Morning arrived with its usual deceptive stillness. Rin Kuga sat at his desk, his head buried in the crook of his arm as he succumbed to a heavy, dreamless sleep. To the rest of Shuchiin Academy, he was merely another transfer student struggling with the curriculum; in reality, the classroom was nothing more than a convenient blind—a theater of normalcy that allowed him to move unnoticed through the city.
The rhythmic hum of the morning was shattered by a sharp, insistent poke to his shoulder blade. Utaha Kasumigaoka, seated directly behind him, had finally reached the limit of her patience. She brandished her pencil like a needle, jabbing him again for good measure.
"Hey. Wake up," she commanded, her voice a cool, academic rasp. "I have questions for you."
Rin stirred, lifting his head with agonizing slowness. His eyelids felt like lead, and his expression was a portrait of unfiltered irritation. He turned his head just enough to catch her in his periphery.
"What do you want now, Fatty?"
Snap.
The pencil in Utaha's hand shattered under the sudden, violent clenching of her fist. Her jaw tightened, a vein pulsing at her temple. "You... what did you just—"
Before she could unleash the verbal venom brewing behind her teeth, Rin's arm moved. It was a blur of motion, his right hand sweeping upward to catch a handful of her long, raven-black hair.
The classroom erupted. A chorus of sharp gasps and stifled shrieks rose from the surrounding girls, their eyes wide with a mix of horror and scandalous delight. In their minds, they were witnessing the birth of a turbulent romance—a dramatic overture between their class "god" and the icy literary genius.
But for Rin, the world had slowed to a crawl. He wasn't feeling the silk of her hair; he was hunting a frequency.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Utaha stammered. The crimson flush hit her cheeks instantly, spreading to the tips of her ears. For a fleeting, panicked heartbeat, the delusion took hold: Does he actually like me?
Rin retracted his hand just as quickly as he had moved.
"Ah... sorry. My mistake," he said, forcing a dry, apologetic chuckle as he turned back to his desk. "I thought I saw a bug in your hair. Must have been a trick of the light."
"A bug? You expect me to believe a pathetic excuse like that?" Utaha snapped, trying to regain her poise. She straightened her hair, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the back of his head. She was convinced he was playing a game—trying to keep her off-balance, pulling her in only to push her away with a clumsy lie. She felt a surge of competitive confidence; she was the one in control here, and he was clearly struggling to express his "infatuation."
Rin ignored her follow-up jab, offering only a dismissive wave of his hand. "Sure, let's go with that. Terribly clumsy of me."
He settled back into his seat, but his expression had shifted. The sleepy irritation was gone, replaced by the cold, focus of a predator. Tucked between his fingers, hidden from view, was a single strand of silver filament. It caught the morning light, shimmering with a metallic, unnatural luster.
It wasn't hair. It was a high-tensile, organic polymer—spider silk.
This strength, this elasticity... no terrestrial arachnid is capable of this, Rin thought, his thumb tracing the jagged edge of the web.
The realization sat heavy in his gut. A Spider-type monster was nesting within the sanctuary of the school, and it had already marked Utaha as its next meal. The girl behind him was acting out a romantic comedy in her head, oblivious to the fact that she was being wrapped in an invisible shroud.
Deep beneath the reinforced concrete foundations of the academy, the air was thick with the scent of stagnant water and rotting iron. In the lightless void of the maintenance tunnels, a massive, chitinous horror shifted.
The Spider Orphnoch moved with a sickening, multi-jointed grace, weaving a gargantuan web across the darkness. It paused, its multifaceted eyes shimmering as it looked at its "collection"—the desiccated remains of previous victims hanging like macabre ornaments.
"Kekeke..." A wet, rasping laugh echoed off the damp walls. "Next is Kasumigaoka Utaha. Soon, little bird, you'll fall right into my parlor. I wonder... what's taking that useless Bat so long to return?"
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