Kaien Mori staggered through the quiet streets, still shaken by the encounter the night before. The city had felt… wrong, but he had convinced himself that it was over, that it was just a fleeting nightmare.
Yet, as he walked, the air began to thicken.
It started subtly a strange, electric tension crawling along his skin, raising goosebumps on his arms. His chest tightened as the world around him seemed to blur. Streetlights flickered violently, and the distant hum of traffic distorted, stretching and warping in impossible ways.
"No… not again…"
Kaien's knees buckled as a wave of vertigo hit him. He pressed his hands to the cold asphalt, trying to steady himself, but the world tilted violently. The buildings around him seemed to melt into shadow, stretching upward like towers of smoke.
"W-what… is happening?" he whispered, voice trembling.
Before he could react further, the air around him rippled like a stormy lake. The ground beneath his feet dissolved into black mist. Panic surged, and his instincts screamed at him to run—but there was nowhere to run. The mist rose, curling around his legs, pulling him forward like a river current stronger than any tide.
"No! Let me go!" he shouted, thrashing, but the shadowy current gripped him tightly.
A voice, deep and resonant, echoed through the void:
"Kaien Mori… welcome."
His heart skipped. "Who's there?" he thought frantically, but no answer came ,only the overwhelming pull of the darkness.
---
The world exploded in black light, and Kaien felt as if he were falling endlessly through a void. He flailed, screaming, but the sound was swallowed instantly. Airless. Weightless. Terrifying.
Images flashed in his mind,fragments of visions he didn't understand. A boy, tall, dark, eyes glowing; creatures writhing in shadow; whispers that promised power, danger, and despair.
And then, the fall stopped.
He landed hard on a surface that was neither solid nor soft. Mist curled around his ankles, cold and biting. The sky above was no sky at all, just a swirling void punctuated with faint streaks of crimson and violet. The air smelled of iron and decay.
Kaien scrambled to his feet, gasping for breath, staring wide-eyed at the unfamiliar landscape. Trees twisted into grotesque shapes, their roots like gnarled fingers reaching for him. Shadows moved independently, bending in ways that defied logic.
"This… this isn't real," he whispered. "I'm dreaming… I have to be…"
But the pain in his arms, the scrape on his knee, the pounding in his chest all told him this was no dream.
"It's real."
---
Kaien stumbled forward, heart hammering. Every step felt alien. Every sound,low growls from unseen creatures, the whispering wind, the shifting of the shadowed ground made him flinch.
He pressed his hands to his head. "I-I don't understand… why… why me?"
Then, a figure appeared in the distance smaller than the massive shadows from his visions, but still terrifying. It was humanoid, but twisted. Limbs elongated unnaturally, its face featureless, and its body a swirling void of black mist.
Kaien froze. Fear rooted him to the spot.
The creature took a step forward. Kaien's instincts screamed: run, fight, anything but he realized with a sinking horror that his body refused to obey.
"I'm… helpless…"
---
"You're weak." A voice, distant and echoing, seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Kaien staggered backward. "Wh-who said that?"
"Your presence here… is insignificant," the voice continued. "Even in a world like this, you… are nothing."
A pang of panic struck him. "No… I'm not… I'm—"
The creature lunged, moving faster than humanly possible. Kaien scrambled, tripping over uneven ground. Pain seared his ankle. His bag fell to the ground, scattering books and pens into the mist.
"I have to… do something…"
But he had no power. Nothing. His hands were empty. His mind raced, trying to formulate a plan, but every thought collided with terror.
The creature struck, and Kaien barely rolled aside in time, scraping against the misty ground. It hissed an unnatural, chilling sound that made his teeth ache.
He scrambled to his feet, and his chest heaved. "I.. I can't do this… I'm not strong… I'm nothing…"
And then, a glowing symbol appeared in his mind a number, glowing faintly:
""F-Rank: Kaien Mori""
The weight of the words sank into him. F-Rank. The lowest of the low. He was powerless. The creatures here, the Shadow World itself, measured strength, and he… had none.
