Great. Now they're targeting me. Just what the hell did I do to deserve this?
The cold night air stung my lungs with every ragged breath as I staggered through the rain-slick alleyways, clutching my side where the blood seeped through my clothes. Every step was agony, my knees threatening to buckle beneath me, but I forced myself forward. I had no choice.
The alleyway twisted and turned like a serpent. The neon glow of the city blurred through the sweat and rain. I forced my eyes to stay sharp despite the darkness creeping at the edges of my vision.
"Gear 149, status update!" My voice cracked, dry as sandpaper.
"Hostiles in pursuit, Master. Estimated arrival within seconds," the Gear's calm voice whispered in my ear.
My heart slammed.
How the hell did they catch up so fast?
Why was she after me?
Before I could spin around, a white-hot stab of agony tore through my back. The cold blade sliced through flesh and bone. Pain exploded, stealing the breath from my lungs. I stumbled, knees buckling as I tasted blood—metallic and bitter—flooding my mouth.
Everything blurred.
The sounds of the city faded. The cold rain mixed with the warmth of my blood.
And then I saw her face.
"M…moonlight?" My voice was a hoarse whisper, disbelief burning through the pain.
Her lips twisted into a cruel sneer, eyes sharp and merciless.
"Yes, Starlight. It's me," she spat, venom lacing every word. "Silencing the bird that sings secrets."
Her laugh was hollow, a cruel echo in the cold night.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!"
I looked up at the stars—the only friends who never turned away.
I wished I could join them.
I wished for peace.
This is death.
Darkness. Cold. Silence.
But my story didn't start here.
My family was more than complicated.
I was born to a throne, but never meant to sit on it. The palace called me "His Highness Yoru," yet even then, whispers followed me like a curse. My eyes were too sharp, my voice too quiet, my heart too dark for their gold-plated world. They called it a dangerous temperament, one unfit for a prince. I called it honesty in a kingdom of liars.
My mother, Lady Serika, once shone like the moon—kind, gentle, radiant. But after Father remarried, the light left her eyes. The new queen brought her son, Ryusei—my half-brother—and with him came the beginning of our exile. They called him the golden prince, blessed by the stars. I was the shadow that spoiled the picture. When the council declared that "for the peace of the realm, the cursed heir must be removed," the guards didn't hesitate.
I still remember the day we were cast out—the gates slamming behind us, the marble roads that once bowed to our carriage now spitting mud. My stepmother's smile through the rain, and Ryusei's quiet laughter as he waved goodbye. It was a sound I would never forget.
The outside world didn't care that I was once royal. Nobility turns to nothing when hunger sets in. My mother tried to survive, tried to work, tried to smile… but each passing day cracked her a little more. Her grief became rage, and her rage became something worse. Every time she looked at me, I think she saw the life she lost. Her hands trembled not from weakness—but from everything she wanted to destroy. Sometimes that thing was me.
I endured. I thought I could fix her.
But love can't patch madness.
And one night, when her screams turned to words I couldn't unhear—"You should have never been born!"—I ran. I ran until my feet bled and my voice broke. I ran until the world went quiet and the storm inside me didn't feel like guilt anymore.
That's when I found them—or maybe, they found me.
The Kurogane-kai were no fairy tale family. The streets called them demons in suits, the mafia that owned the city's veins. But the truth was stranger. They found me in an alley, half-dead, clutching a rusted knife. Their leader, Boss Kurogane, didn't ask my name. He just looked at me, then said, "You've got the eyes of someone who's already died once."
He took me in.
His wife, Kaoru, bandaged my wounds and fed me warm rice for the first time in months. They didn't ask for loyalty. They gave it first.
Their son, Ren, couldn't walk. He was fragile, kind, and curious—everything I'd never been allowed to be. He'd watch the rain from his window and tell me stories of the outside world. The first time he called me nii-san, I froze. It felt foreign… but right.
Over time, the Kurogane-kai became my home.
They taught me discipline, patience, and control. Boss Kurogane trained me not to kill, but to protect. He said, "If you must take a life, make sure it saves ten more." I believed him. I wanted to.
So why did I become an assassin?
Because protection comes with a price.
When the family was threatened—when rivals moved in, when politicians and killers alike wanted blood—someone had to get their hands dirty. Boss was too old, Ren was too fragile, and Okaa-san… she begged me not to go. But I couldn't stand by and let the family who saved me be destroyed.
So I took the jobs no one else could.
The infiltration, the clean-up, the shadows between deals.
Every mission was another life traded for their safety.
I became the sword they never wanted to draw.
And in time, that sword earned a name—Starlight.
They said I shone brightest in the dark. They were wrong. I only knew how to survive there.
Still… those years were the happiest I'd ever known.
Boss's quiet approval.
Okaa-san's gentle scolding when I came home injured.
Ren's laughter echoing through the mansion halls.
For the first time, I thought maybe the world wasn't so cruel after all.
But peace is fragile. And fate… fate has a twisted sense of humor.
Back in the alley, pain sharpened every breath. I clenched the pendant around my neck—a relic of a life I tried to forget.
I thought of Boss and Okaa-san—the parents who raised me.
Who loved me when the others turned their backs.
I whispered an apology.
Memories flooded.
The first time I held a blade.
The promise of control.
The countless nights sharpening skills.
The faces fading into silence.
And betrayal.
Moonlight.
My friend.
My executioner.
"Gear 149!" I gasped. "Who sent them? Why am I hunted?"
"Unknown. Multiple hostile signals. No known faction," came the cold reply.
A chill settled deep.
Someone wanted me dead.
But who?
I fought to stay alive, every breath a battle.
The cold seeped into my bones.
I thought of my step brother, the golden prince.
Was he behind this?
Had the kingdom come to finish me?
I'm no stranger to betrayal.
But this cut deeper than any blade.
As darkness threatened, a fire ignited—a desperate will to survive.
I am Yoru.
Exiled prince.
Mafia Boss.
World's best assassin.
And I will not go quietly.
If I fall tonight, who will protect my family?
Who will watch the city I built?
Who will carry my name?
I reached beneath my coat.
My hidden blade.
Cold, sharp, a lifeline.
Blood poured down my arm.
Still breathing.
Still fighting.
Shizu lunged again.
Her eyes wild with hatred.
"You don't get to die first, Starlight!"
Her blade arced in deadly grace.
I barely parried—steel rang against steel, sparks flying.
Pain exploded in my arm.
Adrenaline masked it.
I countered.
Drove my blade deep into her side.
She gasped, eyes wide.
Blood blossomed dark and hot.
Her body shuddered.
We stared—two broken souls torn by fate.
"Why?" I whispered, voice thick with pain.
Her bitter smile cut deeper than steel.
"I never wanted this," she rasped. "But you left me no choice."
She collapsed.
Rain washed away the blood.
But the pain would never fade.
I sank to my knees.
The alley silent but for my ragged breath.
This was the end.
My final breath.
My last stand.
I closed my eyes.
Thought of Otou-san and Okaa-san.
Thought of the stars.
The darkness took me.
Cold. Endless.
But in that void—
A faint light.
A whisper of hope.
Because even in death,
The stars still shine.