1 Chapter 1: Prologue

Cars zoom by, civilians of all ages fill up the sidewalks, and birds soar through the clouds, flaunting their freedom for the whole city to see. This makes up an average day within the metropolis known as Sakura city. Sakura city is one of Japan's most popular tourist attractions for both westerners and Japanese people alike. Its pristine/elegant atmosphere is what skyrocketed the city's popularity. However, there is a reason why it gives off that vibe, as Sakura city is home to some of the most prestigious schools around the globe, most notably Sakura academy, the poster school for not only the city but Japan as a whole. In fact, a student from said school can be seen exiting a convenience store, with a bag hanging from one hand and the other being used to shield his eyes from the sun.

Geez, this heat is terrible.

The boy's name isYuno Gushiken. This boy has pitch black hair which meshes perfectly well with the white dress shirt and black slacks that makes up his school uniform. The small but noticeable pink text, imprinted onto the right side of the shirt, which read "SAKURA ACADEMY" completes the average Sakura academy uniform. Yuno attempts to take one step forward but is immediately cut off by a girl wearing the same white dress shirt, but with a black skirt instead. His eyes trail off to follow the girl as she moves past him. The uniform doesn't catch his gaze, but rather the long, beautiful silver hair that glistens in the sun and reaches her back.

He's brought back to reality after a boy with orange hair and a group of his three other friends appear from behind the girl and surround her.

"Hey, beautiful. Where're you heading off to so quickly?"

"I thought I told you to back off," she snaps.

"Relax there, beautiful. We just wanted to know why you were leaving us so soon. After all," the orange-haired boy says as he leans in toward her to the point where his nose could touch her silver hair. "We just got acquainted with each other. It'd be a real shame if we were to lose our undeveloped connection, wouldn't it?"

The Sakura academy student can't believe what he isseeing. A cold shiver goes down his spine, causing his face to distort in disgust. Needless to say, this whole situation is uncomfortable, even for Yuno, who is not on display for the group's attention. Looking for others to have the same feeling as he does, Yuno looks around and sees everyone around him continue on about their day.

People obviously notice it. I mean, how could they not when it's happening right in front of them? The problem isn't that people don't notice it. The problem is that they don't want to stoop their noses where it doesn't belong. That's the mindset a majority of people within the country all collectively share.

Even though most of the population share this mindset, surely there's at least one person that has thought that this situation has gone too far and needs to stop, right? Surely there has to be one person who feels like it is their duty to step in and help this girl, right?

"Oi, you heard the lady."

The orange haired boy feels a hand grasp his shoulder. Bearing a similar reaction to his group of guys and the girl he was targeting, the orange haired boy's eyes widen in confusion as to why this guy was interfering with the situation. Yuno looks at him with the eyes of someone who doesn't want to deal with the incident, but is forced to anyway.

"Back off."

The orange haired boy backs away a bit as his party comes to his aid.

"Who do you think you're talking to, punk?!"

"Yeah, that's our boss you just touched."

"Anyone that messes with Lord Sen has to answer to us!"

"Quiet!"

Sen, the boy with orange hair, and the leader of this band of bootlickers, raises his balled up fist to his shoulder. This single action alone silences the whole party.

"You…What's your deal, huh? You Ms. Beautiful's boyfriend or something?"

Yuno looks at the silver haired beauty again and looks back into the eyes of Sen and his group while he announces his answer.

"Yes, actually. I am her boyfriend."

"As if…!"

The girl denies his statement and kicks the boy on his leg, causing him to crouch in pain. She walks off afterwards, abandoning her "savior" with her unfinished business, all while leaving him with one last piece of information before she'd disappear completely.

"I don't need some 'hero' to come to my rescue. I can handle myself."

You ungrateful little…!

"Well, well…"

Hearing that voice snaps Yuno out of his thoughts and brings him back to reality. Sen helps the boy remember that the problem isn't over yet, now that he entered the fray and everything. Sen, along with his group, progresses towards him.

