Black and Scarlet

It was Saturday, 4: 30 in the afternoon.

This Kirika Hotsuin had received an all-too-important call from a mysterious man. She pulled out the cellphone in her pocket as she scanned the surroundings to ensure no one was watching her. Cellphones were very common amongst the people, and had given Kirika great help. It was a simple yet useful wireless apparatus for communication and holding it would not draw any suspicion from anyone.

"Hmhmhmhm, Super Galaxy King, you've gained a follower. I'm kind of a demon. But if there were demons beside me, I'd like to try to talk a little with them. Now that'd be nice. "Sup, name's Kira Hase, I'm a demon!" how does that sound for an introduction? That should be a good opportunity to make sure of it. If real demons exist or not...But your little scuffles with those La Pucelle goody-goodies interest me!" A suave voice answered over the other line; truthfully, Kirika was unimpressed. "Anyway, I'm a freelancer in a Dark Guild. My hobby is murder in general. I like kids and young women. Recently I'm back to sharpening my basis again."

"What are you getting at?" Kirika merely sighed over the other line, exasperated. "I'm not looking for a boyfriend. I feel nothing for anything of the sort. Besides, brutes like you displease me. Fright is about the feeling that you will die. The true meaning of terror doesn't lie in a static condition, but in a change―the instant when hope is turned into despair is what a true kill is. While it is wrong to prevent something from being born into the world, it is also wrong to prevent it from being removed from the world. As you stare upon your enemy, only then will both of you realize that it is time for your victim to depart."

Kira was no match for the creativity and perfect aesthetics of Kirika Hotsuin; who held such a vivid and moving "aesthetics of death" and deserved the greatest praises. "Cool! That little speech was wicked! That was super cool! You'd fit in with my friends here!" He was so bloodthirsty it would be unnerving for anyone else—but Kirika didn't seem to care.

"Guh," Kirika hissed. "Guys like you are really the worst. There's a difference between killing, murder, and slaughter. Only one is okay. I don't think that you would even understand what I believe in...However." On the other side of the phone, Kirika smirked, however momentarily it was. "A ruler does need her vassals, after all. You and your dork squad might as well prove useful to me."

The mass murderer Kira Hase finally felt adoration and respect from the depth of his heart for someone in this boring world. "Okay! I don't know about this world where might makes right, but I'll follow you! I'll help you in whatever you want. We'll kill more. There are plenty of sacrifices. Show me more of your coolness! So we'll meet in an hour, right?!" Kira suddenly hung up.

"You're nothing more than a pawn in a game played by a genuine master, Hase." Kirika smirked; to her, the forces of evil were characters in a story script, and she was the author.

Kirika let out a deep sigh; as she quickly dressed herself up. Slipping on a jet-black dress which reached down to her thighs, Kirika adopted thigh-high stockings and garters, topped off with black stiletto boots. This attire felt...oddly familiar; though not to Kirika herself. She scratched her head; obviously displeased at the prospect of going out to meet this man.

At the restaurant, the waitress smiled as she invited Kirika in. Of course, there was a somewhat stiff look on her smiling face. It seemed like this person was a part-time worker, and she couldn't handle something that wasn't mentioned in the manual.

Kirika chose to sit near the window. In Hargeon, seventy-five percent of the population were students, and normally, August 31st was a day where people were normally stuck in their houses finishing up their holiday homework. There might have been crowds during lunchtime, but it was already past lunchtime now.

Kirika casually looked outside a window. At that moment, she saw a white-cloaked person keeping his body down as he walked on the road.

"Ah?" The moment the man noticed Kirika looking at him, he acted like he had gotten an electric shock, and he scurried into a parked sports-car in the parking lot.

"That guy...isn't that the guy who's name I can't pronounce?" Kirika muttered.

This man was a researcher who was about thirty years old. He was a long-term assistant in the Human-God Project research. The experiment that had been calculated and simulated through a supercomputer was deemed to be flawed, and was now in temporary limbo. The researchers of the experiment should be going through the vast amount of information now, trying to find out where the problem occurred...

"That guy...what's he doing here...?" Kirika sighed as she simply watched him. What happened to the initial idea of contacting the researchers? Kirika couldn't help but lament. Right now, the man's sports-mobile had already vanished onto the roads.

"....Uh, lady, you're in my spot." A young-sounding voice asked Kirika—though it was soft, it had a certain menacing aura to it. Kirika actually took the time to look over at the person telling her such misinformation.

This person was a young man; scrawny, yet something androgynous, and he had short violet hair with green streaks, wore a white eye patch on his right eye, and he had his eyes closed. He wore a magenta leather jacket with a black fur collar; the jacket had a cross motif, with a green and black cross decorating the front and the forearms. His look was completed with plain black trousers and a pair of magenta sneakers. This guy looked definitely shifty and suspicious—like a leopard.

