Kiochi opened his eyes as the morning suns rays danced in his room.

Dalila had dished out a flurry of emotions at him the previous night, but Kiochi understood some of what she felt and so he didn’t hold any of what she said against her.

What made this particular morning special for Kiochi was the dream he had experienced.

Visions of Mako Watanabe’s death and his rampage within the forest all made one thing very clear to Kiochi.

I didn’t kill Ena. Kiochi realized.

He didn’t know what exactly happened to her, but he knew that he didn’t even see her after the confrontation with Kaede.

Kiochi sighed.

Maybe I should ask Mai about Ena. He thought.

Kiochi let out a sombre yawn to greet the day. He sluggishly got up wore his clothes and left his room, to find Dalila standing by the door.

“Good morning.” Kiochi greeted.

She looked at him with an innocent expression, much unlike the one she wore the night before.

“Good morning, sir.” She whispered.

Kiochi could see her ears light up as she bashfully covered her mouth.

“Will you question me about our mission today?” Kiochi smugly asked.

She shook her head slowly.

“Good.” Kiochi said as he left for the communal showers on the first floor.

[Did I miss anything good?]

Kiochi heard a familiar voice cheekily ask.

‘There you are! And no, Eve. You didn’t miss “anything good”, because nothing happened.’

Kiochi said internally as he descended the stairs in the center of the old school building.

[Good. Now is not the time to be getting distracted anyway.]

Eve pointed out.

‘I know.’ Kiochi confirmed.

Kiochi took a quick shower, got dressed and made his way towards what was the new war room.

Kiochi entered the room next to his to find the usual suspects as they plotted courses and made plans.

David, Yassin and Dr. Tahiri were discussing something about robots and something about Yassine’s ability while Mai, Johan, Rin and Ichika were in a heated discussion about how to structure their troops, but once

Kiochi entered the room, everyone lowered their voices.

Kiochi wasn’t used to this.

Usually, he would be the one awaiting attentively for orders from his superiors, but as of that moment, he was the highest ranking person in the room.

“As you were.” Kiochi said and everyone resumed their conversations, albeit at a lower volume.

Kiochi approached David’s group.

“Like I was saying, Yassine is possibly one of the few humans who can sense Ethereal energy. It would be stupid of us to rule out the possibility that others out there can’t.” David said to a skeptic Dr. Tahiri.

“I seriously doubt that humans, even with Yassine’s gift, can truly sense Ethereal energy.” Dr. Tahiri said.

“Yassine can sense Ethereal energy?” Kiochi asked.

“Ah, yes and every time Yassine goes near the Ovum Vitae, he experiences the presence of Ethereal energy as heat. My belief is that there are others, although possibly rare, who are the same as Yassine.” David explained.

“I see.” Kiochi noted.

“Yes and I’m starting to believe that Ethereal energy is an integral part of the universe and if we can somehow safely harness it, we could propel mankind into a future where we no longer have to worry about how long the lights will stay on. Yes, nuclear power plants and renewable energy sources are doing fine for now, but I think that Ethereal energy will be more cost efficient.” David explained.

Kiochi gave him a nod and walked over to the main table were his lieutenant’s were still arguing.

“We don’t need that many people defending the school!” Johan Argued.

“I must disagree with you there, Mr. Johan. The council could send a team of Kynigoi to attack us and we would be vulnerable since our main force was unavailable.” Ichika pointed out.

“Fine, let’s see what the commander thinks.” Johan said as he turned to Kiochi for support.

“Sir, how do you think our men should be structured. Personally, I think that since we specialize in covert operations and heavy hitting.” Johan proposed.

Kiochi thought about his idea, he couldn’t argue with Johan's logic.

Almost everyone in the building was trained in covert operations and performed best in assault scenarios. But defense was just as important.

Kiochi had a gut feeling that the future would soon present then with battles where they’d be on the receiving end of the damage.

Flashes of open warfare hinted themselves in Kiochi’s mind.

Kiochi glanced at Rin, who had his eyes glued on a tablet which displayed their total man power.

“What do you think, Rin?” Kiochi asked.

Rin looked at Kiochi with cold, unfeeling eyes, then gave his two cents.

