Niche opens the book titled “Sun Vessel History.”

  “Okay…table of contents. ‘Vessels’ or ‘Guide’ section. Those seem like the only words I can understand in this ancient book. Which one does my talking cat want me to read? Let’s check both.”

  He flips to the vessel section. Each page is filled with a biography of one vessel and some dates related to them.

  “All these guys complied? You’re pretty reliable at this job. Only one actually managed to resist, but eventually he was ‘corrected.’ ‘Kejiwara Takeshi,’ his name is. Know anything about this guy, Raizen? How was he as a bearer? Was he like me?” Niche smirks, but his enthusiasm is not matched.

  “No, I actually didn’t have him, so I wouldn’t know,” he says melancholically.

  “Damn, so he was a free spirit?”

  “No, he still had someone.” Raizen’s paw taps on the scarf on Takeshi’s neck in the image.

  "Wait." Niche looks closer at the photo. "Is that... another you?"

  Raizen goes silent for a moment. "That's Kaito."

  "Who?"

  Raizen’s cat form shifts into a humanoid form, devoid of any details but containing basic facial features. "My friend. The only other one like me." Raizen's voice carries something Niche has never heard before: grief.

  "So there's another consciousness trapped in an object? Where is he now?"

  "After Takeshi got captured, they took the scarf. The government used a machine to pull them apart. Kaito’s essence and the scarf, I mean." Raizen pauses. "Now, Kaito's been locked away somewhere in their facilities. Has been for decades."

  "Then we need to free him. If he's like you—"

  "No." Raizen's voice is firm. "We can't. Once you're captured by them, there's no escaping. He's... probably not even in this universe anymore."

  "What do you mean?"

  "One of the shifters - Venus, I think - can create black holes. Compressed space with infinite density. They probably threw Kaito into one." The sword seems to dim slightly. "No matter how powerful you are, the pull of the void is infinite. Nothing escapes. Not even gods trapped in fabric."

  Niche stares at the photo. "You just left him there?"

  "I wasn’t there when he was captured. He wasn’t even supposed to be with Takeshi, I was. His job was never to guide the bearers. He was a free spirit, before I basically confined him to torment. I survived by being the sword every bearer needs. Kaito was just a scarf. Decorative. Expendable." A bitter laugh. "Some friend I turned out to be."

  Silence prevails, but Raizen breaks it. “That’s not why I told you to open this book. I don’t want pity, I want to help you, right?” he tries to raise his tone to sound cheerful, but the mood has already been set.

  “Yeah. So I’m assuming it’s the ‘guide’ section?”

  “Yes. I’m pretty sure you don’t know how to use a sword, - I don’t think they teach you that kind of stuff in school - so you’ll have to rely on basic elements for now.”

  “Okay. ‘Guide’ section. Title: ‘The Secret of the Sun Vessel.’ ‘How to unlock it: use heat from blood. Transfer the heat from your body to one point. Accumulate enough heat to produce fire. The skin of sun vessels is tough. They can’t be burned or affected by fire. Enough heat produces a flame, and the more control you have over your body, the larger the flame can get.’ So, this supposedly tells me how to make fire. I’m guessing that’s the first element, right? But it doesn’t logically make sense at all.”

  “Hm? You’re the first bearer to question this, you know? Most of them are so elated with their powers they just start trying to make fire without question. I guess you can’t spoil an ungrateful kid.”

  “Very funny, but I’m serious. Disregarding the fact that I can’t just concentrate heat somewhere whenever I want to and the immense amount of energy it would require to do that, I’ll start with the most obvious thing: fire needs something to be burned like wood or coal. If I can’t burn my skin, – which isn’t even normally flammable anyways – how am I supposed to make a fire?”

  “The ‘most obvious thing’ actually depends on the other ‘problems’ to explain. Not only can you now consciously reorganize your heat, but you are also able to control the fluids in your body. Cool, right?”

  “Why does that matter? Did you make my sweat into gasoline or something?”

  No response, but Raizen’s smug expression causes Niche’s face to turn blank, almost in horror.

  “Try it,” Raizen finally says.“What the hell did you do?! Did you actually turn my sweat into gasoline with your stupid matter thing?!”

  Raizen chuckles, unfazed by Niche’s bloodlust. “Calm down. It’s not gasoline, but its more flammable than normal sweat. It’s not me, it’s just what happens when youre a bearer.” Raizen shrugs.

  Niche focuses, and concentrates. He notices he is now able to actually feel the heat of his body like it’s a sixth sense. He moves the heat throughout his body towards his hand.

  Surely this shouldn’t work right? I should be running out of thermal energy by now.

  But the heat doesn’t dissipate, and his body doesn’t cool down. It seems like every time he removes heat from one part of his body, he’s not really removing all of it but peeling back a layer of heat to reveal another one hidden deeper.

  Before he realizes, a flame appears in Niche’s hand.

  No way this is actually working. The heat inevitably caused my hands to sweat, forming this flame that currently sits on my palm.

