King Of None

A loud slap resounded in the room. Afterwards a frail young man lay on the ground, holding his right cheek that was swollen with a faint red mark plastered onto his skin. A young woman no less older than him stood before him, her hand raised still even after already delivering the slap. Her hair was a gorgeous light blonde and her eyes an enchanting green.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you tell them you were my foster brother! You aren't even meant to approach me while others are around!" The young womens white dress flowed slightly as she stepped closer to the young man. "You better watch it or next time you won't have food for weeks, got that?"

The young man's dark and dirty hair covered his eyes as he held his cheek, not daring to speak back to the one before him. His lips quivered, he was about the same stature as the young woman, yet seemed to be in a worse shape. He was skin and bones, small, almost smaller than the woman in front of him. His thoughts were scattered and filled with bitter resentment.

'It was you who told me to pick you up today.. But of course it was just another trick to make a fool of me...' He glanced down at his clothes subconsciously, they were dirty but fortunately not ripped. Well at least he doesn't look like a creepy beggar isn't that right?

"Do you have something to say? Something on your mind, runt? You're lucky you were even taken in by my family." The young woman raised her hand, prepared to strike him once more until the door creaked and slid open slowly. An older woman with dirty blonde hair and an older man with light blonde hair entered the room. The older woman immediately rushed towards the two before another slap could happen. 

"No Asaka, don't touch him! He's filthy!" The older woman, the mother of the woman who had just hit the man on the floor, stopped the altercation. Only to make sure her daughter was fine. Both of them spared a glance at the frail young man and scoffed, rising from the floor and walking towards the open door. They had all retreated back to the living room, leaving the young man alone in his bedroom.

"Oh for God's sake, she came in here just to mock me.." 

The young man gritted his teeth and stood up glancing at his bag that was hidden behind a desk. Suddenly a small grin began forming on his face. He approached the bag slowly and picked it up, he chuckled inwardly. 

"Idiots, all of them. I can't wait to leave this god forsaken place, would've preferred just traveling from place to place than being adopted by them.." 

After those cold words Kaito left this room, careful to not make a sound as the family ate at the kitchen table without him. Not like he cared of course, he had bigger plans. Kaito approached the door and opened it slowly, leaving the house and closing it even slower than he had opened it, careful not to let it creak. Once the door closed the young man dashed away from the home, the biggest smile rested on his face. 

"Finally I'm out of that hell hole! Gosh I would rather be infected by The Hex than ever live there again!"

His joy was short-lived. After wandering around for a bit, the police caught up to the frail young man and grabbed him roughly. Convinced that he was nothing more than an Outer Shell runt that snuck into the shell to steal. Without asking him or letting him explain, the police men snatched his bag and hit him roughly with their baton.

"Idiot thought he could run around unnoticed with a stolen bag."

The cops laughed as they saw the young man fall to the ground. Before losing consciousness his last thoughts were nothing short of spiteful.

'I hate this stupid place and these stupid clothes!'

Everything went black. Kaito had died.

At Least that's what he thought until he woke up, his body was awkwardly laying on a pile of trash that was on the ground. He was next to the dumpster in an unfamiliar place. Until he recognized where he was after glancing around and seeing the broken buildings everywhere. He began to cough while getting up from the trash bags he was laying atop of before. 

'Is this… No way… You're joking, I'm in the damned outer shell!'

Kaito stood up with an annoyed expression, his eyes narrowing. His frustration didn't last long. A few whiffs of poisonous air later he was searching in the dumpster beside where had woken up, finding a dirty gas mask and letting out a sigh of relief. He quickly put on the mask, ignoring the smell of it. 

"This is really it huh? Still better than being with them I guess.."

As Kaito stumbled onto his feet and stood up straight he glanced at a nearby cafe, it was pretty run down, yet still people were in it. He scoffed and walked towards it.

On a cold rainy day a young man was holding his stomach and rushing towards, he was frail and short in stature, his dirty black hair covering his eyes as the person was doused by the rainwater. He scurried towards the nearby police station, a worried gaze plastered onto his face. Ignoring the corpses in the alleyway nearby and even tripping over an injured man taking his last breaths, the young man grunted and stood back up to keep running. He burst inside the police station and fell to his knees, the guards cautiously all gazed at him while approaching the disoriented man.

"Hey kid, what.. Are you alright?"

Kaito took a deep breath while inside, he had to be supported by a couple of policemen, after a minute or two he finally spoke.

"I think… I think I was infected by The Hex.."

The policemen shared a worried look before one of them took out his baton and smacked the young man in the back of his head. Kaito felt his vision blurred and only had one thought in mind.

'Why am I always being hit, I didn't even get a chance to explain again!'

A moment later he woke up in the middle of the forest. His gaze narrowed and he began shedding tears, whether tears of frustration or hatred, he did not know. All he knew was that the pain was overwhelming, Kaito clutched his stomach harder, biting his lip to the point of drawing blood as he cried silently.

'Why? Why?! Why is it me? Why am I always suffering?!'

The young man couldn't take it anymore, his soaked luscious black hair covered his tear filled eyes and the loud downpour of rain muffled his quiet sobs. As the pain grew, Kaito laid down on the ground, essentially giving up while closing his eyes.

'Damn it all.. I'll just have to face it.. I can't die like this.. Not like this…'

After closing his eyes and letting go of his stomach a massive stroke of pain washed over Kaito and he struggled to keep consciousness. Tears still slowly falling from his closed eyes. How could he have forgotten? No one in the outer shell has the ability to watch over one infected by The Hex. He was alone.

"I changed my mind.. Being with them was better than being infected by The Hex, a hundredfold..."

Then everything went black once more. But it wasn't silent, while everything still remained dark he heard a voice, it was a strangely soothing voice. It calmed him down as the pain subsided almost instantly.

[Warrior of Mankind, welcome to your first trial…]