Book 1
Chapter 2: The ATM Awakens
Explosion #27 and Counting
Suma Village was a quiet place. It was hidden away behind bamboo forests and old pine trees, and it was known for being silent, keeping secrets... and handling a lot of paid killings.
But inside the huge HanzoriEstate—a fortress of a palace with silk banners and maids in armor—silence was a thing of the past. It was usually broken up by a random, loud BOOM, followed by someone screaming.
"NOOOO, NOT THE KOI PO—oh," a servant yelled, his voice stopping suddenly. A second later, a huge spray of water shot up from the courtyard pond, taking a bunch of very surprised, flapping fish with it.
Ken Hanzori, a five-year-old with the face of an angel, just blinked at the mess. In his small hands, a practice dagger was still glowing faintly with leftover Mone energy.
A koi fish, flying through the air, gave him an angry look. It knew this was the fifth time the pond had exploded this week, and it was getting sick of being thrown into the air.
Under the pond's wavy surface, a single stone glowed for a moment. It briefly showed a weird, jagged symbol that no one would recognize, like a forgotten memory.
The koi, now flying for the third time this week, stared at Ken with pure hatred. Their mouths were open in perfect "O" shapes, almost like coins. Their scales had an unnatural platinum shine before they all crashed back into the water. That fish had memorized Ken's face. This was now personal.
"Wasn't me," Ken mumbled. It was a line he'd used so many times he sounded like a pro as he tossed the glowing dagger into a prize-winning flower bush.
From the porch, his father, the calm and serious Lord Hanzori, had seen more accidental explosions than real fights lately. He just took a sip of his tea and sighed. A tiny vein twitched on his forehead. "He's gifted."
The head maid, Kageko, a woman who always looked on high alert, was still trying to dry out her armored kimono from the last time something caught on fire. She muttered, just loud enough for them to hear over the splashing fish, "He's glitched, sir. And my dry cleaning bill is through the roof."
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Glitched at Birth, Gifted by Rumor
Ken wasn't trying to train. That's what was so scary. He had never even tried to lift a rock on purpose.
But trees would split open when he walked by, old stone walls would turn to dust, and ripe fruit would slice itself into perfect pieces if he stared at it for too long. His ATM card (the Authority's Transcendental Machine that held his Mone) which everyone gets at birth, didn't just say he was "Platinum" level. It flashed the scary words "??? UNKNOWN LEVEL" and made the old monk who gave it to him throw up a bunch of flowers. The poor guy was never the same after that.
They had tried everything. Sealing spells that fizzled out like wet fireworks, potions that were supposed to calm his power but just gave him more energy, and special regulators that only made his aura hum like a badly played instrument. One kind old nanny even suggested teaching him to control his emotions. Nothing worked.
Ken's Mone energy was endless. Worse, he wasn't in control of it. He didn't use the power; the power used him, and it usually ended badly for whatever was nearby.
When he was seven, he sneezed and accidentally caused a whole mountain trail to collapse, just barely missing a group of merchants. At eight, he got bored at dinner and spilled some raw Mone on a rice ball. The rice ball briefly grew fangs and attacked the family's ancient scrolls. By ten, he had destroyed an entire training field just by trying to scratch his back with a ninja star. The invisible energy wave from it turned all the training dummies to dust.
Still, his parents clapped. The family rule was simple: never say the golden child has a problem.
"He's a prodigy," his mother said with a proud smile, watching Ken accidentally blow up a chicken coop in his sleep because it was clucking too loud. "So full of energy!"
Everyone else in the village just started wearing armor. Full metal suits, chainmail, even socks with steel toes. The family cat, a grumpy tabby named Mittens, was even seen wearing a tiny, custom-fit breastplate. Mittens the cat walked past, her tail flicking. For a few steps, her shadow stretched out and looked like it had wings before snapping back to normal. She had already survived three of Ken's "nap-time lightning storms." The villagers bowed to her. She'd earned their respect.
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One Friend, One Sanity Anchor
Ken's best (and really, his only) friend was Narutama. He was a skinny, always-smiling kid from the SanataClan, a family with old samurai blood but with much, much thinner wallet these days. Narutama looked like he could be knocked over by a strong wind, especially next to Ken.
But he had a special power of his own: he was great at calming Ken down, even when Ken was having an accidental, earth-shaking tantrum.
"Don't throw that—KEN, THAT'S A HOLY RELICS!" Narutama would yell, diving to catch a glowing object before Ken could accidentally throw it into orbit.
"Oops," Ken would say, as if he'd just dropped a cookie.
Narutama was also the only one who wasn't impressed by Ken's crazy, accidental power. "So what if you can make melons explode by blinking at them, big deal," Narutama would say with a shrug, looking at a big watermelon. "I can eat ten dumplings without getting a stomach ache. And that, takes real talent."
Ken watched, amazed, as Narutama ate his tenth dumpling. "How?!" he asked.
Narutama smirked. "Unlike some people, I don't need magic energy to be awesome. I just need to be stubborn." As he swallowed the last dumpling, for a second, his shadow split into three different shapes before becoming one again.
Ken blinked. "Did you just—"
"Did I what?" Narutama asked, his mouth full.
For a split second, Narutama's eyes turned a gold color—not glowing, just tinted, like a glitch. Neither of them noticed, but something in the stars did.
Ken secretly loved that about him. He had a friend who didn't treat him like a god, who actually complained, and who always refused to carry his super-heavy backpack for him. Their friendship was a strange but strong one. They were always together, even though Ken almost got them both killed on "practice trips" that usually involved exploding trees or collapsing caves.
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A Full Wallet and a Free Ride
When it was time to go to KokoroMoneAcademy, the fanciest and most expensive school in the empire, Ken didn't even ask if Narutama could afford it. He just paid for everything. For both of them.
"I'm not a charity case," Narutama said, trying to act proud.
Ken grinned. "No, you're my emotional support person. That's totally different. Besides," he added, "who else is going to sneak out and get me ramen at midnight?"
That year, as flowers bloomed in the capital city, Ken Hanzori turned twelve. His bank account was always full. Inside his big house, Ken stared at his ramen, which he hadn't touched. The steam rose in weird shapes. Deep down, he didn't want to be powerful. He just wanted to be remembered by someone who liked him for him, not for the things he could blow up.
And far above them, the three G.O.D.s watched. They looked both worried and entertained.
"He's still not ready," said Organizer, looking through a space-telescope.
"He's hilarious," Destroyer laughed, trying not to shake the universe.
"He's our only hope," said Generator with a deep sigh. "Also, about that refund system... I, uh, forgot to actually install that when we first set everything up. My bad. A small mistake, really."
Back on earth, with no idea he was part of a divine plan, Ken burped while meditating and accidentally destroyed an outhouse behind his family's home.
The ATM had woken up. And it was very, very hungry for other people's power.