Chapter 2 – The Boy Who Wasn't There
POV: Kaito Hoshino
Currently in Ren Kisaragi's body
By the time we finally stopped walking, I was exhausted.
Not just physically.
Mentally.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
I had basically hit the panic jackpot.
Master Jin carried me into what looked like a flower shop.
Yes.
A flower shop.
After everything I'd seen outside—the wall-running ninjas, sword-carrying children, giant birds and one disturbingly well-dressed dog—apparently our destination was...
Flowers.
I wasn't stupid, though.
Nobody needed three different kinds of ninja lilies unless they were hiding something.
Behind the counter sat a serious-looking man with long blond hair tied neatly behind his head. He looked somewhere around forty, with calm eyes and the general aura of a retired war commander who had decided gardening was less stressful than killing people.
He looked up.
"Jin?"
Master Jin walked straight toward him.
"Shun, I need you to examine the kid."
I was still hanging over his shoulder like a bundle of firewood.
At this point, I didn't even fight it anymore.
Dignity had packed its bags and left the country.
The man—Shun Kanzaki, apparently—looked at me.
Then at Jin.
Then back at me.
"Ren?"
"No," Master Jin said.
His voice had changed.
No irritation.
No sarcasm.
Just seriousness.
"It's someone else."
Okay.
That made things approximately twelve times more uncomfortable.
Shun's expression changed instantly.
One moment: mildly confused flower-shop owner.
Next moment:
terrifying ninja who probably knew seventeen different ways to erase my personality.
Something invisible seemed to press against the room.
Ki?
Aura?
Murder energy?
Ninja soul radiation?
I had no idea.
I only knew one thing.
This man was not your average florist.
This was a mind-ninja florist.
Shun stood.
"Back room."
Master Jin followed.
So did I.
Technically.
Against my will.
The back room looked nothing like the shop.
No flowers.
No pretty decorations.
Just wooden walls covered in strange paper seals, several cabinets full of herbs and medicines, and a low table sitting in the middle of the room.
It smelled faintly of medicinal herbs.
And sadness.
I wasn't sure how a room could smell like sadness.
This one managed it.
The moment Shun shut the door, something pulsed through the air.
The paper seals along the walls glowed faintly.
I stared at them.
"Privacy formation," Shun explained.
"Oh."
Wonderful.
Soundproofing.
Always comforting when someone who could apparently invade your brain made sure nobody could hear you scream.
"Sit."
I sat.
Immediately.
I wasn't arguing with the mind-ninja florist.
Shun settled in front of me.
Master Jin stood behind him with his arms folded.
Shun studied me for several seconds.
"Your name?"
"Kaito Hoshino."
"Age?"
"Fifteen."
"Home?"
"Japan."
"Earth?"
I blinked.
"...Yeah."
He didn't look surprised.
That was weird.
Before I could ask about it, he continued.
"Do you remember entering Ren's body?"
"No."
"Any strange dreams?"
"No."
"Unusual sensations before falling asleep?"
"No."
"Any contact with supernatural beings?"
I stared at him.
"Before today?"
"Yes."
"No."
"Spiritual phenomena?"
"No."
"Ki?"
"I thought that was something people yelled in martial arts movies."
Master Jin's eyebrows rose slightly.
Shun remained expressionless.
"Understood."
I did not like the way he said that.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll need to examine your memories."
...
No.
Absolutely not.
Every alarm bell in my brain went off simultaneously.
"My memories?"
"Yes."
"Like... memories memories?"
"Yes."
"As in everything I've ever seen?"
"If necessary."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
No.
No no no no.
There were things in there.
Private things.
Sacred things.
Things that nobody had any business seeing.
"I'm actually feeling much better now."
I stood.
Master Jin placed one hand on my shoulder.
I sat again.
Traitor.
"Relax," Shun said.
Easy for him to say.
He wasn't about to see my browser history.
Shun raised his hands.
His fingers formed a strange triangular pattern.
Ki gathered around them.
His eyes changed.
They didn't glow dramatically or anything.
That would've been less creepy.
They simply became completely focused.
Empty.
Like everything else in the room had stopped existing.
"Do not resist."
"Wait, shouldn't we discuss consent forms or—"
His fingers touched my forehead.
The world disappeared.
Memory Dive
Apparently, my life was now public property.
They saw everything.
My childhood.
My parents.
School.
Friends.
My room.
Manga stacked underneath my bed.
Anime.
Video games.
My terrible test scores.
My even worse athletic scores.
That time I tried joining the basketball club because a pretty girl was watching and discovered, in front of twenty-three witnesses, that my relationship with gravity was deeply personal.
