Kenji
Kenji couldn't feel anything—or more accurately, it was that he could feel everything in a single instant. It was a suffocating heat that clung to his skin.
"Stop…"
His voice was a gurgle, drowned out by the roaring white noise in his skull.
The sound of wet tearing reverberated through his bones. He looked down. His hands were there, but were drenched in crimson, ripping through white lab coats like wet paper.
He felt the spray of arterial blood hot on his face as his body turned several researchers into red mist.
The scene fractured, violently shifting like broken glass.
Lightning tore the sky apart, illuminating a figure in front of him.
Fu Hua.
She was standing in front of him as an opponent. Before everything split apart again, and Fu Hua was now spitting blood from one of his punches.
'Don't hurt her. Stop it!'
But his body didn't listen, watching in horror as his fist launched forward. He felt the impact vibrate up his arm as Fu Hua was beaten bloody and thrown around like a corpse.
The world twisted again.
He was strapped down. He couldn't move his head. Tubes were buried deep in his arms, his neck, his chest. A fluid burned through his veins like acid, dissolving him from the inside out. Every nerve ending was being cooked alive.
Pain arced through his muscles, seizing them in constant cramping spasms.
Kenji thrashed, his fingernails clawing at his own throat, trying to rip the phantom tubes out. The phantom sensation of acid burned in his muscles, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"Are you quite done?"
Kenji froze. He knew that voice and that irritating tone. The sheer shock cut through the pain and forced him into clarity.
He scrambled to his feet, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. His hands flew up to defend himself, his eyes darting around wildly.
He wasn't in the lab or in that facility.
He was in… nothingness.
And standing ten feet away, watching him with an expression of mild disgust, was… him.
"This is just pathetic," the figure said, crossing his arms.
Zero.
"You…" Kenji rasped, his voice still recovering from the mental assault.
Zero rolled his eyes. He stepped forward, his movement unnervingly smooth, lacking the natural weight of a human step.
"Honestly," Zero scoffed, raising a hand. "Get a grip."
"Fuck you!"
The terror, the memories of hurting his allies, the torture—it all coalesced into a singular, burning point of rage.
Red lightning crackled around his body. One For All hummed in his veins once more as he lunged straight for Zero.
He threw his entire body weight forward, channeling every ounce of his power into a punch intended to kill.
Whoosh.
Only for him to pass cleanly through Zero's torso.
The sensation was nauseating, like plunging into ice water for a split second, before his momentum carried him forward. He stumbled, his feet skidding on the invisible floor, and nearly face-planted.
Kenji scrambled up, spinning around and glaring at him. "What did you do?!"
"I didn't do anything," Zero said. He hadn't even turned around. He was still facing the way Kenji had come, talking to the empty air.
"You can't touch me, and I can't touch you. We don't exist on the same frequency."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kenji shouted, the red lightning around him flickering out as confusion dampened his rage. "Where are we? Is this your domain?!"
"My domain?" Zero laughed, a dry, humorless sound that grated on Kenji's nerves. "No, I don't own this place. Neither do you."
Zero finally turned around. His expression wasn't what Kenji was expecting. He looked almost tired, but still had enough energy to stare at Kenji with disdain.
He pointed a finger past Kenji's shoulder.
"Open your eyes, 'Hero.' Look where you actually are."
Kenji frowned, and slowly turned his head to follow Zero's finger.
The breath left his lungs.
The darkness wasn't empty.
Beneath his feet, a single, translucent path stretched out into the infinite distance. It looked like crystallized starlight, a narrow bridge of glass cutting through a universe of absolute nothingness.
And far, far ahead, hanging in the black sky like a newborn star, was a massive sphere of light.
It was a volatile, swirling storm of energy. Deep, violent crimson clashed against soft, radiant pink, while veins of electric blue arced across the surface.
It pulsed like a living heartbeat that Kenji could feel vibrating in his body, a frequency of raw power that made the hair on his arms stand up.
It was beautiful. It was terrifying.
And it felt impossibly far away.
"What exactly is this place?" Kenji asked, his voice barely rising above a whisper.
"This is the Path Space. Think of it as a waiting room. Or a doorstep." Zero replied, his tone lacking its earlier mockery.
