(1) - 'Shiro Tamashii' literally translates as 'White Soul' in Japanese.

(2) - 'Kuro Tamashii' literally translates as 'Black Soul' in Japanese.

'Reimei Tamashii' literally translates as 'Twilight Soul' in Japanese.


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At Central Park, New York...alongside the pond...

"...I still don't get it..."

"What?! I've explained it three times already and you're still clueless?! Are you an idiot?!!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It's just...this is all a little hard to swallow, you know. Look...just tell me it again one more time, and I promise I'll understand everything! Really!!"

"...Feh...you're such a troublesome brat, making me do this again for the fourth time...but fine, I will! We are an organization dedicated to eliminating the threats of humanity, and our main enemy is a man known only as Tsai. He is the one responsible for the creation of two dangerous entities that threaten the existence of all life: Shiro Tamashii(1) and Kuro Tamashii(2). Aside from either being as white as snow or as black as night, they resemble one another completely, although their abilities are vastly different. They are the ones generally at fault for much of the chaos and suffering you hear about these days all around the world. Tsai has total control over both of these entities, and we believe that if we can locate and kill him, then Shiro and Kuro may be destroyed as well. However, Tsai is not to be taken lightly, as he is a genius by the likes this world has never seen. He knows that we are searching for him, and he is doing everything he can to halt our progress. We are the only ones who are capable of seeing these two creatures, although their attacks will still affect everything around them, which makes battles in public places very difficult. Too many of our best soldiers have been cut down by these dangerous enemies of ours, so you must be extremely careful when facing them. Do you understand all of that, Gregory Hayato?"

Gregory Hayato, a young, handsome Asian-American boy of 17 years with raven-black hair and a fair complexion, watched in silence as the crotchety old Box Turtle sitting before him lit a cigarette and slid it into an opening on the side of his beak. "I...I think I understand, master Torto," he replied meekly, "But...I have one more question..."

"Yeah?" The turtle rolled his eyes, "What is it?"

Gregory raised his hand, and pointed at the ridiculously anorexic, pale-white humanoid that was slowly approaching them. It was completely naked except for the tight black thong it wore to cover its genitalia. It had no eyes, no nose and no eyes, but it had a mouth that was permanently frozen in a wide cheery grin, filled to the brim with sharp, jagged teeth. Its head bobbed slightly up and down with every slow step it took.

"...That must be Shiro Tamashii, right?"

The turtle immediately jumped up onto its stubby feet, and quickly spat his cigarette off into a nearby puddle. "GODDAMMIT...!!!"

The being known as Shiro Tamashii opened its mouth wide, its jaw unhinging like that of a snake's, and a thin beam of pure-white energy burst out from deep within its throat. Gregory quickly scooped up the tiny turtle into his arms, and leaped to the right. The beam zipped past him and blew a hole into the spot the boy had been standing on only moments ago. Luckily, no one was around to witness it. Throwing its head back, Shiro Tamashii let out a wild, wolf-like howl.

"Damn! It shouldn't be here right now! Tch...Gregory, we have no choice but to fight this thing until the others get here!!" Torto barked.

"R-RIGHT!!!"

"It's a good thing you've already mastered your abilities..."

Leaping out of Gregory's hold, Torto spun wildly through the air, and giant, diamond spikes sprouted from all over his shell. Still spinning horizontally at high speeds, the tortoise flew forward and sliced the tips of its spikes across Shiro Tamashii's chest. The white creature screeched in pain as ivory-colored blood poured out of its wounds. A moment later, however, the wounds vanished, and Shiro Tamashii was as good as new once again. Torto cursed under his breath, landing back beside a pale-faced Gregory.

"...Why didn't you attack him at the same time as me? We could have at least paralyzed him for a minute or two!!" Torto asked, his calm tone of voice hiding the true rage he felt towards his pupil at that moment.

"I," Gregory struggled to speak, his eyes glued to the horrific being standing before him, "This is...my first time facing it...I was a bit surprised...I heard so many stories about it, and I thought I could handle it, but...seeing it in person for the first time...the immense sadness and hatred I feel flowing from its body...it makes me uncomfortable..."

"Of course it's going to be uncomfortable!!" Torto snapped, his veil of calmness falling apart, "You're fighting something that embodies true human emotion! Now...stop hesitating, man up and attack it, you brat!!! You choose to go this path of life, so you better make it worthwhile!!!"

Gregory gritted his teeth, and shut his eyes tight. His master was right; he couldn't allow himself to hesitate any further. "A...ALRIGHT!! HERE I GO...!!!" He opened his eyes again, fully prepared to fight for the sake of humanity...

...and he saw that Shiro Tamashii was about to chomp down upon his face; it was alot faster than it looked, after all. A single, topaz-blue eye was staring back at him from within the creature's throat. That must have been what fired the laser earlier.

"G...GREGORY!!!" Torto cried out in horror. Without wasting a second, the turtle unsheathed his spikes once again, and immediately tore through Shiro Tamashii's cheek bone. Ivory blood splattered onto Gregory's face and clothes as the white beast was knocked off to the right by the attack's powerful impact, and it landed into some green shrubbery. Gregory was frozen to the spot, cold sweat rolling down the back of his neck; he had only been moments away from being killed just now.

'I...I was almost...killed...'

Gregory was inadvertently brought back to reality with a hard slap across the face by his master Torto. It was the first time he had ever been slapped by a turtle.

"YOU IDIOT!!! YOU WERE ALMOST KILLED BECAUSE YOU HESITATING IN ACTIVATING YOUR POWERS!!!" As usual, Torto showed no sympathy towards the poor boy. So many years of fighting the Tamashii twins and watching all of his close friends die had hardened him to becoming near-emotionless. Gregory wondered if, one day, he would be the same.

