[Thank you for deciding to give Withering Cold a shot!]
[Arc 0 | Prologue Arc - Start]
It's 1987. The late autumn winds flow through the city of Minato Ward in Tokyo. The sun is on the edge: a few cusps until it disappears into the eventual horizon to repeat again the next day. Salarymen, office workers, beaurucrats, construction workers and more are returning back home to enjoy their time with their own families: a motivation for humans to live and continue on. The concrete city darkens, and the neon lights light up the alleys and streets.
Seems normal? Right. The cycle of working hard, earning bread for the table and sleeping. It goes on and on. But in the shadows, something lurks. They appear and disappear preying on their victims based off their fear. The Eclipses, do not hesitate. Man, woman or a child. They've always been a pathogen in human society. Constantly slaughtering innocent lives with no instinctual remorse.
In an alley, deep into the concrete jungle of Minato Ward...
A moth. Human sized. One with grotesquely long hairy limbs, large dusty wings, a big fat abdomen and a pointy slimy proboscis. It has two arms and two legs. It had a humanoid shape, but delved on the uncanny side with its appearance. It had a pair of eyes with a red sclera and yellow irises with yellow rings.
"AHHHHH!"
A salaryman yelled terrifyingly in vain desperation as the moth penetrates his head with its proboscis. His hands fly in the air desperately trying to cling to life, but to no avail as his life is drained out. The moth clings to the man's body as it puts the corpse down against the wall whilst still sucking his blood. The fear from dead man fueling more strength in it.
Nearby, a woman who was unrelated to the man was stuck in a green slimy substance on the concrete pathways of the alley. Her eyes staring at that thing in pure fear. She tried to pull herself off, but she wouldn't budge.
"Eclipses are formed from Senzai Energy. Or well the corruption of that energy...", Hikaru thinks to himself as he arrives observing from the edge of a building at the alley. A normal looking silver sword with a black handle and fur surrounding it's hilt. "They form when mass guilt and fear of a certain thing mingle with the abundant Senzai in the world. Thus, creating... whatever that is," Hikaru continued his monologue, deeply concentrated finding any opening whatsoever.
Hikaru continues, "However, they can be killed by Senzai users... Users like me!" Hikaru immediately jumps off the roof, leaving behind a small crater. When reaching the zenith of his arc, he turned the sword pointing dowwards at the creature.
In one swoop motion, Hikaru's sword punctures through the exoskeleton of the creature with a sickening crack and continues on until it fully penetrates the brain and then some. Hikaru stays hanging in the air holding his sword.
The Moth Eclipse shrieks in pain, its body lets out a horrorsome wail of death as it convulses under Hikaru's sword and eventually reaches out to touch Hikaru, but fails and falls down dead. Hikaru pulls his sword out, blue-ish colored blood spilling out and staining the sword. He watches as the body of the eclipse turns shadowy black and turns into a corrosive liquid form before evaporating in the air.
Hikaru looks back towards the woman covered in slimy mucus and says softly with a polite smile, "I'm sorry for what you had to see, miss..."
Hikaru walks up to the lady. He raises his sword up and in one precise strike cuts through the slime without harming her. He extends his arm towards her and lets her lean onto him as Hikaru pulls her out.
The woman, her eyes sulken from the grotesque sight and probably overworking does hold on and stands up, but she's too shocked to really reply with much sense. "T-thank you... H-how can I repay you?", she asks, her posture slouched, her dress messy. She reaches out to her handbag to pull out a few notes.
Suddenly, Hikaru placed his hand atop hers and refused her offer with a small shake to his head. His hairs bouncing with the movement. "Your survival is my payment, ma'am," Hikaru replies with another smile. He removes his hand from her and turns away walking out towards the main street before suddenly he starts running.
At a local supermarket
Hikaru is a sixteen year old boy. He has a pale skin, a bit of eye bags from tiredness. He has silky white hair that's overgrown till his neck. He chooses to cover his right face with the hair whilst choosing to trim the hairs falling over the left side of of his face. He has a pretty skinny build. He's a highschooler and an Eclipse Hunter in his free time. His main goal? Find his sister in the big city of Tokyo who left two years ago from his village. He had only moved in a few months ago right after his sixteenth birthday in summer. So he's pretty much still new to everything.
"Oi! Hikaru! Stop daydreaming and get back to work!", the manager yells at Hikaru from over the cashier register. Hikaru snaps out of his zoning and grabs his mop stick tightly again and gives a slight bow.
"I-I apologize, sir! I didn't mean to!", Hikaru pleads as he begins mopping the supermarket floor a bit faster than before he zoned out.
"God damnit Hikaru, you stupid day dreamer! My job would have been compromised because of me! Stupid me! Bad me! Ugh! I'm so tired!", Hikaru complains to himself in his mind as he cleans up a corner in the supermarket. He then continues sarcastically, "Hey, it's not as if I have 8 hours of school, hours of part time work, homework and my duty as a Senzai User to you know, hunt eclipses!".
