"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."

—Friedrich Nietzsche

"Kawagoe Academy first-year student Kyouji Kurayami was discovered dead next to his school. Police say that the most likely cause of death is suicide."

1 day earlier... 

"You probably won't believe me, but there's a gang held up inside a children's daycare," he says over his radio. 

Rei Kurotsuki, a 16-year-old Kawagoe High 1st year. An expert when it comes to tech, able to bypass even the toughest of firewalls, and the companion of Kyouji Kurayami. 

Otherwise known as The White Wolf, a criminal who has committed horrendous crimes such as aggravated assault, arson, burglary, robbery, murder, and vandalism. But he calls himself a hero. 

"A daycare? Uh, I'm going there now." 

He leaps from roof to roof with fluid precision, his movements a seamless combination of power and grace. He arrives at the daycare and sits on the adjacent building.

"Do you know how many of them there are?" 

He scans the daycare to try to spot some of them on his own.

"Give me about 20 minutes." 

That's too much time. I'm bored! He thought to himself. "Nah, no need."

"Wait, there might be hosta!..." He warns anxiously. 

Kyouji turns off his radio and climbs down from the roof he had been perched on. He walks up to the side of the daycare and sets his backpack down. From it, he grabs his 'White Wolf' attire: a black cloak with white fur trims and a white wolf mask. He also grabs his weapon, the 'Wolf Claws.'

His weapon is more than just tools of destruction. They are symbols of his own internal conflict, a manifestation of his urge for power and control. He doesn't have a grand plan, just the primal instinct to strike when needed. 

He finishes adjusting his gear and steps back from the window. Without hesitation, he sprints forward, leaping into a jump kick. He shields his mask with his cloak as the window shatters in a spray of jagged shards, echoing like a gunshot in the night. The glass tore through the soles of his shoes, leaving cuts and embedded fragments.

Alarmed voices ring out. "What was that?!" 

Moments later, six men appear. One carries a gun, while the others hold bats and knives. 

"Who are you?!" one demands.

He sweeps back his cloak, revealing his mask. All of them start to panic.

"It's the criminal on the news! The White Wolf!" They say.

One steps up. "What are you cowards scared of? He just looks like a kid to me." 

He swings his bat. Kyouji dodges, the bat smashing into a lingering shard of glass, which shatters into the man's face. Stunned, the man stumbles back, and Kyouji lunges, claws flashing. His claw sank into the man's chest, driving him to the ground. 

The others freeze for a moment before shouting, "Shoot him!" 

The gunman fires. He raises his claw, slicing the bullet in half. One fragment misses him; the other strikes his stomach but misses vital organs. 

"Attack him together!" Someone barks, and the remaining 5 charge. 

I've lacked power in this world if only... No, this isn't over... Not yet.

He grates his teeth. "I am The White Wolf... unbroken, unshaken," he murmurs.

He dodges blows with precision, claws the gunman's leg, and uses his body as a shield against the others. The gunman falls, lifeless. 

"Four left," Kyouji says, adjusting his mask with a twisted grin.

One man stepped forward, knife raised. "Fight me!"

Kyouji blocks the first thrust but is caught off guard by a kick that sends him back. Snarling, he faints a slash before sinking his teeth into the man's neck. The man gasps, clutching his wound, but Kyouji finishes him with a brutal stab to the chest. 

This is justice. I'll cleanse this city of this scum. They'll understand soon enough. I'm not a villain; I'm a force of justice!

He adjusts his mask once again while laughing. The remaining three hesitate, fear in their eyes. Kyouji moves swiftly, slashing two in one fluid motion. 

The last man fell back, trembling. "You're a damn psychopath!"

"Oh, I am? I'm a damn hero!" He says, arrogantly.

"No, please!" he begged. 

He looms over him. "I am The White Wolf, Emissary in White."

"Stop yapping and let me... I MEAN!... SORRY!" He kneels and bows.

He looks at him with a cold, annoyed expression, and with one final slash, he ends it.

He's covered in blood, mostly from the gang members. But also from the gunshot wound.

Since I saved the daycare, I deserve some reward.

He goes to the office in search of money. He finds stacks of money in a safe. His eyes sparkle, money reflecting from them.

