I woke up with a blinding light across my face. I'm on a hospital bed with bandages all over my body. I glanced through the window and noticed it was dark outside.

El and Phil were sleeping next to each other on the sofa. Their clothes have a bit of blood on them. They seemed to have been with me this whole time.

In the corner of the room I saw a familiar figure. Legs crossed with his hair tied up in a ponytail of blue and grey, was my cousin, Haruki. He was reading a magazine but he noticed my gaze and quickly went to my side to talk.

“Before you ask me about it, I am invisible right now. So if you want to talk, do it quietly so your friends won't wake up” Haruki said with a low voice.

“Your friend with the spiky black hair went out to buy food and clothes for your friends, he should be here at any moment.” Haruki added.

“How long have I passed out?” I whispered.

“About 3 hours. The doctors said you’ll wake up tomorrow but I used a healing gem to speed up your recovery. We can’t have you out here for too long, it's a bit dangerous for us to stay in the hospital you see, you just experienced it first hand. And your friends are planning to stay here until you wake up. You don’t want to trouble them right?”

“Yeah, Thank you.” I thanked Haruki and just before I was about to ask him about the girl. The door slided slowly and Hoshiro appeared, Carrying four bento boxes and a plastic bag with what seemed like water bottles and clothes.

“Oh Yaku, you’re awake, The doctor said you’d wake up tomorrow. Good thing I bought you food just in case.” Hoshiro started with a relieved tone. He woke up El and Phil who were napping silently on the sofa.

El and Phil were crying and hugging me as we all had our dinner. Haruki went out a while ago and said he’ll come back tomorrow.

“By the way” I started. This hospital room doesn’t look cheap. I don’t have money to pay for all this.

“Don't worry, We talked to your guardian, we were worried because we thought we won’t be able to contact her because she's overseas but she picked up pretty quickly. She said you shouldn’t worry about the bills and just focus on healing.” El replied.

“Yeah don't worry about anything Yaku” Phil cheered with a smile.

We ate our dinner silently after that and time passed by like a blur. My friends weren’t asking about what happened, but I noticed from their eyes darting in my direction, hesitant on whether they should ask or not. Especially Phil, I noticed him holding back and is dying to bring it up. I have a good guess that Hoshiro forbade them to talk about it, he’s always thinking about people’s feelings.

I let out a sigh and they all looked at me with worry in their eyes.

“What’s the matter?” El started.

“You guys don't have to hold back. You can ask me about what happened.”

The three looked at each other with resolution in their eyes and asked me about the fight I had at the rooftop.

I hesitated for a moment, contemplating on whether I should tell them the truth or not. My friends meant the world to me and they’re all I got, so I told them. I told them about the floating city of Euryphaessa, the reason my family lived here, and the enemies we called shadows.

They were perplexed and found everything I said hard to believe. Afterall how could I prove that Euryphaessa exists? The only evidence I had was the girl who acted like she’s possessed by an evil spirit.

Hoshiro looked at me with an analytical gaze. I have no idea what is running through his head right now. Phil and El were the same, and looked at each other with sceptic faces.

“You guys don't believe me, I know it’s hard but listen-”

Yaku, it’s hard to believe what you’re saying but as your friend, we know you wont lie about this stuff.

“The doctors couldn’t believe it when they saw Maria acting like that, with your side of the story, it makes things easier to understand.”

“Maria is the name of the girl that attacked you, the hospital won't press charges because they saw everything that happened on camera, they believe you just tried to help her get down but you got attacked in return” Hoshiro spoke.

“It’s sad that we can’t do anything for her right now, we just need to wait for her recovery, but hopefully she gets well soon,” El added.

“Actually,” Hoshiro paused. “I just visited Maria, for some miracle her condition has stabilised. When she first got admitted her condition was so bad, and now she’s steadily recovering, so you shouldn’t stress too much Yaku, I know you won't rest well if things take a bad turn.”

I smiled in relief and realised Haruki might’ve also used a healing gem on her. I’m guessing this type of incident happens a lot so they made relief measures for these types of cases.

