G.A AYANDOKUN
They were ten.
The first flames of power.
The Guardians of Magic.
Each bore a trait unlike any other — light, shadow, balance, dream, beast, mirror, silence, bloom, phantom… and flame.
Together, they shaped the blueprint of every gift that came after.
But unity did not last.
One rose against the rest.
The Flame Sovereign, once a beacon, burned with pride and fury. His fire sought not to protect, but to consume.
The war shattered the earth.
The nine stood against the one.
And though they sealed him, the price was everything — their names buried, their power scattered through bloodlines.
The world remembers them as myth.
But chains do not last forever.
And what was sealed in fire… always waits to burn again.
"Name's Nesshou Genta.
Funny, right? I used to say it loud, like it meant something.
Like I mattered.
Like I was free.
But after that night… I don't even know who's speaking when I open my mouth.
Me… or him.
They look at me different now.
Not like a classmate. Not like a friend.
Like I'm carrying something I was never meant to touch.
A curse.
A monster.
A fire that isn't mine, burning me from the inside.
And maybe they're right.
Maybe I was never supposed to exist.
Because every time I close my eyes, I hear him.
That laugh.
That roar.
That promise…
"Next time… no chains.'
And when I wake up… I don't feel like a boy anymore.
I feel like a weapon waiting to be used.
Or worse… unleashed."
PREVIOUSLY ON CLASS 24:
The council questioned the Knights, their failure laid bare. Daichi took the blame, but their orders were clear — contain what had already slipped free.
They descended into the dungeon.
The Commander laughed through his chains, mocking their strength and feeding on their anger. Even Daichi's fury could not silence him.
Deeper still, they found another prisoner — Nesshou. Bound by countless chains, sealed tighter than steel itself.
Daichi's voice cut the silence: "What are you?"
In his mind, a nightmare flared. A beast of fire and shadow whispered: "I am you. I am your strength. You are my weakness. Together, we are one."
But Daichi's words dragged him back.
Nesshou's eyes opened — one red, one black.
"I am… the flames."
The silence shattered the moment his voice fell.
Kenzo's eyes widened, his usual playfulness stripped away. "What the hell—? His eyes… they weren't like that before! He just—he just changed right in front of us!"
Yua's visor flared, her tone slicing colder than the frost lining the walls. "Don't you see? That's not a boy… that's a thing. Fire and void twisted together. A mistake chained in flesh. He should never have been here in the first place."
The words cracked through the air like a whip, heavier than the chains themselves.
Rikuya's calm demeanor fractured, his tone low but trembling. "I knew it. From the first moment I saw him—he's not one of us. He's something else. Something we should've never allowed inside these walls."
Hayato's fists clenched at his side, his voice cutting through the others with grim finality. "Then there's only one answer." His eyes narrowed, hard as steel. "Before that thing breaks free again… we destroy him."
The words hit the chamber like an executioner's blade—yet before anyone could move, all eyes shifted to Daichi.
His face had gone pale. His lips trembled, but no words formed. The man who always stood firm now looked hollow, emptied of the fire that carried him through every trial.
"Daichi?" Kenzo's voice cracked, sharp with alarm. He stepped closer, reaching out. "Daichi! Snap out of it!"
But Daichi didn't move. He didn't even seem to hear him. His entire body was locked rigid, breathe shallow, as if the cold of the dungeon had carved him into stone.
And then they saw why.
His eyes were fixed on Nesshou's.
One burning crimson, alive with flame.
The other pure black, swallowing all light.
That gaze struck him like a spear, piercing deeper than any blade. Daichi's chest heaved once, his throat tight, but he couldn't look away. His strength, his will, his very presence—all paralyzed beneath those dual eyes.
For the first time, Daichi Moriyama—the Knight of SSUB who never faltered—was frozen in fear.
"Daichi…" Kenzo's voice cracked softer this time, nothing like his usual grin-laced tone. He stepped closer, his hand hovering near Daichi's shoulder. "Onii-san…" The word slipped out instinctively, almost like a plea.
But Daichi didn't move. His eyes remained locked on Nesshou's dual gaze, his body trembling just enough for Kenzo to see.
Kenzo's throat tightened. He had never seen his captain like this—never pale, never shaking, never… afraid. It twisted something inside him, a fear far worse than Nesshou's flames.
