whispered into Keera's ear.

Keera nodded and spoke in an emotionless tone, "Yes, Mistress Lilith."
 
Kaori was already in tears, wishing someone could help her get Keera back, but all Keera's former lovers were dead, and anyone that Keera knew back them had no meaning to her anymore. Kaori had no clue who to get to make her change back, but she needed to find someone...

"Good," Lilith simply said. "Now let us be on our way," Lilith said as she and Keera vanished. Time returned to normal. "So I can't possibly know-" Kimura stopped talking, noticing Kaori on the ground. "Excuse me? Who are you and how did you get in here?" Kimura asked Kaori.

Kaori was devestated. She looked at Kimura and Stick with wide, scared eyes. She didn't know what to do. "My sister... she's gone... gone with that... that devil of a woman..." she said and got up. "Please make sure to close the door behind you when you leave..." she said and was starting to walk to the door.

"Hey, Stick? Where'd Miss Kaze go?" Kimura asked Stick. "And what do you mean your sister's gone with some devil woman? What are yo talking about?" Kimura asked Kaori.

"you don't know do you?" Kaori asked, stopping at the door and turned to them. "Lilith is the one she went with. I don't have much time, you two should back to work and forget anything and everything Keera... she's not herself anymore. There's nothing either of you two can do about it, I don't even think there's anything that I can do to help her right now... She's been put under some curse. I have to go... it's almost dark and they'll be at the alleys any second." With that, she was running down the halls, and was gone down the stairs, not waiting for the elevator. In a few seconds, she was seen running down the road, and how she got out so quickly, was definately an unexplainable happening.

Nighttime fell over Japan. As always, Necrolon was in the alleys, just sitting there in solitude, countless thoughts running through his head all at once. There was a soft sound down the alley. Necrolon looked in the direction that the sound came from. Someone with black wings and in black armor wearing a white, faceless mask was standing down the alley, the eye slits peering unblinkingly at him. Necrolon stood up and faced her. "What do you want?" he growled.

Keera stood in the alleys watching Necrolon, not blinking, not moving. She was set on one thing: battling the one before, and keeping him alive at the same time. She had no clue how she'd do that, but she would in one way or another. "You," she spoke emotionlessly and waited for him to move. Two things Lilith hadn't told her was when she wanted him, and how many limbs she wanted still on his body after Keera was done. She didn't move, but behind her mask, she smirked still not blinking.

Necrolon was getting impatient at this point. "I don't know what you mean by 'you', but this is your last chance..." Necrolon raised his left claw and flexed it. "Tell me what you're here for or get the hell out," he growled, his green eyes narrowing at her.

"You don't know who I am do you?" Keera asked, but this time in a voice he'd recognize, something with more emotion to it like she'd done on the night at the docks when they'd seen eachother. However, her voice back to it's emotionless stage. "Mistress Lilith wishes I don't kill you, so make this easy: let me beat you down, and bring you to her." Kaori's face popped into her head, and she thought, I've only done this for you Kaori... I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you any other way... "If Mistress Lilith wills it, I must obey her, she holds my entire world in her hands." She made it sound like she wasn't talking about her sister.

"Mistress Lilith? So you're one of her avatars, aren't you?" Nercolon said. The voice she spoke in earlier. Necrolon recognized it from somewhere, he just couldn't put his finger on it. "If you're one of Lilith's avatars, you should be on your knees thanking me for not killing you where you stand, yet," Necrolon said defiantly.

"So you think," Keera said. "I don't take well to comments like that. Let me refresh your memory," she spoke and lifted her arm, her hand reaching up to her mask, grasping it and taking it off her face. Behind it, it revealed Keera's now pale face and red eyes, but nothing else had changed. "Do you know anything about the Queen of the Western Ocean?" She asked and put the mask back on, and there was a ring of fire around Necrolon, moving in on him and his now on fire arm, as her hand went back down to her side. She didn't move, but more fire was appearing out of thin air ifront of her as it shot at him at amazing speeds.

The fire seemed to have no ill effects on Necrolon as the fire on his arm dissipated and he simply walked through the ring of fire and lunged at Keera, not caring if the fire was hitting him or not.

Keera moved effortlessly out of the way, avoiding Necrolon and karate chopping his neck with enough force to knock him on the ground, and moved far enough away that he couldn't kick her own from his position on the ground. "What were you saying?" she asked, taunting him.

Necrolon made pained grunts as he got to his feet. "Got bad hearing? I said I'd kick you ass!" he said as he lunged at her again, thoroughly pissed at this point.

In Tanaka's penthouse, the lights were off and Tanaka was in bed. There was a woman asleep next to him. She opened her eyes to see a black-robed woman standing in the dark. she screamed and woke Tanaka up. The black-robed woman, Lilith used her right claw and the black lights from her nails slit the woman's throat wide open. "What the hell?!" Tanaka shouted. "You don't just bust in here and mess with me like this!!". Lilith stepped aside and made room for the man from the office, with two bodyguards behind him. "Shut up, Tanaka and calm down already," he said. "Wha-!? Jason Watanabe...." Tanaka said. "Tell me, what do you know about the creature in that video you sent me?" Watanabe asked Tanaka. "Nothing. 'Cept he one lethal son of a bitch, anyone who can whack out Killzone like that," Tanaka said. "I want him found, Tanaka," Watanabe said. "FORGET IT! That guy told me to stay out of the alleys, and believe you me, that's exactly what I'm gonna do!" Tanaka said. "That wasn't a request, Tanaka," Watanabe said with a threatening tone. "DO this one simple job and maybe I'll help you with your little....Italian problem," Watanabe said as one of his bodyguards came forward with something that looked like a Christmas present. "What's this?" Tanaka asked as it was put in front of him. "A package from Rome. My men intercepted it from your men," Watanabe explained. "You having my guys followed?!" Tanaka yelled. "I keep tabs on all my friends, feel honored," Watanabe said as he, his bodyguards, and Lilith (who blew him a kiss following with a wink on the way out) left. Tanaka took the lid of the box and looked inside. "Christ!" he said. In the box was a note that read: "WE'RE NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT HAPPENED TO KILLZONE" and the note was tacked to Tanaka's messenger's head.

Keera laughed and jumped out of the way, not using her wings to get away, not seeming like she needed to. She kicked him in mid-back and knocked him down again. It was evident at that point that she was only playing with him. Fire laced his body, less than half an inch from his skin. "You know, for a Fallen Demon Lord, you're not doing all that great against me. I didn't exactly expect you too though either, however I did expect you were better than this... I could compare you to a human at this point. That's not good now is it? Get up!" She demanded, having fire flare against his back. "I said get up! Show me what you can do!"

Necrolon's left claw grabbed Keera's ankle and as he got up, slammed her into a wall and threw her into a bunch of trash cans. He leapt onto Keera and prepared to impale her with his claw.

"Not so weak after all," she whispered and smiled under her mask. If she died now... would Kaori still be safe? She didn't know, but she couldn't risk it yet, until she knew for sure. She didn't want to hurt people anymore, but in this case, she had no choice. Keera lifted her legs up underneath Necrolon and pushed outward, sending him off of her as she got up, slowly, and looked over at him with a headache coming on. She knew she couldn't tell him what was going on, which made this situation a lot harder on her. She was morely a person of words now, not particularly fond of actions. Suddenly, someone was behind her, and as she went to turn around, arms in blue sleeves wrapped around her, and pulled her to the ground. She was going to retaliate and burn the crap out of the person, until she heard her speak.
 
"Keera, please... you have to stop, this isn't you..." Kaori whispered in her ear, and Keera's eyes stayed unblinking in the mask. "I won't let you go until you stop doing this, please stop fighting! You promised you wouldn't fight anymore!"
 
"How many promises have I broken Kaori?" Keera asked, knowing the exact number. Kaori hesitated. "That's right, every single one of them but one. I've been a horrible sister to you, but one promise I made that I intend on keeping, is that I make sure you are safe, and I will keep you that way until I die again. Let go of me or I will have to make you let go." Kaori's grip loosened and that was it took. Keera shot at Necrolon, her body engulfed in flames, along with her spirits... and her depressed soul.

Necrolon saw Keera shoot at him and raised his claw as if to shield himself from her. Just as Keera was about to make contact, a blinding flash of white light came from nowhere and when it subsided, Necrolon was gone. All Necrolon saw was white, 'Am I dead?' he thought, then a soothing voice broke the silence. "You're safe, now......" a girl's voice came. "Is that...you?" an adolescent boy's voice asked.

