The world looked as if it was on the verge of collapse. Fire raged mercilessly scorching anything it got onto, quickly engulfing the victim like a pack of ravenous wolves attacking helpless prey. The smell of death was prominent as if it was a shroud. Cracks in the Earth opening, volcanoes erupting, the sky itself looked like it was getting mauled by the Ursa Major. Ash bedded the bloody corpses at the foot of an altar, and a maniacal laughter was heard for miles.

"Brother! Why are you doing this?!?" yelled a boy, his body covered in blood that was not his own.

"This is all for the great rebirth, can you not see it?!?"

The bloodied bodies of the villagers the two used to call neighbors, friends, family, all laid on the floor, lifeless bodies that used to be carefree and hard working. With a thunderclap that causes the scene to fade to white, we are brought into another scene. Here, we see a teenage boy, 19 years old, sitting up in his bed, sweat dripping from his body.

"The same nightmare..."

He then looks at the clock, after rubbing his eyes.

"Crap I overslept!"

After frantically getting ready, he rushes out the door. At the bus stop, he is greeted by a familiar face.

"Yo! Didn't think you'd make it in time, Sora."

"Look who's talking! You sleep like a rock, Shiro."

"I'm more agile than you, so I can never be late."

"Shiro Usagi."

"Mmph."

"Seriously, you two need to get a room."

"Shut up, Saadowa. Besides, you always lose against me in arm wrestling."

"Oh, I nearly forgot! I got you an early birthday present, Shiro," Sora says, getting out a silver rabbit earring.

"Th-thank you..." Shiro replies quietly, her face a light blush.

"Again, I make my point. I swear, I can see a freaking 'love aura' surrounding you two."

A short bio on Shiro Seitansai: She has white hair with black tips, usually ties it into a ponytail, orange colored eyes, wears a black eyepatch that says "02" over her right eye, and has a silver chain earring piercing that connects from her right left ear to her lower lip. She also has a dependable personality. Along with Sora and Saadowa, she works at Xarillon Cafe.

After school, the three are working at the Cafe.

"Tell me again why I'm wearing this? I thought this was only for the grand opening" Shiro says, wearing an orange vest, orange dress pants, orange dress shoes, white dress shirt, white dress gloves, and an orange tie.

"Because you look good in it," Saadowa replies.

"I thought I was supposed to be a maid..."

"But you look better in that, right, Sora?"

"I guess?"

"W-well if Sora says so..." Shiro says quietly.

"Anyways, Xarillon Cafe is now open!"

As Saadowa snaps his fingers upon him announcing the cafe opening, the neon "open" sign turns on after a cafe-style Rube Goldberg machine.

"Cool, right? I came up with it myself!"

"Just how much time did you put into that?" Sora asks.

"I came up with it while staring at a third wheel."

While Sora was busy helping Saadowa at the counter, Shiro is taking orders.

"Did you hear that Shiro is popular among the girls?" Saadowa says.

"Seriously? Well I guess, since she does kind of look like a guy..."

"Come on, you know you like her!"

"I forgot to sort things around in the storeroom," Sora replies, leaving for the storeroom.

"You really need to open up..." Saadowa says.

When Sora gets out to the back alleyway, he hears the sound of footsteps, and learns that the person is heading towards him. He quickly turns to meet an unexpected visitor who wore a black hoodie and skinny jeans.

"It's been a long time," the dark figure says.

"Who... are you?" Sora asks.

The figure then lifts the hood, revealing a male with crimson red hair, blood red eyes and a scar upon the left eye, in contrast to Sora's pure white hair and sky blue eyes. He then says, "Don't you remember me, brother?"

Sora instantly casts a spell that forms white silver armor, increases speed, and stabs his brother with a spear made of pure lighting.

"Don't you call me brother you murderer!" Sora yells with a quick slash to his brother's throat.

"How cute, you honestly thought you could hurt me," he says, blasting Sora against the wall, which knocks out Sora instantly.

