I AM EXTRA IN A SHONEN MANGA

The words fell like a bell toll.

"It's time."

Everything stilled.

The wind stopped.

Even the forest, usually alive with whispers of life, stood frozen.

Elder Lao's voice had cracked through more than just silence. It had snapped the veil between past and present—between ritual and reality.

The Ritual of Renewal was about to begin.

But Khael, watching from where he stood beside Ceyla, couldn't shake the unease clawing at his spine.

(It's time? No. It's too early. Something's wrong.)

Below, Raiquen lay groaning beneath a pile of fractured stone, blood dripping down his temple, steam rising from his burned cloak. Eliryn had not moved. Her scythe was still leveled, not at her former comrade but at the Elders.

Her silence screamed louder than words.

Behind her, the five rebels stood again—bruised, battered, but burning with defiance. Even as Ko and Li approached them again, their faces masked with quiet discipline, there was no killing blow.

Only control. Only suppression.

Until—

Raiquen's voice cracked the quiet.

"You think... you can use her forever?"

Everyone turned.

"You think... you can bind her with guilt and loyalty, make her fight in your name...?"

He raised a scorched hand, trembling but defiant.

"You lied to us. To all of us. Eliryn, look at me!"

Eliryn's fingers tightened on her weapon.

Khael stepped forward, heart racing. Beside him, Ceyla looked stunned. Even she could feel the shift like a hidden truth rising with the mist.

Then Elder Mia spoke.

Her voice, soft like a lullaby, floated across the field.

"We did what we had to do. For the village. For the balance. The girl was cursed"

Raiquen spat blood.

"No. She wasn't."

"You turned her into a blade."

A stunned hush.

Elder Loe's veil fluttered slightly in the rising wind, her silence cold.

Khael's heart thundered.

(Cursed... what does she mean?)

Raiquen pushed himself up, eyes wild but focused.

"The Ritual… it's not for renewal. It's for binding. You're not cleansing the Shinrei flow. You're sealing it. You're sealing her power."

Eliryn didn't flinch.

But her hands... they trembled.

Khael took a breath. He looked to the others Ceyla, the rebels, even Ko and Li and saw it.

The fracture.

The doubt.

Ko spoke now, voice low and tired. "Enough, Raiquen. Don't drag her back into this."

But Raiquen didn't look away.

"You know I'm right."

On the sidelines, Noah approached, supporting the limp frame of a small girl—Lin.

He carried her like something sacred and fragile, her white robes fluttering weakly.

Ceyla, confused and wounded, stepped forward.

"What is this… why are you taking Lin?!"

Juno, silent, watched with unreadable eyes.

Khael, voice shaking, called out—

"Elder!"

Elder Lao didn't look at him. His eyes were only on Lin.

"In order for the village to remain safe," he said, "we must seal Lin's power. It's uncontrollable. The ritual of renewal is done for all children who awaken abilities like hers."

A hushed silence followed.

Until Raiquen laughed, a sound broken, bitter, and filled with venom.

He coughed blood again and still laughed.

"Do you want the truth?"

He stepped forward, eyes wild, half-staggering, half-marching.

"I'll tell you what this really is."

He spat at the ground.

"It's not about keeping her safe. It's not about balance or protection or any of that Elder wisdom you all chant like hymns."

He pointed a trembling finger toward the gathered council.

"The real reason the Elders need her—specifically her—is because of her resonance with Voidflare."

The name fell like thunder. Even some Elders shifted uneasily.

"She's not just affected by the energy. She's attuned to it. Her soul sings with it. And that's dangerous—not to her. To you."

He exhaled hard.

"There's a Vein Rift beneath this village. A tear. A scar. A wound between worlds. You call it a weakness. But instead of healing it—you decided to plug it."

His eyes flared with manic truth.

"You're going to use Lin as a living lock. Her life. Her soul. As a dam. She won't die—not really. But she won't live, either."

