Bio
Rays of sunshine shone over the tall, imposing form of a hybrid. The Tiger-wolf felt the warmth of the sun while standing on the side walk, beginning to walk as people passed by him, looking down at his phone to check the incoming text message.

'We have a problem downtown, some scum bag trying to steal our shipment.'

He sighed to himself, “Why do those laughing chains think they can always get away with stealing our shit?” He wondered aloud, thinking of their plans and put his phone in his pocket. He glances around, seeing how busy things were around him and looked up to the blue sky, closing his eyes for a few seconds and then, he looked forward and kept walking while thinking back on how he got here.

Things weren't so bad when I was a young kid, back in the day living in the suburbs outside of the city with my family. My parents weer always gone mostly during the day, working hard every day at their jobs and me and my little sister would be with out grandparents. Grandpaw would take us out and teach us self defense, always telling us that we would never know when we had to defend ourselves. But once we were done, I would hang out with Grandpaw, and he would teach me his wisdom and teach me things they loved, just to understand the world, even though to be honest I was so young, I didn't understand much of it till I got older. My Grandma would make these cute little outfits with my little sister, and she would sing with her. Memories like that make me realize that those were the best times of my youth, but sometimes good things come to an end.

Ryu snapped back from his past, noticing the day had begone to slowly end, the sunset reach over the city and the lights began to start up. He walked by the tea-leaf, and decided to stop by. He was looking forward to the warm welcome of Juniper.

“I'd like some of your tea. To go, please. I have some business to attend to, my dear.” He told her, and she nodded with a smile.

“Sure thing, Blue.” She said. He smiled back, feeling the warmth of a blush against his cheeks, thankful that she turned around to start pouring his drink.

“You be safe, Blue, ok?” She looked a bit worried, knowing something was going to happen. But he gave her a reassuring grin, and nodded. “I always do. Thank you for the lovely tea, dear.” He grabbed what she handed to him, keeping his smile until he walked out of the door, taking a sip. As he rose the tea to his lips, he looked at his wooden arm, and again was lost in thought.

I had lost part of my arm when my Mother and Father were fighting. They slowly began to drift apart from one another once my Dad became a drunk. About the time I was in Highschool.
I was woken up from their fighting. I had a test in the morning. I walked out of my room, seeing my little sister cower in the corner, watching them fight. I stood next to her, trying to make her feel better. Their fighting had become worse and worse, but tonight it seemed to be especially bad.

My Dad grabbed a kitchen knife, swinging it around and yelling. Even the distance I was, I could smell the reek of alcohol. My sister tensed up, wide eyed before scampering back to her room, afraid of what was to come. He rose the knife up, and before he slashed down, I ran in with my arm up, catching the blade. I didn't feel it right away, it was just cold steel digging deep into the flesh of my arm. I glared up at him, and he stared shocked.

I knew that day that I had saved my Mother, there was no doubt in my mind that he would have killed her then and there. He was taken away then, and I never saw him again. I was brought to the hospital, and by then the adrenaline had worn off and I was in the most pain in my life. They told me that my arm was too far damaged, and they couldn't fix it. I had to get it amputated, and it sucked. It was something I had to deal with. Thankfully, Grandpaw had been a doctor in the war in his early days, and he had learned from old friends how to build prosthetic. And he made me one, made from wood with intricate designs. He gave me my life back, after spending days depressed, painfully remembering the arm I had lost.

He shook his head, freeing himself of his thoughts. The sun was just about gone now, dusk taking over the sky, slowly turning into night. He dropped his disposable tea container in the recyclables, and reached into his jacket, pulling out his mask, which had a slight appearance of golden shine. “Let's hope this is an easy day for me.” He mumbled, smiling to himself. He slipped the mask over his face, the eyes glowing green. All the city lights were on now, the sun gone. Slowly, he walked into a building, walking passed two guards. Blinking behind his mask, eyes adjusting to the lights, he slipped back into memory.

Things were going as well as they could be. Grandpaw had passed away when I was in my 20s, at the time my Mom died from an illness a few years later. All I had was Sophia and my Grandma. It got harder, trying to take care of them both and do work, and school. The stress was killer, but I knew I had to do it for them, and myself. One day life took a turn, when I ran into a kid being chased by someone, yelling at him and calling him a thief, so I stopped him as I was going the other way. I pulled the kid to the side, and the other guy had thanked me, cuz he had stolen from him. I felt kinda bad for the kid, so I paid the guy off and he left, after giving the kid a nasty look.

