Chapter 1. Starting Point
"We're live here from the aftermath of a brutal attack by the terrorist group known only as S.T.A.R., we still don't know what this group is after but we do know that they are a dangerous group of people who consist of sinners and wherever they go they leave a trail of terror and destruction in their wake, more information on the attack will be available later today"
"Sheesh, the world has become such a scary world, with all these dangerous people around, this world would be a whole lot of better if those sinners weren't around." Shifting her sight from the tv her eyes fall on the clock hanging above the tv. "It's getting pretty late. Masafumi hurry up and get going or you're going to be late for school!" Turning off the tv she shifted her attention to the rumble of noises that came from upstairs as she saw her son, a tall, skinny boy who's hair could only be described as a messy black mass on the top of his hair, race down the steps.
"Sorry mom, I stayed up late playing online games last night." Masafumi exclaimed as he ran down the steps and to his front door, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Oh yea, i'm going to be out a little late tonight. I'm going to the mall with Mayura later today." Masafumi explained as he grabbed an apple before plopping it into his mouth.
"Oh, going on a date I see." his mother teased walking over to him, giving him his sack lunch as he was putting on his shoes. " I remember when I was young, I would go on dates with your father all time." His mother said as sat down and closed her eyes, enjoying her memories of her youth.
"Sheesh mom, I already told you a hundred times it isn't like that, plus we're only going to find a birthday present for Yoshi." Explained Masafumi as he ran out the door, trying to hurry up so that he wouldn't be late. "Crap I can't be late again or they're going to throw me in detention." Muttered Masafumi as he continued jogging down the road.
The name's Masafumi Aoki, I'm just your everyday, run of the mill high school student, I'm 16, like to play video games, get average grades, and have a couple good friends, you know the usual stuff.
You probably got confused with all the "sinner" and terrorist talk a bit ago. To be completely honest I don really get it myself, but from what I know there's this group of people with something called the "Devils mark" basically its these creepy red eyes and black line on peoples bodies, they're supposed to be evil, and these people are in a group, a boy band I guess you could call it, called S.T.A.R. and they do all these super bad things. Pretty scary right?
"Masafumi! Hey, wait up." exclaimed a gentle voice as teenage girl with long brown hair came up running from behind.
Oh, and her she's one of those good friends that I was talking about earlier, her name is Nozomi Fujiwara. I've known her since we were kids, I guess that's how it goes when your parents are friends. She's one of those honor student types, you know, the ones that get great grades in every subject and somehow find time to be in all sort of clubs in sports.
"So are we still on to go looking for a present for Yoshi's birthday today?" asked Nozomi as she finally caught up and gave me one of her patented heart warming smiles.
"Yea of course, but you should probably stop talking about it, you know who is right ahead of us." Masafumi whispered as they approached a young man in front of them.
"Took you guys long enough. You're almost gonna be late for school. What did you end up playing video games all night? Teased the blonde headed male as his blue eyes turned around to look at his pair of friends.
Oh yea, I almost forgot this is another of my good friends from earlier. His name is Kiyoshi Ichikawa, but Nozomi and I call him "Yoshi" instead. We met Yoshi when he moved over to this area when we were in about the second grade. He's another one of those honor student types. That might actually be the reason that he's so popular with the girls, that and they all find him "attractive" for some reason, I don't see it though.
"What the heck, are you a psychic now Yoshi?!? That's exactly what I was doing, although I don't know what Nozomi was doing." Exclaimed Masafumi while his face showed clearly how shocked he was that his friend had guessed correctly.
"He knew because that's what you always do Masafumi, even when you should be studying I might add." said Nozomi as she let brought her hand to her face as she released a small sigh, unable to comprehend her friends foolishness.
Kiyoshi took another look at his friends and gave them a gentle smile before he turned around and said. "Well it doesn't matter how Masafumi was procrastining, because if we don't hurry up we're all going to be late to school." After saying this he heard his friends groan in response as they raced for school.
When they almost reached the gate to their school, Nozomi pulled on Masafumi's sleeve, causing him to turn his attention to her as he slowed down to match her pace.
"So we're going to the mall after school, right?" Nozomi whispered, making sure Yoshi didn't hear.
"Yeap, we're all set to go. I'll met you here after school" Masafumi whispered back as he gave her a big grin.
"So do you think we got him the right gift?" questioned Masafumi as lifted up the bags that he had hanging off his wrist.
Nozomi looked up at him and calmly said. "I think so, I mean I feel that we know his well enough that he'll like what we get him. Plus it can't be worse than what we got him last year." Her face went into a twisted expression of both horror and disbelief as she remembered the events of Yoshi's past birthday.
"Oh, you mean when we took him to the petting zoo and the donkey started to, you know." Masafumi exclaimed as a big grin appeared on his face and he burst into a fit of laughter. Hearing him laugh this hard only made Nozomi start laughing as well, till both of them were huddled over on the side of the street trying to stop themselves from laughing anymore.
Finally stopping their fit of laughter, they decided that it was time to get home because it was getting pretty dark. As they were walking all of sudden the mood between them got a lot heavier and they stopped talking. They just continued to walk each apparently stuck in thought.Until Masafumi suddenly grabbed Nozomi's sleeve. This sudden movement snapped Nozomi out of her dream like state.
