It was dawn. A silence reigned over the Red Panda District, where the Red Panda Mercenaries were based and operated. Why did this silence reign over this Japanese architectural complex? It is because one of their princesses is in dilemma.

  Naohiko Nishizawa sat in a traditional fashion, on his knees with a short table before him. So did Evelyn Nishizawa and Franz Cole before him. Naohiko’s Executives waiting outside of the shoji, their shadows imprinted on the paper.

  “And you two don’t have a single clue of why this happened?” Naohiko demanded from them. Evelyn is one of the princesses here and Franz being their bodyguard. If anyone knew, Naohiko believed it was them.

  “Dad, no. if I did, I would have stopped this,” Evelyn defended herself. Evelyn was the closest to her so, she was feeling the most stress out of anyone. “Was it really the right thing to lock her in the shed?”

  “When I was becoming a monster, my father did the same to me… He came to speak to me in intervals and calm me down,” Naohiko explained. Recalling his father, he turned to their family heirloom and did a prayer to it. “I tried to reach to her for some time now and nothing is working.”

  “Franz, why are you so quiet?” Naohiko questioned the pale-blonde haired boy. “Do you have any ideas?”

  Franz was feeling some extent to Naohiko’s presence, “I noticed her behaving differently ever since the Cult of Jason’s festival… She disappeared and came back later.”

  “We’re just running in circles, dammit!” Naohiko slammed his hand on the short table and broke it. This made them both feel terrible. He glared at Franz, “Does it not affect your pride as a warrior?”

  “Yes, it does…” Franz gripped his fists so hard that it was turning slightly purple.

  “Tsk. Lynn, she wants to see you,” Naohiko allowed Franz to stay in his misery and got back to topic.

  “Lynn isn’t a monster; she’ll kill her instantly!” Franz argued, seeing that idea as complete madness.

  “When I was trying to reach out for her, she demanded to see Lynn,” Naohiko explained why. “We need to reach to her before we can’t contain in the shed anymore.”

  “Lynn, you’re the only one who can save her.”

  “So does that mean you’ll finally teach me to use my powers?” Evelyn asked in excitement. She was always marveled at the ideas of these abilities, the magic to it.

  “Hell no, you’re not facing her by yourself,” Naohiko refused to let the both of them become monsters. “Franz will be going in there with you.”

  “Boy, don’t disappoint me,” Naohiko said strongly to him, “Or Lu Bu.”

  “I won’t strike out twice,” Franz declared boldly.

  “Now you two get out of here…”

  Naohiko gave them a fatherly smile, “Time is Money, and you already know I hate wasting money…”

  “Franz, make sure that she doesn’t take a bite out of any of you!” He warned them both harshly as they stepped out of the shoji. “If she [Feeds], there’s no chance of saving her.”

  ~//~

  As they walked closer to the shed, a strange eeriness suffocated their hearts. Franz’s chest was also matched with frustration, in himself. Being unable to protect her and leading to her corruption, he only blamed himself.

  Evelyn’s chest was an array of emotions. The most dominant being fear for her and what would happen after, she couldn’t imagine losing her. But, secretly within, was curiosity of how these powers and what they could ultimately lead to.

  “I should have been there for her…” Franz muttered, unable to keep his anxieties within. Gripping a spear that he took form the armory, he had to be careful of not breaking it.

  “Franz, we were all over the place that night,” Evelyn tried to make the heavy situation lighter. She thought that blaming oneself wouldn’t help. “Even I disappeared from you, you aren’t to blame.”

  “I should have searched after you all than get distracted,” Franz said in shame. Recalling that night as he got into several arm-wrestling matches. Too eager to show off his strength.

  “Franz, be happier that she isn’t alive… I know it hurts your warrior’s pride but,” Evelyn faked a smile as she spoke. She always knew how to make people feel better, “Would Lu Bu sulk this long?”

  “No…” Franz affirmed his ambitions and smiled with her. “It is not an aspect of a warrior.”

  “I’ll do better.”

  They were inevitably near to the shed now. About to face a moment in their lives that will change everything.

