"It is always the same. Huddled in some cave, trapped within an endless blank world. Staring back at me on the ground is a disgusting, shredded mass of what is unmistakably flesh and bone."
"It should clearly be dead but the eye, larger than my own head, follows my every shaking movement. I can hear the howls and screams of otherworldly things around me, all while this chunk of meat laughs at my utter helplessness. I can only recall it saying one thing-" The small voice paused and so too did the sound of a quill on parchment that came from across a dimly lit room.
[Eat or lose yourself forever].
Seated outside the door is a young boy, no older than the age of 6. He could hear the faint mumblings of the individuals in the next room. This was nothing new to him, a typical routine for what was simply excused as a recurring nightmare.
It was the same song and dance, some shrink would give their theory on what ailed the child, then try to siphon the gold from the pockets of his parents who wanted nothing but their child's wellbeing. No matter how hard the child protested, his guardians could not consider his feelings if it meant the possibility of adversely affecting his health anymore.
Tired of the eavesdropping he shakily took to his feet and quietly snuck back into his room down the hall. He positioned himself in front of an object obscured by a thick quilt and paused for a moment. With a heavy sigh, he reached out, coiling the covering in his hand before yanking it off what was revealed to be a full-length mirror.
Before him stood his reflection; A constant visual reminder of his pitiful state.
Even through his muted brown pajamas, one could tell that something was wrong with the boy. His body looked incredibly frail. The child was born with an ailment not dissimilar to muscular dystrophy.
The signs were clear enough on his body, in comparison to any normal child, this boy seemed too thin, too brittle. The only quality that he could ever take solace in, was his eyes and hair. They looked like his mothers. It was often described by his father as if the spirit of winter blessed each strand of hair and their eyes both shared this white quality, like that of freshly settled snow.
These tresses spilled across the ground and as a result, it was a common occurrence to mistake him for a young girl. Still, these qualities were something that gave him a closeness to his parents who did whatever they felt was necessary to protect him and such a thing was something he was grateful for.
With not a word did he slink back into bed, hoping the previous night's terrors wouldn't repeat themselves.
The following morning, like clockwork, Kaito would go about his daily routine which always landed him back in his room, books piled high and papers strewn about. His body's condition simply didn't allow for much help with chores that involved much physical labor.
He had also long since given up going outside to try to interact with the other village children as he did not fancy coming home bruised and battered, to which these cases became ever more frequent. However, such a decision was not without merit.
Locked in his room for most of the day Kaito was able to preoccupy himself with absorbing whatever information he could from books. While his body suffered, his mental acuity soared. At his age, he was already capable of speech one would assume was nurtured by a noble's private tutor.
His capacity to learn was not stifled by the genre of the books before him: language, history, bestiary, culinary, alchemy, anything he could get his small hands on. This thirst for knowledge was supported by his parents in whatever way they could manage, both out of a mixture of pride in their child's intelligence and guilt over their inability to treat his condition.
Kaito had no idea that his entire world would be flipped upside.
A knock on the door, nothing out of the ordinary. A neighbor perhaps? No, the way he couldn't hear their typical cheery disposition meant that it was someone here for business.
"Kaito? Can you come here please?" A clearly feminine voice echoed out from across the house. With an exasperated sigh, he sought out his mother that hailed him, wondering just what it was this time.
He found himself greeted by the familiar faces of his father and mother. His mother, Akane was a beautiful woman, and most of the qualities she had were something that Kaito had inherited. Kaito was almost the spitting image of his mother.
Meanwhile, his father, Tetsuo, was more common-looking as far as looks went. In comparison, his complexion was several shades darker, but that's par for the course for someone, who after retirement, spent the rest of his days plowing the fields. He had short black hair and a large frame, perhaps a picturesque depiction of a strong farmer.
Kaito was the antithesis of his father physically and this was always something that created a divide between them even if it was something they couldn't control. The boy was often plagued with the idea that his father was dissatisfied with such a weak child, conversely, the father worried that his son saw himself as inferior to the other children around him but couldn't bring the idea of mentioning this to his son.
There was, however, one face that he had not seen before.
