Twelve hours earlier

"Shiro would you quit spacing out we've got work to do." That was my friend Emi starting to lecture me again.

"Sorry it's a nice day outside." I was lying since I always stare out the window during class and Emi knew I was.

"You're not going to pass your exams if you keep day dreaming idiot." I get called that a lot by my sister and Emi. I became friends with Emi when she started attending classes here at the begging of the year. I didn't talk to people often until she showed up. For some reason I felt comfortable around her, there was a strange connection. Nothing intimate just a connection that I find hard to explain.

To be honest since I started school when I was young I always felt different. This unknown feeling deep inside of me always separated me from other kids. I wasn't normal and I could never comprehend why. I preferred to be in solitude anyway or at least until Emi showed up. She never left me alone so I let her stick around.

"Hey Shiro why don't you come over and study tonight?" Emi asked. "Midterms are coming and you really need to pull up your grades."

"Sorry I've got work today after class, your house is on the way so we can walk together." I didn't plan on studying anyway, I was passing so I never felt the need to.

I worked part time at a restaurant and I enjoyed working there. The owner was nice and so was the rest of the staff. I was even considering staying there after finishing school. It never crossed my mind of what I wanted to do after high school and I was already content with the job I had so I never found myself stressing over furthering my education.

"Hey Shiro if your free this weekend you should come to the spring festival with me." Emi was walking next to me. She was always constantly asking me to go places with her.

"Maybe." I replied like I always do, when I say maybe to something it was more like a nice way of saying no. Emi could read me like a book though so my attempts to wriggle out of her plans always failed.

"C'mon Shiro, that girl your interested in will be there." She was poking fun at me now. She had a devious expression on her face as well.

"I don't know who your talking about." I was still trying to lie but I was failing miserably. I was never a good liar.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about idiot, that girl in from second year class 10B." Emi was good at memorizing details of just about anything it was creepy. If she wanted to she could memorize your entire schedule.

"Alright, alright I'll come to the festival just go home already!" I gave up rather easily that time. Normally it would take a lot more than that to get me to go somewhere. It was true though, there was a girl I had my eye on. I was running late for work so I got on the bus instead of walking.

"Rei-Kun there you are, on time as always!" That was my boss who always called me by my last name and always seemed to be in a good mood. "Ready to get to work?"

"Yes!" It was a busy night at the restaurant, but I didn't mind because I always felt more accomplished when business was good and it kept the Boss worry free. During my shift a strange group walked in and asked for a private table. They had a special symbol on their matching coats. It was the Hojin SS, a scientific group in Japan that did experiments on the non-humans. It was a controversial matter that I never supported. Nobody ever mentioned anything about it because if you voiced your opinion against the government you'd probably get beaten within an inch of your life. The capital city was corrupt and unfair but its not like there's anywhere else to live if you're a human thanks to the war which resulted in half the country being destroyed.

I continued on with my work but I couldn't help but notice every time I went to the private table I was getting long intimidating looks from one of the men at the table. It was as if he was burning a hole right through me, and I couldn't understand why I was getting those stares. A few minutes later I had to go the table again, the atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable. I poured them some water and as I was turning away I bumped into one of the servers who was carrying a tray of glasses. They began to fall but strangely it appeared they were falling in slow motion. One, two, three, four, five, six, I counted as I caught all of them then time sped up again.

"Nice catch Rei-Kun!" The server patted me on the back. Then again, I felt the intense stares pounding my back. I began sweating, I was so nervous and my mind went blank.

"Rei-kun are you alright?" My boss showed up to the table. I could see a news report on the television behind him describing that a very skilled non-human has broken into the city and was last spotted in the area that I worked in. Was that why they were staring? They think I'm the suspect? I felt like throwing up I was so nervous.

"Rei?" I completely spaced out, the entire restaurant was staring now.

"I… I'm not feeling so great, d… do you mind if I head out early?" All I could think about was leaving, I knew that I wasn't the suspect but my instincts told me to get the hell out of there.

"That's rare to see you like this Rei. Yeah sure go get some rest, I'll see you next week." My boss let me off early fortunately. I grabbed all my stuff and began to head home. I was starting to get paranoid now, what if I was being tailed.

"Impossible, what could anyone want with me?" I tried to calm myself down but it wasn't helping. Every sound I heard was like a trigger for my anxiety but I was becoming more aware of my surroundings and I had a feeling someone was watching me from the roof of a building.

"Ridiculous no one is up th…" Shockingly enough I saw a figure up on the roof. My knees were shaking I almost tripped over myself. I started to run as fast as I could to my house, I was only a few blocks away. I was halfway there when I crashed into something.

