It looks like my judgment was correct… you are the infamous Fiends."
Shiori's voice didn't just enter the room.
It stabbed into it.
Every sibling froze.
The world didn't just go quiet —
it tightened, thinner than a breath, stretched like a thread ready to snap.
Then—
BOOM.
The entire house detonated into motion.
Rifles went up.
Boots cracked against the floorboards.
Soldiers poured in like a flood of steel and discipline.
Genji stepped through the smoke with the calm of a man who had walked into death a thousand times and survived.
Shiori slid beside him, blade low, eyes narrow, foot drawn back into a combat stance sharp enough to cut the air itself.
Daiki shoved Aya behind him.
"THIS is your definition of ROUTINE?!"
Aya clawed at his sleeve.
"DAIKI, STOP—!"
Ren didn't hear a single word.
His heartbeat was too loud.
His breath too sharp.
Everything in the world was collapsing inward toward this single impossible moment.
Genji took one step forward.
"No one wants this to—"
Aiko cut him off.
"No."
Not loud.
Not desperate.
Just calm.
Like a decision that had already been made hours ago.
Years ago.
Maybe her entire life ago.
The lantern behind her flickered.
A tiny flame.
Which suddenly twisted sideways.
Like something invisible had grabbed it.
Shiori narrowed her eyes.
"Captain… her aura is—"
And then everyone felt it.
A pressure.
Physical.
Like the air became water — and everyone was suddenly drowning while standing upright.
Wind began to breathe inside the house.
A house with no open windows.
A house whose doors were sealed moments ago.
A house that suddenly felt alive
.
Genji braced his legs.
"Kigen activation… wind-type. Strong. Very strong."
Aiko inhaled.
The curtains shivered.
Dust lifted from the floor.
The siblings felt their hair rise, their skin pricking with static-like warning.
Hikaru grabbed Ren's arm.
"Ren— something's wrong—"
But Ren felt only one thing:
This wasn't his mother losing control.
This was his mother releasing control.
The air around her coiled…
thin at first, then thicker, then spiraling around her calves like ghost serpents.
Genji's voice sharpened.
"Soldiers. Subdue her— NOW."
Two soldiers flew in.
Aiko stepped forward.
Just one step.
FWOOOOOM—!!
A shockwave burst from her heel, launching both soldiers into the air.
They smashed through shelves, then into the far wall, leaving cracks like spiderwebs.
Shiori reacted instantly —
faster than any normal soldier should be able to.
She dashed in low, blade reversed.
"Don't make me hurt you!"
Aiko's body moved before the words finished.
She turned -
her movement as light as a dancer, as fluid as a floating leaf.
Wind spiraled up her arm.
Shiori's blade cut air.
Aiko seized Shiori's wrist.
Twisted.
CRACK.
Shiori screamed, dropping her blade.
Aiko opened her palm.
FWOOM—!
A gust the size and force of a battering ram slammed into Shiori's chest, blasting her backward into the wooden support beam.
Her vision flickered.
Aya cried out,
"MOM — STOP PLEASE—!"
But Aiko wasn't feral.
Her eyes were terrifyingly clear.
Focused.
Precise.
Aiko turned toward Genji.
He met her gaze like a man walking into an execution he accepted years ago.
"I've heard the rumors," he said quietly.
A rumble of shifting debris answered him — the wind gathering behind Aiko like a living creature.
"The 'Kagekawa Ghost.'
A woman who once repelled an entire border raid alone."
Takumi froze mid-swing, eyes widening.
"Mom… what…?"
Genji continued. "I didn't want to believe a civilian could do that. But now…"
He lifted his blade.
"…show me."
Genji struck first.
He moved like a beast breaking its chains —
fast, ruthless, precise.
His blade whistled downward.
Aiko caught the strike with her forearm, a swirling vortex shielding her from steel.
The blade SKITTERED off the wind like it struck stone.
She moved inside his range—
jab lightning-fast—
Genji tilted his head, but even dodging wasn't enough.
The air trailing her fist sliced his cheek open.
Blood sprayed.
He stepped back, breath steady.
"You control wind on a molecular— no— spiritual level. This is mastery…"
Shiori pulled herself up, trembling as she gasped,
"Captain… don't— under—estimate—"
Aiko spun.
Genji's eyes widened —
An invisible blade of compressed air cleaved across the room.
He threw up a gauntlet.
Steel shredded, blood streaking the floor.
"Soldiers— FLANK!"
The remaining troops attacked.
A soldier grabbed Kaede's arm—
she BIT him, screaming,
"DON'T TOUCH ME—!"
He backhanded her—
Ren lunged—
Hikaru tackled him down, holding him,
"REN YOU CAN'T— YOU'LL DIE—!"
Takumi, wild with instinct, punched a soldier off Daiki, shouting,
"GET — OFF — HIM —!!"
Aiko's eyes snapped toward Takumi—
Wind SCREAMED.
She slashed her arm sideways.
BOOM—!!
A horizontal shockwave blasted the soldier through an entire divider wall.
Aiko turned to the last soldier—
He thrust his rifle.
She caught the barrel.
Crushed it like dry bread.
Kicked him across the room.
Wind whirled around her now — violent, sharp, fragments of the house suspended like dust in an anti-gravity field.
Genji's voice was quieter now.
"If this continues… you'll rupture your lungs. Your arteries. Your heart."
Aiko looked at her children.
Then she looked at Genji.
"I won't let you take them."
Wind shrieked.
The entire room bent inward.
Glass levitated.
Dust spiraled.
Shiori screamed,
"CAPTAIN SHE'S GOING INTO OVERLOAD—!"
Aiko whispered, only for Ren's ears:
"Live."
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!!
A shockwave tore the world apart.
Walls disintegrated.
Beams snapped like twigs.
The roof ripped open like paper.
Every soldier flew into the yard.
The siblings scattered like leaves in a hurricane.
Ren slammed into what remained of the kitchen counter, pain exploding across his ribs.
Silence followed.
A silence too heavy.
Too terrifying.
Smoke drifted through the ruins.
The house was gone.
And Aiko—
A silhouette in the dust—
Was not standing.
Ren's world collapsed.
He crawled, shaking, coughing blood, dragging himself over splinters and debris.
"Mom…?"
He reached out—
Water touches his fingertips first.
Not mud.
Not blood.
Cold, still water.
Ren blinks.
He is standing in a shallow ocean of white light.
Ankle-deep ripples stretch infinitely.
No horizon.
No sky.
No earth.
Only white.
Drip.
A single ripple circles outward.
Then—
A voice.
"Ren…"
Soft.
Everywhere.
Nowhere.
Inside his chest.
"You are now Grace-Bound."
His breath fractures.
"G… Grace…?"
Footsteps approach from behind.
Slow.
Gentle.
Familiar.
Arms wrap around him from behind.
Warm.
Shaking.
Ren turns his head—
His mother stands behind him.
Not broken.
Not bleeding.
Radiant.
Her head rests on his shoulder, her tears dripping into the water.
She whispers, voice trembling with love and sorrow:
"I'm here, my son."
He chokes,
"M-Mom… are you—"
She hugs him tighter.
As if refusing to let his soul drift away.
"My soul chose you."
The white world begins to shine brighter.
The water trembles.
The air hums.
Electricity crackles under Ren's skin — faint at first, then stronger, then surging through his veins like lightning awakening for the first time.
Aiko whispers into his ear—
"Together…"
The water turns stormy.
The light pulses.
A thunderclap cracks overhead.
"…we will rise."
And then—
Lightning erupts from Ren's chest like a newborn star.
The White World explodes into brilliance.
END OF PROLOGUE.