Here he was again. Alone by himself in the shade of a tree far from the orphanage where he used to live, watching other children play with each other through the park.

Shu Rinyuko was his name.

He was alone as usual, and the people here didn't really care for him. The reason why was because all the kids here had powers and he didn't, he was the lonely child without powers, and without a family.

Kids picked on him because of this, they also called him freak, loner, ghost. He was the only child in the orphanage that was here since he was a baby. He just had to be the only child that was at the orphanage through abandonment, all the other kids lost their parents.

All he got was his name, no parents or siblings that wanted him.

It was unfair.

Why him, why did he have to be the only one that was abandoned? Why did no one help him, even give him some kindness? Was he just that useless? Was he something that didn't matter to others? Was he just another kid with no parents in the world?

These questions were left unanswered as he was brought out of his mind when he heard a cry of pain come from in front of him.

Looking up he saw a young girl with brown hair with streaks of white hair coming off the ends of her hair, she had a scared expression on her face as a few kids were picking on her.

Shu didn't know why but he felt drawn to her, he felt compelled to help her. He saw the look of someone who was scared in her eyes, and it got worse when one of the kids started pulling on her tail.

He was already on his feet as he soon bolted towards them and pushed one of the older kids away from her.

"Leave her alone." Shu said as he spread his arms out wide to protect the girl behind him.

"And what can a parentless child like you do? Protecting this filthy animal, if anything she should disappear." The older one said in a mocking tone. Shu turned around and saw the girl's ears deflate and her lips quivering trying to hold back tears.

"She's no animal. She's human like us, if anyone is the filthy animal it's you three." Shu replied earning looks of anger and disgust from the bullies. A skinny picked a rock and threw it at him, he winced as it made a scratch on his cheek.

"Move it! Or we'll beat you up, then beat her too." The skinny one said as the girl behind Shu started shaking with fear.

"Tch, you could throw anything at me… but I… am not moving from this spot." Shu stated with a determined expression on his face, then he turned to the girl and spoke. "Go, save yourself."

The girl quickly nodded her head and ran away towards the bushes disappearing as she went through. As soon as she was gone, Shu was met with a punch to the stomach causing the latter let out a gasp of pain before another punch sent him to the ground.

Shu clutched his stomach as he slowly looked up and saw the three kids with smirks on their faces as one had rocks and the others were holding their fists. He tried to get up but was met with a kick to the side.

"Ugh!"

"You shouldn't have got involved, stupid freak. Now you'll pay for it!" The third kid said as he was holding a medium sized rock and threw it down onto Shu's stomach.

Shu cried in pain before feeling numerous kicks and other punches all over his body. The only sounds that were heard were his grunts of pain and his tormentors laughing at his pain. This went on for a few minutes until they got bored and stopped hitting him.

Shu was a mess with his clothes all dirty and blood dripping down his chin along with some cuts and bruises all over his arms and legs.

"That'll teach you to learn your place, orphan!" The older one smirked as he and the other two children left him alone in the dirt. It was just him alone at the park again. All the adults that heard the commotion took their kids away from the park.

It was like this every, he was used to it, but it didn't help that it left an empty feeling in his stomach. He sighed as he slowly picked himself up from the ground but fell back to the floor on his back. He couldn't get up for the next hour or so.

"Well at least she's safe." He said as he stared at the sky. Suddenly the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching him entered his ears, he turned his head slowly and was ready for another beating thinking that the bullies from earlier were back but was surprised to see the girl that escaped instead.

"Y-You're hurt!" She shouted as she drop to her knees and use her hands to pull his head onto her lap. "W-Why… why did you save me?"

"Because you're a person too." He started as he slowly stared into her eyes with his own, filled with sadness. "No one should be treated as an outcast… you have feelings too… just because you have animal tail and ears… doesn't make any less different, it just means your… pretty awesome." He finished with a grin on his face.

The girl stared at him for a few seconds before suddenly bursting into giggles at his last sentence. "You're all beaten up and the first thing you say about me is that I'm awesome…"

"Yes."

"T-thank you… no one has really been this kind to me…" She said as a small blush appeared on her cheeks before she returned her gaze to him. "I'm Makoto… Makoto Nanaya."

"Shu… Rinyuko." He greeted back as he sat up while clutching his stomach.

"Shu… w-would… you…" Makoto stuttered as she rubbed her forearm with her right hand and found the ground more interesting. "…want to be friends…."

