The young man sat up after laying there for half an hour and stared hard at the bare wall ahead of him. Blank, like how he was feeling. His life was hell; he was discriminated for his bright red hair, strange bright green eyes, and how he always lived alone since he was younger. He doesn't know what happened to his family, truly, only knows one moment they were there with their hands outstretched for his and the next is they were a smudge with unhappy, tear tracked faces.

That was six years ago, now he was eighteen. He finally was free of the looks and whispers of his fellow students and teachers. Graduation was yesterday, his diploma filed and stashed away. Hours loomed ahead of him and he felt bored already.

He threw his legs over the side and climbed to his feet. He stretched his arms, legs, and back. "Ah," he sighed as the muscles that were tense from sleeping relaxed. Only in his multicolored boxers, air blew between his legs and he shivered. "I gotta get a heater sometime soon or I'll freeze my balls off."

He walked across the hard, wooden floor to the bathroom. He slammed it shut behind him. Hating his looks from hearing the shit being said about it, he doesn't look at the mirror when he walked in.

The shower was turned on hot. As he waited for it to heat up, he hopped around, trying to crease the goose bumps that spread out on his bare skin. "Damn low rent paying apartment," he muttered as he slipped off his boxers and jumped in the shower.

He did the usual: wash his body, shampoo his hair, and just let the water pound on his face for about ten minutes. When he decided it was time to get out, he turned the water off and slipped a towel around his waist.

Padding across the floor, he stepped out of the steamed bathroom and into the chilly air around the apartment. He quickly rushed over to his drawers and threw on what suited him best for that day: a black headband, a red scarf, a t-shirt that read 'My anger management pisses me off', a black jacket, grey skinny jeans, and boots.

When dressed, he slipped on gloves for the cold weather and stepped outside, locking the door behind himself. The air was frigid and bitter with the taste of pollution. The young man smirked to himself. Why do I live in such a place? I don't belong here.

Feet crunching on the snow, breath visible in front of him, and face already stinging from the cold, he hunched his shoulders as he walked to the convenience store. "Running out of food," he said almost inaudible to himself. "I need stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner or I'd starve to death."

He stopped as he was passing by an alley and saw a black cat and white dog facing each other off. Weirdly mesmerized by the scene, he watched from the entrance of the alley.

The black cat hissed at the dog while the dog was simply curious what the cat was eating. The young man didn't blame the cat, he was currently hungry and he wouldn't let a single person try to steal his food he earned himself. The dog growled in response, showing his sharp canines to the cat. The cat, amazingly, seemed to 'hmpft' at the dog and snatched the food in his mouth and jumped on the dumpster, out of reach of the dog.

The young man laughed heartily at the cat's courageous act and walked away with a small smile playing on his lips. Even a cat has to get by, even if it meant going against a large white dog.

Life is a battle itself, a battle to survive. The weak die and the strong live on with the weak in their mouth. But what if you went against that law, flouting Death, and cheat him with a trick? My, my. He might be angry, that's for sure, he might want revenge and be after your life, but if you keep tricking the other, you'll get away free.

That's how the weak survive in this cold, hard world.

The young man's smile disappeared as he walked in the store. He shook off snow that clung to his jacket and went looking for food that'll last, hopefully, a week. He stopped short when he was halfway done. He doesn't know why, and probably never will, but he was now looking at a small, plastic toy hammer with a small cross on the side. Unable to look away, he took a step closer to it and held it in his hand.

Why do I get the feeling that I want this? It's a toy; I'm eight years too old for toys such as this. But, why can't I help but feel like it's important to me?

He didn't understand, he just threw it in with the rest of his groceries and checked out a little later. The lady gave him a strange look at the toy and he simply raised his eyebrow, like he was saying 'are you going to say something about it or are you going to do your job?'

She shrugged and rung it off with the rest. He paid for the food and toy and left with a scowl on his face. "That chick. She should have more manners."

He walked back home, stopping only for a second to look at that alley way again to see if the animals were still there arguing over the piece of food. When he stepped inside, he shivered in his boots and set down the bags to put away.

Running a hand through his ice cold hair, he popped a grape in his mouth and turned the television on. "What's on today," he said in a singsong voice. "Huh. The news, a soap opera, cartoons, and a crime show. The news it is then."

With the sound of weather reports saying more snow and temperatures dropping ten degrees, he put the food in their proper places. Once done, he grabbed the toy hammer and fell back into the couch across from the television.

He examined it. Nothing special, just plastic painted with black and silver. He can't explain the feeling, though, that it was special. He merely shrugged, unable to find an answer to a rather impossible question, and set it beside himself. His eyes started to droop as the news droned on and on about the weather, a thief, and something new discovered in the ocean.