"What? Where..." Keera said and suddenly felt that she might get in trouble for that little escape Necrolon just made somehow. "I can feel the pain already," she whispered and smirked to herself, though she felt the before pain of a punishment coming on. She turned to Kaori, and Kaori was standing, watching her.
 
"You didn't have to do this Keera..." she said quietly.
 
"You should go," Keera said looking into the sky.
 
"Come with me!"
 
"I can't."
 
"You can't or you won't?"
 
"Both," Keera replied and Kaori looked a little hurt. "I can't, because I don't want you hurt anymore, and I won't because of the same reason. That and they'll follow us if I come with you, and we'll most-likely both end up dead, or wishing we were. Just go..." Kaori nodded sadly and Keera turned away. Kaori turned and in mid-stride she disappeared.

A single clapping sound was heard and Lilith emerged from the shadows. "Bravo, quite the show you put on, Keera," Lilith smiled. "Of all the avatars I've created, you are by far my greatest achievement,"

Being a smart-ass probably isn't a great idea right now but... OH I can't help it, Keera thought and smirked under her mask. "You know it's funny, last time I checked, I wasn't created by you. I was changed by you, and I've been great before you screwed up my family's life, you haven't helped at all, yet. "You haven't seen anything from me yet, Lilith," Keera said, taking off her mask, as something seemed to be slowly growing on the side of her face. She closed her eyes. "You may be a great diety, but you're not the highest, and I'm not as high as you are, but I can tell you something. I wasn't brought back here simply becuase I asked to come back," she said, opening her eyes.
 
"You're simply an obstacle in my way." Everything her was as normal, the pale skin, the demonic red eyes, the slightly tired glint in her eye. Nothing other than whatever had inhabited itself on her face had changed... so far. It seemed there was more than one thing at work in her body than just Lilith's blood turning her into the avatar. "I expect by tomorrow my skin will be entirely white?" she asked as an afterthought, looking at her own pale hands, acting as though nothing at all had happened, that she hadn't just told Lilith that she was a nothing, that she could be stepped on like a bug and left in the side walk to dry out and be blown away by the wind, even in making Keera her avatar.

Lilith simply smiled at her then gasped. Her eyes went wide and turned jet black. "Listen well, former Queen of the Western Ocean..." it was the same booming voice from Keera's nightmares speaking through Lilith. "You and I exist together now..... two corpses in one grave...." the voice said. Lilith's eyes returned to normal and she leaned against the wall gasping for breath. "I hate....when he......does that," she panted.

Keera winced at the sudden loudness of the voice and she smiled afterwards, not at Lilith's gasping, but at the sky. "We may exist together in the same grave, but I can assure you, we are very different!" she said loudly, and looked at Lilith. You should tell him that the former Queen of the Western Ocean doesn't go by that name, and that she is called Keera Kaze, or Miya Chikane, and he should choose one. I'm going home, I really don't want to stay out too much longer... call me if you need me, or figure out where the Fallen One is... becuase I don't have the power to do that. You should get some rest too, you look horrible. Or are you alloud?" she asked, looking a little concerned... she really didn't look healthy, but then again, neither did Keera.

Lilith giggled at Keera. "Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary," she said, pulling herself together. "But don't think you can go around looking like that," Lilith said and place a finger on Keera's forehead and Keera reverted back to the way she looked before becoming her avatar. "That's better. We don't want you turning heads on the walkway for the wrong reasons now, do we?"

As Lilith placed her finger on Keera's forehead, she couldn't help smile as the wings disappeared, the armor vanished and her mask disipated into thin air. Her eyes had changed to a slight red-orange color, not by Lilith's doing. She was half surprised she still had her memory, and where that other guy was and if he was going to bother showing up again for whatever reason. The thing growing on her face, however, didn't leave. Her hair was the same color as it was before, and Keera help but ask this next: "So I keep my memory this time?" With that she smiled. She knew she could say anything she wanted, however it wouldn't do her any good. No number of humans could possibly think about destroying them, her included. If she wanted too, Keera could wipe out all of Japan in a single night, but that was exactly the reason she chose to protect the people, instead of kill them. Because they were defenseless right now, and had been since the beginning of time.

"Yes, you keep your memories this time," Lilith said. "But consider this a friendly reminder...." Lilith clenched her fist and then Keera's chest started throbbing as if it would burst open. "You belong to me, and if you tell anyone any unnecessary information, I will destroy you from the inside out. And with you gone, who will protect your sister from harm in this world? Are we clear, Keera?" Lilith asked, smiling sadistically.

Keera didn't seem surprised at all, although it did hurt... a lot. She felt an awful lot like Kagura at the moment, too. She actually laughed infront of Lilith, and turned silently, walking away. She seemed to feel a little less tired, and wondered how much harm her body was going through, not exactly sure of what else was going on other than Lilith's little avatar-making thing.

Necrolon woke up to being nudged. He was in a different section of the alleys. "Ugh..... wha? Where am I?" he asked groggily. "You just popped out of nowhere and was just lying here. Are you alright, Necrolon?" it was Shinoske's voice. Necrolon got to his feet. " I......I heard their voices," he muttered. "Wh-who's voices?" Shinoske asked. "Darryl and Caora....." was all Necrolon said and he put his palm against his face. "I....need some time to myself right now......"

Keera layed in her bed, wide awake, and not even bothering to think about sleeping. She felt like she wouldn't need to sleep for days, even months maybe. Was that part of the agreement, that while she was changing she wouldn't sleep and not feel the need to sleep? Or was that going to go on forever now?
 
The next morning, she was still awake, and decided to call in and say she was going to come in, that everything was okay. Her eyes had become a shade lighter, and looked to almost be golden. "Hello, Cheif? Hi, I'd like to come in today, I feel much better now."

Chief Nasaki answered the phone and heard Keera say she was coming in today. "Okay, excellent. Glad to hear you're feeling better. Anyway, I'll see you when you get in. Bye," and he hung up.

Keera walked into the police station, looking poised and ready to start work again. Her skin tone, was many shades paler than it had been on the last day she'd worked. Her eyes were no longer blue, they were gold in color, and shined much like a new american dollar. However this wasn't seen because she was wearing dark sunglasses that covered both the shine, and the new color. "Good afternoon," she spoke to the secretary before going to her office to see what work she'd been left to do, and so she could catch up on most of her assignments that she'd been away for. "I wonder if Cheif Nasaki will come and speak to me directly today..." she whispered as she turned to her desk after shutting the door.

(Posts 106-201)

[skyacezero]

Kimura and Stick were in their office working on a new case for the time being. A photographer had shot himself in the head by the East Tokyo River. (He was trailing Ambassador Fujiwara who was at the river. Can you guess who got to the photographer because he was in the wrong place?) Kimura reached for a doughnut. "The guy puts a gun in his mouth and blows his brains clear across the river, homicide my ass," he said then took a bite. "Anything?" he asked Stick, who was listening to the tapes. "As I've said: why politicians express such innuentive comments over a cell phone, I'll never know," Stick said shaking his head. "I'll tell you why, Stick. Most people are friggin' morons!" Kimura said, aggravated at the whole thing. "At least there haven't been anymore killings, sir," Stick said. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? It's the friggin' calm before the friggin' monsoon!" Kimura replied. Stick sighed. "Quite right, sir," he simply said. "Buzz on the streets was that Killzone was in town, which should've meant a blood bath somewhere, but nobody's seen him in a week, and nobody saw him leave," Kimura went on. "By the way, sir, did you look at that photographer's file?" Stick asked. "Yeah, I did. Foreigner, had a passport and everything," Kimura replied, picking up a file. "That photographer was from Washington D.C. sir," Stick informed him. "Your hometown, huh?" Kimura joked. "Seriously though, don't tell me this guy worked for the Post," Kimura said. "Not exactly, sir. If you'll under line 26 under the photo ID and fingerprinting report...." Kimura flipped to the designated line. The dead photographer's name was John Humbled and went Kimura looked under line 26... "Well shit on me and call me a sundae," Kimura said. "Mr. Humbled here, worked for the U.S. Government,"

"United States Gov hm? Well isn't that interesting." Keera was suddenly standing at their door, leaning against the frame and smirking. She was still in her sunglasses, that contrasted greatly with her pale skin. She lifted her hand and pulled them off with her right hand and crossed her arms.

"Huh? Oh, Miss Kaze," Kimura said as he just noticed Keera in the doorway. "Glad to see you're feeling better," Kimura added. "As I was about to add, sir, he was a pool photographer for the House of Representatives," Stick said. Kimura put the file down. "Weird in weird. The guy falls out of a tree, breaks his arm in three places, then blows his brains out, for what?" Kimura said out loud. "Actually the report states thad Humbled's arm was broken by assailant or assailants unknown, sir," Stick said.