  Once Niche noticed that his hand has warmed up significantly, the pain stings him.“Fuck! I thought you said my skin was invulnerable!!” Niche cries out.“It is. No harm was done to your skin, veins, or any other part of your body. That doesn’t mean you won’t feel the heat, though. Your nerves are still there.”

  “So every time I make fire, I have to feel that pain? What about yesterday? I didn’t even know about this process and created a flame subconsciously. Why didn’t I feel that pain then?”

  “Because at that time you weren’t aware of it. You only feel pain if you know that it’s there and you concentrate on it. If you don’t care about the pain, ignore it, or don’t even notice it, you won’t feel it. Eventually, your body will learn to tune it out.”

  The more flames I try to make, the less it’ll hurt.

  He tries again to make a flame. It takes genuine effort, but another small fire appears. Weak. Unstable.

  Why is this so hard? I did this earlier; why can’t I do it now? It seemed so natural back then; the flames flowed like water throughout my body. Now, it feels wrong to force the natural progression.

  His phone lights up, buzzing on the ground with a notification. Text from Maruka: "you sick? you’ve been acting strange lately"

  With his right hand, he picks up the phone and starts typing a response when his flame suddenly steadies. It burns brighter without him trying. He looks at it, confused, then at his phone. “Yeah” “Just had an appointment to go to” He sends both messages.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Niche,” Raizen calmly says. “You’re gonna burn a hole through the roof if you keep that up.”

  “Huh?” Niche snaps back to reality, aware of the situation. The flame in his hand illuminated in the dark room, contrasting the dark night sky. The fire’s long form now reached the roof, where it had left an apparent burn mark.Realizing the situation, Niche immediately felt the pain and retracted the flame shortly after.

  In most situations, the key is keeping my external temperature warm. That way, all I have to do to create a flame is excrete sweat. I have to learn how to consistently control this sweat though, so I don’t end up catching on fire multiple times throughout my day. I wonder how my classmates would react if I suddenly caught on fire one day.

  The doorbell rings. Niche goes downstairs and checks through the window; it's Ryota.

  He opens the door. "Hey. You're... Ryota, right? You know, the door’s always open; you can just walk in anytime."

  Ryota laughs. "You're joking, right? We just talked about this a few hours ago. Did most of the project and everything." He holds up his notebook. "I added some notes from the books."

  "Oh. Right." Niche forces a laugh. "Yeah, just messing with you."

  "You okay? You seem off."

  "I'm fine. Just tired."

  Why does everyone keep asking me if I’m fine? Do I look mad or something?

  Ryota starts to come in. "So I know I said we could work on it later but I was thinking we could finish the conclusion tonight so we’d be finished with—"

  "Actually." Niche blocks the doorway slightly. "I'm kind of busy right now. I'll handle the rest of the project later."

  "Wait, what?" Ryota's confused. "We agreed to finish it together. I mean, we don’t have to get it done tonight necessarily. We can do it some other time if you want; I’m pretty sure she gave us a few weeks on this assignment-"

  "I know. I'll get it done tonight. Alone."

  "But we're partners. That's the whole point."

  "Trust me, it'll be fine. I'll put your name on it."

  Awkward silence. "Whatever, man. Just make sure it's good."

  "It'll be perfect. Promise."

  Ryota opens his mouth to say something but stops himself. In a cheerful mood, he says while walking away from Niche’s front door, “Well, see you tomorrow. Remember to bring the project.”

  When he’s gone, Niche closes the door and goes up to his room. Raizen cleaned up the attic and closed it while Niche and Ryota were talking, and the cat lies on one of Niche’s pillows.

  “You’re glad I don’t use that pillow,” Niche says to the cat. “Even if the animal form isn’t exactly real, you’re still a dirty cat. Get off my pillow.”Niche scoots Raizen down to the foot of the bed and lays a notebook in Raizen’s former spot.

  “We’re gonna fix the sun, right? In order to do that, we need to build influence first.”We? There’s no WE, Raizen thinks. YOU’RE doing it, and I’M making sure you don’t screw up. I’m too lazy to do all that long-term planning that goes into achieving a goal. Or maybe I’ll just go along with your plan. Yeah, I think that seems interesting.

  Niche starts. "Plan A: Rally public support." He crosses it out. “I tried online but my posts get deleted instantly. Government controls the narrative.”

  "Plan B: Find other bearers." Crossed out. “The research (Raizen) showed they all died or merged. No allies exist.”

  "Plan C: Government cooperation." He looks at the rejection emails on his phone from every department he contacted. “They want me contained, not helped.”

  "Plan D: International aid.” More rejections. “Other nation governments are either oblivious to this whole process or fear the sun bearer curse spreading.”

  Seven days. To break a system that's existed for centuries. With no money, no connections, no army. I can see why no other bearer completed this. Maybe I should’ve negotiated a better deal with the interrogator. Or I could turn to the only other person who’s almost successfully done it: Takeshi. But I’m not gonna go on a wild goose chase for his scarf, so that option is gone. The only thing I can do is work my way up. That’s the only option. But who do I start with.

