Kaito Ishida never believed in fate. To him life was a string of coincidences, sometimes cruel, sometimes kind but always random.
At twenty-two he was living the standard city life, juggling a part-time job at a book store, late-night gaming sessions and the quiet ache of wondering if he was meant for something more. That night, the rain fell in silver sheets, blurring the neon lights of Shibuya as he left his shift. His headphones played a song he bearly listened to. His mind was elsewhere, caught between exhaustion and the vague thought that tomorrow would be different.
It was different, just not the way he had hoped.
A scream split the night. Tires screeched. In the instance he turned, light flooded his vision. Time seemed to slow down, every raindrop suspected in the air like shard of glass. He didn't even feel pain, only the weightless sensation leaving the ground, the world spinning into nothing.
The silence.
Kaito opened his eyes.
He was lying on a field of silver grass that swayed under a star-filled sky. The constellations above burned brighter than any he had ever seen, patterns that shifted and rearranged themselves like living maps. A vast presence stirred in the air, as if the heavens themselves were watching.
"You are not meant to be here," a voice echoed, neither male or female. It vibrated through his chest, ancient and solemn.
"Am I...dead?" Kaito whispered.
"Yes, but the tread of your life has not been cut. It has been redirected."
Before he could ask what that meant light, light gathered before him, condensing into a single blazing star. It pulsed once, twice and shot into his right eye. Pain seared through him, white-hot and merciless. He clutched his face and screamed as the space around him shattered like glass.
When the pain faded, he was lying on rough ground. The scent of ash and smoke filled his lungs. Around him stretched a forest half-burned, with embers glowing like fireflies. His clothes were different, simple tunic, boots, leather belt. His hands trembled as he touched his face.
And then he saw it.
Reflected in a pool of rainwater at his fit was his own eye, but not as it had been. His right iris was etched with a radiant star shaped symbol, six shap points glowing faintly with dots set between them. It pulsed with a rhythm like a heartbeat.
A whisper filled his mind. Asterion-Eye...the sight of 20 seconds yet to come.
The forest around him grouned. From the smoke, shadows stirred, wolf like beasts with too many teeth, their eyes glowing red. Kaito's breathe caught. He had no weapon, bo plan.
The his vision flickered. For a moment the world fractured into two overlapping images, one of the beats leaping onto him and another where he dove aside just in time.he blinked, heart pounding. The future he'd seen it.
The monster snarled and charged.
Kaito moved before he could think. He threw himself left. Just as he had glimpsed, and the beats claws slashed through empty air.
For the first time in his life, instinct wasn't guiding him, fate was. Twenty seconds ahead, written into his vision.
As he stumbled to his feet, he realized something terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
He had died on earth...but hear, in this new world he had been reborn with power that bent time itself.
The Asterion Eye had opened.
And it seemed destiny was watching.