“Yuto…” Waizu said softly. “No. Just… leave me alone!” I shouted back. Without waiting for a response, I ran into the woods—back toward the ruins of my destroyed village. I searched for the scorched remains of my old house. “Where is it?” I muttered. It was gone. All that remained were graves—rows and rows of them. “Never mind,” I said bitterly. “I don’t care.” I ran deeper into the forest until I suddenly froze. Wolves. “Oh, no.” I bolted, but there was no outrunning them. I turned back toward the village ruins, tripping over debris as the wolves closed in. “Damn it!” I grabbed chunks of broken stone and threw them, but that only made things worse. “Just do it, then. Eat me already! I dare you!” I walked toward the wolves while staring at the sky. As they inched closer, I thought to myself, Come on ring, please tell me I got some cool ability from this thing. The sound of my screams echoed throughout the forest, followed by silence. Then, the ring started glowing.

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