The next morning, Kaito was still lying at the room, unchanged since last night while Gumi and Akiko was preparing to open the shop for business.

For hours, they did their normal routine at the shop and when the two were done, they raised the roll-up panels and opened the Supershack for the customers.

"At least, we could do this even brother was resting upstairs!" Gumi ardently said, cheering their spirits up while bathing in the warm morning sunlight from the front door.

Akiko nodded. "Yes Gumi, we can!"

As the two employees headed back in, they saw Kaito going down the stairs, having still the messy face and sleepy eyes.

"Sorry, Gumi and Akiko, if got up late." he apologized to the two, looking down.

"Eh! Please don't say that brother Kaito!" Gumi countered to him. "It's okay for us to work here while you're resting. We knew you badly needs a break from what Tei had done to you! It is horrifying, I suppose!"

Kaito rubbed his eyes, made a few stretches and yawned.

"Oh guys, I'm really sorry. Maybe my body is wanting more sleep perhaps?" he mumbled in while trying to wake himself by jumping low at his place. "But— I try to wake up my bloodstream to remove the sleepiness I had right now. I just can't let the day pass of me being unproductive."

"Uhm, if brother Kaito wants, I want it too!" Gumi said, he was still jumping up and down at his place.

After several minutes of jumping, Kaito still felt lethargicness. The young man just slowly walked down the stairs with a sad expression on his face. When Akiko saw his state, she approached him with a smile.

"Let me help you!" Akiko melodically said. "Let's remove your worries and sleepiness away!"

Feeling of having no option, he agreed. Akiko walked closer to him and stopped in front, facing him. Then she held both of his arms. At some point of the process, Kaito somewhat felt strange on what Akiko was doing.

"Akiko?" Gumi wandered, looking at her from behind.

"Yes?"

"Are you sure that thing you do right now will work on big brother?"

"Absolutely!" Akiko beamed, holding both of Kaito's cheeks side by side.

She then silently stared directly at Kaito's sleepy eyes and as a response, he flinched a bit and he felt a mix of drowsiness and creepiness. He was too confused, he can't resist to ask.

"Akiko?" Kaito asked while looking at her eyes with uneasiness. "What— are you planning to do to me?"

Akiko blocked her index finger at Kaito's lips and made a soft hush, adding a more strange atmosphere for Kaito and Gumi.

"Uhm, " Gumi said, speechless on what Akiko was doing. "I feels so weird watching you guys doing that."

"We're gonna sing 'World is Mine', okay?" Akiko said, Kaito slowly nodded his head. "You're just gonna sing the last part. 'That' will make you awake!"

He felt relieved after she said they would sing a song. His first thought was Akiko would do other strange things to him.

Then, Akiko started to sing the first two lines of the song 'World is Mine' with Kaito. She sang it in a soft lovely melodic manner, still her hands at Kaito's cheeks:

-----

Sekai de ichi-ban ohime-sama,
Sou iu atsukai kokoro-ete—

-----
When Kaito dropped the last part which was 'yo ne?', Akiko smiled at him. Gumi and Kaito smiled also, assuming that only singing would happen that moment, but again, Kaito was caught by surprise and the next scene made Gumi shocked.

Using the heel of her left boot, Akiko heavily stepped on one of Kaito's foot, repeating the last part with a smile. "yo ne?"

All of the birds resting on the nearby trees in the store flew away because of Kaito, screaming in pain, his voice resonating across the shop's proximity.

From a distance, Tei heard Kaito suffering, somewhat in great pain so she sprinted fast towards the store to find out what happened.

"What happened my handsome future husband!" Tei exclaimed, wearing a grayish dress that resembles than that of a school uniform and a leathery backpack, just exactly stopping in front of the store.

The three went silent as they heard Tei's voice outside the store. Kaito was also surprised, when in that time was jumping in pain, seeing Tei looking at her with a strangely worried stare.

|Cul's Apartments|

Inside the landlady's house, Haku carried a basin of water and a white towel to Cul's room. Opening the door, she placed the basin on top of a cherry finished cabinet and submerged the towel in the lukewarm water.

Resting flat on her silk queen sized bed was her companion — and landlady as well— Cul, who had migraine since last night.

"Why are you here Haku?" she softly said. "You are supposed to be at your work, not here."

Haku grabbed the towel from the basin, squeezed the excess water, and put the lukewarm towel on her friend's forehead.

"Because, my friend needs me. My crazy landlady needs care while she's sick." Haku joked to her. "And I hardly believed that you can take care of yourself while still managing works here."

Cul closed her eyes and calmly let Haku took care of her. The cool breeze passing through the windows of the room was bringing an uplifting feeling to the resting landlady.

