"So, care to explain… how I might die?"
Raijin's voice wavered slightly, though he tried to keep his tone steady. His heart raced, and his mind spun with confusion and trepidation. He had come this far—agreed even to offer everything—without even knowing what the price truly meant.
Raijū stared at him for a long moment, its grin stretching wider as those flickering eyes narrowed. It spoke slowly, voice measured and deliberate. "What's your age, Raijin?"
Raijin blinked, confused. "Uh… I'm nine," he replied cautiously, not understanding the connection.
A flicker of amusement passed through the creature's glowing eyes—subtle, but unmistakable. "Hmm… You might actually, die."
Raijin stiffened. "Huh? What do you mean?"
Raijū shifted its canine form lazily, coils of lightning flickering along its fur. Its next words carried a heavier weight—calm, but merciless. "I need to settle inside you. And you might not be able to contain me."
Raijin's mind stalled. Settle inside me? He stared at the creature, trying to piece together its cryptic words.
"Wait… settle inside me?" he repeated slowly, the unease crawling beneath his skin.
"Yes."
Raijū's smirk widened, revealing sharp teeth. "Like a vessel."
That word. Vessel.
"Are you willing to lend your body to me?"
A chill ran down Raijin's spine. The question hit Raijin hard, the instinctive urge to back away clawed at his mind—but he held his ground. Lend his body to this thing?
Every ounce of common sense screamed at him to refuse. To summon himself back to safety. To walk away before he ended up as little more than a burnt-out husk.
But…
If he walked away now, everything would have been for nothing.
If he backed down, this entire journey would fail.
Raijin clenched his fists, weighing the pros and cons. With a sharp breath, he forced down the fear gnawing at him and nodded stiffly. "Sure."
Raijū's grin stretched wider—almost unnervingly childish. Then, without warning, the ground trembled beneath them.
Raijin stumbled, barely managing to keep his footing as low, crackling laughter echoed through the cave—shaking the air itself.
His breath caught in his throat.
Was this a mistake?
"Don't worry…" Raijū purred, its voice dripping with amusement. "I won't take your body… I'll just settle inside it."
The way it spoke those words made Raijin's skin crawl more than anything else it had said.
The childish grin. The playful mockery. This creature, despite all its ancient, venerable voice, was enjoying this.
Raijin swallowed hard, trying to mask the panic rising in his chest. His heart raced in his chest. Raijin still didn't feel entirely reassured. "Uh-Uh, okay. And this is supposed to be where I might die?" His voice was shaky, and the fear he had tried to suppress now crept back in full force.
"Yes." The amusement faded from Raijū's eyes, replaced by something far older. Far more dangerous.
"This bond... it is not something to take lightly" the creature intoned, its voice now low and grave. "It will strain you, and challenge your limits. If you are not strong enough, you might perish."
Raijin's mind swirled, the weight of the decision crashing down on him like a storm.
He could still walk away. He could reverse-summon himself, return to his home, and pretend none of this ever happened. But if he left now...
He would never get another chance.
This creature—Raijū—might be one of the strongest beings in the world. It might be a relic of something ancient... forgotten.
It could be his ticket to absolute power—a path that no one in the entire Elemental Nations had ever walked before.
Power like this... comes once in a lifetime. He swallowed hard, his mind sharpening with resolve. "So how do we begin?" he asked, his voice steadier than he felt.
Raijū's gaze fixed on him, unblinking. "Then sit still. Cross-legged."
Raijin hesitated only for a heartbeat before lowering himself onto the cold stone. His legs folded beneath him, and the instant he settled, his body felt heavier—like the weight of the whole place was pressing down on him.
A part of him wondered if there was anything he could do to prepare—maybe channeling chakra, strengthening his body? Would it help somehow?
Slowly, he released a breath and focused inward, letting his chakra flow outward in steady streams. The faint hum beneath his skin calmed him, anchoring his mind. Even if it wouldn't shield him from what was coming, it was something, anything, to cling to.
A voice whispered inside his head.
"I am Raizu, Raijū's descendent."
Raijin's eyelids twitched, brow furrowing.
The voice was… different—high-pitched, almost childish—laced with impish mischief that didn't match the creature's demeanor as it said this within a mere second.
What the hell? Raijin thought. "What's the difference?" he muttered, keeping his eyes shut and forcing his breathing steady. His chakra pulsed faintly around him.
The voice giggled softly, actually laughed, before answering.
"I never had a human companion. But my father did… a long time ago. I always wanted one too." There was a pause—brief and uncertain. "I apologize." It said.
