Chapter one - Classroom

Chapter one - Classroom

Inside the classroom, Rin Takeda was silent.

The room buzzed with noise—faint laughter, idle gossip, the soft tapping of fingers on holographic screens. The artificial lights overhead flickered slightly, casting a pale glow over rows of students too bored to care. Most of them were busy scrolling through cultivation memes or livestreams of ranked duelists.

But not Rin.

He sat at the very back, by the window, hood half-draped over his face. Rain pattered against the glass beside him. His eyes stared blankly outside, unfocused, as if watching something no one else could see. A world far removed from this one.

Behind his gaze, a storm raged. Not the kind outside—but the one inside him. Memories he couldn't silence. Echoes of fire, of screaming, of everything he had lost.

His right hand trembled slightly under the desk. Not from fear—but from restraint. He clenched his fist until his knuckles went pale, grounding himself in silence.

“Takeda. Rin.”

The voice of the teacher cut through the haze like a blade.

He blinked slowly and turned his head. “Yes, sensei?”

“You’re in my class. Try acting like it,” the teacher snapped. “We’re reviewing the updated Cultivation Surveillance Laws. I expect participation. Especially from someone with your… history.”

A few students snickered. One whispered something to another. Rin didn’t catch it—but he didn’t need to. He was used to it.

Everyone in this room knew who he was.

Once a prodigy—now a shadow. A boy born into one of Tokyo’s respected martial clans. A boy who, by thirteen, was already manipulating spiritual currents with surgical precision. The next big name in the world of modern cultivation.

Then came the fire. The explosion. The hospital.

Then came the silence.

They said his spirit meridians were destroyed. That he’d never cultivate again. That the talent was wasted, lost to tragedy and weakness. The elite dismissed him. Friends avoided him. His clan distanced itself, quietly shuffling him to the sidelines like a broken sword no longer worth sharpening.

Rin didn’t defend himself. He didn’t speak out. He just listened. Absorbed it all in silence.

“I asked a question,” the teacher said sharply. “What are the two penalties for unauthorized aura projection in a surveillance zone?”

Rin looked at him for a long moment. Then, flatly, he replied, “One year probation or permanent suppression via barrier seal. Depending on offense class and spiritual output.”

The teacher nodded stiffly. “Correct. Try to stay with us.”

Rin turned back toward the window. The rain hadn’t stopped.

His reflection stared back at him in the glass—hollow-eyed, tired, older than seventeen. Sometimes, he wondered if he was still the same person who once dreamed of ascending to the higher realms. Sometimes, he wondered if that boy had burned away in the fire along with everything else.

The bell rang. Students rose like a tide, grabbing bags and walking past him without a glance.

Rin stayed seated for a moment longer, eyes still locked on the city outside. A single thought lingered:

"If I'm not a cultivator anymore... then what am I becoming?"

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To Be Continued…

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