The sky above Red Bloom High School had dimmed into a deep navy, the last traces of sunlight clinging to the edge of the horizon. Inside the building, fluorescent lights buzzed weakly, flickering across emptying classrooms and echoing hallways.
Students filed out in scattered groups, their laughter bouncing off the lockers, backpacks slung loosely over their shoulders. The end of the school day was routine, quiet, predictable.
Kurosawa Kim walked alone down the hallway, his footsteps steady against the tile. Just as he turned the corner toward the back exit, three students stepped out from the shadows near the lockers.
One of them, Ryuji Tanaka. He grinned.
"Well, well," he said, stepping in Kurosawa's path. "Didn't hear your little nerd steps coming."
The hallway began to quiet. A few students slowed down, sensing tension.
Kurosawa stopped but said nothing.
Ryuji smirked. "What's with the look? Relax, I'm just here to mess around a bit."
Still no response. Kurosawa moved to walk past him.
Ryuji's grin dropped. He raised his fist, pulling it back for a punch.
But in a blink, Kurosawa twisted sideways and slammed a sharp kick into Ryuji's cheek. The blow sent the bully crashing against the lockers with a metallic clang.
Gasps filled the hallway.
Ryuji groaned, wiping a smear of blood from his lip. His smile returned but colder now. "So you've got some fight in you."
He rose to his feet slowly, a faint shimmer of malice energy flickering across his shoulders.
His fists tightened, but he didn't move.
"I'll let it slide," he muttered. "For now."
Minutes passed.
The lights overhead began to shut down one row at a time, humming into darkness.
By the school's shoe lockers, Kurosawa stood with three others, Daisuke, Arata, and Hirata, talking and laughing, their voices filling the now empty building.
A sudden crack echoed from down the west corridor.
Everyone stopped.
A stench filled the air-rotting iron and damp earth.
"What is that?" Arata muttered.
Then they saw it.
At the end of the hallway stood a creature that defied shape. A grotesque assembly of limbs, twitching with impossible motion. Eyes blinked across its body in unnatural patterns, some wide with hunger, others weeping blood.
A Cursefall.
It let out a sound, part growl, part whisper and lunged forward.
"Go!" Kurosawa shouted.
They turned and ran.
The curse thundered after them, its claws scraping across the walls, cracking tile with every step. Doors slammed shut one by one behind them, trapping them in a narrowing path.
"Left!" Daisuke yelled.
"Don't go that way! This way, guys!" Hirata pointed toward a narrow hallway.
Kurosawa spotted a janitor's closet, barely open.
"In there! Go!"
He shoved the door wide, pushing his friends inside one after another.
Arata resisted. "What about you?!"
"Just go!"
The last of them disappeared into the closet.
Kurosawa turned just as the curse reached him.
The hallway trembled. The doors were shut. There was nowhere left to run. And the Curse was still hungry.
The creature lunged.
Kurosawa dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a mass of twitching arms that slammed into the floor, leaving a crater in the tile.
He gritted his teeth, fists clenched. No malice energy. No weapon. Just instinct, speed, and desperation.
The Curse came at him again, faster this time. It twisted its form unnaturally, a snake of limbs and eyes, reaching for his throat. Kurosawa ducked low, slid beneath it, and rolled to his feet, panting.
Another swipe. He jumped back, barely dodging the slicing claws that grazed his cheek.
The fight escalated. Furniture shattered, glass broke. Kurosawa moved on pure reflex, landing quick strikes to distract, to slow the Curse down but nothing did real damage. It wasn't enough.
But then, he slipped.
A moment of hesitation. The curse roared and pounced.
It pinned him.
Its body coiled, its central mouth opening wide, dripping with black rot. Eyes focused on him. Dozens of them.
Kurosawa struggled. No way out.
Across town, a figure in a long coat stood in the middle of a phone call, staring toward the horizon.
"Yeah," he said into the receiver. "I'm already sensing it. A Curse that size doesn't go unnoticed."
A pause. His voice sharpened.
"I'll be there in a minute."
Click.
The figure vanished.
Outside the school gates, Hirata banged on the main doors, panic rising in her voice.
"Please! Someone help! My friend is still inside!"
A gust of wind blew past him. Lemyueru Baraguea appeared in front of the gate, eyes glowing faintly with malice energy.
"Where?"
Daisuke pointed toward the main building. "West wing! The hallway! He stayed behind!"
Lemyueru was about to step inside.
BOOM.
The hallway exploded.
Windows shattered outward. A shockwave of malice energy rippled through the air, sending students nearby to the ground.
Out of the smoke and debris and something moved.
Kurosawa burst through the broken window, leaping into the air. His school uniform was torn, his right hand gripped tight around a long, blood-red spear, pulsing with malice energy.
The curse screeched behind him, thrashing as it emerged from the wreckage, now visibly weakened but still alive.
Kurosawa spun in midair, eyes locked on his target.
With a roar, he hurled the spear.
The weapon tore through the air like lightning, striking the Curse dead center.
BOOM.
The spear exploded in a burst of red light and malice fire. The Curse was obliterated in an instant, disintegrating into ash.
The schoolyard fell silent.
Lemyueru watched as Kurosawa landed hard on one knee, breathing heavily, steam rising from his back.
Kurosawa's awakening... had just begun.