Hello Everyone, Reader Here. Hopefully my posting rate will go up, as I am currently going over all of my stories that I have written, both posted to this site and those that have been either archived in my my computer, computer or in the docs manager of this site. I have many story ideas for a broad range of games, anime and others. And hopefully over time I will be able to upload them all to this site, though time will tell if that is true or not. This particular story was one of those archived ones that have been siting around for a while now, so I decided to finish it and upload it. Well thanks for reading, and Enjoy!
(P.S To those who read Night Until Dawn, it will be updated...soon...just want to work on other stories before I get back to that one. Thanks for for understanding...)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MAHOUKA KOUKOU NO RETTOUSEI, IT BELONGS TO ITS RESPECTIVE OWNER!
Chapter 1: A Price To Pay
It was a calm winter evening in the metropolis of Tokyo. The streets, now looked as if a barren wasteland of snow, the only marking of humans would be the footprints they had left. Most of the decent folk had returned to the safety of their homes, away from the watchful eyes of criminals that stalked the streets during the dark hours.
A light snow began to fall adding to the already growing piles around the city. The gentle snowflakes danced though the sky as the flew about until reaching the ground.
It was oddly quiet, as if you could drop a pin and could hear it from miles around. If one would look at this it would seem like a winter wonderland straight out of a childs story book or show. The city itself seemed to be completely at peace.
*CRUNCH* *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH*
The sound of boots crushing the snow into the shape of its sole broke this silence. A poorly dressed figure came out of an alleyway and walked onto the street.
The figure wore a worn out pair of work boots that seem to be falling apart, along with a ripped pair of khakis, a white T-Shit and a worn out trench coat, with a ripped beanie on his head that was pulled over its eyes. The hands, boots and exposed skin of said person were covered in some sort of dirty medical tape. Dried blood could be seen around the figures left knee.
The person held their arms close to their chest, trying to conserve what body heat they had left. The person grunted as a wave of stomach pains due to hunger and pain gripped the person, a loud growl could be heard.
The figure shook its head as it continued on. For what seemed like hours, the figure made its way to its destination. A wind carried a piece of paper that flew towards the person grabbed the newspaper that flew by its head with in-human reflex, and proceeded to skim over it.
The title of the newspaper read ' Minister of Justice Akita Nakahara Re-Elected To Position: Report Shows That Crime Is At An All Time Low... ' the figure snorted. It crumpled up the paper and shoved it down his clothes to add to what barrier he had between itself and the cold.
Finally, the person turned into an alleyway and walked towards a small fire that was light in a trash can, with a makeshift home made up of trash, pieces of scrap metal and other types of materials.
"Home, sweet home..." the person said muttered sarcastically in a deep voice. From the tone of the voice, the figure was likely male in his mid or late teenage years.
He made his way towards the box and entered it. It was little, but it was the best protection he had agaisnt the cold when he would go to bed. He looked over and saw a person sleeping soundly in a blanket. It was a girl of young age.
The girl had a beautiful face with long midnight black hair that went down her back. Her body was covered in tattered clothing similar to the male.
He let off a small smile under the medical tape that covered his face at the sight of the person he cared most for in, and slowly walked towards said person.
The girl awoke with a stir, cutely yawning as she raised her head. She opened her eyes revealing her violet irises that added to her beauty. The girl raised her hands as she rubbed her eyes in order to get a better look at the figure in front of her.
Realizing who it was, she gave the person a soft smile.
"Onii-Sama..." she softly whispered as he walked towards her. He pulled down his medical tap, showing his face.
He had scars that criss-crossed across his face, along with wrinkles that made him appear older than he is. He, like his sister, had midnight black hair although his was shorter and more messy.
But, the most perpetuating feature of the boy was his eyes. His eyes, much like his hair, was midnight black, barely being able to tell the faint white of the pupil. Looking into his eyes, it was like staring into an abyss of nothing, showing no emotion at all. These eyes were the eyes of a stone cold criminal, yet those of an adoring brother filled with love and determination of a
The two seemed to opposites in every way, shape and or form. One was a beautiful girl that gave off an impression of a innocent princess. But the other, gave off an impression of a battle tested warlock. But these two, much like opposite ends of a magnet, were attracted to each other in a strange but familiar way.
"Hey Yukiko..." he said as he laid down next to her. She positioned her small frame on top of him and rested her head against his chest with a smile plastered on her face. In response he wrapped his arms around her stomach, pulling her close to him. Although they were living in a literal garbage heap, the two were able to
His dark eyes rested his gaze towards the top of the box. His mind began to wander to what had transpired just 5 hours ago...
