15-year-old Akashi Renzou is a student at Shōryū Technical Junior and Senior High School.
He was never the type of kid who drew attention. Not from teachers, not from classmates.
He got good grades, but wasn't brilliant. He was kind, but too quiet.
He was invisible, until he wasn't.
It all started with small taunts.
Muffled laughter. Shoves in the hallways.
"Just messing around."
That school was meant to train heroes... but it also shaped monsters in silence.
That night, he just wanted to go home. The sky was overcast, the air heavy.
He took a shortcut. An alley between the buildings in the north zone.
It had always been safe. Until then.
When he realized it, it was already too late.
They were waiting.
Three classmates from Shōryū.
Strong. Popular. Sons of heroes.
And cruel.
"You think you're better than us, huh, Renzou?"
"Just because you get good grades? Without even having a Quirk?"
"We're going to teach you how things really work here."
Punches.
Kicks.
Laughter.
He didn't stand a chance.
Fallen on the ground, his face bloodied, he felt his chest sink.
The world was spinning. Sound seemed to come from underwater.
He was dying. He knew it.
"Is this how I end...?"
That's when he felt the heat.
Veins throbbed with pain and fury.
Something burned inside.
His blood moved, against gravity. Against death.
"No. Not yet."
And then... everything turned red.
He didn't remember how he got up. Nor how his arms created blades. Or how his blood shaped itself like a living, protective creature.
He only remembered the screams. Their wide eyes.
The sound of the slashes.
And the silence after.
Akashi woke up at home the next day.
Uninjured.
But with the red ring on his finger.
Pulsing, as if it had a heart of its own.
Since then, he wasn't the same anymore.
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The house was shrouded in an uncomfortable silence.
Not the comfortable silence of sleep...
But the heavy silence of someone who knows something is wrong and doesn't want to deal with it.
Akashi went down the stairs with slow, almost silent steps, as if trying to avoid being noticed by something.
The morning light streamed through the living room curtains, illuminating dust particles in the air.
On the sofa, the blank screen of the turned-off television acted like a black mirror, reflecting only his pale face and sunken eyes.
He sat down slowly. The remote control was there, on the arm of the sofa.
Click.
The image filled the screen with colors too vibrant for the time of day.
The serious face of the reporter filled his vision.
"And we return with the latest updates on the case that is shocking the city: the bodies of three teenagers were found last night in an alley in the north zone."
Akashi didn't blink. He just listened.
"The victims showed multiple stab wounds caused by a bladed weapon, still unidentified. Forensics indicate a surgical and brutal pattern, as if the blood had been intentionally manipulated."
The news report continued in the background.
Words like "murder," "no suspects," "unusual violence"...
And among them all, a name that burned:
Akashi Renzou.
He turned off the TV with a sharp click.
Silence.
Only the sound of his own heart pounding in his chest.
And something else...
A strange pulsing. Not in his chest, on his finger.
He looked at his hand. The red ring seemed... more alive.
"What are you...?" he murmured.
There was no answer. No voice in his head, no vision, no spiritual figure.
But then... something moved within him.
His veins pulsed harder.
As if his blood had become dense, heavy, and obedient.
He felt a pressure in his arm. An energy crawling under his skin from within.
Instinctively, he made a small cut on his finger with his nail.
The blood coated his fingers, running between them, but it didn't fall.
It clung there, as if it were part of him.
Akashi's eyes widened.
He held out his hand.
And the blood elongated, taking the shape of a small blade in his hand.
"No... this isn't a Quirk. It's different," Akashi said, impressed.
He launched it towards the floor. The blade, at surprising speed, embedded itself precisely in the wood.
Then it melted, returning to ordinary blood.
His body trembled.
But not from fear.
"I can control my blood."
When he took a step.
He felt slightly dizzy.
Maybe from losing a little blood.
Maybe from not yet understanding what was inside him.
"This is still just the beginning, right?" he said, a little disoriented.
There wasn't a Stand hovering beside him.
Not yet.
But the power within him...
had already marked him forever.