The dream came like breath held too long, slipping past my guard before I could stop it. I stood barefoot in a wide field of tall grass, barely old enough to walk. My hands were pudgy and useless and my knees wobbled beneath me, but I didn't fall. The wind was warm, carrying the scent of pine and roasted barley.
In front of me knelt a man.
I don't remember his face. I don't think I ever did. The sun behind him was painted him in gold, erasing every detail except for the warmth in his voice and the strength in his hands. He adjusted the collar of my robe like it was the most important thing in the world, brushing off specks of dust with the same care someone might use to polish a blade before battle.
"I'll come back," he said, straightening.
I reached for him as my heart thudded with sudden panic. "Don't go."
But he was already walking away.
My legs stumbled after him. I called out, louder this time, the desperation thick in my throat. "Please! Don't go! Please!"
I dropped to my knees in the grass, wailing so hard I couldn't breathe.
But....He never turned back.
I woke with a gasp, tangled in my blankets, sweat pooling at the base of my neck. The candle at my bedside had burned low, casting warped shadows that danced across the cracked walls. My hands trembled, my breath hitching. Even now, the warmth of that field clung to my skin like a fading promise.
Then the system flickered to life, whispering behind my eyes like a pulse of light skipping across the back of my mind.
[Memory Fragment Accessed: "The Departing Flame"]
[Emotional Sync Detected – Moderate Intensity]
[New Mission Unlocked: Experience Accrual]
[Objective: Engage and Defeat Members of the Fangless Company]
[Reward: System Integration +3%]
I flopped back onto the mat and stared at the ceiling, rubbing my face with both hands. "You really know how to ruin a good breakdown, don't you?"
The system didn't answer. It never did. Just pulsed once more with quiet satisfaction, then faded into the hum of my blood.
By the time I reached the training hall, the world was already too bright and too loud. My bubble burst in under four seconds, twice.
"Wow," Kento said, watching my third try implode before I'd even finished centering my breath. "You and bubbles have beef, huh?"
"Just a rough morning," I muttered, squinting at my hands. My energy wasn't cooperating. The pulse was off, the rhythm scattered. I was still rattled from the dream, from the system's latest mission, and possibly from the lingering weight of something I didn't understand. Still, I wasn't about to tell Kento any of that.
He didn't press. Just let out a half-sigh, half-laugh. "Well, if you're not gonna meditate properly, you at least deserve a reward for pretending. Come to the village with me later?"
"We're not allowed," I reminded him.
"We're not allowed to do a lot of things," he said, voice low and mischievous. "That's never stopped us before."
"I've never snuck out before."
"Then you're due for a first."
We left just after mid-afternoon, slipping out through a loose slat behind the training shed. Kento seemed to know the path too well. It involved hopping a fence, ducking under an old laundry line, and navigating a slope full of ankle-breaking roots. Though, he made it look easy, I made it look like I'd never walked a day in my life.
"Don't worry," he said as I tripped for the second time. "You're doing great for someone who's probably been cursed by soap bubbles."
The village sat nestled in a shallow valley surrounded by peach trees and river stones. Children darted between stalls, and old men sat fanning themselves under paper umbrellas. The scent of grilled rice cakes drifted through the air, pulling us toward the market square like moths to warm sugar.
We didn't even make it three steps before someone recognized me.
"You—!" a baker said, eyes wide. "You're the one! The boy who cut down the Fangless leader!"
Heads turned. A dozen, then more.
A grandmother pressed a steamed bun into my hand before I could protest, a boy offered me his lucky coin, someone handed me a wreath of wildflowers. I tried to explain, to correct them, but Kento clapped a hand on my shoulder.
"He did," he said proudly. "And he didn't even blink."
I gave him a sidelong look but he shrugged. "Let them have their hero. You're halfway decent at it."
I didn't know what I felt-- awkward, grateful, maybe even proud but I barely had time to sort through it, before a noise changed it all.
The laughter had stopped and the birds went quiet.
A sound like iron dragging across stone echoed from the western road.
Then they appeared. Five of them, striding through the peach grove with weapons drawn and murder in their eyes. They were rougher than the last batch, more scarred, sunburned, mouths set in jagged sneers. One of them pointed a sword straight at me.
"That's him," he growled. "That's the one who killed Bozun."
I didn't know the name, but I knew what it meant. Their leader. The man I cut down. These weren't just bandits.
These were brothers.
Hearing them, Kento stepped beside me, rolling his shoulders. "Back to back?"
"Back to back," I said, drawing my blade.
They didn't wait for introduction as the first charged with a roar, his axe raised high. Kento met him head-on, slipping low and jabbing upward in one smooth, practiced motion. The man dropped before he finished his swing.
A second came from the side. I pivoted, catching the blow on my forearm, gritting my teeth through the pain. My blade whipped forward, slicing shallow across his ribs. He stumbled, screaming, and vanished into the dust.
The third was faster.
He ducked past my guard and slammed into me, sending both of us to the ground. His weight crushed my chest. His dagger grazed my shoulder as he reached for my throat.
That's when the system flickered back to life.
[Combat Sync Detected – Adrenaline Spike Registered]
[Inazuma Nuki Available]
[Trigger: Internal Charge – Pulse Stable]
I stopped breathing and let the panic fall away.
After a deep breath, I drew.
The blade crackled in my grip, lightning pulsing from wrist to hilt. The strike came faster than thought, it was clean, sharp, and perfect. The dacoit flew off me, his chest torn open in a line of steam and blood.
I rolled back to my feet, just in time to see Kento finish off the last one with a spinning sweep that dropped the man like a sack of wet grain.
The square was still.
Villagers peeked from behind carts and doors, their mouths open in shock. Then, slowly, someone began to clap.
Another joined. Then a third.
Within moments, the entire square was ringing with cheers.
Kento looked at me, panting, grinning like an idiot. "Well," he said, "if we weren't in trouble before, we definitely are now."
I groaned and dropped to the ground, blade still buzzing faintly in my grip.
I wasn't sure if I was more afraid of the next dacoit raid… or of Master Genzo's face when he found out we'd gone sightseeing without permission.
But the system pulsed again, and this time, it felt almost proud.
[Mission Progress: 2 Fangless Defeated]
The war wasn't over.
But I'd taken another step.
And somehow, that felt enough for now.