She listened to Stick and nodded as she conprehended the information. "Anything you guys want me to do?" She asked as she gently swung her glasses, tapping her arm with them, though not making a noise. She was usually very professional about her work, such as not leaning on doorways and such, but she also tried to not look intimidating, but not weak either. However now, she didn't care, she was acting quie intimidating, and she seemed to not take any notice to it at all. Her voice hadn't changed it's normal tone, but her bodily stance made her look different in a few ways: More feminine than before, but also more... casual was the first word that would come to mind right now.

Kimura noticed that Keera was acting different than usual. "Sure, you could help us shed some light on these cases, we're still kicking up dirt. We got a dead photographer, and another dead schoolgirl in the alleys," Kimura explained. "By the way, what did you put in your coffee this morning? You're acting different than usual,"

"Go on, I'm listening," Jason Watanabe said to a girl in her late teens/early twenties. "I just wanted to find those code numbers...." she started. "I don't care about code numbers, Hikari, we lost a rather large number of weapons from that ordnance annex a week ago," Watanabe cut her off. "I know, but what I'm getting at is-" Watanabe cut her off again "I want a concise analysis from your department telling me who could've done this," he turned on the monitor and showed her the same news footage from Necrolon's break-in and said the same thing he said to Lilith. He was aware of who did it, but didn't want attention drawn to himself. "The had the son of a bitch cornered and somehow he got away, weapons and all. I don't want to have to explain this screw-up to the department of defense," Watanabe said. "It may have been an inside job, sir," Hikari said. "What are you talking about?" Watanabe asked her. "I ran some cataloging reports of my own and found code discrepancies in our weapon storage files," Hikari explained. Watanabe looked curiously at her. "Go on," he said. "I did some checking, and crazy as it sounds, it looks like someone's been diverting weapon shipments to other delivery sites, then changing the info in the computer," Hikari said. Watanabe went to his desk. "Do you have any proof of this?" he asked on the way to his desk. "It's all here in my report," Hikari responded. Watanabe became a bit worried. "Who else have you talked to about this?" he asked. "No one, sir. I wanted to come straight to you," Hikari answered. Watanabe mentally sighed in relief. "Excellent, I'm glad you did. As of right now, Hikari, Your job is to track down every instance of these discrepancies in the weapon shipment files. I need verified and documented evidence if I'm to get into this with a full scale investigation," Watanabe said. "Keep me informed," he added. "Yes, sir," Hikari nodded. "Sir, I want to go on record and say that I hope I'm wrong. I hope that this is just some horrible mix-up," she added. "I'll second that," Watanabe said in false agreement. "Thank you, Hikari, for informing me,". After Hikari left, Lilith appeared from the shadows. "Trouble in Paradise?" she asked, smiling devilishly. "Damn girl scout. Last thin we need is her turning a few heads by talking to someone," Watanabe said. "Luckily though, Hikari is a loyal puppet. Always works in the best interest of her employer. Let her find all the loose ends, we'll tie them up later," Watanabe said. "Right now, we need to find that thing that stole those weapons and recover them. Somehow keep us on our time table,"

"I don't usually act the same after I get sick," Keera said smiling at them. "Or after my sickness is gone, and this one is going to take a while, and it may never leave at all," she added and shrugged. "So where exactly did all this happen and when? Last night? I'd like to go check the site out to see the placements of the bodies and such. You did get them to trace the bodies and their positions, along with all the bullet casings or blood spots and so on that were seen there, right?"

"Yeah, they were traced. We found the photographer in the park, and the schoolgirl in the alleys," Kimura explained. Stick had returned to listening to the tapes, searching for any relevant information. "So we'd better make that count seven this month," Kimura added.

"Hmm, alright, well I'll go see the photographer scene right now, and then I might go see the schoolgirl... it's seven is it? Already... that's crazy. If only there was something we could do to stop this from happening..." Keera said as she stood normally, and put her glasses back on. "I'll see you when I get back. I should take too long, I don't think. Unless everything is a mess?"

"Surprisingly, there's no mess this time. So, everything should be in order there," Kimura said. "If you find anything that someone missed, let us know,"

“Mmm, I will," Keera said smiled at them both, then turned and walked out, and began walking to the scene, claiming she needed the excercise.

Hikari yawned while looking over all the weapon code numbers. The sun was already starting to set. "Working hard?" a passing coworker asked her. "Yeah, new assignment and all," she replied, still looking for more discrepancies. "You know, you should get home. You wouldn't want to keep your little sister waiting," the coworker said. Hikari thought for a moment. "I guess you're right, I'll work on this more tomorrow," she said.

Another officer was chasing down the preacher until he lost track of him. "Where are you, you sick bastard?!" the officer demanded. He went over to the nearest homeless man. "Alright, where'd he go?!" he demanded. "Who?" the homeless man asked. "Your preacher friend! He was dragging a little girl around!" the officer said. "I don't know, I haven't seen any-" the homeless man was interrupted by the officer's gun going off. The bullet whizzed by the side of his head. "Listen! I'm not in the mood!" the officer said. " Who made you god, little man?" a gravely voice came from behind the officer. The officer turned around and a decayed claw grabbed him by the collar. He was dragged away and slammed against the wall. "You like to scare people? Fine, I need a scarecrow," Necrolon said and stuck a steel bar next to his heck and bent it over the officer's neck and shoved the other side into the wall. "Hey! What are you doing?! Let me down!" the officer demanded. "I want others to see what happens when they come down here uninvited..." Necrolon said as he walked away into the shadows.

"Hello again, Keera," a soft voice said behind Keera. It was Lilith, and she was holding a small bundle in her arms.

Keera sighed, knowing who it was. "Even in the day too?" she asked in a tired voice, not scared, not even a little. "Look, I have a day job, my night job is with you. I'm currently getting a little girl back from the freak preacher, if you'll excuse me," she said without looking at Lilith, not knowing(and therefore not caring) about the bundle in her arms. She jumped off the building, grabbed the preacher by the neck, taking the gun from him, and kneed him in the back, giving her enough time to grab the grenade from him. "You know, you're making a lot of fuss around here, and I don't like that," she said and grabbed his other wrist after putting the gun away and the grenade in her pants pocket so he couldn't hold onto the girl he'd taken hostage, "and seeing as you now have no choice, you're going to the police station," she said taking the long way out, avoiding Necrolon again.

"I don't think so," The preacher said in a completely different voice. He broke out of Keera's grasp and jumped back 3 feet. His appearance changed from a street preached into an boy in his late teens to early twenties. He had white hair, dark skin, a black leather jacket, and pale violet eyes. The girl had vanished into thin air as well. "Man, Lilith was right, you are more trouble than you're worth," he said.

Keera showed that she was a little surprised when he got out of her grip, but being a preacher didn't make hold on very tight, nor did she think he had any other weapons on him. However her expression was gone the moment Lilith was mentioned. "Don't think I earned my name by sitting on my arse for hundreds of years," she replied, now looking not very interested in trying to catch the guy and bring him to the police station. In fact, it was the opposite of what she planned to do. Although if her sister dies, she's not going to just sit around and do as she's told. She actually thought it through quite quickly, and come to the realization that she was most definitely going to go on a suicide mission to destroy Lilith's 'master' and if she died doing it, she did it for the right cause. "I've made quite a lot of trouble in my past and present than I really needed to, but back then, I wanted my name known. Now I have a feeling that I really made the wrong choice to want all that fame. Look where I am now."

"Yeah, I'll say," the boy said. "Oh, right, intro," he said with a bow. "I'm Lucifer. The fourth of the Seven Demon Lords," he said, rising again. Lilith emerged from the shadows (still holding the little bundle) and smiled. "Such is the price of a glory hound must pay," Lilith said. "I see you've met Lucifer, he's my master's apprentice. Make no mistake, that doesn't put him in a higher position than me. And this..." she said, uncovering the bundle in her arms, revealing it to be a small, round teddy-bear looking thing with goat horns that was asleep. "Is the first demon I conceived and birthed. This is Belphegor, the fifth Demon Lord," she said.

