"Life is difficult and boring; there's nothing fun to do anymore. I'm just wasting away and passing the time." "I mean, what's the point of exams and tests? It's all useless in the end because we are just going to die and be forgotten." These are the words of the young 17-year-old boy Ren Kazouro, who lives in modern-day Japan. He often dwells on the fact that life is pointless; his daily routine consists of eating, studying, although he hates it, and sleeping. He rarely speaks to anyone and spends most of his time thinking about his ideal life. What's his ideal life? Being the strongest in the world, he wants to be enough to protect the people he cares about, but he struggles to express this. Ren was on his way to school because today was one of his most dreaded days: exams. He had wasted precious time studying for these fateful days. Ren dreaded doing an exam because usually, he finishes them within one-third of the given time and gets most answers correct. Ren usually walks one set path when going to school to make it in just enough time and not spend even an extra minute at school. Everything was going perfectly until Ren felt a presence; someone was following him, and he could sense it, as well as hear the gentle yet steady footsteps. Ren refused to look back; he knew if he did, the stalker would attack him, so Ren made the strategic move to cross to the side of the road where everyone could see him. The footsteps grow louder, and suddenly the person begins heavy breathing and manages to gasp "wait". Ren took no chances and bolted towards school, although it didn't look like it. Ren's physique was quite ideal. Was Ren so terrified that he ran? No, he just couldn't be bothered by getting hurt, so he ran.
Ren finally arrives at his school, but the voice from before follows too, calling out, "Ren, wait up." Ren recognised the voice instantly. He looked back and saw a tall girl with sea-blue eyes and pale, light-toned skin. Ren smiled. This girl was none other than Lunara Caelis. What's so special about her? Lunara Caelis has been friends with Ren for a few years, but she is overly expressive and quite hyper. "So, you were the stalker chasing me?" Ren said, "I literally called your name." "Something a stalker would do", "You're a terrible person sometimes," said Lunara Ren, and Lunara walked towards the same class and took attendance. Ren sat down in the corner of the class next to Lunara. Ren didn't have many friends; Lunara was really his only one, and he didn't have many friends because he didn't talk much.
Ren's distaste for education is mainly because of how repetitive the system is and how boring it is. Once the school day is over, Ren makes his way home and makes it about halfway there when Lunara comes rushing to him. "Slow down, you can wait for me too, you know," Lunara said, "My bad, just try to be quicker." "You could've told me you were going." "Sorry, it's just you were taking so long," said Ren. Ren, then, proceeds to listen, well, pretend to listen anyway, to Lunara ramble on about her day. Ren dwells on the fact that he needs to be better to achieve his dreams, but he just can't express his care. Although being bland and blunt, Ren loved his family, but could never find a way of saying thanks; he just couldn't wait to be home and out of the winter cold. Ren and Lunara cross a road, and a van comes speeding by as they cross, the driver clearly drunk. Ren stops, but Lunara, looking at her phone, unknowingly proceeds to cross. Suddenly, all Ren focuses upon the van, and Lunara, the rest of the world blanks. Ren had to save her. He ran with world-record speed and grabbed her, and they both fell on the pavement. Ren, who is on top of Lunara, covering her like a shield, his face and Lunara go red as they blush, hiding their faces, breaking their emotional barriers. Ren suddenly jumped off, saying, "I'm sorry." Ren felt a weird feeling. He felt as if his stomach and face were burning up; he felt fear and anger. "Watch where you're going." "Oh, my bad." Said Lunara, "You're bad, is that all you're gonna say?" said Ren."You could've died," said Ren"I think I'll walk home alone the rest of the way." "No, you're not, at least not with that level of awareness." Ren could see that Lunara was about to cry because of her near-death experience. "Wanna go get some ice-cream?" "In winter?" Lunara says softly, smiling, "Yeah, why not?" said Ren
Whenever Ren felt bad or did something stupid and hurt someone, he would try to make it up indirectly. Lunara knew getting Ice cream was his way of saying of making her feel better. They both headed towards a local ice-cream store, 5-6 minutes away from school. Ren used to come here in the summer when he would rarely miscalculate the time to get to school. Ren opens the glass door, and a bell rings, letting the cashier know a new customer has arrived. "Hey, Ren, oh, you brought Lunala too!" said the cashier. "Hey Robbie," said Ren in a monotone. Lunala cheerily waves at the cashier, to which he waves back. "How's business?" said Ren "Not so good right now," said the cashier "Well, firstly, ice cream doesn't sell well in winter, and people are saying my food is giving them stomach problems and food poisoning." "Really? Quite rude to assume you're the cause of it." "Well, anyway, what can I get you?" Ren and Lunala both got chocolate ice cream and sat at a table in the corner of the store. Lunala says, "I think you should get mad at me more often." "What?" says Ren "I get free food," Lunala says while showing her chocolate-covered tongue. Ren sighs in disbelief. "You're crazy, you know that." Ren and Lunara chat for a while, then weirdly, Ren's vision suddenly becomes blurry and fatigued, and his stomach starts to hurt. "Hey Lunara, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I feel a little weird." Lunara says, "Oh, shoot, I'll wait for you here until you feel better."
