"Before he was Pageburner, he was just a boy trying to erase his pain."
Scene: Shattered Cathedral of Akasora
The mirror splinters fell like snow.
Inside every shard—a memory.
A boy in tattered robes. Alone. Scribbling words into a bleeding book.
He looked no older than 10. But his eyes—unblinking, eternal.
"Is that… Pageburner as a child?" Airi whispered.
"No," Hiragi said. "That's the draft of who he used to be."
Memory Flashback – Year 0
Narrated by the Dream Scribe's voice:
"He was born in Akasora. During the War of Revisions."
"The priests tried to lock reality with words. But every sentence they wrote... erased something else."
We see the boy losing his parents.
Not to war. But to editing errors.
His mother erased mid-sentence. His father overwritten by a fictional character.
He screamed.
And the Void answered.
A black feathered quill landed in his hand.
And he wrote:
"Everything ends. Only I decide when."
That was when he became...
The Pageburner.
Back to Present
The broken mirror formed a circle.
Suddenly—a voice echoed from it.
"Hiragi."
It wasn't hostile.
It was... tired.
"You came to kill me?"
"I came to understand you," Hiragi replied.
The boy stepped out—half-real, half-shadow.
Still clutching the Void Quill.
"I write so no one else has to feel pain. Why won't you let me finish the story?"
Duel of Truths
They fought—not with blades—but with words.
Hiragi channeled Nolan's training.
Each sentence he spoke became armor.
Each truth Pageburner spoke became a curse.
Pageburner: "The world doesn't need heroes. It needs editors."
Hiragi: "Then let's rewrite this—together."
But Then—Interference
Suddenly, the sky above Akasora split.
Black blood rained from the clouds.
A new entity stepped through the tear.
Not Pageburner.
But the one who gave him the Quill.
The Editor-in-Bleed.
Wrapped in red manuscripts. Face covered in footnotes. Voice like screaming pens.
"This story has gone too far."
"Time for deletion."
To Be Continued…