Chapter 7: [500 Years Ago]
"My name is Minato Tanaka," the man introduced himself, "I serve as the current head of the Tanaka clan.
The head of the Tanaka clan?
"Shall we have a little talk, Reo Miyaza—"
Just as the old man was about to finish talking, I interrupted him.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but, how do you know my name and what business do you have with me?"
The old man opened his left eye and looked directly at me. His eyes were the same colour as Akane's; they were almost identical to each other. He constantly had a smile on his face that seemed to never go away. From the first impression, I couldn't imagine his face without a smile.
"You sure have a lot of questions, young Miyazaki," He replied while still keeping a smile on his face, "you don't need to be so alerted, please, let me answer all your questions."
As he turned around, the wooden floor began shifting its form to reveal an underground stairway that led somewhere deeper than the current floor we were in.
—What just happened?
The old man just manipulated the floor as if it was nothing. Who were these people? Just what kind of power did they have?
As the man shrugged, gesturing to stick close to him, I helplessly tailed him.
The old man and I climbed down the stairways in silence through the dark.
As we reached the end of the lengthy stairway, we stepped into a vast open area.
"Flammeus." As he chanted those words, the torches around the area lit up brightly, revealing a massive underground site.
As I slowly visualized the entire area, I could see old murals that seemed to be centuries old around the walls of the enormous area.
They must've been at least hundreds of years old.
"To answer your questions, we will have to go all the way back to five hundred years ago, is that okay?" Minato asked as he observed the murals.
I nodded in confirmation, and the old man began talking.
"Compared to the era back then, the world today has surely become a peaceful place for humans to live," he glanced at me with his inhuman eye and continued, "everything began with the incident five hundred years ago."
He stopped walking near a mural and began.
"Five hundred years ago, the Great Disaster began with a massive crevice in the skies. Witnessing such an occurrence, many people believed that the gods has descended upon humans.
The old man turned his head away from the mural and faced me.
"Their beliefs were all wrong. They faced fate far worse than what they have thought would befall upon them."
I kept quiet.
"Rather than celestial being such as gods, a colossal meteorite emerged from the fissure and struck Japan. Many people have lost their lives that night from the impact, and the incident made many believe that the gods were striking upon a heavenly punishment to the lowly humans," he paused and asked, "Now young Miyazaki, do you believe in gods?"
It was a sudden question.
I hadn't thought about gods much, nor did I care about them. But as soon as the old man asked the question, a sudden emotion rushed over me.
Why did I just remember the incident from 9 years ago...?
"It doesn't matter if I believe in them or not, but if they do exist, they surely are doing a terrible job, especially with those creatures lurking around," I replied with a feeling close to "hate".
His face straightened in my response and continued to smile.
"An odd, yet understandable response," he continued, "I see that you have encountered them already."
I nodded in response.
"The creatures that you encountered last night, they are called 'Remnants.'"
"Remnants?" I asked in curiosity.
"After the Great Impact or the Heavenly Wrath of the Gods, as people liked to believe, wasn't the only disaster that affected the people of this land," he took a breath, "People began to change—fear, anger, sorrow and desperation. Their strong negative emotions have formed an entity that shouldn't be existing in this world."
"You're saying that those things are formed from negative emotions?!" I asked.
"They are beings born from the negative emotions of humans, yes," he answered, "using the host as their vessels, the Remnants continue feeding on their emotions until they are fully grown and go through the process of ignition."
Before I could ask the old man about the meaning of "Ignition," he got to the matter before I could make inquiries.
"Ignition is a term that we use to describe the process of Remnant's possession over its host's body."
My eyes widened in astonishment.
"Take over its host's… body…?"
"After a Remnant feeds on enough negative energy, they don't stop there. To feed on negative energy forever, the Remnants create a way to prevent their host from breaking off their negative emotions off," as he continued, I began to realize.
"The Remnants take possession of the host's body while their lives are still intact and trap them into an eternal loop of false reality, where they experience their life's lowest point over and over, providing an infinite source of energy for the Remnants to feed on."
"So those things… Remnants, are actually humans…?" My voice trembled as I spoke.
The old man slowly nodded in response and continued.
"Back to the Great Disaster, the entities that were born on that day were indeed, Remnants. But they were different from the ones you encountered. The time it takes for an ignition to occur depends on the amount of negative feelings one has. The earliest time a person undergoes ignition is approximately two days, but these Remnants defied all the current requirements for ignition. The people who were affected by the impact were instantaneously ignited," he took a deep breath and sighed, "It was a mass ignition."
I listened in silence.
"Normal Remnants that we mostly encounter today are mindless, but these first-generation of Remnants weren't. Affected by their negative emotions and even creating an entity that feeds on those emotions, the ignited humans went into rampage. They were furious at the gods above and of the world that they have created for humans."
I gulped.
"These Primal Remnants, different from today's Remnants, had one ability—black flame of the fallen. There isn't any information about the Primal Remnant's capabilities, but it is said that it was a flame that burned for eternity."
—A flame that burnt for eternity, huh?
"But not everyone was ignited."
"Huh?" I said curiously, "I thought you said that everyone was ignited…?"
The old man walked over to the giant mural in the middle of the area and continued talking.
