The television light flickered inside the room.
The news was playing.
"This morning, a violent clash between two Blooders occurred inside a soap factory. One body has been recovered from the scene. The condition of the corpse was extremely severe. The police are currently investigating."
For a few seconds, broken walls and stains of blood flashed across the screen.
Then the sound slowly faded.
Behind the school, in an empty area, three boys were beating another student.
"I'm telling the truth! I saw blood in the forest!"
The boy cried out while being hit.
One of them pushed him.
"You're lying. Is blood something you just find that easily?"
Another sneered,
"Stop making up stories to fool us."
"Please believe me! I saw it with my own eyes!"
But they didn't stop.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind—
"Hey. What's going on here?"
All three froze and turned around.
A boy was standing there. Quiet. Calm. His eyes steady.
It was Ryoza Ren.
One of them whispered,
"That's Ryoza… let's get out of here."
Without another word, they ran away.
Ryoza slowly walked toward the injured boy.
"You were just sitting there getting beaten? You couldn't do anything?"
The boy lowered his head.
"Sorry… I'm not good at fighting. Thank you for saving me."
Ryoza thought to himself—
I didn't even do anything.
He asked,
"Why were they hitting you?"
The boy hesitated before answering.
"I saw a bottle in the forest. It was placed in front of a tree. There was blood inside… but it was glowing. A red light was coming out of it."
Ryoza's eyes sharpened for a brief moment.
"I tried to get closer. But I heard a sound. It felt like someone was there. Maybe a Blooder… I got scared and ran away."
He let out a small breath.
"When I told my friends, they didn't believe me. They already bully me at school… today they just started again."
He looked up—
Ryoza was gone.
Ryoza was already running toward the forest.
Only one thought echoed in his mind—
I've been waiting for this day.
At a train station, an old man sat reading a newspaper.
The headline read—
"Five innocent civilians killed in last night's Blooder clash."
Another article stated—
"Blooder attack leaves a man's entire property destroyed."
The old man slowly shook his head.
"Ever since the Blooders appeared… this world has become something close to hell."
He looked up at the sky.
"If only someone existed… someone who could change everything."
Ryoza climbed the hill with quiet determination.
And this is where the story begins.