A week after his recovery, Kagami resumed his training under Master Rivel, this time focusing on formal incantation magic. He now stood in the Whimwood Instruction Hall, facing a wall of glowing glyphs as Rivel instructed him with precise gestures.

  “Incantation isn’t about brute force,” she said. “It’s about harmony—your mana flowing in rhythm with the world.”

  Kagami practiced with diligence, conjuring a basic fme orb, then pushing to maintain a wind spiral. Yet even as he mastered the chants, his mind constantly calcuted the bance between mana and chakra—an internal rhythm only he truly understood.

  And Rivel noticed something… unusual.

  During a mid-level incantation for Wind Bde Spiral, Kagami’s concentration peaked—and for the briefest moment, his eyes turned red. Not a trick of the light, but deep, glowing crimson, with faint bck swirls inside them like spinning tomoe. Then, just as quickly, they reverted to their usual dark hue.

  “Kagami,” Rivel called sharply. “Stop.”

  He halted mid-chant, confused. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Your eyes,” she said, stepping closer. “They changed. Red, circur patterns—only for a second. What… was that?”

  Kagami stood silent for a moment, then let out a breath—not in panic, but in decision.

  It was time.

  He slowly raised his left sleeve and pulled from beneath his uniform an armband—bck, with a crimson fan symbol embroidered on it.

  “This,” he said quietly, “is the emblem of my cn… the Uchiha Cn.”

  Rivel blinked. “Cn?”

  “I wasn’t born here. I’m not a child… not originally. My name is Uchiha Kagami, and I was a shinobi—a warrior—from a world without mana or magic.”

  Rivel stared, stunned.

  “In that world,” he continued, “we fought with chakra—a life energy that flows through our bodies. My eyes, the Sharingan, are a power passed through my bloodline. They can see through illusions, copy movements, and evolve to greater levels. I awakened them long ago… during a war.”

  He paused, gaze distant.

  “I died, maybe. Or something worse. One moment I was surrounded by chaos… the next, I woke in this world. In a toddler’s body. With fragments of chakra still alive in me.”

  Rivel sat down slowly beside a stack of scrolls. “A shinobi… reborn.”

  “That’s why I can mix chakra and mana. Why I created those jutsu you call strange. Why my instincts in battle are honed like an adult’s.” Kagami’s voice was calm, but his eyes glinted with something older than six years of life.

  Master Rivel processed it all in silence—her mind repying every moment with Kagami: the jutsu, the tactical mind, the focused presence. It all fit now.

  Finally, Kagami spoke again, more softly. “Please… don’t tell anyone. Not even Mikay and Zack. I owe them everything, but they deserve peace… not the weight of what I carry.”

  Rivel nodded after a long pause.

  “You have my word.”

  Then she chuckled, dry and amused. “No wonder you exhaust yourself with those hybrid spells. You’re practically rewriting the rules of magic to fit a system from another world.”

  Kagami smiled faintly. “I’ll learn proper magic. I’ll grow in this world. But one day… when I’m strong enough… I will use both. Chakra and mana. Shinobi and mage.”

  “Then I’ll help you walk that path,” Rivel said, rising to her feet. “But no more colpsing for two days, understood?”

  Kagami ughed, then nodded. “Understood.”

  ---