Soon, he fell asleep.

Just as soon, he woke up with his stomach in his throat.

He was falling and falling into a dark abyss. There was nothing to be seen, smell, nor hear, not even his scream that he knew he was spewing out with a string of curses.

He realized that it was endless and he couldn't do anything about it. He tried calming his racing heart the best he could, he just fell with his arms and legs out.

When will this end? I hope I don't have to descend like this for the rest of my life. That would really suck.

Starting to get bored, he did flips, swam freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and started to act out parts from a movie, even though he couldn't be heard.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" he yelled suddenly, thinking it won't work. His heart nearly went flying out of his chest when he realized he could be heard again. "What the?"

A flash of light blinded him temporarily. He squeezed his eyes shut and just continued to fall. What's going to –

"Argh!" he screamed, this time in pain. Something cut his right eye nearly in half. Just then, still in excruciating pain, he slammed on something round and hard, knocking the breath out of him. He flipped in the air and ran into other round and hard objects.

Then landed on his face on a rather soft ground. Pain reverberated throughout his body. Breathing hurts, moving a tiny muscle hurts, the right side of his face hurts, hell, his entire body hurts!

"Che," a voice said in disdain. "Who's the dumbass that fell out of the sky and landed on too many branches on the way down?"

Hurting too much to say anything, he simply glared at the person mentally in his mind.

"And what's this?" the young man heard footsteps besides his head, the sound of grass being crushed. "Why do you have a toy like so with you? That's so pathetic."

He didn't know what the guy was talking about but he tried to talk. "H-Hel-Help, ple-please."

There was silence. Then, "No."

Gah! Could you have said it any more bluntly?! And didn't you just say I fell out of the sky?!

"W-Why not?" he asked.

"Because it's too much a hassle and I don't want to get your blood all over my clothes."

The hell?

The young man growled as best as he could, but it just sounded pitiful. "Wh-what's your name?"

Silence again. "How do I know you're not one of the Earl's evil henchmen? Because only that dumbass's idiot of henchmen would have fallen out of the sky like a retarded buffoon."

This guy is very rude . . .

"I have no idea who this 'Earl' is nor do I know where I am."

"Do you know what Innocence is?"

"Eh? Innocence?"

"Yeah. Innocence. It comes from a different realm, but it's very powerful at dealing with the Earl's evil doings."

"Nope."

"You really are an idiot. But you seem like you really don't know what I'm talking –"

"Ba-Kanda!" a loud voice rang through the young man's already pounding head.

"Che. MOYASHI!" the young man guessed the guy's name was Kanda. The person whoever addressed him called him an idiot. While Kanda in reply called him bean sprout. He doubts that's the real boy's name, but never know.

"It's Allen!" the voice replied.

"I don't acknowledge nor like you. You are simply moyashi."

A growl, a real growl, came from where the boy's (Allen's?) voice was coming from. "Are you wanting to pick a fight? Anyhow, I was searching for you. Komui and Lenalee asked to see you and your – woah! What happened to him?"

Kanda replied, "He fell through the sky, screaming like an idiot. Now he won't get up and even asked for my help."

"Why didn't you help him?"

"Because he could be part of the Earl's spies."

Allen (?) laughed. "No. He's definitely not. Look at that hammer next to him, it's definitely Innocence. We're taking him in."

"Che. Whatever. You're carrying him then."

"Fine."

Something grabbed a hold of the young man's arm and he grinded his teeth together not to scream again. His arm was thrown around lean shoulders. Weakly, the young man opened his left eye and stared at the boy who was willing to help him. "W-What are you?"

The boy turned to look at the young man. "What do you mean 'what are you'? Isn't it obvious?"

No dip Sherlock. I was just surprised to see a boy with big white ears, a red mark on his left eye, big grey eyes, and a baby-looking face.

The boy smiled. "Never been here? Not a surprise. It happens from time to time. My name is Allen Walker, a dog hybrid. The guy who found you earlier was Yuu Kanda, a cat hybrid. But don't mind him; he's just in a cranky mood from just returning from a mission that our organization told him to do."

"But you know," he said curiously. "You don't seem that different from us. What's your name?"

The young man wondered what he meant by 'don't seem that different' but didn't ask. "Lavi, just Lavi."

"Lavi, huh? Well a pleasure to meet you," he smiled sweetly before looking ahead to see where he was going. "Well, we'll get you patched up here soon, but I doubt we can save the eye. It looks pretty much ruined."

Great. A hybrid dog and a hybrid cat; now the possible chance of losing my eye. What could be even worse? Hahaha.