Phase II (1).

[Los Angeles, United States of America, 7:00 AM]

Inside the temporary base of Night Raid, The fragrant smell of pancakes wafted the living room as Knuckleduster and Danjuro took it upon themselves to make breakfast for everyone. This used to be the job of Shido, but nobody wanted to bother him after what happened last night.

Danjuro was preparing the batter while Knuckleduster was flipping the pancakes. La Brava was on her laptop looking at the current news and updates of Japan and the US. She was looking at the news related to the topic of Heroes and Villains, as it was a habit to her. She has been doing this since she started working with Danjuro when he used to be Gentle Criminal.

As for Kaina, She was nowhere to be seen in the living room. She hasn't left her room since her teary breakdown last night. The teammates tried to act as supportive as they could, but Kaina was way too big of a mess to be solved by simple sympathy and condolences. Thus, they gave her the space she needed to handle herself.

Even if the teammates were oblivious to her and Shido's history, they got a general idea that Kaina left Shido when he needed her the most, and now when she tried to come back into his life, Shido straight up refused to recognize her. And also, their history backs to the time they were kids. That's all they could interpret from Kaina's words.

So having a general idea, nobody tried to interfere in their personal matters and minded their own business after Kaina was stable from her tearful breakdown. So after the incident, everyone has decided to act as nothing happened and try to be normal as possible.

La Brava sat at the dining table with her laptop and waited for breakfast. Knuckleduster and Danjuro quickly set the plates on the table and started serving. Seeing Shido and Kaina being the only ones missing on the table, Danjuro sighed.

"Can you ask Kaina-san and Chief whether they want to come down and have breakfast or do they want me to send it to their rooms?" Danjuro asked La Brava.

La Brava looked at Danjuro with an unwilling expression, "Why ask me? You know how awkward things are now... Just give me their plates, I will give them their breakfasts personally to their rooms," She tried to convince Danjuro.

"I will be eating here with you guys," Shido said.

"AAA!!" *2 Danjuro and La Brava screamed with a high pitch tone when they saw Shido suddenly popping behind them.

"What happened?" Shido asked as if nothing happened.

"WHEN DID YOU COME HERE?" La Brava asked Shido. He just casually replied, "Just now," and sat on a chair at the dining table. He saw everyone was at the table except Kaina and he knew why she was not here so he looked at Danjuro.

"Can you call Kaina down?" Shido just asked Danjuro to do the thing and didn't further explain the reason behind it. Danjuro nodded and went upstairs to call Kaina down but he came back down with a dejected expression on his face, the reason being Kaina refused to come down.

Shido sighed and picked a plate of pancakes. He then made his way to Kaina's room. When he reached in front of her room's door,

Shido shouted, "Kaina! Open the door!" But he got no response. So, in response to her silence, he kicked open the door.

"Knock Knock... Your breakfast is here," Shido entered the room and found Kaina lying on the bed. Shido placed the breakfast on the nightstand and then fixed the door with {HESOYAM}*Rewind.

"You up?" Shido asked but again, he got no response. Seeing Kaina lying on the bed with her back towards him, made him remember the time when he locked Himiko in Hidden Interior Dimension.

Shido realized that in his anger he may have said or done something which hurt Kaina. So he chose to deal with this like a sensible person and let her do the talking. If things are simple and can be solved immediately then he would try to do that but if things are complicated, he would put it on the backside as he focused only on Genesis and have no time to solve a complicated problem.

'I guess it won't hurt to listen to her once...' Shido thought this but he too was curious why Kaina called her 'Shido-Nii'. Her calling him that means she knows something that he doesn't about his own past which was a weird thing to say for a normal person but Shido being a transmigrator has caused him to question whether he got all of his predecessor's memory or not?

Whether he was right or not, would be decided by what Kaina says. But Shido was not too concerned about it. Even if he didn't get the full memories of his predecessor, it didn't matter to him. Those things were from his past and Shido is more inclined towards his present and his future.

After straightening his mind on how to deal with this, He went to the other side of the bed to face Kaina. Shido reached the other side and saw Kaina. Disheveled hair, tear marks on cheeks, and a bit swell under the eyes but even with there, she was sleeping peacefully. This clearly tells that the night was pretty tough for her.

