1 Chapter One: Fresh Beginning

Japan, Hokkaido, 1534. 

It's a freezing cold day, as always. The deep and satisfying crunch of the snow is like music to the ears. The cold air could make your lungs dry. You can faintly hear laughs, happy laughs at that. 

A frozen lake is in the distance, two best friends are playfully laughing while sliding on the ice. 

"Tag!" Issei yells. Soon after, he falls onto the cold ice. 

Yuta laughs, "I'm gonna catch you!" He jumps off the ice with substantial force and tags Issei back, "Got you!" He yells. 

Issei jumps in the air, then he steps off the air with great force. He gets close enough to tag Yuta but, he falls over. 

"That's the second time you fell over!" Yuta laughs. 

"Shut up!" Issei yells back. 

Yuta mocks Issei, "Keep crying boo-hoo!" 

"The boar is probably ready, let's go eat!"

Issei and Yuta approach the cooled-down boar. The boar is crisp, yet tender. The smell is immaculate. Just by the smell, and look alone, you can tell it will be a feast. 

"I haven't had boar in weeks! They are hard to catch, even with a spear." Yuta says. 

"Well, I caught one so we can feast so we can keep walking. We might find a strong foe so, we need to be prepared." Issei follows up. 

Yuta smiled at Issei, "Well, thanks for that! Now let us dig in." 

The texture and taste is better than any boar they have ever had. 

"Have you been practicing cooking?" Yuta asks. 

Issei replies, "Yes, I have. Is it good?" 

"Yeah, of course! Let's stop yapping and eat!" Yuta says. 

They devour the boar in less than an hour, down to the bone. Yuta and Issei both say in sync, "I'm stuffed." 

Issei says, "Let's go to bed, the sun is going down." 

"First, we have to watch the sunset!" Yuta yells excitedly. 

Issei remembers, "Right!" 

They both watch the sunset. The bright pink sky surrounding the deep red sun is the most beautiful thing either of them has ever seen. The sky has no clouds, all there is covering it are the humongous pine trees. 

After a long while, the sun seemingly disappears back into the earth, leaving the now deep pink sky empty. 

Stars start to appear as the sky gets darker, almost as if they come out of thin air. 

Yuta's white hair glistens in the moonlight. He then asks Issei, "Why do the stars just pop up when the sky is dark?" 

Issei answers, "No one knows, that I know of. Best to get to sleep, now. Goodnight." 

"Goodnight," Yuta whispers. They both put away their flimsy wood daggers and went to bed. All they have for warmth is a deer hide blanket. Other than that, it is just snow, for miles and miles.

Issei and Yuta wake up to the peaceful tune of the birds chirping. Issei's hair shines in the bright sunlight, despite being carbon black. His ripped, white sleeves and oversized pants stand out in the bright atmosphere. 

The mountains stand tall and mighty, and the icicles on the giant pine trees are nearly transparent. Hokkaido is a pure white landscape of ice and mountains. The smell of burnt firewood goes on for miles. The taste of the snow is cold, yet burning. It's almost pleasant in a way. The world around Issei and Yuta is a great mystery to them, they must explore it. It is surely their purpose.

Yuta and Issei wake up quickly and gather water from the lake. They reach the lake in less than 30 minutes, for it is not far away. 

The lake has a wooden log crossing it. 

"Hey, Yuta! Let's try and push each other off that log." Issei says. 

Yuta agrees, "Ok, but I'll beat you!" 

3, 2, 1, go! Yuta rushes in with a step forward. 

The world seems to slow down, and Issei jumps up. 

Yuta is on the edge of the log and is losing his balance, Issei thinks this is a good opening and dashes towards Yuta. 

Yuta smirks, it was just an act. He was on guard the entire time. 

Issei sees this and quickly dashes backward, it's too late. 

Yuta already caught Issei off guard, and then Yuta ran straight at him. 

Issei accepts his fate and puts his arms out, though it's just a game, and he's not in any danger at all. 

Yuta catches Issei and throws him in the air, then slams him down back to the ground. 

Yuta isn't worried, he knows Issei is strong enough to recover. 

