“We finally found her...” A vicious light lit up in Poison’s eyes behind her glasses.

“Found who?” Vio cleaned out a glass cup from behind the bar.

“The Boxer! I found her!” Poison pulled out a phone she had stolen from one of their devoured victims and showed the live stream of the YFTL’s official channel.

“She’s famous among normal humans?” Vio was surprised.

Most magjistars tend to keep themselves low-key in the main world. There were very few famous magjistars because it would be easier for them and their loved ones to be found out by daemons. For daemons capable of complex thoughts, it was more than simple for them to swipe a phone from a human, figure out how to use it, and learn information from the free world wide web for their own purposes. Vio and Warrior were capable of complex thought as daemons but only Poison was interested in using human knowledge to improve herself.

Vio and Warrior looked down on humans as it's an innate part of daemon physiology. Poison was a unique being compared to other daemons. She fully intended to make use of human knowledge and technology for her own to rise to a status that other daemons couldn’t compare to. Ever since she lost against Zoey, she’s been learning more and more about the human world because something didn’t seem right about how she a daemon lost to a mere human.

A mere human that didn’t accidentally awaken their magji potential and unleashed a brief show of her magji talent. Poison lost to the brute force and skill of a normal human. As a 3rd Grade daemon, She lost to a human that only used her fists. Poison’s mind couldn’t wrap its head around such a concept no matter how much she learned about the world. Sure some humans were naturally stronger than others but there was a limit to that talented strength. Based on the evidence and information she gained online, none of those humans should be capable of defeating her.

This illogical conundrum helped Poison reflect on herself deeply. If she came face to face with that human once more, what could she do? She unleashed the full power of her poison on her and it still didn’t kill her. Fighting face to face was completely stupid, she’d lose just like the first time. Even if she did the thing that humans called training, she still wouldn’t gain enough skill to compete with someone like that human.

However, what if she tried understanding more about herself? Who is she? What is she? What even is her poison? Could she manipulate it in different ways? The dosage of the poison? What about the shape or form?

Thinking of all these questions for the past week made Poison fundamentally different from most daemons. Most daemons don’t reflect on their losses. They don’t try to attain different means of strength and power other than eating the hearts of humans and magji. And they certainly do not train or practice their abilities. It was looked at as a waste of time and foolish since the effects weren’t immediately visible compared to eating hearts. Daemons also didn’t know methods or ways to train, daemons are born with a desire to gain strength. This desire leads them to the innate hunger within their bodies that wants the innate magji power that resides in the heart of all humans.

“It appears that she is famous.” Poison nodded.

“What an idiot. Does that thing tell you about her loved ones too?” Vio questioned.

“It does. Alicia Winters, Bruce Murphy, and Everett Winters.” Poison listed Zoey’s immediate family members from a website giving detailed information about several human matters.

“This is the powerful human you spoke of?” Warrior opened one eye and zeroed in on the picture of Zoey on the phone.

“I haven’t forgotten our part of the deal, Warrior. You will understand her strength for yourself.” Poison confidently spoke.

Warrior gave a grunt in response as he closed his eye once again and got back to meditating, or at least that’s what it looked like from Poison’s perspective. He could just be sleeping for all she knew. She was a poison daemon, not a sleeping daemon.

“I presume you have a plan in mind besides looking for her and sending Warrior after her?” Vio questioned, already knowing the answer.

“Of course. Just in case she tries to run like before, we need to give her a reason to fight Warrior. Here’s the plan...” She giggled in anticipation of her great idea.

“What do you mean my family needs to undergo protection?” Bruce Murphy questioned at his door.

“Hello, Mr. Murphy. My name is Brianna Keys and I’m from the YFTL’s Security Division. We have determined it was necessary that we provide security to your family due to the negative publicity surrounding your daughter because of our negligence.” Brianna bowed her head.

“We don’t need to pay for any of this, right?” Alicia asked for clarification's sake.

“No ma’am. You can continue living your life just as you’ve been before. We will place inactive and retired fighters from the Fighting Tournament League as bodyguards for your entire family. Depending on how you want it, they can be with you 24/7 or at a distance ready to move in and protect you.” Brianna explained.

“I’m starting to regret letting my baby follow her dreams...” Alicia muttered.

“Now now, Alicia... We can talk about this some more when we get inside.” Bruce rubbed her back. “Do you have any identification on you that can prove who you are?” Bruce soon asked.

“Of course.” Alicia took out a card and one of the black-suited fighters behind her brought a stack of stapled papers that required the signature of both parents.