Soon after the doctor came and did some minor checks on my condition. They were astonished by my recovery speed and soon after they told me I can be discharged by tomorrow. I told El and Phil to go home and Hoshiro stayed to keep me company. I told him lots of times that I can handle myself but he insisted.

Morning soon came and I was discharged from the hospital. Hoshiro left to go to school while I was left at home thinking about what I should do now.

The things that happened yesterday were terrible, and the thought that it can happen to my friends as well is frightening. If I hadn’t found Takuya sooner he might’ve fallen victim to a shadow's fury too.

My parents were also fighters, did they experience this too that’s why they chose to fight?

I went through my parents' stuff. When they died, I made sure no one would touch their stuff. When I came back from my adoptive parents’ place and was able to live here again, I kept their bedroom as it is. I still occasionally clean their room and sometimes I would go to my dads table just to study there.

My parents identity here is normal, My dad worked as a watch mechanic as far as i know. He has trinkets of old and new watches on his table and drawers upon drawers of watch parts. I remembered I would watch him fix watches until I fell asleep on his table. When i saw my grandfather’s work i immediately thought of my dad, he got his talent as a mechanic because of my grandfather.

My mom worked as an interior designer. She was famous in our community and a lot of people really liked her work. I would guess she has designed more than hundreds of homes including all the rooms in this apartment complex.

Both my parents were really talented in their works and to think they had such stories about their past makes me wonder if I really know who my parents really are.

I rested my head on the table and noticed a closet door cracked open. I headed there and I closed it but noticed the floorboard underneath was slightly loose. I thought that since my parents had such backgrounds, a secret hiding spot won't be surprising. I knelt down and inspected the said floorboard and lifted it open. It had a reddish brown wooden box that looked like an old treasure chest. The box that was unlocked so I was able to get into it pretty easily. I was ecstatic. What if there’s weapons here, or gems with my dad’s light powers inside it.

I gently opened the wooden box and was greeted with nothing. It was empty except for a singular letter addressed to someone I never heard of. Judging by the date when it was written It seemed to have been written before my parents died. The contents of the box might’ve been something my dad took with him when they left.

I opened the letter and read what was inside…

Dear Raizen

The shadows are growing stronger by the day, especially the headless liar. I feel that he’ll soon come after me and my family. That's why I’m writing this letter now in case something happens.

Me and Thalia are blending in with the land dwellers quite nicely and my son Yaku is growing up comfortably. I hope that this time of our life continues but my heart belongs in battle and I could not sit still. I am worried for my son, we never told him anything about Euryphaessa and If the time I’m dreading comes to be, I’m scared of my son’s future. So I’m asking you to teach my son everything I taught you in the past. I know it’s too much to ask but I beg of you, if he’s really the child of prophecy he’ll come to know about Euryphaessa on his own and eventually fulfil his destiny. I know you’re not great at teaching but please do it for a father’s wish for his son to have a chance at his future battles. I know you’re the only one who’ll be able to help him. So please consider taking him in as your student.

Before I go , I'll give you this information I just found out about recently. The headless liar is but a mere puppet. The puppeteer is someone who lives in Euryphaessa. This is heavy information and will cause chaos if I let others know now, but I have no idea on who it could be. I might find some more leads tomorrow but for now this is all that I have.

From your old master, Kojin.

I closed my eyes and began to ponder. The prophecy I was destined to. It’s starting to come at me without me realising. Like my dad said, if the prophecy weren’t true I wouldn’t come to know about Euryphaessa…

This letter that contained important information that could possibly help the whole nation was left to eat dust in my dads old room. A letter he was supposed to send but failed to do so because of the accident.

I looked at the outside of the letter once again and was reminded by the letters my mom always made… Come to think of it. When I first met my grandfather, Old man Chron, he mentioned that the letters that my mom always sent suddenly stopped, and then they found out they had died a few years after that messages had stopped.

“Something doesn’t add up” I thought to myself. For one, I remember I would always see my mom write letters to someone along with my dad. I never asked who they were sending too, I always thought it was something work related. They write their letters every week even though I never saw a response to their letter. They sent those letters consistently until they died.

