Minutes earlier.
"Hahaha!" —the laughter of a little girl with blonde hair tied in double pigtails echoed as she played with her mother in the gentle glow of the night. They were camping in a nearby forest, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, enjoying a well-deserved family vacation.
The sky was clear, and the stars shone with an intensity that could only be appreciated far from the city lights.
"Look, Mom! A shooting star!" —exclaimed the girl, pointing to what seemed to be a star falling from the sky, illuminating the night with a purple flash.
"That's right, sweetheart. Make a wish," —her mother replied, although she wondered why that star seemed so close, as if it were truly descending toward them.
"Well, I want a brother so I can play and draw together," —said Eriri with a smile, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Her mother and father, who heard the wish, exchanged surprised glances before laughing tenderly.
"Haha! You should ask your father about that," —her mother replied playfully.
As laughter and joy filled the air, the shooting star continued its trajectory, getting closer and closer, until, to the family's astonishment, they saw it fall a few hundred meters in front of them.
With a thunderous roar that resonated through the forest and a purple light illuminating the surroundings, Eriri's heart raced.
"What just happened?" —exclaimed her mother, astonished, as she looked around for answers.
"I don't know. We should call the police," —said the father, still surprised by the event.
"No! We have to go see!" —interrupted Eriri, with a determination that surprised her parents.
"Why do you want to go, Eriri?" —her father asked, a bit worried.
"I don't know. I feel like something is calling me," —she replied, not taking her eyes off the area where the meteorite had fallen.
The parents exchanged looks, a mix of concern and curiosity on their faces, and finally decided to follow their daughter.
"Mom, Dad, hurry! Over here is where that meteorite fell!" —exclaimed the girl as she ran, guiding her parents cautiously along the damaged path.
As they got closer to the impact site, the girl felt a strange connection to what had fallen from the sky. The energy emanating from it seemed to resonate with something deep inside her.
"Mom, there's a boy here!" —she shouted, surprised, as she arrived at the center of the destruction. There, amidst the debris, lay a boy with gray hair, unconscious, among the remnants of his arrival.
"Hey, are you okay?" —asked Eriri, approaching cautiously and gently shaking his shoulder.
The boy opened his eyes, and for an instant, the world seemed to fade away. His left eye was a deep dark purple, while the right was gray, and when their gazes met, time appeared to stop, leaving only the two of them in a universe that had become insignificant.
"Eriri, are you okay?" —her father's voice broke the spell of the moment.
"Y-yes, but he..." —Eriri's voice trailed off, and seeing the boy fall unconscious again filled her with worry.
"Why are you crying?" —her father asked, noticing the tears on her cheeks.
"I don't know what's happening..." —the girl replied, confused and scared, realizing her heart was pounding.
"Is this boy okay? Should we take him to a hospital?" —the father asked, before carefully lifting the boy with a mix of concern and determination. "Sayuri, take Eriri. We need to go to a hospital."
"Y-yes," —Sayuri said, taking Eriri's hand as her mind still struggled to process what had happened.
Sometime later...
The family could be seen more calmed, surrounding the bed of a hospital where the gray-haired boy lay unconscious. The hospital lights flickered, creating a cold, clinical atmosphere.
"Mr. Sawamura," —began a nurse, approaching with a file in hand. "We've run some tests. The boy has no visible injuries, but his level of consciousness is concerning. We need to keep him under observation."
Eriri's father nodded, worried about the well-being of the strange boy who had entered their lives so suddenly.
"What will happen to him?" —asked Sayuri, her voice barely containing her distress.
"We don't know. Sometimes, trauma can cause a child to remain unconscious for a while. But hopefully, he'll recover soon," —the nurse replied, trying to offer a reassuring answer.
Eriri, however, felt something different. As she looked at the boy in the bed, an inexplicable connection grew within her, as if they shared a fate they did not yet understand. Her mind was filled with questions: Who was he? Why had he fallen from the sky?
As her thoughts swirled, the boy's hand began to move slowly, as if a spark of life was starting to ignite within him.
"Come on, wake up..." —murmured Eriri, feeling a deep urge to help him, even though she didn't know how. "You have to come back."
A bright light shone in Eriri's heart, and for a moment, she felt she could connect with him in a way that transcended time and space. In that instant, the gray-haired boy slowly opened his eyes, and Eriri knew that this encounter was just the beginning of a story that would change their lives forever.
And so, a new cycle began, filled with mysteries and promises, where the fate of a warrior and the wish of a girl intertwined in a thread of eternity.