Ren jogs to the bathroom, where he throws up he thinks, "Maybe those people were right about that food poisoning." After a couple of minutes, Ren walks out disoriented and notices Lunala asleep on the chair. Ren, with his half-closed eyes, walks towards her and says, "Hey Lunara, let's go, it's getting late." Lunara gives no reply, and Ren feels freaked out that he heard nothing from the usually talkative girl. Ren looks and calls 2 more times, "Lunara, Lunara!" Still no reply. Ren was feeling a little scared now and went to look at Lunara's face when his heart dropped. Lunara's face looked cold and lifeless, with blood on the side of her lips; she looked like she had choked and struggled to breathe. Ren didn't know how to react, and Ren coughed. The cough was painful. He looked at the floor to see blood, Ren, a usually sane person, lost all sense of humanity in those seconds. He screamed in pain as he fell to the floor. He coughed and struggled to breathe and cried painful, agonising tears. Ren's tears stopped; he knew he was going to die. He curls up into a ball on the floor, and his vision fades to black.
"You mustn't die yet," said a warm voice. Ren woke up with the sun shining right on top of his face. Ren looks around him. The air feels blissful, and the grass he lies on is bright and full of life. Ren thought he was in heaven when, suddenly, he stood up and asked, "Where's Lunara?" "Where am I?" "What is this place?" A voice from behind said, "What are you doing on my farm?" Ren looked back to see a middle-aged man with a greyish beard holding what looked like a battered-up shovel. "Sir, where am I?" asked Ren. The man said, "You're on my farm, that's where you are." "I'm sorry about that. Just tell me where I am." The man looked at Ren in genuine confusion and said, "You're drunk or something?" "Me, I'm not even old enough for that," said Ren. The man said, "I'll give you to the count of 3." Ren tried to calm the man down, but he began counting. "1" "2" "3" "I warned you." Ren doesn't have the strength to move and sits there ready to take the beating from the shovel; however, the man drops his shovel.
The man claps his hands together and slowly pulls them away, the light around Ren and the man darkens and small spheres of energy go between the gap in the man's hand creating a slash of water creating a slash of water. Ren couldn't believe his eyes. He blinked and looked again and again until he felt a slice on his shoulder. "Old guy, how did you do that?" "That's magic, everyone knows that." "Did you say magic?" "Yeah, magic, the thing everyone is born with, you must be drunk." Before Ren could say anything else, he felt a slight sting on his shoulder; it was his blood, and that slash of water created a small cut. Ren winces at the sting of the cut but ignores it, more intrigued by what he witnessed. "You hurt me." "Yeah, now get off my lawn." "Please, teach me how to use magic!" "Why would I do that?" "I'll do anything, just teach me," Ren says, begging. The old man feels a small amount of guilt, enough to make him want to help Ren, "I'll help yo-" Ren cuts off the old man and says, "Really?" Ren realises he was acting quite weird and not like his usual self, after all, he did think he had died. "I can only teach you the basics of magic, but in return, I want you to help me with the farm." Ren now returned to his senses and said, "Sure, boss."
Ren and the old man sit on the wooden table in a cottage, both of them were eating a vegetable stew which Ren despised at first, but realised this old man wasn't in the best financial state. Although Ren didn't question it, he wondered why there wasn't a single trait of modern technology that he had seen. Ren had been slowly building the courage over the last few days (3 days since his arrival) to ask about Lunara; simply thinking about her cold eyes made Ren feel mortified, but he had faith that Lunara was somewhere because he remembered he was somehow alive. Ren finally builds the courage and asks, "Sensei Toren, I have something to ask." The old man, who was named Toren, was quite kind to Ren, although they hadn't started training. Toren saw potential within Ren; he knew something was weird about Ren, but still gave him a chance. Toren replies, "Yes, young one, you may say what is burdening you." "I'm looking for someone." "Who would that be?" "A young girl named Lunara, does that ring a bell?" "No, son, I haven't talked to anyone with such a name." Ren and Toren both stay silent; the silence is so awkward that it's possible to hear the expansion of the wooden walls and the creaking sounds they create. "Young Kazouro, it's time to begin your training." Ren got up without any hesitation and said, "I'm ready, Tor- I mean Sensei!" Ren and Toren both go into one of the plain grass fields near the small cottage. The heat is perfect, and so too is the weather; the wind is subtle, almost calming. "The first step to learning magic is simple." "Master, what is it?" "Awareness", Ren waits a good couple of seconds and asks again, "So, what is it?" Toren stays silent, his eyes now closed as if he were meditating. Toren opens his eyes and dashes forward at inhuman speeds. Ren notices before it's too late and skims the punch of Toren. Ren lashes out, saying, "Master, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" "Young lad, all things have their reasons." Ren, clearly pissed, says, "Can you stop being cryptic and explain?" Toren drops his guard and says, "Young Kazouro, I want you to land only one hit on me." Ren is confused. Toren hands him a wooden sword. "Master, I don't want to injure you." Toren ignores the dialogue from Ren and says, "If you land even one hit with that wooden sword, then I will gladly accept you as my student." Ren thinks in his mind that this will be an easy challenge. Toren then says, "However, if you quit even once, I will not accept you as my student." Ren, confused, pulls his sword up and runs towards Toren and attacks. Ren slashes his blade and grins, thinking he won, then looks in front of him and and Toren, nowhere to be seen. Toren suddenly appears from behind and kicks Ren in the back, sending him to the floor. Ren faceplants.
