A Broken Home...

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Awakening from his deep slumber after making a pact with the spirit of the Zero World, Kairo would find himself in a place completely unknown to him and nowhere near like the place he'd remember being in before his arrival.

"What... Happened...?" he muttered, trying to piece together all of the information. All he remembered was calling forth the Zero Moon and then seeking the Swamp Witch, only to find that she'd been replaced by a rather Grim figure. After that, there was some fulfillment of a contract and... Then, infinite darkness.

"... I wonder if Volcanon is still inside of me... Or did something happen to him, too...?"

He wasn't sure, but he felt like something about him calling upon the Zero Moon caused all of this... (5:25)

Even with his flurry of hazy vultures, his attempt at killing the children was thwarted once again by the mysterious figure with the great water power. He cursed her with his stare, his red eye gleaming in the darkness of the building he was within.

"Why do you want them to live such a terrible life?!?! They are not like us!! Their fate cannot be changed!!!" He winced again, still feeling the pain of impact on his body, even if his motions were adjusted to match El's currently. He was able to physically move like he was, but it didn't stop his pain at all. "I want them to be free of a life of misery and poverty... I saw it on their faces... How much they hate this life..." As he stared at the sunset, nearly ready to go down, he would have to make a last ditch effort to destroy everything with as much power as he could muster. "I have to... Before I..."

He flashed through a series of hand signs, but did not show signs of stopping. Whatever he was about to do, it was going to be on a fairly grander scale than what he'd done before...

Tama stiffened her stance, focusing her chakra to begin gathering the water from her previous attack so that she could add it to this barrier if need be. Even though it seemed like the other two couldn't see the boy, Tama knew exactly where he was and could see his chakra rather perfectly. She had no qualms with protecting the children, her brothers and sisters of the orphanage, from this bad egg, but she was upset with the large man who wouldn't do what needed to be done.

"He can't be reasoned with. He's a bad egg, crack him." What she was saying sounded rather harsh, but it was the way that Tama felt about all of this. If he was a resident of the orphanage, and had this much power, then why was he using it to try and kill his brothers and sisters instead of using it to gather fame and money to send back to the orphanage as Tama was doing herself. That was the reason the building still stood, the orphans still had clothes on their backs, warm blankets and why they had warm meals to eat. He was a bad egg and if the man wouldn't handle it, then she would given the opportunity.

Just the gleam of his eye alone told El where this boy was, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the darkness of the building that he was hiding in. "We have to do something. I won't kill him." And El was adamant about this, just as adamant as the woman that Tzita left to protect the children was about the opposite. There was something wrong, that was for sure, and El was sure that if he could only reach the boy behind at this talk of death and destruction then he could help him. Deep down, with the words that El could hear him speaking deep in the building, he truly cared for the children, as they did, but was taking radical actions for some other reason.

El dug deep into the ground, tensing his body as he angled himself to slam through the building the boy was lurking inside. "I'll stop him!" El said before jumping towards the building. He tuck himself behind his forearms, preparing for the inevitable slam through the wall that separated him from the boy.

He landed heavily, and began to walk towards him, just as he began his hand signs. El, never having seen them before, wasn't sure what they meant. He held his hands out in a nonthreatening manner, "Listen, I just want to help you, I just want you to tell me what's wrong. Whatever you're feeling for those children, I understand, but you're going about this the wrong way. There's no way you're going to be able to kill them, and even if you could..." El continued his approach, hoping to be able to reach out and touch his hand to the boy's shoulder. "Could you live with yourself by just 'ending their suffering' instead of making their lives better?"

Kairo did not cease his hand signs, even as he was confronted by El. A maddening determination set his will in stone about what he intended to do, and there was nothing that would stop this. "Live with myself?! I have to live with that person every day..." he grumbled, the ground under the building rumbling in tandem. Whatever was coming, it certainly was going to be big. "... And I see nothing good about it. I already know the pains of living life..." he said, somewhat quietly now as his hand signs came to completion, "... And I wouldn't wish this on anyone else..."

His body quivered with power, growing hot as El's hand reached out to touch. If he didn't recoil from the initial emanation, he definitely would after touching his body, steadily rising in temperature. To keep El from standing in his way, he would quickly enact a Substitution Jutsu, switching places with him in the blink of an eye in order to throw him off and make it seem as though he'd somehow warped behind him. Now, with a clear shot, he would focus his chakra on the still very open pit in the ground, which would suddenly grow larger, its cracks seeping into the foundation of the building; that which Tama's barrier was not protecting. Lava would rise to meet the surface as the pit threatened to drag the building and many buildings around the area into a molten lake of fire. If not stopped, the entire building would fall into the ruptured earth and drown in the flames.