"Nice to meet you," Keera said because she wasn't really sure what else to say and it was the first thing that came to her mind. "Actually, I'm not a glory hound, I just wanted people to know me, is that such a crime? Many others wish the same thing, and many got it, so I myself no different." She replied and then smiled, but there was smirk concealed inside of it as she looked at the demon... whatever it was supposed to be called. "So, I'm going to guess you've got more?" she asked Lilith about the demon baby. "You did say first..." Keera thought back to when she and Black had been together, how when he left she killed the baby inside of her, and how she had another child afterwards, and adopting another, both of which chose to leave the castle, and never what happened to them but made no effort to find them either. She wouldn't even know what they looked like now, if of course they were still alive. "Seven demon lords hm? Any chance I could be an eighth?" She asked laughing a little, not really wanting to be one but had to ask anyway, just to be smart as usual.

"We are considering making you a new Demon Lord. To replace the one that we lost," Lilith said, then looked at Belphegor in her arms. "I did have more, yes. But when Necrolon decided to go rouge on us, he slaughtered all but little Belphegor," she said, sympathetically clicking her tongue afterwards. "All alone with no siblings, rather sad, is it not?" she finished.

"Atleast you still have one," Keera spoke sharply before turning and walking from them. "I'll bet you've never killed one of yours either, atleast not on purpose," she spoke quietly as she remembered years and years ago what she'd done out of anger. She'd always known she was a horrible person, and looking back on that and everything else that she'd done before she decided to help humans made it perfectly clear to her of how horrible she really was. It seemed that she didn't really care about being the next demon lord, and infact she didn't have a care in the world for the position, she almost looked like she would decline, but then she asked, "What is it that I need to do as Demon Lord, if I do end up as one? If it means destroying for no good reason, then I'm out right now."

"What we do is simply create the dark elements in this world to counterbalance the light elements. Much like yin and yang," Lilith said. "We don't simply destroy because we feel like it, if we wish something to be destroyed, we must get approval from our master. If you desire the position, meet me at the docks in thirty minuets. The same spot where you and I first met," Lilith said.

Keera stopped to listen to Lilith, for once on her own since they met, and she listened carefully. She considered the position in her head and was slightly taken aback about how long she had to decide. She declined, then considered, then declined again as she kept doing that over and over as she began to walk away once more. "I'll think about it," she said before she was too far away, and headed back towards the police station to tell the chief that the 'preacher' got away. She shook her head on the way there, and sighed. This was crazy.
 
She had a major choice to make, but she couldn't help but feel that she was thinking about this too hard. Not only that, but she knew there was more to it than just a decision, more than a yes or no answer, more to it than just joining. She figured she'd have to go through a lot more than just a simple showing up to the dock. She wasn't one for darkness, and she figured that the gods hadn't sent her back for this, but she had no guidance on earth, and she wasn't going to know anymore than she did now about what they wanted her to do.
 
"Chief," she said as she walked into his office and bowed. "The preacher got away with the hostage and is nowhere to be found. I was out looking for him, but I couldn't find him," she said standing up straight. "I'm sorry." This was the first time that she'd ever let a person slip past her since she'd been on the force, and she knew he'd probably bring that up. She wondered how long she'd stay on the force, if she did decide to go with them.

"I see," the Chief said. "No need to apologize, Miss Kaze. First times happen, I'm sure you did everything you could," he finished. "It's getting late, you should go home and get some sleep,"

Hikari opened the door to her apartment. "Sister!" came her little sister's voice. A little girl in pink PJs ran up to her, arms outstretched. "Hello, Eriko," Hikari said wearily. "Why aren't you in bed?" she asked. "I wanted to stay up late enough to see you come home!" Eriko said happily.

"I did," Keera said. She had him... but it was just t get her attention... not that she could say that. She looked at the cock and realized that her shift was over in about ten minutes, and after that she had another ten to decide whether or not to show up at the dock. "I guess since I was sick I haven't been quite up to my norm," she said and bowed, leaving the room. "I'll see you tomorrow Chief, I'm going to go back to the scene to see if anything is left to track him down," and with that she was out the door, and down the road. She slipped into a side alley, a short cut to the dock, but she planned on taking her time, letting herself think carefully about what was going to happen should she choose to accept. Only two things came into mind, the first one more probable than the last. Either she would have to perform some task perfectly to get in, something she wouldn't regularly want to do, or they would just welcome her in. Welcoming seemed to be the least of their good qualities, if they actually have any.
 
As she walked, her mind was in deep thought, and she looked at her watch, and her heart lept. She had about five minutes to get there or have the answer stand as no. She looked hard at her watch, as if to try and make time go backwards, to give her more time but the second hand never turned back. Four minutes. She sighed, angry with herself as she ran to the docks, jumping up to the rooftops to go quicker than zig-zagging through the ally. She made a huge jump and landed on the dock as the time was turning exactly on the half hour mark from the last time she talked to Lilith.

"So you decided to show up after all," Lilith said. She had been waiting for Keera since Keera left the alleys. "Have you come to a decision?" she asked. "As a reminder, the choice is entirely yours, I will do nothing to make you choose," she added.

"Attention asshole!" Kimura's voice was heard on a megaphone at the alleys. "We have you surrounded! Come out peacefully and no one gets hurt!" Kimura finished, taking the megaphone away from his face. Stick emerged from the crowd of pedestrians and officers. "Stick, I outta yank your dick off, where've you been?" Kimura asked.

"Well," Keera began but hear the faint yelling into a microphone which made her stop and look over. "I suppose so," she said not really looking at Lilith but then turned back to her. "Although I don't believe it's as easy as just sayng yes, there's got to be something to do before I join," she said. "It always ends up that way," she added. "Also, is this a full time job, or can I keep my policing job and do this at the same time?" she asked and looked back in the direction that she heard the megaphone. She had a feeling that they found someone, and it definitely wasn't the preacher, he never existed in the first place.

"Yes you can keep your Police job. But believe me, if these were more turbulent times, it would be full-time, but these days, a missing person doesn't go unnoticed," Lilith said. "If that's your decision, just revert into your avatar form, and the rest will happen," Lilith finished.

The preacher (who is Lucifer still messing with the police) stepped out of the alleys, this time with a real girl. "Just hand the kid over, preacher, nobody has to get hurt," Kimura said. "Oh yes, someone does," he said, holding up a grenade. "He's armed! Stay back!" Kimura warned. "Look, just drop the grenade, and we won't shoot, just let the kid go," Kimura tried to reason with him. "Sure, why not?" Lucifer said and tossed the grenade at Kimura and the crowd. They were about to scatter until Kimura said: "It's okay, it's still got a pin," he said. The little girl tried to get away, but Lucifer held tight. "Everything's fine....not quite," he said, opening his robe, revealing a vest with grenades strapped to it. "Holy Christ!" several officers in the crowd said.

"The avatar form, what I was last night?" she asked, remebering the armor and mask and wings. She'd always missed her wings. She heard more shouts and screams and wondered out loud. "What the hell?" she asked morely herself, wanting to go check it out. She was still iffy on the changing to her avatar form, and wasn't sure what would happen if she did. She never did like that voice that Lilith was to listen to, and hoped to the gods that if she changed to it, that nothing would really happen that could destroy her mentally or physically and prayed that if it did, she'd be struck down by them.

"Yes, what you were last night, that is all. And the rest will take place after you have changed into your avatar form," Lilith explained. "If you're worried, it's okay, I was worried, too. Before I became a Demon Lord," Lilith said.

"Do you have him," a sniper's radio said through his ear piece. "Mmmhm," the sniper said quietly, viewing the preacher through his scope with the crosshairs over his head. "Drop him," the radioman said and the sniper squeezed the trigger. The bullet pierced the preacher's head and he fell to the ground, seemingly dead.
"If anything happens to me," Keera began as she changed into the avatar form. "I'm going after you first for lying to me..." She was such a smooth talker, and she had a bad feeling about it still, but changed completely anyway. She kept her eyes on Lilith and waited for 'the rest' to happen. She felt her blood pumping harder through her veins and started to get a migrain, though unaware of as to why.

"And so...... it begins....." that same growling voice said. A giant claw emerged from a dark vortex behind Keera and wrapped around her and dragged her into the vortex. Black chanis were wrapped around her and everything around Keera was pitch black, exept for a giant pair of slitted red eyes. As Keera's eyes adjusted to the dark, the thing's face came into focus. It's face was bat-like, except it had no nostrils. The chains held her in place as she was left in front of it's face.

