Chapter 1: The Entrance

Chaos could feel the blood pouring from his shoulder. He knew that, without treatment, he would soon succumb to his wounds and, perhaps, die. At the moment, however, he could feel them closing in around him.

"Damn it," he shouted, "Can't die here! I'm too close!"

A blinding white light illuminated the path ahead. Twenty feet away, his head began to swim.

Fifteen feet, he felt something scrape his leg.

Ten feet, his heart hammered against his bruised and broken ribs.

Five feet, hundreds of pale yellow eyes turned upon him.

Three feet, he began to falter.

Two feet, something was jerking at his tattered coat.

One foot away, he used his good arm to wave off his pursuers.

He flew through the light and felt a cool night breeze caress his cut, bloody face. He stopped a few steps from the doorway of light and fell to his knees in fatigue and agony. As it closed behind him, barring his pursues for the time being, Chaos looked around. His vision was blurred but he could tell he was outside a large building. He faintly heard someone call out to him before he fell over onto the cool grass. Everything was dark; his entire body was now numb. The last thoughts that flowed through his mind were of him cursing his own wretched weakness. His injured shoulder throbbed as what was probably the last bit of his life essence flowed from it like water. He slipped unwillingly into the cold, empty blackness.

Mayu saw him as soon as she and Nana rounded the corner. A young man, no older than Kouta or Yuka, collapsed a few feet away from their front door. Everything that had happened in the past few hours was completely forgotten as both girls ran to his aid.

"Mister, are you alright," Mayu asked, receiving only silence as a response. When she knelt beside him, she realized a pool of warm blood was accumulating around his left shoulder.

"Wait here," she told Nana, her panic level rising.

Inside, Kouta could hear someone calling his name. He cast a concerned look at the semi-conscious Nyu before standing and running toward the source of the commotion. Mayu was standing in the doorway, fear in her eyes. Looking past her, he noticed Mayu's friend, the girl that had attacked Nyu, was crouched down behind her.

"Have you decided to apologise to N-" he broke off, noticing the unconscious person she was trying to rouse.

"He's hurt," Mayu said.

"Let's get him inside."

As Kouta was about to try lifting the boy onto his back, Zero silently ambled outside. With an unexpected ease, he lifted the young man and carried him inside, careful to keep a certain amount of pressure on his grievously wounded shoulder. Mayu readied a bed in the room across the hall from Nyu's while Kouta and Zero removed the boy's heavy black leather coat.

"He still has a faint pulse," Kouta said, "Should we try to get him to a hospital?"

"He might not make it that long," Mayu answered, eying the boy's heavily bleeding shoulder.

Now that his coat was removed, it was obvious that this person had been to hell and back. Burns, scrapes, cuts, and shallow bullet holes peppered his upper body. His hair was singed in places and both of his eyes were bruised and bloody. His nose had also been broken at some point in the recent past. If had been wearing a shirt at some point, the only evidence left of it was a badly torn piece of cloth that hung from around his neck. Zero cut this piece away as Mayu ran to grab water and other medical supplies.

"The best we can do for this is stitch work," Kouta noted, indicating the nearly removed shoulder.

"What happened," Yuka ran in shouting.

"It looks like someone was trying to kill him," Kouta replied, now trying to clean up the young man.

"I can see that but where'd he come from?"

"We found him lying outside," Nana whispered.

There were several minutes of silence broken only by the sounds of bandaging and Yuka's stitching. As she finished and began wrapping the boy's arm, he twitched and his eyes opened slightly. He exhaled sharply and was out of it again.

"I'm going to check on Nyu," Kouta whispered a few minutes later. He stood up and headed across the hall. Yuka cast a dark look at him and shot up. She stormed out, mumbling something incoherent and staring daggers at the door of the room across the hall.

"Did you see anything, Zero," Mayu asked.

He slowly shook his head in his usual manner. He stood up and sauntered out as well leaving Mayu and Nana alone with the mysterious guest.

"Why doesn't he talk," Nana asked.

"He's been that way since I started living here," Mayu replied, "I've tried to ask him, but he only smiles and walks away."

The young man groaned in his sleep.

Author Note: Open for any constructive criticism. I'm putting the other two on hold for this one since, right now anyway, this is literally raping my thoughts and preventing me from working on anything else.