"Welcome back, big brother," one of them called out.
Ahmad smiled faintly and went inside. He lay down on his bed not long after, staring at the ceiling as the lights dimmed.
Tomorrow was supposed to change everything.
Ahmad woke up before anyone else that morning.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment, heart already racing. Sleep had barely touched him. The excitement was too much to hold in. Before the sun fully rose, he was already on his feet, slipping out of the orphanage as quietly as he could.
The streets of the Hokkaido District were just beginning to wake up.
Ahmad ran through them with a wide grin, watching people pass by as they casually used their Nexus abilities. A man lifted heavy crates without effort. Someone else spoke quietly into the air, communicating through telepathy. A flash of fire sparked from a woman's hand as she heated her breakfast. The ground shifted beneath another person's feet, stone bending like it was nothing.
Ahmad slowed down, eyes glowing with wonder.
This was the world he was about to step into.
As he cut through a narrow alley, something caught his eye. A tall white building stood ahead, its emblem clearly marked near the entrance.
The Zero Department.
Ahmad stopped running.
One day, he thought, he, Messiah, and Korbyn would stand together in those white robes. He imagined the captain's hat resting on his head. The thought made his chest tighten with excitement.
By the time he snapped out of it, the sun had fully risen.
Ahmad laughed to himself and took off again, heading toward the park.
Messiah and Korbyn were already there, waiting at their usual spot.
"Are y'all ready?" Ahmad shouted as he ran up to them.
They answered at the same time. "More than ready."
The three of them headed for the train station together and boarded the car headed toward Tokyo. They found seats near the window, the city slowly blurring past them as the train picked up speed.
Korbyn leaned forward. "What do you think the tree will look like?"
Ahmad blinked. "What tree?"
Messiah and Korbyn stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing.
"The Tree of Blessings," Messiah said between laughs. "That's where you get your Nexus, dummy."
Before Ahmad could respond, a quiet voice spoke from the corner of the train.
"Well… that's only part of it."
They turned to see a boy sitting alone. He had white hair that fell messily over part of his face, red eyes that watched them carefully, and a white jacket that matched his pants almost too perfectly.
"What do you mean?" Messiah asked.
The boy smiled faintly. "The tree isn't just where people get their Nexus. Long before modern Times.
The boy let out a quiet breath, his red eyes drifting toward the window as the city rushed by.
"The tree isn't just some place where kids line up and get lucky," he said. "That's what they tell you so you don't ask questions."
He leaned back slightly, voice lowering.
"Long before the world looked like this, before trains and districts and laws, the Tree of Beginnings was everything. Power didn't come from people. People came from it. Every nation, every district, every army wanted control over it. They called it protection. Balance. Order."
He smiled faintly, but there was no warmth in it.
"What they really wanted was dominance."
The train rattled as it passed through a tunnel.
"All that fighting soaked into the tree. Greed. Fear. Desperation. Over time, it couldn't hold it anymore. It cracked. And from that fracture came twelve original Nexus. Six Celestial, born from the tree's will to preserve itself. And six Abyssal, born from everything it was forced to endure."
The boy finally looked back at them.
"They weren't meant to be used. They were meant to end things. A last answer to a world that couldn't stop tearing itself apart."
His fingers curled slightly.
"They scattered across the land. Some were sealed. Some were lost. Some were erased from history entirely. And after that… the tree weakened. What people receive now are fragments. Echoes of what power used to be."
He paused, letting the words sit.
"That's why some Nexus feel alive. And why others feel wrong."
The train rattled softly as silence settled.
"And who are you?" Ahmad asked.
The boy looked back at him. "Azire."
Messiah raised his hand awkwardly. "Messiah Verity. That's Korbyn. And that's Ahmad."
Azire nodded once.
Not long after, the train slowed as it pulled into Tokyo.