XXX

It was a bright and sunshiny day in the town of Kamakura Japan. People walked through the streets, on errands, or couples just taking an afternoon stroll through the coast to enjoy the day. Near the Enoshima Railway, the train station in Kamakura, a young man with black hair and black-grey eyes around the age of eighteen just got off a train, and began walking up the nearby steps. Not that he knew where he was going, but he figured it was better than just sitting around waiting for someone who wasn't there to meet him.

He was almost to the top when the sound of footsteps caught his attention. He turned to see a young woman about his age with shoulder length brown hair and big brown eyes at the bottom of the steps. "You're Kouta, right?"

The young man in question didn't know if he should respond to this stranger or not. "Um…"

Sensing the males discomfort the girl introduced herself, "I'm Yuka, your cousin." She reminded him.

A smile came across Koutas face as he remembered, "Oh, Yuka?!"

Yuka smiled as her cousin came to remember her. The young adult suffered from amnesia and couldn't remember a vast majority of his childhood. It was just a shame that that was the last time he saw her. "Geez. Since I didn't see you at the station, I looked all over for you." She walked to the top of the steps to look down on her cousin.

He apologized, "Sorry. But I'm more surprised that you figured out I was here."

"You liked watching the ocean from here, right? I remember you did." She tried to jog his memory. The nostalgia almost made her cry. They both looked out at the view from the stairs, the ocean sparkled with the same gleam as a diamond. The cousins also getting a beautiful view of the shore.

"Man," Kouta sighed. "it looks just as beautiful as I remembered it." That beach held so many memories. So many good ones. The fact that they were good almost brought tears to his eyes as well.

"You know I never thought that we would be going to the same college. But, since we came this far, let's go see the ocean!" Yuka took Koutas arm in hers and rushed them both down the steps, much to Koutas dismay.

"Whoa Yuka, wait, hold on!" He exclaimed as his cousin dragged him along with her.

"Come on! We used to play there a lot!" She tried to assure him.

The two young adults stood at the sandy shore of the beach, looking out over the horizon. The sun looked to be setting, the orange sky's showing that the day would be ending soon. It was actually very beautiful.

Kouta's head was filled with memories of his younger sister. He, her, and Yuka all used to play at the beach as children. "You know Yuka, I remember when Kanae would collect seashells here." Kouta said as a nostalgic smile made its way onto his face.

"Yeah," She sighed, "Those were wonderful memories." The two teens sat on the sand in silence, a slave to their thoughts. After a few minutes, Yuka could begin to pick up on the soft sound of someone crying, and turned to the left to see the source.

Yuka grabbed Koutas shoulder to get his attention. "Kouta, look over there!" She pointed. Kouta looked to see what the hell Yuka was talking about, but she grabbed his arm and began dragging him to the source of the commotion.

The two were then greeted by a not so pretty sight. A naked pink haired girl around the two teens age kneeled down next to another naked teen of around the same age, a male with black hair who was lying face down in the sand, only he looked to be in a lot of pain. The pink haired girl seemed to be crying out of perplexity. As Kouta and Yuka approached, the pink haired girl turned and stared at them. The pink haired girl was actually quite beautiful, her red eyes held an innocent, almost childlike gleam to them. One could even say they were like that of a toddlers. The two teens also noticed the pink haired girl was bleeding from the side of her head.

The girl wiped her eyes clean before turning and trying to run out of being startled. She tripped and fell flat on her face, only to begin wailing again. As the girl wailed, she kept saying one word. 'Nyuu'. The cousins had no idea what that meant, but they could tell that the girls crying began to wake the ebony haired boy lying on the beach. "P-please... H-h-help." He then slipped back into unconsciousness.

Kouta and Yuka were horrified at the sight. Yuka was the one who took action. "Kouta, don't just stand there, pick him up!" She ordered as she pushed him over to the enigma. Yuka went over to the pink haired girl and gave her her shirt. Leaving her in just a bra. Kouta reached inside his backpack and pulled out some swimming trunks, and attempted to put them on Darren. Yuka looked over and her face turned red from seeing a naked guy. Kouta slung Darrens arm over his shoulder, and was forced into the ground. "Damn, this guy weighs a ton!" Kouta grunted. But he wondered why. The teen had a toned body, he was in pretty good shape. He actually had a build similar to Koutas, so there wasn't a reason he should feel like he was lifting a car.

