Chapter 1

## Chapter Chronology

**The Day the Reaper was Born** (死神が生まれに日, *Shinigami ga umare ni hi*?) is the 1st chapter of the Ragna Crimson manga series.

## Summary

Ragna wakes up from a strange daydream when he is attacked by a dragon but he is saved by Leonica's quick intervention with her silver sword which disables instantly the dragon. Leonica proceeds to reprimand Ragna to be more careful next time. They wait till sunrise so the pile of hunted dragons burns to the sunlight, their only weakness other than silver weapons, then they go back to the city of Ronabera to redeem the reward for the hunt.

Later that day, February 21st, they're lunching at the Dragon Hunters Guild Tavern when Sykes Charluke, second ranked hunter of Ronabera after Leonica, from a nearby table warns Ragna that a weak dragon hunter like him can only slow down Leonica the prodigy and he could even end up endangering her. Leonica steps in the discussion with a drawn sword and states that she's only interested in becoming stronger and the only way to reach her objective is by hunting dragons. She proposes to the whole tavern if there's anyone interested to follow her journey, she'll split with anyone all the wealth, status and glory for a life of only hunting dragons but to her not surprise only Ragna comes forward. After the ruckus they both retire to their room.

Later that afternoon while Leonica is taking a nap, Ragna sneaks out and goes to his daily training. He knows that even with a lifetime worth of training he'll never be as strong as Leonica but he's only doing it to be with her as long possible because he knows the day when he is killed by a dragon will come sooner or later. While training he gets another daydream where he sees all the city burning and Leonica saving him from an unseen attack which takes her life instead. This daydream is so realistic that shocks him heavily leaving him without breath. An elusive and unknown figure behind his back states the time has come and vanishes before Ragna could see them.

   Five days later, the hunters of Ronabera realize the weird movements of the dragons as they're all moving to the east together towards the city of Donapierru, the city hasn't seen an attack from the dragons for so long that it was named "The city who needs no dragon hunters". While the discussion continues Leonica remembers that in Donapierru is located the famous cake shop "The Silver Chick" but Ragna unable to listen her shows heavy mental fatigue. Leonica realizes quickly something is wrong with him and asks him what is wrong and a tired Ragna asks her what can he be useful for her journey other than taking care of her daily needs and she answers that the day she meet him for the first time she recognized in him her same potential to the disbelief of Ragna. She admits that he doesn't have talent but her genius intuitions tells her one day will come when he'll become stronger, she doesn't known when or where but until that day she reassures she'll be there protecting him. Ragna then falls asleep between Leonica's arms succumbing to his tiredness.

Ragna dreams of his past, how one day while he was being beaten up because of the believed curse of whenever he goes destruction and deaths brought by dragons follows but he always survives, he was saved by Leonica. She asked him if he was interested into hunting dragons and how his "curse" instead would be helpful to her but Ragna tried anyway to warn her of the danger he brings but she simply stated that those who die do so because they're weak but if you're stronger than a dragon you won't die and she can prove to him she's strong. Thus their journey together started but he immediately wakes up remembering that what happened in that nightmare is going to happen soon.

On the night of February 27th news of the fall of Donapierru reaches the Guild of Ronabera and Ragna realizes how true the nightmare was and tries to convince Leonica to leave the city but he's interrupted by an attack on the city from the dragons. The city is approached by a mysterious bloodied humanoid who slaughters all the hunters trying to approach him thinking he is a victim from the dragon attack, he declares that their time to die has come and proceeds to burn the city with his enormous fire magic. The city's defenses are overwhelmed by the endless swarm of dragons. Sykes having observed everything from a hidden alley realizes they're dealing with a superior dragon but shortly after he's shocked to see Ragna ambushing the superior dragon. The attack is useless as his swords shatters on contact with the superior dragon and immediately after he is thrown in the city's river unconscious after the dragon counterattack. Leonica screams to Sykes to save Ragna as he's still alive but in the river while she decides to deal with the main threat.

   As Ragna falls deeper in the river he starts seeing the continue of the dream. After the death of Leonica he goes in a journey of revenge to kill every single dragon. As he fights he improves his skill to the limits, he finds companions during his journey but they die not long after, he continues losing everything but he keeps fighting on and he goes beyond the limits. Ragna realizes this isn't a dream but memories from his future self and the unknown figure he heard before is him from the future. Future Ragna reveals himself, he is disgusted by his past-self because he worshiped a little girl, he wallowed in her strength when if he really wanted to protect her he should have become stronger than anyone to protect her from anything but now Future Ragna has all the strength needed to even fight the strongest dragon but he has no one left to protect, questioning himself what's the point of all his strength now. Present Ragna then lashes out against his future self and begs him to give him that power if he doesn't need it anymore, future Ragna stabs his past self with a silver sword reassuring him it was his plan from the start. Ragna conscious again after being rescued from the river starts agonizing for the sudden pain while Sykes is defending him from the swarm of dragons.

    Meanwhile Leonica survived until now against the superior dragon simple attacks, making him annoyed, and ask him if he was perhaps the rumored Dragon God. This statement enrages him and he present himself as Grymwelte the 11th ranked seat of the Winged Bloodline but declares he's nothing more than the bottom of what humans call superior dragons. Grymwelte then reveals to her what is happening is just a whim of the Dragon God who after discovering his favorite cake shop, The Silver Chick, went out of business declared the Kingdom of Reise not existing anymore. He then proceeds to deal with Leonica but he immediately stops when he feels a threatening sinister aura. An awakened Ragna proceeds to kill in one instant all the dragons around him, he remembers again his future memories on how after going in a journey of killing all the dragons he almost died countless times but he always survived, after each fight his win increased more and more. He continued for 10 years until he noticed how he and the sword became fused together, even though it was disturbing and painful he continued to fight. Five years later he became completely fused with the sword and his body became able to exude silver aura. Three years later he became able to amplify his aura and four years later he was able to manipulate completely his silver aura. Ten years later he developed the pinnacle of dragon slaying art, the "Silver Battle Arts". Grymwelte realizes that Ragna's aura is similar to the presence of the Dragon Monarchs he meet before, feeling terrorized and unbelievable of the situation he decides to transform into his dragon form and attack Ragna with his strongest attack but he's instantly freezed and shattered together with all other remaining dragons by Ragna.

    Ragna with his future-self memories realizes Leonica is still alive and ends crying uncontrollably between Leonica's arms until losing conscious again. His future self is standing still in an unknown place and an unknown figure concludes he died as expected because that is the price for transferring power but also present Ragna will pay a price eventually, seeing him dead but grinning for the first time after all the years they were together surprises the unknown figure but nothing more as nothing matters as long as all dragons will be slayed. That day 6 of the 7 city of the Kingdom of Lese have fallen and Ragna the Reaper was born decades before he was meant to come.

## Characters

* Ragna
* Leonica
* Sykes Charluke
* Grymwelte
* Crimson

## Locations

* Ronabera
* Donapierru

## Timeline

* February 21: Ragna had his first premonitory dream.
* February 26: Ronabera's dragon hunters realized the dragons were strangely directed to Donapierru.
* February 27: The Kingdom of Lese fell and Ronabera was the only city left standing, Grymwelte was killed by Ragna, Ragna the Reaper was born.