"VOLCANON...!!" he cried out, the lava beginning to bubble. In a great eruption, the wings of the creature sprouted up into the air, flicking drops of the bubbling magma from its form and shrouding itself in the ashes. The display is of what looked to be a corrupt rising phoenix. Though, as the towering creature started to form, the sun would finally fall, and so too would the bird. "GAH!!" he cried out, the lack of sunlight hurting his Red Eye. "Uggghhhhrrr..." The pain was nearly unbearable for him, even so much that he would accidentally fall from the hole in the wall that El created. He switched his eyepatch to cover the Red Eye, revealing a beautiful blue eye that glimmered like crystal. He flashed through a series of hand signs, clouds starting to form around him, but before he could complete it, he would hit the ground, though with significantly less force than if he hadn't be shrouded by the clouds.

All of the magma would fall silent, as would the earth, as the boy would fall to his knee, huffing heavily in the moonlight. "... Looks like... my time is up..." he said, his voice now extremely calm and docile, for some reason.

Tama knew this would happen. Not only was this man seemingly completely indecisive in his actions, but he was hellbent on playing a goody goody and trying to talk out the problem. She had had enough, and wouldn't allow it to continue anymore.

She had been focusing her chakra to collect the water from her 'Gem of the Blue Dragon' to improve the barrier that she had up, but she could do whatever she wish with it. Tama could also generate water near instantaneously and near infinitely as long as she had chakra. So, it was no large feat for her to drench the land with water again to create igneous rock and, essentially, seal the cracks that the boy's 'large scale' destruction caused, as well as seal the hole by rapidly cooling the very lava that he had rising up from it.

So that's what she chose to do, rather swiftly in fact, and dropped the barrier to add to the abundant build up of water that she had already been accumulating. With Water, Tama was without equal, it had always been so for as long as she could remember. Kon, had been keeping the children entertained, even though their lives weren't out danger just yet. Eventually, any other magma seemed to die down and the earth quieted itself as the moon rose.

Tama, taking this opportunity, jumped from the roof of the building and made a beeline for the boy that had caused all these problems with extreme speed, conjuring a dagger of tightly compacted water and aiming to end his life quickly and without prejudice at all. And it seemed like she just might be able to plunge her knife through his heart since he seemed so weakened.

Certainly El hadn't been expecting it, he'd successful talked down criminals before, but it was then that he had come to the realization that... he wasn't able to get through to this boy. That realization left him standing there shocked for a little while, as the boy's emotions erupted again and El's hand recoiled from the heat that he was producing. He was so shocked, in fact, that he didn't notice the situation get handled by their mysterious friend again, nor the boy falling from the hole that he had created in the wall.

It wasn't until he heard Tzita call out to him to stood their savior from killing the boy that El kicked back into action. No matter how shocked he was that he wasn't able to diffuse the situation peacefully, he was still bound to his duty of being a protector. He rushed to the man-sized hole in the wall and assessed the situation as best and quickly as he could. The woman was making a beeline for the boy at a speed that El had never witnessed before. He knew he was fast, but she was currently in a whole nother league. Luckily, he was closer and could get there before her.

He jumped from the window, balling himself up to cut down on wind resistance and fall faster than he would have otherwise, and landed right in front of the downed boy while having his hands out to reach for the woman's wrists and stop her in her tracks. He hadn't been confident enough in his speed, but surely this woman couldn't be, physically, more powerful than she was. "You will not kill this boy."

Disoriented and no longer having the physical status of his former opponent copied due to the deactivation of his Red Eye, Kairo was starting to feel rather weak. The initial burst plus the pain of landing already took a toll on his body, even if he felt like he could still go on. The woman that came near him moved at a speed that was beyond blinding, his eye only able to see her once she was in the midst of nearly almost killing him.

Yet, for some reason, the two that he was originally trying to destroy were the ones that saved him. He didn't quite understand it, but at least he could live another day.

From behind El, who jumped between Kairo and certain death, the boy would gaze at Tama, of whom he would then copy the mentality of. With that, he would know just what she was thinking and why, being able to think in the same fashion as she was once it was matched. The thoughts surged through his head; her personal feelings for this place, her cold-blooded killer thought process and a great many other things. With this, he was able to understand why she was acting the way she was, but also... To know how she intended to remedy it. It seemed like her thought process wasn't too different from his own... In this case, they were simply on different sides of the playing field.

"... Why... Did you save me...?"

