Yui was the first to notice her brother's newfound mood. Kenji was up, much to her disappointment that she couldn't hit him with the ladle again. The teenager ate breakfast and got ready to leave, but was stopped by a reminder from his sister.

  "Remember what day it is tomorrow," she said, washing the dishes.

  Kenji considered making a comment like, "Yeah, your birthday," alluding to the party some people would expect, but he resisted.

  He mentally kicked himself for realizing there was no humor in joking about it.

  Passing down the same street where he'd fought with that creature the day before, the young man saw the police already searching the area and giving orders to begin the reconstruction. Even so, he found it strange to hear them blaming "a gas leak that ended in an explosion" for the damage. Hadn't people seen the echo?

  Once at high school, things proceeded as usual. Boring classes with teachers who spoke in soporific voices, gym class where Ms. Arika lectured Daichi about his laziness, or watching Norino get rudely rejected by the third girl that week after trying to win her over (even considering his perverted behavior in the classroom).

  All everyday activities…

  “Oh…come on, what am I doing wrong?” Norino Hanekaro wondered aloud to the group, rubbing the bump on his head caused by Marin Kibuna, the head cheerleader of the fourth grade.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t make such direct comments, being 15 years old and on only your second date,” Tsubasa replied, without looking at the pathetic (in his opinion) classmate. “You sound like a 10-year-old who just learned his first swear word.”

  “But it’s that time of year! What’s wrong with wanting to enjoy the best parts of adolescence?” Norino asked, earning a few objections from his peers.

  “I wonder how someone like him is the leader of the photography club,” Hanae remarked, displeased, recalling the many times Norino and his group had tried to flirt with girls one or two grades older.

  After saying goodbye to the frustrated boy, the group continued their usual conversation, making plans to get together after school.

  “Uh…sorry guys, I can’t today,” Kenji blurted out, earning a confused look from his friends.

  “Huh? Why not?” Daichi asked, scratching the back of his neck.

  “I have to make preparations for tomorrow,” he half-lie, since he actually had to go to Gen’kan’s shop. He waved goodbye to his friends as he ran towards the school exit.

  The group of four watched as the young man said his farewells, confused by his sudden refusal to join them.

  “It doesn’t bother me that he wants some time alone…but he could have said so earlier,” Hanae sighed, looking at her phone before turning to the group. “What day is it today?”

  “Thursday, November 3rd,” Airi replied, her tone more somber than her usual sweet one. She earned glances from Daichi and Tsubasa, though Hanae seemed to understand, as her own expression also darkened slightly.

  “Oh…right,” the brown-haired girl whispered. “Tomorrow is his sister’s birthday…” Airi said, glancing at the two remaining boys in the group, before turning to look in the direction the orange-haired boy had gone.

  “…And his father’s anniversary.”

  Gen’kan’s Family Store (4:20 PM)

  “Sorry I’m late,” Kenji apologized, bowing to Gen’kan, who was smoking. A few seconds passed before the teenager felt a pat on his back. Saruka, standing on tiptoe, was behind him.

  “Grandpa’s asleep,” he said simply. The older man stirred abruptly, blinking and yawning.

  “Oh…you’re here already…sorry if I woke up late,” the man apologized upon noticing Kenji, a bead of sweat trickling down his neck at the man’s apparent disorientation. “If you’re ready, then let’s begin.”

  “What should we do first?” Kenji sat down, already excited about what he could learn. “Will you teach me how to do that fire attack from yesterday? Or how to become super strong?”

  “Wait, kid, think about the present first.” Gen’kan stopped him, clearly uncomfortable with Kenji’s energy. “First of all, you must understand something: Being an Echo Chaser has principles and rules, which, whether you believe it or not, you must follow for personal honor.”

  “Rule number one: Always think of the safety of the innocent around you as much as your own. You won’t normally be in an empty field fighting an Echo, although it’s not impossible.”

  “Always?” Kenji asked, raising his hand.

  “Yes, always.” Gen’kan nodded.

