In the Celestial Academy, the day doesn't end with a bell, but with the systematic withdrawal of students toward the residential wings. There, where square footage reflects rank, the "First Rank" zone lay in an eerie silence. Houses were spaced far apart, windows were perpetually dark, and the air held a weight that suggested these dwellings weren't meant for humans, but for entities that had transcended the ordinary.
Sheena and Iris were making their way through the encroaching dusk. "This place... it always feels like a graveyard for the great," Iris whispered, eyeing the houses that looked dead despite their grandeur. Sheena replied with a piercing gaze, "The problem isn't the houses. It's the stillness. Nothing here feels alive."
Suddenly, the sky broke. Rain fell with a savage intensity, blurring the world into a dull grey. As the girls hurried for cover, Sheena stopped dead in her tracks. Behind the fence of a deserted playground, a swing was moving with a rhythmic, grating creak. And on it... sat him.
A black mass of drenched fabric, huddled in his hoodie. The rain lashed against him, yet he didn't flinch, looking like part of the swing's cold iron frame. "Do you... feel anything?" Iris asked, a rare hint of unease touching her frozen features. Sheena closed her eyes for a second, then snapped them open in disbelief. "Nothing. Not a trace of Response... as if he's a hole in the fabric of the space."
They approached with a curiosity laced with a primitive sort of revulsion. The ground beneath him had turned into a muddy swamp, yet he sat there—no desire, no purpose. When Sheena touched his shoulder, she recoiled instinctively. His coldness wasn't just from the rain; it was a coldness that actively rejected life.
A card slipped from his pocket, sinking into the mire before Sheena snatched it up. [Name: Uzuki | Zone: First Rank] Iris's eyes widened. "Impossible... this wreck lives next to us?"
He stood up slowly, without a word, without even lifting his head to see who they were. He began walking with them with an excessive, mechanical numbness, like a broken machine waiting for a command to move. They reached the house they had always assumed was abandoned. He stepped inside and closed the door with a lethal silence, leaving behind questions heavier than the downpour.
Later, they scoured the Academy's database, but found only suspicious blanks. The name existed, but the history was erased, and the abilities were unlisted. As sleep finally took them, one question lingered in their minds: Is this person just a "glitch" in the system, or is he the very thing that will tear the system apart?