Morning in a city in Japan:
A 17-year-old boy Ryuji wakes up in his room, feeling refreshed.
(This is Ryuji—a calm and thoughtful boy. When he was 2, his parents died in a car accident, and his mother's younger sister adopted him. Ryuji may seem ordinary, but he has a unique gift. He can see things others cannot.)
Ryuji gets ready quickly and heads to the main hall, where his uncle and aunt are busy with their daily routines. His uncle is preparing to leave for work, while his aunt is making breakfast for everyone.
Seeing this, Ryuji starts getting ready for school.
Just then, his aunt calls out, "Ryuji, your breakfast is ready. Eat quickly."
Ryuji responds, "Yes, Aunt," and sits down to eat. But his uncle suddenly asks, "Hey, is my tea ready or not?"
Hearing this, his aunt gets furious, slams the plate in her hand on the ground, and yells, "I'm not your servant! God gave you hands and legs, right? Make it yourself!"
Ryuji turns to his uncle and asks, "What happened to Aunt? Why is she so angry?"
His uncle replies, "Yesterday, she made me promise not to drink, but I got caught with a whole bottle this morning."
Ryuji facepalms and says, "Your actions deserve this anger."
(These are Ryuji's uncle and aunt. His uncle is a hardworking and honest man, but his one bad habit is drinking. His aunt, on the other hand, has a short temper and blows up over small things. Although his uncle is technically the head of the household, it's his aunt who runs everything. If Ryuji weren't there, their marriage would have likely ended long ago.)
Suddenly, they hear a boy and girl arguing loudly.
Ryuji's aunt sighs and says, "There they go again. Ryuji, go and calm them down."
Ryuji heads toward the noise, thinking to himself, "What kind of house is this? Nobody can go a day without fighting."
He enters a room and finds a boy and a girl fighting over a locket.
(These are his cousins—Sota and Misaki. Sota is a carefree 12-year-old boy who enjoys everything except studying, while Misaki is a responsible, studious 14-year-old girl who is a bit of a perfectionist.)
Ryuji steps in and asks, "What's going on?"
Misaki replies, "Brother, Sota is trying to take my locket!"
Sota protests, "No, it's mine! I found it!"
Misaki counters, "But I cleaned it!"
Sota argues back, "So what? I discovered it!"
Before they could start fighting again, Ryuji snatches the locket from both of them and says, "Enough. I'll hold onto this. Now, go get ready and eat your breakfast. You both have school to go to."
Sota and Misaki try to say something, but Ryuji silences them and walks away. On his way back, he looks at the locket, which is indeed beautiful, with a silver-like shining chain and a glowing white ruby set in an intricate design.
Seeing this, Ryuji understands why they were fighting over it. He mutters to himself, "No idea where Sota found this, but it's definitely pretty."
With that, Ryuji pockets the locket.
---
Later,
Ryuji gets ready and heads to his college. On the way, he encounters an old woman setting up her shop. Ryuji immediately goes to help her.
Seeing Ryuji, the old woman smiles warmly.
While helping, Ryuji asks, "How are Ayato and Yumi?"
The old woman replies, "They're doing well, but they're quite mischievous now."
Ryuji smiles and says, "That's good, right? If they don't cause mischief at this age, when will they?"
The old woman laughs and says, "Yes, it's all thanks to you. May God always keep you safe."
Ryuji smiles and replies, "Thank you, Grandma."
Once everything is set, Ryuji bids the old woman goodbye and continues on to college, declining her offer to stay longer as he needs to attend classes.
(This is the Ishikawa family. It consists of three members—Grandma Haruko, and her grandchildren, Ayato and Yumi. Ayato and Yumi's parents died in a car accident, and Haruko has been raising them ever since. Ryuji is close to this family because something similar happened to his own parents. When he first met them, they were in terrible shape, but Ryuji and his aunt and uncle helped them out, allowing Ayato and Yumi to attend school and Haruko to manage the household.)
---
Meanwhile, far away from Ryuji's home, in an isolated area near a large school,
A man stands in front of the school, staring at the building. Though the school looks empty and ordinary, the man can see black energy emanating from it.
Seeing this, the man calls a girl.
"Ryuji, I've reached the location."
"Okay, so this Sleek is a Night Walker. You'll find it in the areas of the school where no light reaches."
"Got it."
"Hey, Masaki!"
"Hmm?"
"This Sleek is level 4. Are you sure you don't need any help?"
"Don't worry, I've got this."
"All right, take care."
With that, Masaki hangs up the call and enters the school. Inside, he sees dark patches of energy all around, and upon closer inspection, he realizes that these are places where people have died. Judging by the unnatural causes of death, it's clear that these individuals were killed by something extraordinary—something far from ordinary.
Masaki continues to move forward calmly, heading toward the darkest parts of the school where sunlight can't reach. Just then, he hears voices.
He hides and listens closely.
It's three boys, searching for something.
One of the boys, slightly scared, asks, "Do you guys really believe those stories about the school?"
The second boy asks, "What stories?"
The third boy answers, "They say that 12 years ago, there was a principal here who practiced black magic. He locked up several students in the school's basement and sacrificed them. One day, the townspeople found out, and they killed the principal, burying him in the school's basement. Since then, the school has been cursed, and people have been dying mysteriously. Later, many rituals were performed to trap the curse within the school, but nobody lives near it anymore."
The first boy says, "Let's leave, man. I don't feel good about this."
The second boy responds, "What kind of friend are you? You can't even do this much for your buddy? Besides, we're here during the day."
Just as the first boy is about to reply, he sees something and lets out a scream.
The other two rush over and are shocked to see what the first boy saw—Masaki, standing right in front of them. What's surprising is that none of them had seen Masaki approach, nor had they heard a sound. It was as if Masaki had appeared out of nowhere.
One of the boys stammers, "Who are you, and how did you get here?"
Ignoring their questions, Masaki calmly says, "If you value your lives, leave now"