As Yuka used a piece of cloth she had in her pocket to wipe the blood off the side of the other girls head, she noticed, "H-Horns!?" She exclaimed in surprise. Kouta looked at them and let out an astonished, "Cool…", He then clutched his head as his eyes widened, visions of a similar looking pink haired girl with a look of complete and utter hatred scowled at him.

"Liar." Was all she said before Kouta was brought back into the real world. Kouta gave a nervous glance at the pink haired girl. Yuka poked the horn on top of the girls head, taking note that they were indeed protruding from her skull. 'What the hell kind of a party did you two go to?' Yuka thought.

Yuka had the pink haired girl by her arms, "Come on, let's get these guys to maple house. We can help them there."

Luckily, the teens were able to get to the inn without too much trouble from passer-bys. On the way there Yuka had to take the male teen by his other arm due to it becoming too much strain on Kouta. She quickly found out why. The four all arrived inside. Kouta took notice of his surroundings and exclaimed.

"This house is huge! Aunt and Uncle are really renting this out to me?"

"It actually used to be a japanese-styled restaurant before it went out of business, but my mother said you wouldn't have to pay any rent as long as you keep it clean." Yuka informed him. Kouta was about to ask how many rooms there were before Yuka found the room they would keep the boy they found.

They laid Darren down on the bed; Kouta laid down a black tank top, and dark blue jeans on the bed before leaving the room. Yuka and Kouta noticed the pink haired girl was getting a feel for her surroundings. She was feeling the hard-wood floors, the walls, and she even stepped outside and observed the garden. She acted just like a toddler. "Nyuu? Nyuu? Nyuu?" She repeated after noticing certain things that caught her attention. Suddenly a look of discomfort crossed Nyu's face as she squeezed her legs and covered her crotch. She began to squeak "Nyuu, Nyuu" as she paced back and forth.

"What's wrong with her?" Kouta asked his cousin.

"I don't know. We don't even know her name." Yuka reminded.

Kouta then thought, "Well, if all she says is 'Nyuu', then let's just call her that."

"Are you sure?" Yuka asked. She wasn't a pokemon, they didn't have to name her after something she said. But she didn't have any ideas, so oh well.

Nyuu then sat down on the floor, and let out a satisfied, "Nyuuuu" before a puddle formed from under. Yuka and Kouta sweatdropped.

Yuka grabbed Nyuu and began to drag her off to the bathroom, telling Kouta, "Well, you can start earning your stay by cleaning up this mess, and the other ten rooms in this house." Much to Koutas dismay.

X

Darren lay unconscious on one of the beds in the inn. He tossed and turned in his sleep almost like everything that happened last night was a bad dream. The ironic thing was, Darren wasn't supposed to be able to sleep, but his eyes were shut, and he was having visions. Close enough.

The injured virus was limping his way down the road that led to the town. Darren could then see lights that represented his proximity to civilization. He knew that with him being nude he couldn't just walk into town. Way too much attention. He saw the shore to a beach and figured he could just keep along there. Maybe somebody left some extra trunks on the shore. As he walked through the town he had to dip into back alleys whenever a car or a pedestrian came by. His instincts told him to just consume some poor sap and wear their face. But he couldn't do that, he wouldn't do that. He wasn't that selfish.

But admittedly, if he did consume at least one civilian when he was in New York he wouldn't have this much trouble. And unfortunately, all of the blackwatch and scientist he consumed were in uniform, so that would only bring attention to himself anyways.

It took about an hour, and he found himself walking along the shore of the beach. He could then see someone standing in the water, looking out over the ocean. They were nude and had pink hair. It was a girl. What the hell was she doing out here? Did she go to a party and get drunk or something? He was about to call out to her, but it already seemed like she noticed him. Her head turned to her left and she gave him quite possibly the most disturbing look he'd ever seen on a human. Her eyes, were so full of hatred, darkness, bitterness. They were eyes almost like, like, Mercers.