"Hai. We can be friends." Shu beamed as he held out his hand earning a gasp from demi-human as she stared at his hand before grabbing it with both of her own.

"Thank you."

'After being bullied for so long…'

'After so long of being alone…'

Both children stared at their own hands intertwined together before gazing into each other's eyes, both smiling in happiness.

"I finally found someone… that I can call a friend.'

10 years later:

Shu was groaning as he felt someone poke his cheek continuously, he was tired and right now he needed to get some sleep. He turned his body over and put a pillow over his head to keep out any more distractions.

An audible sigh echoed through the room as the figure gazed down at him, soon a smile appeared on her lips as she slowly lifted the pillow from Shu's head tossing it on the floor. She got on the bed and leaned her head near his ear, before slowly opening her mouth and gently bit his ear.

*nom,nom*

"AAAAAHHHH!" In that moment Shu woke with up a loud scream, his face bright red as he scrambled off the bed and onto the floor.

Makoto let out a boisterous laugh at Shu's bright face as the latter stared at her with a glare.

"Not funny, Makoto."

The squirrel beastkin, rubbed her eyes wiping away her tears of laughter. "I'm sorry, but you wouldn't wake up otherwise." She replied as she got off the bed and walked over to him bending over and giving him a smirk. "Plus, you know you love it."

'Agh!' Shu quickly turned his head down and covered his eyes as he avoided looking at Makoto's huge mounds that might earn him a punch to the nuts.

Over the years, they've been together, puberty hit Makoto very early. There was this one time that they were out going walking when someone tried to hit on her and get a touch of her butt. Shu would've attacked had not Makoto done it herself, giving a iron punch to the nuts to the poor sap.

Makoto rolled her eyes at Shu looking away but inwardly happy at him being a gentleman.

"Come on, we got to get ready for school." Makoto says as she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. "So, hurry up and get to changing dragon boy." She finished as she pinches his cheeks, causing him to swat her hands away.

Makoto left the room with a smile on her face as Shu sighed at her antics but smiled nonetheless as he turned to his dresser and watch the clock become 7:30, meaning he had one hour until school started.

On the metro to school, Shu was groaning as he had his head pressed against the window of the train with his face turning slightly purple.

"I hate vehicles." He moaned as he clutched his stomach, feeling the rush of nausea reaching his head.

"I got you." Makoto sighed as she set her book bag down at her feet, she carefully took Shu's head and rest it onto her lap, running her fingers through his hair to soothe his pain. As she did, she looked out the window and watched the scenery go by as they were heading to school.

"Man, it's been that long already huh?" She said to herself as she glanced down at the boy in her lap. 'Ten years. Ten years since I met you Shu.'

She was brought out of her thoughts when the train made a stop and announce the next station it was heading to, causing her to pat Shu on the head and wake him up.

The latter slowly made his way out of the train as the former followed with her hands behind her back. After a mile walk, they arrived at their school with a fountain in the middle of the grounds. Sitting at the fountain with a blank look on her face, was a short azure-eyed girl with blonde hair set in a braided pony-tail.

"Hey Es."

"Shu, it's nice to see you again. You as well Makoto." Es greeted them.

"Hey there, butterfly!" Makoto beamed, wringing an arm around Es' shoulders, who frowned at the nickname the squirrel demi-human gave her.

"Please stop calling me that."

"Don't bother Es, you know she has nicknames for everybody." Shu says in amusement as he walked past the duo before they followed him.

Going through a few flights of stairs and arriving on the 5th floor, they arrived at their class as the boy bashed the door open with a fierce kick.

"We arrived!" He shouted and suddenly was hit in the head with a book, causing both girls to yelp at the sudden impact. "Ow!"

"I thought I told you to stop doing that!" A voice said as they entered the room. They saw a girl with pink hair and glasses with a blank and somewhat angered look on her face as she scowled at Shu.

"Hi, Kokonoe."

"Hi, Koko." Es greeted followed by Makoto before the latter started to shiver under the pink-haired girl's menacing gaze.

"Thought I told you not to call me that either. I swear sometimes you both just love pissing me off." Kokonoe huffed as she brought a hand to her forehead.

Shu slowly got up from the floor, wobbling a bit before reaching for the book and pulled it off his face with a giant imprint in the center of his face before it went back to normal.

