Chapter Text
I woke up on the concrete floor, the darkness covering the alleys. As I attempted to get up, I saw blood on the floor. Curious, I tasted it.
'Fresh blood… no corpse, so a fight must've started when I was sleeping.' Disappointed, I looked at the dumpster and shoveled out the trash, finding a perfectly fine half-eaten burger. Something to eat after 3 days.
'Damn first-class citizens, always throwing out good food!' I didn't say any much more though, chowing down on it. Life's hard on the streets, you've gotta worry about the cold, the cops, the gangs and most importantly, the food. All I care about is food, if there was a day I wanted to kill myself I just thought 'but what about the food I haven't eaten?' and then be discouraged. Is it sad? Yes. But who cares, I've lived all my life in these sad lonely streets, one way or another I gotta survive.
Once I finished the burger, I neatly folded the package and threw it back inside the dumpster. 'Should last me about four days, five if I'm desperate.' I looked back at the dumpster, trying to find more food until I noticed a glowing book. I'd know better to not touch any weird things… but curiosity got the better of me, and I grabbed it from the dump.
As if it had found a new owner, it glowed brighter and transformed into a gun and a glove, the glove now stuck on my hand. "What the fuck?" I dropped the gun and immediately tried to get the glove off, but to no avail. As much as I like pain, I can't risk an infection! I looked at the gun and picked it back up, staring at it. "What the hell are you...?"
Of course, my pondering was cut off with a voice. "Over there! Hey you, hand back that grimoire!" It was a woman's voice, demanding I give back a… grimoire? Clearly what I had in my hand was a gun but… oh no. Oh no no no, what the FUCK did I get myself into? NOL? Grimoires?! Out of instinct I ran away from the voice, only glimpsing the blue and yellow uniform. Yep, I'm gonna die aren't I? I'm so fucking screwed.
Without much thought, I climbed the buildings to reach the rooftops without much effort, messing with the gun. If it's gonna stick to me, it better fucking do something then! I looked at the side and saw a slider with the options on, off, and continuous. Curious, I turned the slider to on and shot it at the roof. What came out was a bullet that turned into a yellow barrier, much to my surprise.
"Hey get back here! That's NOL property you're using!"
My pursuiter had just caught up to me, blonde hair with the NOL military uniform and a blue hat. She wielded two guns, though didn't seem to want to hurt me or anything.
"Why should I? For all I know you'll just kill me after this!" I jumped across the rooftops, my feet aching from the scrapes but it only filled me with the much needed excitement to escape. Unfortunately, I had just met the edge of the rooftops, the end of me for sure! The lady had caught up with me, her gun pointed at my head.
"I've got you cornered, you've nowhere to turn to!"
Her blonde hair flowed in the wind, revealing those sapphire eyes that shone bright. Almost the same as mine.
I groaned, turning my bangs to the side so my right eye was revealed. "Alright, fine! You win! I'd give you whatever the hell this thing is, but you'd have to pry it off my corpse. Literally. This thing's stuck to my hand now, and lord knows I certainly don't have the power to tear it off!"
She looked at me confused, before her face turned to that of surprise. At what though? Certainly not at my words, that's almost impossible I mean what should she be shocked at-
Knocked to the floor, I'd been hit on the head with… a shoe? And it seems like whatever, or whoever was now standing on my face. I can't say I'm complaining much, but the face of dirt in my mouth isn't really making this any better.
"Oh my, what have we here? What a surprise we have~"
That voice… it wasn't from that woman, more like a man's voice? It was laced with venom, like any words uttered from that tongue could ruin any long lasting friendship.
"Captain Hazama? What are you doing here?"
Hazama? I don't know who that is, but with the way she's talking… must be someone from a higher rank.
"Ah, don't mind me Noel! I was just investigating the lost Barrier Grimoire and happened to find you two on the rooftops! Of course, no one could've expected that it fused with this man!"
Oh, he stepped away from my face, thank god. With my eye no longer obscured I could take a better look at the man who had stepped on me. Green hair, fair skin with a black fedora and black clothes. His eyes were almost closed shut, I couldn't figure out what color they were. He got closer to me until we were face to face.
"Now, what was it about killing you to get that grimoire off?" His smile was wide like the crescent moon, it was almost sickening the way he said those words. I tried to stay calm of course, better to talk your way out of death and die trying.
"If you mean this… 'Barrier Grimoire' that's stuck on my hand, it just fused to it. I can't seem to get it off, and I'd be glad if you could actually rip it off of me, considering you treat the wounds with just enough alcohol to sting."
The man, Hazama? Was it? His eyes opened just slightly, revealing those amber eyes. I won't lie, they were beautiful, as much as it pierced through me.
"Ah, but I'm more interested in who YOU are!"
I sat up and looked at him with shock, with the man backing away to give me space. Surely a simple half demi-human like me can't get into enough trouble already? I mean dealing with gangs and all that is dangerous enough but fucking NOL ? I silently prayed that I'd get out of this alive.
"What do you mean by this, exactly?"
His eyes shut, smirking at me. "Why, don't you know? You've got a reputation, Back Alley Tanuki! Selling information and manipulating others to get that information, don't you think you'd fig just right in with us?"
Back Alley Tanuki? Who the hell gave me that shoddy nickname?! But even more important, is this guy seriously trying to hire me? He's like a snake, I can't get a hold of what he's trying to do.
"What do you mean Hazama? This guy for all we know just stole the Barrier Grimoire from us! He should be jailed-"
Hazama shushed the woman, looking over to her.
"Come now Noel, do you really think he could rob NOL? Most likely he was set up by someone, I heard that the Red Dragons were a part of the scheme!"
I stood up at the mention of that name. Those damned bastards, framing me for a crime I've never done! Hazama looked at me, while Noel was even more bewildered.
"What say you, Tanuki? Why don't you take revenge by telling us where they're at? I might even consider hiring you if you're up to par!"
His snake-like eyes opened slightly, smiling at me. I couldn't resist the offer obviously, a chance to get back at those bastards? Sign me up!
"... What's in it for me?"
He smirked, as if it had all gone according to his plan.
"Well, for one you'll get a nice living space, food, and even money to buy more food!"
He must've stalked me or something with the mentions of food. Creepy, but I'm not one to resist an offer that good.
"The name's Akuji Mujina."
"Hazama Honoka. Pleasure doing business with you!"