Zero walked past Kenji, stopping at the edge of the crystalline path and staring out at the infinite blackness.
At that moment, he looked more like a prisoner than a monster. A sight that Kenji wasn't sure what to think of.
Zero didn't move for a long time. He just watched the pulsating red sphere with a strange intensity.
"That's where we're supposed to be," Zero murmured, gazing toward the light. "But it isn't letting us walk that path."
Kenji frowned and stepped up beside him. He kept a safe distance, still wary of another trick, but curiosity pushed him forward. "Why? Is there some kind of barrier?"
"No. There's no wall and no lock." Zero turned his head slightly, his crimson eyes locking onto Kenji with a look of heavy, melancholic irony.
"There is only an anchor." He gestured vaguely at Kenji's chest.
A part of Kenji was already tired of the constant vagueness. But he couldn't find it in him to lash out anymore. There was something about this place that made him both awed and wary.
"I could walk that path, you know. I have the drive. I have the hunger to see what lies at the end of it and fill this empty existence with something other than your guilt."
Zero let out a short, bitter laugh. "But I can't. Because I'm shackled to a suicidal corpse."
"I'm sick of you putting nonsensical labels on me. I'm not suicidal."
"Aren't you?" Zero countered. "You throw yourself into danger not because you want to win, but because you don't care if you lose. You treat your life like currency. You think spending it is the only way to pay a nonexistent debt."
Zero turned back to the sphere. His expression softened into a profound longing.
"That light demands a will tolive," Zero said, reaching a hand out toward the distant energy. "It wants us to venture out. To see the world not as a battlefield to die on, but as a vast mystery to explore."
"…But because you refuse to live for yourself, I am denied the right to live at all."
What followed next was just heavy silence.
Kenji looked at the sphere again. He felt the magnetic pull of it resonating with One For All inside him. Like it was almost inviting him.
"What is it?" Kenji asked. "You keep talking like I'm some idiot, that you know everything. So tell me, what really is One For All?"
Zero sighed, debating whether it was even worth the breath.
"…Strength is just a byproduct. Speed, regeneration, quirks… they're mere tools." Zero straightened up, his posture shifting from defeated to almost reverent.
"The true power is a Path that sustains it all."
"A Path?"
"To connect the stars," Zero said, his eyes glowing a little brighter. "To bridge the gap between conflict and connect people, not through sacrifice, but through understanding."
Kenji furrowed his brow. "I don't understand."
"Of course you don't," Zero sneered, though the bite was weak. "But I'll try to spell it out for you. The blessing we carry… it comes from—"
Zero's lips moved, but no sound came out.
▀▙█
Reality inside Kenji's skull violently convulsed.
It wasn't a noise. It was the sudden, brutal absence of perception. A chaotic blast of static roared through his brain, drowning out Zero's voice and his own thoughts.
"Argh!"
Kenji stumbled back, clutching his head with both hands. His vision swam with spots of nothingness like a corrupted video file.
"What… what was that?" Kenji gasped, shaking his head to clear the ringing silence.
Zero watched him, his expression hardening. He tried again.
"The Aeon of ▔░▀█▁▟█"
Kenji's knees buckled. This time, he felt a sickening lurch in his stomach and a rejection from his own subconscious.
Kenji stayed on his knees, panting, staring at the floor of the Path Space as the static slowly faded into a dull throb behind his eyes.
"I… I can't hear what you're saying," Kenji wheezed.
Zero stared down at him. For a moment, Kenji expected another insult. He expected Zero to kick him while he was down, to mock his weakness.
But none of that happened.
He just looked tired.
"I know," Zero said quietly.
He looked from Kenji to the distant sphere one last time, his face twisting in a mix of pity and disdain.
"The concept itself rejects you. Your mind is so warped that your very soul rejects the idea." He trailed off, knowing the words wouldn't land.
/ — /
"Keep running in place, hero. Maybe if you try hard enough, you'll dig a hole deep enough to bury us both."
And then, he was gone. Disappeared into nothing. Leaving Kenji alone.
He spun around, his eyes darting across the infinite blackness. The paranoia set in instantly. Without Zero there to focus on, the void felt hostile. It felt like he was being watched from every angle, even though there was nothing there.
