Many weeks passed since John’s father had left for his journey; as the days went pass, the Berus lived life as usual, going about each day with the hopes that Mr. Beru would safely return. But, when the day when Mr. Beru was due to arrive, there was no word from him or the ship that he went on, the company that owned the ship messaged the families of the men that were on the ship that the ship was probably delayed and will return in a few days. The day was noon, just as the sun began to set; Mrs. Beru was preparing dinner as always, and John and Aoi were in their rooms reading schoolbooks that Mrs. Beru told them to read. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Beru opened the door to be greeted by a tall man in a black suit.
John, still in his room, opened the door a little and peeked through the narrow opening, and saw his mother talking to the man. But as he looked, he immediately knew what they were talking about when he saw his mother cup her face in her hands and began to cry, falling to the ground as the man in the suit walked away. John’s father was dead from the ship capsizing on the way back to Oreana.
The next day, a funeral was held for John’s father and the other men that died on the ship. The company compensated the families for the unfortunate losses, allowing John’s family to live comfortably for a few years until John was old enough to work. Ever since the day he heard of his father’s death, he did not want to believe it, he buried the thought deep into his mind and turned it into a terrible possibility. “He’s alive, I know it. He’s going to come back.” he would always tell himself whenever he started to doubt, “They never found a body, so he must be alive.”. So many emotions flowed through his body, he felt a bit angry and an over whelming sensation of grief mixed with disbelief and hope. “What if I break my promise and something happens to Mom, my brother, or Aoi?” he asked himself, “I have to take care of them until Dad comes home, he has to come home.”
A year passes; John and Aoi had just finished their schooling for the day. John asked Aoi if she wanted to explore the city with him, “But, your mother would never allow that.” she told him. “We’ll only be gone for a few hours, I’ll just tell her that we’ll hang around at the docks, and that we’ll be back before it gets dark.” John said.
Aoi reluctantly agreed and the two headed off out the apartment building and walked down the sidewalk in the direction opposite of the docks. The two walked pass tall buildings and small, seemingly abandoned houses on the block, all of which covered in graffiti and trash, the walls of the building wearing with age and neglect with a few homeless people camping in front of some of the buildings. They eventually came to the end of the block and came to a crosswalk where two adult men were standing, waiting for the crosswalk light to turn white. John and Aoi stayed behind the men, staying out of their attention.
“Absolute madness.” said one of the men.
“What is it, Reverend?” the other asked.
“The king wants to increase the number of police in the lower city.”
“I’ve heard that too, it’s insane.”
“It’s all because of that Anarchy's Blade cartel, well, it’s more of a terrorist group now if anything. they’ve been having a cold war with the royal family for some time. I’m sick of the royals thinking that violence will put an end to all these criminal groups, if the king wants to put an end to these gang and cartel wars, he should try to do it peacefully and not try to start a nonsensical war with his own people. It’s only a matter of time before one side makes the first strike.” the reverend said before the crosswalk turned white, allowing the reverend and the other man to walk to the next block.
“Anarchy’s Blade? I’ve heard of that, but if I'm being honest, I never really thought too much about a lot of things.” John said to himself as he and Aoi continued to walk behind the men, but then went in another direction.
John and Aoi kept walking until they came across a young boy who looked to be at least eight years old begging for them to help him get his younger brother out from under fallen scaffolding in an alleyway. John agreed to help him and followed the young lad to a wide alleyway that was illuminated by overhead lights of the buildings that created the alley.
The boy led them to a pile of fallen scaffolding, “She’s here, help me get this off of her.” he said, bending down and lifting some of the rubble up. John and Aoi went to help, but as they both bent down, the young boy stood up and pulled a knife from his trousers, telling them to hand over whatever money they had. Then, three older boys came out of the dark parts of the alley and surrounded John and Aoi, all three of them holding crude weapons like a baseball bat, a metal pipe, and another knife made from scrap metal. The boys also wore ragged clothes that looked to be held together by stitches.
“She’s got pretty hair,” said one of the boys, grabbing Aoi by the hair. “I wonder how much it’ll sell for.”
