Kaele Belphegor was born with six esper abilities, something rare enough that doctors stared at his test results twice, and Hero Association scanners flagged him every time he walked past one. But in this world, rare did not mean legendary. Some top heroes had seven, eight, even nine abilities. So six was impressive, sure, but not world shaking.
Still, his abilities were nothing to ignore.
Sentry, the power to create weapons out of thin air and control them with his mind.
Blink, short distance teleportation, perfect for dodging, escaping, or just avoiding walking.
Necromancy, raising the dead and commanding them, from basic skeletons to advanced undead races. They were ranked from lowest to highest as skeleton, zombie, advanced zombie, mummy, death knight, bone monarch, general, and advanced race.
Bullet Time, slowing his perception of the world anywhere from ten times slower to a million times slower.
Sin Form, a monstrous transformation with horns, wings, black sclera, and red eyes.
Super Regeneration, self healing that works best when he is calm.
Six abilities. Six reasons the Hero Association kept a quiet file on him. Six reasons he should have been a prodigy.
It was just another day for the fourteen year old slacker named Kaele. He was in school, got decent grades, lived with a foster family who told him they would never love him like a real son, which was contradictory because it sure felt like they did. They threw him birthday parties, gave him allowance, fed him, gave him clothes. Most of their attention went to their two actual children, but he still felt included, and he was almost never punished. Every time he brought it up they would just say, "It is the humane thing to do." He never minded. To him this was perfect.
Recently he had even started talking to a blonde girl. He never really did emotions, so they were new, but she was hot, kind, and most importantly shared many hobbies with him.
His grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins were alive, but they found him at six and his life was already stable. He visited them and came over for holidays, but that was pretty much it. They loved him, but they saw he had a good life, so they never tried to take him.
On his way home, Kaele was walking with Hazel, the blonde friend or maybe girlfriend he had been talking to for months. He was finally bringing her home. When he reached the door, he saw a hero behind him. He recognized him from the internet. Flame Emperor, B rank.
"C rank villain shapeshifter, step away from that civilian."
Kaele blinked, confused. Then something strange happened. Hazel laughed. Her form shifted. Her hand formed blades. Her arms elongated. Her voice changed into something cocky and sharp.
"I did my research. This kid is the one the Association has their eyes on. A potential top five hero, at least top ten. Back down or he dies."
Flame Emperor charged at Hazel, or more accurately the shapeshifter. A blade pierced Kaele's chest. He fell down bleeding out, powerless, pathetic, and worst of all hopeless.
He sat there healing, watching the fight. He noticed how Flame Emperor pushed him to the side. He noticed how, despite being the strongest one in the immediate area, he was the first to fall to the pavement and bleed. In that moment he made a quiet promise to himself. He would never be powerless again.
He got up slowly. His healing had patched up the wound nicely. Flame Emperor looked at him after catching the now incapacitated shapeshifter, who had reverted to her normal appearance, a thirty year old woman with long brown hair.
"Are you ok?"
This remark enraged Kaele so completely that he could not hold it back. His anger burst out of him and he yelled, "Am I ok? Of course I am not ok, you idiot. If my power was not regeneration I would be dead, so no, I am not ok."
After a few moments Kaele forced himself to breathe slowly. His regeneration worked best when he was calm, so he pushed the anger down just enough for the pain in his chest to fade. He wiped the blood from his shirt, annoyed at how much of a mess it made, then looked at Flame Emperor with a flat expression.
"If I were someone without regeneration," Kaele said, "you would have lost your job."
Flame Emperor froze. The words hit him harder than any attack the shapeshifter had thrown. His flames dimmed a little as he stared at the boy he had just let get stabbed.
"That is not fair," the hero said. "I reacted to a threat. I had to prioritize the civilian in danger."
Kaele pointed at the unconscious shapeshifter on the ground. "You mean the one who stabbed me because you yelled first and thought later."
Flame Emperor opened his mouth, then closed it again. He clearly had no good answer.
Kaele felt something cold settle in his chest. Not fear. Not pain. Something else. Something heavier. Something that made the world feel a little quieter.
He had always known heroes were not perfect. He had always known the Association made mistakes. But seeing it up close, feeling the blade go through him, watching a trained hero shove him aside like a broken toy, that was different.
