Prologue

In half of the 21st century, James Wayne became a general in the Japanese army. Because of his work, he couldn't stay at home with his family. James' wife was a lovely woman named Zoe Estar, who gave him two sons: the first-born was Lionhard, an active child who admired the work of his father, and by the age of 9 he already decided to follow his father's footprints. Lionhard's younger brother, whose name was Gabriel, was born with a very rare disease, making him unable to do physical efforts. Due to the immense difference between the two brothers, they hardly spent some time together: while Lionhard was playing outside, Gabriel was busy reading in his room, from which he barely step foot out.

One day, when Lionhard was 14, James came back home from an exhausting military campaign. Immediately Lionhard jumped at him and crossed his arms around his neck, insistently asking him all sorts of questions about the battlefield and the weapons they had to use. However, James had to leave on the next day's morning, because duty called him once again. That started an intense discussion between Lionhard and his father.

"Dad, I want to come with you! I want to fight on the battlefield and then die by your side!"

James was angered by those words, but he tried to remain calm.

"Don't be silly. You have to continue your military training and your studies at the academy. I won't let you die because of me."

"But Dad," replied Lionhard, "I am one of the best students in the academy. I have beaten almost all of my classmates in the strength trial. I am sure I will be helpful!"

Now James was starting to lose his patience.

"Now listen carefully. You are too young for taking part in something like the war. Real-life is not a game, and if you are defeated on the battlefield, you don't have a second opportunity."

"But Dad, I..."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" screamed him while he slammed his hands on the table. He glanced at his son with anger in his eyes.

He raised his finger and pointed it at the stairs in the back of the room.

"Now go to your room and do not exit from it!"

James Wayne left the house the following morning, without even saying goodbye to Lionhard. The two of them were bound never to see each other again because James met his fate on that campaign. Lionhard was devasted by the death of his beloved father, and that gave him the determination to finish his studies and enter the army. He revealed himself to be an excellent soldier, because of his godly force and the seemingly unnatural ability to continue fighting even after receiving fatal wounds. In the meanwhile, Gabriel discovered an ancient book buried in the depths of his family's library, in which he read about the secrets of some men that appeared to possess unusual abilities like the ones his brother had. So, he decided to investigate more about the topic, and the right occasion occurred when a doctor came to their residence for a control visit. Gabriel managed to steal one of Lionhard's blood vial to analyze it. And what he found was quite the discovery.

Later, he sneaked in Lionhard's room, while he was sitting on his bed, apparently thinking about something. Gabriel hid a large knife he took from their kitchen and smiled innocently at his brother.

"What are you doing, Lion? You seem worried about something."

"It's nothing..." he said, avoiding his brother's eyes. "It's just my legs... They start to feel a little stiff sometimes, but I'm sure there is nothing to worry about."

"I see," nodded Gabriel. "By the way, Lion, would you be so kind as to show your arm to me?"

"My arm?" said Lionhard, surprised by his demands. Despite that, he obediently exposed to him his naked arm.

Gabriel acted in the blink of an eye. He took the knife and made its sharp tip slice through his brother's arm. The long wound began to bleed almost instantly, and Lionhard, too surprised to say anything, just gave the brother a shocked look.

Lionhard opened his mouth to say something, but Gabriel didn't allow him to do so. They both stood there, waiting for something to happen, while Lionhard was bearing the piercing pain. After ten seconds, the injury began to incredibly heal itself. In a matter of instants, the bleeding cut was transformed into a scar. Gabriel sighed, visibly satisfied.

"It seems that my hypothesis was correct after all."

"What do you mean by 'hypothesis'?" exclaimed Lionhard.

"Don't worry, I'll explain everything to you later. Anyway, do you remember the birthmark you had on your shoulder? Well, I don't think that is a birthmark."

From that event, a week has passed. Gabriel shared his discovery with the rest of the world, and now, here he was, with his brother, on the stage of an auditorium, preparing to finally explain in detail what his discovery was about. Before the beginning, he took a look at Lionhard. His conditions have gotten worse in a very little amount of time, forcing him to sit in a wheelchair. Lionhard noticed his emotions, and he shrugged his shoulders, like saying "It's not your fault." Between the two of them, words were not necessary.

In the end, with a bright smile on his face, Gabriel turned to the audience and began his speech.

"Welcome to everyone! I thank you all for being present today, and I beg you to listen to me and avoid questions until the end of my explanations because I am sure you will have lots!"

The crowd was trembling with excitement but at one sign of Gabriel's hand, silence fell on the place.

"My name is Gabriel Wayne, and I am a scientist. The general next to me is my brother, Lionhard Wayne. Today, your vision of the world will drastically change, and things you have always believed to be belonging to fantasy worlds will now become reality."

"Anyway, let's proceed one step at a time. I'm sure all of you know about superheroes. I mean, who doesn't? Everyone has been dreaming as a child to become one of those men with incredible powers that fight the evil to defend people. Oh, if you are asking yourself that, no, I have not discovered the existence of superheroes. I have just discovered this little guy."