This last letter that my dad failed to send… If he did manage to send it, would it have fallen to the wrong hands?

So was there someone intercepting the letters? Or is it just some weird coincidence?

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

If I’m correct, Raizen is a former student of my dad. If sending this letter to him helps the nation it’ll make my parents' death not go in vain. If it is, then I must send this letter to him personally. But with that, I’ll be accepting the prophecy that’s ahead of me.

Prophecy or not, I don’t want my parents' hard sacrifice to go to waste. I’ll tell Old man Chron about the letters later, for now I need to prepare.

I understand my dad a bit more. They wanted me to have a normal life, but if the prophecy really comes true he still wants to help me in some way.

I raised up my head with my eyes lit with resolve. I took my mop and cleaned the whole house. And as soon as I realised it, it was already dusk.

I went to the rooftop and watched the golden sunset with tints of purple and magenta. There I witnessed the most beautiful sunset one could ever see. Glistening in its golden hue I looked down and saw the world in front of me. Bustling with life, not knowing about the dark forces that disrupts their peace without them realising. I clenched the golden dagger that’s still in my left pocket and I finally made up my mind.

“Haruki!” I yelled on the top of my lungs. I have no idea how to contact that guy, I only know that he’ll be patrolling at this time of day.

“Haruki! I’m ready to face my destiny!” I screamed again.

“So you’re ready to go to Euryphaessa?” a familiar voice suddenly appeared without warning. It was Haruki.

I nodded and told him that after my high school graduation tomorrow, I’ll move out and live in Euryphaessa.

The next day came and it’s my last day in school. I brought Haruki with me as my guardian. I told Haruki I just wanted him to meet my friends before I leave, but to be honest I just wanted to experience a family member walking with me during my graduation.

We entered my classroom and I saw my friends getting ready for the ceremony. We’re all wearing our uniforms but I can see their character shine by the way they dress.

Phil has freshly trimmed hair but still as flat as ever. He wore his graduation robes a bit untidily but thanks to El fixing it for him, he won't get scolded by his mom later. On the other hand El was prepared down to her choice of shoes, which looked to be brand new. Her hair was neatly tied in an elegant bun and she wore makeup that greatly emphasises her features. Hoshiro was the same, he was dressed neatly with his ironed graduation robes and his hair is less spiky than usual, it looked like he had styled it for today.

I called my friends and introduced them to my cousin, Haruki. “Everyone This is my cousin Haruki”.

They all welcomed him with great delight and introduced themselves one by one.

“Have we met before?” Hoshiro has a suspicious look on his face. I know Hoshiro has sensitive senses so he might’ve sensed Haruki when he was in the same room as us. I thought Hoshiro would just talk to Haruki for a little and leave but I didn’t expect them to be interested in talking with each other. Hoshiro was eager to talk to Haruki, in fact Phil, and El had already left and they were still talking. They seemed to have clicked and had found something in common with each other.

I went to a corner and wore my graduation robes. I glanced at Haruki and Hoshiro’s direction facing the front door. Without warning, I saw a glimpse of a dark aura. Haruki seemed to have noticed it too and left his conversation with Hoshiro. Hoshiro seemed to have understood what was happening and called me to follow Haruki.

We barely managed to follow Haruki rushing down the hallway, but eventually caught up as they entered an isolated laboratory full of unused glass beakers and flasks, some of which are broken and covered in dust. We peeked our heads in to see what's going on and we saw Haruki face to face with a student we don’t know. He seemed to be a graduating student the same year as us.

“That guy…” Hoshiro mumbled with a serious tone. “He’s the top second guy from section C. I know him because he has always come in second in everything he does. He must have been fed up from always getting top second in his class despite all the effort he does. That guy’s parents were yelling at him earlier, I guess he’s being pressured. I don’t see it, but I feel that there’s a dark force surrounding him” The way Hoshiro spoke, Haruki must've told him about the Shadows and Euryphaessa.