"No, you're just that easy to annoy sometimes." Shu joked with a grin on his face, suddenly another book came flying at his face, but he used the one in his hand to block it. "Enough with the book throwing!" He exclaimed at her, earning a scoff in return as she turned her attention to the board.

Shu sighed at her before walking over and pulled out a similar bag of candy that and held it in front of her.

"Here." Shu said as Kokonoe took the bag from his hand.

"Thanks." She said before taking a lollipop from the bag and put it in her mouth, discarding bag into her own backpack.

"I sometimes wonder how you get no cavities from all that candy." Shu said in a curious tone.

"I could say the same to you with all that fried rice and gyoza you eat." Kokonoe countered as he nodded his head.

"Fair point." He then looked up front and saw that the main desk was empty. "Hey, wait, our teacher's not, here is she?"

"Yes so…" Kokonoe questioned as a grin slowly formed into a full-blown crazy smile on Shu's face. That sent red alarms off in everyone's heads. Whenever that smile happened, it meant that Shu was about to do something stupid, very… very… very stupid.

"In that case, time for a…*BAM*…Ugh!" Shu yelped as a blow hit him in the back of the head, causing him to fall forward and crash onto the ground.

"Yeah no thank you. We like living too much and unlike you none of us have a death wish." A masculine voice interrupted him. Entering the room were two more students, one with brown hair and brown eyes, and the other with red eyes and blonde hair tied down into a long ponytail.

"Naoto, Raquel." Es greeted the duo.

"A pleasure to see you all again." Raquel greeted them with a bow.

"Thanks for knocking out the idiot." Kokonoe says as Naoto picked Shu up from the floor.

"No problem," Naoto said as he dropped Shu into his seat before sitting in his desk behind him. He leaned back and then propped his feet up onto the back of the chair. "Not to be rude but your mother's pretty damn terrifying and I don't want to die early death thanks to this guy." Naoto said pointing at Shu.

Makoto shivered as she remembered Nine's punishment from earlier year of school. "I still remember the illusion of myself being roasted alive and then cooked in giant pot of stew. All because I ate during class."

"That what happens when you disobey her rules." Raquel said as she sat in her seat.

"But I was so hungry~" Makoto whined as Kokonoe shook her head.

"Regardless, just be glad you only gotten punish when she was in a good mood. You don't want to see her in her worst." She said as everyone shivered in fear at what Nine may do to them if she was ever pissed off enough to do wo.

"You're damn right you don't." Everyone yelped as they saw their Konoe Mercury/Nine walked into the classroom. "Annoy too much and you end up grilled on a platter, got it?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Alright then." Nine sighed before finding Shu asleep in his seat, still with swirl in his eyes. Nine took this opportunity to levitate one of the books beside him above his head before dropping her hand to her side which caused the book to slam on him.

"AH! WHAT I MISS!?" he shouted in alarm as he looked around until his eyes darted over to his teacher. He gave a grin and then waved his hand to Nine. "Morning, teach."

"Stop falling asleep, or I roast you alive." Nine threatened him but the latter just grin and gave a her a salute in return.

"You got it." He answered.

The girls and Naoto just sweat dropped at their friend, wondering how he was not afraid of Nine when it came to her punishments, hell he was probably the only one in class that wasn't. He got punished the most for his pranks on the student body and teachers. Even when it the punishment was harsh, he came back in excitement at the experience, it was like he was guinea pig testing out all the dangers from Nine's rage.

This made all of them question his sanity.

"Okay, time to start today's lesson." Nine stated as she got to teaching the class history about seither and the history of the Hierarchical Cities.

The bell ranged and as soon as class was done most students left the room leaving Shu, Naoto, Raquel, Makoto, Kokonoe and Es along with their teacher Nine.

"Finally, class is over." Makoto sighed as she stretched her arms over her head. "I need to food. I wonder if they have any chestnut cake at the café?"

"You had that the last time we ate lunch; you should be eating food that's healthy for you." Es stated earning a glare from the squirrel beastkin.

"This coming from the woman who is addicted to chocolate pudding." Kokonoe pointed out as Es let out a small sound and her face slightly blushed.

"Says the Candy Cat." Naoto added with a grin earning a scowl from the beastkin.

"It's true," They all turned their heads to Nine as she went over papers that needed grading. "She eats candy whenever I'm not around and my husband lets her as well, even I do wanna fry his ass for it." She mumbled that last part to herself, but they all heard her. "SO even I threaten her for it, that won't stop her."

