A man was running down a hall, away from what he couldn’t tell, a masked pursuer wielding a scythe was chasing after him. As fast as he could run he couldn’t escape his assailant, in fear, he tripped over his own feet, stumbling and falling on the ground. He looked up in terror as the hooded assassin stared through his skull-like mask, blood red eyes piercing his soul. “Wh… What do you want from me?” asked the trembling man
“…. Your life.” He raised the scythe and swung it down, slicing through the neck and severing the head. He breathed a sigh of relief, removing his mask and hood to reveal spiky blonde hair with fair skin, and a scar over his right eye. “Another one down.” The scythe shrunk back down into its inactive DITE form. He placed it in his back pocket and walked out of the corridor. He walked out of the building and looked around. It was a cloudy night, getting ready to storm, there was a ferocious wind stirring up. “hmm.. looks like I better head back home.” He turned down the sidewalk and began walking. After about 30 minutes of walking hi phone rang. “Yeah mom?” he said, picking up his phone.
“Hey, Ryu, when are you coming home? We need to talk about something.” Said his mom
“Uhh, yeah.. I’ll be home soon mom, just went out for a walk.” His stomach dropped, in fear that his mom discovered his secret life.
“Okay hun, I’ll see you when you get home.” She hung up the phone, leaving Ryu staring into space.
“Doe… does she know about me?” He wanted to throw up, his legs felt like jello as he forced them to move, one step at a time. After about 2 hours of walking, he finally reached his front door, taking a deep breath he put his key into the lock and opened the door. “Hello?” he walked into the living room, his mom was sitting on the couch, drinking coffee. “Hey mom,” he said, putting his bag down.
“We need to talk… Ryu, you’re moving…” said his mother, taking a sip of her coffee.
“To where?” replied Ryu with a sigh of relief.
“The Academy city, Zuellni, go pack your things, you leave tomorrow morning.
“You can’t just make me leave my home like this mother!” said Ryu, becoming upset at the news.
“Ryu, it’s for the best, you’ll get a much better education in the military arts academy there.”
“I’d much rather go to school here! With friends I know!” exclaimed Ryu, getting louder.
“RYU ITS FINAL! You are going to Zuellni! Now go pack your bags!” said his mother, raising her tone to match his. Ryu stormed off into his room slamming the door behind him.
“I can’t believe she’s making me leave…” he pulled out his phone and started calling his friends to tell them goodbye. One conversation in particular was the hardest,
“Hey Ryu” answered a female voice on the other end of the line
“Hey…. Raiza?” replied Ryu, his voice trembling.
“What’s wrong? You don’t sound okay.” Replied Raiza
“No... I’m not… can we meet up somewhere, there’s something I have to tell you.” Said Ryu, a knot forming in his stomach.
“Why don’t we meet up at the park? This seems important. I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” Said Raiza, hanging up the phone.
“Sounds good…” said Ryu, putting the phone down, throwing on a jacket and heading to the park. He walked for about 5 minutes till he saw her sitting on a swing, with a look of worry on her face. She had long brown hair with big crystal blue eyes, her skin was fair and her jacket hugged her curves perfectly. Ryu walked over nervously and sat next to her. “Hey…”
“Hey” she said with a smile, “what did you need to talk about?”
“I… I’m leaving… for Zuellni… tomorrow…” stammered Ryu, trying to get the words out. He never had any problems talking to girls, but there was something about her that made him nervous.
“What!? Why?” She replied, shocked at the news.
“My mom is sending me away there… to their Military Arts Academy…”
“Ryu…” she grabbed his hand “I’m sorry”
“I don’t want to leave!” he said, gripping her hand, loving the way it felt.
“I know you don’t… and I don’t want you to either.” Relied Raiza, rubbing his knuckles with her thumb
“But… I have no choice… I leave tomorrow morning…”
“Then I will be there to see you off.” She said with a reassuring smile, she checked her watch, realizing that it was getting seriously late, it was 1:30AM, “Ryu… its late, we should get home.”
“Okay, I’ll walk you home” replied Ryu, getting up and, still holding her hand, helped her up off the swing, “I’ll walk you home.”
“hehe” giggled Raiza, “Thanks… I’d like that.”
Ryu blushed a little at the words, he felt good, he took the lead and started walking her home, the walked the whole way in silence, just enjoying each other’s company. They reached Raiza’s front door in about 15 minutes, they stood there in silence, looking into each other’s eyes.
“I think I should go inside.” Said Raiza, breaking the silence, “It was good talking to you Ryu.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek, turning him as red as a tomato, which she took notice of. “hehe, goodnight Ryu, what time do you leave tomorrow?”
“10 AM, at the main substation” replied Ryu, feeling his cheeks grow hot
“Okay, I’ll be there.” She smiled and walked into the house, closing the door behind her. Ryu just stood outside of her door for a few minutes, trying to get what just happened straight in his head. He finally was able to turn around and begin his final walk home. He decided to take a shortcut down an alley, which led straight to his house, instead of doing a full square, he turned down the alley and had a suspicious feeling, he heard whispers but thought nothing of them, he continued down the alley until he was struck in the back of the head by a blunt object. He fell forward, catching himself with his hands just before he hit the ground, he flipped himself over and saw 2 hooded figures, his vision was blurry due to the blow to the back of the head, and he was somewhat dizzy.
“You little punk!” said one of the assailants, as he kicked Ryu in the side, causing him to gasp in pain “You think that you could kill our brother and get away with it?” He repeatedly kicked Ryu in the side, and all Ryu could do in response was curl himself into a ball and try to protect his body, he was too dizzy an disoriented to stand up, after the first one finished kicking Ryu, the other brother picked him up by his collar, and punched his jaw, causing him to stumble, Ryu was regaining balance, and his vision was returning, enough so that he was able to make out what his attackers looked like, the first one was somewhat fat, with a tattoo on his left arm that said “Semper Paratus” the other one was tall and skinny with a goatee; Ryu coughed a bit and some blood escaped from his mouth, and dripped down his chin, he smiled a wicked, somewhat crazy smile and grabbed his DITE.
“Restoration!” the scythe appeared in his hand, “External ballistic Kei!” he swung his scythe, cutting the air and sending a spinning wave of energy at the two attackers, they dogged out of the way and grabbed their own DITE’s
“Restoration!” they said in unison, the fat one’s DITE became a single edged sword, and the skinny one’s became a battle axe. Ryu launched himself at them, swinging his scythe in a huge arc, missing the skinny one but slicing the fat one’s neck, causing blood to sputter everywhere as he fell to his knees, and fell over dead. “Arcrisus!” yelled the skinny brother, “You will die for this!” he ran at Ryu with his axe raised, Ryu just stood there, staring him down, when the skinny attacker began to swing the axe downward, Ryu jumped out of the way and got behind the skinny man, facing away from him. The skinny man felt something sharp poke his back, shortly after he felt something poke from the inside of his body, he began screaming in pain as Ryu forced the scythe’s blade through his back and out his stomach, he then lifted the blade, picking the man up off the ground, then flung him over his shoulder, removing the blade in the process. Ryu sighed again as the DITE became inactive.
“Maybe its best if I do leave this city…” he thought as he left the two bodies in the alley, and continued home.
by 