Then came the memories I really didn't want anyone seeing.
My laptop.
My hidden folders.
My questionable bookmarks.
My carefully maintained collection of magazines.
My highly intellectual appreciation for certain aspects of the female anatomy.
My many, many crushes.
My preference for older girls.
And finally...
My greatest ambition.
Fourteen-year-old me stood in front of my bedroom mirror.
One foot planted on my chair.
One fist raised dramatically toward the ceiling.
Eyes burning with determination.
"I WILL BECOME THE HAREM KING!"
Present-day me wanted to die.
Immortal help me.
If there was an Immortal watching over humanity, now would have been an excellent time for a lightning bolt.
Just—
zap.
Problem solved.
Unfortunately, the universe hated me.
The memory continued.
But they saw more than my embarrassing life.
They saw Earth.
Tokyo.
Cars.
Bullet trains.
Aircraft.
Hospitals.
Computers.
Smartphones.
Satellites.
The internet.
Factories.
Firearms.
Missiles.
Nuclear weapons.
Everything I'd ever learned about the world.
Nothing hidden.
Nothing supernatural.
Because as far as I'd known yesterday morning, supernatural things didn't exist.
When Shun finally pulled away, I gasped.
The room snapped back into existence.
My head felt strangely light.
Master Jin immediately stepped forward.
"Well?"
Shun didn't answer.
He was staring at me.
Not frightened.
Not shocked.
Just...
Disturbed.
Which somehow hurt more.
I narrowed my eyes.
"You're judging me."
"No."
"You saw the folder."
"I saw several folders."
I covered my face.
"Kill me."
Master Jin frowned.
"What folders?"
"NOTHING."
Shun cleared his throat.
Thankfully, he had enough mercy to move on.
"He is telling the truth."
Master Jin's expression hardened.
"You're certain?"
"Completely."
He looked at me.
"This is Kaito Hoshino. Fifteen years old. Born on Earth to an ordinary family."
I slowly lowered my hands.
"Thank you."
"He possesses no training."
"...Less thankful."
"No understanding of Ki."
"I didn't know it existed!"
"No awareness of the supernatural."
I blinked.
"The what?"
Neither man answered.
I looked between them.
"Hold on."
Shun continued as if I hadn't spoken.
"His memories are authentic. His personality, experiences and sense of identity are consistent. This is not Ren suffering from memory manipulation."
Master Jin's jaw tightened.
"So it really is another soul."
"Yes."
Silence.
Master Jin looked at me.
For a second, he looked older.
A lot older.
I suddenly felt guilty.
Which was ridiculous.
I hadn't done anything.
At least...
I hoped I hadn't.
Master Jin turned back toward Shun.
"The seal?"
Shun's expression became even more serious.
"Intact."
I glanced between them.
"What seal?"
Neither answered.
I really hated when adults did that.
"Ballom has not escaped," Shun continued. "The seal is functioning exactly as it should."
Master Jin visibly relaxed.
Only slightly.
But I noticed.
"Good."
I raised my hand.
"Question."
They ignored me.
"The strange part," Shun continued, "is that the seal still recognizes the body as Ren's vessel."
Master Jin frowned.
"Even without Ren's soul?"
"Yes."
"QUESTION."
Both men looked at me.
Finally.
I pointed between them.
"Who is Ballom?"
Silence.
Master Jin and Shun exchanged a look.
It was not a comforting look.
It was the kind of look adults exchanged when a child asked why there was blood on the carpet.
Master Jin sighed.
"We'll explain later."
"No."
"Kaito."
"You don't get to casually say there's something called Ballom sealed inside my new body and then tell me we'll discuss it later."
Master Jin crossed his arms.
"We have bigger problems."
"BIGGER?"
Apparently there were things worse than mysterious sealed Balloms.
Great.
Fantastic.
Wonderful.
Shun spoke before I could start screaming again.
"There is another problem."
Of course there was.
Why wouldn't there be?
At this point, problems were forming a line.
"What?"
Shun looked directly at me.
"The soul currently inside this body is not Ren Kisaragi's."
I stared at him.
"...We knew that."
"Yes."
"But your soul has fully taken his place."
That sounded significantly worse.
"What does that mean?"
"It isn't possession."
Master Jin's eyes narrowed.
"Explain."
"In possession, two souls occupy the same vessel. One suppresses or controls the other."
Shun shook his head.
"That is not what happened."
My stomach tightened.
"Ren's soul is simply..."
He paused.
"...gone."
The room became very quiet.
Master Jin didn't move.
Not even slightly.
"Can you find him?"
"No."
"Trace him?"
"No."
