Kai looked around, struggling to make sense of his surroundings in the constant, suffocating darkness. He thought he caught a glimpse of something—but before he could make it out clearly, a high-pitched, childlike voice rang out beside him.
“What are you doing here, mister?”
That was weird. Was he losing it after all? A small part of Kai felt hopeful—maybe he was just hallucinating.
“Hello? I’m talking to you!”
He didn’t care anymore. He could be in an asylum for all he cared—anything would be better than this hellscape.
Then a sharp slap cracked against his cheek, followed by a dull throb. Kai spun toward the source, heart racing—and froze. It wasn’t a hallucination.
“Finally,” the voice said. “I thought you were crazy for a second.”
Kai’s eyes narrowed at the small child with grey hair. Strange… was it actually an old man?
The child noticed his gaze and spoke quickly, as if to explain.
“Yeah… that’s not why I’m here. Not the hair, I mean. I’m here because I stole time from myself.”
The kid’s expression was heavy, forlorn, as though he had lived a century of melancholy. “I wanted so badly to be seen as their equal… to be grown-up,” he said, the word tasting bitter on his tongue. “But all I get now are looks of scorn.”
Suddenly, the child’s mood shifted. He turned to Kai, eyes bright with excitement.
“So… what did you steal?”
Kai froze. As far as he knew, he was innocent.
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“Well… you don’t have the brand, so I assume it wasn’t from the universe,” the child said, curiosity coloring his voice. “Maybe a life-threatening injury? You stole your ability to heal… compressed it all into one point to save yourself?”
Kai’s mind raced. Wait—did he mean when he’d taken his sight back? That wasn’t life-threatening… and he hadn’t stolen anything.
“What do you mean?”
The child blinked, taken aback for a moment, then coughed. “Sorry… I forgot you were alive for a second. Also, who doesn’t know what they stole? You have to have stolen something to be here, anyway.”
Kai looked at the strangely cryptic and knowledgeable kid in front of him. Why couldn’t he get a straight answer here?
“I don’t think I stole anything. If anything, I was stolen from… and I took it back.”
The kid raised an unimpressed brow. “Oh, really? Do tell how such a thing ended up with you being a thief.”
And so Kai did. The kid seemed strangely knowledgeable, so why not? He wasn’t going anywhere after all.
“So let me get this straight,” the kid said, looking dumbfounded. “You looked at the eclipse ring—which is basically rule number one of things not to do because it burns your sight away—and then thought it was stolen? And promptly decided to steal it back?”
“Yes…” Kai muttered.
The kid burst into laughter. It felt like it lasted forever. When he finally looked at Kai, his eyes were gleaming.
“That’s… really unfortunate. To think you’ll be cursed all because of a bout of amnesia.”
“What?” Kai asked, incredulous.
Yeah, that’s how this works,” the kid said casually. “You didn’t think you’d get all those powers for free, did you?”
He shrugged. “All that’s stolen has to come from somewhere.”
“For me,” he continued, tapping his chest, “I’m going to live a few years as an old man until my original lifespan runs out. Then I’ll turn back into a child.”
Kai frowned.
“I’ll return to my original path,” the kid said, voice flattening, “but I won’t get to live my full life again. I’ve already spent it.”
He smiled—small, bitter.
“No matter what I do now, I die at thirty.”
Kai’s heart dropped.
Did he take his own lifespan… just to get his sight back?
The kid noticed the look on his face and raised a hand quickly. “Whoa—no, not like that. Don’t worry.”
The kid paused for a moment looking at Kai mournfully.
“Well… maybe nobody really steals from themselves here. There’s always a better target to take from.”
Kai froze for a second, mind reeling at the statement.
It was at that moment that the ground shuddered violently underneath Kai's feet as an explosion went off right next to him.
