When Tatsumi finally awoke he found he was no longer in the ruined remains of his village, but rather a very beautiful and expansive forest. Directly ahead of where he awoke was a pond with crystal clear water, to his right, a dirt path, likely so wagons can navigate through the oak forest without much issue, to his left was an even denser part of woods, so compact were the trees that he could barely see through them, behind him lay his badly bent and chipped blade, it was a good thing he knew a thing or two about blacksmithing.
As his drowsiness wore off he finally began to remember how he had gotten here, "That woman, Esdeath, knocked me out and dropped me off here, though I wish I knew where here was."
He began to think about what she had done, why had she done it? What did his village do to deserve that massacre? Why was he spared?
"Mmm, get stronger boy, so when we inevitably fight it will make the feeling of claiming you all the more exciting."
"I remember, that's what she said to me before I passed out. She wants me to experience and grow my power before she claims me? SHE DID ALL THAT FOR THIS!?!?" Tatsumi's thoughts whipped through a flurry of emotions that easily showed on his face, confusion, fear, grief, and most of all anger. Anger at the woman who had eradicated the rest of his people, anger at the empire for having such a woman under their command. "Now that I think about it, could the empire have ordered the attack on my village? If they did, why would they? I don't understand..."
The poor boy could only hang his head in utter confusion and grief, his anger fading away into utter loss. What was he meant to do? Where would he go? How was he meant to survive? He knew next to nothing about the territories outside of that of his village, and he was in the middle of nowhere, with no idea on even his relative position to the empire.
"Why you seem to be in a wee bit of a pickle lad"
Tatsumi flung his head around to the source of the voice, he saw five men each in what appeared to be military uniforms, though he could tell they were not that of the empire. The man who had spoken was the most imposing figure among them, he looked to be about seven feet tall (around 213.4 centimeters) and had rust colored hair that went down to his back, he had a similarly colored beard that was scruffy and stopped just above his pectorals, his eyes were a piercing blue, and he had a strange looking sword and shield on his person. He was the only man with a different outfit of the five, rather than a simple beige outfit with a tie and bandana (I recommend you look up the revolutionary army outfit) he instead had an almost regal looking armor. It was red with distinctly black edges, and had a rather rounded look to it. (Think of Reinhardt from Overwatch's Lieutenant Wilhelm skin, except less bulky and more form fitting. And instead of the Overwatch symbol, the revolutionary army's symbol. The blue and white are instead red and black.)
Tatsumi almost yelped in shock at their sudden appearance before shoving it down and asking one of the questions that had been plaguing his mind, " Uh, aha yeah, but may I ask where exactly we are?"
The man gave him a look that basically said "You got out here and seriously don't know where we are?" before dropping it and answering his question. "We're about four-hundred or so miles (around six hundred and forty-three kilometers) northeast of the capital lad. Now, how did you get out here?"
Tatsumi thought for a moment, his village was about five hundred miles (eight hundred and four kilometers) north of the capital, that meant he was southeast of his village, so his village must have been farther north towards the west. "My village to the northwest was destroyed by a woman. She knocked me out and I assume brought me out here.
The man's face took on a look of recognition, "Bloody hell lad, that village was yours?" He turned to his fellow soldiers where a discussion, unbeknownst to Tatsumi, was taking place.
"We knew she'd be up here but for her to actually spare someone? That's unheard of!"
"There's gotta be a reason she spared this boy Kowa. She wouldn't let just anyone survive. If I had to take a guess that boy has to have a teigu, it's the only reason she would let someone live. So she can get a good fight out of him when he tries to take revenge." The large man said to the soldier, now known as Kowa.
"If that's the case General Jotar, I must say we get the hell out of dodge, this boy would bring us an insurmountable amount of trouble. He could jeopardize the revolution."
"Silence yourself Kuga, we were ordered to look for and rescue any survivors of Esdeath's war path, that does not change just because she has her eyes on this boy. We would be no better than the empire if we were to turn him away. Besides, if I'm right this boy has a teigu, and a powerful one at that. He may join us against the empire. Hell he may be able to join Night Raid."
"You seem awfully sure of this General, how can we be so sure about all of this?"
"Simple, I will ask the boy about all of this myself, regardless we'll be taking him back to base either way. We were ordered to save survivors and that is exactly what we'll do."
Tatsumi, still confused and blissfully unaware of the conversation going on about him, suddenly found himself under the scrutinizing eyes of General Jotar.
"I'm gonna ask you a question lad, and I expect a truthful answer. Do you have a teigu? Ah, actually you may not know what that is because of where you're from. So, instead, do you have an item or weapon that seems to grant you inuman abilities?"
Tatsumi shuffled his feet for a second, on one hand these men could be his only hope in getting out of wherever the hell he was, but on the other hand he really didn't want anyone to know about the powers he had obtained. It would draw plenty of unwanted attention to him, especially from the empire and he, for all intents and purposes, wanted them to believe he was dead.
In the end, Tatsumi decided it was best to tell the man of the power he now had, after all it was basically his only feasible option.
"Y-yes, I do actually. During the attack on my village, I ended up in our leader's home before I drank an urn filled with phoenix blood that's been passed down through our ancestors for generations."
Tatsumi was too preoccupied bowing with his nose to the ground to see the stupefied expressions of the men, and a grin of satisfaction on the Generals.
"WHAAAAATTTTT?!?! YOUR TELLING ME THIS KIDS GOT THE ANGELS EXTRACT?!?!"
"THIS KID IS THE FIRST WIELDER OF THE PHOENIX!?!? YOU WERE RIGHT GENERAL JOTAR!"
"Haha! I knew I was right about you lad! However, we do need a bit of confirmation, if you do now possess the Angels Extract then there should be a mark on your chest. Also, it would help if you showed a bit of your power."
Tatsumi agreed to the General's words (though he still wondered who exactly he was a general for) and undid the top buttons of his black dress shirt, before pulling it and his sweater down to expose the top part of his chest. There, he now saw a bird talon holding a flame.
"Well lad, that almost all but confirms it. But, it could easily be a normal tattoo. Show us some flames boyo."
Tatsumi nodded before calling the heat he felt back in his village to the forefront of his mind, not only did it cause fire to start lapping at his arms but it also gave him a nasty surprise.
"*YAWNNNN* Eh? Who the hell woke me up? WAIT SOMEONE WAS FINALLY WORTHY OF MY POWER!?!"
And that's how a young village boy discovered there would now be a fragment of the phoenixes spirit in his head.