The sky was dark, the sun had yet to rise and the horizon only barely received any light from the massive ball of energy that illuminated the earth every day.
It was 4:00 am.
Very early in the morning and most people wouldn't have woken up now, but our Kurokami Arata is unfortunately, not one of those people.
Arata, who lied on a large bed with a peaceful face, immediately sprung up right on time, as if invigorated with newfound energy that was previously missing.
A week had passed since his arrival in Nagazora and his enrollment in Chiba Academy.
A week had passed since he met the Queen of Thunder — Raiden Mei.
During that week, Kurokami Arata had successfully managed to make zero friends!
Not because he tried or anything, but he frankly didn't bother with it.
If anyone came to talk to him, he talked back to them. That's it. He never bothered to go out of his way to talk to anyone and it didn't seem like he actually considered any of them his friends.
The only person he really actually talked to was his seatmate, Mei, whose name he keeps mispronouncing as "Rei" because he keeps forgetting it.
A couple of other girls tried to get him to come to a group gathering with them, and even subtly asked for dates, which he denied.
He never went outside with anyone after school. He just went home, got dressed, and stepped back out to look for the Box of God — his only reason for being here.
And before he knew it, a week had passed.
Standing up from his bed, he stretched his arms and legs, twisting his hips and cracking his joints. He felt the pull of all his muscles and joints and grunted in satisfaction after every pop.
He tidied his bed, fixed the bedsheets and pillows, cleaned his room and went into the bathroom. After he freshened up for the day, he then began his morning workout.
He then went to make breakfast.
A breakfast which consisted of three eggs and toast, with a cup of hot tea.
Nothing too impressive, after all, he isn't a professional in the kitchen. He isn't bad at it, but he isn't good either.
After eating breakfast, he went back in the bathroom to take a proper bath, coming out with wet dripping hair.
As he dried himself up, he looked at the time.
5:30 am.
An hour and a half had passed.
He had to be in school by 8:00 am, so he had a little bit of time to go searching for clues about the whereabouts of the box.
In a flash of red, he flickered out of sight, his wet towel falling on the floor slowly. Before the towel could hit the floor, he reappeared and grabbed it, now dressed for the morning.
He was wearing a long sleeved jacket that looked very comfortable and warm.
He had to go and look for the box, it was after all, his duty and responsibility as a Mahavidya.
Arata believes that people that have the power to protect and save others, should use their powers for the good of humanity and help battle the honkai.
An unbeatable monster that Arata wishes to usurp.
He felt like that was his destiny. His purpose.
Ever since his creation, his birth. The day he woke up with no memories aside from the blurred friendship he shared with a blonde European male and a short female android, he had nothing else to remember.
And yet, he still felt a burning sensation in his chest whenever the name of the honkai is mentioned.
It's like his soul was burning itself away in order to exact the order of execution on the honkai.
His soul was screaming at him to find parts of himself so it may become one again. Knowledge and memories that don't belong; of those he has not experienced. And yet, he feels them all the same through the very nature of his soul.
There's no explanation to it. He physically cannot give one.
From the moment he woke up, as an amnesiac, he's only had one thing in his mind: "Defeat the honkai to save humanity."
That's been the goal stuck in his head since his revival and he doesn't even know why.
He just wants to do this. It's like he's destined for this. Like it's his purpose of existence. To show the honkai the unbound, unrestrained cruelty of time. As a timeless person, he felt like it was his duty.
And he would complete that duty of his, no matter what.
He had no idea, where that obsession originated from, but he didn't seem to care. All he cared about, was that he has to protect the weak and bring hope to the people.
Because he had power that no one else possessed — power beyond your wildest imagination.
Because he was, as of this moment, the only one with the power to handle this task.
Because he was Kurokami Arata — the host fragment of Mahavidya Kali.
Arata simply flung himself from rooftop to rooftop, carefully examining the areas around him for possible clues on its whereabouts.
As a Mahavidya himself, Arata has the special ability to "feel" when other fragments are close to him. Unfortunately, the black box is an extremely powerful seal from the Past Era and makes it extremely difficult for him to actually pinpoint its location.
This means that if he gets within a certain range of the box, he can find it. But due to the circumstances, that range is significantly smaller and especially since Dhumavati isn't awake in the seal.
As he hoped around for clues, he froze in the air and missed his jump, skidding down a wall and leaping into the streets.
Arata frowned.
"Honkai energy...? Here ? Now ?" He blinked, confused by the honkai fluctuations his specialised body was picking up.
With a burst of energy, he vanished into the horizon and moved towards the source like a heat seeking missile.
Somehow, he remained undiscovered by the people of Nagazora, despite literally hopping across buildings.
He landed softly on the hard pavement, his boots lifting a pinch of dust as he landed. This wasn't an isolated alleyway or some place in the outskirts.
