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Outside the building, a couple of buildings away, a crow in a violet coat was spying on apartment window of Hazard's apartment with a pair of binoculars, inspecting the commotions inside. He was 6ft tall and slim, with dark-blue feathers covering his body under his coat, which covered a rather spiffy looking suit under it, giving a refined air about him. "They sure seem to be having fun in there," the avian smirked through his yellow pointy beak, looking through his binoculars.

"Is the Slasher home yet?" a black-furred panther asked, seemingly impatient. He was about 6ft tall, with a nice, curvy muscled, swimmer-type body, wearing a crimson halter-top shirt that left his long arms and top of his back bare, showing multiple small scars and cuts covering his body. His lower half was covered in a very tight black leather pants that gave out a shiny sheen, showing off a pair of elastic strong legs. His long black feline tail swayed about him erratically, as he brushed the top of his scarlet red silky long head fur, that reached down to the end of his back. "This stalk-out business is boring me out of my ass. I'm just not cut out for this," he grumbled, standing next to the crow and clutching his crossed arms irritably.

"Patience, Megalo. Patience," the coated crow replied composedly, still looking through his binoculars. "The Slasher is home, by the way, and he apparently has some friendly guests."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me, Jale?" Megalo snarled.

"I'm telling you right now, aren't I?" Jale retorted, rolling his eyes gallingly.

"Time for some bloodshed," the panther then leered deviously.

"Cool down, hotblood. You know how we can't do anything unless the Boss instructs us to," Jale stated, irritating Megalo.

"Fuck that! They're right THERE! Unsuspecting prey! The best kind of kill! I just can't understand what Master Khan is thinking sometimes!" griped Megalo.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, settle down, Meggy. This is how things go, you do as you told. Nothing more, nothing less," Jale turned to the impatient panther while still holding his binoculars on his eyes, getting a close-up look at his agitated face and waving his feathery finger at him in an antagonizing manner.

"I told you a million times, don't call me that, you fucking bird!" Megalo growled and snatched the binoculars away from Jale, smashing it to bits on the ground.

"Aaahh! My binoculars! Dammit, Meggy! Why'd you have to do that?! Do you know how expensive this one was?!" the crow gasped and retorted at the panther, angering him further.

"STOP CALLING ME MEGGY!!"

"Hey, hey, relax, pal. I'll stop. Temper, temper," Jale smirked and pulled out a small sniper scope from his coat as a substitute, looking through it with one eye and going back to his spying.

Megalo gritted his teeth, trying to calm himself down. "What's the point of us just sitting around here and watching these bitches?"

"Don't ask me. I'm just doing my job. The boss' the one who is interested in them, especially that kirin girl and his precious Slasher," Jale replied, as Megalo seized the scope away from the avian's feathery hand and looked through it himself. "Hey!"

"I still don't know what's the big deal with that Slasher, anyway. He doesn't look that strong or intimidating, at all. I'm sure I could take him out in seconds!" the panther smugly remarked.

"You've lived long enough to know that looks can be deceiving, Meggy," Jale said and received a deathly glare from the black panther. "Oops, sorry, bad habit. Not even Meg? It sounds cute on you," the crow chuckled coyly.

"Fucking bird..." Megalo grumbled lowly, but they then got interrupted by a third party suddenly emerging from their shadows. The black, shadowy from materialized before them and formed the shape of a sandy-scaled reptile, with a big, triangle-shaped head with a pointy horn on the end of his snout, his slender scaly body taking its full form, his spore-filled body bare except for a loincloth with the same color as his skin and a row of dorsal spikes donning the back of his neck and goes down along his long, lizard-like tail. "Shit, Onyx! Would you stop doing that!? You creep the hell out of me out every time!" Megalo snarled after getting started by the chameleon's sudden emergence.

"Hehehehehe! That's why I like to do it! Seeing the scared faces brings me joy!" Onyx the chameleon snickered in a raspy voice.

"Bunch of fucktards," Megalo scowled and resisted mauling the reptile to shreds.

"I take your visit isn't just to amuse yourself on our account?" Jale enquiringly said to Onyx.

The chameleon big bugged-out eyes blinked as if he was recalling something, "Oh that's right! Master Khan wants you two back to report what you found about the Slasher and the Heart!"

