[Note: Feel free to skip the following side chapters if you do not wish to read them. Although I still recommend reading them to see what really sets this story apart from others — the rich, extensive characters — they are not crucial to the main plot.]

– Eight Years Ago, Within a Dark Alleyway of District A –

“Hit him!”

“Haha! Feels great to have a punching bag, after a long day!”

“Ngh… agh…” A boy, squirming on the ash-grey ground, groaned in pain, clutching his head tightly and curling his body up into a ball. “Please… stop…”

“Hey, you hear that, boss?” One of the delinquents beating him up laughed. “He’s begging us to stop.”

“Oh?” The leader of the gang jumped off of the trash can he had been sitting on and blew out smoke from his mouth, tossing the cigarette he had been smoking onto the ground and crushing it beneath his feet.

With two hands shoved tightly into his black jean pockets, the man stepped closer to the boy. The rest of the gang picked the poor child up with ease and forced him into a kneeling position, facing their boss.

“Tian Long, listen… I’m not an unreasonable man,” he said, bending down, a casual, non-aggressive expression on his face. “Remember the agreement we made a year ago? You help us steal… and we help you live. Did you forget?”

“I-I didn’t…” The boy — Tian Long, as a 12 year old — whispered, voice quivering. “It’s just… the person today was an old lady who… I couldn’t… I just couldn’t…”

“Ah… remind you of your own grandmother, did she?” The man guessed, stroking his chin. “Answer me.”

“Y-Yes…” Tian Long whimpered, almost inaudibly.

“Well, guess what?” The man grinned, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “She’s dead.”

“…!”

“That old lady died when you were 11,” he continued coldly, face hidden by the shadow of the roof on a nearby building. “That’s what landed you here with us in the first place, no?”

Tian Long bit his quivering bottom lip and broke into tears at the memory. The man’s harsh words cut deeper than any knife, hurt more than any beating. His grandmother…

“Forget about her,” the man said, closing his eyes and dismissing Tian Long’s dead family like they were nothing.

That, was unforgivable.

“… No.”

The man, slowly, opened one eye again. “… What was that, kid?”

“I said… NO!” Tian Long lashed out with a violent burst of momentum, catching the goons holding him down off-guard and aiming for a punch to the face of the leader.

Beating him… making him do illegal things… that was all fine, for the sake of his survival. As much as Tian Long hated these people, they did save him after he lost his only remaining family member, and this elitist, meritocratic society turned its back on him. He owed them a life debt; that much was certain.

But if there was one thing he could not stand, no matter what… it’s forcing him to forget his own grandmother, the only person in this god-forsaken world who truly cared about him.

“RAGH!” Tian Long roared and released all of his pent-up rage over the past year in that single swing of his fist, but-

“Hmph.”

The man easily sidestepped his attack and grabbed his outreached arm before pulling him in and kneeing him harshly in the stomach.

“Guh-!”

Tian Long fell to the floor as the other delinquents immediately got a grip on him again, pinning him down without any room to breathe.

“Ngh…”

“Remember who saved you from the brink of despair, kid,” the man said, stepping on his head and crushing it against the ground. Tian Long felt like he was getting a concussion, but the man didn’t stop.

“If I hadn’t found you when I did… you would’ve died from hunger. Could your dead grandma do that?”

“Don’t… talk… about her…!”

“Still resisting, huh?” The man sighed and took his foot off of Tian Long before turning around and walking away. “I’m off. Beat him until he remembers who his new family is.”

“Got it, boss!” The other delinquents cheered in response, cracking their knuckles in anticipation. Tian Long cowered on the floor once more as the fists and kicks rained down, scared and helpless.

‘When will it stop… why did I accept his help back then… why…?!’

Regretting the decision he made seemingly so long ago, he closed my eyes tightly and let the tears roll down his face.

“Hah… that should teach him.”

“Engh…” Tian Long groaned on the floor, eyelids feeling heavy. He was still just barely conscious, after nearly an hour of continuous, non-stop beating. In fact, it was a miracle he was even still alive.

There were bruises all over his body, but he was so tired he couldn’t even feel the pain. All he wanted to do at that moment was fall asleep… perhaps forever.

But just as the delinquents were packing up and getting ready to leave, a voice called out to them.

“Oi! The hell’s going on here?!”

Hearing this, Tian Long’s strained eyelids were forced open once more. In the distance, he could see a boy roughly his own age standing there, arms folded and eyes narrowed. Unfortunately, due to how hazy his vision was from the beating, he couldn’t make out the details of the newcomer.

“Huh…? Who are you, brat?” One of the delinquents asked, raising an eyebrow and setting his belongings back down on the ground.

“Hell, it’s just a lil’ kid… I thought it was the goddamn police or somethin’…” Another joined in, laughing slightly. “Hey, kid. If you don’t want to get hurt… go back to your mommy.”

At this, the group of goons broke into laughter together, as if all musing at how ridiculous this scene was. A single 12-year-old child, challenging a group of grown teens with tons of brutal fighting experience in the slums? What a joke.

But the burning rage and lust for combat in those two eyes of the child were all too real.

Instead of running away, he clenched his fists and walked into the alleyway, where normally no one came to due to it being in the abandoned slums of the District, soon-to-be excavated and renovated.

Seeing this, the group of hoodlums knew something was up.

“Oi… this kid… he means business, huh?”

“You got spine, pal. I’ll give you that,” one of them chuckled. “But just as a heads-up… we’re delinquents. We don’t fight fair, and honor doesn’t mean shit to us. If you’re going to come at us, be ready to take on all of us at the same time.”

“Oh yeah?” The kid challenged, cracking his own knuckles and rotating his head around on his neck to warm up. “Isn’t that a coincidence…”

“… What?” The hoodlums were confused.

“Fighting all of you together…” The child explained, grinning widely as a ferocious red aura overtook his body and leaked out of his eyes. “… It’s exactly what I wanted.”