"You stay put here, while I finish destroying this forsaken world," he says, teleporting away

When the sun began to set, Saadowa and Shiro discover Sora on the ground, blood dripping from his forehead.

"Hey what happened?!? Sora, can you hear me?!?" Saadowa calls, trying to shake Sora awake.

"Who... who could have done this?" Shiro says, worry clearly showing in her tone.

A few months pass. When Sora finally awoke, he finds Shiro at his bedside.

"What... happened?" Sora quietly says to himself.

Saadowa enters the room.

"Hey man. Didn't think you'd make it. The doc said that it wasn't just your forehead bleeding. Several organs damaged, a number of bones broken, lungs on the verge of collapse... it was a miracle in its own right that you even lived. Shiro... Shiro always was near you as much as she can, you know. I came by to drop off some work you need to do for class. Call me as soon as possible when you'll be discharged from the hospital. I'm going to Japan to visit my family for Christmas, so hold down the fort for me, okay? Well, see ya later man."

As Saadowa leaves and silently closes the door, Sora notices that the sun is slowly setting, the light shining through the window and onto him and Shiro. With a gentle push, he wakes up the sleeping Shiro.

"Shiro, wake up," he says in a gentle tone.

"Sora...?" the sleepy Shiro says.

"Hello sleepyhead," Sora replies, gently kissing Shiro's forehead.

"Sora... Sora~!" she says with tears rolling down her eyes and while hugging Sora with all her might.

I'm sorry for making you worry, Shiro. I'm the only one taking care of you since we met after what my brother did, Sora thought to himself.

"Now that I think about it, isn't next week your birthday? I guess I've been asleep for a long time..."

A few days pass, and, luckily, Sora was discharged from the hospital in time.

The snow gently dances down in the December night, Christmas lights shining bright on leafless trees that line the sidewalk and evergreens. Saadowa had already left a week before Christmas to spend time with his family overseas. As we travel down the bright, decorated stores, we see Shiro and Sora walking side by side.

"What's your favorite season, Shiro?" Sora asks.

"I'd say winter, and there's a special reason why," she replies fondly.

"Special reason?"

"You probably wouldn't get it, knowing how dense you are," she says with a light laugh.

"I am not dense. In fact, I bet I would," Sora replies with a very determined tone.

"Really? Even though I got a higher test score than you?"

"You were lucky that time."

"It'll be a surprise for Christmas eve."

"Now that I think about it, it was on a day like this when I first met you."

"Yeah, I remember that day like it was only yesterday. A fire had spread to my village that killed everyone, leaving only me to take care of myself. Then you came along, covered head to toe in blood. Thanks to you, I was able to be here."

The same blood was never mine. The fire had originated from my home village caused by my brother, Sora thought.

"Hm... let's stop by the bakery and get some Star Mint Meringues and Double Chocolate Diamonds!" Shiro says, her eyes glinting with eagerness.

"I think I'll grab a Christmas red velvet cake for tonight," Sora adds.

Ah the Christmas red velvet cake. A double layered cake decorated with vanilla icing, red and green sugar sprinkles, hollyfrosts made with green and red icing, crushed peppermint candy canes, and a ring of chewy star mint meringues. A fitting Christmas themed cake, Sora thought to himself.

As Sora and Shiro walk around the decorated town talking, laughing, and playing all the way. Before the sun set, the two go into the Christmas decorated Xarillon Cafe, that looked like both a home and a regular cafe, with a stone fireplace housing a gentle flame as the two are alone together.

Xarillon Cafe, the first home we had and the first business we opened with a friend, Shiro thought to herself.

"By the way, what was that surprise you said?"

"Close your eyes," she says in a cheery tone.

When Sora closes his eyes, Shiro kisses Sora's cheeks.

"Sh-Shiro?!?"

"Surprise~"

"U-um... u-uh..."

"Heh heh~"

The night goes by slowly, a cheery and love filled aura surrounding the two. The fire gently burning as slow as the night, the crackling of burning wood not too loud, yet not too quiet.

