The teacher began to speak in an almost childlike tone, looking down at Rain as if he were somehow lesser than everyone else in the classroom.
"Rain…" she said with a gentle smile. She raised a finger and tapped lightly against the chalkboard, hovering over a math problem.
She spoke again. "Do you know the answer to this equation?"
Rain sat quietly in his chair while the other students erupted into laughter. Seeing how long he was taking to answer such a simple problem, they mocked him.
"You can do it, Rain!" they called out sarcastically.
Rain looked toward them and smiled. Their words gave him all the motivation he needed. Wanting to answer correctly, he spoke in an excited yet innocent tone.
"Could it be… twelve?"
The teacher frowned slightly, but when she spoke, her voice remained soft — almost as if she were speaking to a toddler.
"That is incorrect…"
Rain's smile faltered into a small frown.
But the teacher continued.
"If you keep trying, I know you'll understand it too." She smiled warmly as she finished.
"Okay?"
Rain looked up at Mrs. Nava. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Mrs. Nava was only about twenty-two years old — just four years older than Rain.
But Rain didn't care that the teacher who taught him was almost the same age as he was. Her kindness gave him a warmth that felt like everything he could possibly want.
"Okay!" Rain said brightly, his happiness renewed.
The teacher continued the lesson while Rain's classmates whispered among themselves.
"He's way too old to be in this class."
"Isn't he supposed to be graduated? Why is he still in eighth grade?"
The students spoke among themselves, their voices low but not quiet enough to hide.
Rain smiled leaning slightly toward them, he whispered softly, "Do you guys think I'll answer the math problem correctly tomorrow?"
Some of the students stopped gossiping and turned toward him, speaking in the same sarcastic tone. Rain didn't notice.
"Yeah, you'll get it next time."
"We definitely believe in you, Rain."
Rain smiled and turned back toward the teacher, who continued the lesson at the front of the classroom.
After school, Rain drove himself home.
Most of the other students took the bus or were picked up by their parents.
Rain wished he could be driven home by parents too.
But he couldn't.
When Rain arrived home, the first thing he did was take a deep breath of the fresh air inside his apartment. Many things there felt precious to him, and Rain smiled as he looked around.
His apartment was small. Some people might have even called it plain.
But to Rain, the apartment felt like the center of his world.
A large dresser stood against the wall, filled with books he had read and books he still wanted to read. His television sat beside it, with the couch placed close by.
Some people might have thought the apartment looked cluttered, or even dirty. But Rain loved so many small things that he saw no reason not to keep them all together in one room.
In his bedroom stood a piano and many pieces of artwork. Although he had forgotten how to play the piano, he wanted to learn again someday.
Rain lay on his bed for a while, scrolling on his phone like he did every day. It had almost become a routine.
The news stations were especially loud today, speaking about a mysterious building that had risen into the sky.
It had supposedly killed twenty thousand people and injured eighty thousand more.
From the images on the news, the tower seemed to be somewhere near his area. But the building almost looked unreal, as if it didn't truly belong in the world.
Rain didn't brush it off, though. Even if the news might have frightened most people, Rain wasn't afraid.
He only felt sorry.
Sorry for the people who had died, and sorry for those who had been injured.
Rain didn't think too deeply about the mysterious building. It never truly dawned on him how serious the situation really was.
Rain got off his bed and made some food — the same food he made every day.
Ramen, with bread and chips.
It was simple. Almost boring if you ate it every day. But Rain never seemed to get tired of it. Whenever picky thoughts or negativity appeared, he remembered all the people throughout the world who lived in harder situations than he did.
People who starved, and others who had to survive on the same cheap meals every day.
Because of this, Rain became more appreciative.
While eating, Rain suddenly heard a loud noise from outside his apartment.
Noise outside the building wasn't uncommon, but this sound was different. It was loud enough to shake the apartment slightly.
Rain ran to the door in worry, and when he opened it, his eyes lit up in confusion.
Everyone inside the apartment building was screaming, running in frantic panic.
"We are all going to die!" one man screamed.
Even outside, people from nearby apartment buildings were shouting and fleeing.
Rain ran down the apartment stairs wearing nothing but a short T-shirt, sweatpants, and shoes without socks.
When he reached the bottom floor, he ran across to the other side of the building.
And that was when he saw it.
That was when he understood why people were so afraid.
The same tower Rain had seen on the news stood in front of him.
A massive black tower stretched endlessly upward, so tall that the top disappeared beyond the clouds.
Even though it was daytime, the tower seemed to dim the sunlight, emanating a faint and unsettling darkness. It was enough to make Rain's heart race.
'What in the world is happening?'
The tower had already reached Rain's city. On the news it had been smaller, and in a city at least hours away.
'It's… getting larger…'
The tower floated in the air, hovering just a few feet above the ground, as though gravity had simply forgotten it existed.
Before Rain could fully process what he was seeing, a sudden voice erupted around him.
The sound startled him, making his body tremble from the shock. Yet the voice itself was calm — deep and impossibly old.
It did not sound like the voice of a man, but something far older. Something that had spoken long before Rain had ever existed.
The voice almost did not seem to belong to this world.
There was something vast within it — something distant and eternal — and even in such a frightening situation, the sound of it eased Rain's nerves in a strange and unnatural way.
"Would you like to climb the Tower of Thyriss?"
The voice spoke slowly, each word heavy and deliberate, as though it had been spoken countless times across countless ages.
Rain could barely digest the words before the voice spoke again. It did not feel as though the speaker stood outside him, but somewhere deep within his mind.
"If you choose yes… you will be granted the chance for glory… and remembrance."
The voice lingered for a moment before continuing.
"But if you choose no…"
The silence that followed felt deeper than the words themselves.
"You will fade into forgetting."
The voice continued, unchanged and eternal.
"This world will be forgotten."
"And it will be as though you had never existed."
Rain did not dwell on the darker parts of the deep voice's words. Instead, his thoughts lingered on a single promise.
Remembrance.
To be remembered by someone — and to remember in return.
It was something Rain had always dreamed of.
Looking around, Rain noticed that many of the people nearby had grown completely still. They stood staring upward at the towering structure, unmoving and silent.
It looked as though they were listening to the voice inside their heads as well.
'It must be speaking to everyone,' Rain thought.
Rain kept thinking about remembrance — and even about glory. The words almost sounded too good to be true. But even so, they filled him with excitement.
Even in such a frightening situation, Rain found himself smiling.
Then he spoke out loud, his voice bright with excitement, startling some of the people around him.
"YES! I WILL CLIMB THE TOWER OF THYRISS."
As the seconds passed, Rain's body began to disappear.
It started with his feet, then his legs, and slowly his waist — yet somehow he remained standing. For reasons he could not understand, the sensation of his body fading away felt good.
Peaceful.
Like he was being carried into another world.
Looking around, Rain saw that some of the other people nearby were shouting their acceptance of the tower's invitation. Their voices echoed with fear and excitement alike.
Rain felt happy, wondering if they had accepted because of him.
Then Rain disappeared completely.
Everything grew dim.
Dark.
Empty.