Her headache got worse and this only seemed to irritate her. The blood rushed to her head as her pulse quickened and she held her breath for a little while as her her eyes adjusted and that made her pulse slow, and she slowly took deep breaths, her eyes taking in all around her, which wasn't much, and she made her eyes fall on the other pair across from her, making herself be calm and not freak too much... wasn't fond of bats, she'd had a bad encounter with a bat demon once before, and since then, they really bugged her. She didn't speak, as though she was being defiant and then she couldn't help but smirk. This was a signal that her bad attitude and sarcasm were starting to kick in over her better judgement to just shut up. One of the things she'd lost over the years was to be patient when cornered, that and usually being scared didn't work for her anymore... though it barely ever did. "So should I guess that you're the big scary master thing in charge around here?" She was going to say 'hairy' instead of scary but decided that might be pushing it a little far than what she could handle herself without laughing.

"I..........? I......... am a monument....... to all your sins," it said. "Relax, Keera. And count yourself lucky you're in that armor, I had nothing on at all when I did this," Lilith's voice was heard. "Your sarcasm and wit will not get you anywhere now........former Queen of the Western Ocean. Now, I will talk......... and you will listen......." the thing said.

Keera became serious when the 'monument to all her sins' told her what it was. "If you're going to tell me all of them, save it. I know them already," she saw many things flash through her mind and she shut her eyes tight to make them leave her head. She opened them and looked back at the thing. She shut her mouth after that, and didn't speak again but thought, I'm listening now, just had to get that out there. The memories slowly came back and she just couldn't could shake them from her mind, though she didn't look away from the thing, and tried her best not to blink.

"Perhaps......this is a bit much......" the thing said and released Keera. It vanished in a whirlwind of shadows and when Keera landed on the ground, all that was left of the thing was a cloaked figure. "I trust you'll find me a little less overwhelming, now?" it said in a much smoother voice. Two slitted red eyes peered from under the cloaked hood out of pitch-blackness, unable to see it's face, even as it raised it's head. A thick, dark haze seemed to creep from under it's cloak where it's feet should have been.

Keera just smiled as she stood looking at the figure. Her eyes were somehow twinkling slightly even though there was no light at all. Something about her being made her stand out even when she's not in her own body. Something changed about her when she came back to Earth after the hundred years, though it was hard to pinpoint what it was. Although she smiled, her bad attitude seemed to almost disappear as she started to look like she was getting serious about the situation.

"Is there something you find funny?" the figure asked. " I seem to have missed the joke," it continued. It floated towards Keera. "Now then, have you given complete thought to becoming a Demon Lord? Once you make this decision, there will be no going back..."

The little girl started to get away from the preacher, but his hand grabbed her ankle. He sat up, then stood. "What the hell?!" Kimura shouted. "Nice shot," the preacher said. "Give the shooter a medal later," he said, then pulled the pins out of the grenades. "HOLY SHIT!" an officer yelled and everyone scattered. Just before the grenades went off, a crimson-black cloth wrapped around the little girl and threw her out of the blast radius.

"Well, I can't exactly say I've thought it comepletely through, seeing as I only had half an hour," Keera said, she had a couple questions, but she decided to keep them to herself for the time being. "Yeah, I've made my decision by coming here didn't I? I think my answer was yes by the time I changed."

"Indeed," the figure simply said and a pendant with a symbol on it appeared in front of Keera. "Before you accept this crest insignia, do you swear your allegiance to me?" it asked. "As well as the other five Demon Lords?" it added.

Many comments she could have said to him ran through her mind and her tongue wanted to speak them, it was quite clear that she was holding back some nasty ones too. "As long as you don't use me as a demon speaker like you do with Lilith, I think everything could run smoothly. So, yes." She said keeping her words to a minimum for her, though a simple yes from her would have been quite enough. She knew that of course, but always had something to say other than what was asked, even if it was on topic.

When the smoke cleared, the preacher was gone and the police found the little girl on a heap of trash bags. "I guess she got thrown by the explosion, and pretty lucky, too. You okay?" Kimura asked the little girl, who nodded her head.
(Interval voice-Over)
"Now free from a portion of inner guilt, the Fallen Demon Lord is now free to pursue his own personal goals.....may the gods help those in his path......"
(End Voice-Over)

"Very well," the figure said. "All you have to do is take the crest insignia, and it will be absorbed into your body, then, it's symbol will appear on you," it explained.

Keera weighed in her options, thought for a quick second and sighed slightly. She reached out and took hold of the pendant, but she didn't put her arm down after taking hold of it, and she waited as it was absorbed into her body.

There was a burning sensation on Keera's back, and the crest insignia's symbol appeared on her back. "Good," the figure said.

Elsewhere in the alleys, Necrolon sat bolt upright. "What?" he said to himself. "No..... a new Demon Lord has been born....." he realized. "It's finally happening," necrolon turned to the voice that had just spoken. It was the old man. "You again?" he asked. "To let you know, the new Demon Lord, is Keera Kaze," he said. "So what? I'll just kill her along with all the other Demon Lords," he curtly said.

Keera growled uncharactaristically, a low, dark growl that was only meant for herself to hear, as she felt the burning. Her eyes flashed red once, then went back to the normal blue tinged with purple. She hated the sensation, though she used fire herself, even after all these years in this body of hers. After it had gone, her head hung low and she raised it as she looked at the figure, her eyes little more purple than they were before. "Can I get back to work now?" she asked, her sarcastic and slightly funny(though probably only to herself) mood had vanished and she was dead serious.

"Of course you can," the figure said. "However, I will have something for you to do after your shift is done, now, go," it said and Keera was teleported back into the alleys.

Before Keera could ask what it was that she had to do, when she was suddenly in the alleys again. She sighed, not feeling too much different, and started walking the alley's as though nothing happened and she was there the whole time. "I guess... I talked a little too much..." she said quietly and shrugged as she walked, not paying attention to see if she was walking near The Fallen One or not.

The police were all over the scene where the preacher blew himself up. As always, Stick and Kimura were there as well. "Something just doesn't seem right, Stick. The guy blows himself up and there should at least be remains, I mean like an arm or a leg or something," Kimura said. Kimura noticed someone coming out of the alleys. "Huh? Oh, Miss Kaze," he said.

Keera looked up to see Kimura and Stick at the scene and many, many other police cars and personel. "Sorry guys, I got... distracted," she said, seeming a little more like her regular self. "More caught up in other things going on in the alley than distracted but all the same I guess. I heard an explosion, what happened?"

"Some nutjob preacher blew himslef up after our sniper blew his brains out," Kimura explained. "But the weird thing is that the preacher got up right after he got shot, blew himself up, and now we're having a hard time finding any remains. I mean even if he blew himself up, he'd at least leave a foot or something," Kimura said. An officer came out of the alleys chuckling. "Hey, you guys might wanna see this," He said, everyone followed and saw the officer that Necrolon had left hanging on the wall. "Well how about that, the asshole of the force hanging around the alleys," Kimura joked. "Oh as much as I'd love to hang around more, I'd appreciate it if someone GOT ME OFF THIS G--DAMN WALL!"

Keera laughed and walked up to him, stopping a few short feet away. "I don't know Sir, I think you look pretty good up there. A wonderful ornament." She could tell that The Fallen One or so he was called, had done. She could feel the prescence of him and somehow... she shook her head a little. She could never smell that great, even for a demon which meant blood had little effect on her. Now it seemed everything was heightened just that little bit more and she could smell him here. She laughed a little again, pretending to laugh at him but it was herself she was laughing at as she took the officer off the wall. "I really should just leave you. You were definitely out of the way here... how did you get here anyway?" she asked, though she knew with every sense of her being who had done it.

"I don't know, some freak in a Halloween costume!" the officer shouted. "Eh, well, get him down from there," Chief Nasaki arrived. "All right, everyone besides clean up crew, go home. We'll discuss this later tomorrow," he said.

"So she's the new Demon Lord?" Necrolon asked the old man on a rooftop. "Yes, they'll most likely want to test her new abilities and send her after you, be on your toes," the old man said and turned away. "Listen, I can-" Necrolon turned to face the old man, but he was gone. "Figures," he simply said.

Keera sighed letting him drop to the ground after taking him off the wall. She turned as soon as she was told to go home, "Yes Chief. I'll be there bright and early. See you tomorrow." She turned and started walking off to her apartment. She knew she wouldn't be there long, but atleast had to put up a show to look like nothing changed. Once she was out of earshot of the others, she whispered, "I was never told how to get back... though I probably won't have to worry about it." Once she was out of sight, she waited.

"Hello, Keera," a cloaked figure rose from the ground in front of her, it was that thing from before. "This is your first assignment, find the Fallen One, and give him a taste of your new abilities, Lilith will be observing you," it said. "And another thing, don't hold back," it finished.