“We have a handful people. One ten or so should be retrained to fit defensive roles, another ten should focus on the assault side of things while the remaining people should be a mixed division which can perform both roles.” Rin said.

Johan and Ichika exchanged glances before turning to Kiochi.

“That sounds good. We’ll begin training as soon as possible. You three are now the heads of these three divisions. Johan, you will lead the assault division, Rin will lead the mixed division and Ms. Hashimoto will lead the defense decision. Feel free to subdivision your respective divisions the way you see fit.” Kiochi instructed.

“ “ Yes sir!” “ All of lieutenant’s, except Rin, confirmed.

The day went along rather smoothly as each of Kiochi’s lieutenant’s took command over their decisions.

One group, however, worried Kiochi and that was the group of Kynigoi trainees that Mai arrived with.

Yes, they had said that they wanted to follow Kiochi, but Kiochi wasn’t sure about where their loyalties lied. He didn’t have a problem with anyone who didn’t support their cause, but he didn’t want any of those people to be included in the ranks of people who were willing to give their lives for the cause.

Kiochi also wanted to discuss some things with Mai Hashimoto and so he would be killing two birds with one stone.

The evening came and Kiochi descended down a short flight of stairs and made his way towards the living quarters section of the school.

Along the way, he was greeted with enthusiastic salutes from his men who worked tirelessly as they transformed the school into a military outpost.

Kiochi finally reached Mai Hashimoto’s quarters. It was a room on the farthest end of the building. Actually, all of the Kynigoi were set up there.

It would seem as though the mercenaries weren’t too comfortable with having super human soldiers in the same space them.

Kiochi knocked on Mai's door once and shortly she opened the door and let him in. The room was pretty large and decently decorated, considering it was once an office.

Mai wore military overalls that had been rolled down to her waist and a grey tank top.

She sat on her bed and gestured that Kiochi sit on the chair next to it.

Kiochi did so and the two sat in silence for a while.

“I remember everything now. The forest, Kaede, Izanagi… Mako.” Kiochi said.

Mai’s expression changed from one of curioosity to one of concern.

“Do remember anything that could have made Izanagi hate you the way he does now?” Mai asked.

“No. I know I didn’t kill Ena.” Kiochi said.

“Ena? As in, that girl who we found near the camp? She’s not dead. After the rescue team pulled her out of her tent, she was taken straight back to the main camp where she continued her training.” Mai said.

Kiochi’s jaw dropped, because if that was true, then it would mean that Izanagi killed Mr. Takahashi for nothing.

Kiochi clenched his fists in frustration.

Mai saw this, got up and proceeded to run her hand through Kiochi’s hair in an attempt to quell his anger.

“Was that why he was angry?” Mai asked.

“Yeah.” Kiochi said.

“But if he really cared about her that much, why didn’t he ask the council about her?” Mai wondered.

“I don’t know. Natasha Lebedev claimed that he and another named Hanzo were S ranked Kynigoi. Following the logic of the Kynigoi ranks, he should have been able to access information on Ena quite easily.” Kiochi said.

“S ranked Kynigoi?” Mai gasped.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Yeah and according to Ms. Lebedev, they are specially designed to be effective against even the Aethon’s. I fought and won against Hanzo, but the fight was a mess. It looked like he didn’t know what he was doing. Almost as though he had never seen real combat before then.” Kiochi said.

“Well, that would explain quite a lot. If the S ranked Kynigoi are a unit that was specifically created to fight against the Aethon’s come judgement day, and if the technology required to make them is a expensive as I think it is, then it would make sense that the council kept them hidden until now. Think about it. It would be a shame if an S ranked Kynigoi were to lose their life in a skirmish against some human rebels.” Mai said.

The two silently digested their findings.

Kiochi liked the feeling of Mai's fingers on his head, but he felt an incredible amount of guilt when he thought about how he robbed her of her left arm.

[I can fix it.]

Eve said suddenly.

‘What?’ Kiochi wondered.

[Her arm. I can give her a new one. Although we’d need to refuel on Ethereal energy.]

Eve said.

