I AM EXTRA IN A SHONEN MANGA

The sky was quiet.

The trees rustled gently.

And Khael Corzedar stood alone, far from the academy's watchful towers.

He was supposed to be training.

Instead, he froze mid-step, heart beating violently in his chest.

A chill ran down his spine.

No wind.

No echo.

No sound.

Just a pulse in the air.

A ripple that didn't belong.

"Oh shit—"

"No… not now. Not HIM."

Khael's eyes widened. He moved without moving, retreating deep inside his spiritual system. His voice, calm and sharp, echoed within his mind.

"System. Emergency concealment protocol."

"Hide everything. I mean everything."

"Seal my Shinrei. Suppress my Echo Arts. Lock out the dragon bloodline. Show only wind affinity—basic level."

His lungs fought the silence.

Even the wind he loved the element that danced with him refused to move.

It was as if the world itself bowed in reverence.

Then it happened.

The presence arrived.

Not with noise.

Not with fire.

Just… existence.

A blink and then there he stood.

At the edge of the cliff stood a figure in black and silver.

His long robe barely stirred in the breathless air.

Golden hair shimmered under the light

Blue eyes, half-lidded, scanned the horizon.

Smiling.

Peaceful.

And terrifying.

Master Isen.

The Keiryuu.

The man through whom all Shinrei flowed.

He spoke, not loudly—but the wind carried it anyway.

"Hoh…"

He didn't turn his head.

Didn't squint.

He just let the sound drift from his lips like an amused whisper.

Khael, hidden behind a thick root and veil of energy suppression, dared not breathe.

He didn't even blink.

"Don't sense me… don't look this way."

"Just keep walking, old man. I'm not worth it."

But he knew.

Isen had sensed him.

Even if only for a heartbeat.

The Keiryuu slowly turned.

A gentle sweep of his cloak as he stepped forward.

His blue eyes scanned the empty clearing.

A pause.

A silence that wasn't just absence of noise—but a hush of awareness.

"Hmm…"

"I must be imagining things."

He gave a small, almost boyish chuckle.

"No one here."

"He knows."

"Maybe not who, maybe not what… but he knows someone's here."

Isen stood there for a moment longer.

Then, just like that—

He vanished.

No Echo signature.

No flash of light.

Just gone.

The moment he disappeared, the world exhaled.

Birds chirped again.

The wind returned.

Time resumed.

And Khael collapsed to his knees, drenched in sweat.

His heartbeat echoed in his skull.

"That… was close."

He stared at his trembling fingers.

These were the same hands that had been chosen by a dragon.

The same hands that planned to rewrite the story.

And yet… they shook.

"That man…"

"He didn't even threaten me."

"Didn't draw a weapon."

"Didn't raise his Shinrei."

"And I still nearly passed out."

"Master Isen isn't just strong."

"He's something else entirely."

Khael stood up slowly.

His system unsealed the most basic features, letting wind energy hum faintly once more.

But inside?

He kept the rest hidden.

Tightly buried.

"I can't reveal myself now."

And deep in the pit of his stomach—

He knew:

This wouldn't be the last time he and Master Isen would cross paths.

..

…

..

After minutes

As Khael stood beneath the shadow of the mountain trees, heart still pounding from the close encounter.

He leaned against the bark, wiping the cold sweat from his neck.

Then, slowly…

He muttered to himself.

"Isen… the Keiryuu…"

"The strongest human in the world."

"That's what they say in the manga."

"But I can't even bring myself to call that man 'human.'"

"No… that's a monster wearing kindness like a silk robe."

He closed his eyes, recalling the faded panels in his memory—the manga chapters, the side notes, the lore drops hidden between action scenes.

"The phrase of Buddha: 'I alone am the honored one.'"

"People used to say it was just a metaphor."

"But when Isen was born..."

"Voidborn screamed."

"Shinrei pulsed across the continent."

