The forest was still.
Not a single breeze stirred the leaves above. Birds and beasts alike seemed to avoid this patch of woods—perhaps sensing the strange, silent presence of a child standing dead still in the center of a small clearing.
Clark SanJose exhaled slowly, his bare feet sinking lightly into the soil. His golden eyes were closed, his head slightly tilted forward.
Then—he vanished.
A gust of wind rippled through the clearing.
Leaves trembled.
A fraction of a second later, Clark reappeared ten paces away, stumbling slightly, knees hitting the ground.
"Tch… Still not right," he muttered, catching his breath.
His version of Sonido—a burst-movement technique that folded space with raw kinetic speed—was rusty. In his past life, he could close gaps in the blink of an eye, strike from impossible angles, and escape traps before they even triggered.
Now? It felt like learning to walk again.
He stood, wiped the dirt off his knees, and closed his eyes once more.
"Let's try again…"
This time, he didn't move. Instead, he focused—not on his legs, but on the aura around him.
A subtle tremor in the wind.
The shift of weight on a branch twenty meters to his left.
A bird, tilting its head toward the sky.
Clark's ears twitched. His breath slowed.
Extrasensory Perception.
It wasn't just hearing or sight. It was intuition sharpened into weaponry. Feeling danger before it struck. Reading intent through the smallest vibration. In his past life, it saved him from countless ambushes… and earned him the title "Ghost Blade."
Now, the sense was dull—like a sword rusted in a river.
"I need to awaken it again," he murmured. "But even feeling the shift in the air… it's not enough."
Finally, Clark sat cross-legged in the center of the glade. This time, he focused inward—on a technique deeper than muscle memory or perception.
He slowly opened his eyes—and the golden hue flickered.
Then burned crimson.
His pupils shifted, becoming sharp slits of gleaming red, igniting with faint lines that pulsed from the center of his iris. His body froze. His breath hitched.
"Red Demon Eyes…" he whispered.
The air around him warped subtly. His vision expanded—colors deepened, movements slowed, and every leaf, every shadow, glowed with life.
But only for a second.
Pain lanced through his skull. The red faded.
Clark gasped, clutching his head as he fell forward.
His face hit the earth.
He didn't cry.
Instead… he laughed bitterly.
"Of course it hurts. This technique burned half my soul to master before. And now I'm just a kid again."
He lay there for a while—breathing, watching a beetle crawl across a nearby stone. The stars above peeked through the canopy.
He sighed deeply.
"No results today… Just strain. Just echoes."
Still, he rolled over and looked up at the darkening sky.
"I'll try again tomorrow."
His voice wasn't broken. It was calm. Resolved.
The path back home was quiet.
When Clark returned to their hidden cavern dwelling, he saw his father tending to the fire. Jordan SanJose, tall and sharp-eyed, looked up as his son entered—mud on his clothes, scratches on his arms.
But he didn't scold him.
Instead, Jordan said, "Wash up and rest."
Clark blinked. "…Why?"
Jordan placed another log on the fire, eyes glowing faintly gold in the embers.
"Tomorrow, I'll begin teaching you the basic knowledge of this world. History. Power. Structure. You're of age now." He didn't smile. "It's time."
Clark nodded quietly, concealing the stirring excitement in his heart.
"Good," he thought. "Then I'll finally learn how this world works… how to hide… and how to rise."
He turned and headed toward his room in the stone hollow. But before entering, he cast one last glance over his shoulder at his father, who stared silently into the fire.
"He doesn't know," Clark thought. "He doesn't know I'm not of this world. He doesn't know what I'm about to do."
That night, under a roof of rock and flickering torchlight, Clark lay in bed, arms folded behind his head.
His crimson eyes didn't glow this time.
But they would again.Soon.
"I'll start over. I'll become stronger than I ever was. No matter what world I'm in."
Chapter Ends.