There is a legend that circulates in Shizume city. A man who possesses demonic power of raging flames.

The legend of one monster.

That man leads his followers, strolling around destroying thugs who have been active in the underworld. The people who want to become a comrade of that man are often burned by his flames and die but the ones who overcome the flames and survive obtain a "power".

His eye have the gold color of a fierce carnivorous beast's and his hair has the color of burning flames.

Finger nails tapped against the wooden countertops. Almost fifteen minutes then Koyuki was done her shift for the day and had plans to reunite with her couch. Despite the restaurant being filled with people, mostly a party of a group with blue long jackets, it wasn't very busy and time didn't want to pass. Koyuki lifted herself from the counter to respond to a waving hand at one of the tables with three people.

"Excuse me, can I have a coffee?" One of the males at the table asked.

"Sure, I'll be right back with it." Koyuki smiled sweetly. Turning around on her heels, she walked into the kitchen to brew some coffee. One of her co-workers walked up to her and shoved a platter with some drinks into her arms.

"Here's the drinks for table 7. I'm going on my break." Mariko ordered. "Back in a few." Mariko came as fast as she left with Koyuki unable to react. She sighed while taking out her phone and replying to a text she got from her best friend. She grabbed the plate and walked onto the floor but was soon stopped. A brown haired boy holding a skateboard yelled at a customer and looked as if things were going to get heated. The group wearing the blue coats, known as Scepter 4, stood up from their table with their hands on their swords ready to unsheathe. One of them stood confidently with his hands in his pockets who seemed to be the one that the skater was shouting at but he only smiled.

"Dammit Monkey you traitor."

"This Strain is property of Scepter 4. I have no right to release it." Fushimi spoke pushing up his glasses.

"Since when were you about following orders?" The skater asked.

"Since wiping my ass of HOMRA… Mi-sa-ki." This seemed to have struck a nerve on the beanie wearing skater, next thing they knew, tables were flying across the room.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that? It's Yata now." He shouted throwing a plate like a frisbee at the crowd of Scepter 4. The member that stood closest to Yata used his sword to slice it in half but had no time to block the oncoming skater who swung his baseball bat around. All other customers ran out of the building running away from the brawl. It was hardly fair, one versus five until a fat tanned guy comes through the door and looks around before running into the brawl to aid his solo comrade. Koyuki ducks down behind the counter avoiding flying objects.

"Kamamoto." Yata called.

"I got you covered bro." The fat guy reassured taking on a few of the blue jackets.

"Who needs HOMRA? Who needs loyalty?" Fushimi shouted swinging his sword at Yata who was dodging and blocking with his skateboard. It grew very hot like they were in a furnace.

"How dare you talk about HOMRA like that?" Yata yelled.

"You'd rather join the Blue Butts? That's pretty lame." The fat guy shouted. Fushimi ran a hand through his black hair and smirked.

"I bow to no one." Fushimi swung his sword at Yata who managed to block it with his board and got sent through the glass onto the sidewalk outside. Fushimi jumped off of the window ledge and leapt through the air. The tanned fat guy, Kamamoto, soon followed his buddy and dashed after Fushimi. Scepter 4 followed the leader. Koyuki was left by herself in a room that looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane. The door behind her squeaked open.

"Oh my gosh, what happened here?" Mariko asked almost dropping a glass of water she was carrying then she eyed Koyuki sitting on the ground behind the counter with her arms behind her neck. "Why didn't you do anything about this?" She didn't move. "Koyuki." Mariko half shouted.

"Hm?"

"Why didn't you do anything about this? All of our customers are gone and so is our paycheck."

"I'm sorry." She said. Mariko huffed.

"You better get going before the boss shows up tonight." Koyuki nodded before going to clock out at the back.

