Tuesday morning, just before class, Nero sat quietly at her desk, posture poised and proper, like she was ready to take on a demon horde with nothing but a smirk. Not far away, a gaggle of girls gossiped, their whispers occasionally spiking into hushed gasps.
"Is this some new ghost story?"
"No way, it's real! I was fast asleep last night, but when I opened my eyes, I was near Ikebukuro!"
"What, like sleepwalking? Since when do you do that?"
The star of their story was the poor sap who'd wandered out of her house last night, lured by some demonic trick. After Nero had revved up Red Queen and sent "Death" packing, she'd left the cleanup to Sosei. From the sound of it, things were handled—no major fallout.
"If it was just sleepwalking, fine, but the creepy part? I woke up surrounded by shredded stuffed animals!"
Nero eavesdropped for a bit, piecing it together. The girl was treating the whole thing like a wild anecdote to brag about, not connecting it to any demonic shenanigans. And the real flex? She'd scored the contact info of some fancy-pants heiress from Tsukimori.
Sosei Nagasaki, ever the smooth operator, had convinced her it was just sleepwalking. Apparently, the heiress had spotted her from a balcony, worried she'd get into trouble, and swooped in to play hero. Talk about laying on the charm.
Nice act, princess.
Still, with the girl clean of any demonic stench and the situation resolved, Nero could let it slide. What was bugging her now was the bigger picture: What the hell were "Death" and her cronies up to? Why were they luring high school girls out at midnight? Where were the other missing girls? And, most importantly—where was this power coming from?
Nero could feel it in her gut. "Death," once a girl named Mutsu Wakaba, was no longer human—she was full-on demon. It reminded Nero of the Order of the Sword's "Ascension Ceremony," that twisted ritual for merging humans with demonic power. Could Agnus's tech have leaked? But if some shady group had that kind of power, they'd be louder about it, right? World domination vibes, not skulking in the shadows.
The Ascension Ceremony wasn't exactly a sure thing either. If the subject's will wasn't ironclad, they'd just turn into a mindless demon. Any group running experiments would have slip-ups—rogue demons causing chaos. But New City? Not a whisper of that kind of trouble.
Plus, the Order kept their demon tech under wraps because they were a cult of fanatics who hated demons. If some other group had cracked the code, they'd be crowing about ruling the world with demon power, not playing it coy.
So, Nero scratched that theory. But if it wasn't tech, how did Mutsu Wakaba go full demon?
Her thoughts drifted to the connection between Mutsu Wakaba and Sosei Nagasaki. According to Sosei, they were friends. But what about the other person, someone even closer to Mutsu?
Nero stood up, her movements graceful yet purposeful, like a hunter stalking her prey. She headed to the next classroom over to check something.
"Toyokawa, right?" she asked a student.
The kid tilted her head, thinking. "Nah, no Toyokawa in our class. You sure you got the name right?"
"Maybe I mixed it up. Sorry for the trouble." Nero gave a polite bow, earning a flustered "No biggie!" before heading back to her classroom.
The bell rang. Nero stared at the blackboard, but her mind was elsewhere, chewing on the new intel.
Just as she'd suspected, Shoko Toyokawa wasn't enrolled at Haneoka Academy. And per Sosei's story, Mutsu Wakaba had dropped out too. If their situations were similar, Shoko was likely a demon now as well.
What the hell happened to cause all this? If Nero could crack that, she might figure out the source of their demonic power.
"Takamatsu, huh?"
During a break, Nero sidled up to Tomori Takamatsu's desk, her voice soft but deliberate. As expected, she got the cold shoulder. No surprise there—Kanna had mentioned yesterday that Tomori didn't talk to anyone.
As someone likely tied to the trio, Tomori could be sitting on crucial info Nero didn't have. But if she wouldn't open her mouth, that intel was as good as locked in a demon's vault.
What was her deal? Tomori's shutdown was way worse than the version of her in that other world.
Now what?
Nero stood there, lost in thought. Tomori's gaze flickered up slightly, noticing Nero hadn't left. She opened her mouth, her voice barely a whisper:
"…Stay away from me."
"Hm?" Nero caught the sound and looked at her.
The purple-haired girl stole a quick glance at Nero before dropping her head again.
"Or you'll die."
Well, damn. So she's the so-called "girl who brings death"?
Nero gave her a long, knowing look but didn't press. She just sauntered back to her seat.
"Die," she'd said. Was Tomori talking about some major loss—like someone close to her dying—that broke her? Nero's gut pointed to Shoko Toyokawa, but Sosei's behavior didn't quite back that up.
The questions kept piling up.
After yesterday's chaos, the class had gotten used to Nero's larger-than-life presence, so no one made a fuss. When classes ended, Nero didn't head straight home. Instead, she swung by the band club's practice room.
It housed the school's only piano. Nero's visit was partly to keep up her cover as a club enthusiast and partly to confirm a hunch. Sure enough, after chatting with the band members, she verified it: no one used the piano after school before club activities. "Shoko Toyokawa" didn't exist at Haneoka.
Another day done. Nero left the school, but instead of hunting demons like last night, she headed to her high-rise apartment to change. A few days ago, after giving Credo her new bank account details, she'd gotten a fat transfer—big enough to make her wonder if her "big brother" was skimming from the Order's funds.
Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. Still, Nero vowed to spend as little of it as possible, though her fake identity had already burned through a chunk.
She locked the door and stepped into the elevator.