Hero Incarnate

I think someone already killed me.

_____

Heon didn't know how long he had been running.

Lately, he seemed to always be running. From his teachers nagging him to do his best because of his dropping marks. From his mother's constant rant about getting into law school. From his father's silent judgement across the dinner table. Those felt like a distant past to him. Buried under newer terror that befell him.

He was also running away in his dream. His nightmare.

Away from the fire tornado and thousands of beasts under a yellow cloaked man's control. Away from the taunting of those fiery red eyes and taunting laughs.

This time, Heon was running for his life.

Under the heavy rain and ominous threat whispered to his ears, he scurried like prey away from a predator. The lush forest he admired before had turned into a dangerous maze. The soil became muddy and slippery. One wrong step and death would be right behind him. Whoever was in the abandoned house caught him off guard and told him to run didn't sound like he was kidding.

Shooot!

"Gah!" A projectile shot past him, grazing his left shoulder and making the color of red appear on his grey hoodie. The pain throbbed happily under the heavy rain.

He stumbled to the side, staring in horror at the little knife now embedded to the hilt on the tree trunk. He quickly maneuvered around, scampering away in case his chaser had more knives he could throw. It was only due to his luck that the knife didn't stick to his back. That, or because his chaser liked to play with his prey, apparent from the loud laugh distorted by the heavy rain.

His lungs were burning. His legs were aching, and they felt as if about to fall off of his body. Heon wanted to throw up, heaving madly as he pushed himself to continue running. The only other option available for him was to be killed by that person.

Although, he said he hated humans as if he wasn't one. Perhaps he wasn't, but the glimpse of an arm he caught seemed to look like any other human arm.

Heon wanted to cry. He was one of the students who preferred arts over physical education, so running this much was never a fun experience for him. Moreover so, with his future murderer cackling madly behind him. It would only be a miracle if he came out alive after this.

Sadly, that miracle didn't happen today.

One moment Heon was running like hellions were on his heels. The next, he was suddenly upside down, stranded about a meter and a half above the ground by the nets surrounding his body. His need to throw up came with a vengeance.

"Ah, ah, ah… look at you."

Heon heard him through the heavy rain. He struggled to free himself, but his awkward position and the net's durability didn't give him any chance. Instead, it only made the net holding him to sway and turn, giving him the view of his chaser.

"My poor deer," the figure said, clad in a hooded cloak that only showed his grinning mouth. It was similar to the cloaked man on the train, the one who murdered and cut off people's arms like crazy. "Ah, what I'd do with you…"

"You can release me," Heon said through clenched jaws.

"Where's the fun with that?"

"Are you going to kill me just because I trespassed into your house?"

The figure cackled, "You really believe me when I say that's my house? Are you an idiot?"

Heon flushed. Both in anger and embarrassment. "So what, you will kill me just for fun?"

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea." He stepped closer, only stopping a meter away from Heon. He reached up to pull down his hood, revealing an indeed grinning face of a boy around his age. The manic laugh spilling out from his mouth made Heon's round eyes widen. "How do you like to die?"

The crippling fear holding him down slowly turned into desperation. "You can't kill me."

"Sure I can," the boy proved by taking a different knife from behind his back. It looked short, but the glint it reflected when lightning flashed above confirmed its sharpness. "I just need to poke you with it. Or, can I carve you? It's been a while since I had a corpse to practice on. Though, I also wonder how it'd be to carve on a life test subject."

"No! No, no, no, no, no…"

Heon's panic prompted a confused gaze from the manic boy. "Why are you so afraid of death?"

"Wha–"

"Reincarnation is the trend now. You can die in this realm and be born again in the other, or the opposite. If you're a hero, that is. Did you live under a rock or something?"

"What do you mean by trend?"

"Ah, so you do live under a rock. My poor deer, that's why you trespass in that house, huh? You never have one of your own."

He ignored the ramble because he had something to get right. "You mean reincarnation is real?"

"Duh!" the manic boy rolled his eyes as he folded his arms across his chest. "Where's the rock you lived in? You really have to go out and mingle with everyone else, getting to know the latest news before your mind turns dull. Shifas knows, your idiocy might sour your meat. I may not be able to eat you. Of course reincarnation is real, where do you think the heroes came from? Their souls from the other realm were summoned here by the Five Great Kings' magic to save the world from the Spellbinder Terror."

Heon didn't know how to respond. That was one hell of an information dump. "So, I was really dead..?"

"Huh? I haven't killed you yet," the manic boy responded, a little disgruntled.

"He killed me on the train, and I was reincarnated to this realm…"

Fingers snapped in front of his eyes, bringing Heon back to focus on the manic boy. "Look at me."

They locked eyes, and Heon was certain the manic boy searched for something. "You're really one of them," he stated, suddenly serious.

"I don't know who you meant, but I think someone already killed me. That's the last thing I know before waking up in this forest," Heon informed him. If reincarnation was real in this world, and the heroes' souls were summoned here to save the world, the manic boy might not kill him. And consumed him, as mentioned before.

"Huh," the manic boy's face broke into a broad grin. Excitement poured freely from him. "Then I won't kill you," his mad cackle turned into a full-blown laugh. "I'm so glad to find a hero in the making! What a stroke of luck!"

The manic boy threw his knife to the side without any warning, and the net stranding him in the air suddenly freed him. Heon plummeted to the muddy ground with a loud thud. He couldn't catch himself. He pushed himself on shaky arms, straightening his back and stood before the manic boy. He made sure to press the wound on his left shoulder, also hiding his black, newly attached foreign left hand with his loose hoodie sleeve.

The manic boy was already turning around and made a trackback towards the opposite direction. "Let's get back to the house before the beasts here come out."

Heon wondered if he should make another run and get away from the crazy teenager. However, the memory of such agony resulted from running for his dear life, and the mention of beasts made him grimace. He wondered if that was better than taking a risk and staying close to the manic boy who almost killed and consumed him.

"I won't kill you anymore," the manic boy said as if reading his mind. "After all, not many people get reincarnated."

That being said, Heon tentatively throttled behind the manic boy. Heon spontaneously jerked back when the other teenager whipped to face him. "Almost forgot. Give me your shoulder."

Heon didn't move. The manic boy's hand shot out and roughly grabbed his shoulder. Turns out, he was just healing his wound from the knife before. With his bare hand. That glowed in vivid green. Closing the open slash and erasing the stinging pain from his shoulder. Heon blinked in amazement.

"Is that how magic looks?"

"Yes, idiot. I take it you don't have magic in your previous realm?" The manic boy shook his head. "What would I do with you?"

"Not killing me, of course."

The manic boy hummed as he released Heon's shoulder. "Do you have a special mission or something? The heroes always had a sacred goal behind their reincarnation into this world."

"But I'm not a hero."

"Hm? Then you must be a hero in your previous life."

"Nah. I'm just a normal student."

"Strange," the manic boy tapped a finger to his chin as he walked back in the abandoned house's direction. "The standard rule is that you must be a hero or a former one to be reincarnated again in another realm."

"I told you, I don't know anything about reincarnation. Though, I was afraid I was reincarnated into a frog when I woke up here."

The manic boy laughed, clutching his stomach. "You're really funny, you know that? My name's Sunny, by the way. Sunny Graver."

"Ugh, Heon Lightwalker."

"So, what's with the black hand?"

Heon stilled on his track.