1 I am Jin.

[A/N: Hey fellas, this is my second time writing so any criticisms and suggestions are welcome. If you think it's bad, say so. If you think it's good, say so. Don't sugarcoat it. All criticism is welcome. By the way, this chapter, well this novel, in general, will be graphic and if you can't handle it, you might wanna skip those parts. Well, that's it. Thanks for the support boys! Good reading!]

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"Strength is the only thing that matters."

These were words that Jin Tenra, The One-Armed Dragon lived by. He was a 25-year-old man that was feared all over the world. It was said that no matter who it was, man, woman, or child, as long as the money was right, he would assassinate them without remorse. His services were quite expensive but clients who worked with him knew that whoever they wanted to die, was dead. It was even said that he killed some particularly evil men with a pocket knife but no one knew why, but they didn't question it.

Currently, Jin was on a contract in Tokyo. The target was a woman named Jessica Kazuma. She was born in the States but her parents were of Japanese descent. Speaking about her parents, they were billionaires and ran a legitimate business in real estate as a front, but were actually arms dealers and also one of the lead human traffickers on the black market.

Jin was currently standing on a rooftop, smoking a cigarette and reading manga while constantly checking his wristwatch. The rooftop belonged to the Shinjuku Mitsui Building. If one looked down, they would be blown away at the view from there. It was surrounded by the night lights of the Tokyo Prefecture and since he was so high up, the breeze was hitting Jin's face almost all the time, making him feel extremely relaxed.

"Ahh, Garou's martial arts are indeed impressive. Being able to turn your opponent's force against them huh? It is possible in the real world but in a life and death fight, I can't count on such gimmicks to preserve my life. Maybe if I was born in a manga instead...sigh. Haha, what wishful thinking."

Jin was a lonely man. When he was born his father almost left his mother because he thought that Jin wasn't his son. He thought that Jin's mother had cheated on him. The reason for this was the color of Jin's hair. It was white, not a normal shade of white either, it had an eerie feeling to it as if it had belonged to a ghost. His parents, grandparents, and even his great grandparents all had black or brown hair, so Jin's father being apprehensive about it wasn't surprising at all.

Unfortunately, as he got older, his features only became more and more distant from his fathers'. He had thin eyebrows and thin lips, his eyes were green but again, the shade of it was very light, as if Kami-sama himself forgot to put some color on this boy. After a certain age and after watching a certain anime, he started cutting his hair into the style of a man named Captain Levi. It was a kind of bowl cut but under it was faded out, only leaving the top to hang over at the sides. Jin also wasn't very handsome, but his unique features made him stand out.

His father had eventually left when he was 10 years old, sending him and his mother into a deep depression. He already wasn't that much of a talkative child when he was younger but now that he had lost a parent, his words became even fewer. He always avoided the kids at school, not because of fear, but he just didn't want to talk to anyone. Girls had tried to approach him multiple times as they had loved his look, especially with how 'anime' young culture was in Japan, but he never paid them any mind.

The year is 2016 and Jin is now 15 years old. In school, he focused on athletics/physical sports and was an avid fan of martial arts. He was no slouch in the intelligence department either but he hated doing theory in school as he always preferred more of a hands-on approach. He was walking home from school one day and had just stepped into his apartment complex. As he was going to take his key out of his pockets, he heard weird sounds coming out of the apartment.

It was a low-income complex so many people had lived in it. They lived on the top floor where there was only one neighbor and he was an old man so the sounds couldn't be because of him. Normally his mother would be outside of their door smoking when he came home and would hug him, but this time she wasn't there. Coupled with these loud sounds coming out of his apartment that sounded like a scuffle was going on, he was immediately alerted and jumped into action. He rammed his key into the door and pushed it to find five men inside, all dressed in suits with black gloves and his mother being held down on the ground with one of them sitting on top of her and doing something..weird to her.

"OI! GET THE FUCK OFF OF MY MOTHER!"

Jin dropped his backpack and drew a knife out of his back pocket. The four men surrounding his mother turned around and drew rushed at him right away. The leading man lunged at him and threw a powerful punch, causing Jin to dodge to the side and push the knife towards his eyes.

"Got him!"

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. As the knife was going to hit the man, another man came to the side and punched Jin to the side of his head, almost knocking him out. He flew to the wall and banged his head on it, delivering another blow to his already groggy brain.

"Jin! Leave my son alone! You promised that you wouldn't touch him as long as I continued doing this!"

Jin's mother was begging the man on top of her to stop his men from harming Jin but there was no response except for evil and maniacal laughter. The man on top of her was fat so any chance of her moving was gone as soon as he sat on her. As he continued penetrating Jin's mother, he suddenly had a crazy idea. He looked towards the man that was now beating Jin, the same one who almost got his eyes stabbed out and said:

"Choki-san, which arm did he try to stab you with?"

