Chapter 1: "Four Weeks Left"
The rooster didn't crow.It screamed.
Aki jolted upright, hair like a broken haystack and drool pasted to his cheek. His eyes darted around the room — sunlight stabbed through the old wooden shutters like it was mad at him for sleeping in.
"…Akura?" he mumbled, squinting at the empty bed across the room. Blankets folded. No sign of his twin.
"Aki!" his mom's voice shot up from outside. "Tell that damn chicken to give me back my underwear or we're eating it tonight!"
Aki blinked, then groaned. "It's too early for chicken politics…"
He rolled out of bed, tripped over his own pants, kicked them aside, and shoved a fork through his hair because he couldn't find his comb again. It didn't help. The fork bent. He gave up.
By the time he stumbled out the front door, his dad was already loading potatoes onto the old cart, muscles creaking with age and pride. His mom stood in the field, waving a torn piece of cloth like a white flag while a smug little chicken strutted away with a sock in its beak.
And there was Akura — doing pushups shirtless in the grass, not a damn hair out of place. He looked like a statue someone carved out of "cool older brother."
"Morning, sleepy," Akura grinned, still mid-rep.
Aki raised a weak hand and let it flop back down. "Why are you built like an action figure? You were born one second earlier — not one gym membership richer."
✏️ Scene 2: Capstone's One and Only School
Capstone Kingdom didn't have a fancy academy or some elite power school. Just one old building, one chalkboard, and a bunch of kids who pretended to study until someone got hit with a lunchbox.
By the time the twins arrived, the place was alive with chatter.Everyone was talking about it — Core Awakening Day.Four weeks left. That's all.
"I heard if your family's strong, your core reflects it," said one girl, twirling her hair.
"My uncle has a wind core and he can fly," said a loud boy named Reelo. "When mine activates, I'll be riding the clouds like a god."
Akura dropped into his desk with a smirk. "Hope you don't fall off."
Girls flocked to him like bees to sugar. "Akura~ did you think about what core you might get? You'd look so cool with fire! Or maybe lightning!"
Aki slid into the seat beside him, mostly invisible, still trying to fix his disaster of a haircut with a chewed pencil eraser.
"You good?" Akura whispered.
"I look like a dirt explosion."
"Yeah," Akura chuckled. "But you're my dirt explosion."
Aki smiled, but barely. Even he could feel it — the whispers, the pressure. Four weeks left. What if he got nothing?
🎒 Scene 3: Sunset and Shadows
They walked home side-by-side, backpacks swinging, the sky bleeding into warm oranges and purples. Birds chirped. Capstone wind hit soft like the world was trying to apologize for what was coming.
"I'm gonna build a kingdom one day," Akura said, kicking a rock ahead of them. "Not just here. Somewhere big. Bigger than Tech-Savvy or the Chain Isles. I wanna do good. Like King Satan."
Aki nodded slowly. "Y-Yeah. I'll be there. I'll guard your throne. Even if I don't get a core… I'll still be strong, somehow."
Akura stopped walking. Looked at him. Not with pity — but with that same fire he always had when they were kids, running through the fields, jumping into rivers, promising to never leave each other behind.
"You're already strong, Aki. Core or no core — you're my brother. That doesn't change."
Aki didn't reply. Just looked at the stars starting to peek through the sky.
But in his chest, buried under the fear, the doubt, and the mess of questions — something flickered.
Hope.
End of Chapter 1.