The endless darkness that stretches above the slums, the quiet eerie night that grew accustomed to an abandoned Mega city now known as the slums.
A group of four different strangers decided to investigate the drug dealings that commonly take place here.
The trek down here was annoying, barely any streetlights here due to the lack of power that flows into the slums, so each step was calculated and careful when walking down the degraded concrete steps that have no guard rails to catch one's fall.
"... so did no one think to bring some goddamn flashlights?" Mitsuki scolds her new acquaintances while holding onto the wall when she takes a step.
Akari held onto Kazuya for support for every step she takes, Kiyoshi was leading the group down as he memorized the steps from years of experience.
"So Kiyo did you open my gift?" Akari asks
"..." Kiyoshi nods his head in response
"what was that?" Confused Akari asks as she tries to squint her eyes
"Yes I opened it" he responds to her.
"Good, it's a cool keychain figure from my favorite series Demon Boy!" She exclaims in excitement
"Mhm," Kazuya agrees "have you seen it Mitsuki?" Akari asks curiously
"No I wasn't big into cartoons besides my parents would think of it as too immature if watch it" she replies while looking somewhat disinterested though no one could tell behind her face mask.
"Then what did you like?" Kazuya asks
"Hm, well I did grow fond of this one show, it was called the hero trials" she answers
"Ohh that show, I loved it when one of the contestants Jerimiah shocked everyone with his betrayal of siding with the red team!" Akari speaks with excitement
"Really? I was more of a blue team supporter, seeing Skye carrying the team during the final event was more than entertaining!" she starts to be more interested in the conversation
"You know how about we four get together for a marathon night to watch the hero trials and maybe the Demon boy anime that's coming out soon!" Akari suggested.
"well I don't have anything important so sure" Mitsuki agrees
They then reached street level in the slums, to which Akari stops holding onto Kazuya. They reached an urban area of the slums where some of the many apartment-sized buildings reside in. They walk past dilapidated buildings, and the lack of maintenance shows through the cracked roads.
"Thank god I include heavy-duty boots in my costume" Mitsuki mutters while walking past shards of broken glass and needles that litter the ground.
"We should be there in a couple of minutes" Kazuya Informs everyone
"What's the plan when we get there?" Akari asks, she dodges every potential hazard like a game
"we will try to beat whoever is in charge to tell us more about the operation to which we will tell the law enforcement" Kazuya replies
"Sounds great, buuut what if the criminal refuses to speak," Mitsuki asks
"Beat it out of them" Kiyoshi responds
"Ooooh mister badass over here is trying to be intimidating" Mitsuki mocks
"..." Kiyoshi doesn't respond
They entered a different part of the slums, they entered into a large park. all of the trees were already withered and the grass was a disgusting yellow color, The playground showed signs of rust and paint peeling off, with residents calling it home.
"It should be here" Kazuya informs the group he then looks around but sees nothing but vast hills and playground structures
"We should split up to cover more ground, I'll go with Akari and you two should go together" Kazuya informs the group.
"Wait why him?" Mitsuki questions she points toward Kiyoshi
"Simply I and Akari are besties" he flatly points out, to which they walk off.
She groans to which she looks at Kiyoshi, he was watching the tents that surround the playground
"You're going to say hi to your family?" Mitsuki chuckles to herself.
Kiyoshi walks towards the tents where Mitsuki stays and watches.
he stops in front of one of them that is under a slide, he then rips open the tent and grabs someone out.
He lifted the hooded figure by grabbing hold of their sweater
" what the fuck man let me go!" the person scream
"I let you go once you tell me where the runners went," he tells them
"what the fuck! I have no idea what you're going on about!?" Kiyoshi responded by gut-punching, the impact had revealed his face
Mitsuki then steps back not expecting that response.
"Wait he's just a teenager!" Mitsuki exclaims
" I been around long enough to see your face, you're always injecting filth into yourself, now tell me where are they" he threatens
He tightens his grip to which the kid breaks down
"They're over there please just please don't kill me!" he sobs with tears flowing down his grimy skin.
Kiyoshi then drops him and leaves in the direction
"Hey, what's your problem? we're supposed to be heroes" she questions while tailing him
"Getting answers, besides what's the matter aren't we just slum rats to you?" he responds.
Mitsuki stops, the response caught her off guard
"Well-er you..." she couldn't say anything. She grabs her phone and informs the group.
Kiyoshi walks towards them, three guys and two girls, they look weak. One of the taller guys is shirtless, maybe the leader.
Gripping his hands until his hands started to bleed.
His eyes start to glow slowly white.
The rest of the group arrives before he starts anything.
The dealers took notice of the large group near them.
"Yo, what's this? A shitty hero meetup" the tall man announces
Kazuya signals the group
"Psst, here's the plan, we should take out th-"
Kiyoshi rushes, his glowing a bright white.
The rest of the group was shocked by the sudden outburst from someone as quiet and calm as Kiyoshi.
He shrouds his right arm in energy, it forms a menacing blade.
The sudden attempt was met with a hard kick to the ribs. He was sent flying back toward the group.
The shirtless man stares at the group, grinning gleefully
"You should've tried harder kid"
Mitsuki then begins to charge, Akari then points towards them her electricity begins to crackle.
Mitsuki was done and flings herself towards the group intending to break bones, to which Akari lets out bolts of electricity.
The electricity hits a few but also hits Mitsuki sending her away from the group.
"Sorry!" Akari freezes not meaning to hit her ally
The distraction led the leader to go in for a punch, his fist turned into iron when he prepared for a strike.
