How long had it been?
How long had it been since he had an actual food going down his throat, instead of whatever he could find among these snowy plains or scavenge from trash cans. Maybe a few weeks? Had it really been that long since his mother died? Since he had to kill his father in order to survive?
It definitely felt longer to Haku.
If it hadn't been for his bloodline, he was sure that he would have frozen to death by now. Maybe that would have been better, it definitely couldn't be worse than living without any purpose like this.
Maybe he should just end it, there probably would be a few shinobi around somewhere near. He could just told them that he has a bloodline limit and they would gleefully kill him. Just like the the villagers had killed his mom.
"Aren't you cold?" A voice said from above him and he looked up to see a young man, looking maybe around thirteen or fourteen, with midnight black hair and coal like black eyes looking down at him with a frown.
"Not really." Haku said with a small smile, not sure who he was trying to fool.
"Why are you out here?" The man asked again and Haku looked at him, wondering why he seemed to care. He didn't look like he was from the Land of Water, his clothes looked like nothing Haku knew, and people from other countries would never care about anyone who wasn't a part of their land.
"There is no one who wants me." He admitted with a smile, wondering where this conversation would go.
"I see." He said with a frown before looking down at Haku again. "That is no way for a child to live." He said and from his tone Haku could see that he didn't think of that as an opinion but as a fact. He was kind.
"Tell me kid, do you wanna get out of here?" He abruptly asked and Haku tilted his head questioningly.
"Out of your situation, out of this country, out of this land; hell, out of this world! Do you wanna come with me and get out of it?" He asked again, this time with a smile; making Haku look at him weirdly.
"You want... me?" He asked, the mere notion of such a thing sounding bizarre to his ears.
"Yup, though not exactly for free. You would be working for me, and the work is hard, but in exchange you get to have great things like proper food and shelter. All with the small cost of placing your life in my hands." He explained with a smile and Haku could feel something in his chest, something he had not felt since his parents' deaths. A hope for a reason to exist.
"Who are you?" A hope that died an ugly death as a shinobi appeared behind the young man, a chūnin from his flak jacket.
"So how about it kid?" Yet the man did not show any kind of reaction to indicate he even noticed the shinobi's presence, still looking down at Haku with a smile. An act the chūnin did not seem to appreciate as he put a hand on the man's shoulder, a kunai in hand.
"Don't you ignore me, you little..." Whatever the shinobi was about to say would forever remain unfinished as several centipede like creatures suddenly jumped out of the black haired man's back and then they started eat the chūnin before he could even make a noise of surprise.
Even though he had killed his own parents, the scene before him was far too grotesque for even Haku. He could feel bile rose from his throat as the giant insects devoured the shinobi, all the while the black haired man kept looking at Haku with his hand extended towards him.
"The choice is yours." The scene before should have made him run away with fear, to get away from this man, yet as he looked into the man's eyes; Haku couldn't stop his hand from extending back to him as he grasped the offered hand.
"Who are you?" Haku asked as he got up from the snow, his hand in the grasp of the man.
"Me? My name is Rigal, Rigal Flauros." He answered as he raised his hand and some sort of inky black circle appeared before them.
"Welcome to the family." And they walked into it.
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"A rather interesting choice, master." Asako said as she poured black tea into my cup. "I was honestly expecting you to just find some big chested woman to break their mind, leave lots of bodies behind you and call it a day. Instead you have brought home a young boy after violently murdering only one man."
"Your trust in me fills me with happiness." I said dryly, not exactly amused by the assassin's initial assessment of me.
Still, it wasn't enough to bring me down from my good mood. After all, I had just gotten my hands on a very talented individual that would develop a fierce loyalty towards me. Seriously, Haku had been willing to die for a guy that had no problems with telling him that he was a weapon to him. Now, that loyalty would be mine.
The appearance of that random shinobi had been something of an unexpected complication though, but one that I had turned into an advantage. Out of my three templates, two of them had been in work at killing the guy.
Zeref Dragneel of the Fairy Tail universe was mostly known for his death based magic he had gotten due to his curse but in his universe he was known for something else.
Living Magic. The dark wizard had created dozens, if not hundreds, of demons throughout the four hundred years of his life. Obviously my abilities were far inferior to the full power Zeref and even those centipede monsters I had created had almost been failures. Which was where my other template came in; Chthon, the elder god of chaos.
The chaos magic was for all intents and purposes, magic based reality warping. It could do anything its user desired, as long as they had sufficient power. Which was why its users tended to go insane and do questionable things, the true desires of heart are not always so pretty after all.
So using chaos magic in order to alter the probability a little bit, my creation of first monsters became a success. Which also made me realize that my templates allowed me to technically use the powers of two different Longinus class sacred gears, Annihilation Maker and Telos Karma.
"Still, are you sure about making him your knight?" Asako asked and I shrugged.
"He was a speed based fighter in his canon future, and his tier requires me to use at least two pawn pieces. Even if he takes a different path for his powers, being fast will still be useful." I said with a shrug, I intended for Haku to make use of all of his potential anyway.
"Now then, what shall be my next step?"
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