"I'm glad we met..." Shiro says, resting her head on Sora's shoulder.

"Same here," Sora replies, stroking Shiro's hair with his left hand and a smile on his face.

As they fall asleep, the sun rises a few hours later, and Saadowa arrives at 12 in the afternoon.

"Hey I'm back-" Saadowa says, suddenly spotting the two on the couch.

"This will make a nice picture," Saadowa quietly says to himself, taking out a camera and crouches in front of the fireplace.

He then snaps a picture of Shiro sleeping on top of a fast asleep Sora on the checkered couch, Sora's hand in Shiro's unkempt hair, his arm holding her close, and Shiro's arms around Sora, keeping him as close to her as possible with the gentle golden  sunlight shining through the window. Saadowa then walks out the cafe door, leaving his luggage behind. A couple of minutes later, he returns with a picture in its frame and places it on the oak wood counter.

A few days pass after Christmas, and a Saadowa slams the door of Xarillon Cafe.

"Oi, you guys won't believe this!" Saadowa yells.

"What?" Shiro replies.

"We got a job application!"

"Seriously?" Sora asks.

"Yeah! Hm... The applicant's name is Grace Félicie."

"Well we needed another maid to begin with," Shiro says.

"I guess so," Sora replies.

The next day, a girl wearing box glasses, beige jeans, a white wool sweater in which the sleeves were longer than her arms and hung at the sides of her shoulders, and beige moccasins walks in.

"Nice to meet ya~! My name is Grace~!" she says.

"I'm Saadowa, pleasure to meet you. The downer you see behind me is Sora, and the trap is Shiro."

"Downer?" Sora asks in reply.

"Trap?" Shiro also asks in reply.

"Well, go to the dressing room and put on the cafe uniform I tailor for every member," Saadowa says.

"Okay~!" Grace replies, heading to the dressing room.

"It's nice to have some positive energy around."

"I guess?" Shiro replies.

Then Grace comes out of the dressing room wearing a cerulean vest, cerulean tie, cerulean dress shoes, white dress shirt, white dress gloves, and cerulean dress pants.

"Well, I guess it's opening time for Xarillon Cafe~!" Grace says.

A little while after opening the cafe, it was much busier than usual, but the four of them managed to pull through well.

"Hey Sora, I forgot to ask you this but, who on earth attacked you?" Saadowa asks in a hushed tone.

"I don't know," Sora replies.

Tch. I don't know where my brother is. I can't let them get involved with this. It's my score to settle, Sora thought to himself.

The next day, Sora goes to the meadow in the middle of a dense forest, as he doesn't want anyone to see him training. He then sets up several training dummies behind cover and out in the open.

"Faal Saerik," Sora whispers, which then makes the training dummies move and attack as if they were alive.

"Let the training begin!" a wooden dummy says, to which the other dummies start attacking with ground type magic.

"Alsora Geis," Sora says, an electric-like aura appearing around his hand and snapped his fingers.

When Sora snapped his fingers and snapped his fingers into a finger gun, the dummies became blasted apart from a violent explosion. In slow motion, Sora had quickly tossed a metal plate in front of where his right index finger would point.

"Not a challenge, as usual. I'll need more than just these simple powers to protect them, after all..." Sora quietly murmurs to himself, remembering what his brother said before he passed out.

"You'll never be able to protect anyone, brother. Even you know it. You couldn't protect her as usual. Why bother messing with my schemes? You're pathetic. I have power, and you have none! The strong must rule the weak, but I'm just rooting out the weeds of this world. Bientôt, cette petite fleur précieuse sera teint en rouge par mes mains."

Sora gently runs his finger over a pendant.

"Tch. I won't let you hurt her. True, I failed once, but not this time... I swear it."

The scenes fade again to reveal Naraku, Sora's brother in an undisclosed location, holding a glass chess piece with blood inside it.

