At age four, He was abandoned by his parents and placed up for adoption.
At age six, His new parents locked him in his room for a week, leaving only a two-liter bottle of water.
At age seven, He Awakened his Sacred Gear and started sneaking out of the house.
At age eight his new parents returned him to adoption.
At age eight he was adopted for the second time.
At age nine he met his first Spirit.
At age nine he killed his first Spirit.
At age nine his sacred gear could spread eight meters around him.
At age ten his sacred gear could spread twenty meters.
At age eleven, he met Queen Cliodhna for the first time.
At age eleven she took him in as her pupil.
At age eleven, he found out he was a Spirit Inheritor.
At age twelve, He picked up his first spear.
At age thirteen, He met his first God.
At age fourteen, he grew to dislike Queen Cliodhna.
At age fourteen, Queen Cliodhna threw him into a forest and told him to survive.
At age fifteen he grew to despise his teacher.
At age sixteen, He killed his first Stray Devil.
And now at age Seventeen, He was sent to Japan in exchange for Momotaro moving to Ireland for three years.
And just this hour, the boy known most commonly as Connla, met his partner for the next three years.
A thirteen-year-old boy named Motohama Ken.
"What a headache..."
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Standing outside the several story tall abandoned building, Motohama Ken tapped his feet as his eyes moved from the building to his new partner.
"Stop that," Motohama stopped and turned to look at Connla.
"Stop what?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, his left foot slowly picking up speed again as he returned to tapping it.
"Stop tapping your foot, it's annoying," The older teenager said, frowning at Motohama from behind his dark sunglasses. His own Shin-Corp Uniform is a sharp black in contrast to Motohama's white.
"Sorry," Motohama said, his foot stopping its movement, "It's just that this is my first mission, and I'm getting nervous that-"
"Don't," Connla interrupted him, "The moment a warrior gets nervous when approaching battle, is the moment his defeat has been sealed," He said, almost as if reciting something from an old memory.
"But this isn't battle, I'm not nervous about failing or anything, I'm nervous thinking about what Yokai live inside," Motohama said, A nervous smile on his younger face, "I don't know many Yokai, and my first meeting with one didn't really leave the best impression, So I'm hoping these guys will be different," He chuckled lightly before his hand started twiddling with the pack of Onmyodo Talismans by his hips, pulling out several Shielding Talismans and placing them around his wrists and shoulders.
Connla rolled his eyes and scoffed, looking up as the sun finally set behind the nearby mountain.
"I don't care for your reasoning, We're starting," He said, His shadow glowing with purple magic as it spread around him like a pool of black and purple tar.
"I'll go right and you go left," He said once he kicked open the doors to the building, "Don't get in my way..." And walked off into the darkness, barely listening as Motohama called after him to not kill anybody.
"...Jerk." Ken whispered to himself before sighing as he grabbed the hilt of the new sword he got, holding it ready to unsheathe at a moment's notice.
And with the Moth Tattoo on his chest glowing brightly like the beacon at the top of a lighthouse during a foggy night, Motohama Ken entered the dark and abandoned Apartment Building, and turned left.
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Perched on a branch outside the building, A paper crane looked at the two young men splitting off.
"Let's see how you'll do, Motohama Ken..." The Deity behind the crane mused before the origami creature folded itself into the ether and disappeared.
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Reaching the first room of the building, I took a deep breath before banging my fist loudly on the door.
"Shin-Corp! Open up!" I yelled, my voice bouncing along the corridor as I banged on the first door.
With the Moth Tattoo over my heart illuminating where I was looking, I placed my hand on the door handle and opened the first room.
It was an empty janitor's closet...
"I'm still on the first floor..." I told myself awkwardly as I left the door open and moved on to the next door, not bothering to call inside as I pushed open, revealing another utility closet.
"Okay... Let's speed-run this." And with that, I ran through the first-floor corridor, Slamming open the doors and looking inside before quickly moving on to the next.
It was on the last door at the very end of the corridor, that something happened.
"Please don't punish me!" A young voice cried.
Laying on the floor was a small girl, barely ten years old. Her body was a transparent white, her long black hair floating around her as she hid her face in her hands, her arms were thin and almost skeletal, and Her knees tucked in as she curled into a ball.
And she was also levitating half a meter above the floor.
"Hey, Hey," I knelt down, my voice softening as I got closer to the little girl, "I'm not gonna' hurt you, I'm from Shin-Corp," I told her, my eyes quickly going over her and giving her another look.