Luckily Kazuya teleported both of them out, the punch cracked the ground around him.
" Buncha of kids tryin' to be heroes, funny" the leader comments his iron fist was menacing.
Kiyoshi then grabs the leader and tries to put him into a chokehold, the struggle lasted a second before she was thrown into the playground slide.
Kiyoshi was stunned to which the Leader jumped in with a flying punch, Mitsuki comes in at the last second with a tackle.
She then pummels the leader with each charged fist, while she was dealing with him the other two were dealing with the others.
Akari uses her electricity at half power hoping to not hurt them, while Kazuya was teleporting rapidly to dodge each strike.
Kiyoshi who was stuck on the slide attempts to get up, he feels something burning, he looks at the leader who was getting rocked with each punch from Mitsuki
"You done yet girly?" the leader says with boredom
He then grabs her by the throat and stands up holding her up in the air, he chokes her into unconsciousness
"Kid you're too weak, ya too crazy to think that you can fight guys like me" he speaks with confidence.
Kiyoshi his eyes going wild, he then explodes in a sudden release of energy, energy starts to circulate around him
The leader places his attention on the angry figure marching at him
"There we go, someone interesting to fight" he then drops Mitsuki
" Ta name is Cayden, what's yours?" the man asks
Kiyoshi doesn't respond but creates multiple arms that restrain his left arm and right leg. Struggling to break out, Kiyoshi launched himself towards Kayden his arm enshrouded with energy.
"Thump!" he landed his punch to his throat
He then goes for another punch but was interrupted by a surprise punch to the gut,
he collapsed while holding his stomach, he vomited bile, and his throat burned with tears forming.
"Huh, ya got spunk, but ye need some training if you really think you can fight guys like us" he comments
He walks over to Mitsuki and looks over at Kiyoshi
"I wouldn't mind having my way with her but I'm on the job" he then looks at Kiyoshi
"You were great, you have mad potential kid so I'm going to kill this brat instead of you" he then lifts his leg preparing for a devastating stomp.
Mitsuki was still out of commission and the team was overwhelmed to save her.
"Goodbye girly" too which Kiyoshi closes his eyes to not see what happens.
*Thunk!*
"...uh!.." Kiyoshi opens his eyes to be greeted with a Knife enshrouded in a dark mist that was lodged into Cayden's forehead.
He stood like that for a bit only making grunts in response until falling backward
"Shit! it's the cursed man!" one of the thugs said to which a dark figure crashed onto the man breaking his spine.
"he's got Kai!" a voice shouted out to which they were met with a blade down the throat.
The cursed man fully stood up, the man screaming below him, the figure was covered in dark bandages and had a massive ragged black cloak that covered his entire body and face.
He then throws more blades that precisely hit their target, killing the guys that were overwhelming Akari and Kazuya. He leaves one alive with the blade stuck at the ankle.
Kiyoshi picks himself up walking over to Mitsuki, he checks her pulse to see if she was alright, confirming she was fine he then watches the man who saved them.
Their savior was talking to the last of the man, to which he seems satisfied and he then creates a knife out of thin air and cuts the throat of that thug.
Kiyoshi then spots something in Cayden's pocket, he reached inside to find a small case which he pockets for later investigation.
He then looks back to see the cursed man vanished.
"Shit, this was something else" Kazuya speaks
Akari breaks down, the stress has finally caught up to the cheerful girl. Mitsuki was still unconscious.
Kiyoshi couldn't think about anything but insulting himself for being weak.
They were left alone, the only noise that greeted them was from the damned and dying.
*The downsides from the drugs such as "spice" can leave most addicts with rotting skin and organ failure*
The walk back was quiet, exhausted battered, and bruised they all were, Kiyoshi carrying Mitsuki while Kazuya was leading the way back, and Akari was silent in the back.
Kazuya faced Kiyoshi and spoke to him
" Why did you rush in? we didn't even have time to plan a strategy" he questioned.
"..." Kiyoshi said nothing
Kazuya sighed, "listened next time we do this we need to be stronger and smarter alright? we should properly train ourselves until the next patrol"
He then slaps himself "God I'm so stupid, we're not even proper heroes yet, we're more like robin hoods? Nah fuck that we don't even give to the poor"
"... Vigilantes?" Kiyoshi responded
"Yeah that's what we are"
They walk back to the safety of the college without incident.
They took the side entrance so they wouldn't need to confront the front desk security.
They said their farewells as Kiyoshi took Mitsuki back to their floors.
Mitsuki was still out cold so he had to bring her inside his dorm. Kiyoshi had to leave her on his bed, he took off her mask so she would properly breathe. He then sat down at the table.
He took out the case he snatched from Cayden. It look manufactured due to how sleek and compact it was, he opened it up.
It was a small vial, a darkest crimson liquid. There was a small instruction etched inside of the case.
It read " To properly use Spice you need to ingest the entire liquid in one use, must not inject as it could lead to blood clotting, after a minute you will experience a high amount of dopamine, this will let you know the effect is now in use."
He knew about spice, it was an illegal drug, and the drug was known to enhance an individual's power. He decided to hide it in his drawer underneath all of his boxers.
He rubbed his eyes from all that happened today he grew tired, He grabbed one of the pillows off his bed and slept on the floor next to his bed.
Authors note!
~ Hey everyone sorry for the month long hiatus, I was busy with college things so I wasn't able to focus on the story. Since I'm free with all that I could properly focus on the story.
Also one more thing heres my Twitter for character art, Its not perfect but im still trying improve art.
https://twitter.com/DarioDaDestroy