Not the normal kind of quiet, either, no lockers slamming, no distant chatter, no footsteps echoing from other halls. Just long corridors and dead air, like Dragon Hive Academy was holding its breath.
Their footsteps sounded too loud as they moved through the main hall.
Jusuke walked backward, phone already raised.
"Man, you gotta admit," he said, grinning, "best to document everything, ya know?"
He slid in front of them for a selfie.
Kratos immediately lifted his hand, blocking the lens.
Eurika leaned into the frame anyway, smiling brightly and flashing a two-finger peace sign.
Click.
Kratos sighed. "So, Eurika," he said, lowering his hand, "how exactly does being in the school help us figure out which student is working with the Empress government?"
Eurika tilted her head. "Evil government, Kratos. You must remember, evil, and the secret obviously lies in their lockers, that's where all the naughty stuff is."
Something moved.
Jusuke's smile faltered. His eyes flicked toward the far end of the hall.
"...Did you see that?"
Kratos and Eurika turned, but the hallway was empty.
"I swear," Jusuke muttered, lowering his phone, "something crawled by. Fast. Like, really fast."
Before anyone could answer, something warm splattered across Eurika's cheek.
She blinked.
Slowly raised a hand.
Sticky.
Her eyes drifted upward.
Eurika screamed.
They all looked up.
The onyx creature clung to the ceiling, bloated, glossy, limbs folded wrong, saliva stretching in long strands from its mouth. Its body rippled, muscles shifting under translucent flesh.
"RUN!" Kratos shouted.
They bolted down the hallway as the thing shrieked and launched itself after them.
They didn't stop until the stairwell.
The halls of Dragon Hive Academy were not supposed to sound like this.
Metal groaned somewhere above them.
A wet, dragging sound echoed down the stairwell.
Kratos slowed, raising his fist.
Eurika froze beside him.
"...What the hell was that?" Jusuke whispered, his breath tight.
Jusuke "Para...parasite."
The parasite unfolded from the ceiling.
Not dropped.
Peeled, like it had been waiting there all along. It belted our a high screech.
A needle-thin appendage snapped forward.
Kratos screamed as it pierced his shoulder. Eurika collapsed instantly, eyes rolling back as another spike struck her neck.
"MOVE!" Jusuke shouted.
The creature lunged.
Teeth closed.
The scream ended.
Jusuke's orange ring, fell onto the floor and rolled slight underneathe the lockers.
Blood splashed across the lockers.
Kratos hit the floor hard, vision blurring. The parasite loomed over him, limbs rearranging, adapting.
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Footsteps thundered above.
"Kratos!"
From outside some 100 miles away Plum stood on the roof of a house, her syctherian orange eyes illuminated, locked onto the shibuya shcool "There you are." She summoned her scythe and took off faster than the eye could see.
Plum through the school window, breath hitching as she took in the scene.
"...Oh shit?!"
Kratos coughed, voice weak.
"It, shot needles. Paralysis. Eurika's out. Jusuke's"
He couldn't finish.
Plum's jaw tightened.
Green Abi formed around her Scythe with a low hum.
Plum slipped down the hallway like a whisper, her scythe flashing once, twice, pink limbs hitting the floor before the parasite even screamed.
Tentacle-blades lashed out, but she twisted past them, feet barely touching the tiles, movements smooth and predatory.
In a blink she was behind it, blade already mid-swing, carving through muscle as if the creature had never stood a chance.
Elsewhere in the school
Burajiru slept.
A tablet pen poked his cheek.
He swatted it away and spoke in his sleep "Kyra use thunderbolt."
It poked him again.
His eyes cracked open, drool sliding down his chin.
"...Oh. What's up, bro?"
Yusuke smirked. "Did you seriously sleep all day?"
Burajiru stretched. "Nah. What time is it?"
"Seven PM."
Burajiru shot upright. "WHAT? Oh hell no. Worst school ever. Why didn't anybody wake me!"
Yusuke laughed. "I didn't see you leave and with all the missing people... figured I'd check on you."
Burajiru smiled. "Thanks."
A slam echoed through the building.
Burajiru froze. "You hear that?"
Yusuke shook his head. "Hear.."
The two walk into the dark classroom hallway
Yusuke's eyes focus. Burajiru "You don't feel that?"
Yusuke "Feel what?"
The floor collapsed.
Plum crashed through, skidding across broken tile, bloodied and barely conscious.
"Plum?!" Yusuke shouted.
Before they could move, the parasite dropped with her.
Burajiru moved instantly, grabbing Plum mid-fall, rolling clear as claws shattered the floor where they'd stood.
Another impact.
A second parasite tore through the wall, limbs unfolding like scaffolding.
They were surrounded.
The first parasite hissed, voice warped and wrong.
"Me parasite... want Scytherian."
It licked its teeth.
Burajiru gently set Plum down.
"Hey. You alright?"
Chunks of Plums hair fell out.
Plum's eyes widened. "Get, out of here, save yourself, I'm dying so my life ends here."
She forced herself up, shaking.
Burajiru stood
Dying
Yusuke glanced between them and the second parasite.
"I'll draw this one away"
He raised his hand, the windoe shattered, He bolted, jumping out the school window.
The creature roared and followed.
School Yard
The parasite landed hard, cracking concrete.
Yusuke skidded to a stop, breath steady.
"Alright," he said calmly. "Now that I've got space..."
Abi surged covering the entire field.
Yusuke "The area is is filled with my abi, you can't see it but its presence has created the conditions for my game rules."
The Parasite looked around in confusion
"Art of the Gamer."
Reality glitched.
A hovering construct snapped into existence "Limit."
A flickering, tesseract-like shape occupying impossible angles, its edges phasing in and out of reality.
The parasite lunged.
It slowed.
Not stopped, stretched, as if distance itself thickened between them.
"Digital Convergence," Yusuke said quietly.
Red symbols ignited.
A repulsive blast detonated outward.
The parasite was hurled back, smashing into a building, but adapted mid-flight, anchoring itself with new limbs.
Yusuke's eyes sharpened.
"Good. You learn fast."
Limit shifted, folding space again and again, each approach slower than the last.
Yusuke raised his hand.
"Game over."
The tesseract collapsed inward, then exploded outward in a cascading red pulse.
The parasite disintegrated mid-adaptation, body unable to reconcile the infinite distance tearing it apart.
Silence.
Yusuke exhaled.
Back inside the school.
The first parasite recoiled as Plum's scythe carved into its side.
But it regenerated.
Fast.
Burajiru watched it move.
Watched how it wanted.
Something cold stirred behind his eyes.
The creature lunged again.
And Burajiru stepped forward.
Not afraid.
Not angry.
Just... present.
To be continued.