CHAPTER ONE: "Before Everything"
---
SCENE — THE RAJIN HOUSEHOLD. MORNING.
The house is warm. Sunlight through open windows. The smell of rice and something slightly burnt.
Kora (from upstairs, smelling disaster):
"LEO. YOUR EGGS ARE BURNING."
Leo (from his room, unconcerned):
"They're fine—"
Kora (walking into the kitchen, arms crossed, unimpressed):
"They are not fine, Leo. I can smell them from my room."
Lan (at the table, calm, watching his son be his son):
"The eggs are, in fact, on fire."
Leo appears at the bottom of the stairs — dark green hair sticking up in three directions, wearing one shoe, half his bag packed. He slides into the kitchen, grabs the pan, and dumps it into the sink. Hiss.
He turns around. He grins.
Leo:
"See? Handled."
Kora (deadpan):
"You handled them into the trash."
Leo (unbothered):
"I handled them away from the smoke alarm. That's a win."
Kora stares at him for three full seconds.
Kora:
"I can't believe we share blood."
Leo laughs — the kind of laugh that fills a room without meaning to. He reaches over to ruffle her hair. She ducks. He does it anyway.
Lan watches from the table. He is quiet in the way fathers are quiet when they are trying to memorize something. Brown hair. Steady eyes. He does not say what he is thinking. He rarely does.
Lan:
"You have everything?"
Leo:
"I think so. Bag, clothes, books—"
Kora:
"You packed three notebooks and no socks."
A beat.
Leo:
"...I knew that."
Kora:
"I went in your bag, Leo. There are zero socks."
Leo (to Lan, helplessly):
"She does this."
Lan (completely neutral):
"She's not wrong."
Luan comes downstairs. She moves quietly. Green hair — the same shade she passed to Leo — worn loose. Her eyes are steady, the way people get steady when they have spent years keeping them that way on purpose. She looks at her son. She smiles. But her hands find each other. Hold.
Luan:
"Are you ready?"
Leo (turning, lighting up):
"Almost! Kora found a sock situation—"
Luan (softly):
"I packed you socks two days ago. Front pocket, left side."
A pause.
Leo (quietly, impressed):
"You're incredible."
Luan (even softer):
"I know."
She crosses to him. She straightens his collar — even though it does not need straightening. Leo notices. He lets her.
Leo (gentler):
"Mum. I'll be home every weekend."
Luan:
"I know that."
Leo:
"It's twenty minutes on the train—"
Luan (looking at him the way you look at someone when you know something they do not — something heavy, something she has been carrying alone for a long time):
"I know, Leo."
She does not say it. She smooths his collar again instead.
Luan (steady):
"Call me when you arrive."
Leo:
"First thing."
Kora appears with his bag — fully packed, sock situation resolved — and drops it at his feet.
Kora:
"Six pairs. Front pocket, right side. You're welcome."
Leo (pulling her into a hug she did not ask for):
"What would I do without you."
Kora (muffled against his shoulder):
"Show up places without socks."
Leo (squeezing tighter):
"—beautiful moment—"
Kora:
"Leo—"
Lan puts his hand on Leo's shoulder.
Lan (simply):
"Go be good."
Leo looks at him. Something passes between them — uncomplicated, full. The kind of thing fathers and sons say without saying anything.
Leo:
"Yeah."
He picks up his bag. He looks back once — at Kora making a face at him, at Lan standing steady, at Luan watching him go with that smile that almost hides what lives behind it. He waves. He leaves.
Luan stands at the window long after the gate closes. Lan comes to stand beside her. He does not ask. He knows.
Lan (quietly):
"You could tell him."
A long pause.
Luan (still watching the empty path):
"Not yet."
Lan:
"Luan—"
Luan:
"He has time. He's happy. Let him have it."
Kora, leaning against the hallway wall just out of sight, heard the whole thing. She does not know what it means. But she files it away. Quietly. Carefully. The way she files everything.
---
SCENE — HIKARI UNIVERSITY. COURTYARD. AFTERNOON.
