Sunrua (Prologue)

Dumbfounded he laid on some sort of cold rigid, sharp ground just generally uncomfortable. I don't like it he thought, however, he hadn't the energy to adjust his position, understandable since he barely had enough to open his eyes.

Eventually, despite his eyelids feeling as if they had been replaced by two anvils, he pried his eyes open, only being able to open them half way his pupils glanced weakly from left to right.

A thick foul-smelling smog surrounded him. Struggling to move or even breathe he let out two raspy *cough* *coughs*.

"What the hell, who am I, where am I?" He wheezed still deeply distraught.

"Oh… I'm so close I really can make it...*cough* I need to continue." The boy claimed weakly, perching his eyes on the fence. Although now being out in the open, the fence was still very far from him, at least 90-120 metres away about the length of an entire football pitch.

Once he had escaped his confusion, he pushed against the meld of metal, dirt, and sharp stone rubble beneath him, bringing himself up to his knees, paying little to no attention to the discomfort.

Soon after he gradually pulled down his hood from his head, in order to get the very much desired air in, no one seemed to be around to see his identity anyway. The hood was pulled away from his head and laid dangling in the air behind his shoulders, revealing a young teenage boy with brown skin and long white hair tied up with a white bobble to avoid it getting in the way.

Although ecstatic beyond belief and feeling like doing nothing less but letting out a cry of victory, he couldn't help but question the abnormality of the situation "How the hell am I alive?" He questioned looking left and right for a possible answer, however, the smoke still encased the surrounding area like a pack of dogs surrounding their prey, almost completely blocking the surrounding area at most corners.

Other than that he saw the remains of the building he was just in. Men in white coats and the gunmen that had previously threatened his life were scattered around the ground, some clasped between rubble in a state he presumed and hoped to be merely unconscious.

When looking around, his neck suddenly fixed in one direction. A thick shield-shaped piece of metal about the size of his palm with a golden heart-shaped crest engraved in the center caught his eye, amidst all the rubble as it sat unscathed, not holding even a sign of a visible scratch. "What is that? no-way, that heart- looks like, it's made of gold?!" The boy deciphered.

Still disorientated the boy jerked to his feet and stammered towards the shield crest, although absentmindedly, single-mindedly.

Once in front of the crest, he bent his knees in order to follow the next simple step and grab it, but before he knew it, he had lost his balance, and not soon after his entire body collapsed to the ground, and once again his consciousness flickered out.

"Hey, Sunrua?! Please, Sunrua are you up?"

The reassuring yet desperate familiar feminine voice put Sunrua's heart at ease, as his eyes gradually opened. Like the first time he had lost consciousness Sunrua didn't move his body, but this time it wasn't a matter of want and can't, but that of desire.

The cozy setting Sunrua found himself was although still cold, warming. His body was rested on something so soft it felt as if his body would sink into it, whilst the air smelled so pure it had a sweet taste to it.

Enjoying the antithesis of the place he had just been, Sunrua felt like doing nothing but relaxing, but decided the woman that was showing such distress over him deserved to share atleast some of the elevation he was, in the form of soothing her fears.

"Don't worry I'm okay Ma-"

"Gah!" Before Sunrua could even finish his first sentence, his body was sent hurtling to the side throwing him to the ground off the naked mattress he had been laying on, dragging a yellow blanket along with him, consequently slamming face first into a bar counter beside him.

"I'm so glad you're up." Claimed the owner of the voice lovingly with a bright smile on her face, as she dusted her hands clean by clapping them together at the other end of the mattress, her face had a strong contrast with her acts, as she smiled away almost reassuringly as if she hadn't just assaulted him without a hint of hesitation or the intent to pull her punches.

Sunrua knew her as Nina first and second his adopted mother. She was a middle-aged woman, no less than 35, she was about half a head shorter than Sunrua with long curled brown hair reaching mid-way down her back, with clear white skin.

She was dressed in a bright sky-blue nurse outfit, underneath which, she wore thin black tights over her legs, her thighs were pretty well curved, especially for someone her age. She stood up firmly despite wearing seemingly tight black shiny high heels.

"Yeah right, what the hell did you slap me for don't you see I'm injured?!" Sunrua roared as he darted up still rubbing his head frustratedly, awaiting some plausible explanation he refused to believe existed. He stood In front of a counter, which behind it were shelves and shelves stacked with a plethora of different types of beer, drinks alcohol and a few small weapons.

