Morning in the Academy came without sunlight. The underground complex lived by its own rhythm, guided by glowing orbs that dimmed and brightened like an artificial dawn.
Rin woke in a narrow room lined with pale glass walls. The ceiling shimmered faintly as if water drifted above it. For a long time, he lay still, listening to the quiet hum that filled the corridors.
It was hard to believe that only yesterday he had been an ordinary student. Now his mind replayed flashes of light, the creature's single eye, and Sora's calm voice cutting through the chaos. Every memory felt too sharp, every color too alive. He rubbed his eyes and the faint white shimmer returned, reflecting in the wall. He blinked until it faded.
When the door slid open, Sora stood there, dressed in a dark uniform with silver lines running along the sleeves. "You're awake," she said. "Good. Orientation starts soon."
"Orientation?" Rin asked, sitting up.
She handed him folded clothes made of soft gray fabric. "Standard Academy issue. Don't lose the emblem the Headmaster gave you. It's your identifier."
He changed quickly, fastening the small circular emblem to his chest. It pulsed once, syncing with his heartbeat. As he followed Sora through the winding halls, he caught glimpses of other seers, students and instructors moving with quiet purpose, their eyes faintly glowing in a spectrum of colors.
Each aura gave off a different feeling: warmth, sharpness, stillness, rage. Some glanced at him curiously, others looked away as if uneasy.
Sora stopped before a wide training chamber. The floor gleamed like polished stone, and along the walls stood mirrors and target dummies shaped like faceless figures.
A group of students waited, their eyes glowing blue, green, and red. A tall man stood before them, holding a staff engraved with symbols that seemed to drift like mist.
Rin recognized him from yesterday, the man with the violet eye.
"Welcome to the Academy of Vision," he announced. "For those who are new, I am Instructor Hyou. I oversee control and combat training. Our purpose is simple: to teach you how to use your eyes without letting them consume you."
He turned toward Rin. "And this is our newest student, Rin Kuroda."
Murmurs rippled through the room. Someone whispered, "That's him, the White Blinker." Another student frowned. "White doesn't exist anymore."
Rin tried to stand straight, but the attention made his chest tighten. Hyou silenced them with a look. "Color does not define worth. Control does. You'll all remember that."
He gestured toward a wall of mirrors. "We begin with resonance. Step forward, one by one."
A blue-eyed girl approached first. Her reflection glowed, and faint ripples of light circled her pupils. Hyou nodded. "Blue Eye, basic perception. She can trace energy flow. Next."
A boy with red eyes took her place. When he focused, his reflection ignited with sparks that scorched the mirror before fading. "Red Eye, offense and impulse. Excellent stability."
Then it was Rin's turn. He stepped forward hesitantly. The mirror waited, clear and silent. Hyou said nothing. Sora watched from the side, arms crossed.
Rin exhaled and focused on his reflection. For a moment, nothing happened. Then light bloomed, not from the mirror, but from his eyes. White radiance spread outward, filling the room. The other mirrors went blank, overwhelmed by the glow. Students shielded their faces. Hyou raised a hand, absorbing some of the light into his staff.
"Enough," he said sharply.
Rin blinked, and the glow collapsed into darkness. His legs shook. "I didn't mean to..."
"I know," Hyou said. "That's the problem."
The silence that followed was heavy. The violet glow in Hyou's eye flickered once as he studied Rin. "White is not just energy. It's convergence, the total of every spectrum. It reacts to instability. Until you learn focus, you'll be a danger to yourself and everyone around you."
Rin lowered his gaze. "Then teach me how to control it."
For the first time, Hyou's stern expression softened. "Good. You'll start with Sora. She knows balance better than anyone."
Training lasted hours. Sora led Rin to a smaller chamber filled with floating lights like dust suspended in water. She knelt, motioning for him to do the same.
"Close your eyes," she said. "Forget color. Feel the rhythm of your breath."
He obeyed. For a while, there was only the sound of air moving in and out of his lungs. Then, faintly, he sensed it, the pulse of light behind his eyelids, not sight but awareness.
Every heartbeat sent ripples through the space around him. When he opened his eyes again, tiny white sparks danced on his fingertips before fading.
"That's resonance," Sora said. "The first step to control. Your energy listens to emotion. Keep it calm, it flows. Let it fear, it burns."
He looked at her curiously. "What about your eyes?"
She hesitated, her blue eye dimming to a shadowy gray. "Mine see through lies and memories. But they also show things I'd rather forget. Every color has its curse."
Rin nodded slowly. "Then maybe white has all of them."
"Maybe," she said."
They continued until exhaustion dulled his sight. When the training finally ended, Sora handed him a small tablet. "Study the Color Codex tonight. You'll need to understand how each hue works."
As she turned to leave, Rin called after her. "Why help me? You barely know me."
She paused at the doorway. "Because once, someone helped me the same way. And because I saw what you did in that classroom. You didn't destroy for power, you acted to protect. That's rare."
That night, Rin lay in his narrow bed with the Codex glowing softly beside him. It listed the hierarchy of colors, gray for beginners, blue for clarity, green for balance, red for destruction, purple for distortion, black for concealment, and finally, white.
The last entry had no description, only a blank space.
He stared at it until his vision blurred.
Outside, the hum of the Academy continued, constant and distant. For the first time, he wondered if his life before had ever really been ordinary, or if he had just been waiting for this moment all along.
Sleep came slowly, filled with images of endless eyes watching from the dark and a single white blink cutting through them all.