Jin woke up from his own sharp intake of breath. His heart pounded against his ribs, dull and frequent, like a bird caught in a snare, and cold sweat streamed down his back, despite the warm morning. The dream—or rather, that surreal, faded fairy tale—would not let go; its images still stood before his eyes with painful distinctness. The Porcelain Doll, her glowing White Heart, and that first shard, thin as a hair, splitting from her flawless surface.
He sat up in the huge bed, running a hand over his face. The voice of the "Ghost" still sounded in his head—his own, yet alien, cold and mocking, full of superiority and boredom.
'Naivety,' he whispered, and the echo of that word reverberated in every corner of his consciousness.
'You thought that if you're not like them, they'd be gentle with you? They break everything that is different.'
Irritation flared and immediately faded, replaced by heavy, viscous apathy. This voice wasn't alien. It was part of him, the part that came with this absurd power. And it spoke the truth. In his past life, he was exactly like that. Naive. Passive. Stood and watched as the world passed by, as he was brushed against, as pieces chipped away from him until almost nothing was left but an empty shell.
Jin swung his legs onto the cold floor. Nearby, on the pillow, Kuro stirred. The coal-black rabbit instantly jumped up, his ruby eyes looking at his master with alarm. The familiar didn't just sense anxiety—he felt how Jin's aura became unstable, cold, how the air around him barely noticeably crackled from leaking power. The rabbit ran up and persistently nudged his wet nose into his hand, as if trying to ground him, to bring him back to reality.
"Just a bad dream, Long-ears," Jin muttered, but his voice sounded unconvincing. He got up and headed to the bathroom, Kuro trotting after him, not lagging a step behind. Turning on the tap, Jin reached for a glass to get some water, and his fingers clenched a bit too hard. A thin crack ran across the glass. He froze, staring at it.
'See?' the mocking whisper sounded in his head again. 'Even here you can't control anything. Everything you touch breaks. And you yourself are no exception.'
He forcefully put the glass on the sink, and it shattered into shards with a quiet tinkle.
...
Far from here, in the distorted space that served as a temporary base for Team Vali, the atmosphere was no better. Their hideout, a floating shard of rock with chaotically piled structures, was shrouded in eternal purple twilight. Vali Lucifer sat in the shadows, his figure tense as a coiled spring. His pride, the pride of the White Dragon Emperor, was not just wounded—it was trampled. To lose outright, to be so humiliated—he was experiencing this for the first time.
"What, White Dragon, still licking your wounds?" a purring voice full of malice sounded behind his back.
Kuroka Toujou, gracefully swaying her hips and two black tails, came closer. Her cat ears twitched slightly, and mischievous lights danced in her golden eyes.
"Nya-a, didn't think some petty human could roughen you up like that. Maybe your vaunted dragon power isn't what it used to be, Vali-chan?"
Vali didn't even turn his head.
"He's not just a human, Kuroka. And you know it. His power... is wrong. It doesn't obey the laws of this world."
"Wrong, or just one you couldn't handle?" she smirked, running a finger along the back of his chair. "Power is boring and straightforward. There's always someone stronger. It's much more interesting to find a crack in the armor and peek at what's inside. Everyone has a weakness. And this guy, who broke your armor so easily, must be full of such cracks."
She straightened up, her smile becoming predatory.
"I got curious. I'm heading to Kuoh. I'll take a closer look at this 'Izayoi Jin' of yours. I'm sure with cunning and charm I'll achieve more than you did with your brute force. Have a little fun. And maybe find us a new, interesting weapon... or toy."
Vali was silent. He knew that arguing with Kuroka when she had decided something was useless. Besides, he himself was interested in what she could find out.
"Do what you want," he finally tossed out. "Just don't get caught. By all accounts, he's not as simple as he seems."
"Nya-ha-ha," Kuroka laughed. "Don't worry about me. Cats always walk by themselves. And they always find their way home."