5 Hours Earlier
The boy walked down the maze of alleyways that dotted the lower wards of the city, walking past the multiple homeless that crowded the alleys. Due to the recent collapse of the japanese economy, many people were left penniless and without homes. Homeless wandered the streets panhandling what was left of the middle and high classes of society.
Tag on mass corruption within the government, led to a massive wave of crime to wash over japanese cities like a monsoon. The minister of justice, along with many police commisiners took bribes from the Yakuza in order to keep their operations "off the radar". Rape, murder, and robbery became the norm within the capital.
Ask any of the homeless on who to blame for this madness, their response would exactly the same.
The Ten Master Clans.
The group was created in order to supervise the magical community within Japan, and acted as the main magical branch of the Japanese Army. Wielding this power, they flaunted their wealth by buying expensive homes, cars, food while the poor starved in the street.
Also, it as well know they participated in illegal activities such as bribery, drug trafficing, assassination, extortion. The list could go on forever.
With these injustices being committed, Poverty and corruption, Japan was a brewing powder keg for revolution. It was just a matter of who would light said spark, and when the keg would blow.
The boy that was currently walking through the back ways of Tokyo was Tatsuya Sakura, a "nobody" homeless child along with his sister, Yukiko. The two had been abandoned when they were around 3, and it left Tatsuya to take care of Yukiko. He earned money by scraping things he found in the trash cans and garbage disposals of houses and businesses around Tokyo and selling them on the black market.
He was heading to a local junkyard to see if he could find any electronics to scrap. The rich were known to be wasteful, often throwing away valuable items. The old saying goes, "One mans trash, is another man's treasure".
Tatsyua continued down the alleyways until he reached the junk yard after a hour of walking. The dark haired boy cringed at the smell of rotting food and rusting parts as they permeated his nostrils. He climbed the nearby tree and jumped over the barbed wire fence.
He went into a crouching pose and began to move the heaps of garbage, looking for anything of value. Junkyards like the one he currently was in were gaurded, attempting to stop what he was doing now.
Though the most guards were armed with very little, either only a shock baton and or a light pistol. Both he could deal with without to much efforty.
'Nope...Nope...Nope...' He said mentally said as he sorted through the filth. It was not certain that he would find anything. Out of the corner of his eye a flag displayed itself. It was the flag with a circle in the center, with a series of three smaller circles that made a triangle. That flag was of the Fukijawa clan, on of the 20 vassal clans towards Saegusa Clan.
Vassal clans were clans that were smaller than the main 10 master clans and the 21 extra clans, but we're still powerful in their own types of specialized magics. Although technically all magic clans in Japan, no matter how small or large, swore loyalty to the ten masters clan itself, and the 10 masters clan swore loyalty to Japan. But many of these smaller clans swore their loyalty towards the larger clans for monetary gain, power, or even to sustain the clan itself if it was declining power or people. Though smaller clans independent of the more powerful clans did exist, it was very uncommon in this brutal and unforgiving world.
He turned his attention back to scavenging.
After 30 minutes of searching, he only had a couple of scrap pieces of computers to show for his hard effort. Those parts would barely be able to pay to feed one person, let alone two. He had given up all hope on finding something of value.
That was until he removed some trash and eyed something shiny that was mixed within the dirt and garbage.
"What the..." he reached for the object. He ripped the object from the ground, showing what it was.
"Holy Shit!" he almost yelled as he analyzed the object. Tatsuya was known to be very cautious and controlled individual, only going out of character for big discoveries like the one he held in his hand.
The object was a C.A.D, or Casting Assistance Device. These were what modern magicians used in order to cast magic. The C.A.D was in the shape of a handgun. Though he might have been street urchin most of his life, he was an experienced technician. He knew the ins and outs of most pieces of modern technology.
Although C.A.D's were common place among magicians, the government kept a tight lid on the selling and buying of C.A.D's, making them a very valuable commodity for back alley magicians, whom would pay a pretty penny to get their hands on even common C.A.D's. And this particular one seemed to be an experimental, viewing that its casing was not fully complete, and had some parts he had never seen before. Its casing was missing in some areas, and very little wear could be seen on the trigger or the grip.
'Jack Pot' he said mentally. He stuffed the C.A.D into the pocket of his trench coat, and began to walk towards the wya he entered.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing here?!" yelled someone from behind. He immediately turned around saw who yelled.
