Description

Taiyo Vitale lived his life with few regrets. Yet, the thing that plagued him most - something he could never forgive himself for - was the death of his parents.

All of his life, he blamed himself for their absence, their deaths, and he could never forgive himself for what he did. What did he do? That, he doesn't exactly remember. It was as if a haze filled his mind and only cryptic, non-sensical things filled in the pieces. His life was in shambles yet he couldn't discern why. All of this changes when he meets a mysterious woman in the dead of night.

Filling his ears with words of magic of old, a promise unfulfilled, and a duty to his people long forgotten, he is thrust into a world of criminals. Families vying for power with fierce magic filling the blood of their veins as each try to claim the throne of the underworld. Taiyo is barely able to discern left from right before he discovers his flames and must lead his collapsing family from ruin.

Yet, this family, will they accept him? They have a system in place and the new heir doesn't even remember the names of his parents - the previous bosses - how will he learn to control his fire? How will he learn to burn his enemies - if he even has the heart to do it.

How will he become the new boss of the Vitale Family? Will he tame the inferno inside of him or succumb to it completely?

Community Reviews(1)

Brian HemingRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

We have a male protagonist, high school, slice of life story. But, this being basically anime, we quickly find there's more to the hero than meets the eye. He has the power of fire, and awesome high-speed martial arts skills to boot.
We quickly end up combining anime high school tropes (pushy friends, excessively punchy girls, nerdy protagonist characters who are suspiciously good at everything, savable teenage damsels in distress being harassed by groups of pervs, etc.) with anime fighting tropes (super speed, elemental attacks, mystic powers, superpowered students). If you like Shounen fighting anime and like Shounen high school anime, and want a text version, this is the story for you. I get shades of Tenjho Tenge, Yuyu Hakusho, and other classics. Of course, this story happens in the present day world, in the smartphone era, so we also have teenagers who constantly stare at their phones at their social media accounts and have no idea how to do useful things like call emergency services.
The style is dialogue-heavy and school-life heavy, but also has interesting and somewhat detailed high-stakes combat. The grammar is quite good, with a few errors here and there, but nothing which seriously damages readability. The characters are fun, and have a bit more to them than being anime tropes--though, of course, they are likely based on anime tropes. There is a significant amount of humor and in-jokes in addition to school life and combat.
All in all, an enjoyable read.