//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: In the Eyes of Death // by HydeYmir //------------------------------// “In other news folks, it’s been five years since the notorious villain group ‘The Court’ have been spotted. Of course, three years back we found who we believe to be the one who called himself The Judge dead on the sidewalk near a local convenience store with a knife in his back. The heinous villain who struck fear into us all identified was Zak Law a local bartender. On record it says he has a brother, his name, Damien Law….” The news anchor continued to comment about the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of the 'The Court'.  A man tuned to the Tv as he got dressed for the day. His attire consisted of a navy long sleeve shirt that had ‘DEATH’ written on the back in a fancy font. He wore black Jeans, and had a white belt on. Connected to his jeans was a golden chain that led into his pocket. And he wore specially made shoes that were super comfortable. “One week until the anniversary… hooray.” He said as he tied his long, messy black hair into a ponytail. He grabbed his glasses that were on the counter and put them on their regular spot, his face.  “Woof!” His dog barked at him when he opened the fridge, the man just ignored him and let the dog wear himself out. Of course the dog only stopped barking when the man was done with his food. He picked up some of the bacon he had made and began to whistle. “Come here, Zeke.”  Zeke ran up to him at the speed of sound and snatched the bacon out of his hand. Zeke chewed it twice before inhaling it.  “One day when you choke because you didn’t chew, I will laugh my ass off.” Zeke then looked up to his master with big puppy eyes. He reached down and patted the dog on the head. “Of course I will save you, but I will still laugh. You are my world after all lil buddy." Zeke merely started jumping around in hopes of getting more food. It didn’t work, as the man walked past him and went to the bathroom to take a piss.  After he was done relieving himself, he looked in the mirror. He had a nicely trimmed goatee. His skin was still pale white, something he has tried to fix since he was a teen, but no matter what he does he can’t get a tan. He looked himself in the eyes only to see his yellow soulless eyes peering back at him. That’s when he heard a knock at the door, snapping him out of his daze. Hurrying out of his bathroom he jumped over Zeke who was waiting for him to come out. He made his way over to the front door of his apartment and looked out the peep hole and saw his landlord. He let out a sigh and forced a smile, then opened the door. “Ms. Dunn, to what do I owe the pleasure?” She kicked her foot on the ground and let out a huff, “How many times have I told you to call me Vanessa, ya soulless bastard?” She said as she let herself in. He noticed her breath smelled of liquor. "And before you start scolding me i own this building therefore your apartment is MY apartment" Vanessa said with a cheeky smile as she plopped on my couch and turned the tv on. “How many times have I told you not to call me that? If you are going to me anything call me by my name Clayton, or Clay.” Clay stated as he closed the door to his apartment, while rolling his eyes. “And should you really be drinking this early in the morning?” He said as he watched Zeke run up and jump on Vanessa. Clay laughed as Zeke tried to lick her face off. Vanessa using all the might she could muster let out a small, but fierce yell as she pulled Zeke off of her so she could respond to Clayton's comment. “Oh shut up! I can do whatever I want, you should be great full a young lady like myself even came over to see you.” Vanessa said with puffed up cheeks. She then turned to face Zeke, "Isn't that right ZZ, tell him he should treat me better!" She turned Zeke to face his owner and in response he started barking causing Vanessa to smirk. Despite how she was acting, Vanessa is a strawberry blonde woman in her early thirties. She wore a light pink blouse and blue jeans. Along with some white sneakers.  Clay walked over to the cabinet ignoring his tyrant landlord for the moment and the use of his dog against him. He pulled out a glass cup and made his way over to the fridge. He clicked on the touchscreen pad a few times and held the cup up to the dispenser and filled up the glass with ice, then water. While Vanessa was ranting about her being young and beautiful, and her mistreatment to poor Zeke, Clay handed her the water. Stopping her rant she downed the glass of water and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. “Thank you.” She said gratefully then continued to play with Zeke as the tv played in the background. “While you sit here in my apartment like there is not a care in the world, I’ll be off at work.” Clay opened the door but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turing back to Vanessa she was using her quirk, Rubber Limbs that allowed her to stretch out her arms and legs like rubber, to get his attention “Don’t forget to pick up food on your way home.” She teased and sent a playful wink his way, then released him and let her arm shoot back to her.  Clay didn’t say a word instead let out a sigh and dragged his hand over his face. Still not saying a word he left for work, closing the door behind him.  