I wrote a prologue story as an intro to the site!

Part 1: A shadow crossed my path



The cicadas cried out as the summer heat of August was starting to die down. At a bus station outside Tokyo a young man sat on a bench waiting for his expected guest. Dressed in monk robes the boy, roughly 16, pulled a hat down over his eyes. Not to block out the sun, for he was already blind. Instead it was to try and avoid letting his face become sunburnt. He was skinny with short cut black hair and an average build.



He could not see what was around him. Yet, he could feel things around him. He could sense their energies as though he was able to see. The bugs in the field nearby, the people on the bus he had just gotten out of and the trails of energy they left behind once the bus had left, and now the strange darkness that approached him. The shadow didn't seem to have any malic in it's aura, yet it also didn't seem to have much of an aura at all. It wasn't as though he could sense the person. It was more that in the space they occupied the young monk could sense nothing at all. It was like a sudden cold spot in the middle of a warm room.



As the monk debated if he should call for help, or run, the strange shadow spoke.

"If you are thinking of running away, you won't get far. The bus only comes every 30 minutes." the voice belonged to a man in his late 20's or possibly early 30's. It was a calm voice that seemed to not want to startle him.



"I'm the man sent to get you. My name is Hattori Keiichi." with that the man, tall, skinny, and red haired, gave a polite bow. Even though he knew the boy wouldn't see it.



"You are the man from the Shogunate? My escort to Tokyo?" the boy asked, clear uncertainty in his voice as he heard the sound of keys rattling, likely in Keiichi's hand as he got closer.



"I'm sorry, I can't exactly show you proof due to your eyes but I'm sure you can sense I'm not quite normal." the boy gave a very slow nod as Keiichi outstretched his hand for the boy to hold on to.



"I've never met someone with such an aura." the boy whispered.



"I would be worried if you had." Keiichi answered simply as their hands touched and Keiichi helped him up from the bench, making sure to hold the monk's hand as they walked towards the government provided van parked nearby. As the boy touched Keiichi's hand he felt something strange, as though something was suddenly even more dim about Keiichi's aura.



Part 2: When Night Falls



The pair had driven into Tokyo from the countryside. Saying Tokyo and it's metro was something you needed to experience on foot, however, the pair quickly abandoned the van and at Keiichi's insistence opted for public transportation.

"Be warned, Tokyo's population is considerably more dense than what you are use to."



Though that phrase would hardly put things in perspective. As the pair walked around Shinjuku the boy was in awe at how many people he sensed around him. It was as though a million dancing flames constantly moved around the pair. Most of them like simple candle lights but some brighter than even they themselves likely realized.



Even as the afternoon began giving way to nightfall the bustling streets of Tokyo didn't seem to grow any more quiet. Talk of school life, talk of office works, talk of dating, and talk of the evening's firework display seemed to fill the air. All of the people going about their daily lives didn't pay much attention to the boy dressed like a monk. Likely assuming him a cosplayer or just a lost monk in a big city. In truth they even paid little attention to the rather infamous Keiichi, head of the Prime Minister's bodyguards. When the sun did fully set, however, Keiichi seemed to stop his casual stroll about town.

"Well, it seems the night has come. Now you will get to hear and witness the true Tokyo."



Keiichi ushered the young monk towards a train station. Getting a pair of tickets to take them towards what would be the boy's new home for the next three years, Tokyo Bakufu Academy. Yet as they waited the by noticed something odd. It seemed no on else was waiting with them. He had heard that Tokyo was a crowded place, and so far that had certainly been true. He had also heard that overcrowding extended to Tokyo's metro stations as well. Even when they got on the train proper and sat down the boy could sense the strange gap in space that was Keiichi, but aside from him only two other passengers seemed to be on the train entirely.



"Do, others not ride the train at night?" the boy asked curiously. In response Keiichi stated flatly

"Not this one."



With that the train began steadily moving from Shinjuku to Edogawa. It would be a roughly 20 minute train ride and the monk felt relatively at ease. Yet Keiichi kept a firm gaze around the cabin.



