Prologue
Manifest Destiny
In the small houses that made up the quiet Japanese Sainan district, there wasn't the slightest noise. It was the place that seemed to have never viewed astonishing things nor did any of its inhabitants either have hopes of witnessing an event out of the perfectly ordinary in their everyday lives. Of the entire population harboring the small district, a young boy in concrete he had never imagined becoming the protagonist of a story, as he had no quality as those fantastic tales' main characters as short stories, comic books or even TV series.
He was an ordinary boy of fifteen who was in high school. Not even the most diligent student or the laziest, much less regarded himself as the most gallant or most handsome. Yuuki Rito was just that—Yuuki Rito. A common teenager, with goals of a common adolescent, with the life of a common teenager.
There—in a town where no one hoped to see astonishing things throughout its existence, it was precisely on that day that the life of this boy and Sainan would completely change. Everything would have begun with an unusual phenomenon, in the same instant that the skies darkened as if nightfall had violently occurred. An immense emerald dragon had appeared in the middle of the village early morning skies. Rito, who looked absorbed at the event, couldn't believe what his eyes professed. Was this all a dream? A coincidence? ¿A sign that the world was ending?
As quickly as it all started, the event ended when the dragon vanished in the middle of nowhere and seven sparkles furrowed clear skies that day, leaving with it countless questions and doubt about if that what he had glimpsed had been true or only a mirage.
Perhaps it was only an advertising propaganda. Yes, it should be that. Technology had advanced so much that it was now possible to make holograms of such dimensions. Making an emerald dragon and turn the sky dark should not be anything to special effects professionals.
His theory— unfounded panic that he bore—quickly fell apart when one of the sparks of light traced a curve sliding to where he stood at the time. Instinctively, Rito jumped to avoid the impact of the object that eventually blow up the pavement and sidewalk where he had been previously.
He rushed into the crater as fast as he could to see in greater detail the object that had intended to crush him with its force. There was no such a deep crater, what was there was an object that he had ever seen in his life—a orange crystal sphere with what seemed like a precious stone inside. He carefully lifted it — fearing that it were burning at high temperatures and—once he had it in his hands—Rito stared at it with better care.
It was like a star-shaped ruby. Four of them. In a locality, where the last thing a boy like him—one that could easily go unnoticed—could expected to happen astonishing things. . .