"Son, the doctor here says he can help you." His father was always one of optimism, even though they had been through this same situation dozens of times, only leaving their pockets empty. His mother on the other hand was a bit more understanding of the situation and stayed quiet.
Kaito's gaze, one of clear skepticism, rested upon the man that supposedly proclaimed himself capable of helping his ailment. He was not dressed like any doctor he had seen before, nor did he show up with the typical assortment of tools that he was accustomed to.
The man was dressed in a dark gray robe, a few shades grayer than the boy's pajamas. A bronze insignia that resembled a stave with a sharpened end being constricted by a long creature with the head of a dragon. All the doctors that were supposedly from the city all had a winged lion crest as their insignia.
"Quite observant, this youngster." the man suddenly spoke, answering Kaito's gaze and responding to the boy's soundless recognition of his unique distinction. His voice sounded as if he had been smoking all his life. There was a certain rasp to his voice mixed in with an accent that was clearly not of the countryside or nearby city.
The doctor's hair could be described as a short frilled mess of dark brown, almost like that of toasted cacao. His hands juxtaposed his relatively young-looking face; wrinkled like that of an old man meanwhile a set of glasses adorned a face that seemed only slightly older than his father's.
There were so many oddities to this man that Kaito began to question just what his parents had gotten into this time. Perhaps another con artist got the best of their good nature.
"I had heard of your case from a few colleagues of mine and took interest. As Mr. and Mrs. Kanzaki have said, I believe we can help you recover from your ailment." The man seemed to be reiterating what he had suggested to Kaito's parents.
While his parents were absorbed in their optimism, Kaito was not buying it. He had talked to more doctors than he could remember, always having to retell the same nightmare, and always being given some worthless tonic, balm, or elixir that could help his condition only for it to be a ruse. It was not something Kaito could tolerate anymore.
"Like all the other doctors, right?" Kaito's words were quick and precise. For a child, he was blatantly honest and this resulted in a quick verbal scolding from his father.
"Kaito, that was uncalled for, you need to respect those that take the time to come and help you." Tetsuo was simply too much of a kind man now, too contained within trying to see the brighter side of a situation to no longer consider the fact that people have taken advantage of their love for their son.
"That is quite alright Mr. Kanzaki this reaction is to be expected." The man raised a wrinkled hand and waved dismissively. "The other doctors would not have been able to solve your situation anyway. They are unable to see how gifted you are." He added as he reached into his robe to procure a cloth to wipe his glasses.
Almost immediately Kaito was angered. His small hands were balled into the tightest fists he could muster and through gritted teeth and a fierce glare he let loose a verbal assault on the man. The frustrations of his situation and the previous disrespect that doctors had shown his family had finally triggered something in the boy.
"Gifted? GIFTED?! YOU THINK THIS IS A FUCKING GIFT?!" Kaito screamed out, lifting the sleeve of his left arm to reveal just how emaciated he looked.
"Kaito!" Both of his parents screamed in unison. This was the first time they had observed such language from their son. He was always a soft-spoken child and while he wasn't afraid to give honest responses he wasn't the kind to suddenly burst out in fits of rage.
"You are all the same! You come to our house, trick my parents with lies, then drain their wallets with useless medicine!" Kaito's frustrations had finally reached their peak and he had no other outlet but to cry. Not in sorrow but out of sheer anger that he was capable of nothing, he had enough.
Unsurprisingly, the doctor did not respond to Kaito's initial outburst. He continued to clean his glasses, allowing the child to go on his rant before placing the spectacles back on his face. "I don't expect you to understand." he merely stated. This dismissive response only further frustrated the boy.
"Get the hell out of my house!" the child yelled before yet again being accosted by his parents.
"Kaito, what is wrong with you today!? I'm sorry doctor, I've never seen him act like this. Apologize to Dr. Kobayashi!" the father exclaimed, utterly shocked at the sudden behavioral shift that his son had displayed. His father began to sound more like the days he had spent in the army, giving an order to maintain respect to those of rank.
"Perhaps we can do this at another time when Kaito is a bit more comfortable." Akane chimed in. She on the other hand could tell that her son was extremely irritated and had been growing increasingly so with every unsuccessful doctor's visit. She simply couldn't turn down the chance, the possibility that something could be done for his sake so she had never tried to turn away the opportunity before today.
