As the morning sun crept through my window, my consciousness finally started to rouse. I slowly got up and out of bed, heading to the living room only to see that Kazushi, my brother, never came home last night. Hopefully he'll be free from work tonight and I won't be alone again. Although I guess if he can't get home today, I can see if I can come over to Sumire's for dinner.
"Oh crap, that's right. I almost forgot my promise to Sumire " I said, turning back towards my room to get dressed for the day. When I was texting with her the other day I told her I'd help her clean up the shrine today, and at this rate it looks like I won't be there when I said I would.
As I got dressed for the day, I remembered the silver shooting star that fell through the sky last night. It seemed to shoot through the sky pretty low to the ground, I wonder if maybe it was actually a meteor or something. But then again, it probably would be in the news if it was.
"Oh whatever." I muttered to myself as I left the house to head over to the shrine. I'm probably gonna be late if I don't move quickly, so I should probably cut through the park, and if I cut through the more wooded area, I can get there even quicker.
I ran for the park, heading along the main path before taking a turn for the more wooded section, the shaded and overgrown area I passed through being nice and cool.
As I walked through there however, I saw a glimmer of metal, reflecting the light seeping through the canopy of branches. I walked over to see what it was, to find what seemed like a robotic finger of something that had been crushed at the base, wires seemingly hanging out of it, and on the finger was a silver ring, the outer section of the ring seemingly rough and unpolished with the exception of a flat rectangular face with a strange symbol engraved into it. The ring seems awfully big, seemingly too big for anybody I've ever seen before, but still, I imagine that somebody dropped these and could be looking for them. I picked the ring up and put it in my pocket, figuring I should probably drop it off at a police box or something so that whoever lost it can find it. Still, I couldn't help but notice the ring seems weirdly warm to the touch. I wasn't expecting it to be warm considering it was on a metal finger, but this warmth seems like it's even warmer than if somebody had been wearing it recently.
With a shrug, telling myself I'd deal with it later, I returned to walking to the shrine where Sumire was waiting for me. When I got there, I saw Sumire in a shrine priestess outfit sweeping. As I stepped up the last step and passed through the torii gate, she noticed me and said "I was wondering when you were going to get here, Naoki."
"Sorry, got a little sidetracked along the way." I said, shrugging and making sure to avoid mentioning that I overslept.
I first met Sumire back when my parents tried to get me into show business as a kid. While I was there, I ended up trying to talk to one of the other kids there, a girl my age named Sumire. We ended up getting along and since she didn't live as far away as I had thought, my parents would occasionally take me to go play with her. I wasn't in show business for too long, my parents gave up on using me for that before too long, so I don't really have any particular interest in getting back into it, but Sumire has wanted to get back into it for a long time now and because of it doesn't really do extracurricular activities, instead trying to improve her skills at entertaining an audience.
"And what is it that sidetracked you?" Sumire asked
"Somebody dropped this really odd ring so I was taking it to a police box." I said, trying to not lie to her completely. I mean I do plan to take it to a police box, the only thing I'm lying about is when I'm gonna do it
"Alright, fair enough." Sumire said
"So what do you need me to do?" I asked
"First off, there's some stuff we need to have pulled out of storage, could you take care of that?"
"Sure thing, just tell me what to grab." I said
After she told me about what to grab, I got to work, taking each box where I was told to, my mind up in the clouds. We'll be starting highschool in a couple days and while I'm all for supporting Sumire in her ambitions, I kind of hope that she'll make friends with some people in her class, since we won't be in the same one. Though she'd probably get annoyed with me if I brought it up.
"So Sumire, do you have plans to do anything different this school year? Or are you just gonna keep trying to get scouted?" I said
"Are you implying something? But in any case, I'm still going to try and get somebody to scout me, I need to get back into show business." Sumire said
"Ah, right. In any case, I'm gonna take some time to expand my world. You know, experience new things. Who knows, maybe I'll find something I have an aptitude for and will be able to do in the future" I said
"I'm glad to hear you're trying to improve yourself, but I wish you'd realize you're better at more things than you seem to realize." Sumire said
"Right." I said. Sumire might be right, I just wish I knew what those things were.
—-------------------------------------------
"Thanks for the help Naoki" Sumire said after we had spent a while cleaning
"Hey, what are friends for?" I said. I don't really need any thanks for helping her out, as she's somebody who's been somebody important to me for a long time.
"Naoki, here." Sumire said as she handed me a charm. "With how you were talking about us starting high school in a couple of days and that you were going to improve yourself, I thought you'd appreciate a little more luck."
With a smile on my face, I said "Thanks Sumire. Here's to a good school year to come."
"Since we're about done, I'm gonna go change." Sumire said
"Right, I'll see you later." I said before we headed off our own separate ways.
As I walked down the steps to the shrine, my mind started to wander towards what I should do now. I could probably just head back home and play the game I've been going through on my ps4, but it kinda feels like a waste to go home so soon. Maybe I could go to an arcade or something.