The man armed with a rifle pointed the firearm towards him, intent of kill could be seen in his eyes.
"You picked a bad time, scavy" he said as he moved towards the boy. Even with a gun aimed at him, however, Tatsuya did not even flinch in fear. The man grinned slightly as pressed the trigger sending a bullet towards the intruder.. Though in a blink of an eye the kid disappeared.
"What the fuck?!" the guard nearly jumped as the kid vanished and began to panic. He began to activate his ear piece as he scanned around junkyard for the kid, but to no avail.
*CRACK*
A large cracking noise reverberated around the junkyard as the lifeless corpse fell to the snowy ground. Behind the corpse stood Tatsuya, who stared at the corpse. He bent over and picked up the rifle and slung it over his shoulder. He stripped the soldier of his ballistic armor and of anything useful.
'Dammit, almost got me that time' he mentally scolded himself as he stuffed the armor into his backpack. Though not intended, the assorted tech goodies he got off the guard could sell for a good amount of money.
*BANG*
A bullet flew past his head. His natural reactions went into full gear as he dove to a nearby concrete blockade. The sound of bullets bouncing off concrete could be heard. Tatsuya peeked out of cover and saw a handful of guards, armed with rifles. A hail of bullets was sent into his direction in response.
'Holy shit, these guys are packing rifles. They even got military grade armor and electronics. Just what the hell are they dumping here besides C.A.D'S?'
There was a pause in the shooting, the sounds of magazines falling the the ground and and inserting of a new one.
'This is my chance!'
He ran out of cover and aimed his rifle towards the directions of the guards and squeezed the trigger. He then felt the pain of a bullet piercing his left knee as ran.
On the inside, an extreme pain surged like a storm throughout his body. He knew, however, if he hesitated for even a moment, it would be the end of his life.
Tatsuya ran at an un comprehensible speed towards the tree as he squeezed the trigger. One guard went down with a scream. His fellow guards stopped shooting and attended to their fallen friend.
He hastily grabbed the snow covered branch, with his right hand, ignoring the cold and pulled himself over the fence, hitting the ground with a thud. He slowly being to limo away from the scene of the crime, as he heard the shouts and sirens go off.
30 minutes later
Tatsuya continued to walk at a fast pace, trying to get as far away from the crime as possible, while still limping form the bullet wound.
'Shit...that was way too dirty. Gonna need to lay low for a while...' he said mentally as he walked down the alleyway, the blood leaking from his partially bandaged knee leaving a red trail in the snow. He was heading towards the local black market in the abandoned warehouse on the docks. There was usually at least one dealer active 24 hours a day, and he hoped a certain dealer he knew would be there at that hour.
The smell of the salt water filled his nostrils as he made his way to the warehouse. He reached the rusted steel door that protected the contents of the warehouse from prying eyes of the outside world. To get into the warehouse, you needed to do a sort of ritual. He knocked the door 5 times, an eye hole in the door opened up.
"What do you want?" said a groggy mans voice. A pair of brown eyes appeared in the eyehole.
"One for many, many for little, we stand together, or fall together" he said. The man took to cue and shut the eye hole.
The was a few clicking noises, then the door began to creak open. After a couple seconds, the steel door was fully open, revealing a rather sketchy person.
The man had dirty blonde hair and equally dirty clothes. Dried dirt encrusted upon his skin, and looks as if the idea of shaving never crossed this man. A thick smell of liquor permeated from him. He was holding a assault rifle in his hand, while smirking at the young boy.
"Eh, it's been a while Tatsuya-kun, what you been up to?" spoke the man.
"I've been good Old Man, here to sell some goods" he spoke. The old man seemed to inspect the kid, noticing the bullet wound in his knee.
"Why, look at this. The famous 'Tatsuya Sakura' finally got caught" the old man said in a sarcastic tone as he began the process to re-closed the door. Tatsuya snorted in response.
"I did, but it was worth it" he pulled out the silver colored C.A.D out form his bag. A massive grin appeared on the kids face as the old mans eyes widened in surprise. Tatsuya handed the C.A.D over to the old man.
"Shit, is that what I think it is?" he said while inspecting it. Tatsuya nodded his head.
"It's a C.A.D, and even better, I think it's an experimental. Notice how there are no markings or serial numbers?" the old man turned the gun shaped C.A.D upside down and inspected the hilt, where the serial and print number would usually be.
But like the black haired kid said, there were none to be seen.