Part 3: Orders



As the train moved East the other two people on the train, one cabin over, sighed a bit as they gazed out the window. One of them was a young woman in a kunoichi style outfit. Her long black hair and well kept lashes and nails gave her an air of elegance, yet her hand rested on the handle of a straight sword on her waist. The other was a fierce eyed young man with short cut hair wearing his a more casual outfit of jeans and a shirt, his hands covered by plated knuckles.



"Tokyo is beautiful at night." Tachibana Ryu, the knuckle wearing student said while gazing out the window.

"When not covered in spirits." the calm assassin, Haruno Yuuki, added.



The pair had been listening to Keiichi's conversation with the monk all day as they waited at a station near Shnijuku for the train to take off and pick them up. Two third year students from Tokyo Bakufu Academy, the pair knew the peace would likely be broken soon. Sadly they had no choice but to wait. After all, the third member of their team, the sniper Kiryu Rai was waiting for them in Edogawa.



It would be about halfway to Edogawa that Keiichi turned to the boy.

"I'm sure you are wondering why we spent the day walking around Tokyo. Your senses and spiritual power are very strong and I didn't want to overwhelm you. I'm sure you know by now but when we first met a put a damper on your powers. I'd like to take it off now. Your sense should be use to Tokyo enough by now." his voice was very matter of fact as he spoke. Yet the monk seemed surprised.



"That is the strange sensation I felt then? Very well. But could you do it slowly please? I've never been around this many people before."



"Of course. If those are your orders."



Part 4: Aura



Keiichi touched the monk's shoulder and slowly began pulling his energy blocks away from the monk's senses. To the young monk, it was like someone lighting a million candles as far as the eye could see. what had been countless dim lights all over the area now shined far brighter, and more of them appeared around him than he could have ever imagined. His face went wide with shock as Keiichi did his best to pull the blocks away slowly.



The boy could sense them for miles, people all over Edo. He could also clearly not sense Keiichi again, the strange shadow next to him that was both present and not. He could also see the brilliant auras of the other two people on the train. Their auras seemed considerably brighter than most of the people in Tokyo. Yet as the train moved further East he could also sense something dark. It was like an evil cloud that hung along the train's path. As the boy began to sense it more and more clear he started to look scared.



"There is something bad over there. Something wrong. We are heading for it!" the monk exclaimed in fear. The closer they got to it the more terrifying it felt. Something was waiting for them and it was repulsive.



"Yes. This train's path will take us right through it." Keiichi said calmly.



"We can't! I've never felt something this dark before! We'll die!" the monk yelled. In the next cabin over Yuuki and Ryu stood up, preparing their weapons.



"This is also part of our orders." Keiichi replied, still calm. Yet as he said it, the edges of his lips curled up a bit into a smile.



Meanwhile in Edogawa the annual fireworks began going off. Filling the night sky with loud explosions and showers of light. On one of the rooftops of an office building a magical circle had been constructed. The carefully made ritual area had one onmyoji sitting at each of the cardinal directions gathering power and chanting to infuse that energy into a large traditional Japanese bow bade of bamboo and covered in talismans. Standing outside the circle was a silver haired woman in a sniper uniform. She appeared to be the same age as Yuuki and Ryu. The third member of their squad, Kiryu Rai.



Part 5: Mission



"Please! Then stop the train! I don't want to go towards it! I don't want to be in it! Please! We will die!" the monk was screaming at Keiichi. Yet the man didn't seem to care.



"This is your first mission as a new student at Tokyo Bakufu Academy. Congratulations again on your enrollment. You are going to help us cleanse that dark aura." and soon the train hit the cloud of miasma. As the train kept going the lights aboard the train began to flicker wildly and in some of the cabins completely turn off. Then, the pounding began. It felt like something was smacking the windows of the cabins over and over and over.