The girl began to stroll over near him. The teen still couldn't tell if she needed help or not, but that look in her eyes told him to keep his guard up, even though in all honesty, he couldn't do anything if she attacked him. After she was a few meters away he felt a force, that of which he could not see, grab him, pick him up, and slam him into the ground behind her. He then felt something begin hacking and slicing away at his back. It hurt like hell, but it would heal. He could see the pink haired girl stand over him, a hateful scowl on her face. He could see that she was beautiful, but she was deadly.

"Wh-What the, fuck!?" He groaned before he fell back into unconsciousness.

X

His eyes snapped open as he clutched his head. He sat up in the bed, noticing he was in a dark bedroom. He also noticed someone put some blue swimming trunks on him. "Where the hell am I?" He asked himself. The last thing he remembered seeing were two people approaching him before he blacked out.

He got off the bed and noticed the clothes lying at the edge, obviously for him. He got dressed in the black tank and blue jeans before walking out of the room. He could hear china being set down and clanging, before following the noise into the dining room, where Kouta, Yuka, and Nyuu were eating.

Yuka was the first to take notice of him, "Oh, nice for you to join us sleepyhead!" She greeted, her cheeks then turned red again from seeing his toned body in a tank-top.

Kouta took a sip of water from a cup before saying, "Good thing my clothes fit you, but hey, are you hungry?"

The teen in question could see that the three were eating rice balls. Yuka got up from the table and grabbed Darren by the arm, guiding him to a seat at the table across from Nyuu. Darren looked at the pink haired girl and noticed she was different. She didn't have that same bloodlusted look in her eyes that he remembered. Or was that even the same girl? Did he just imagine the whole thing? And were those horns?!

Yuka interrupted his observation, "I bought some rice balls earlier, do you want some?" Yuka held up a ball of something wrapped in foil, handing it to Darren.

Darren unwrapped the ball, he didn't want to be rude to the people showing him hospitality. Before he bit into it, he asked "Are these organic?"

Yuka looked questionable, then shrugged her shoulders. "They are just rice. I don't believe they have any chemicals added to them. Are you on a diet or something?"

Darren kind of just went with her assumption, "Um, yeah, Its just when I don't eat organic my body doesn't digest it well. I get stomach aches." That was at least partly true. Inorganic stuff he couldn't convert into biomass, and he would wind up throwing it up later.

Kouta and Yuka just looked at each other and shrugged. Kouta then asked, "You know, we haven't even learned your name yet. Who are you?"

Darren took a bite out of his ball and swallowed. He answered, "My name is Darren Maverick." He tried to be as short as possible. Not because he wanted to be rude, but because he wanted to avoid as many questions about his past as possible.

"Darren Maverick? That's an unfamiliar name. You're not from around here are you?" Kouta noticed. Now that he thought about it, this guy didn't even look japanese.

"Yeah I'm not, my families actually from America." This actually bewildered Kouta and Yuka. Darren quickly learned that telling them his origins was a bad idea.

"Wow, where in America are you from?" Yuka asked. Nyuu seemed to be highly invested in the conversation even though she had no idea what they were talking about.

"New York. My family moved here about two years ago on business purposes" He answered simply. Kouta got excited, it was obvious that he had tons of questions about the big apple.

Yuka quickly brought up a point before Kouta could start asking anything. "You know, we found you two naked on the beach. What's that all about?"

Darren thought up a pretty good lie pretty quick. "Well, I don't know about her, but I ran away from an abusive home a few months ago, and wound up going to a neighborhood party. I guess I just got drunk." Kouta and Yuka looked as if that's what they were thinking all along.

Yuka did pay attention to the part about Darren running away. It didn't seem right that he should go back to a place where he was abused. She nervously suggested, "Hey Darren, you know, since you kind of ran away, you might be able to, live here. If you want." She threw out that last part pretty fast.

Darren had to think, he wanted to start over, but he didn't want to live on the wellbeing of others, and with a being like him, it could be dangerous, but where the hell else could he go? "Look, I don't want to be a burden to you guys. You've already given me food and clothes."

"Its no big deal, I could give you the same deal as Kouta, just keep the inn clean, and go to school with us and it will be ok! And besides, I'm sure Koutas going to appreciate the extra hand around here." Yuka looked to Kouta for assurance and Kouta nodded in agreement.

Darren just couldn't say no to that. "Alright. I guess I'll stay."

Yuka smiled, "That's great! You can have the room we put you in if you want, or you can find another one. You have ten to choose from. Oh, and my name is Yuka." Yuka then looked to Nyuu before saying, "And that's Nyuu."

