Chapter 2: Her Eyes Were Painted in Void
I arrived at school the next day like nothing had happened.
No one saw the beast.
No one felt the air twist or the blood moon burn.
That's how this world works.
People only see what they want to see.
"Hiragi, you're spacing out again."
A voice jolted me back.
It was Airi Kurobane, the transfer student who'd arrived last week—
the only one who ever talked to me without fear in her eyes.
She was... different.
Her eyes weren't normal.
They were deep. Too deep.
Like staring into the sky and feeling like you're about to fall up.
"Did you stay up all night again?" she asked, resting her chin on her hand, staring through me.
I didn't answer.
But she smirked like she already knew.
"Airi Kurobane."
That name didn't exist on any student record.
I checked. Twice.
No digital trace.
No family. No files.
Nothing but her, sitting in class like a ghost in a uniform.
And then there was her shadow.
It didn't move when she did.
Later that day, something shifted.
The classroom went cold.
The teacher's voice turned distant, like a bad radio signal.
And then... everything froze.
Not like a metaphor. I mean literally.
Time. Space. Air.
Everyone stopped moving—except me.
And her.
Airi stood up, her eyes glowing faintly violet, and walked toward me.
Her voice was layered—one soft, one ancient.
"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked.
"The Voidspawn."
My breath caught.
She shouldn't know that name.
Only Nolan used it. Only beings outside reality ever whispered it.
"Who are you?" I asked.
She smiled.
"Someone who remembers the real shape of this world."
Suddenly, a crack split the air behind her.
Like broken glass in the sky.
A black hand reached out—long, jointless fingers dripping with ink.
Another one of them.
Another Voidspawn.
Airi didn't even flinch.
Instead, she turned to me and said:
"Show me your power, Void Slayer."
I didn't hesitate.
[Release Restraint: Level Two — Phantom Pulse]
A pulse of black energy burst from my chest.
The classroom shattered into a swirling realm of grey and static.
Everything fake was stripped away.
Only truth remained.
A battlefield between illusions and the unseen.
I launched forward.
The air cracked as I struck the creature's core—
but it didn't vanish.
It laughed.
Mocking. Familiar.
Then it spoke with a voice I hadn't heard in a year.
"Hiragi... it's me. Your brother."
My blood ran cold.
To be continued…