Shinku an innocent 10-year-old who lives in a single-parent’s household—just him, his mother Ayumi, and his little sister Kira, whom he swore to protect with his life. “Hey mom, I brought you some soup. Are you feeling any better?”
As Shinku entered a dimly lit room carrying breakfast for his mother, “Shinku, you didn’t have to cook for me; I’m fine. I’ll make dinner tonight, she coughed.”
“Mom! The doctor said you needed to stay in bed, don’t worry I’ll make dinner when I get home. Kira will keep you company.” He said looking at her, disapproval visibly etched onto his face.
“Shinku, I know you are going to make more money for us, and I’m truly grateful that you are taking care of us, but please, don’t try to hold the burden all on yourself, please!.” Sighing as she spoke, Ayumi knew that he would never want to worry her, Shinku smiled before leaving the room.
At his departure, Ayumi thought to herself, “Why does he feel obligated to provide for us? I wish he would rely on me as a child should, For I am the only parent he has left.”
The world they lived in was not normal, although every living thing in the world possessed magic, only 35% of the population had the ability to mold it into elemental magic, according to their personality and life experiences, once someone's magic is awoken their genetics would change color to match the element of their magic.
Although the world was technologically thriving, with every ray of light there is a shadow. Hierarchy! the strongest users of magic were born into the higher-up families in society, while folks with common magic often took over run-down areas for quick cash, forming gangs and loan sharks. Unfortunately, Shinku still has debts to pay.
Three years ago, forced Shinku to become the man of his house. As pay day arrived, a group named the Black Fang visited their home. Ryuji the six-foot-tall leader breaking down the door to enter.
(Crash!)
“I told you to have our money in order, didn’t I?” Ryuji growled out angrily, eyes flittering across the room.
“Yes, I know, but please, give me a little more time, Ryuji, please.” Shinku’s father begged, Hiroshi knew deep down in his heart, pleading would not work.
“That’s not going to happen this time, Hiroshi! Either you have our money or we’re selling one of your kids." Ryuji grabbed Hiroshi's long black hair, facing him toward his children as he said.
"There are plenty of people who would pay a high price for a young strong lad like this one.” He slowly paced over to Shinku picking him up by the collar of his shirt
“Put me down! you creep, leave us alone.” Seven year old Shinku yelled, awkwardly dangling in his grip
“Oh yeah?! what are you going to do?” Ryuji asked a wicked grin now plastered across his face, Shinku grabbed at him, griping his head he pulled out a handful of golden locks then jabbing his finger into Ryuji’s left eye.
“Ughhhh! You'll pay for that, you little brat.” He shouted, As Ruuji went to throw a punch at Shinku, Hiroshi intervened, tackling him to the ground.
“Dad!”
“Shinku, stay back; just protect your sister.” Hiroshi yelled, right before Ryuji called his goons to help him.
“Hey boys, teach our friend Hiroshi a little lesson on how to treat his guests.” He smirked, watching a terrified Hiroshi do nothing but accept his fate
Relentlessly they attacked Hiroshi, Ryuji took it a step further, creating a massive fireball, he executed the move so meticulously aiming at Hiroshi, smashing him into the ground. Surely enough no one has ever survived such an attack, Shinku wanted to help, more than anything but his father called to him.
“Shinku,……it's okay, just protect your mom and your sister for me. I-I love you all.” Gasping, Hiroshi whimpered out his last words. Shinku stared into his father’s eyes as he held his sister, till finally he gasped his last breath, Ryuji smirked seeing his lifeless form, smoothly exiting what once was a happy home.
******
Back to the present day, Shinku was on his way home only to see smoke coming from the direction of his house. Sprinting over, he saw the Black Fang entering his house. Shinku rushed to the front door as Ryuji pulling Ayumi by the hair as Kira fell out of her hands.
“Tsk!… grab the girl, I know some sick bastards who are willing to pay a pretty penny for her.” Ryuji grunted, eyeing the skinny girl. Kira’s eyes widened, mouth parted slightly but she was too stunned to speak. How can someone possibly be so disgusting!
“What are you doing to my sister?!” Shinku yelled barging into the room, his darkened complexion turning red with fury.
His attempt to rush over to his sister was immediately halted as he slammed into the wall, feeling the blaze of Ryuji’s fireball magic he fell unconscious. His frail body unable to handle the pain, although the last thought on his mind was ‘why would he hold back the power of his attack?!’