  “Rule No. 2: Scan the Echo’s behavior and formulate a strategy that allows you to defeat it quickly and precisely. Even if throwing slashes works, you shouldn’t just do it recklessly.”

  “Last time you used your brain well against that giant, but you still lacked the strength to attack him once he was weakened,” Saruka mentioned, sitting on a nearby stool.

  “And Rule No. 3: To finish off an Echo, you don’t have to go exclusively for its head. They have a kind of heart, which we call the ‘Core.’ Cut that, and they won’t be able to stand or regenerate anymore” Gen’kan finished explaining, seeing Kenji raise his hand.

  “Even though it’s good advice… I still don’t quite understand what Echoes are,” the teenager asked, scratching the back of his neck.

  “Valid question,” Gen’kan agreed. “Listen: all people, even though they are different, share something in common: feelings, both positive…and negative. Imagine someone wins the lottery and is overwhelmed by immense euphoria,” Genkaro explained, with Saruka holding a sheet of paper with a drawing of a person and a negative bubble emerging from them.

  “How lucky…” Kenji murmured, receiving a nod from the master.

  “…Now then. Imagine that this person, instead, loses all their money, or loses a loved one. A negative feeling of that magnitude can become too much for a person to contain, so it leaves the body…and takes physical form.” The drawing now had an arrow pointing towards a poorly executed attempt to recreate the creature Kenji had encountered the other night.

  “So the echoes come from people’s negative emotions?” the young boy asked, surprised by the connection between the creatures.

  “Yes, but don’t be mistaken: Once created, echoes bear no resemblance to humans. They are beings guided by instinct, mostly driven by the emotion that created them, to wreak havoc and feed on the spiritual energy of others.” The man continued, while Saruka now showed a poorly drawn picture of a void echo absorbing something from other people (similar to the first one).

  “Then I shouldn’t hesitate to attack them,” Kenji understood, earning a nod from the man.

  “Correct. Although there are other reasons as well: As I said, everyone feels, and while an echo is different from us, they are personifications of the most intense negative feelings. One could end up guessing where…or rather, from whom.”

  “That echo came from there. That’s why it’s best to go for the core as soon as possible,” Gen’kan finished his explanation, thanking Saruka for her help.

  Kenji processed the information he had just received. To be honest, it sounded concise: Keep an eye on the safety of people not involved in the confrontation and attack the enemy’s weak point. He was practically feeling like he was preparing to be a hero.

  “Now, let’s get to the first matter: Your Reibuki,” Gen’kan said, as the teenager noticed Himori entering the room carrying a box with a label that read “Lesson 1.”Training 1: Channeling energy into Reibuki.

  “Take this,” the man instructed, tossing Kenji a baseball glove, which the teenager managed to catch.

  “What good is this glove to me? Aren’t we going to train?” the boy asked, earning a sigh from the older man.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “That’s not an ordinary glove.” Echo chasers call it ‘Hanomuchi,’ or ‘Spiritual Concentrator.’ It’s a glove reinforced with special fiber that allows you to work…” Gen’kan explained, before lowering his voice and dozing off. Himori shook him, dismayed. “…work on concentrating spiritual energy, so you can summon your weapon when you have to fight an echo.”

  “Speaking of which… do you have a reibuki?” Kenji asked, curious to hear the topic.

  “Of course. It’s not for nothing that I was known as ‘Blue Flame Master’.” Gen’kan puffed out his chest with pride. Saruka sat a few feet away from the teenager, while Himori leaned against the door.

  “Behold, Rukiade!” As he shouted those words, Gen’kan moved his arm, generating a trail of blue fire in his hand. When it subsided, he was holding a terrifying-looking sword, sharp and with a curved blade, almost resembling a fiery serpent.

  “The sword of the guardian of the underworld.” “When infused with high temperatures, there’s no barrier it can’t cut through!” Saruka applauded her grandfather’s demonstration, while Himori watched with an embarrassed smile, shaking her head.

  “(Papa always brags about his reibuki),” she thought.

  Kenji’s eyes were shining with amazement. The man had summoned a sword of fire out of thin air! His desire to learn increased significantly.

