Sky Pure Town—once praised as "the cleanest town in Japan"—had in recent years become the center of unsettling rumors spreading across the internet. People whispered of waking up to find that an entire day had vanished in the blink of an eye. Even more disturbing were the tales of sudden disappearances—people swallowed by the night, leaving not even a shadow behind…
The introduction was abruptly cut short by a sharp, thunderous voice.
"Stop spouting nonsense!"
Mr. John's furious roar shattered the silence of the classroom. He slammed his palm against the desk, glaring at the boy standing at the front.
"Leven! Not this again!"
The air grew heavy. The class fell into uneasy stillness.
Leven's gray-black hair shifted slightly as he lifted his head. His pale eyes met the teacher's glare with a cold, detached calm.
"Mr. John, what did I do wrong? You asked me to present the town, and that's what I did."
Mr. John's face flushed red with anger.
"I said your own research! Not some recycled ghost story from the internet!"
Leven's lips curved faintly, his words carrying a quiet defiance.
"It wasn't just a story. I saw it myself—one night, through my window. A black mist rolling through the street. Something moving inside it… with a mouth full of sharp teeth."
"Enough!" Mr. John's bellow cut him off just as the lunch bell rang. Pointing a trembling finger at him, his voice seethed with fury.
"Stay after class. I want to see your parents. Class dismissed!"
The room burst into chatter as students rushed out.
A bulky boy lumbered over and threw his arm around Leven, laughing loudly.
"Man, that was way too real! You should be writing novels instead!"
Leven frowned, shoving him away coldly before striding toward the door.
"Hey, where are you going? Not eating with us?"
Without looking back, Leven muttered, voice low and impatient:
"Leave me alone. I'll eat by myself."
Damn it, idiot…
Leven stormed out of the school, his heart pounding with a mix of anger and exhilaration. He had no intention of staying behind for Mr. John's lecture—or the inevitable awkward call to his parents. They never believe me anyway, he thought bitterly.
The midday sun beat down on Sky Pure Town's tidy streets as he hurried away. Despite the brightness of the day, a chill clung to his skin. The memory of the black mist he'd spoken about in class was still too vivid. I know what I saw. His jaw tightened. Everyone thought he was chasing "recycled internet ghost stories," but he had done his own digging. On obscure forums and late-night message boards, he had read whispers about people vanishing without a trace—some called them jōhatsu,the "evaporated people" who chose to disappear. But Sky Pure's cases felt different. Darker. These people weren't running away from shame or debt. Something was taking them. And Leven might be the only one who believed it.
Lost in thought, he nearly missed the commotion up ahead. A crowd had gathered at the intersection by the convenience store. Shouts echoed through the air, pulling him closer.
He recognized the voice immediately—a deep, aggressive bellow that could only belong to Goro, the local bully. Leven pushed through the onlookers until he reached the front.
There stood Goro, sweat dripping down his face despite the crisp autumn air. Opposite him was a much smaller figure, draped in a faded black cloak with the hood pulled low.
"Think you can bump into me and walk away, punk?" Goro growled, cracking his knuckles.
The cloaked stranger didn't flinch. He stood unnervingly still. Some in the crowd whispered nervously—Goro was infamous for picking fights, but no one had seen this cloaked figure before. A traveler? Leven guessed, noticing the leather satchel slung across his shoulder.
The young man tilted his head slightly, revealing just a pale chin beneath the shadow of the hood. He said nothing.
With a roar, Goro lunged, his fist swinging toward the stranger's face. Gasps rippled through the crowd. Leven's heart lurched—he wanted to shout, to do something, though he knew better than to get between Goro and his prey.
In a blur, the cloaked figure sidestepped the punch. His movement was so fast, so precise, that Leven thought his eyes had deceived him. Before Goro could recover, the stranger thrust his palm forward, striking Goro square in the chest.
The sound was a dull, heavy thud. Goro's eyes bulged as the air was knocked from his lungs. For a moment, he seemed to hang in place. Then, like a tree cut at its roots, he collapsed to the pavement.
The crowd went dead silent. A few rushed to check on Goro—he was still breathing, but unconscious.
Leven realized he had been holding his breath and let it out shakily. What just happened? No ordinary student—or anyone else, for that matter—could have knocked out Goro with a single strike. Was he some kind of martial artist?
Whispers spread among the onlookers. "Did you see that?" "Who is he?" "A monk? A ninja?" The stranger stood motionless, composed, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Before anyone could speak further, he turned and began to walk away, slipping through the crowd. His hood shifted just enough for Leven to glimpse him more clearly—ash-white hair framing a youthful face, slender and sharp, otherworldly.
Leven's gaze locked onto him, entranced. There's something about him…
As the stranger drew near, he suddenly slowed. His head turned slightly, eyes lifting toward Leven.
For an instant, their gazes met.
From beneath the hood shone a pair of eyes that shimmered faintly in the daylight—impossible, radiant. Colors flickered like light refracted through glass. Rainbow eyes.
Time seemed to stop. Leven's chest tightened, his heart hammering in his ears. The world around him drained of color, leaving only those eyes. They swirled like oil on water, hypnotic, impossible to look away from.
A wave of dizziness struck him. The ground seemed to ripple beneath his feet. Distant chatter faded into muffled echoes as his vision warped.
The stranger broke eye contact and walked on. But it was too late.
Leven's vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors—red, blue, green, violet—until they fused into blinding rainbow. Dread and wonder surged through him in equal measure, echoing the night he had seen the mist.
His knees buckled. The last thing he saw was the stranger's cloak disappearing around the corner.
Then the white light swallowed everything.