"Shit that hurt!" I looked up to see the figure of a girl with a terrified expression on her face. It was the girl from class 10B second year, Miho Akimoto.

"Miho what are you doing out here? Are you all right? Why are you running?" I bombarded with her with questions but she wasn't even looking at me but instead at the group behind me that was from the restaurant. The feeling of their intense stares pierced my back again. Miho was paralyzed in fear and my brain told me to run but my instincts told me to stay. I turned around.

"Out of the way boy if you know what's good for you." One of the men said. What did they want from Miho? Was she the suspect? Ridiculous she's been at my school for two years.

"Are you deaf kid? I said move." I took a step closer to them I don't know why. "Don't come any closer." He pulled out a knife.

"What do you want from her?" What was I doing? I really was an idiot.

"I guess I should tell you since you lead us to her." What was he talking about? "This girl you see here is a half blood" Human and non-human? "Our job is to take her back to the lab and perform an experiment on her." There was no way I was going to let that happen but what could I do? I only knew kendo and I had no weapon so I'm useless.

"I won't let you take her!" I shouted. It was a stupid thing to say.

"Fucking kid, have it your way then." He sprang at me with the knife. I narrowly avoided it. He gave me a deep cut on my arm and now I was surrounded by four of them. They were coming from all angles until one of them tackled me from behind.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

"Shut up, make any more noise and I'll break your arms." I couldn't move. "Boss what do we do with him?"

"We were only assigned to bring the girl alive, get rid of the boy." They were going to kill me. One of them held another knife to my throat. They were really going to do it. What's going to happen to Miho? I couldn't save her. What about Chiaki, Mom and Dad? I can't die here, shit.

"Sorry kid, this is where it ends for you." They all had a little laugh, the sick bastards. The knife was pressed against my neck now. I felt a strange feeling in my gut again, almost like a surge of power and then I blacked out. When I came to I saw four guys lying on the ground. There was blood everywhere and I had a knife in my hand. Miho was still there, she still look terrified.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"You killed them all." She barely got the words out. "You got up and killed all of them." I couldn't believe what she was saying. How could I have gotten up and killed them. That didn't matter anymore, I could hear sirens. We head to leave.

"Are you alright?" She didn't answer me. "Come on we need to get out of here" Thankfully she followed me. My best bet was to get to my house and ask my parents what was happening since I couldn't comprehend it myself. I could barely hold myself together, the world I knew was slowly crumbling in front of me. The sirens were getting closer so I took a detour into an alleyway. I took longer but I would have rather played it safe. My arm was still bleeding profusely and I could barely feel it now. My house was in sight now but I could see the flashing lights reflecting off the building behind us. Did they know we went this way? I kept asking myself but there were no witnesses. At least I thought there weren't any. Miho was falling behind.

"Hurry my house is right there." We crashed through my front door and there was my sister, and my mom, and my dad all sitting around the table drinking tea. My parents looked worried compared to Chiaki who was perfectly calm. I didn't know where to start.

"Your back early Shiro." My sister pointed out. "Your arm is gushing blood."

"Cut the bullshit!" Everyone looked at me surprised. I was shaking so much you could see the tea making small ripples in their cups. "Who the hell am I?"

"I guess you really did awaken, this is going to be troublesome." Chiaki was saying things as if I knew what she was talking about. "The cats out of the bag Riku, you should probably explain it to him." Riku was my father's first name but why was Chiaki calling him that?

"Shiro look at me closely, you've probably started connecting the dots already but I'll try to tell you this as clearly as possible."

"What are you talking abo.." He interrupted me.

"Shiro we don't have much time so please let me speak quickly." I sat down quietly. "You are not human." My eyes went wide. "I am not your real father and neither is your mother, we took you in when you were just a baby seventeen years ago." I couldn't believe what was going on.

"Your real parents were apart of a non-human clan with very unique abilities but the clan was wiped out during the war. Chiaki and you are the last of the clan." My mother was on the verge of tears as my Dad continued to speak. I could hear vehicles rolling up to the front of our house. Miho was quietly peering through the blinds.

"They've found us!" She was getting scared again.

"Come to the back now." My Dad opened a secret door and led us to an underground tunnel. "Shiro and you young girl follow Chiaki and do everything she tells you… I am afraid this is goodbye for now." Everything was happening so fast now, I couldn't handle the truth either. They were about to close the door and head to the front. You could hear the military at the door shouting.

"Wait!" I called out to Mom and Dad they looked back tears filling their eyes and running down their fragile faces. "Thank you for everything."

"Good luck Shiro." My dad said. I could barely hold in my emotions at this point.

"We love you Shiro." My mother said with her soothing voice. They closed the door and you could hear the military barge in. I felt the tickle of water running down my face. I'm going to miss mothers voice.