  “Alright… now, as for you, what you need to do is simple,” Gen’kan began to explain, as he made his reibuki disappear and sat back down. “You must concentrate your spiritual energy in the palm of your hand, and then shape it into your weapon. Once concentrated, you must materialize the energy in your hand" the man explained, as the teenager looked at the glove on his hand.

  "Uh… How do I concentrate spiritual energy?" Kenji asked sheepishly, making Gen'kan choke on his cigarette.

  "You don't know how to handle spiritual energy? And I'd believe you if you were dead after your encounter with an Echo!" The man scratched his head, earning an apology from the young man.

  "I only used it the time I encountered that creature the other night. It just… exploded. I haven't used it since," Kenji explained, giving the man pause for thought.

  "I see." “In that case, let me explain.” This time it was Himori who spoke, while her daughter brought a whiteboard and a dry-erase marker. She gave the marker to her mother, who began to draw: a picture of a person with an aura surrounding them.

  “As we already told you, spiritual energy is essential for our lives, and people with a higher-than-average level of it can manifest it.” Here's an example of how to do that: First, imagine a bubble.” The woman drew a circle next to the person.

  “Why a bubble?” the teenager questioned, only to be met with a shake of his head.

  “It wouldn't be wise to interrupt her…” Saruka advised, knowing how her mother reacted when someone spoke about her.

  “As I was saying… once you do that, imagine that bubble filling with air, and inflating.” She then drew increasingly larger bubbles around the initial bubble.

  “(Seriously, why a bubble?)” Kenji wondered to himself.

  “Now, imagine that, instead of air, that bubble is filled with your energy, focus your heartbeat, and let your mind flow.” Himori painted the inside of the bubble.

  “What if that mental bubble bursts?” The boy raised his hand.

  “Don't let it burst, because the slightest Carelessness could cause an explosion. Try to shrink the bubble, concentrating the energy in one spot.”

  Kenji nodded and began repeating the process: A bubble, inflate the air bubble, replace the air with spiritual energy…

  A warm sensation enveloped the boy. Opening his eyes, he saw his body surrounded by a faint blue aura, though it didn't last. A second after opening his eyes, the aura vanished.

  "You lost focus... but thankfully you didn't get to the compression part. If your mental bubble bursts there, it could cause a real explosion," Gen'kan instructed, taking a drag on his cigarette.

  Quickly, Kenji tried again: Bubble, air, energy. As he compressed, the bubble slowly began to shrink, building tension and threatening to burst.

  "Focus the energy in your hand!" Himori exclaimed, seeing the blue aura forming around the boy.

  Without losing focus, Kenji imagined the bubble—still compressing—floating until it settled in his hand. Then, even through the concentrating glove, a sensation appeared in the young man's palm.

  Opening his eyes, he saw a sphere of energy floating above the glove.

  "I-I did it..." Kenji murmured, surprised that he had managed to manifest spiritual energy. He quickly shouted with joy, "I did it!"

  "Idiot! Don't lose focus or I might—" Gen'kan, despite being surprised that the boy had managed it on the second try, couldn't prevent him from losing sight of the orb. The bubble shattered...

  A few people walking outside the shop were startled by an explosion that shook the entire building, sending smoke billowing from the entrance...

  In the back room, Kenji, Himori, Saruka, and Gen'kan stood covered in dust, and a black blast mark was visible on the floor.

  "I'm sorry..." Kenji apologized, coughing up a little smoke.

  “Well, I figured something like this might happen… but at least now you see the results of losing focus.” Gen’kan dusted himself off, while Himora did the same with her daughter. “In any case, I’m surprised you were already able to manifest spiritual energy outside your body. Now, try summoning your reibuki.”

  Kenji nodded, restarting the process. Bubble, air, energy, float to his hand…

  However, all he managed to do was create orbs of spiritual energy, though he did figure out how to dispel them so they wouldn’t cause any more damage with those explosions. Hour after hour, the teenager found himself almost at dinnertime.