Kiochi hesitated. He didn’t want to give Mai the false hope that she would ever get her arm back, even if it was remotely possible.

[Trust me.]

Eve assured Kiochi.

‘Do you know that always saying “trust me" doesn’t automatically make you reliable?’ Kiochi snickered.

[What else can I say that could change your mind?]

‘It’s not that… ugh! Fine!’ Kiochi surrendered.

“Um- ma’am. Can you give me a moment. I’ll be right back.” Kiochi said as he stormed out of the room.

Mai sat herself where Kiochi once sat and waited.

Meanwhile, Kiochi dashed excitedly through the halls of his newly found HQ as he made his way to the temporary lab area. He burst through the double doors and found himself in a semi complete lab.

It was still quite early in the evening and so numerous work was still in progress.

Kiochi made sure not to disturb any of his men as they went about their business.

“Stop right there!” Kiochi heard a man say. Kiochi turned and saw the flustered face of a construction worker.

Actually, most of the construction personnel were mercenaries who had a background in engineering or similar departments.

“Uh- good evening sir. I apologize, but this is a construction site and all personnel are required to wear safely equipment.” The construction worker handed Kiochi his hard hat.

Kiochi hurriedly accepted it and dashed towards a large case surrounded by numerous smaller cases which were part of a collection of crates and cases that contained the machines and devises that would soon fill the lab.

Kiochi opened a particular case and within it was the Ovum Vitae. He placed his hand on it and his body automatically began absorbing Ethereal energy.

Yassine was right. Kiochi thought.

Ethereal energy had the same effect on the senses as heat.

After a minute or so, Eve told him that his reserves were full. This made Kiochi wonder how much Ethereal energy the Ovum Vitae contained. He wondered how much his body could contain in comparison to the Ovum Vitae.

Kiochi shook those thoughts away as he prepared to run back to Mai's room. He closed the case and turned to leave, when a construction worker asked.

“Sir, if you don’t mind, could you umm… could you transform again?” He asked.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and focused all of their attention on Kiochi.

What am I, a mascot? Kiochi wondered.

“Sorry about this one sir, I’ll make sure to discipline him-"

“Not necessary.” Kiochi cut off the worker he met earlier.

‘Eve…’

Kiochi sighed.

‘Final form.’

Eve complied and his body changed accordingly. His black form stood out against the white cement found all around the construction site and the workers almost stared in awe at Kiochi.

[Ok, now back to work!]

Kiochi accidentally said through his new mouth, which made his voice sound like the voices of a anguished souls in unison.

All of the workers resumed their duties, Kiochi reverted back into his normal form and ran back towards Mai's room. He entered to find her in the same position he left her.

“Ma’am, could you lay on the floor for me?” Kiochi innocently asked.

Mai tilted her head in confusion.

“The floor?” She asked skeptically.

“Yes please.” Kiochi said.

Mai wondered what he was up to but gave up as she had absolutely no clue what Kiochi had in store. She did as instructed and Kiochi placed his hands above her chest.

“Kiochi…” She droned skeptically.

“Uh- no! Don’t worry, it’s nothing like that. Just trust me.” He said frantically.

Mai narrowed her eyes momentarily before lowering her guard.

[You see? It even works when you do it.]

Eve remarked.

‘Shut it!’ Kiochi said.

Kiochi sighed, then suddenly, black vines emerged from his skin.

Hundreds at first, but then those hundreds branched off into thousands, which branched out into many more veins that covered Mai’s body.

“Kiochi! What are you doing?” She asked. Her breathing became frantic as the veins enclosed her.

The cocoon Kiochi had once built before was now assembling itself around Mai.

“Don’t worry. This is just my way of apologizing.” Kiochi said.

“A letter would have been fine!” Mai remarked as the last of the cocoon formed. She was now completely sealed within the cocoon.

[BEGINNING PHASE TWO]

Kiochi felt as though his very life was being drained from him, but he knew that this was just the process of filling the cocoon with that mysterious white fluid.

Kiochi sat on the floor as Eve worked on the cocoon.

The process itself was rather boring and so Kiochi accidentally fell asleep.

.

..

[Kiochi.]

Kiochi heard Eve's voice in the darkness that was his sleep.