There was something… off in those words.
Pity?
Raijin's mind sharpened. Wait—did that mean—?
"Wait a minute… the companion you talked about—your father—"
["Endure the pain."] The playful tone vanished—Raizu's voice rumbled, low and ominous, cutting Raijin in midsentence. It directly echoed inside Raijin's mind.
Raijin barely had time to register the warning before Raizu's presence slammed into him like a bolt from the sky.
A tidal wave of lightning crashed through his body, searing into his stomach and spreading through every nerve in his being. His chakra shattered like glass beneath the pressure.
Raijin's eyes snapped wide, but the world around him was fading into blinding white.
He couldn't breathe.
His heart hammered, each beat like a thunderclap, and his breath came in desperate, shallow gasps.
The pain was unbearable. It felt as though his body was being torn apart from the inside, his very foundation shattering. The pain wasn't just physical—it was raw, primal, stretching to the core of his existence.
Still, the voice echoed—soft and calm inside the storm.
[Endure.]
The soft voice returned some semblance within his chaotic mind. However, the force of Raizu's power surged inside him, flashing him back to the last time he had endured such intensity—the electric shock, the searing pain that had burned through his veins.
But this... this was worse. Far worse.
His limbs trembled, his vision blurred, and for a moment, he thought he might lose consciousness. Each heartbeat felt like it could be his last.
The voice echoed yet again in his mind. [Endure.]
Raijin gritted his teeth, hands clenching into fists. His entire being trembled, his energy drained, yet he had to endure. When Raizu's power surged into him, it was like being struck by a torrent of raw, unstoppable energy. His body couldn't handle the intensity.
The pain ignited in his stomach but quickly spread like wildfire. His skin stretched beyond its limits as if the fibers of his being were unraveling one by one. His muscles contracted involuntarily, pulling taut as though on the verge of snapping. His bones groaned under unseen pressure, threatening to splinter.
Each breath was a struggle. His lungs felt like they were being crushed, his ribcage tightening around them as though it was trying to suffocate him from the inside. The pain climbed up into his chest, a searing heat that felt like molten metal flowing through his veins. It wasn't just internal— his entire body threatened to burst open, like a dam about to explode under mounting pressure.
The pain built, gradually at first, then all at once—an intense, white-hot force flooding his body.
His heart thudded painfully in his chest, each beat feeling like it might tear free from its place as if it could break apart under the intense strain. His veins burned with the weight of Raizu's power, the blood coursing through them feeling scalding hot.
But it wasn't just physical. His very essence seemed to be unraveling. His spirit, his very soul, fought against the invasive power, pulled and stretched like a fragile thread being yanked in different directions.
All Raijin could do was let out a deafening voice. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into the palms of his hands, but it did nothing to diminish the unbearable pressure. He felt like his very existence was being pulled apart at the seams.
And then, as though to add to the torture, the pain moved inward, drawing itself like a black hole in his stomach, concentrating towards his navel. His stomach twisted violently, as though it was being shredded from the inside, each movement of his intestines like a blade scraping against raw nerve endings.
Raijin's stomach churned in a way he had never felt before, his guts were twisting and knotting. His mind reeled from the sensation, his vision flashing red as every nerve screamed in agony.
His navel, where Raizu's power was anchoring itself, was the epicenter of this internal war. Raizu's energy was burrowing deep within him, embedding itself like a wound that couldn't heal. The agony didn't let up—it only intensified as Raizu's presence continued to settle.
Raijin could feel the weight of Raizu's presence becoming more pronounced and heavier. It wasn't just a physical presence—it was an unrelenting force that gnawed at his mind, the pressure and heat twisting through his insides like an insidious serpent, forcing its way deeper into his core.
His stomach felt bloated with energy, but it was more than just raw power. It was something deeper in spiritual—Raizu's essence pressing into his soul, seeping into every fiber of his being.
The sensation of Raizu settling within him was suffocating, a crushing weight that made it feel as though his body might collapse under the strain. Every breath was shallow, each inhalation more painful than the last, like lungs being squeezed in a vice.
Then, slowly, the pain began to subside. The white-hot intensity that had consumed every inch of Raijin's body slowly began to fade into a dull, throbbing ache, as though his flesh was still trying to process the force that had been forced upon it.
But in its place, something else emerged—a strange, hollow emptiness deep within his abdomen, just beneath his navel. A gnawing sensation, as if something vast had carved out a space inside him.