He celebrates. "Payday! Payday!"

He starts putting all he can into the backpack with a grin on his face. 

Well, I'm a hero. I saved the day. This is my reward.

Bored, Kyouji heads to the back of the daycare and finds 5 cans of gasoline. He starts to pour all 5 canisters over the daycare while humming a happy song. He walks out and climbs to the building that he was on top before.

He searches through his backpack, finding matches that he lights and then throws at the daycare. The daycare was a carnival of chaos, its bright colors clashing like a fever dream, as the gunman's photo of a blue-eyed girl with black hair burned to ash.

"I did it once again, city! You're welcome!"

His voice echoes across the city, as does the sound of the fire.

"Hey Kyo? I.. uh, just got an alarm that there is a fire in the daycare. All the cameras were off when I finally managed to hack into them. What happened?" Rei says over the radio.

"Um, there were 5 canisters of gasoline... just waiting for me!"

"So what you're saying is that you... BURNT DOWN A DAMN DAYCARE!"

"Also, about 3.8 million yen!" He grins.

"You also stole from them?!"

"You just don't get it, Rei. I killed that gang. 3.8 million yen isn't anywhere near enough to pay me back for killing them." 

Rei retorts, "What about you burning down the daycare?!"

"That's the rest of the debt they owed me, and it was a lot of fun."

"It was fun burning down a daycare?! What's wro..."

Kyouji turns off his radio while smiling, standing up, and walking in circles atop the rooftop.

I can't go to my house if my parents see me all covered in blood with a gunshot wound. They will kill me. I should go to Rei's place; his parents aren't home.

But before running off, he pulls out a white spray can and starts graffitiing the building's wall. He steps back and looks at it. It's a white wolf and text saying, "The White Wolf, your hero!"

He starts walking over to Rei's house clutching his wound. All of his adrenaline was gone. His vision is getting blurrier. He is still really far away from his house. His eyes slowly close. But, before he passes out, he goes into an alleyway and grabs his radio. 

Uttering the words, "Rei... help..." 

As soon as he heard that, he dashed out of his apartment. Eventually he found him. He struggled to pick him up, but he gave it all his strength, carrying him all the way back to his house. 

He sets him on the couch, and he goes to his closet to grab a first aid kit. It was a tedious process for Rei. An hour or so later, he was done.

Only four hours into his sleep, he wakes up and slowly gets to his feet, still in pain. He walks over to the kitchen, and there he sees Rei cooking breakfast. 

"Are you going to school? You know with your wound and all." 

I didn't know he could cook. What can't he do?

"Yeah, I will."

Rei looks at him. "Don't think I'm not mad at you for burning down that daycare!" Kyouji grins.

He goes to the living room and turns on the television. Putting on the news channel as he sits down on the dining table. 

"Last night, we got news that the criminal known as White Wolf burnt down a daycare and stole 3.8 million yen. Now putting on your favorite announcer, Baldy McNews, for his thoughts on the matter," the news lady says, then a man comes on screen.

"Did she just call me ba?... Oh... uh, HE'S A MENACE! We're going to find you! White Wolf! And when we do, be ready to be executed!"

He probably has the highest chance of catching me. Point a flashlight to his head when I'm looking at him, and it will blind me for life.

Rei serves breakfast. He sits down as well, and Kyouji then explains what happened in the daycare.

"You're brutal." I never know what's in Kyouji's mind. When he looks at me, it's like he's looking through me at some ambition or something. Rei thinks.

With their breakfasts finished, both he and Rei start to get ready for school. 

Rei walks out of his room. "I'm gonna go to the tech shop before going to school, so you walk alone."

The sun is shining bright, and the city's crowding with people. Even though Kyouji is probably the most strange one out of them, he doesn't stand out at all. That's because he doesn't act the way he does when he's The White Wolf.

He shows up at school and goes to class. He is visually tired and his shoes ripped, but it really didn't matter to him. Out of the blue, he gets called out by the office. At the office, he sees his student counselor. 

"Do you know why I'm calling you?" She says, "Good grades?" He smiles.

"Quite the opposite, and what happened to your shoes?"

"My dog bit them." 

"Aren't you allergic to dogs? Whatever. To put it bluntly, Kyouji Kurayami, you're a loner. Do you have a problem with talking to people?" This woman is pissing me off.

