"Come out, come out, wherever you are…!" Holding our breaths, we watched as Dolsen's footsteps receded. We exhaled deeply... "Found you!" He screamed, popping his head in front of ours.

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Raverunt High School had always seemed to be one of the most ordinary high schools that ever existed. There were ordinary students, ordinary boring classrooms, ordinary… everything. Raverunt had seemed normal, but that had all changed in the blink of an eye.

It started with the earthquake. It wasn't too massive, but it still shook all of Clandestine. Then, things got weirder. A storm had begun to appear over the town, and lightning appeared soon after. This storm wasn't like any other, as it seemed to appear over a certain area deep in the woods. The wind howled, and the lightning continued to strike down trees and large plants.

Then, almost as soon as it had begun, it stopped. Dead silence fell over the town. The citizens had come out of their homes, walking around desperately trying to figure out what had happened. They failed to notice a dark figure, lurking behind the forest trees. It watched the people run about, asking each other for any information about the storm, then slunk back into the darkness of the trees. None of the citizens would see the portal forming deep in the forest… and no one would be able to predict what would happen to their precious town later in the future.

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3 weeks later

"Hey, Zara! Wait up!" A young teenager ran through the hall, dodging other students to get to one of his classmates. Connor Dane was one of the many students in Raverunt High. At age 15, he was well-known around the school to be arrogant, but also pretty popular. He jumped over a deserted pile of books to finally reach his... friend. Zara Pent was a stubborn, haughty person, but was also known as one of the most popular girls in Raverunt. She was your basic 'perfect poster girl', one that you'd see in a magazine or in cliche stories. Zara frowned at him, "What do you want?"

"Did you hear about that storm on T.V.?" Connor asked, slightly out of breath from running.

"Of course I did. That was nearly three weeks ago, everyone knows about it."

"What?! I just found out!" He threw his hands in the air, indignantly, "Why am I always the last person to hear about these things?"

Zara glared at him, then turned and walked to class. "It's probably because you're always so busy with your stupid sport activities," She called over her shoulder. Connor opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it. She had a point.

"Hey- wait for me!" He called after her.

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"Good morning, everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend," Mr. Raymonds, Connor and Zara's homeroom and social studies teacher, greeted the class as he walked into the room. "If you didn't, then that really sucks for you. Now, I have an announcement, there will be two new students joining Raverunt today." He leaned out the door and whispered something, "I'm terribly sorry, but your profile didn't have much information about you. What are your last names again?"

Connor and Zara exchanged a look. New students? It was almost the end of the first semester- why would there be students joining now? Besides, Mr. Raymonds didn't even know their last names? What was going on?

"... are you sure you don't want to mention your last name? All right then, come on in," he stepped back in the room, and this time, he was accompanied by two other students.

They looked about sixteen and they both looked extremely similar- probably twins. The only way you could tell the difference would be the length of their hair. And the color of their eyes; the boy had a light shade of green while the girl had a darker hue. The boy was also carrying a small satchel that didn't look large enough to hold any books.

"Hi..." They said in unison, and waved at the class with dull expressions.

"Their names are Dana," Mr. Raymonds pointed to the twin with short hair, "And Dara," he pointed to the twin with long hair. "They will be joining this homeroom starting today. Dana, your seat will be next to the window over there. Dara, your seat is next to Sam." Before the twins sat down, Dara walked up to Mr. Raymonds and whispered something to him.

A minute later, Mr. Raymonds nodded as Dana took his seat, "One last announcement, today is the last time you will see Dara and Dana at the school together. Apparently, they have a type of… leadership camp that is held every two weeks. I don't know the details, so if you want, you can ask them yourselves."

Sam waved his hand, and Dara slowly walked towards the seat. She studied Sam for a while, then sat down. Sam gave a "what-the-heck?" look to his friend, Eren, who just shrugged in response.

"Anyways, get out your textbooks and turn to page three-hundred thirty seven. We'll be learning about mythical creatures and their whereabouts."

The students all grabbed their books and started flipping through pages- all except for the twins. Dana just stared out the window. He seemed to be... looking for something. Dara was looking around the classroom, as if studying the students and the school. Connor nudged Zara, "Is it just me, or do the new kids seem really... weird."

