The Boy Branded Error

Opening Scene: City in Fear

The neon-lit streets of Edraston glow eerily under the flicker of giant surveillance screens. Every wall is plastered with Kaien’s face, but instead of his name, the warning only reads:

ERROR: SUBJECT KA1-EN.

To the people of New Lemika, being branded an “ERROR” is worse than death—it means the Council has erased your humanity. Families disown you, friends pretend they never knew you.

As sirens wail, whispers pass through the crowds:

“Did you hear? A boy spoke… the forbidden thing.”

“They say he didn’t even flinch when the Erasers came.”

“No… he’s not a boy anymore. He’s an Errorist.”

The word spreads like a curse.

Scene 1: Hiding Underground

Kaien crouches inside a half-collapsed metro tunnel, the book hidden beneath his jacket. His breath fogs in the damp air. The walls are covered in ancient graffiti—scraps of words left by survivors from before the Fall. Misspellings, broken sentences.

For the first time, Kaien doesn’t see mistakes. He sees freedom.

Lyra sits across from him, fiddling with her hacked grammar drone. The drone buzzes softly, its dictionary corrupted by her code.

“They’ll never stop hunting you,” she says quietly.

Kaien smirks. “Good. Let them come. If words can destroy nations, then errors can destroy tyrants.”

Lyra frowns. “You’re treating this like a game. You don’t understand—the Council doesn’t just kill rebels. They erase them. They rewrite history. If they succeed, it’ll be like you never existed at all.”

Kaien clenches his fist. “Then I’ll make my existence unforgettable.”

Scene 2: The Erasers’ Hunt

At the same time, Officer Strahm and his squad of Erasers sweep the lower districts. Their blank helmets glow with searchlights, scanning every corner for signs of Kaien.

One Eraser kneels by a wall where Kaien once wrote. The paint has been scrubbed away, but faint traces remain.

Strahm studies it in silence. “This is not a child’s rebellion,” he says. “This is infection. If one word can spread fear, imagine what a sentence could do.”

Another Eraser asks, “Sir… what was the mistake he spoke?”

Strahm pauses. His helmet flickers. “…That knowledge is not for us. Only the Council knows. Our job is to silence him before the infection spreads.”

Scene 3: Encounter in the Market

Later, Kaien and Lyra sneak into a crowded night market to steal food. The air is thick with smoke and neon, the smell of oil and desperation.

As Kaien grabs bread, a vendor stares at him. Recognition flashes in her eyes. She whispers, trembling:

“…Errorist.”

Others notice. A ripple of fear passes through the crowd. Some back away, others mutter angrily. To be near an Error is dangerous—it could bring the Erasers crashing down at any moment.

Kaien straightens, holding his bread defiantly. “If I’m an Error, then so is every one of you. We’ve all spoken wrong. We’ve all been fined, punished, corrected. The only difference is—I don’t bow anymore.”

The crowd stares in silence. Then, a child in the back giggles and deliberately mispronounces a word. His mother gasps and slaps her hand over his mouth. But the spark has been lit—people start whispering odd words, scrambled phrases. Small mistakes. Tiny rebellions.

Lyra pulls Kaien away as guards begin to push through the crowd. “You’re insane,” she hisses, “but… it’s working.”

Scene 4: The Council’s Meeting

Inside the grand chamber of the Council of Grammar, Lord Veynar watches the reports in fury.

“Citizens whispering forbidden words in the market… children laughing at mistakes…”

The councilwoman with the silver colon rises. “It’s infection, just as we feared. Error is a disease.”

Veynar slams his staff down. “No. Error is warfare. That boy has turned mistakes into weapons. And weapons must be destroyed.”

He orders: “Release the Redactors.”

The council gasps. Redactors are not soldiers—they are living archives, twisted beings who once served as human dictionaries. Their bodies are covered in scars where words were carved and erased. They do not hunt to kill; they hunt to consume words themselves.

Scene 5: The Redactors

Night falls. Kaien and Lyra rest in the tunnels. The sound of dripping water fills the silence. Then—whispers. Not voices, but echoes of words, crawling through the dark.

Kaien stiffens. “Do you hear that?”

Lyra nods, pale. “They’ve sent something worse than Erasers…”

Out of the shadows crawl three figures. Their mouths are sewn shut, but their skin is etched with letters that constantly rearrange. Words crawl across their flesh like insects.

One stretches a hand toward Kaien, and the letters on its arm burn with light. A word floats into the air, twisting violently—then vanishes.

Lyra gasps. “They’re… eating language.”

Kaien grips the forbidden book, heart racing. “Good. Let them try. Because if words can be eaten… then maybe mistakes can poison them.”

Ending Scene

As the Redactors close in, Kaien opens the book. His eyes narrow with determination. The forbidden sentence glows faintly on the page, its true form hidden from us, the audience.

Kaien whispers to himself:

“The Council thinks errors are weakness. But they’ve never seen what happens when an error fights back.”

The episode ends on a freeze-frame: Kaien raising the book against the Redactors as neon sparks fill the tunnel.

TO BE CONTINUED.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***