The noise hit Ren like a deafening thunderclap on a quiet night. It was loud, hundreds of students all talking at once, chairs scraping, voices rising in shock and excitement and fear.
But Ren barely heard any of it because suddenly the room was spinning around him. "What..."
The entire gymnasium seemed to be slidinh sideways, the floor shifting beneath Ren's feet even though he was sitting down. The walls blurred blue, black and white. The voices distorting, stretching and compressing like a broken record player.
"Ren?" Fubuki's voice sounded so far away. "Are you.. "
But her words were cut off abruptly and replaced by something else.
FLASH.
Everything went dark.
Ren wasn't in the gymnasium anymore. He was somewhere else.. somewhere wrong.
He was in a dark alley. The rain was pouring down in sheets, hitting pavement that shone black and red. Cherry blossom petals scattered across the wet ground, soaked through, their pink color deepening to crimson where they mixed with something warm.
Blood.
So much blood.
Someone was on the ground, face-down, unmoving. Another figure stood over them, fist raised, knuckles split and dripping.
"Stay down!" the figure screamed, voice raw with rage and something else. Desperation? Fear?
The person on the ground didn't move. Couldn't move.
More cherry blossoms fell from the trees overhead, drifting down like snow, landing in the spreading pool of..
There were graffitis, dozen of them on the walls but it was this dragon one that stood out. Ren tried to get a better look but then in a SNAP. Ren was back gasping heavily for air, his vision back to normal so fast it made him dizzy.
He was back in the gymnasium.
The students.
The noise.
Ren gripped his seat so harf his knuckles had gone white, fingernails digging into the plastic. His whole body was shaking profusely. He was covered in sweat running down his spine.
"Ren!" Fubuki's gentle hand was on his arm, her face pale with concern. "Are you okay? You just.. you looked like you were going to pass out."
"I'm.. " His voice came out rough. He paused to swallow before trying again. "I'm fine. Just... tired. Didn't sleep well. "
The lie felt paper-thin, but Fubuki seemed to accept it, her worry easing slightly. "Maybe you should go to the nurse's office? You really don't look well today."
"No." His voice came out too sharp. Ren forced himself to calm down and then softened his tone.
"No, I'm really okay. I just need some air it's suffocating in here. " He laughed.
Sudo leaned over, his earlier excitement now replaced with genuine concern for Ren. "Are you sure man. You went totally pale. Sure you're alright?"
"Yeah." Ren released his death grip on the chair, flexing his hands. They were still shaking. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. "
But he wasn't fine. How could he be.
"What the hell was that? " He wondered.
It didn't feel like a daydream or his imagination playing with him. It felt strangely too real. It was like a memory of his but it wasn't his memory. He'd never been in that alley, those graffitis or that person lying motionless on the ground.
So where had it come from?
The graffitis..
The dragon one on the wall..
"The dragons... they're not.. " Kaito's words seemed to keep echoing in his mind. It was his brother's final warning.
"These visions, the paper, Hasegawa, the strange message are they allit all connected? " Ren tried to process.
His hands found the paper in his pocket again, soothing himself with its familiar texture. "I need to find Hasegawa now or I will I lose my mind completely. "
The ceremony was now over and the students began leaving the gymnasium in clusters, their excited chatter continuing in the hallways. Ren moved with the crowd on autopilot, letting himself be carried along while his mind raced.
"..can't believe the principal actually said that.. "
"... Hasegawa's going to be pissed.. "
"...expulsion? He can't do that, can he.. "
Little pieces of such conversations kept reaching Ren's ears as he walked. Everyone was talking about the same thing, the principal's declaration, Sakuratei, what would happen next.
But one phrase kept repeating that Hasegawa wasn't even there.
Ren's head was drawn toward another voice ahead of him. It was that of two girls walking ahead of him.
"Of course he wasn't, " her friend replied. "He never shows up to these things. "
"Still, you'd think he'd come to this one. With the principal calling him out by name..."
"Probably doesn't care. Or maybe he knew it was coming."
They turned a different corner and their voices faded.
He wasn't there.
Ren stopped dead in his tracks causing a minor traffic jam as students flowed around him sporting visible annoyed looks.
Hasegawa wasn't even at the ceremony. That was one place where everyone was supposed to be. The one chance he had to see him, and he wasn't even there.
Where the hell was he then. The frustration burned through his chest.
"Yo, hold up Ren! " Sudo appeared beside him, somehow still full of energy. "You coming to homeroom? There is roll call and then there's the matter over our schedules and stuff. "
"Yeah. " Ren said numbly. "Yeah, I'm coming."
But as they walked toward Class 1-C, Ren couldn't stop listening to the conversations around them.
".. heard Hasegawa's probably with the rest of Sakuratei.. "
"..someone said they saw them on the roof earlier.."
Every mention of the name made Ren's frustration grow. They finally reached the classroom and found other students were already settling in, choosing desks, chatting with friends. Theit energy was different now, it was all charged with the excitement of the principal's announcement. Everyone wanted to talk about the big news.
Ren found his empty desk near the window and sat down heavily. Fubuki slid into the desk beside him. "Feeling better? "
"Yeah better. " he lied again.
She didn't look convinced, but didn't push.
Some random boy claimed the desk on Ren's other side, immediately turning around to talk to the students behind them. "Did you guys hear? The principal literally declared war on Sakuratei! This is insane!"
Ren tuned him out, staring through the window instead.
From here, he could see part of the courtyard. Cherry trees swaying in the breeze. A few students walking between buildings. Normal. Peaceful.
Everything looks so normal.
"I need to find Hasegawa fast. " He thought.
But how? Where? The guy apparently didn't even come to mandatory school events. How was Ren supposed to track him down in a school this size?
Then the thought came to him to just ask someone directly. Someone in Sakuratei.
The thought made his stomach clench with anxiety, but it might be his only option.
His eyes drifted back to the classroom, scanning the other students. Were any of them Sakuratei members? How could he tell without seeing their armbands?
The homeroom teacher hadn't arrived yet. Students continued chatting, the volume rising as more people showed up.
Ren's hands clenched on his desk.
It was his first day and already everything was falling apart.