CHAPTER 1 — PART 1
The Body in the Alley
The night breathed like something alive.
Cold fog drifted through the narrow alleyways of Blackridge District, curling around rusted pipes and broken street lamps. The silence felt wrong—too heavy for a city famous for crime and chaos.
Rai Kurodan walked alone, hood covering half his face, footsteps slow and steady. He wasn't out this late by choice.
His curse pulled him here.
A pressure built behind his eyes.
A whisper pushed at the edge of his senses.
Someone died here.
"Again…?" Rai muttered under his breath.
He turned into a narrow alley. Broken glass cracked under his shoes. A stray cat bolted away.
Then he saw it.
A man lay collapsed on the ground—blood pooling, eyes wide open, face pale and lifeless.
Rai stopped breathing for a second.
"…A body."
Most people would scream.
Rai just knelt beside it.
His hand hovered over the corpse. Touching a dead body meant one thing. A thing he hated more than anything.
But he had to know.
His fingertips pressed against the man's forehead.
The world snapped.
And suddenly, Rai was living the man's last ten seconds—
Running.
Panicking.
Something monstrous chasing him.
A masked figure with glowing violet eyes raising a blade.
Slash.
Blood, darkness, silence.
Rai gasped and pulled away, chest tight.
"Who the hell… was that?"
Before he could think further, a cold voice echoed behind him.
"Step away from the body."
Rai froze. Someone was watching him.
And this night was only the beginning.