CHAPTER 1: PROLOGUE
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Raindrops splashed atop the concrete pavement, falling down from the grey, downcast sky as a young man observed from outside a third-story classroom window.
Yasuhiro Kayaku was bored to say the least. His professor was droning on about something he could care less about, and the day itself had been as dull and drab as one could get. Virtually nothing of note had happened the entire day.
Sighing to himself, he moved to fix the very out-of-place cowboy hat that sat on his head. The sound of metal clinking faintly arose as the movement shifted the holster holding his prized antique six-shooter wrapped around his waist.
With charcoal black hair, dull grey eyes, and average physique, Yasuhiro looked just like any other regular person his age. Well, if you discount his strange sense of fashion that is.
To complete the aesthetic he’d built for himself, a stark red bandana hung loosely around his neck, making him look more like a modern-day cowboy on Halloween than the twenty-one year old university student that he really was. He still wore the Academy’s uniform of course, but the personal additions tended to draw attention far more easily.
Sighing once again, Yasuhiro could only think of the day as a lost cause.
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The humid atmosphere was surprisingly pleasant. Maple trees lined the street one particular individual was walking down. He clearly appeared to be new to the environment.
To the naked eye, Arys Nakamura seemed to be an average person, with a built body despite his slim figure. However, attached to the waist was a sword, with a decorated hilt and and intricately designed guard.
He was wearing his official STRIKE uniform, and consequently received many stares by various pedestrians. A rare few would take photos.
Arys tried not to pay any attention. He knew should be accustomed to it by now, but he couldn’t help himself.
He always ended up glancing back, and everytime their eyes darted back in front of them. Some walked faster, and he was generally avoided. Feeling a vibration, he realized he received a message from his squad leader. Placing his earpiece back, he answered.
“Chermin, you better hurry up.“ a masculine voice projected from Arys’ earpiece. “We’re gonna to the next town without you if you’re not here in the next few minutes.”
Inwardly sighing, he picked up his pace. He was almost at his destination anyways. No need to rush.
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Class had been a chore as it always was. Laying back in his chair, Yasuhiro felt tiredness soak itself into his body as he let his eyes wander. The classrooms walls were once a nice, vibrant brown, but deteriorated over the past fifty years. The floor was made of wooden planks that looked just as old.
The desks and chairs were not much better, made of cheap metal and polished wood that seemed more like plastic, considering the quality. The windows were probably the best part of the room, but even they were glossy at best.
Yasuhiro absentmindedly watched his teacher and fellow students pack up and leave through the classroom door as he let himself fall into a light slumber.
Eyes closed, he didn’t notice that he wasn’t the only one left behind in the room until minutes later. A girl, sitting only a few seats to his right, had remained behind with him.
The slight rustling of her clothes alerted him to her presence.
“Huh? Someone’s still here?” He opened his eyes slightly. The dim afternoon sunlight shone directly into his eyes, irritating them and causing him to blink.
Everyone normally leaves after class lets out, so Yasuhiro was a bit surprised that someone had apparently stayed behind in the midst of his regular afternoon nap.
Now fully conscious, Yasuhiro could take a better look at whoever had chosen to stay behind like he’d done nearly everyday for the last three years he’d been in university.
It was… Akane Kurashiki, was it? If he recalled correctly, she was apart of the popular crowd within his class although that was about all he knew about her.
But now… now there was something off about her. An odd feeling sprung up in the back of Yasuhiro’s mind, but he couldn’t place it. His skin crawled as if recoiling from something he couldn’t perceive, unconsciously reacting to something he couldn’t consciously sense.
As if her strings were suddenly cut, Akane dropped unceremoniously from her seat onto the hard, wooden floor with a dull impact. For a moment, Yasuhiro thought about the strangeness of the situation, and how his classmate seemed to not register the event.
It was only for a moment however…
Because only a brief second later, his entire world turned to pain.
A long, thin mass swiftly descended from above Yasuhiro’s head and landed upon the aged flooring, piercing straight through the boy’s right arm. Agony washed over Yasuhiro’s entire being, filling his veins with chilling fire and his nerves with burning ice.
A silent scream echoed throughout the room as his vision turned to black. It could only be described as a miracle that the adrenaline now rushing throughout his body kept him from falling into eternal slumber right then and there. Clenching his teeth as cold sweat poured out from all over his figure, Yasuhiro could only watch as the monster that did this to him slowly turned it’s nightmarish visage towards him.
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Eight long legs stood threateningly near him as eight equally terrifying eyes observed him with cold scrutiny. A giant spider stood only a a few feet away from him as he could only watch it silently deliberate on something.
Crimson fluid cascaded out from where his right arm sat only a few minutes ago, slowly draining him of the capacity to remain in the realm of the living. For every second that passed, Yasuhiro could feel the embrace of death slowly encroaching upon his entirety, his face growing paler and his body growing number.
At least, he thought, the monster didn’t get his left-arm. After all, he was, in fact, left-handed, which meant that if he got out of this alive, he wouldn’t have to worry about learning to rely on his non-dominant hand. Not that escape seemed very likely at the moment.
But a cowboy like him, he could at least hope, right?
After all, this wasn’t a very heroic way to go out….
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“Summon: Bata Hojun. Tasu. Cyclone Spin.” Shurikens seemingly made of the air itself materialized throughout a narrow hallway. They were hard to see, but simple to sense.
