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Scene 1: Fractured Normalcy (Opening Shot)
The classroom window reflects Ryo's hollow stare as Satoshi's voice cuts through morning chatter:
Satoshi: "—entire block just (gone), like something took a bite out of it!" His hands carve destruction through the air. Mei leans in eagerly—but Ryo's grip tightens around his desk. The grooves match claw marks from last night.
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Scene 2: The Lie That Doesn't Fit
Etsuki prods Ryo's shoulder, tilting her head at his uncharacteristic silence. Across the room, Hiroshi sketches the rubble in his notebook—except one detail is (wrong). The scorch patterns align with Seishu energy blasts, not Kaimon attacks.
Ryo (internal): "Hunters were here first." His throat dries as the teacher flings open the door—with (Yua) standing beside her in a too-perfect uniform, wrists bandaged under long sleeves. Their eyes lock with each other as Yua reads him.
Scene 3: The Performance Begins (Double Spread)
The class erupts in greetings as Yua bows—flawless civilian disguise, except for the way her pinky twitches toward an invisible weapon holster. Ryo's pen snaps.
Mei (whispering): "New girl's (watching you)."*
Behind them, Daisuke mock-punches Ryo's arm—but freezes when Yua's gaze flicks to him with predator reflexes before softening back into shyness. A beat of silence. Then—
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Scene 4: Ghost Script
Teacher assigns introductions. When Ryo states his goal ("Protect what matters"), Yua's nails dig crescent moons into her palms under the desk. Her turn:
Yua: "I hope to... understand this world better." Her smile doesn't reach eyes scanning every exit vector like a caged wolf gauging weak points in fencing.
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Scene 5: The Third Presence
Outside school gates, rainwater pools around a bootprint too large to be human—steaming slightly as its owner watches Yua through the third-floor window. A gloved hand crushes a transmitter emitting a voice:
Transmitter: "You have 24 hours to extract Subject Aihara."
The figure's cloak shifts, revealing (scaled skin*) and an insignia burned into their collar: "Project Eclipse's inverted sun." They vanish just as Ryo glances outside—seeing only disturbed pigeons taking flight.
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Scene 6: Paper-Thin Alibis (Post-Class Tension)
After bell rings, Yua "accidentally" bumps Ryo's desk—sliding him a note in flawless Hunter cipher:
[Intel Confirmed. Eclipse operatives embedded here. Your home = safest tactical meet point.]
He pockets it just as Mei intercepts them with sugary suspicion: "You two seem... close already?" Yua laughs like glass breaking gently while dragging Ryo toward the door by his elbow. Blood trickles from where her grip presses his pulse point in warning.
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Scene 7: Courtyard Confrontation
Shadows elongate unnaturally as Yua steps onto the school lawn—only for a hunter with his hunter uniform showing the name, (Kairos) to materialize from swirling dust, his blade already drawn.
Kairos: "Elders say you've gone rogue, Yu-chan." The blade hums with suppression runes—designed to sever Seishu energy. "But we know the truth... You're not just investigating this world." A photograph flutters to the ground: Ryo's childhood home circled in red.
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Scene 8: Ryo's Sanctuary (Desperation)
Ryo's heart hammers as the school buzzes with gossip about 'Yua's stalker'. He shoves his friends off and races toward the front gate. "Home." His only safe haven from Hunters, Kaimon, and everything trying to tear him and Yua apart.
Ryo (gasping): It's all my fault. He sprints along narrow streets now shadowed by Kairos' warning. The world I dragged her into... if I don't make it—! If something happens to her—
Scene 9: Kairos' Challenge (Desolation)
Kairos looms in the school's central courtyard—seals flaring from his blade. (Seishu) is suppressed—but not (Yua). She shifts into a martial stance, eyes scanning for a weakness: his left knee, favoring it subtly. He took a wound from a hunter in their last spar.
Yua: "You can't hide it from me, Kairos. But you still underestimate me." Her aura swells, the Seishu humming like a choir of spirits. "So be it. I'll remind you."
Scene 10: Memories in the Midst of Steel
As their blades clash, fragmented images tear through both fighters' minds—
- A younger Yua, bloodied and kneeling before Kairos after her first failed mission. "Get up," he'd growled, offering a hand she refused.
- Kairos alone at the Hunter Barracks, polishing his sword as news of her promotion to (Stellar Nova) is passed. His grip had tightened—not with envy, but something darker... fear?
Present Kairos: "You left without a word!" His strike severs a lamppost clean in two. "Why him?! Why this world?!"
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Scene 11: Trust
Yua ducks under his swing—her counterblow grazing his ribs as she hisses:
"Because Ryo is someone who taught me, there is more to life than our mission and duty!"
For half a second, Kairos falters... just long enough for Yua to kick him back into the school's fountain, where flickering data streams behind them.
Scene 12: Confession (Moment of Truth)
Yua's eyes blaze with the resolve to protect everything she's learned from Ryo's world—but her blade falls short. A memory stabs at her as Kairos' eyes narrow in realization: "You love him." Yua freezes. Caught in a lie she's told herself.
Kairos: "I won't kill you, Yua." His aura softens, his own blade lowering. She stares back, stunned. The only sound is the splashing fountain. He's serious.
Final Scene: Oath of the Hunter
Kairos' blade ignites with crimson Seishu—a technique forbidden in their realm. The ground cracks under its weight as he levels it at Yua, his voice hollow with resolve:
"I swore an oath to the realm." His pupils shrink to pinpricks, veins blackening from backlash. "Even if I have to break you or drag your lifeless corpse back with me… even if this world burns—you're coming home."
The sky splits as Kairos lunges—not at Yua, but past her… toward Ryo's fleeing silhouette in the distance.
🌀End of Chapter Seven