Shakugan no Shana

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This series are quite possibly the shiniest hidden gem you will ever find. Let me be clear, these light novels are a MUST-READ. The anime most definitely did not do it justice.

Shakugan no Shana starts off with a boy named Yuji, somewhat Lelouch like, and his friend Ike are walking to school. After Ike leaves Yuji finds out that a cheery girl named Hirai likes him. Hirai quickly runs off and Yuji watches. what adventures will they have? What mysteries does Hirai hide? All will be answered in this romanti...

Suddenly, the whole sky turns crimson red, Yuji sees the girl and everyone else frozen in ... time as a monster comes to the scene, it begins to suck the very existence of these humans out of them. Yuji though, is not frozen, forced to watch their hideous death. He then sees, out of nowhere a girl with crimson in her hair, and flames in her eyes. He begs her to help him, and she replies to her gem "How do I get it to shut up". The monster attacks and is fought off by this red girl, landing next to Yuji. The hideous thing suddenly turns into a beautiful lady, crying as she is about to die. Yuji then jumps in front of the red girl, risking his life to save an innocent. Only to have his arm slashed off by the red haired girl, left for dead. The lady smugly smiles before escaping the flame eyed girl. Yuji begs the girl to help him, for he doesn't want to die. But if he continues to bleed ou… he then notices there is no blood. The crimson haired girl simply puts his arm back on. Time turns back to normal, except now everyone around him, and Hirai, seem to lack the energy they once had. Yuji asks the flame eyed girl what happened, how he was alive? "It won't go away" the girl said to her gem. "Explain everything, then it will leave" the gem named Alastor said back. So the girl says to Yuji "You are a torch, and they are torches. You are a thing, not human. His existence was taken from that monster a while back, and was replaced by you, the thing called a torch. It helps make your lack of existing not come too quickly, instead you are there to more slowly let Yuji's existence fade away, until no one remembers you, and you never existed."