He looked at the red sphere in the distance. The pulsing light was the only thing in this entire dimension that felt real.
"I need to get out," Kenji hissed through gritted teeth.
He couldn't stand around doing nothing. Who knows what could be going on in the real world? What happened to his allies, to his friends?
Seeing no other way out of this space, the only thing he knew to head towards was the sphere. He squared his shoulders and took a step forward.
He took another step.
Then another.
The path stretched out before him, a straight line of glass cutting through the dark. He started to jog, his eyes locked on the destination.
He ran. Driving his legs with the same desperation he used in a fight. He didn't know why, but something in him yearned for it. To reach out towards that ethereal glow.
But the star remained exactly the same size.
It didn't get closer, nor did it get further away. It simply hung there, indifferent to his struggle.
Kenji stopped, his chest heaving. He wiped sweat from his eyes and looked down at his feet. The space itself was stretching, elongating to keep him exactly where he was.
"I'm tired of this! Stop playing around!" he shouted at the light.
The sphere pulsed in response.
Thump.
As he stared at the light, the feeling of being watched intensified a thousand times over. Kenji came to a realization that the sphere wasn't just a ball of power, it was alive. Like an unblinking cosmic gaze that dissected his every atom.
The pressure inside his skull returned, but it wasn't the chaotic static from earlier. It felt like invisible fingers were peeling back his skin, pushing past his muscles and bones to grab the thing underneath.
W̸̭̪͋̏́ĥ̸͓̻͙̈́õ̵̧̩̠̊̅ ̴̗̑a̶͓̓̈͜r̷͉̂ͅê̵̮̹̮͘ ̸̳̃͂y̵̨̨̥͂̑̿o̶͉͒̚u̴̫͆̐͊?̶͉̊
The thought didn't come from his mind. It radiated from the light and echoed throughout nothingness straight into his soul.
"I am a Knight of Schicksal," he answered.
The pressure didn't relent. It didn't even acknowledge the claim.
N̷̯͍̯̓͌̈́ơ̸̹̪͛̇.̷̨̫͆͛͜͝
It wasn't a rejection or dismissal. The sphere merely saw the title for what it was.
W̸̭̪͋̏́ĥ̸͓̻͙̈́õ̵̧̩̠̊̅ ̴̗̑a̶͓̓̈͜r̷͉̂ͅê̵̮̹̮͘ ̸̳̃͂y̵̨̨̥͂̑̿o̶͉͒̚u̴̫͆̐͊?̶͉̊
The paranoia spiked into dread. He didn't know why he suddenly felt it. But it was as if something important was being forcefully torn from his chest.
Something that he desperately wanted to drown in the deepest parts of himself. A part of him that he had already come to terms with.
"I… am the wielder of One For All," Kenji said, gripping his chest.
N̷̯͍̯̓͌̈́ơ̸̹̪͛̇.̷̨̫͆͛͜͝
The sphere pulsed brighter, the crimson light washing over him. It burned away the titles and faces. It stripped him of the guilt and self-sacrifice he had used to validate his existence.
It left him with nothing but the raw, shivering core of a boy named Kenji Aoyama.
And that boy was hollow.
Kenji stopped breathing—or was he ever breathing in the first place? His hands clawed at his chest, digging into his skin as if trying to physically hold himself together.
Ẉ̶̌̌͝h̶̞́̀̋o̷͙̹̿ ̴̧̠̀̾à̵̺̤͚̏ŕ̵͈é̷͉͇͖ ̸͈̮̩̈́͊ỹ̶̦ọ̷̡͑͘u̶̡̳̘͒,̴͔̃̂̃ ̶̼͊K̶͉̹̓͑e̷̳͂̉n̶͍̦͆͐͠ͅj̸̤̣̿͊̏i̶͖̍̇ ̵̥̾A̶̹̝͊̐ȍ̵̥̉̇y̵̭̥̪͊͂͂å̶͍͍̯̀͘m̶̩̚ǻ̷͓̈́?̶̺̪̖̅
The question echoed in the empty chamber of his soul.
Kenji stared into the light, his eyes wide and unblinking. Staring like a corpse. He stood paralyzed, locked in a silent scream as the self he hid was brought to light.
