Something Important Was Missing

Blood drips down the young man's face. His eyes blurry from tears and the swelling from being hit too much. His eyes locked on to the three men in front of him. Named Axel, he was someone who had grown up in the worst parts of the city and had always been someone who would jump in to help those in need. It was as if it was burned into his very soul that one must stand up to injustice.

Even now, as his mind becomes hazy and the wounds on his body drip the very life blood that keeps him alive, he still dares not move. The reason being? The young girl behind him, who looked no more than eighteen, the same age as him, was curled up on the ground, trying to hold her tattered clothes together. She was a lucky one. She had been saved by Axel before anything more could happen.

"The fuck! This bastard just won't go down!" A large man covered in tattoos yelled out. He reached behind him and pulled out a gun.

"Woah! Man, are you nuts!?" One of the large man's comrades shouted in surprise.

"Shut the fuck up! I will not allow anyone to get in the way of my playing." The large man yelled as he turned and pointed his gun at Axel. "Any last words, you fucker?"

"Mmm…." Axel's lips curled up into a smile. Even at times like this, he could still smile. He had been someone who had no family from the start. He grew up with little money and had to run the streets, but he never once committed a crime. Hell, he didn't even have a last name but even so, he could still smile at a time like this.

Axel raised his head and smiled mockingly at the large man who was pointing the barrel of his gun at Axel's head. "Even if I am to die. I will at least know I was able to save this girl."

As his words fell, the sounds of sirens could be heard off in the distance. The girl who was behind Axel stared at Axel's back, which was perfectly straight and showed no signs of backing down. Her eyes were full of tears not because of what had happened to her but because the young man who was trying to save her was about to lose his life. "Wait! I will let hi…."

"No!" Axel interrupted the girl. "A girl should not sacrifice herself just because some assholes think they are amazing because they come in numbers and wield guns. They are nothing but villains. While I will stand here and protect those who are being harmed by these same villains. Life only comes around once, and it takes only one person to stand up and say no."

"What the fuck are you? Are you trying to be a fucking Hero!?" The large man yelled out while laughing.

"Call me what you will. I just do not wish to see others come to harm." Axel answered without hesitation. He never saw himself as a hero. Nor did he set out to be one. He just couldn't sit by while witnessing things happening in front of his eyes.

"Heh… well, Mr. Hero, say hello to god for me, will ya?" The large man laughed as he squeezed the trigger on his gun.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

----

'Damn, my head hurts…..' Axel thought as he held his head and opened his eyes. He had a splitting headache. But as his eyes focused and he looked at the view in front of him, he immediately found something very off.

While it was not far from something he was used to seeing when waking up, the room he was in had a few things that were questioning his eyesight. A degraded plaster ceiling. Walls with wallpaper falling off of it. The furniture was rustic and looked to have been mended in many ways. Nails, rope, and even bits of tape had been used to fix the furnishings in the room. Even the single window in the room had a wooden board covering part of it. While there was a closet, there was no door to it. He could clearly see the tattered clothes inside. The only door to the room had boards here and there nailed into it to keep it from falling apart. Even the bed he was laying on had a hard stiff mattress with ratty blankets.

In a section of the room, there was framing of what used to be a wall and behind that was a bathroom. But the thing that made Axel feel like something was off was the lamps in the room and a few other things that he did not have any idea of what they were. The lamps had some kind of bluish fluid on each side of the light in what Axel could only guess were glass tubes. Even the strange objects on the single table in the room glowed with an alluring blue light.

"Young Miss!?" A maid around sixteen to eighteen years of age came into the room and cried out when she saw the person on the bed sitting up.

Axel looked at the young woman who had run over with a worried yet look of relief on her face with a confused expression. He turned and looked around and saw no one else around him. But the more he looked, the more he realized something was even more off than just the room itself.

Axel looked down at his small yet delicate hands that were far from being his own. The skinny arms that were attached to them that were snow white, and then towards the chest that seemed to have two strange bumps on them. Without even a moment's hesitation, Axel jumped up on the bed so that he was standing on it and lifted the tattered nightshirt, and pulled down the white undergarments that had seen better days.

"Young Miss, what are you…."

"Where the hell is my Little Brother!?" It was only then that Axel realized something very important was missing.