CrossXCore

"I'm home!"

No answer came. Strange. She should've been back much earlier than he had, considering the amount of time he spent at the Kendo Club that day. Tsubasa Ryuusei was deep in thought as he glanced at the clock hung on the wall. It was a perfect circle, with a thin white-coloured rim around it. Plain, but it did its job. It read 4:30PM. At that point, he could still feel sticky from the sweat he worked up at Kendo practice. After a quick shower, he went to the kitchen to prepare dinner for two, himself and his sister, Tsubasa Akiko.

An hour passed and dinner was complete. Ryuusei dug in, mentally complimenting his own cooking and taking note of the taste. He glanced over at the clock again and bit his lower lip a little. Where was Akiko? She wasn't usually this late, and even if she was, she would call first, right? In a quick movement, Ryuusei fished his phone out from his pocket and glanced at the screen. No messages from Akiko at all today. This was definitely abnormal.

Ryuusei quickly finished dinner and washed the dishes, a worried feeling encompassing him the entire time. Covering Akiko's share of dinner with a transparent wrap, he once again whipped his cell phone out, and began to dial Akiko's number.

Ryuusei put the speaker to his ear. He waited for five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds, while listening to the ringing of the dial tone. After several failed attempts, he took a deep breath. Surely, she must've left it on silent or switched it off, right? He sat there for a while, anxious, worried and jittery. One more look at the clock dumped another truckload of worry onto him, it read 6:30PM. Perhaps it was an unfound concern, seeing as Akiko was a Holder and could defend herself, but he couldn't help it, he was still worried.

Holders are those who have been born into the world with genes superior to that of a regular human's. The mysterious gene, named the Holder Gene, usually activates around the age of 10. The gene's attributes vary from Holder to Holder and Holders are ranked from the least powerful, Rank E, to the most powerful, Rank S. 50% of the world's population are Holders, of which, only 5% are Rank S. Rank S Holders are all under the command of the organisation . Named after the shape that appears on all Rank S Cores, is under government and military control to keep all Rank S Holders in check and under supervision.

fights against the Helix, which are corrupted Cores that have manifested into feral beings of darkness. Helix are monstrous, cruel and prey on the easiest targets—humans. To combat the Helix issue, a nationwide curfew was implemented for civilians who did not possess the Holder Gene, forbidding them from going outdoors after 7:30PM for their own safety. Ranked D and E Holders normally chose to follow this rule as well since their powers were either less developed, or simply unsuited for self-defence.

With only Akiko's safety in his mind, Ryuusei quickly slipped his black zip-up coat and dark blue jeans on, along with a black finger-less glove for his left hand. He proceeded to wear his black sneakers and run out of the house in a hurry.

The night was cold. No, cold was an understatement, it was freezing. Ryuusei pulled his hood over his jet black hair, his long bangs swaying as the chilling winds blew. Some locks of hair tickled his obsidian-coloured eyes as he trudged onwards along the dimly lit sidewalk. He was headed towards the nearby shopping area, where Akiko usually hung out with her friends after school, though the area would most likely be closed by this time so that civilians could return home in time for the curfew.

「Clack!!」

A loud sound came from a few metres behind Ryuusei, and as he turned around, he saw only the shadow of the night. Even the light from the streetlights seemed to get dimmer. He focused his senses. What was that sound?

「Clack!!」

It came from behind him again, but how? He had just turned around, how did the sound shift behind him again? With his sharpened hearing, he quickly perceived the sound to have come from about two metres behind him. Ryuusei's hearing was more perceptive than most, for he was a Holder, and his senses were far more enhanced than a normal human's.

Turning around for the second time, Ryuusei's eyes widened. The shadows had taken a humanoid shape and was pitch-black apart from its eyes. They were blood red where normal eyes were white and the irises were a shade of crimson. With his sharpened eyesight, Ryuusei could barely make out the outline of the creature, which was a shade of black that was darker than the night surrounding it.

「Grraaaaaeeeeee!!!」

The creature let out a horrid inhuman screech and went on all-fours, charging at Ryuusei ferociously.

Barely sidestepping the wild charge, Ryuusei focused and cleared his mind. A sudden wave of power washed over his body. He'd activated his Holder Gene. His surroundings were taken in all at once, as if his mind had scanned the area into a three-dimensional map in his consciousness. This skill was named . Within the environment mapped out in his mind, there were two blurred spots, one where the Helix was, and another that was roughly six metres behind him. What was that second spot? Was there a second Helix waiting to attack? He had to be careful.

「Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!」

The Helix turned and once again lunged at Ryuusei, interrupting his thoughts as it bore its razor-sharp fangs, similar to that of a bloodhound, but much more knife-like. As Ryuusei spun around to dodge the Helix's pounce, his eyes shut momentarily as he thought,

'Come to me, .'

The plain silver and black bracelet on his left hand shone softly, a black-coloured 'X' hovering on its surface. Ryuusei held the 'X' with his right hand, pulling it outwards in a horizontal arc. As the 'X' was swung, it quickly changed shape and form. Traveling in a horizontal arc, the blade's tip left a silvery trail, marking the path the sword sliced through. What was then held in his hand was a black and silver gun-blade named .

Evading yet another wild charge from the Helix, Ryuusei swung the sword in the opposite direction of the charge, cutting the Helix's upper torso. A glowing red line was left on the Helix's body as it let out a ear-piercing shriek of pain and going into a frenzy.

When the Helix pounced yet again split second later, it somersaulted in the air to avoid Ryuusei's follow-up slash slash and opened its jaws wide, aiming to bite a chunk off of Ryuusei's head. Luckily, Ryuusei's enhanced reaction time allowed him to immediately shift his body out of the way right after seeing it somersault. That was way too close for his comfort, but at least he came out of it with his head intact.

As the Helix's hind feet touched the ground, it suddenly sprung into another quick lunge, aiming for the head that it had missed earlier on. Ryuusei immediately corrected his stance and performed a quick vertical slash. In a show of supernatural flexibility, the Helix twisted its entire body mid-air and tightly clamped the blade of between its powerful jaws.

The black-haired Holder's eyes widened slightly at the unexpected action from the monster, sending his mind into overdrive in an effort to formulate a response.

'Got it.'

Ryuusei let go of immediately and secured his right foot firmly on the ground, pivoting as he twisted his upper body.

「Grrrraaaaaghhhh!!!!」

The Helix let out a yelp of pain as Ryuusei's left fist connected with its cheek. The heavy left hook from Ryuusei seemed to have dislodged its lower jaw, causing the Helix to involuntarily let go of while the force of the punch shifted its path to the side. Quickly catching the handle of the blade, Ryuusei dashed towards the disoriented Helix and slashed diagonally upwards at its neck.

「Geeghhhh...」

The Helix gurgled as cut through its neck, taking its equivalent of a last breath before it dissolved into black particles and faded away while letting out an anguished scream.

Ryuusei turned around and regained his ready stance, prepared for a second Helix to jump out and attack him, quickly scanning his surroundings with his sharpened eyes.

"That was so cool!"

A girl's voice broke the tension as a girl with orange-golden coloured waist-length hair came into view under the streetlight. She was a few centimetres shorter than Ryuusei was and seemed to be roughly around the same age. She wore a white short-sleeve shirt which consisted of many frills, and a thigh-length skirt that was a pinkish hue, much like that of a peach. She wore black thigh-high socks to cover her slender legs from the cold of the night. The mystery girl's hands were clasped behind her back as she turned to face Ryuusei. Her long fringe covered her face as she looked at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing she had seen all day.

When she did finally look at Ryuusei, her bangs parted gently to reveal a petite face with orange-coloured eyes. Her eyes were practically gleaming with happiness as she smiled and rushed towards Ryuusei. The black-haired Holder immediately tightened up his guard as was ready to strike.

As she closed in, he tilted her head upwards to look directly into Ryuusei's eyes and he noticed that she was genuinely excited for some reason. At this, he simply made a sheepish half-smile, relaxing his guard while still keeping gripped at his side.

"The way you fought that Helix was so cool!"

"It was nothing, to be honest. It was quite weak, and I even had quite a hard time defeating it." Ryuusei scratched the back of his head with his free hand, uncomfortable with getting the praise from the subjugation of what seemed to be a supposedly low-level Helix.

"But you still did! Plus the way you did it looked so cool! That punch was so powerful too! Please teach me! My name is Shiraishi Hikari. Rank B Holder! Nice to meet you!"

"Err, ummm, yeah, nice to meet you, Shiraishi-san. I'm Tsubasa Ryuusei."

"Waaaaaaa, even your name is cool! Also, just Hikari will do! What's your rank? You must be A or S right?"

"Ehh, well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm just a Rank C Holder. I'm at an even lower Rank than you, Shiraishi-san, you'd be better off trying to find someone else to teach you."