Tama hadn't been expecting the man to stop her, but she supposed that it was within his personality. He had been so hellbent on talking everything out that it was obvious he would stop her from ending the problem at its source if he could. Spitefully, she narrowed her eyes at him as he held her wrist, stopping her in her tracks, which was a surprising thing for her, and narrowed her eyes at the target behind him as well.

"You're fucking lucky." Was all she said before kicking El in the chest to push off him, free her wrists, and vanish just as quickly as she appeared. There was obvious malice in her voice, but Tama didn't have any plans to return and take Kairo's life when this man and woman weren't around. Instead, she would give him a chance, but if he did anything to the orphanage again then she wouldn't hold back. She'd end it even quicker than she'd planned to this time, before he could even register it.

El really wasn't prepared for a fight, especially not with a woman that had slammed into him with the force of a cannonball when he grabbed her wrist. If he hadn't braced for the impact then she would have bowled him right over and the boy's left would have been forfeit. People of this world were much stronger than they appeared to be, and El had to adjust so he didn't underestimate people. Even Tzita had surprised him with just how strong she was. It could be said that El, more or less, was probably the strongest man on his home world. At the very least, it could be inferred.

"Do whatever you need to do, Lady L'sia." El said with a slight pant before he fell to the ground with a thud and looked to the boy behind him with a smile and a thumbs up, "because I could tell you really cared about those kids. It'd be a shame if they lost a big brother figure that cared this much for them and no one deserves to die." El lowered his hand before looking back forward and lowering his head to try and catch his breath. That woman with the white hair, when she slammed into him and kicked him in the chest, purposely did so to try and incapacitate him. She'd hit him in the perfect spots to leave him completely breathless.

She cared about the orphanage too, El could tell that much, but he couldn't read anything else from her. One thing was for sure, if she had been the one trying to kill those kids then... El wouldn't have been able to stop her. It was a haunting thought.

"You just need to learn to control your powers and emotions... and not allow them to control you."

Kairo felt the intent of the woman that El stopped and, honestly, was reminded of himself. He could only wonder why they were fighting alongside her if they had the same mentality about how to handle situations... Find your target and take it out at the source; no ifs, ands or buts about it.

When El turned to Kairo and gave him the thumb's up, their eyes connected at that point, and a shimmering gleam sparkled in his crystal blue eye, as though he realized something entirely new from the perspective of this man. The shock was enough to leave him speechless, especially after copying his mentality. Though it was hard to understand the woman that harbored his same mentality, he found it somehow easier to understand this man's mentality, completely different from his own. It gave Kairo a new perspective and, at the same time, a whole lot of new doubt and inner turmoil.

He wouldn't say it, but this man changed a lot about him... Though, perhaps it was just that he copied his mentality, but either way it went, he would remember these thoughts and feelings. This chivalrous nature... It was a strength of a different kind that Kairo did not have... But perhaps, one day, he could. The man didn't know it, but Kairo now saw him as a sort of 'big brother' figure of his own; someone he could look up to. Though, still, perhaps that was the copied mentality talking. He'd know for sure once the morning hit, or when he copied the thought process of someone else.

"... Thank you..." he said lowly, lowering his head in shame for his own actions. He was right; he after learning this, he would not be able to live with himself if he killed those kids. But now, he felt some sort of new resolve to help him. After seeing Tama's thoughts, as well as El's... He wanted to find a different way to help them. "... I will become stronger." That is all he would say before being confronted by the man that he remembered was the one he made the deal with in the Zero World before; Grim the Reaper.

"You...!!" He stood up, feeling the fury in his heart for being deceived, yet keeping his calm due to the mentality of El captured in his eye, "... You're the one that did this to me...!!"

El was finally able to catch his breath, smiling a bit at the whispered words of the boy behind him. He didn't say anything, didn't even acknowledge that he had heard his promises, but El was just glad that his words had gotten through to him, even if only a little bit. He got to his feet and stepped to Tzita's side.

"She's right, she had nothing to do with this. In fact, it was on my whim that we came here because I couldn't pass up the need to help." El explained, before looking at Tzita who seemed to be rather surprised that this boy turned out to be her brother. "Isn't that right, Lady L'sia?" He gave her a wink, not against lying if it would get her out of hot water with the mysterious man from the hotel that turned out to be the father of both Tzita and this boy. He supposed that Tzita's family was heavily embedded into this place, unaware that there was at least one other member of her family he had yet to meet.

And, just like that, all of the confidence and built up positivity he felt was thrown out of the window by the dark man overshadowing him... The one that he could now call 'Father.' Hanging his head in shame yet again, he was reminded more of his own weakness after being reprimanded, and it tore him apart inside. Even so, to have such things revealed about him was useful information... even if it was not everything he needed. "I didn't mean to have shamed you, father," he'd say, conflicted between his anger inside and his now noble mentality, "... But I must ask that you tell me... Everything about my past. And about ... Khrona."

