Night settled over Akirama High like a shroud.
The rooftop—usually a place where students ate lunch, joked, or napped—was now a throne of silence. Cold wind swept across the concrete, carrying with it the faint scent of steel… and death.
Ryu stood at the center, coat fluttering like living shadow. His eyes were half-open, almost bored, but the air around him trembled with killing intent.
He had been waiting.
Footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
Three boys—Sora, Jin, and Yuta—burst through the doorway. The school's top delinquents. The ones who made the mistake of touching Hana earlier that day.
"Oi, transfer boy," Jin spat. "You think you can embarrass us and get away with it?"
Ryu didn't respond.
He simply lifted his gaze.
The boys froze.
For a heartbeat, they felt something impossible—
A presence like a graveyard screaming.
A sensation like a scythe brushing their throats.
"W-What… is that?" Sora whispered.
Ryu took one step forward.
The entire rooftop darkened.
Shadows twisted behind him, swirling like black smoke reaching out with hungry fingers.
"You harmed what is mine to protect," Ryu said quietly.
His voice wasn't angry.
It wasn't loud.
It was cold.
Final.
Like the last sound a dying man hears.
Yuta pulled a knife with shaking hands. "D-Don't come any closer!"
Ryu raised his hand slightly.
SHHHRRIP—
The rooftop lights flickered and died.
A shadow slid across the concrete like a serpent and wrapped around Yuta's wrist. Before he could scream, the knife clattered away, swallowed by darkness.
Sora and Jin backed up until their spines hit the fence.
"W-Who the hell are you!?" Jin cried.
Ryu stood inches away from him.
His eyes glowed blood-red.
"I am the Grim Reaper's heir."
A gust of wind blew—violent and sharp.
SLAM!
Both boys dropped to their knees, pinned by invisible force. Shadows tightened around them, cold and suffocating. They clawed at their throats, gasping for air.
"Let go of me! I can't breathe—!"
"Help—HELP!"
Ryu's expression never changed.
"I will not kill you," he said softly.
"But you will never forget that you faced death tonight."
The shadows vanished.
The boys collapsed, coughing, half-conscious. Their minds shattered with terror so deep they could barely think.
Ryu turned away, coat swaying behind him.
Then—
"…Ryu?"
Hana stood at the doorway, trembling. She had followed them—she had seen everything.
Ryu's eyes widened for the first time.
Fear—not for himself, but for her—crossed his face.
"Hana… I didn't want you to see this."
She stepped forward slowly.
The wind brushed her hair as she looked up at him—not with fear, but with sadness.
"Ryu… what are you?"
The rooftop fell silent.
Ryu opened his mouth to answer—
But then—
B O O M — !
A massive explosion erupted from the skies above.
Black clouds tore open like ripped flesh.
A colossal demonic sigil burned across the heavens.
Hana stumbled, eyes wide. "W-What is that!?"
Ryu's face darkened.
"The Dawn of Shadows… has begun."
A monstrous silhouette crawled out of the sky's rupture, its scream shattering the night.
And far below, in every corner of the city…
The dead began to move.
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