-----

"Oh? You survived the chief? Well that's a surprise," Sitting at her desk in the lobby of the Intelligence Agency, Cathy the cyclop says to a certain fox.

"Eheheh... Yay me..." Ren brushes the back of his neck as he coughs, "So, where is the first branch office? Can't be late for my first day right?" He asks as he looks around the quiet lobby.

"The tenth floor. The floor where all lunatics like the chief stay. Now get the hell out of my sight."

Ren gives a quick thanks to the cyclop before he moves towards the elevator. And as he was about to push the call button, the elevator opens to reveal a face, or the lack thereof that causes Ren's eyes to stiffen.

The certain chief that made him shot himself is standing in there as emotionless and stoic as ever, prompting his ears to lay low. With her stiff posture and raised chin, she tilts her head at Ren, "Hmm? So you still intent to stay even after yesterday? Hmm... Commendable. But now, excuse me. I have some businesses to attend to," she then exits the elevator, keeping her stiff demeanor as she walks forward.

"Um... Is Niz with you?" Ren asks as she walks past him.

"No."

At that, he looks down as he purses his lips. Him and Niz had planned to talk about the things that happened last night. But mostly, Ren wanted to talk to him about... Her. He already tried to call that damn lizard, but he didn't answer, even after the fifth times he called.

Well that's definitely the usual Niz, guess Ren will just wait to see him later then.

As he turns back to the elevator, he sees that someone else; a short, chalk skinned and white haired woman wearing the knight uniform is already standing in the corner of the elevator. Her eyes is as black as the void with ink-like liquid slightly leaking out of them as if she's wearing some melting mascara. But the thing that causes Ren to jolt out his fur is her silent smile that forms the moment they make eye contact with each other.

With sweat tickling his face, Ren decides to go in anyways, not wanting the situation to be even more questionable.

Ah, the smooth, jazz elevator music. At least, this helps calm him down. Maybe he should check his phone here, to see if Niz had messaged him back already-

"Hey, can I pet your tail?"

Not even the worst ever gore in this wretched world could cause all his furs to jolt out all at once.

"Excuse my sister. She's weird," A croaky and deep voice joins after the girl, putting another layer to the tingly sensation at the back of Ren's neck, "Wait.. You're that fox guy that shot himself yeah? The new member?" The same deep voice says before Ren could respond.

Only after he gathers the gulps to glance behind, he could see that from the girl's right eye, wriggles out a length of a snake-like creature with the jaw of a Venus flytrap as its head. Its body is made out of flowing pitch black ink, with no other feature decorating its 'face' apart from a pair of tiny golden dots.

Pishacha, a type of demon known to gurge and live within a vessel as a parasite. They feast on their soul as the host's mind slowly trample into their control and onto madness.

But it seems, this particular vessel, the demon's 'sister' as he said feels... Alive. Proven by a warming wave of peach-coloured aura emanating around her body.

"Uh, yeah! Not sure about what you meant by 'new member' though..." Ren snickers off his surprise with an awkward smile.

"Ah come on~ you know what I mean. You're accepted into the first branch yeah? Well me and my sister are members there. So welcome new co-worker! Hope you enjoy your new work here! The last new face we've seen transfered after just two days. So..."

The demon greets him with a smile a pair of venus flytrap's jaws could somehow express.

"My name's Anastasia, and this is my brother, Samuel! Nice to meet you fluffy!" The vessel, Anastasia offers a handshake. As Ren is about to accept, she instead advances to his tail, suddenly grabbing and stroking it aggressively. While Samuel seems to just stare at the fox... Apologetically? It's hard to decipher the expression of a wriggling goop of ink really...

Calm down, calm down... Everything's fine... Everything's just fine. She's just petting your tail... Everybody does that... It's fine...

The same mantra repeats within Ren's mind for the next painful seconds with him just smiling awkwardly all the way up, until the elevator dings, "This is our stop!" The sister says with a soft voice, releasing her grip.

As the elevator opens, the siblings step off first with Ren tailing behind them, onto the marble flooring of the hallway before they turn left, leading him to a pair of classy wooden doors.

She grabs one of the door knob, but before she rotates her wrist, Anastasia stiffly tilts her head back with a widened smile.

"Your name... It's Ren? Right?"

