The crisp mountain air echoed with the soft thuds and ccks of wooden swords striking, a gentle rhythm of controlled sparring behind the house. Kagami moved in sync with Zack, trading precise blows—not with force, but with focused intention. Mikay stood nearby with a warm smile, arms crossed, watching them with quiet pride.

  “No chakra surges. No mana bursts. Just technique,” Zack said between strikes, blocking Kagami’s angled swing.

  “Exactly,” Kagami nodded, his breathing steady but sharp. “I need my foundation strong before I try the rest.”

  After several exchanges, Zack called the match and stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow. “You’re getting faster. Sharper.”

  Kagami didn’t respond right away. Instead, he stepped to the porch where a cloth-wrapped bundle y. He untied it, revealing three uniquely shaped kunai with three prongs and a seal etched into the handle.

  Zack blinked. “Hey, that’s the knife you asked me to make. Wait… you said it was a draft for a new type of throwing weapon, but I assumed it was a dagger or some kind of ceremonial bde.”

  Kagami gave a small smile. “Not a knife. A kunai. A tool of both offense and movement from my old world. But this specific design—it’s meant for something greater.”

  He walked toward a nearby tree and, with practiced motion, threw one of the kunai. It embedded cleanly into the trunk. Kagami formed a quick series of hand seals and closed his eyes.

  “This is for a jutsu called Hiraishin no Jutsu,” he expined. “A technique passed down to me by my mentor, Tobirama Senju. It lets the user teleport instantly to any marked kunai—through space, through danger, through anything.”

  Zack stared at the embedded kunai, then gnced back at Kagami. “Teleportation? That’s what all those seal diagrams were for?”

  “Yes,” Kagami replied, serious now. “With chakra alone, I mastered it once. But combining it with mana in this world? It distorts the spatial anchor. It’s… unstable.”

  He attempted the jutsu again. His body shimmered faintly—and then fizzled. He dropped to a knee, breath shallow, the toll evident.

  Mikay was beside him in an instant. “Careful. Don’t push it too far yet.”

  Kagami exhaled. “I’m close. I can feel it.”

  Zack picked up one of the remaining kunai, testing its weight. “I didn’t realize I was forging a tool for space-time magic when you handed me that draft. I just thought it was a strange-looking bde.”

  Kagami chuckled. “You made it well. Better than what I had before. If I can master this again… I’ll be able to protect the people I care about. Before they fall.”

  He looked up at the sky, eyes clouded with memory—of Elias, of battles long past.

  Mikay rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not alone this time. And you won’t have to face what’s coming without us.”

  ---

  Elsewhere…

  In the dark depths of a forgotten ruin, the Triad of the Shattered Veil gathered in the presence of their true leader.

  Azraval Nihilex stood at the altar, his abyssal aura warping the very shadows. One silver eye gleamed like moonlight, while the other burned a red-bck infernal hue.

  Two spots at the circle’s edge remained empty—Fenric and Shei.

  “He grows stronger,” murmured Azraval, watching an image of Kagami shimmer in a dark scrying pool.

  Syltharis Nighthollow bowed slightly. “Shall I end him now, before he unlocks more?”

  Azraval’s expression remained eerily calm. “No. Let him believe he has time. The brighter his spark… the sweeter the silence when it fades.”

  His crown of floating obsidian thorns pulsed, and the chamber grew colder.

  ---