Eleven years ago, a six years old boy walked back with a girl of the same age.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. For the first time in my life, I have finally found something I want to do." He smiled. "You already know about the condition of my ears, right?"

The girl looked down, feeling sad. "It must be hard, isn't it? If I were the one enduring that burden, I might have given up at one point. However, you are different than anyone I have ever seen before."

"Hehe… You are too." He smiled. "For as long as I remember, I can't find the purpose of my ears, and for what reason do I need to endure this torture. However, it starts to change when you come to this place. I feel like I am born to help you."

"Kai…"

"If you want to become the best, I will help you from behind. My ears are capable of doing that. That's why I—" Kai suddenly stopped talking as he looked to the left with a pale expression.

"Kai?" The little Michelle tilted her head in confusion. She began to worry when his eyes turned sharp.

"We need to—" Before he finished for the second time, a sirene echoed before an emergency announcement came. "Incoming horde of magical beasts. Every single person in the seaside is to quickly search a shelter."

Without hesitation, he grabbed Michelle's hand and pulled her as they started running from the coast. "We need to evacuate! Hurry up!"

"What happened?" Michelle didn't know and followed him.

"There are at least a thousand magical beasts coming to our location," Kai shouted.

Soon after, the people from all the houses in the area began to rush out of their houses and ran straight to a deeper area, away from the coast.

Michelle and Kai obviously didn't have the physique comparable to them, so one by one passed them before they got enveloped by the entire population.

"Michelle! Never let go of my hands!" Kai panicked as he tightened his grip.

Suddenly, Kai felt as if lightning struck his brain as someone just kicked him. Kai realized that one of the adults just hit his head intentionally or unintentionally. His hand lost its power and finally let Michelle's hand go.

"Kai!" shouted Michelle while trying to reach him before she disappeared among the crowd.

"Michelle…" Kai's consciousness became fuzzy and his feet turned limp as he dropped to the ground. Because of their panicked state, the adults began to run over him, stepping on him without thinking anything.

At the same time, the magical beasts started to appear in their sky, making them even more panicked. Kai could only cover his head and body with his hands while bending his body like a shrimp.

Due to his ridiculous amount of magic power, his body was stronger than a normal human, but it didn't protect him during this ordeal.

After several minutes and the people began to notice him among the crowd, they began to go around him while looking at him with pity. Unfortunately, no one helped him because the magical beasts were just behind them.

Creak.

Creak.

Boom.

The magical beasts had arrived and started pummeling houses down while destroying anything they could.

He panicked as his heart stopped for a second when the destruction filled his vision. All he thought right now was Michelle.

Despite the sweet blood in his mouth and throat, the bleeding all over his body, and even his fuzzy consciousness, Kai only thought about returning to that hell to search for Michelle.

"Wait for me…" Kai muttered in a low voice before finding a stick next to the wall. He tried to walk to grab it, but he realized that he couldn't move his left foot no matter what. Surprisingly, it had already bent in a weird way.

His pain already mixed with the ringing in his ears, so he didn't let out another scream. His focus made him forget that problem for a second and used all the strength left in his heart to reach the stick.

Holding it with two hands, Kai could walk again with the help of the stick.

One step at a time, he slowly made his way toward where he felt Michelle be. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to find her voice.

…

Meanwhile, Michelle had her back against the wall while pointing both palms toward a giant bird. Its height reached three meters. Yellow and red feathers covered its body as it looked at Michelle, planning to swallow her.

A magic circle appeared on Michelle's hands as a black ball flew out of it, hitting the bird.

"Dark Bullet."

It hit the bird and made it turn its head, but that was all. It wasn't injured or whatsoever. Instead, the ball pissed the bird as it stretched its wings and howled.

Michelle's expression darkened, knowing that this might be the end of her. Tears fell down as she muttered a few people's names. "Grandfather, Father, Mother… Michelle loves you…"

One more blink, she couldn't help but say the name of the boy she knew a few weeks ago. The one that created an impact in her life and could be said as her childhood sweetheart. She remembered when Kai told her that he would protect her no matter what. "Kai… Help me…"

"Ri!" The bird let out another sound as it began charging at her.

Michelle closed her eyes and accepted her fate.

However, Kai had arrived and pierced the bird's eye with the stick and knocked it away with his small body.

To that instant pain, the bird flew to the side while Kai pulled the stick out of its eyes. This stick was their last weapon, so it was better to have it with him instead of leaving it on the bird's eyes like any other naive heroes.

Almost falling to his knees because of his balance, he stretched his hand to Michelle and grabbed her hand. "We need to go. Quick!"

Michelle repeatedly nodded and ran without putting any thought. On the way, her focus remained on Kai as she was wondering what he had gone through to get this wound? Did he sacrifice himself to protect her?

Unfortunately, that thought didn't last long. The bird had recovered and glared at them with one eye. It soared to the sky and dived, planning to kill one of them in this instant.

Noticing this, Kai pulled Michelle into his embrace and shielded the charge with his own body, resulting in the bird hitting the side of his abdomen.

It shredded Kai's skin and flesh as blood began to flow out.

Meanwhile, the bird rose again to the sky for another strike.

"Michelle. You should go first!"

"But you…" She looked at his wound and stuttered. "You…are injured."

"Just shut up and go! The only way both of us can survive is you running to get any help. If you don't do it now, both of us will die. Do you understand? Just look at my foot and you will understand!" Kai shouted with the last bit of his energy, planning to scare her away.

There was no hope in him staying alive anyway, considering he would just lose too much blood and die. At the very least, one person would be saved from his action.

Michelle gritted her teeth and ran as fast as possible, shouting and crying at the same time. "You can't die! I am going to call anyone who can help."

Looking at her back, Kai smiled and turned around. The bird was ready for another charge and Kai also prepared himself to make a counterattack.

When the bird dove, Kai raised the stick despite feeling so much pain on his side.

"Ha!" Kai planned to stab it another time, blinding both eyes, but the bird had predicted Kai's movement and struck him with a wing instead.

It knocked Kai down.

Rolling on the ground a few times, Kai gritted his teeth as his eyes became blurry. He thought this must be how he died. Although he regretted it, it wasn't bad either. After all, he could escape from this torture that his ears gave.

Kai couldn't move his body anymore and the pain felt numb. His body began to feel cold despite so many flames around him.

The house next to him collapsed as the rubbles reached him. He paid no heed of that house and closed his eyes. He would die anyway, so it was better to not see how he died and hoped that there wouldn't be pain he needed to endure during his last breath.

'I am sorry, Father, Mother. Kai loves you.' Kai thought before someone's footsteps ran straight to him with a speed he never saw before.

The next two seconds, a shadow appeared before him, turning into a woman. She had a white and red hakama and wore a mask to hide her face. However, that mask was a very particular one, considering it was red and looked like an ogre or the people here often called it an oni.

The bird saw this person and changed its target as the person released her killing intent. However, the woman simply pulled her blade out and slashed the bird. Or that was supposed to happen.

Kai couldn't see her swing. He only managed to listen to the wind produced by that sword.

Before he knew it, the bird was already split into two and flew past them before landing on the ground.

"…" Kai tried to stay awake as that person turned around. Yet, Kai still managed to point out his index finger to the right.

The woman noticed it and saw another bird coming from their right and slashing it like the earlier one.