"So you want me to kill him right away?" Keera said as a joke, knowing she wouldn't be able to do it that quickly. "As you wish," she said and turned again, the armor appearing on her, the mask covering her face. There were many presences, seeing as it was a city on Japan, but there was one that stuck out more than the rest, the presence of a demon, most-likely The Fallen One.

"Yes, kill him, if you can. He could be a great hindrance to our plans," it said, then vanished. Elsewhere, Necrolon was waiting on roof of a skyscraper. She'll come, I know it. And she's probably a lot stronger now, he thought.

"Oh," she said, without looking at him. She was going to turn around but could tell the thing was gone. She wanted to ask him what plans he was talking about. Perhaps the one she was after knew what the plans were. Maybe she could get it out of him before she had to kill him... what if it was something she didn't want to be a part of? If it she didn't want part in it and she killed the one that left them... she'd have no one to fall back on for support or help. She growled in frustration and took off up the side of the building and stopped on the roof. She looked around, pausing every once in a while, then headed off to find this Fallen One.

Necrolon was sitting against the wall on the exit to the roof, waiting. He noticed a slight breeze and a hint of strange powers in it, he turned to the source and saw someone in a white cloak. He couldn't see their face, but it was wielding a gold scythe. Lightning flashed and it was gone. A bounty hunter... he thought. He felt Keera approaching and got to his feet.

Keera leapt up onto the roof in a matter of seconds and looked at Necrolon. "I've been told to finish you off, if I can," she said shrugging. "I want to know something first, why did you leave them?" she asked from an earlier thought. She hadn't noticed the bounty hunter, it had been gone before she got there.

"I had my own agenda, and they didn't agree with it, but what does it matter to you?" he growled. Lightning flashed again and the bounty hunter appeared for a split second behind Keera and vanished again as the light faded.

Keera gave an involuntary shudder as the lightning, and she could feel something else, but what was it? When it flashed in the sky, she caught something in her own shadow. Two things were going on that she wasn't quite aware of. Something in her mind kept whispering, change, change, change, over and over again and wouldn't stop. She growled and her hair started to change to a lighter blue color, but then faded back to the dark blue.

"Listen, I don't care why they're so interested in killing me," Necrolon stared. "But it ends here for you!" he growled as he lunged at Keera.

"Not tonight," Keera said in a normal voice as moved, seemingly effortless as she did so, out of the way. She thrust her hand out at his side, not bothering to stay away as her intent was to knock him off the building anyway. Her eyes seemed to go to blue-violet color behind the mask and it went just as quickly as her hair had changed back to dark blue. She could feel a change as fire escaped her palms and attempted to bine itself around Necrolon.

Necrolon gave a pained grunt as the flames engulfed him and he was cast over the side. "Well, if it was that easy I would have gotten rid of him myself a long time ago," Lilith said as she appeared. "Either he lost his touch or he became reckless," another voice said, and Barbatos appeared.

Keera gave a small, convincing laugh. "Yes, he's dead. Of course he is," she said and stepped from the side, knowing full well that an attack like that wouldn't kill a former Demon Lord. It just wasn't that easy... she wasn't aiming to kill him with that anyway. She moved into the middle of the building's rooftop, and didn't let her gaurd down but played the fact that they thought he was dead. "So what should I do now?" she asked with a slight smile.

"Go about your life until you get a calling from our, and now your master," Barbatos explained. "In the meantime, I have certain things to attend to...." Lilith said, turning around. "What kind of things, Lilith?" Barbatos asked. "Nothing that concerns you, just me," Lilith said. There were bolts of dark lightning surging from the side where Necrolon fell, and a black cocoon-like thing rose and came to rest on the ledge. It opened, revealing the cocoon to actually be a pair of large, bat-like wings, and inside was Necrolon. He was taller, clad in black, spiked armor, he had taloned feet, cruelly hooked claws and his eyes were now jet red as opposed to green. "Well, well. Look who's back. I didn't expect she'd get rid of you so easily," Lilith said.

Keera had taken off her mask, and then when Necrolon came back, tried to look mildly surprised by his come back as she turned around, and even went as far as raising her eyebrows when she looked at his new form. "Nice attire," she commented, and then nodded to his claws. "You were holding out on me?" she asked, as if accusing him of some evil act. She replaced her mask then, and looked like she was getting ready, but in a defensive position rather than an offensive. She didn't really care about fighting him in the first place. The only thing keeping her around was her sister's precious life.

"No, not anymore," Necrolon said. He dispersed into dust and reappeared in front of Keera and slashed her mask. Keera moved out of the way just in time for one of his nails to nick the left side of the mask. Necrolon dispersed into dust again and reappeared behind Keera and was about to slash Keera across her back when a figure got in the way and Necrolon stopped. "Get out of the way!" he demanded and the figure shook it's head. "Hello again, Kaori. Trying to save your dear sister?" Lilith smiled.

Keera had moved in time for his claws to just nick the mask, and she felt it crack slightly. She was about to turn when she felt the presence of something that made her feel almost complete. Her sister. She gasped as she heard Lilith speak and spun, grabbed Kaori and protectively switched places with her, a slight growl escaping her lips. Kaori moved slightly infront again, but Keera's arm went out first.
 
"Go home Kaori," Keera said in a low voice.
 
"Keera I don't want you to die here... you know the gods don't want this either, why did you join them?" she asked quietly, urgently. Keera didn't respond right away, so Kaori went on about it still quick. "Back out, do something to get out of this, you're better than them! I thought you didn't serve anyone! What happened to that? Was it a lie to make me stronger, to look up to you and make me more like the way you want to be?!" Keera still couldn't respond, but it did start getting colder, and the wind began picking up. Kaori looked a little confused by that, but then in a flash, Keera had Necrolon flung away from them and then was back at Kaori's side.
 
"Kaori, look," Keera said, trying to gather her thoughts. "I'm sorry that I've done this to you, that I've made you confused, but it might be a good thing I'm here right now. Just trust me."
 
"Take the mask off Keera," Kaori whispered and Keera didn't move. "Take it off!"
 
"No." Keera whispered and shook her head. "Not right now, I'm a little busy. Go home."
 
"You can't go back."
 
"I can if you let me. Go." Keera said and turned back to where Necrolon had been.
 
"I won't let you, Keera. You can't because I won't let you. Not while you're like this. You can't call yourself the queen or even royalty for the ocean anymore, you aren't who you used to be. I won't let you come back until you come back to me... the way you were."
 
"Go Kaori," Keera said in a defeated voice. If her mask had been off, Keera would have looked like she was burning in her pain to make Kaori leave her. Kaori didn't move. "You're queen now. I gave that position up the first time I died."

"Well, this has been a pleasant reunion, now hasn't it?" Lilith said. "Enough! I have had enough of you!" Necrolon lunged at Lilith only to be caught in midair by something unseen and hurled over the side. He landed on the ground and the same thing was slamming him on the ground until he dispersed out of it's grasp. 'Impressive....' a hissing voice echoed in his head. "Mephistopheles!" Necrolon said, realizing who it was.

"Now that he's out of the way, allow me to show you one of my greatest creations...." Lilith said and a dark vortex appeared on the ground in front of Keera and Kaori. A figure rose from it. It had dark purple armor, bat-like wings, blonde hair, and the same faceless mask as Keera's. "What is it, Mistress?" it asked. It had a voice that sounded like two people talking at the same time.

Though not one for showing how she feels openly, Keera gave a little shudder but turned protectively to Kaori. Kaori peaked around her sister to see what it was, and she looked oddly curious at what seemed to be two voices. Intensely interested was another way it could be put.
 
"Keera, who is that?"
 
"More like what, I think," Keera said quietly, noting that Lilith had said 'creations' she presumed that it wasn't just one thing. Kaori looked even more interested at the thing and looked from it's mask to Keera's and then back to the creation.
 
"Keera, take your mask off," Kaori whispered. "I want to see your face before you leave. Please?"
 
"Sorry," Keera whispered back and then they seemed to be in a silent conversation that was just themselves, no one else could hear. Only a few seconds later, Kaori nodded but didn't move. She sighed slightly, both hers and Keera's eyes on the new 'person' of sorts.

"Show them," was all Lilith said. The thing instantly dashed behind Keera too quick for the eye to see, it grabbed Kaori and held a knife-like blade that extended from it's wrist up to Kaori's throat. "This is another one of my avatars, much like you were, only more lethal," Lilith said.

Meanwhile on the street below, Mephistopheles was slamming walls and the ground with his fist trying to hit Necrolon. 'You can only keep this up for so long,' Mephistopheles taunted.

