1 Chapter 1

[A/N: Let me know if you prefer names with or without Japanese honorifics.]

Within the outskirts of the city of Tokyo, in a big mansion built on top of a hill and surrounded by trees, a man wearing a Kimono was having a drink while reading a book in the comfort of his fireplace, the crackling of the flames was somehow capable of completely changing the atmosphere of the room.

There were many shelves there, each with rows of books filling up the compartments in them. The floor and the pillars bound to the walls were all made of white marble and reflected the moonlight coming through the window.

The double door that leads to this room was opened and Tatsumi, Mitsumasa Kido's butler, entered carrying a mug with hot tea on a plate. He gave Kido the mug and bowed slightly before speaking.

"Mitsumasa-sama, Saori Ojou-sama wishes to speak with you," Tatsumi spoke with a calm voice, he knew better than annoying his master when he's resting in his private office.

Kido nodded but didn't answer immediately, he first took a sip of the tea and slowly tasted the hot liquid that flowed within his throat.

"Thanks, Tatsumi, you can tell her to come in."

Tatsumi nodded and left, a few minutes later, a small beautiful girl with aqua-purplish hair and green eyes walked in, she wore a simple white dress, made with the purpose of making its wearer as comfortable as possible.

"Grandpa, I heard something and I want to know the truth." Saori pouted and gave the old man a sad look.

"What is it, my beautiful child?" Kido smiled and took her in his arms and walked across the room, towards the window where they could see a black sky filled with white dots.

"I heard one of the maids say that you will adopt a hundred kids, is that true? Does grandpa doesn't like me? Is that why grandpa wants to adopt so many kids?" Saori's eyes became slightly red and watery.

Hearing this, Kido smiled and shook his head, he kissed Saori on the forehead and looked through the windows. "Saori, you'll always be my beloved granddaughter no matter what happens, this old man isn't capable of disliking you."

"Then, why are you doing that?" She hugged him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Saori, do you remember what I told you about the stars?"

Saori thought for a moment before she looked up at the sky through the window, her shining eyes seemed to peer through the vastness of the cosmos as if everything was just a foot away from her.

"You said that they were the spirits of the great heroes and beasts from the past..."

"That's right, but that isn't all. You probably never heard of this, but every person is born under a guardian constellation, it's a blessing of Athena for humans, their guardian constellation gives them the power and the strength to keep walking forward, to endure the slippery and dark path where evil lurks. They are all small beacons of hope that forever shine in the sky to give you the light even your darkest moments."

"Grandpa, I don't understand, what do you mean?" Saori tilted her head to the side and gave Kido a worrisome glance.

"Haha, the kids I'll adopt are like candidates to become stars, each one of them has a chance of one day becoming the beacons of hope that will ignite the power within their souls to enlighten a path for you."

"So... You're adopting them for me?"

"You could say that."

Hearing this, Saori's eyes instantly opened wide as a big smile bloomed across her face, her arms entwined around Kido's neck in a tight hug. "Thank you so much, grandpa, I should've never thought you didn't like me!"

Kido laughed and hugged her back, before putting her on the ground. "Now go back to your room, it's late already and your classes start tomorrow."

"I'll grandpa." She kissed him in the cheek and left while humming a sweet song.

Seeing her leaving, Kido frowned slightly as cold sweat poured down his face, he brought his hand to his chest and leaned against the window as he tried to breathe. The pain slowly disappeared and he went back to normal.

Still, he couldn't help but sit down on the chair in front of the fireplace and give the flames a sad look. It was obvious now that his time was ending, if he doesn't start his plans soon, it might be too late to do anything about the future.

...

"That's exactly what I meant Jabu! You're a fucking dog for obeying that sorry excuse of a human!"

"Say that again if you can! Ryuuji!" Jabu clenched his hand. "If that's what you want, let me help you get rid of some of your teeth!"

Seeing the boy who was at least 10 cm smaller threatening him, Ryuuji laughed. Unlike the vast majority of the orphans, he had spent two of his years living with the Yakuza, at that time, he was making money by participating in illegal fights against kids between 5 and 12 years old.

Despite his early defeats, it didn't take long for him to learn how to fight. So when he saw the brown-haired boy approaching him with his left hand pulled back he smirked, it was like Jabu was screaming that he wanted to punch him with his left hand.

"Take this, you bastard!" Jabu threw a punch towards Ryuuji who simply leaned his head to the right while instantly counter-attacking with a punch in his guts.

Jabu barely had time to react as he fell on his knees and hugged his belly, the air seemed to escape his lungs while he did his best to endure the pain, but before he could recover, Ryuuji kicked his face, making him roll over towards the fountain on the courtyard of the terrain where Graad Foundation built a place of residence for the hundred-plus kids taken from orphanages from all around the world.