Zara pushed his elbow away, "Don't touch me," She looked over at the twins, "... and saying that they're 'weird' is an understatement." She then proceeded to ignore Connor.

"... Fine Ms. Grumpy-Pants," Connor mumbled. He took one more glance at the twins, then turned his focus on the lesson.

"... and so, that's why Night Furies are the most supreme of all the dragons. Now, turn to the next page. We'll be studying the 'Okami Amaterasu'," Mr. Raymonds instructed.

As soon as he finished his sentence, Dara whipped her head around to stare at the teacher, "... Okamis?" she asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Mr. Raymonds replied, "Please open your textbooks, you two. Then you can follow along," The twins looked at each other reluctantly, but opened their books.

"There's something not right with those two. Why does Dana keep looking out the window? Does he expect something to jump at him? And what's in his bag? It's too small to be carrying books... also, did you see the way Dara looked at Sam? It's like she didn't trust him or something. She just met him! How can she-"

"Connor!" Zara hissed, "Shut. Up. No one cares about those stupid twins, so just stop asking questions! We'll deal with it later."

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After Class

Zara and Connor walked up to Dara and Dana soon after class ended, "Hey, so what's your deal here?" Zara asked rudely, "What's that camp thing Mr. Raymonds was talking about?"

"I thought you were the one that said to not ask questio- OW! That hurt!" Connor mumbled, as Zara elbowed him in his side.

Dara spoke up, "Well, we have a type of academic leadership camp that's held every two weeks. But unfortunately for us, it's a 'girl only' and 'boy only' camp. It's from the same organization, but held different weeks so that both genders are kept separate. Since both of us were accepted, we can't see each other in the camps because of our different genders." Dana nodded, casting his sister a look. She nodded in response and immediately, they both took off for their next period.

Zara looked at Connor, confused and frustrated. Connor shrugged and replied, "So, I guess one will be here at school for one week and the other one will be in the camp. Then vice versa... I think..."

Zara rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I don't care if they go to some stupid prestigious leadership camp. But if they think they can step into my territory, they've got another thing coming. I mean look! They've already got more attention than me and that mysterious storm combined, in less than a day!"

Connor made a face, "You can be awfully full of yourself sometimes," he commented.

Zara glared at him, "So what? You can be, too."

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Throughout the day, the twins continued their strange behavior. For some reason, Dana always had the seat by the window. At the same time, Dara would always have the seat that had a good view of all the students. The twins also had all the same classes together. It was as if they had hacked into the school system, and rescheduled their classes for their own personal use. During lunch, they sat at the same table in the corner of the room, and whispered to each other secretly, looking around cautiously at the other students.

Zara was growing more and more frustrated as the day went by, "They're hiding something. I just know they are," She got up from the lunch table and dumped her food tray into the trash.

"Where are you going?" Connor asked, still eating his sandwich.

"C'mon," Zara turned and motioned him to follow, "We're going to follow them after school today. I'm going to find out exactly what those two are up to."

She moved towards them, attempting to follow the twins, and bumped into a girl who was carrying her lunch. Spinning around, Zara snapped, "Watch it!"

"Cool your jets, you were the one who bumped into me!" The girl glared.

"Who. Do you think. You are."

"My name. Is. Alexandra. Zarola."

"Listen here, you little-"

"OKAY, that's enough," Connor had gotten up from the table and pulled Zara away before she could start World War lll with the now infuriated girl. He faced Zara, "You need to stop picking fights with random people," He turned to Alexandra, "And you shouldn't be so rude to Zara. Learn some manners- geez."

Alexandra looked at him incredulously, "Uh, look who's talking," she glared, and left them glowering at her back.

"... I was this close to murdering her."

"And I was this close to watching you get arrested. Come on, let's go follow those twins."

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After School

"UGH! They disappeared!" Zara groaned, as the two of them rounded the corner, "That's like, impossible!"

"Huh... they are pretty fast. It's as if they were trying to lose us. That's really- who's that." Connor interrupted himself as he saw a dark figure rush past them behind the school.

