Prologue: The Calamity That Fell From the Sky
"Hey, did you hear? Japan just discovered a third Ajin!"
"Ha! What's the point? Japan's just a lapdog for the U.S. Anyway, no matter what happens, that Ajin will end up in American hands."
"True enough. I heard the first Ajin they discovered got snatched away by the Americans too… Still, Ajin, huh? Not being able to die... kinda sounds enviable."
"Enviable, my ass! Haven't you seen what happens to Ajin once they're exposed? They get dragged into labs and turned into guinea pigs! You think being an Ajin is some kind of cheat? It's literally 'can't live, can't die' hell!"
"That's only in other countries! Ours doesn't have such extreme anti-Ajin policies. I heard some Ajin even got jobs in the government."
"Yeah, right. Who knows if that's even true…"
On the subway, Yuuki Sato glanced up from his phone when he overheard the conversation beside him.
It piqued his interest a little. While pretending to still be absorbed in his screen, he subtly leaned closer to catch more of their chatter, all while opening his browser to search for relevant news.
[Breaking: Japan Confirms Third Ajin – A High School Student Named Kei Nagai, Currently on the Run]
[Location: Saitama Prefecture XX High School]
Ajin… beings that can't die, huh. That is kind of enviable…
Yuuki thought to himself, scrolling idly through the article.
But the only way to know if you're an Ajin is to die once… and who the hell would do that just to test it out?
Shaking his head, he closed the browser and tapped into the Hedgehog Cat app to catch up on the latest chapters of his favorite novels.
As far as he was concerned, global conflicts and Ajin affairs were way too far removed from his reality. Like most students, the only things that really mattered were grades, online games, anime, and novel updates.
So he rode the subway, immersed in his webnovel, until his school stop came up about ten minutes later.
Following the morning crowd out of the station, Yuuki picked up the pace toward school. He had about fifteen minutes before the first bell. Gotta hustle.
But just when he thought another bland, uneventful school day was about to begin…
The world changed.
The sky… split open.
And that wasn't just a metaphor. The sky literally tore like fabric, ripping open into a vast, gaping wound.
A jagged, pitch-black rift spanned the heavens, stretching for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of kilometers, like a void that had no end.
"What… what is that?!"
Yuuki stared dumbfounded at the sky, brain going completely blank. Shock, confusion, terror, emotions he couldn't even name surged through his chest as he stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.
"The sky… is splitting…"
"Is this… the end of the world?"
"This has to be a hoax, right?!"
Chaotic voices erupted around him. Some people screamed and ran, while others, like Yuuki, stood frozen in disbelief.
And that rift in the sky… was only the beginning.
"Look! Something's coming out of it!"
Someone shouted. Yuuki squinted upward, and saw it too.
What first looked like twinkling lights inside the rift soon grew brighter and larger, until he could make out their true form:
Gigantic warships.
Sleek, alien ships of terrifying size floated out from the rift, and the moment they emerged… they opened fire.
Black-and-white spiral beams, intertwining like helixes, shot downward from the warships, striking faraway horizons.
And in the blink of an eye, towering mushroom clouds burst into the sky, glowing like miniature suns.
"It's an alien invasion!!"
"Run for your life!"
"Mom… I want to go home…"
Cries and screams echoed all around him. Snapping out of his daze, Yuuki's mind finally caught up, processing what he needed to do in a crisis like this.
Get underground. Now.
He turned and sprinted back toward the subway station. His instincts screamed that anything resembling a nuclear blast meant the surface was a death zone, and the subway tunnels might be his only chance.
But…
He was too late.
Just as he reached the station entrance, a spiral beam of black-and-white light struck the city.
BOOM.
An all-consuming white light engulfed the area, like a second sun crashing into the Earth. Nothing remained, not sound, not thought, only blinding, searing annihilation.
When the light faded, a crater several kilometers wide had replaced the entire city.
There were no survivors.
Even the theoretically "survivable" subway lines had been vaporized along with the bedrock they sat on.
Yuuki Sato never made it inside.