Issei uses an excuse, "0-1! You said best of three, so." "I never said that…" Yuta mutters, "But ok!"

 3, 2, 1, go! This time, Issei immediately rushes to Yuta. Yuta does a front tuck over Issei and does a kick to knock him off, but Issei jumps into the air, and by the time Yuta turns around, Issei is already in the process of punching above him. Yuta closes his eyes and calms down to the point that all he can hear is his breathing. Instead of sight, Yuta can feel everything around him. Almost as if his very soul is talking to him. Yuta's body seems to move on its own, he ducks down to his knees and punches Issei in the stomach three times, he goes higher up in the air with each punch. On top of that, each punch seems to be stronger than the last.

The force is so great, that Issei coughs up blood and gets sent flying into the air. 

Yuta quickly tends to Issei, he's knocked out cold. Yuta can't carry the water bucket and Issei at the same time. 

Yuta decides to go back for water after Issei wakes up. Yuta remembers the first time meeting Issei. 

Yuta is hiding behind his mother, just like Issei. Yuta thinks that maybe he can get a friend, being shy is still a similarity after all. "Say hello to Issei, Yuta." His mother tells him. "H- Hi, Issei," Yuta utters. 

Issei responds, "Hi." Yuta was confident he found a new friend. He eventually becomes more open to Issei the more they talk. 

Their favorite thing to do was go into the woods and pretend they were survivalists, hunting squirrels with the traps their dad showed them, making their own campfires, and having sword fights with tree branches. But by far their favorite thing to do was climb trees, they could see what they thought was the entire world. The crisp, cold air. Their cold breath showed itself when they breathed out, everything was perfect. The landscape of snowy mountains, and green pine trees covered in the freezing snow. It was truly beautiful. 

They would watch the sunset every night together. Day by day, they got stronger and stronger. Until one day they were able to take on fully armed soldiers with nothing but their bare hands. 

One day, they got lost out in the woods, they did not care. It was their destiny to explore this vast world. Once they are done, they shall return home. 

Yuta snaps out of it. It's been two months out on their own, their survival training was well worth it. Surviving was easy, they had the strength, the intelligence, and the strategy. But he wonders what his mother was talking about when she said people 100 times stronger are out in the world, able to harness invisible energy that would give them strength. 

Would they need to learn it to survive? 

Will they be killed if not? 

While carrying Issei back to their campfire, Yuta is thinking about what they will do if someone attacks them. He is paranoid, everything around him is scaring him. The sky is getting darker. 

Yuta finally gets back to the campfire and lays Issei down in his bed. Yuta watches the sunset by himself, for the first time in many years. It is saddening, it's all his fault Issei was hurt. 

Would Issei be mad at him? What if he runs away?

The next morning, Issei woke up. He sat up, stretched, and jumped to his feet. To Yuta's surprise, he wasn't mad. He was understanding that it was Yuta's only choice, 

"Don't feel bad, it was just a game. I know your body must've moved on its own, you would never lie to me.

Yuta says, trying to move the conversation to another topic, "I'm thirsty, we didn't have any water yesterday. Let's go back to the lake."

Issei agrees and they walk to the lake. The path to the lake takes a very long time, almost two hours. Issei and Yuta always take the more dangerous shortcut. But, that was not a good idea.

Issei and Yuta are talking to each other. Issei has his hands behind his head, in a carefree position. While Yuta is walking nervously, the dangerous path always scares him. He remembers last week, they saw a giant beast. A boar with odd proportions, and an odd color and pattern on its fur. Issei wasn't awake, and Yuta walked by himself. He ran back to the camp immediately.

"What are you so scared of?" Issei asks. 

Yuta says with a suspicious look, "Nothing, just a lot of leaves, and it's dark." 

"There aren't many trees on this shortcut, and it's bright. But okay," Issei says.

Issei and Yuta are halfway through the shortcut when they see the monstrously giant boar.

Issei yells, "What the hell is that?!" Yuta shushes him.

"Well, we have to get water. What will we do?" Issei mutters.

