Chapter 1: Wandering Trio

Gen remembered being happy and accepting his fate, he felt his soul leaving his body but something had kept him there, something had lured him in and he'd been following it for 2 days, just floating towards it, aimlessly. 30 minutes later he detected something, a presence, not one to powerful but he still found something about it...intriguing. Then he saw the face, the grinning face of a teenage boy, only 2 or 3 years older than him by the look of it. The boy started to speak, "ah, my experiment worked!" He proclaimed, laughing a bit "fantastic, now if this part works I'll be able to acquire more helpers." The boy pulled a package out, it was mostly biscuit colored with a patch of brown. "What is that?" Gen asked trying to pull away from the kid, but unable to. "It's going to be you," the strange boy replied, "how?" Gen asked, extremely confused, "oh, you'll see," he said. He unfolded the package and Gen saw it looked exactly like him. What the? He thought, what's with this creep? The boy tapped the suit's 'heart' and Gen was suddenly getting dragged towards, he struggled against it, but for some reason it was too strong for him, when he was right in front of it everything went black. He woke up and felt a something strange but familiar, he looked down and saw his legs were no longer wisps. He got up and looked around the room and immediately saw the boy again, glancing at him while jotting down notes. "What did you do to me?!" Gen shouted, the boy blinked and said "I've given you an artificial skin," Gen was shocked and recoiled at this statement. The boy smirked "call me professor or Curtis," "I never asked for your name," Gen said. "I know, but you'll but seeing me for a while," Curtis said "and I don't want you to refer to me as 'kid' or anything like that." "Who said I wanted to see or be near you?" Gen asked "you have no choice in the matter," the Curtis said "I'm putting you and two other people together in a team, so expect company shortly," Curtis walked out of the room and Gen sat there dumbstruck, how come he couldn't leave? He wanted to just escape and go to wherever he was headed. But this kid was keeping him from doing leaving and it frustrated him, but he was determined to do it. Gen looked at his hands, and he thought about his ayakashi powers, were they gone? He concentrated and his hands transformed into dark claws, it was still with him, why? He wondered. I can worry about that later, he thought to himself, for now his focus should be on escaping, Gen raised his claw, and struck the wall.

Kodaka ran towards the scent in the woods and concentrated, what is it this time? Kodaka thought to himself as he ran along the trail. Hopefully not anything powerful, he thought, he wasn't the rightful heir in his family, and all he could do was take out the minor ayakashi, it was a painful truth that he'd hated for years, his older sister Tanaka had the, 'oh so important' hoin mark on her neck, signaling the rightful heir. He'd never had the power or respect that she had. He was pulled from his thoughts by a loud crack, he looked up and saw a tree collapsing, his eyed opened wide and he scanned the monster's power, it was higher than he could handle, that, he was sure of. Crap, Tanaka's all the way across the field, "guess I'll have to do for now," he muttered to himself. He breathed in and shouted in the direction the tree fell. "Hey! Whatever you are come out here and fight me like a man!" he ordered. Kodaka saw an enormous shadow turn towards him, it looked him up and down and smiled ear to ear, "oh lunch," the creature said, it had a gruff voice, and was at least 20 feet tall, its enormous body covered in crystals, some blue others green tipped with black, "come and feel my wrath!" it shouted, ecstatic at its new find. "Who are you?" Kodaka shouted, "I am Cymas the golem," the creature replied "although I don't know why a dead men needs to know anything," he looked down at Kodaka with a condescending smile. This things to powerful for me to use my special technique on it, Kodaka thought, I'll have to rely on my Kekkai. He raised his hand and shouted "hoi, joso, ketsu," A large Kekkai appeared around the golem. "Metsu!" the block collapsed, tearing a chunk out of the golem, "hahaha!" the Golem bellowed you think you can take me down with a pathetic Kekkai like that!" he raised a fist and shot out barbs of precious gems at him. Kodaka raised a Kekkai in front of and around him, the barbs went through the 1st Kekkai and got stuck in the 2nd one. "Kodaka!" someone yelled, he turned and saw his sister Tanaka, her blonde hair swishing behind her, "about time!" he yelled, he saw her eyes widened with fear and he stared at her confused, what's wrong? He thought to himself, he had a sudden flash of pain and turned to see shards of crystals sticking out of his stomach and arm. He looked at Cymas and saw the blood flowing out of his wounds, his sister released a primal scream and the golem was covered in multiple Kekkais' then disintegrated along with the boxes. He fell to the ground and his Kekkai disappeared, his sister rushed over and picked his body up, "no don't leave me, stay awake, Kodaka!" His eyelids felt heavy and he began to close them. "No! Do NOT close on me! Do you hear me? Kodaka please!" Kodaka's eyes closed and everything went black.

Kodaka's spirit floated out of his body and he looked at Tanaka with guilt, she was hysterically crying and hugging his body, Kodaka was going to try to comfort her when he felt a mysterious tugging pulling his spirit away. What? What's going on? Kodaka thought, he was whisked away by the pulling gaining speed as the world whooshed past him. He suddenly stopped and saw a boy staring at him, intrigued, "good, so my powers are working," he said, he unfurled a large suit, it was tanned, with a tangle of jet black hair that looked sort of like a bird's nest, he recoiled when he thought of how it looked him. The boy smiled and said "it frightens you, doesn't it?" "That this looks like you, well guess what my friend, it is, or, it will be." "What are you talking about?" Kodaka said "how's it going to be me?" the boy smiled and said "you'll see," he said as he pushed it onto Kodaka, and once again, the world went black.

