The Nexus

The village of Kisaragi slept under a blanket of stars, but Ryo was awake, lost in his thoughts. The silence of the surrounding forest and the oppressive calm of this remote little town brought him no comfort. His mind wandered, dredging up memories he had tried to bury—memories of the Midnight Nexus, the place where everything had changed for him.

It had been six months ago.

Ryo had ventured into the Midnight Nexus for the first time, that mythical place where the greatest monster hunters and detectives skilled in the occult gathered. He still remembered the moment he pushed open the heavy metal door. The neon lights enveloped the dark, futuristic space, making everything feel so impressive.

He had been a novice back then, a low-level tracker, but he was determined to prove his worth.

As he entered, he approached the Board of Shadows, scrutinizing the quests, searching for a mission that would allow him to stand out.

“Hey, look at that! Isn’t that the one without mana?” a hunter at a nearby table sneered, his hearty laughter echoing through the room.

Ryo pretended not to hear, but he could feel the eyes turning toward him. Whispers rose, mocking his condition.

“How do you plan to catch monsters without mana, kid?” another voice chimed in, a tall man with a scarred face leaning against the bar. “You’re just here to entertain us, right?”

Laughter erupted around him. Ryo felt his face flush but kept his composure. He had always fought without mana, relying on his wits and physical skills. But here, at the Nexus, everything revolved around magical power.

A woman sitting near the Board cast a disdainful glance in his direction. “A tracker without mana… you’re more of a burden than anything else, kid. If you don’t want to die, you’d better leave this place. Only the strong survive here.”

Ryo swallowed the humiliation. Each word weighed heavily on him, but he refused to be crushed. He approached the Board of Shadows and selected a low-level quest, far beneath his true capabilities. It was all he could afford at the time.

“That's right, take a beginner's mission,” the scarred man spat. “The Nexus has no place for the weak.”

The mockery continued for weeks after that event. Each time he returned to the Nexus, he felt the same disdainful gaze, the same whispers behind his back. He was just a tracker without magic, a burden to this self-important elite. Yet, despite it all, he persevered, improving with each mission, tracking his targets without ever resorting to magic. Still, that first humiliation remained etched in him like a scar.

In the dark forest surrounding Kisaragi, Ryo clenched his fists, remembering those past days.

"Back then, I had no idea of the true power sleeping within me," he murmured to himself.

Now, he knew he carried with him far more than just a lack of mana. The demon within him, that dark force he feared, could one day make him more powerful than all those who had humiliated him.

"But here, in Kisaragi, I still have to prove that I can solve this mystery," he thought. Tracking down the source of these mysterious disappearances was just the beginning.