Those eyes of his surveyed the area around him. The timing was perfect, as no one has taken to the streets yet. At least, not this street.
He stayed like that in that very same place for a while, just waiting in silence, leaving nothing but the the winds howling lightly behind him.
He then winds up his left fist, the veins of his forearm clenching and twitching. He released the force he stored up in the form of a powerful right hook. A punch that landed directly on a Seraph type honkai beast, shattering it immediately.
A few more Seraphim types emerged from the shadows, making Arata stare at the sudden assault with furrowed eyebrows.
"Why the hell are there a random bunch of honkai beasts here ?" He wondered.
It didn't make sense.
Honkai beasts don't just randomly appear in the middle of a city that seems free of honkai contamination.
Because along with them, there were also ten metre honkai beasts, and shorter ones. Nothing higher than that though, which meant they had only just gathered here somehow and it was completely safe in the area, no casualties.
The honkai energy levels were also not high enough to be properly noticed by the advanced honkai energy sensors embedded through the layout of the city.
"Just got here ? No, that makes no sense. We're nowhere near the outskirts. There's no way these things travelled this far into the city without attacking anything... This behaviour is abnormal."
It's entirely possible and likely, that these were animals that were turned into honkai beasts. Animals that could be found inside the city of Nagazora.
He looked at the monsters he was meant to kill and noticed the presence of a Scarlet Uriel.
"I suppose this is the enthusiastic part of these early morning strolls I love so much." He backflipped above the Seraphim that tried to slash him with its wings.
Midair, Arata began to charge up honkai energy, in a way nobody had ever seen before.
To be able to manipulate honkai energy at such a level without being a herrscher would baffle anyone that was watching, if there was anyone watching that is.
He then used his boot to step on an Archangel, using it as footing to launch himself into the air.
His body was engulfed from behind by the shining light of the rising sun, allowing a dark shadow to be formed across the street.
As he turned mid-air, his bored gaze suddenly grew shiny. The gold tint in his crimson eyes became more prominent.
The fingers of his left hand momentarily flashed with a crimson flare.
The honkai beasts were covered by a flash for just a moment, before that purple light disappeared like it didn't exist.
Right after the light disappeared, the Seraphim class honkai beasts were quickly decimated, their bodies crumbling and breaking into fragments that disappeared into the air. Dust was forcefully puffed into the air and a hole had formed itself into the street.
To be more precise — a sinkhole.
The pavement shattered below and the earth under it also began to crumble and sink, completely deforming the streets as Arata landed gracefully on top of a lamp post.
His back was turned, so he didn't even notice the giant sinkhole he accidentally created.
Instead, his gaze fell upon the single Scarlet Uriel that managed to evade his previous attack. It had also swirled itself into flames, readying its next attack.
Arata didn't have time to try and take it down as a Chariot class honkai beast appeared behind him, its large ten metre body shaking the ground. Its long, broad, flat and heavy forelimbs shook the already shifting, sinking ground.
Arata didn't turn around.
Instead, he lunged at the Scarlet Uriel, slicing it in half in a sea of crimson before it could actually set anything on fire.
He landed on the ground, turning around as the Chariot tried to crush him. But those massive limbs were stopped by an invisible force, with Arata staring back at it with a dull expression.
The ring in his left hand flickered with power as he raised his hand. The honkai beast suddenly found itself facing a force that shattered it, leaving it to immediately evaporate.
Chariot and Seraph classes of honkai beasts were easily subdued by B-Rank Valkyries, so a Mahavidya like Arata saw them as no threat.
He didn't bother to bring it out, knowing that it would be overkill.
Arata then began walking away from the seen of the incident, unbothered by the property damage behind. Property damage that he solely caused, mind you.
He was too busy pondering the cause behind the appearance of those honkai beasts.
"Why did these things just appear here, out of nowhere ?" He questioned.
It made no sense for honkai beasts to just appear out of nowhere in a place with such little honkai energy, unless they were specifically placed there.
'Was this an orchestrated action?' Arata wondered, his expression sharpening as he weighed his options.
But why would someone want to plant artificial honkai corruption in the centre of a very populous city like Nagazora ? It made no sense to Arata and he was quick to understand that something big would happen.
Did it have to do with Dhumavati ? Because if it did, then things might get a lot more troublesome.
"If there is someone in this city that's trying to awaken that monstrosity then..." His blinked nervously, thinking about how bad such a possibility actually was.
He needed to be the first to get to it.
And if he ever finds the person that wants to set Dhumavati free, he might just choose to eliminate them first.
With that thought in mind, Arata disappeared to continue his search, unaware that he caused a massive build-up of traffic in the area due to the "collateral damage" from the elimination of the honkai beasts.