He woke up to his sister crying, not being able too bear the sound Shinku tried to rush over to them. Only for Ryuji's henchmen attack Shinku, they threw him on the ground as Ryuji encouraged them, soon enough Shinku was kicked, stomped on, and even thrown to the wall.
until Ryuji finally got bored allowing him a chance to get up. Slowly he got up gasping for air he turned to Ryuji, determination written on his face. Noticing his new found will power Ryuji grinned enjoying the fight the kid put up, even if in vain.
Shinku gritted his teeth, grunting out in a strained voice, "Ryuji, I won’t let you hurt my family anymore!”
Ryuji smirked at him, “Oh yeah, kid try getting up after this.” creating a fireball, blasting the roof and caving it in on him, Shinku was buried beneath the rubble with injuries more severe than he expected. Shinku felt at any moment he would close his eyes forever, but he didn’t want to go down a weak little kid that couldn’t protect his loved ones. So he fought the overwhelming urge to close his eyes.
“What happened? Why can’t I see out my right eye, wait what are they doing to mom?”
As Shinku tried to dig himself out of the rubble with his once caramel skin now red covered in his blood, his mother fought in the grip of Ryuji. Wanting more than anything right now to make sure her son was okay.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Shinku!……..Let me go now!.” Ayumi yelled grabbing a broken piece of glass to cut Ryuji’s arm causing him to let go of her.
“Ow! You dumb bitch! You're going to regret that!” Ryuji yelled, storming over to Ayumi. The very same piece of glass in his hand.
********
Shinku held his breath, dazed he looked on as Ryuji struck her with the piece of glass, he couldn’t blink as her body fell to the ground the glass plunged into her throat. Shinku looked over at his sister, weakly attempting to escape the thug’s grip.
Biting his hand, the thug growled at the pinch as she wouldn’t let go, igniting his palm to burn her in an attempt to control her. leaving her in great pain. Shinku looked on in horror as tears began to run down his face. Suddenly, the entire building began to tremble, so immensely the surrounding buildings began to quake.\
Shinku suddenly awakened the magical ability of earth, his whole life he was forced to become stronger and endure for the sake of his family, and in the face of evil he still didn't back down even when it seemed hopeless, his resilience gave him the strength to fight back and save what little he had left in the world,
"I’m not dying here, and I won’t let you destroy my family!" he declared with determination. Shinku fought them viciously to save his sister, gritting his teeth.
"I won’t let you take Kira; she’s the only thing I have left in this world," he growled, the desperation evident in his voice. He growled, the desperation evident in his voice. Kira finally looked at him as she noticed his hair had brown accents and understood what happened to her big brother.
"Big brother, you can use magic?" she questioned, a mix of worry and fascination in her eyes.
Shinku, struggling to land hits after losing his eye, responded with determination, "I can manage to keep them away from me, but I can barely land a hit." Despite the odds, Shinku managed to kill one of the thugs by smashing a slab of concrete on his head.
However, they seized the opportunity to exploit his blind spot,
“Dammit, this kid isn’t good at using his magic at all, but this enclosed area is letting him take easy shots at us, we got to find a way to get out of here before the cops come. taking advantage of his shrunken field of view, Ryuji grabbed Kira of them grabbed Kira, using her as a scapegoat,
“Hey kid, you better stop with your tantrum or else the girl dies.”
Luckily, the police had already arrived, but in their attempts to escape, “Stay put or we will take fire.”
Ryuji attempted to make a run for it using his fire magic as a cover, startling the officer who shot at him. Ryuji swiftly turned his body, blocking the bullet with Kira’s body. While Ryuji thought of a new way to escape, they felt a weird sensation,
“Crap how the hell am I getting out of here? Wait a second, what’s wrong with this place, why is it suddenly getting so hot, I feeling I’m suffocating. He felt an immense pressure coming from behind him, they turned around to see Shinku, holding the corpses of his mother and sister in his hands as their bodies grew cold in his arms, tears ran down his face.
“Why is this happening, all I ever did was work hard to take care of them. I even awakened magic to protect them, and I still couldn’t protect them. Why can’t I protect anyone!”
Shinku’s . He looked at his family's murderers with eye's and the ends hair turned into a crimson red to mirror his magic, but not only did his hair change color, his eye's also turned crimson red as part of a rare phenomenon in the world of magic.
Shinku, blinded by rage, got up ready to fight as Ryuji laughed at his last attempt to do anything.
“Okay kid since I’m in a rush I’ll kill you quick, c’mon throw some more rocks at me.” Ryuji confidently readied himself for an attack before he hastily dodged as Shinku's magic that changed from earth to molten lava.