Big open courtyard. A fountain with a traffic cone on top. Students everywhere.
Kenny is standing on a bench. This is not unusual. Kenny stands on things.
Kenny (to Alex, who is sitting on the bench reading):
"The plan."
Alex (without looking up):
"There is no good plan."
Kenny (gesturing grandly with a notebook):
"The plan, Alex—"
Alex:
"I am telling you now, before you explain it, that it will not work."
Kenny:
"Tara confesses to Leo. Today. This is achievable. I have mapped the variables."
Alex:
"Those aren't variables, Kenny. Those are nouns."
Kenny:
"They are variables that happen to also be nouns, yes—"
Jenny drops onto the bench next to Alex from what appears to be nowhere.
Jenny (to Alex):
"What did I miss?"
Alex:
"Kenny is planning a confession by proxy."
Jenny (immediately intrigued):
"For Tara?"
Kenny (pointing at her):
"Yes. Thank you. Someone sees the vision—"
Jenny:
"This is going to be a disaster."
Kenny:
"Jenny—"
Jenny:
"An incredible, watchable disaster. I'm in."
Alex puts his book over his face.
Alex (from behind the book):
"Where is Tara right now?"
Kenny (pointing across the courtyard):
"She's already over there."
Tara is sitting on the steps with a sketchbook. Long blonde hair. Soft blue eyes. Completely absorbed in whatever she is drawing.
Jenny (studying her):
"She looks calm."
Kenny:
"She's always calm until he is nearby and then she drops everything. Literally. I have seen her drop the same water bottle four times in one afternoon."
Alex (emerging from behind the book):
"Four times."
Kenny:
"The third time she apologized to it."
Alex looks at Jenny. Jenny looks at Alex. The shared look of people who love their friend very much and find her completely impossible.
---
SCENE — SAME COURTYARD. LEO ARRIVES.
Leo walks in. Bag over one shoulder. Green hair in the wind. Looking around like this is the best place he has ever been.
He spots Tara. He waves. Big. Easy. Natural.
Leo (calling over):
"Tara!"
Tara looks up. She sees him. Her entire sketchbook slides off her lap.
Twenty meters away, Kenny grabs Jenny's arm.
Kenny (whispering intensely):
"Did you see that?"
Jenny:
"I saw it."
Kenny:
"The sketchbook—"
Jenny:
"I know, Kenny."
Kenny:
"She did not even catch it—"
Jenny:
"Kenny."
Leo jogs over. He picks up the sketchbook before she can. He crouches to her level. Genuinely warm.
Leo:
"Hey. You good? How was the trip up?"
Tara (holding the sketchbook with both hands, which is helping absolutely nothing):
"Good! It was fine! The train was on time, and — I — did you see the fountain?"
Leo (lighting up):
"Right? Someone put a cone on it."
Tara (grateful for the subject change):
"I was trying to draw it. I could not decide if it was art or a mistake."
Leo (sitting down on the step next to her, entirely at ease):
"Can't it be both?"
Tara looks at him. He is smiling at the fountain. She forgets to say anything for approximately four seconds.
Tara (quietly):
"Yeah. Yeah, I think it can."
From a distance:
Kenny (hand over heart):
"He sat next to her. This is going beautifully."
Jenny (watching carefully):
"He has no idea."
Kenny:
"None. Zero. He has zero idea."
Jenny:
"He sat right next to her."
Kenny:
"Like it was nothing."
Jenny (quietly devastated):
"It is nothing to him. That is the whole problem."
A beat.
Kenny (rallying):
"Okay. New angle. I go over there—"
Jenny:
"Do not."
Kenny:
"I create a situation—"
Jenny:
"The situation is already happening, Kenny. We just have to let it—"
Kenny:
"Happen naturally—"
Jenny:
"Nature is taking too long."
---
SCENE — LECTURE HALL. FIRST CLASS.
Students file in. Fyuta slips in quietly — white hair, gray eyes — clutching a book to her chest. She sits near the window and stays very still, the way small animals stay still in new places. Kyuki takes the seat one row back — green eyes, focused, watching the hall fill with the quiet efficiency of someone cataloguing exits. Hashiro comes in last. Black hair falling across his left eye. He takes the seat nearest the door. He does not look at anyone. He sits.
