Chapter 1:

Protocol [ プロトコル ]

Without Honour


NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 98%…

In a remote street in London, lives a college student currently in the process of waking up. As his eyes twitched they slowly opened as his body began a movement. Making his way to the bathroom he brushed his teeth, washed his face, and tied his hair up, leaving two side fringes. Back into his room, it was spacious. On his desk were his glasses, they were silver and slightly rusted, the arms were barely hanging on. The left one is held together by a band-aid and the right one by a small thin metal wire. As he placed the frames on his nose he headed to choose his clothing for the day.

September 2020. First day back to college. After another uneventful heat-filled summer it's finally time to get back to something that kept the boy busy.

He decided to wear a pair of black cargo pants which had four pockets, it got slimmer from the calves down. A red hoodie with the words ONI imprinted on the back in front of an illustration of a Japanese Kabuki Demon Mask along with a pair of red uptempo ‘98 to complete the look.

He grabbed his shoulder bag, wallet, and keys. Just before going out the door, he looked in the mirror making sure he had everything.

With the ID around his neck, the card had an old picture of the boy and his name reading: Ace Miura Adams.

Making his way downstairs he looks to his phone. Before he leaves he checks in on the living room, his mother was there watching the telly.

Ace went and checked the kitchen where his younger sister Freya was finishing off her breakfast whilst she watched anime.

“Mornin’ boss!” she exclaimed. Ace poured himself a glass of water, after quenching his thirst he replied.

“Yo, whatcha watchin’ now?” he asked his 12-year-old sister.

“Way of the Yakuza: Ultra Slash!” her expression beamed with joy as she looked back to her brother.

“I see, that explains the new nickname” he sighed and chuckled as he pats Freya’s head “Don’t try to follow in my footsteps like a subordinate of a Yakuza Boss, okay?”

“Hehe—No matter how many nicknames I call you by, Acey will always be Acey!” with a smug face and a forced tough girl act she was living in her daydream. While her guard was down Ace swiftly grabbed the jet-black headphones hanging around her neck. To her surprise, she quickly glanced at Ace.

“I hope you didn’t drain my battery on these, now let’s go or you’ll be late for school!” He started to walk down the hall making his way to the front door. In a hurry, Freya followed with her backpack. Before they left their mom came out to send them off. As if she just woke up, she tightened her nightgown and yawned while she saw her two children get ready to leave.

“Be careful you two! I’ll be home late today so make sure you have your keys just in case!” She advised the pair.

“Not a day off today either, huh?” Ace pointed out as Freya worried “Be careful not to overwork yourself, mama!” she said

The woman leaned and hugged her daughter as she thanked her for her concern “I’ll be fine! Papa will be there too so if anything happens he’ll take care of mama.” Ace rolled his eyes as his mother explained “Just like he takes care of us and the whole town!”

“Okay, then make sure to tell papa I said thank you!” in good spirits the girl left through the door frame. Ace watched her as she waited at the end of the driveway. Before he joined her his mother looked at him and said “Want me to tell your dad anything, hun?”

“Tell him to stop slacking off, that’s about it.” He murmured. “See ya mom, take care at work today.”

“Will do, hun!” she smiled as she waved the pair off.

Thirty minutes pass. During this time Ace split from his sister to take the Rail to college. Arriving at the gates at 8:19 am he waits patiently nearby leaning on a short wooden fence. He takes out his phone as he sips some iced coffee, browsing the gram and whatnot.

“Yo, been waitin’ long?” asked a voice in the distance “How’s summer been?” It was one of Ace’s closest friends; five foot five, pink dyed hair, rose-white skin, and the attitude packed as a bonus bundle. Despite her cute appearance, this one’s a riot.

Doesn’t know how to be anything but blunt but despite that, she is a good person. Her name is Billie Foxhood.

“Just got here five minutes ago actually,” Ace replied, he took another look around and asked “You seen Colt yet?”