"And even the Vein Gates reacted to his birth—like the world itself knew..."

"This guy— this one —was the honored one."

He clenched his fist.

"Tsk… talk about unfair."

"Born a god in a world of mortals."

"From day one, the balance of the universe tilted."

"And yet… even that monster fell in love."

"Yeah. That part stuck with me."

"The side chapter: 'Isen – The Keiryuu's Bloom.'"

"He fell in love with his master."

"The previous Keiryuu."

"Yuna the Dragon Slayer."

A small smile crossed his lips. Not from amusement—but disbelief.

"Yuna… the Slayer of Calamity, the one who wielded the Sealed Spear without burning alive."

"The woman who defied fate and was loved by everyone—except the void itself."

"And she died protecting the very world that feared her."

His eyes narrowed as he looked up toward the distant sky.

"But I don't have time to narrate a love story."

"This isn't about romance."

"This is about me surviving."

"And what I mean is…"

"That guy…"

"Is the strongest human in this world."

"A force of nature wrapped in grace."

"A man whose birth shook the balance of the entire damn world."

Khael took one long, deep breath and turned away from the clearing.

"And I—"

"An extra, a background character who got lucky with knowledge and a dragon's gift—"

"Have no choice but to stay far beneath his notice."

"For now."

"One day, maybe…"

"I'll stand before him."

"As something more than an insect in hiding."

His footsteps faded into the woods, wind trailing at his heels.

And above, in the sky far beyond reach, the echo of something divine lingered.

..

Meanwhile The room was drowned in shadow.

Nine figures sat in silence, each veiled by darkness—each presence like a whisper of something terrible and ancient.

A large circular chamber, walls lined with glowing red runes. The light barely reached the center, yet none of them needed to see.

They already knew who stood where.

They were the Hollow Nine the secret cult that thrived beneath the layers of history and Shinrei law.

The traitors. The manipulators. The watchers.

One man leaned forward, orange hair cascading past his brow, his fingers laced together.

Beside him, a younger man with slicked-back white hair sat with a crooked smile, playing with a knife.

Opposite them was a woman with green hair, a serpent tattoo slithering up her neck. Her eyes never blinked.

Behind her, a broad-shouldered man with blue hair turned slightly, revealing the black whale sigil inked across his back.

Farther along the circle, a twitchy man with clown face paint let his fingers dance across invisible threads puppet strings embedded in his arms, glinting with steel.

A man with yellow hair and deep scars stood silently behind him, arms crossed.

Another sat cross-legged in the shadows, his head smooth and burned, his skin warped from old fire.

Next to him, a man with long black hair, his bangs covering most of his pale face, sharpened a blade that hummed with cursed energy.

And finally—

At the very center of it all—

A man with pink wolf-cut hair sat calmly, legs crossed, fingers resting on the stone beneath him like a throne. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark—

Orange. Red. Black.

Swirling with layered corruption.

He smiled.

A smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"A Voidborn we sent," he said, his voice low and smooth, "died."

His fingers tapped once on the stone.

"In the academy. In the dead of night."

"When no Veinwalkers were supposed to be there."

He paused.

The others listened.

No one spoke.

Then—

"Interesting."

The word echoed around them like poison.

The woman with the serpent tattoo hissed quietly.

The blue-haired man with the whale sigil flexed his knuckles.

"A fluke?" the clown-faced man asked. "Or…"

The leader didn't answer.

Instead, his swirling eyes narrowed hungry. Calculating.

 "Something has changed in the pattern."

"Someone disrupted the Void's will."

"Who could it be"

..

..

As Khael was just walking back to his dormitory.

The sun had set behind the tall spires of the academy towers. Most students had retreated indoors. Only the wind remained shifting softly, like a warning whisper in the breeze.

And that's when he heard it.

Thud.

A sharp crack of fist against flesh.

Another.

He turned the corner and froze.