"Damn it…" Kenzo muttered, his fists curling tight. His eyes flicked from Daichi's frozen face to Nesshou's chained body, and he felt the weight of it all crashing in.
"What the hell is he…" Kenzo whispered, staring straight at Nesshou.
The words clung to the frozen air like smoke, heavy and unshakable.
No one answered. No one dared.
Daichi's face remained pale, frozen in that stare, his body trembling in silence. Kenzo gripped his arm tighter, trying to steady him, but even he felt his own breath stutter.
Then, a new voice cut through the dungeon — sharp, commanding, final:
"Time's up."
The sound echoed against the frost-lined walls, leaving no room for hesitation. Whether it was a Knight's voice or the order ringing in their heads, it was enough to break the moment.
Yua turned sharply, visor flashing as she strode toward the exit without another glance. Rikuya followed, slower, his silence heavy, stealing one last look back before vanishing into shadow. Hayato lingered only a second, jaw tight, before pulling himself away.
Kenzo slipped his arm under Daichi's, half-guiding, half-carrying him. His captain's legs moved stiffly, but his eyes never left the chained figure behind.
Together, they filed out, their footsteps echoing like a retreat.
The massive iron doors groaned as they swung shut, sealing the chamber once more. The locks clanged into place, runes flickering across the surface before fading into silence.
To the world outside, it would look like SSUB's Knights had left with discipline, controlled and unbroken.
But in the frozen dark of the dungeon… the truth lingered. They hadn't left a boy behind.
They had left a nightmare waiting to wake.
The last echo of the iron doors faded, leaving only silence.
But in the heart of that silence, his eyes stirred.
Red. Black.
Black. Red.
The flicker came slow at first, like dying embers, then faster, sharper—two flames clashing in the same vessel. The dungeon walls caught their glow, shadows stretching and twisting as though alive. The chains binding him rattled, straining against a power that should not have been breathing.
And then the ground itself responded. A low tremor, subtle at first, rolled through the frost-laced stones. It grew, pulse by pulse, until the chamber quaked as if the dungeon itself trembled in fear of what its prisoner was becoming.
The chamber shook, chains screaming as though they would tear apart. But inside the storm of fire and void, Nesshou's body barely moved.
Because the true battle wasn't in the dungeon.
It was in his head.
The flicker of his eyes was only a window—behind them, whole worlds burned and collapsed, a battlefield no one else could see. Darkness and flame clashed endlessly, not against the chains that bound him, but against the boy who carried them.
And in that void, Nesshou stood—alone.
The dungeon vanished.
Walls, chains, even the cold air dissolved, leaving only a vast, broken plain. The ground stretched endlessly, cracked with glowing veins of molten fire, as if the earth itself bled heat. Above, the sky was a storm without stars—half burning crimson, half drowned in pitch-black void.
At the center stood Nesshou. His body shimmered with heat, red hair falling wild over eyes lit like twin embers. Every exhale spilled sparks, every step scorched the ground beneath him.
But he was not alone.
From the darkness ahead, a figure emerged—his mirror, yet twisted. Black hair draped down like flowing smoke, skin pale and cold, eyes bottomless and mercilessly dark. Where Nesshou's flames gave light, this presence swallowed it whole.
The world shuddered as their eyes locked. The air split—fire roaring on one side, shadow bending reality on the other. Cracks spread wider beneath their feet, spewing heat and darkness into the air, until the very space seemed ready to collapse under the weight of their existence.
Two selves.
One body.
The shadow's smile was thin, cruel, dripping with venom. His voice carried no warmth, only bitterness sharpened into a blade.
"So this is what I've been reduced to? Chained inside a child who can't even decide if he's alive or cursed."
Nesshou's fists clenched, but he did not falter. His breath flared sparks, his red eyes cutting through the void. "Enough, Kagutsuchi. You have no place in me. Not now. Not ever."
The figure's laugh rippled like broken glass, jagged and scornful. "No place? I am the fire in your veins. The roar in your chest. Without me, you are nothing but ash waiting to scatter."
Nesshou stepped forward, the cracks beneath him glowing brighter with each word. "You're wrong. You're not my strength. You're the chain trying to drag me down. And I won't carry you any longer."