"Haku, do you remember the day you met me at the park? The only kid playing in the sandbox that has a strange long red hair that everyone else's think I'm evil because of it?" Cul said, smiling.

"Of course, I do still remember that. Why can't I!" Haku said, returning a  smile afterwards. "How the heck would I forget that time! The time I've made friends with a strange looking kid like you? Heh."

"At least you do approached me even though your father Tonio don't want to." Cul gladly replied.

"Screw father about that! At least I'm glad I'd made a friend that time. Nobody wants a red-eyed weird child like me, except you!"

Cul rested her right arm on his ace, blocking her eyesight.

"Perhaps your boss would be mad at you if you can't show yourself there. Your new life is more important than your crazy landlady, so get out of my room now!" Cul asked her. "You don't obliged to babysit your landlady."

"But, how about the supplies out there?" she asked in purpose to tease Cul. "You can't work alone while I'm out there having a good time. You'll probably get jealous of me."

"Don't worry Haku, I've got company! And don't underestimate your flame-haired buddy! Besides, I'm not that too old to tell me I can't!" she exclaimed in opposition to Haku's earlier statement.

Haku just smiled and did what her landlady had told her. She gone out of the room and shut the door while Cul was all alone in the room.

"What a friend!" she said to herself, opening her eyes slowly then reaching her phone from the side cabinet.

She dialled someone and asked for manpower to work at her apartment, remodeling the room of Haku to be specific. After a swift deal, she put down her reddish dark phone and stared at the ceiling fan.

Then, she looked at the fig trees she had outside through the window. She was silent for several minutes, just staring at the fig tree.

"How long would you like hide there Vermilion?" she said. "I mean, what's the sense of hiding yourself from me?"

From the side wall outside the landlady's room, Meiko showed herself out with a contemptuous smile.

"Shucks, looks like the Crimson's flaming aura has been extinguished by my special bottle of saké."

"I'm just thinking many things right now that's why I got sick and it's not because of your 'childish' drinks." Cul said, changing her glance from Meiko, looking back at the ceiling while flashing a smile. "And remember Meiko, I am one of the toughest drinkers in Vocesai, your epic specialties can't knock a legend like me!"

Meiko grinned at Cul's answer while skipping in to the room from outside, moving in beside the landlady's bed.

"Thinking of what, Crimson? Like what?"

"Apartment bills, renovations, expenses, up-"

"Upgrades huh? Or something else you would like to share with me... A secret, perhaps?"

"What secret you wanna know? My affairs? My love life?" Cul confidently replied.

Meiko shook her head, wearing a silly expression at her face. "Nah, I can make a lot of reasons not to know your admirers, it's just really awful to jump in at your relationships while you enjoy your femininity. Besides, I don't like those kinds of secrets. I am more of an explorer than a keeper."

"Heh, you are indeed the Meiko I really know. A very curious red cat."

She then looked at Cul up close and smiled. "I~ want~ to~ know~ if Haku is the—" she said in a playful tone.

"So, you know it already? About the photo?"

"Of course, Crimson! What secret can hide from me: The Midnight Stinger, Miss Vermilion?"

Cul sighed. "Don't even dare, Meiko. Don't even try to interfere with Haku. I am certainly sure you know how dangerous to play with me."

"Ooooh. Crimson is threatening me." Meiko mocked. "I'm super scared!"

She straightened up her stance and walked inside the room, moving back and forth, smiling frantically at Cul's threat. She pulled something inside her red tank top, a red card, her signature "Miss Vermilion~♥" killing card.

"So, is it confirmed then, Crimson? She is the one, our master was talking about." Meiko asked, stylishly sitting in the window with crossed legs, looking at the beveled alias on her grim card.

"I don't know yet if she is the person master had told us. Honestly, I really don't know."

"But what about the lab coats? The engravings? The date?" followed Meiko, hurling the card beautifully at the wall, piercing in the sheet rock for three-quarter of an inch just above Cul's cabinet.

"I'm just about to find out." Cul replied, looking at the card.

Meiko then noticed a truck approaching in the open area of her comrade's apartment. She stood up and fixed her hair then jumped out of Cul's room.

"Your workers are here Cul. I suppose that this is goodbye?"

"Yeah. It is goodbye so get your sexy ass out of here before I become mad at 'ya." Cul replied, getting up on her bed.

"See you at the flipside, Crimson!" she vividly said.

Meiko jumped out effortlessly out the window and she was nowhere in sight in just a snap.

Cul hissed, looking out the window. "Ah, that student, what can I expect from her anyway?"