The world was still spinning when Ember opened her eyes.
The bus had flipped, metal twisted like paper. She had been in the most unlucky seat possible—right side, near the window. When the bus rolled, she was slammed sideways, her right knee cracking against the metal bar. Pain stabbed up her leg. Something warm trickled down—blood.
The final jolt threw her completely out of the broken door. She slid down the slope, her elbow scraping against stones, wrist bending at a bad angle before she managed to grab a large rock and hang on. Her fingers slipped once. Twice. Then she lost all strength and dropped the last few feet, landing hard on her side.
Her body finally gave up, and everything went black.
—
When she woke up, the forest was quiet except for the soft rustling of leaves. Her knee throbbed. Her elbow burned. Her wrist stung every time she moved it.
And she wasn't alone.
Four boys stood around her, shadows forming a loose circle. She recognized them—same school, same year—and she remembered their faces from the football match. The one she won. The one they hated losing.
The tallest one clicked his tongue.
"So the football queen finally wakes up."
Another nudged her injured knee with his shoe, making Ember suck in a sharp breath.
"Who do you think you are, huh?" he sneered. "Acting all high and mighty just because you beat us once?"
She tried to sit up, supporting herself with her injured wrist, and winced.
"Oh look," the third boy laughed, "she's not so tough now."
The fourth leaned closer. His voice was quieter but sharper than the rest.
"Out here? There's no referee. No crowd. No teachers. Just us."
Ember swallowed, chest tight, pain buzzing through every part of her body.
But her eyes stayed steady.
She wasn't going to back down.
Stone Ranger Amber
Birth Colour: Grey (#777777).
she can only manipulate stones and minerals of that exact shade—nothing lighter, nothing darker. Every time she forces a rock outside her affinity to move, it feels like dragging a mountain with her bare hands. Even the matching ones require focus she barely has right now.
Pebbles lifted.
Dust swirled.
Fragments aligned.
They fused into the shape of a greatsword, heavy and grainy, but solid. The movement wasn't smooth—it was something her body remembered more than her mind as if practiced several times. Her bracelet which she made from the broken pieces of her father's necklace rattled on her wrist, catching a flicker of light.
One boy panicked and fired a yellow energy bullet, wild and unstable. Ember jerked aside, barely dodging—the blast shattered a stone behind her.
She raised the sword.
Then the ground rumbled.
A crack tore across the cliff above them.
A massive slab of rock broke loose—
About to fall on top of everyone.
BANG!
A crack split the air as Childe fired—barely aiming—using just his finger like a kid playing cops and robbers.
Except Axell actually staggered back, clutching his chest.
"CHILDE-CHAN!!" Axell gasped dramatically.
"You can't do this to me! I trusted you! All those years— all those dates— were they just lies?!"
Childe flipped his hair back with unnecessary flair.
"AXELL-CHAN… don't make this any more difficult for me."
They stared each other down.
The wind howled.
Leaves rustled.
A heroic OST played in Axell's imagination.
And from ten steps away, Den just stood there watching the two idiots.
He blinked once. Twice.
Then sighed.
"You both were literally trying to kill each other twenty minutes ago," Den muttered..
Teachers still hadn't contacted them. Internet was prohibited in the reserve. Injured teachers had left to find the reserve officers. All the students could do now was stand in the pouring rain and wait.
Rain.
Axell stared at it. Water dripped down his hair, his nose, his fists.
He wondered:
What was the connection between color and rain?
Water was translucent. No color.
He tried an experiment.
He layered a spread of beige (#deb887)—his birth color—onto the ground.
As the rain hit the beige surface, he tried channeling water through it.
Nothing.
Of course. If it were possible, it would've already been discovered. A random middle schooler wasn't about to rewrite color-manipulation theory.
"AXELL!" Childe snapped.
"We should do something actually useful. Students are scattered."
"Yeah," Axell nodded. "Like beating your ass."
"What is WRONG with you—"
Den raised a hand. "Guys—STOP—"
Too late.
Childe shoved Axell.
Axell smirked.
Punch.
Childe's fist slammed into Axell's abdomen. Axell didn't dodge.
"Keep going," he breathed. "I'm trying something."
Rain soaked them both.
Childe punched again.
Axell tanked it again.
He centered his beige energy toward his abdomen. Not to attack—
To focus.
A punch landed.
Hard.
Axell coughed—
Blood splattered.
But the blood wasn't red.
It was beige.
The rain hit the beige blood—
And Axell felt it.
A connection.
A response.
A pull.
He snapped his fingers.
Merged his blood with the rain.
Rain across the entire reserve shifted—
Turning beige.
A colossal orb of beige water rose into the air, swirling like a living planet.
Childe staggered back.
Axell's eyes widened in awe.
He lowered the energy, turning everything back to normal.
He hadn't planned to use it on anyone.
He just needed to know if it was possible.
And it was.
He laughed—soft, breathless, exhilarated.
"I am truly perfect."
OR MAYBE NOT!
Childe kicked axell as if he wasn't scared kitty 2 minutes ago.
Even from far away, Ember saw it—a flash of impossible color.
A colossal beige orb of rainwater, swirling in the sky like someone had ripped reality open and repainted it.
"What… the hell…?" one of the boys whispered.
Ember didn't know who caused it.
But in that moment, she understood something:
If someone else out there could bend the rules,
so could she.
The massive slab of rock above them cracked again, breaking loose fully—falling straight toward the group.
She didn't have time to think.
Her knee bled.
Her elbow bled.
Her wrist bled.
Blood dripped down her arm, warm against the cold rain.
She got an idea.
If Axell could turn rain beige—
Then she could turn hers into something stronger.
---
**Her blood shimmered.
Her aura flared.
The greatsword in her hand changed.**
She pushed every ounce of her will into the grey blade, forcing her color, her blood, her existence into it. The edges darkened, sharpened—
the stone fused with her aura until the sword wasn't just a construct.
It was hers.
Permanent.
Living.
Bound by blood.
Her breath shook. The sword hummed.
The giant boulder came crashing down.
Ember planted her foot, twisted her shoulders, and swung with everything she had left.
KRRRRAAAAAAACK!
The blade met the falling slab—
And split it cleanly in half.
Stone exploded outward.
Dust blasted the boys off their feet.
The forest echoed with the shockwave.
The two halves crashed down on either side of her, missing everyone by inches.
Silence.
Rain.
Her heartbeat pounding.
The bracelet had merged with the greatsword.
Even without channeling, the weapon remained.
A real object.
A real inheritance.
---
Two paths of growth.
Axell, progressing out of sheer curiosity
twisting colors, rewriting how their world worked.
Ember, progressing out of pure necessity
fighting for her life, carving power from her own blood.
Both of them…
in the span of a single disaster…
were evolving at astronomical speed.
---