The school day had ended hours ago, but the weight of it still clung to Blessing's shoulder like soaked cloth. His bag swayed with every step, heavy with the kind of weight you couldn't write in a notebook.
"The air moves when I do… like its listening. I close my eyes and I can feel everything, too much of everything. I thought maybe I could talk to Esther about it."
He smiled faintly. "She always says I act like I know everything maybe for once she'll be right."
Crows perched on the rusted power lines, watching silently as he turned onto his street. The wind brushed past his ears, carrying the scent of smoke and something else familiar.
As he reached the small, worn down house he shared with Esther he paused. The light flickering through the window wasn't normal, neither was the scorch mark on the curtain.
Blessing sprinted into the burning building, smoke already thick in the house. His eyes stung. He burst into the apartment flames crawled across the walls, the living room was scorched and in the center, curled up on the floor… Esther. She was covered by a glowing misty flame aura, water sizzling on her clothes but she was unharmed, her hands flickered red-blue.
"Esther!" He ran in, grabbing her. The heat didn't burn her or him. The steam cooled just enough as they passed. Behind them, a beam collapses with a crash.
Outside Esther sat on the curb, wrapped in a blanket. Her hair damp, eyes distant. "I didn't mean to…. I didn't know what was happening." She said softly. "You're ok now. That's all that matters."
Blessing stared at his little sister with concern but his honey brown eyes distant "She's like me… no she's stronger." He thought.
Morning arrived, laughter and chats occur as Blessing walked through school, his usual quiet self. Students pass him, chatting. He noticed Naoki leaning against a wall, watching him with a strange look.
"What's with that kid" Blessing said to himself quietly.
Naoki looked away as they passed each other. The sight of Blessing reminded him of a time he wanted to forget. A time were he had paper flowers in his hands. "You sit with him, laugh with him. I tried too, I told you how I felt. You smiled and called me kiddo like a little brother." He thought.
Naoki gripped his pencil tightly. "He gets everything by just existing, I'll take my place the hard way."
Naoki left school before home time and arrived at an abandoned lot filled with junk and scrap. He stood facing a row of metal scrap and dummy targets. His bag full of cardboard paper and tape. He pulled a clean sheet from his pack, folded it to make a paper sword.
"Paper sword." He shouted his fingers tightened around the folded sheet its shape crudely mimicking a sword.
"Let's see who's laughing now." He said as the air around him shifted, heat rippling outward. The paper blade shimmered, glowing faintly as if answering a silent call. In an instant flames erupted not wild or chaotic, but precise, coiling along the edges like loyal serpents.
The flimsy paper hardened, its surface darkening and gleaming, metal forming from nothing, forged by pure elemental fury. Within seconds the paper sword had vanished replaced by a blade of obsidian steel, wreathed in dancing fire, its heat pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. "Igris slash." He yelled burning the dummy that was in front of him to nothing ash.
But however elsewhere far away, in a dimly lit room humming with low static, a monitor flickered to life. On the screen Naoki"s figure moved with fierce determination each frame captured in grainy grayscale.
A man with a crescent moon symbol on his left shoulder leaned forward in his seat fingers glued under his chin. His eyes didn't blink. "So the paper boy's still at it," he whispered, a hint of a smirk tugging at his lips. "How much longer until the higher ups finally decide to take him in?" behind him rows of screens glowed faintly each one tracking someone different.
Meanwhile the scent of warm broth filled the air as Blessing placed two steaming bowls of noodles on the small wooden table of their part time room.
"Dinner," he said simply, setting his own bowl down and grabbing chopsticks.
Across from him, Esther sat motionless, her eyes fixed on the soft flicker of a single candle in the center of the table. Its flame swayed gently, casting dancing shadows across her face.
"What's going to happen to me?" she asked as she looked up.
"For starters you'll train and learn to control your power" He said as he took another slurp of his noodles not mentioning the voices in his head or flickers in the wind. "I don't know what's happening but I have to stay calm for her even if I feel unease inside." He thought.
Elsewhere in a place the sun never touched. The hum of static buzzed through the cold, concrete room. Multiple screens lined the walls each flickering with the same image, Naoki drenched in sweat training relentlessly in a cracked courtyard, over and over the same footage replayed, rewound, studied.
In the center of the room, a lone figure sat cross legged in the shadows, face hidden beneath the brim of a hood.
His fingers tapped rhythmically against a steel chair arm, tick, tick, tick each tap in sync with Naoki's movement on the screen. "Paper weapons," the voice murmured low, deep and amused. "How disappointing… and yet… so interesting."
A pause as the figure leaned forward, no eyes and a stitched grin reflecting in the screen's glow "He plays with paper, I play with fear Let us see who folds first paperboy hero or Headless," Laughter echoed as the screen flickered off.
Meanwhile back at the Chiaki's house the air was still, unusually quiet for this time of day. A faint breeze rustled the leaves, carrying the scent of earth and something faintly metallic like distant rain or tension. "I should tell Esther what's happening to me as well" he thought as he stood alone in the yard his bowl of half-finished noodles now forgotten on the porch behind him. His honey-brown eyes scanned the horizon, brows slightly furrowed.
Then "Brother!" Esther yelled. Blessing rushed in to see Esther pancaking as she struggled to put out small flames on the walls. Esther muttered under her breath waving her hand frantically at the small flames dancing stubbornly on the wall.
The once faint flicker had spread into little tongues of fire, licking the wooden surface like they were alive and mocking her. Her ice-blue eyes narrowed in frustration.
"Why won't you just go out already?" She swiped at it again with the water coming from her hands this time channeling her will but the flames only got brighter in defiance. That's when Blessing stepped in, blinking as he took the scene.
He didn't say anything, he just moved with a calm expression, he reached out his hand and waved once. A small gust of wind surged from his palm and the flames vanished instantly leaving only a faint scorch mark and silence.
"You're just like me." Esther said eyes wide. "And you're better at it how'd you do that."
"How did I do that," Blessing wondered.
That night in an underground base known as hero society. They looked closely at Naoki's videos over and over. "Naoki Kobayashi multi elemental confirmed." One of the analyst muttered.
In the large base a meeting took place in a massive dome shaped, dimly lit and a circular spotlight that illuminated a grand round table in the center. Twelve high backed chairs surrounding it, each one curved with intricate emblems representing different branches of the society strategy, surveillance, research, enforcement and more but one thing they had in common was a crescent moon symbol. A tall holographic screen glowed faintly behind the table, flickering with live updates and reports from the field. A low beep echoed as the encrypted doors slid open with a hiss.
Director Kaida an elderly man with grey hair, grey eyes and a huge scar that ran down his face took the center seat. His presence alone seemed to still the air. He cleared his throat until councilor Maki head of surveillance leaned forward "We've had a breach of Veira energy outburst in district 12"
Takeda's eyes narrowed "Veira energy outburst that's common enough. So what's the problem?"
"Yes sir but" Maki said voice low as if she'd not want what she'd say to be true.
"But?" Takeda asked as he raised an eyebrow. "The Veira signature is eerily similar to subject zeros"
Murmurs rose, even among seasoned fighters. "Subject zero, then without a doubt someone or something is waking up and I doubt it's a friend." Takeda said voice low.
The pieces were finally moving but none of them truly knew what the game was.