If what Volcanon said was true, then whatever Thanytoz had to tell him would probably be a crucial piece to his puzzle that he would find from the start. Or maybe, Thanytoz knew everything about it. He knew a lot about the Zero World, but that was because of his own connections... how he was it.

El could tell what Tzita was trying to do, and he couldn't help bit find it rather amusing. The nudging she was giving him, made it really tempting to go along with her too. He zoomed up to the roof of the orphanage and brought the children down to a ground level. If need be, he could just rebuild the orphanage for them, all he would need is the materials to do so.

For one reason, or another, though El didn't take to kindly to the way that Tzita's father was talking to his son. El was raised around nobility, so harsh words and attitudes were a rather common thing, but that didn't mean he enjoyed seeing it. In fact, he felt like he should step in and say something. A lot of the time, constant belittling did nothing but serve to cause the child to rebel. This boy packed a lot of power, and if he lost control over this again then it would spell bad news for a lot of people.

"Don't you think you're being too harsh now." El spoke up, stepping away from Tzita and forward to take the side of Kairo. He had slipped up, made a mistake, but it was a common thing for children to do. What Kairo needed was positive reinforcement, not ridicule and belittlement. He wouldn't grow as a productive member of society that way, not by a long shot.

"He made a mistake, lost control for a second, but belittling him won't solve anything. He needs guidance and proper reinforcement so that he can master those destructive urges that are swayed by his emotions." El just couldn't stand idly by and watch this, nor slunk off to continue his adventure with Tzita neither. This boy deserved respect just like everyone else.

Kairo stood there with his head hung low in shame. Not only had he been declined his information, he couldn't get it until he grew strong in the eye of his father. Not to mention that this strength would come from him learning to control his already unstable power, which was something that was forced upon him by the Tensei in the first place. He didn't know how to handle this. His heart said to destroy, but his head said to remain calm, and somewhere in between, they were meeting up as tears in his eye. He was not quite sure what to do about this. He agreed that he could learn a lot from the man that saved him, but... He was not sure if it would be acceptable in his eyes for him to learn from him. Nobody wanted him in the first place, not even his father... And he didn't ask for this type of existence. It was all too much for him... And yet, instead of lashing out, he just remained silent, head hung low, motionless. Speechless. Nigh thoughtless. He had no clue what to do nor where to go from here, after basically being discarded until he became appealing to his eye.

"We'll continue in a second, Lady L'sia, I promise." El reassured her with a charming smile. Clearly she was anxious to be alone with him again, but El couldn't just leave her brother standing here where he could lose control again. He seemed fine, relatively speaking, so El figured he could agree with her that he'd be fine until the Sun rose again, but El didn't just want to leave him either.

He placed a hand to the top of the boy's head, ruffling it a little to get him to stop with his sulking look before looking over towards the children of the orphanage. Their home wasn't damage that badly, and all the rock new rock that had been formed had improved the foundation a bit. There were still the holes in the roof and second floor, created by El himself, but the children would be safe until he and Tzita returned. That was, of course, if Tzita would stay with him in caring for the children while he rebuilt the shelter. He'd talk it over with her.

"At the very least... those children still need you." Was all he said to Kairo, confidently and sympathetically. He wouldn't find what he wanted in only a few minutes, nor a couple hours, but the answers would eventually come to him. Even though he'd threatened the children's lives, they didn't actually seem that phased by him. In fact, El coming to save them had captured most of their attention over whoever had caused the problem in the first place.

El took his head from Kairo's head and began walking back to Tzita, offering his arm to her in a very gentlemanly fashion as he got to her, but he nodded to Kairo. "It's a step in the right direction."

The nigh broken boy from the Broken Homes Orphanage continued to stare blankly at the ground. Going back inside probably meant ridicule or some sort of fear from the kids, of which he would be able to feel mentally once he walked inside. He wasn't sure how he would react once he copied their mentalities... And though he could choose not to, sometimes, he did this automatically. He questioned how he could grow stronger or if he even would...

Yet, as El pat him on the head and ruffled his hair, he felt... Something. It wasn't anything bad, but it definitely wasn't anything he knew previously. It was just... Something. Though, something was always better than nothing at all. He remained relatively unresponsive as El was about to take off, but knew in his heart that no one needed someone like him... Not as he was, where he could go and senselessly destroy them out of his own inability to see them suffer. Though these were the words of his heart, his mind drew him back into the building,but not before turning and looking at El again and nodding his head slowly in appreciation. "... Thank you..." and walking back inside.