by Thewriter13
3:00 AM. Soren's house. "Soren," Kazuki yawns. Rain drums against the windows. "Yeah, Kazuki?" Soren stares at the ceiling. He never sleeps at this hour. "You know that Qīng Café downtown? The one next to the family supermarket?" "The one with the cute girl in the window?" Soren turns. Actually smiles, for the first time in months. "I was about to say—" The world turns red. "RED MILE." The house doesn't explode. It's erased. A perfect line cuts through couch, walls, half-finished sentence. "Oh, we're doing this at 3 AM?" Kazuki rolls off the collapsed sofa, already moving. The floor tilts. Half the room is gone. "I haven't even had coffee. I was talking about a girl, Soren. A girl." "Soren?" Silence. Kazuki looks up. Soren stands between him and the hole where their wall used to be. His shirt is gone. Burned away. Across his chest, a line. Thin. Red. Smoking. Straight through where a heart should be. The Class 10 didn't dodge. He took it. For Kazuki. "Soren." Kazuki's voice doesn't shake. It goes flat. Dead. "You idiot." Ten meters away, floating where the neighbor's house was, a man in a white blindfold smiles. Gentle. Almost apologetic. "Apologies for the hour," the man says. "Family matters can't wait for business hours." His name is Zareth. Class 10. And he's here for Soren. Kazuki's hand finds his katana. He holds it backwards. Blade against his forearm. Like his sister taught him. He doesn't scream. He doesn't charge. He just says, "Soren, wake up." Soren doesn't. The rain falls through where the roof was. ---Author Note: Alright, real talk for a second. If you clicked this thinking "slow burn slice of life" and I deleted a house by line 8, yeah. That’s on purpose. I cannot stand 10-page breakfast chapters either. So here’s the deal: This gets brutal. Kazuki is a mess. People get hurt and it sticks. I don’t do off-screen deaths or clean fights. If that’s a hard no for you, I respect it. Close the tab, no drama. If you’re still here? Thank you. For real. Ch 2 is where the red timer starts and Kazuki figures out his sister’s backwards grip wasn’t just sentimental bullshit. It was a warning. Tell me in the comments: Did the café → RED MILE give you whiplash? Good. Did you almost drop the story? Also fine. I read every comment. I reply unless I’m actually dead. See you Sunday. Kazuki’s got 23 minutes. I’ve got 7 days to not screw up Ch 2.
