At dusk, the setting sun glowed blood-red, and the orange-red evening clouds cast long shadows across Tokyo's streets.
Megumi Fushiguro had just finished school. Carrying a backpack that looked rather too large for his slight frame, he stepped over fallen leaves as he walked home alone in silence.
Compared to the other elementary school children walking down the street in twos and threes, snacks in hand as they joked and played together, young Megumi Fushiguro seemed out of place.
His still-childish little face held an indifference and precocity far beyond his years.
He had long since grown used to this solitary way of life, much as the man in his memories-always sporting a face full of stubble and reeking of racetrack smoke-had always left him to his own devices and all but ignored him.
Megumi had keenly realized very early on that his family was extremely unusual compared to those of other children. It could even be called somewhat strange and twisted.
But so what? With the "adult" in his life absent for so long, and daily life depending entirely on him and his stepsister Tsumiki supporting each other, one more oddity hardly seemed unacceptable.
As he walked with his head down, idly kicking a small stone along the roadside, he happened to look up. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of the deep alley ahead, dimly lit because its streetlights had long fallen into disrepair.
At some point, two pairs of faintly glowing eyes had silently appeared there.
Megumi Fushiguro stopped and looked closely, wary.
They belonged to two enormous dogs, one black and one white! Strange, mysterious red markings were imprinted on their foreheads.
The two dogs were far larger than any breed he had ever seen on television or in the park.