It was a warm and beautiful day. The sun filled the park with a soft golden light, and birds sang sweet, overlapping notes like a tiny piece of music.
In the middle of all this beauty and calm, a young man named Nothing sat on a wooden bench in a public garden, sipping a cold soda and watching his little sister run, laugh, and play so innocently.
A faint smile danced on his lips every time he caught a glimpse of her childish joy as she waved at him from afar. But behind that smile hid a heavy sorrow that never left him.
Weeks ago, he had been fired from his job as a sword cleaner at one of the prestigious samurai institutes, falsely accused of stabbing the son of a high-ranking family.
Since that day, he wandered through parks and streets, anxiously thinking of a way to feed himself and his little sister.
Their parents had died in a horrific car accident. Since then, Nothing had become everything to her — her protector, provider, and only support.
She raised her tiny hand and waved at him happily. He returned the gesture with a smile and a hand that trembled from too much worrying.
He knew that false charge had closed every door in his face — he was now an outcast, with no chance at any honest work… except for one job. A job given only to nobles or high officials.
It was: becoming a Kaboosin, a hunter of monsters inside a mysterious realm called the Eternal Nightmares.
Nothing leaned back on the wooden bench, staring into the blue sky with tired blue eyes, until his thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a strange man standing behind him.
The man wore a formal black suit, a hat on his head, and dark glasses that hid his cold gaze.
The stranger stepped closer and sat beside him, then spoke in a low, icy voice:
"Mr. Nothing… how are you today?"
Nothing straightened up slowly, eyeing the stranger with suspicion.
"Who's this? A government agent? Did he come to arrest me?" he muttered to himself, fear rising in his chest.
He replied in a sharp voice, trying to hide his tension:
"Do I know you?"
The man smiled — a smile barely visible behind his glasses — and said coldly:
"You don't necessarily need to know me as much as I know you… Nothing."
Then he turned and gave a small wave to his little sister. Nothing's suspicion deepened as he watched the man's gestures, and he snapped back in a low, harsh voice:
"I said do I know you… Answer my damn question."
The man pulled out a metal lighter, lit his cigarette slowly, took the first drag, and spoke in a hushed voice as if revealing a secret:
"My answer was clear, Mr. Nothing… I won't waste time with introductions. I'm here for two reasons: one bad… and one that could be good."
Nothing cast a quick glance at his sister, then turned back to him with sharp eyes:
"Cut it short… get to the point. I already know why you're here anyway."
The man gave a lifeless, short laugh and nodded in agreement:
"That makes this much easier… Simply put, the bad reason is that the Suari family filed an official complaint against you for what you did to their son… That alone is enough to put you behind bars."
Nothing took his last sip of the drink, set the empty can aside, and stared silently into the man's face. He pushed his fear aside and focused on the man's words as he continued with a faint smile:
"As for the good reason… do you want to become a Kaboosin inside the Eternal Nightmares?"
Nothing almost choked on the last bit in his mouth. He spit it out by accident, pointed at his own chest with a finger and said in shock:
"Who? Me? Are you joking?"
The man chuckled lightly:
"Is there anyone else here named Nothing but you?"
A heavy silence fell. Nothing sank deep into thought:
'Kaboosin of the Nightmares… it's both a dream and an abyss. Anyone offered this knows there's almost no coming back… but if I succeed, I'll save my sister from this hell.'
He sighed slowly and asked in a direct tone:
"And if I refuse…?"
The stranger replied with a chilling smile:
"You'll be jailed. Your home will be confiscated. Your little sister will be left homeless. And you'll likely spend at least five years behind bars."
He adjusted his hat slightly, fixing him with one last cold stare:
"But if you accept… your whole life changes. Your sister will move to a grand mansion. Servants. Schooling. Safety… everything you've ever dreamed of."
Nothing stared long and hard at the man's face, then at his little sister who laughed in the distance, unaware that her brother was gambling his soul for her sake. He interlocked his fingers, squeezed them tight until his knuckles cracked, and thought to himself:
"If the price is my life, for hers… I'm ready."
He lifted his head and stared straight into the stranger's eyes behind the dark glasses:
"I accept. I'll be a Kaboosin."
The man gave a cold smile and pulled a black leather book from his small bag, handing it to Nothing as he spoke with a voice so sure it sounded like he was sealing an irreversible contract:
"This book… once you read the first page, you'll enter your first Nightmare. And only then… will your sister be moved from that miserable apartment to her mansion."
Nothing hesitated, then reached out his right hand slowly, took the book, and examined its cover — on it was an image of a man holding a sword dripping black ink-like blood.
His sister suddenly ran up to him, throwing herself into his arms, panting from playing. He hugged her tight and smiled despite the knot in his throat. She lifted her head and stared at the stranger with a mix of fear and curiosity.
