Chapter 1

In a dark cave, a boy with black eyes and a pale face is staring blankly at the fireplace he had just set up. A snake slowly slithers his way to him, ready to strike.

"Master...why"

He picks up three rock and slowly swirls the rock around his palm, this was something his master had done whenever he's in deep thought.

The boy's name is Long(pronounces "Dragon" in Chinese. 龙) it was a name given to him by his Master. He remembers laying lifelessly in a pile of snow outside a facility, he was wearing red.

His Master was an infamous mercenary who works for a group who calls themselves "The Masked Phantoms" and he had taken him in as his disciple. Long raises his hand to cover his eye and remember the story his Master had told him on the night he found Long.

***

"Look what we have here." The man whose wearing a demon mask stare down at Long, noticing the red which distinguishes Long with the snow

"Help..." Long looked up to the man who's wearing a demon mask. Long had used the last of his strength and quietly croaked out those words. His eyes were red.

"Oni! What's taking you so long?" A man with a fox mask called out. Long remember hearing those words in the background

"There's a boy here with red eyes, think he might be a vampire or something?"

"Oh really? Let me see." The men with a fox mask came over and kick Long over, forcibly open his eye. Only to find a normal black pupil

"Oh come on, stop messing around Oni, you blind or something?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" the demon mask bend over and look, and realize that the eyes are black again. "What the..."

"Ha, you must be seeing things. Let's report back quickly. Tonight's pretty strange night isn't it? The target location had no sign of living by the time we arrived, seems like someone else already had their eyes that facility." Fox face drops the body and starts to walk away

Oni stares at the lifeless body in the snow and thinks deeply. "Think he might be a survivor?"

Fox stopped in his track, and look back at Long "Then we must get rid of him..." He pulls out his knife and walks slowly toward Long, and stab. Suddenly, Long's lifeless body quickly pounce right, his eyes still closed.

"Must....live..." Long slowly open his eye, his black pupil slowly turns blue. "Eliminate all threat."

"Oh-ho! This is interesting, think he might be a COMPLETE?" Fox said, eyes wide open.

Oni too seems surprised, and before he could reply, he cried out "Watch out!"

Long quickly runs towards Fox and Fox quickly drew out his dagger. "What an energetic one" and he swings his dagger to intercept Long's strike, Long quickly ducks down and in an instant, he planted his index and middle finger in Fox's throat.

Oni's mouth drops open, surprised at what the little boy is capable of doing. Fox too, his mouth wide open, except instead of amazement Fox is grasping for air he finds himself unable to breathe, and as a matter of seconds, Fox drops face-first into the snow. Long then turns around and look at his next potential target.

Oni's body shivers from the cold stare, "looks like I'm the prey this time?" he took his stance. The two stood there what seems to be an eternity until Long made the first move. As Oni start to pull out his dagger Long suddenly stopped in his track and fell down. Oni studdered, he slowly walks toward Long and flips the body over.

"Whew." Oni let out the breath he's been holding for a while now, and start to walk towards Fox's body to checks his pulse.

"As dead as a man can be huh.... What kind of monster did they create this time?" Suddenly a scary thought came into his mind.

*What if he's the one who....*

He looks back at the facility, which seems almost invisible in the snowstorm.

He looks back at the little boy with the eye of a man who had just made a big decision.

***

Long puts down his land and throws a rock into the crackling fire.

His Master had left him a farewell note, what it said was basically a simple "You are now on your own. You have already surpassed me a long time ago before you even realized it. -Oni"

His Master had told him countless time that he is not fit to be his master but instead he is more like a foster parent and he would often joke around by calling him "son." But Long never once called him "dad" or any of the sort, something inside him is telling him *family is not needed*. Long took out the note his master had left him and look at it over the fire. To his surprise, the word began to fade and a picture starts to show up.

It was an image of a phantom, holding a mask. Under the image there's the word "USA" under it

It was at this moment Long realized ~~He fucked up~~ (Just kidding)

It was at this moment Long realized his next destination,

"Masked Phantom...."

Long throws the rock in his hand towards the snake, and before the snake realize what was going on, it was dead.

Long get up and look towards the moon, perhaps it was just the moonlight, his eye shimmers blue.

"I'm coming..."