Chapter 1

Returning Home

Red hot flames burned and ate away at the architecture of the NOL branch. Standing amongst the flames was a young man with hair as black as charcoal and eyes as blue as the azure sky in an empty branch base that he himself had set aflame. "No one was here. Well, it only makes my job easier. I couldn't bear to silence any familiar faces."

At the 13th Hierarchical City, Kagutsuchi…

The white-haired man lay down, looking up at the cloudy skies, not a care in the world. At least, he didn't have any cares YET. He gave out a big yawn and closed his eyes, welcoming sleep. It was a nice day and it would be a waste to spend it fighting.

Just as he was slipping into slumber, he felt a slip of paper land on his head. Aggravated, he took the paper and looked at it.

It was a wanted poster of the man with the highest bounty in history. The SS-Rank Criminal wanted by the NOL, Ragna the Bloodedge. The man looked at the wanted poster and grinned. They finally managed to get his face right.

Ragna may be a criminal that was constantly hunted down by many Bounty Hunters, but ever since his first day as a wanted man, the terribly distorted face of what the NOL passed off as him just pissed him off.

"It's about damn time they got it right. All those previous posters were horrible." He chuckled a little before he crumpled the poster into a wrinkled ball and threw it away.

"There you are, Ragna!"

Ragna looked over at Noel, a former NOL soldier. After recent events, she had officially deserted the NOL and after that, she went off on her own for a bit.

"I've been looking all over for you," she said as she looked around, "I heard that Tao would be with you. Where is she?" Ragna groaned exhaustedly, "This is just my luck. I finally manage to ditch that damn cat and now you show up. I thought I could finally get some peace and quiet for once."

Ever since the recent disasters, Noel has managed to learn to put up with Ragna's rude attitude. However, there were some moments here and there where he ends up saying something completely wrong.

"Wouldn't it be safer for you if Tao were with you?"

Ragna remained silent, trying desperately to get some sleep.

About Ten Years Ago…

Ragna was laying on the soft grass, gazing up at the blue sky without a single care in the world. He smiled, enjoying and holding onto this moment, hoping it would last forever.

"Brother!"

Ragna sat up and gazed off into the distance to see Jin and Saya run over to him. He was about to greet them when he noticed someone else approaching. He couldn't make out who that third person was. When he looked at Jin and Saya, he could see their faces clearly, but when he looked at this third kid, his vision got blurry and fogged. All he could make out was his coal black hair.

Ragna woke up and found Taokaka sitting on his chest, his head clenched between her hands, er, paws.

"Hey, hey, Good Guy, you need to wake up, meow! Tao is starving to death. Tao needs to eat neow!"

Ragna groaned and pushed the Kaka warrior off of him. He stood up from his resting spot and started pacing off towards town, with Taokaka and Noel following after him.

"Who was that other kid?"

The Burnt Ruins of the Ikaruga NOL Branch…

Jin stood there, looking upon the freshly burned NOL branch. He shuffled through the ashes, investigating, looking for clues as to what happened. After a few dull moments of finding nothing, he managed to find something abnormal. It was an entire bookcase full of documents, files, and records untouched by the flames that brought the building to its destruction.

He shifted through the files to see if he could find anything that could help him in his search and discovered every file in the R, T, J, and S sections of the records were missing.

"What was this attacker looking for?"

Orient Town…

The black-haired boy rummaged through the files, burning the unwanted files. He had already cleared through the J and T sections, finding the files in those categories that he happened to be looking for. Unfortunately, the file he was looking for in the S section wasn't there. He found the last file he was looking for in the R section. He had the other files he wanted under his arms. He looked around for a good place to rest and sat down near a Chinese restaurant and began looking over the files.

He started with the J section. There were two files of interest in the J category. He started by looking through Jin's file.

He looked through the file thoroughly and burned it to ash after he was finished and then began to look through the other file, HIS file.

He used to be a member of the NOL, but he deserted them recently and began to attack them once he found out they were hunting someone.

As he was reminded of that, he burned his file and moved onto the next one: Ragna the Bloodedge.

"He's still alive," Jacky thought, "But I doubt he's doing very well. Please, Ragna, don't die until I find you."

He looked over the information and looked through the records on where he was last scene. "The 13th Hierarchical City, Kagutsuchi. Well that's convenient." He threw the file over his shoulder after he set it aflame before looking at the final file. Tsubaki Yayoi, the only person whose file he would not burn.

"I wonder how she is right now."

Years Ago, NOL Military Academy…

"Come on, Makoto, stop teasing the poor boy," Jacky said. The Beastkin was hugging Carl Clover hard and she was pretty much squeezing the life out of him, but she managed to reluctantly release him from the affectionate chokehold.

"God, you're such a killjoy, Jacky, you know that?"

"Yeah, yeah, cry me a river, Squirrel Girl!" Jacky replied, "If you ended up killing Carl like that, I don't think the military would even allow such a…'dangerous' girl in." He laughed a little at saying 'dangerous'.

Carl distanced himself from Makoto, not wanting to have what life he had left drained out of him.

"Where's Noel? I thought for sure she'd be here?" Jacky looked around for her, but found no signs of her in the crowd of students roaming the halls. Makoto grinned at Jacky with a teasing gaze. "Are ya sure that Noel's the one you're really waiting on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Squirrel Girl."

"Good afternoon, Makoto, Jacky, Carl," said a familiar voice. Jacky froze up, just barely managing to turn around to look at Tsubaki and Noel. "H-hey, Tsubaki, what's up, what took you so long?"

Tsubaki sighed and shot Noel a brief, annoyed glance and explained, "Sorry about that, but Noel had to return some books to the library and just couldn't wait."

Makoto wrapped her arm around Jacky's shoulder. "I think it's safe to say that a few of us were worried you wouldn't show."

"Really, who would that be?"

"None other than Ja-!"

Before the Beastkin was able to finish that sentence, Jacky had bashed an open hand into the back of her head on instinct, fire encircling his hands. "Don't talk about things that ain't your business, Squirrel Girl!"

Makoto began rubbing her head, which had sprouted some first-degree burns. She's lucky he didn't turn up the heat.

After that, the military students had finally left campus for a few moments for lunch. They had fun and joked around.

Those were better times. They were fun times. A time that he could spend with his friends more freely. Noel, Carl, Makoto, and Jin. But the one whose company he enjoyed the most was Tsubaki. He missed those days and wished that he could retreat back to that time, but unfortunately, reality is a bitch and he just had to accept that.

Jacky snapped out of his reminiscing and stood up to leave. "I can't concern myself with her. Ragna and Jin are my top priorities. Both their files state that they were last seen in Kagutsuchi. They're close by, I bet. Ragna, Jin, I hope that when I find you, I find you under good terms. I'm coming home!"