Episode 13 — Awareness

One attempt—

the energy vanished completely.

Another—

it erupted before Agira even moved.

Frustration built quietly beneath his composure.

“You said this would help,” he muttered after another failed attempt.

Kaito remained calm.

“I said you would understand more.”

A brief pause.

“Not that it would become easier.”

Agira exhaled slowly and looked down at his hands.

They weren’t shaking.

But they didn’t feel stable either.

Kaito watched him carefully.

Longer than before.

“This didn’t start with you,” he said.

Agira looked up immediately.

Kaito continued calmly:

“But your world forced it to wake.”

That was all he said.

No explanation.

No expansion.

Just enough to leave something unsettled behind.

Eventually, the training stopped.

Not because Agira had mastered anything—

but because there was nothing more Kaito intended to show him.

As Agira stood to leave, he paused slightly.

“…This is it?”

Kaito gave a small nod.

“You came here for control.”

A brief silence followed.

“You’re leaving with awareness.”

That wasn’t what Agira wanted.

But it wasn’t useless either.

The moment he crossed back through the threshold, the shift was immediate.

Noise.

Weight.

Reality.

The city had returned.

Maya was waiting for him.

“You’re alive,” she said, half-relieved.

Agira glanced at her.

“Barely learned anything.”

That wasn’t entirely true.

He lifted his hand slightly.

Focused.

For a moment—

nothing happened.

Then—

a faint distortion formed above his palm.

Small.

Controlled.

And then it flickered—

and surged violently without warning.

Agira clenched his fist, forcing it back down.

Control.

But not stability.

He stared at his hand for a second longer.

Something about all of this—

still didn’t feel right.

And for the first time since gaining his powers—

Agira understood something clearly:

This wasn’t something he was learning to use.

It was something he was learning to survive.