The story of Pandora begins with Zeus sending her down to Earth to give her as a present to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. Epimetheus was told by Zeus that he should marry Pandora.

Pandora went down to earth with a little box with a big lock. He gave the key to Epimetheus while stating that she should never ever open the box. Pandora's curiosity got the better of her and begged Epimetheus to open it but Zeus' words stopped Epimetheus from giving in to Pandora.

One day, Epimetheus fell asleep and Pandora stole the key and opened the box. The box had every kind of trouble that nobody had seen or known before. Sickness, worries, crimes, hate, envy, and many more. They all flew away so fast and all over the place and Pandora regretted opening the box as she failed to catch them.

But the last thing that had flown out of the box was different from the rest, it was hope. The story meant that even if everything gets rough, hope still exists underneath it all.

And that even the good will suffer from evil.

Kai had just finished eating his meal and left with the three girls leaving behind a speechless restaurant.

"I can't believe you actually ate it all..."

Akane made a comment.

"I've never seen anyone eat so much."

Yoko rubbed her eyes. Even though they had been there for nearly half an hour, she still couldn't snap out of it.

And Erina just stared at him.

He's like one of those people in manga and anime that eat too much.

"Hahaha..."

Kai dryly laughed. He realized that he had eaten much more than the male adult but he was only sufficiently full, he didn't overeat.

While they were walking, Kai's footsteps suddenly halted and his ears perked up.

"Kai?"

Yoko asked.

"Ahh! I forgot something important at home! You guys go ahead, I'll meet you in a bit!"

Kai suddenly ran and waved at them goodbye.

"Ah."

Akane snapped out of it first.

"Well, our plan today was to show Kai around but I guess we can stroll around while waiting for him. Erina?"

Yoko agreed with Akane. Erina furrowed her brows but when she faced Yoko and Akane, her face hid all signs of being troubled.

"Nothing, let's go."

Erina, Yoko, and Akane began to stroll around once more.

Kai stopped at a nearby alley and stayed there.

"Where is he?"

"He went into that alley over there."

"Did he go out yet?"

"No, we've secured both sides."

"Alright, don't make any moves on him. Just make sure that he's inside the alley."

Three cloaked figures had a conversation with each other and one of them took off their cloak and walked by the alley like a normal person.

"Huh?"

The man froze when he saw that the alley was empty. He immediately ran inside the alley and searched for Kai but to no avail. This part of the clan had quite huge houses so the roof was too far to jump is what the cloaked figures thought but they made a huge mistake. Kai had enough body power to jump above the roof without much trouble.

"One, two, three..."

Kai surveyed the situation from the roof.

"Four, five, six, seven. There are seven people here with irregular actions and it looks like they're all part of this."

The seven people all went to the alley and Kai kept looking from above.

"I'd say about... twenty seconds give or take."

Kai cracked his neck and knuckles and wore a mask and cloak. It was different from the one he wore when he got to the arena.

But Kai failed to notice something very obvious... his figure was still shorter than the average height.

"Wha-?!"

Kai dropped on one of the men and instantly knocked him out with a chop to the neck.

The others immediately brought out their weapons.

"[Flame Whip]."

Like the name, whips of flame appeared in Kai's hand and he used it to send everyone other than the one who looked like the leader flying.

He wrapped the [Flame Whip] around the man who looked to be a leader and pulled him close.

"You guys are weak. It took me only seven seconds to defeat all of you. I didn't think your men would get knocked out just by a single attack. Now, what is your objective?"

Strangely, the flames were burning him but it wasn't unbearable at all. It was as if he was only being heated a lot. He kept sweating but he wasn't being burned for real.

"Half-baked flames!"

The man barked at Kai.

"Hoooh~ Then you must not have realized that I've been holding back."

"AHHHH!"

The flames suddenly began to burn the man for a few seconds before Kai dialed them back.

"Damn you flame-user! The clan won't allow you to live if they find you slaughtered their members!"

Kai made a hmph.

"If I want to burn down this clan, I could do so with a flick of my finger. Haven't you seen me defeat your members with a single attack?"

Kai burned the man once more.

"And haven't you noticed that nobody had come to your aid? Right now, unless someone is right beside us, they won't be able to hear your screams or what's happening to you. I can simply dispose of you all right now and nobody would ever know."

Kai stopped burning the man as his screams could still be heard by Kai. It was quite loud.

"So noisy. Just tell me what you I ask you and I won't burn you anymore. Each time you fail to answer my question, I will increase the power of the flames. If you fail to answer me five times, I will turn these flames to blue and incinerate you then I'll move to your next comrade then the next then the next, unless you answer my questions."

Kai used [Soul Aura] to its maximum output, it was a passive skill but that only meant that he didn't need to use magic to chant it. He could toggle it on and off by will and even increase the power by strengthening his soul.

For some reason, Kai felt like the enemy was looking at him yet another thing altogether. It was like the man was looking at a demon or ghost.

"Now... let's have some fun."

To Kai, those were the words the beginning of an interrogation. But to the man, those words were the beginning of hell.

Kuroshi Clan, patriarch's Mansion.

Mikado was in the study writing some documents. But he heard four knocks on the door.

Mikado's eyes sharpened.

"Come in."

And inside came seven men. But one of those men were being held up by one of the others but they all had similar burn wounds.

"What happened? Did you fools try to cook food and got burnt?"

Of course, that would be his reaction. This clan was only filled with people who use darkness and there weren't even a handful of people who could use dual attributes and none of them could use flames.

"No, there was a masked man- no, demon that attacked us!"

One of the men who carried the injured one yelled with a distraught face.

"A masked demon?"

Normally, Mikado would ignore that but seeing them injured by flames and the word 'demon', he reacted.

"A demon who uses flames is inside the clan?!"

Mikado stood up from his chair and slammed on the table in front of him.

"No, it was just a cloaked boy wearing a white mask with red horns and a devilish looking mouth and eyes. But that mask is certainly more frightening that how the demon race looks like. It was as if the king of abominations had descended and given birth to a mask."

(A/N: Oni mask, just google it up if you want to see what it looks like. And there is no actual king of abominations, just a figure of speech.)

"I see. And what did his cloak look like?"

"It was blood red, if the figure was taller than us, it would've invoked more fear but..."

The man looked at his injured comrade and saw the trembling eyes.

"These two were interrogated by the masked demon and had experienced his terror firsthand."

Mikado's eyes turned fierce.

"A user of flame, that means they are outsiders. What did you say to them?"

"F-forgive me leader, I had been threatened to speak but I only gave insignificant information. He gave valuable information but seeing how he was tortured..."

The man who carried the most injured opened the injured man's cloak and revealed a burnt arm. It would definitely need to be removed in case the man is poisoned but there may just be a slight chance to heal it.

"My... that is ruthless."

Mikado went close the injured man.

"Speak, what did he say?"

"...He told me that..."

The man was breathing roughly.

"...he could burn this whole clan down with a flick of his fingers... I didn't believe him at first but the power of those flames, I don't think anybody in the clan can defend it except you, leader... He even told me that his flames were only at the beginning and they could get many times stronger but that's not important..."

The man coughed and continued.

"He told me that Kuroshi Kai was under his protection, and if we were to mess with him, he would burn down this clan in retaliation."

Mikado was angered.

"Such arrogant words... We will withdraw for now, but if that masked man appears, immediately notify me. I will personally deal with him."

Mikado told them to leave the room and sat down once more.

"I better inform the duke."

Mikado went over his documents once more before leaving the room and heading to the duke's.