I AM EXTRA IN A SHONEN MANGA

The Taishin Dojo, surrounded by drifting mist and the low rumble of waterfalls. Its walls were carved from blackened stone simple, strong, and ancient, just like the warriors it had trained for centuries.

Inside, silence ruled. Only the faint crackle of burning incense and the distant sound of flowing water filled the air.

At the center of the stone floor sat Juno Arkai, cross-legged, shirtless, his body marked with faint, glowing patterns, the opened Taishin Gates pulsing in quiet rhythm. His breathing was deep and steady, but each exhale trembled with suppressed strain.

Before him stood his mentor Master Vince.

A towering man, broad-shouldered and calm, his presence alone seemed to hold the mountain still.

His faded cloak bore the Taishin insignia, a spiraling sigil resembling a coiled dragon of bone and muscle. His hair, long and cut into a rugged mullet, caught the dim light like steel.

His eyes sharp, heavy, and unreadable watched Juno in silence for a long moment before he finally spoke.

"Juno…"

His voice was gravel and wind deep, controlled, and patient.

"You've done well. Six Gates unlocked… yet your control remains fragile. The pulse of your flesh still wavers."

Juno slowly opened his eyes, sweat glistening on his dark skin.

He bowed his head slightly, his tone calm but respectful.

"Yes, Master. The Sixth Gate… It feels alive inside me. When I push it, it's like my body stops being mine."

Vince crossed his arms, looking down with the faintest trace of approval.

"That's the price of the Taishin path. Power without emotion… is hollow. But too much emotion, and the body burns itself alive."

He turned toward the open hall doors, where the mountain wind swept through.

"You must learn to listen to your body as you would your heartbeat. Control the Gate, or it will consume you."

Juno nodded once, his eyes hardening with resolve.

"Yes, Master."

There was silence again, the kind that stretched between teacher and student like an unspoken bond.

Then Juno lifted his gaze slightly.

"Master… may I ask something?"

Vince looked over his shoulder, silent.

"Where are you going?"

Vince didn't answer at first. He adjusted his cloak, the symbol on his back shimmering faintly under the light.

After a long pause, he said quietly,

"…There is something I must do."

"And where is that?" Juno pressed, his tone respectful but curious.

The older man stopped walking. His back tensed slightly.

When he finally turned, his eyes carried a shadow, a weight that made even the air feel colder.

"You don't need to worry."

Juno's fists tightened slightly against his knees.

He knew that tone, the one his master only used before leaving for missions that could shake nations.

"Master…"

Vince cut him off, a rare, faint smile crossing his face.

"If you can master the Sixth Gate before I return… then I'll let you open the Seventh."

Juno's eyes widened.

"The Limit Gate…?"

"Yes." Vince's voice was calm, but the corner of his lips curved upward.

"When you open that gate, you'll no longer be a trainee. You'll stand among warriors who defy gods with will alone."

Vince walked past him toward the exit, his cloak brushing against the ground. The mountain breeze carried his final words back through the hall:

"Until then, Juno… remember the core of Taishin, The flesh obeys only the heart that never yields."

The great wooden doors of the dojo closed behind him with a soft thud.

Juno sat there for a long time, staring at the faint smoke of incense curling in the air.

He whispered to himself, voice low and firm.

"Master Vince… whatever you're going to do… come back alive."

Outside, the wind howled through the Ironleaf peaks

and far beyond the mountains, thunder rippled across the horizon.

A new storm was coming.

And this time, it would test not just the soul

but the flesh itself.

Meanwhile The wind howled through the place, a canyon split by ancient wars, where the very air trembled with residual Shinrei.

Each rock pulsed faintly veins of dormant light threading through the darkness like blood beneath the skin of the world.

At its heart, where no mortal dared tread, stood Master Isen.

He was still as a blade in its sheath; yellow hair swept back, robes fluttering like torn clouds, his eyes closed in deep concentration. His Shinrei shimmered faintly around him, calm, endless, and terribly sharp.

Then the air rippled.

From the empty space ahead, shards of light folded into a shape a man emerging from nothingness, his silhouette crackling like broken glass reassembling itself.

Lucere.

Leader of the Hollow Nine.

A smirk curved his lips before the rest of his form fully solidified.

His pink wolf-cut hair shimmered faintly, catching the glimmer of the glowing shards that surrounded him. His posture was too relaxed for someone standing before Isen arms loose, head tilted, amusement flickering across his face.

But his eyes…

Orange. Red. Black.

Swirled together like fractured suns, layered as though a thousand gazes had been stitched into one being each watching, remembering, devouring.

The faint hum of the world grew quieter as they faced each other, teacher and traitor, two living legacies of an age long buried.

Isen's voice broke the silence, cold and sharp:

"Are you afraid… that I might kill you the moment I see you again, Lucere?"

Lucere chuckled a low, mocking sound that echoed like a whisper across the ravine.

"Heh… kill me?"

He raised one hand, and his form flickered like smoke caught in wind.

"You couldn't even if you wanted to. This—" he gestured at himself, "—is just a clone."

Isen's eyes narrowed, faint lines of light tracing the ground beneath him as his Shinrei flared for a heartbeat not an attack, but a warning.

"You always were a sneaky bastard who hid behind tricks."

Lucere shrugged with a grin that didn't quite reach those swirling eyes.

"And you always were too sentimental and dumb to see the game for what it is."

He stepped closer or rather, the projection of him did. The shards around him pulsed faster, forming the faint image of a throne of crystal fragments behind his back.

"Relax, Isen. I didn't come to fight."

A beat passed. His voice lowered, soft disturbingly calm.

"I came to talk about… Master."

The moment the word left his mouth, the air snapped.

A thunderous surge of Shinrei exploded from Isen blue-white energy spiraling out from his body like a living storm.

The rocks split, the air itself screamed, and the ravine's walls trembled under the force.

"Master…? YOU—!"

Lucere didn't flinch. He merely watched, the shards around him absorbing the blast harmlessly proof that this was no true body, only a reflection.

His grin widened.

"Calm down… Isen."

The voice carried a strange tenderness beneath the mockery.

"You know how much we loved her."

Isen froze eyes burning with restrained fury.

The name that neither of them dared to say hung in the air like a ghost.

Lucere tilted his head, the shadows twisting behind him into the faint outline of a woman's form, a whisper of the past.

"The resurrection… is almost complete," he said softly.

"Soon… that era will return."

Isen's breathing grew heavier, his eyes flaring brighter.

"You…"

Lucere smiled not cruelly this time, but with something that looked almost… sad.

"We both know what happens when gods wake, old friend."

And then, the shards shattered.

His clone fragmented into a storm of light and dust, scattering through the ravine like falling stars.

Isen stood alone once more, his Shinrei still humming violently around him.

He clenched his fist until blood ran between his fingers.

"…You think you can bring her back."

His voice was low, shaking with something between rage and grief.

"But you don't understand what you're awakening."

The wind answered him with silence.

High above, the first cracks of thunder split the sky and far in the distance, across continents, the Hollow Nine began to move.

To be continue

(Beginning of the New Arc: The Way of Flesh)