Shido didn't call her anymore. Instead, he fused his finger with her body and used {HESOYAM}*Rewind. Kaina's disheveled hair returned back to its usual style, the tear marks vanished and her swollen eyes returned back to a healthy state. After undoing the fusion, Shido decided to leave the room and let her rest. He could discuss the things he planned with others.

He turned around to leave but he stopped when he felt his hand was grabbed. He turned to see Kaina lying on the bed with tears flowing down and she grabbing his hand.

"...Why? If you don't remember me... then why did you come to check on me?..." She asked but her voice was a bit cracked.

"Because everyone was having their breakfast and you were the only one not having it... So as a decent human being, I decided to give you your breakfast. There is nothing more, nothing less."

"Why are you still lying that you don't know me? If you hate me so much then why don't you say you don't want me back and give me closure! Then I could easily end my life than knowing nothing I do is going to convince you!" She yelled at Shido but Shido kept his calm.

"I told you once and I am telling you again... I don't know you at all. I don't know what are you talking about. I don't recall having a childhood friend named Kaina. Period."

"It is not just childhood friend, You Bastard!" Kaina sat on the bed still grabbing his hand, "We were more than that! Bestfriends, Siblings, Rivals... We were each other's everything! From infancy to teenage, we were together all the time. I was your BaKaina and you were my Shido-Nii. And you say you don't remember. It is not possible! The Doctor said you would remember everything after 5 years but it has been 11 years since then and you claim you don't know... Why are you still playing games with me, Shido-Nii?" Kaina's grip tightened around his arm.

"Doctor? 5 years? 11 years? BaKaina?" A genuine confused expression dawned over Shido's face as he recited some of the key points from Kaina's monologue. He tried to think about these but no result came to his mind.

Seeing him confused, Kaina became confused. She thought Shido would straight go for denial but he was thinking about what she said.

"Do... Do you really don't remember?" She asked.

"That's what I was trying to say since last night! I don't have an idea what are you were trying to tell! If I knew what you---" Shido retorted but he couldn't complete as he was suddenly pulled by his hand. Caught by surprise, Shido stumbled and fell down but was caught in Kaina's embrace.

"I am sorry... It's good that you don't remember what happened in the past. We can start anew but you can still call me Bakaina if you want to... I won't chastise you for that," Kaina said and nestled her head with Shido's shoulder.

Shido was too stunned to register what was happening. But he saw three heads watching everything happening to him through the open door. It was none other than Knuckleduster, Danjuro, and La Brava.

"Yeah... Watch everything clearly and burn it to your brain. You guys will be my witness if my girlfriend asks if I hooked up or even touched a girl" Shido said while being in the embrace of Kaina.

The three moved away while whistling acting as if nothing happened. Shido rolled his eyes and asked Kaina.

"It's cool and all that you got to meet your long-lost brother and currently you are enjoying hugging him... But I think the Brother didn't consent to the hug and he is feeling a bit uncomfortable. So~ Just a crazy thought... Why don't you release him from your sisterly embrace?" Shido said but the opposite happened.

"It's truly you, Shido-Nii. You are the only one I know who says funny things at the time of seriousness..." Kaina said and tightened her hug.

Shido rolled his eyes. 'I was not trying to be funny. I just said it in a funny way so that thing won't turn awkward.'

"Well... That's good... But eat your breakfast first. You can tell me the story later," Shido squirmed out of Kaina's embrace.

"Feed me," She demanded like a kid.

This dumbfounded Shido. Never in his wildest dream, he could've thought Kaina acting like this. He still remembers his first encounter with her. She was forceful and was not pushed away by his threats but now she is like a vulnerable kid in front of him.

"You know, You are acting like a kid"

"I know that and I have the right to do... I met my Nii-chan after 11 years, I can expect a bit of spoiling, can't I?"

"Well, It is you who confirmed that I am your brother but I don't know whether you are my sister or not... so don't expect something out of me, okay?"

But to Shido's dismay, Kaina brought out her phone and opened the Gallery. She then showed him her phone screen. In that, there was a photo of a boy of age around 10-11 and a girl of similar age playing in the playground. The boy had olive-brown hair and the girl had dark blue and pink two-tone hair. The kids really did resemble Shido and Kaina a lot.

