Four years.
Four years since he had opened his eyes in a world that should have only existed inside comic books.
Four years since he had died.
Four years since he had learned that the fastest way to grow stronger was to throw himself headfirst into situations that any sane person would avoid.
He was no longer six.
He was ten.
Still young.
Still short.
But no longer looked like a helpless child.
His frame was lean rather than bulky, every muscle earned through endless repetition. Thousands of kilometers run. Thousands of trees climbed. Thousands of punches thrown against stone, bark, and eventually things that punched back.
The wilderness had become his home.
Or maybe prison.
He wasn't sure anymore.
His mornings never changed.
Wake up before sunrise.
Run.
Not because someone told him to.
Because if he stopped challenging himself, his body slowed its growth.
So he ran.
Up mountains.
Across rivers.
Through forests dense enough to block the morning light.
Sometimes carrying boulders.
Sometimes carrying entire tree trunks balanced across his shoulders.
Sometimes while being chased.
"...Honestly," he muttered one morning between breaths, "cardio really is the final boss."
No one answered.
The mountain certainly didn't care.
His afternoons were usually reserved for combat.
Sometimes against the environment.
Sometimes against animals.
Sometimes...
Against things that definitely shouldn't exist.
The first magical creature he encountered had looked adorable.
That had almost killed him.
It resembled a tiny white rabbit with glowing blue eyes.
Naturally...
He had approached it.
"Who's a little—"
The rabbit sneezed.
A bolt of blue lightning exploded from its nose.
BOOM!
The explosion launched him straight into a pine tree.
He slid down the trunk, smoke rising from his body.
"..."
"...I have made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment."
The rabbit blinked.
Sneezed again.
He immediately ran in the opposite direction.
"Absolutely not!"
Behind him another bolt of lightning blasted apart three trees.
"I refuse to get folded by Pikachu's mountain cousin!"
The second magical encounter wasn't nearly as cute.
It was a wolf.
At least...
It started as one.
Its body was larger than any wolf he'd ever seen.
Silver fur shimmered unnaturally beneath the moonlight.
Its eyes glowed faintly gold.
The creature stalked him silently for almost an hour.
When it finally attacked...
It vanished.
Not disappeared.
Teleported.
"...That's cheating."
The wolf reappeared behind him.
He barely avoided having his head removed.
The fight lasted nearly half the night.
Each teleport forced him to rely less on sight and more on instinct.
Eventually...
He landed a clean kick across its jaw.
The wolf stumbled backward.
It stared at him.
Then...
It simply walked away.
"..."
"...Respect?"
He wasn't sure.
"I'll take it."
Training never stopped.
Ever.
One winter morning he decided snow wouldn't interrupt his schedule.
The mountain disagreed.
Halfway through carrying a massive log uphill—
The ground disappeared.
"...Oh."
Avalanche.
"That's unfortunate."
Several hundred tons of snow came rushing toward him.
His first thought wasn't fear.
It was annoyance.
"...Really?"
Then he started running.
"WHY IS THIS MY LIFE?!"
The avalanche won.
Technically.
He spent three days digging himself out.
When he finally emerged, covered in snow and looking like an angry snowman...
He sighed.
"...At least I don't need an ice bath."
Not every encounter ended in violence.
Some were simply...
Weird.
Once he found an old man sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere.
The man wore simple robes.
Long white beard.
Eyes closed.
Completely unmoving.
"..."
The boy stared.
The old man ignored him.
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
Finally...
"You've been looking at me for quite some time."
His eyes never opened.
The boy shrugged.
"You've been sitting on a rock for who knows how long."
Silence.
"...Fair."
The old man nodded slightly.
"Are you hungry?"
"...A little."
The old man handed him bread.
It was warm.
Fresh.
Delicious.
The best thing he'd eaten in months.
"...Thanks."
The old man smiled.
"Safe travels."
The boy nodded.
"You too."
"...I live here."
"Oh."
"..."
"...That makes more sense."
The conversation ended there.
He never saw the old man again.
To this day...
He wasn't entirely convinced that old man had been human.
Occasionally...
He encountered real people.
