Kagero Ten'oh receives a summons from the Yomi no Shinobi. Immediately, she heads towards their Twilight Temple where Kumogami shows her what is left of the clan. Yamiken, Oyuki, Takakura - broken and hollow. Yamiken says they went to deliver Akuma to the Iron Empress, lord of one of the Chinese hells. However, Akuma kept them on his island, Death Queen Island, for sport. Twelve soldier ninjas perished and Shun had to be left behind when the escape was made.

Meanwhile, Alexi and Sarah visit the Kingsley's for lunch and to wish them a happy anniversary. When nobody answers the door, Sarah uses the key. A blood-splattered wall and the corpses of her parents are all that is there to greet them. As Sarah wails in anguish, Alexi quickly checks the house to make sure an intruder is not still present. Having found no one, Alexi returns to Sarah's side. She is babbling, talking to herself. He examines the bloody scrawl her father made. It is an avian outline. It is Lord Blackhawk's symbol. But too late, Alexi realizes she is not talking to herself.

Miranda: "You can't bring them back, but you can avenge them. I share your pain. Shadoloo murdered me. They killed your parents. I can make them all disappear for you. This won't end by you fighting with your friends. My power can end it all in an instant. This has to stop now. Their evil has to end. You only have to give me control. I've been with you all this time protecting you. Sink into me and let me embrace you. I'll take away your pain. What do you want Sarah? What do you want?"

Sarah, previously having strained against each word of Miranda - denying her every offer, finally takes notice of the direct question. "I want Blackhawk's head on a fucking pike!"

Miranda: "What do you want me to do?"

Sarah: "Bring me he his fucking head!"

And in that instant, however brief, a part of Sarah wanted Miranda to take over and make it happen. That instant was all Miranda needed. And as Sarah realizes that she is sinking into the background of herself, she voices Alexi's name. Alexi turns to face her and hears her voice fading. As the last syllables of his name leave her lips, she vanishes, physically. Leaving him in the room with only the dead to keep him company.

----

Seconds later, Miranda materializes in the corporate HQ of the J'hana Group. She walks into the Legal Department, and those who recognize her are stunned speechless. With an imperial air about her, she commands the department head, "Execute Corporate Protocol 693. Authority: J'hana, Miranda." Taken aback, the man is momentarily stunned and then types furiously. When he pauses - coming to a point where he would ask her for an authorization code, Miranda rattles off a sequence of numbers that make his eyes widen.

Miranda walks out of the legal office as it springs into action, notifying all other departments and branches. She allows no smile to breach her lips as her asserted control is filtered down through all levels of the J'hana Group.

Somewhere in her mind, Sarah's voice asks, "Is this helping to avenge my parents?" Miranda reassures her, saying that the resources of the J'hana Group will help in tracking down Blackhawk. Miranda then pushes Sarah deeper into the recesses of her mind.

Striding down the hallways, Miranda forces anyone else aside in awe. She pauses briefly before the door of the CEO's office. The receptionist reaches for the intercom but is silenced with a simple, "That will not be necessary."

Reimi looks up and anger and then panics as Miranda throws her office door open.

"Mother?!" Reimi screams, standing up. "What have you done?"

"I hope you've had fun, Reimi. I'm taking back what is mine."

"Of course," Reimi says, charging a red aura, "in a body and a life that isn't yours. You are an abomination. Well, I'm not handing you anything. The world will thank me for this!" Reimi hurls her aura at Miranda in six columns of fire.

Miranda holds out her hand and lets Reimi's attack slip into it. Cradling the fire in her hand, she looks at it as it flickers. "So this is all you've achieved while I've been gone? I'm disappointed. I have my work cut out for me, apparently. I'm even afraid to even show you my power. You couldn't handle it. Have your own back." Miranda lets Reimi's attack drop from her hand and the aura energy rolls at Reimi, engulfing her.

Reimi screams, dropping to the ground. "Your new training begins tonight, Reimi. Be prepared. Remember this, you only exist to serve my purpose. I gave you life, and it belongs to me." Miranda turns and leaves. However, she turns back while still in the doorway. "Saki, show her the price of defiance."