Koyuki walked through Shizume City's central park and waited on a park bench in the shade. She put a hand to her forehead and looked around for a familiar face before taking in the grassy musk. The sun was a few hours from going behind the buildings. Koyuki hated the cold of the night, it always made her feel isolated to the point where she wanted to be embraced by someone from behind but such a thing was not likely to happen. Her PDA buzzed in her pocket but when taking it out to look at it, she was interrupted by a friendly voice.

"Hiya, Koyuki." Her best friend waved running up to the bench adorned in a long winter jacket and woven scarves.

"Yuzu!" Koyuki's face lit up. She stood up to meet her friend.

"I see you got my message. Thanks for coming."

"Yeah, I came straight from work. A bit of a bar fight broke out but I made it."

"Oh no, is everything okay?" Yuzu questioned tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, some broken glass, overturned tables and stuff but no one was seriously hurt. They broke through the window and continued outside. Mariko was on her break when it happened."

"That girl really knows when to slip away. I hope you're not allowing her to boss you around anymore." Koyuki looked at her shoes and tapped her heels together.

"Koyuki!" Koyuki flinched. "You can't let her take advantage of you. You need to learn when to say no to her. She's the kind of person that will step all over you if you let her."

"I don't want to get on her bad side. When she gets mad, she makes sure you know it and will make my life miserable." Koyuki explained remembering the first time she said no to Mariko she took her paycheck out of her hand and shredded it right in front of her. Koyuki tried but could not get another one made out to her.

"Then you go to your manager and tell them about it."

"I'm not in high school, Yuzu. Things are different now."

"That's right! You two are not in high school so she shouldn't act like it." Koyuki didn't know how to respond. She knew that Yuzu is right but life is so much more peaceful without all of that drama. Making the mistake of being on Mariko's bad side could be humiliating; you may as well quit your job and move to a different city on the other side of Japan.

"Did you call me here to give me a lecture or was there something else you wanted to tell me?" Koyuki questioned. Yuzu stepped to the side and was suddenly searching for words. Young snowflakes began to fall around them as Koyuki waited for an answer.

"I'm… moving away soon… to England." Koyuki froze. "I've been accepted into Oxford University and am starting next term in two weeks."

"What? You can't be serious. But what about our plans of going to University together? We only have a few more months to save up before we can apply. We were going to be dorm buddies." Koyuki stopped. "How can you afford this?"

"I've been granted scholarships." Koyuki's shoulders fell as she turned away from Yuzu. "I'll be back for a week at Christmas and we can talk every day, I promise… Koyuki?" Yuzu watched as her best friends shoulders shook.

"If that's what you want then I'm happy for you." Koyuki smiled at her fighting against her quivering lip. Yuzu relaxed convinced by Koyuki's smile and smiled back. "You shouldn't pass this opportunity by. You've worked so hard and need to be proud of the fact that you got accepted into such an amazing university. You'd be crazy not to go."

"Thank you." Yuzu nodded. "I really needed to hear that." The two stood for a moment smiling at each other through the dusting of snow. Yuzu took one step to the side clutching her purse to her shoulder. "Well I should get going. There's a lot of stuff I need to pack. I'll hang out with you before I go then I'll call you as soon as my plane lands."

"Mkay." Koyuki nodded and Yuzu waved before walking away. Once her best friend was out of sight, she wiped the tears from your eyes. "Good luck… without me. You'll do great." She whispered. Her feet began to move her out of the park and towards her home. Suddenly people seemed to walk right through her though the world sped past as she slowly made her way home. She had to pull herself aside down an alleyway to regroup. "Now what am I going to do? First father now Yuzu. I can't take much more than this." Koyuki covered her face hiding her falling tears. "What am I going to do now? I am so lost I don't know what to do? I can't go to school alone. I won't know anybody there." Koyuki cringed. "I'm scared." She slid down the side of a wall and wrapped her arms around her knees.

Snow continued to fall on the barren ground on top of Koyuki who sat in an alleyway with her head between her knees and arms covering her face. She hadn't moved and nobody paid attention to her whom walked past the entry of the alley as if frozen along with the snow. She did not shiver. The odd person that walked down they alleyway took one look while passing by but continued on their way. No one checked to see if she was alive. Her breath was invisible unlike everyone else's in the snowfall.