"Fucking finally! I was going nuts here!" Megalo exclaimed. "But I so wanted to clash with that Slasher, badly."

"That bastard killed my pet puppies! I'll make him pay sooo much! My poor doggies... Onyx whimpered, referring to his Hellhounds.

"That what you get when you don't follow orders, Onyx. Anyhow, I guess we'll call it a night. But before we go, what should we do about this unexpected guest?" Jale brought to their attention as he pointed at the roof entrance with a finger. The other two looked over to where he pointed and saw the building's janitor unexpectedly standing there in bafflement.

"Tha...That thing... came out of the shadows! Wh-Who are you guys!? You're not tenants in this building! It's restricted for you to be on the roof, so you better leave before I call security!" a middle-aged male frog in his janitor outfit shouted out, obviously nervous.

"What a bother..." Jale sighed.

"Heh, looks like we'll still see some bloodshed tonight after all, eh, Onyx?" Megalo grinned evilly, crackling his fingers.

"Oh, oh, yes, yesss! Kill him, Megalo!" Onyx elatedly agreed, licking his lips with his glossy long tongue.

"Wh-What are you...?" the janitor didn't want to wait for the answer to his question and quickly turned around to escape, but before he could reach for the door, he found himself unable to take another step, like his feet were stuck on the ground. "Wh-What the hell!?" he looked down and was horrified to find two hands coming out from his own shadow and clutching his feet firmly, preventing him from fleeing. Then, before he could even react to that, he was shocked by the unbearable pain of three sharp claws coming out from his torso. He groaned, blood spewing out from his mouth, as he found the strength to look back over his shoulder and saw that the claws came through his back and belonged to Megalo, who were standing a dozen feet away, with his arm stretched out and his claws extended and stabbing the unwary janitor from where he was standing, while Onyx's held his feet by putting his hands through his own shadow to spring out again from the janitor's.

"Gottcha!" Megalo leered and pulled his claws back, dragging the poor frog towards him and before he could even beg for his life, the panther unsheathed the claws from his other hand, growing to the size of sharp blades, and slashed them at the janitor's neck, slicing his head off clean and letting a fountain of blood gush out from his twitching decapitated body.

"Hurrah! You're brutal, Megalo! Brutal!" Onyx clapped his hands joyfully.

"God, I just can't get tired of this!" Megalo chuckled manically, shredding the body in pieces ruthlessly and smearing the roof floor with blood and guts.

"Tsk, darnnit, Meggy. You got blood stains on my expensive coat. You have any idea how much it cost me?" Jale complained, being a killjoy to Megalo.

"STOP FUCKING CALLING ME MEGGY!!!"

***

"So, you and Haz go way back?" Sasuga said, sitting on a table with her wolf neighbor Hazard and the newly arrived white lion, Panja, after the commotion settled down. They were having the Thai food dinner Hazard brought, but since he didn't take into account that there was going be a third person, he didn't bring enough, so Panja took his share.

"Mmm... yup! Waaay back!" Panja replied, finishing the third bowl of fried rice and spicy shrimps.

"Glad to see you're enjoying my dinner," Hazard stingily said.

"Hey, I'm the guest here! And I came a long way to find you, so I'm famished! I did offer to share, didn't I?" Panja retorted.

"Share what? The second I try to take a bite, you devour the whole food."

"I learned from the best! You wolf down your meal like there's no tomorrow, no pun intended!" Panja remarked jokingly and prepared to chow down on a bowl of noodle, but Hazard was quick enough to swipe it away from his paws. "Hey! I was saving that!"

"Not with my noodles, you're not," Hazard smirked and slurped up the fried noodles, making Panja pout sadly.

"Umm, you can have mine, Panja," Sasuga shyly offered, pushing her untouched bowl of noodles towards the white lion.

"Thank you, Sasuga! You're a sweetheart!" Panja exclaimed happily and accepted her kindness, eating her share.

"You didn't have to do that, Sas. He's already spoiled enough as it is," Hazard said and got a scoff from Panja.

Sasuga smiled and shook her head, "It's fine. I'm full. You boys need your food." She couldn't believe how much these two were eating. Such appetite. "I rather you fill me up about what is going on. You did promise me, didn't you?" Sasuga said, as the other two simultaneously stopped eating in mid-suction and traded nervous looks with each other. "Don't give me that look. You're not going anywhere before you tell me, Haz," the kirin assertively said, crossing her arms.

