The first light of dawn crept over the valley like a timid brushstroke of gold. Mist clung to the fields, curling around the huts of Hoshigawa, muting the colors of the world. The village was silent. Too silent.
Raizen sat on the ridge again, his legs dangling over the edge, staring at the forest where the wolf had come from. His hands itched, sparks twitching at his fingertips. The memory of the creature—the black veins, the red eyes, the pulse of abyssal corruption—haunted him.
He had survived. Yet, the exhilaration of survival was tangled with fear. Something inside him had answered in that moment, a force he could not name, a power he barely understood. Lightning alone had failed.
But what did it mean?
However, curiosity had outweighed his fear which caused him to return back to the scene.
Raizen walked toward the village, dragging the wolf's body to the edge of the clearing. His boots sank into the damp soil, leaving a trail of mud behind. The villagers began to stir, drawn by the smoke and the faint hum of Enerugī lingering in the air.
Old Hiroshi, the village elder, was the first to arrive. His eyes widened at the sight of the wolf, and then narrowed in suspicion and fear. That was an abyssal creature, if it had charged into their village it would have been a complete massacre.
Yet this problem child had dragged it corpse into the village. What if the others followed it scent?
"Raizen…" he said slowly, his voice tight. "What… what have you done?"
"It attacked me," Raizen said simply, panting. "I… I had to fight it."
The villagers whispered among themselves. Mothers clutched their children, glancing fearfully at the boy. Some raised hands in awe, others shook their heads in dismay.
Some were even pointing accusing fingers at him, whispering about how he was becoming more and more dangerous each passing day. They feared of what he would become if left unchecked.
If it wasn't for Hiroshi being the village head they would have chased him away a long time ago.
If they could they would have chased him away long away but unfortunately the village chief favours him. So unless they had a valuable reason they couldn't do such.
"You fought it?" one farmer muttered. "The boy is reckless… cursed, I tell you. Marked by the storms, or worse…"
Hiroshi's gaze softened on Raizen, but his words were firm. "Enerugī in a child so young… uncontrolled… is dangerous. The barrier stones are said to protect the valley, but if beasts start crossing the forests…" He shook his head, leaving the thought unfinished.
Unlike the other villagers he had seen the outside world. He knew way more than they do. That's why he could tell that Raizen was special.
Raizen's stomach tightened. He had survived, yes—but not by skill. Not by training. Something else had protected him. Something innate.
By mid-morning, whispers had spread through Hoshigawa. Some called him the storm-child, gifted by the heavens. Others said he was a harbinger of misfortune, a boy whose presence invited calamity.
Children approached cautiously, daring to peek at him. "You killed it?" a little girl asked, awe in her wide eyes.
Raizen only nodded, uncertain. The wolf had died. He had lived. But the tremor of his unknown essence still thrummed beneath his skin.
Even as he returned home, he felt eyes on him from the forest. Watching. Waiting. However, it was Not wolf-eyes.
That afternoon, Raizen found himself sitting outside Old Hiroshi's hut. The elder's gnarled hands worked on repairing a broken hoe, his movements slow but precise.
"Boy," Hiroshi said without looking up, "the forest is changing. You are changing too. There is something in you… something the other villagers does not understand."
Raizen frowned. "I… I don't understand it either. It just… happens."
Hiroshi nodded. "That is the mark of the anomaly. Some are born with it. Some awaken it in fire. Some, like you, awaken it in need. But be warned—the world does not treat anomalies kindly."
Raizen stared at his hands. Sparks danced faintly, then died. Anomaly. The word felt heavy.
"Can I… learn to control it?" he asked quietly.
Hiroshi shook his head. "Half of the villagers don't even know what you have not to mention teaching you to control it. For now, survive. Grow. And never let anyone bind you with their fear or expectation. The path ahead… is wider than this valley. And darker."
Raizen nodded, swallowing hard. He had a feeling the elder spoke truths he was not yet ready to fully grasp. But that still begged the question.
Why him? Why couldn't he be just like the other kids his age, going about everyday without any worries, having loving parents that love and cared for him. Was that too much to ask?
Hiroshi saw the sad expression that had formed on Raizen's face and sighed. He gently grabbed Raizen's hands and softly said. "Raizen, you are special. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. This world is a very dangerous world, that's why we are all satisfied living in this small village but you are different.
"You can't be contained by this small village. You are destined for more"
"Really?" Raizen looked into Hiroshi's eyes, looking for any sign of deceit but couldn't find any.
However he didn't doubt the old man's words considering that the old man was the one who raised him. He was the closest thing he had to a father.
"Of course" Hiroshi nodded lightly ruffling the kid's hair. "Now run along"
Raizen smiled, his mood now lightened as he walked away from the house.
Hiroshi watched him leave with a complex expression on his face. That kid was destined for something greater than even he could imagine.
As Raizen wandered back toward the village square, he noticed travelers on the road—merchants from distant lands, soldiers passing through, scouts from nearby estates. Their presence reminded him of the vastness beyond Hoshigawa that he has heard of so much, the bustling empires, the grandeur, and the peril of the wider world.
Stories of mighty warriors, masters of Enerugī who could level mountains or summon storms, flickered in his memory. He had heard of grandmasters whose powers could destroy kingdoms, emperors who were said to walk between mortal and divine.
And he, an orphan boy with wild lightning and something else he barely understood… he would walk among them one day.
But first, he had to survive the valley.
Night fell again, slower this time, as if the valley were holding its breath. Raizen lay on the ridge once more, staring at the darkened forest.
A pair of eyes glimmered between the branches, faint but unmistakable. The figure was cloaked, unmoving, yet radiating a power that made even the wind feel wary.
A figure, though the boy did not know, observed him silently. Her lips curved into a faint smile.
"So it begins," she whispered to herself, her voice carried away by the wind before anyone could hear.
Something in Raizen stirred in his dreams that night. He dreamed of storms that stretched across the sky, crackling lightning turning into rivers of silence. A voice whispered from the void: Balance… awaken… the world waits.
He woke with a shiver, sparks flickering across his fingers involuntarily. His heartbeat matched the rhythm of something greater than him, a pulse deep and unknowable.
The valley returned to sleep, unaware of the anomaly that had awakened within its smallest child. Even as fires died in hearths, and the first crickets chirped, the shadows shifted beyond the ridges.
The Abyssal Beast that had been destroyed was only one among countless. And somewhere, beyond the horizon, powers stirred, whispers of war and sacrifice weaving through the lands.
Raizen, storm-child and anomaly, lay dreaming of roads he had yet to walk.
And in the forest, the eyes watching him never blinked.