It was just then that something caught her attention. It was incredibly faint and extremely difficult to concentrate on with all the commotion happening between Kaito, Tetsuo, and Dr. Kobayashi's altercation. It was as if a small current of electricity had traveled up through her toes and spread throughout her whole body. Following its influence, she realized that it was coming from directly across the room where Dr. Kobayashi was standing.
However, while she was trying to decipher its purpose the situation had escalated past the point where a warning from her would alter the coming outcome.
"No! There won't be another time! GET OUT!" Kaito, in his fit of rage, began making steps toward Dr. Kobayashi. Clearly, this frail 10-year-old was trying to intimidate the doctor into leaving but the doctor had other plans.
"What the hell are you doing Kaito? Get back over here!" his father yelled out as he started heading toward his son to stop him, however, it seemed he was a bit too late. The adrenaline that pumped through Kaito had the child moving faster than he normally would in his condition. Tetsuo was so accustomed to a meek Kaito that he didn't expect his son to resort to violence.
"I SAID GET OUT!!!"
With whatever strength the child could muster from that frail frame, Kaito let loose a fist towards the doctor, of which it was obvious it wouldn't even leave a bruise upon wherever it landed. This futile assault would be cut mid-flight.
The effects were immediate. Dr. Kobayashi lifted his right hand and with a rather limp index finger directed it at the young Kaito before reciting a series of words in a language that was undecipherable. Kaito immediately froze, his entire body felt like stone and he could do nothing but slam into the wooden floor, busting his lip and cutting his face in the process.
"Kaito! What the hell do you do to my son!" It was Tetsuo's turn to be whipped into a fury. With a glance Kaito's father looked to his right, his blade rested in his scabbard, leaning against the wall about 5ft away. With this sudden urge to protect his son, he took action.
In a blur of movement, Tetsuo had already grabbed his blade and bolted toward the man suppressing his son. Dr. Kobayashi, still in a calm demeanor briefly looked in the soldier's direction and repeated the same movement and incantation, holding Kaito's father in place.
Tetsuo, however, was very clearly struggling against the invisible bindings placed on him and gaining ground. "I'm rather impressed, Mr. Kanzaki. To think you could resist to this extent." words of praise that seemed to be a half-truth.
"I knew what I had felt was odd. You are a Sorcerer aren't you?" With these questions posed by his wife, Tetsuo's sudden rage was momentarily quelled and instead was fixated now on Dr. Kobayashi. The word Sorcerer was a sensitive topic for him and immediately sobered him up to the situation at hand.
"You are correct Mrs. Kanzaki, though I am surprised you were able to tell. Normally one who isn't sensitive to magic is not capable of comprehending, seeing, or even feeling the phenomenon when it presents itself. Tell me, do you have anyone in your family who practiced magic?" The doctor seemed quite intrigued that the mother was capable of interpreting, in some form, the use of magic.
To any regular onlooker it would've looked like the child simply was suffering from a type of natural medical phenomenon; the words spoken by the Doctor would've never been mentally perceived by those who couldn't comprehend or sense magic in some way.
Akane remained silent and Dr. Kobayashi chuckled slightly when his question went unanswered. "Ahh, of course. It is taboo to mention anything akin to magic in the territory of the Inquisition. How careless of me." This man's sarcasm was apparent.
While she wanted to do something for her family she couldn't be hasty. Both Tetsuo and Kaito were within the grasp of Dr. Kobayashi and any sudden movements on her part might put them both in immediate danger.
It was then that there was a sudden knock at the door. An unprecedented event that even caused Dr. Kobayashi's attention to falter. Akane took this moment to call forth within the frigid wrath of a protective mother upon who harmed her family.
As the front door began to creak open, a jagged shard of ice erupted from Akane's outstretched hand in an attempt to skewer the doctor's arm and pin him against the wall.
With an equally quick decisiveness, Dr. Kobayashi dropped the hold he had upon both father and son and dodged the icy projectile, the resulting icicle grazing his left cheek and embedding itself into the wall behind him.
"Seems like I've arrived just in time for the party." In the doorway, stood a woman, the uninvited guest.