In a place, within a sealed room.
Figure 1: "Impossible! I forgot something…"
Figure 2: "What is it?! Have you found out what Joker's done?!"
Figure 3: "Joker is planning something big—something that could lead to war. Do you know anything about it?!"
Figure 1: "I forgot someone! Someone who may be facing Joker right now. Arashi—the one who lost his identity, turned into a shadow, merged with the darkness."
Figure 4: "Damn it, that man. If Joker manages to control him, all his power will fall into Joker's hands. This could truly become a catastrophe for the world."
Figure 3: "Arashi?! Power?! Tell me—what kind of person is he? Not many still hold power under our regime."
Figure 1: "His name is Arashi. A mere human who lived among the shadows of the city, in narrow alleys filled with old newspapers and rotting dreams. He was nobody. No noble blood, no magic training, and no lineage of note.
But he had one thing:
Hope.
Since childhood, he read about the Noble Elemental Crystals—glowing stones that, when merged with a human soul, could grant powers beyond comprehension. These crystals didn't choose randomly. They chose according to the laws of the heavens. And Arashi, in his naivety, believed that one day, he would be chosen.
He read every article, memorized the names of past crystal bearers, calculated the odds. He prayed in silence, whispering his hopes to the sky. Whenever he saw the moonlight reflected in puddles, he imagined it was a sign from the crystal destined for him.
But that day came like a cold knife to his bones.
The morning paper read:
'THE ELEMENTAL CRYSTAL OF LIGHT HAS MERGED WITH A NEWBORN CHILD.'
A page showing a mother with a radiant baby, illuminating the forest—the place of their escape.
Arashi read it over and over. His heart hollowed. He closed his eyes, wishing it was just a dream. But every word was real. Every sentence mocked his prayers. All the hopes he poured out night after night—wasted.
"Even the sky never saw me…" he murmured.
That night he didn't cry. Didn't scream. Didn't curse.
He simply went silent. But in that silence, something inside him collapsed—and from that ruin, a new figure rose. A man who no longer believed in the sky, no longer waited for miracles. He buried himself in the underworld—a place that offered no hope, but gave power to those cold enough to seize it.
There, among the exiled, the killers, and the fugitives, Arashi rose.
He didn't have an Elemental Crystal, but he had something sharper: a disappointment forged into embers.
The one who lost his identity, turned into a shadow, merged with the darkness.
Not because he was born strong,
But because he understood: there is no light more pure…
…than the darkness born from a heart that waited too long.