A clan of young men strolled by talking amongst themselves and walked past the alleyway. A few more steps then the one with fiery red hair stopped. His group stopped in front of him and turned to their leader.

"Hm, is something wrong, Mikoto?" Kusanagi asked.

"Yeah, what's up man?" Yata questioned.

Mikoto's sharp yellow eyes lifted to his group through the cigarette smoke coming from his mouth.

"Meet me back at HOMRA bar." He stated turning around.

"Uh, alright boss." Kusanagi responded a little flabbergasted like the others but regardless they didn't question their leader and continued to walk away from him. Mikoto waited for his group to walk around the building before he started. He retraced his steps back to the entry to the alley. She was still there, pale blue hair silhouetted around her sides. He walked until he was directly in front of her facing the empty shell. Mikoto stared down a few minutes before taking his cigarette and stamping it onto the pavement. He got down on one knee to her level.

"Do you intend on sleeping there all night?" Mikoto asked. No answer. "You'll catch a cold."

"That's not the worst that can happen."

"It will when no one's around to take you to the hospital when it turns into a virus." Finally she moved her arms to her side and lifted her head. Her empty azure eyes peered at him through her messy bangs. "Let's skip that and get you inside somewhere."

"I'm sorry but I don't know you." She spoke dully. Mikoto frowned before getting up.

"That's your decision to make." He said in a husky voice beginning to walk away.

"Don't leave me!" She shouted reaching up and grabbing the sleeve of his leather jacket. Mikoto turned around to unexpectedly catch her. The girl lay lifelessly in his arms. How long was she out here? Even in his arms she felt frozen. He picked her up and summoned his red aura providing her with warmth while carrying her back to HOMRA headquarters. The gray skies started to get dark as the evening approached. Mikoto looked down at her in his arms as he followed the corner and walked through the door to the bar. The group of boys he was walking with earlier was all lounging in a booth seating area with the table pushed to the side. Their faces lifted seeing their leader walk through the door ringing the bell above the frame.

"Mikoto." A few of them exclaimed running up to him and Kusanagi dropped the glass he was cleaning to join them. They all looked down at the girl in his arms.

"Who is this?" Tatara asked.

"Leave it to our king to pick someone up off of the street." Yata mentioned causing the guys to break out into laughter. A young pale girl dressed it Lolita attire sat at the counter with her drink and stared at the stranger in Mikoto's arms. She grabbed one of the marbles that was idling near her bottle of cola and looked through it.

"Kosuke's the one who did that last when he picked Eric up and brought him here." Kamamoto laughed.

"Yeah, between him and Mikoto, there won't be any strays left." Bandou joked. The guys laughed again before Mikoto made his way past them upstairs. He took her to one of the spare rooms that had a bed in it and placed her on top of the sheets. She never started to shiver at all oddly for someone who sat in the snow for who knows how long. Mikoto took one look at Koyuki before he joined his comrades downstairs.

"Hey, king, how's she doing?" Tatara questioned being the first one to notice Mikoto come down.

"She'll be fine."

"Where did you find her?" Kamamoto asked after receiving a fresh bottle of beer from Kusanagi whom ran and owned the bar HOMRA. Anna jumped off of the bar stool to greet Mikoto by grabbing his hand.

"The alley around a warehouse."

"I wonder what happened to her." Shouhei thought out loud.

"She's pretty cute, isn't she Yata?" Chitose elbowed Yata the obvious virgin who was blushing like mad.

"H-hey cut it out man." Yata frowned wanting to blend into the wood flooring.

"Hands off Chitose. Not until the king gives the word." Kusanagi defended speaking for Mikoto. Anna looked up at him and squeezed his hand harder.

What's the matter with me? This must all be a dream. It can't be real.