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Sasuga found herself waking up the next morning in her room after a restless night. She couldn't sleep very well, thinking about what happened at the circus the day before. Rinami's appearance was so unexpected and nobody saw it coming. Her heart ached every time she remembered how upset Panja was last night. Even Hazard was awkwardly quiet when they returned home together in a cab, only sharing a goodnight before they parted to their respective apartments. He sure seemed to have had a lot in his mind. She decided to go visit him and check up on him next door, hopefully Panja would've came back too. She freshened up real quick and headed to the wolf's apartment, knocking on his door. "Haz? You're up?"

"Yeah, come on in," Hazard's voiced called out from inside and the kirin entered. She smelled some cooking in the kitchen and headed over there, finding Hazard in knee-long green shorts and a black tanktop shirt, preparing some fried noodles. "Hey, perfect timing. Care for some Chow Mein?" Hazard said as he turned to face his kirin friend with a smile. He was wearing his blond mane down over his back, unlike how he usually ties it up in a little ponytail, which Sasuga found peculiar because it was the first time she saw him wearing it like that.

"You eat noodles for breakfast? I mean, don't you eat anything else but noodles at home?"

Hazard let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Well, it's more like I can't cook anything else but noodles."

"Ah, no offense, Haz, I love your noodles, but doesn't that get tedious? If you want, I can come and cook for you and Panja sometimes. I'm no gourmet chef, but I can do decent meals!" Sasuga genially offered.

"Awww, that's sweet of you, Sas. But I'm not sure if I feel right about that, don't want to trouble you."

"It's no trouble, I'd love to!"

"Well, okay, but I warn you, we eat for like ten men, double that for Panja," Hazard smirked.

"I'll do my best," she giggled. "Umm, speaking of which, where's Panja?"

"Beats me. Hasn't come back yet," Hazard shrugged as he returned to stir his fired noodles.

"You mean... he didn't come back last night at all?"

"Yeah."

"And you're not worried? What if something happened to him? Shouldn't we go out and look for him?" Sasuga said in concerned, more so that Hazard didn't share her concern.

"He's not a kid, Sas, even if he acts like one sometimes. He knows how to take care of himself and will come back soon enough," the wolf replied to her in an indifferent tone, but Sasuga wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"Haz, I know he overacted last night, but he was genuinely upset. I've never seen him like that before and I'm really worried about him. Couldn't you be more considerate? You're his best and closest friend," Sasuga said, trying to mend things up between the two of them.

Hazard turned off the stove and lifted the frying pan over to a couple of clean dishes, pouring portions of the steamy fried noodles on each of them. He then carried both plates over to the countertop where Sasuga was standing and gave her one, standing in front of her by the other side. "I know where you're coming from, Sas, but I know Panja better than you do. The sooner he realizes the truth, the better. Neither of you have anything to worry about Rinami. Nothing serious is going on between us. She's just a childhood friend, that's all. All that fiancé stuff she came up with is just a game she used to play on me when we were kids. Things are different now," Hazard began to explain.

"Oh... w-well, I... I wasn't worried for myself. Umm, just worried about Panja," Sasuga stammered.

"Heh, I know, and he shouldn't, that big idiot. Nothing got between us all these hundreds of years and nothing will. Rinami might be a part of our lives from now on, so I hope you'll be good friends with her."

Sasuga smiled and nodded, "Yeah, of course. Sorry for misunderstanding you, Haz."

"No worries. Now eat your noodles before it gets cold. This might be the last one you'll have, since you'll start cooking for us, right?" the wolf grinned with a wink as he took a good slurp of his noodles. Just when Sasuga was about to take her first bite, a knock on the front door was heard.

"Oh! That must be Panja!" Sasuga said optimistically and rushed over to open the door. "Welcome back, Pan..." When she opened the door, Sasuga stopped in the middle of her line and her eyes blinked when she lifted her eyes up and didn't see the large white lion behind it. Instead, she lowered her sight and saw that it was actually Rinami, looking back at her with a similar surprised look. "Rinami?"

"Hi!" the vixen cheerfully greeted, wearing a short-sleeved purple blouse and a white frilly skirt, with a cute pink beret hat over her head that drooped one of her long pointy ears under it. Sasuga almost didn't recognize her without that exotic dancer outfit she wore at the circus, looking quite cute and normal to her. "You live here too, Sasuga?"

"Um, no, I live right next door. I'm just having breakfast with Haz," Sasuga coyly answered.

"Ah! Hazard is here!?" Rinami's eyes brightened.

"Oh, yes, sorry, come in," Sasuga said and let the fox inside. The moment Hazard's eyes met Rinami's; he choked in the middle of his ramen eating and started to cough out. "Jeez, not again..." Sasuga groaned in distress and went over to him with a glass of water, making him chug it up.

"Oughhh... shit, thanks..." Hazard breathed out after recovering from that choke, but was then surprised by Rinami giving him a hug.

"Hazard! So good to see you again! I almost thought last night was all a dream!"

"Erf! R-Rina! Easy with the grip! I was just choking a second ago!" the wolf griped bashfully. "What brings you here, anyway? Wait, how did you find me?"