Ren gets up with more resolve and attacks again, but Toren disappears and kicks him. Ren continues to try, and still can't figure out what's going wrong. Ren stops and digs his wooden sword into the earth. He asks, "Sensei, I don't understand. How do you move with such speed in such a frail body?" Toren says, "When fighting an enemy, do they tell you how to beat them? "Young lad, it is time to go to bed, rest your body, and we will try again tomorrow." Ren, dissatisfied, turns toward the cottage and enters his room. The room allocated to Ren wasn't in the best of conditions; the walls were damp, the floorboards creaked, but he didn't say a single word of disgust as he knew the old man couldn't do anything. Ren struggled to sleep ever since the day he arrived at this new and unfamiliar realm. Ren was confused about whether his family and Lunara were real. Ren smiled. He was finally in his dream world, where magic existed. He could become the strongest in the world, then, Ren thought, "How am I gonna be the strongest, if I can't even beat an old, frail man?" Ren rests his eyes and sleeps. Ren wakes up and looks around. He's in the ice cream store where he thought he had died. He gets up off the floor, and a voice says, "Finally awake?" Ren gets up off the floor and sees Lunara sitting next to him, almost like she was worried about whether he was okay. "Lunara, what happened?" Lunara smiles softly, then Ren's vision fades to black. Ren jumps up from his bed and feels disoriented. He analysed his surroundings; he was still in the Toren's cottage. Ren had been struggling to sleep and couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Lunara. He truly believed she was still alive and he needed to find her, not for any reason but to fulfil his curiosity, which was what he made his motivation. Ren saw the sun shine through the window and got up, ready to beat Toren. Toren was working on the farm and tilling the soil. Ren asked, "Sensei, may we begin?" Toren said, "Yes, lad, let us resume our training."
Toren drops his equipment and hands a wooden sword to Ren. Ren wastes no time trying to catch Toren off guard, dashes towards Toren and attacks, but Toren kicks him again; however, Ren blocks with his sword, but the immense force of the kick puts Ren off balance and throws him towards a wall. Ren got up and stood patiently watching Toren's every move. Toren disappeared into the air, but Ren didn't worry. He closed his eyes and used his other senses. Out of nowhere, Ren felt a cold breeze come towards his face, as if water splashed on it, and he could hear the air move. He was about to get hit, then Ren turned towards the attack and opened his eyes and slashed. He hit something. It wasn't Toren; it was a tree. He had missed. Toren disappears again, and Ren repeats the process, but with closed eyes and using other senses, he misses again. Then Ren remembers when Toren said the aim of the lesson was awareness; maybe there was something he was missing. Ren closed his eyes and entered, focused purely on Toren. The sound of birds faded, the feeling of the wind suppressed. He focused on the wind surrounding him, the heat of the sun, and then he felt it. In the air, it felt as if a strange type of energy was present, not just a small amount, but lots of it. All this energy took the shape of a person, similar to Toren; he could see him. Toren dashed towards Ren, and this time, he was prepared. Ren saw Toren's outline go behind him and kick, but Ren could feel the presence. Ren turned around, opened his eyes, and attacked, landing the hit. Toren fell to the floor. Ren cheers, "I DID IT!" "How did you do that?" said Toren, breaking his character"You don't know," said RenRen explained the process of how he managed to land a hit, to which Toren was quite shocked. "That is not the way I would have done it," said Toren"What? "You just needed to use your other senses to hit me, but you did something unique. "Well, time to begin training."As Ren hears this, determination fills his soul. It was time to prove his worth and become stronger. Ren then thought to himself, "Lunara, wherever you are, I'll find you."