"Everyone was ignited, except for seven people," he looked at the mural and carried on, "They were seven special people among all others. After the Great Impact, seven people with the strongest willpower and courage were chosen to possess seven different divine powers that stood out from today's capabilities," Minato took a moment to observe the mural and resumed, "They were called World Breakers."
—World Breakers…?
"They were seven divine abilities that interfered with the parameters of the world itself. It is said that the World Breakers were able to clash against the otherworldly powers directly. In this case, the World Breakers' wielders used their powers to face against the Primal Remnants."
"So was all the Primal Remnants wiped out…?" I asked.
Minato looked at me and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, the Primal Remnants were far too evolved in a short period for the World Breakers' wielders to handle."
"So how did they…?"
"Killing these Remnants was close to impossible as they evolved stronger, so they only had one choice. Combining all the World Breakers' energy, they froze the Remnants' time and sealed them out of this world."
"So they're still alive somewhere…?"
He nodded and resumed the story.
"After the battle, the seven wielders recognized that the powers they have gained were too dangerous for this world; therefore, they all came to an agreement to seal their powers into material objects they have forged with the materials from the meteorite.
The Seven Divine Weapons. These weapons that the World Breakers was sealed in were scattered around the world over centuries; some of them lost, and some of them handed down from generation to generation for the sake of preventing them from falling into the wrong hands."
The information that I have just received was a big one to handle. Primal Remnants? World Breaker? The Seven Divine Weapons?
My mind was filled with questions that exceeded the limit of logic.
Amid my thoughts, Minato interrupted, "After the Great Disaster, the descendants of the original World Breakers' wielders began to manifest abilities of their own. The reason as to why they started manifesting powers after the World Breakers has been sealed away is still unknown to this day, but using this ability,
we have been preventing new generations of Remnants from rampaging over the past five hundred years," he stared directly at me with his extraordinary eye and continued.
"To protect the regulars around the world from the Remnant's attacks, we, 'the 'Reapers,' work undercover to make sure the Remnants are completely wiped out without the public ever having to acknowledge that they ever have existed."
"—The Reapers…"
My mind was filled with even more questions. How did the public not know of such a massive piece of history in Japan?
In need of answers, I asked Minato.
"How does the public not know of the Great Disaster…? Who knows of this incident?"
After hearing my question, Minato hesitated for a moment and answered, "The incident is classified information that only the higher authorities know of, and for the matter of the public… I will tell you when the time comes."
—Huh? So, he would tell me classified information but couldn't tell me how the public doesn't know the incident? He was definitely hiding something, but I didn't press onto the matter.
"Why are you telling me this classified information?" I asked.
Minato tilt his head upwards and continued.
"Like I said before, we are an underground organization called the 'Reapers.' We gather those who have the potential of using 'Rift Energy' to hunt and eliminate the Remnants. In normal circumstances, only those who are related by blood to our ancestors, the seven World Breakers' wielders, should be manifesting the ability to manipulate 'World Rifts.' Still, there are exceptional people among the regulars who do not share a single drop of blood with the seven clans. We call them 'Irregulars.'"
The old man took a moment and glanced at me once again.
"I've brought you here today to make you an offer. I'm assuming you have already met Akane, is that right?"
I nodded in response to the sudden mention of her name.
"You see, that child is what you would call a prodigy. She is the first child in centuries to have been born with so much potential and power to manipulate the 'World Rift.' But, after a certain incident nine years ago, her powers became a poison for her."
—Her powers became a poison…?
"In exchange for higher physical attributions and the ability to manifest the 'Rift Energy' within them, the 'World Rift' wielders die when either their energy is stockpiled to their body's limits, or they deplete all of their 'Rift Energy'.
"What…?"
"To prevent their energy from stockpiling, they must use their abilities occasionally and carefully, so they don't deplete all of their energy. But in this child's case, it's different," he took a pause and resumed, "After the incident, her 'Rift Energy' has been imprisoned inside her, unable to get out; therefore, she has lost the ability to manipulate her 'World Rift'. When her ability to release energy was closed off, some of it were luckily released before the opening was barricaded, preventing an immediate depletion of her energy. Because using her 'Rift Energy' would be a risk to her own life, the Tanaka clan has forbidden her from taking part in any operation that required her to use her abilities—until last night. Last night when the Remnants attacked you, Akane's energy that hasn't been used for eight years went out of control, almost depleting all her remaining energy."
"That child is dying." He said in a severe tone.
Akane was dying.
To save a guy that she had just met; to save a guy that she didn't even know well; to save a good-for-nothing stranger, she risked her life.
Everything was my fault. None of this would've happened if I was just…
Stronger…
Amid cursing myself for my weakness, Minato interrupted.
"I heard from Hachiro that you didn't suffer any injuries besides your right arm when you were facing against Akane," he continued, "Regulars can't survive any attacks from a 'World Rift' wielder, let alone avoid them, even if they had outstanding athletic and precision skills. But you, Miyazaki, managed to survive, despite being a regular.
—What did he mean by that…?
I looked down at my right arm that was wrapped around in white bandages.
"What are you trying to get to…?" I asked.
"Reo Miyazaki, although you don't hold any 'Rift Energy', I feel something more powerful in you, something extraordinary. That's why I ask you, would you be interested in becoming a Reaper?"
"…"
—Huh…?
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Jeonson
Jeonson In the fourth chapter, the truth of the world unveils! ╰（‵□′）╯
No seriously, this chapter took a bit too long. (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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