Ren raises an eyebrow at her slightly ominous tone, though he just brushes it off with a nod. Anastasia only smirks as she opens the door with a loud creak.

As rays of sunlight penetrates through the tall vintage styled windows, the two figures soon steps onto the clean, polished tiles of black and white marbles that are spread across the big, spacious room.

Fancy old decors such as grandma vases and paintings adorn the dark wood wall and racks, with old time-y furniture neatly spread across the living area located in the middle of the room.

On the sides of the room, stand tall bookshelves filled with what would be important documents, while small lounge tables and chairs stand by the windows, with the room completed with a single office table that sits lonely in the left corner of the room.

To top it off, the whole room is lit a warm yellow tone from a big candlelight in the center of the office, it gives off a very luxurious and old vintage aura, like what humans call the 18th century. An era so popular it practically survived millenias after it's introduction.

And Ren? He would normally be delighted to see his workplace being this fancy but... that delight only lasts for barely a second.

In the middle of the room, stands a six feet tall ape-like beast. It is covered with long green-ish black, ragged hair all over its body. Two pairs of fangs stick out of its mouth like elephant tusks that bend both up and down, while a pair of glowing, blood red eyes, stare out of its tangles of dark keratin, into Ren's minimized pupils.

A genderuwo, supernatural Sasquatch-like spirits hailing from the spirit realm of Mor'.

The beast appears to be just standing there, glaring its bloodshot eyes at Ren. All the while holding a... Plate of strawberry cake?

And with it wearing the knight uniform and (most importantly) pants. The terrifying aura it emits diminishes slightly, or arguably completely.

"Ah! You're the new member right? Wanna try my cake?" Speaking with a gentle and deep, male voice, the beast approaches Ren, causing the floor to slightly shakes as he take his steps.

"Ooh! Udin! Is this the new recipe you told me? This looks good!" Anastasia wows as she approaches the giant. As the latter offers a slice, Anastasia accepts with sparkles in her eyes as if they got actual life in them.

"Ooh~ I want some too!" The demon within her emerges once more, just to take a quick and messy bite from the piece Anastasia holds.

"What about you? Wanna try a slice?" The sasquatch once again offers, glancing at the fox. The latter, not wanting to hurt any feelings within his first day, decides to give into the beast's request.

"How is it? Is it good?" The beast asks the three of them.

"It's a little bit too sweet for me but yeah, it's good," Ren states with a mouthful as he licks his fingers clean.

"Agreed. But I still love it!" The demon siblings says in unison.

"Hmm... Still need some work to further perfect it I see..." The beast hums to himself, "Oh well, it's nice that you guys liked it."

"So, my name's Ren Kitsuko. You're Udin right?" Ren offers a handshake, which Udin quickly accepts with excitement that literally slaps the fox's hand.

"Yep, Udin Bin Gandharuwo! Pleased to meet ya!"

The genderuwo's then continues to swing his hand without releasing his grip, to the point that he unknowingly sways the fox's body.

It continues for a few seconds. Ren just smiles all the way through the process, giving into his coworker's strength. Though the Udin stops soon enough.

"Oops, my bad," The giant says, releasing his grip, causing Ren to slightly stumble to his right.

"I-its fine."

Afterwards, Udin invites Ren to chill on the office's living area. No one by far has joined the room, only the four of them are present.

Without any words, Ren observes the sasquatch who's sitting on the sofa in front of him. To him, this guy seems really nice and gentle. Though with his appearance, most would likely assume that he is the opposite of what he actually is.

And Ren definitely knows how that feels. Guess he just made a new friend... Maybe. They just met a few minutes ago so he wouldn't exactly call him that.

"So... You're from Mor right?" Ren starts a small talk. Which Udin hums to, "Do you like it there?"

Udin tilts his head as he sniffs a snot, "Well, If you're talking about me, then yeah, I do. But people literally curse each other and do blood sacrifice there on a daily basis, but the scenery's nice, and each Eid I get to visit my family there. Nothing beats your grandma's cooking amirite?"

"..."

"That's... nice..."

I'll pretend I didn't hear the blood sacrifice part

"Anyways, what are we gonna do here? The chief told me practically nothing about the job, so."

"Well, usually, she would assign us some cases to work with. But well, there's no actual schedule to that really. Hell, I learned I have a passion for baking cuz I'm stuck here waiting for her to come back."