Nobody talks to him. He seems to prefer it.
Leo, Kenny, Tara, Jenny, and Alex arrive together. Kenny is still explaining the plan. Everyone else is at varying stages of wanting him to stop.
Kenny:
"So if we just naturally maneuver the seating—"
Leo (cheerfully):
"I will sit wherever—"
Kenny (snapping toward him):
"Not a factor in this conversation."
Leo:
"...Okay?"
Jenny (grabbing Kenny's sleeve, hissing):
"Kenny."
Kenny (through his teeth):
"The subject is not supposed to be present for this part."
Leo (looking between them):
"Are you guys doing a bit?"
Alex (sitting down, opening a notebook):
"Yes. It is a bit."
Tara (quietly, beside Leo, pretending to be very interested in the syllabus):
"...It is a bit."
Leo:
"Okay!"
He sits. By complete coincidence — because Leo operates entirely without awareness of romantic social engineering — he sits right next to Tara.
Kenny looks at Jenny. Jenny looks at Kenny. They both look at Alex. Alex mouths: I told you.
Professor Kagimori walks in. He is not a tall man but he takes up space the way very impatient people take up space — quickly, efficiently, with the energy of someone who has things to do and does not consider your schedule.
Kagimori (scanning the room):
"First-years?"
Silence.
Kagimori:
"I will not take attendance. You are adults. You may make your own decisions. I will, however, notice who is not here, and I will form an opinion, and that opinion will be present for the rest of the semester. We begin."
He writes something on the board. Turns back.
Kagimori:
"Name. Row three, left side."
A beat. He is looking directly at Kenny.
Kenny (pointing at himself):
"Me?"
Kagimori:
"Is there another person in row three, left side?"
Kenny:
"There are several—"
Kagimori:
"You are the one who came in talking. Name."
Kenny (straightening):
"Kenny Carlos, sir."
Kagimori (writing it down):
"Carlos. I will remember that."
Kenny (small, to Leo):
"What does that mean?"
Leo (small, back):
"I genuinely do not know."
Kagimori (without looking up):
"It means I will remember your name, Mr. Carlos. Whether that is relevant will depend entirely on you."
Kenny sits very straight. He does not say another word for twelve minutes. This is a personal record.
---
SCENE — THE DORM. ROOM 4B. EVENING.
Four boys. One room. Leo. Kenny. Alex. And Hashiro — who arrived first, unpacked one bag with surgical precision, and has not moved from the far corner since.
Kenny (surveying the room):
"I call the kitchen."
Alex:
"There is no kitchen. This is a bedroom."
Kenny:
"The space near the window where I will set up the area. For food."
Alex:
"There is no food yet, Kenny."
Kenny:
"The area. For when there is food. It is forward planning."
Leo (dropping his bag on his bed, looking around with genuine delight):
"I love this room."
Alex:
"You love every room."
Leo:
"It is a good room."
Alex (looking at the very average room):
"It is four walls and a ceiling."
Leo (perfectly sincere):
"Yeah. I love it."
Kenny approaches Hashiro. Crouches to be at eye level with his one visible eye.
Kenny:
"Hey."
Hashiro looks at him. This takes a moment.
Kenny:
"I am Kenny."
Hashiro:
"...Hashiro."
Kenny:
"That is a cool name. You okay with the corner bed?"
Hashiro:
"Yes."
Kenny:
"Did you pick it on purpose?"
A pause.
Hashiro:
"Yes."
Kenny nods. Stands up. Turns back to Leo and Alex. Gives a single solemn nod. The universal signal for: we have established communication.
Leo smiles at Hashiro from across the room. He does not cross to him. He does not push. He just — smiles. Easy. Warm. Then turns back to unpacking.
Hashiro watches him for a moment. Then goes back to his book.
---
SCENE — KURAYAMI'S HEADQUARTERS. SOMEWHERE THAT IS NOT LIGHT.
