Time continued to pass as Kai desperately tried to figure out what his magical specialty could be. Every morning brought new experiments and every evening brought fresh disappointment. Mary had consulted with different borrowed dusty tomes from the village library. But sadly nothing seemed to unlock the mystery of Kai's abilities.
Until one fateful afternoon when he was once again coerced into playing tag with the rest of the children.
Kai didn't love this particular game, and for more reasons than he cared to admit. Not only did it contradict everything about who he had been in his previous life—the idea of running around carelessly, laughing and playing games with other children felt alien to the person he remembered being—but more frustrating than that philosophical discomfort was the simple, embarrassing truth: he absolutely sucked at tag.
He had never been the most athletically gifted person in his past life, struggling with coordination and endurance even as he grew. That limitation seemed to have carried over into this new body with cruel persistence. Growing up at the orphanage, Kai had consistently been the slowest runner among the children. When he was "it" during their games, it would take an eternity for him to catch anyone, often ending with him giving up in frustrated exhaustion while the other children waited impatiently for the game to continue.
Despite all of this, something deep within him—some fundamental part of his new, younger body—craved the simple joy of childlike play. This internal contradiction between his adult memories and childish impulses often left him feeling confused and conflicted. But today, as usual, his body's desires overtook his rational mind, and he found himself nodding agreement when Maya suggested another round of tag.
And to his absolute dismay, the other children immediately declared him "it."
Kai sighed deeply, the sound carrying all the weight of his repeated failures at this simple game. He trudged to the center of their makeshift playing field—a patch of grass behind the orphanage where the laundry lines usually hung—and began the familiar ritual of counting to ten while covering his eyes.
"One... two... three..." he called out, listening to the thundering of small feet as the other children scattered in all directions. Among the fleeing footsteps, he could distinguish the voices of Maya's confident laughter as she no doubt found some clever hiding spot, and Rowan's slightly labored breathing as he searched for cover. Rowan had really opened up over the past year, becoming much more social and playful, though he remained almost as athletically challenged as Kai himself.
"Seven... eight... nine... ten!" Kai finished his count and spun around, immediately scanning the area to choose his first target.
His eyes quickly spotted Rowan, who had positioned himself behind a small garden shed but was already falling behind the other children who were still running to establish better positions. This wasn't abnormal—Rowan being the only other person in the orphanage nearly as slow as Kai made him the logical first choice. At least with Rowan, Kai might actually have a chance of success.
Kai took a deep breath and prepared himself for another round of inevitable failure. He planted his left foot firmly behind his right, digging the ball of his foot slightly into the soft grass beneath him, preparing to launch himself forward in what he hoped would be a reasonably fast sprint.
The moment his foot made that deliberate contact with the earth, something completely unexpected happened.
It felt as though his planted foot had somehow connected directly to the grass beneath it, as if roots were suddenly extending from his sole into the soil below. Simultaneously, his body seemed to merge with the air around him, and his skin felt like it was consuming the very light that touched it. The sensation was overwhelming and immediate—mana began flowing into him in massive waves, far more intense than anything he had experienced since his awakening.
The feeling crashed over him with startling familiarity. 'It's the same way I felt when I awakened!' he realized with a shock that sent electricity through his nervous system.
Just like that night when he had floated above his bed, everything around him suddenly appeared brighter, more vivid, more real. But this time was different—instead of the peaceful, floating sensation he had experienced during his awakening, his body now felt powerful in a completely different way. Raw strength seemed to course through his muscles, his reflexes sharpened to an almost supernatural degree, and every fiber of his being hummed with barely contained energy.
In this moment of overwhelming power, one single thought rose above all others, dominating his consciousness with primal intensity: RUN.
And that's exactly what he did.
Kai released his back foot from its planted position and took off after Rowan, who was now easily twenty feet ahead of him and still moving. But the distance that should have been insurmountable suddenly felt trivial. Kai's legs moved with a speed and grace he had never possessed before, eating up the ground between them with impossible efficiency.
The world seemed to slow around him as he ran. He could see every blade of grass bending beneath his feet, could track the exact trajectory of Rowan's movements, could calculate the precise moment when he would be close enough to make his tag. His body moved with perfect coordination, each step flowing seamlessly into the next as if he had been born to run.
In what felt like mere seconds, Kai had closed the impossible gap. He reached out and gently tapped Rowan on the shoulder, the contact shocking both of them with its suddenness.
Rowan, who had been running at his maximum speed and hadn't expected to be caught so quickly, stumbled forward from the surprise. He tumbled to the ground in a graceless heap, rolling once before coming to a stop. Quickly, he looked back up at Kai with an expression of complete bewilderment, his mouth hanging open in shock.
Kai stood over his fallen friend, staring down at his own hands and body as the magical energy continued to flow through him like a river of liquid lightning. The power was intoxicating, making him feel more alive and capable than he had ever felt in either of his lives.
Gradually, he became aware that not just Rowan was staring at him. All around the playing field, the other children had stopped their own running and hiding to gape at what they had just witnessed. Maya stood near the corner of the orphanage building, her eyes wide with amazement. Several of the younger children had emerged from their hiding spots entirely, drawn by the spectacle of Kai's impossible burst of speed.
The silence stretched on for several heartbeats as everyone processed what they had just seen. Kai could feel their stares like physical weight, but his attention remained focused on the incredible sensation still coursing through his body.
'Is this... my specialty?' he wondered, flexing his fingers and feeling the power respond to his movement like an extension of his will.