"So many pawns, the lot of them. My undead army cannot work with a bunch of pitiful pawns, you know? They say I have borderline personality disorder or some other kind like that. Oh well. The question is, who shall take the place of the king and queen? Surely those cannot be filled with simply blood, oh no, but must be larger in size. Enough to fit a body. So many choices, so little time. Maybe use my brother and that girl of his... perfect! He's simply a perfect tool to fuel the destruction of the primitive humans," Naraku says, sitting on his blood coated throne made of the corpses of his victims, eerie spires of crystallized blood each holding a chained prisoner.

"HELP! PLEASE! ANYONE! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE SEND ANYONE TO SAVE US!" A prisoner yells, tears dripping like a twisted hourglass.

Naraku smiles and laughs.

"How adorable, that little lamb thinks it can escape the lion's den, quite humorous, isn't it?" Naraku asks, flinging darts at a prisoner's chest that has a target pattern on it.

"No matter. Time to hunt for more unfortunate souls that cross my path. I really hope my brother will be at least a little challenging... killing these weaklings is hardly sporting," he says, grabbing the hilt of a bloodstained blade and swings it in an arc to which he rested it on his shoulder.

The scene fades and we return to the cafe.

"Hey Sora, do you know what's the answer for 2435 times x squared plus 544 times x plus 947 into a quadratic equation? Basically problem 21," Saadowa asks.

"Uh... wouldn't it be -(i (-272 i+sqrt(2231961)))/2435?"

(A/N: r.i.p. idk the answer)

"Well, I hope it is correct..."

"Don't sweat it!" Shiro says.

"Says the two geniuses who always get #1 on the tests," Saadowa replies.

"I don't even know what I'm doing..." Sora says.

"It's almost time for the cafe to open, so time to wrap it up for now," Shiro notes, seeing that it is almost 5.

"Ah, true," Grace replies upon entering the room.

"Hey Grace," Saadowa says.

"Yes?"

"How do you like it here in Arcadia?"

"Besides it being in the middle of a mountain range, it's actually pretty nice out here, even more so when the main river flows out into a beautiful valley!"

"Really? Well, it seems we need to visit that valley someday."

"Xarillon Cafe, open for business!" Shiro says, snapping her fingers that activates the contraption.

"That was my line..." Saadowa replies.

"We should do a theme week where each day is a different theme!" Grace says.

"Hm... Maybe we could pull it off! Sunday would be steampunk; Monday, traditional Japan; Tuesday, tropical; Wednesday, videogame; Thursday, angelic; Friday, medieval Europe; and for Saturday, a knit wool theme," Sora replies.

"You're a genius, Sora!" Grace exclaims.

"Sora cames up with the themes, so it's natural," Saadowa notes, with Shiro nodding in agreement.

"That's because you didn't want to, Saadowa."

"Meh, I wanted to see what you'd come up with."

"More like 'Here, come up with the theme for the cafe because I am so lazy' to me."

"Maybe it was like that..."

"It was."

"Knowing you, you really did push it off to Sora," Shiro says.

"I give up..." Saadowa replies.

As the next day comes, the cafe is closed for a week because the cafe is getting remodeled. Saadowa went to work on designing the cafe remodel, Grace was visiting her family in France, and Shiro was visiting her cousins in Canada - who were not at the village at the time because they were studying abroad. Meanwhile, we see Sora standing in the family grave inside the reconstructed house, the ground covered by cherry blossom petals from trees that grew while he was away.

"11 years since this town burned into ashes..." he mutters to himself.

Footsteps were then heard going towards Sora

"Who's there?!?" Sora says, quickly turning towards the sound's origin.

"Sora?"

"Shiro? What are you doing here?"

"I didn't know you lived close to my village! Guess those graves belong to your family," Shiro says.

"Yeah."

"What kind of people were your family?"

"I'd... rather not say," Sora replies, sadness coating his words.

"Sorry I asked... Anyways, who was that guy with red hair outside your house? Friend of yours?"

"Get behind cover, I'll see what's going on and don't look outside," Sora says, his voice suddenly in a murderous tone.