"Damn Kid, that's a nice find you got. Bet that Takahashi would be interested in that. Damn kid always likes getting his hands on experimental tech" he said as finished closing the door, both entering the warehouse though a narrow door.
"Where is he, by the way?" Tatsuya said.
"He's in the middle of a deal right now, he should be out in a minute"
"Anyone else here?"
"Nope, mostly everyone left, only a couple of handymen moving cargo are still here besides the deal going on" the old men said as they entered the 'marketplace'.
The marketplace was where most of the regular deals went on, with a back room for any major deals. Stacks of crates and other objects littered the large room.
The old man took a seat on one of the crates, while Tatsuya leaned on another crate.
"So Tatsuya, tell me, what happened to your knee?" asked the old man.
"Went to that junkyard in the Shinjuku district, found out they don't take kindly to scavys" he chuckled a bit while looking at his bloody knee.
"Don't no why the hell they had that much security at a fucking junkyard though, must be some good pickings still there if they have that much damn guards" he pulled out the armor and gun for proof.
"Hmm, that is strange, why have military grade guards at a junkyard? Must be either they get a bunch of scavys or..."
"They're hiding something" Tatsuya cut off the old man. Both felt a rush of excitement of the idea of something being hidden.
If something is worth hiding, it usually is valuable.
"You said that the junkyard was in the Shinjuku district? I'll go scout it out later with the crew, see what I can get" he said.
"What if you do find something?"
"I'll set up a job, you want in on it?"
"Sure, I did find the damn place" Tatsuya replied. The old man laughed.
"Ha, I did teach you right kid. Alright, I scout it out tomorrow and get back to you in a couple days" the old man said.
"Sure, that's fine"
"Well, my shifts over. I'm outta here" the old man groaned.
"We'll, see ya" the two said their goodbyes and parted ways.
5 minutes later
Tatsuya paced back and forth for what seemed like an hour until the deal was over. After 5 minutes passed, a large group of men dressed in business suits passed him, not taking any notice towards his presence.
"Well, Hello Tatsuya-kun" spoke a voice behind him. He turned around and his sight was greeted by small man. The man was Takahara, a long time business partner of Tatsuya, and also a life long friend he had made over a great many business deals.
He was short, at least 1-2 heads smaller than Tatsuya. He had grey hair, and a large bald spot that distinguished itself with a shine.
Tatsuya looked down at the small person, inwardly laughing about how much taller he was than the man.
"Hello Takahara-san, it's been a while" Tatsuya said while the two shook hands.
"How is Yukiiko-chan? I assume she is well and..." his eyes wandered south at the smell of blood, widening when they saw his wound.
"Are you okay!? Do you need..." the man started to panic, but Tatsuya placed a hand on his shoulders.
"I'm fine, just a need to go see Aina-Chan tomorrow, she'll patch me up" he said. The old man gave Tatsuya an incredulous look before letting out a heavy sigh.
"I hope whatever heap you went too was worth it, that wounds going to cost a pretty penny to get fixed. Porbably cut clean through your skin and bone." he said. Tatsuya merely grinned while he pulled out the C.A.D from his pocket, the shiny metallic surface slightly shining under the light.
"Why are you ...Oh ..." he gasped slightly as he gazed at the unfinished C.A.D.
"It was totally worth it" Tatsuya said. "I don't think its a brand model, it doesn't have any marking numbers, take a look" he handed the C.A.D to the man. He looked over its many edges, wires and parts.
"Hmm, what an interesting little find..." he turned over the C.A.D.
"Oh My... Indeed this is not a brand. I never had seen this design. And I've seen plenty of of C.A.D's in my time to tell if its a factory made or something else" he said, astonished at the luck of the kid standing in front of him.
"Lets go to my office, see if we can crack this little mystery" Tatusya nodded and the two walked to his sort of 'office'.
Assorted amounts of high tech computers ad equipment scattered the room, a mess of wires sprawled about the floor with various labels. A table with a various amounts of tools and other types of equipment a professional would use.
"Lets see if we cant hook this thing up" he sat down in his blue leather chair and grabbed one of the gadgets off the table. Tatsuya walked behind him and rested his arms on the head of the chair. He looked over the unusual C.A.D with a piqued curiosity. Seeing any C.A.D was certainly a treat, an experimental was something like akin grand feast.
"Where the hell do we plug this in..." he looked again and again but could not find the eluding spot. Every C.A.D was encrypted with backbone data that could pinpoint where a particular one was made, its abilities, and other types of features that it offered. Sometimes experimental's were also known to house other various types of valuable information, such as its design concepts, explanations behind certain features and scientific notes made by its designers in order to speed up the development process.