His breath came in slow, labored gasps, but he no longer felt like he was on the verge of collapse. His vision, still hazy, began to clear slightly, and he forced himself to remain upright, despite the lingering weakness in his body.
But as the sharp pain faded, something else remained. Raijin felt it.
Raizu.
The creature's presence, once a violent storm raging through his body, had now settled within him, still powerful, but more… contained.
No longer a chaotic force threatening to rip him apart, but a steady, unshakable weight anchored deep inside his navel. It was as if something fundamental about him had changed as if Raijin himself had been marked—branded by the creature's power.
A bond had been forged, irreversible and inescapable.
He could feel it now, within the pit of his stomach, the pulsating force that was Raizu's essence, alive and aware.
Raijin's senses were heightened, but his body was still hypersensitive from the ordeal. The weight inside him shifted, not with the frantic, chaotic power that had driven him to the brink of death, but with a strange, solid presence.
Raizu's presence was now a steady, constant hum—a force that was both foreign and familiar, overwhelming yet somehow strangely... comforting.
Raijin felt a warmth spreading outward from the core of his being, not the scorching, searing heat from before, but something subtler. It radiated like the pulse of a heartbeat, filling his chest and limbs. Raizu had not merely entered him. He had become a part of him, woven into the very fabric of his being in a way Raijin couldn't entirely comprehend. The thought was unsettling but undeniably real.
He swallowed hard, his throat raw. Slowly, he moved his fingers to his stomach, hesitantly brushing the area just beneath his navel.
Beneath his touch, he felt it—a subtle vibration, almost as if something—someone—was stirring within him. His muscles tensed at the sensation, but there was no longer the feeling of his insides being shredded or burned.
No, this was something different. The vibration he felt beneath his fingertips was chaotic but rhythmic. Raijin could almost hear its faint sound, the heartbeat of a creature that was now a part of him.
It was strange. His body felt... different. He wasn't sure what had changed exactly, but there was a heaviness to him now, a subtle shift in the way he carried himself, in the way his muscles tensed.
Then, realization struck.
This wasn't just a simple bond; this was something far more intimate, and possibly far more dangerous. Raizu hadn't just entered his body—he had settled into it, rooted himself deep inside.
Not as a storm, not as a wild, uncontrollable entity, but as something more. A constant presence. An ever-present force Raijin could not ignore, could not run from, even if he wanted to.
His mind flashed to Raizu's earlier words—about the bond he once shared with another. Was this what that person had felt? The constant presence, the weight of another being's power buried deep inside, impossible to untangle, impossible to fully understand?
Raijin slowly stood, feeling the weight of his body as Raizu's presence settled deep in his navel. There was an overwhelming feeling of being tethered, bound to something… or someone, someone far older than him.
And then, a strange awareness passed between them.
It wasn't words, not exactly. It was more like an undercurrent, a whisper of thought passing through him like electricity. Raizu was aware. He understood. He was watching.
Raijin's chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as he took a tentative step forward. The weight remained, but it no longer threatened to tear him apart. It was something else now. Something solid. An anchor. A presence that pulsed in sync with his own heartbeat.
Slowly, his hand returned to his stomach, feeling that steady, undeniable vibration. The bond was sealed. The creature was inside him.
And there was no going back.
For a moment, the full weight of that truth pressed down on him. His body was no longer his own—not entirely. He had accepted Raizu into his very being, and now, they were linked in a way that defied logic and reason.
Raizu's power was his power now, just as his will… his will would be Raizu's.
But what would that mean? What was the cost of this bond? The burden of carrying such a force inside him?
Raijin wasn't sure he was ready to know.
Yet, he stood there, his hands trembling but firm. He couldn't ignore the feeling surging within him—Raijū's small yet undeniable presence of…Power.
Raijin had survived. Endured. And now the force of Raizu's power settled within him.
He felt a new surge of strength.
But now, he had to learn how to live with the creature inside him. How to control it—or, perhaps, how to revoke its control over him. Either way, he was no longer just Raijin. He was something more now. Something different.
Raijin drew in a slow, steady breath—his first real breath since the ordeal had begun. And then, as if from the depths of his soul, he heard it.
A voice.
[Are you alive?]
+++
Raijū: "Rai" (雷), meaning "Thunder," and "jū" (獣), meaning "beast" or "animal." Raijū is often depicted as a creature of lightning or a storm spirit.
Raizu: While it retains "Rai" (雷), meaning "Thunder," the second part, "zu" (豆), typically means "bean" or "small." In this context, "zu" (豆) signifies small.