This Black And White World

||Chapter 1|| 16 Years Later

The loud sound of gunshots hitting training targets was quite the normal sound here. It's one of the most efficient ways for a person of this Era to keep one's aim good when they aren't on the battlefield.

Hitoryia slid his favorite gray sleeveless turtleneck over his head. Then he wrapped a few gauze bandages on his arm, just from the base of his elbow to his and on his forearm. He grabbed a long black glove and placed it on the same arm as the bandages were on, the right. The glove was made to hold his long claw like nails so they looked like a part of his glove. He grabbed the top half of his fluffy maroon hair in the back and tied it into a short ponytail. He put on his favorite black cargo pants that he'd just gotten out of the dryer so they were nice and warm. Then he put on a pair of black socks that went just above his ankles. He walked over to his closet and grabbed his tall black boots from inside. They had a platform at least two inches thick, probably more. The boots went up to his knees and were surprisingly comfortable to wear on a daily basis. Though he didn't wear them for comfort, he wore them because of his lack of height.

After he had finished zipping up his boots and retying the worn out laces carefully, he heard a knock on his door. He turned to his door and opened it. He was greeted by Luscious standing at his door in his usual attire. His dark, almost black, red eyes staring into Hitoryia's candy red eyes. He let out an annoyed sigh at Luscious even being at his door at this time.

"Ah, how wonderful.. Luscious.. To what do I owe this visit?" Of course Hitoryia sounded very sarcastic as he spoke to Luscious who was right in front of him.

"Nothing much.. Demon boy." Luscious had more to say than that, and they both knew it. But he purposefully paused right at that nickname just to get a reaction from Hitoryia.

"I'm not a 'demon boy' Luscious, and you know how much I hate that nickname." Hitoryia said, his face naturally full of aggravation at Luscious.

"Yes, I know that. You're just.. Special." Luscious said with a smug grin.

Meanwhile the only thought in Hitoryia's mind was how easy it would be to punch Luscious right in the face. Plus, Luscious' face was very punchable to Hitoryia.

"How much trouble do you think I'd be in if I punched you?" Hitoryia leaned on his door frame and popped his knuckles while he spoke. He was looking almost directly into Luscious' eyes, like he was aiming to stare his sharp, cat-like eyes into Luscious' soul.

"For punching your commanding officer?"

"Yup. For punching my commanding officer."

"..I suppose you'd get cleaning duty for a while.. Or be suspended from battle.. Which, let's be honest here, is more of a reward than a punishment.."

Luscious put his hand on his chin, attempting to think of any way Hitoryia might be punished if he were to punch Luscious.

"Ew, cleaning duty?" Hitoryia's face scrunched up with disgust. "No way. I am not cleaning this whole place by myself! That's disgusting!"

Luscious laughed and Hitoryia rolled his eyes.

"The real reason I'm here is because Xylo wanted to see you in his office.. Lab..Thing.." Luscious said, his thoughts trailing off as he tried to put a label on whatever Xylo's working space was.

"Well you really could have started with that, old man." Hitoryia's face and voice were relatively monotone when he wasn't aggravated.

Though, Luscious being called "Old man" was normal. Everyone called him an old man. Luscious was actually quite old. Not as old as Lady Amelle of course, who was the head of their organization. Hitoryia thought about the past again.. Everyone except Lady Amelle, Luscious, and Xylo had either died or gone missing and never come back, everyone that he saw that day.. That day he met Xylo and Luscious..

That was sixteen years ago now.. And the past cannot be changed. That is one thing Hitoryia knows. And he has no plan to change the past, but he'll prepare to write the future, his future, the way he wanted it. Like he should've done all his life. Those from the past didn't matter anymore, he could hardly even remember their faces, their names long gone now.

"..Isn't it Xylo's birthday today..?" Hitoryia said while fidgeting with his glove.

"I believe so, yes. It's also the official sixteenth anniversary of you being with the hunters." Luscious said with his usual smile.

"Well I remembered that part. You don't let me forget that. You remind me every year." Hitoryia sounded sarcastic as always. He turned and grabbed a white glove that didn't really cover anything on his hand, but it was like a sleeve that stopped right under his elbow on his left arm. Then he grabbed a normal fingerless glove. He put it over the white sleeve glove. Then he pushed past Luscious, who was still standing in his doorway. He made his way through the dull hallways of the base. Walking through the path to Xylo's working space.

While he walked he realized he had forgotten to put on the harness type gear he always wore. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was practical and carried his weapons.

He finally made it to the absurdly reinforced door to Xylo's office. Still, the question if it was really an office or a laboratory stayed in his mind. Technically, the space functioned as both a laboratory and an office for Xylo.

Hitoryia pressed the buttons on the console that connected to the door in front of him. These doors functioned with facial recognition, it wasn't Hitoryia's favorite thing in the world, but it was better than the ones that required DNA samples to even open a little bit. The panel screen read "Access granted'' While the AI voice spurred and said, "ACCESS GRANTED DEMON BOY''

Hitoryia rolled his eyes.

"Of course you did, Luscious.." Hitoryia muttered to himself while the thick metal doors in front of him began to open.

He walked inside and looked around. It'd be about a week or so since he'd last been in this room. Xylo had been busy helping new recruits and old ones. Hitoryia found it amusing how some people never changed how much they required help, no matter how long they spent here doing the same thing everyday.

Xylo was sitting at a table by his complex computer. The computer had several screens and was made for someone equally as complex as the computer itself. Xylo's chair spun and twirled around with his movements. He called it his spiny chair because it turned like that. He used his feet to turn around and look at Hitoryia.

"Hito! There you are! I was wondering what was keeping you so long!" Xylo said with a smile.

"Yeah, sorry." Hitoryia noticed a spot of ash or something on Xylo's face.

"You got something on your face." Hitoryia said while pointing to Xylo's cheek.

"Oh, do I?" Xylo wiped his face in the area Hitoryia was pointing to. "Did I get it?" He looked back up at Hitoryia while he asked.

Hitoryia nodded while giving Xylo a thumbs up. "Yeah, you did." He said calmly.

"Oh yeah.. Happy birthday. I didn't get you a gift or anything.. I hope you don't mind" Hitoryia said.

"Don't worry about gifts Hitoryia! Your visit is good enough, even if I requested you to be here." Xylo said then laughed. Xylo was too optimistic to mind if Hitoryia had forgotten a gift.

Author's Note: So excited to get this scheduled! Can't wait for it's release date!! I'm so excited to get into the actual story! It's been driving me crazy to finally get to the part where I could schedule it! I'm even more excited than I was when I was writing the story itself! Finally getting passed all of my prewritten planning for the prologue made me so happy. Except at the beginning of writing the first chapter I had no idea where I was going with the story! As always, leave a "Blep" if you've stuck around this far!

(Also if you haven't noticed I post it in the form of four pages on a google document. Just a fun fact.)