Yuta whispers, "We must sneak around it. This boar does not have any eyes, but I bet it has good hearing or smell. Be on guard"

Yuta and Issei quietly take one step at a time, they are both sweating from the pressure. Yuta steps onto one of the branches, making a quiet snapping sound, they could barely even hear it. But the boar has extraordinary hearing. The boar runs toward them both at max speed, the snow doesn't seem to crunch under his feet.

"At least we know it has good hearing!" Issei yells.

 They both sidestep quickly and quietly. The boar can't find them.

Yuta has an idea, "What if we run fast enough that we don't make sound?"

 "It's worth a shot!" Issei whispers.

Issei and Yuta run fast enough to not make a single sound in the snow, the boar never finds them.

"Glad we're past that. Keep your guard up, though. Issei says

Yuta nods his head, trying not to make any sound.

"You know, it can't hear us from here," Issei chuckles

"Oh! Here it is."

 Yuta and Issei reach the lake, and they gather enough water for a whole week in the buckets that Yuta left the day before. They are pretty heavy though, if they see the boar again. They might not be able to escape.

Issei and Yuta go back to their campfire on the normal path, just to be safe.

Not much happens, they just talk for a while. They haven't gotten much time to talk to each other for a long time.

"So, how did you beat me in the log game?" Issei asks

Yuta answers, "I don't exactly know. My mother used to talk about invisible energy, it could've been that. All I remember is punching you, and then tending to you after you were knocked out. You even coughed up blood!"

"You seem too excited," Issei says

"I am, I'm happy I beat you," Yuta says

Issei complains, "I was knocked out and didn't wake up for a day!" 

Yuta apologizes, "I'm sorry. It's just that, you were always stronger than me.

"It's fine, don't worry," Issei mutters.

Yuta was planning to tell Issei that he had seen the boar before, but he forgot all about it after their conversation.

"Let's race!" Yuta yells.

Issei agrees and gets into the running position. Yuta gets to his knees, and puts his hand on the floor, to push off.

3, 2, 1, go!

They take off. Issei takes more of a strategizing approach and jumps off the branches of trees, while Yuta takes a logical approach and goes in a straight line. Issei has the lead so far. Using strategy was a good idea, so Yuta copied him. Yuta goes to the top of the trees and jumps off from there, Yuta gains the lead almost immediately. Issei gives a threatening frown and jumps to the ground. He starts to run faster. By the time he's done with acceleration, it looks like he's just a blur. Yuta can't see him and expects he's still in the lead, but to his surprise, Issei is already at the camp. Issei waits for 10 minutes for Yuta to get there.

"Took you long enough!" Issei shouts

Yuta says, "I wasn't in the lead? I thought I was way ahead!"

"Whatever, let's just sit down and eat," Issei says

Issei and Yuta sit down at the campfire, they use their clay water bottles for the water, the texture is like a chalkboard. It is unsatisfying to rub your hand against it. 

Yuta pours water from the bucket into the clay bottle and spills most of it.

"Come on! That was a day's worth of water!" Issei yells

Yuta bribes, "I'll give you some food, how about that?"

"Okay," Issei mutters.

Issei pours water into the clay bottle and puts the roasted squirrel Yuta caught yesterday onto his clay plate.

Yuta has an extra squirrel, so he puts it onto his clay plate.

"It has been a confusing day, eh?" Issei said calmly.

Yuta says, "Definitely,"

It was getting late, the sun was about to go down. Issei and Yuta climbed to the top of a tree and down sat on a branch.

"Last night was the only night I watched the sunset alone in a while." Yuta thinks

The sun is deep orange, and the sky is deep red. It matches the confusing and scary day that occurred.

The sun sets, leaving the sky black. That night had no stars. The moon that night, though. Is something they call, a blood moon.

"What?! The moon is colored deep red!" Issei yells.

"I've heard of this! It's called a blood moon! It's a bad omen!" Yuta shouts. "Get to bed! We might be too late!"

Issei and Yuta jump down from the tree and put out their fire. Then, they go straight to bed, keeping one eye open, but they eventually fall asleep from exhaustion. Little did they know, this would be the best thing to ever happen to them.