As I continued walking down the streets of Shibuya, trying to decide on what to do, I heard a scream. I turned and saw that out of the way, a scruffy looking guy had a knife pointed at a girl with black hair in a ponytail and was trying to lead her into an alley.
Not fully aware of what I was doing, but fully aware that I wanted to help, I tried to run in and attempted to punch the man in the face, saying "Go get help!" to the girl while he recoiled. The girl nodded and quickly ran off, leaving me alone in an alley with a man who had a knife pointed at me. Shit, I probably should have ran with her. Welp, I guess it's a bit late for that so for now I should try to stall him until help can get here.
"Damn you!" the man grunted as he swung the knife at me wildly. I tried to jump back out of the way, only to trip on scattered garbage that covered the area. I dodged the cut at the very least, but this situation definitely didn't get any better.
Thinking on the fly, I tried to grab some of said garbage at him, hoping to make him flinch long enough that I could try and go for the knife. And while the initial plan worked, as I grabbed the hand he held onto the knife, he grabbed onto me and desperately tried to break my grip on him. And in the end, as much as I tried to keep hold of the knife, my grip eventually broke, and with his now free hand, he stabbed me in the stomach with the knife before kicking me to the ground.
As I laid on the ground, struggling to get up, I felt a searing pain fill my body, and warmth that felt like lava drip out from the wound. The man looked back to me before he began to walk towards me again and I was filled with terror.
Is this how I'm going to die? I'm only 15! I haven't experienced romance, or found what I'm good at, or anything! Am I just going to die here and be forgotten as an unfortunate casualty of a random street crime? Panic now setting in, I grabbed whatever I could and desperately threw it at him, wanting him to get away from me somehow, anyhow. As I threw things, the ring I had been carrying and forgot about fell out, and as I grabbed some trash, I had caught the ring with my finger enough for it to slip partially onto my middle finger.
"Get away from me!!" I screamed in horror at the man now practically on top of me brandishing a knife.
<Fear>
As I threw the trash, a bright yellow light erupted from the ring, and blew the man back. It had only felt like seconds, but it had probably been longer because by the time the light faded, the man was nearly catatonic, an expression of horror on his face.
As I looked at the ring, I noticed that it had slipped onto the base of my finger and had somehow shrank, as it fit perfectly now. And alongside this discovery, I found the pain from my stab wound was dulled. I looked down and saw that I was wearing a skintight suit that was yellow, with black to break it up. The yellow was warm on my body while the black parts seemed cool to the touch.
Still, whatever is going on, it'll be hard to explain what happened if I'm in this outfit, so hoping it would get rid of it, I pulled the ring off my finger. Turns out this was a mistake, because near immediately I felt a large amount of blood come out of my stab wound, and I started to black out due to the pain I was experiencing.
—-------------------------------------
Light. The next thing I knew, the darkness that had overwhelmed me was broken through by a bright white light. As I started to open my eyes, I heard a voice exclaim "You're awake!" Followed by a hug that meant part of my field of vision was blocked by blonde hair.
As my eyes adjusted, I started to realize that I was in a hospital bed, and sitting beside me was Sumire.
"What happened?" I asked
"I should be asking you that. I suddenly got a call from your brother saying you'd been stabbed and were being taken to the hospital." Sumire said "You don't know how much I panicked when I heard that."
"Sorry that I worried you." I said, taking hold of Sumire's hand in hopes of calming her down "My mind is still a little hazy right now, but I remember I saw this girl being led into an alley by a guy with a knife, and I tried to help. And I got her to go get help, but while I waited for them I was stabbed. And..."
And then there was the yellow light that came out of the ring. It had shrunk to fit my finger, blasted him with that light and put me in that outfit. What the hell was all that?
"Hey, did they mention anything about a ring I was holding?" I asked
"If you're talking about the one you were holding in your left hand when I found you, it should be in your bag of belongings." I looked up and saw a police officer with a stern expression on his face. I could feel his gaze judging and evaluating me. As I started to get uncomfortable at his silent glare, he turned to Sumire "Excuse me miss, could you please leave the room for a minute? I'd like to ask him some questions."
"Right." Sumire said before she left the room
The officer sat down where Sumire had sat a moment before and said "Now the girl you had go get help filled me in on most of the details, but there are still some details that are iffy. Such as what happened to your attacker."
"What do you mean?" I asked
"When I arrived, I found you unconscious from blood loss and the attacker in the fetal position, damn near catatonic. When I tried to touch him, he flailed wildly, screaming about how they were gonna get him." the officer said "Do you have any idea what he could mean?"
"No, I... I was stabbed and on the ground, and I tried to throw things at him to try and get him away when he was blasted by a yellow light and by the time it ended, I guess I had lost consciousness." I said.
