The hallway of Kuoh Academy felt like a tunnel made of gray paper.
Jin walked. He didn't feel the weight of his school bag. He didn't feel the vibration of the students running past him to catch the afternoon bus. He was a ghost walking through a world of solid, loud things.
His left hand was in his pocket. He held a small, jagged piece of stone he had found near the bicycle racks. It wasn't the one. He knew it wasn't the one. But he needed to hold something. He needed to feel the sharp edge digging into his thumb to remind himself that he was still standing on the ground.
He reached the main courtyard. The rain had stopped, leaving behind a sky the color of a bruised lung.
He stopped by the fountain.
Three stones.
He looked at the decorative rock garden near the entrance. Small, smooth river stones arranged in neat, meaningless patterns. He counted them. One. Two. Three.
He knelt down. His knees made a wet, crunching sound against the damp soil. He reached for the third stone.
He lifted it.
Nothing. Just wet dirt and a pale, blind insect scurrying away from the light.
He put the stone back. He felt a faint, cold ripple of frustration. Not in his heart. In his head. The parasite was disappointed.
Third stone. Where.
He looked around. The academy was massive. Thousands of stones. Millions of places to hide a secret.
The toll is not just lies.
He whispered the words. They tasted like old iron.
He stood up. His vision blurred for a second. A swarm of white dots danced in the air. Hypoxia. His brain was starving for oxygen again. He leaned against the stone rim of the fountain. The water was stagnant, filled with dead leaves.
"Kurosawa."
Jin didn't flinch. He didn't turn around.
Issei Hyoudou was standing a few feet away. He looked messy. His tie was loose. His face was flushed with the kind of frantic, hormonal energy that defined his entire existence. But today, there was something else. A shadow behind his eyes. A lingering scent of fear.
"I saw you." Issei said. He took a step closer. He was breathing hard. "At the store last night. I was... I was walking past. I saw the ice. I saw the girl."
Jin looked at Issei. He looked at the boy's neck. He saw the pulse thrumming against the skin.
He didn't remember Issei being at the store.
He searched his mind. He found the ice monster. He found the girl with the yellow ribbon. He found the red emergency light.
But Issei wasn't in the frame.
The static roared. A piece of the puzzle had been burnt for fuel.
"You're the guy everyone talks about." Issei said. His voice was lower now. "The one who stays in the back. The one Rias-senpai is watching. Who are you, really?"
Jin looked at Issei's hand. It was clenched into a fist.
The heavy pressure manifested at the base of Jin's skull.
Threat detected: Low.Biological signature: Abnormal.Sacred Gear fragment detected.Action: Observe.
"I'm late for work." Jin said.
His voice was a flat, dead thing.
He started to walk past Issei.
"Wait!" Issei grabbed Jin's shoulder.
The contact was a mistake.
The parasite didn't wait for a transaction. It didn't ask for permission.
Jin's left eye flared. Not into the Sharingan. Just a sudden, violent contraction of the pupil. A wave of raw killing intent exploded from his body. It wasn't a choice. It was a reflex. Like a cornered dog baring its teeth.
The air around them turned freezing. The sound of the wind died.
Issei let go as if he had been burned. He stumbled back, his face turning a sickly shade of gray. He fell onto his backside, staring up at Jin with wide, terrified eyes. He couldn't breathe. The weight of the "Void" was pressing down on his chest, crushing the air out of his lungs.
Jin stood there. He didn't move. He didn't blink.
He looked down at Issei.
He felt nothing. No anger. No satisfaction. Just a cold, mechanical observation of a biological reaction.
The pressure lasted for three seconds.
Then, Jin closed his eyes. He forced the parasite back into the cage.
He opened his eyes. The world returned to normal. The wind blew. A distant car honked.
Issei was gasping, clutching his throat. "What... what was that..."
Jin didn't answer. He turned and walked away.
He reached the gates of the school. He turned right, toward the old district.
He saw a group of three boys from the rugby team. They were standing in a circle around a smaller student. A first-year. The student was on the ground, his glasses broken. One of the rugby players was holding the student's bag, shaking it, laughing as textbooks fell into a muddy puddle.
