There was a distant boom of thunder on that rainy night.
Mahora Academy was placed as one of the Top 10 most beautiful academies in Japan, but one would find that rather hard to believe under the current weather.
Strong gusts of wind blowed in the streets, taking away the umbrellas of any unfortunate students who were still out.
While the water poured down almost in torrents as if the sky itself were weeping upon the city. Some said that it was mostly likely how the first night of the relentless 40 nights and 40 days of rain God brought down upon the Earth.
Near the edge of the city like Academy, on one of its most far out buildings stood two figures wrapped in black cloaks, their hoods hiding their faces from view, but not being as effective against the rain.
"I still don't get why we have to be here," whined the far shorter of the two, barely reaching waist level with their companion.
"It's called reconnaissance, you little pipsqueak, and it's part of being a professional," snapped back the far taller of the two, with a deep voice that was definitely masculine.
The shorter one fumed. "I AM a professional and don't call me pipsqueak, assho-Gah"
Within a millisecond the taller one had his hand wrapped around his colleague's throat, not even bothering to look at them as his gaze remained focused on the Academy in front of them.
"Shut your trap, shit head," he growled, tightening his grip. "We have a job to do, and sneaking in to this place is hard enough without you mouthing off."
He gave one last tight squeeze around his companion's throat, making them wheeze. "So shut the fuck up."
And with that he let go and the shorter one felt to his knees gasping and wheezing as they tried to regain their breath.
The taller one stopped towards the edge of the roof that they were standing on. "Our target is in there, the employer wants her, so we've got to collect data, not only on her, but on this place's defenses, so don't screw this up Inugami, or I'll kill you."
And with that, he leapt off the building.
Rubbing his sore throat, Inugami Kotaro glared at the moving back of his partner.
He'd show him who's boss. And if they bumped into enemies, he'd show everyone that the strongest there was had just entered Mahora Academy.
And so, after regaining his breath, he leapt off the building, following his partner in crime.
It didn't take Kotaro long to catch up to his companion, now the two were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, being careful not to slip on the wet surface and toe not make to much noise.
Finally the two were deep into enemy territory, having come to a stop on a clock tower.
"We'll split up and and gather data," said the taller figure, placing his hands in his pockets. "Let's rendezvous here within fifteen minutes."
Without even waiting for his shorter companion's reply or acknowledgement, he leapt off the tower and headed West.
Kotaro growled at the dismissal of his companion. It wasn't just him, everyone else he ever worked with looked down on him, mocked him, ridiculed him.
He was sick of it! So he'd train bad get stronger and stronger, yeah that's it, he'd be strong enough to beat the Thousand Master.
And with that thought, he too was off.
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'Damn this rain!' he mentally cursed, twelve minutes later as he snuck between alleyways.
The rain had gotten even stronger now, and it was making it harder for him to see, not only that the sound of thunder and the gusts of wind were making it harder to hear too.
And what was worse was that tie was nearly up and he'd barely found out anything!
At most what he'd found out was that there were several people with magical capabilities and some with a level of ki, patrolling around the stupid Academy.
Speaking of which, he quickly ducked behind a couple of rubbish bins, as a figure passed by.
It was had to tell with the rain, but from what he could see, it was a woman probably in her early twenties, she had long black hard and exotic dark skin.
As she passed by the entry of the alleyway Kotaro was currently in.
Kotaro slowed down his breathing as best he can to make it as quiet as possible.
The woman stood there at the entrance staring down into the alleyway, with a stoic expression.
Despite not being able to see much from his place, Kotaro could feel her stare pierce through him, looking into his very core.
It felt wrong, it felt sick, he was defenseless defenseless defenseless defenseless-
He bit into his hand to cut off that train of thought, tasting the coppery taste oh his own blood as it dripped from his wound.
What was that? Why had he felt like that? Every fibber in his being had screamed at him to attack her, because she was a threat.
He'd only felt like that when he was overwhelmed or threatened, when his more animalistic instincts became more influential.
'Im not an animal,' he thought to himself. 'Im not an animal.'
During this whole time the dark skinned woman had just stared into the dark alleyway, not moving from where she stood.
Finally she turned away, having apparently decided that there was nothing to worry about bad she finally walked away.
The next few seconds were painful, the eery silence baring the gusts of wind, sound of raindrops and occasional thunder being the only things that reached his ears.
Finally after a few more seconds to make sure that she was gone, he left out a sigh. "Hah."
*Click*
He froze.
"Who are you and what's your intention?"
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Standing in an alleyway next to the clock tower, the taller of the two infiltrators silently fumed.
'That bastard was meant to be here three minutes ago, where is he?!'
He would've of waited on top of the tower like he had planned to, but the sudden movement of several energy signatures made him reconsider that, he might as well have painted a fucking bullseye on his chest.
'Don't tell me he...'
The sudden movement of nearly every magical aware entity in the area meant most likely that his useless little partner had been either sighted or caught.
'He better had been caught, for his own sake,' he thought darkly, his hand twitching to reach for the katana hidden under the cloak.
As his thoughts drifted closer bad closer towards murder, he finally noticed a small figure running towards the building where the clock tower was.
'There you are.'
Moving quicker than almost anyone could see, he sped towards the shorter figure of Kotaro Inugami and dragged him to another nearby alleyway.
