Chapter 1: The Absolute Rewrite — Prologue
Small footsteps struck the ground—thud, thud—cutting through the oppressive silence.
All around, the world was being devoured by crimson flames. The flickering firelight revealed the figure of a boy running with all his strength, desperately escaping the living hell surrounding him.
That boy was Akita.
He pushed forward through the thick smoke, heading straight toward the most heartbreaking sight before him. There, his mother was being restrained by a woman dressed in scarlet. A cold gleam from the blade pressed against her throat made Akita’s breath nearly stop.
“Mom!”
Akita shouted, his voice filled with panic and desperate concern.
“Don’t come any closer! Run!”
His mother screamed at the top of her lungs. Her body trembled with fear, yet her eyes held only one wish—that her son would survive.
“Stop right there, boy…”
The woman in red sneered cruelly. Her voice was as cold as poisoned ice.
“If you take even one more step… your mother becomes a corpse.”
But Akita didn’t stop.
He kept walking forward calmly, as if he had never heard the threat of death.
The woman in red widened her eyes in anger. With a furious shout, she swung the blade, intending to sever the hostage’s neck instantly.
But then—
At the very moment the blade should have fulfilled its purpose, something fundamental twisted out of place.
The concept of sharpness and the sensation of metal vanished from existence.
In the woman’s eyes, the sword in her hand suddenly disappeared—as if it had never been forged in this world to begin with.
And it wasn’t just the weapon.
Suddenly, the woman herself began to fade.
The laws that defined her existence were completely rejected. Her presence was erased from history itself, as though she had never breathed, never been born, and never existed for even a fraction of a second.
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“W-What just happened…?”
Akita’s mother asked in confusion, staring at the empty space before her where only ashes remained.
“Oh… someone was about to cut you,”
the young Akita replied calmly, his innocent eyes clear, as if what had just occurred were nothing more than ordinary weather.
…
Time passed.
The memory of those flames sank deep into the past, replaced by the gentle sunlight of an afternoon classroom.
Now seventeen years old, Akita sat with his chin resting on his hand, staring out the window. His mind drifted along the clouds instead of focusing on the lesson written across the blackboard.
“Akita! Are you listening to the lesson?”
The stern voice of Mr. Go broke the silence, startling him.
“Uh… y-yes! I’m listening, sir!”
Akita quickly turned back, stammering awkwardly.
His clumsy reaction caused quiet laughter to ripple across the classroom.
After school, Akita walked home alone along the road.
Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted from behind.
“Akita! Wait for me!”
Taiga, his loud and energetic best friend, ran up beside him, breathing heavily. He glanced up at the sky, which was slowly turning gray.
“Looks like it’s going to rain hard today, huh?”
“Yeah… your clothes will get wet,”
Akita replied calmly.
The moment he finished speaking—
Rain poured down heavily.
Taiga flinched and quickly covered his head.
But Akita continued walking forward without hesitation.
In a single quiet thought, he simply erased the concept of “getting wet.”
Whenever raindrops touched his hair or uniform, they didn’t soak in.
Instead, they dissolved into empty air.
His school uniform remained perfectly clean and dry, as if it had just been freshly pressed.
Akita walked calmly through the storm, completely unaffected by the laws of physics such as water tension.
“Hey! I barely finished my sentence and it’s already raining!”
Taiga complained while running beside him, completely drenched.
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
“Hey! What the heck, Akita?! The rain isn’t touching you! Is your uniform waterproof or something?!”
“Yeah… maybe,”
Akita answered shortly.
“By the way, Akita… there’s an exam tomorrow. Did you even study?”
“An exam…? Do we really need something like that?”
Akita replied casually.
Taiga could only sigh in annoyance before the two parted ways.
When Akita returned home, he found a single slice of bread on the table, along with a note from his mother explaining that she had to leave suddenly for work in another province.
He ate the bread without much thought, then went upstairs and collapsed onto his bed.
He glanced at the exam schedule for only a moment before picking up a manga instead.
But before he could even finish a chapter, sleep dragged him into darkness.
The next morning, Akita woke up with the same thought in his head.
“Today’s the exam…”
After getting ready, he headed toward school.
But just as he reached the front gate, a familiar shout echoed again.
“Ahhhh! I’m late! I’m totally late! Am I gonna make it?!”
Taiga came running so fast he nearly crashed into him.
“Akita! Why do you always walk around like a lifeless zombie?! Today’s the exam day, you know!”
Amid Taiga’s panic, a girl suddenly stepped in front of Akita and held out a cup of tea.
“Here… the tea you ordered.”
It was Mitsuna, speaking with her usual calm and expressionless face.
Akita frowned in confusion.
“I didn’t order anything…”
“Oh…”
Mitsuna paused.
“If you didn’t order it… then you’re not Ren?”
“Yeah! I’m Ren!”
Taiga suddenly interrupted and grabbed the tea.
“Thanks, Mitsuna!”
He drank the entire cup in one gulp.
“Come on, Akita! Let’s get to the exam room before Mr. Go kills us!”
Akita glanced at the now-empty tea cup.
Then he allowed himself to be dragged away by his best friend.
