FULL SUMMARY: The cruel fact about the world is that everything may end not just in death. A story about a world where living beings may turn into a killing machine known as [Codes], Humans with strange abilities called [Numbers] and, the people pulling all the strings behind the shadows..:

Essence

Chapter 1: Meeting the unexpected

The power attained from taking life away is tremendous, but the power obtained from life itself is even greater.

Essence- it is what was said to be the core of a soul- the very thing that gives and sustains life. It lies bare in every living being, yet unseen by the naked eye of some.

A sea of darkness engulfed a certain town. It was indeed a peculiar night by which the moon and the stars are nowhere in sight, covered entirely by the cruel black clouds.

"How boring.." a pair of half-opened light blue eyes lazily dazed off at the starless dull sky.

"..and I even went through the trouble of coming up here.." the monotonous voice continued breaking the ear-piercing silence. It came from a boy, about the age of 15, with silver locks which are slightly longer in the front than in the back. He slowly got up to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes. He was sitting on a random house's roof, dismayed from the failure of his star-gazing plan. He jumped down from the two-storey house and landed safely, while staggering. His face, void of emotion, somehow tells how bored he is. He started walking off to god-knows-where, till he reached a dark alley.

"P-Please spare us!" the voice pleaded

"W- we do not know where he is now..!" another shouted

The voices filled with anxiety got the silver-haired boy's attention, yet his face clearly shows no concern at all.

"Must be a gang fight, pitiful humans..." the boy said to himself as he strolled towards the alley, curious of what the scene would somehow "interestingly" behold. He peeked from the corner of the adjacent walls, and gazed upon the dark corner.

His half- opened blue eyes somewhat opened a bit widely at the sight, the pitch- black shadows that succumbed the place made it hard for normal eyes to see, but one could clearly tell something was off.

The boy saw a pool of blood surrounding the bodies of two obviously- dead guys, there are also two delinquent looking guys, down on their knees pleading a man wearing a black long sleeved shirt and black pants, with chains all over it, his face was vaguely visible because of the darkness.

"Useless" the man said coldly, looking down at the two guys " you'd be more fitting to be mindless puppets" he added, before he quickly shove his hands on the man's chest, but instead of gushing out blood and stabbing him physically, the man's hand just passed through it like there was a hole in the guy's chest the whole time. The guy was uttered speechless from the shock, that a scary person just placed his hand on his chest, despite the lingering darkness, he can clearly see a black spinning hole on his chest, he can feel an immense amount of pain coming from it as the man pulled his hand out, his consciousness was slowly getting eaten and, alas, he blocked out. In the man's hand lie a small glowing orb, from which he had grabbed from the guy.

"W-WHA!? WHAT ARE YOU..?!" the other guy shouted in confusion and despair, he could hardly tell whether he is having a nightmare or such, his knees felt weak and he couldn't stand up to run away...

"MASATO?! HEY WHAT HAPPENED TO MASATO?! WHAT DID YOU DO?! YOU MONSTER!" the other guy called out to his comrade, who was now standing beside the man, his eyes turned completely white, he was staring off to space.

"I've collected his life.." was the man's only reply, he was referring to "Essence", the small orb he took from the guy. Without this, a being is no more than an undead mindless puppet.

"Now it's your turn" He said as he walked towards the guy who was now crying and desperately begging for mercy. Unfortunately for him, this man was merciless..

"Arara..." the silver haired boy blurted out suddenly at the scene he just saw, judging from his face, he was more or less still bored, but slightly shaken at what he saw. A cold bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, as he saw that the man has averted his attention to him. The delinquent guy was saved temporarily by the appearance of the said boy. The man walked towards him with a menacing aura, filled with killing intent as he slowly took steps forward. The boy took a step back and raised his hands up from his pocket, he waved it slightly as if saying he surrenders. The man paid him no heed and continued walking.

"Yo, Aoba" the boy said dryly at the man, now identified as Aoba, as he stepped out of the dark and into the flickering light of the street post, Aoba was revealed to have black hair, with shades of dark blue, his eyes were the same dark blue in color.

"Kurotsuki.." Aoba muttered coldly.. glaring daggers at the silver haired boy.

The boy gulped, though he still had that bored look, he looked at the man in front of him and examined his movements, then without a second thought, he dashed away and was immediately out of sight, much to Aoba's dismay, he averted his gaze back to the shivering man behind him and his new puppet.

"After him" he instructed the mindless puppet, whom was called Masato earlier, it immediately complied with his orders and raced after the boy.