Aoi slapped the boy’s arm, causing him to let go. The boys got closer to the two, tightening their weapons, ready to use them if John and Aoi didn’t give them anything. The boy that grabbed Aoi by the hair then attempted to grab her again, but before he could lay a finger on her, John moved in front of Aoi, punching the boy in the lower jaw, “Don’t you touch her!” he shouted. The boy fell to the ground, causing the other boys to all attack John at once. John blocked some of the blows from the boys blunt weapons, he attempted to us magic to combat the muggers, but before he could cast a spell, the boy he had punched in the jaw, struck him in the back of the head, causing John to fall to the ground. The boys continued to beat on John with their feet so they wouldn’t kill him; Aoi, who was unable to help John, cowered against the wall and watched in horror as John was being stomped on.
Just then, two police officers walked by the alley and noticed the commotion, “Hey!” they shouted. “What are you doing?” The muggers stopped what they were doing and quickly fled the scene, the police still chasing them, leaving John and Aoi alone in the alleyway. Aoi slowly crawled towards John, and trembling in fear, she put her hand on his arm. John, groaning in pain, sat up and said, “Aoi, I think we should stay away from alleys from now on.” Aoi, shedding tears of relief, hugged him tightly. Aoi helped John to his feet and John brushed himself clean, “I’m alright, nothing’s broken.” he assured.
The two made their way out of the alleyway only to be greeted by the same boy that grabbed Aoi’s hair, “I’m not finished with you yet, I’ll have that girl’s pretty hair and whatever is in your pockets.” he said, clenching a knife. John then pulled Aoi behind him and looked straight into the muggers eyes, “Leave us alone” John said, gritting his teeth. The mugger then noticed John’s eyes were glowing a bright orange color, causing a chilling and fearful feeling to spread all across his body, his muscles shivering as if his body temperature had just dropped. The boy then slowly backed up and turned, dashing as fast as he could to get away from John.
“Well, that was weird.” John said to himself. “That’s the second time this has happened. Could it just be luck or what?”
Aoi and John then kept walking and passed police officers taking down a large propaganda poster advertising the cartel called “Anarchy’s Blade” as saviors of the lower city with their leader in the center of a bright red circle, holding a katana in his right hand and a spear with a red and gold colored flag on it in his left hand. Their leader was portrayed on the poster as a tall male figure, wearing a black military fatigue with an armored vest and black combat boots. He also wore a black colored mask with a red neon light X over both of the eye holes and a smiley face. The leader was also stepping over a skull with a crown on it.
John and Aoi continued to walk down the sidewalk. As they walked, the ground was gradually inclining like the streets in San Francisco. When they got up the top of the hill, they were greeted by beauty and brilliance the upper city, the buildings were tall and free of decay or graffiti, everything was clean, from the streets to the people. They explored some of the city until they came to a large park, filled with everything you would expect to find in a city park. They walked around the park until they came across a large fountain with a tall statue of a woman with long flowing hair, holding a golden star, standing in the center of it.
The two then sat down on a bench that was facing the fountain and rested from their adventure. The two then shared a moment of relieved laughter. “That was fun.” John said.
“Let’s not do anything like this again.”
“Why? Where’s your sense of adventure?”
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As they sat, they noticed a girl, between the age of twelve and thirteen, running in their direction. John noticed that the girl had small tips protruding out through her hair about an inch or two above where the ears are supposed to be for a human. The tips resembled the top of black cat-like ears. The girl also wore a white dress and was barefooted, she also had a triangular-shaped tattoo on the back of her left hand. She came up to the two and asked, “You two are from the lower city, right?”
“How did you know that?” John asked.
“The clothes you’re wearing, I’ve never seen anyone in the upper city wearing clothes like that.”