"Err... well, about that, I'll leave the explanation to my dear old bud, Panja. Tell her, Panja!" Hazard gulped loudly and switched the spotlight to Panja.

"Huh?! Why me?! I dunno what the deal is!"

"Stop beating around the bushes and just tell me!" Sasuga crossly glowered.

Hazard sweated nervously, "Okay, okay, don't get mad! I'll tell you! It's just... really complicated and I don't know if you'll believe it."

"Try me," Sasuga replied.

Hazard let out a soft sigh. "Well, first, I'm gonna ask you a simple question. How old do you think I am?" the wolf asked and Sasuga looked at him oddly, not sure what this got to do with anything.

"Umm... twenty seven?" Sasuga guessed.

"Wrong! He's actually over five hundred years old! And I'm over four hundred!" Panja corrected her, if that can be called a correction, because Sasuga didn't believe it, obviously.

"Come on, you're not serious, are you?"

"Sasuga, what I'm about to tell you is very important, and very serious. You saw those demons with your own eyes, so unnatural things exist in this world. Your life as you know it will change forever and danger will be in every corner. Are you willing to put up with it? All I want from you is to trust me," Hazard said in a strict, serious tone.

Sasuga's anxiousness heightened and she was honestly frightened by what Hazard said. But coming this far, she had to know, she felt it in her guts, and she was definite about it. She knew he could trust Hazard, so she nodded and answered, "Yes."

"Alright. Listen well, because this might be too much to take. What Panja said just now, about our ages he wasn't kidding," Hazard confirmedly stated."

"You mean... you're immortal?"

"Well, immortal is too strong of a word, but yeah, we are. Mind you, we could still die if fatally wounded, but we don't age. Not in the same mortal manner, anyway. And you may not know it, but we suspect that you are like us," Hazard continued, much to Sasuga disbelief.

"M-Me? But that can't be possible... How?" Sasuga mumbled in astonishment, as Hazard paused for a minute, trying to figure out a way to break this to her without scaring her off.

"Haz, are you sure about this?" Panja asked the wolf.

"Her being able to see the demons that attacked us yesterday is proof enough that she's one of us," Hazard proclaimed.

"Wh-What? She did? I see..."

"Can't other people see these demons?" Sasuga wondered.

"No, they can't. At least, not the lesser weak ones," Hazard answered.

"But... where did they come from?"

"Do you believe in a demon realm?"

"I didn't used to. I mostly thought they're fictional and only exist in movies and stories. But after what happened yesterday..."

"Yeah, they exist alright, and they have been for hundreds of years now. We've been battling them all this time."

"That's unbelievable..." Sasuga muttered in shock, still finding a hard time to take any of that in. "But why? What do they want? Why did they attack me? Why are you immortal?" Sasuga asked in confusion, as she felt one of Panja's hand hold one of her own comfortingly.

"Calm down, Sasuga. You shouldn't stress yourself over all of this right away," Panja softly said to her.

"She has to know sooner or later, Panja," Hazard said.

"Yes, I have to know. I want to know. This all sounds totally crazy, but somehow, I believe you. I always felt something was awry about me, I just didn't know what. All these nightmares I keep having... like they're trying to tell me something. Maybe... maybe it's about this?" Sasuga uttered, squeezing on Panja's big hand.

"We have to confirm something first."

"Confirm what?"

"Your origin. I know it might be difficult for you to remember, but can you tell us how were you born?" Hazard asked her all of the sudden.

"How I was... born?" Sasuga blinked.

"You told me you were raised by your foster parents, that you never met your real parents. Did they tell you how they found you? Anything would do, just try to remember."

Sasuga thought deeply for a few moments, diving through her memories to recall something important. "Well, actually, they did. Not too long before they passed away, my foster mother told me a story about how they found my egg. I thought she was just making it up, since it's a bit farfetched."

"Tell us!" Panja eagerly said.

"Yeah, no matter how unbelievable it is, can you tell us?" Hazard keenly requested.

"Alright..." she breathed and tried to remember that story as best as her memory served.

To be continued...