Haruto’s eyes burned from staring at the screen for too long, but he didn’t dare look away.

  Not now.

  Not after what he’d found.

  Lines of data scrolled across his monitor—projected infection curves, mortality estimates, internal memos stamped CONFIDENTIAL. Each file was worse than the last. His company, a global pharmaceutical giant, wasn’t preparing to fight a virus.

  They were preparing to release one.

  A manufactured outbreak.

  A miracle cure timed months later.

  Projected casualties: 50,000,000+.

  Haruto’s stomach twisted. He had spent years believing he was helping people.

  Instead, he had been working for monsters.

  He copied everything—emails, spreadsheets, voice logs—into a single encrypted folder. His hands shook, but his resolve didn’t. He had to expose this. Even if it cost him his job. Even if it cost him his life.

  He clicked UPLOAD.

  A soft ding echoed through the office.

  Then—

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  A shadow behind him.

  A glint of metal.

  A sharp, cold pain spreading through his chest.

  Haruto gasped, collapsing forward onto his keyboard.

  His vision blurred.

  His heartbeat slowed.

  The last thing he heard was a voice behind him:

  “Should’ve minded your own business.”

  Darkness swallowed him whole.

  He expected nothingness.

  Silence.

  Oblivion.

  Instead, he opened his eyes to a vast, star?filled void.

  The air felt weightless.

  His body felt… gone.

  Only his consciousness remained.

  A presence approached—not a person, not a shape, but a warm, ancient awareness.

  “Haruto.”

  The voice echoed inside him, gentle yet powerful.

  “Your intentions were noble. Your courage, rare.

  You tried to save your world, even knowing the cost.”

  Haruto tried to speak, but no sound came.

  The presence continued:

  “Your life ended unjustly.

  So, I offer you a choice.”

  The stars around him brightened.

  "Be reborn in a world of magic. Live as you see fit."

  Haruto didn’t hesitate.

  “I’ll go.”

  The presence pulsed with approval.

  “Then be reborn, Kaito Valenhardt.

  May your new life rewrite the fate you could not change.”

  Light engulfed him.

  Warmth.

  Soft blankets.

  Voices.

  Haruto opened his eyes to a bright room and a woman with gentle silver hair looking down at him with sweat and clear pain on her face.

  A man with dark blue eyes leaned over her shoulder. “He looks just like you, dear.”

  Not long after another cry sounded beside him.

  A second baby.

  His twin brother.

  “Let’s name the dark-haired boy Kaito and the golden-haired boy Hikaru,” their mother said softly.

  Kaito didn’t understand the words, but he felt the warmth.

  The love.

  The safety.

  Something he had never known in his previous life.