Keera saw the thing disappear and turned too late to grab Kaori, as if by instinct she knew what was going to happen. Kaori gasped and Keera visibly cringed and thought 'I told you to go home!' and it was spoken as if from all directions. Keera gasped herself, and froze. What was happening? 'What is with all the hostage crap?! Fight properly if you're so strong!' as if was screamed and then, 'Let her go alive and show me what you can really do!'
 
Kaori was frozen in the thing's grip, but gave a small smile, hoping Keera knew what was going on with her. Keera had changed but in only one visible part of her body. Her uncovered skin on her hands and a bit on her neck was so pale it was almost white. Her hair hadn't changed, and her face wasn't showing so it was impossible to tell what was going on on the outside.

The avatar flung Kaori to the side and made a dash at Keera. Just as the avatar was about to ram the blade into Keera's stomach, a voice yelled "ENOUGH!" and it stopped and backed off, retracting it's blade. "Damn...." Lilith whispered. The cloaked figure floated from the side. "I think we've wasted enough time here as it is," it said. "It's almost sunrise, we have to get back. Where's Mephistopheles?" it said. "He's down there, and it looks like he's a goner," Lucifer appeared on the ledge and said. The figure looked down to see a large portion of Mephistopheles' throat missing and Necrolon delivering the finishing blow. "Yes, he's gone. But....." a sigil appeared in front of the figure. "His crest insignia is back with us," it finished taking the sigil. "Everyone, return to the domain, the same goes for you," it said, referring to the avatar. It nodded and sank into another vortex. "Lilith, we'll discuss your punishment later," the cloaked figure said. "Keera, you are to stay in this realm and you will follow any instructions I may give you later," it floated towards Kaori. "And Kaori, the next time you stick your nose where it doesn't belong, I'll rip your heart out and feed it to Belphegor," it said then vanished.

Necrolon finished crawling onto the roof and the sunlight washed over him. He started smoking and changed. In his place was a boy with brown hair, blue jeans, a jade green t-shirt under a black vest, and he was wearing black tennis shoes. "So he did have a human vessel after all," a woman's voice said behind Keera and Kaori. There was a woman dressed in a white robe with her face concealed by it's hood and she was carrying a gold scythe.

"Don't talk to her that way, you filthy scum," she said in a low voice. Her voice was changing now too, and he didn't try to hide it. She knew what was happening now. The gods were giving her body back to her. It felt like a triumph, having to wait so long for it and finally getting it. The armour that was on her body disappeared, replaced by her police uniform. Her skin was pale, her eyes weren't dark blue anymore, they were a firey blue, burning with new life. Her hair hadn't changed yet, but that was coming, and soon along with her height. "Who are you?" Keera growled to the woman. She still had the insigma, but for how long, she had no idea. In a way she hoped that they would take it away, give it back to the demon lords.
 
Kaori could tell that Keera had changed. She was becoming a part of Kaori again, and she felt as if a huge part of her that was missing, was finally being replaced again. She ignored the figure, not even close to scared by the threat, and ignored the woman now too, completely absorbed in Keera's transformation. "Welcome back, Lady Keera," Kaori whispered and Keera smiled.

The woman stepped forward from behind Keera and Kaori. "I am a bounty hunter, sent by the gods to destroy any fallen demon lords," she said. "I'm not sure how he was able to retain his form. But after so many battles, taking so much damage, he finally reached his limit," she finished, turning the boy over on his back. "Kaori, I want you to take care of this boy for the time being," she ordered.

Keera froze when the bounty hunter said the gods sent her to destroy the fallen demon lords. She didn't say anything after that, and turned to look at the sun coming up. Kaori looked at Keera and knew what she was thinking within barely a second. Keera was changing her mind, again. "So..." Keera whispered. "Maybe I was supposed to..." she didn't finish and then looked back at Kaori. "Do what she says."
 
"Alright," Kaori said, nodding. It appeared that she only took orders from Keera, no matter if it was a higher up that could kill her for disobeying. She wasn't afraid as long as her older was alright with what she did, though her sister had to be in the right frame of mind too.

"Good," the bounty hunter said. "I prefer to hunt my targets when they're at full strength. Other than that, Kaori is the last person the Seven Demon Lords would think to look for him," she finished.

Keera started walking away, and in the light her hair changed without warning to the white-blue it used to be, and her height seemed to extend about three quarters of a foot, making her close to six feet tall. At the moment that she stopped growing, her knees suddenly buckled underneath her, and she screamed as her body fell to the ground. Kaori started and looked at Keera, expecting something to be attacking her or something because she screamed out in pain. She was by her side in a second and trying to help her up but Keera was completely rigid, her new slightly thinner face was contorted in pain. "Keera?!" was all that Kaori managed to choke out as she held her sister tightly. Keera was oddly still compared to the look on her face, for she should be thrashing or atleast twitching. "Keera?!"
 
'My body... it's reacting to Lilith's blood... remember how my old body used to work? They made it perfect...' Keera's voice came from all directions as she thought it out loud. Kaori's face showed she did remember, and with the realization, Kaori relaxed a little.
 
"So what is your body going to do with it? What can it do?"
 
'I don't know... it's trying to eliminate her blood from my system, but nothing has ever hurt this much before!'

"Keera," the bounty hunter said. "Even if your body eliminates Lilith's blood, I'm afraid there's nothing that the gods can do about the crest insignia," she said. "There are only two ways that the insignia will leave. One is if you were killed again and the Demon Lords reclaim it, or they take it back by force,"

"I don't care if they can't take it," Keera said through gritted teeth. "I'm not dying again, not now that I have my real body back. What do you mean by taking it by force?" Keera's face was still in pain, but she looked exactly like she used to now and her eyes had a slight purple tinge to their regular sky blue. Her eyes changed depending on her mood, and Kaori didn't like this eye colour.

"I mean that they'll force the insignia out of you body," the bounty hunter explained. "Most of the time, when that happens, it's usually fatal," the bounty hunter said. She walked towards the ledge stopped and turned around. "And Kaori, I expect that boy top back at full strength when I come back," she said and stepped off the ledge.

"Mmm," Keera hummed at the woman about her informed comment. Obviously this had happened more than once before. The purple in her eyes slowly faded and she looked completely exhausted, her eyes taking on a dull blue, sort of like a burnt out lightbulb. She looked up at Kaori who was holding her and gave a weak smile.
 
"Can I?" Kaori asked quietly and Keera nodded as her sister didn't wait for a response. Her hands glowed blue as they touched Keera's stomach and right shoulder, restoring lost energy. "What should I do with him?" Kaori asked. "Where could I take him?"
 
"Not to the ocean, that would be too dangerous if he turns on you. I want to be around. You should probably take him to the forest."
 
"Alright."

It was later in the day, there were school students all over the park. There was an ice cream vendor giving out ice cream to children. He was a burly man, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was eyeing a schoolgirl across the park. "Need some help getting this one?" Lucifer, disguised as a guy in a school uniform asked to the man. "Yes, I think I might," the man replied. The guy walked over the the girl. "Hey, wanna go to party later?" he asked the girl. "Depends, where's it at?" she asked. "Across town," he said, handing her a slip of paper with an address on it to her. "It'll be a real scream," he said and walked off.

Later that night, the girl from the park arrived at the address. "I must be early, there's no one around," she said. A hand wrapped around her mouth and her screams were muffled. "Relax, it's okay," a man's voice said. Something shiny slid over the girl's throat and she went limp, she was dumped into a truck and the driver drove off with a grin on his face.

(Interval Voice over)
"The Seven Demon Lords have many in training, waiting to replace any lost members. This one is known as Michiru Kurosawa....."
(End Voice-Over)

The police were all over where the girl's mutilated body was. "Christ, not another one!" Kimrua complained at the scene. "We got anything, any prints or anything that could tell us who's doing this?" Kimura asked stick. "Nothing, sir," Stick replied.

Keera walked to the scene in her new... well, old body. She had no idea whether they'd know it was her or not, but she hoped they wouldn't make a fuss about it. She looked at the girl's body and sighed. If she weren't busy every night so far, she probably could have made a try at finding who was doing this... and kill them like they were killing the students. Happenings like these were unforgivable, and too many had happened already. "Hey guys," she said to Kimura and Stick.

"Hey, Keera," Kimura said. "I swear this is just getting ridiculous," he added. "I guess you'd better make that tally eight this month, sir," Stick said.