"Here they come." Yuuki said as the lights in her and Ryu's cabin shut off completely. At that moment they could see them. The window had become covered with with small white hand prints. As the smacking sounds grew louder more and more hand prints appeared as what was previously a stationary miasma now not only moved along with, but proceeded to wrap itself around, the train.



"Don't worry," Keiichi said calmly to the monk. ",this particular cabin has been reinforced. They will go after other pray." as he said that, on the other side of the hand covered windows, Keiichi, Yuuki, and Ryu would be able to see countless pairs of large yellow eyes looking in at them as the glass in the student's cabin began to splinter and break. As it did Yuuki and Ryu quickly got to work punching and slicing at the hands that reached towards them. Some of the creatures even become so bold as to jump into the cabin with them.



Gaki. Dead skin colored creatures that had once been human but their souls became warped and their forms twisted after death. They had large mouths and larger stomachs, yet extremely thin and long throats. These beings had been cursed to be forever hungry but never able to swallow food whole. Yet it was this hunger that drove them to eat, and spirit energy was easy to feast on.

"Take them, I'll handle the windows." Yuuki ordered as she flung paper talismans all over the cabin, focusing her energies in order to create barriers at what had once been windows in order to keep more of the beings out. Yet, the gaki numbered too many. Any time her concentration was put on a couple of barriers, it meant the other weakened slightly and more jumped in. As Ryu punched and dissipated the spirit energy of one, two more appeared. With a grunt and a bit of panting Ryu had punched one after another but was suffering a few bites already.



"Yuuki I can't keep this up." he protested until Keiichi's voice could be heard over their ear pieces.

"Mr. Tachibana. You are an incarnate of the lightning cutter Tachibana Dosetsu. You may want to put that fact to work." the words had been clearly meant as an order.

"Those powers could hurt Yuuki." he protested but in the other cabin Keiichi just sighed as the gaki tried to push in on the reinforced windows.

"If we all die, Ms. Haruno won't survive either way." he said coldly.



taking a deep breath Ryu gathered the energy inside of himself. The energy of Tachibana Dosetsu's power, locked away inside of him as a reincarnation. As his body began surging with electricity the lights in the cabin began flickering again as he let out a battle cry and hit a gaki hard in the face, the electricity wrapped around his strike coursing through the beast and causing it's energy to dissipate completely.

"One at a time won't be enough. Use Chidori" she yelled as the gaki hit hard against her barriers, causing her to wince a bit as several others flooded into the cabin.

"Yuuki that could kill you!" he protested, yet this time it was Rai that spoke up.

"Save Yuuki and I'll go out with you." Ryu stopped the punch he was throwing halfway through a gaki's face, causing the electricity around his hand to force the creature to sizzle and seize up before the spiritual energy making it's body dissipated.

"Come again?" he said blankly. On the rooftop Rai sighed as the train, and it's dark miasma that had now taken the form of countless gaki draw closer.

"Save Yuuki and I will go see that sports movie you've been so excited about with you. I will wear a jersey and cheer on whatever team it's about. Just save Yuuki." she said coldly as a very frustrated Yuuki glared towards the distant East.



Back aboard the train Ryu had a giant, stupid smile as he gazed at all the gaki around him and Yuuki.

"Bad day for you guys. Yuuki, BRACE YOURSELF!" drawing as much spirit energy into himself as he could and putting his back to one end of the cabin Ryu focused his energy into his hand and feet before creating several small floating lights around him.

"CHIDORI!" he screamed as he surged from one end of the cabin to the other. As he moved the small orbs he created around himself shot out. He did his best to make sure a single one didn't hit Yuuki. As the orbs came in contact with the gaki they dissolved and the electrical energy the orbs had been made of shot through the gaki, frying them from the inside out. In rapid chorus all of the gaki inside the cabin sizzled and popped one after the other until the cabin was cleared. Looking back to ese Yuuki still in one piece Ryu sighed in relief.

"Thanks old man Dosetsu." he said before he threw his own talismans at the windows and joined Yuuki in her chanting to try and keep the creatures out.



