CHAPTER ONE — IMMEDIATE DANGER
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The world does not warn everyone.
It only warns those who are listening.
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I. THE HUM BEFORE THE STORM
Ren moves through the market like he's been there a thousand times.
Same path.
Same shelves.
Same quiet rhythm.
The coliseum rises in the distance beyond the water — enormous, ancient, dormant. Its presence hums faintly, like a memory refusing to fade. Fighters come and go from the surrounding districts. Ren ignores them.
He isn't here to fight.
He's here for groceries.
A low vibration passes through his chest.
He pauses.
Then it comes again.
Not sound.
Not thought.
A presence.
Danger.
Ren exhales slowly, grounding himself. He waits. Nothing else happens. No alarms. No movement. No one around him reacts.
He resumes shopping.
The shelves blur for a moment.
Immediate danger.
This time, the sensation is heavier. Sharper. It crawls under his skin like static.
Ren stops completely.
His hand tightens around the basket.
He doesn't panic.
He doesn't run.
He does what he always does.
He thinks.
Rina should have answered by now.
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II. HOME — AND SOMETHING ELSE
The door to their home is ajar.
That alone is enough.
Ren steps inside slowly, every sense alert.
The air feels wrong.
Thicker.
Charged.
The living space flickers — light bending unnaturally, as if the room is folding inward. Symbols ripple across the walls for half a second, then vanish.
Rina stands at the center of it.
She looks unharmed.
She looks confused.
And around her, space itself seems to breathe.
"Ren?" she says softly.
The floor creaks.
A figure emerges from the distortion — Raze.
Not rushed.
Not frantic.
He looks like someone who arrived exactly on time.
Raze studies Rina the way one studies a locked door.
Ren steps forward.
"Get away from her."
Raze smiles.
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III. THE FIRST FIGHT
Raze moves first.
Too fast for panic.
Ren reacts on instinct — his body moving before his thoughts catch up. Thin, barely visible lines snap into existence around his hands, anchoring to the environment like threads pulled tight.
The wires aren't weapons.
They're control.
Raze strikes anyway.
Ren deflects, pivots, redirects — calm, surgical, deliberate. Every movement is economical. Every breath measured.
But Raze is stronger.
He forces his way through Ren's defenses and slams him into the wall.
The house shakes.
Rina gasps.
The energy around her surges — chaotic, unstable.
"Ren—!"
He pushes himself up.
Blood on his lip.
Still calm.
Still standing.
Raze turns his attention back to Rina.
"This world was built wrong," he says. "And she's the correction."
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IV. LAUGHTER
Raze reaches for her.
Ren lunges.
Too late.
Something snaps.
Rina laughs.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence.
She tilts her head.
The energy around her changes — not louder, not brighter — deeper.
Her smile doesn't fade.
It sharpens.
The room freezes.
"Light… align."
The words don't echo.
They erase.
Power floods outward — not explosive, not wild — but absolute. Raze is thrown back like a leaf in a storm.
Ren shields his face as the light tears through the space between them.
For a moment, Rina is no longer just Rina.
She is something watching herself from the inside.
And then —
She collapses.
The energy disperses like mist.
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V. AZEN
Before Raze can recover, the air fractures again.
A new presence steps through — calm, radiant, immovable.
Azen.
He doesn't rush.
He doesn't shout.
He simply stands between them.
"That's enough," he says.
Raze retreats, eyes narrowing.
"This isn't over."
He vanishes.
Azen turns to Ren and Rina.
"You two," he says gently, "are not enrolled."
Ren stares at him.
"Enrolled… where?"
Azen glances toward the distant coliseum.
"This isn't a school," he says.
"It's for fighters."
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VI. THE SHADOW
High above the city, unseen, something watches.
A shadow folds back into itself.
A voice carries through time, thin and amused.
"My child… you know why we are here."
The presence fades.
Elsewhere, something ancient stirs.
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VII. END OF CHAPTER ONE
Ren looks at his sister — unconscious but breathing.
His hands tremble for the first time.
Not from fear.
From realization.
Whatever just spoke to him…
Whatever warned him…
It wasn't protecting the world.
It was watching him.
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END — CHAPTER ONE