"Nyuu!" Nyuu chirped in recognition.

Yuka picked up her bowl and cup, "Well, It's gotten pretty late, I'm going to my room if you guys need me." She left out the dining room.

Kouta then looked outside, hearing the pitter-patter of water against the hardwood of the patio deck. It was starting to rain. "Yeah I guess she's right. I actually need to unpack my bag." Kouta left out the room leaving Nyuu and Darren alone.

This was awkward. "Sooo, your names Nyuu, huh?" Darren asked awkwardly. There was still something off about this girl. He could remember her being a cold-blooded psycho who, somehow, attacked him and threw him around without touching him. But she seemed to be a completely different person. And what was the deal with those horns? Were they a birth defect?

Nyuu cocked her head to the side and squeaked, "Nyu?"

Darren rolled his eyes "Whatever." He dismissed.

XXXX

On an island off the coast of Kamakura, a facility full of scientists and soldiers were in disarray, trying to cover up and repair the damage caused by one of their escapees. One of their most, if not the most, dangerous of their specimens.

A woman and a man stared at the twisted and mangled holding chamber that once held their subject. It was doused and covered with blood. The woman, a lady with glasses, brown hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and in a formal suit, spoke to the man next to her. The woman's name was Shirakawa. "The cage, the five lock partition, and the security system all worked perfectly. We still can't figure out how the shutter system opened on its own."

"It doesn't matter how she got out anymore. Our top priority is killing Lucy." The cold voice of Chief Director Kurama, cut off the woman. Kurama was a man outfitted in a dark blue suit, dark blue hair, and cold blue eyes hidden behind glaring glasses. The man gave off a cold aura.

"K-Kill her? Not capture her?" Shirakawa asked.

"You heard me. We'll send out the S.A.T, the Special Assault Team. They haven't let us down yet. If we allow Lucy to roam the world, mankind will become extinct." Kurama turned on his heel and walked out of the chamber.

XXX

In a large training room scientists were observing and typing away on computer as they watched one of the facilities best soldier undergo a combat simulator, scoring perfect kills each time. One of the operatives stared in disbelief, "Incredible. Bandoh locked onto and shot all of the targets in a span of a half second each, anyone who could go toe-to-toe with him would be a monster."

Kurama rubbed his chin, "Monster, huh?"

A new voice cut in catching Kurama's, and every other scientist in the rooms attention, "I agree, define 'monster'."

The men looked to see three men dressed in black military uniforms enter the room.

Kurama asked, "And who might you be? This is a private facility. State your business now."

The captain smirked before pulling a badge and flashing it. "Calm your ass Kurama, we're here on request from Director Kakuzawa."

"The Director?" Kurama mumbled. He then got a closer look at the men's uniforms before noticing, "wait a minute, you're from the BlackWatch unit of the U.S military, correct? Why are you here?"

The BlackWatch captain removed his his mask to reveal Byron. He gave a cocky grin before replying, "We heard you geeks had a little runaway yesterday. So have we. Given our history your superior called us up here to help your sorry asses out, and vice versa."

Kurama's eyes narrowed from behind his glaring glasses. "You insult us, but you did say that you had an escapee too. Or did your simian mind forget that already?" He said with a monotone snark.

Normally the captain would flip the hell out on anyone who talked down on him. The captain's men even had a feeling of dread wash over them as kurama spoke, but the man had a certain level of respect for the people in this facility, and instead smirked.

"Hm, touche Kurama, touche." Byron nodded, but he quickly got back to the topic on hand. "So, what's this little experiment that you couldn't keep ahold of." Byron said as he approached Kurama. Kurama led the men to a worker who had access to the security tapes from last night. The man was listening to the entire conversation so already had the tapes up, different angles of the hallways at different times were viewable.

Byron and his men leaned into the screen to get a closer look of a nude girl wearing a helmet, the helmet restricted any possible view of her face making it a wonder how she could see, strolling through the halls as guards were mutilated in various horrific ways. As the guards in the halls shot at her the bullets would deflect as if it were hitting a surface, only there was nothing there. After firing in vain the guards would suddenly be sliced to pieces or practically explode in the halls from some invisible force surrounding the girl.