What Eve didn’t know was that her voice had a lullaby effect on Kiochi’s mind.

[KIOCHI!]

Eve yelled, snapping Kiochi into the waking world. He rubbed his eyes and stumbled over to the cocoon.

'How long has it been?’ Kiochi asked.

[About an hour. She should be ready now.]

Eve reported.

Kiochi dug his nails into the seams found around the cocoon and ripped it open.

That oh so familiar sweet smell assaulted his senses, but he had other things to worry about. He looked at Mai’s submerged body and saw it.

A completely new left arm.

‘

What the-'

[See? I told you I could do it.]

Eve remarked.

Kiochi ignored her and grabbed Mai and pulled her upper body out of the cocoon.

Gasp!

Choke!

Cough!

Cough!

Mai loudly coughed as her air starved lungs took in as much air as they could.

After a few minutes, Kiochi helped Mai out of the cocoon and gently placed her on her bed. She silently stared at her arm and then at Kiochi.

Kiochi waited for her full reaction but was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes.

“What did you do to me?” She asked.

Kiochi’s heart sank.

He was confused by her reaction.

“Uh- Umm…" Kiochi couldn’t excuse himself for what he had done. Even with all the advancements in technology and science, mankind still couldn’t replicate what nature had created.

Augments and artificial limbs were all just cheap imitations, but Kiochi had somehow managed to give her a real arm.

“I’m sorry.” Kiochi apologized, but Mai stood up and hugged him with both arms as though she had done so a thousand times before.

“You have nothing to apologize for, it’s just that this… this is unbelievable.” She said as she wept.

Kiochi couldn’t tell if they were tears of joy or not.

Kiochi and Mai held each other for a moment before finally letting go. She sat on her bed as she flexed her new arm. She didn’t look like she was happy to have it back, but at the same time looked a bit relieved to have two arms again.

This greatly confused Kiochi.

“Wow, this feels just like my arm used to.” Mai exclaimed.

[Except the one I made her is twice as good. Right Kiochi?]

Eve asked while pointing her non existent nose upwards.

‘Yeah, sure. You did a great job.’ Kiochi metaphorically patted Eve’s head.

“Just so you know, I never blamed you for what happened.” Mai said.

Kiochi sat down next to her and lowered his head.

“The council didn’t treat us much better either way. That’s why I loved being the Head of Kynigoi training. It took me away from all of the fights and all of the unanswered questions.” She continued.

“But now I’m fighting and it’s not because I have no choice, it’s because I choose to. Thank you for that.” Mai said.

Kiochi was beginning to hate conflict in it’s many forms, but he also knew that he’d need to fight in order to achieve his goals. He stood up and prepared to leave.

The sun had long set and he wanted to rest before his work as commander began.

“Wait!” Mai called out.

Kiochi turned around and saw that she looked conflicted about something.

Kiochi wasn’t very good with reading people’s faces, so he wasnt sure why she was flustered.

“Yes?” Kiochi asked.

“Are you going to your room?” She softly asked.

Kiochi’s eyes narrowed.

“Yes.” Kiochi said hesitantly.

Mai removed her soaked socks and crawled further up her bed.

“You could sleep here if you want.” Mai said softly.

Kiochi’s heart began racing.

Of all the Kynigoi, Kiochi respected Mai the most. She was strong, really strong and had the power to command literal armies, but Kiochi realized that something within her changed all those years ago.

Just like him, she slowly began hating the council. She hated the way they operated and over time, she became more passive and played a non lethal role within the Kynigoi ranks.

Kiochi clenched his fists slightly as he looked into Mai's eyes which warmly welcomed him. He trembled at the thought of Camila when she tried the same thing.

This scene was vastly different.

Mai wasn’t a puppet of the councils anymore so Kiochi walked over to the bed.

His heart beat was at it’s highest possible speed and his neurons were firing frantically.

Mai acknowledged his presence and crossed her pale white legs.

Kiochi removed his jacket, revealing his perfectly toned torso.

This was partially thanks to Eve, but he had always possessed a rugged build. He kicked off his boots, removed his pants, threw off his socks and climbed into Mai's bed.