"And as for you" he said darkly at the man, he shoved his hands in his chest, then immediately pulled it out, without taking his Essence, "..I'll spare you, I placed a string in your essence, made a wrong move, and you're dead" he glared "Now go after Kurotsuki. Without hesitation, the man, still comfused, got up still staggering and run away screaming "Mother!"

"Tch, that brat really loves playing around" Aoba said to himself sternly, with his permanent glare "I'll tie him up next time" he cursed inwardly.

Earlier

"Collect as many as you can, your quota is atleast a hundred, and don't let the "Numbers" found out about you, yet... blah blah blah" Kurotsuki said, hanging upside down from a tree with his legs on the branches "Ren-chan sure is bossy, nee Aoba?" he added, his lazy eyes landed upon a guy in black, leaning on the tree he was on. "And I was expecting to have a go and kill some of these Number-guys.. how disappointing" he continued with his monotone dry voice.

"You should follow what was ordered, Kurotsuki, stop complaining" Aoba replied coldly..

"..but killing humans is so boring, they're awfully weak"

Aoba sighed, he admits that he thinks the same as Kurotsuki, but their priority comes first. Kurotsuki got down from the tree, his hands in his pockets, he was slightly crouching, observing the people around him who were throwing him suspicious looks. They were in the middle of a park, and obviously, a lot of people are in the area, he could easily trap them and kill them all, but it would cause tremor and would go against the wishes of this person called Ren, and more importantly, he was too lazy to do that job. He began to stroll around and head towards somewhere again.

"Oi, Aoba, I'll go get something to eat" he said without turning around, he waved his left hand dryly "I'll be back in a flash..." Aoba didn't respond, but he let him leave. Seriously, why did he let that airhead leave?

Kurotsuki got out from a convenience store with a bag of sweets and snacks aside from the ice cream he was eating. Despite his emotionless empty look, he was somewhat thinking of something.

"Numbers... These are humans gathered in an organization known as ZERO, humans who can also make use of their own essence huh? That's what Aoba said, they're pretty much like us..." he thought "their objective is to protect ordinary people from "Codes", beings whose essence got ripped away from them, or vanished naturally... thus turning them into mindless killing machines..." he continued, licking his vanilla- flavoured dessert.

"Eh? They protect?" he stopped "Then... does that mean we're the bad guys?" he wondered, then he continued eating. "Nah, it doesn't matter, it's pretty fun ripping away essence... Numbers... I wanna' play with one" an evil grin formed from his seemingly innocent face.

He continued walking, completely forgetting about Aoba and their mission, he got passed a white building where many humans of his age wearing similar clothing gather.

"..hnn... it's a middle school" he said eating some pocky, he stared lazily at the passing students. Then, a sudden pressure came from behind him. He glanced back with a dark glare to see who bumped on him.

"G-GOMEN!" the girl shouted and bowed which surprised him, she has long light brown hair and brown eyes, wearing the uniform of this school for girls, which consists of a white polo shirt underneath, a red long-sleeved blazer with black linings, a black bow tie and a black skirt.

"haah.." he muttered lazily, still munching on the snack.

The girl looked at him from head to toe, with quite a curious and confused expression. He wondered, he wasn't wearing anything silly, was he? What's this idiot looking confused for? He frowned. Like he said, Kurotsuki was just wearing, a short sleeved black shirt, and black pants, aside from his silver hair, and pale skin, there was nothing more... well, he is wearing a rather strange collar with a big lock around his neck, but that's not something for others to care about. The girl was frowning even more as she placed her hand under her chin, like she was observing some kind of interesting subject..

"shall, I kill her first" Kurotsuki thought annoyed, his eyes are darkened by the shadow of his hair.

"This person..." the girl thought as she leaned closer "... has such a beautiful face.."

"Hey, are you a girl or a boy?" she asked out of the blue, a nerve popped on Kurotsuki's forehead

"Now you've done it, you're dead" he replied coldly, as the air around him suddenly dropped in temperature.

"Eh?" the girl wondered aloud, oblivious to the danger she's got herself into, by pissing off an airhead.

"Oi! Mikoto!" a guy suddenly called from behind her, snapping Kurotsuki out of his anger. He glanced back to see a guy with spiky hair the same colour as the girl who doubted his gender, not only that, his face is also identical to her.

"Oh, Ricchan!" she called out, waving her hand, still clueless.

"You left me behind!" he said annoyed, but the girl, Mikoto just laugh it off.