Under the shadow of a tree, two kids watched everything, the one wearing red clothes frowned, while the one wearing a black tank-top smiled. The 10 cm difference between them was an effect of the age difference since Mei, the boy with the black tank-top was 2 years older than Seiya who sat down beside him, just like Ryuuji and Ikki.

"I told you Seiya, there was no way Jabu would win against Ryuuji, I bet only Ikki can face him."

"Bet! Bet! That's all you talk about Mei! Damn it, I'll never bet with you again, why do you always win!?"

"It's because I'm wise, I know where to make my bets." Mei shrugged while Seiya shook his head, the thought of cleaning Mei's bed for a week already making him want to die.

Meanwhile, the other children all looked at the scene without any expressions on their faces, they learned pretty soon not to mess up with Ryuuji, being the first one taken to this place, he never allowed anyone else but him to act like this place's leader and hated those who complied with Kido Saori's wishes.

Jabu breathed heavily, he tried to stand up but he couldn't, feeling the blood leaking from his nose, he gave Ryuuji an enraged glance from the ground while tears were falling from his eyes.

"Y...you c-c-coward!"

"Hahaha! I'm the coward? Then what does that makes you? That bitch's slave?" Ryuuji spat on him and walked away with his hands inside his pant's pockets.

Once Ryuuji disappeared around the corner of the building. A boy with reddish-brown hair, blue eyes, and white skin, approached Jabu with a water-filled bucket and a piece of cloth in his hands.

Without speaking anything, he crouched down and helped Jabu to clean his face.

"Thanks, Shun..."

Shun smiled hearing his words, however, he looked towards where Ryuuji left with a worrying glance. "I don't like all this violence, I wish I could do something to make things better between you two..."

"Forget it Shun, that guy is a caveman, the only language he knows is his punches."

Shun gave him a sad look and after a moment he spoke. "Have you ever tried to make amends with him? I know it might be difficult, but Ryuuji isn't as bad as you think, he even reminds me of Ikki sometimes."

"You speak as if Ikki was any better than him..."

Shun blinked his eyes and apologetically smiled when he remembered that Ikki had also beaten up Jabu before.

"Sorry."

Jabu simply nodded and sighed as he lay down on the ground, after what happened he even lost interest in playing around, he just wanted to forget what happened.

Ryuuji stopped walking and lay down underneath the shadows of a big tree that was planted on top of a small hill. His silver-grey hair waved with the fresh breeze of the morning, feeling the comfortable wind sweeping against him, he smiled slightly.

"Feeling good, aren't you?" A cold voice reached Ryuuji's ear, making him frown, but he kept his eyes shut.

"If you weren't as strong as me, I would have beaten you up already." Said Ryuuji as he sighed. "Do you want something, or you just came here to annoy me?"

"You are the annoying one here." Ikki shook his head as he leaned against the other side of the tree.

Silence took over for a moment as both appreciated the calmness that emanated from this place, this was pretty much their dominion, no other kid was allowed to come here, those who tried were taught quite a lesson so that they would never mess up with someone's territory.

"I heard some of the staff saying that the girl will be coming over today and that the old man wants to do something..." Ikki paused for a moment to think before continuing. "They were behaving weirdly, I'm not sure why."

Hearing this, Ryuuji blinked his eyes and frowned. He didn't know much about the old man and had quite a difficult time understanding how he should treat him, as he was angry for being forced to suffer on Saori's hand but happy that Mitsumasa eventually showed up to take him away from Yakuza's hands and brought him to this place where he had good quality food, a nice bedroom and much more.

"Maybe the old man has some weird plan prepared for today..."

"He couldn't be thinking about sending us away, or could he?" Ikki pondered over the question for a moment before shaking his head.

"I don't think so, if he ever thought about this possibility, he wouldn't have brought us to this place, to begin with. As far as I know, he must be doing this just to make us his personal army, as the Yakusa does with the kids of orphanages inside their territory."

Ikki nodded, still he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow hearing his words. "You sure know a lot about this kind of thing, maybe if you had spent more time training instead of learning those things, you'd have been stronger than me."

"I learned this when I was making deliveries for the Yakuza in my free time, the rich are always doing something messed up, because of this they have to keep paying bribes for government officials and corrupted cops in order for them to pretend that nothing's happening, I wouldn't be too surprised if Kido was the king of a criminal empire, in that case, it would make even more sense to recruit a bunch of kids and raise them with a blind loyalty."

Before Ikki could answer, a few of Kido's security guards suddenly approached them.

"There they are, take those brats to the courtyard." One of them commanded.

The other two accompanying him nodded and complied.

"You heard him, follow us to the courtyard."