"I met her on the way here. She said she has some businesses to attend to. Did she told you guys anything about that?"

"Hell no," Udin answers with a chuckle. But that chuckle seems to be paired with a slight hint of pain that Ren doesn't dare to question.

The room falls silent as he stares at the scenery outside the window emptily, he doesn't change his half lidded eyes when he sees a flying anomalocaris the size of a small plane passing the building like it's just an everyday occurrence, as silence continues on and on.

"Hmm.. Where's the others? There's no way the top branch only have three members yeah? Well I guess four if you count Samuel," Ren mentions after the brief pause.

"I heard that!" Samuel retorts, jumping out of his sister's eye cavity.

"Sorry."

"They're out for lunch. I think," Udin answers.

"But it's not lunchtime yet," Ren checks his phone, it's still 9:54 in the morning. Maybe Udin was mistaking brunch for lunch?

"Yeah... It's just that, they would rather pass the time outside instead of here. Understandable if you ask me. And of course, the chief couldn't care less. She even let me bring my playstation 12 here at some point. Well, that's her ups and downs," Udin explains as he picks his elfen-like ear with his pinky.

"Heheh... Not to be rude but.. I'm kinda disappointed."

"Right back at ya buddy."

"..."

"So what now?"

"I don't know. Wanna play some poker?"

"Kay."

------

------

"Go fish."

"We're playing poker."

The four questionable creatures sit on the sofa, surrounding the coffee table where they've been playing poker for hours and hours, all of them mind boggled by this sweet, sweet time the rest of the branch members and the chief herself is taking.

3:43 in the afternoon. How many rounds of poker has it been? Who knows.

"Man..." Ren yawns, before continuing, "When are they coming again?"

Udin mumbles a soft groan as he lean on his palm, "I don't know..."

"Maybe right about..."

"!!!" The door bangs open.

"Now..."

After hours of never ending waiting. Four new presences enters the room. A cheery male voice introducing them, "Hey, Udin! We're back! Sorry we took so long... There's this cat that was stuck up on a tree and we had to-"

"You're the one that hoarded that stinky and disgusting seafood market. Shut up," A cold, male voice snarks, cutting the former's word.

"Finally! Not that it matters," Udin exclaims as he melts to the sofa.

Facing away from the office's door, Ren keeps his bored face as he sighs. But when he feels a warm tap to his shoulder, he glances back to see a pink haired woman with a particularly droopy eyes smiling sweetly at him.

"You're the new fox huh? You seem tired..." The woman softly says with her sparkling magenta eyes half lidded.

Ren yawns before he faintly smiles at the girl. Though he slightly squint his eyes when he notices a white morningstar symbol embedded onto her forehead.

"Yeah... And I'm hungry too... I should've just went out for lunch like you guys..." He holds his stomach as a loud gurgle echoes out.

"Hmm, well... You can't fight crime with that stomach. So here, eat this, It'll boost your stamina," She says, keeping her smile as she offers Ren a melon bun.

Without acknowledging everyone's widened eyes at the sight of him accepting her gift. He moves to take a bite. But like a sequence in an overly dramatic soap opera, Udin throws himself at the fox, aiming his hand towards the bread.

But of course, just like in those dramas, he was an inch too late. Ren had already chewed off his bite with blissful ignorance.

"So how is it?" The pink haired woman smiles.

"Hmm..." Ren hums as he chews.

A few normal seconds passes with everyone in the room staring in confusion.

"See~ you guys are just overreacting!" The pink haired girl giggles as she skips her way to grab a book and read it beside the window.

"Hey... Why are you staring at me like that?" Ren questions to Udin.

"You're not feeling anything funny... Right?"

"Wha?"

"You know what. Let's just leave it at that," The giant stands up from the sofa. Walking towards another newly arrived member; a ram-horned man his height who had just arrived together with the pink haired lady.

Ren takes another bite, ignoring Udin's weird reaction. Seriously there's nothing wrong with the bun, and that girl seems so nice and pleasant. So why Is everyone staring like that?

Eh, whatever

"Hey, Nevermind that weird girl kay? She's uh... Not what you think she is. Also please never accept food or anything from her ever again. Trust me," The same cheery voice that first entered the room whispers from behind him.

