Kai - Part 1

2054
School. Steel bars stretching up into grey skies almost as dark as the lifeless concrete buildings that touched the growling clouds. The academy leered over the shadow of a boy. His form was ensnared by the darkness created by the building. His eyes seemed have the storm of that day trapped inside them. He knew everything he needed to know. He knew how to survive, when to run and when to fight... And how. He had qualifications that some adults never had. This school had taught a seven year old about life. He had no innocence and his dreams were imprisoned within the walls of the giant 'education' center.

A small child, probably a couple of years younger, came up to him.

"What d'you want?" he growled.

"Sorry. But I was told you'd help keep the bullies off my back." whimpered the boy, quailing under the others stare.
"Get lost.I can't do nothin' nomore.
All of the rest have gone so there's nothin' I can do for you." Kai slunk into the shadows of the school wall... The shadows where he belonged.


Not far away, over the barren hills groaned the thunder of war planes, but disguised in the skies no one below noticed.

*************


2064

It was dark in Goluim City. Dark and dangerous behind the civilised facard that lay painted on the buildings. Demons peddled through the streets at night, dragons skimming the stars. People cowered behind their doors, knowing only the foolish wondered out of doors once dusk had fallen. But now as the first glimpses of light crept over the city people stirred and the early bells were ringing.

The lean form of a young man stood in the shadows of the rustling trees... The park sighed in an early morning breeze. His sword pressing comfortably into his leg. A demon slid passed him, it's back open to attack... His hand slip to the hilt of his sword but he did not strike. It was not a fair fight. It was not as if they ever noticed him anyway.

In the early hours of the day Kai was no more than a shadow in the light, fading in and out of the sun and in and out of sight, the figure in the alley and the stranger on the street. No one cared. Not anymore. Who was there to worry after he had run for so long?

*****

Sitting alone on a faded green bench were a pair of girls. Their eyes were fixed on a closed laptop that settled in the lap of one of them. They were not worried, it was the one place that was safe from the crooked souls of the deamons, even in the darkest times of the night.

"We need to hurry Tori," whispered one, her eyes flashing around quickly.

Tori, smiled, she had heard that a keeper of the woods still lived in the park despite the destruction of the once vibrant forests. Tori flipped open the laptop that hung around her neck. She had found it in an abandoned school, destroyed in the 2054 Dragon battle.

"Ahhhmmm..." the computor yawned. Even for their generation a talking computor was rare, something special... She reconed that the person who had created it had been killed when the school was destroyed,
"Hello Tori. Lovely day." the computor spoke and a pair of flashing green orbs whizzzed about the screen.

"Yeah isn't it. Dizzy I was wondering if you could tell Azalae where you came from?"

"You ask me every day and I tell you I don't know where I come fro..."

"Dizzy?" Tori said.

Her friend stood up, anger or fear radiating off her in waves, "Oh stop with these tricks Tori. I'm not impressed by this! It's madness! A computer with a past and all this other mumbo jumbo you've been telling me about..." she slung her bag over her shoulder, "You can be my friend when you're sane!" she stomped off.

"Azalae!" Tori yelled. Azalae did not look back.

*******

A girl sat, half curled into herself, with a computer flashing on the bench beside her.

Kai peered warily at her. It was far too early for visitors and her purpose was not evident. She looked pensive even from a distance and that worried him. Why was she deliberately putting herself in danger?

Kai looked down at his sword. The beast inside it was a White Tiger, very rare and very powerful, but in a world of crime that was exactly what he needed, espeically now. However he could not just walk straight up to a girl and demand to know her intent. Especailly not this one. Her striking face was full of something he could not place.

"White sight." Kai whispered. His vision blurred and transformed about him.

The colour of her soul swirled and erupted in his eyes. It was a deep purple with blue swirls and In the center a midnight blue haze. It was beautiful. Beauty no longer meant anything to him though, it could not. He had to be cold to anyone who approached him.

********

"LET ME GO!!" screamed Tori. Her laptop fell to the ground. Two huge demons lept at her, pulling at her clothes, ripping them. Their snarling made her stomach groan and churn. Their distorted faces making bile rise in her throat.

"Let her go." a strong calm voice came from close by.

"Nom!" a demon snarled, it's lips pulled back over it's blackened teeth as it spoke. It span away to face the new voice, setting her free in the process.

Tori scuttled under the bench to fetch Dizzy from her upside down position, her mind whizzing, the demons were stupid... but she would still be dead if it was not for the stranger who owned that voice.

"Tiger Claw!" Kai yelled.

His sword fused into the deadly claw of the White Tiger. Connecting with flesh within seconds an unearthly cry was rent from both of the enemy.

"Dust to dust." Kai murmered softly as the two demons fell into the ashes they should have been years ago. He turned back to the fading darkness.

"Wait." The girl called after him faintly. He did not stop. He could not let her talk to him or she would die aswell. Just like all the others.

Tori staggered to her feet, running after him. Dizzy was going crazy around this stranger. His power levels were too strong for any thing normal but his statistics said he was human. Reaching out and touched his arm. He was freezing but she did not let go.