Byrons eyes widened in a mixture of awe and disturbance. He didn't know what the hell to make out of what he was watching. "What, in gods name, is that?

Kurama had his back turned from the screen. He didn't want to relive the moments of those men who were hopelessly murdered. "It's a Diclonius by the name of Lucy. Last night she murdered the guards who watched her cage, took their keys and went on a murder spree on her way out of the building. We managed to hit her with a round from a rifle to the head, but it didn't work."

"How does it kill?" Byron asked as he turned to look at the Chief. Kurama took notice of the mans professionalism when he called Lucy an 'it'. Which was something most people forgot.

Kurama turned to face the soldiers. "Diclonius have an ability to create telekinetic arms, called vectors. These arms allow them to slice through virtually anything they so desire. The diclonius can also infect another human by injecting them with their vector. The infected person will wind up giving birth to other Diclonii. Just like the ones in this facility."

"Jesus." One of the soldiers said.

"Yeah, at least when Apollo or Zeus attacks we can see when and where, and at least have a chance at surviving." The other soldier agreed. Byron just stood in silence. His training under Cross didn't prepare him for something capable of invisible combat. But he would be damned if he backed out.

Kurama took notice of the two names the BlackWatch soldier spoke of, "I take it these 'Maverick' and 'Zeus' characters are the ones who are troubling you?"

Byron held a distant look in his eyes. "You hear about the incident in New York?"

Kuramas eyebrows widened. "You mean where the viral outbreak hit correct? You mean to tell me there's something out there that can cause the same to happen to Japan!?" Kurama very rarely ever lost his cool, but he heard the survivor stories about what happened in the so-called greatest city in the U.S, no matter how much their government tried to cover it up. Japan just became the haven of some of the deadliest beings on the planet. Byron did not respond. "Then it's settled. What do you need in order to pursue the targets?" Kurama asked.

"We need this agencies top soldiers and whatever equipment you can dish out. It's only project Maverick who is in Japan. Zeus's whereabouts are unknown." A part of Byron didn't like having to request help from outside sources. Hell, even during New York BlackWatch didn't give a shit about the Marines.

They looked out for their own.

Kurama walked over to the intercom to communicate with the soldier on the inside of the training room. "Bando, ready up. You're being put on duty." The man on the training room floors looked up at the glass window, indicating where the scientists were contained. He gave a sadistic grin before snickering, "It's about time I get to kill something that'll scream and beg.

XXX

Darren found himself in an almost meditative stance in his room. Since he couldn't sleep he decided to just pass the time by browsing the web of intrigue. He found it interesting to view the soldiers lives he consumed before they thought it was a good idea to try and kill him. He could see a few of them at birthday parties as children, their first dates, when someone close to them died, and even the birth of some of their children. It almost made Darren sick knowing that the Nazi's who tried to kill him were just people at one point. They had family, hopes, and dreams.

He shook himself out of the Web. He almost felt sick after what he just saw. The ironic thing about it was that it was all good memories that he saw. Had they all been bad memories he would have been just fine. He could hear some commotion coming from the living room. He walked out of his room and walked into the sitting room to see Yuka and Nyu gathered around Kouta. It seemed that Kouta was unloading his backpack onto the table in front of him. "Uh, hi." Darren said awkwardly as he walked into the room.

Yuka and Nyu looked happy to see him. Kouta turned and said, "Oh, what's up Darren. I'm surprised you're still awake."

"I could say the same about you three." Darren smiled. "So, whats going on here?" He asked.

"Just unpacking my stu-" a box suddenly fell out of Koutas backpack. It fell open to reveal a pink seashell. Yuka looked sullen as she remembered exactly where it was from.

"That's...from the last time you were here, wasn't it?" Yuka asked her cousin.

Kouta sat in silence reminiscing over the memories that the pink shell brought him. He had a flashback of his time when he was a ten year old boy, and a girl who was about six years old hand him the shell during their trip to the beach. "Kanae." Kouta mumbled. Nyu stared thoughtfully at the shell

Darren was able to put two and two together pretty easily. "I take it that's a keepsake from someone who passed?"

"Yeah. It's the only memento I have from my sister before she died of a disease. I figured since I was coming back it only made sense to bring it, you know." Kouta said as tears started to well up in his eyes. At hearing the loss of his family member, Darren started to get a knot in his chest out of empathy.