"Okay," Shiro replies, quickly hiding in a cherry blossom tree.

Sora slowly walks out of the house, electricity surging from his body, pure black and white electric bolts tearing apart the ground in each step he took as the soil itself turned into pure silver.

"Well well well, haven't seen you this angry before, brother."

"I know why you're here, vile cur!"

"Breaking out the insults, eh? Well, then. I'll see if you're even worth my time if you can even beat my minions. Alfaeraak Nooraak, Zenelarak Saeraak."

Two circles of fire appear and float above the ground, one circle made of pure flames that summoned pure angels of fire, the other of black flames that summoned fallen angels of fire.

"You really think that'll be enough to take me down? You honestly think I have done nothing? Well, you're in for a surprise," Sora says.

Suddenly, orbs of lightning formed in the air near Sora, each a different color of black or white. The air began to swirl violently, creating a dome that contained Naraku, Naraku's lackeys, and Sora with countless silver shards.

"Alpaeraak Omeraak Geis," Sora mutters, that causes the silver shards to fly at Naraku's summoned angels at mach 10 and was countlessly struck by black and white lightning.

"Not bad, for prey. Pity that my summons were defeated," Naraku says, cancelling the spell by snapping his fingers.

Nothing again... Sora thought.

"Well, I guess it's time to use my puppet. It's someone you know well, brother. Saeran Kirak."

A puppet then appears in front of Naraku, with long, silky blonde hair and eyes the color of emeralds.

"Y-Yuujin?!? You turned her into a puppet?!?"

"Of course, she was already long dead after I killed her."

The sky darkens, black clouds then swirl as if it was forming a hurricane, pillars of ice then form a wall where the wind once had blown.

"Didn't know you could use that much magic," an impressed Naraku says.

The harrowing call of thunder summons forth a railgun cannon worthy of a space empire civilization.

"Even you won't survive this, monster," Sora says.

"What a wonderful scene this is, pity that it'll be gone when I tear you limb from limb!" Naraku replies, a flaming sword appearing in his hand.

Sora then took out a paper talisman in the shape of a person with runes inscribed all over and was covered with lightning, dark, and light auras like a coat.

"From flesh to ash, life to death, I banish thee from this world and sendeth thee into Asteroth to suffer the same torture as those of thy victims from the beginning of this world until its end. Begone and alloweth the chains of light and darkness seal thee! Finaraak Retriaek!" Sora recites, tossing the talisman into the air and sliced it in half, to which Naraku was then chained to the ground and cannon fired.

The turns to white and as it fades and the dust settles, Naraku is still standing, blood dripping from the tens of trillions wounds, and laughs like a madman who is cornered by the national guard.

"Wonderful, mine brother! This is what a battle should beest! Two foes at the end of their rope, doing there's few or none will entertain it to bringeth the other down to their knees! The ground soaked with the blood of the many foes, beest t divine or damned! Ah ha ha ha! The scene of this level of destruction is a sight to behold! It's like a painting by Leonardo, the sounds, like a symphony by Mozart!" Naraku yells with such fervor and power one would think he had, if not already, several screws loose.

Sora draws his sword, the air as the blade's sheath, made of pure silver and lightning crackling like popcorn cooking.

"Draw your sword, and let our skills do the talking," Sora replies.

"Fine then. So be it," Naraku responds.

"Felkyir Alaesoraak."

"Naeseer Alzaeiik."

As the two charged at one another, like two lions battling for power to lead the pride, their blades shrieking like crazed banshees and the wind submitting to their will. Upon the blades making contact, the blast sounded like a thousand nuclear bombs going off at the same time, the ground cracking like glass, fireballs flying in all directions as if it was a sparkler and light that could blind a person instantly.

The wind caresses the cracked ground, the cracks looking more like scars of war. The mixture of dust, ash, and dirt settles down, and we see Sora and Naraku, Naraku impaled by Sora's blade, the quiet cracks of lightning still there, with Naraku's blade torn apart from the sheer power of Sora's attack.

