I never imagined the world would pull me anywhere like this. Not into a headquarters filled with strangers. Not into an organization that looked at me like a weapon disguised as a boy. I used to wake up thinking about homework and game lobbies and what my friends would say when I logged on. Now I woke up in a steel bed inside the Japanese Order's barracks.
The room they gave me was plain. A single bed. A metal locker. A small window that barely let in sunlight. There was a smell of disinfectant and clean uniforms in the air. Everything felt too neat. Too prepared. Like they were always waiting for more people like me to show up.
I sat on the edge of the bed wearing their issued gray shirt and my father's pajamas. I refused to take them off. Even if people stared. They were the only thing that still felt like home.
Someone knocked on my door.
Not loudly. More like a polite reminder that I no longer had my own space.
I opened it and found the girl from before standing there. The one with the long buttoned sleeves and the TJO emblem sewn over her chest. Her brown hair was tied tightly behind her head and her expression looked like she had memorized how to smile without meaning it.
"The Commander wants to see you," she said.
My stomach tightened. I did not want to see him again. That man with the perfect posture, the black hair falling almost too neatly across his forehead, the sharp eyes that looked straight through your skin. I did not know his name yet. He introduced himself simply as the Commander of the Japanese Order.
I followed her down the narrow hallway. Every step echoed. Every wall felt the same. Every door led to something I did not understand.
Recruits walked past us with curious eyes. Some wore normal clothes. Some wore uniforms. Some had strange scars across their arms. Everyone whispered a little when I passed, like they already knew what I was.
The boy who survived an abnormality.
The boy who regenerated.
The boy with something inside him that should not exist.
The girl led me to an office at the end of the hall. She knocked once, then opened the door for me.
The Commander sat behind his desk, but he was not doing paperwork. He was staring at a small screen showing news reports. Clips of the Seven Wonders appeared on rotation. Flames spiraling above a street in Brazil. Ice spreading across a field in Russia. A man in Nigeria talking to thin air with perfect calm as soldiers watched from a distance.
The Commander turned off the screen when he noticed me.
"Yen Yoshida," he said with a slow nod. "Come in."
His tone always felt too calm. Too controlled. Like he was thinking ten steps ahead at all times.
I stepped inside. The girl closed the door behind me, leaving us alone.
He gestured toward the chair across from him. I sat down. I kept my hands in my lap because if I did not, they would shake and I refused to look weak in front of him.
"How is your room," he asked.
His politeness felt like a knife wrapped in velvet.
"It is fine," I said quietly.
He nodded as if checking something off a list.
"I understand the circumstances of your arrival were unpleasant. You have been through something no child should experience. But you survived. That alone makes you different from the others."
My chest tightened.
I did not want to be different.
I wanted to go home, even if home did not exist anymore.
"You are not a prisoner," he continued. "But you are gifted. The Japanese Order exists to guide individuals like you. We protect civilians from abnormalities. We study the Vansi. And we prepare for whatever is coming next."
I swallowed hard. "Why me."
"Because your regeneration is exceptional. Because you awakened alone. Because you faced an abnormality and lived." His eyes narrowed slightly. "And because you have already shown a physical increase after your first recovery."
I looked down at my hands. I remembered the moment in my house, the way my body knit itself together, the way strength flooded into me like new blood. It did not feel human. It did not feel right.
The Commander leaned back in his chair.
"We have a training program. You will begin it tomorrow morning. You will be evaluated. You will be taught to control your ability. And you will eventually be deployed."
The word deployed hit me like a punch.
"I do not want to fight," I whispered. "I just want to go home."
He did not look angry. He did not even frown. He simply tilted his head slightly, studying me.
"Home is no longer a place you can return to," he said quietly. "You must build a new one."
My throat burned. I blinked rapidly, trying to force the tears back. I hated that he saw me like this. I hated that he sat there calmly while I tried not to fall apart.
Then he stood.
He walked over to a large bulletin board on the wall. Pictures were pinned across it. Maps. Patterns. Red strings connecting small notes. It looked like a web of everything happening around the world.
He pointed to the photos of the Seven Wonders.
"These seven will shape the future. Their abilities are stronger than anything we have documented. They may stabilize the world or shatter it entirely. Every country with a Wonder has already built its own Order."
He paused, then pointed to a small space on the board at the bottom right corner.
"And this is where you belong for now."
There was nothing pinned there. Just empty cork.
The realization sank in.
I was not a recruit.
Not a soldier.
Not even a student.
I was a piece waiting to be placed.
The Commander turned to me again.
"You carry the Vansi's influence. Whether it becomes a blessing or a curse depends on how you choose to use it. We will not force you to be a hero." He paused. "But we will not let your gift go to waste."
I felt the pressure of his gaze, sharp enough to cut.
"You are not alone anymore, Yen Yoshida. You are part of the Order."
I did not feel like I was part of anything. I felt like a ghost. A body walking without a soul. My family was gone. My home was gone. My childhood was gone. All that was left was the echo of what used to be my life.
But I nodded slowly. I did not know what else to do.
The Commander smiled just a little. Not kindly. Not cruelly. Just enough to show he got exactly the answer he wanted.
"Good," he said. "Welcome to your new future."
The girl opened the door behind me, waiting to escort me back.
I stood up. My knees felt weak. My heart felt empty. As I stepped out of the room, the Commander's voice followed me.
"Train well, Yen. You may need your strength sooner than you think."
The door closed softly.
And in that moment, walking down the cold hall in my father's pajamas, I realized something painful and true.
The world was not quiet anymore.
And it would never be quiet again.