The classroom was quiet, only the monotone sound of chalk on the board filling the air. Ryu tried to focus, but something buzzed in his head, like a distant echo slowly approaching.
Then it happened.
Reality blinked.
For an instant, the room disappeared. The walls turned black, covered in pulsing flesh. Eyes — dozens, maybe hundreds — opened in the darkness and stared straight at him. Voices whispered his name, all in unison.
"Ryu..."
He blinked. Everything returned to normal. The teacher kept speaking. His classmates took notes. No one seemed to notice anything.
Except Alice.
From her seat, she watched him in silence, eyes narrowed.
After class, Alice intercepted him in the hallway.
—"The voice again?"— she asked, direct.
Ryu hesitated, then nodded.
—"It's different now. I can... see things."
—"That's not normal," Alice said gently, but firmly. "We should do a purification. A light one. Nothing painful."
—"No." Ryu shook his head. "Not yet. If that power is part of me, I want to understand it before sealing it."
Alice looked at him with concern. She didn't insist.
Hours later, Ryu was walking alone behind the school. The sun was slowly setting, the sky painted orange. He tried to sort through his thoughts.
Then Mizuki appeared.
—"Contemplating existence, Ryu?" she asked mockingly.
—"Just... getting some air."
Mizuki observed him with a mysterious smile.
—"Do you ever feel like someone else is inside you? Breathing with you. Thinking with you. Wanting things you shouldn't want...?"
Ryu stared at her, frozen. He didn't reply.
—"Sometimes, the soul... remembers," Mizuki whispered, stepping closer. "Have you ever tasted a soul screaming as it's torn from the flesh?"
Ryu stepped back. No one should know that. Not even him.
Mizuki walked away, humming a guttural chant in a language that sounded... ancient. Infernal. Ryu's stomach twisted.
When he touched his chest, the seal burned. He collapsed.
And then he saw it.
It wasn't his memory.
It was a hell of flesh and hatred. Colossal demons mocked a small, weak, thin one. Zarkhiel. They spat on him, dragged him, beat him for not being cruel enough.
Then she appeared. A young woman with crimson eyes and a cruel smile: Mizuki. She whispered something he couldn't understand, and stabbed him with a spear of shadow. Zarkhiel's blood soaked the ground.
"My legacy will not die with me!" he roared before exploding in a black blaze that vanished into the void.
Ryu woke up on the ground, alone.
He looked at his hand. For a moment, a shadow flickered around his fingers. It didn't feel hostile. Only... asleep.
And for the first time, Ryu wasn't afraid.
—"Maybe... I'm not just a vessel. Maybe I was chosen for something."
The wind blew, and the world kept turning, unaware that something deep had just awakened.