"What's what?"

"C'mon, I wanna see what that was!" Connor grabbed Zara's arm and chased after the figure.

"Let go of me! I told you not to touch me!" Zara screeched, trying to claw Connor's hands off her.

They stopped when they saw the figure standing in front of a tree. It was dressed in all black, kind of like a ninja suit, and it looked like it was about their height. Next to the figure was a small creature, it looked like... a wolf?!

"W-what?!" Zara cried out. "That's a wild animal! It can't be here! YOU can't be here! Who are you?! You're not a student!"

The figure whipped its head around, surprised. It wore a mask that covered its face, showing nothing but its green eyes. It froze when it saw them. "... What are you doing?" It asked. It's voice sounded slightly feminine, but it seemed too deep to be a girl's voice.

"That's what we'd like to know about you!" Connor retorted. The small wolf growled slightly at the two, but stopped and perked it's ears. "... What is it?" The figure asked the animal. The wolf turned and growled at the tree.

"Hey, are you listening? You can't be he-" Connor was cut off as he was suddenly thrown back by what looked to be... a fireball? He coughed in surprise.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Zara screamed as another figure jumped down from the tree. This time, the figure was clearly a male human. The 'man' had spiky orange-ish hair, with red tips. He had a ripped, black t-shirt with gray pants and big, black combat boots. The most prominent feature about him was his tattoos. They covered his arms entirely, and were in the shape of flames. The weirdest thing though, was that they looked like they were actually glowing. The 'man's' aura literally screamed dangerous as he landed with a hard thud on the ground. As he got up, there were apparent scorch marks on the grass he was on. He glared at the motionless figure and it's wolf, who was snarling like crazy.

"Katana. Permission to attack?" A boy's voice echoed in Zara and Connor's head. 'What the heck…?' They thought simultaneously.

"Not yet," the ninja figure replied, "He does seem to be from the portal, but he doesn't seem to be one of them."

The 'man' scowled at them, and pointed at the ninja figure. "You. You're the one who's killing them all. I'll kill you!" He yelled, and suddenly, his tattoos and arms flared up.

"DUDE!" Connor screamed, horrified, "You're on freaking fire!"

The 'man' turned his attention towards Connor, then threw another fireball at him, sending him flying back and hitting a wall. He turned to Zara, but his flaming arm was grabbed by the other figure. The man snapped his head around, his scowl growing even more cruel. The fire on his arm was raging, but Katana wouldn't let go.

"That's enough. You will not hurt them. Your battle is with me, not them," Katana commanded.

The 'man' roared in rage, which set his arms even more ablaze. The wolf launched forward and bit one of his flaming arms, causing the flames to diminish slightly.

Immediately, Katana took that moment to side kick the 'man', leading him to crash to the ground with a grunt.

Katana faced Zara, sighing heavily, "Sorry..." Producing a small pouch from the suit, Katana took a bit of the contents inside and blew it towards Zara. Zara looked confused and was growing agitated before she fell to the ground, unconscious. Katana placed the pouch back into the suit.

"ARGH! You're gonna pay for that!" This thing was clearly not human.

"Before that, what and who are you? I see that you somehow know me." Katana replied emotionlessly.

The 'man' snarled, "You fight well, Katana the Demon Slayer. But this is where you meet your end."

Katana scoffed, "I've heard that before, demon."

The 'man' blinked, confused, "... Demon?!" It glared, "How dare you. For that, I'll make sure you'll suffer!"

"I doubt that… Your end will be swift, now die foul beast!" Katana lunged forward quickly grabbing the katana dangling unsheathed form the suit. Pulling it out, Katana chanted, 'By the land of the living and the souls of the dead, let the Heavens place judgment on this fateful day and cast all evil from this world! Let the stars align and bring me strength, for I call forth the holy name, Parish!'

Instantly, a pillar of light furiously swept down towards the katana. The sword radiated an eerie glow as the light engulfed it. Soon fading away, it left Katana wielding a glowing sword high up in the air and towards the man. Looking shaken, he attempted to recompose himself and put up a defensive form.

