Shakugan no Shana / 灼眼のシャナ

Title

Shakugan no Shana / 灼眼のシャナ

Story Synopsis

High school student Yūji Sakai expects his very normal life to last forever. However, this expectation is quickly shattered one day while on his way home.

The world suddenly freezes in time, leaving Yūji to watch in horror as blue flames engulf the people around him. Soon a monster resembling a large doll appears and begins sucking the flames into its mouth, until it notices Yūji. Surprised with Yūji's insusceptibility to the time-stop (Fūzetsu), it jumps with glee.

Just as the monster prepares to consume Yūji, a sword-wielding girl in black attire with flaming red eyes and hair appears. She swiftly and confidently destroys the monster, before noticing Yūji moving freely. The girl calls herself a Flame Haze who hunts the Denizens of the Crimson Realm and the Rinnes they send to do their bidding. When Yūji notices a blue flame in his chest, the Flame Haze tells him that the "real" Yūji died some time ago, and that he is a Torch, a temporary replacement for erased humans. Torches take on the forms of those erased persons, but after a period of time, they will vanish from existence and the memories of the living. Unfazed by his apparent death, Yūji befriends the strange girl and names her "Shana" after her sword. The reason Yūji is able to move in the Fūzetsu is that he is not a normal Torch, but instead a special kind called a Mystes: he has a treasure inside him, known as a Hōgu, a device possessing special abilities of sorts, and an extremely powerful and valuable one at that. The Hōgu inside Yūji allows him to remain in existence rather than fading away like other torches. Shana resolves to protect Yūji from the Denizens, who would use the treasure to disrupt the balance of the world, and Yūji decides to join Shana in her fight.