Each step they take not only brings them closer to Yuno, but it also makes him dread what was to come, almost as if he foresees the act they are going to do to him. To avoid the act that has yet to come, and to avoid getting anyone else involved into this predicament, the boy goes with his first and does what anyone would do in a similar situation. He runs.

"Hey! Get back here!!"

With the speed of an elite sprinter, the boy maneuvers past Sen and his group, and hightails it out of the location that bothered the general public. Yuno, with all his might, dodges the civilians in front of him, all while trying to outrun the combatants behind him. He skids around the corner and enters an alley. What lies before the boy is an ending he can't avoid…

Haaa...Dead end…?

"HA! Seems like you ran to your own demise, dumbass!"

"Yeah! Seems like the end for you!"

"You've messed up big time, 'hero'!"

Can idiots one, two and three get anymore idiotic?

The leader soon appears before the boy with a switchblade in his right hand and the left in his pocket. Sen walks past his makeshift crew and heads towards the boy, seemingly stuck with no access to an exit.

"Look at what we've got here, fellas, a bird trapped in the cage that it built for himself," Sen remarks "This is what happens when you try to play 'hero', Sakura boy. Not only did you ruin my chances at getting with that silver haired goddess, but now, you've ruined your life in the process."

Sen closely approaches Yuno, his gang following right behind him. Their goal must've been to surround the boy to eliminate any shred of hope he has of escaping. Seemingly to intimidate him, Sen brings the knife up closer to his face as the distance between him and Yuno shorten.

"It's ok, I'll make sure we don't rough you up too badly."

Things did not seem to be going we-

"Oh, there you are Yuno!"

The hairs of everyone (besides Yuno) within the alleyway stands up. When it comes to the speed at which Sen and his gang turned around to face the mysterious voice behind them, anyone can tell that they had been startled. After taking a deeper look at the person in front of them, shock and surprise quickly shifts into disappointment for the leader Sen. He wasn't disappointed by the person in front of him, no. He was more or less upset with himself for being frightened by a short boy wearing the same Sakura academy uniform as the boy they were about to torment.

The short boy who stood at the beginning of the alley has short and wild blonde hair, which clashes heavily with the colors of his uniform. The bag that hangs from his wrist are the same type of convenience store bag that Yuno had with him. Meaning that it was a fact. This boy is in some way, shape or form, connected to Yuno Gushiken.

"Woah! Is this where everything is going to go down?! No wonder you picked the alley! It's the perfect place for you to begin your slaughter!"

Awe reveals itself on the young boy's face as he scans around the entire area.

"Oh, don't worry about me though, I'll just make myself comfortable and watch the show."

In one fell swoop, the boy plops himself down to the ground and forces open the bag of chips he bought from the store. As he munchs and munchs away without a care in the world, Sen moves closer to the boy who, seemingly, was not a threat.

"Hey kid, what's your deal?! Did you just come to watch your friend get jumped while you chow down on some chips? Ha! What a joke!"

The other boys in his group finds what Sen had said to be hilarious. Egregiously laughing like a pack of hyenas, the group of delinquents makes light of the situation and proceeds to have fun with the two Sakura academy students.

"Oh, it seems like you didn't hear what I had said before. I didn't come here to watch my friend get beat, no, of course not…I came to watch a slaughter."

"....Eh?"

The smile that forms on the boy sends multiple waves of shivers down the group's spines. Sen might not have been as spooked as his contemporaries, but every single hair on his body certainly raised up thanks to that devilish smile.

Not even a second later, he hears the sound of two skulls colliding with each other. Before the other boy could even react to what he had heard, a punch to the face sends him flying back towards the alley's entrance.

The three goons were dealt with and laid unconscious on the concrete. There were two other people left standing in the battlefield: the leader, Sen, and the individual committing the slaughter, Yuno Gushiken.

Sen can't help but quake, he can't help but crumble, he can't help but compulsively sweat the instant his eyes meet with Yuno's. Fear. The one singular emotion Sen feels right now, in that moment, was fear.