  “But I’ll be honest too, even though I’m bat shit terrified of what will happen to her…

  ” She leaned against the shed’s door and could feel a very notable presence inside. As if she couldn’t ignore it and it was calling out for her. “I am a bit curious.”

  “About what?” Franz asked her as he prepared to defend. They only had one shot at this and no matter what, they couldn’t allow her to [Feed].

  “About the powers she gained,” Evelyn answered honestly. Feeling large presence beginning to move within the shed. “And if she will keep them when we save her.”

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  “Lynn, you know there’s a low chance of the old man allowing you to learn them too,” Franz scoffed and folded his arms. “You’re still his little princess.”

  “I am just curious about this world that you all keep me from,” Evelyn placed her hands on the shed door’s handle. Closing her eyes and imaging the possibilities. “Since I feel like I belong in it.”

  Evelyn pulled up the metal door and entered the dark space. Coming into to it, they could see her in her full glory.

  There she was, Lauri Nishizawa, even as a monster she looked gorgeous. Her body sharply different from before.

  Her skin glowed white and her eyes were perfect red, with no pupil. Her hair was replaced with a cobra’s hood, made of white scales with hues of purple at the end, also having sharp spines at both ends. Her arms were replaced with huge spines, both being vipers. Her lower body was now extremely long and being a snake’s.

  “Lynn!!” Lauri screamed at the sight of her.

  Evelyn thought Lauri looked majestic, like what she sees in the illegal manga her granddad left her. She steeled her resolve and reached out for her sister, “Lauri! Snap out of it! Tell me what happened that night!”

  Lauri rushed after her and sent her snakes spiraling for Evelyn. The black-haired girl was fearless in the sight of danger.

  Franz intercepted the attack in time and with great strength, he pushed the snakes off, “Make it snappy, Lynn!”

  “Lauri! Dammit!” Evelyn was realizing that they were moving too fast for her normal self. “We just want to save you! Tell us what’s wrong!?”

  Lauri was set on getting Lynn. Bringing her snakes up, they spewed a toxic cloud from their fangs at her.

  “Dong Zhuo!” Franz wasn’t slowing down. In his hands appeared a decapitated head of a hairy, Asian man. It had glowing eyes and upon summoning it, a cyclone of visible kinetic energy enveloped him and Evelyn. Blowing away the toxic cloud from them.

  “Don’t leave this cyclone… and don’t talk to the floating head,” Franz warned Evelyn as he glared at Lauri. She wouldn’t look at him, her target was Evelyn. He analyzed the spear he was wielding, being to break at his massive strength.

  Evelyn was mesmerized by the display of powers; it was the first she was witnessing it. Wanting to know more but her desire to save Lauri being stronger. The floating head laughed at the scene.

  “Where did you run off to that night!?” Evelyn continued with her questions. She stayed in the cyclone and allowed Franz to deflect her attacks. “Who did you go see!?”

  As the questions became more specific, Lauri’s attacks became more complicated. Giving Franz an extremely hard time as he tried not to break his weapon.

  “I knew you had a crush on him…” Evelyn thought deeply about it and came to a clue. “Does have something to do with Kayne Mauter!?”

  Upon hearing that name, a sinister howl erupted from Lauri. Shaking the dark shed, her mouth stressed to release such a terrifying sound. Franz and Evelyn stopped to witness such pain, taking the scream as an answer.

  Lauri planted her snakes into the ground and hundreds of other serpents rose up. With so many and all aimed at Evelyn, Franz had to move quickly. Evelyn found such a display of power to be remarkable, she had a mad grin on her face.

  “Heaven's Splitter!” Holding tightly to the spear, he dragged it with as much kinetic force as he could muster. Lacerating through every generated serpent! He displayed too much power, and Dong Zhuo stopped the kinetic energy cyclone.

  His spear then shattered from the overexertion, “Shit!”

  Lauri rushed after Evelyn but, with a massive leap Franz grabbed her by the neck and pinned her down.