"No, I don't."

She looks at him. "Then, why don't you talk to anyone?" 

"I talk to Rei Kurotsuki."

"Yeah, your parents told me all about him. You play video games all night with him, don't you? That's why you have them bags under your eyes."

Not exactly, but I can't just say, "I'm The White Wolf, the hero on the news!"

The counselor looks at him. "You have a secret, don't you?"

Nervous, he begins to perspire.

"You have a girlfriend, and you sneak off with her at night!"

"Huh? A girlfriend?! Who do you think I am?! Girlfriends are so overrated," he retorts.

"Yeah, I thought so. It was nice imagining you having one." That also pisses me off.

"You'll be joining the student service club."

Kyouji's expression is visibly irritated. "What? Nah, I refuse."

"I'm forcing you," she grins. Nice way to ruin my boring high school life, Miss Counselor.

He and the counselor start walking over to the student service clubroom. She informs him of the other member, Emi Tarahashi. A black-haired, hotheaded girl with blue eyes, she was also forced into joining the club. They reached the clubroom when she finished talking.

She opens the door. "Who is this?" Emi asks. "The new member," the counselor responds. Why me? Why do I get forced into a generic rom-com plot?!

"Hello, I'm Kyouji Kurayami. Nice to meet your acquaintance," he bows. 

"Could you sound any more robotic?" Emi says.

The counselor grins and walks out of the room.

C'mon! What's another NPC thing to say?! Oh, I got it! 

"Please, if you may educate me on the activities that this club does." Wait, wait, wait! She looks like the type who goes on and on about things, especially school stuff. What did I just get myself into?! 

"Sit down."

He gulps, walking over to a desk and sitting down.

The girl yapped about the club for about an hour. This, combined with barely sleeping, meant he was having a very hard time staying awake.

"Hey! Stop falling asleep!"

He yawns, "Ima be straight with you. You're yapping way too much... Kinda sound like my grandpa. He tells me the same damn story in a different way every day. I understand the activities and then sum."

She looks at him with a face of disgust and anger. She points at him, "You have no manners! Using such slang language around a fellow classmate!" 

"Wait, we're in the same class?"

Suddenly, the door creaks open, and both he and Emi jolt. It's the counselor; she asks Emi to come outside of the classroom to talk. She walks out with her. It was to tell her that her father had been murdered. She falls on her knees and breaks down crying, Kyouji hearing all of it. 

Damn, what a bummer! Back to sleep, I go!

He leans back on his chair and closes his eyes. The counselor opens the door slightly, peeking through it, and she shouts, "Go back to class!" He again jolts. Nah, I'm gonna skip class.

He closes his eyes, quickly falling asleep. Nobody came in to check if someone was still in the room. After sleeping for over 14 hours, he jerks awake, looking outside. He sees it's now nighttime. 

He rushes out of the clubroom, heading to the rooftop. When he reaches it, he sits down on a bench. 

He grabs his radio and contacts Rei. "Rei, are you there?"

"There's a kidnappi..." 

Kyouji interrupts. "Before that, I wanted to ask you something."

"What do you want to ask?"

"Am I a hero?"

"No."

Kyouji's lips tighten. Before he could respond.

Rei interrups. "Like I was saying, a 16-year-old girl was kidnapped. Sending you the location now." 

He turns off his radio.

He quickly dashes to the rooftop's edge, gracefully leaping off of it. His arms stretched like wings, and his back arched gracefully as the world tilted below him. The moonlight bathed his front in a silvery glow, highlighting the sharp curve of his smirk. His gleaming teeth caught the light, a defiant sparkle against the dark sky as he descended with unshakable confidence.

What's with this immense pain I'm feeling? 

The body of Kyouji Kurayami was found by the school's janitor after she said that she heard a loud crunching sound that came from the front of the school. He had his backpack on him. Police found his attire and his weapon, which they kept hidden from the public. To this day, only the police and Rei know the fact that he was The White Wolf, Emissary in White.

Wait, I'm dead?

"Yes, you're dead. You created a tear rift with your magic to get here, infinity!"

"See ya!"

"Infinity magic? Wait! Wait!" His vision turns white.