"I see. Well for the moment I don't have any more questions on that topic. Due to his current mental state, we can't really charge him, so once you recover, this situation should pass by uneventfully." the officer said "A detective may need to get in contact with you in the future, but for the moment that's all."
The officer nodded to me and then left, nodding to somebody waiting in the doorway as he left, and a moment later, both Sumire and Kazushi walked into the room.
"Hey, I take it you left work early?" I said
"Of course I did, you're all I have left and I suddenly get a call saying that somebody who had been under my care had been taken to a hospital due to a stabbing." Kazushi said "When I said don't be a hero, I had things that were way less dangerous in mind."
"Sorry." I said, trying to avoid an argument that we've had before, and this time he might win. But what the hell was I supposed to do, just leave that girl to whatever he had planned for her?
Kazushi sighed and rubbed his temples "It's fine, but be more careful. In any case, the doctor said they want to keep an eye on you for a couple days, but you should be able to come home by Sunday as long as you don't try and do anything that'll exacerbate the wound."
"Right." I said
I spent a while longer with Sumire and Kazushi before she realized she should be getting home, and Kazushi offered to drive her there.
—------------------------------------------
As I sat down on my bed, I let out a sigh. The first day I returned home from the hospital passed by uneventfully with Kazushi taking the day off and constantly reminding me to not end up accidentally opening my stitches. I'm glad to have him home, he doesn't get too many days off after all, but ever since what happened in that alley, I haven't had any time to investigate this ring any further. Looking at it, it looked just like a normal ring, yet somehow it had created that light, and put me in that suit.
"I guess there's just one way to figure out more..." I muttered under my breath as I got up and slid the ring onto my middle finger.
As it reached the base of my finger, I felt my body become enveloped by heat and it almost felt like I was being torn in half. As I felt myself begin to writhe and lose my footing, I began to fear that I had made a mistake.
<Fear>
When suddenly the pain stopped, and I was in that same yellow outfit. I stood up and looked at myself and saw that from the ring was a silver light which was dying itself yellow as it spread out from the face of the ring. I grabbed my phone off of my bed and pointed the selfie camera at myself to see that I was wearing a mask that matched the yellow of the rest of the suit
"Awesome, if I can learn how to control this thing, I wonder what I could do with it." I said to myself "And to think it's mine..."
<Avarice>
But I could have more, couldn't I? This ring is great but what if there's more things like this out there? Imagine what I could do with those too. In fact, why stop at rings like this? I could have so many things I've always wanted...
As these thoughts began to fill my head, I saw that my outfit had changed to an orange one, and from my very body was an orange light that was grabbing onto and holding onto my things, lifting them into the air. What other things could I have? There's so many things I could make mine with this...
"Wait, no... What am I thinking?" I said.
<Willpower>
Suddenly I felt my feet hit the ground. Why was I thinking like that? What the hell? And as I looked at myself now, I had a green outfit on.
"Wait, if my feet hit the ground... can I fly?" I muttered to myself
Well I guess there's only one way to find out. I opened my room's balcony door and tried to do a running jump, jumping early so that I hopefully wouldn't end up jumping from our third floor apartment and splatting on the ground below if I cannot in fact fly.
However, as my feet left the ground, I found that I didn't go back down. I didn't end up falling short or slamming into the railing, or accidentally going over either. I was just floating in place.
"Alright, let's see how this works." I said.
As I was about to see if leaning forward would make me move forward, I had already started moving. So wait, does it maybe work off my thoughts?I thought about going up, and I went up. I thought about moving back, and I went back. It was almost like rather than controlling it, I was just moving along the z-axis like it was natural.
With a smirk growing on my face, I decided to take this opportunity to go for a fly, and before I knew it, I was flying between the buildings of Shibuya, the lights of businesses that were still open were like stars filling a dark abyss and illuminated the city besides the green light I was emitting.
While I was definitely enjoying the fact I was suddenly flying, I eventually decided that I'd better head back home, as my first day at Yuigaoka is tomorrow. Still, as I landed and took off the ring, I had one thought in mind: things are gonna get interesting.
-------------------------------------------------
A/n: I've mentioned in the past wanting to work on a crossover fic, and I've been planning it since November. After finally starting to work on it in my free time, I couldn't help but want to show off at least a little bit of this, so consider this a teaser of what's to come. I'll get to actually publishing more once I finish writing the first arc.
In this fic I want to try and balance telling Naoki's daily life and his escapades as a hero. I do plan to do a romance in this, but besides knowing I won't go for a harem ending, I haven't decided on who he'll end up with yet.
In case it wasn't obvious, I'm a big time Green Lantern fan, even having replicas of most rings (ironically only missing the phantom ring), and I'll be kind of playing fast and loose with that part of this, working within canon for some stuff, while maybe creating some original villains.
And so with all this said, please stick around for more of Song of Fractured Light because I want to try and make this something real special