I looked at the kid, telling him that he shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff. He said he was sorry. I took a closer look at him, realizing he was a hybrid as well. A dragon dog. Though it wasn't the last time I saw him. That same day, when I had gone to work I got into a screaming fight with my boss, who had been cutting my hours and it was already hard to try to pay off all the bills. Boss told me to go home, and I yelled something about him fucking me over, and I stomped off into the dining room. I stopped though, when I saw that same kid again, though this time he had his whole family with him. The kid pointed me out, and then the boys father beckoned me over. I walked over, greeting them with my best polite hello, though I was still fuming from my boss before. The man thanked me for helping him out by keeping his son out of trouble. The man could tell I was upset, and probably had heard the commotion from the back room.
The surprise I felt when he handed me over a wad of cash, clipped together with silver claspings was hard to explain. Again, he thanked me. I noticed his card was clipped there as well. He told me, that I could have more money like that if I worked for him. I accepted without thinking much into it. With that sort of money, I could easily take care of Sophie and my Grandma.

The next day, I started to work for the guy, finding out he was in the mafia. I never expected to get into that kind of mess, but I would be lying if I said I wanted out. The money I made from them took care of everything, and I even had some to spare. But it also came with a price, things I didn't like.. from ending peoples lives, to making sure people had their drugs. Eventually I became the boss's right hand man, I was in charge of things like protection and making sure people didn't try to mess with us.

Over time I became the boss mans son's best friend. That little dragon dog boy had a lot to learn, but it's alright, was something we all have to do every day.

Ryu walked into a room, looking at a fox that was tied up in a chair. His muzzle was wrapped up. Ryu smirked behind his mask, and slowly strolled over to the guy, taking the rope off of his mouth.

“So.. y'know why you're here?” Ryu asked, charmingly nice.
“No, I don't know what you're talking about!” The fox spat, wide eyed.
“I'll ask one more time. I was told you took something from us.. do you happen to know where that is?” Ryu sighed, taking out his 9mm handgun, loading it up. The fox couldn't see what he was doing in the dark, the only light being what shone from the bulb above him.
Ryu walked back over to him, holding the gun up. “Now, for the last time. Where did you put our shit?” He asked, his voice eerily calm.
“I already said, I don't know what you're talking about!” The Fox yelled, though his voice trembled when Ryu pulled the gun up and pressed it against his head.
“O-Okay! Okay!” The fox cried, “In the back ally where it was putting in a trash can about two blocks, I was b eing chased by your guy!” He cried again, whimpering when he heard the click of the gun.
Ryu put the gun away, “I don't kill unless I have to. But at least you'll know now to value your life over stupid shit.” Ryu walked away from him, looking down at his prosthetic arm. “You're free to go now.” He could hear the fox thanking him through the snot dribbling from his nose.
Ryu snapped around, the wood of his prosthetic arm slapping across the fox's face, pushing him back into the chair that crumbled beneath him in a flurry of splinters. Ryu looked, seeing the fox's bleeding face. He was old cold. Ryu shrugged a shoulder, “Take his ass home and clean him up!” He shouted to his men, who rushed in to deal with the fox.

Shaking his head, Ryu walked away going outside and pulling out a high-tech vape pen, starting to use it as he saw Kya walking over.
“Every thing good, Ryu? Heard some one stole our stuff. Did you handle it?” Kya asked him.
Ryu nodded, “It's fine. I had to make that kid cry though. But I was told by Roxy's boy you were the one holding the stuff.. why was it tossed like that?”
“Well.. Uhm.. I dropped it, ok?” He said, quickly. Ryu stared at him hard, “Now that's some bullshit.. must have had a good reason why you didn't bring it to the right spot.” Ryu spoke, carefully, beginning to feel upset.
“Okay, so I met this girl okay? I hoped I could stash it, then come back later.” Kya said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Boy, your father is going to kill you if he hears that so let's just say someone just stole it from you, ok?” Ryu said, grinning.
“Thanks! I wont let it happen again, ok? Don't like doing this stuff anymore, you know.” Kya said. Ryu nodded, walking side by side with the shorter male. Suddenly, Ryu punched Kya in the face so hard, his nose got busted. “WHAT THE FUCK was THAT for?” Kya yelled, rubbing his nose and trying to stop the blood.
Ryu snickered, “We have to make sure it looked like you got robbed, alright? Let's go home and tell your old man what happened.”
Kya looked annoyed, but didn't say anything else. Together, they both walked down the lit up city streets together, until they passed by the cafe. Ryu hesitated, and then looked at Kya, “I'm gonna visit June, ok? You go and tell your Father what happened.. I'll call him later.” Kya nodded, slapping Ryu's back before jogging off, grinning. Kya knew exactly how Ryu felt.

Ryu shrugged, walking into the Cafe. The door opened to reveal a smiling Juniper, “Hi Blue! Come on in!” He smiled, and walked into the warmth of the cafe.

Story By Aluriandkya
Art done by