The guy had an intense expression and he also had a rope. From what I can tell, I think he’s about to hang himself. Because of Hoshiro’s great sense of hearing I was able to get what’s going on based on what he’s telling me.

I was right the guy wants to quietly kill himself, that’s why he went to this secluded area of the school.

“Stop this.” Haruki commanded the guy with a serious tone“

“What will you do? Kill me? My life is already over.” pleaded the guy.

“That bastard stole all my chances of getting 1st place. I worked my ass off so hard until my glasses doubled their grade, until my hair was burned from the candle light when I accidentally fell asleep while studying. My family is poor and have no way of paying for my future studies. All because of that bastard my scholarship was denied!!! Stupid bastard doesn't even take anything seriously! He’s a narcissist and is so full of himself.” The student cried in agony, heavy drops of tears fell on the ground and he knelt deeply with his forehead touching the ground.

“I can't do this anymore, I want to die!”

With his final scream of anguish, he slammed his head on the ground as if finally giving up from his long suffering. Ready to accept the faith that awaits him. But as soon as his last wail left his breath, an immediate attack followed from his fists to Haruki’s face. He stood up so fast with his fist tightly clenched and punched Haruki with great force in the direction of his face. Haruki didn’t feel the need to dodge the punch; instead, he just moved his head slightly to the left and evaded his attack effortlessly. This angered the shadow, and caused it to bombarded Haruki with punches in all directions.

“Why does he keep dodging and not attacking?” I spoke my thoughts out loud

He’s waiting for an opening” Hoshiro replied

He’s a pretty easy opponent I thought to myself’ I mean he’s just charging without any notion of protecting himself.

Last time when Haruki beheaded that lady when we first met, He beheaded her so easily. The guy is just hurting himself by thrashing around and attacking with his full strength.

“Look at the shadow…” Hoshiro wishepred with decisiveness in his voice.

I wondered… yeah, i know Haruki is targeting the shadow that’s possessing the student… but how…I looked at the silhouette of the guy and saw two shadows.

I see what’s going on… Haruki is being careful to not slice up the original shadow. The lady wasn't moving around so much like this guy, that’s why Haruki was able to free her so easily.

From what I can tell, The real shadow is always moving according to the direction of the light, like how a normal shadow always does. While the shadow who’s trying to possess him remains in one direction.

That explains why Haruki is not attacking right away; he's waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

The student charged at Haruki in all directions without pausing to catch his breath. Sweat dripped all over his face but that didn't stop him. He crashed at tables and glass cabinets, knocking beakers off their shelves, smashing them on the ground. Shards scattered across the floor, yet it didn't stop the student. The shadow was using all its strength to catch Haruki but he evaded all his attempts. Haruki was being careful to not hurt the poor student, but he couldn't control the shadow's path of destruction. The helpless student slipped on one of the shards and fell face first on the broken glass. Blood and sweat dripped across his face and yet he didn't stop.

Haruki. Pulled out his sword.

“Where’s the blade?” I thought to myself.

I looked at Hoshiro and he had the same confused expression.

“It’s just the hilt?” He uttered with confusion.

Haruki extended his bladeless katana and placed his right hand on the beginning of the invisible blade.

He stood beside the window where the sunlight beamed the strongest, and a flash of condensed light blazed on the hilt of his katana, forming a blade so bright, it illuminated the whole laboratory.

The shadow writhed in agony like a dog with rabies touching water.

With his final attempt to attack Haruki, the shadow seized all the glass shards around him and started throwing them in Haruki's direction.

Haruki deflected the shards with ease while slowly approaching the shadow—Specks of blood covered glass flew around the place but that didn't stop the shadow from attacking.

The shadow was pushed back against the wall, with the sunlight directly hitting him from his nine. Two shadows emerged from the boys’ body; One was following the sunlight’s direction and the other remained still on his rear.

Until finally with one final swoop, Haruki slashed his katana in the students neck and a beheaded shadow fell out of his body and slowly disintegrated into thin air.