"Oh, no." Kirika corrected him as she brushed him off, "I do believe that I'm supposed to meet somebody here. You should scram, boy."

This young man was already irritated with Kirika already—slowly but surely, he discreetly withdrew a knife of anti-eternano particles and pressed it towards her. "You don't seem to understand. This seat is reserved for the Super Galaxy King—the one I wish to form an alliance with. Right now, I really want to reveal my true nature to you. I'd like to reveal my deep desires to you. I really want to touch your thin neck with my hands...and choke you to death."

Kirika merely smirked, as she simply held up a silver and black belt which had a triad of purple crystals engraved upon the buckle. "That's stupid. You do know that I AM the Super Galaxy King, right, you stupid boy?"

Kira immediately froze up, as he pointed towards Kirika in disbelief. "W-Wait! You...are...him!? But I thought—"

"In the armours of both the Super Galaxy King and the Phoenix Knight, there's a special function which distorts the voices of both to obscure our identities. While good ol' Phoenix Knight has a reason, I can't really seem to turn the damn thing off." She sighed. "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Kira was...dumbstruck.

Kirika's short white hair which reached down to her neck was as pure as the clouds; and her beautiful skin, which was white as snow, was remarkable.

"...Beautiful."

That was the only word to describe her in one word. That was the only word Kira needed to describe her.

He was fascinated by her beauty and enigmatic atmosphere.

How should he put it? Art? A body with a perfect shape and curves. Her body looked like one of those nude body paintings or statues shown at the museum.

Kira had the feeling that somebody far superior to him was standing right in front of him.

In his eyes, Kirika Hotsuin deserved the greatest in life. Feeling like dancing with joy, Kira grabbed the woman's hand and shook it. Talking with Kirika was no less moving than meeting a celebrity. The mass murderer Kira Hase finally felt adoration and respect from the depth of his heart for someone in this boring world.

"Oh, my...you're a woman! I honestly- I couldn't have called that. I mean, I would apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? The Super Galaxy King is a woman?" Kira couldn't say much more than that.

"Is that a problem?"

"Not really...I'm very equal-opportunity. Well, you have actually excellent bone structure there. I'm kinda having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" Kira flubbed his own words as he took a seat.

Kira's golden eyes, like a leopard's, stared at Kirika's beautiful violet gems which allowed her the ability of vision, mesmerized by her beauty. Once, Kira Hase saw a leopard in some animal program, and was enchanted by its elegance. He felt a connection with the brilliant modus operandi of the hunt. The leopard was the beast with a cool way of life that became his model, literally. Since then, Kira ended up being self-conscious of his image of a leopard.

He was always wearing clothes with something from a leopard. Jacket or pants, shoes or hat, or if that was too showy, he even had socks, handkerchief or gloves. He had an amber-coloured cat's-eye ring, always in his pocket even when he couldn't slip it on his middle finger, and he would always carry on himself a pendant made with a real fang. He styled himself after a leopard, attacking swiftly and ruthlessly—never leaving a mess with his kills.

The waitress placed the food in front of Kirika; who broke from her usual frown into something resembling a smile—though she attempted to mask it. Kira, asked, "Aside from that, I would like to extend my hand on behalf of my entire guild to you, Super Galaxy King."

Kirika seemed to ignore him; instead, she focused on her food. Kirika never had clear desires, but was still tormented by physiological needs, the foremost being food. She recognized eating as a desire, but only as a necessity for survival. The act of eating was simply a procedure of placing food into the stomach to prevent it from becoming empty. During her various trips between the worlds in order to find a desire that wasn't of sinister intentions, she had tried various dishes from both Edolas and Earth Land, and while she once anticipated that one of them could truly fill the emptiness in her heart, she found it to be a futile effort. While they could be called delicious and filling, they never brought any sense of fulfilment to her heart.

Acting mechanically, she could only put the dishes served into her mouth to fill her stomach and leave her seat without any emotion. Kirika had no expectations for the taste of food until unintentionally tasting Eastern-style curry with pork cutlets and wasabi. That specific curry was the only food capable of touching her heart and the only delicacy she recognized. While it looked like a mere disarrayed dish with several strips of crumbed pork piled on top, she was enamored by the dish's spiciness and the stimulating scorch on her tongue that brought an indescribable taste.

She believed that spiciness must be the ultimate experience of the sense of taste. Kirika placed several orders of it beforehand whenever she ate, devoured it fervently enough that she began to sweat, and she ate it at fast pace where she did not even pause once to drink; all the while, ignoring Kira, however, she did let out a brief "That's nice."

"If I may ask," Kira seemed somewhat put off that Kirika wasn't paying attention to what was, in his eyes, a very important matter. "What do you plan in the long run? I know you, of all people, have something schemed up."