Woodcutters.
Hunters.
Travelers.
Pilgrims making their way through mountain paths.
He never stayed.
Never followed.
Never introduced himself beyond a simple name.
"Toji."
That was enough.
Sometimes they offered food.
Sometimes advice.
Once...
Someone tried to adopt him.
A middle-aged woman looked horrified when she found him skinning a deer by himself.
"...Where are your parents?"
"...Dead."
"..."
"...Mine too."
"..."
"..."
"...Kid, that's not how this conversation was supposed to go."
He blinked.
"...Sorry?"
She sighed.
"Come with us."
He smiled politely.
"I appreciate it."
"...But no."
She frowned.
"You'll die out here."
He looked around.
"I've been out here four years."
"..."
"..."
"...Good point."
One hunter had offered him a knife.
"A boy your age shouldn't be fighting bears with sticks."
"...Who told you that?"
"The entire village."
"..."
"...Wait, seriously?"
The hunter laughed.
"You're becoming a local legend."
Toji covered his face.
"...Fantastic."
"So..."
"They call me the mountain idiot?"
"...Actually..."
The hunter scratched his head.
"They call you the Ghost Child."
"..."
"...That's somehow cooler."
Not every rumor was accurate.
Some villagers believed he was a mountain spirit.
Others insisted he was a wandering monk.
One particularly drunk man claimed Toji was actually three children standing on each other's shoulders.
"...How drunk was he?"
"...Very."
"Understandable."
His biggest enemy wasn't monsters.
Or magical beasts.
It was food.
He was always hungry.
Always.
No matter how much he ate...
It never seemed enough.
"I'm beginning to understand why anime protagonists eat like vacuum cleaners."
One afternoon he managed to catch a fish nearly as long as his arm.
He admired it proudly.
"I have achieved..."
He looked dramatically toward the sky.
"...protein."
His body continued changing.
Not overnight.
Not dramatically.
Gradually.
Every difficult climb made him more sure-footed.
Every freezing winter taught his body to preserve heat more efficiently.
Thin mountain air stopped bothering him years ago.
Pain still existed.
But it rarely lingered.
His body remembered every hardship.
It refused to learn the same lesson twice.
Spring arrived.
Then summer.
Then autumn.
Then winter again.
Four times.
The mountains watched him grow.
So did the creatures living within them.
Many predators stopped attacking him entirely.
Not because they feared him.
Because experience had taught them something.
This human...
Was annoying.
One enormous snow leopard stared at him from a cliff.
Kael stared back.
"...Don't."
The leopard blinked.
"..."
"...You know exactly what happened last time."
The leopard slowly turned around.
And left.
Kael smiled proudly.
"Character development."
One evening he found his reflection in a perfectly still mountain lake.
He paused.
For a long moment...
He simply looked.
Black hair.
Green eyes.
Sun-tanned skin.
Countless tiny scars barely visible beneath years of healing.
"...Huh."
He tilted his head.
"I look..."
He shrugged.
"...Like me."
Not his old face.
Not entirely.
But somehow...
That no longer mattered.
His old life felt distant.
Almost dreamlike.
This was his reality now.
That night...
He sat beneath the stars.
The mountains were quiet.
Peaceful.
For once.
He leaned back against a rock.
"...Four years."
It felt strange saying it aloud.
He had survived.
Not comfortably.
Not easily.
But genuinely survived.
He had grown stronger.
Smarter.
Calmer.
The frightened six-year-old who had died to a wolf no longer existed.
In his place sat someone shaped by mountains.
By hardship.
By relentless effort.
His stomach growled.
"..."
He sighed.
"Of course."
Standing up, he stretched lazily.
"Time to fight tonight's strongest opponent."
Silence.
Then he nodded seriously.
"Dinner."
The mountain breeze carried away his laughter as he disappeared into the forest once more.
His journey had only just begun.
Somewhere beyond these mountains lay cities.
Heroes.
Villains.
Aliens.
Magic.
A world far larger than the wilderness he had called home.
He would reach it eventually.
But not yet.
Tomorrow morning, as always...
He would wake before sunrise.
And train.