She was incredibly thin, unhealthily so. The white robe she wore seemed to almost slip off of her with how thin and fragile she looked.
"Shin-Corp?" The girl whispered, her eyes still hidden behind her hands as she levitated in front of me.
"Yeah, Do you know what Shin-Corp is? What we do?" I asked her, taking a step back and standing up, trying to put the warmest smile I could on my face.
"No... What is Shin-Corp?" She whispered softly, slowly lowering her hands from her eyes, still covering the lower half of her face, but now her eyes and forehead were visible.
A white triangular forehead cover... I was dealing with a Yurei.
"Shin-Corp is an agency, where we help in supernatural incidents," I told the young Yurei, A ghost, "Me and my partner are currently going through the rooms in this building because we need to get everyone outside,"
"Outside..." The girl whispered, her eyes quickly darting around before they focused on the open door behind me, widening with... fear?
"NO!!!" She screamed, her hair whipping upward as she curled even deeper into a ball, once again hiding her face, "DON'T PUNISH ME!!!"
My smile faltered as I watched the ghost ball up. My hand moved to grab an Anti-Evil Spirit Talisman from my pouch, holding the slip of magical paper between two fingers as I took a deep breath and extended my hand.
I closed my eyes and got ready for the screams as the slip of paper touched her arm...
And nothing...
"What... Is this..." Once again removing her hands from her face, The girl looked at the paper slip touching her with almost a sense of wonder in her eyes, Her hands moving to grab hold of the paper, her fingers moving over the talisman as she held onto it as if it was a lifeline and she was drowning in the sea.
"I... I can feel this..." She whispered, her face moving closer to the talisman, "I can touch this..." A smile slowly spread on her lips as she looked at the Talisman and then at myself, her eyes flickering between me and the paper slip.
"Haha!" She laughed, a sound filled with life and joy as she held the talisman above her head as if it were an object of worship, "I can touch this!" She yelled happily, giggling to herself as she pulled the talisman closer and held it to her chest.
After a minute or so of laughing and smiling at the Paper Seal she was holding, she turned to me "You said outside... Right? If I go outside I'll get more of this... Touch." She pointed a finger at the talisman, and I smiled as I finally got somewhere.
"Yes, All the spirits in this building need to go outside, And I'll give you more Talismans if you go as well, How does that sound?" I told the small ghost girl, her pale and transparent form seeming to brighten up as she resolutely nodded and floated out into the corridor I came from, the talisman still held tightly in her hands.
"You can wait at the lobby if you want," I told her as I walked beside her, "I still need to go over the other floors before I can give you the Talisman-" But she cut me off.
"No! I don't wanna wait! I'll go with you and then you can give me the touch paper!" She said, her hair floating behind her seeming to settle down and return to a more natural look as her mood brightened.
"Are you sure?" I asked her, "There could be some mean Yokai upstairs,"
"Sure!" The girl nodded, "Give me more paper when done!" She smiled brightly, before slapping her hand holding the talisman onto my shoulder, and sticking the paper onto me.
"Now go!" She yelled happily, Left hand holding onto my left shoulder as her right arm pointed over my right shoulder at the stairway in the lobby of the building, giggling like a child who just got a wonderful present all the while.
"Well, I can't exactly fight you on this," I whisper before pointing at the Stairway as well, a goofy smile spreads on my face as I march up the stairs, enjoying the joyful laughter of the ghost girl all the while.
"Umm, Why is your chest glowing?" I looked down to see the head of the girl poking out of my chest, looking at where the Moth Tattoo that was my Sacred Gear shone like a powerful flashlight.
"It's my Super-Power," I simply said, and enjoyed the look of wonder on the girl's face as she poked my chest, her finger passing through my shirt and touching the Moth.
"Ouch! Hot..." She quickly pulled her finger back and put it in her mouth, like a child that accidentally touched boiling water before pulling her head back out of my chest and looking above me.
As I walked up the stairs, I turned to look at the girl and asked her a question.
"Hey, I didn't get your name. Mine is Ken, what's yours?" I asked the young ghost, who blinked at me from over my shoulder before smiling brightly, her levitating hair smoothing out and falling onto her back in long straight strands of messy black hair.
"My name?" The girl repeated slowly before her face seemed to almost burst with brightness, a far departure from the scared little girl from the empty room at the end of the corridor.
"My name is Hikari!"