[This is a prologue, an important part of the main story]
No one needed it until then.
I remember the day those monsters ripped my best friend apart. They came from nowhere, as if the shadows themselves had invited them. It happened nine years ago, when the world went to hell. The Saigen was reborn—an ancient power created by the gods, merciless and pitiless. As my best friend was devoured bit by bit, still clinging to life, it felt like his pain clung to me, to my soul.
The Saigen gave us gifts—powers we could use to fight. But it also gave us destruction: monsters we were forced to face with those very gifts.
"But less about me, how 'bout you?" Crow said, sitting across from a girl he had met a few days ago.
She wasn't speechless; she just thought it wasn't the right time to talk about this.
"Mark," she said. "We're on a date."
"I go by Crow now."
She looked at him, then at the cup of coffee she held in one hand."What makes me worthy?"
"Of what?"
She looked back at Crow."To be your girlfriend?"
"Well, firstly, you're a great fighter. Secondly, you're close to the guy I want to kill." Crow paused while the girl processed what he had just said. "And I really like the color of your eyes."
The café was quiet at this time of day.
The girl pulled out a gun as soon as Crow finished speaking."If you move, you're dead."
"Is that a threat or a promise?"
Love finds itself in the weirdest ways.
She fired once toward Crow's head. He tilted his head to the side, dodging the bullet. But the bullet curved unnaturally through the air and struck Crow in the back of the head.
Blood Moon Art – Homing Silver
Crow bled, the blood trickling down the back of his head. His head hung like dead weight. It happened too fast. Blood splattered across the surrounding seats, and the white floor turned a deep, dark red.
The waiter crawled under the staff counter, calling for help on her phone.
"You can't kill me that easily." Crow lifted his head slowly, a menacing smirk on his face.
He didn't waste any time.
He grabbed the butter knife lying unbothered on the table and threw it straight at the girl's face. Crow hopped onto the café table and kicked the gun out of her hand.
As the butter knife traveled through the air, Crow twisted and kicked it forward with the bottom of his foot. But before it could hit her, she dodged at the last second and grabbed his foot, stopping the force. With her free hand, she caught the knife and stabbed it directly into Crow's leg.
"What a great first date, ain't it?" Crow looked into her eyes. There was no reaction to the pain, only a grin.
Crow had always been lively.
"How about we start over? I really like where things were going."
Their fighting was too smooth.
"Truce?" Crow hopped off the table while pulling the butter knife out of his leg.
She looked down at her spilled coffee, some of it staining her dress.
Sirens approached in the distance.
The girl stood up."You don't even know my name yet."
She saw no point in continuing the fight if they wanted to achieve the same goal.
She turned toward the bleeding Crow."The name's Alice."
Crow looked down at her hand. In it was a card—not a playing card, but more like a business card. On it was a phone number.
"Call me when you need someone." She tossed the card onto the floor, into a puddle of Crow's blood.
She walked into the back room of the café and disappeared.
When the police arrived, the scene was gory.
"You're part of Knighterror, Crow, is it? You Knight-error folks are scary," said one of the police officers. He looked older and a little scruffy.
"It's Knight Terror. It's just spelled funny. The word terror borrows its 't' from the word knight."
"Okay, anyway. The cost of the damage is ¥5,000,000. That's about $31,570.09. Either currency works."
Crow had lived almost his whole life in Japan. He was born in America.
"Where am I supposed to get that amount of money?"
They treated him like a foreigner, even though he had citizenship.
"Take it up with Knighterror HQ—"
Crow ran off into the distance until he was out of the police's view.
[Knighterror HQ]
It didn't look like a traditional headquarters. It was more like a hideout. Knighterror occupied a warehouse in one of the factory districts. It needed work. For some, it was a base of operations. For others, it was home.
"How did your date go?" one of Crow's teammates asked.
"The girl was a heavy eater. The bill came out to ¥5,000,000," Crow said, grinning, knowing the deeper meaning behind his words.
"And how did your day go, Daisy?"
Daisy ignored the bill."Well, I've been lying on this couch since the time you left."
"Nice."
"And how is the pact with the Blood Moon God?" Daisy asked.
"Well, uh… it expires tomorrow."
"Do you know what that means, right?" Daisy asked, concerned.
"Death…" Crow said casually, already accepting his fate.
"Unless you reclaim your Blood Moon Arts. And take a look at yourself. You look like a hobo."
Crow knew that if he reclaimed his Blood Moon Arts, he would become weak again. It reminded him of that day—the day his best friend's body was shredded by monsters.
Daisy pulled out her phone.
"And one more thing, Crow. Did you find the guy who killed your sister?"
He needed to find him—Alice's boss. But too much was happening.
Reclaiming his Blood Moon Arts.Finding his sister's killer.
The weight of both was overwhelming.
And beyond all of that, his true goal remained:
Destroying the Saigen.