Hikaru's Apartment in the quieter, yet the underbelly neighborhood of Minato City
The apartment complex was grimy, suspicious with various adult activities and had no bathrooms in each room. There were bathrooms on each floor but you'd see junkies occupying it for well... getting the high. However, Hikaru's apartment was a bit better. A cold bed, a small kitchenette, books on a desk and packets of instant ramen.
Hikaru sat slouched over his desk. Small eyebags under his eyes and a cold cup of empty coffee by his side as he tries to focus on his Literature assignment. He had messed up big time.
Hikaru yawns tiredly as he looks at the wall clock above his desk.
"Hot Damn... I guess this is what I get for not finishing my homework earlier... Mr Hasuke Reiji will kill me for this one!", Hikaru muttered his teeth chattering from the grim thoughts of imagining what his literature teacher would do to him. "Ah well, I guess I can finish it first thing in the morning when I wake up!", Hikaru says to himself as he spins around his chair and crashes face first into the warmth if his bed.
"Ahhh... This is the life man... Absolute comfort," Hikaru mumbles under the weight of his head nudged into the soft mattress. He gently pulls himself up resting his head against the pillow and closes his eyes.
"AH! HELP!"
A loud wail wakes Hikaru up from his slumber. He looks left and right and rubs his eyes yawning. Hikaru gets off his bed and looks out the window.
A young girl is running down the street, sweat on her face. Her arms flail around her as she sprints down the street. Behind her in the distance, an Eclipse of two human like heads, four languidly stretched arms protruding from the waist into whips and a rubbery overall skin. It's four eyes were dark red with the same Eclipse Eye indicator. It resembled a mythical Demogorgon with a height reaching 8 feet.
"RARGH! GRAGH!"
The Heads giggle and jeer at the girl's fear. Their tentacle-like arms scraping against the road leaving behind a translucent fluid in it's wake. The eclipse taunts the girl by trying to speak abiet in a 'muffled and distorted' manner. "dOOOOnnnTTTT be AFFFFFRAAAAÏïd", the eclipse mocks in a hollow tone as it speeds up.
"Well, well, well this is a big fish!", Hikaru says out loud. Hikaru grabbed his jacket, zipped it up and grabbed his sword as he jumped out of the window of the apartment building, rolling down the street.
Hikaru rolls infront of the Demogorgon Eclipse, coming between the eclipse and the girl. He stands up, a knowing confidence smirk on his face.
"When my sleep gets interrupted, I get irritated. And you don't want me to be irritated," Hikaru says as he positions himself, his sword behind his body. A small smirk on his face.
The creature blinks for a second, it's eyes definitely not matching the blink at once, and then screams loudly, it's tounge vibrating to a screeching sound. Hikaru points his sword infront of its face and smirks knowing he's pissed the predator off getting it's prey.
"Good! Good! Come on!", Hikaru yells pissing the creature off more as he runs towards the eclipse.
The Demogorgon let's out another screech as it extends it's four arms towards Hikaru at blinding speeds. Hikaru smirks. Slowly a light blue hue of aura surrounds Hikaru, emerging from his core.
Hikaru then said to himself internally, "Senzai can be harnessed and used by Senzai Users to primarily enforce strength, durability and increase speed in muscles and the body...".
Hikaru crosses his arms in form of an X to block the attack. The eclipse's arms slam against Hikaru's owns, pushing the boy back a bit. The concrete street burning below Hikaru due to friction from the sheer force of the attack.
"Was that it?", Hikaru smiles coyly as he slashes one of the whips already coming at him and runs towards the Eclipse. Another arm comes flying towards him, but he manages to jump and as the arm extends and flies back underneath him, he spins in a 360° angle and chops the arm off clean. The Demogorgon shrieked back in pain.
"However, Senzai can also be used in Arts as various techniques...", Hikaru continues his internal monologue as he runs towards the vulnerable eclipse.
"Frost Senzai Art"
Hikaru says under his breath as he jumps up his sword pointing downwards facing the eclipse's heart.
"Deepfreeze!"
Hikaru hilts his sword deep into the chest cavity of the eclipse, blood gushing out of the eclipse as it wails and screeches. However, the blood starts freezing as it's body begins hardening from the point of wound.
Hikaru's deepfreeze technique rapidly began freezing the tissues, limbs and cells of the eclipse as the eclipse turned into a motionless frozen statue.
"Rest in PIECES!", Hikaru yells as he drags his sword downwards shattering the eclipse into pieces. He drags his sword down to its pelvis and pulls it out with shards flying everywhere. Hikaru then vertically slashes the eclipse shattering it into multiple pieces.
The eclipse began liquidifying into the same shadowy substance like the moth eclipse.
However, this time the liquid began to corrode the street below it. Hikaru was oblivious to this scenario. When the liquid fully evaporated, it left behind a massive crack in the street as it broke inwards dragging Hikaru down into a deep sinkhole.
"Huh-", Hikaru didn't even have time to think as he starts getting sucked into an endless pit of nothingness. Hikaru starts free falling down deep into the caverns of this exposed underground hollowness below the city.
Chapter 1, end