A siren wailed across Akirama City—shrill, broken, desperate.
Somewhere, a car crashed into a pole.
Somewhere else, a woman screamed.
But on the school rooftop, Ryu and Hana stood frozen as the night sky burned with a monstrous sigil of crimson and black. The shape clawing its way out looked like a corpse made of smoke—hollow eyes, jagged teeth, and long, skeletal limbs dragging across the clouds like knives.
Hana's knees weakened. "R-Ryu… what is that thing!?"
Ryu didn't answer immediately.
He knew exactly what it was.
He could feel its presence echoing in his blood.
"That," he said quietly, "is a Harrower. A demon that devours souls to reopen the Gate of Oblivion."
Hana stared, trembling. "D-Demon? Gate? What are you—"
Suddenly—
SKRSHH—KRAAACK—!
The rooftop tiles split beneath them.
Two pale hands—rotting, skeletal, twitching—burst from the cracks. A corpse dragged itself upward, its empty eye sockets glowing faint blue.
Hana screamed and stumbled back.
More hands emerged.
More bodies.
Students. Teachers. People whose faces they recognized from the school.
Risen from death.
"R-Ryu! They're— They're—"
"Revenants," Ryu muttered. "Souls that were just claimed."
He stepped forward, placing himself between her and the undead.
The shadows around his feet stirred like breathing mist.
The first revenant lunged at him with a sickening gurgle—
SHWIP—
Ryu flicked his wrist.
A crescent blade of shadow sliced cleanly through its neck. The head fell, dissolving into ash before it hit the ground.
Three more rushed him at once.
Ryu's eyes glowed—
One red.
One silver.
"Sable Execution."
Dark tendrils erupted outward in whiplike arcs, cutting through the attackers with surgical precision.
Hana watched in stunned horror and awe.
But before she could speak—
The Harrower screamed.
Its voice tore through the sky like a thousand wailing corpses. The entire city shook. Windows exploded. Street lights burst. Every revenant froze and turned toward the sound, as if called by their master.
Ryu clenched his teeth.
"This is bad. It's calling them… all of them."
"Ryu, what do we do!?" Hana cried.
He turned to her, shadows swirling violently behind him.
"That thing isn't fully manifested yet. If we kill it before it stabilizes, the wave of revenants will stop."
Hana gulped. "B-But how do we get up there?"
Ryu extended his hand toward her.
Shadows wrapped around both their feet in a swirling vortex.
"We jump."
"J-JUMP!? Are you insane!?"
Ryu didn't look back.
"Hold on to me."
With no time to argue, Hana grabbed his coat tightly.
Ryu bent his knees.
The rooftop cracked.
WHOOM—!
They launched into the air like a shadow comet, soaring upward toward the monstrous fissure in the sky.
Wind roared around them.
The Harrower turned its hollow gaze toward them.
Its maw stretched open—
Rows of ethereal fangs dripping black fog.
Ryu raised his hand, darkness spiraling around it like a coiled scythe.
"Hana," he said calmly, "close your eyes."
She did.
Ryu whispered a single command—
"Reaper Form."
The sky shook.
Black fire ignited around him. His coat split open into shadow-made wings. A spectral scythe materialized in his hand, five meters long and humming with deathly energy.
The Harrower screeched and swung a massive claw at them—
The impact exploded the clouds—
And Ryu, the boy who was never supposed to reveal his identity,
Now faced a demon of the abyss in full Grim Reaper form.
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