The Academy felt different at night.
By day, Seiki Academy was a bustling sanctuary of power and learning, its towering buildings glowing faintly with protective wards. But once the sun dipped below the mountains and the lanterns flickered to life, a heavy silence settled over the halls. It was a stillness that hummed with hidden secrets, as if the very stones whispered of things better left unknown.
Kaito walked quietly down the dim corridor that led from the dormitory to the central archive. He wasn't supposed to be out this late, but something was gnawing at him—an unease he couldn't shake.
Rumors had begun circulating among the students over the last few days.
Disappearing students.
It started with whispers. A Shirabe manipulator from Class Two didn't return after an evening sparring session. Then a Tensui user went missing after a late-night study session in the library. Their rooms were undisturbed, belongings untouched. No alarms were raised, no signs of struggle—just absence.
When Hina had first mentioned it over dinner, she'd tried to downplay it.
"Maybe they just… left?"
But Riku, as always, saw more.
"No. People don't vanish without reason here. And the faculty is being unusually quiet about it."
Now, Kaito couldn't stop thinking about it. Something about the silence felt wrong.
He stopped in front of a large window overlooking the courtyard. The moonlight washed over the Academy's ancient stones, painting them in silver and black. Down below, a faint shadow flickered—something moving quickly along the edge of the garden.
Was it another student? Or something else?
Before he could decide, soft footsteps approached from behind.
"Kaito," Riku's calm voice came. "I knew you'd be here."
Kaito turned, half-startled, but then relaxed slightly. "Couldn't sleep either?"
Riku's gaze was unreadable. "No. I've been… investigating. I found something."
Before Kaito could reply, Hina appeared around the corner, fiery hair catching the faint glow of the lanterns. "You two are terrible at sneaking out quietly. Are we doing this together or what?"
Kaito blinked. "You followed us?"
"Of course." She crossed her arms. "You're not leaving me behind on something this suspicious."
Riku inclined his head. "Fine. Come with us. But stay sharp."
The Forbidden Wing
The three made their way toward the North Wing of the Academy, an older section rarely used except by advanced students and faculty. Riku explained as they walked.
"There's a part of the Academy not listed on the public map—the Forbidden Wing. It's supposed to house relics and dangerous scrolls from the early Seiki wars. I think it's connected to the disappearances."
As they turned a corner, they saw it: a heavy iron door carved with intricate sealing sigils. The air here felt different—colder, heavier.
"This place…" Hina whispered, shivering slightly. "It feels wrong."
Riku produced a thin silver thread glowing faintly with his Shirabe Seiki. "The door is sealed, but only against brute force. I can bypass it."
Within seconds, his threads manipulated the sigils delicately, untangling the locking mechanism like a puzzle. The door creaked open slowly, revealing darkness beyond.
The trio stepped inside.
It was a long hallway lined with stone statues and faintly glowing glyphs. Scrolls and tomes floated in protective fields of light. But beyond that, deeper inside the hall, the glow dimmed and the air grew stale.
And then they saw it.
A vacant dormitory uniform, neatly folded and lying on the floor as if the person wearing it had simply… vanished. Next to it was a faint residue of Seiki energy—strange, alien, and hungry.
Kaito froze. The Void inside him pulsed violently, reacting.
"Someone was taken here," Riku murmured, scanning the area. "And whatever did it left no physical trace."
Hina knelt and touched the faint energy lingering in the air. "This feels… wrong. It's not any Seiki I recognize."
Before they could investigate further, a low sound echoed through the darkness.
A voice.
"Curious little mice, sneaking where they shouldn't…"
A shadow moved at the end of the hallway—tall, cloaked, featureless. Its presence was suffocating, an aura so dense it made the air feel like molasses.
The Void inside Kaito writhed uncontrollably. It recognized this presence.
The figure spoke again, softly but chillingly. "The Academy is only a facade. Do you really think your vows will protect you?"
Kaito stepped back instinctively. "Who are you?"
The figure didn't answer. Instead, the shadows around it shifted and formed tendrils, writhing like living things.
Riku immediately unleashed his threads, weaving a defensive barrier. "Stay behind me!"
Hina's fists flared, bright orange light cutting through the gloom. "If you're looking for a fight, you've got one!"
The shadowy figure didn't move like a normal opponent. It phased through Riku's threads, tendrils slicing at the walls effortlessly.
"Not good," Riku muttered. "It's not fully corporeal!"
Hina lunged, her blazing fists punching through the tendrils and dispersing them with sheer force. But for every tendril she destroyed, two more formed.
Kaito felt the Void screaming inside him, urging him to let go, to consume the enemy's energy.
But he couldn't—not recklessly. Not without risking everything.
Then, the figure extended a single tendril toward Kaito, stopping just inches from his chest.
"You carry it… the hunger… the same as me." The voice was softer now, almost a whisper. "You will understand soon."
And just like that—
The figure vanished, leaving only silence and a faint residue of dark Seiki in its wake.
The three stood frozen, breathing hard.
"What… the hell was that?" Hina whispered.
Riku's face was pale. "Something beyond a normal Seiki user. That… was closer to a Void specialization. But different. Older."
Kaito clenched his fists. "It knew. It felt… like me."
Before they could process more, the distant echo of footsteps approached. Voices—faculty, perhaps, searching the halls.
Riku's threads closed the iron door behind them as they retreated quietly. They couldn't be caught here—not yet.
Back at the Dormitory
Back in their room, the three sat in silence for a long time. The weight of what they'd seen pressed on them.
"We need answers," Hina said finally. "The Academy is hiding something big."
Riku nodded. "And I think that figure—whatever it was—is connected to the disappearances."
Kaito stared at his hands. The Void within was still trembling, unsettled. That encounter had awakened something deep inside him.
"I need to know why it felt like… me."
The Hidden Message
Later that night, as Kaito lay awake, a faint glimmer of dark energy formed on his desk. Slowly, letters burned into the wood, forming a message:
"Your vow will not save you.The hunger always wins.Come to the Undercroft if you want the truth."
The words pulsed once before fading into ash.
Kaito's eyes widened. The Undercroft—a place whispered about only in rumors, said to be beneath the Academy, where forbidden experiments and sealed relics lay.
He knew, without a doubt, that their journey was about to take a far darker turn.