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The hallway trembled.
The air was thick with heat, dust, and the raw scent of burning flesh. Kaida stood frozen, his heartbeat hammering in his ears as he stared at the burning student before him.
The boy—no, the thing—that had once been a student let out an unearthly wail, a mix of agony and something else… something far more terrifying.
It wasn’t just pain. It was madness.
The flames weren’t normal. They clung to the boy’s body like living tendrils, writhing and shifting as if they had a mind of their own. Dark red and black, the fire pulsed unnaturally, its embers crackling in a twisted rhythm.
The student’s body convulsed, his back arching as his limbs twitched violently. His uniform had long since burned away, his flesh peeling and charring, but—somehow—he was still standing. Still alive.
And then…
He turned his head toward them.
Kaida’s stomach lurched as the student’s hollow, glowing eyes locked onto his. His mouth hung open—not in a scream, not in pain, but in a twisted, unnatural grin stretched too wide for his face.
Kaida’s legs tensed, instinct screaming at him to run—but he couldn’t move.
The burning figure staggered forward, his body crackling, his breath ragged. And then, in a voice so twisted and broken that it barely sounded human, he pleaded:
“P-Please…!”
Kaida’s blood ran cold.
The boy—whatever he was now—was still aware.
Still conscious.
“H-Help me…” the student gasped, his voice raw and desperate. His trembling hand reached out—his charred fingers cracking, splitting open, fresh flames spilling from the wounds.
Kaida’s gut twisted.
“We have to help him!” Kaida took a step forward.
Kumuna’s hand shot out, grabbing Kaida’s wrist and yanking him back.
“Are you INSANE?!” Kumuna shouted. “Look at him, Kai! That’s not normal fire—that’s something else!”
Kaida snapped his head toward Kumuna. “But he’s still—”
The student’s entire body suddenly jerked.
His chest caved inward, his back arched unnaturally as if something inside him had just ripped him apart from within.
And then—
The flames exploded outward.
The scream that followed was inhuman—a sound so raw and broken it barely resembled a voice.
Then—
Boom.
A shockwave of scorching heat blasted through the hallway, hurling Kaida and the others off their feet.
Kaida hit the ground hard, his body skidding across the floor before slamming into a fallen locker. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, his vision flickering.
For a moment, all he could hear was ringing.
White noise.
Distant screams.
The emergency alarms, a shrill, useless cry against the chaos.
Kaida forced his eyes open, blinking rapidly through the smoke and dust.
The hallway was wrecked—walls split, lockers warped and twisted, the ground cracked and uneven.
And where the student had once stood—
Nothing remained.
Only a blackened scorch mark, the edges of it still smoldering.
Kaida’s stomach churned.
He was gone.
Completely erased.
Kumuna groaned, staggering to his feet. “You good?”
Kaida barely nodded, even though his entire body felt like it had been hit by a wrecking ball.
Tsubaki coughed into her sleeve, shaking bits of debris from her hair. “What… what the hell just happened?!”
Mishell was shaking, her hands clutching the straps of her bag so tightly her knuckles turned white.
“W-What’s going on? W-What was that…an explosion?!” Her voice cracked, barely above a whisper.
Kaida forced himself up, his head still spinning. None of this made sense.
People didn’t just explode.
This wasn’t an accident.
Something caused this.
And whatever it was—
It wasn’t over.
RUMBLE.
The building shook violently, another shockwave rocking the foundation.
Fresh cracks splintered through the walls.
The lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then—
Darkness.
A deafening silence followed the explosion.
Smoke thickened, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.
Kaida coughed, trying to focus.
Somewhere nearby, Kumuna was coughing just as hard, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the smoke.
Tsubaki groaned, gripping her arm where she had landed hard against the floor.
Mishell was curled up, her body trembling, her breathing shallow and panicked.
And then—
A deep, ominous creak.
Kaida’s blood ran cold.
The ceiling above them was shifting.
The explosion had weakened the structure of the school.
And now—
It was collapsing.
The floor trembled violently. More cracks split through the foundation.
“MOVE!” Kumuna shouted.
But before anyone could—
The floor buckled.
The ceiling caved in.
Chunks of concrete and metal came crashing down in a violent cascade.
Kaida whirled around, his eyes wide as he watched Tsubaki disappear beneath a pile of debris.
“TSUBAKI!”
A massive beam broke free and slammed into Kumuna’s side, knocking him away.
“KUMUNA!”
A chunk of rubble struck Mishell’s leg, sending her collapsing with a sharp yelp.
Kaida moved to grab her, but before he could—
A shadow loomed over him.
He looked up.
The roof was coming down.
A massive slab of reinforced concrete was falling directly toward him.
The world slowed.
Kaida’s breath hitched.
Move.
MOVE.
His body wouldn’t listen.
He couldn’t move.
Couldn’t think.
Couldn’t breathe.
Then—
A voice.
Deep. Resonant.
Echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“Today is not your day.”
And then—
CRASH.
Everything went dark.
ns3.16.56.30da2
