Chapter 6: Flames of Destiny

 The sun had just risen when the boy left the shelter. He had only one thought in his head: "Zaro..."
He wanted to know how the last night had gone, if he had been able to sleep, if he had thought back to their words.

She walked without hesitation toward the village chief's small house, hoping to find him awake and perhaps with a cup of tea in his hand.

But when he opened the door, something was wrong.

The bed was occupied. Yes, there was someone under the covers... Only those covers were not as he remembered them. They were pulled up to his head, stiff and dirty. The white was now hopelessly stained with reddish streaks.
Blood-red.

“Z-Zaro...?”

The heart sped up. One step, then another.
“Maybe I'm just seeing wrong ... maybe I'm just tired.”

With trembling hands, he lightly lifted one of the blankets, touching the arm hiding under it.
The skin was cold. Cold as stone. Tense as a rope left too long in tension. And then...

That smell. A stench of rot assaulted his nostrils, like invisible fingers twisting in his throat. A smell that left no room for doubt. Zaro was dead. And not by a long shot.

"Z-Zaro...? ZARO!!!"

His screams ripped through the morning silence of the village. Within minutes, a small crowd began to crowd outside the house.

"We knew it! It was him! The murderer!"

“Monster!”

"Call the guards! Now!"

The news spread like lightning across the clear sky. At the shelter, some guards were delivering rations to refugees when they were joined by a panting messenger.

"W-what?! Is Zaro dead?!"

"We were told that the culprit is still in the house! Let's move!"

It was at that moment that the red-haired girl felt everything. Something in her stirred. Driven by an uneasy curiosity, she ended up following the soldiers.

In front of the house, the door was thrown violently open.

“You again?!” One of the soldiers pointed his finger at the boy kneeling beside the body. “We knew we shouldn't trust you!”

"You killed him too-our leader! The one who took you in and saved you!"

"You will not get away with it. This time you will be sentenced to the cruelest punishment..."

“We will torture you until you beg for the end!”

But those accusations were broken by a firm voice. Light footsteps resounded in the tense silence of the room. It was the girl who did not want Ren to enter the shelter.
“I don't want to say this...” she began, bringing a hand to her nose, “but...can't you smell it too?”

Those present turned to her, puzzled.

"Have you touched the body? How is it? Warm or...cold?"

“M-Mizuki?” asked one of the guards, confused. “What do you mean?”

"Well...if he's already giving off this smell, then he's been dead for a while. I hate to say it, but maybe that boy is...innocent. Also because-"

He paused, pointing outward with his gaze. "-He was in the shelter the whole time. He wouldn't have had a way to get out."

Another soldier, kneeling beside the bed, slowly stood up. "Sir, she's right. The body is cold. Muscle rigidity absent. He has been dead for hours."

The commander gritted his teeth, displeased. "I see... So he is not the culprit. Call those in charge to recover the body."

“Yes, sir!”

The man cast a wary glance toward the young man still in shock. "Mizuki, you just saved that boy. But know that I don't trust him."

“Neither do I,” she replied, crossing her arms. "But I can recognize the smell of lies. And here, the only smell is that of death."

"Tsk. All right. We'll search the area. You two, get away and leave the rest to us."

The crowd was dispersed. The chaos dissolved. The young man was led out of the house, still trembling.

“T-Thank you ... for saving me,” he whispered, lowering his gaze.

"Hmph! I didn't do it for you!" she retorted, stymied. “It's just that ... I hate injustice, that's all.”

“W-well...anyway, thanks anyway.”

Mizuki did not respond. She turned and walked away, leaving him there.

The boy walked away, with slow steps, until he stopped under a tree. The same kind of tree under which he had first opened his eyes in that world. He let himself fall to the ground.

"Now it's clear-all the trusted, all the best guards-are dead. Z-Zaro is dead. That means only one thing: Someone wants to make us suffer. But I cannot stand by and watch. I don't want to end up like I did in my old world. This time... this time I will fight!"

A chill ran through his body. An unknown energy began to bubble up inside him.

His hands trembled. Muscles tensed. His heart beat furiously, as if it wanted to burst out of his chest. It was anger. It was pain. But it did not turn into tears. No. That time, they came out in the form of ... power. A power so strong that it bent him.

The knees gave way. The body slowly relaxed, as if shaken by unbearable heat. The eyelids closed. The mind went blank.

Then, in the darkness, a voice spoke to him. “New power unlocked: Flames of Destiny.”

Those words resonated in his head like an echo. His anger-he had awakened something. Something that world did not yet know.