The man slowed down on beating Jin and looked towards the one on the ground.

"Boss! He used his right arm."

The smile on his face widened as the boss replied:

"Take it off. One of you pick up his pocket knife and start cutting it off. Choki-san, go get a knife from their kitchen and help him to hack it off. He will watch in pain as I show his mother a good time. Remember, the client told us to make sure both of them die here today."

The fat man then got off of his mother and turned her towards Jin so she could see him and the men held Jin down on the ground so that he could see her. They were so close that they were basically looking into each other's eyes. The fat man started on his tirade once again with Jin's mother and the men started hacking off Jin's right arm while they stopped periodically so they could also get a turn at the woman in front of them.

[4 hours later]

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Four gunshots rang out in the apartment complex. The neighbors all around in the 6 floors complex were alerted but they weren't going to the call the police. In these neighborhoods where everyone was struggling, the cops were corrupt and often worked with the exact criminals you called them to arrest so doing so would only get you killed. The neighbors knew that as it happened many times before so they just chose to keep their heads down.

Five men exited the apartment at the top floor, each of them had a satisfied smile on their face as they fixed their belts and headed down the stairs.

"Boss, why did that boy's father also order his execution? I understand that his mother was winning the case in court over their divorce and he would've had to pay a huge sum of money to her but why the boy?"

The boss turned around and looked at the man who asked him this. He had an understanding smile on his face and said;

"As a man, who would want a wastrel of a son to tarnish his family name, which was in his case Tenra. The boy wasn't even his son so he didn't care about him, but his prestigious family name was at stake. Leaving him alive would've probably caused some problems in the future so the client said to get rid of him too. Simple as that."

When the men left, a figure came out of the room next to Jin's.

"Sigh, the world has gone to shit. Low-class assassins like them left multiple traces that could lead back to themselves and even dared to say who their client was! What an embarrassment to the underworld of the Murim! If I was still young I would've tried to lessen the pain of this family but alas, these old bones cannot do anything."

The old man walked towards the open door and used his walking stick to push it open. The old man scoffed at their work once again and looked at the two bodies laying on the ground, each of them with two gunshots in them each and multiple stab wounds. The now shirtless boy was missing an arm and it seemed that they used his shirt to wrap it around his stump so that he wouldn't bleed out too fast. It looked like a torture chamber in there.

"Those little bastards! Sigh, I can only be upset at how these so-called assassins killed these folks. So brutal, so uncultured. It seems this old mind of mine had forgotten how dirty it was in the bottom class of the Murim. I should leave this apartment complex before the smell gets into my room. Hmph! Damn imbeciles!"

The old man was just about to leave in anger when he felt a hand grab onto his robes.

"P-pl-e-a..s-e, s..a..v...e...m...y...m..o..t..h..e..r"

The old man was surprised that this boy was still able to move and even form words. But that wasn't enough for him to save a boy on death's door. His mother was already dead so she wasn't even on his mind. The old man was about to kick Jin's hands away when he suddenly looked at the boy's eyes. Even though he was going to die, the boy's eyes weren't filled with fear or trepidation, but instead filled with unparalleled coldness and resolve. If looks could kill, the old man would be dead ten times over.

The old man's white hairs spiked up, however few they were and he started laughing maniacally.

"Gooood, gooood! You've managed to make the Ghost of the Murim respect your resolve! You just gained a new chance at life and revenge and I just gained a wonderful new disciple! Kekekeke!!"

The old man picked up Jin's body and took him outside, bracing him on the walls of the hallways. He then took out a lighter and some newspaper. He set the newspaper on fire and threw some old clothes on the body of Jin's mother. Throwing the paper on the clothes and watching it burn, the old man took out a cigarette and lit it up while staring at the burning body in front of him.

"Woman, you may have lived a terrible life and had an even more terrible death, but rejoice! You raised a son that is worthy of my teachings so you didn't die in vain. I promise that I will remind him every day of how you died and make sure to tell him who did it. You will be avenged for your good work!"

And with that, the man did a strange sign with his hands and a white, transparent energy left his mouth and engulfed the cigarette. He threw it on the newspaper and the fire seemed to have gained a life of its own as it engulfed the room and started burning everything down inside rapidly. But it wasn't spreading outside of the room at all for some odd reason.

"Tsk, what do those Shaolin bastards say again? Ummmm. Oh! Amitabha."

The old man then picked up Jin's body and left the complex, the rest of this tale being lost in time as the only person alive who knew what happened that day is Jin.