There, in the otherwise empty courtyard, a girl stood over a trembling boy.

Her fists still clenched. Her knuckles raw.

Her hair was black cut wild and sharp like a wolf's mane. Her eyes burned with something raw. Storm Affinity winds circled her, turbulent and angry, kicking up dust in spirals.

Khael's eyes widened.

"Hey! What are you doing!!"

The girl turned.

Her gaze cut through him like a blade of wind.

"Tsk…" she scoffed. "Pissed off."

She didn't even try to explain.

Didn't care to.

The boy on the ground groaned and crawled away as fast as he could. She didn't stop him.

Khael stared at her face.

Recognition punched through his brain like thunder.

"Wait…"

"That face…"

"No way—"

His heart sank.

"That's Ceyla Nox…"

Ceyla. Of the Nox Clan.

A future villain. A tragedy wrapped in pride and fury.

"I know this arc."

"She doesn't turn now… not yet. But later…"

"She gets cast aside. By her clan. By the school. By her own Echo."

"And then—she snaps."

"She kills them."

"Every last one of them."

His eyes tightened.

"She becomes one of the Act 4 villains."

"The one who almost killed Kaen."

"The one who fought Juno Arkai—the Affinity-less Taishin Gate prodigy."

Khael's thoughts spiraled as he looked at her more closely. Her fists trembling. Her eyes not evil but lost.

"No one ever helped her." 

"No one stood beside her."

"They all looked down on her, despite her prestige."

"And when she lost control…"

"They called her monster."

"But what if… someone did?"

"What if I could change that?"

He took a cautious step forward.

"(Emotionally volatile. High energy output. Unstable Vein Flow.)"

She snapped her glare toward him.

"You done staring?"

Khael blinked. He shook his head.

"No."

"Just thinking."

"Thinking maybe you're not the villain everyone thinks you'll become."

Her eyes flickered. The wind calmed slightly.

"Huh?"

"What are you even talking about?"

He smiled faintly.

"You're Ceyla Nox, right?"

She stepped back.

"How do you know my name?"

Khael shrugged.

"Everyone knows the Nox Clan."

"Famous for Storm Affinity. Tactical excellence. Ruthless discipline."

Her expression darkened instantly, a fresh surge of wind snapping around her like a whip.

"…Don't talk like you know anything."

And then she moved.

A flash of motion raw instinct, not Echo Art, just rage.

She lunged.

But Khael didn't budge.

With a soft breath, he extended one palm outward. The wind around him coalesced, forming a barrier like a swirling wall of air between them.

Ceyla's strike was stopped mid-motion, halted by an invisible pressure that gently repelled her without hurting her.

She stumbled back a step, wide-eyed.

Khael simply stood there.

Not with arrogance.

But with understanding.

And that… shook her more than any counterattack.

"What… are you looking at…"

Her voice trembled slightly. The wind settled, uncertain.

"Why are you looking at me like that…?"

She took another step back.

Something in his gaze—

Not pity.

Not fear.

Just warmth.

Like old sunlight trying to break through a storm cloud.

Her chest tightened.

A memory flashed.

Eyes like that.

Eyes that once looked at her the same way.

"...Mom…"

She blinked hard and turned her face away, ashamed of the feeling.

"Tsk…"

Just then—

"Who's there!?" came a sharp voice from across the courtyard.

A teacher.

Ceyla's head whipped toward the sound, and her wind flared defensively.

"Tch. Consider yourself lucky."

She glared back at Khael, just for a second.

Then vanished into the shadows with a burst of turbulent wind.

Gone.

Khael stood still, alone again.

He slowly lowered his hand. The air returned to normal.

"…She's not what they think."

"I saw it."

"The storm's not evil."

"It's just lost."

He looked toward where she vanished.

"If I can delay that villain arc…"

"Just a little…"

"Maybe someone else won't have to die."

The teacher's footsteps echoed closer.

But Khael was already gone.

To be continue