6 An Adventure Begins

Age 1981

At the edge of a large mountain village a young man could be seen standing at the base of the cliff. Most of his body remained unseen due to the long brown cloak he wore, as well as the thick dusty cap he had on. In his hands he held a small dirty brown briefcase which had colorful clothing sitting out.

"I wonder..." The man muttered walking towards the town. "Did that brat finally go off and join that damn group yet? Or is he going to keep working on my show?"

***

Inside of the castle that belongs to the dark gang...

"What was it that you said to me brat?" The leader of the evil gang stood on Hero's back pinning the young boy down with his mighty strength. He held his club up placing it over the boy's head ready to drop it and crush the boy's skull at any moment.

Hero's bright ruby red eyes glared up at the goon with hate in his gaze.

"What's wrong?" The thug asked. "What happened to all that yelling from before? My men let you in the castle and I even challenged you one on one fair and square? You went on and on about how you were just as good as those Enforcers and you would take me down then went down in a single punch? Guess those Enforcers weren't so great after all then-"

"Shut up!"

All the men in room stopped as Hero finally yelled back to the man in anger.

"You don't know how cool they are..." Hero said. "They would totally kick your ass if they got the chance. They're the bravest, coolest, kindest people in the world! They even went out of their way to help out a kid like me..." Hero muttered. For a second brief flickers of a lab fired through the young boys mind. He remembered a young woman with long silver hair and bright silver eyes.

"Ha!" One of the men laughed. "You're relying on a group that fails everyday! You know each day those lying bastards claim they're getting closer to saving our race only for entire Squads to be wiped out by those damn monsters. They might have cool powers, but in the end those guys aren't better than any of us. They just die, and claim they're saving the planet in order to make themselves feel like their worthless lives, and pathetic deaths have memories. The Enforcers are nothing but a bunch of worthless cowards..."

"You're wrong!" Hero called out. He made another face for a second as he turned his head looking away from the man. "They aren't cowards..."

"Then what would you call them?"

"Yeah." A comical voice called out. Everyone turned and stared in shock as the front wall was blown down and all the Enforcers in Okami's squad could be seen. Standing at the front of them was Okami Otoko himself. "What would you call us Hero?" All of the men were all covered in a strange white aura that crackled around them. It looked almost like white flames that crackled off of their bodies lighting them up like a firework on the black sky.

"O... Okami!"

"What's wrong Hero?" Okami asked giving the downed boy a grin. "I thought your karate chop could chop through steel? Surely chumps like these are no problem right?"

"Shut up!" The boy said as his face became flustered.

Several of the goons all frowned as the Enforcers walked in slowly. Several of them all waved at the downed boy who felt completely embarrassed.

"Enforcers..." The leader said giving a large frown. "The brat came to us first. Barged in here demanding we learn our lessons and got into a fight. Ordinarily I'd have just bashed his brains in and call it a day, but I felt particularly mad and wanted to blow of steam."

"Ahh." Okami said nodding. "I see. I'm gonna kill you." He said it so matter of factly as if it wasn't even a question. Rather it was a promise.

"Easy." Their boss said. He raised the club up higher prepared to drop it on Hero's head. "One wrong move and we'll see just how small this kid's brains are."

Okami stopped as he frowned. "Listening pal. I just came to get the boy. No reason to fight any of you. After all he technically attacked you guys first so I'm willing to over look it. But. If you harm that boy I will quite literally kill every single person in this room than feed your soul to Satan then make sure he barfs your souls up than I will feed it back to him."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"He'll do it too." One of the Enforcers laughed. "Our Captain is insane."

The leader let out a small sigh as he brought the club up over his shoulder letting out a sigh.

"Kill them." He said loudly. "Kill them all-"

Okami let out a sigh as his eye twitched.

"Well. Let's hope the Devil will be kinder to you fools." He said bringing his arms up. All the thugs jumped into the air many of which began brandishing several weapons. Okami's hands began to glow with a bright orange color as flames began to dress off of him. "Equation Zero Zero Zero. Hungry Wolf." He hissed out. "Die."

He slashed his arms down as the flames exploded off of him taking the shape of a massive wolf made of flames. It swept through the air and washed over most of the thugs melting them down to less than ash in mere seconds.

