A young boy was slammed against a polished wooden wall and fell to the floor. As he grunted in pain, the picture frames shook from the boy hitting the wall.

Then, another child approached the boy. He looked slightly older than the other one and had slightly longer hair.

As the other child approached the young boy, his gray eyes continued to glare at him with deep hatred. The young boy scrambled on the floor, trying to escape from the other child, but it was futile as the gray-eyed child grabbed him by the collar, preventing him from escaping.

He then punches the young boy in the stomach before tossing him to the floor. The young child wheezed and coughed as the gray-eyed child continued to look down on him.

“Suck it up,” The gray eye child chided. “You’ll heal…you always do, don’t you?”

He then pulled out a sword that he was carrying, created for his size, and slashed at the young boy’s hand.

“Ah!” The young boy yelled in pain and cradled his hand as it bled…only for a moment.

Just then, the gray-eyed child caught a glimpse of the slash wound on the young boy’s hand starting to heal. As if time was reversing, reverting back to its original appearance before the cut.

“You have an incredible gift…and yet you squander it by being a coward!” The gray-eyed child growled.

“P-please, just leave me alone…” The young boy pleaded as he cowered in fear.

This only infuriated the gray-eyed child more.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Instead of taking advantage of your healing factor, you act like a coward! You fear everything when you should fear nothing! Even without that healing factor, that doesn’t change the fact that you are a Helsing! And as a Helsing, you are supposed to be a fearless warrior! So act like one!

“If you had, our mother wouldn’t be dead! She would be alive, and you would be considered a proper member of this family! If you want me to leave you alone or even listen to you, then stand up for yourself and make me!”

Growing more furious, the gray-eyed child continued to slash at the young boy. While not making fatal wounds, he still caused a lot of severe lacerations on his body.

The young boy groaned and yelled in pain as this continued and the gray-eyed child kept slashing out of anger. That is until…

“Kane! What are you doing?!” A young girl appeared and shouted at the gray-eyed child.

She stepped in between the young boy and the gray-eyed child. She had long black hair that could be tied in a ponytail and gray eyes similar to the gray-eyed boy. Not only their eyes, but their faces were also nearly identical…like they were twins.

“Kora…” The gray-eyed boy, Kane, clicked his tongue in anger. “Step aside, sister…”

“So you can continue hurting Janus? Are you insane?!” Kora snapped at her twin.

“He needs to be set straight! His cowardice is unfit for a Helsing!”

“He’s just a child!”

“And so are we!” Kane retorted. “And yet we show more courage than he does!”

Kane then pointed his blade at Janus, causing the young child to whimper in fear, angering the gray-eyed Helsing more.

“Stop it, Kane!” Kora demanded. “Janus wasn’t born a Helsing. He’s not used to this life!”

“Why do you keep defending him?! Father was the one that made him part of this family! That means that he has potential, and he hasn’t shown any of that!”

Kane’s voice echoes throughout the halls of the Mansion as he yelled.

“He cries and complains during training, he gets exhausted easily, and continued to act like a coward! He is squandering Father’s decision by continuing to act like a child!”

“But he is a child!” Kora retorted. “A child who wasn’t raised as a Helsing! A child who lived a normal life!”

“Then he should’ve known that living a normal life was no longer on the table the moment he became a Helsing! He should’ve followed our ways the moment he was accepted!”

“You can’t expect a child from a normal family to convert so easily to this kind of lifestyle! We were born into this family! He wasn’t!”

“That changes nothing!” Kane snarled. “He is a Helsing now! Either he starts to act like one, or he’ll perish!”

“Kane!” The moment Kane said this, Kora grew enraged as she glared at her twin, eyes filled with anger and resentment.

Kane didn’t stand down as he glared at his twin as well. It looked the twins were about to fight one another before another voice called out to them.

“What is all this racket?!” It was the voice of an older man, shouting in annoyance.

The moment the older man shouted, Kane, Kora, and Janus all jumped in fear. That was because they all knew who that voice belonged to.

Just then, an older look man with a very high-tailored suit started marching over to them. He had black hair pulled back with some white streaks on the side, showing his age along with a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee.

Once he was in front of the trio, he made a firm stance as he stared at the three Helsing children. His monocle that he wore on his right eye, gleamed as he sternly glared at them.

