Ryu woke up in the school infirmary, the scent of disinfectant stinging his nose. His body ached. His ribs screamed with every breath, but he was alive.
"Ryu!" his mother cried, hugging him tightly while his father stood by with a worried face that tried to look calm.
"I'm okay," Ryu lied, offering a weak smile. He couldn't tell them the truth—that he had thrown himself in front of a monster from hell.
Later, Daiki entered the room. His arm was bandaged, and his eyes were red.
"You saved me, man... I thought I was dead," Daiki said, gripping Ryu's hand.
Ryu shook his head slowly. "I didn't do anything. If someone hadn't appeared..."
Daiki paused, then nodded. "That woman. The one with wings. She wasn't human, right?"
Ryu wanted to say yes. But he wasn't sure what he had seen.
Back at school, the air was heavy with whispers. Students talked about the attack, the monster, and the mysterious girl in shining armor. Teachers tried to resume classes, but the tension lingered in every hallway.
Some said it was a dream. Others swore it was divine intervention. No one had answers.
Ryu sat in class, staring at the desk. He remembered the moment before he passed out—those eyes. One blue, one green. Looking straight into him.
She saw something, he thought. Something I don't understand.
That night, Ryu lay in bed, wide awake. The room was silent, but the silence felt wrong.
He sat up suddenly. His chest burned. Not like pain—like something was stirring inside. A low, distant voice echoed in the back of his mind. A whisper, not in words, but in feeling.
Darkness.
He gasped. The lamp on his desk flickered. His shadow twisted unnaturally on the wall.
Then it was over. The room returned to normal. Ryu clutched his shirt, breathing heavily.
"What... was that?"
He didn't sleep the rest of the night.
The next morning, everything seemed the same. The sky was blue. The bell rang on time. Students poured into the building as always.
But something had changed. Something was watching.
And as Ryu walked toward his classroom, unaware of the eyes following his every move, he couldn't know that a new transfer student was about to arrive.
Someone who had descended from the heavens.
Someone who had already saved his life once.
And someone who now had a mission: to watch him closely.