The universe has many cruel jokes.
For Ren, today's joke was this:
> Group project season.
Even worse?
> Partner assignments were random.
Even worse worse?
> He got paired with Kiyomi.
When the teacher read the names, Daiki practically fell out of his chair laughing.
"You two are so married already!" he whispered.
"We are not a thing," Ren muttered, face already halfway melted from embarrassment.
Kiyomi blinked once. "That would require emotional attachment. Which I've surgically removed."
Daiki leaned in. "Is that code for 'deep trauma' or 'anime backstory'?"
She didn't answer.
Ren was sweating.
📝 The Project
It was a history assignment on ancient myths. The irony was almost insulting.
Ren flipped through the textbook, pretending like he wasn't partnered with a soul-piercing murder goddess in human form.
"So," he said, voice cracking slightly. "Wanna do it at your place or mine—WAIT NO I MEANT THE PROJECT—"
Kiyomi just stared.
"...Mine," she said. "Your aura is unstable. I don't trust your furniture."
"That's fair."
📚 At the Library (Definitely Not a Date)
After school, they met in the city library.
Ren tried to focus, but Kiyomi kept flipping pages like she was downloading the entire Dewey Decimal System into her brain.
"So," Ren said, "how do you know about this Skyborn stuff anyway?"
Kiyomi paused. "I was born into it. Kinda."
"Kinda?"
"My real family was part of a lost sect — we called ourselves the Moonlit Heirs. We were protectors of a sealed gate. Then… someone opened it."
Ren leaned in. "And?"
She didn't look up. "Everyone died. Except me. I woke up three years later in a crater."
"Oh…"
"…With wings."
Ren blinked. "Like angel wings?"
"Like flaming spectral energy wings. Don't get excited."
"Too late."
Kiyomi closed the book and looked at him directly.
"Point is — whatever's inside you? It's waking up. And things will start coming for it. Spectrals are just scouts."
She leaned closer.
"You need to grow. Fast."
"I'm trying! My chicken beat me up again this morning!"
"…Your what?"
🐔 Flashback: That Morning
Kazuki flew at Ren like a missile.
Ren screamed and dropped his toast.
Kazuki caught the toast mid-air.
Jin clapped like a proud parent.
🌑 Elsewhere…
Far from the warmth of textbooks and toast-chickens, a shrine deep in the mountains sat beneath a moonless sky.
A cloaked man — The Watcher — knelt before a sealed stone gate.
He placed his hand on its surface. It pulsed with black veins of light.
"They're waking up."
Behind him, two more figures emerged from the fog. One had an arm made of bone. The other, no face at all.
"Shall we begin, Master?" the faceless one rasped.
The Watcher nodded.
"Begin Phase Two. Bring me the Skyborn boy alive. But kill the ramen man
if he resists."
📚 Back in the City…
Ren stood outside the library, backpack slung over one shoulder.
Kiyomi stared up at the sky.
"You feel it too, right?" she said.
Ren nodded. "Yeah. Like something old just opened its eyes."
She looked at him, then smirked.
"You're not completely useless. That's progress."
"Thanks," he muttered. "I'll put that on my resume."
🌀 Chapter 7 Teaser:
> Ren and Kiyomi are attacked on their way home by something that doesn't belong in any known dimension. Uncle Jin joins the fight. And Ren discovers his power reacts… very badly to fear. Like, explosion badl
y.