The bar was dimly lit, the sun from the windows at the other end of the room on either side of an old and uncared-for brown door being the room's only source of light.

"C'mon, it was just a slap, stop being a baby." The woman replied, as she stopped clapping her hands, and placed her left hand on her hip whilst she used the other to clean some dirt off her tights.

"And what kind of abnormal love slaps do you have to send an entire human being flying?!" Sunrua roared still holding his head evidently dissatisfied with the response.

"You can't tell me you didn't deserve it when you had me rushing from work praying that you were still alive, merely gave you a fraction of the pain you made me feel." She sighed folding her arms under her breasts and using her right arm to prop her head up from the forehead.

Sunrua decided to take a good look at his body, someone had dressed him in a black tank top and left him in his boxers. Of course, he wasn't much embarrassed his body was reasonably muscular for a person of his age. But the more important matter whoever it was, had cleaned up and plastered his cuts, and bruises and had even bandaged and treated the gun wound on his right shoulder.

"Did you do this?" Sunrua muttered quietly.

"No, I told you I was- "

"That'd be my doing." Interrupted a deep steady voice from another room, to the side of the counter.

"I'm also the reason your dumb ass got outta there alive and in one piece, and I'm not talking about the treasure." He continued as the lights weakly turned up taking a few frequent flashes followed by a concerning buzzy sound.

A tall extremely built man at least 6 feet tall with a thick beard and thinning grey hair with patches of black dotted around his hair. He was dressed in a similar suit to the gunmen. To Sunrua this man was his ex-step-grandfather for reasons he preferred not to recall on often as they still had a relatively close connection despite that fact. He had a strong-sounding name that fit well with his appearance Aengus.

"Again." Aengus concluded harshly with his arms crossed whilst leaning against the door frame.

"You know half of what I do is far more than what is expected from a father-in-law, let alone an ex-father-in-law." He continued.

"Sunrua, your sixteen now you should know what to say by now," Nina stated bloating up her right cheek with air and giving him a sly look expectedly.

"Thanks…" Sunrua murmured under his breath disapprovingly his head slightly tilted down towards the ground.

Suddenly his head shot up to stare down Aengus with his bright exasperated eyes. "I was really close this time I swear, you should've seen me! You saw me right gramps!?"

"Yes, I've heard, a lot closer to death that is!" Nina tutted.

"Look If you plan on going there again you best pray, they kill you there before me because if you come back, you best know I'm doing 10x worse than they would've. It's getting ridiculous." She warned sternly glaring down at Sunrua despite being shorter.

"But-"

"We're all trying to get by, living here in peace, we're able to go and eat where and what we want when we want, can't peace be enough freedom for you? That peace may be extinguished maybe for all of us, but definitely your close family and friends if something was to happen to you, or if you were to get caught, so why are you so persistent?" Nina explained in a soft tone with loving pleading eyes.

Sunrua looked down hiding the look of guilt infecting every aspect of his face, body, and posture, yet he continued to mumble "A mouse free to roam around a cage is still trapped."

Nina turned to Sunrua and gave him a stern look, sterner than any that she had given for the entire time here, her eyes fixed upon him so harshly it wouldn't be surprising if his white hair bursted into flames. Yet she only took a deep breath, as she closed her eyes and turned towards Aegus, and bowed her head multiple times repeating thank you, whilst also pulling Sunrua's ear.

"Come I washed your clothes they're in the other room." Aegus stated as he pushed his shoulder against the door frame returning to his upright standing position, he put both his hands in his pockets and turned towards the door he had just come from, beckoning Sunrua to follow behind.

Sunrua followed behind before suddenly being drawn back by his right shoulder.

"Ow, ow, have you still not had enough torturing me?" Sunrua squealed in pain.

"Oh please, I could go on for hours but that's not the reason."

Sunrua turned back to his mother stretching out her right arm towards him holding out a plastic shopping bag, with a black school uniform within it ushering him to take it as she jerked it further towards his face.

"What why this now?" Sunrua responded in a confused manner.

"You slept a day, it's Monday now you start that new school today."

Jumping at the words school Sunrua's tone turned on its head "Oh no that's today… but I'm still injured heh heh heh," Sunrua chuckled with a nervous fabricated laugh, in a sorry attempt to get out of going. Why does he have to keep going from school to school they obviously don't like him much.

Her sole response to Sunrua was a strong stern look, that did more than enough of the talking. Sunrua took the bag depressingly and continued back towards the room Aegus was standing by.