"What about the technique responsible?"
"There is no trace."
Master Jin clenched his jaw.
Shun continued.
"This wasn't caused by any soul art I recognize. It wasn't a possession technique, illusion, reincarnation art or conventional spatial transfer."
"So..."
I looked at my hands.
Ren's hands.
Small.
Scarred.
Calloused from years of training I'd never done.
"Can you fix it?"
Nobody answered.
My chest tightened.
"Can you put me back?"
Shun slowly shook his head.
"Not without Ren."
The words hit harder than I expected.
"What?"
"Whatever happened exchanged more than consciousness. Your entire soul was transferred into this vessel."
"So find Ren."
"We don't know where he is."
"Then look!"
Master Jin's eyes flashed.
"We will."
His voice was sharp enough to stop me.
Then it softened.
"But Shun cannot simply create a connection that no longer exists."
I stared at him.
"But..."
I looked down again.
The scars weren't mine.
The hands weren't mine.
The body wasn't mine.
Yesterday, my biggest problem had been figuring out how to survive high school while somehow convincing girls that I was charming.
Now?
I didn't even have my own face.
This wasn't cosplay.
This wasn't a dream.
This wasn't some stupid novel where I'd wake up five minutes later and laugh about everything.
It was real.
I was Kaito Hoshino.
But the body staring back from every mirror belonged to Ren Kisaragi.
And somewhere...
Ren Kisaragi was missing.
--------------------------------
POV: Ren Kisaragi
In Kaito Hoshino's body
I woke up feeling… comfortable.
That was my first red flag.
The bed was soft, too soft. The air smelled like lavender instead of burnt noodles or sweat. No birds chirping, no morning training sounds. Just stillness. Darkness.
What the hell?
I sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes. The sheets were silky, the pillows plush.
This was not my bed.
I didn't remember falling asleep, not even training late or getting knocked out by Master Jin again.
I stood up, a weird heaviness in my limbs.
Not tiredness—just… off.
Stumbling toward a door, I found the bathroom.
Automatic light?
I knew what those were. Sage Yun Che had introduced plenty of strange inventions over the years.
We just didn't have them at the Sect.
I took a piss, washed my hands, splashed cold water on my face, and—
"What the?!"
The mirror showed me someone else.
I froze.
That face wasn't mine.
Brown hair. Light brown eyes. No scars. No sun-darkened skin or muscular build from years of training.
My arms were longer, thinner.
My chest looked flat and my abs were just gone.
I looked like a civilian!
A teen civilian!
Was this an illusion technique?
A transformation art?
A trap?
My heart raced. I clenched the counter.
Tried to circulate my Ki—
Nothing.
A flicker, maybe, but it felt like trying to grab mist.
No Ki?
WHAT THE HELL?!
I stumbled back, breathing hard.
My head spun.
I needed to assess the situation.
An enemy Sect?
Some forbidden soul technique?
Or worse… something that knowledge-obsessed Sage had done?
I slipped out of the room, tiptoeing down a quiet hallway.
A glance through two open doors showed a man and woman sleeping.
Middle-aged.
They…
They looked like me.
My breath caught.
Parents?
Not mine, obviously.
But I could see the resemblance.
It made my stomach twist.
Downstairs, I reached the kitchen and scanned the room.
Fridge.
Electric lights.
Modern design.
I knew what all of it was.
That wasn't the strange part.
The strange part was seeing it all in an ordinary house.
There were no seals, no Ki formations, no weapon racks or scrolls.
Just magnets on the fridge and a weird little calendar with cats on it.
I opened the fridge, took an apple, and leaned against the counter.
Crunch.
Juicy.
Familiar enough.
But my mind was racing.
Where the hell am I?
Who did this?
I found a small kitchen knife and tucked it into my pocket.
I wasn't planning to fight—but better safe than sorry.
Then I slipped out the back door quietly, shoes still on.
The neighborhood was… strange.
Paved streets.
Smooth sidewalks.
Modern houses.
Cars lined up along the road.
I knew what cars were.
I'd seen drawings, demonstrations, even some of Sage Yun Che's machines.
But I'd never seen so many.
There were no Ki flares.
No ninjas jumping from rooftops.
No disciples training in the streets.
Just a faint morning chill, birds chirping lazily, and a distant jogger.
He wore tight shorts and ridiculously bright shoes.
I stood there on the sidewalk, suddenly very, very aware that I was completely out of place.
Is this an elaborate illusion formation?
Or have I been sent to another world?
And just like that, I, Ren Kisaragi of the Veiled Moon Sect, had become a lost boy with no Ki, no weapons, and no allies.
Only questions.