Before John or Aoi could say anything, the girl asked them if they could take her with them. John asked her why, but the girl wouldn’t say, only that she wanted to go with them to the lower city. Just then, a man in a suit and top hat started to walk towards the three, “There you are” he said angrily. The girl made an attempt to run away, but before she got a small distance away, the man pressed a button on a small device, causing the tattoo on the girl’s hand to glow purple and sent an electrical shock through the girl’s body, making her fall to the ground. The man then grabbed the girl by the wrist and lifted up to her feet, “You’re going to regret stealing from me.” The man dragged her along, the girl trying to resist, “I didn’t steal anything!” she protested. but being too weak to escape, she couldn’t free herself from the man’s grip.
“She must be a demi-human, I hear they’re used as servants and denied real jobs in the upper city due to the royal family’s distrust towards them. It’s strange, she doesn’t have a tail like the ones I’ve seen. Could it be an injury or something?” said John to himself.
“Do you think we should head back now?” asked Aoi.
“That would be a good idea, Mom will get worried if we stay here any longer.”
They then made their way back down to the lower city and headed towards their apartment; the sun slowly disappearing and ushering in another night. As they walked, they noticed some police vehicles swiftly driving down the road, but they didn’t think too much of that. They finally arrived at the block where the apartment building was located. Standing in front of the building, was a group of people. They were all residents of the lower city, almost all of them holding politically charged objects like signs that had “Free Oriyan!” and “Freedom from tyrants!” written on them in bold letters and a bright yellow flag with two black strips. There were also a few men off to the side away from the group who were wearing what appeared to be body armor and they were visibly armed with firearms. Police quickly formed a defensive wall to contain the people. Tension filled the room as these police officers were soon joined by the presence of Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) officers, which were an elite tactical division of the Orianan law enforcement.
John and Aoi managed to get to the front of the building, but before he entered the building, John noticed two men running out of one the apartment building’s exits that lead into the alley, and frantically dashing away, one of them stumbling to the ground and quickly getting back up. disappearing into the darkness of the alley as police officers from the vehicles they saw driving down the street earlier, chasing after them. “What was that?” he whispered.
He then noticed something on the ground where one of the two men fell. He walked towards it and saw that it was a small, katakana-like knife with a black handle and a grayish-silver blade. John picked the knife up and noticed an engraving on the blade that read, “No more gods, No more masters. Let chaos burn the world!”, Which was a well-known motto used by the Anarchy’s Blade cartel. John put the knife back on the ground and ran back to Aoi at the front of the building.
John then went to open the door, but as soon as his fingers touched the door handle, an explosion burst from the top of the building, causing pieces of glass and debris to rain down to the ground, a piece of a wall almost landing on John. Aoi pulled John away and both of them moved to the other side of the street. The sounds of gunfire then erupted. People around the building all frantically ran away, screaming in sheer terror as rubble fell down upon them and bullets wheezed back and forth from almost all directions. Aoi and John both stood and watched as the building where they once lived in was now burning to the ground. John looked in horror at the floor of the building that he lived in, realizing that not only is his father dead, but his mother was now gone as well, and making this moment a tragedy that John will never forget.
A few hours after the accident, John and Aoi both aimlessly walked down the sidewalks of the lower city, John lifelessly staring forward as they walked. Just then, walking from out of a nearby convenience store, a tall, dark-skinned man with a round figure and a cigar resting between his lips, noticed the two kids, and approached them. The man had a cybernetic right arm and wore a green shirt and black pants. He also had a short beard and mustache, and wore a black-colored fedora and gold-colored shades. He looked down at the two and said, “What the hell are you kids doing out in this part of the city?”
“Please, sir. Can you help us, we have no where else to go.” Aoi said tearfully.
The man looked into Aoi’s eyes and saw that John looked visibly distraught, he then sighed and said, “Sure, I have a spot where you can stay for as long as you need, but you’re gonna have to earn your keep. I don’t take in freeloaders. And by the way, my name’s Big G.”
