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Nikuyoku Bushii seemed to jingle as his two crosses hanging from his neck, studded bracers, and metal bracelets clanked together as he walked down the sidewalk. It was quiet, the school nearby still in session, as his body seemed to stop all its own. Japan hardly ever got as quiet as Niku seemed to think it was. In all actuality the streets were busy and there were plenty of people around him, all of them giving the man in the black leather trench and sheathed katana a wide berth.

He looked to his arm where he knew the name that had plagued him as a child and teenager lay emblazoned on his skin. He had rather grown to like it, Loneliness. He smirked as he lifted his chin, amber eyes to the sky before they closed. "I'm close. I can feel it." He whispered to himself before sighing and following the path that he felt would lead him to his sacrifice. Little did he realize that his path would lead him right outside the gates of a middle school.

Something, some intuition, told him to just stand outside, his back and his right booted foot pressed against the brick of the school's gate, his black hair blowing lightly in the breeze, and he'd find who or what he was looking for. Little did he think at that point in time that he might be doomed to the service of a child.

Nikuyoku's head was in the clouds so he barely noticed the pounding footsteps that approached. He hardly noticed his body swinging around the corner and into the path of the charging boy. He did notice however when said boy hit him and his hands placed themselves on small shoulders. Amber hued orbs focused on the child that he held by those shoulders and he smirked. Ears...and a tail. "How cute." Niku's voice left his mouth in a teasing tone before he even realized what he was he said.

He held the kid out at arms length to get a better look at him. Intelligent eyes, a cute face for a boy, black tail and ears, flushed just slightly from running. If Niku had been a homosexual ***** he'd say this was a gift sent from God. As it was, he wasn't, and he saw this as somewhat annoying and that something must be wrong, his instincts must have let him down. "Show me your arm." His voice already held the disappointment that he knew was to come, but that smirk held firm on his face even if it didn't meet those wonderfully, almost glowing, eyes of his.

Nikuyoku's eyes widened, first with surprise and then with anger. This brash little brat, the audacity. Niku slipped out of his black leather trench to reveal a black shirt and tight leather pants with a belt running over the loops of the pants, obviously more for fashion than utility. The belt ended in a buckle that formed a very punk fashion heart, all sharp angles and abrupt endings. His knees bent and he was eye to eye with the kid, turning just so that his left arm showed, the word Loneliness standing out against his pale skin like it had been burned there. But he knew it hadn't been, Niku knew that it had been there since birth and that it would be there until he died.

"Show me you arm." His voice was more stern this time, he couldn't stop himself. His control was slipping, desperation quietly lurking in the background. Another disappointment, no. He just couldn't take another disappointment. Even if his sacrifice was a child it was better than no sacrifice at all. A fighter without a sacrifice was worthless, absolutely useless. And Niku didn't want to be useless, even if it meant he had to give up some of his cherished pride. "Please," he added between clenched teeth.

So it was true. This...child was his sacrifice. It was shocking and the picture that fell to the ground was shocking as well. The kid was a good artist, hell, he was great for his age. Niku felt he could have been looking at a mirror that reflected back in pencil.

He stood up, separating himself and his sacrifice though it put him in nearly physical pain to do so. He sucked in a breath at the parting and picked up his coat from the ground, dusted it off, and dawned it again. He smirked and was reminded of the drawing, that same smirk looking back at him, and shivered despite his trench. "My name is Nikuyoku Bushii, but you can call me Niku if you like..." He intentionally left the sentence hanging, hoping that the boy would fill it in with his name. Whether he did or didn't Niku would continue on with, "Well, I suppose we need to get you home. We can talk about our relationship on the way."

This statement, out of the context of Nikuyoku's mind, would be slightly disconcerting to anyone who heard it. But Niku was in such a state of peace that he hadn't know before that he hadn't even noticed the secondary meaning to his words, nor did he have any idea if his sacrifice knew what the names meant. But all that was a matter of time, he knew it. Already the urge to fight, to test his strength against other teams, boiled within him and his eyes seemed to light up from behind.

The parting was almost as if someone had stabbed him in the heart with tiny needles. "Wait." His words and their double meaning finally dawned on him and a heavy sigh fell from pale pink lips. He also noticed that in his desperation he'd accidentally tapped into that power that the fighters and sacrifices seemed to have. The effect wouldn't be a harsh one, in all actuality it would probably be very comfortable one, a subtle hinting that it might be a good idea to stay still for a second instead of an iron chain binding one to stay.

"That's not what I meant...I mean, yes, you should go home. Your parents are probably wondering where you are and it probably looks a little strange for you to be talking to someone like me right outside your school...but I need to ask you. Do you know what or why the word on your arm is there? I can help you and you can help me. Partners...well kinda." Poor Niku was never good at keeping his eyes under control or any part of himself under control for that matter so it wasn't really a surprise to anyone that might have known him to see those eyes reflecting every hope, every battle, every struggle, every endeavor that had led to meeting his sacrifice. But that smile never changed, it stayed in that cocky smirk that didn't come close to matching the beautiful honey coated irises of his eyes.

He still didn't touch his sacrifice and it took all the self-control that he had not to rub the cute little ears atop the boy's head. Niku couldn't help but think, 'Damnit, I feel like a *****,' and realized that it was a good thing he hadn't said that out loud. What came out instead of his intriguing inner thought was, "What's your name?"

"None of my business? You little...I've spent years learning about what it means to be a Fighter and more years after that trying to find a suitable Sacrifice and you're going to tell me that it isn't any of my business?" Niku's voice was filled with rage, and worse, excitement. He didn't realize on the surface but something deep within liked this kid. He had guts and brains, he could be a worthy Sacrifice if Niku didn't kill him first.

"Fine, keep your name to yourself. The only name I really need to know is the one on your arm, the same one that's on mine and in the exact same location. If you think that's none of my business then you are actually just some stupid kid. Why don't you hear me out, or just run away. I don't need a Sacrifice that can't even stick it out before the fights even begin." Amber orbs never broke from the commanding sapphire and the smug smirk was gone. Niku hadn't realized it but his right hand had clenched into a fist tight enough that his knuckles were bone white as he strained against the urge to punt this runt into the next district.

Niku shivered as the boy said his name, not a physical shiver but a mental one that seemed to pervade him completely. That shiver also made him tear his eyes away from those of his sacrifice, the feeling too intense to continue to try and win out a fight that he couldn't hope to.

"Yes...and no." Niku's smirk was back in place as he wrapped his hand around the smaller one offered to him. "It's our Name, it is who we are but mostly it binds us to one another, Fighter and Sacrifice." He gave a small squeeze at the word Sacrifice, somehow trying to convey that the word itself wasn't exactly what the...position was, though he doubted that this boy, who seemed strong enough to make Niku bow out with just his own empowered name, needed any reassurance. "So...where are we going?" Realization suddenly dawned upon Niku as he glared down at the boy, "You never told me your name."