"Hey, what's the...?" Kotaro's protests were silenced as for a second time that night he felt a hand grip his throat.
"You were seen weren't you? You little shit!" growled the older mercenary.
Kotaro tried to choke an answer out, but he couldn't.
Yes he'd been spotted by the dark skinned woman, but fortunately he'd been able to escape though just barely. Shadow clones were very effective diversions after all.
But that didn't fool her for very long, and he was confident that she was hot on his heels.
"Should've known something like this would happen," muttered the man with his hand wrapped around the child's throat. "Being partnered up with a worthless kid."
Kotaro tried his best to spit out an insult, but his efforts were in vain as all he got put was a faint choking sound that was drowned out by a clap of thunder that followed a flash of lightning.
"And now getting out of here is going to be a gigantic pain in the ass," mussed his companion, scratching his visible chin under the hood. "Though I guess, it could be easier if I were to leave the dead weight as a distraction..."
The dog boy's eyes widened, understanding exactly where this was going. Well he wasn't going to let him.
Putting as much ki as possible into his leg he swing the limb and kicked with all the fierce that he could the arm that was holding him.
It wasn't enough to break the other's arm, Kotaro knew he was too strong for that, but it was enough to loosen his grip on the boy's throat.
Crouching down and using his smaller size to his advantage, Kotaro avoided a swipe from his opponent and was able to get behind him.
Holding the two plans of his hands opposite each other, similar to in that manga that he loved reading, he amassed as much shadow energy as he could.
"Eat this!" he roared as he unleashed his attack.
An outstretched hand cut through the shadow energy like butter as his assailant was able to turn around in time.
Kotaro barely had time to widen his eyes before said hand plunged into his abdomen with a sickening 'squish'.
"I'd say 'nothing personal kid'," stated the man, a flash of lightning illuminating his face for a second, showing a narrow face, with a wide grin, green/blue markings under his blue eyes and just barely visible under the hood, a mop of messy blue hair. "But I don't like lying to dead men."
Grinding his teeth at the searing pain that he felt, due to the hand piercing his body, Kotaro gave his opponent one of the most hateful glares he'd ever given in his short life. "Fuck...you..."
And without much warning, there was an explosion of shadow energy, enveloping both fighters.
If one were to describe what it felt like to be trapped in those shadow, the easiest description would be akin to being suddenly immersed in water while still standing on dry land.
The shadows themselves weren't very harmful, especially for someone of his calibre, but still it was annoying, so he had to use his fee hand to cover his face.
And during this chaos, he felt what was warped around his other hand, slip away with a noticeable grunt.
He reached out to grab the little brat, but with the large amount of shadow obstructing his vision and dulling his movements, it made it nearly impossible as he just kept grabbing at nothing.
Eventually the shadows dissipated and he found himself standing alone in the alleyway, with blood dripping down his hand.
"Shit," he cursed, scratching his chin.
Still he had nothing to worry about, with that wound the little brat would either bleed out and die like a dog on the street, which he noted was very appropriate, or it'd slow him down enough so the mages could catch him.
Either way the brat would serve as a good distraction.
"When you're dealt a shit hand in life all you can do is either drag on or die," he mussed before he leapt away.
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The pain was unbearable, but he limped on. The wound was definitely serious, but hopefully his hanyo healing capabilities would keep it from killing him.
Provided his partner-sorry, former partner didn't track him down and kill him off course.
Thinking about the backstabbing son of a bitch, made his blood boil. Sure he never liked him to begin with, but they were partners, colleagues, if just for is mission.
He spat out some blood, that had made its way into his mouth. Despite his love for battle, he hated the taste of blood, partly because the coppery taste was horrible, mostly because it reminded him off...
'No! Not here, not now.'
Despite that the memories started folding back to him, almost taking over his vision.
"Kota-kun, dinner's ready~"
The six year old child smiled brightly, and took his seat at the table. "Thank you mommy."
His cloak fell off. He continued to limp on.
"Yum~ Chicken," cheered the child as he started to did in. The mother just smiled fondly.
His shoes came off next. His feet started changing shape, followed by his legs. His pants were already coming loose.
"Don't forget to eat your vegetables."
"Don't wanna."
Tears started to stream down his cheeks. He couldn't stop. He didn't want to stop.
The mother pouted at her child's stubbornness, before an elegant smile decorated her beautiful features. "If you eat them all, I'll give you sweets."
The child perked up and looked at the mother with expectant eyes. "Really?"
"Really"
He was on all fours now, the fur was now nearly completely covering his body.
The mother smiled sweetly and headed to the cupboards.
The child looked at his meal and started to dig in. Closing his eyes in delight.
He limped out of his shirt. The boy was gone.
The child didn't like the taste the food suddenly got, it was like metal.
The child opened his eyes and saw there was some ketchup on the food, but what was confusing was there was a lot on the table.
There was only a puppy, a mutt, a mongrel.
The child looked to his mother to ask what was gong on. He then saw her...
"Mommy?" He choked out.
Giving one last whimper, the animal collapsed. The world was gone. There was only the wet, the thunder, the cold and the dark.
Then.
Finally...
"Ah! It's a puppy!"
There was warmth.