“Not since July, he barely texted us this last few weeks.” The boy and the girl took a moment to clear off a tragically awkward mood. “He’s been starting to piss me off lately, not even gonna lie”

“Well you’re not the only one, I knew something was off the moment he said he and his girlfriend got promise rings 2 months in their relationship.” Ace elaborated.

“Anyway, let’s make our way inside, I don’t see a reason to wait for Colt here.”

“Sure thing.”

Ace and Billie went inside their respective block to find their class, it was three floors, and their class was on that last floor. As they climbed what seemed to be the longest steps in the world, they felt fatigued and relieved as they reached the top floor. Making their way through the fire doors they got in front of their class door where a familiar face was waiting and greeted the pair struggling for air.

“Hi Ace, Billie! Long time no see!” This was Daisy McBeth, the same age as Ace and Billie, with curly golden brown hair that stretched down to her waist. She was a curvy beauty; her skin was fair. She was technically the definition of elegance even when she’s excited like a child.

“Yo! Summer treated you well I guess?” said Ace

“Daisy!” Billie jumped to hug daisy “I missed you, girlfriend, those curves more though!”

“Well of course you did! Just wait until lunch, dear!” As daisy laughed it off with Billie, the trio calmed down and sat in the corridor to talk.

“So, any news from Colt?” asked Daisy.

“None whatsoever...” said Ace as Billie agreed

“Well, whatever the case, let’s not let it bother us. On another topic, I might get a new piercing this weekend!” announced Billie

“Oooh!” Both Daisy and Ace were in awe as they sparkled with admiration towards their friend. “So what piercing are you getting?” Asked Daisy

“Nose piercing, on the side. I think it’ll be really cute.”

“Go for it! Sounds cool!” exclaimed Ace “I hope I get my ears pierced too someday, that way I’ll finally add to my modern samurai look”

“I can pierce them for you, just need a needle and an ice cube, I did it to my step-dad once!”

“Thanks but we’ll see how I feel, there are those disposable ones as well, you know?”

“Oh yeah, they’re pretty easy to use too, and they come with the studs too” Added Daisy.

As time passed the trio finally went inside their class where they were greeted by their teacher.

“I’m Ryan Caine, Your Art course teacher for this year, now I see a few familiar faces from last year, Hi, Ace, Billie, and Daisy” He waved at them “Hope your summer was great.” the man was six feet tall, pretty skinny and wore a lab coat a lot, which was odd to Ace, but it added to his character. His hair was fluffy and dense and he grew a moustache this year. Ryan was admired and loved by most students. He is what you would call “the cool teacher”.

Once introductions were over, everyone’s timetables were unlocked on the college app. The trio shared most of the classes, and their off days were Wednesdays and Thursdays. The other three; Monday, Tuesday, and Friday were full of classes. Including English and Maths two times a week. The rest was art. Not too bad, thought the group.

After 40 minutes of listening to explanations, a commotion was heard from outside, since the classroom was large and the windows faced the entrance, you could spy on your crush if they sat on one of the benches outside.

Ace peeked over the window and noticed masked suspicious people carrying weapons. He thought “They have rifles? In London, that is highly unusual, not to mention, why choose a college for some type of terrorist attack? There could be some powerful sponsors of the college but I highly doubt that is the case. Who cares about that now?! Think, what would pops do?”

“You guys!” He exclaimed quietly “we have to barricade, there are dangerous armed men at the gate, once we barricade we have to get everyone here in the room behind, stay low and keep away from the windows. We do not want to alert them or make them aware of our location, right?” quietly and calmly Ace guided everyone to safety inside the room. The door was blocked and everyone crouched down in the backroom to not be seen. It was quiet, all that was heard was the commotion from outside and even then it was quiet.

“Didn’t think my first day in college would be like this” whispered a boy in the class.

NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 99%…

“Heh, I hope this ends soon, I don’t plan on dying today” whispered a girl in the class

“...”