"No… this can't be…"
---
He ran, blindly, seeking some kind of shelter, some way to survive. Shadows stretched across the landscape, moving independently, as if hunting him. The ground was uneven, jagged, twisting unnaturally. Every step carried the risk of falling into a crevice, swallowed by darkness.
"This… can't be real… it can't…" Kaien muttered over and over.
He stumbled into a clearing, where the ground dropped sharply into a chasm filled with moving shadows. The air shimmered, like heat waves, except colder and darker.
And there, he saw another figure humanoid, but impossibly tall, radiating power. Its presence was suffocating. He couldn't see its face, but he could feel its gaze.
"I… I can't…"
The figure spoke in a voice like grinding stone.
"You do not belong here."
Kaien sank to his knees. "I ..I don't… I didn't… I just…"
The figure tilted its head. "Your presence has been noted. Weakness will not excuse you, Kaien Mori."
Kaien shook violently. "I—I don't understand! I'm not… I can't fight—please, I just want to survive!"
The shadow didn't answer. Its presence alone was punishment enough.
---
As Kaien backed away, a low growl echoed behind him. From the darkness, smaller shadow creatures emerged, their forms writhing, faceless, and dangerous. Kaien's heart pounded harder.
"I have to run… I have to survive…"
He sprinted blindly through the alien landscape, tripping over roots that weren't roots, stones that weren't stones, and barely avoiding the grasping hands of shadows that lunged from the mist. Every instinct screamed: escape.
But survival was futile. He was weak. F-Rank. The creatures moved faster than he could comprehend. One lunged and grazed his shoulder, pain searing through him like fire.
Kaien fell. "N-no… please…"
And in that moment, the glowing words in his mind reminded him of the truth:
F-Rank. You have no strength.
Tears blurred his vision. "I can't… I'm… nothing…"
---
The figure he had glimpsed before appeared again, hovering silently. Its presence was suffocating, yet he noticed… something. Beneath the terror, beneath the overwhelming fear, there was… a faint warmth. A distant, almost imperceptible pull.
Kaien's chest tightened. "I… I have to… survive… somehow…"
He struggled to his feet, forcing himself to move forward despite every instinct screaming to collapse. The creatures kept coming, surrounding him like a tide of darkness.
"I have to get stronger… somehow…"
But even as the thought took root, he knew he had no idea how. His hands were empty. His mind scrambled. His body weak.
---
Hours or perhaps minutes passed. Time had no meaning in this strange world. Kaien wandered through twisted landscapes, each step more exhausting than the last. Every sound, every movement, made his heart race.
At one point, he collapsed beside a blackened tree, gasping for air. "I… I can't… I can't survive like this… I'm too weak…"
And then, a whisper.
"You will grow, Kaien Mori."
The voice was gentle, yet resonant. Unlike the cruel voices of the shadow creatures, this was… guiding. It didn't remove the fear, didn't remove the pain, but it offered something a sliver of hope.
Kaien's hands trembled as he whispered, "Who's,..H-how…? I… I don't even know how to fight…"
"Learn. Survive. Grow."
The words echoed in his mind as he struggled to his feet. F-Rank… powerless… weak… and yet, he survived. Somehow.
Somewhere in the darkness, Kaien Mori realized a terrible truth:
This world did not forgive weakness.
And yet… he was alive.
---
He pressed onward, his body aching, mind reeling. Every step reminded him that his ordinary life was gone, shattered. The city, the school, the friends all of it was gone. This was a new reality, and only one thing mattered now: survival.
The shadow creatures were everywhere, the landscape alien and hostile. And above all, he knew:
"He was at the very bottom of the hierarchy."
F-Rank.
Kaien Mori would have to grow. He would have to fight. He would have to survive.
Or he would die here, forgotten, swallowed by the shadows.
"And Kaien Mori didn't plan on dying—not yet."
---