"Humph." Ryuuji spat on the ground. "If you wanna make me move, you'll have to carry me over."

Ikki just cracked his knuckles, the sound clearly saying that he was ready to punch someone.

"Tsk, so annoying, let's get this done fast, I still need to use the bathroom." One of them spoke as he stepped forward towards Ryuuji.

A few minutes later, three guards with blood all over their faces and with their suits snapped appeared carrying Ryuuji and Ikki by the collar of their clothes. The kids cowering on a corner merely watched as they threw the both of them towards the crowd.

Bruises were all over Ryuuji and Ikki, they fought to the best of their ability, but in the end, they were just kids facing adults, it was already good enough that they manage to make them spill some blood.

"Why did it took so long?" Tatsumi asked with an enraged face as he looked towards the trio who looked like trash.

"Those two are a pain in the ass." One answered.

"Yeah, I think one of them broke my finger..." The man was holding his finger as he spoke, clearly doing his best to endure the pain.

"Fine, you can go to the hospital, the others go change your clothes and clean your faces."

The guards nodded and quickly obeyed Tatsumi's orders.

"Now, you better behave you brats, otherwise, you'll end up just like those two idiots." Tatsumi laughed while the kids lowered their heads in fear.

Shun was the only one that had the guts to stand up and pull the two towards them.

"Shun..." Ikki tried to speak, but Shun interrupted him.

"Don't worry brother, I won't let Saori injure the both of you even more."

Ryuuji could only bitterly smile as he heard that, hopefully, she would be in good mood and decide to leave earlier this time.

The sliding doors of the Building where they were currently staying opened, from within, a girl wearing a jockey suit and carrying a whip slowly walked towards the kids, her short aqua-purplish hair was waving as the wind swept them.

"Saori Ojou-sama, they are all here just as you asked."

"Thanks, Tatsumi." Saori smiled.

She approached the kids with slow steps, each one seemed to become louder than the other, it echoed within the kids' ears as some trembled with fear, while others did the same but with anger. Although there were a few exceptions.

"So, today... I want Seiya to be my horse."

"What!?" Seiya stood up as he heard that. "Not even in death! You'll have to find someone else to do this for you!"

Tatsumi chased him down, while Seiya tried to escape, but soon enough due to his small legs he was captured by the bald man.

"Put me down, you thug!"

"Shut up Seiya, you must obey Ojou-sama without complaining!" He threw Seiya on the ground just a meter away from Saori.

Seiya sat down on the ground as he massaged his head.

"Now, you'll obey me?"

"Never! I don't want to pretend that I'm your horse!" Seiya shouted out to her, making Saori flinch for a moment before recomposing herself.

Saori narrowed her eyes and spoke with anger. "How dare you Seiya? Don't you understand your position?"

"I already said that I don't want to play with you!"

At that moment, they all heard a loud cracking sound, it came from the impact of Saori's whip on Seiya's cheek. The thin red mark that ran from the beginning of his ear almost to the mouth was proof of the strength that Saori had used in her blow.

"You left the orphanage thanks to my grandpa! You're all like slaves of the family so don't you dare answer like that! I won't allow you to answer anymore, do you understand Seiya?"

Seiya frowned and kept his mouth shut, but that didn't stop him from giving the girl an enraged glance.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Are you challenging me!?" Saori became angry and tried once more to hit Seiya in the face with her whip, but just a few inches away from touching his face, the whip stopped midair as Seiya successfully managed to catch it in his hands.

"Ahh!? Drop it!" Saori tried to pull it away but Seiya's grip on the whip became even tighter. "I already told you to drop it!"

Seeing how the situation was escalating, everyone looked at them for a moment, the atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier, when Tatsumi was about to act and teach him a lesson, Jabu jumped from the crowd and pushed Seiya away making him fall face-first to the ground once more.

"Get out of here Seiya!"

Saori blinked her eyes seeing this development, not really understanding what was happening, but then Jabu turned towards her and said. "Hey, Saori-san! Don't think about Seiya, it will only make you stressed, I can be your horse if you want Saori-san."

"Are you trying to get her attention, Jabu?" Seiya asked while still lying on the ground.

"Can you please shut up!? We are only living here thanks to Saori!" Jabu stood on his knees while supporting himself with his hands and looked at Saori with a smile. "Come Saori, you can sit on my back, I'll be your horse."

"Ohh... Okay then, if you insist Jabu."

And as expected, much like the other times, Jabu kept obeying Saori almost like a dog that wanted to please his owner.

The other kids approached Ikki and Ryuuji and helped them to sit down while Seiya came back to sit with them all, some of the girls had quietly taken the first aid kit from within the building when nobody was seeing and brought them over to patch the boy's injuries.