The moment that pillar of light hit, his consciousness blacked out. His body had been vaporized in less than a microsecond, no pain, no screams, not even a heartbeat. His brain didn't last long enough to register his death.
From a certain perspective, it was the most painless way to die imaginable. Even more merciful than euthanasia.
If, and only if, Yuuki had actually died.
But as the smoke and heat from the attack faded…
Wisps of black mist began to materialize where Yuuki once stood.
They twisted and churned, weaving into bone, muscle, organs, skin… slowly reconstructing a naked human figure, until a full male body formed and collapsed at the crater's edge with a dull thud.
"Ugh!"
Yuuki groaned and opened his eyes.
Terror seized him as he looked down, frantically checking his body. No missing limbs. No injuries.
"I… I didn't die?!"
His last memory was of being swallowed by blinding light. By all logic, he should have been utterly obliterated. There shouldn't even be ashes left.
And yet…
He was alive.
The only person alive in a city that had been completely wiped off the map.
There was only one explanation,
"I… I'm an Ajin?!"
He remembered those guys on the train, how he'd envied Ajin who couldn't die.
And now?
He was one of them.
But looking around at the hellish ruin surrounding him, Yuuki couldn't find an ounce of joy in that revelation.
"If this is the price for being an Ajin… it's too damn high…"
He thought of his friends, classmates, parents, all gone.
In a world where everyone else was dead, immortality felt more like a curse than a blessing.
But just as Yuuki began to spiral into grief-
SPLURCH.
A sudden flash of black light, a searing pain in his chest, he looked down in horror.
A massive black flame blade had pierced straight through his heart.
"I… urk…"
Blood filled his throat. He tried to speak but choked, falling limp.
And in his fading vision, he saw the attacker: a monstrous man with burning black wings, a jagged scar across his face, and flames crawling across his entire body.
The demon-like figure landed before him, eyes glowing cold.
"Meme YR0128 – Codename: Ajin. Host detected. Capture protocol engaged."
The being's voice was cold and mechanical. Reaching out, he tried to pull the sword free,
But in that exact moment,
The sky itself exploded.
A blinding white light erupted from the rift overhead. Space shattered. Time twisted. Matter broke apart. Energy unraveled. The four elements, earth, fire, wind, water, fell into chaos.
And in the depths of the void, worlds flickered in and out of existence.
The rift tore wide, and from within came a thunderous voice filled with divine authority:
"FOUND YOU!!"
And then, a fist smashed through the fabric of space-time.
Entire worlds cracked beneath its force. Elemental particles, matter, time, all collapsed and reversed. The planet, the moon, the sun, everything disintegrated.
The warships that had cleansed Earth with light beams? Gone.
The clone armies hunting Ajin worldwide? Obliterated.
Even Yuuki, pierced by the black flame blade?
Shattered.
His fragile body unraveled first, vanishing into nothing before pain could even register.
But once again, the moment his body disappeared,
Black mist rose.
It tried to rebuild him. But this time, time-space itself was collapsing around it.
Each time the mist formed even a sliver of flesh, it was torn apart again. Reform. Destroy. Reform. Destroy. A cycle of endless death and rebirth.
The core of Ajin immortality, the black mist, was slowly being exhausted.
Once it was gone, Yuuki would truly die.
But then…
Something strange happened.
The black flame from that demonic sword hadn't vanished. It clung to the black mist, refusing to dissipate.
And somehow… that flame protected part of the mist.
It still burned, painfully and endlessly, but also shielded. Prevented the outer chaos from devouring it whole.
A delicate balance formed between destruction and regeneration.
And when the world fully collapsed, when even time and space ceased to exist, that single ember of black flame still burned.
Floating in the chaotic void beyond existence, it burned alone.
A place with no time, no space, no matter or energy. A void of infinite possibility. Where all universes began and ended.
There, the flame endured.
Inside its flicker, the black mist continued its endless cycle of rebirth and decay.
Until one day,
A new world appeared in the void.
Drawn by its gravity, the crystalline black flame drifted down… and descended into that world.
And so…
The true story of Yuuki Sato begins.