"You look the same" Kurotsuki said impassively, glancing back and forth at the two people in front of him.

"Ah, that's right, I'm Kaede Mikoto, and this is my twin brother Rikoto, sorry for earlier" she introduced themselves and bowed, Kurotsuki just stared at them with his half- opened usual bored eyes, completely forgotten about her insulting comment.

Rikoto looked closer at him "haa... You're somewhat cute.." he said, triggering the already- forgotten anger to emerge again,

"Y-You..." Kurotsuki said with a menacing aura.

"...For a guy" Rikoto continued, thus halting another worse- case scenario

"Eh? So he really is a guy? Wahh! I'm sorry for saying that earlier!" Mikoto bowed again.

"Heh! That's right! I'm a real' cool guy! Remember that! Human" he said monotonously, pointing his finger at the twins

"Ah...uh hai! Uhmm... you're name?" Mikoto asked

"Hnn?" Kurotsuki stopped to think remembering something about "not giving away your identity" order, but he ignored it...

"Kurotsuki" he replied dryly, taking another glance at the two, then his eyes opened widely at the sight.

"Essence from normal people are visible, but those with special abilities are not" he paused remembering a crucial information, apparently, those with abilities can't see each other's essence, and right now, the male twin's essence is not visible in his eyes, only Mikoto's. His lips curved up, creating a dark grin as he stared at Rikoto, if glares can pierce, he's already full of holes...

"Numbers" he murmured silently, as he walk pass them, "see ya then" he waved without turning around, suppressing his instincts. He walked away from the school, his bored eyes seem to have brighten up a little.

"What was that?" Mikoto asked

"I don't know?" Rikoto said, walking toward the school, it seems like he hadn't noticed what Kurotsuki thought.

"Ah, Wait up!"

Meanwhile

"127" Aoba muttered as he pulled his hand out from another human, he has collected enough essence to meet their quota, and now all that's left is to look for Kurotsuki, who apparently forgot about the mission again.

"What an unexpected meeting, I'll probably play with those guys again" he said as he strolled towards a corner with a vending machine... "hmm... a milk tea is much appreciated" he continued, ignoring the fact that just ahead were a bunch of muscular delinquents picking on a weak looking student.

"Milk tea.. milk tea" he murmured as he scanned the choices in the vending machine. The delinquents took notice of him, and dragged the student with them.

"Yo, there little girl, wanna' play with us?" The guy asked casually, as he leaned against the vending machine, in less than a second, Kurotsuki kicked him in the stomach, sending the guy flying meters away, he bumped on the wall, in the dead end, cracking it open with the pressure from the kick.

"Say that again scum" Kurotsuki said coldly, the temperature dropped.

"B-BOSS!" before the remaining three delinquents could even react, Kurotsuki punched another one straight in the face, they could swear they heard a lot of cracking, he grabbed the man by his shirt, and glared at him

"Oi, You trash, let me say it to your face, I'm a guy" he said coldly before he took his milk tea from the vendo, and walked away like nothing happened, leaving behind a bunch of dumbfounded and worn out guys, The student run after Kurotsuki.

"Uhmm... thank you for saving me but, you shouldn't have done that, I can manage them myself" he said smiling innocently

"Huh? Who are you?" Kurotsuki asked dryly

"E-Eh, I'm right there all the time..."

"hnnn..." Kurotsuki stopped, thinking, after a few minutes.. "nope.. I don't remember you" he said monotonously before walking away.

"Ah! Wait! I'm Yamato Kiryuu! I still feel indebted to you, so please call me if ever you need help with some unnatural phenomena..." he said as he handed a piece of paper to Kurotsuki "So, good bye" and with that he ran away

"Unnatural Phenomena?" Kurotsuki thought for a while "like what? Like codes?... ah! Could that guy be a Number?" He said in surprise as he look around, searching for the guy to see if his Essence is visible, he hadn't noticed earlier because he wasn't paying attention, but he's already gone...

Afterwards, He played in arcades, fooled around... and eventually left everything regarding their mission to Aoba. He seriously forgot about it. Then at night, he went to a roof and decided to star gaze... the rest is history...

END OF CHAPTER

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Uhmm, I hope it wasn't confusing _ I'll give a more detailed explanation regarding "numbers" "codes", the organization "Zero" and "Essence" on the next chapter, this one is more like an introduction.

The characters will be introduced bit by bit together with the development of their predicament.. hehe

And as you can see, The main character is one of the bad guys, but he's too much of an idiot to notice

Please read and review, critiques are warmly welcomed, of course.