With a blink of an eye, the blades cut through the air, quickly shooting into a nearby classroom where a great monster and its victim awaited. With eight long menacing legs attached to a slim, but huge torso, the demonic beast turned to face the new threat, only to be blindsided by the sheer speed of the invisible projectiles
While many were unable to penetrate through the monster’s high defense, a sort of armor covering likely produced from spider-like monster’s own webs, a few made their way to its slightly more vulnerable neck, slashing it for serious damage.
Thick, crimson blood spilled onto the wooden flooring as the beast struggled with its newfound injuries.
From the door, a man nodded his head, heading towards the fallen figure. The excitement of a strong opponent quickly turned to a frown as he observed the extent of the boy’s injuries. “Looks like I’m not too late at least, huh? The name’s Arys. Arys Nakamura. Remember that.”
Through his weak groan, Arys turned to face the monster again. It definitely looked like a giant spider of some sort, and judging from its vaguely female appearance, he could definitely hazard a guess toward it being a spider-queen or something along those lines.
If only he paid attention during those monster classification classes….
Suddenly, blue waves of energy flowed from the room and surrounded the spider-queen. Wait a minute… it was using precognition!
Before his body could react again, it fled the scene before Arys could cut it down. In its quick escape, it revealed its true strength as an assassin picking off weak prey. A pity, monsters this strong weren’t too common in areas like these. They either had to be strong or stupid and strong.
Speaking of stupid… Arys’ head whipped back towards the corpse laying on the hardwood floor. Seeing as he had no medical supplies to stop his bleeding, he could only think of one option for him to live. Unfortunately, it was going to hurt, but a life is a life.
Arys sat down by the dying boy and placed his sword down, beginning the spell.
“Rei Ten Rei. Twilight Stance.”
Twilight manipulation was one of the special abilities Arys possessed. It allowed him to place tethers onto people or objects and later use those tethers in various ways. Today it would be to teleport the boy into his squad’s temporary headquarters. Using the skill over long distances, however, pushed his physical limits and left Arys hospitalized for extended periods of time.
Listening through the kid’s groans, Arys shush him. He had to focus after all. It’s difficult to accomplish something that requires pain to work.
After channeling energy through his body for a fair amount of time, he was ready.
“Twilight Teleportation,” Arys whispered, putting out an aura of calm, focused energy.
Feeling the familiar rush of power, he blacked out after only a few seconds.
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The mid-afternoon sun hung low in the yellowing sky, beginning its descent behind the tops of buildings. Komei Haratsei strolled energetically through the crowded shopping district, eyeing bright signs selling mildly interesting items with much less appealing prices.
While other high schoolers her age might amuse themselves wandering through after school to find cute accessories, or waste time with friends, or revel in the activity of the noisy passerby, Komei’s chief interest today were the rumors of a newly constructed STRIKE headquarters.
People often said that having STRIKE nearby was the hallmark of a well-developed city, but they also forgot the unfortunate conditions that would necessitate having an active force on patrol, Komei thought. And her hometown of Flora in recent times had suffered a number of supernatural incidents, ones serious enough to prompt government intervention.
A sudden ringing broke out in the midst of her walk, and without breaking her stride, Komei pulled out her cellphone and found much of her social media flooded with discussion of a somewhat handsome man with an exquisitely adorned sword, and the letters STRIKE emblazoned across his chest.
“I wonder what he could do with that sword?” she quietly mused to herself, as the neon lights of the shopping plaza faded away behind her and opened up to a large, shady walkway.
Neat and symmetrical columns of maple trees lined the sides, giving Komei a sort of solemn serenity. A light breeze ruffled her black, shoulder-length hair as she stopped abruptly before the entrance of the city’s biggest park.
She paused in front of the massive torii gate, feeling her already short stature diminished even further by the impressive structure guarding the chiseled cobblestone path into the large forest clearing.
Flora, after all, was a city well known for its rich variety of plant-life, so the designation of nearly an entire forest as a nature reserve and park hadn’t come as a surprise to many of the city’s inhabitants when it had opened a few decades earlier.
Komei gleaned from the constant stream of social media that multiple STRIKE agents apparently congregated somewhere within this deep expanse of trees. To be honest, she didn’t really have much to work off of.
Only a few blurry pictures of uniformed personnel being around the area and a few witness accounts from several bystanders gave her enough information to form the conclusion she’d reached. In truth, it was more a hunch than an actual deduction...
But… her instincts told her that they were only a few minutes further into the forest!
Taking a deep breath, Komei ventured into the woodland clearing with a determined look on her face. Unfortunately, it only took a few minutes before her determination quickly morphed into panic as she realized she had no idea where to look.
“Shoot! I knew I should’ve thought this through more!” she whined, looking around indecisively as she tried to find a solution.
A few moments passed before she eventually sighed, deciding that wandering around for a bit and stumbling into them was better than idling. Nodding her head in resignation, Komei turned abruptly and began to head in a random direction.
Suddenly, an unnatural glow of azure light flashed brilliantly outside the first floor windows. Komei turned to her right side and gasped. Lying in the grass in front of her was the swordsman from her social media. He was slumped over a young man in a strange cowboy getup with a profusely bleeding wound where his right arm should have been attached.