CHAPTER THREE: Redhead And Six Knights

(sorry for the long wait, I haven't gotten a hold of my laptop these days, but here's Chapter 3!!)

Before the dawn of humanity’s reason, the world was governed by Sou, the eternal essence that shapes existence itself. Everything that exists — fire, sorrow, wisdom, silence — carries a fragment of Sou within it in the world...

Humans who learned to attune themselves to these fragments became known as incarnate — Embodiment Users.
Each Incarnate embodied a concept born from the world’s essence: strength, balance, purity, or knowledge.
Through their embodiment, they shaped reality, giving the world order and form.

But balance does not last forever.

From the corruption of Sou — from envy, greed, and despair — new beings emerged.
When humanity began to abuse their embodiments for power and dominion, the Sou itself fractured.
The shattered pieces of corrupted essence merged into consciousness and formed the Phantoms.

The Phantoms were embodiments of what humanity denied: chaos, madness, gluttony, rage — the emotions mortals tried to suppress.
Their power, Koi, was the twisted counterpart of the incarnate’s art.
While incarnate shaped the world through harmony, Phantoms bent it through distortion.
Each Phantom embodied a sin or flaw that had once belonged to humankind.

They came to believe that humans were impure vessels, unworthy of existence, and that only by devouring the embodied souls of mortals could the world return to its original, undivided Sou.

This gave birth to the endless war between Incarnates and Phantoms — a war not of survival, but of belief.
One side fought to preserve existence through order; the other sought to erase it through “purification.”

And in the heart of this eternal conflict lies the Vessel 
a human born to contain the will of the Phantom Origin, the first and most ancient embodiment of something primal.
A being neither Phantom nor Incarnate— but the bridge between both worlds...

"There, I've explained it nice and clear do you understand, boy?" Anri asked. I was still puzzled about her explanation, I cocked my head and asked.

"Huh, who's the vessel?" I asked dumbly. Shidoichi snapped. 
"Of course it's you! You brain scattered dimwit! I'm gonna kill you!" He growled as he thrashed and screamed slurs at me, luckily the serious woman had him restrained between her arms. 

"Shidoichi, What's wrong with you!? Control yourself!" She said, sternly. 

"So, anyways that means the Phantom will send subordinates to kill, kidnap or worse. To merge with your fellow Phantoms to destroy the universe! So were here to prevent that, an another useless but worth it reason was to help kill Phantoms!" Anri said dramatically. I raised one eyebrow.

"Huh?! What do you mean merge, do those things have powers?!" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, they are called Koi, same system as Sou, but the difference is Koi embodies corrupted Sou as for Sou, it's pure embodiment." She said precisely. I looked down.

"So, when I'll get those...powers?" I asked myself. She wrote on her checklist. 

"you'll know when time comes." She replied, then looked at the people surrounding me. 

"How about you show our vessel, to our surroundings?" She asked, the pretty woman suddenly clutched my hand. 

"Ooh! This is gonna be amazing, a new comrade!" She said gleefully and pulled me outside of the laboratory. The ginger haired guy facepalmed. 

"I hope she doesn't do anything stupid..."

....

"So this is the training grounds, this is where Shidoichi trains almost everyday! Haha, his face looks stupid when he's training!" Shidoichi snapped his head to look at her and jabbed a finger at her.

"Of course to be strong you dumb woman!" Yet, she ignored him and looked at me again.

"Oh, have we, incarnates introduced ourselves?" She asked. Before me and the others could reply she introduced herself. 

"My name is Kizasame Shimizu, I don't have any Sou abilities like incarnates but I wield Sou gears, we are called Kisousha!" She said gleefully and looked at the other people. "How about you guys? Aren't you gonna tell him your names?" 

The guy with closed eyes looked at me. "Name's Wataru, you don't deserve to know my last name." 
Then, he looked away, focusing on the smartphone. Suddenly, the handsome man earlier stepped Infront of me. 

"Ah, ignore him. He's always like that always. But we get along with him!" He assured me. "By the way, my name is Katsutake Yukimiyu. I'm the brains of Phantom Insitute, and I'm a support of this squad." He said calmly. 
I suddenly felt a tremendous presence behind me. 
"Names Saori Sai, and I EXPECT you to follow up with us and not be a heavy weight in our missions." Saori sternly said. I nodded weakly. 

"Yes, uhmm uhhh..." I staggered. Then a rough hand suddenly touched my head, I looked up and saw the ginger haired guy.

"Oi, who are you touching my hair huh?!" I hollered, sounding irritated always. He lifted his hand and apologized. 
"Oh is my way of approaching you...weird?" He asked. I gritted my teeth. "of course, it's weird you bastard!" I retorted. 

"My name is Kurugame Rokugou, and the person behind me is Shidoichi, my brother-"

"Yeah, and I'm gonna beat you up!" Shidoichi declared and landed a hit at my jaw, I collapsed. Everyone turned their attention to me.

"HE KNOCKED THE VESSEL OUT!"  They all screamed.

.....

I woke up a few minutes after being knocked out. Looking at them I asked.

"What happened to-" Before I could finish, Shidoichi hauled me to my feet. 

"Hoy! What's with the hurry?!" I asked, Saori looked at me with a serious expression.

"We have an exorcism mission, you wanna come with us?" She asked. 

"Hey, that sounds nice, this could serve as your training." 

I thought for a moment.
"Hmmm, a mission sounds boring. But if I come with them, I might get to know about the Phantoms and them..."

I looked at the incarnates.
.
.
.
"I'll come."