There he stood, right in the middle of the courtyard.
Right where the light should have blinded him.
But it avoided him. As if it were afraid.
His school uniform fluttered in the wind, and with his pitch-black hair and thoughtful face, he stood there calmly, as if everything were as usual.
As if he hadn't just vanished without a trace for an entire week.
But his eyes...
The blue color in his eyes had disappeared, like a brewing storm that hides the blue sky.
'I have a really bad feeling about this.'
Mira stood, as always, right next to me with her poisonous green eyes, her gentle face, and her annoyingly close presence.
Wearing a white kimono with green floral accents and a deep neckline, she whispered to me in fear:
"Um, Teichi... that's Shizu, isn't—?"
A strong gust of wind cut her off, a wind that felt like it had been building for centuries—like the kind that comes before a catastrophe breaks out…
He raised his arm.
And suddenly, the air smelled of burnt iron.
My pulse rose. I felt something change in my body—not out of fear, more like a memory.
A memory that wasn't mine.
Not from this life.
Not from this time.
"Get down!"
I don't know why—it was instinct.
I just knew: If we stayed standing, no one would survive.
Then, a black artifact fell from the sky.
And with it, a history no one wanted to believe in anymore.
I jumped, pulling Mira with me, throwing myself behind a broken piece of wall.
Some made it. Others didn't.
Then the artifact hit the ground.
The explosion was silent.
And that made it even worse.
The world turned white. Then gray. Then black.
Windows shattered. The ground trembled. The school building groaned as if it were begging for mercy.
Dust swallowed everything.
I lay on the ground, half on Mira. My ears rang. My heart pounded.
Somewhere I heard a boy scream. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was all of us.
'That was just the beginning. If he's serious now, we're doomed.'
And then... it became bright.
Not like a lightning strike.
It was as if light suddenly reclaimed its right over this world.
A single step.
No sound.
And suddenly, he stood there.
With his noble brown hair—his white pupils made him seem blind, but he was not.
On his cloak, the words were written: The 4th King of Mages.
Raiketsu – The Breath of Light
His cloak didn't flutter.
It was carried—by dignity, by history, by things none of us could understand.
He wasn't a hero. Not a king.
He was simply... right.
He placed himself between us and Shizu.
No hesitation. No spell. No battle cry.
"So this is what it's come to…" he said quietly.
The words didn't seem spoken, but thought—yet everyone heard them.
Shizu stepped forward, his face distorted by inner conflict.
"Raiketsu… I should've known you'd interfere."
But his voice trembled. Not with fear—with memory.
"I'm not here to fight," the king said.
"I'm here to save you."
Then he raised his arm.
A simple, calm motion.
He snapped his fingers.
A sound rang out—bright, like a single drop of water falling into the calmest lake in the world, fragile like eternity.
It was as if a droplet of light fell upon the surface of the earth.
And then the light spread.
Not wild. Not violent.
It settled over everything.
Over rubble. Over shadows. Over guilt.
Shizu didn't scream.
He simply collapsed.
His body lost all tension—like someone had finally removed chains that were never his to bear.
And Raiketsu…
turned to me.
He smiled.
Just for a heartbeat.
Just for me.
'The light is yours now, not mine.'
And then it happened.
He vanished.
Not in flames. Not in brilliance.
He faded.
Like morning mist that dissolves when kissed by the sun.
All that remained was his cloak.
It didn't just fall.
It drifted—slowly, weightlessly, dancing through the air like a final memory.
And finally... it touched the ground.
No wind. No sound.
Only the moment.
I knelt.
Next to the cloak. Next to Shizu. Next to what once was.
And I whispered into the light, which slowly faded:
'I saw it. I was there. I will carry the light—because you entrusted it to me.'
A bright aura surrounded me, and my heart opened.
'Of all people… me? I'm just the son of a humble carpenter's family with big dreams.'
'Yes, that's who I am – Teichi, just Teichi, the boy with golden eyes and light hair.'
'But in the ruins of this day, my destiny finally spoke its name.
And I…
will accept it.'
'Because something inside me has breathed.
And it won't stop anymore.'