Bruce politely told them to wait as he closed the door and took around thirty minutes carefully reading the contract with Alicia. After not noticing anything out of the ordinary with the contract, Bruce still held off on signing the contract. He decided for his step-daughter's safety, it would be best if he had his lawyer take a look at it before signing. Alicia agreed because it was her family’s life that was possibly at risk and didn’t know if she could trust these people from the YFTL. It was them that put her family in this dangerous situation in the first place. All her daughter did was fight and didn’t break any rules. In her eyes, there was absolutely no reason why anyone should want to hurt them at all. But Alicia knew that the world was a crazy place where reason and logic weren’t the major factors of the planet.

“I’d like to have some more time to think. Is it alright if we give you a response sometime later this week?” Bruce appeared at the door and smiled at the woman.

“That is no problem, Mr. Murphy. Thank you for not closing the door in our face and not considering it whatsoever. I’d like to apologize once more on behalf of the Youth Fighting Tournament League for our ineptitude in preventing this situation from occurring in the first place and placing your family in such a terrifying situation.” Brianna and the fighters behind her bowed their heads.

“Good. At least, you have enough of a conscience to take responsibility for your company’s mistake.” Alicia was still upset they needed protection in the first place but was not mad enough to let her anger out on a poor employee who probably had nothing to do with it.

“Thank you. Just call us at this number at any time and let us know when you’re ready.” Brianna gave Bruce her card and the security division left in their squad of black cars.

“Should I make her stop...?” Alicia asked as Bruce closed the door.

“No.” Bruce bluntly responded. “It’ll only lead to another fight between you two. We both know how much fighting makes her happy.”

“But she’ll be safer without it!” Alicia argued.

“Do you think Zoey wants to be safe or to be happy?” Bruce asked.

“It isn’t what she wants, it's what I want for my baby! I don’t want my family to be like this! Think of Everett, he already doesn’t leave the house except for school. I don’t even know if my baby has any friends around his age. If he’s forced to bring a bodyguard just to go to school, imagine what the other kids will think? How will either of them live normal lives under the fear of being attacked or harassed by some crazy person? Have you seen some of the things they’ve said about my baby?!” Alicia barely took a breath to breathe.

“Alicia...” Bruce embraced her and pulled her close. “I know you want what’s best for the kids... but you can’t be selfish like this... you’re talking like a tyrant mom who doesn’t care about how her children feel. Think about how Everett and Zoey will feel once they learn that you want to dictate their entire lives, telling them what they can do and can’t do. Both of us know that coddling children too hard will only led to them fighting back.”

“They’ll hate me... They will hate me so much...” Alicia knew it.

Everett was a good boy and usually always did what was asked of him but when she punished him for something, he ignored her. He didn’t talk to her, show any love toward her, and barely acknowledged her existence. It broke her heart and she couldn’t stand it. But Alicia didn’t know how to fix it because when she was a child, that wasn’t how she reacted at all. Zoey was the same! They didn’t respond to her punishments like the way she did to her mom and she didn’t know what to do. Alicia would scream, cry, argue, and even sometimes physically fight with her mom but neither Everett nor Zoey was about that...

“But even if they’ll hate me... is it wrong that I feel it's better for me to be hated than for either of them to get hurt?” Alicia whispered. Bruce sighed.

“No, it isn’t wrong. That’s just one of the complexities of being a parent... but I'm not in support of doing that. Zoey’s one year away from becoming an adult and she’ll leave the house faster than you can think if you tried taking this away from her. Especially since she’s working now and getting good money from her job at the gym. Do you think Zoey would ever come to see you again, talk to you again, and trust you again with anything regarding her life if you try to take this away from her?” Bruce didn’t want to sound so harsh but this was a very real possibility. “Once Everett sees his big sister leaving, do you think he’ll want to stay too? You know how much he looks up to her since she starting fighting.” Bruce tried to stray Alicia away from being an overbearing parent.

“Oh god... Bruce what am I supposed to do...?” Alicia sobbed, tearing flowing from her eyes.

“All we can do is trust our kids... We can’t protect them forever... We have to show them how to handle things like this and prepare them to handle the real world.” Bruce rubbed Alicia’s head.

Alicia gently cried into Bruce’s chest, wetting his shirt. Everett crouched silently on the stairs, overhearing most of the conversation. He only snuck down once he heard his mother shouting. She didn’t usually yell unless she and Zoey were fighting but Zoey went out with her friends. So, in pure curiosity, he wanted to find out what was going on. He was definitely on his dad’s side. Even if he felt sad seeing his mom cry, he didn’t want his sister leaving or his sister hating their mom for the rest of their lives. Everett wasn’t scared of any mean people online. He’s faced trolls all the time! They only wanted to make you feel bad or scare you. They couldn’t actually do anything to you.