Tokyo was too loud to hear a scream at 2:17 a.m.
The alley behind the train station was half-lit, half-rotting. Fluorescent vending machines buzzed quietly against the silence. One streetlamp flickered. The shadows it cast didn't belong to anything.
And above, the moon looked too close. Wrong somehow. Like it was watching.
Ren Hoshino sat on a cold step, sketchbook open. Fingers gray with graphite. Eyes locked on the shape he'd just drawn.
Another one.
Long limbs. A horned head. Eyes like cracked glass. It crouched low on the page, as if waiting to pounce.
He stared at it for a moment.
"...I don't even know what you are."
His stomach rumbled. He hadn't eaten.
He shut the sketchpad, shoved it into his bag, and stood. Just another walk home. Another night shift behind a register. Another silent street that felt like a memory no one remembered.
Same route. Same ghost routine.
Until—
A sound.
Not footsteps. Not a car. A frequency. Low. Vibrating his ribs like the deep tone of a tuning fork.
He turned.
Empty street.
He turned back.
And it was there.
Seven feet tall. Pale gray skin. Human-shaped, but too symmetrical—like a mannequin sculpted by a god who never met a person. Its face was flawless. Smooth. Strangely beautiful.
Dead inside.
It smiled.
Ren took a step back.
"…Okay. This is new."
It didn't speak. It didn't breathe.
It moved.
Ren's skull lit up with fire. Pain exploded behind his eyes. A storm of visions tore through his mind—color, light, voices. His sketch. His creature. Moving. Alive. Real.
He screamed, dropping to his knees.
The being raised one hand, glowing faintly, and pressed its palm against his chest. Just for a second.
Then—
Gone.
Ren gasped for air. His skin burned. His heart slammed in his chest. Something inside him had shifted. Opened. Like a door cracking in the dark.
And whatever was behind it… had noticed.
Next Morning
Ren woke up on the floor of his apartment.
Sweat soaked his shirt. The walls were scorched—singed in spiraling patterns. His mirror had shattered. His body felt wrong. Heavy. Wired. Like something was crawling beneath the surface of his skin.
He looked down.
A glowing mark pulsed faintly on his chest, like the echo of a heartbeat.
His phone buzzed.
8:41 a.m.
"Crap—class!"
He staggered up, pulled on whatever clothes he could find, and shoved the feeling aside. He didn't have time for glowing chest tattoos. Not today.
He bolted out the door.
Didn't see the black van across the street.
Inside, a woman in a black suit stared at a flickering laptop screen.
Surveillance footage. Ren's face frozen in frame.
Subject: REN HOSHINO.
Status: MARKED.
Codename: UNIQUE.
She closed the laptop and smiled.
"…Found you."
End of Chapter 1