Big G then took the two to a two-story auto shop that works on vehicles and cybernetics that was located on a street called “Ross Street”. As they walked in a worker at the shop was doing welding work on a cybernetic arm, the man saw the two kids and gave them a suspicious stare. “Sup’ Otto?” Big G said, waving at him. The three went up the building’s staircase and the made their way down a hallway. “Oh my word! Big G, are you kidding me? You’re gone for a few hours, and then you come back with more mouths to feed?” A young woman with violet colored hair said after seeing Aoi and John.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, Lelana. Let me get these two settled in and then we can argue.” Big G said.
The three came to a room at the end of the hall. The room was covered in plastic wrap that was covered in large spots of dried paint, but was relatively clean for the most part, there was also a small window on the wall that was in the same direction of the door that had a plastic sheet covering it like a curtain. “This is where you’ll be staying.” Big G said. “You’ll start working here first thing tomorrow, if you can’t work, than you can’t stay.” he continued before closing the door. Big G then went up to the violet haired woman to speak with her.
“What were you thinking?” she asked. “Is this some sort of grieving thing?”
“What? No. You know I got a soft spot. Those kids were in trouble, I wanted to help them, so I did.”
“You know we don’t have the resources to take in a couple of children.”
“Come on, give em a chance, they’ll work around the shop for now, and when they grow up, they could be a valuable addition to our crew.”
“You know what, fine. I’m not going to argue with you. I’ll go along with this, but I’m not going to be the one taking care of them.”
Lelana walked back into her room, almost closing the door, but before she closed the door all the way, she said, “You know, if they die, it’s on your hands.”
“Goodnight, Lelana.” said Big G, walking off to the staircase.
In the room where John and Aoi now stay, Aoi walked up behind John, who was looking out the window, and put her hand on his shoulder, “John?” she said softly. John didn’t answer, he just stared out of the window, watching the vehicles and people moving about the street with a face that was void of emotion. Aoi embraced him, a few tears falling from her eyes.
A single tear fell from John’s face and fell on something he was holding in his right hand John then looked down at his hand where he was holding the necklace. But this could not have been possible. John remembered that he had left the necklace at the apartment to avoid loosing it.
John stared into the stone, he then noticed faint, black, galaxy-shaped spiral, slowly spinning and forming a symbol in the middle of the stone. He continued to watch, and as he noticed that the stone was turning sky blue, and faint whispering voices started to speak in John’s head as if the necklace was trying to talk to him. John heard he words of his father to never let go of the necklace. It almost seemed that the necklace was speaking to him in a way.
The symbol now fully formed, John looked in wide eyes that the what he saw was that of a dragon. John looked back out of the window, his eyes burning in anger and sorrow, as his hand tightly closing over the necklace, The words DeathKill had given him were buried underneath John’s rage, confusion, and sorrow.
Meanwhile, back at the now destroyed apartment building, firefighters rush to the scene and attempt to put out the blazing fire as the building continuously loses its structural integrity, people screaming in terror as a thick cloud of smoke floated over the block and surrounding areas like a blanket of suffocation. But for the most part, all was quiet, the bodies on the ground were among the most silent. Among the sounds of terrified people and the roars of the fire, the sound of a young girl singing a Xainish lullaby echoed through the air. And from a wall of smoke emerged two young children, both of them wearing faces of fear and confusion as they slowly wandered through the scene, the older child, a boy, looking around for his parents while the younger child, a girl, follows closely behind her brother as she tightly holds onto his shirt.
The girls stopped and stared at the flaming remains, tears filled the young girl’s eyes as she tightly held onto her brother’s arm. As they stood there, a single gunshot rang out in front of them followed by a flash of fiery light, causing them to freeze up. The girls could barely see what happened because of smoke and embers filling the air, all they could see was the outline of a person standing over the body of a SOTF officer. But shortly after the gunshot, he figure took notice of the girls and emerges from the fog of smoke, revealing a tall man with a cybernetic hand holding a pistol. He walks up to them and asks them if they were alright.
The kids didn’t respond, only looking up at him in fear, the girl cowering behind her brother and the boy backing up a few steps away. The man then kneeled down and comforted them with an offered hand. The boy took the man’s hand and after taking one last look at the building, the three walked away from the scene, the children awaiting a new life that was in store for them.