The Last Light Before I Fell

✦ A Boy Already Fading ✦

The town pretended everything was normal.

Crowds filled the streets. Children laughed as they ran past one another. Shops opened their shutters. Morning sunlight spilled across concrete and glass.

But none of it ever reached one boy.

Hatoru moved through the crowd with his head lowered, like a shadow trying not to exist.

Black hair. Black pupils.
A name no one spoke kindly anymore.

He didn't walk to school—
he drifted through life the way ghosts slipped through walls.

His thoughts floated, numb and familiar.

Maybe today will be the same as every day.

He had learned a long time ago that silence hurt less.

People said death came at the end of life.
For him, it had started long before.

He stepped through the school gate.

Smack.

A sharp impact crashed against the back of his skull.

Hatoru hit the concrete hard, breath torn from his lungs, palms burning as tears stung his eyes before shame could stop them.

A bully crouched over him, sneer carved deep into his face.

"Why are you still living, trash?"

Another voice laughed from behind.

"Just die already. Like him."

The words drilled into his ribs.

Their friends howled with laughter—the kind meant to hollow someone out, not bruise them.

Hatoru didn't react.

Didn't defend himself.
Didn't even look up.

He had stopped doing that years ago.

Inside the classroom, he slipped into his seat without a sound.

The homeroom teacher didn't even look his way.

"Late again. Go outside."

A muttered insult followed, barely hidden.

"…useless kid."

No one glanced at him. No one cared.

They had grown up together.
Once, he had laughed with them. Run with them. Believed they were friends.

That had been before Ray died.

After that, everything turned upside down.

Blame replaced sympathy. Silence replaced voices.
And the emptiness inside his chest grew louder than anything he could say.

Not one of them ever called him "friend" again.

Second period.

A notebook slammed into his chest.

"Oi. Do my homework."

Hatoru swallowed.

"I—I need to study—"

The bully raised his hand.

Hatoru flinched instantly.

"I'll do it… sorry."

Laughter rippled across the room like a cheap comedy show.

School ended.

Life did not get kinder.

At fifteen, he should have wanted a future.

Instead, he wanted an ending.

✦ Night Shift ✦

The convenience store glowed under lonely neon lights—the closest thing Hatoru had to peace.

The shelves hummed softly.
The clock above the register ticked forward with dull patience.

He glanced at it.

23:58
Dec 3

Hatoru froze.

For a second, his chest tightened.

“…Right,” he murmured.

Today.

It was his birthday.

No one had mentioned it.
No messages.
No voices.

He shouldn’t have expected any.

Still—

He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small paper box.

Inside was a single cupcake.

Plain.
Cheap.
Barely frosted.

He’d bought it earlier without thinking why.

Hatoru set it on the counter.

From the drawer, he took one thin candle.

Just one.

He stuck it into the center of the cupcake and lit it.

The flame wavered.

Neon lights buzzed above him.
Outside, rain traced quiet lines down the glass.

He stared at the candle.

No singing.
No celebration.

Just him.

00:00
Dec 4

“…Happy birthday,” he whispered.

The words felt strange in his mouth.

He closed his eyes.

I don’t need anything big, he thought.
I don’t want a miracle.

Just—

“If there’s really something above gods…”
“Some True Eye…”

His voice barely carried.

“Please…”

A pause.

“…let it end.”

The flame trembled.

Hatoru leaned forward and blew.

The candle went out.

The smoke from the candle curled upward.

Hatoru stared at it for a moment longer than he should have.

The store felt impossibly quiet.

Then—

Ring.

The doorbell chimed.

He flinched.

Quickly, almost instinctively, he slid the cupcake back into its box and pushed it beneath the counter.

Like it was something shameful.

Like it didn’t deserve to be seen.

The man stepped inside.

Tall. Sharp. Beautiful in a way that felt wrong.

Mid-length silver hair framed a face too perfect for a place like this. Golden eyes watched everything without blinking. A black suit that didn't belong among shelves of snacks and drinks.

His gaze lingered—just briefly—on the counter.

Then on Hatoru.

Hatoru bowed automatically.

"Welcome, sir."

The man smiled.

Not wide. Not kind.

Just… knowing.

As Hatoru rang up the items, the silence stretched.

Then the man spoke, casually.

“Rough night?”

Hatoru shrugged.

“…Just tired.”

The man hummed softly, as if that answer pleased him.

He scanned the man's beers, trying not to stare.

He looks like everything I'll never be.

As the man handed over the cash, their fingers brushed.

A strange tremor ran through Hatoru's chest.

The man tilted his head, voice low and amused.

"Tell me, kid… do you believe in gods?"

Hatoru forced a small laugh.

"I… don't know. Maybe they're just myths."

The man leaned in—just enough that only Hatoru could hear.

“Then let me say this,” the man murmured.

Hatoru froze.

The man’s smile softened.

“Happy birthday.”

The words hit harder than they should have.

Hatoru blinked.

“…What?”

The man was already stepping back.

“Stay strong,” he added lightly. “And live long.”

Too calm.

Too certain.

Like a blessing. Like a promise.

Before Hatoru could reply.

The man turned and smiled.

Too calm. Too knowing.

"We'll meet again."

walked out into the rain.