The criminal gang leader stared in shock openly gapping. The few men who weren't devoured by the flaming wolves instantly dropped their weapons and Hero was awestruck by the insane display of power from a single Enforcer. "You might have been able to kill a few Enforcers but my guess is they were all recruits, or posers. We don't just have a supernatural power. All of us has this white aura. We call it the Equation of Life. It shields us and powers us up." Okami said slowly walking forward. "I doubt you could hurt me-"

The leader whipped a large hand gun out taking the shot. The bullet hit Okami square in the head. A small trickle of blood dripped down as the bullet fell to the ground only able to slightly cut him.

"-even if you tried."

"W... What the hell! You're a monster!"

"No. I'm the Captain of Squad One, the strongest Squad in the Enforcers. You never stood a chance." Okami announced as the wolf grew in size. "We fight all threats to this world keeping it safe and sound. We're the reason fools like you were able to be born in the first place. We're no monsters. An Enforcer is far, far scarier than a monster." Golden flames began to spill out of the wolfs mouth as the man let out a whimper staring at it. "Yeah..." Okami said giving a half smirk. "You're gonna die." He stared the leader down who was now openly shaking.

"B... Bastard!" The leader yelled dropping his club. Before it could drop the wolf fired forward burning the club. It missed the leader though who jumped back yanking Hero with him. He brandished his gun and began firing wildly at the Enforcers thought that white aura they had blocked most of it with ease, or allowed them to simply dodge it. "I won't let you cowards kill me!" He screamed throwing a black ball from his pockets down.

The ball exploded into smoke clouding the room. Once he was out of sight he grabbed the boy by the throat with one arm and grabbed a false candle that was attached to the wall. He pulled down on it causing the floor under him to open up dropping him and the boy down through a trap door.

The smoke cleared making Okami curse out when he saw that Hero and the man were gone.

"Damn it! I got to into it and let him escape!"

"Don't worry Captain! He couldn't have gotten very far! We'll all split up and look for him!"

"Right!"

Hero and the man dropped down from the mountain side crashing painfully onto a wooden boat that rested on the black ocean of their world. The boat began to slowly move out, heading away from the mountain as the gang leader let out a curse.

"To think I would actually be forced to ditch my crew, and my base... Year's of work down the God Damn Drain. This is your fault you damn bastard!" He yelled smashing his fist into Hero's head.

Hero recoiled as he slammed into the deck.

"Your fault!" The man yelled punching him again. "Your fault, your fault, your fault! This is all your fault!" He continued up the assault again and again making the kid cry out in pain as his face was bashed in. "You made me lose everything! This is all your fault!"

Hero felt his vision begin to slowly fade as his head was smashing against the ships deck over and over again with every punch. It was getting harder and harder to think straight...

For a second Hero could have sworn he saw the dark outline of a figure in front of him. Before he knew it he suddenly remembered a girl with long silver hair and bright silver eyes as his head felt like it would split open. He saw someone that looked like him but younger.

'Vil?'

Hero let out a loud yell slashing his right arm up. A white and golden light seeped out of his right arm covering it from his finger tips all the way up to his shoulders. The entire arm seemed to change and morph as the light messed with it. It seemed to get slightly longer and a little more buffed up, but not enough to be obvious. The finger tips grew out forming ridges and a black cross seemed to form out in the center of the arms hand. The arm was a bright gold and white, and had small angelic like feathers coming out of the arm, as well as demonic claws stabbing out of the front of the arm. Black light shined through the cross that was in his right hand. The thing almost looked like the mix between a demon, and an angels arm. Holy, and vile at the same time. Wisps of black energy seeped out of the white and gold arm as the feathers twitched and his claws burned with steam.

It produced a small rumbling sound as more steam came off of it.

"M... My arm? What happened to... My arm!"

A powerful weapon able to bend sound and heat. The arm consumes the metal in the users body generating powerful iron claws and feathers. The feathers come together forming a beautiful sound that can bless and curse those who hear it, the arm also greatly raises the users temperature up forming steam powered claws. Sound and heat.

That was the power he now possessed.

"A... A Cursed Life Technique! So you are one of those freaks too! To think a child got an Equation to obey them..."

