Rain slammed against the window like shards of memory.Inside Class 2-B, Kaizel Ren slouched in his chair, spinning a pen between his fingers as his teacher held up his essay with trembling hands.
"Ren," she said in disbelief. "You titled this: 'How to Conquer Humanity in Six Steps.'"
Ren leaned back, smirking lazily."Six steps felt fair. Any fewer, and it wouldn't be sporting."
A few students laughed nervously. Others shifted in their seats.The boy wasn't exactly popular — not because he was bad-looking, but because something about him didn't fit.It was in the way he smiled too easily, the way his eyes glinted as if watching a world he no longer belonged to.
"Kaizel," the teacher sighed, rubbing her temple. "Are you trying to get expelled?"
"Expelled?" Ren chuckled. "You can't expel despair, Sensei. It just finds another vessel."
Laughter rippled again.Even the teacher smiled — half nervous, half amused.Ren was strange, but strangely charming.A kid with the mind of a philosopher and the humor of a broken deity.
He tapped his pencil against the desk, watching raindrops race each other down the windowpane.For a moment, his reflection didn't match his movement.It smiled when he didn't.And for a flicker — his eyes glowed gold.
Then he blinked, and it was gone.
"Too much anime again," he muttered, shaking his head.
At lunch, he sat with his small group of friends — Aki, the sharp-tongued realist, and Ryo, the quiet gamer.
"Ren," Aki said, biting into her bread. "You do realize people are starting to call you 'The God of Despair,' right?"
Ren grinned. "Good. It's about time my reputation caught up with my divine status."
"You're impossible," she sighed."Correction," he said, raising a finger. "I'm inevitable."
"Bro thinks he's Thanos," Ryo muttered without looking up from his phone.
The three burst out laughing. For a moment, everything felt normal — like Ren really was just some eccentric kid.But behind his grin, something tugged at him.Dreams of fire.Cries of thousands.A silver-haired girl whispering through his nightmares, "Brother... stop..."
He didn't know her. But every time he heard that voice, his chest burned like it remembered her too well.
That night, he walked home under a broken umbrella.The city shimmered in rainlight — puddles reflecting a world that looked just slightly wrong.
Then, mid-step —the world stopped.
Raindrops froze in the air.Cars halted.A single droplet hovered before his eye, trembling like a heartbeat.
Ren frowned. "Huh. Guess I broke reality again."
A voice, soft yet echoing through his bones, whispered:
"Sixteen years. The seal decays, my master. Despair stirs again."
He turned around slowly."...Seal? Are you one of those scam calls?"
"You jest, as always. Even reborn, you laugh at fate."
Pain exploded in his chest. He fell to his knees, gripping his shirt as glowing cracks crawled up his skin.Images assaulted his mind — a burning throne, a dying hero, a girl's tearful smile as she whispered, 'If we meet again, kill me first.'
A figure stepped out of the frozen rain — cloaked, faceless, blade gleaming.
"Sixteen years," it said. "Time to wake up, God of Despair."
The blade pierced his heart.Ren gasped, staring at his reflection in the silver steel.Then — he smiled.
"About time," he whispered, blood trickling down his chin. "I was getting bored."
The figure vanished as the rain resumed — reality snapping back.Ren's body collapsed onto the pavement, eyes still open, that cursed grin frozen in place.
"So… this is how my recess ends."
The city moved on.Nobody noticed the faint ripple in the air — the quiet distortion that marked the end of one world, and the beginning of another.
(End of Chapter 1)