For a heartbeat, silence weighed heavy between them—flame against shadow, defiance against bitterness.
Then Kagutsuchi's black eyes narrowed. "We'll see who carries who."
The last word cut the silence like a blade.
And then the shadow moved.
Kagutsuchi exploded forward, a blur of black fire and fury. His fist crashed into Nesshou's chest with the weight of an earthquake, the ground splitting in molten lines beneath them. The breath was ripped from Nesshou's lungs as he staggered, clutching his ribs—unready, unarmed, untrained.
Another blow followed instantly. A strike across his jaw snapped his head sideways, flames scattering from him like shattered glass. Before he could even fall, Kagutsuchi was already behind him, driving a brutal knee into his spine. The impact flung Nesshou forward, his body skidding across the burning plain.
But the shadow wasn't finished. He seized Nesshou by the throat, lifting him like nothing, eyes glowing with merciless darkness. "This is your strength? This trembling body? Pathetic. You dare call yourself mine?"
He hurled Nesshou down, smashing him into the cracked earth so hard the fissures widened, molten fire spilling upward in violent bursts. The boy gasped, his hands trembling as he tried to push himself up—only for a kick to slam into his side, flipping him onto his back.
Blood smeared across his lips, yet when he spoke, his voice did not falter. "You… hit like a coward. But no matter how hard you swing, you'll never be more than a shadow begging to exist."
Kagutsuchi's teeth bared in fury. He descended again, fists raining like hammers, each strike leaving trails of black fire across Nesshou's skin. The blows were merciless—his face, his ribs, his stomach, all taking the storm. Still, Nesshou's eyes locked forward, burning through the haze of pain.
"You can't even fight back!" Kagutsuchi roared, grabbing him by the hair and slamming his head against the molten ground. "You're weak, helpless, nothing! Everything you are—every spark in your veins—belongs to me!"
Nesshou coughed hard, blood spattering the stone, but his grin widened through the agony. "If that were true… you wouldn't have to keep proving it."
The words struck harder than any blade. Kagutsuchi's next punch faltered, his shadow-fire flaring wildly with frustration. He hammered Nesshou again and again, but the boy's defiance didn't waver.
Bruised, broken, but unyielding, Nesshou's voice cut through the storm, steady as fire:
"You'll never break me. Because I was never yours."
The words left his lips, but inside his chest the fire flickered weak.
Who am I kidding? he thought, the taste of blood heavy on his tongue. I can't beat him. Not like this. I'm nothing but a boy chained to a monster.
Doubt clawed at him, each echo louder than the last, threatening to drown the spark he clung to. His arms trembled, his body screamed, and for a heartbeat, surrender seemed easier than standing.
Then—his mind shifted.
A face. Weathered hands. The steady voice of the man who had never once abandoned him. His grandfather. The one who saw him as more than a curse. The one who believed when Nesshou could not.
If I give up now… I'm giving up on him.
The thought struck like lightning, cutting through the shadows. And before he realized it, heat surged inside him—not wild, not consuming, but steady. A blaze that answered his will instead of devouring it.
Flames roared to life across his body, not in chaos, but in control. His red hair gleamed like a torch in the storm, his eyes burning brighter than they ever had before.
This time, the fire was his.
Nesshou's flames surged, no longer wild but flowing with purpose. Each flicker carved back the darkness pressing in, each breath feeding a blaze that was wholly his own. His body still ached, his skin still burned, yet his spirit stood unshaken.
I won't fall here. Not to him. Not ever.
Kagutsuchi's black fire whipped violently, the plain trembling as though it feared what was about to come. He tilted his head, eyes narrowing into slits of pure contempt. "So the boy thinks himself a warrior now… I'll enjoy watching that flame snuffed out."
The ground split wider, magma and shadow spilling into the air, the storm above groaning as if ready to break.
Nesshou wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. Then, without fear, he raised his chin, eyes burning like a challenge only death could answer.
"I'm not the one who should be afraid."
The words struck the void like a spark in dry kindling. Kagutsuchi's hand lifted, darkness boiling into a spear of fireless flame. The storm bent, the ground shook, the air collapsed inward.
And just before their powers collided—everything went silent.
NESSGEEORIGINAL