Hero let out a yell slashing his hand up and cutting the man as so much force was produced from the simple action of moving the arm the man's entire left side of his face was ripped off tearing his eye out. He roared in pain as the entire boat shook and blood flowed out of his wound and steam burned off of his face from Hero's burning hot claws.

"Ahh! My face! You damn bastard! I'll fucking kill you!" The man grabbed Hero by the throat and began to choke the poor boy as he raised him up above the black waters which was very difficult since the boys arm weighed a ton. Then he dropped the boy throwing him into the water as hard as he could.

Hero hit the water with a loud splash and felt an instant feeling of pain. His body burned when it hit the waters. The black ocean wasn't designed to support human life. Just like the rain, the water was like a very weak acid eating away at human flesh. It was possible to survive in it for a few hours, but it hurt.

And to make matters worse Hero had no idea how to swim as he wildly thrashed around feeling his head slowly sink under as the hot liquid began to pour into his throat burning his body. It somehow got even worse though as his now heavy arm began to drag him under. It was so heavy he could barely raise it and support it with his shoulder and it hurt. It felt like it was going to be ripped off his shoulders as he struggled to keep his head up.

"Hahaha!" The man laughed giving a wicked smile. "Serves you right asshole! I hope a Bestia Macht devours you-"

The entire boat exploded in a hail of broken wood as a massive fish like monster tore it in half from under the boat. Its mouth opened up as it swallowed the man in a single gulp and crashed back down into the waters.

Hero was quickly reminded of the fact that the ocean was full of those things and he was probably about to die. A fact that was confirmed as the creature whipped around and launched out of the waters towards him.

"Hero!" Okami screamed suddenly appearing next to the boy as he crashed into the waters from up above. He grabbed at the boy holding him with one arm and turned his body as the creature flew past him.

There was a sickening ripping sound as the monster turned back to face the man and boy only for it to glow a bright orange color and melt away in an instant.

"Phew..." Okami sighed holding the boy close to him as he kicked out with his legs slowly getting closer to the shore. "That was a close one."

"O... O... Okami!" Hero cried out hugging the man with his right arm. His left arm glowed slightly before shrinking back down to a normal size...

"Why are you crying Hero?" Okami laughed. On the shore several of his men could all be seen. They all winced when they saw him. "After all a brave hero should never cry. Tears won't change anything. They only bring out despair in a person. So smile. Because a smile has way more Hope inside of it."

"B... But your bleeding."

Okami slowly got out of the waters still crying the child. Part of his side was missing as blood flowed out of the wound. It didn't look very good...

"Captain!" One of the men said helping the man up. "We need to return to Oleander immediately-"

"I'll return him back home." One of the Enforcers said this one had a strange cross shaped gun. "You need medical help right now and this Town doesn't have anything that can stop that... We need to get you back to Oleander right away."

"Please don't die!" Hero begged still crying.

Okami gave a small smile as he slowly bent down. The action clearly hurt him a lot as he hissed out. He reached up and pulled the Gold badge he had and handed it to Hero. "H... Here you go." He coughed out.

"W... What."

"An Enforcers badge is one of the most important things to them," Okami explained. He gave the boy a small half-smile. "I'll need that back after all. If you have it then I guess I have no choice but to return."

Hero gave a weak smile. "O... Okay... I'll be a powerful hero by the time you return. I'll be an even better Enforcer than you ever were."

"I look forward to seeing that day..."

***

'But that day never came. Okami Otoko died shortly after unable to make it to a healing center in time. Ten years later and I'm still not an Enforcer. I'm still failing everyone to this day.'

Age 1983

An Unknown City...

Outside of a small cabin...

"Why are you still out in the snow white?"

"I was just thinking." An older Hero said. He was seated outside of a small snowy cabin out in the middle of the woods staring out at the snowy forest. "I was thinking about the day you found me. After my village was mostly destroyed by the remaining bandits."

Behind Hero and young man could be seen. He looked to only be in his early twenties and was wearing what almost looked like a clowns outfit, but his face was in the shadows remaining unseen. Small puffs of smoke rose out of the shadows as he no doubt started on his forth cigarette.

"Well stop thinking about that kind of stuff brat. We got an early day at the circus tomorrow."

"Right... Dad..."