The sky looked drawn.
That was the first thing Khael Corzedar thought as he stared upward, eyes squinting at a blue so perfect it couldn't possibly be real. Not like this. Not with clouds shaped like brushstrokes, drifting lazily across a sky colored like an anime background-soft gradients, no pixelation, no smog, no sunspots. Just... surreal beauty.
He was lying in a field of knee-high grass. A breeze tickled his arms.
No buildings. No phones. No sky noise Just silence.
What... where..."
He pushed himself up on trembling elbows, only to suddenly-
WHACK!
"AGHH-!!"
A fist struck him in the face, snap head to the side He tumbled backward into the grass with a yelp.
"Gotcha!" a boy's voice said, followed by laughter.
Khael groaned. "What the hell-?!"
From the corner of his now-watering eye, he saw two figures just ahead.
One was a boy with spiky black hair, laughing mischievously as he rubbed his knuckles. The other a girl, scowling with crossed arms. Her silver-white hair shimmered in the light, the soft pink in her braid catching the sun like rose silk.
She was beautiful. Unreal. Like a watercolor dream.
Silver-white hair... lavender eyes... Echo runes glowing faintly on her hands...
Lira Valenne
Her name burst into his brain like a memory he didn't know he had.
"That wasn't funny, Kaen!" she said, cheeks puffed in frustration.
Kaen.
Khael froze. His heart skipped a beat
Kaen... Kaen Suro...
All Affinity. Shade Echo Mark. The cursed protagonist of Kaen Eclipse.
"No way... No freaking way..."
Khael clutched his forehead. Flashes poured into his mind like a torrent: volumes stacked on his shelf, late-night rereads, theorizing plot twists online-
He stared at the spiky-haired boy again. The same red-orange ember tips. The same reckless grin.
"This is Kaen Eclipse," he muttered. "I'm inside the manga world."
He stumbled back a few steps, heart pounding.
This isn't the first chapter... It's not Chapter 1 yet...