The golden hour of the afternoon was a lie. To the rest of the Nico Academy, the sun was a warm embrace; to me, it was a spotlight I had to avoid.
I stood at the edge of the rooftop, my fingers gripping the cold stone railing so hard the masonry began to spider-web. Below, on the manicured lawn, the scene was a direct insult to the Yami name. Hana was walking with Kenji Sato. Even from this height, I could see his hand resting on her shoulder—a casual, possessive weight that made the White Mist in my veins begin to boil.
"You're going to break the masonry, Kuro," Ren said, still leaning against the vent behind me.
I didn't turn around. My eyes—now a sharp, flickering hazel—were locked on the "Solar Prince."
"Who is he? Truly?" I asked, my voice like grinding glass.
"Kenji Sato. Son of the Sato Conglomerate. S-Rank Fire Affinity," Ren replied, her voice neutral but tinged with a warning. "They call him the 'Solar Prince.' He's been groomed to be the next Number One. And right now... he's the only one the Academy thinks is 'worthy' of standing next to your sister."
"Worthy?" I hissed. "He's a peacock."
"Maybe. But a peacock with enough heat to melt this entire building. Be careful, Kuro. Whatever 'awakening' you just had... it's a spark. Kenji is a sun."
I finally let go of the railing, leaving behind the jagged imprint of my fingers in the stone. A small puff of White Mist evaporated from my fingertips—to Ren, it looked like a strange mana-leak. She had no idea a System was currently calculating my every breath.
"I'm not a spark," I said.
I stepped off the ledge. I didn't fall. I Mist-Stepped, descending the side of the obsidian tower in a series of jagged, silent blurs, my boots barely touching the surface before I vanished into the next shadow.
The Courtyard was a symphony of elite arrogance. Mana-cycles hummed and students laughed, blissfully unaware that a ghost was moving among them. I moved parallel to Hana and Kenji, keeping behind the massive stone pillars of the Cloister.
Focus. Filter out the noise. Filter out the trash.
A flickering Blue Screen appeared, visible only to me. It hovered over Kenji's head like a death warrant.
[PERCEPTION ACTIVE]
[TARGET: KENJI SATO]
[LEVEL: ?? (ESTIMATED RANK: S)]
[AURA TYPE: VOLATILE PYRE]
My vision shifted. The world turned a dull, lifeless grey, but Kenji glowed like a burning ember, a violent orange that threatened to char everything nearby. Hana, beside him, was a swirling vortex of violet—a storm being crowded by a fire.
I stopped behind the statue of the Academy's founder, my breathing perfectly synchronized with the rustle of the wind.
"...and once we clear the C-Rank gate on Friday," Kenji was saying, his voice carrying that effortless, inherited authority, "the Board will have no choice but to officially pair us for the National Trials. It's destiny, Hana. The Void and the Sun."
Hana looked uncomfortable. She kept adjusting her bag, her eyes searching the crowd. Searching for me. "I'm not thinking about the Trials, Kenji. I'm thinking about my brother. He... he fought an Instructor today."
Kenji laughed. It was a sharp, arrogant sound that made my jaw tighten. " 'Fought?' Hana, don't be delusional. Vane was playing with him. Your brother had a lucky mana-spasm. It happens to E-Ranks when they're terrified. He's probably in the infirmary right now, crying into a pillow."
The White Mist began to roll across the grass, freezing the blades of green into silver needles.
"Forget about him," Kenji continued, his voice dropping to a condescending purr. "He's a weight around your neck. You need to fly, and you can't do that while dragging a Zero-Link through the mud. I can speak to my father. We can get him a quiet job in the countryside. Away from the danger."
Hana stopped dead. She pulled away from his hand, her violet aura pulsing once—a warning sign. "My brother is not a 'weight,' Kenji."
The temperature in the courtyard dropped ten degrees. The Ashen Mist I was holding back finally spilled out, heavy and silent. Kenji frowned, looking around as the fog swallowed the pillars.
"What is this? A weather glitch?" he muttered. He looked toward my statue. He saw a silhouette—a man with glowing hazel eyes staring back from the mist. For a split second, the "Solar Prince" felt a primal, freezing fear. The sensation of a predator watching him from the tall grass.
Not yet, I told myself. Don't reveal the hand yet.
I pulled the Mist back, vanishing into the shadows of the Cloister just as Kenji ignited a flame in his palm to clear the air.
"Strange..." Kenji whispered, his hand trembling slightly. "I felt... something."
Hana looked exactly where I had been standing, her eyes wide with a mix of hope and confusion. "I felt it too. It felt like... Kuro. But colder."
Later, in the solitude of my dorm, I pushed my body to the limit. I was doing one-fingered pushups, my body hovering slightly as the Mist supported my weight, training the "vessel" I had become.
[NOTIFICATION]
[NEW QUEST: THE SILENT GUARDIAN]
[OBJECTIVE: MONITOR INTERNAL THREATS (KENJI SATO)]
[REWARD: UNLOCK 'SHADOW ARMORY' LEVEL 1]
I stopped, standing up to face the mirror. I looked at the "Daily Quest" ticker in my peripheral vision. It was still counting down. I had been so focused on Kenji that I'd neglected the basic maintenance the System demanded.
Suddenly, the blue light of the screen turned a violent, bleeding red.
[DAILY QUEST: PREPARE THE VESSEL - FAILED]
[PENALTY PROTOCOL INITIATED: THE ARCHIVE OF THE FALLEN]
My shadow on the wall grew, stretching out like liquid ink, swallowing the bed, the floor, and finally, my entire consciousness.
I hit the ground hard. It wasn't the dorm floor. It was a landscape of crushed bone and obsidian under a black sun. In front of me sat a shattered throne, and on it sat a figure shrouded in my own White Mist.
"Where am I?" I demanded, reaching for the power.
"This is the end of the line for the 'Zero-Link'," the Echo replied, its voice like stones grinding together. "You survived a B-Rank gravity field, but you couldn't keep up with the System's demands? Pathetic."
The Echo lunged.
The fight was a blur of high-octane violence. The Echo used The Ashen Mist with a mastery I didn't yet possess, moving like a flickering ghost. It wasn't stronger than me—it was Level 6, just like I was—but it was efficient.
I was dismantled. Every strike I threw was countered; every Mist-Step I took was anticipated. I was slammed into the obsidian ground, my blood staining the white bones.
It's using my own weight against me, I realized, coughing up a mouthful of shadow-smoke. It's not a monster. It's a mirror.
I closed my eyes. I stopped trying to overpower it. I relied on my Perception (14). I felt the ripple in the mist, the tiny disturbance in the air before the Echo struck. I caught the Echo's wrist—not with strength, but with perfect, calculated timing.
"I spent ten years in a basement counting seconds," I hissed. "I don't fail. I adapt."
I drove my elbow into the Echo's chest. The figure shattered into thousands of pieces of white glass.
[PENALTY SURVIVED]
[HIDDEN STAT UNLOCKED: WILLPOWER +5]
[LEVEL UP! LVL 6 → LVL 7]
I snapped awake in my dorm, drenched in cold sweat, my heart hammering against my ribs. I walked to the mirror and touched the glass. Where my finger hit, a layer of frost formed, spreading in a jagged web.
"Shadow Armory..." I whispered.
Hana thinks I'm a survivor. Vane thinks I'm a glitch. Kenji thinks I'm a weight.
I looked at the frosty handprint I'd left on the glass. As long as they don't see the screens... I'm the only one playing this game. And the game is just beginning.