The wide display at his back suddenly turned on and showed to the public a 3D render of what seemed like a microscopic organism, with the tiny body full of flagella, colored with red shades.

"This..." continued Gabriel, "... Is what, in our language, we would call an 'alien'. Indeed, this organism does not belong to our world but has been transported here by probably a meteorite. He is a benign parasite. He can form with the cells of the human body a symbiotic relationship. In exchange of energy from the cells, the parasite provides the body with supernatural abilities, almost 'superhero' ones."

Gabriel stopped theatrically, observing his public's reactions, that was, in fact, flabbergasted.

"I know that you may be surprised by what I'm telling you, and I know it's hard to believe the things I'm telling you. But our journey has just begun. This organism, that I allowed myself to name 'Tsuyo', by the Japanese word that means 'strength', is a sentient creature. I have calculated that its intellectual quotient is relatively close to a domestic dog's. It stipulates with his host a strong bond of loyalty, and it tries to help him, but it can also feel fear, and hinder him."

Gabriel left his public alone with its thoughts and turned to his brother.

"Lionhard, could you please show to the public the back of your shoulder?"

Lionhard undressed his jacket and revealed to the audience his shoulder, in which there was a strange symbol, that looked like a birthmark.

"Every Tsuyo user has on his body a symbol that distinguishes his powers to the others. My brother possessed immense strength and his wounds were able to heal themselves at an incredible velocity. That allowed him to become a wonderful soldier on the battlefield. However, he relied on his power too much, and because of that, he lost his legs."

Gabriel looked at the back of the stage, where a tall man appeared out of nowhere holding a kitchen knife. Gabriel repeated the same procedure in Lionhard's room the previous week: this time, though, the injury took at least 20 seconds to fully heal. The public clapped almost instantly. Gabriel also pointed at the Tsuyo's mark on Lionhard's shoulder, which has been emitting light during the entire process of healing.

At that moment, a hand was raised from the crowd. Gabriel, a little annoyed by the interruption, allowed the man to stand up and take the floor.

"How can we be sure that the arm of that guy is not fake? With a prothesis things like that could be possible." pointed out the guy.

Obviously, Gabriel expected something like this to happen, and of course, he was prepared.

"Why don't you come here on the stage and check once and for all? I'm sure you are not the only one that is doubting the veracity of my words."

The man walked slowly to the stage and then hop on it. He got close to Lionhard, apparently for inspecting his arm. But in reality, he pulled a syringe out of his pocket and injected something in Lionhard's leg. No one could see a thing, because the action took only a few seconds, and of course, Lionhard himself didn't feel anything.

The man, now satisfied, came down from the stage and sit back in his chair. Gabriel, now more relaxed, began to say:

"Now that all of you are sure that Lionhard's arm is real, if someone has any other question, please..."

But he interrupted himself because he noticed Lionhard had fallen over his wheelchair, shaking. At first, Gabriel thought that he was having a seizure, and he pulled out his phone to call an ambulance, but then suddenly Lionhard stopped moving. A second later, he dashed forward so quickly Gabriel couldn't see him moving, and after that, the body of one of the spectators in the front row flew through the air and landed a few meters to the left, a crimson hole opening in his chest.

And then, the massacre started. Lionhard, that had always been a soldier loyal to his country and protective to his citizen, begun to punch everything that was moving. Gabriel was completely frozen, but he noticed that Lionhard was attacking trough some sort of natural brass knuckles that had grown on his hands. A single hit from those brass knuckles was enough to open a hole in the chest of an adult person. When the man in the front row died, the others behind him tried to escape, but Lionhard was too fast. For some reason, he also appeared to be capable of using his legs again.

Only a dozen people managed to survive, including Gabriel. When the whole auditorium was covered in blood and corpses, Lionhard finally collapsed to the ground. Immediately Gabriel hurried up to his body, thinking that he might have died too, but he found out Lionhard was still breathing, even though he was unconscious.

"Dumbass! What the hell were you thinking? Jesus Christ... All this blood... What the fuck passed through your mind?" screamed Gabriel, his voice muted by sobs, tears flowing through his cheeks.

After that incident, Lionhard and Gabriel cut all of their relationship with each other. They managed, in some way, to cover up what had happened, but no one can fully hide the truth, and soon the public opinion hated them. They also feared what those "monsters", the Tsuyo users, were capable of. Despite all of what had happened, the two brothers still felt sorry for the Tsuyo users that had no place to go, and to those that were emarginated from the society because of what they did. In fact, they built two schools in which Tsuyo users could come to and find shelter, food, and even education. But they built two opposite schools because the two brothers had two different ideals. Gabriel wanted to help the Tsuyo users, but he couldn't hide his curiosity: there were so many things about the parasite that he ignored, and he wanted to discover them all.

On the other hand, Lionhard wanted to erase wars from this world. He had been a soldier for all of his life, and he finally understood how useless wars were. So, he decided to create super-soldiers that were capable, trough fear, of finally stopping every conflict.

And this, this is how our story begins. But, the peaceful lives of our characters, all in puerile age and with only two things in mind, were about to be violently interrupted by someone that wouldn't stop at anything in order to obtain what he desired the most.