"Wait, what if I..." he pressed a small button on the side. A compartment on the C.A.D opened at its hilt, revealing a touch screen filled with flashing red lights, warning signs, repeating symbols and other types of hazard signs.
"Fuck! This just made my job ten times more difficult..." he said with a heavy sigh. "Gonna need to hack around this touch pad, though its going to take a while."
"How long will it take for you to decrypt that data?" asked the black haired boy.
"It will take at least till tomorrow morning, i'm good with this sorta thing but this has a military grade encryption. Whoever designed this C.A.D obviously did not want the data housed on this device to fall into the wrong pair of hands." he said while inspecting the lines upon lines of various code.
"In the mean time, you got anything else for me?" Tatsuya nodded and pulled out the various things he got from the junkyard and the dead guard. Takahara handed over a stack of money to Tatsuya, he proceeded to place it in his pocket.
"I noticed you got that armor there" said Takahara. "Yeah, got it off the dead guard. I'll get Ichiha-San to reinforce my trench coat using it." said Tatsuya.
"Sounds good, anyway, Ill get that hack finished for you by tomorrow morning, go get some sleep kid" he said with a smile.
Tatsuya returned the smile. "Thank you very much for your help Takahara-San, see ya tomorrow" he said as he began to walk out of the room.
"Say Hi to Yukiko-chan for me" replied the partially bald man as he continued to type lines of code into a computer at lightning pace.
"I will"
The two waved each other off and Tatsuya left the warehouse and began the long trek back to home on the other side of the city.
Present Time
Tatsuya mind returned to himself as he looked down at his sister sleeping peacefully against his chest. A smile appeared on his face as he rubbed her back gently.
Everything...Everything he did was for her. he was prepared to sacrifice his happiness, his well being... he would even give his own life for his dear little sister. Nothing else really mattered to him other than his sister, not having other family members or friends to care about. He didn't care for having attaining a large amount of wealthy or powerful, only hoping to get enough to support himself and his sister.
His smile slowly retracted to a frown as his thoughts returned to that of the state of Japan. Although he did not care for others much, he did respect those who had helped the two survive, and those who were stuck in similar position or hardship. The talks of revolution have circulated during the talks around trashcan fires and scrap markets, the pure unadulterated hatred the poor felt for the cause of their destitution. The cause for which corruption seemed to pour out like a river through the Japanese government.
The Ten Masters Clan.
The mere mention of the name of the organization of magicians that made up the foundation of Japan's military might. They swore their unfounded loyalty towards Japan, and in return gained money, resources and privileges over the ordinary person. It was in these privileges that they abused to slowly corrupt and take over the Japanese government, turning into a puppet government for the wealthy clans. In doing dirty work for politicians, either usually assassinations, information manipulation or other types of illegal work, they were able to keep a firm grasp of the government.
As a scowl took form on his face, he felt the land of sleep finally overtaking him. However as he fell asleep, his partner in crime and sister Yukiko remained awake, only pretending to sleep in order to fool her brother. She loved her brother as much as she could humanly could, he was the provider of money for the two to survive on and her emotional support during these hard times.
She stared at her brothers hardened face, looking over his various scars and bruises, the wrinkles that were present. He scowls plastered on his face was the one that made her frown the most however. She hates seeing her brother frown, or when when he was in a bad mood. She felt that it was her job to act as her brothers emotional crutch that he could lean on when he needed to.
Because of her frail body, she was unable to help with her brother scavenging job, and neither could she get a regular job because of the age restriction. This made her feel useless and miserable when she couldn't do the simplest job she felt she needed to do to be at least somewhat useful.
Sighing slightly she buried her face into her brothers clothes, wrapping her arms around his body like she was a kitten clinging to its master. His strong and inviting aura gave her a calmness and security that no other person or object could give her. As if she was melting into him, she slowly fell asleep as she closed her eyes as a smile graced her lips.
Nobody knew that that day would be viewed as a turning point in world history.
Well that's a wrap. Thank you for reading that, I hope y'all enjoyed it. I'm just recently getting back into writing fanfic's so I probably need to de-rust some of my skills. If you have any sorta of idea, criticism or just want to contact me just leave a review or PM me. This story is going to be hopefully updated soon, but as with many of my fic's they usually fall on the back burner for IRL stuff. Thanks, and have a good day!
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Next Chapter: The Scavenger Gambit