---
---
[Page 1 - Establishing World]
Narration boxes. Scenes of battlefields, magical cities, floating citadels, people healing wounds instantly, and airships with banners showing clan symbols.
> Narration: In this world, everyone is born with a power — to fight, heal, build, or destroy.
Strength defines status.
Weakness invites punishment.
And for those without power… there is no place.
---
[Page 2 – The Forgotten Child]
Yui (age 12), huddled in a dark alley. His clothes are torn. He holds a piece of stale bread. A flashback panel shows a warm memory: a cloaked figure (guardian) giving him the bread and patting his head. The figure's face is always obscured.
> Narration: Yui was raised by someone whose name and face he never knew.
That person vanished one day — and never came back.
> Yui (inner thought): "Maybe I never had power to begin with…"
---
[Page 3 – Harsh Reality]
Teenage bullies surround Yui. They push him to the ground. One conjures a flicker of flame to his face.
> Thug: "You got no spark, no light. Just stay down, trash!"
> Narration: He's not a coward.
He just… thinks he's powerless.
> Yui lies on the ground, bruised but not crying.
---
[Page 4 – Night Silence]
Yui limps into a crumbling building. His room is a dusty corner with a cracked window. He eats quietly, staring at the moon through a broken pane.
> Yui (thinking): "One day… I'll be strong. Strong enough that no one ever touches me again."
> Narration: Yui doesn't seek fame.
He wants strength — for survival.
---
[Page 5 – The Academy Gate]
A wide, glorious panel of the Combat Adventurer's Academy. Towering walls, floating crystal towers, and students sparring with magic-infused weapons.
> Narration: At 14, Yui entered the academy.
Not as a warrior — but as a cleaner.
---
[Page 6 – Shadows and Observation]
Yui mops a hallway floor. Through a window, he watches a combat class. Students summon fire spears, create shields of water, and teleport in bursts of light.
> Yui (thinking): "I don't belong here… but maybe I can learn something just by watching."
---
[Page 7 – The Nobles Appear]
Group of well-dressed noble students walk by. They wear crests of famous warrior families. Kael (15), the smug leader, steps on Yui's broom.
> Kael: "Hey, janitor-boy. Want to spar? Or you gonna mop the battlefield too?"
> They laugh.
> Kael: "What? Cat got your tongue? Or did your power vanish like your parents?"
> Narration: Words sharper than blades. But Yui doesn't flinch.
---
[Page 8 – The Challenge]
Yui drops his mop. Walks silently into the courtyard arena. Kael and nine other students circle him, grinning.
> Instructor (from balcony, thinking): "This isn't a match. It's a massacre."
---
[Page 9 – The Beatdown Begins]
Yui gets hit with wind, flame, and kinetic strikes. He falls, bloodied, barely able to breathe. But he doesn't scream.
> Kael: "Still standing? What's it gonna take to break this trash?"
> Narration: He's been broken before.
This time… something cracks open.
---
[Page 10 – Awakening Spark]
As he kneels, the air slows. White light flickers from within him. His heartbeat echoes like thunder. The ground begins to crack.
> Yui (barely audible): "...don't… touch me…"
---
[Page 11 – The Pulse]
A shockwave of wind and light explodes outward. The arena tiles fracture. The nobles are knocked back, eyes wide with panic. Kael stumbles.
> Noble (terrified): "W-What the hell is that?!"
> Instructor flashes down, restrains Yui with glowing cuffs. Yui collapses.
---
[Page 12 – Whisper of Fear]
The courtyard is dead silent. Nobles whisper among themselves.
> Instructor (thinking): "That wasn't magic…
That was something else. Something ancient."
> Narration: Something woke inside Yui that day.
It wasn't just power. It was something darker.
---
[Page 13 – Dream Fragment]
Yui, unconscious, sees a dream — a vast white void. A shadowy figure with glowing eyes reaches toward him.
> Voice (echoing): "You are not broken. You are becoming."
> Yui (in the dream): "…who… are you?"
---
[Page 14 – Return to Silence]
Yui wakes in bed, covered in bandages. He sees the moon again. A faint white flicker pulses beneath his skin.
> Yui (whispering): "…I won't lose… ever again."
> Narration: He doesn't know it yet…
But he is not powerless.
He's just not human anymore.
---
— END OF CHAPTER 1 —
---