I looked at an aghast Hoshiro who seemed like he didn’t see the shadow who disintegrated but instead just saw Haruki slashed his katana at a person but didn’t cause any damage.

The battle was over and the student fainted in front of Haruki with blood and sweat all over him. Bruises and scar was covering the poor boy’s whole body and his face was swollen to beyond recognition.

Me and Hoshiro decided it was time to get out of hiding and come to Haruki’s aid. He seemed to have known we were hiding and asked us to help him clean the place up.

Haruki pulled out a small green gem in his pocket and crushed it into pieces. A flowing green light emerged from the gem and Haruki was able to control it, and directed the flowing light into the boy’s wounded body and the light slowly began to heal the boy’s cuts and bruises.

He took out another gem with the colour ___ and it fixed the boy’s ripped up and dirty clothes and turned it looking brand new.

When we finished clearing the place up, Haruki put all the broken glasses and equipment into one corner. He took out a ___ gem, crushed it, and the light he directed into the debris made them glow so bright and made them vanish into thin air.

“You couldn’t repair it like the clothes?” I asked.

“I can only repair clothes, any other inanimate objects are impossible.

Haruki went back to the boy who was sleeping soundly and took out another gem.

“This is to remove his memory of the fight. I can only remove recent memories, but his sadness will still remain. Without the shadow’s interference he should be able to get past his troubles. I’ll place a marker on him incase he becomes suicidal again.”

To think, for a Euryphaessan soldier. Their fights aren’t over even when they are successful in eliminating the shadows… their fights are never ending.

“Is there no real solution to this situation?” Hoshiro asked with concern. He already knows about the existence of Euryphaessa so he would probably already know about the shadows as well.

I looked at Haruki expecting an answer.

“Our people have been looking for a better way for hundreds of years… this is the best we can do to minimise the damage.”

“I see…”

Silence soon followed the room. Both Hoshiro and I are in deep thought. Afterall, is there no other way to help the people? Is killing the shadow the only solution? Another one might just come back.

I was in deep thought for a while and without me realising time had already passed and the graduation ceremony had finally begun.

I was sitting next to El and Phil who knew nothing of what had happened in the laboratory.

Hoshiro was there up in the podium giving his graduation speech and I saw all my classmates listening to him in earnest. Some are crying and some are smiling from happiness. I didn’t know Hoshiro could give a wonderful speech full of heart and emotions.

“I helped him write that speech.” El blurted out with a grin.

“Ahh no wonder it has emotions.”

“Yeah, that emotionless bloke’s first draft of that speech had zero emotions. An AI could write a better speech with emotions than him.” El added with disappointment.

“Hey, we know letting out emotions is not Hoshiro’s strong suit,” Phil replied, trying to back Hoshiro up.

The three of us laughed and cheered on Hoshiro as he finished his speech.

And there I am climbing up the podium and receiving my diplomas, with a family member.

And with that my high school life was finally over. I bid my goodbyes to everyone I'm close with, including my friends.

They weren’t so fond about me leaving, especially Phil who was crying and clinging on my shoulders.

“Phil, it's not like I’m leaving forever.”

“Still, you’ve always wanted to find your relatives, and now you've found them and you're going to live with them. I'm just happy…”

I think I understand where Phil is coming from… He’s not crying because I’m leaving, he’s crying because he knows how much this moment means to me.

“Thanks Phil. Don't worry I’ll come and visit you guys when I can.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

The three of us all hugged each other and said our goodbyes. After talking to my friends, Haruki and I went back to my apartment and started packing my luggage.

I didn't bring that much stuff because I don’t plan on selling our home anytime soon. This is the only thing that reminds me of my parents, I don't want to leave my memory just because I’m moving out.

Sundown was approaching and we needed to be back to Euryphaessa according to Haruki. Seems like he couldn’t find anyone who would take his patrol shift.

We went out and climbed to the rooftop where we saw the sun soon taking his rest. Haruki whistled to call upon his sapphire blue dragon.

Not a moment later his dragon appeared in the distance and swiftly landed leaving no delay to our journey. We gently climbed up the dragon’s back and flew off to the sunset.