Prologue: Another Chance
Darkness. Total and suffocating. Not even a glimmer of light.
Then—a voice.
"Hey."
A pause.
"Hey, wake up."
Another voice followed. Softer, but insistent.
"Listen to us. Your story has not yet ended."
"The World Might Not Love You... But The Universe Does."
"Open your eyes and look around."
The boy's eyes fluttered open.
Above him stretched a crimson sky, motionless and unreal. The clouds didn't drift. The wind didn't blow. Time itself seemed to be paused.
He sat up slowly. Around him, nothing moved. Water splashes hung in the air, frozen mid-motion. Birds hovered as though caught in invisible wires, wings stiff. It was like the world had pressed pause.
He looked down—and what he saw made his breath catch.
A boy lay still on the ground, blood pooled beneath him. A boy with yellow eyes and streaks of red in his dark hair. He looked like...
The boy that now stood.
He recoiled, stepping back, heart thundering.
What is this? Am I... dead?
"No," a voice echoed around him. Deep, calm, and oddly warm. "You are not dead. Not exactly."
The world trembled slightly as something rose from the ground—an entity shaped like a human, glowing white, its body made of light and mist.
The boy stumbled back again, fear rising. "What—what are you?! How did you come from the ground? Why are you glowing like that?!"
The entity raised a hand gently. "Relax. I mean you no harm. I am someone you may come to know in time... or perhaps already have, in a future you have yet to live."
The boy's eyes narrowed. "Why am I here? What do you want from me? I was finally free. Free from a world that broke me. That made me feel like nothing. Why bring me back?"
"You've always been free," the entity said with a slight smile. "You are no longer bound to that world. You've been called to a place outside it... a place long forgotten. A place forbidden."
The boy's voice cracked. "Why save me? What makes me special? I'm no one."
Another voice—different from the entity's—whispered again from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"The world might not love you... but the universe does."
The entity extended its hand.
The boy hesitated, breathing heavily.
He looked once more at his own body on the ground—the version of himself that had wanted to disappear—and then at the entity's open palm.
Slowly, he reached out.
Their hands touched.
A portal bloomed before them, a swirling vortex of light and shadow.
A voice echoed from the void: "What you are about to pass through will decide whether you are the one."
"The one what?" the boy asked, confused. "I'm who? What does that even mean?!"
No answer came.
The boy clenched his fists. Then, without another word, he took a step toward the portal.
The entity spoke once more. "Before you go... would you like to tell us your name, boy?"
The boy hesitated.
Then, for the first time, he spoke with clarity.
"Kenichi Akura."
And with that, he walked through the portal.
Into the unknown.
Chapter 1: The First Step
Light. Blinding, endless light.
Kenichi shielded his eyes as he stumbled through the portal. His feet touched solid ground—or at least something that felt like it—but the world around him shimmered like a dream not fully formed.
The light faded slowly, revealing a sky of shifting colors—turquoise bleeding into violet, then black, then gold. Beneath his feet was a smooth stone surface, etched with symbols he didn't recognize. The air was warm, humming with silent energy.
He looked around.
No birds. No people. No wind. Just silence.
"Where... is this?" he murmured.
The white entity stepped forward beside him, though it no longer glowed as brightly. Its presence felt heavier here, more solid. More real.
"This is the Threshold," it said. "A place between the worlds. You could call it the waiting room of the multiverse."
Kenichi frowned. "You said I was chosen... that I'm not dead. But why me? Why bring me here?"
The entity did not answer at first. It walked to the edge of the stone platform and motioned for Kenichi to follow.
Beyond the edge, the world fell away into a swirling abyss—galaxies spinning like smoke, stars birthing and dying in seconds.
"You are not the first to suffer," it said softly. "But you are the first to awaken in the exact moment between life and death. That made you visible to us."
"Us?"
"The remnants of the Forbidden Realm. The pieces of existence that refuse to vanish."
Kenichi looked down at his hands. They were trembling.
"I didn't ask for this," he said. "I didn't want to be saved. I had nothing left. I was... ready to go."
The entity turned to him. "And yet you reached for my hand."
Kenichi flinched.
"You chose life—even in despair. That choice echoes louder than any scream."
They stood in silence for a moment.
Then, instead of another portal, a stone path appeared before them, leading deeper into the glowing realm.
The entity gestured. "Before you can pass through the worlds, you must understand the one you've left behind. And face the part of you still trapped there."
Kenichi hesitated. "You mean... my past?"
The entity nodded. "Yes. Your memories, your pain, your unanswered questions. They reside in the Hall of Echoes—within this realm. You must walk its halls before any door opens."
Kenichi swallowed hard. This wasn't a mission. Not yet. This was something else.
A reckoning.
He took a step onto the path.
"To be Continued__