The amount of pure, unadulterated rage burned greatly in Shinku's heart. He slowly got off the ground before using his magic, but instead of rocks, it miraculously turned into molten lava. Shinku was devoured by his rage, a rage so hot it melted rocks.
“What’s going on? I know I was just fighting Ryuji; I know my body is moving, but I can’t tell what's going on around.” Ryuji made a frightening observation as he stayed on the defensive.
“No way, the kid blacked out; he’s just destroying everything. No, it can’t end like this; it just can’t!”
Shinku finally managed to kill Ryuji. When he woke up, he noticed the police taking the bodies of his mother and sister as they gave him first aid. Shinku quietly listened as the police revealed a shocking relation as to the origins of the thugs. He found out they were led back to the higher-ups of society who secretly ran different Yakuza families in the shadows.
Shinku patiently waited for an opening and made a run for it, leaving the care of the police in search of revenge. His once cheerful eyes were now filled with pain, sorrow, hate, and, most importantly, the bloodlust that drove him to take down the system and change this society to one where his family could live peacefully like his sister always dreamed of, as his first step was to become stronger with his newfound power, seeing it as a gift from the heavens to do what needed to be done for the greater good.
Soon after the death of his sister and mother, Shinku was left with no family to take him in. All his hard work to provide for his family meant he never had time to make friends to turn to. All the money he had made had been destroyed in his rampage. Although he was a very intellectual child, he was too young to take up any work that would be enough to sustain him at this point in life.
For an entire month, he survived day by day on the streets, taking down thugs one by one with the burning pain still in his heart. The rage he felt was the only painkiller he had for his physical wounds, which were gradually getting worse by the day, putting his own life at risk and continuing to neglect his well-being as his skin turned darker from constant sunlight and his long black hair grew over his face.
After a considerable time of taking down thugs, it was about time he was confronted by an officer named Ryota.
“Hey kid, I noticed you were nearby when everything went down. Do you mind answering some questions?” Shinku, being standoffish and headstrong, refused help from Ryota, “Leave me alone; I’m not answering any questions.” Ryota could see how bad of shape he was in, as he could barely stand on his own.
“Hey kid, I think I should take you in for some medical treatment.”
Shinku angrily looked back at Ryota before replying “I said leave me alo-" Shinku tried to fight back but soon lost consciousness, as Ryota caught him, "Damn this kid needs serious help, I know I'm a big guy but he's way too small and light for his age." Shinku then woke up in a hospital bed two weeks later with Ryota by his side.
“Wha, where am I, what happened, why can’t I move? Wait how can I see out my right eye?”
Ryota explained how bad his injuries were, “Kid, your bones have fractures all over your body, your cuts were infected to the point that some of your tissue was removed, you even had maggots living in some parts of your body, but worst of all was your eye; the damage was so severe the only option was completely removing it.”
“But if they removed my eye, how can I see?” Shinku then got a shocked look on his face as he asked how much his treatment cost. Ryota replied, "$130,000, with your new robotic eye being the most expensive.”
Shinku lashed out at Ryota, “How can you do that to me? I can’t afford that bill, is there nothing in your head you scruffy-haired moron!” Ryota replied,
“Don’t worry, kid; I paid for your treatment myself; you don’t have to worry about paying me back either. I know he’s just a kid, but I can see in his eye that he’s had a rough life till now, probably not used to anyone looking out for him.”
Shinku slowly calmed down and apologized and thanked the officer for what he had done,
"How could some random police officer just drop 130K like that?"
He then explained his story, coming off as emotionless to him. Ryota let Shinku rest and went to visit him every day while Shinku still did not trust him. He tolerated his presence whenever he came. Ryota then spoke to his colleagues about the boy,
“Okay guys, what did you think we should do with the kid? He didn’t seem to have any parents, so I thought foster care might be the right choice.”
Ryota raised his hand in opposition,
“I have a different suggestion; I wanted to take him under my wing and train him myself to join the police force someday, trust me, he may have been short and scrawny for his age but with some training he could become a great asset in the force.”
His colleagues tried to oppose his suggestion, but then he explained himself,
“I knew for a fact that Shinku had a magic attribute.” Ryota told them about an incident in the hospital where he had grown upset, and the very floor began to heat up; he suggested to them that at his young age, he had probably awakened fire magic based on the color of his hair, not knowing his true overwhelming power that resided inside him.
Do you like this chapter?
