Chapter 0: Prologue

A thieves' world…

When you think about what system this world plays by there's only one truly correct answer

Robbery

This world is run by thieves. Everyone steals something for a living. Bank collectors, lawyers, artists, entrepreneurs, and more. However, if I had to say

I'm the worst of them all…

What do I steal?

...

I steal lives

I'm Shirazaki Kage, I was born in Akita which is far north of central Tokyo, which is where I'm stationed now. I was told that my parents had left Japan to work overseas for a while

Because of that, I lived with my grandparents while I was little. Though as fate would have it, that didn't last very long…

One night I went out to ride my bike around 7:00 PM. To this day I still vividly remember everything, how nice the cold breeze felt while riding around our small neighborhood, and the tragedy that took place in my absence

When I finished riding around I came back and parked my bike in front of the house like usual, walked into the house, and took off my shoes

There was nothing particularly unusual. I walked straight to the kitchen to get a glass of water because I was tired, but what I saw when I did will forever remain with me

I was stunned with fear and confusion. Right beside the kitchen counter layed both my grandparents. They were both lying in a pile of blood. It was like they were a sack of potatoes or even two sandbags. My grandpa was lying on top of Grandma as if he was trying to protect her

Presuming it was just a prank I slowly walked up to them and crouched down shaking grandpa relentlessly.

 "Hey, this isn't funny," 

I said repeatedly…

But nothing

After looking at both of their lifeless eyes I began to tear up, the realization of them being dead really started to set in….

But

For whatever reason I noticed a bloody kitchen knife on the floor a bit further from where they were. We had a backdoor that led to our backyard which was fenced with stone walls near the kitchen, and that's where I noticed it

But that wasn't all I noticed…

After looking closer at the knife I began to see a reflection of what seemed to be a person's eye. Clouded with emotion I wasn't sure if it really was a person or if I had gone mad

A reasonable thing for a 10-year-old kid to do would have been to run away screaming and trying to grab someone's attention. Though I guess I wasn't that smart as a kid

For whatever reason, in the heat of the moment. The words that came out of my mouth were 

"YOU DID THIS DIDN'T YOU"

The expression I had on my face then was probably rather disgusting. It's not like I had the time to go look in a mirror, but if I had to guess it probably looked something like a German shepherd ready to bite. With the exception of my eyes tearing up

What happened next is still shocking to me, even now

Why would someone do something so idiotic?

The eyes that I saw were in fact that of a persons. It was a man, one I did not recognize. After hearing me speak he bolted further into the backyard and proceeded to climb over the stone wall

I was too afraid to move so I didn't try to chase him. I caught a glimpse of what his description was though, a black jacket, white sneakers tainted with blood, short black hair, and my grandpa's watch on his left wrist

He had successfully hopped over the wall and as any kid would, I sat there. I sat in a pile of blood ready to ball my eyes out while staring at my grandparents

But not long after I couldn't figure out what to do with myself…. So, I picked up the kitchen knife and ran out the front door to see if I could follow him

Even though he escaped through the back of our home I was able to find which way he went due to the trail of blood left by the sneakers

The footsteps lead all the way through the neighborhood and eventually, I lost sight of them

It was almost like he just up and vanished

Then I noticed it

A huge bush leading uphill. I'm not sure why I decided to go through it but I did, and after a few seconds I found an abandoned shrine. There was little light in one of the buildings so I slowly made my way to it

Peaking my head through one of the broken windows, I saw the man. There he was rummaging through items that he seemed to have stolen from my grandparents. That repulsive grin he had on his face while scouring the items was truly revolting to me

I wasn't sure what I was going to do at the time I had left to chase him. I had chased him all the way back to where he was staying, all while holding a kitchen knife

At the time I was unsure as to why I decided to follow him, but in that moment while I was watching him through the window, it became evident what I wanted to do

I had sternly gripped the kitchen knife with my right hand, raised my arm up with my elbow bent, and swung my arm down as fast as I could while releasing my grip off the knife

The knife went through the window frame and hit him in his left shoulder

Hehe

His left shoulder

I had missed

Though of course in that moment I wasn't really aiming and I thought I had killed him… but it takes more than a knife to the arm to kill a human

Though I was overjoyed, my happy expression would soon leave my face when the man grabbed his arm in pain and looked towards the window. Unlike last time… our eyes had actually met this time and he spoke

"I KNEW I SHOULD'VE KILLED YOU, YOU DAMNED RASCAL"

That's what he yelled at me. Right before running out of the door and having his skull pierced by a kunai

The throwing knife came from a bit of a distance as to from where I was standing but even still, it was extraordinary. The man's head clung to the door like a nail in the wall

Terrified at what I had witnessed I was weak on my knees and fell to my butt on the ground. Shortly after appeared a man in an all-black tuxedo, even the undershirt and tie were black. As he approached I wasn't sure what to make of it so I just sat there in fear, though this time I wasn't about to tear up like before

Once the man in the tux reached me he spoke only a few words

"Very impressive young child. To be able to throw a knife like that at your age is quite remarkable"

"I am aware of your misfortunes this pass evening, so why not join me. You need only follow"

I wasn't aware of what he meant by that but I began to hear the police sirens as he walked away, then I thought about what I should do. I was still young and didn't have a family to return to. So I followed the man in the tux as he walked further uphill, and ever since then my life changed

From that day on I was taken in by an assassin named Miho who graciously killed a thief with a bounty on his head

And I was trained to be an assassin…

Now fast forward to present day, I am a first-class assassin, age 20, and I am tasked to stop terrorists from messing with a temporal displacement device. I'm not sure why the terrorists want it but I heard it can be used to traverse through time

Given… as capable as I am now…

This is a near-impossible task for me 

Even if they do call me Kage, the shadow of death