The long, dimly lit halls of the Royal Academy stretched ahead of Kazuki as he walked in silence. The cool night air seeped through the cracks of ancient stone walls, and his footsteps echoed softly, each step a beat in the quiet rhythm of the midnight hours.
And then he saw him.
Principal Raizen.
Standing alone at the end of the hallway, his expression unreadable. The man's stern face, usually calm with the weight of authority, now reflected a hint of confusion. Raizen hadn't expected to be summoned at this hour — but he had come because the request was from Kazuki Ayanami.
Kazuki stopped a few paces away and smiled.
A smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
And in that moment — the scene shifted.
Back to the past.
A time during the War Arc.The memory flickered like an old, distant dream.
It was the day the temporary peace treaty between North Ryehem and South Ryehem was forged. A frail, desperate arrangement to halt bloodshed for one year. Shang had personally received the message from North Ryehem's court — a ceasefire, a calculated lull before the storm.
But Kazuki had already known.
Even then, an eight-year-old boy sitting silently in the corner of the war room, his mind was running far ahead of the empires themselves. He knew the war would resume. That the treaty was a mere bandage on a festering wound.
Exactly one year later, as predicted, the kingdoms clashed once more.
Time passed.Kazuki turned ten, and by royal decree — granted due to both his lineage and remarkable talent — he was officially permitted to enter the battlefield.
War honed him.
Under the skies of burning cities and broken kingdoms, he fought, rising through the Body Refining tiers faster than anyone thought possible. By the end of that brutal year, at the age of eleven, Kazuki had reached Body Refining Tier 4.
But combat wasn't his only weapon.
His true strength lay in the labyrinth of strategies and schemes he had crafted since the day he understood the meaning of power.
And tonight… those long-forged plans would finally be set in motion.
Back to the present.
Principal Raizen still stood before him, a flicker of unease crossing his face.
"Why did you call me here at this hour, Kazuki Ayanami?" Raizen asked, his voice low but firm. The empty academy around them made his words hang heavier in the air.
Kazuki's smile widened slightly.There was something eerily calm about him — as if this meeting was nothing more than another piece in a larger, unseen puzzle.
"You'll find out soon enough," Kazuki replied softly, his tone carrying the weight of someone far beyond his years.
For a brief moment, neither spoke.The old principal and the young prodigy stared at one another, and though Kazuki's body was small, his presence filled the corridor like a phantom mist.
Raizen didn't realize it, but he wasn't standing before an ordinary eleven-year-old. He was standing before the boy who would soon reshape the fate of kingdoms.
The scene lingered a moment longer before the chapter closed on Kazuki's smile, the promise of the chaos yet to come reflected in his unblinking gaze.
The storm was coming.And Kazuki Ayanami was its architect.