"Ugh... Wrathflame, the Light of the Soul, Gene Lock, Holy Grail War, Heroic Spirits... What the hell is all this...?"
Naked and wracked with pain, Yuuki Sato clutched his head and staggered to his feet.
Though he had been reborn, every cell in his body and every inch of his soul felt like it was being scorched alive.
The source of this pain was a strange flame, a power known as Wrathflame, that now blazed within his soul.
Thankfully, the black mist particles that made him an Ajin continued to flow from the void, shielding his soul as substitute fuel. Yet, the burning agony refused to fade.
What made it worse was the avalanche of fragmented knowledge flooding his mind.
Amid hallucination-like flashes of memory, Yuuki came to understand: the strange black fire that had fused with him, Wrathflame, was a manifestation of a force called the Light of the Soul. And the Light of the Soul… could only be awakened after unlocking the Fourth Stage of the Gene Lock.
But wait, what the hell was a Gene Lock?
If there was a fourth stage, did that mean there were stages one through six too?
And why did he know this in the first place?
That wasn't all. Another stream of knowledge in his mind whispered of Holy Grail Wars, Heroic Spirits, Masters, and a mythical wish-granting device that could fulfill any desire.
Where were these ideas even coming from?
But no, none of that mattered right now.
As Yuuki's thoughts cleared from the haze of resurrection, rage surged in his chest like a tidal wave. Uncontainable, unrelenting.
The alien fleet's invasion…
The annihilation of the city…
His friends, his family… all gone.
The hatred burning in his heart could not be quenched, even with the waters of every lake and ocean combined.
"That rift in the sky…
That fleet…
That monster…
And you…"
He gritted his teeth, recalling the voice he'd heard at the moment of death.
"I don't care who you are or where you are…
I'll find you, and I'll kill you!"
As if responding to his fury, the Wrathflame that had just subsided suddenly flared up again, wrapping his body in black fire.
Oddly, though, it didn't burn him this time.
It was as if his reborn body, forged through countless cycles of burning and regeneration, had adapted to the Wrathflame. Or perhaps… the Wrathflame itself, forged from pure hatred and obsession, now recognized the seething hatred in Yuuki's heart as its own kin.
Though they remained separate forces, a strange resonance had begun to take root.
Yuuki could even feel it, if he focused, he could barely control the Wrathflame. Direct it. Restrain it. A weapon born from his suffering, now turning into a tool.
Taking deep breaths, he slowly forced down the rage surging in his chest. The Wrathflame around him flickered, then faded, leaving behind only a single ember, quietly burning within him.
Finally calm, he looked around for the first time.
"Where… am I?"
Blood smeared walls, mutilated corpses, and a summoning circle drawn in human remains, it looked like a satanic cult ritual straight out of a horror movie.
He had no memory of what happened during his actual resurrection, no memory of the black flame spirit that had immolated Ryunosuke Uryu, the serial killer.
To Yuuki, it was like he'd awakened from a long coma… only to find himself transported from the epicenter of a nuclear holocaust to a haunted house soaked in gore.
And then he saw the boy.
A young child, bound hand and foot in duct tape, with a rag stuffed in his mouth, staring at Yuuki as if he were some kind of monster.
Which, to be fair, from the kid's perspective… he was.
After all, the boy had just witnessed a black flame demon crawl out of a summoning circle, incinerate a madman, and then conjure a human body out of thin air.
Right now, to that kid?
Yuuki Sato looked like a demon wearing human skin.
"Mmmf! MmmMMM, !"
As Yuuki took a cautious step toward him, the child began thrashing, eyes welling with tears and pure panic.
"Wait, don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you…"
He knelt and gently pulled the cloth from the boy's mouth.
"P-please don't eat me…"
That was the boy's first response.
"I'm not going to eat you, I promise. Let me get you untied, okay? And then you can tell me what happened."
Yuuki softened his tone as much as he could while peeling off the duct tape binding the child.
The kid was clearly traumatized, but Yuuki's gentleness seemed to reach him.
"O-okay…"
The boy stopped struggling and let Yuuki free his limbs.
Once unbound, the child curled into a ball, still trembling, still wary, but no longer trying to flee.
"Let's… move to another room."
Yuuki took the boy's hand and led him away from the carnage, searching for a part of the house untouched by blood.
There was no way a kid could stay calm surrounded by that nightmare.
This looked like a bedroom.
Yuuki glanced at a clothes rack nearby and suddenly realized,
He was still completely naked.
He froze, mortified.
He had just dragged a child around completely nude. To anyone walking in, this would look like a crime scene from hell.
Flushing red, Yuuki scrambled to the wardrobe.
Thankfully, the male homeowner had a similar build. He found a few decent clothes and threw them on.
The boy watched silently as the demon-who-looked-human now dressed like one, becoming ever more human in his eyes.
As Yuuki turned back toward him, the boy instinctively flinched and shut his eyes tight,
Only to feel a gentle hand ruffling his hair.
He peeked one eye open.
Yuuki smiled down at him, kind and patient.
'This big brother… even if he's a demon… he's still way better than that scary man from before…'
The child thought to himself. Slowly, the fear began to melt away.
"Alright. Can you tell me what happened here?"
Yuuki asked softly.
He didn't even need to push. The boy, starved for safety, poured everything out like a flood.
How a deranged man had broken into their home.
How his parents and sister had been murdered.
How a ritual was set up…
And how the demon turned on its summoner and killed him.
"Wait... you mean I'm the demon?"
Yuuki blinked in confusion.
According to the boy's shaky story, he hadn't appeared first. A black-flamed demon came through the summoning circle… killed the killer… and then Yuuki revived.
"Hold on, didn't you guys see the sky rip open? An alien fleet? Any of that?"
He asked suddenly.
The boy shook his head, unsure if he meant "no" or "I don't know."
Yuuki rushed to the window and pulled back the curtain.
The sky was whole. No rift. No fleet. Just clouds.
"So… either the invasion ended long ago… or…"
"This is another world."
There were only two options.
And Yuuki was inclined to believe the latter.
Because if the alien fleet he'd seen had truly descended upon Earth… there wouldn't be anything left.
"What year is it now?"
He asked the boy.
Another shake of the head.
Right, he's just a kid. Of course he wouldn't know.
But in a side room, Yuuki soon found a wall calendar.
The year?
1994.
He looked around at the home's furniture and electronics, slightly outdated. Not futuristic. Not modern.
Another clue.
"So… I've really transmigrated, huh."
He muttered.
The year he came from had been 2019. In 1994, he hadn't even been born yet.
This wasn't just a time jump, this was another world entirely.
Still, having read enough webnovels, Yuuki wasn't exactly shocked.
Sure, transmigration used to be something from anime or fantasy stories… but after alien invasions and literal demons, reincarnating into another world was practically normal by comparison.
That realization even helped soothe the burning hatred in his heart, if only a little.
"If this world has demons and summoning rituals… maybe it has supernatural powers too. If I can get strong enough here… maybe I can still get my revenge."
He gripped that hope tightly, anchoring his spirit.
And soon after, he learned the name of this city:
Fuyuki.
And the country…
Japan.