The strange man gently patted her head in a strangely soft way and said in a deep voice:
"I know you're thinking about her… maybe you'll find her there too. And a piece of advice: try not to say your name too much."
He turned slowly, his footsteps dissolving into the busy park as he called out without looking back:
"Until we meet again… hunter."
Nothing watched the strange man disappear into the crowd and murmured deeply to himself:
"Does he mean… my friend?!"
The man vanished into the distance while Nothing's sister kept staring at his face, covered in a heavy shadow of sorrow. She raised her tiny hand, touched his cold cheek, and asked in a soft, innocent voice:
"Who was that man, brother?"
He looked at her, fighting back the tears gathering behind his tired blue eyes, and replied in a cracked, broken voice:
"Someone who came… just to help us. Are you done playing?"
She nodded with a bright smile and said:
"Yes, I'm done!"
Nothing stood up quietly, lifted her into his arms and raised her a little higher to make her laugh, then said with a faint smile drawing itself on his lips:
"I'll buy you ice cream before we go home."
"Yay!"
Buying the ice cream this time was not just an ordinary thing for him — it felt like a final will, a small gift before he plunged into the hell that awaited him.
He himself wasn't sure he'd come back alive to buy her anything else after this night.
The hours passed slowly until the clock's hands pointed to nine in the evening. Nothing laid his little sister down on her worn-out bed, covered her gently with a thin blanket, and was about to stand up when a tiny hand grabbed his finger. She lifted her sleepy face to him and asked softly:
"Can you turn on the recorder… the one with Mama and Papa's voices reading the story?"
His gaze drifted for a moment, a choking lump rising in his chest as he patted her soft hair. He stood up and walked over to the old tape recorder sitting near a cracked wooden wardrobe. He pressed play in silence. A warm, raspy voice came out — a mother and father reading a bedtime story together… a voice that felt like a cold stab in his heart.
He stepped out of the room with heavy footsteps, closed the door gently so he wouldn't wake his little angel. He murmured in a trembling voice that barely left his throat:
"Goodnight… my little princess."
Escaping the sound of his parents wasn't ordinary for him. Every time he heard it, he drowned in a wave of memories until he almost collapsed from the weight of longing. He never wanted his sister to see him break down.
He went back to his gloomy room — a narrow bed, an old wooden desk scratched and carved from years of studying and searching for a salvation that never came. He sat on a cold wooden chair and placed the black book the strange man had given him in front of him. He stared at the cover that seemed to bleed black ink from its letters.
He lit a single candle beside him, watched its shadow dance on the peeling walls, then murmured to himself in a low, broken voice:
"My mother was a great poet… loved by everyone, famous for her kindness and her worry for us if we ever got hurt…"
"She didn't give me a name until I turned four. She was searching for a poetic name that suited me… And one day I was sitting in her lap while she was writing a poem about blood… and… nothing."
His voice trembled as he remembered that moment:
"Suddenly, I bit her hand so hard that blood came out. I drank it… she didn't scream. She didn't hit me. She pulled me into her warm chest and said to me as she stroked my head: Looks like only blood can satisfy your hunger… I'll name you Nothing."
A tear froze at the edge of his chin and fell onto the wooden desk. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, but the tears kept flowing against his will. He whispered to himself as he pressed a hand to his chest:
"That's why I loved blood… I tried to fight my instinct for so many years… but when I stabbed that man and took my first taste of his blood, I couldn't stop myself anymore."
"My instinct won."
He reached out for the book and turned the cover slowly, tracing the cold letters with his fingertips. He remembered his nightmares — those monsters that visited him again and again when he was a child, haunting his dreams and even his waking days. At first he trembled from them, then they became part of his world — a familiar face in the darkness inside him.
He took a deep breath, pulled the candle closer, and whispered while muffling his sobs with a tissue soaked in his tears:
"Maybe this is a new beginning… a beginning to change my life… and my little sister's life."
"And maybe… I'll find her there too."
He carefully turned the first page — and found it held a title written in deep crimson ink:
"First Scenario: The Kingdom of Ice and Blood."
He read aloud in a soft voice, the shadow dancing across his features:
"In a kingdom turned nightmare by a disaster they call the Nightmare of Ice — a disaster that froze people's dreams and trapped them among merciless monsters of ice and blood."
A light dizziness washed over him, his fingertips grew weak, his breath quickened, he tried to open his eyes but saw only white shadows and the sound of the wind roaring in his ears…
His head crashed violently onto the open pages of the book.
And when he opened his eyes again, he found himself under a slanted wooden ceiling from which dim red lanterns hung. One of them looked like it was about to fall right onto his head. A soft hand suddenly reached out and touched his trembling cheek, warmth seeping from her skin, and a gentle voice wrapped in unbearable frost said:
"Welcome to the nightmare… you who feeds on your enemies' blood."