"I," Kirika paused momentarily, seemingly unsure of her desires—but truth be told, she did have a plan. However, a pawn like Kira would not follow willingly if he realized what that was; so Kirika had to lie. "Here's a reason. Seems as good as any. I do all the wonderful things I do because I want to see the miserable look on the faces of people when they're wallowing in despair, dismay, grief, frustration, misery... all sorts of other unpleasant nouns. At least misery is interesting. I want a blood-soaked pit where others murder for my amusement! A world where I don't have to lift a finger for the world to fall apart around me! It'll be...glorious...!"

Kira grinned evilly at Kirika's plan; he wished for the exact same thing. This woman was simply divine—she deserved the best in life; like a diamond in the rough, she was. Kira believed that they suited each other exactly. Both were misunderstood, both were longing for the darkness, and neither could stand the concept known as 'good'. He felt himself falling in love with this dangerous woman every second that he was around her. "Amazing, amazing! There wouldn't be a finer hell than that, er..."

"Kirika Hotsuin."

"—K-Kirika, that's it! You're really amazing!" Kira continued to gabber on at her; he was just lost for words. "But how will we obtain this world?"

Kirika wiped her brow, plainly stating, "Have you ever heard the legends of Bevelle? There was a greedy king of a mysterious lost civilization, who wanted power more than anything else. Having four alchemists create life through a quartet of magic stones which became the symbiotes, beings of living desire; the moment that this happened, he declared that he had no need for the alchemists, the king turned them into symbiotes themselves; but a single one was capable of surviving. After he witnessed the birth of the symbiotes, he tore their souls out of their chests; creating the Philosopher's Stone. The King was insanely strong and controlled a large portion of Earth Land. He used the Driver Belt's knight form very efficiently; he cloned himself and destroyed neighbouring countries and their armies, using flight to his advantage and burned down villages that tried to oppose him. With his speed, he infiltrated enemy camps and struck quickly, also causing earthquakes and tsunamis to take down armadas. The symbiotes finally managed to get their souls back, but even when they were in their full form they couldn't defeat the King. The rest is history, but the Philosopher's Stone...it's a powerful magical artifact of amazing power—capable of granting wishes. If we nab the stone...we can create that world of chaos."

"But where's the Philosopher's Stone!?" Kira inquired, impatient—he wanted this world, and he wanted it now.

"I heard during the Human-Dragon War, the Philosopher's Stone was fused with the Berserk Light Dragon Indra, who was created to defeat the Tyrant Dragon Vritra. Right now...Indra has taken upon a new form; that of the Sagittarius Symbiote, known as Joker—the leader of my organization, the Zodiac Knights. I joined the Zodiac Knights so I could get closer to Joker and tear the Philosopher's Stone out of her...and then, the world would be mine!" Kirika seemed to hold back an all-too-evil cackle as she explained to Kira. "Believe it or not, I'm under heavy watch every waking moment I'm here, so I'll need a bit of help with prying the Philosopher's Stone from Joker's dead body."

Kira instinctively nodded. "Of course, of course! Now, you can count on me, no matter what happens, my guild, the Hell Seekers, will be at your every beck and call! Together, we'll create a true hell on earth!"

Kirika didn't seem too interested, though she masked it well, displaying fake eagerness. "Anyway, let me explain something. Okay, let's assume that I create a ruckus in this restaurant. Okay, let's assume that I ate a queen's meal. Now, who's my first enemy?"

"The worker!" Kira grinned evilly.

"That's right, so I killed the worker instantly. Just an instant. Who's next? The boss? I only need a moment just to kill him. All the Guilds next? Or the Magic Council? Those people are easier to handle; the more powerful the enemy's equipment, the stronger the reflection. Then...what next? It'll become something that the council can't handle, so will they ask for help from outside? But that's nothing, just some police, assault squads or armored squads. Thus, Earth Land couldn't handle it, foreign forces, Special Forces, assassination squads appear, and they couldn't handle me. Will it be an air raid? Will it end up with Etherion blasts all over the place?" Kirika then continued.

"How does that benefit me?" Even if she won in a world war with nuclear missiles flying everywhere, if all the humans in the world died, Kirika could only live on like a primitive person. If she wanted to live like a human, she had to live among humans. That was the problem for a person with the power to destroy. It was the same feeling as a president with her hand on a nuclear missile launch button. "It doesn't. I don't see the point in killing people wantonly; you should only aim for people you believe deserve it. Scum such as you only kill, and kill, and kill...it's disgusting. However."

As soon as Kirika added that final word, Kira stopped fretting and looked upwards at her. "You seem to be unique, however." Kirika took an effort to make herself look seductive as she leaned in closer, moaning in his ear, "You're the only one I can trust, Kira."