"Get off me." the stranger stopped moving abruptly.

"Not until I know who you are?" Tori answered, sounding more bold than she felt.

"You sound just like some corny actress on the box." Kai said. His voice was cold.

He looked up at the sky. He had to be out of the park by seven. It was probably coming onto five now. He could feel her hand on his arm. It was warm and oddly calming. Jerking his arm up then to the side, he tried to shake her off. He was not about to lose his identity to a girl. Even if she was pretty and strong enough to keep her hold on him... he could not, would not be beaten... His other hand snake its way down to his sword.

******

One minuite the stranger was saving her life and now he was attacking her, confusion tumbled through Tori's mind. All she wanted to know was his name. In the dimlight she could barely make out his face but even in the gloom she could tell he was no stranger to the darkness. She reached out to pull him down but he saw and lashed out with his sword. Catching her across the wrist blood seeped from the wound. She could repress a scream. Hot tears strung in her eyes, making no effort to stop them. Dizzy fell open on her lap.

"Scan him in." Tori whispered. A beep from the computor told her that it was already done.

"Open file." A name flashed out at her. KAI.

******

Kai looked down at the girl. She was looking at the computor screen clutching at her wrist. She whispered something to the computor. He did not need to hear her to know what she was doing. He began to run to the cover of the trees.

******

Tori's tears fell on to the ground as she stood up. Her life's blood stained the earth beneath her feet.

"Kai." she called. But he was gone. She did not try to follow him. She knew that she would see him that night. Slowly she turned to return to her home. She guessed she would to have a doctor look at her wrist as well. A vein could well have punctured when that sword had caught her.

******

What had he done? He had never attacked an innocent before. He was not supposed to hurt an innocent. Kai walked into a shabby looking cafe. It was not the same as yesterday's nor was it the same as any other cafe he had visited. No one looked at him. Even though he had a sword by his side and wore the garments of one of the White Tigers. He could not help feeling ashamed of himself. Seventeen and already going to the bad ways. Not a good sign... But then, when had anything been a good sign?

Kai ordered a mug of coffee. Personally he hated the drink but it was the only drink that gave him proper warmth after a long night in the park. He could feel the tiredness stinging behind his eyes, they felt dry and sore as he blinked, roaning he dropped a few coinsonto the table and headed back into the early morning crowds. Knowing he would have to go to an inn for the day did not ease his lack of energy, the thought made him edgy... Renting a room always attracted unecerssary attention but he needed a few hours solid rest. Without proper levels of energy the hunt could go terribly astray...

But until the toll went for the end of the day, he could sleep, waitinging for the living to return to their homes and for the dead to come out to play. Dragons were nothing to be afraid of if you had the right charm. When the darkness once again fell it was time to go back to the park.

*******

Tori waited till her parents were asleep before she crept out into the night. Dizzy was once again around her neck. Demons could be round every corner. She told herself. Be alert. That was her policy. She started to hum a song to herself. The elven song. Her favourite song as it was in her own tongue. She smiled to herself if anyone knew she would be linched in a matter of seconds. Now, however all she wanted was to discover who Kai was. Kai the keeper of the forest.

It was midnght before there was any action on Kai's part. A gang of demons were trying to make their way through the park. This was his idea of fun.

"Set up the scanner Dizzy. He's coming. I need you to get his powerlevels when he's in battle and what he is." Tori told her computor pal.

"Well isn't that obvious. He's one of them... the White Tigers." Dizzy stated with slight scorn.

"White... Tigers?" Tori asked.

"Yes White tigers. They were a strange bunch of people who came down from the mountains aeons ago. Before the war, before man was building machines and dabbling in darkness. The most extraordinary thing though was their power, they were trained in the most powerful forces of Magic. They were everything." Dizzy sent images across her screen, anciant depictions of men with white hair and cloaks on mountain tops, of wild and beautiful women prepared for war and dance. "I tell you they were born wise and one made me." Dizzy finished, setting herself on scan.

***OK then Kai. Come on. I think i have you all figured out.***

******

The demons were suprisingly weak tonight. Kai swung his blade up into the gut of one, mottle-skinned monster. Kai found he didn't even need to use the power of his sword against them, they were fresh from tegrave, their technique gave them away, such ammatures... Kai dealt with the last few with a few devistating blows, finishing poised and calm as their residue blew away on the wind.

***He's not using his power...*** Tori grumbled inside her mind, she felt cheated. Anger threaded into her veins, making her breathing hitch as she rose to her feet. For no apparent reason, her feet began to walk without her, slowly... softly... He seemed to sense her. Looking straight at her, his eyes suddenly spin around her, dragging her into them, overcoming her. She cried out in elvish. And she realised, for a brief second, she had seen his face, his aura and been a part of his power. It was so extreme... so... His face was a mask of it now though. Power and anger.

"So you decided to come back. Eh." came Kai's voice, "I've never known someone twice."

***Except that computor i invented and she now wears around her neck.*** Kai thought. He gripped her wrist and brought her to her feet. If she wanted to know him so bad, let her come at him.

Let her see the darkness and of course the revealing night...