"I'm...I'm sorry...I'll activate them right now...I won't be caught off-guard this time!" Gregory slammed his fists together, and what appeared to be a scouting visor formed over his right eye. Two red streaks ran vertically down his cheeks, and gray metallic gloves covered in wires and buttons slithered out over his hands. A gauge on the bottom-left of the visor screen showed how much power he put into his fists; at the moment, it was at 0%. A gauge on the bottom-right of the screen read the enemy's current power rating; it was only at 40%.

"DAMN RIGHT, YOU WON'T!!! NEXT TIME, I'M NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU!!!"

Shiro Tamashii burst out from behind the bushes, its cheek fully healed. Placing both hands upon its thin waist, that sick, sadistic grin it wore grew just a little bit wider. It began to chuckle, as if it enjoyed doing this. In a way...maybe it did. Torto muttered something about it being a 'sick bastard' underneath his breath.

A young woman in her 40s casually jogged past it, completely unaware of the battle taking place. A moment later, she collapsed to the ground, and a puddle of blood soon formed underneath her. Her head, which had once been firmly attached to her neck, was now being clutched tightly in Shiro Tamashii's arms. Gregory no longer had any reason to wait around for something to happen.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!"

Gregory charged straight at Shiro, and as he pulled his fist back, the left-hand gauge of his visor jumped up from 0% to 87%. There was a blinding flash of light, and Gregory swung his fist forward...only for it to collide with what remained of the woman's head. Half of it had already been eaten off in the last few seconds. As he watched the large, gooey wad of flesh, blood and brains plop onto the ground, Gregory felt like he was going to vomit.

Wait...where did Shiro Tamashii go?

Gregory swung around, and performed an upper-cut with his free hand. Luckily, it connected with Shiro Tamashii's chin. Several of Shiro's teeth shattered from the impact of the hit, and it careened backwards. That pasty bastard had actually tried to attack Gregory from behind by distracting him with the decapitated head. It wasn't just a mindless killing machine, after all. It had the ability to think up of fighting tactics. Still, it was not intelligent enough to trick a human being...or even a turtle, for that matter.

"NICE JOB, GREGORY!!" Torto exclaimed as he flew in yet again, and sliced open Shiro's back. It let out a loud, shrill scream, one that radiated of true pain. Torto had lightly grazed its core, which was a fatal weak point located deep within the bodies of the Tamashii twins. Destroying it would greatly injure the Tamashii to the point of being inactive for several days, but it would not kill him. Still, that was better than nothing.

Gregory continued his assault as well by landing a series of rapid punches to Shiro Tamashii's stomach. At that same time, Torto dug further and further through the thick, cream-colored skin of the monster with his spikes. Finally...Shiro Tamashii couldn't take it any longer.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!"

Shiro Tamashii grabbed Gregory by his hair, and with an amazing bout of strength, it tossed the young boy all the way into the pond. It all happened so fast that Gregory barely had time to react, and he hit the water's surface with a heavy thud. His ability was even deactivated out of pure shock.

Germ-infested pond water, along with what appeared to be tiny chunks of goose feces, flooded into his throat and nostrils. Choking on the noxious liquid, Gregory pulled his head out of the water, and vomited. He certainly hadn't expected Shiro Tamashii to pull such a move on him. His head was still pounding.

"Ahh! What about Master Torto...!" Gregory turned his head back to see what had happened to his reptilian teacher, afraid that the turtle had been torn apart like so many others in the past. Shiro Tamashii was nowhere to be seen; it had run away as soon as the chance had presented itself. All that was left to prove of its presence was the woman's headless corpse.

'T-Thank god...it's gone...we chased it off...but...but where is Master Torto?!!!'

Suddenly, a little Box Turtle poked its head out from the water, and chomped down on Gregory's left ear lobe with overwhelming strength unknown to a turtle so small. It was Master Torto.

"WAAAAAGH!!!!"

"You're an idiot, you know that?!!" The turtle screamed into the boy's ear as loudly as he could, "If you had been paying a bit more attention to what it was doing, we might have been able to take it out for a good week or so!! You should feel relieved you're still alive, you fool!!!"

Despite the fact his ear was now bleeding, Gregory couldn't help but smile. "Yeah...I'm relieved...more than you know..." he said with complete sincerity.

Torto sighed, and gently floated along the surface of the pond on his back alongside the teenage boy. "Still...you did good for your first time in a fight, kid..."

"Yeah...I was a bit surprised at how weak it was..." Gregory remarked as he began swimming towards the shore. His arm and leg muscles felt like they were on fire, so it took alot longer than intended to move through the heavy pond water.

Torto grunted. "You saw its power rating on your scouter, right? It was only using 40% of its true power, because it figured we would be easy to kill. It never expected we were so strong, so it was caught off-guard and nearly defeated because of that. It didn't even use any of its special abilities, either. When we face it again, it'll definitely go all out at 100%...so you'll need to go through alot more life-threatening training before that time comes...got it?"

"..."

Torto kicked Gregory in the face with his tiny, turtle foot.

"...Yes, master."

Meanwhile, sitting all alone on a nearby park bench, was a rather peculiar figure. He was a tall, sympathetic-looking man well into his 30s. He wore an Edo-style sky-blue kimono adorned with images of pink lilies. He had long, flowing light-blonde hair that ran down to his waist, and a katana scabbard was strapped to his bubble-gum pink sash. He had a soft smile on his lips and a warm look in his eyes as he watched Gregory and Torto climb out of the pond. He was quite pleased with the outcome of the battle.

"Hmm...they did not win, but they both survived. That is enough of a 'success' in my eyes. Now, I just wonder how Kyle and Anita are doing against Kuro Tamashii...I better go check up on them...they might need my help..."

Closing his eyes, the blonde man slowly began to fade away...and then he was gone...