"Hey Zo." Masafumi said in a low tone. "Don't freak out or anything but I think that those guys behind us have been following us for a while now." Hearing this a small shock went through Nozomi's body but Masafumi gripped her sleeve tighter. "Don't turn around too fast or they might think that we're on to them." Masafumi gently said a small amount of fear apparent in his voice.
Taking Masafumi's advice into consideration Nozomi slowly turned back to see three men dressed in black walking suspiciously close behind them. Looking over to Masafumi for an answer, she looked up at him waiting for him to come up with a plan. She could tell from the look on his face that he was seriously thinking about something. He was biting his lip, and he only did that when he was seriously trying to think.
Finally done thinking, he leaned over to Nozomi and gently whispered. "Alright so on this next corner i'm gonna let you go in front of me and when he pass the corner I want you to run as fast as you can all the way home alright?"
"What about you Masafumi? How will you get away?"
Sensing that they were running out of time he quickly said. " I'll get away just fine ok? I just need you to run as fast as you can before they try anything."
He was about to push Nozomi ahead of him until two hand tightly gripped around around his wrists. He quickly looked around and saw that while he was trying to convince Nozomi to go, the men had encircled them. They had Nozomi tightly trapped unable to escape no matter how hard she tried.
"Now, now, why don't we have some fun huh?" the biggest of the three said his deep voice drawing fear from Nozomi, as he pulled her arms harshly behind her back. "You see me and my boys couldn't help but notice how beautiful you were and we just had to ask you to spend some time with us." He said as the other two men snickered behind him.
"Don't you touch her!" Masafumi roared voice filled with anger. This outburst almost immediately was succeeded by one of the lackey's landing a quick punch to Masafumi's gut. Sending him crumbling to the ground as the air left his lungs. Leaving him panting, trying to regain air as he laid on the floor.
The big guy let go of Nozomi as he handed her over to one of the others. He walked over to where Masafumi was and examined him, looking at him up and down before he said. "So we have a tough guy huh? Tell me, what are you gonna do about it huh? You're just some skinny punk. You can't even help yourself." and with that he landed a hard kick on Masafumi's face that sent him flying a couple feet causing Masafumi to cough up some blood.
The world began to spin around him as he was disoriented from the powerful blow to the head. He was still panting for air as his face was covered in his blood. Finally coming out of his daze he heard something calling out to him.
"Masa...fumi...please help me. Please...help." whimpered Nozomi as the men began to close in on her again. Their eyes filled with the look of an animal who had just found its prey. Every moment getting closer to her. With every step another second gone in which he could use to save her.
She screamed more and more, begging and pleading for Masafumi to help her but all he could do was lay down in pain. He hated it! One of his closet friends in the world needed his help and he couldn't do anything. He felt his blood boil and the though of how helpless he was and what they were about to do to Nozomi. He felt a wave of energy surge through him, an indescribable feeling that made him feel as he could suddenly do anything. Finally picking himself up again as he felt the wind around him suddenly pick up. One of the guys noticed him getting up and decided to go knock him down again with a swift kick to the face.
Masafumi had suddenly grabbed the mans leg and pulled him down harshly to the floor. The other two turned around in shock of what had happened. Unable to process what had happened they remained still, until they look at Masafumi in the face. They just stopped completely frozen. The looks of anger that had been on their faces mere seconds ago had vanished and were replaced with faces of shock and horror. The man on the floor was the first to make move as he made as much separation he could between him and the boy.
"Thi...this guy...he's one of them right? The ones with the devils mark right?" the smallest of the three squealed out, fear very much apparent in his voice. " We...we got to get out of here boss or he's gonna kill us!" He screamed as the three quickly bolted in any direction they could as they occasionally tripped over themselves in their effort to get away. Feeling his heart beat pounding in his chest, adrenaline flowing through his veins.
He looked toward Nozomi so that they could finally go home, but he was just met again with those eyes of horror and confusion again. He didn't understand. "Why was she looking at him like that?" Masafumi though as his eyes wondered around trying to find any sort of answer. As he continued to look around his eyes found his reflection.He didn't understand what he saw, he didn't understand who or what was looking back at him. As he continued to look all he saw staring back at him was some sort of feral beast, a beast with cruel, unwavering eyes that red glow, expressed nothing but hatred. He quickly turned out to face Nozomi causing her to flinch at his sudden movement, but before he could ask her anything she sped off. Running away from his just as the other guys had. She ran as fast as she could, never looking back, just wanting to escape from this horrible nightmare.
Unable to comprehend was was happening Masafumi fell to the ground, as all the fatigue suddenly hit him as he felt all the energy drain out of his body. As his vision started to fade into darkness, he could see Nozomi's figure getting smaller with every passing second. Holding on to his very last few seconds of consciousness he stuck his hand out in the darkness as he faintly managed to whimpered. "No...Nozo...mi..."
Chapter 1 complete, actually more of a one-shot, not sure if i'll right more. So umm leave a review if you can and thank you!