Ren looks back to see a blue-skinned merman smiling at him. He has three pairs of gill slits below the outer corners of his heterochromatic blue and purple eyes. With a shark tail lying motionless on the ground, he smiles his razor sharp teeth at the fox.

"My name's Kao Minerva. Nice to meet you... Ren? Right?"

"Kitsuko. Ren Kitsuko. Nice to meet you too," they both smiles at each other as both's tails slightly sways, "So, why is everyone freaking out right now? Is there something wrong with her?" Ren asks, glancing towards the pink haired girl, who is now sitting with Anastasia and Samuel, reading books together.

"Yeah, her name is Amura. She is... Well, all I can say is that, she and the chief probably share the same brain cells or something," Kao then sat beside Ren, leaning an elbow on the sofa's arm.

"Huh?" Ren tilts an eyebrow.

"Y'know, it's like they're relatives or something."

Ren tilts another eyebrow as he continues.

"I thought unicorns are all about rainbows and positivity... but her? She literally destroys people with rainbows. You get what I mean?" The merman rants, facepalming himself one too many times as he explains.

"Hmm, is she the troublemaker of the group?" Ren asks.

"More or less, yeah... Well, the most out of the six of us anyways..."

At that, he widen his eyes, "Does that mean there's something in the bread she gave me?"

"Usually."

"But I don't think she would do that to a new-"

"!!!" Cutting the shark's words, a fiery blaze of flame shoot out of Ren's mouth as if he's a cartoon character that ate a billion tons of jalapeno.

"HOT!!!!"

He falls down to the floor, rolling to his sides frantically as he screams bloody murder.

The scene of fire jolting into the ceiling continues on as the perpetrator sits in peace, reading a book with a pair of demonic siblings as if there's no dying person to worry about.

"Hey, Ana, do you like this dude with this dude more or..."

"I don't ship."

"Pity."

In the background, screams of senseless panic could be heard. The rest of the branch immediately gather to Ren's aide. Udin even brings a fire extinguisher just in case things go south.

"Shit! We need water! Anyone!"

"My t-tongueeee! Aaaaaaaaaa!!!"

"Hachoo! Man... My nose doesn't feel good. Also, do you hear anything?"

"No... I just want to read my book in peace... Maybe hug the fox's fluffy tail while at it."

"Kyaaaaa! My ass! It burns, it burns!"

"Someone call 911! Wait..."

"Hmm... If only there's more fun things to do around here... Huh... Talking to you isn't really fun I would say, where's Samuel?"

"He's sleeping..."

"Sorry Ren, but this is the only way! Atlas art: Rain!"

"Ah!!!"

"Ah~~"

Amura sighs once more, humming a tune so sweet yet melancholic as the background becomes quieter and quieter, as soft rain trickles down the room, while clouds of faint evaporated smoke exits through the ventilation system.

She glances to the window with half lidded eyes as she leans on her palm. She expects to see the busy streets of the Knight's headquarter circle, but she instead sees a familiar figure with a smiling opera mask, hanging upside down, knocking on the glass calmly as if she's not hanging off the 20th floor of a building.

"Chief?"

The girl quickly opens the window, letting fresh breeze blow through and allowing the rest of the cloud of smoke to escape before The Chief flails in like a stiff stick blown by the wind.

She lands face flat in the middle of the room before standing up stiffly like an erection. Without acknowledging her newest member drenched in water whilst lying with his tongue out in front of her, she takes out a silver bell and ring it with poise.

"Ding ding ding. The meeting will now come to order."

-----

-----

It is now four in the afternoon with the sky orange in hue and with cold, refreshing air starting to replace its once warm and humid state.

Left and right, here in the culinary square of The Central City, stand outlandish restaurants for all kinds of races; an underwater seafood restaurant that provides air bubbles for non-water breathers, an intergalactic branch of Wacdonald, a somehow licensed and legal alien restaurant where the dish has a potential to eat the customer, or even just a vendor that is selling intricate, abstract shaped outerspace fruits and vegetables.

Walking across the busy road, the fox follows his assigned partner, who's as of now, haven't said any word at all.

With pale and sickly brown skin, half shaved dark brown hair, and purple-ish blue exoskeleton decorating his lower jaw to the rest of his body. Sion Lync, the scorpion brood who's unfortunate enough to be assigned as Ren's partner takes the lead.

