The sky had stopped being blue.
A strange purple glow swallowed the clouds, and cracks thin, web-shaped cracks ran across the atmosphere like someone was breaking a glass dome from the outside.
Rei stared upward, heart pounding.
After what happened with the Alpha, after nearly losing Aira, after awakening a power that still felt too huge for his body…
The world didn't settle.
It got worse.
Much, much worse.
Screams echoed from the streets below. Lights flickered across entire districts. Buildings shook as if something underground tried to crawl out.
Aika, still holding Rei's arm, whispered:
"Rei… what's happening to everyone?"
He didn't need to search for the answer.
He had seen the signs.
People collapsing with glowing marks.
Kids lifting cars with their bare hands.
Animals mutating in seconds.
Shadows behaving like living creatures.
The world was awakening.
But awakening into what?
Rei swallowed hard.
"Everyone is… gaining power."
Aika shook, "But why? Why now?"
Rei didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
Because knowledge came with memory… and his memories were still chained in a past life he couldn't reach.
Another explosion echoed across the city.
A scream.
A roar.
And then
A man flew past the rooftop they stood on.
Not jumped.
Flew.
He was shouting, half terrified, half ecstatic:
"I CAN FLY! I-I CAN FLY AHHHHH!"
He spiraled out of control and crashed into a water tank below, causing another explosion of mist.
Aika gasped. "Rei… people are becoming dangerous."
Rei clenched his fists.
"They're becoming villains."
Not by choice.
By chaos.
By fear.
By uncontrolled power.
If the whole world had awakened abilities, society wasn't ready.
Humanity wasn't ready.
Aika gripped his hand tighter.
"Rei… we won't survive this alone."
Those words hit him like a knife.
Because she was right.
This wasn't a battle for one person.
Not anymore.
This was a war.
Rei took a breath.
Slow.
Deep.
And decided.
"We need a team."
Aika's eyes widened. "A team?"
Rei nodded.
"Not just fighters… people who can survive, who can adapt, who can help us fight the ones who will come later."
He didn't say the names.
But he thought them.
The Five Shadows.
The real villains.
The ones behind everything.
He still didn't know their faces.
Only their silhouettes burned into his memory like scars.
Aika looked at him, her voice trembling:
"Will… will this team be enough to protect us?"
Rei looked at his glowing palms.
"I don't know."
He turned toward the growing dust cloud rising from a distant street.
"But I know one thing
We can't protect anyone if it's just us."
---
THE FIRST VILLAIN OF THE NEW WORLD
The streets were chaos.
People running.
Cars crushed.
Shadows writhing on walls.
But the center of attention…
Was one boy.
A teenager maybe 17 standing barefoot in the middle of the road, his hands trembling, his face twisted in pain.
His shadow… wasn't normal.
It moved like liquid.
It stretched across buildings.
And it screamed.
Aika froze.
"T-that shadow… what is it doing?!"
Rei stepped forward cautiously.
This wasn't evil.
This was fear.
The boy was crying, holding his head.
"I-I don't want this! Stop! STOP!!"
The shadow lashed out like a beast, grabbing a streetlight and crushing it.
Rei's heart clenched painfully.
The boy wasn't a villain.
He was a victim.
Rei whispered:
"He's losing control. His power is using him instead of the other way around."
Aika gulped.
"Rei… what do we do?"
Rei didn't hesitate.
"We save him."
He jumped forward.
Aika reached instantly.
"REI!"
But he was already running.
The shadow sensed him and surged upward, ready to crush him like a fly
Rei raised his hand.
His mark pulsed.
And the world cracked.
A faint rift opened, sucking the shadow's attack into itself like water down a drain.
Rei landed in front of the boy, gripping his shoulders.
"Look at me!"
The boy sobbed.
"P-please… help me… it won't stop"
Rei tightened his grip.
"Then I'll stop it."
His red aura exploded, creating a dome that suppressed the out-of-control shadow until it shrank back into the boy's body.
The boy collapsed into Rei's arms, unconscious but alive.
Aika rushed forward, falling to her knees beside them.
"You… you did it…"
Rei didn't feel victorious.
Just… tired.
And sad.
He stared at the unconscious boy.
"No one taught him how to control it."
Aika touched his arm gently.
"Then you have to teach others."
Rei looked at her.
And knew she was right.
He couldn't save the world alone.
He had to build something bigger.
---
THE FIRST MEMBER JOINS
Footsteps echoed behind him.
Kazuro appeared, spear in hand, expression cold but eyes burning with something fierce.
Rei stood.
Kazuro stared at the destruction.
"You saved him. Good."
Rei nodded silently.
Kazuro continued:
"But there will be thousands more like him by tomorrow."
Rei's chest tightened.
Kazuro planted his spear into the ground.
"I'm joining you."
Rei blinked.
"…Why?"
Kazuro didn't look at him.
He stared at the city.
Expression hard.
Voice quiet.
"Because if someone doesn't put the world back together… it's going to fall completely apart."
Rei saw something in his eyes.
Pain.
Loss.
Fire.
But not the kind that burned out of control.
The kind that kept someone alive.
Rei gave a slow nod.
"Okay. You're in."
Aika smiled softly.
Kazuro closed his eyes like he had been waiting to hear those words for years.
---
THE NEW WORLD SPREADS LIKE A STORM
All three of them looked around:
More people gaining powers.
More shadows forming.
More screams.
More explosions.
More cities falling apart.
This wasn't a one-city disaster.
It was global.
Aika whispered, horrified:
"Rei… if everyone in the world keeps awakening powers like this… there will be millions of villains."
Rei didn't want to imagine it.
He didn't have to.
He looked at the sky.
The same cracks he saw here…
Were appearing everywhere.
Tokyo.
Seoul.
New York.
Berlin.
Mumbai.
Dubai.
Johannesburg.
Everywhere.
The world was waking up.
And falling apart.
Aika shivered violently.
"Rei… what caused this?"
Rei looked down at his glowing mark.
Then at the unconscious boy.
Then at the cracks in the sky.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"…Someone opened the wrong rift."
Aika stared.
"But who?"
Kazuro answered quietly:
"Not 'who.'
'Whoever comes last.'"
Rei froze.
Aika stared.
Kazuro continued:
"The strongest ones haven't even shown themselves yet.
The ones behind everything…
They're waiting."
Rei felt his lungs tighten.
He already knew.
He had seen their silhouettes.
He had felt their presence.
He had feared their arrival.
The Five Shadows.
The true villains.
Aika grabbed Rei's hand.
"Rei… before they come…
We have to be stronger."
Rei looked at the city collapsing below him.
Looked at Kazuro.
Looked at Aika.
And nodded once.
A single sentence left his lips:
"Then we start building our team."
Aika smiled with relief.
Kazuro smirked.
Rei's eyes hardened with resolve.
The world would drown in chaos.
Villains would rise one after another.
But Rei would rise too.
Not as a hero.
Not as a savior.
But as something the world needed.
A leader.
Of the only group that could fight back.
The Five Lights.
This…
Was the beginning.
---