The reporter's voice trembled, barely keeping pace with the images behind her.
Two figures stood in the center of a shattered avenue.
One wreathed in light.
The other wrapped in shadow.
Every step they took cracked asphalt. Every clash sent shockwaves through buildings miles away. Windows shattered. Cars flipped like toys. Drones circled helplessly, their feeds cutting in and out as power surged.
The boy leaned forward.
His heart wasn't afraid.
It was racing.
"Co on," he whispered, fists clenched. "Hit him again."
On screen, the brighter one was driven back—skidding across the street, carving a trench through steel and stone. The darker figure raised a hand, the air folding inward like it was being pulled into a wound.
The boy cheered.
Not because he understood who was right.
Not because he knew what they were fighting for.
But because it was real.
Because sothing mattered enough to shake the world.
The reporter shouted now, words tumbling over each other.
"—authorities confirm both individuals are classified S-Class—this level of engagent has not been seen since—"
The boy didn't hear the rest.
He imagined himself there.
Standing between the towers.
Feeling the ground tremble beneath his feet.
Being strong enough that the world had to notice.
Outside, the city roared.
Inside, the boy smiled.
The age beyond movent had ended.
Not with a command.
Not with a plan.
But with a child,
watching a screen,
believing—without knowing the word for it—
that soday,
he would be on the other side of the glass.
The screen flared white.
For a mont, the broadcast cut to static—then snapped back just in ti to catch the impact.
Light and shadow collided.
The sound didn't co through the speakers properly. It was too big for that. Even through the TV, the shockwave arrived as a pressure in the chest, a low tremor that rattled the boy's window and made dust fall from the ceiling.
The reporter scread.
The cara spun wildly, struggling to keep focus as the avenue collapsed inward. A crater blood where the two figures had been, concrete folding like paper, streetlights bending at impossible angles.
Then—stillness.
Smoke rolled through the streets. Ergency sirens wailed from far away, hesitant, afraid to get closer.
The boy held his breath.
From the haze, the darker figure straightened first.
Shadow peeled off them like burning cloth, reforming, tightening. The air around their body bent, not violently now, but with intent—as if the world itself was leaning in to listen.
Then the light moved.
A glow pulsed beneath the rubble. A hand erged, braced against broken asphalt. The brighter figure dragged themselves upright, bleeding radiance that lit the smoke from within.
The boy's grin widened.
"They're not done," he whispered. "They're never done."
The reporter's voice returned, hoarse, shaking.
"—visual confirms both combatants are still active—repeat, still active—"
The city outside responded.
People shouted. Doors slamd. Sowhere below, soone laughed—half terror, half awe. Phones were raised to windows. Rooftops filled with silhouettes staring toward the distant glow.
The world was watching.
On the screen, the two figures faced each other again.
No speeches.
No countdown.
Just a shared understanding.
They launched forward at the sa ti.
The boy surged to his feet, bowl clattering to the floor, forgotten.
His reflection flickered across the glass of the television—small, breathless, eyes burning.
He didn't know why his chest hurt.
Didn't know why his hands were shaking.
But sowhere deep inside him, sothing answered the clash on the screen.
Not power.
Not destiny.
A question.
What would it feel like…
The blow landed.
The feed cut out.
The room went dark.
In the sudden silence, the boy laughed—soft, amazed, alive.
Outside, the city held its breath.
And sowhere in the chaos of light and shadow,
sothing new had begun.
The boy stayed frozen for a long mont, staring at the blank screen.
Then—slowly—the glow returned, not from the TV, but from outside his window. The city lights flickered in unison, like the pulse of a giant heartbeat. Rain glimred on the asphalt, reflecting shards of neon, turning streets into rivers of liquid color.
He pressed his face to the glass.
Above the shattered avenue, two silhouettes hovered, suspended mid-air. The storm of dust and debris whirled around them, yet they remained untouched, silent in the chaos. Light and shadow circled each other, drawing arcs that seed almost like a dance, each movent precise, effortless.
The boy's fingers curled against the cold glass.
A sudden thought struck him, raw and unford: I want that. I want to feel that…
He didn't know what "that" was. Strength? Power? Courage? It didn't matter. He knew only that it called to him, deep in his chest, louder than anything he had ever heard.
Sowhere far away, sirens blared again, and people scread. But here, in this room, the world had narrowed down to one heartbeat.
The boy exhaled, and it ca out like a laugh and a breath all at once. He could feel it—the pulse of the city, the clash of forces, the story unfolding.
And then he made a decision.
He didn't reach for the TV.
He didn't run outside.
He just stood.
Straight-backed.
Eyes fixed on the horizon.
Because he knew, sohow, that the world beyond the glass had begun without him…
but one day, it wouldn't wait.
And when that day ca, he would not be watching.
He would be part of it.
The city exhaled with him, the night alive with unspoken potential, and the first sparks of sothing unstoppable shimred on the horizon.
The boy turned away from the window slowly, as if leaving the view behind would not break the spell.
His small room, cluttered with half-finished drawings and toppled action figures, seed impossibly small now. Yet in that confinent, he felt a strange clarity. The world outside had changed—or maybe it had always been like this, and he had only just noticed.
He walked to his desk, hands brushing against the rough wood, and picked up a pencil. On the blank sheet before him, he didn't know what to draw. He didn't need to. He only knew he had to start.
The first line was shaky, uncertain. The second bolder. Soon, shapes erged—figures of light and shadow, arcs of energy and motion, forms that seed impossibly alive on the paper. Each stroke made his pulse quicken. Each line was a heartbeat, a promise.
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