"I…What?"
Kazuma stared at his own hand while holding his breath. The shattered pieces of glass scattered across the floor no longer concerned him. Something was clearly wrong with his body. That burning sensation was not just an ordinary fever, as if something was pulsing inside his blood.
In panic he ran toward the sink. He opened the faucet fully and poured water over his hand, hoping the red glow on the back of his hand was nothing more than paint or a strange reflection.
But the moment the water touched his skin—
ssszzzt…
The water instantly evaporated.
"Hah!?"
Kazuma reflexively pulled his hand back. His eyes widened, his heart beating faster. Thin steam was still rising from the back of his hand like smoke coming from heated metal.
For a moment he thought this was merely a hallucination caused by exhaustion. But the more he tried to understand it, the clearer it became that something abnormal was truly happening.
And it also became clearer that the words of the old man in the video… might be true.
"Wait a second…"
His mind suddenly returned to one moment at the airport in Russia. When he was inside the restroom, washing his face in front of the sink. An old man had entered in a hurry.
After that… his memory blurred.
He only remembered suddenly regaining consciousness already inside a toilet stall, sitting like someone who was defecating.
Kazuma swallowed.
'Don't tell me…'
The possibility he was thinking about made the back of his neck shiver. If his guess was correct, then the man in the video, Omar Bradley, had truly injected something into his body while he was unconscious.
He walked back and forth in his small kitchen, his mind filled with various possibilities. For a moment he even considered immediately reporting to the authorities. The Anti-Demon Corps had a research department that would surely know how to handle a phenomenon like this.
But his steps stopped.
He remembered the final warning in that video.
Always be cautious of the people around you.
Kazuma let out a long breath.
"Haah… what am I supposed to do with this?"
At that moment an unfamiliar awareness appeared in his mind, like an instinct that was suddenly born along with the changes in his body. A name surfaced without him knowing where it came from.
Solar Genesis.
That was the name of the peach blessing that now existed within him.
The ability caused Kazuma's body to imitate the process that occurs inside a star. Energy gathered within his blood vessels, creating a small energy core that functioned like a biological reactor. His body's cells acted as controllers of atomic reactions on a microscopic scale—triggering, restraining, and channeling energy that normally only exists in the heart of a star.
In other words…
He had become something resembling a living nuclear reactor.
"This… is insane."
Kazuma muttered quietly.
The ability sounded incredibly powerful—too powerful, even. But precisely because of that, it was dangerous. The energy he stored was not something that could be taken lightly. If he lost control, that power could be released unintentionally.
Images of destruction immediately crossed his mind.
Hiroshima.Nagasaki.
Two names written in history books as the greatest scars of the modern era.
Kazuma clenched his teeth.
"No way…"
He stared at his hand that still emitted a faint red glow.
"There's no way I would actually let myself explode in the middle of the city!"
Especially if that destruction came from himself.
In the current world, where the power of the peach fruit and supernatural abilities have become the center of military strength, nuclear weapons are no longer the measure of global dominance.
That era has passed.
Now Japan holds the world's hegemony since the Mato dimension appeared. The power of women who consumed the peach fruit became the primary foundation of the nation's defense and authority.
And in a world like that…
He had become an anomaly.
It was not only the Eden organization that might hunt him. If the existence of this power became known, even the Japanese government could capture him and turn him into a research subject. A world filled with superpowered humans does not mean they understand everything—quite the opposite. Things that are unknown are usually dissected first before they are trusted.
What Omar Bradley warned about suddenly felt far more real.
Kazuma sat alone in the quiet living room, trying to think about what he should do. The news he had received was too shocking, making his thoughts move slowly. He realized he could not make any major decisions in this condition. He had to calm himself first.
That day passed without sleep.
Throughout the night Kazuma thought about various worst possibilities—being hunted by a shadow organization, captured by the government, or losing control of the power inside his own body. His thoughts kept spinning until his head felt heavy and throbbing.
When he took a glass of water in the morning, his gaze accidentally fell on the small altar in the corner of the living room. There lay his father's photograph.
Kazuma's eyes stopped there for a few seconds.
Then an old memory appeared in his mind.
"Don't think too much about complicated things. Just do what you believe is right."
His father once said those words when he was still a child.
Strangely, those simple words seemed to clear the fog in his mind.
Kazuma let out a long breath. His head felt slightly lighter. He returned to his room, took a pen and a small notebook. Without hesitation he began writing a simple plan.
There were three main points.
Train his body.
Develop his Ability.
Build connections so he would not be alone when facing complicated situations in the future.
For now, that was enough.
Kazuma slowly closed the notebook. He knew the plan was still rough, but at least he had a direction.
Besides that, there was one advantage he could not ignore. He was in Japan. The country with the largest number of peach power users in the world. Organizations like Eden would not be able to move freely in a territory like this. Surveillance was too strict, and the military power based on Ability was too strong.
Moreover, Eden itself consisted of men.
In the current world, that was a major weakness.
Kazuma also remembered something Omar mentioned in the video. About the seven Numbers—men who successfully obtained Ability through experiments.
But they had lost their sanity.
Creatures like that could no longer be called human. They resembled bio-weapons more than anything else, living weapons that existed only to destroy.
Kazuma looked at his palm again. The faint red light still pulsed beneath his skin.
"In that case…"
He slowly clenched his fist.
"For now, I have to become strong enough so I won't be hunted like prey."
A small step, but a very important one.
Because without realizing it, the simple decision he wrote in that notebook would become the starting point of the journey of a man who one day could shake the balance of the world.
/---/
On the way home from college, the clock had only just struck twelve noon. The sun was still high when Kazuma walked along the city streets with calm steps, even though his mind was filled with many thoughts. His goal was simple: to find a martial arts dojo.
For now, he didn't need anything too complicated. The most important thing was to strengthen his body first. Without a good physical foundation, any ability he possessed would only become a burden.
As for Ability, he felt he could learn it on his own.
Since the incident last night, Kazuma had begun to understand a little about how his power worked. Solar Genesis did not react randomly. The energy core inside his body seemed to be heavily influenced by his emotional state. As long as he could keep his mind calm, that energy could be controlled and remain stable within his body.
That also explained why the water in the sink instantly evaporated when it touched his hand. At that moment he panicked, and the energy core inside his body reacted uncontrollably.
Kazuma let out a slow breath.
He now understood a little more about one important thing regarding the power granted by the peach fruit. Ability was not something that appeared randomly. The peach fruit would adjust the power that emerged according to the deepest desire of the user.
In his case, the answer was quite clear.
Since his teenage years, Kazuma had always been interested in the world of nuclear science. Not only as an academic field, but also as an extraordinary scientific phenomenon. The energy capable of destroying cities while also powering modern civilization had always fascinated him.
That was why the ability that manifested within him became like this.
Solar Genesis.
An ability that imitates the core process of a star—an atomic reaction that produces energy on an extraordinary scale.
Kazuma smiled faintly as he walked past rows of small shops.
"If you think about it… this fits too well."
However, that power also carried great risk. Without proper control, he could become a walking bomb. Because of that, before thinking about anything else, he had to make sure his body was strong enough to withstand the pressure of that energy.
His eyes finally stopped on a simple building with an old wooden sign above its door.
A dojo.
The sound of wood striking and footsteps could be heard from inside. The distinctive smell of tatami could be faintly sensed even from outside the door.
Kazuma stood for a few seconds in front of the place.