Rin Kuroda woke before his alarm again. The gray light leaking through the curtains told him it was too early, but his mind wouldn't quiet down. Neo-Tokai's morning hum was already alive outside, aircars whispering over damp streets, shop shutters rattling open, and somewhere a vendor calling out the first price of the day. It was the kind of noise he'd grown up with, steady and forgettable. Ordinary.
He dragged himself out of bed, brushed his teeth, and stared at the mirror for a long time. His eyes were the same dark brown they'd always been. He told himself that was proof life hadn't changed, though he didn't know why he even needed proof.
By the time he stepped out, his mother was already gone for an early shift at the hospital. The small apartment was filled with the faint smell of coffee she'd brewed and left in a thermal mug with a note: Eat something before you run.
He smiled, pocketed the note, and jogged toward school.
Class 2-C was the same blur of chatter and glowing tablets. His best friend, Kaito, waved him over with a grin. "You look like you didn't sleep again. Dreaming of that gaming tournament?"
"Maybe," Rin said, dropping into his seat. "Or maybe I just like staring at ceilings."
The morning went on like every other, math problems, gossip, lunch breaks filled with ramen and jokes about teachers. Rin's life had always been safe, dull, and comfortably predictable. That was exactly how he liked it.
Until the sirens.
It started as a low hum under the city's normal soundscape. Then the emergency lights flickered on, bathing the classroom in red. Students froze. The intercom crackled, and a trembling voice ordered everyone to stay indoors.
Kaito frowned. "Another gas leak?"
Before Rin could answer, every window in the room went black. Not dark, black, like ink spreading across glass. The air grew cold enough for breath to fog.
Then the whisper came.
A thin, scraping sound brushed across the back of Rin's mind. He turned toward the window and saw movement behind the layer of darkness, a tall, impossible shadow with a single eye burning pale violet. Its pupil twisted, searching.
Rin's body refused to move. Around him, his classmates stared blankly, unaware. Their eyes were unfocused, as if they couldn't see what he saw.
The creature leaned closer to the window. The glass warped and cracked, not from pressure but from something deeper like reality itself trying to look away.
The door slammed open. A woman in a dark coat stepped in, her left eye glowing faint blue. "Everyone down!"
She wasn't police. She moved with calm precision, fingers tracing sigils in the air. A circle of light appeared around the students, shimmering like a lens. The creature hissed and pulled back.
Rin dropped beside Kaito, who was trembling but still couldn't seem to see the monster.
The woman's voice was low but firm. "It's sensing someone. Who looked at it?"
Rin's throat went dry. He didn't know why, but the moment their gazes met, he felt it, something inside his chest fluttering like static.
The shadow lunged.
The glass shattered inward. The room erupted into chaos. The blue-eyed woman tried to intercept, but the beast swatted her aside and went straight for Rin. He could only watch its enormous eye closing in, filling his vision until there was nothing else.
And then, a blink.
A flash of white so bright it drowned the world.
For an instant, Rin felt suspended in a silence too deep for thought. The creature screamed, its voice cracking into shards of sound. When the light faded, it was gone. The desks were scorched, the windows clear again, and his classmates were unconscious but unharmed.
Rin stood in the center, trembling. His vision pulsed; everything was sharper, colors too vivid. The woman stared at him from where she'd landed, disbelief written across her face.
"Your eyes…" she whispered. "They're white."
He touched his face. His reflection in the broken glass looked back, pupils glowing with a faint, pure radiance.
"What… happened?" he managed to say.
The woman slowly rose to her feet. "You shouldn't exist," she said, half to herself. "No human can awaken a White Eye."
Rin blinked again, and the light dimmed. "White Eye?"
She reached into her coat, pulled out a small insignia shaped like an iris. "My name is Sora Enshiro. I'm with the Academy of Vision. And you, Rin Kuroda… just changed everything."
Outside, the sirens faded. The morning light returned.