“A-Alistair…” Kane muttered in fear.

“That’s Mr. Alistair, young master Kane,” Alistair corrected Kane with a scolding voice.

This was Alistair Smith, the Head Butler of the Helsing family. Not only was he the head butler, but he was also a close confidant of the current Patriarch of the Helsing Family, Viktor Van Helsing.

Aside from Viktor and Helena, Alistair is the third person of the Helsing family that holds the most power. He is both the caretaker of the Helsing Children and also Helsing Mansion.

Taking a look at the scene, he saw the two twins facing one another. Kane was away from the wall and Kora was near it. There was one other person that was near the wall. Janus.

He had multiple cuts and slashes on his body. All of them were clearly from a sword of sorts…and Kane was the only one carrying a blade.

Seeing what was before him and putting the pieces together, The head butler could more or less understand what was happening.

“Young Master Kane,” Alistair said in a stern and cold voice, causing the gray-eyed child to flinch. “Any weaponry must be only used in the training room. No. Where. Else. And it must only be used on training dummies…not your own siblings.”

He then glanced at Janus, who was still wounded by Kane’s blade. Kane simply clicked his tongue before sheathing his blade.

Knowing that he could no longer harass Janus, the young gray-eyed twin walked away in annoyance. Meanwhile, Alistair sighed in relief along with Kora.

However, there was one person who wasn’t sighing with relief. It was Janus. Once Kane was gone, Janus rushed off in the opposite direction, trying to get as far away as possible.

“W-wait, Janus!” Kora was surprised by him running away and went to go after him before the head butler stepped in front of her.

“I don’t think it’s wise to approach young master Janus at the moment, Young Mistress Kora.”

“And why’s that?” Kora asked, her eyes brimming with anger.

Alistair could only sigh before explaining. “Young Master Janus believes that all of his siblings, including you, are out to harm him for…what happened with your mother.”

The butler paused momentarily, almost as if he was silently grieving over the death of the Helsing children’s mother. After his moment of grief, the butler continued.

“I would suggest taking it slow. Try to ease your way in and show him you aren’t his enemy.”

“…I can wait that long,” Kora muttered before moving past Alistair and continuing to run after Janus. “He needs to know that there are still some of us that he can trust. That he can rely on.”

And with that, Kora continued to go after Janus, leaving the head butler alone in the hall. Alistair pinched the bridge of his nose while looking at the fleeting image of Kora with a strained expression.

“I apologize, Helena…for not being able to keep this family from slowly destroying itself.”

…

Back in the present, Janus and Kane continued to glare at one another. The rest of the people in the room tensely watched from the sidelines, no one making a sound.

Except one…

“Kane, why are you here?” Kora asked, still surprised at the presence of her twin.

Turning away from Janus, Kane looked at his twin, a soft yet stern smile appearing on his face.

“I was informed that you spending time with our little brother…so I thought I would drop by and see how things were going.”

“Y-you were informed…?” Kora asked, a little disturbed.

“I told you he was a stalker,” Janus bitterly gloated, causing Kane to once again turn back and face him, his gray eyes glaring at him.

“It’s been a while, Janus,” Kane said, menacingly. “How was your suspension?”

Janus knew that Kane was just trying to get under his skin, but he couldn’t help but play along.

“Eh, felt like a very long vacation, I guess. Not much to say.”

“Is that right? It seems that your suspension proved effective since you’re actually performing an HMDD meeting. Don’t you usually barge into another Ward and take care of the monster without regard to Jurisdiction?”

“What can I say? Suspension really fixed me up, you know?”

“I can imagine…” Although Kane was slightly smiling, he wasn’t the soft smile he gave Kora. This smile was menacing…and disturbing. “

“Alright, Kane,” Janus sighed before continuing. “How about dropping the act and just tell me why you’re here, huh?”

Janus grew tired of his older brother’s little act and decided to move things along. This caused Kane to stop smiling and simply glare at him.

“Why is my sister here, Janus?” Kane demanded.

His previous behavior was no longer there, as it was replaced with this cold and menacing appearance. You could practically feel the overwhelming presence that Kane emitted while interrogating Janus.