"N-No…I-It can't be..It's not possible! Y-You Sakura students are supposed to be spoiled rich brats with no talent! So why…Why do you have the skill that can rival a reaper agent?! What are you, a Specialist?!"

"..."

There is no reply. Yuno doesn't answer the question that was presented to him. All he does is continue to move forward in the same direction his opponent is moving back to. Sen notices that and keeps scooting back, but realizes that it was futile. He isn't going to be able to outrun this being, not in the state he's in. All he can do is shake vigorously, as he imagines what would happen when Yuno finally reached him…

But nothing happened.

"C'mon Sora, let's go."

Yuno waltzes past the fear-struck Sen and makes his way over to the short blonde-haired boy that goes by the name of Sora.

"What just happened?" Sen thinks as he continues to hyperventilate. Eventually, the shock hits the leader like a truck, and Sen falls back to the ground. In the end, the 4 boys that started the problem in the first place, are neutralized and dealt with by the boy who tried to do the right thing.

____________________________________________________________ ***

Yuno and Sora can be seen walking out from the alleyway and back onto the main street. The sun is setting sooner than expected, which prompts the two boys to get to their destination as soon as possible.

"Man, that took a little longer than I expected it and now we're going to be late! Ugh! Your Uncle's going to kill us when we get home."

"No, he won't. If I explain to him everything that happened he should let us off the hook."

"But we wouldn't have to do that if you had handled them quick enough. See, if I was in your position, I'd taken them down in less than 10 seconds! I am faster than you, after all!"

"Yeah, but you're also shorter than me as well, which constitutes your increased speed."

Sora's eyes widen as he darts back up at Yuno. The look on his face resembles that of a child getting ready to throw a fit.

"EH?! What's that supposed to mean?!" Sora shouts.

"It means exactly how I said it."

"That's not cool! That's not how you talk to your best friend!"

"Who said anything about us being friends?"

"YUNO!!"

"Relax, I'm just joking."

"Not funny!"

Sora whines as he grabs onto Yuno's arm and begins shaking him back and forth. This interaction was natural between the two boys. They've been friends since grade school, so by now, they are comfortable around each other. So, in all honesty, Yuno is right to question them only being just friends, because their relationship has developed into more than just a regular friendship, it's become a brotherhood.

"So, what caused you to get into that situation in the first place?"

"...I'll tell ya about it later."

Yuno can't answer his question right away, not because he doesn't know how to, or how to describe what happened. It's because just thinking about it gets him riled up. After trying to do the right thing and helping out someone in a tricky situation, the only thanks he got was a hard kick to the leg and a lecture. The cause of the incident appears in his mind; the girl with silver hair, who donned the Sakura academy uniform, flashes within Yuno's mind.

I hope I never run into her again.

In that moment in time, Yuno Gushiken stated to himself what he had truly wanted.

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****

The silver haired girl, wearing a Sakura academy uniform, can be seen walking down the streets of Sakura city. She can be seen with a pissed expression on her face. Thinking back on what had happened earlier makes her blood boil. It isn't just the group of boys that were hitting on her that pisses her off, it was also the fact that the black haired boy had jumped in to try and save her, like she was damsel in distress.

Damn those guys, especially him! I can handle my own self, I don't need some knight in shining armor to come to my rescue damnit!

RING RING!

The phone in her skirt pocket begins to vibrate. She pulls out her phone to see who it is that's calling her. In that instant, her angry face shifts to a warm smile. Her whole demeanor changes as soon as she sees who is trying to reach her..

"Hey, Auntie. Yeah, I was just passing by the convenience store….Yeah, I'm on my way back now."

She hangs up the phone and places her cell back into her skirt pocket. Seemingly heading back from where she came from, the girl continues to walk forward so that she could arrive at her next destination. For some reason, the boy with black hair pops back into her mind. She balls up her fist as her blood begins to boil again. In that instant, around a multitude of people, the girl shouted how she truly felt.

"I don't want to see that asshole again in my life!"