He looked at Flame Emperor again. The man was strong. A B rank hero. Someone the public trusted. Someone Kaele had watched online more than once.
Yet here he was, standing in front of Kaele, looking guilty and unsure, like a child who had been caught doing something wrong.
Kaele felt his anger rise again, but this time it was calmer, sharper, more focused.
"You did not protect me," Kaele said. "You did not even try. You saw a threat and threw me out of the way like trash."
Flame Emperor tried to speak. "I was trying to keep you safe."
"You failed."
The hero flinched.
Kaele stepped closer. His voice was quiet now, almost calm, but there was something in it that made Flame Emperor take a step back.
"If my power was not regeneration," Kaele said, "I would be dead. And you would be the reason."
Flame Emperor swallowed hard. "I will file a report. The Association will compensate you. They will review my actions."
Kaele stared at him. "Compensation does not fix anything."
For a moment neither of them spoke. The street was quiet except for the distant sound of traffic and the faint crackle of Flame Emperor's dying flames.
Kaele looked down at the blood on his hands. It was already drying. His wound was gone. His shirt was ruined. His trust in heroes felt ruined too.
He looked back up at Flame Emperor.
"You are supposed to be the strongest person here," Kaele said. "But I was the one who got stabbed first. I was the one who fell first.
I was the one who bled first but I understand now you are human and as a human I shouldn't expect you to be better than me."
Flame Emperor had nothing to say so he just stayed quiet.
Kaele turned away from him. Something inside him had shifted. Something small, but important. A seed. A thought. A quiet understanding that the world was not as safe or fair as he had believed.
He walked toward his house, leaving Flame Emperor standing there in silence.
He did not look back.
Kaele walked toward his house without looking back. His steps felt heavier than usual, but not because of pain. His regeneration had already taken care of that. It was something else. Something he could not name yet. Something that sat in his chest like a weight.
He reached the door and paused. His hand hovered over the handle. Hazel had been a lie. The girl he had talked to for months, the one who shared his hobbies, the one who made him feel something for the first time, had never existed. It had all been a disguise. A trick. A setup.
He felt stupid for not noticing. He felt angry at himself for trusting so easily. He felt angry at Flame Emperor for making everything worse. He felt angry at the world for letting this happen in the first place.
He took a slow breath. His regeneration hummed quietly under his skin, smoothing out the last
traces of pain. He pushed the door open.
His foster mother looked up from the kitchen table. She smiled when she saw him. "Welcome home, Kaele. Dinner is almost ready."
He stared at her for a moment. Her smile was real. Her voice was warm. She had no idea what had just happened outside. She had no idea he had almost died. She had no idea that the girl he had been talking about for months had been a shapeshifter trying to use him as leverage.
He forced a small smile. "Thanks. I will wash up."
He walked past her and headed to the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and looked at himself in the mirror. His shirt was torn and stained with dried blood. His skin was unmarked. His eyes looked tired in a way he had never seen before.
He touched the spot on his chest where the blade had gone through. There was nothing there now. No scar. No bruise. No sign that anything had happened only a torn shirt and blood.
But he remembered the feeling. The cold metal. The shock. The helplessness.
He remembered Flame Emperor pushing him aside like he was nothing. He remembered lying on the pavement while the hero fought. He remembered the shapeshifter laughing as she stabbed him.
He remembered the promise he made to himself.
He would never be powerless again.
Kaele closed his eyes. His breathing slowed. His heartbeat steadied. His regeneration always worked best when he was calm, but this time it felt different. It felt like something inside him was settling into place.
Something sharp. Something focused.
He opened his eyes again.
He did not look like a villain. He did not look like a hero either. He looked like a boy who had seen the truth for the first time.
Heroes were human. Villains were human. Everyone made mistakes. Everyone failed someone.
And if he wanted to survive in this world, he could not rely on anyone else to protect him.
Not heroes. Not the Association. Not even the people who cared about him.
He had six abilities. He had potential. He had a reason now.
Kaele turned away from the mirror and washed the blood from his hands. The water ran red for a moment, then clear.
He dried his hands and stepped out of the bathroom.
Something inside him had changed forever. A/N: do not expect a long chapter often