Billie kept quiet and used her phone, she texted her boyfriend and messaged him:

“College is having a terrorist attack rn”

“Wtf r u ok?”

“Yeah we just hiding all”

“Bet you wish you didn’t piss me off the other day now”

“I love you, Billie. Imma check the news”

“lol I made u watch the news dunno if that's an achievement”

“Just stay alive ffs”

“ill do my best”

“<3”

“Texting Ethan?” asked Daisy

“Yeah,” with a bit of sadness in her eyes she continued “might as well.”

Ace looked to his friends, then looked up at the ceiling as he whispered:

“We’ll survive, no matter what” Ryan glanced at him for a second and smiled as he also began to raise morale

“Don’t worry, I’m sure this will all blow over—”

NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 99.6%…

Ace opened his eyes, his vision blurred and his ears were ringing, dust was all around and barely clearing up. “What happened?” he thought to himself “an explosion?” He quickly glanced around, he saw his class, most of them just unconscious, only a few hurt. “Lucky us…” he crawled slowly as the dust cleared.

Seeing half the classroom blown away, and the wall towards the gates blown up. His vision was blurred. It was as if it was on auto-focus and it could barely make its mind up. As he reached the edge of the crater that was created in the classroom he took a look at the aggressors.

As his vision still couldn’t focus, he managed to make out the sight of them holding a rocket launcher of all things… “Who the hell are these guys?”

NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 99.8%…

“Did they have nothing better to do?” The boy struggled to get up but managed it barely. As he dragged his legs in the middle of the classroom he looked to the idiots that decided to make this day more interesting.

NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 99.9%…

Ace looked around seeing Daisy and Billie knocked out, their faces were scratched.

“Are our lives worth whatever your benefactor paid you? Did we have to get dragged into this?! You selfish bastards!”

NOTICE: Shiryoku os installation progress 100%

“Huh? What’s that kid shouting about?”

“Who cares? Just shoot and kill, remember the plan!” All the goons armed themselves and aimed at Ace. “Make this place a mess and find the bastard’s kid!”

“FIRE!” with these words all the firearms were triggered as a rain of bullets cut through the air towards the boy.


Nanotech engineering/regeneration/construction-Active

Shiryoku Bionic Vision - Active

NEURAL LINK - ACTIVE

PROTOCOL “Laverna D’alcina” Uploaded To Shiryoku Cloud Arsenal

NOTICE: Switching Controls to “Laverna D’alcina”

Manifest Attack Arsenal

Before the bullets could hit, an immense pressure of energy released from the building it seemed, it was strong, and it shot up from where the boy was standing. Once the pressure calmed down, a red mist cleared to reveal Ace. Masked as a Demon Oni and his eyes glowing a violent Crimson. He stood there, still. Watching the attackers.

As the goons armed up again and fired, Ace held out his hands as a Beretta handgun appeared in his left palm and a Jet black katana with a few pipe linings behind the blade and underneath the back of the flat surface. The hilt was easy to grip, Ace grabbed it as an extension of his own body. As the tiny projectiles approached he swung his sword in their direction as he pressed a trigger under the hilt to send a flaming blade as its pressure melted and stopped all of the bullets in their tracks.

The aggressors were all shook and taken aback by what they witnessed.

Before they could fully process what happened Ace made his move. He leapt from the Third Floor classroom and onto the ground, he then looked at the group of assailants and like a spawn of a devil, he rushed them swiftly into his radius. With his blade in the centre, all their heads could be cut off. Therefore, in a light-speed slash, he spun the back of his blade around.

As his blade was sheathed, the assailants were left with one or two broken bones that immobilized them from moving any further.

Ace looked around and inspected his surroundings. For the first time in 10 years, he was able to see clearly without glasses. He walked over to the gates to wait for authorities and suddenly he felt weak and faint as he dropped to the ground losing consciousness.

NOTICE: Threat Neutralized, Building assets. Restore initiated

Congratulations. ACE MIURA ADAMS.