"Hey, the restaurant must be around here right?" Ren mentions, looking at a shabby food stall that is selling seemingly normal-looking hot dogs, with few lowlifes gangsters both alien and terrestrial surrounding the accommodation.

Sion ignores his words, continuing to take his steps to who knows where.

It has been a perhaps ten-ish minutes of searching and walking since they've arrived here, though they still hasnt gotten any result. Ren and Sion were assigned to find traces of interplanetary drug cartels thought to be in one of the three alien exclusive restaurants in the square. One being a space fauna all-you-can-eat buffet, the other being rock and minerals gourmet resto, while the last is a shabby looking hotdog stall, the one they both just passed by. The other members are assigned to do the same thing, just in different locations, with different alleged commodity such as spas and nightclubs.

With how professional they are and the fact that the chief had given them the details and the tools needed. Surely, it won't be that hard. Right?

Nope. It is that hard. Perhaps it's because there are millions of ways to hide drugs in this now advanced world. Illusion magic is a popular way to make things unseen, fragrance concealer could render even the sniffiest of dogs useless, and the food all the people are eating here? It all could be drugged for all that matters.

But the big problem is not just that. It's Ren's partner who blatantly refuses to cooperate. Sure, Ren is the newbie but, Seriously, what's the deal with him?

"Hey! Can you at least stop ignoring me!? We're supposed to work together for god sake!" Ren complains, and he finally got an answer. Sort of.

The scorpion coldly glances a pair of his six turquoise eyes to the fox.

Ren etches his tongue in annoyance before he fast pace his steps to block the scorpion's path, confronting him face to face.

"Hey, do you have a problem!?"

The latter only furrows his brow.

"Tch. Out of my way, fox."

His words, told with a high and soft voice, stunts Ren, causing him to freeze in place for a second. Before the scorpion bump him out of his way.

But soon enough he follows him once again.

"Okay, fine. I won't talk to you anymore. But if you find something. Tell me," Ren demands with the same cold tone Sion used.

The scorpion once again, only clicks his tongue.

And off they go, walking side by side quietly along the street, each deducing their own case within their mind as if they're on this alone.

"..."

"Stop," Sion suddenly says, stopping right by an alleyway that his stinger slightly flail to.

Catching Sion's idea, Ren nods. Perhaps Sion felt something there? Scorpios brood like him has the ability to sense chemical signature in the air afterall.

Ren lies his tail and ears low as he and Sion sneaks into the depth of the alley, soon crouching behind a trashbin. As footsteps echoes out from the darkness, two silhouettes gradually reveal themselves.

"Man... Can't believe the big boss killed Xcee't like that... It's.. Not our fault right?" A high pitched alien voice quietly echoes.

"Tch... It's his own fault for betraying the boss. We're talking interplanetary drugs right here. This stuff could lead to a whole galactic war if we get caught," Another voice says with a voice of a croaky male human.

"But I swear I saw him gave the bags to that buffet restaurant... So why??"

"I don't know... Maybe that bag wasn't filled with the stuff after all. Maybe he sold them all on his own."

"I guess... That's possible."

And the two continue whispering as they reveal themselves to a brief ray of sun. One male Martian, and one male human.

With a nod, Sion signals Ren to get ready as the suspects approaches closer and closer. With faint clicks of its chain-like segments, Sion prepares his stinger, ready to ambush his prey.

Ren begins charging his forearm with a dim level of electricity. Only small enough that its invisible to the naked eye.

"Goddamnit... I'll miss that guy... He's such a goo-" A sudden jolt of shock to the back of the Martian's neck causes him to fall forward.

"Wha-"

And before the human could react, a sudden pull around his throat stops him. He squints his eyes at the pain, and when he opens them again. He could see a scorpion tailed, six eyed guy holding his unconscious friend by his collar, while he himselfs feels an incredibly fluffy object rubs itself onto his legs, while his neck feels a repeated stinging sensation.

It is there that he realizes. That he might be screwed.

"W-W-Wait!! Let's talk about this kay!? I uh... This is not what it looks like!" The human, noticing the Knight insignia on each of his confronter's ties, went into a wave of panicked mumbles, before a stinger pointed to his throat silences him.