"That's not important! I'm here for our date!" the vixen chirped excitedly.

"Dah... Date? What date?!" the wolf replied unexpectedly and Sasuga couldn't help but blush a bit by that.

"Silly! You said last night that we should meet up again tomorrow to hang out and spend more time!"

"Hanging out is not a date! And by that, I meant I was coming over to you!"

"What's the difference? I'm here now so you better go fix yourself up! You look like a mess!" Rinami said and urged Hazard to go get dressed.

"Man, you're still as bossy as ever..." Hazard quietly grumbled, but Rinami heard him.

"And you're still as lazy as ever, now get!" the fox pinched him on his side and made him yelp.

"Ack! Okay, okay! Fine, I'm going!" Hazard griped and went off to his bedroom to change, leaving the two girls alone for a bit. Sasuga was a little thrown off by the relationship between Hazard and Rinami. They've been separated for so long, yet they were interacting as if they've been together all that time. They must have been really close when they were children and knew each other very well, and the long separation did nothing to hinder that bond between them. It was endearing, Sasuga found.

"Umm, Sasuga? Can I ask you something personal?" Rinami turned to the kirin and asked her all of the sudden.

"Uh, s-sure... what is it?"

Rinami moved closer to her and held her hands in her paws, looking intently into her eyes, which made Sasuga even more anxious. "Is there something between you and Hazard?" the vixen bluntly asked the kirin, taking her fully by surprise.

"Wh-What!? N-No! Nothing at all! I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Hazard, but we're just friends! That's all!"

"Oh, that's what I thought! That's great! I like you too, Sasuga, so I'd hate if I had to hurt you, because I don't want anyone getting between me and my wolf!" Rinami said in relief, holding the kirin's hand tightly.

"Err... yeah, that's good to know... you got nothing to worry about, in my case... hehe..." Sasuga chuckled nervously. She felt that Rinami was pretty serious, so she was grateful she got the massage.

Hazard then came back after getting dressed in his usual getup, much to the kirin's relief. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Great! Oh, you look so dashing, Hazard!" Rinami elatedly expressed when she laid her eyes on golden wolf, making him blush slightly.

"Let's just get going. Wanna tag along, Sasuga?" Hazard turned over to the kirin, but she shook her head.

"Uh, no, it's okay. You go on ahead, I think I'll stay in today and wait for Panja."

Hazard nodded and left with his foxy friend, leaving Sasuga by herself in the apartment. She breathed out, dropping down on the couch. She figured it would be wise to let those two have their privacy, as Rinami seemed too attached to the wolf and she didn't want to be a third wheel. "Just childhood friends? Yeah right," Sasuga scoffed. For a cunning immortal, Hazard sure can be oblivious. She then reached out for the remote and decided to watch some TV on Hazard's big LCD screen. The local news was the first thing that tuned in and she was about to change the channel, when the news segment caught her attention. They were broadcasting a story about a murder, as Sasuga listened to the female news anchor.

"It was an unexpected and unexplained tragedy, when the victim's family woke up this morning to the horrifying death of their son, mutilated beyond recognition in his bedroom," the news anchor began telling the story, as a photo of the victim's face appeared on the screen, and Sasuga's eyes opened up wide in horror, instantly recognizing who it was. "The victim's name is Kyle Crowe. He was a 16 year-old student in the University of Burgstein, one of the youngest, but his bright future was cut short last night, when he was viciously attacked by someone, or something, in his own bedroom. There's no confirmed info on his cause of death, but sources says he seemed to have been eaten, as some parts of his body were apparently missing. As horrifying as that sound, we'll wait for final confirmation and update you as we get them."

"Oh my God... no... Kyle..." Sasuga muttered in shock, covering her mouth in grieve as tears began to run down her cheeks. There was no doubt in her mind; he must've been attacked by demons. He was alone and defenseless, poor Kyle couldn't have had a chance against them. She began to feel guilty and her heart ached so bad; Kyle didn't deserve to die, not like this. If she was able to warn him, tried to help him understand somehow, maybe his death could've been prevented. She then heard the sound of the front door open, as she looked over and saw Panja enter.

"Oh, hey Sassy! Didn't expect to see you here," Panja greeted her with his warm big smile, but he was then surprised by the kirin rushing over to him and hugging him tightly, pressing her tearful face against his chest.

"Oh, Panja! You're back! You're finally back, Panja..." Sasuga sobbed, puzzling the white lion at her emotional reaction.

"Whoa, hey, hey, I was just away for one night. I didn't mean to worry you, but I'm kinda flattered you care that much," Panja replied, patting her back gently.

"No... no, it's not that... it's... in the news... Kyle is... Kyle is dead..."

"What?!" Panja's ears perked up.

"I just heard in the news... they found him dead in his bedroom... he was eaten, Panja... he's dead, and I didn't do anything to help him..." Sasuga continued to cry, pressing herself against Panja's wide chest.

"Oh, Sassy..." Panja softly rumbled, feeling for the anguished kirin and wrapping his strong arms around her, keeping her close to him and comforting her. He was at lost of words, not knowing what to say to make her feel better. But he was with her and he wasn't going to leave her alone. He knew that much at least.

To be continued...