"Ugh..." Ryuuji winced as a girl with slightly curled shoulder-length light brown hair used a small wet gauze coupled with neutral soap to clean the injury, after making sure that it was cleaned and the chances of something bad happened were as low as possible, she applied an antibiotic ointment on his skin and covered it with a clean bandage.

Seeing how well she took care of him, Ryuuji looked towards the girl and thanked her. "Seika-san, isn't it? Thank you."

"Don't worry, Ryuuji-kun, I'm glad I could help."

The two smiled.

After Ikki was fully patched up, almost half an hour had passed since Jabu and Saori started playing together, everyone turned towards Saori and Jabu hoping that she would have left already, instead, they were all shocked when they saw the blood seeping from Jabu's knees and leaving a red trail wherever he went.

Jabu was drenched in sweat, it was clear he was nearing a point of exhaustion and it wouldn't take too long before he was completely drained and collapsed due to his current situation.

"This is horrible..." Miho, a girl with dark blue hair who wore two pigtails on the sides of her head covered her mouth as her eyes became watery. The vision itself was enough to stress her that much.

Seiya who was frowning seeing the whole thing was surprised when Miho grabbed the end of his shirt and held it tightly in between her hands as if by letting go of him, she would be the next one to suffer this malicious fate.

Seiya patted her on the shoulder and smiled as he tried to calm her down. "Saori is unbearable! I don't understand why Jabu doesn't fight back."

On his left, a boy with dark green hair shook his head.

"This is pathetic, why is she doing that?"

"Why else could it be Shiryu? She is a spoiled brat, I have met many kids like her before my mother died." A blond boy sitting behind Shiryu spoke while keeping his head buried within the warmth of his arms, he had lost the patience to keep watching this stuff a long time ago.

"To think that a girl could be like that..." Shiryu sighed and shook his head.

"There will always be demons blocking our paths, you might hate her now, but she is just the beginning, that's why we need to become strong, that's why you can't bend your knees for her kind." Ikki stood up and cracked his knuckles.

"Ikki, no! You will end up hurt again!" Shun grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, hoping to stop Ikki from doing something that would end up with him in bed for more than a week.

"Ha... You sure you don't have a thing for pain? I'm starting to think you do this for the pleasure of getting beaten." Ryuuji narrowed one of his eyes as he stood up while holding the side of his chest, the pain was still there making his life hard.

"You say that but you still follow me."

"Tsk, shut up, let's get that idiot out of that situation before he ends up killing himself."

"Yeah..." Ikki nodded as he narrowed both of his eyes.

Before they could do anything though, a black limousine entered through the garage and parked right in front of the building's entrance.

Saori instantly recognized the car and got up from Jabu's back. "Grandpa! You came!"

As she ran away to greet her grandfather, Ryuuji grunted and went towards Jabu together with Ikki and some of the other boys to carry him over towards the girls since they had the first aid kit.

Wearing a blue kimono, Mitsumasa Kido came out of the limousine and opened his arm to hug Saori who was running towards him. However, his eyes were heavy and seemed to be devoid of light, as if hope had already left his entire being.

"Saori..."

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Saori laughed as she hugged him tightly, happy to finally see him.

Even though it had been an entire week since he last saw her, Kido sighed as he looked towards the kids and spoke to her.

"Saori, now you can do whatever you want," His voice was profound and strong, but there was a lack of emotion in it, and Saori knew that he only spoke like that when he wanted her to know something important or wanted to teach her something. "maybe... you're probably happier than those boys, but I want you to look at them."

"Uhm?" Saori couldn't understand why he was being so serious, despite wanting to talk with him, she turned around and was startled as she looked how everyone gathered around Jabu and was asking if he was okay, even from far away, something in her heart despite her wicked personality amplified the feeling of kindness and brotherhood she felt coming from them, it made her heart hurt, and she didn't know why.

"A terribly cruel destiny awaits those boys, but I think they will all face it with true courage. The same will happen to you Saori, maybe, an even more severe judgment will be waiting for you, and you'll need a powerful will to not lose your courage and hope, and no matter what happens, you and those boys will have to cooperate if you wish to overcome this destiny..."

"Grandpa..." A teardrop fell from Saori's eyes and she hugged Kido again, this time burying her face in his robes.

Kido brought her to the Limousine and the two left, but not before he gave Tatsumi orders to tell the kitchen staff to prepare a special banquet for all of the kids since with what was about to come, he was afraid that it would be a long time before they could have such an opportunity again, and that only if they managed to survive.

Ever since ancient times, when gods and goddess used to roam the world, tales of humans who went against destiny and even the gods themselves to save lives, find love or even gain power were countless, but they all have one thing in common, no matter what they achieved in life, their fate was tragic and not many would be able to bear the weights they all carried in their backs, for only the great can do great things.