"I need your help." Kaede said desperately.

"Sure. Just tell me what you need and, if it's within my abilities, then I will help you out." I smiled.

"I need you to help me get revenge on the tyrant that destroyed my village. He-..." Kaede started before he chocked on his own words, "He killed my family."

"Well then, a selfless, good for nothing traitor should perish in the most painful way that we can think of. I'll help you." I said before I got locked up in a tight hug by Kaede.

"Hey, Naku who's this?" Kurai asked.

"This is Kaede. He's... Actually, that's all I know about him." I chuckled.

"It's ok. I haven't told you anything other than my name, so I think I should just explain everything about me." Kaede smiled.

"So, if you can start from the very beginning of this revenge plan, I would appreciate it." I said calmly.

"I don't know where to start." Kaede chuckled nervously.

"Start from the first thing you can remember, from the time before the problem." I suggested.

"Well... I guess it was a couple of months ago. Everything was going fine, like usual, we were living a normal life... Until we were invaded. The tyrant goes by the name of Dakomu. He attacked the village and took some hostages for his lab. Every day, he would do some tests on us and eventually kill us if we failed." He started.

"So, that explains those scars." Yukai puzzled.

"Yes and no. These scars are from my escape earlier today. Somehow, they healed up this fast." He explained.

"So, you guys were being experimented on?" Kurai asked.

"Yeah. He killed my family, my friends, everyone that I knew and loved. I was the only survivor of the raid." Kaede said as he teared up.

"It's ok. We'll make sure you can avenge your dead relatives." Yukai said in shock.

"We'll help you out." I smiled.

"Thanks. I'll need all the help that I can get." He said blushing.

We left the place and took Kaede along. It turned out that he was being studied to become an artificial hybrid. He had been injected with several serums to alternate his DNA, which would allow for several genes to activate. Fortunately, Kaede found out and managed to escape with his new powers. He had dragon and werewolf qualities. So far, he had control over his claws and wings but he still needed to improve a bit.

"For a beginner, you should try to talk without spitting fire. I see that you're struggling a bit when you talk." I said calmly.

"What do you want me to say?" Kaede stressed out a bit.

"Practice the breathing words. I think those are the ones that are most likely to cause fire breathing." I suggested.

It was difficult at first, but after a while, Kaede adapted to my teaching skills. He managed to get better control over his powers, but something darker drew my curiosity closer. Before I could get a hint, we got ambushed by a group of assassins that seemed to have a lot of experience.

"S-so... Look at wh-hat we h-have h-here." One of them said in a hissing voice.

"Looks-s like a los-st princ-ce." The other one stated.

"Are these guys from that tyrant that you were talking about?" I asked.

"Yeah. They're made of glass shards. You can break them, but it's painful." Kaede answered.

"Glass? Do you know what that's made of?" I asked with a smirk.

"Sand and... Fire." Kaede answered in surprise.

"Exactly. And what do we breathe, boys?" I asked.

"Flames hotter than the volcanoes themselves." Jinriu chuckled.

"We're gonna have fun." I chuckled demonically.

We got back to back as the assassins neared in. Kuriagi tried kicking them, but the glass got stuck to the armor. It seemed that they used those spare shards to defend and attack. Shibaki managed to break off a piece of the shards and hid it for later investigations. We fought them off, but were impressed at how much they knew. It felt like if they knew more than what we knew about Kaede.

"What was their deal with that?" I asked.

"They wanted me to go back to the labs. I'm a valuable piece of information for their research. They won't stop at nothing to get me back." Kaede said in shock.

"Well... If they study you, we'll study them. What intel do you have so far, Shibaki?" I asked.

"Some amazing details about the recent encounter. We have a lot, actually. Attack patterns, weapon details, armor, even their own body's information. You name it." Shibaki answered with a smile.

"That's pretty cool." Kuriagi scoffed.

"And all that with just a shard piece." I sighed in relief as I opened a chocolate bar.

"Let's start with their body's stats." I pointed out.

"It says that they are pure crystal. They're not glass like we thought. These crystals are called Soul Wave crystals. They're said to be an extremely powerful energy transmitter." Kaizuke read.

"Don't we use those for our decorations?" I asked interested.

"We use those for the chandeliers." Riuyo said as he examined the crystal shard.

"What about the attack patterns, what do we know about them?" I asked.

"Somehow, the crystal layers are ordered to absorb the energy. Maybe they absorb life force, as well." Yukai puzzled.

"If that were the case, wouldn't it have affected all of us during the fight?" Kurai asked.

"They don't absorb life force. They absorb vibrations from the wind." I replied.

"That doesn't make any sense. You sure you haven't eaten bad candy?" Kurai asked.

"No. If you think about it long enough, their shards are loosely organized. That's why Shibaki managed to take one. If they were that loose, it would move with the wind and create friction. They don't fall off during battle or during any kind of movement because they're hinged together. They're most likely to be bulletproof, so we'll need a way to break through the defense of their glass skin and reach their central crystal, the core." I said as I finished my chocolate bar.

"He puzzled that faster than my computer scanner." Shibaki gasped.

"Never doubt my chocolate bars. The more sweets I eat, the better I can work things out." I smiled.

"That is-..." Kurai started before being cut off by Yukai.

"Definitely badass." Yukai said, finishing Kurai's sentence.