  Niche opens up his contact list, scrolling through his school acquaintances until he finds he sees Chigan.

  That’s it. He’s my target. Chigan. His father owns three companies that all probably have ties to the higher-ups. Government contracts and underground connections are gonna be flowing in once I get this guy under my radar.

  A new conclusion forms: If I control Chigan, I’ll have access to resources. If Chigan fears me, that’ll guarantee his cooperation.

  Fear requires something unforgivable. I could reveal Chigan's secrets. But embarrassment fades. I could threaten him. But threats are empty from a nobody. Fear only works if it's absolute. If Chigan believes I’m capable of anything.

  Niche closes his notebook. He's solved the equation.

  "I need resources. People who'll follow orders without questions."

  "Already thinking like a dictator," Raizen observes. "That was quick."

  "I have seven days. Can't waste time being nice."

  "Who's your target?"

  "Chigan. Senior, football captain, his father owns half the businesses downtown. If I control him, I get access to everything."

  "And how do you plan to control him?"

  Niche's flame flickers in his palm. "Fear."

  School, Next Day, Present

  Niche finds Chigan holding court near the lockers, surrounded by his usual group. He waits for a gap in the crowd - when Chigan and his friends break off from each other to go to class - and approaches.

  "Chigan. Need to talk."

  Chigan barely glances at him. "I'm busy, freshman."

  Why’s this guy talking like that? Who calls a high schooler by their grade? And I’m not even a freshman.

  "It's important,” Niche urges.

  "Everything's important to freshmen." He laughs. "Get lost."

  Does this guy think we’re in a ‘90s movie? Why the hell does he speak like that? I gotta get to the point before this guy pisses me off more.

  "Your mother drives a white Lexus. License plate ends in 47."

  Chigan turns, eyes narrowing. "What?"

  "She takes Route 9 home from her yoga class every Tuesday and Thursday. No security."

  "Are you threatening my—"

  "I'm giving advice." Niche's voice stays calm. "You should be more friendly. No one stays popular by being mean to everyone. Who knows? The life of someone you love might depend on it."

  Chigan grabs Niche's collar. "Listen, you little—"

  "She's at yoga right now." Niche doesn't flinch. "Ends in thirty minutes."

  Something in Niche's eyes makes Chigan let go.

  "You're insane."

  "Maybe. But I'm also right." Niche straightens his shirt. "Ryota's going to ask you for something later. Say yes."

  "Who the hell is that?”

  “Doesn’t matter. You’ll know when he asks. Cuz no one dares ask the bully for anything, right? Don’t wanna get shoved into the locker,” Niche says sarcastically.

  Chigan menaces in anger, “And if I don't?"

  "Then I hope your mother's a careful driver."

  The bell rings.

  Niche starts walking away. “You’re late. Better get to class soon. Or do jocks always skip class? I’m not sure; I haven’t been watching too many ‘90s high school movies lately.” Niche chuckles, disappearing around a corner, leaving Chigan irritated.

  School Cafeteria, Present

  Niche finds Ryota at the lunch table.

  Before even sitting down with his food, Niche says, "I need you to do something. Ask Chigan to lend you his car keys."

  "What? Why would he—"

  "Just trust me. He'll say yes.”

  "Chigan doesn't even let his girlfriend touch his car."

  "He will today,” Niche assuredly replies, taking a bite of food.

  Ryota looks skeptical but gets up. He walks over to where Chigan's sitting with his group.

  "Hey, Chigan?" Ryota's voice is uncertain. "Could I borrow your car keys? Just for a minute."

  The table goes quiet. Then Chigan laughs.

  "You? Touch my car? Fuck off."

  Ryota glances at Niche, who's watching from across the courtyard. Niche shrugs, and Ryota walks back to Niche’s table.

  "Very funny, Niche," Ryota says in annoyance.

  "Wait here."

  Niche pulls out his phone, types something. Shows it to Ryota. A news alert just popped up with the headline "Local Woman Dies in Single-Car Accident on Route 9."

  Ryota's face goes pale. "Is that...?"

  Niche pockets the phone. "Go ask again."

  "Niche, what did you—"

  "Just ask."

  Ryota gets up from his seat, slowly making his way over to Chigan’s table.

  From across the lunchroom, Chigan's phone rings. His face changes as he listens. Phone drops from his hand.

  Ryota approaches again, reluctant. "Chigan? About those keys..."

  Chigan looks up, tears streaming. Without a word, he pulls out his keys, hands them over.

  "Anything," he whispers. "Whatever you want. Just... please."

  Ryota takes the keys, hands shaking. Walks back to Niche. Everyone in the cafeteria is staring at Ryota in utter disbelief as he makes his way back over to Niche’s table.

  "How did you know?" Ryota asks to Niche quietly at their table after the attention on them died down.

  "I told you.” Niche takes the keys, tosses them back to Ryota. "Give them back. Tell him you'll remember his cooperation."

  "What is happening?"

  "This is necessary. And Ryota? From now on, whatever you ask him, he'll do. Use it wisely."

  Ryota stands there, finally understanding the price of Niche's power.