...the origin
(black screen)
The Kara, from the ancient language for "Breath" or "Essence," is the primordial energy that makes up all things, visible and invisible. It is neither good, nor evil; it simply is. Like a river, it can nourish the land or drown it, sculpt the rock or shatter it. The ancient scholars divided it into two great currents:
The Celestial Kara, which draws its strength from order, harmony, and creation. It is an energy of preservation, light, and tranquility.
The Black Kara, its inverted reflection, which draws its power from chaos, raw emotion, and destruction. It is an energy of change, instinct, and passion.
Two banks of the same river. Two sides of the same coin.
And two ways to manifest it:
Through the body, otherwise known as internal kara, allowing one to become a living weapon, to duplicate one's physique in a phenomenal way, to have perfect control of one's body.
Or through the world, also called elemental kara, which consists of commanding nature itself. Without Elemental Kara, it is impossible to have what is called a "power."
It has a Source.
The air of the Library-Forest was so pure it seemed to crackle with energy. The perpetual song of the waterfall cradled the silence. Raizen sat cross-legged, his back straight, his eyes closed. The storm within him had calmed since he had sliced the water, giving way to a deep and quiet lake.
Facing him, Takashi Aomi stood up. His shadow stretched, covering that of his student.
Takashi Aomi: You have learned to channel the Kara. But do you even know what it is? Where it comes from?
Raizen opened his eyes. Doubt was painted on them.
Raizen: It's... the Breath. The vital energy.
Aomi gave a smile devoid of any joy. A rictus of pure knowledge.
Takashi Aomi: Just words. Definitions. But the origin... the origin is a story. A story of blood and sacrifice.
He paused, letting each word hang heavy in the air.
Takashi Aomi: It all began more than forty years ago. With a seed.
He paused.
A primordial seed named the Kara Arkhé.
Raizen's total incomprehension was palpable. He didn't even ask a question; his silence was more eloquent than any word.
Takashi Aomi: This seed appeared from nothingness. In the middle of a wedding. The first to come into contact with it, the first to bear its root-like mark on her hand, was a woman named Halie Takahashi.
The name "Takahashi" struck Raizen, but he didn't have time to make the connection. Aomi continued, his narrative relentless.
Takashi Aomi: But the Breath was too pure, too powerful for a mere mortal. A few months after her wedding, Halie was consumed by this energy... The seed that had fused with her was devouring her from the inside, despite her pregnancy. And in her final moments, with her husband and her sister by her side, she gave life.
Aomi's eyes locked onto Raizen's, cold and sharp as broken glass.
Takashi Aomi: She gave birth to twins. Those the world knows today by the names of Kuro... and Shiro.
A dead silence fell. The waterfall itself seemed to have held its breath. The revelation was not just information; it was a weight, an anchor that had just hooked itself deep into Raizen's soul, pulling him toward an abyss of truth he had never suspected.
Raizen: So that's it...
The thought exploded in his skull. The origin of this power... of this energy... of these two quasi-divine beings... It was just a seed, the "Kara Arkhé."
The camera remains fixed on Raizen's face as he tries to absorb the revelation. Aomi's voice continues, relentless, as a voice-over on his student's shocked face.
Takashi Aomi: Just after Halie held her offspring against her one last time, she passed away. And the seed... the Kara Arkhé... emerged from her body as silently as it had entered.
He paused, then continued...
Takashi Aomi: The twins were identical. Same face. Same nascent mark on their foreheads, a simple dot just waiting to grow. The only thing that differentiated them... was the color of their hair.
Raizen's gaze remains empty, lost in the story. The camera slowly closes in on him, as Aomi's voice continues to paint the scene.
Takashi Aomi: One had hair of a mesmerizing blackness, deep as a starless night. The other... his hair was a dazzling white, pure as the snow on forbidden peaks.
A silence. Aomi catches his breath, as if the mere act of telling this story cost him energy.