The others in the room felt pressure, but Janus and Kora remained the same, completely unfazed by Kane’s pressuring aura.

“Before you get off on a tangent and start accusing me of shit, I’d like to point out that Kora decided to interfere in my case involving some Lycans. I didn’t want her to join me. She did it all on her own.”

“…Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”

Kane’s overwhelming aura got worse as the air around them grew tense. The other HMDD members were slowly becoming overwhelmed by his presence.

Meanwhile, Janus was still unaffected by the pressure and unfazed by Kane’s increasing temper.

Before he could say anything else, Kora stepped in.

“Kane, I joined Janus to help supervise him. This was already approved by father.”

“That didn’t mean you had to accept,” Kane sternly stated. “Sticking with him will only cause problems for you, sister. May I remind you that the whole division hates our little brother for his little stunt that got him suspended?”

As Kane mentioned this, Janus clenched his fists, doing his best to keep his temper in check. He knew that what Kane will say next will cause a lot of issues…and might cause a brawl. And as much as he wanted a fight, he tried to keep himself composed so things didn’t escalate.

“Kane…”

“He defended a killer that took the lives of HMDD members. Our people. If you stick with him, your reputation will plummet to his level, and you know it.”

And there it was…the dreaded Terror of Hyde incident again. Because Janus defended Edna Hyde when she killed HMDD members, the people of the division saw him as their enemy. While not surprising, Janus didn’t care, which only worsened the situation.

“I don’t care about my reputation, Kane,” Kora declared. “Janus is still my little brother, and I want to help him.”

Janus said nothing as the twins kept arguing, barely fazed by Kora’s previous statement.

“You are putting a target on your back, sister. That isn’t worth protecting Janus.”

“To me it does! You can say what you want about Janus, but I’m not backing down on this.”

Kane then chuckled, alarming Kora. “You say that but weren’t you on our side when we declared that Harriet Jekyll needed to be put down?”

“Kane!”

The twins glared at one another, neither of them backing off. It looked like they were about to start a fight as the pair reached for their weapons.

Before they could, Anastasia stepped in to stop that from happening.

“Enough!” She shouted. “Fighting each other right now is a waste of time. Especially when we have a Lycan pack causing chaos in London.

As she stepped in between the two twins, she then faced Kane who was a little taken aback by this.

“Kane Van Helsing, my name is Anastasia Cardell. I am Janus Van Helsing’s supervisor, and I was the one that asked for Kora’s help in keeping an eye on your younger brother. So, if you have an issue with this, then let’s talk about it.”

While she spoke to Kane in a formal manner, he could tell that she was trying to keep Kane in his place, or at least to not cause any further issues.

Realizing this, Kane scoffs before backing away more, signaling that he was backing down from the fight.

“Since you asked my sister for help, Miss Anastasia…then you wouldn’t mind if I joined in and tagged along for the mission?”

Upon saying this, both Janus and Kora tensed up at this. They both knew that if Kane joined their raid, things would only get worse between the three.

However…

“I do not mind,” Ana said, unexpectedly. “However, I would like to point out that if you are to join us, then you need to behave and act accordingly. That means no instigations of any kind. We are about to go up against a Pack of Lycans, which means we need to stay focused. Can you do that?”

Kane and Ana stared at one another, the supervisor waiting for the Gray-eyed Helsing’s response. After a few moments, Kane closes his eyes and nods.

“You have my word that I won’t be causing any issues,” Kane swore. “I wish to be of assistance in this raid, and that’s all I want.”

While Kane did swear to this, Ana was skeptical. However, she didn’t want to push her luck. While she was in charge of this case along with Janus, Kane was a captain, which meant he was of higher rank.

The only reason Kane is even doing this is that Janus and Ana have jurisdiction involving the Lycan Pack that they are tracking down. And so far, they are following procedure to where Kane can’t complain.

To make sure the issue doesn’t escalate, Ana accepts Kane’s assistance, although reluctantly. Once this was over, Ana looked over at Janus, who was more or less not happy with what just transpired.

However, at least he seems to understand that they have no choice but to accept Kane as he sighed before going back to his seat. Once Kane was now part of the meeting, everyone then started going to their seats to begin the meeting.

And just like that, the Meeting now began.