  “Lynn! Stay back, it’s either I harm you by accident or she kills you!” Franz said sternly, Lauri was growing stronger the more they fought. “We got the clue we needed; we should go!”

  “No!” Evelyn refuted, getting unbelievably close to Franz as he pinned her down. She thought there was so much more to hear, so much more to see, “We’re so close to the truth.”

  With a fearless and stubborn expression, Evelyn asked, “What did Kayne do?”

  Lauri released another devastating roar. Planting one of the snakes into the ground, hundreds of serpents dragged Franz into the air.

  “Dammit Lynn!” Franz said in horror as Lauri recovered. The serpents trapped him to the ground, as he tore through them more came. They suddenly charged with much stimulus and exploded! Stunning Franz as he barely survived.

  In those seconds of defeat, Lauri charged at Evelyn. Using her hood’s spine, she plunged them into Evelyn’s chest. Trembling as her sister’s blood soaked her.

  Franz got up in his bloody state and slowly marched towards them. Witnessing the sad scene in a stubborn shame.

  Despite killing Evelyn, Lauri didn’t succumb to her natural urges to eat her. Instead, the girl cried. Muttering her sister’s name repeatedly as her body grew cold and numb. Even though Evelyn was dying, she embraced her monstrous sibling. As nothing could be truer than their love.

  Franz stood over them, his body also being at the brink of death. He wondered, should he kill them while they were still sane? Or accept his shame and leave.

  “She’s finally talking to me…” Evelyn suddenly muttered. Horns were beginning to grow out of her head. She wasn’t dying, she was turning into a monster. Her sclera was becoming black, “Leave… We want to be alone.”

  “I can’t leave you too like this,” Franz muttered in horror. Gripping his fist to the point it bled.

  “Franz… She is finally talking to me,” Evelyn’s hair was changing, becoming from human to feathers. She looked back at him with teary eyes, “Please…”

  “Come back when she is finished.”

  Reluctantly, he stepped out of the shed. Feeling no movement from the inside, he leaned against the metal door and dropped to the door. His body was badly damaged, he knew he should have gone to get help. But he was so ashamed of himself.

  The only warrior’s honor he could have kept was by dying right there.

  “You idiot, I know everything that happened.” A voice awoke Franz from his hopelessness. It was Sharpay Bruce, one of Naohiko’s executives and his adoptive mother.

  “I thought this was just a mission for myself,” Franz couldn’t bear to look in her eyes. He was already disappointed in himself; he didn’t want to see it in her too.

  “Nishizawa said it was but… I couldn’t let my baby boy go in there by himself,” A strange capsule appeared in her hands. She brought it near Franz and suddenly, he was perfectly healed and even his clothes regenerated. “I sent back a scout with a report of what happened already. You need to stay with the girls.”

  “I already lost them,” Franz muttered to her. She always tried her best to comfort him.

  “No… None of them have [Fed] yet, we can still save them,” Sharpay embraced the helpless boy. “You just need to go in there before the Nishizawa princess loses her mind too.”

  “Stop lowering your head, that isn’t a warrior’s pride.”

  ~//~

  “So that’s what happened,” Naohiko said in a serious tone as he weighed his options. Franz and Sharpay managed to get the essential clues from Evelyn before she became a monster. Now, all of Naohiko’s executives and Franz were in his room to comfort him.

  They were given two essential clues. One, it had to do with someone who was at Luluwa’s party. Two, the said person was also at The Cult of Jason’s Parade. They didn’t want to pin the blame on Kayne since he was too valuable to the Confederation.

  They couldn’t make the Confederation an enemy.

  “So, what are we gonna do, Big Boss?” Josina asked Naohiko with her usual rabid expression. She had very wild animal shackled to her. “Let’s give them some beatings.”

  “We can’t jump to conclusions about this,” Sharpay gave her input. Without her at times, the Red Panda Mercenaries would have many enemies.

  “I knew it would have something to do with that little bunch,” Naohiko muttered. Giving a ritualistic prayer to their family heirloom, he turned back to his executives, “Keizer, Elijah, I need you two to do something.”

  “Go and get the King of the Damned’s little brother.”