"I…" Kenji choked out, his voice cracking not from tears, but from the sheer strain of trying to find the words that didn't exist. "I—!"
He couldn't finish the sentence.
The void pressed in. The silence became a roar. His mind began to fracture, the edges of his vision turning white as the Sphere's sheer presence started to overwhelm him.
"—nji…"
A voice cut through the pressure.
"Kenji~"
It was melodic. Warm. It didn't come from the distance; it came from everywhere at once, wrapping around him like a heavy blanket, shielding him from the cold exposure of the star.
"Wake up, sleepy head~"
/ — /
Softness.
That was the first thing his brain registered. The hard, crystalline floor was gone. He was lying on something soft.
A refreshing smell swept through his senses. One that lifted all the weight from his being, making his soul lighter than it ever had been before.
The silence was replaced by the ambient, cozy sound of a room—the clinking of glass, the rustle of paper, a faint hum of contentment.
Kenji didn't want to open his eyes. His brain, tired and desperate for safety, had latched onto the warmth. He felt a hand gently stroking his hair, a rhythmic, soothing motion that melted the tension right out of his spine.
It felt safe. It felt like a home he used to have. A life he had long forgotten.
"Five more minutes, mom…" Kenji mumbled, his words slurring as he nuzzled his face deeper into the lap of his "mom."
A soft giggle vibrated against his cheek.
"I'm glad that my presence puts you at ease."
Kenji froze.
His eyes snapped open.
He was looking up. Directly into a pair of sparkling eyes.
A woman was looking down at him, her face framed by flowing pink hair. She was smiling, a radiant expression that seemed to suck all the gloom out of the universe.
Elysia.
"HOLY—!"
He scrambled backward, his limbs flailing in panic. He rolled right off the plush couch and hit the floor with a heavy thud.
"Ouch…"
"Oh no! Are you okay?" Elysia laughed, leaning over the armrest of the ornate chaise lounge. "You didn't have to jump, you know. You looked quite comfortable there."
Kenji sat up, his face burning hot. He looked around wildly.
He wasn't in the void anymore.
He was in a massive, golden lounge. Sunlight streamed in through nonexistent windows, illuminating plush furniture, out of place floating data screens, and shelves lined with trinkets
"Did ya hear that?!"
A new voice cackled from above.
Kenji whipped his head to the left.
A girl with cat ears and a hooded cloak was perched on top of a floating stack of crates, kicking her legs back and forth.
'A catgirl?!'
Her face twisted into a teasing grin. "Mom? Did ya hear that, Eden? He called Ellie 'Mom'! That's gonna go straight to her head!"
"Now, now, Pardofelis," another voice soothed.
Kenji looked to the right.
A woman with deep red hair, holding a glass of wine with an elegance that made Kenji feel underdressed just by existing near her, stepped into view. She looked amused, but her eyes held a gentle, welcoming warmth.
"Don't tease him too much. He's had a rough journey."
She raised her glass slightly in Kenji's direction.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Successor."
Kenji scrambled to his feet, dusting off his gown. 'Successor? Then… they must be—!'
He looked further into the room, his eyes widening as he spotted the other figures in the space.
In the corner, a man with grey hair sat on a floating cushion, sipping tea with his eyes closed, radiating a calm that made the air around him feel still. Beside him, a young girl with paint-stained hands was staring expectantly at him
And then, standing near the back, was a figure that made Kenji do a double take.
"Fu Hua…?"
His mind struggled to process whether the figure was actually the class monitor he knew or someone who looked terrifyingly similar.
Kenji felt his hand twitch as the memory of his body beating Fu Hua into a pulp flashed through his mind.
The figure before him was translucent, her entire form wreathed in soft, golden flames. The burning figure met his gaze. There were no words that left her, but she offered him a stiff, awkward nod.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," a steampunk-styled woman with a top hat declared, stepping out from behind a massive cogwheel mechanism.
She threw her arms wide, her cape flourishing with theatrical flair.
"Well, I suppose technically, you are seeing several."
She tipped her hat, her multicolored eyes gleaming with manic intelligence.
"Welcome, successor of One For All. Inheritor of our wills!
She swept her arm across the room, encompassing the burning monk, the painter, the cat, and the pink elf.
"We the Flame-Chasers!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I'm gonna pass out."