There was fire, fire everywhere, his mother and sister could be heard screaming, his father laughing. He looked up at his father's face in horror at what the man did, a katana made of pure shadows in his hand. Then everything went white.

Serin awoke in his bed in Nuvema Town. There was no sound but his own breathing. He sighed heavily then looked at his calendar. "Today. Today is when my life truly begins," he mumbled to himself. He put on a set of clothes, taking a pear-like pendant and putting it around his neck, then leaving the house, eating a nanab Berry. He walked down the street and saw his friends had already woken up and we're waiting outside the lab.

"Hey, you okay Serin?" Cheren asked him. "You look like you saw a ghost."

Bianca, a girl with blond hair and fondness for the color green, jokingly punched him. "C'mon, Cheren, you know he's normal. Besides, it's not right to pry into people's lives."

A kid with honey blond hair and Crimson eyes just laughed. "Just give him a break, guys. Like me he's been through a lot in the past. Let Serin adjust at his own rate."

Serin smiled at his friends. "Thanks, Zed, but I'm fine. Professor Juniper wanted to see us?"

"Yep," Cheren said, "she's waiting inside. Me, Zed and Bianca already got ours, but she told you you were a special case, right?"

"Of course," Serin said. The three then entered the lab together. "She knows what I lived through."