With these words, she snapped her fingers and disappeared in a whirl of shadow magic, leaving Vali alone with his gloomy thoughts.
Evening descended on Kuoh unnoticed, bringing coolness and a fine, drizzling rain. Jin wandered aimlessly through a quiet park on the outskirts of the city. The noise and bustle of the center were tiring; here it was almost deserted. Raindrops rustled on the leaves of old trees, creating a lulling, melancholic background for his thoughts. He stopped, watching ripples spread across the surface of the pond. Emptiness. Just like inside him.
'Weakness. Compassion. Will you walk past or get involved again in what doesn't concern you?' the cold voice of the "Ghost" sounded in his head again. Jin grimaced. And then he heard it. A quiet, pitiful, almost strained squeak, barely breaking through the noise of the rain.
He turned toward the sound. In the shadow of the bushes, under a soaked cardboard box, huddled in a ball, sat a small creature. A cat, black as the night itself, soaked to the bone, shivering from the cold and, it seemed, with an unnaturally twisted paw. She raised her head and looked at him with huge, frightened eyes the color of emerald.
Jin froze. He really wanted to walk past. He had enough problems of his own without messing with a stray animal. But the image of the fragile Doll from his dream, her first crack received from the world's indifference, and a vague memory from a past life where he never managed to get the cat he always wanted, took over.
"Damn," he swore under his breath, but had already stepped toward the bushes.
He slowly squatted down. The cat hissed in fright but didn't recoil. Jin cautiously extended a hand.
"Hush, hush... I won't hurt you."
After a few seconds of hesitation, he carefully picked her up. She was light, almost weightless, and trembled all over. He hid the shivering ball of fur under his jacket, protecting it from the rain, and, sighing heavily, headed home.
Returning to his huge and empty mansion, Jin first realized that he had absolutely nothing to feed the cat. The refrigerator was pristinely clean, save for a bottle of water. Sighing irritably, he left the cat on a soft blanket in the living room and went out again to find a convenience store.
When he returned, the cat had dried off a bit and gratefully pounced on the milk and food. The oppressive silence of the house receded slightly, replaced by quiet, soothing purring. Jin felt a strange, almost forgotten warmth looking at her.
At that moment, Kuro silently jumped out from around the corner. His familiar, usually calm and reasonable, froze in his tracks seeing the new inhabitant. His nose twitched, and his ears, usually with crimson tips, tensed up, and the crimson color on them became brighter, almost glowing in the semi-darkness of the room. He let out a low, threatening growl, uncharacteristic for a rabbit, and stomped his hind foot, looking at the cat with frank, primal dislike.
The cat, opening one emerald eye, lazily looked at the rabbit, snorted, and closed her eyes again, demonstrating complete contempt.
"Hey, Long-ears, calm down," Jin said, picking Kuro up. "There's enough room for everyone. She won't hurt you."
The rabbit twitched discontentedly in his arms, trying to break free and continue the attack, but obeyed, casting withering glances at the cat. Jin wrote off his reaction as ordinary jealousy. Blinded by his own worries and the remnants of human naivety, he couldn't even assume that his faithful familiar instinctively sensed deception, caught the hostile aura of a youkai hidden under the mask of helplessness.
Late at night, when Jin, exhausted by the day and his own thoughts, finally fell asleep, the cat opened her eyes. In the emerald pupils, there was no longer fear or weakness. Only a cold, predatory glint and sharp intelligence. Kuroka silently jumped off the blanket and on soft paws walked around the living room, inspecting the mansion.
'What a simpleton,' flashed through her thoughts.
'Fell for such a cheap trick. Although... the power slumbering in him, even at rest, is astounding. And that rabbit of his... he suspected something. He's no simple familiar. Need to be careful. Well then, stage one complete. Let's see what other weaknesses you have, Izayoi Jin.'
She jumped onto the windowsill and looked at the night city. The hunt had begun. And the prey didn't even suspect that he had brought the predator into his lair himself.