Yuki had been sitting down, enjoying a relatively peaceful day, swinging her legs on her patio, the one ayakashi that would listen to her, Dune, stood next to her purring like a cat in the peace and quiet. She looked at her little friend and examined him in his state of serenity, his white cloak covering all of his body except his eye, which glowed neon blue, she'd never seen his face before and wondered why he always wore the cloak. "Hey Yuki?" Dune said, snapping her out of her state of thought, "yes Dune?" she asked, wondering what could be on his mind because he never usually spoke. "Why did you choose me?" He asked, turning his head to her, Yuki had never thought of it before. "Out of all the big strong monsters you could've chosen, why me?" He asked, Yuki pursed her lips, then replied "I know this is going to sound cheesy or something but I could just tell there was something special about you," she looked over to Dune who blinked rapidly while turning away, as if holding back tears before adding "and to me you're stronger than any of them," he turned back to her his one eye wide in surprise "you really think so?" He asked with excitement and hopefulness in his voice. Yuki was about to reply when Dune's head flicked sideways and a low growl started to emit from his throat "Where is it?" Yuki asked knowing very well what that meant, an invading ayakashi. Dune jumped on Yuki's shoulder they mentally linked and she bolted to their destination.

Yuki stopped at an empty street and was confused, Dune's senses said it should be here, "Dune, are you sure this is the place?" She asked, looking around, she felt him tug on her shoulder. She turned and saw it, wow, she thought, that's kind of big." The thing was a brick-ish color with multiple 'panes of glasses on the front and back, its arms were thick pillars of bricks and it had legs that were similar to tree trunks, she remembered looking at it with a passing glance, "Dune, soldier mode!" Yuki yelled, he jumped off her shoulder and grew to about 10 feet with pulsing lines running along his body, he looked like a super soldier of some kind, and the ayakashi turned towards them while cocking its head in a childlike expression of curiosity. It lashed out towards them both; Dune grabbed Yuki and leapt above the beast's arm, landing on it and dashing towards its face, the monster roared at them and flailed its arm, Yuki and Dune were launched away, he turned around and kicked off a building, flying towards the ayakashi, his eyes glowing, in their synchronized state Yuki saw a red spot glowing in the center of the beast, Dune flew towards it, fist out, ready to punch through it. As he punched straight through the ayakashi it bellowed in a rage, it grabbed Dune and flung him towards a nearby building, as he made contact with the corner Yuki was released from his grip, she rocket away from him, directly into a concrete building, Yuki had been able to tell she wasn't going to make it, and the first as well as last thought she had was, he's never going to know if I told the truth about why I chose him, then she made contact with the building and her neck snapped, instantly killing her.

Yuki's eyes snapped open, why am I alive? She thought, I remember everything going black as I smashed full force into a building, so… what's going on? "Oh good, you're awake, a voice said," she looked over her shoulder at a peculiar kid with white hair and this unsettling smile, "who're you?" She asked looking around the room while waiting for an answer "the name's Curtis but I hope you'll call me professor." She turned her body towards him, and he turned quickly away "what's wrong?" Yuki asked, confused. "You're naked," he said, what?! She thought, I don't remember doing that, she thought, panicking. "Let me explain," Curtis started, "when you died I had been prepared for it to happen and pulled your spirit over here after which I put a painfully detailed skin that absorbs the corresponding person's spirit, effectively giving you a 'second chance' so to speak," he explained, Yuki's eyes bugged out of their sockets, "where are some clothes?" she asked quietly, "in the box next to the door," he said "I'll look away." After putting the close in the box on Yuki turned towards him and grabbed him by the collar, "were you peeking at me?!" she shouted, he looked scared, "what no! I just told you I wou-" Curtis was cut off by Yuki "I don't mean now," she said, like it was the most obvious thing, " I mean before I died!" Curtis's eyes widened with realization at where she got the idea "no! The fake skin when applying itself to the wearer sort of looks into their memories I guess then copies and applies the private details like bust and all that other stuff on its own," Yuki looked pleased with the answer and dropped Curtis to the floor where he silently thanked whatever God was out there. "Hey!" Two voices shouted simultaneously "is that another person?" They asked followed by footsteps, "yes, this is your new teammate!" Curtis shouted to whoever was out there and moments later Yuki saw that there were two other boys, one that more so speed walking than running, the other was running like his life depended on it, they both stopped outside the doorway and Yuki got a good look at them, one was on the lighter side with spiky brown hair, narrow, brown eyes and a calm face, while the other was tanned with curly black hair and pitch black eyes that a childlike sparkle to them, all guys? Yuki thought, being in the exact situation her mom had told her not to be in. "These are your new teammates," Curtis said with a bright smile on his face "Gen and Kodaka," he said pointing to the spiky haired one and then the curly one, "guys, this is Yuki," he said introducing her to them with a wave of his hand. Kodaka's face lit up, looking up and down her pale features, he had a sort of unsettling grin on his face, as if he was thinking things she didn't want to know. Gen had a more bored expression as if he really couldn't care. Oh god, Yuki thought I wonder if I'm going to live through this, she thought, relatively speaking.

A/N – There you have it, the first chapter of a new adventure, sorry if it sort got boring, hopefully it'll get better. In the next chapter the real main character gets introduced. Hope you guys look forward to it if you're reading this.