He pointed again, now shaking from pain.

"Once the seal is made, she can't come back. She won't move. Won't speak. Won't dream. Her spirit will be woven into the world like a stitch holding a wound shut."

He let the words hang, then muttered, voice cracking:

"She'll be gone. Forever."

He looked to the others. To Ceyla. Khael. Juno. Even Eliryn.

"But hey… it's a win-win, right?" he said bitterly. "The Voidflare doesn't rise. The Rift doesn't spread. And the Elders keep their walls standing."

His eyes burned as he shouted—

"Isn't that right, Elders?!"

The air snapped.

Ceyla staggered back, as if Raiquen's words had struck her in the gut.

"You're lying…" she whispered, voice caught between denial and horror.

"You're lying!!"

But Raiquen didn't stop.

He couldn't.

He stood tall now, even bleeding, his eyes full of fury and fire as they locked on Elder Lao.

"Say it, Lao. Say I'm wrong. Tell them what Voidflare really is."

The villagers nearby had stilled. The wind no longer blew. Even the glyphs on the elders' staffs dimmed as if holding their breath.

Khael stepped forward slowly, his voice grave.

"Voidflare… that's what Lin has, isn't it?"

Elder Lao didn't respond at first.

Then, quietly, he nodded.

"Voidflare is not a sickness, as many believe… It is a convergence. A tether to the raw essence of the Shinrei World. It amplifies all things—emotion, affinity, presence. But it is volatile. And if left unchecked…"

Raiquen spat blood.

"...it cracks reality."

"Voidflare isn't a power. It's a tear. A scar left open by the Old War. And you want to shove Lin inside it and call that salvation."

Elder Mia stepped forward now, her silver-blue robes rustling in the dry wind.

She held a prayer seal over her heart.

"Without Lin… the Rift will spread. And once it spreads, it will reach other villages. Other lives."

Juno's voice finally broke through the silence.

"You said the Ritual was sacred. That it was mercy…"

Elder Loe's veil shifted slightly as she spoke. Her voice was soft.

"It is mercy. For the many. Lin will pass peacefully. Her soul will rest."

Khael's eyes narrowed. His voice was low, but it cracked like thunder.

"You mean she'll vanish in silence. And none of us will ever hear her again."

Noah, still holding Lin's trembling hand, looked between the elders and the others.

Lin herself… stood still.

Not crying.

Just listening.

She looked up at Noah.

Noah couldn't answer.

His grip tightened.

Then—

Raiquen's voice roared.

"This village was built on lies!"

"Every 'ritual' was a cover for sealing the cursed children—those born with Voidflare. Not out of hate. But fear."

Ko finally raised his head. There was no hatred in his eyes. Just sorrow.

"We did what we had to… to keep the peace."

Li added, arms crossed, voice hollow.

"We chose the path with the least blood."

Raiquen shouted back—

"You chose the path with the least resistance."

A pulse of energy rippled through the air—resonance from the Vein Rift below.

Khael's breath caught.

He could feel it now.

The pull.

Not from the elders. Not from the Ritual.

But from beneath the village.

The world itself was screaming.

Voidflare. A breach. A mouth trying to swallow light.

Lin stepped forward. Slowly. Her eyes unfocused, as if something deeper was speaking through her.

Raiquen stepped toward her, frantic.

"No—don't answer it! You don't have to do this, Lin!"

Lin turned to them like her eyes saying…

(But if I don't… people will die, won't they?)

Ceyla lunged forward, shaking her head.

"No! No more of this! You're a child! You deserve to live!"

Khael clenched his fists.

(This….It's a curse disguised as tradition.)

Elder Lao raised his staff. The glyphs around him began to glow once more.

"We don't have time. The Rift's pulse is accelerating. It must be sealed."

"At what cost?" Khael asked.

Elder Lao's voice was soft.

"At the only cost we've ever known."

The cost of one… to save the many.

To be continue