A week has passed… and Clay was sitting in his living room with Zeke. He had the lights off and had only a few candle that lit up the room. On the coffee table layed a picture of him, and another man. This man had dark brown shaggy hair, tanned skin, and a big bright smile on his face. He was wearing a white t-shirt, and sadly you couldn’t see the rest because that picture cut off, but Clay remembered. He also had on black slacks, and bright red shoes. Looking at the picture made him reminisce on the time between them. “I miss you big bro. I miss you… Zak.” Damien muttered under his breath. Zeke nuzzled up to his master in attempt to soothe his heart. And Clay gratefully accepted the love. “Let’s call it a night buddy." Clayton said as he scratched his lil buddy on the head. Putting on a smile he looked at Zeke, "Tomorrow I’m gonna go do something I haven’t done before. I’m going to go to a convention, and when I get back me and you are going to go on a trip overseas.” Zeke barked happily in response. They both fell asleep on the couch that night. “I think this is pretty good. What do you say?” Clay asked Zeke, and in response Zeke did circles while barking.  Clay had on black combat pants that he had specially made to be very resilient, along with a black long sleeve shirt. He wore a black utility belt that currently had money, his phone, and a plastic kuni for the hell of it. He also had to go back to the guy who made his shoes and got him to make some tough black combat boots that had a grey outline. Because a week had gone by he grew a nice short, thin beard. He kept his hair out of his ponytail, and had it extra messy. He went to one of his contacts form the old days and got him to make a scarf capture weapon. If you hadn’t guessed by now Clay was going as the Japanese underground hero, Erasure Head.  He turned to walked out of the door but Zeke started to whine. Clay stopped gave Zeke some belly rubs, which he knew would cheer his boy up. "I love you man. I'm sorry you couldn't come with me this time, but next ti e im making you a cosplay and we are doing this as a team." Zeke stared up at Clay with no thought behind his eyes, and a extremely fast wagging tail, enjoying the attention. "Now it's not like you are gonna be alone, Vanessa is sure to come over later and cause some trouble. Keep a close eye on her lil buddy and make sure she controls herself." With one final head scratch, Clay walked out the door without looking back. That is one of his biggest regrets. He made his way to the convention and was impressed with the cosplayers that were walking around. There were cosplays form various anime’s, shows, movies, and some professional hero cosplays.  As he was walking around he saw many things, a blonde in a red and blue suit yelling at a vendor in rage, an Allmight and Captain Celebrity cosplay cosplayers taking pictures together, and a cool Super Saiyan God Goku cosplay.  As he was walking around a certain stall and vendor looked interesting, so Clay walked over. As he was browsing the wears he found the pair of goggles that Erasure Head wears and they looked very well made, so he was going to buy them. Another thing that caught his attention was a small purple gemstone. He picked it up and called out to the shopkeeper. “Hey do you have this in another color? Preferably like black jade.” The guy turned around and saw the gem. Clay tossed it to him and the vendor disappeared into the back. He came back out a minute later with the same type of gemstone in the color Clay asked for. The vendor had a strange sense of fashion, with two large piercings on his lip and head, each sporting a chain. Additionally, he has three smaller piercings on the left side of his jaw. He also has a large scar across his face and a gray ponytail kept up via a bright blue bow. He has on a light blue, sleeveless robe, white pants, and black bandages wrapping both of his forearms. Also, he hangs a strange U-shaped device from his head either in or behind his ears. This vendor was cosplaying as Shigure from Yu Yu Hakusho. Shigure handed Clay the gem. He began to look over it, then placed it on the table with the goggles. “I’d like to buy these two.” Clay stated plainly.  The A-Class demon looked over both of the items. “That will be 125 for both. The goggles come with something extra. And I’ll throw in a special product for 40 more dollars, or you can tell me about yourself and see if that gets you anything.”The man dressed as Shigure said with an amused tone.  Clay hummed in thought. “Deal, what is the extra item I can get?” He asked as he put the goggles underneath the scarf, and put the gem in one of the Pockets on his belt. Shigure handed him some eye drops. Clay shrugged and put them in the same pocket the gem was in. He took out some money from his belt and handed it to the vendor. “My life isn’t that interesting, I worked for a big corporation my whole life until five years back when they shut down. I have a dog, currently working at a convenience store near my apartment. And my Quirk is Reaper.” Clay said as he gestured to his eyes, they became completely white for a couple of seconds before reverting back to normal. Shigure unhooked his Rinka Enreki-tō from around his waist, and sliced Clay right in between his eyebrows. Blood began to seep down his face and into his eyes. Clay jumped back with incredible strength that shocked him, but he never hit the ground. As he was falling in the void he heard Shigure whisper in his ear.  “May you have a happy life, Clayton Crow.” Was all the Clay heard as he blacked out. Walking through the woods a young man appearing to be in his late twenties came across Clay hanging from a tree. The man had long light blue and white hair that was tied into a ponytail, that was resting on his shoulder. He looked like he was trying to grow a beard if the mid sized goatee was anything to go off of. He wore a white button down dress shirt, with black pants and over his shirt he had a cloak that had stars and moons on it. And in the middle of his head he had a white horn. Raising a brow he spoke. “Well what do we have here?” The man used his magic to grab Clay and float him off of the branch he was hanging off of. “I don’t think I’ve seen a creature like you before. You’ll be a fun research project to work on.” The man walked back to where he came from with the unconscious Clay floating next to him.