Ten Years Before The Fallen Kingdom Arc:

Ian the darkness of Hokai, near the city of Fushu, a young boy no older than six with grey, spiky hair, and his father watched television in a small home. “Dad! Look, did you see that?!”

His father chuckled heartily. He paid no attention to the cartoons on the screen, but seeing how gleeful the child was put a smile on his face. “Yeah, I saw it.”

“That’s so cool! First he was all like ‘POW!’ then ‘BANG!’.” In his excited movements, a small green blast came from his hand and hit his father square in the chest. The man recoiled back into the couch with an exaggerated swing of his arms. “Oh no! Dad!”

For a few moments, his father laid completely still. Tears streamed down the boy’s face quickly and he let out hoarse sobs.

Until he heard chuckling.

“Gotcha.” His father said simply. “Look, Rikuto. Not a scratch on me.” To emphasize, the older man opened his shirt to show that he had been completely unharmed.

Rikuto puffed out his cheeks and hit the man’s shoulder as hard as he could, which made the man chuckle more. “That’s not funny, Dad!” Rikuto protested.

“It is, because you never seem to learn,” Dad only barely tried to quell his laughter.

“I’m telling Mom,” Young Rikuto threatened with crossed arms and his father could see the very familiar look in his eye. That got the man to stop.

He let out a nervous chuckle before rubbing the back of his head. “Now, now. No need for such drastic measures,” His dad teased. “How about this? Let’s get some ice cream and do some training and I won’t tell Mom that it was you who stole her chocolate milk.”

“Deal!”

As the pair made a dash for the kitchen, they paused when Dad suddenly grabbed Rikuto’s arm protectively. Rikuto’s breathing hitched.

“Riku. Don’t move.” Dad said, deathly serious. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Riku held his breath under his father’s order. Riku opened his mouth to say something but was silenced by an intense glare. “There are people outside. Go upstairs.”

Without waiting, Rikuto felt his small body being rather roughly thrown upstairs just before hearing a loud bang.

After throwing his son upstairs, Enjiro felt a burning pain in his shoulder. He swore under his breath before dodging the second bullet. He looked up just before being kicked on the side of his head. His vision blurred and he let out a grunt of pain. His attacker walked up to him with both hands still in his pocket.

“Enjiro Maeda.” His attacker’s voice was slow and monotonous. Enjiro shuddered upon feeling the sheer malicious intent dripping off the man.

“I take it this isn’t a friendly visit.” Enjiro joked under his breath. He was promptly kicked again. ‘Damn it. Rikuto is too close to use my power.’

“It is not.” The man replied. “Ichimaru sends his regards.” With that, the man attempted to end Enjiro’s life with a powerful axe kick, only to be stopped by a child yelling. He paused and locked eyes with Rikuto.

Rikuto froze. The sheer pressure the man exuded was enough to drop the boy to his knees and made him gasp desperately for breath. It was then that three more people rushed in behind his father’s attacker and made their way up the stairs, only to be stopped by what he believed to be a glare.

“We don’t harm women and children.” He said plainly.

“But boss! What if this brat sees you?”

Rikuto heard but truthfully, it had been so dark and things had happened so fast that even if he could breathe normally, he doubts he could see anything.

“I will not repeat myself.”

“You gave me too much time,” Enjiro said ominously. Quickly, he jumped to his feet with both of his arms glowing a light green. “Nature’s Blade.” He whispered.

Unfortunately for Enjiro however, his attacker simply raised a hand and caught the blow without so much as sparing a glance. “I can now see why Ichimaru sent me to dispose of you.”

The last thing Riku remembered seeing was the gleam of a blade and the world getting heavy on his little shoulders.

Several hours passed before Rikuto finally regained consciousness. He felt warm hands on the side of his head, and a very welcomed aura covering him. He didn’t need to open his eyes as he knew his mother’s scent from anywhere. He didn’t even think opening his eyes would do more than let the tears flow. Wherever they were, it was deathly quiet. Rikuto felt cold even under his mother’s warmth.

“It’s okay, Riku.” He could hear the sadness in her voice and it hurt his heart. “Everything will be okay.”

“I was too weak to do anything.” Rikuto muttered into her lap. “It all happened so fast and I couldn’t do anything.” Before he knew it, tears leaked from his silver eyes like a faucet. “If I weren’t so weak, I could’ve done something.”

Lisa, feeling tears well up in her eyes, quickly waved a glowing hand over the child’s face, knocking him out instantly. She looked up to the barren, white ceiling in an attempt to hold back her own tears, but she failed. ‘Pull yourself together, Lisa! You need to be strong now,’ she mentally scolded herself. ‘Be strong for yourself… and him.’ She looked back down to see that a single black strand of hair appeared amongst the grey of her son’s hair. She let out a forlorn sigh.

Several weeks later, Riku finally found the energy once again to return to school. Being as young as he was, the teachers fully understood his absence. Fortunately, his only friend did too.

Lucas Cloud, seven years old, white hair blinding Riku as he approached him. His shiny golden eyes conveying nothing but concern and pity. “Hey,” Lucas started lightly. “It’s nice to see you back.”

“Thanks.”

Even after such a basic exchange, Lucas could see tears forming in the corner of Riku’s eyes. He sighed. “Hey, stop crying. People will think you’re weak.” Lucas explained casually.

“But I am weak. I’m not as strong as you.” Riku sniffled.

“Hey, don’t say that. No one here is as strong as me.”

Riku let out a small chuckle at that. Leave it up to Lucas to say something so silly while trying to console someone. “I needed that joke.”

“I wasn’t kidding but alright. You say you’re weak… well why don’t you train like me?” The white-haired boy questioned with a tilt of the head.

“Unlike you, my family doesn’t have endless amounts of money.” Lucas shook his head.

“I mean… this week, I can stop by to spar. Get your mind off things.”

“Me and Dad were going to spar.” Riku paused before his bottom lip started to quiver. Before he could fall back into despair, Lucas held up his small hand over the boy’s face and a brilliant flash of yellow light erupted. “Ah! My eyes! I’m blind!” Riku fell back instantly.

“You aren’t blind, you idiot.”

“If you keep doing that, I will be!” Riku protested.

Over the coming years, Riku and Lucas’ bond grew from simple friends to borderline brothers. Every week since, the two would train together and have eventual spars with Lucas winning each and every time.

On one particularly rough session, Riku dropped to one knee, panting for breath. “Take it easy on him Cloud,” he could hear Lucas’ personal trainer yell.

“I am.” Came his simple response, “Come on, Riku. This is embarrassing. At least try to make me sweat,”

“I am trying!”

In that moment, Riku dug deep and ran at Lucas with a light green glow around his body. He feigned a right hook and the moment Lucas reflexively ducked, he threw a kick. Lucas raised a brow before catching the boy’s leg in his offhand, sweeping him off his foot and slamming him into the floor. It happened so quickly, the only thing Riku recalled was Lucas standing over him with a blinding light in his palm.

“Maybe I’m just too much.” Lucas thought out loud. Riku growled but chose to stay quiet. “What?”

“You’re unbelievable.”

Lucas only shrugged.