The night was as dark as ink.
In the distance, the clock tower of Holy Oath Academy stood tall, its silhouette cloaked in moonlight and its cracks resembling gashes.
Kazama Rei was jolted awake by the deep tolling of the bell. Her phone displayed 23:59 precisely.
The next second—
Dong.
The bell tolled, heavy and slow yet carrying an eerie echo.
It didn't merely reverberate through the air, it seeped into every student's dreams.
Rei sat bolt upright, his heart pounding violently. He saw that the fog outside his dorm window was thicker than the night before and that the entire campus was shrouded as if by some barrier. The spiritual pressure within the dorm was chaotic: lights flickered and a low hum filled the air.
He got out of bed, feeling his left eye burn again. The patterns in his pupil were deeper than the day before, as if sensing something.
In that instant, he heard footsteps echoing down the hallway outside the dorm. Thud—Thud—
The sound was slow and steady, as if someone were patrolling or searching.
Rei held his breath and peered through the door crack.
The hallway was empty.
But in the dim light, he could see a trail of wet footprints stretching from the far end to the stairwell.
A chill ran through him. They weren't wet from water; they were the residue of spiritual energy.
Rei decided to follow them.
He descended the stairs alongside the footprints, his footsteps almost silent. With each step, the vision in his left eye distorted as if something were trying to 'see' the world through him.
When he reached the first floor of the dormitory, he spotted a door: a small side entrance that led to the outer courtyard. It should have been locked by midnight, yet now it stood slightly ajar. Wind poured through the gap, carrying the scent of blood.
Rei gritted his teeth and pushed the door open.
The outer courtyard was shrouded in thick fog and the shadow of the clock tower stretched out infinitely. Papers and notebooks littered the grass; a student ID had been blown to his feet.
He picked it up and read—
Name: Hanae Yuki
[Class: 2-B
Status: Withdrawn — Records deleted
Deleted? Rei frowned. Students whose records were deleted from the academy's database usually fell into one category: death by paranormal incident.
Just as he looked up, a figure flashed through the thick fog. It was a girl, her uniform dishevelled and her hair obscuring half her face. Barefoot on the damp grass, she moved eerily.
"Hanae Yuki?" Rei called out tentatively.
The girl turned her head, a slow, sinister grin spreading across her lips. Her pupils were hollow and lifeless, and a faint Sin Mark — a black, ring-shaped rune — floated on her face.
Instantly, spiritual pressure erupted.
Rei took a step back. The mark on his palm glowed, the patterns in his left eye fully unfurling. The spiritual energy flowing in the air was forcibly transformed. He could see the fragmented, shattered soul structure within the girl, like torn glass.
Suddenly, she reached out and pointed at him.
'Give me back my name...'
Her voice echoed as if from the depths of the spirit world, distorted and layered.
The next moment, the school bell tolled again — the second strike.
Accompanying this sound, the barrier at the centre of the academy pulsed violently, alerting every spirit user. Several beams of spirit light flared atop distant skyscrapers as the Student Council's Spirit Monitoring Division activated defences.
Rei knew he had been discovered.
He instantly retreated, gathering spiritual energy in his palms, and a translucent barrier materialised before him.
The girl's spirit form crashed into it and shattered into fragments of light. Rei held the barrier for mere seconds before it shattered. The impact threw him backwards, slamming him into a wall and blurring his vision.
'She isn't an ordinary spirit,' he gasped, his left eye flickering crimson-gold. 'She's an erased student!'
The moment the words left his mouth, a white figure materialised from the mist.
'No unauthorised actions, freshman.'
The voice was cold and precise. Rei looked up and saw a white-haired youth standing in the shadow of the clock tower: Shiratori Aya, the vice president of the student council.
She extended her hand, and light swirled around her fingertips. A silver runic pattern spread across the ground, instantly sealing off the entire area.
The girl's spirit form froze in mid-air, her screams abruptly silenced.
'This is beyond your jurisdiction.'
Aya approached, her tone icy. 'Spirits rated Class B or higher fall under the authority of the Student Council.'
Rei frowned. 'She's a student — expelled.'
Aya stopped and tilted her head to look at him.
'You shouldn't know that name.'
In the silent night, their gazes locked. As the mist dispersed, the girl's spirit dissolved into a grey light and vanished, leaving only a black badge on the ground.
Aya picked up the badge and said softly, 'She wasn't on the list, but the death roster shows one more "unregistered student".'
Rei's pupils contracted slightly. "What does that mean?"
'It means she never existed from the very beginning.'
The bell tolled again, for the third time. The academy's alarm system was fully activated, the barrier was sealed and the entire night sky glowed with an eerie red light.
Aya turned to leave, but suddenly paused and added in a low voice, "That eye of yours... best not to use it recklessly. Not everyone in the academy wants it to appear again.'
With that, he vanished into the mist, leaving Rei alone beneath the bell tower.
Rei clutched the light pattern in his palm, his heart pounding as if it would burst. The power surged within him, awakened by something.
He looked up at the bell tower. The crack glinted in the moonlight, like some kind of warning.
'Unregistered student... a name that doesn't exist...' he murmured softly.
"Then who was it I saw?"
The sound of the wind carried faint sobbing from afar. From this moment onward, Saint Oath Academy would never be quiet again.