Reimi tries desperately to bring herself to her feet as Saki enters, the sadistic nightmare made flesh herself. "Saaakiii," Reimi growls.

"Reimi," Saki says and uses her thumb to press a button in her palm. Reimi drops, howling in agony.

Reimi's screams echo into her receptionist's office, the woman covering her ears from the sound that will haunt her nights for weeks to come. The sound permeates into the hallway where passersby suddenly feel ill, cradling their stomachs or covering their ears. Striding to the closed off area of the HQ, the area that used to hold her personal offices, Miranda cracks a smile.

----

Hit hard by the personal events in their lives, Alexi, Kagero, Roy, Wu, and Barahime regroup. Alexi has taken the presumed murder weapon (found on the scene), a Tokarev 213 Chinese variant, to his DA friend for examination. Roy asks Testament for information on Blackhawk.

While waiting for answers, Kagero convinces the others to help her rescue Shun from Death Queen Island and also claims that completing the contract will put the party in good standing with the Iron Empress whose help could be useful in fighting Miranda.

On Death Queen Island, the shore is a carpet of human skulls, and the party is quickly separated by the fog that the skulls emit from their yawning mouths. Akuma is indeed a formidable opponent, a Shotokan master who took his power to the highest pinnacle and became a demon. After a day of fights against Akuma, he challenges Kagero and Alexi. If they impress him, they may leave with Shun. Alexi and Kagero do indeed impress him and as Akuma stares at Kagero while Alexi lies unconscious, he tells them they may take leave but also warns them to stay away for he has banished himself to Death Queen Island so that the world is safe from his evil. The party, being honorable, takes his offer.

Upon returning to the civilized world, all news channels are covering the newly returned CEO of the global superpower, the J'hana Group. It is being reported that Miranda has recovered from a coma, her death being exaggerated.

Miranda: "And though her duties previously didn't allow it, my daughter is pleased to announce her participation in the VG as an ordinary contestant."

----

"Explosions have rocked Strolheim Castle, Chopper Three is filming now..."

There is a smoking hole in the wall. Some of the parapets and towers shake; stones fall.

The back of Kromm Steinberg breaks through one of the castle walls, back of the head first. Camera shakily zooms in. His face is propelled by a gloved hand on a red-sleeved arm. The attacker retracts their limb. A flaming hole is blasted through the wall right by him followed by another to the right. Moments pass. Then, there is a bright flash that causes light to shine from every opening in the castle, with the brightness of a 1,000 lighthouses. Moments pass. The film crew gets out a backup camera. They were blinded. One of them is still screaming about his eyes.

Inside, Saki cartwheels through Krauser's Blitzball assault, having dropped the unconscious Kromm. Then he sees a woman, Miranda J'hana, approaching him seemingly without concern for her own safety. He changes his target, and Miranda bats aside his Blitzballs as easily as one would part curtains. Krauser decides it is time to show his true power and gathers the energy for his Kaiser Wave.

Soon after the men in the news chopper get back and running. Golden fire consumes the castle. Seems to go on for several minutes. Then there is nothing. 

Inside, Krauser is held aloft in golden coils of power. "You can join me, and I can share with you the secrets of the universe which I have obtained," Miranda offers, "or you can die here and watch your adopted son die first." Krauser eyes Saki as she holds aloft Kromm with one hand, her grip tightening around his neck.

When investigated hours later, the castle is completely empty.

----

The Variable Geo tournament moves on ahead with an unstoppable momentum. It goes global within a month and becomes one of the highest rated pay-per-view shows in countries where its content is not deemed suitable for the whole public. Regions that defy the J'hana Group and refuse to support it's new program find themselves victims. With a meager bend of its economic power, the hydra of the J'hana Group can send an entire city into ruin. With a flex, some countries could cease to exist. 

Victorious in battle, Ryofu Housen receives a summons from the tournament sponsor. Shortly, she arrives before Miranda. Miranda eyes her and says, "Your skill impresses me. Have you ever considered a career in security? Work for me, Ryofu." Before Miranda, Ryofu feels weak, something not uncommon. And although she is not quite sure why, she still says what she says. "It would be an honor, Ms. J'hana."