Jin stopped.
He didn't know the first-year. He didn't like the first-year. He didn't care about the bag.
But he walked toward them.
His legs moved on their own. It was a strange, disconnected sensation. As if someone else was pulling the strings.
He stopped five feet away from the group.
The rugby players looked up. The leader, a tall boy with a thick neck, sneered.
"Move along, Kurosawa. This doesn't involve you."
Jin looked at the student on the ground. The boy was crying. A silent, pathetic sound.
Jin reached out. He grabbed the bag from the leader's hand.
The leader blinked. He hadn't seen the movement. It was too fast. Too precise.
"Give it back." The leader said. He stepped forward, his chest puffing out.
Jin didn't speak. He handed the bag to the student on the ground.
He then turned back to the leader.
He looked into the boy's eyes.
One second.
Two.
The leader's sneer faltered. He looked at Jin's face. He saw the dark circles. He saw the hollow, empty stare. He felt the cold air beginning to swirl around Jin's feet.
It wasn't a fight. It was a surrender.
The leader took a step back. Then another. He looked at his friends.
"Let's go." He muttered. "He's a freak. Let's just go."
The group ran off, their laughter forced and nervous.
Jin stood there.
The first-year student scrambled to his feet. He wiped the mud from his glasses. He looked at Jin with a mixture of awe and fear.
"Thank you." The boy whispered. "Thank you so much. I don't know why you helped me, but..."
Jin looked at the boy.
A sharp, violent crack echoed in his head.
White static.
Burning heat.
The parasite took its tax.
Jin blinked.
He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk. A boy was standing in front of him, clutching a muddy bag.
Jin looked at the boy.
He didn't recognize him.
He didn't know why he was standing there.
He looked at his own hands. They were empty.
"Who are you?" Jin asked.
The boy's smile died. He looked confused. "I... I'm Sato. You just saved my bag from the rugby team. Don't you remember?"
Jin searched.
He found the sidewalk. He found the mud.
But the reason was gone. The "Why" had been erased. He had no memory of the intervention. He had no memory of the rugby players.
"I'm late for work." Jin said.
He walked past the boy.
He didn't look back.
He felt a strange, hollow sensation in his chest. A phantom limb of a memory. He knew he had done something. He knew there was a cause. But the space where the motive lived was empty.
It was a terrifying realization.
He was becoming a ghost. A series of actions without a person behind them.
He reached the convenience store.
The glass had been replaced. The ice was gone. The store was bright and sterile again. Tanaka was at the counter, his face grim.
Jin walked in. The chime rang.
"You're here." Tanaka said. He didn't look at Jin. "The police were here. They asked about the 'gas leak' that broke the window. I told them I didn't see anything."
Jin went to the breakroom.
He opened his locker.
Inside was his bag. And on top of his bag was a small, black stone.
It was smooth. It had a strange, geometric pattern carved into the surface.
Jin picked it up.
A sudden, sharp memory flared.
The third stone.
He looked at the stone.
Not under the stone. The stone IS the key.
He turned the stone over.
On the back, carved in tiny, precise letters, was a name.
UCHIHA.
Jin stared at the word.
He didn't know what it meant.
He didn't know where it came from.
But his left eye began to bleed.
A single, thick drop of blood fell onto the stone, soaking into the carved letters.
The parasite in his head didn't scream. It didn't hunger.
It purred.
Link established.User identity: Confirmed.Memory restoration: 5%.
Jin's knees hit the floor.
He saw a flash of a massive, burning city. He saw a man with long, black hair standing on a cliff. He saw a crimson moon.
Then, it was gone.
He lay on the floor of the breakroom. His breath came in ragged gasps.
He looked at the stone.
He didn't remember why he was holding it.
He put it in his pocket.
He stood up.
He walked out to the counter.
"Register two." Tanaka said.
Jin stood behind the counter.
He looked out the window.
The rain began to fall again.
He looked at the red apple sitting on the display rack.
He wondered whose it was.