Takashi Aomi: Without knowing why, driven by a desperate survival instinct, the father tore a piece from his own clothing. He wrapped the still-warm seed in it, entrusted it to Halie's sister, who was by his side, and handed her the two newborns.
flashback:
The scene is chaotic. Night has fallen. Screams in the distance. The husband, his face ravaged by grief, pushes a terrified young woman.
The Husband: (in a broken but urgent voice) Flee. Flee and don't look back. Take them to the Takahashis. Tell them... tell them everything.
The young woman, the sister-in-law, clutches the two babies and the seed to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The Husband: (grabbing her shoulders) I don't have much time left. But listen to me... Above all, never entrust them to my family. Never. Do you hear me?
Aomi pauses. The image of the forest returns, Aomi's face is as hard as stone.
Takashi Aomi: She obeyed. She took the children and the seed with her, fleeing into the darkness of that cursed night.
Final shot of the flashback, brutal and quick. The silhouette of the husband standing alone in the middle of the devastated clearing. Another silhouette, indistinct and swift as lightning, appears behind him. A whistle. A spray of blood in the night.
Takashi Aomi: And the father's head was severed by an unknown blade.
Raizen: I never would have thought that Master Kuro's origins... were so dark.
Aomi looks at him, his expression showing no pity, only the cold, sharp edge of truth.
Takashi Aomi: After the aunt explained everything to her family, the Takahashis made a decision. They decided to keep the seed a secret and to raise what was left of their daughter: her two children.
Quick flashback: Soft, bright images. The two babies, Kuro and Shiro, growing up together in the Takahashi estate. They are inseparable, playing, laughing, sleeping side by side. Life seems to have returned to normal.
Takashi Aomi: Life had returned to normal. At least, on the surface. Until the day of their fifth birthday.
Aomi's tone hardens. The flashback changes, the atmosphere becomes tense. Stern-faced men, wearing the colors of the Mukula clan, stand at the entrance of the Takahashi estate.
Takashi Aomi: The husband's family, the Mukulas, had come to claim their due. Their right to one of the children. Despite the fierce resistance of the Takahashis, it was Shiro who ended the debate.
In the vision, the young Shiro, with white hair, steps forward. He has the face of a child but the eyes of an old man. He turns to his brother, Kuro, who does not try to stop him.
Takashi Aomi: He decided to go of his own free will. And Kuro, sensing his brother's determination, stopped his own family from holding him back.
Key moment: The moment Shiro crosses the threshold to join the Mukulas, a flash of golden light erupts from the room where the seed was kept. The Kara Arkhé, the original seed, cracks in two with a crystalline sound. One half, of pure white, appears in Kuro's palm. The other, of inky black, materializes in Shiro's already cold hand.
Takashi Aomi: It was at that precise moment that the Kara Arkhé split. And that is how the two halves were separated.
Aomi pauses, letting the image of this separation imprint itself on Raizen's mind.
Takashi Aomi: A day later, both of them awakened a natural constraint. Shiro could no longer bear the touch of water. For Kuro, it was intense heat. But in return for this weakness, they inherited a divine gift... That is when the two Kara truly made their appearance.
The camera focuses on Raizen's eyes, which widen as he understands.
Takashi Aomi: Kuro had acquired the ability to transmit his power through what would be named the Celestial Kara. And Shiro... through the Black Kara.
Raizen: (panting) The origin... of the Celestial Kara and the Black Kara...
Takashi Aomi: Exactly. But to receive the Kara from one or the other, only one and unique condition was required. An absolute condition.
Aomi leans slightly toward Raizen, his voice becoming almost a whisper.
Takashi Aomi: Either you are a being with a profoundly good heart... or you are a horribly evil scoundrel. There is no in-between. And in case of failure, the burden is terrible. The receiver loses all of their memories. And the giver... Shiro or Kuro... loses the use of their Kara, paralyzed, for an entire day.
A flash goes through Raizen's mind. Aomi's words echo a scene he experienced, but barely understood at the time.
End of Chapter 22