"I wilt alloweth thou has't this one little victory, brother, but this is not the last time we wilt square. This form of mine is but a clone formed from mine own power. valorous to knoweth that thee art actually a dare. A person once hath said that a battle is not wonneth through brute strength, but eke through knowledge."

With that said, Naraku's body turned into ribbons of blue aura, flowing away in the wind. Sora falls down to one knee from sheer exhaustion.

"The snake escapes my grasp again... next time, he won't escape," Sora says to himself, clenching his fist.

Deciding to go and meet up with Shiro, Sora get up and wipes away the blood from the horizontal scar on his right cheekbone. Upon entering the house, he sees Shiro hiding behind a cherry blossom tree. Sneaking up behind her, Sora kisses Shiro's left cheek.

"S-Sora?!?" Shiro exclaims, her face redder than a fully bloomed rose.

"Surprise~" Sora replies, with a smile on his face.

A blushing Shiro then talked gibberish from sheer embarrassment and hid her face using her hands. The scene cuts to the roof of the same house, and we see a hooded person, looking at Sora and Shiro through the eyes of a small aerial drone.

"Well, it looks like they're getting along well. I really thought I needed to intervene with Sora's fight," the person says.

The hooded person then removes the hood and is revealed that it is Saadowa!

"Ah, time to head back to the cafe," Saadowa says, disappearing in a shroud of mist.

We return to Sora and Shiro, Shiro patching up Sora's wounds.

"How did you even get these wounds?" Shiro asks.

"I fell down the stairs."

"You have 30 shallow cuts, 60 wounds that need to be stitched back, 10 scars, and a broken arm and you're saying you fell down the stairs?"

"There were stones."

"When you don't even have a speck of dust on the wounds?"

"There was a mutant llama."

"A mutant llama... ah nevermind..." Shiro replies with a sigh.

The next several days, the cafe remodeling is complete with a new floor and state of the art technology!

"Still have that same machine, huh?" Sora comments.

"It's not the same, it is now gold, silver, and platinum plated!" Saadowa replies with pride.

"... seriously?" Shiro asks.

"I'm serious."

"The trouble is that we might need some help," Grace notes.

"No need to worry about that, I have some synthetic humans that are interested in the job," Saadowa replies.

"I didn't hear anything about synthetic humans!" Grace replies.

"A lot of our employees are syntheic humans that I made, considering that I also develop synthetic humans for the entire city and contrary to certain beliefs, they are also treated as humans,"

"The entire city?"

"The entire city."

"Just who are you?"

"Find that out by yourself."

Fast forward to next year, 2016. Sora is 21, as his birthday is March 20, 1995. Shiro is 21, as her birthday is December 25, 1995. Saadowa is 21, since his birthday is January 25, 1995. Grace is 17, as her birthday is April 5, 1999. We see Sora walking with Saadowa in the park, talking.

"Hey Sora, did you confess to Shiro yet?"

"Not yet," Sora replies.

"Seriously, you have to! You two are meant for each other!" Saadowa replies, giving Sora a playful shove.

"I don't know..."

Saadowa then grabs Sora's shoulders.

"Look at me. Look at me. I'm the captain now," Saadowa says, in a very serious tone before laughing.

"Out of all the things, it has to be a joke" Sora replies, laughing as well.

"Anyways, did you hear about the new planet?"

"Settler 400 - B?"

"Yeah, apparently the population is inhabited by 4 races, Faerin, Saeraak, Alphaeraak, and Sinae,"

"The Faerin are practically humans with fox ears and fox tails, the Saeraak having cat ears and cat tails, Alphaeraak having just bird-like wings, and the Sinae having dog ears and dog tails. I believe that their species are determined by the position of the moon relative to the position of the sun relative to the offspring being born," Sora explains.

"Yeah."

"Lets hurry up, almost time for the cafe to open."

"Crap, you're right! ONWARDS UNTO THE BEYOND!"