The time is now 12am. All subs must remain indoors. Unbound subs will be persecuted on sight. I repeat-

The announcement rang loudly through the quiet city night, but it barely reached the ears of the young man perched atop the outermost wall of the city. His lithe figure was crouched down as the beam of a search light swept above him, and right after it passed he launched himself into the forest beyond.

Heavy rain matted his ashen hair to his face, where it melded with a sharp scarlet of blood. Similar lines of red bloomed against his white shirt, ones that could only have been left by the blows of a whip, but the youth seemed to pay them no mind as he danced through the trees with an agile fluidity.

Suddenly he paused, the patter of water as he skid to a halt the first sound his feet made against the mud. He tilted his head to one side, listening, and after a moment launched himself onto the lowest branch of a nearby tree, climbing further before pressing himself against the trunk.

A few moments later two cones of light appeared in the distance, sweeping around in a search through the woods. As they approached, two voices could gradually be heard through the rain.

"...'s not like they can get this far-hurp-'nyway," a drunken man slurred, "what's they gonna do, jump o'er the wall? That ol' thing's gotta be half the size o' Mt. Kukuroo."

"Just shut up, why don't you," a female voice snapped back. Her tone pierced through the rain with a wave of sharpness, making the young man's shoulders tense up behind the tree. "Orders are that we're supposed to be on high alert tonight. Sober your ass up before you get me in shit."

"Bah! I ain't no sub," the man complained, but didn't say any more as they passed by the boy's hiding spot.

He waited until they were far gone before climbing back down to the ground, and laid a land on his fluttering heart. His shaky sigh formed a puff of white in the cold spring air. "Scary lady. Wasted on patrol though," he whispered to himself, listening again for a moment before launching back onto his escape path.