The Body in the Alley
The night breathed like something alive.
Cold fog drifted through the narrow alleyways of Blackridge District, curling around rusted pipes and broken street lamps. The silence felt wrong—too heavy for a city famous for crime and chaos.
Rai Kurodan walked alone, hood covering half his face, footsteps slow and steady. He wasn't out this late by choice.
His curse pulled him here.
A pressure built behind his eyes.
A whisper pushed at the edge of his senses.
Someone died here.
"Again…?" Rai muttered under his breath.
He turned into a narrow alley. Broken glass cracked under his shoes. A stray cat bolted away.
Then he saw it.
A man lay collapsed on the ground—blood pooling, eyes wide open, face pale and lifeless.
Rai stopped breathing for a second.
"…A body."
Most people would scream.
Rai just knelt beside it.
His hand hovered over the corpse. Touching a dead body meant one thing. A thing he hated more than anything.
But he had to know.
His fingertips pressed against the man's forehead.
The world snapped.
And suddenly, Rai was living the man's last ten seconds—
Running.
Panicking.
Something monstrous chasing him.
A masked figure with glowing violet eyes raising a blade.
Slash.
Blood, darkness, silence.
Rai gasped and pulled away, chest tight.
"Who the hell… was that?"
Before he could think further, a cold voice echoed behind him.
"Step away from the body."
Rai froze. Someone was watching him.
And this night was only the beginning.
The Stranger in the Shadows
Rai didn't move.
The voice behind him was calm—too calm.
Not the tone of someone shocked to see a corpse.
Not the tone of someone calling for help.
It was the tone of someone who already expected this.
Rai slowly raised his hands and turned around.
A man stood at the mouth of the alley.
Tall.
Black coat.
Face hidden beneath a hood.
Only the faint outline of a mask underneath.
Rai's stomach tightened.
"Are you police?" Rai asked, though he already knew the answer.
The stranger didn't step closer.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even show surprise that Rai was kneeling over a dead body.
Instead, he tilted his head slightly.
"You touched him."
Rai froze. "How do you—?"
"You saw something," the man said.
Not a question.
A statement.
Rai took one step back, instinctively distancing himself.
The stranger continued, voice steady:
"Tell me. What were his final ten seconds?"
Rai's pulse spiked.
He shouldn't know about that.
Nobody knew about that.
Not the doctors.
Not the police.
Not even Rai's closest friends.
No one.
"How…" Rai swallowed, "…how do you know about—"
A sudden metallic sound sliced through the air.
SHINK.
Something flashed past Rai's cheek—fast as lightning.
He felt a sting. A warm line of blood slid down.
He staggered back, eyes wide.
The stranger's hand had moved.
Barely.
Just a flick of the wrist.
Behind Rai, embedded in the brick wall, was a thin black-bladed throwing knife.
It would've gone straight through his skull if he hadn't moved an inch.
"Wha—what the hell?!"
The stranger finally stepped forward.
Under his hood, two faint violet lights glowed.
Eyes.
Not human.
Not normal.
Cold.
Sharp.
Predatory.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"The masked one is coming for you, Rai Kurodan."
Rai felt his blood run cold.
"Why?! What do you people want from me?!"
The stranger didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed toward the corpse.
"The body is only the beginning.
The Protocol has already started."
Rai's breath caught.
"Protocol…?"
The man whispered one final sentence before disappearing into the shadows:
"Phase Zero."
Rai blinked—
And the stranger was gone.
Like he had dissolved into the darkness itself.
Rai stood alone with the corpse, bleeding cheek, and a name echoing in his mind.
Phase Zero.
Echoes in the Dark
Rai backed away from the alley wall, breath shallow.
The stranger's words echoed in his mind.
"The masked one is coming for you… Phase Zero."
He didn't know what that meant—
but his instincts screamed that staying here any longer was a mistake.
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
Police.
Someone must've reported the noise. Or the body. Or maybe… maybe someone wanted them to find him here.
Rai clenched his jaw.
He had been at too many murder scenes already.
They always let him go with warnings, suspicious looks, whispered questions.
This time would be worse.
He wiped the blood from his cheek and stepped back into the shadows.
Footsteps echoed at the end of the alley.
Flashlights.
"Over here! Body found!"
Rai cursed under his breath.
He turned and sprinted.
His shoes splashed through puddles, each step echoing through the empty street. He cut through a narrow passageway, vaulted over a metal fence, and ducked beneath a broken stairwell until the voices faded.
Only then did he lean against the wall, breath shaking.
His curse never warned him to run.
His instincts always did.
Tonight, both had screamed.
Rai pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to steady himself—but the moment he shut his eyes—
The vision hit him again.
Ten seconds.
Running.
Fear.
The masked figure.
Those violet eyes.
For a second, Rai felt like they were staring straight at him.
He snapped his eyes open and forced the memory out.
"No… focus," he muttered. "Who was that guy? And why did he know about my curse?"
Rai had never told anyone.
He couldn't.
People didn't react well to someone who could see death.
His breathing finally slowed. He stepped back onto the main street, cold wind biting at his skin.
The city lights flickered overhead.
Blackridge always felt alive.
Tonight, it felt like something was watching.
Rai kept walking—
until he felt the pressure again.
Not the curse.
Different.
A cold presence. A stare.
He stopped.
Slowly, he turned.
At the far end of the road…
A figure stood beneath a broken streetlamp.
White mask.
Violet glowing eyes.
Still.
Watching him.
Rai's breath froze.
The masked killer from the vision.
He was real.
And he was here.
Rai took one step back—
and the masked figure tilted its head…
just like the stranger did.
Then—
it vanished.
Not walked.
Not ran.
Vanished.
Rai stumbled backward, heart pounding in his chest.
"What… what IS this?!"
He didn't know what Phase Zero was.
He didn't know why he had this curse.
But tonight made one thing clear:
Someone—or something—was hunting him.
And the next time he saw that mask…
He might not escape.