"I suggest that you leave now. This will be the only time I will permit a leave in my sight. Tell your friends. Tell all of them, I'm coming, and I'm hunting every. Last. One of them."

Kiko growled at the man, and he glared back. "I'll be back- I'll DEFINITELY be back!" He scowled, and ran off. Katana breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed the still ominous glowing sword.

Kiko walked beside Zara and Connor, "What did you do to them? Will they be all right?"

Katana nodded, "Enhanced ketamine powder, effective on large beasts, but also humans. Just a pinch can knock down an elephant. And this enhanced state nullifies most of the major side-effects caused when it's in its original form. The most they'll get is probably a headache." Kiko nodded his head, making a short affirmative sound, and left to see if there were any other creatures lurking around the school. Katana looked at the two unconscious figures on the ground, 'What really worries me is what they saw. Humans must not know the truth, it would be catastrophic.'

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"Ugh... my head... it's killing me..." Connor groaned as he sat up. "... Where am I? What...-?" Suddenly, flashbacks of the mysterious people and the wolf appeared in his head, and he snapped fully awake. "ZARA!"

"Keep it down!" Zara snapped from across the room. It seemed as though they were in the school infirmary. "My head is absolutely killing me."

"Was that... did that just..." Connor stuttered, trying to find the words.

"Yeah... I remember it too." Zara replied, still irritated..

"Who were they-" Connor was interrupted as the door flew open, and the nurse barged in.

"Oh, thank God! We thought you might 'ave sleep forever!" She attempted to joke.

"..."

"..."

"Anyways, it seems like both you were attacked by burglar of some type or something... Why ya have scorch marks on your shirt, dear?" She asked Connor.

Connor then instantly launched right into his explanation, "We were attacked by this man with flaming arm tattoos, and this ninja and his telepathic wolf fought him, and he threw fireballs at me, knocking me out- and probably Zara too- and before you know it, I'm here!"

Zara facepalmed, and the nurse stared at him as if he had grown another head, "... I think your head has gone to sleep, you need more rest, dear. I've contacted your parents, they pick you up soon, ja." With that, the nurse ran out of the room, muttering about some physical therapy for Connor..

"... You idiot... Did you actually think she'd believe you?!" Zara snapped.

"Uh..." Connor attempted to reply.

"Nevermind. We need to focus on what the heck just happened. You can NOT tell this to anyone else, you hear me? They'll send you to a mental asylum if you do."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I guess we'll talk about it later then..." Connor murmured as he saw his parents at the door.

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Later that Night

Katana and Kiko quickly navigated their way agilely above the city's rooftops, looking down into the bustling streets. Then, they saw it, a big, ugly sluggish looking blob in the alleyway. It grabbed a dumpster and shoved it down it's grotesque mouth, gulping it down whole. It gave an unsatisfied grunt and moved on. Katana gave a simple nod to Kiko and raced after the monster. When they were near enough to it, Katana jumped off the roof and gently landed in front of the beast. The creature gave a surprised cry and tried turning back. It stopped when it saw Kiko confronting it. The beast gave a snarl before turning and lunging at Katana, it scratched their arm slightly, but was deep enough to draw blood.

Dodging swiftly before it could attack for another time, Katana unsheathed the sword again, engulfing the alleyway with a holy light, "I'll make this quick, send my regards to Dolsen for me." Katana plunged the sword deep into the blob monster, it opened its mouth to shriek, but nothing came out. The monster lit up from the inside burning until it soon burst and broke into tiny glass-like fractures of itself, disintegrating slowly into nothingness.

As the particles floated away, a small light appeared, and slowly enlarged into a strange symbol. It looked like two circles combined- the left side glowed a faint blue, and the right side glowed a faint green. Blood dripped from Katana's arm and onto the dirty pavement, Katana winced.

Kiko licked his paw and looked up at Katana, "Hey, you okay?' Kiko looked worriedly at the gash, Katana nodded. 'You've also not been very talkative since that battle with that fire guy."

Katana looked down at Kiko, patting him affectionately, "I'm fine bud, come on. We gotta get goin' if we're gonna clear all those other creatures by midnight." Kiko made a little yip before following after Katana. It was going to be a long night.