The bell chimed again.

Hatoru stood there, unmoving.

His chest felt… strange.

“…That was weird,” he whispered to no one.

He glanced down at the hidden cupcake.

Then at the door.

For some reason he couldn’t explain—

Those words stayed with him.

✦ The Rain That Listened ✦

After his shift, Hatoru walked home beneath flickering streetlamps.

Rain hammered the street like a heartbeat he could no longer feel.

His thoughts drifted back to the counter.
To the cupcake.
To the candle.

He hadn’t wished for happiness.
He hadn’t wished for a future.

He hadn’t even wished to be remembered.

He only wished for it to end.

A bitter smile touched his lips.

“So this is how it feels,” he murmured, “to celebrate your birthday alone.”

No messages. No voices. Not even silence heavy enough to break.

Just rain.

He wondered—briefly—if this was how it was supposed to be.

Maybe birthdays were only important when someone else cared.

His steps slowed.

“If there really is something above gods…” he whispered, “some True Eye…”

Rain slid down his hair, his collar, his skin—cold, steady, patient.

“Why this life?”

The words didn’t sound angry anymore.

Just tired.

If this was punishment, it was gentle.

That thought scared him more than pain ever had.

His heart had gone numb a long time ago.
Tonight, even the darkness felt soft—like it was letting him rest.

Then—

Snap.

A sound echoed through the street.

Not thunder.
Not lightning.

Something sharp.
Clean.

Like a thread being cut.
Or a lock opening.

Hatoru stopped walking.

The rain felt different now.

Something breaking.
Or something beginning.

Hatoru froze.

The rain felt heavier. Deeper.
Almost watching him.

He thought of the man in the black suit.

Stay strong. Live long.

The words surfaced without warning.

“…Funny,” Hatoru whispered. “Wishing that on someone like me.”

Some nights, he stood at his window and wondered:

"Would anyone cry… if I disappeared?"

The fact that the answer no longer scared him—

That terrified him most.

He had only one wish left.

If I die… I hope no one comes to my funeral.

He wasn't living.

He was dissolving—heartbeat by heartbeat.

Laughter forgotten.
Warmth extinguished.

Only a fragile whisper remained inside him.

Maybe tomorrow will hurt less.

He never realized that whisper was hope refusing to die quietly.

✦ The Storm Returns ✦

Thunder ripped the sky open.

Hatoru ran through the storm, soaked and shaking.

Headlights burst through the rain.

A truck barreled toward him.

He didn't move.

Not fear.
Not panic.

A decision.

One second before impact, he smiled softly.

A single raindrop froze in midair.

The world held its breath.

His heart stopped beating—
and something else answered.

A faint golden ring flickered in his fading vision.

Like an eye opening for the first time.

"Thank you… finally. It's over."

Eyes closed.

Lips curved.

Impact.

The world collapsed into white noise.

✦ Before the Light Went Out ✦

As darkness swallowed him, one thought pierced through—

Ray—my cousin. My sun.
You already set.

Ren—my brother. My moon.
If any light still exists, let it be yours.

He smiled into the rain.

Not for himself.

So they would remember him smiling—
not suffering.

The moon doesn't burn.

But it endures.

✦ Rebirth in the Void ✦

Death should have been silence.

Instead—

A heartbeat stirred.

Not human.
Not his.

Violet-gold light cracked the void.

A voice older than gods whispered—

"Born in rain.
Died in rain.
The world ignored your prayers…
but I heard."

Above him, a black sun ignited.

It bled light and shadow.

His body dissolved.

Bone.
Memory.
Soul.

Reforged in a fire that wasn't fire.

Light and shadow collided—

Becoming something divine.

"You begged for death…
yet your wound remembered how to breathe."

"Rise—
not as mortal flesh,
but as one bound to the Divine Vein."

Raindrops rose upward.

The void trembled.

His heartbeat was no longer his own.

The broken boy vanished.

A divine fracture remained.

Somewhere, a child still waited in the rain,
wondering why he never came home.

And the new being whispered back—

I'm not done.

✦ Light & Clouds ✦

Light detonated.

Hatoru gasped.

His eyes snapped open—
golden irises ringed with living shadows.

He wasn't on asphalt.

He wasn't dying.

He stood on a marble platform bathed in heavenly radiance.

Fireworks burst.
Angels spiraled.
Crowds roared.
Confetti rained like sacred snow.

A crown of light hovered above him.

A coronation?

A festival?

A dream too vivid to trust?

Hatoru staggered.

"W–what the hell…? Didn't I die?"

Rain still clung to his skin.

Ray's voice echoed faintly in his memory.

This wasn't Earth.

This wasn't human.

This was something else—

Something that had been waiting for him.

✦ The Eye That Waited for Him ✦

The storm had ended—

But it had not vanished.

It lived inside him now.

The boy who begged for death
died on the asphalt.

What rose was something Heaven would regret recognizing too late.

Their hunter had already awakened.

His first Vein had opened.

Raindrops floated upward.

And his heartbeat—

Was the echo of something divine remembering itself.

Heaven rejoiced that day…
But they had crowned the wrong boy.

✦ END OF CHAPTER 0 - The Last Light Before I Fell✦