Yuka could only look questionable at what Kouta said. "Disease?" That's not what she was told.

Nyu scooted in towards Kouta and grabbed the shell from him, staring at it intently.

'She's so childlike.' Darren noticed.

*snap*

His eyes widened in shock as Nyu broke the shell.

Kouta's eyes also widened in horror, his temper escalating to an uncontrollable degree,"You... YOU IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!? I JUST TOLD YOU THAT WAS THE ONLY THING I HAD LEFT OF MY SISTER!" He yelled in anger as he grabbed her by her collar. He began shaking her violently. Yuka was attempting to calm Kouta down, but wasn't having much luck. "GET THE HELL OUT!" Kouta screamed as Nyu ran out the house in tears.

Faster than Yuka or Kouta could comprehend, Darren dashed over and had Kouta up by his collar and up three feet off the floor. 'H-he's so strong.' Yuka thought in wonder.

"What the hell is your problem?" Darren growled out to the teen who he was lifting up off the floor like a feather.

It was honestly really hard for Kouta to talk with Darrens hold on his collar, "Did you not just see what she-," Kouta started to groan out.

"You looked at the shell like you were sad. She thought the shell made you sad. She broke the shell because she thought it would make you feel better." Darren then dropped Kouta. Kouta didn't even think as to why he was just held off the ground like he was nothing. He could only stare at the shell pieces in regret. Darren could actually understand why Kouta was angry, hell, if someone did that to him he would have probably ripped them apart for it, but that wasn't the important part. Nyu was out in the streets on her own. He had to go find her.

Darren turned and began walking out of inn, "I'm going to go look for Nyu."

Yuka didn't think it was a good idea for him to go out on his own. She called out, "Darren wait, let us come with you."

"No, it's okay. Trust me, I can handle myself." He walked out the front door in pursuit of the girl. Lightning flashed outside, and it began to rain.

Yuka sighed. She looked at Kouta who picked up the two shell pieces and sat staring at them in silence. "Kouta, I'm going to go help Darren."

Kouta didn't look at his cousin, but still spoke, "He said he was fine. Why are you going after him?"

Yuka rolled her eyes, "I honestly doubt he'll remember how to get back to the inn on his own. And there's no telling where Nyu ran off to. It'll just be a lot easier if I just helped him." Yuka suggested as she grabbed an umbrella and left out. Kouta thought for a second, and then ran after his cousin.

XXX

Over the ocean a cargobob holding a few dozen trained soldiers began to pull up on land. "We'll be above Kamakura in 0200 hours." The pilot radioed into the men.

A man with short brown cropped hair sait with a look of extreme arrogance as he listened to the pilot. "You know, I didn't expect to get orders on shooting a minor in this country." Bando leaned into the soldier sitting in front of him. "This has gotten to be pretty damn badass if you ask me." The cargobob was full of blackwatch and members of the SAT.

"Hey, watch your mouth! What do you think our mission is anyway!?" The soldier snapped only for Bando to whip a pistol and aim it point blank into the man's throat. The SAT members were desperately trying to get Bando to calm down while BlackWatch just enjoyed the show.

"What do you think we train every day for? To kill right?" He then slowly pulled the trigger and watched as the soldier flinched, only to realize the chamber was empty. The air was cold as Bando spoke. "You get that?"

The soldiers attentions were suddenly brought to the leader of the attack force. "Everyone listen up! You'll be going up against two targets of whom are extremely dangerous. One, is a diclonius named Lucy. She is a vicious criminal who managed to kill 23 people in just under five minutes. The other is a viral-hybrid named Darren Maverick, a boy who was infected by the blacklight virus in NYC. He is capable of morphing his body into various knives and stabbing weapons, he possesses inhuman speed, strength, agility, dexterity, and the ability to glide. He also has a healing factor, and the ability of consumption. This allows him to absorb a person into his being so he can take their memories and appearances. And that's not all."

Most of the soldiers looked ready to soil themselves after hearing that. How the hell were they expected to take something like that down? Was this a suicide mission?

The cargobob landed on the shore of the beach. The soldiers pouring out. At another area of said beach. Lucy stood in the rain. Crying.

XXX

The hunt begins, next chapter!