The darkness is not an absence. It is a presence. It sits in the corners and fills the spaces between things and does not move unless it is given a reason to.
In it: two yellow eyes. Bright. Quiet. The color of something old and very, very patient.
Kurayami (quiet, almost cheerful):
"Something is waking up."
White (without inflection):
"The Thunder Bloodline."
Kurayami:
"Ninth generation."
Tekno (not looking up from her workbench):
"Does that change anything I am building?"
Kurayami:
"Not yet."
Tekno:
"Okay."
She picks up a small tool. Goes back to work.
Kurayami (thoughtful, light, the way someone might observe that a season is changing):
"It has been a long time."
White watches the darkness. She has been watching it for 414 years. She does not offer anything. She never offers anything. She simply processes, analyzes, and files.
---
SCENE — UNIVERSITY COMMONS. NEXT AFTERNOON.
Jack steps in front of Tara. Tall. Two friends with him. The particular confidence of someone who has never learned that there are consequences.
Jack:
"Hey. You are from Kagimori's class, right?"
Tara (pulling out an earphone):
"...Sorry?"
Jack:
"I need the notes from Tuesday. Give them to me."
Tara (politely, trying to dissolve):
"I can share them through the class portal—"
Jack:
"I do not want them through the portal. I want them now."
He reaches forward — not violent yet, but pointed, invasive.
Tara (stepping back):
"I really think—"
Jack (moving with her):
"I was not asking."
Leo (from across the path, calm):
"Hey."
Everyone stops.
Leo is just there. He walks over at an entirely normal pace and stops between Tara and Jack like it is the most natural position in the world to occupy.
He looks at Jack. He smiles. It is not an unfriendly smile. It is also not a smile that is offering anything.
Leo:
"What is going on?"
Jack (recalibrating):
"Nothing. We were talking."
Leo (glancing at Tara, reading her immediately):
"Looks like you were done talking. Right, Tara?"
Tara looks at him. Something in her steadies.
Tara (quietly):
"Yes."
Leo (back to Jack, easy):
"There you go. All done."
Jack looks at him. Looks at Leo's face. Still smiling. Still standing right there. Still occupying the space between them
Jack leaves.
Tara (after a moment):
"...Thank you."
Leo (turning to her, the smile going softer, no performance left in it):
"You good?"
Tara:
"I am — yes. He just—"
Leo:
"You do not have to explain it."
She looks at him. He means it completely.
Tara (quietly):
"How did you — were you just nearby?"
Leo (grinning):
"Kenny sent me to find you, actually. We are getting food. You want to come?"
Tara laughs — a real one, small and warm.
Twenty meters away, Kenny and Jenny watch.
Kenny (hand over heart):
"He saved her. This is the moment—"
Jenny:
"She is laughing at his joke."
Kenny:
"This is going beautifully—"
Jenny (sighing, watching Tara and Leo walk away together, not confessing, just walking):
"Next time."
Kenny (quietly, deflating):
"Every time I think — and then he just — he is so — how does he not know—"
Jenny (softly):
"I ask myself this constantly."
---
SCENE — HIKARI CITY. JUST BEFORE NIGHTFALL.
The light is wrong. The afternoon gold goes flat. The shadows run in the wrong direction. The air tightens into something that is not wind.
Students slow. Look up. Some do not know what they are feeling. They just know they are feeling it.
A darkness rises from the ground the way a held breath rises — slowly, until it is everywhere. Not like night. Not like shadow. Like something deciding to exist.
In it: the echo of something old. An old wound that was never fully closed.
Leo stands at the front of his friends. He does not move forward. He does not run. He stands at the front of the people he loves and watches it arrive. His heartbeat is steady. His face is open.
He has never — not once in his entire life — been afraid of something that was coming toward other people.
Only of something that was coming toward people he loved.
Right now, that is the same thing.
Final image: Leo's eyes. Wide open. Green. The same shade as his mother's. The same shade that has stood at the front of something terrible eight times before and will stand at the front of it now.
He does not know that yet.
And something is here.
And he is not going to let it reach the people behind him.