Opportunity

                                                                  3 days ago...

Hiro was standing atop a building in New Orleans. The night sky was spread out above him, and the stars were out and about. He stared at the sky with his cold but beautiful blue eyes. His black leather jacket floated in the wind, with his long black hair floating along with it. He began to sit down when he felt a magic signature coming near him. He quickly turned around. The person that was here hadn't hid his presence. A big mistake. Hiro began building magic up within him. He was ready to kill whoever was stupid enough to come here. And from the shadows, a peculiar man appeared. It was Takae. 

"Hey, Hiro!" He said, raising his hand. Hiro stared at Takae for a few seconds, processing the situation and thinking about what to do next. He knew Takae. He knew all about his role in this war. 

"Takae..." Hiro whispered. "What the hell do you want?" He asked. Takae sighed. 

"Look, Hiro. I need to inform you about-" Hiro pulled out a pistol. 

"I don't care what you have to tell me." He says, with a frown on his face. "All I know is that you were a part of setting up the bloodbath that was the previous war. So I'm going to kill you." His finger was about to pull the trigger, when all of a sudden, smoke began to fill the air. "Shit!" Hiro yelled out, as the smoke began to flow around him. 

"No, Hiro..." Takae said. "If you don't obey, you're going to be the one that dies here!" He yelled. Hiro began to feel a little dizzy. The smoke had completely taken up the rooftop, and Hiro couldn't tell where Takae was anymore. 

And that's not all! That bastard has supressed his magic signature so that I can't tell where he is!  He thought. He recalled the length of the roof, and began thinking about where Takae could go. He's probably somewhere in my radius, but without me being able to sense his signature, I won't know exactly where. I also have to be careful with this smoke. I don't know how this ability works so I should just focus on summoning my golem. He thought. He had quickly began making magic gather in the air, and began creating his portal. That's when he heard a few footsteps. Hiro turned around, and pulled his guns trigger. He fired 2 shots in the direction of the footsteps. He didn't hear a single sound. No hits. He turned around again in the direction of some new footsteps, and once again fired his gun, No hits once again. He groaned. I'm losing consciousness!  He thought to himself. Time was running out for Hiro. And what made things even worse was that Hiro felt his magic running out. That's when he thought he pinpointed the smoke's ability. It slowly takes out an opponents magic, while also knocking them out! Even worse, it conceals the users magic signature!  He was half right. It'll be bad if all my magic runs out, and I think that's his strategy here. Making me run out of magic and weakening me before he kills me. Hiro thought. Once again, he was half right. All of a sudden, Hiro felt a finger on the back of his head. It was most definitely Takae. The smoke disappeared almost immediately, and Hiro had found himself in a desert in the middle of nowhere. He was shocked. But he could still feel his magic coming from above. The portal he had been creating before was summoned into this desert alongside Hiro. Takae pressed his finger even closer to Hiro's head. Titanic amounts of magic could be felt erupting from his finger. Hiro knew that he didn't have enough magic left to finish his summoning. So instead, he decided to bluff. He let out a loud sigh, before proceeding to tell Takae one simple thing: 

"Try and kill me if you want, but you'll die too." He stated. Takae stood there for a second. He could sense huge amounts of magic erupting from the portal above. He looked up at the portal for a few seconds, before looking back down at Hiro's head. He laughed, and put the gun down. 

"Its good that you calmed down. You couldn't have pulled off that bluff if you weren't in a good state of mind." He said, while chuckling. 

He figured out my bluff?!  Hiro thought. He shivered. This was one of the only times in his life that he felt fear, and why was he feeling fear? Because Takae is stronger than him. And Hiro knew it. "Anyways, Hiro. I'm sure that a bastard like you knows all about the Sacred War, right?" Hiro took a deep breath, before he turned around and looked Takae straight in the eyes. 

"Yes...I do." He said. "I'm very familiar with it." 

"Well, you're being asked to participate in it." Takae stated. Hiro's eyes widened. He grined. A wide grin. The grin of a devil. 

"I accept. I'll join." He said. Takae was taken aback by this. He stared at Hiro for a few seconds before laughing. 

"I thought that your shitty ass would decline! Haha!" He yelled. Hiro let out a loud sigh. 

"Is that all? Don't you have a lot more contestants to go after? Or am I the first one?" He asked. Takae shook his head. 

"No, you're the first one, you lucky bastard." 

"Lucky?" 

"Haven't you wondered why I didn't just kill you? Especially when I knew that you were bluffing?" Hiro stood there, just thinking. Then he spoke: 

"I just thought that you weren't allowed to kill me. For some reason or another." Takae stared at Hiro once again, before laughing loudly. 

"Really!? That's what you thought!? Don't be so full of yourself!" His laugh sounded like the howls of a wolf. It made Hiro shiver even more. Then his face went serious. "No. I didn't kill you because of one thing." He raised his hand, and then raised a finger up. "Its very simple. I like you. You're pretty cool, for a piece of shit." He explained. "So I decided to let you live." Hiro is astonished. 

He didn't kill me...because he liked me?  He thought. So my fate was entirely decided because this idiot just enjoyed my company?  His hand balled up into a fist. He was getting angry. He opened his mouth. "I-"

"And so, I'll offer you an opportunity." Takae said, with a sly expression on his face. Hiro stopped speaking, and looked at Takae. 

"What opportunity?" Hiro asked. Takae chuckled. 

"I'll allow you to follow me around as I go and find the contestants. And when you find someone that you think should die first, you can go after them. If ya stick around, you can see every single contestant this way. And I won't interfere with anything ya do. That's your opportunity." Hiro stared at Takae. He began laughing. Takae grined. "I'll take that as a yes?" He asked. Hiro was wearing a wide smile on his face. 

"Yes." 

These events lead to the death of Hajime Shi. He was the first person to be killed in this Sacred War.