Mai stretched out her arms, grabbed Kiochi’s head and pulled him towards her.

Kiochi sunk into her bosom and that’s where he remained. His heart ran wild as his brain recorded every tiny detail about Mai's body.

Her temperature.

The timing between her every breath.

Her smell.

Kiochi held onto her tightly and as the night went on, Kiochi’s heart slowly returned to its normal state and he eventually found sleep.

.

..

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

“Yassine! Get up!” Yassine heard someone yell from outside his room in the early hours of the morning.

It was David Freeman and he sounded pretty frustrated.

Yassine got up, got dressed and left his room, which was located in the living area of the base. He was greeted by David’s grumpy face and the two made their way towards the war room, but David stopped Yassine before they arrived the first set of stairs that led to the war room.

“Wait! Go get Ms. Hashimoto. Her rooms in the farthest part of the west wing. Go on, hurry!” David yelled.

Yassine did as he was told, although he wasn’t looking forward to working with David if he was always going to be this grumpy.

Yassine jogged through the many various halls and corridors that led to the west wing, making sure not to disturb any of the early construction work.

Yassine finally arrived at Mai room.

KNOCK!

Yassine softly knocked.

He hesitated because he knew that Mai was somehow related to Kiochi and he had once sworn to never get on Kiochi’s bad side.

A minute passes, then several and Yassine feared whatever words David was going to utter if he took any longer than was necessary.

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

Yassine knocked. This time a little harder.

Still, no one responded.

Yassine’s nerves gave in and he twisted the door knob and opened the door.

“Ms. Hashimoto, are you in ther-" Yassine stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he saw the scene within the room.

He saw Kiochi tightly clinging to Mai on her bed. The two were entangled to tightly it looked as though no force in the cosmos could separate them.

That and their semi naked bodies stuck to each other so tightly, it looked as though their bodies were melting into one another.

Yassine shivered at the thought that it was he who would have been responsible for the separation of Kiochi and Mai.

Yassine tried backing away and closing the door, when Kiochi suddenly raised his head.

“Yassine is that you?”

Yassine’s heart sank.

“Yes, It’s me. David said he wants Ms. Hashimoto up in the war room.” Yassine said nervously.

Kiochi grunted at this.

“Ma’am.” Kiochi called out to the woman in his arms.

Mai didn’t respond, instead she clung on even tighter.

“Ma’am, it’s time to get up.” Kiochi said.

“Don’t call me ma’am, it’s weird. Call me Mai.” She said, half asleep.

“Uh- ok, Mai… get up." Kiochi said.

Yassine cursed himself for ruining such a moment. He vowed to push the job of waking Kiochi up to someone else.

“Ok, I’ll get up.” Mai said as she sat up.

She let out a cute yawn before realizing that Yassine was staring at her half naked body, which was brightly illuminated by the window that faced the morning sun.

Yassine quickly left the room, closed the door, but paused when a certain thought struck him.

“How old is Kiochi again?” He muttered.

He shook the thought off and ran towards the war room.

Yassine arrived and found an already busy David Freeman, who was tinkering with a spherical device.

Yassine had seen David working on it back at Saito headquarters as well.

“Uh, Ms. Hashimoto is on her way.” Yassine reported.

David grunted in acknowledgement.

Yassine leaned in to get a closer look at the device David was tinkering on.

“What is that?” Yassine asked.

David paused for a moment before giving Yassine an answer.

“It’s a battery.” David said straightforwardly.

Yassine was fascinated by the batteries design.

“What does it power?” Yassine asked.

“The more important question would be: what powers it? The Calcarea machine theoretically runs on Ethereal energy but I can’t seem to get it to work. Yamamoto would have been able to crack this thing in a matter of hours but- you know…” David’s said.

Yassine nodded in acknowledgement and a moment later, Mai and Kiochi entered the war room.

Both of them had bright smiles on their faces and even David was taken aback by their almost gleeful appearance.

“Did I miss something?” David asked Yassine suspiciously.

“Um- no, I’m sure it’s nothing!”

Yassine blurted out nervously.

He Didn’t want to be the one to tell David and so Yassine decided that it would be best if David found out for himself.