That black cat was never mine after all!
My name was Chrollo, and I was born in Meteor City.
Mountains of garbage were everywhere. We children were relatively lucky-we hadn't been born during Meteor City's earliest, most chaotic days.
Back then, there had been no Council of Elders, and children truly were the most vulnerable people there.
Later, order was established in Meteor City. To ensure its continued development, the Council of Elders set up places where children could receive food and shelter.
Machi, Feitan, Shalnark, Pakunoda, Uvogin, Franklin, Phinks, Nobunaga, Sheila, Sarasa, myself... so many of us grew up in the congregation.
Foster mothers were responsible for raising us there.
We had little entertainment. Aside from chasing each other around and roughhousing, all we could do each day was hunt for treasure in the garbage heaps.
But I found a tape we could dub, then screen the Cleaning Squad for everyone in the theater... back then, our first dream was simply to form a theater troupe. Nothing would have been better than traveling around to perform when we grew up.
Then, on the very day we were preparing to perform, everything changed.
Sarasa disappeared.
By the time we found her again, someone had hung that little girl-the most cheerful and lovable among us-from a tree in a bag.
The killer had dismembered our best friend with unspeakable cruelty.
They had even left insulting words written on white paper, pinned with a dagger to the trunk of the tree where the bag hung.
The rain grew heavier and heavier.
That day, our tears seemed just like the rain, as though they would never stop.
Later, after Sarasa's funeral was over, we went our separate ways.
With her foster mother's permission, Machi went to the Mist Forest to learn new