I slowly opened my eyes.
The world felt weightless silent, suspended between moments.
And immediately, I froze.
Another figure stood before me.
Not the old man.
Not Yakashi.
Panic slammed into me like a tidal wave.
I scrambled backward in panic.
"Am I dead again?! I just got reborn! I'm only two years old how could this be? Is this my fault again? And… why am I naked and fat again?!"
My voice echoed awkwardly in the empty space. I looked down at myself, horrified to confirm the truth.
The figure did not laugh.
He simply stood there.
His presence was calm, but powerful, like a mountain wrapped in mist silent, immovable, inevitable. Each step he took felt like the world itself was acknowledging him. His eyes gleamed with authority, sharp yet composed.
"I am Otamu," he said, voice like a flowing river, steady and serene.
"The god of Swordsmanship."
The title alone made my spine tingle.
"Calm yourself, boy. It was you who abused your body, channeling full power when you are only a toddler. You must control yourself. Never forget that."
His gaze sharpened slightly.
"But do not neglect the path of the sword, as your father wishes."
I blinked, my thoughts scrambling to keep up.
"Am I dead? And… what about when I turn six?"
Otamu sighed softly, almost kindly.
"You are not dead. You simply fell asleep after using all your mana."
He glanced around, as if time itself was pressing against him.
"Oops… looks like I have no time left. Come find me when you turn six, alright?"
"Not you too…" I muttered, my frustration mounting.
Seriously, was six some kind of divine meeting age?
And just like that
He vanished.
The world collapsed inward.
---
I woke up drenched, shivering slightly from the water residue still clinging to my tiny body. My limbs felt weak, heavy, like I had just run a marathon with a toddler's body.
My parents hovered above me.
"Hikaru! Are you okay? What happened?" my mother asked, panic flashing in her eyes.
Her hands trembled as she checked me over, water magic unconsciously flowing around her fingers.
I smiled faintly, holding the magic book tightly to my chest. The familiar weight grounded me.
They noticed.
"Did you read the book?" my father asked, suspicious.
His sharp eyes locked onto the cover.
I shook my head vigorously.
No way.
I couldn't tell them I had read the Japanese spell they would know I didn't belong to this world. My heart pounded as I waited for questions, accusations, *anything*.
Luckily, they didn't ask further.
Concern replaced suspicion. They were just worried.
My father gently lifted me, and my mother wrapped me in warm cloth, worrying your not hurt aren't you?
---
Far away, in the shadowed kingdom of Devilas
Dark clouds curled endlessly above jagged towers. The air itself felt wrong thick with malice and ambition.
Kikatsu, a general with unnerving instincts, stood motionless as a pulse of power rippled through the sky.
He felt it.
A powerful creator emerging.
The sensation crawled up his spine, making his blood run cold. Above the clouds, a faint light shone a magical presence unlike any he had felt before.
"The gods will be rise again," Kikatsu muttered.
His eyes narrowed.
"This one is a threat. Find them and eliminate them immediately."
With a sharp gesture, frost-filled air twisted violently as he summoned Abrythm, the Ice Queen her power capable of turning ice into blades sharp enough to pierce armor and shatter mountains.
"You will destroy the remaining water casters," Kikatsu commanded.
Her icy gaze reflected no emotion.
Only obedience.
---
In Hikaru's town, far from Devilas but well within reach of the magical energy…
King Makiru stood atop the battlements as the sky darkened unnaturally. Clouds twisted, spiraling as if responding to something hostile.
He felt it too.
Incoming danger.
Without hesitation, he summoned his knights and called for all guild masters and members to defend the kingdom at all costs.
Bells rang. Shouts echoed. Mana surged across the city.
The first strike came quickly.
Abrythm summoned massive ice blades, raining down on Lapryth, colliding with water, fire, and wind spells from the defending mages. The sky shattered into chaos.
Sparks shone like stars as elemental forces clashed violently.
Steam exploded. Ice cracked. Fire hissed against frozen air.
From outside the town, Hikaru watched wide-eyed. Scared as he look up in the sky those shining ice blades of attacks from distance. The feeling of not stable and tempting to darkness
His tiny body trembled as he saw Abrythm approaching, her presence overwhelming even from a distance. Though he sensed danger, his body refused to move.
Yet…
Something stirred in him.
A faint aura of energy, instinctual and unfamiliar, pulsed softly calling out to the threat like a challenge written into his soul.
---
Back at home, panic erupted.
My parents were terrified.
"Hikaru, stay behind me!" Yare shouted, summoning water streams from her palms.
The air thickened as mana surged around her.
Abrythm and her frost-forged allies crashed into the yard, ice whistling around them, freezing the ground with each step.
"You," Abrythm hissed, voice cold as glaciers.
"Are you the one who cast that magical water blast into the sky?"
"Are you the the guardian kid?"
I heard nothing out of fear from happening. Its unusual situations and this kind of feeling is not overwhelming to my tummy.
"Step back from my son!" Yare shouted.
"He had nothing to do with this!" he wasn't the one who did it, he's just a kid
"Then show me the water caster," Abrythm replied, icy wind howling violently around her.
Yare's eyes glowed.
Water surged from every direction as she summoned a mighty *water dragon* from the streams surrounding her. It roared, biting and slashing at Abrythm's ice weapons, twisting the battlefield into chaos.
Fire and wind from nearby mages collided with the ice, creating clouds of steam, freezing blasts, and sparks flashing like lightning.
---
The battle raged with incredible intensity.
I watched from the side, powerless and soaked, my little heart pounding so hard it hurt.
The world felt too big.
Too loud.
But even Yare's mighty water dragon could not withstand Abrythm.
With a ferocious ice wind, Abrythm flung Yare across the yard, slamming her against the wall.
"MOTHER!"
Mihatu rushed forward, sword in hand, swinging with every ounce of strength but even his strikes bounced harmlessly off Abrythm's icy defenses.
Mihatu tried to use his shuriken blade and attacked Abrythm but it didn't work it's not enough
She ignored his weaklingness an opponent who's worthy of her strength.
Her gaze was fixed entirely on Yare, mistakenly assuming she was the caster of the water blast.
And in the middle of it all…
I sat.
Tiny.
Powerless.
Clutching my magic book.
*This… is just the beginning,* I thought.
*I have so much to learn…*
---