Briefly, Miranda's eyes wander as they take in Ryofu. With a feeling like déjà vu, she is reminded of someone she once knew. In the coming days, she oversees Ryofu's training in security protocols by Saki, watching over her like the mother she never had - or a big sister. Where before Ryofu has only ever known a life of pain, a life where violence was necessary for survival, she has been taken in by the first thing that ever has truly felt like a family. But, Ryofu cannot possibly fathom what lurks behind Miranda's eyes. For behind them lurks something that has never truly known how to love - only how to devour.

----

As the VG tournament preliminaries continue, fighters are quickly separated by the pretenders. There is a gardener in the form of Saki Yamigawa. Those without the skill and power to lose well, lose badly. And those who lose badly, rarely recover.

Walking away, leaving one such fighter permanently crippled. Her name will not be known. For she lost. She was young and hopeful, full of life. Now, her limbs broken and her spine possibly shattered, she speaks with tears welling in her eyes, "My life is over. You have murdered me. What am I now?"

Saki turns, leering. "You had no hope of testing Reimi. Worthless things are disposable. You wasted my time, and you paid for that by amusing me. In the end, that is all you were worth."

As Saki walks off stage, she turns to one of the stagehands. "When the media grows bored reporting on her injuries, bring her to my trailer."

----

----

Miranda: "Are you enjoying your new job, Ryofu?"

Ryofu: "Yes, I'm looking forward to my training with Uncle Krauser tonight, and I even received a compliment from Saki today."

Miranda: "Hmmm?"

Ryofu: "She said I had a good heart."

----

Much passes in months of the VG tournament. Both Barahime and Kagerou challenge Reimi in the VG ring. Both meet with defeat, and Reimi makes it clear that she cannot resist the will of her mother.

A dread enemy of the party makes a secret pact with Miranda. And though making it for his own survival, he could not hope to contemplate that he has merely become another Hansel and her plan C.

The party confronts Lord Blackhawk as he lays claim to an artifact, The Chalice of Fate. Though the battle is inconclusive, Alexi determines that Blackhawk indeed had nothing to do with the murder of Sarah's family, and that Blackhawk's wife is alive and well. Roy O'Bannon and his cousin Wu stop Saki from killing one of her blood relatives who confronts her at a VG tournament. The blood relative was Yousuke Yamigawa, whom Roy met during the Yomi/Shadow conflict.

And with each victory of Reimi's in the ring, the yin/yang imbalance in the universe, as measured by the compass of a Sacramento mystic, moves one click closer towards balance.

Kagura Chizuru, priestess of the Hinata Shinto Shrine in Kyoto and former sponsor of the KOF tournament, has been spending every hour in research and meditation. Miranda J'hana, has possibly tipped the balance of the universe towards Yin if the beliefs of her friends are correct. That the imbalance is on Earth is no doubt. That the imbalance is sentient is no doubt. That Miranda J'hana is now Yin itself, highly likely.

She has become a Goddess. She has dominion over half of the nature of the universe. People with such ambition never stop halfway. But Yin and Yang are opposites, forever chasing each other. There is no way she could gather and concentrate the nature of Yang energy within herself. She would have to consume it in an already concentrated state. But even so, such two things should never exist together. Chizuru's hands begin to sweat, and she cannot stop her limbs from shaking. Miranda doesn't want to rule the world. She doesn't want to control the universe. She wants to be the universe, and she may be risking the reversal of existence to do it.

The VG tournament has now entered the final stage. Sixteen fighters remain, and on Madame Yang's compass, four clicks remain. Four clicks. Four.

Cold and shivering, Reimi takes dinner prepared by the triplets whom have stuck by her side, the triplets whom she groomed and trained. Though now alone and in her room, a room prepared by her mother, a room which she cannot escape, Reimi keeps herself warm in the aura of her Chi. Reimi J'hana may indeed reign victorious in the tournament she had a hand in starting. But, why? Does her mother want to take pride in her victory? Could this possibly be how a twisted and depraved mind like hers shows love? Reimi doesn't know. All she knows is that when the pain starts, she cannot think, she can only obey. In a burst of fury, she nearly hurls the hot meal and its tray against the wall, but she stops. And in a rare moment of weakness that she would never allow another to ever see, especially her mother, Reimi weeps.