The emergency crews arrived long after the light had faded. They found the classroom a ruin of glass and scorched desks but with every student alive. Rin sat on the floor while paramedics checked pulses and led dazed classmates away.
Nobody seemed to remember the creature. Nobody, except him and the woman who now waited near the door.
She watched him with a steady calm that didn't match the chaos. Her blue eye glimmered faintly whenever the fluorescent lights flickered. The other eye was ordinary brown, but it carried a weight that made Rin look away.
When the last medic left, she spoke.
"You handled yourself better than most first-time seers."
"I didn't handle anything," Rin said.
"Something just… happened."
Sora Enshiro nodded once. "That's usually how it starts."
Outside, the city was recovering from its panic. Drone sirens drifted overhead, announcing containment procedures that meant nothing to ordinary citizens. Sora led Rin down an alley where the air shimmered, like heat above asphalt.
When she touched the wall, ripples spread outward, revealing a hidden doorway etched with symbols that shifted like eyes blinking open.
"After what you saw," she said, "the world won't let you go back to pretending. Step through."
Rin hesitated. He thought of his mother waiting at home, of Kaito who still lay unconscious in the ambulance. He thought of that blinding white flash that came from him.
"What is this place?"
"Safe," she said simply. "For people who can see."
He stepped through.
The corridor beyond was dim, lined with mirrors that reflected not his body but trails of faint light drifting from his eyes. Each mirror showed a different hue, blue, green, red, but his own reflection burned white, almost invisible at its center.
"This is the Passage," Sora said. "Only seers can enter. It links our outposts to the Academy of Vision. You'll be registered there."
Rin tried to breathe evenly. "You keep saying seer. What does that even mean?"
"It means your eyes opened," she replied. "Everyone in this world carries traces of Eye Energy, fragments of emotion, memory, fear. Most people never awaken it. You did."
They reached a circular platform. Sora touched a glowing sigil, and the floor began to descend. The mirrors faded to black, leaving only the soft hum of motion.
Rin glanced at her. "What was that thing in my classroom?"
"A Vision Beast," she said. "Born from concentrated negative sight. They feed on human perception, devour what people can't bear to see. That one was strong enough to breach the veil."
"And I killed it?"
"Erased it," she corrected. "No recorded seer has ever done that with a single blink. You didn't just see with white light, you cleansed."
The elevator stopped. Before them stretched a cavernous hall filled with glowing orbs suspended like lanterns. Figures in dark uniforms moved between stations, eyes shining in every color imaginable.
"The Academy," Sora said. "Our home."
A tall man approached, coat flowing behind him. His right eye gleamed violet; the other was wrapped in a band of silk. "You brought a civilian through the Passage?"
Sora bowed slightly. "He's no longer a civilian. The White Eye manifested."
The man paused. For a moment, the entire hall seemed to notice Rin. Conversations stopped. The air thickened with curiosity and a hint of fear.
"Impossible," the man muttered. "That power vanished with Haizen's generation."
"Then it's returned," Sora said.
The man studied Rin, then turned sharply. "Follow. The Headmaster will decide what to do with him."
They led him through winding corridors to a quiet chamber lit by hanging crystals. An elderly woman waited inside, her eyes silver and gentle. She smiled when Rin entered.
"So the White Blink stirs again," she murmured. "Tell me, child, what did you feel when you faced the beast?"
Rin searched for words. "Cold. And then… light. Like I was falling, but something caught me."
She nodded. "The White Eye doesn't draw power from hatred or fear. It reflects clarity, the will to see truth even when it burns.
You've touched something ancient, Rin Kuroda."
He shifted uneasily. "I didn't ask for it."
"Few do," she said. "But the world asks for balance. When darkness grows, sight must awaken to meet it."
Her hand brushed the air, and an emblem appeared, a circle divided into colors with a blank center. She placed it in his palm.
"Welcome to the Academy of Vision. You'll train to control what you've awakened, or it will consume you."
Rin closed his fingers around the emblem. It felt warm, alive, pulsing faintly with light.
Later, Sora found him on a balcony overlooking the city's underbelly, where neon rivers flowed between towers. She leaned on the railing beside him.
"Still think you can go back to normal?" she asked.
He didn't answer. The skyline reflected in his eyes, threads of color weaving through the night.
"I just wanted an ordinary life," he said finally.
"Then learn to protect it," she replied. Her blue eye glowed, casting faint light on his face. "Tomorrow your training starts. And for what it's worth, you're not alone anymore."
Rin looked at her, at that strange calm strength in her gaze. For the first time since the classroom, he didn't feel afraid.