POV: Kira (Darkness)
I was floating again.Weightless. Cold.A fog, thick like smoke, clung to my skin and refused to let go.
"...Kira…"
The voice sounded far away, like it was trapped underwater.It tugged at something inside me—something I've been trying to forget.Light?
I tried to reach out, but my arms wouldn't move.My hands passed through the air like it wasn't even real.I was stuck. Frozen.
A blurry shape flickered into view ahead of me. I couldn't make out a face, but the presence was too real.
"You must… remember…"
Then everything cracked, and I shot awake.
The ceiling above me was cracked, stained yellow in the corner from old rainwater.Sirens echoed somewhere in the distance. A dog barked. A baby cried.Earth.
I sat up, breathing hard. My chest felt tight.Sweat ran down the side of my face, and my left blue eye—the glowing one—throbbed.
I looked at myself in the mirror nailed to the wall.Same black hair. Same hollow look.But something was new. Right below my collarbone, under the skin... something shifted.A mark. Black. Like a glyph.
I wiped my face and put on my hoodie.
This place wasn't home. But it'd do.
The apartment was barely livable.One mattress. One flickering lightbulb. A sink that sometimes spat out water the color of rust.But I paid for it—with cash I took from crooks who thought they were tough.
They weren't.Didn't kill them. But they won't forget me.
The weirdest part?When I dream… I remember everything.Power. The chaos. The Light. Something bigger.But when I wake up… it all disappears. Like someone hid the pieces across the galaxy.
All that's left are instincts. Fragments. Reflexes I didn't learn here.
Earth's rough.People fight for scraps, just like everywhere else.But here? It's a game. A brand. They turned violence into something you buy.
I saw flyers. Ads. Even kids fighting in alleys for fun.Some schools had belt systems like they were raising warriors.
So I started studying.Boxing. Muay Thai. Wrestling. Jiu-Jitsu. Taekwondo.Didn't matter what it was, I watched. I learned, broke it all down.
I'd study the fights at underground bars. Read half-burnt martial arts books I found at corner stores.Every move I saw, I rebuilt it in my head. Synced it with the muscle memory hiding inside me.
My own style started coming together.Bit by bit. Fight by fight.
But I trained alone. I fought alone. Always.It's better that way.
I looked in the mirror again.The mark pulsed for a second. My left eye flared blue.I leaned closer.
"Who even are you?" I whispered.
The mirror stayed silent.
That evening, on my way back from the library, I saw it.
A poster, stapled to a crooked pole. Torn on the sides, flapping in the wind.The streetlights made it glow a bit blue.
🔹 "GENESIS INSTITUTION: AN INVITATION TO THE BEST."10 Fighters. 10 Scholarships. One Opportunity.Prove Yourself. Compete. And Rise.
At the bottom was a QR code. When I scanned it,One screen popped up on my phone:Tournament – Open Registration Closes in 48 Hours.
I just stood there.Something about the word Genesis sat heavy in my chest.Like it meant more than what it said. A beginning.
Far from the city, in a locked steel room with no windows, a frozen image of my face lit up on a screen.
"Subject 11A. Codename: Kira," somebody said from behind the glass. "Bar fight. Blackout at a hospital. Missing persons report. Then—nothing."
A second man stepped forward. Younger. Sharp eyes. Calm.He wore a badge: Division Blackeye.
"He didn't vanish," he said. "He's hiding.And I'll find him."
They turned toward another monitor, footage of me looking at the Genesis poster.
"Think he'll go for it?" one agent asked.
"I don't think," the younger one replied, smirking. "I know."
(Fast Forward)
I stood at the check-in table for the tournament.No guards. No cameras. Just a clipboard, a pen, and a hallway that looked like it led nowhere.
I picked up the pen.
No name.No explanation.Just… Kira.
I signed.
No cheers.No one waiting at the door.No destiny spelled out in front of me.
Just a hallway—dim, long, and quiet.
And I walked.
Because whatever I am...This world is where I begin again.And if I'm going to survive hereI need to remember how to fight.
[TO BE CONTINUED – Chapter 7: "Enter the Arena"]