Seemingly taken aback, Shiraishi's upper body visibly flinched backwards as her face expressed her shock.

'She really wears her heart on her sleeve, huh...'

"No way! Ryuusei-kun seems so strong! Your Core as well! It's so cool and elegant! And why did you call me 'Shiraishi-san'! Just call me 'Hikari'!"

Shiraishi overtly eyed as she rubbed her chin with her hand, imitating a thinking pose. Ryuusei followed her gaze and found himself looking at for a brief moment as well.

had a long, black blade with a single sharp edge that was silver in colour, easily a metre long, if not more. Just centimetres from the guard, the blade curved inwards and then back outwards like a hill. The guard was a silver-coloured 'X', while the two parts that surrounded the blade were sharpened like daggers. From the center of the guard, a single black blade protruded outwards and out of the front of the blade, no longer than fifteen centimetres. An obsidian-shaded rectangular pistol seemed to be fused to the guard, with the pistol being cut in half by the blade to make two barrels, each having a rectangular shape The grip of the blade was completely straight, wrapped in a smooth black leather, and was long enough to barely fit both hands on it. It widened out at the bottom to make a small pommel. Though there was a gun infused with the blade, nowhere on its entirety could anything resembling a trigger be found.

( Image: https://imgur.com/cvpPrYw)

With a certain degree of embarrassment at the obvious attention to his weapon, Ryuusei quickly dismissed . The blade faded into dark particles that gathered back onto his wrist, reforming the black and silver bracelet.

"Awww, why'd you dismiss it? I wanted to have a closer look at such a cool Core! But more importantly, please teach me! Even if Ryuusei-kun is a lower Rank than I am, I want to learn how to fight like you did!"

Quite a persistent one, this girl. Even after faking his Rank and telling her that he was of a lower Rank, Shiraishi still wanted him to teach her. It was natural for Ryuusei to lie about his Rank; after all, he had special circumstances and it was all rather complicated to explain even to friends, much less a complete stranger he had literally just met on the street! Moreover, Ryuusei still had some suspicions as to why she was outdoors at this time of the night, where normal people, including Holders, would be indoors, away from any trouble on the streets.

'Oh well, it's rude to pry into her circumstances, especially since I'm also outside at this time of night for my own reasons, too.'

"No, Shiraishi-san, I'd probably teach you the wrong techniques and lead you to have more flaws in your fighting... I'm not really a good teacher, too..."

As Shiraishi cast her gaze downwards to the ground, tiny transparent beads of liquid could be seen at the corner of her eyes. He had just fended off a Helix attack, but with just a few tears, Ryuusei was defeated.

"Ummmm, don't cry! I'll do my best to teach you alright? Even if I don't know much. So please don't cry."

"Really?" A soft mumble escaped Shiraishi's lips.

"Eh?"

"Really?" It was said even louder and clearer this time as she looked into Ryuusei's eyes, her own eyes glistening from tearing up.

"Errr, yeah! Really."

A smile broke out on Hikari's face that could probably light up that entire dark street.

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" She jumped around with elation and excitement. Ryuusei couldn't help but smile at her childish behaviour, she was much like a child who had just received the birthday present they were wishing for. Speaking of children, he still had to find Akiko.

"That said, I need to find my little sister now, so if you would just go home-"

"I'll follow you!" She quickly interrupted and grasped his left wrist with her two hands, smiling widely.

"Fine, fine you can follow. But only for a while! Your parents will be worried you know?"

Silence. Ryuusei looked over to see her cast her gaze downwards slightly for no more than a second. Had he just been insensitive or rude? Contrary to many of Ryuusei's friends' beliefs, Ryuusei was by no means dense. In fact, he was very observant and was aware of everything going on around him. Most of the time. So Ryuusei quickly realised that he might have hit some kind of sore spot.

"Um, sorry Shiraishi-san. Was I being rude?"

Silence. After a few seconds, she shook her head and dragged him forward by his wrist.

"Nope! Everything's fine! Also, I thought I told you to call me 'Hikari'!"

With that, Shiraishi dragged Ryuusei by the wrist as she confidently walked down the street.

"Erm, Shiraishi-san, I need to go in the other direction..." Ryuusei jerked his thumb, pointing in the complete opposite direction of their current path.

"Eep! I knew that...!" Shiraishi immediately turned about and briskly walked at an even faster pace in the opposing direction.

With that, the both of them walked towards the shopping area. Well, it was more of Shiraishi dragging Ryuusei along, though.