"Eight already... well, I think I might have to work a double shift or something," Keera said with a smile. That was no problem now. She bent down to the mutilated girl and wiped the hair out of her face gently, she'd already memorized how the hair was exactly set if it needed to go back. "Poor girl..."

The boy's eyes slowly opened. He groaned and put his hand on his head and sat up. He looked around. " Where am I?" he asked. He was in the forest. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

"I'm going to go back to the station and get a few things, then come back unless I'm needed for something else," Keera stood and started walking away.
 
Kaori heard the boy call out and started walking to him a bit faster than she already was. She came into view holding a few sticks and a matchbox that she bought at a corner store a few moments before. "Hey, you're finally awake." She said in her soft, melodic voice while she put the objects down.

The boy turned and looked at Kaori. "Caora?! But you- wait, no.... you're not her...," he said, surprised at first then his voice trailed off. "Who are you and how long was I out for?" he asked.

"Only a couple hours," Kaori said as if she wasn't at all disturbed by him being surprised. "My name is Kaori Kaze, so you know. Mind if I know yours?" She asked as she turned back to him.

"Uhhh......Darryl," the boy said. "My name is Darryl," he said again. "I'm sorry I freaked out earlier, you just looked like someone I knew,"

(Posts 202-303)

[Amara<3]

"Someone you know?" Kaori asked with a little bit of curiousity. "Have you seen this person recently, or has it been a while?" She put the sticks down and lit a match. The sticks were dry enough to catch the flame after only a moment, and soon there was a nice fire going, and Kaori was putting larger and larger sticks and branches on it all the while.

Keera walked past the police office, wondering where her sister had actually taken the boy, and whether or not they were safe. It was sad, but what she did was worth saving them. All she cared about was her sister, and her sister needed as little complications as possible right now after all she'd been through in their long life.

She stopped a few blocks away and walked to the police station and wrote the report on what she'd seen at the site, what the girl looked like, what appeared to have happened, and everything else that needed to be mentioned. After that she walked back, not seeing much change in anything when she arrived.

[skyacezero]

"Last I saw...." Darryl voice trailed off and his head suddenly flashed images of the last he saw of the person Kaori resembled, blood and a heart moniter flatlining. "It's not important, and I'd rather not think about it," he reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a picture that had been taken in a photo booth. "This is her," he said, showing it to Kaori. There was a slight resemblence, minus the eye color, hair color and length, and one or two facial features. "On another note, how did I get here?" he asked.

[Amara<3]

((So are we going anywhere with the crime scene, or just forget about it and wait until night to go back to stuff going on?))

"She's pretty," she said as she looked at it. She still wondered what happened to her, or them. "Umm, long story, actually," Kaori said with a sweatdrop. "I'm not actually sure if I should be telling you either," she said thoughtfully and bit her lip. "I don't think I should right now, you need to rest still."

[skyacezero]

((We're going somewhere with the scene AND doing something about it at night.))

"I see, you don't really trust me, do you?" Darryl asked. "No matter, I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later," he finished with a smile.

"I swear, I didn't know," a voice said over a recording that Stick was listening to. "Not at first anyway. Gods forgive me but I had to protect him. He's my flesh and blood," Stick was writing everything down. "Hey! Stick! I shouldn't be the only one typing up these reports you know!" Kimura said and just as he finished yelling, Stick slammed everything he had written down on Kimura's desk, he was smiling. "I've got it sir, the alleyway murders, the schoolgirl case, the whole ball of wax," Stick said. "Well don;t keep me in suspense, Stick. Spit it out," Kimura said. "Extortion, sir. Owikawa recorded a cellular phone cinversation between an unidentified female and ambassador Fujiwara," Stick explained. "Fujiwara?" Kimura said quizically. "That's correct, sir. Fujiwara, as it turns out, has an illegitimate son who happens to enjoy dismembering female students," Stick finished.

[Amara<3]

"No it's not that I don't trust you," Kaori said quickly, looking him straight in the eyes. "I just don't think I should tell you yet. My sister Keera told me not to tell you anything." She swallowed and looked away, slowly, and indirectly starting to tell him the story. "She's a really nice person, and I'd trust her with my life, as I have on occasion. Hungry?"

Keera had heard the two police men talking, all the way from her office down hall. She was doing her own paper work, and explaining to their boss why she looked so different. "The doctors said it might have something to do with my illness, but all I remember is being in a lot of pain last night before I got to the hospital. They don't understand why I changed though, sir." After her superior telling her it was alright, she hung up the receiver, and got up, walking to the closed door of the office that Stick and Kimura were working in and knocked. "It's Keera. Any news?"

[skyacezero]

"Well, now that you mention it, I am a little hungry," Darryl said. "So this sister you mentioned, Keera? Aside from being a nice person what else is she like?" he asked.

"Yeah, we just may have cracked this schoolgirl case AND the alleyway case wide open. Listen to this," Kimura hit PLAY on the tape player. "So you wanted us to help you cover or destroy any trace of evidence linking this guy to you?" a woman's voice said. "I swear, I didn't know. Not at first anyway. Gods forgive me but I had to protect him. He's my flesh and blood," Fujiwara's voice said. Kimura hit STOP. "We got an ID on the greaseball they mentioned?" Kimura asked Stick. "Yes, sir. Michiru Kurosawa," Stick said.

((By the way, the woman's voice, guess who?))

[Amara<3]

((haha, Lilith, maybe?))

"Okay, well... umm..." she said and opened a little bag that held a lot of items. She pulled out a still somewhat frozen steak in a package and sweatdropped. "I got them while you were asleep." She opened the package and started cooking it over the fire and holding it up with... water that came out of her palm? "My sister? Well, she's really stong, and has looked after me since we were both little, so she's very responsible. She's always trying to help people, and she became a police officer a while ago. A few nights ago she was tricked into working for some other very evil people, and she can't get out of it unless she dies. She saved me from them by joining, but I almost wish she didn't."

"Wonderful," Keera whispered after looking like a ghost went through her. "So, there's Fujiwara and Michiru. How are we going to find them and bust them?" she asked and stared at the tape. Lilith wasn't behind this... this atrocity. That was not happening. She was working on the police force, and with Lilith, though grudgingly of course, and completely planned on killing her eventually. Maybe this was her tough break with them after all. She now had three things to worry about. Her sister with that fallen one who somehow turned into a boy, lilith, and everything going on here... it was too bad they were all connected. It'd be so much easier if they weren't.

[skyacezero]

"Evil people?" Darryl said "Like who?" he asked. "If it's a problem, maybe I can help, just tell me who she's working for now," he offered.

"We're still working on finding them, but we'll get them sooner or later," Kimura said.

((Sorry for short post, but time isn't a luxury I have right now. Using a neighbor's computer))

[Amara<3]

((That's okay.))

"I don't really know who they are right now, but they changed her somehow. There's something wrong with her now, some insigna is on her and it can't be taken off unless she's killed first. I don't understand it, but I know she's in a lot of pain when she's actually trying to hide it. She's really beautiful, long blue-white hair, blue eyes, pale skin. I don't want her to die," Kaori said as she watched the meat cook. Not again, she thought.

"Good, I have a lot of paper work to catch up on. Let me know when you find them and I'll come help, okay?" Keera said a little too fast, like she was either excited, or completely spooked. If one looked at her face, they would know it was the latter. "If you'll excuse me," she said and backed out the door. "Good job so far though," then she walked away and disappeared into her office, closing the door lightly behind her.

[skyacezero]

Insignia. That word clicked something in Darryl's brain. "Insignia. As in 'Crest Insignia'?" he asked. 'There's just no way...' he thought.

Keera's office was filled with the scent of cigarette smoke. Sure enough, there sat Lilith, in a chair in the corner of Keera's office with her 'Master' peering through the shadows at her. Lilith exhaled smoke. "So I take it you heard everything?" she asked almost innocently.

[Amara<3]

"Umm... I don't know. Maybe," Kaori shivered. "Whatever it is.. she's stuck." She pulled out a package of paper plates and put the cooked staek on it, passing it to Darryl. She rumaged through the bad and found a new set of silver cutlery that she'd always boughten. Nothing like having all the money you need.

"Of course," Keera said rolling her eyes. "I do realize when you said you brought evil and what not here, to balance things out in this world, but this is ridiculus. Cut it out. how am I supposed to do my job if you get rid of the evidence?" She sat in her own chair and signed a paper before looking back at Lilith. Lilith's prescence didn't bother her anymore, and neither did the blood that was killed off in he blood stream that had belonged to Lilith. The prescence of their master seemed like nothing as well, for some reason. She had more respect for her Sensei than she did her 'master'.