"Quite amusing to share. I just love listening to these stories you humans share so openly."

"Shut up stupid rabbit." Kokonoe growled earning a scowl from Raquel. As they were arguing with Naoto and Es trying to calm them down, Makoto looked over to Shu and noticed that he was in deep thought.

"Hey Shu?"

"Huh?" He looked up and turned his head to Makoto. "Yeah, what is it?"

"You okay, you seemed out of it."

"Oh, yeah I'm okay, for some reason though I feel like I need to go to the lockers." Shu said with a frown on his face. "I think I might have left something in there."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Makoto asked with concern on her face.

Shu shook his head negatively. "No, its okay. I don't want you to miss lunch. I'll be right back." Shu said with a smile on his face.

Makoto was about to protest and say shall go with him, but he was already out of his seat and had his bag on his back. He patted her on the shoulder and then ran out of the room heading down towards the lockers.

Makoto didn't know why but she just felt something go through her chest. Once he left, she felt a horrible feeling churn through her chest as if something bad was about to happen.

Slightly clutching her chest, she prayed for his safety.

"Just be careful, you dummy." She said silently. Unknown to her, Es heard the demi-human and gazed towards the door as well, wondering what was going on.

After rushing down the stairs and down the entrance of the school, Shu ran to his locker and put in the combination before opening it up.

Inside was nothing more than his notebooks and textbooks for class, making wonder why he came down.

"That's weird."

Suddenly he felt a chill go through his entire body, the atmosphere around him suddenly became tense and he felt his body stopped moving.

'What…What the hell was that?' he whispered as he closed his locker and turned his head around only for his eyes to widen in shock. What was a nice, clean and normal looking hall entrance was now destroyed with burn marks along the walls, the windows broken and the front desk destroyed with a huge letter sign that had crashed on top of it?

"The hell…?" he cursed as he looked both ways and noticed that the entire school was not only on fire, but it looked like it was in the middle of a warzone. "What happened here? Where is everybody?"

He walked through the hall and immediately stop in his tracks as he saw the dead bodies of numerous all over the floor. Blood splattered on their bodies as he saw numerous cuts through torsos, heads and huge holes all over the bodies. Shu slowly started shaking at what he was seeing, the dark twisted hallucination he believed he was in.

"Where…am… I…?" He asked scared of the answer.

"You are in another world." He turned his head around and he saw a figure in front of him standing at the broken doors of the entrance. She had long blonde hair with green eyes and wearing what looked like the NOL but was completely different. A sleeveless collared white undershirt zipped in the back with a short red tie. Below her torso was a short blue mantle with yellow lining with blue thigh-high socks and style heeled boots.

"Another what?"

"A different reality, if I made add." The blonde girl says as she took a step forward. "You are in one of the many worlds that are nothing more than possibilities of different timelines." She explained.

'Another world… that's not possible…' Shu thought to himself as he unconsciously took a step back from the trio.

"Oh, no need to be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help you." She said with a warm smile on her face and her hands were behind her back. Shu looked closely and saw the handle of a gun behind her back.

"I don't think you are willing to help me." Shu retorted as he glared at the girl. "I can see the gun from behind your back and I can feel you hiding that killing intent of yours.

"My, my, you sure are observant." Her grin slowly changed into a malicious as she let out a creepy giggle. "Still it wouldn't have been fun if it was too easy."

"Who are you?"

"Eager to learn, are we?" She teased him as she walked forward causing him to step back. "How about we play a little game?" She says bringing her right hand up to her face. "If you can survive at least two minutes with me, then I'll answer three of your questions. If you can at least get a cut on me…" She paused as she brought a finger that was covered in blood up to her mouth and sat it on her tongue then closed her mouth, sucking on it. Shu remained neutral, but he was scared at what was going on with this girl's head as she licked off the blood from her gloved hands.

"… then I will let you live." She finished before she started giggling uncontrollably. Then she wrapped her arms around her stomach as started cackling with laughter throwing her head up into the air, her voice echoing through the empty hallway.

"As if you can actually cut me open!" She said as she grabbed her guns from behind, pointing her right arm towards him and fire a single shot.

A shot that rang through the air and that was the start of a battle to survive in what might be either a distorted dream or a dark twisted hellish nightmare.