Kaina didn't stop at that, She one-by-one started showing Shido pictures that he didn't even know ever existed. She then put her phone away and gave the plate of pancakes to Shido.

"Feed me"

Shido dumbfoundedly picked up the plate from Kaina's hands. He picked up the spoon, scooped a bit, and moved it forward to Kaina. But then he saw her face and the first thought was 'I still cannot recognize her'.

"I understand that you cannot recognize me, that's why I said... We can start anew." She comforted Shido's doubt and then ate from the spoon that Shido forwarded.

"If I was your everything back then and I was your best friend... then the story you told me about your past yesterday... In that... the bullied kid... It... It was me"

A sad expression dawned on Kaina's face when Shido brought up the topic of his past but she understood that she needed to make things clear to him so that they can start fresh.

"Yes... In the story I told you before, You were the bullied kid and I was the one who failed to save you. After the incident, you suffered from Dissociative Amnesia which caused your brain to lock away the memories and anything related that reminded you of the trauma, and that included me. You forgot everything about us so your parents decided to leave the city and move to Musutafu so that you don't have to ever remember those painful events.

I tried to contact you but your parents said that I should not do so because I will only bring up those bad memories back. But they assured me by saying that in 5 years you will remember everything. So I should wait for 5 years but right after that day, I enrolled in the Young Agent-Hero Program thinking that I will make a change in society. But then I was so engrossed in killing the scum of society thinking I was making the world a better place for you but it was otherwise. And then I was incarcerated in Tartarus for betraying the HPSC.

That is the reason I couldn't meet you for all these years. But things will be different now... I will make sure that nothing happens like before." Kaina explained things to Shido and tried to assure him but Shido was still a bit dumbfounded by the things unraveling in only 2 days. Now his teammate is his supposed childhood friend.

But Shido already had a plan for a situation like this. Since things are complicated, he would push it towards the end. He has set Genesis as his target for now so he is not going to distract himself now.

"I still don't know a lot of things and I expect you to explain those things to me..." Shido made his case clear to Kaina and Kaina was about to start explaining but Shido stopped her, "But I want the explanation after I am done with Genesis"

Kaina understood Shido's situation. His life and death now lie in the hands of Genesis and if Shido doesn't stop Genesis then she will lose Shido... again and this time there will be no chance of reunion.

Shido left her room and went to the dining room where everyone was sitting and acting like they never peeked in Kaina's room to see what was happening between the two.

Seeing Shido coming down with Kaina following him, everyone's gaze fell on them.

"Guys, it's time..." Shido said to the team members sitting at the dining table.

"The plan for Phase II and Phase III is out. Since this is the final mission of Night Raid, I want you guys to help me in this fight against Genesis."

The teammates looked at each other for a second.

"We also want to help you, Chief but we don't know how... We cannot even reach the power levels shown by you, Genesis, or Caos. You all are called Gods for a reason. I don't know how we can even help you..." La Brava said.

"Who said I am asking for you to fight? I want your help to find Genesis... That is the Phase II. Phase III is going to be an all-out fight between me and Genesis and if I don't find him in Phase II, he won't show up for Phase III fight and I would lose my body without any chance of stopping it."

"But... We don't even have any clue which we can use to start the investigation" Danjuro said.

"You are wrong, Danjuro. We do have a clue. Remember why we came to America in the first place?"

"To stop the buyer who bought Trigger from Japanese Producers in large amounts"

"And who bought the Trigger?"

"Genesis..."

"Right! Knuckleduster, Contact AVL and extract some information about the top dogs of American Underworld. La Brava, after Knuckleduster takes out the information, run it through your laptop and give me their current location. We are going to raid some of the guys involved in this to find how Genesis was able to procure so much of Trigger without their assistance," Shido said.

"Fuck You, Genesis!" Shido shouted with his fist raised high.

"Fuck You, Genesis!" * 4 The Teammates shouted after him.

______________________

[Somewhere in LA]

"Caos, Let's meet Osvaldo Avelino. We need to talk business with him. Since that bitch didn't respond to my call then I would appear right in front of his fucking face. How dare he block my Trigger Container? The trigger is needed in Phase III and I am not going to tolerate any delay in preparations..."