8:30 AM, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo – Inside the bustling train station.
"I left home a little early, but this is my first day of high school… and my first day truly living on my own. I absolutely cannot be late."
A young girl in a crisp JK uniform stepped off the crowded train platform. Her beautiful flaxen hair caught the fluorescent lights, swaying gently as she moved. Facing the relentless morning rush-hour tide of salarymen and students, Yuuki Asuna felt a wave of overwhelm crash over her.
Her bright hazel eyes flickered with nervous excitement as she glanced down at the map glowing on her phone screen. She pursed her soft lips and whispered to herself,
"To reach the school… this exit should be the closest. Okay, Asuna—good luck. This is your first day of real independence as a high schooler. You've got this…"
"Aaaahhhh!"
"Noooo!!!!"
"Arrrrghhh!!!!"
Halfway through her little pep talk, sharp screams and panicked shouts erupted from the crowd ahead.
Asuna instinctively looked up.
What met her eyes was a scene straight out of a nightmare.
"Delicious… so delicious!"
A colossal creature loomed over the fleeing masses—gray fur matted with gore, bat-like head twisted in grotesque ecstasy, standing upright on powerful hind legs. Its razor-sharp claws ripped through bodies like paper, sending arcs of blood spraying across the tiled floor.
Amid the chaos of torn limbs and crimson rain, the monster threw its head back, jaws gaping wide to savor the shredded flesh sliding down its throat.
"The taste of human flesh and blood… absolutely wonderful!"
"This… what is this thing… a Devil…? How can something like this…"
Asuna's mind blanked. Her legs buckled beneath her, and she collapsed against the cold station pillar.
She wanted to run. She wanted to scream for help. But terror clamped her throat shut; no sound escaped.
She could only stare, frozen, as the Bat Devil's claws swept in wide, merciless arcs, reaping lives in seconds.
Soon, the screams died away. The platform fell into an eerie, blood-soaked silence.
Only Asuna remained—huddled against the pillar, trembling.
"Hmm? Such a… fragrant scent."
The Bat Devil paused mid-feast, scooping a handful of gore from the floor. Slowly, it turned its bloodshot, bulging eyes toward her.
Greed and hunger twisted its already hideous features.
"Your blood… it carries such an exquisite fragrance. Top-tier. Truly top-tier food!!"
The monster lunged.
Asuna's brain short-circuited. In that frozen instant of impending death, a strange metallic object materialized right beside her—like hundreds of longswords fused into a single, jagged mass.
It vibrated with a grating, metallic screech, as though iron bones were grinding together.
"Do you want to sign a contract? Do you want my power?"
For some inexplicable reason, Asuna felt it—an instinctive certainty that answering yes would grant her the strength to survive this horror.
"Help me… please… no matter what price I have to pay…"
But before she could finish, a deafening explosion shattered the moment.
BOOM!!
Something hurtled through the air with terrifying speed, leaving a blurred afterimage.
It slammed straight into the Bat Devil's head. The impact detonated in a violent fireball; half the creature's cheek exploded into wet chunks of meat and bone.
The monster staggered backward, roaring in pain and fury.
"Hello there."
A calm voice cut through the ringing in Asuna's ears.
She looked up.
A boy in a high school uniform stood beside her—shoulder bag slung casually, jet-black hair slightly tousled, equally dark eyes fixed ahead on the reeling Bat Devil. His side profile was strikingly handsome, almost unfairly so. Yet his expression remained relaxed, as if this were just another Tuesday morning inconvenience.
"No matter what price you have to pay?" he repeated her words softly, almost chiding. "You really don't realize how heavy those words are. You don't think about yourself at all, do you?"
"Eh…? I…"
Asuna couldn't form a proper response. How could this boy sound so utterly unbothered? In the middle of this slaughterhouse scene, facing a monster that had just massacred dozens, his voice carried no trace of fear—only mild amusement.
"You brat… you filthy bastard! How dare you—"
The Bat Devil's roar shook the station. It compressed its grotesque mouth into a grotesque barrel shape, dark energy swirling inside like a brewing storm.
The boy—Gojo Yoru—reached into his bag without hurry and pulled out a specialized grenade. A light, almost playful chuckle escaped his lips.
"Going for the mouth cannon already? Since you love opening wide so much…"
He shifted into a perfect baseball pitcher's stance. Then, with explosive, inhuman strength, he hurled the heavy grenade.
It streaked forward in a blur, trailing an afterimage, and vanished straight into the Bat Devil's maw just as the creature inhaled to unleash its attack.
"Eat this."
Gulp.
The Bat Devil swallowed reflexively—too fast, too deep.
Asuna stared in stunned silence.
From over ten meters away… he'd thrown something that heavy with pinpoint accuracy into its mouth?
Was this boy even human?
"I am Minato Namikaze."
Asuna blinked, blurting the automatic response out of sheer habit.
"Hello… I'm Yuuki Asuna…"
"Ready for the fireworks?"
The instant the words left his mouth, a muffled thud echoed from deep inside the Bat Devil's chest. Fire erupted from within its neck, blooming outward in a geyser of blood, bone fragments, and charred flesh.
Asuna instinctively threw her arms up to shield her face.
But Gojo Yoru was faster. In one fluid motion, he stepped in front of her and raised his right hand.
"Devour everything… Gluttony."
From the empty air, a gigantic black serpent erupted—its scales shimmering with pale golden patterns.
Its jaws stretched impossibly wide, then snapped forward, gulping down every scattered piece of the Bat Devil's exploded remains in a single, ravenous pull. With a contented flick of its tongue, the serpent vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Namikaze-kun…"
Before Asuna could say more, he cut her off.
"Who's this 'Namikaze-kun'? Friend of yours?"
"Huh?"
She stared at him, utterly confused.
"Isn't your name… Minato Namikaze?"
Gojo Yoru looked at her like she'd grown a second head, then spoke as if explaining something painfully obvious.
"What Minato? What Namikaze? I was just messing around with a meme."
Asuna's brain officially gave up trying to process.
This boy had just effortlessly dismantled a city-level threat… and he still had the energy to crack jokes like that?
Just who was he?
"By the way," Asuna murmured, glancing to her right, "there was another thing earlier…"
The metallic, sword-like object had vanished without a trace.
"Heh. Ran away, huh?"
Gojo Yoru didn't seem surprised in the slightest. He stared at the empty spot where it had hovered and muttered flatly,
"It's lucky it fled so quickly. Otherwise, I would've eaten that thing too while I was at it."