"Shut up. Now, tell us everything you know about your work. Or else," Sion threatens as he begins to push his stinger onto the human's skin.

"Okay... Okay... Just please... Don't hurt me... And let me and him go! We're forced to do this okay..." With that, the scorpion pulls away his stinger some inches away.

"Me and my friend got an order from my boss... To supply their partners with these weird... alien drugs that make people go cuckoo. That's all I know when it comes to my job. The boss didn't tell me about anything else!"

Sion and Ren both look at each other, unimpressed by the puny information this dude just gave them.

"Tell us about your boss," Ren says, letting out a spark of blue electricity across his wrists.

"Okay! Okay! I Never said I won't! So turn your tingles down will ya'?" He says with a gulp before he pauses to take a calming breath.

Though after a brief moment, what comes after is not his own voice, but rather, someone else's, echoing from the end of the alleyway.

"Oh my~ what's going on here?" A woman's voice echoes from the alley's entrance. It sounds ambiguously human with hints of otherworldly high pitched pulses as if those words echoes out of a pitch modifying cave.

Ren takes notice and glances towards the source. Seeing an tall woman standing with two buff aliens in suits by her side. The woman wears a long dress that is covered with glitter, with its length reaching down to the concrete. She also sports a beach hat with glowing lines of threads raining down from its edges. Her chest and shoulders are wide, while the rest of her lower body are thin, so much so that her feet is non-existent, almost making her appears to be floating.

And when she and her men approach closer. Ren sees that she is in fact, a jellyfish-like alien. Her 'hat' being her actual head. A beach hat-like bell that glows ocean blue in the dark, decorated with its hanging thread, or more so, deadly tentacles. As the closure of distance starts to reveal herself, Ren notices that her 'face' has no facial feature apart from a thin, vertically glowing yellow slit, contrasting her blue-ish semi transparent skin.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. But these people? They're just my workers. You can Let them all go now," The jellyfish woman's otherwordly voice echoes with a condescending and snobby tone, the vertical yellow slit on her face blinking off and on with every word spoken, as her bell pulsate every second just like that of earth's jellyfish.

Seeing how the human he's interrogating stumble to the ground while staring at the alien with widened eyes, Sion steps up to her front, glaring at her, "Sorry, we can't. And ma'am, if you're found to be involved... Then, we're taking you to custody as well," Sion coldly answers as he raises his stinger

"But Mr Knights... We're innocent. See I'm with my kids here. Just enjoying Earth after a long, paintstaking journey from my home planet. And these people? They're the babysitter I hired for them. So kindly, can yo-"

"Shut up. Now hands up in the air," Sion pulls out a glock without a warning. Pointing it at the alien woman.

At that, Ren widen his eyes as he furrows his eyebrow, "W-Wait! Calm down!" He says to the scorpion, which once again ignores him. Though the woman soon distract Ren's distress, giggling out her otherwordly echoes.

"Heheh, pity. But, I guess there's really no loss in killing two useless workers plus two policemen right?" The woman says, before she begins floating back to her two bodyguard's protection.

The two aliens stares at the group as their madam floats past them. The two only stares in silence, with their hands crossed.

"Well,"

"Kill them."

Right after, one of the bodyguards lunges forward, swinging his massive punch towards the fox. The latter immediately jumps back, causing the alien to smash and crack the concrete instead.

Sion quickly follows the fox's movement, grabbing the unconscious martian by the back of his collar before he stood up and dash to the busy street with an impressive speed with the martian held by his stinger. Ren soon follows with the human riding on his back as the latter screams in senseless panic.

"Why're we running!? We could've take them on!" Ren complains, as they turned from the alleyway to the street.

"No we can't! Just shut up! These people are more important right now!"

"Tch!"

-----

Still in the alleyway, accompanied by her bodyguards, the jellyfish woman positions her beeping phone near her 'face', before a sudden click from her phone causes her tentacles to slightly jolt out.

"Ehm... Honey~ how are you doing?"

"..."

"Ah, the kids? Yeah, they're still in the hotel right now... Sleeping."

"..."

"Hmm... Yeah about that. Looks like some Knights got hold of our useless deliveryman. Couldn't let the Knight overseers know no?"

"Hmm... Well then,"

"Go let the dog out."

-----