Part 6: Bait



The train roared towards Edogawa, the countless gaki having already moved into various cabins in the train. Yet as they got destroyed in one cabin, and couldn't reach the monk through the others, they began to grow restless and angry. They wanted their pray. They wanted the boy with his high level spiritual powers and their hunger was driving them into a frenzy. Realizing they couldn't reach the boy in their current state the gaki began to break down. One by one the vast amount of gaki began to dissolve into a disgusting purple, almost black gel. From inside the train Keiichi raised an eyebrow.

"oh, quicker than I expected." he said as the young monk had tucked his knees against his chest and sat curled up on his seat saying prayers to various Buddhas.



The disgusting gel covered the train until it slowly began to take shape. The gaki had fused into a large, worm like being. Its body covered in countless yellow eyes and hands that continued slamming against the train trying to either topple it off the trails or crush it completely. Even Yuuki and Ryu looked disgusted by the horror as the monk started crying.



At this point the train had reached Edogawa. Fortunately most people in Edo weren't spiritually aware enough to see the beast on the train and when those that could screamed out people just assumed them either being drunk and rowdy of excited by all of the fireworks in the skies above. It was here that on that distant rooftop the monks chanting stopped as the bow in the center of the circle started to glow. walking towards the center of the circle Rai picked up the bow and took Kyudo position. Gazing into the distance the sight of the gaki worm almost made her vomit, yet she kept her dinner in as she held up the bow.



"Please remember Ms. Kiryu, that the bow you hold costs as much as some Japanese cities. It is a priceless antique of the Tokugawa. So I would advise you to be careful with it." one of the onmyoji around the circle warned. The bow had supposedly been owned by Ieyasu himself and preserved through both maintenance and magic over the centuries. Doing her best to block on the cold wind from their height, the onmoyji's words, and the fact she now owed Ryu a dated she didn't actually want to go on, she drew the string of the bow back. All of the energy of the bow gathered to where she had grabbed the string. She could feel the force of the energy and her arms shook a bit as her grip tightened. She couldn't release it too soon, yet the immense spiritual pressure was hard to hold on to.



As the train began buckling under the weight and assault of the gaki worm it finally cleared a row of large building, giving Rai the shot. Leveling the bow as best she could at the worm, and pointing it a bit ahead down the track, Rai finally took the shot. As she let go of the string she could feel the shot not only use up all of the energy the onmyoji put into it but she felt it take a large amount of her own energy with it as well. As an arrow of pure light streaked from the rooftop towards the train Kiryu Rai collapsed, with the four onmyoji in attendance hurrying over to help her.



The energy arrow screeched through the night, masked mostly by the fireworks overhead. As the train and worm moved into the arrow's path the arrow nearly struck the train, but fortunately hit the worm's disgusting flesh. Much like Ryu's attack earlier the energy into the show quickly moved through every pathway it could find inside the worm. Like blood in veins the energy of the shot moved through every energy pathway it could find that made up the gaki warm. When the worm was fully glowing with a brilliant white light it burst. All of the negative energy that had made up the gaki and then the gaki worm dissipated completely. the seals that Yuuki and Ryu had used in place of the windows burnt up as the two fell down from over use of their powers, both of them finally able to breath.



As the badly damaged and in some places crushed looking train pulled into a station Keiichi smiled as she stood up and some of the train doors attempted to open.

"Ah, look. We are in Edogawa. Lets go enjoy the fireworks festival shall we?" he said with a large smile, extending his hand towards the monk who was still shaking.

"My treat, for your first mission well done as a student at the Academy. Same to you three as well. Yuuki, Ryu, Rai." the student just looked at Keiichi as though he was the devil incarnate.

"I want to be taken to the school, and to get as far away from you as possible." he declared, glaring harshly at the man.

"Eager to start your new school life?" Keiichi asked with a grin.

"No. I'm eager to get away from you, and to not be treated as bait!"