  Exhausted, the boy lay on the floor of the back room, his concentrating glove slightly singed, the result of some explosions he’d generated before learning to control them.

  “This is really difficult…” Kenji sighed wearily, glancing at the clock in the room. He jumped when he saw the time. “Oh god! Yui’s going to kill me if I’m not home for dinner!”Grabbing his things, the young man said goodbye to the Kan family and left the restaurant, running like a madman towards his house.

  Once he was gone, Himori looked at her father.

  “What do you think?” she asked. Genkaro exhaled a puff of smoke, shrugging his shoulders.

  “He has potential, no doubt about it. As long as he keeps training, I think he can be a decent Echo Chaser.” The man took a drag on his cigarette as Saruka stood beside him.

  “Do you think he’ll surpass you, Grandpa?” the little girl asked innocently, making the man chuckle.

  “Relax, Saruka! No one could beat me!” Gen’kan laughed until he choked and coughed. Himori finished the scene with a sigh.

  Arata House (10:00 PM)

  Kenji was asleep. It was strange, since for the past few days, even before his first encounter with an echo, he'd been having trouble falling asleep. He'd finally managed to hug his pillow, a peaceful thing for some.

  But today was different. It wasn't that he didn't have trouble sleeping anymore, or maybe not. It was that he was preparing for the same sequence that struck him every year on this date.

  The night before the anniversary of his father's death.

  I remember that day. I think I was about seven…no, eight years old. It was Yui's sixth birthday, and we went to the park to celebrate. Back then, Dad worked a lot, and Mom took care of my sister and me.

  Honestly, it was clear there was some favoritism. Yes, we loved Mom, very much, but whenever Dad came home from work, we'd hug him while he made us laugh. He was the life of the party, even at the most boring meetings at the company where he worked.

  Even so, this had a downside for us, because while he financially supported the family, it also meant being away almost all day. Or worse: missing events that even he wouldn't want to miss.It happened several times, actually. My first day at school, or Yui's dance competition, where she came in second place. Even if he tried to escape, work always kept him there until our important moments were over.

  I know it sounds selfish, but both Yui and I wished he could take a break from work and spend more time with us. We were little, and he faced a sea of ??challenges just so we'd have food on the table and blankets over us at night. We lacked nothing thanks to him.

  But even so… neither my sister nor I thought before we spoke that day, not realizing he'd heard us complaining that he should be more present than he already was.

  The day of Yui's party arrived, and she seemed even happier than usual.

  Dad was at work… or so we thought.

  A call came into Mom's phone, reporting a traffic accident on the same route Dad used to travel. Of course, we figured that since it wasn't his usual time back yet, he was at his office taking calls… how naive I was.Then, later that night, Dad didn't come home.

  Mom left with a smile, saying she had something to do and would be back later. Soon, the cruel thought struck, and my mind raced as my eyes welled with tears.

  And then… the next morning, Mom broke the news: Dad had passed away.

  It turns out that's why Yuii was so happy on her birthday. Dad had told her he'd sneak out of work to come home early and be at her party. My sister spent the entire following night crying, and the next, and the next…Dad had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And my sister, even though she thinks she was good at hiding it, blamed herself terribly for Dad being on his way back at the time of the crash.

  It's not true. I complained too. It's not fair that this anniversary is now overshadowing a day that should be filled with happiness for her. What person deserves to have their birthday fall on the same day as the death of a loved one? I should hate myself too for wishing he were more present…

  And I do. That's why Mom works late now, and Yui has to act like an adult instead of having more time to be a teenager. Looking at it now…it seems I'm the only one denying the accident, 'accepting' the void that's now in our home.

  But…inside, I really feel an emptiness every time I walk through the door.I miss him…

  Dad…I'm sorry.

  Alright! Here's chapter 5. Honestly, I apologize if this chapter was just "heavy info-dumping and zero progression." I wanted to focus on details like Kenji's required training.

  But as I said, the next episode will be a bit, if not more, exciting. I swear!

  What other training will Kenji have to undergo to become a proper Echo Chaser? When will the next Void Echo attack?

  See you!