Chapter XXIII

(6 Years Ago)

Year 2048

The first strike came swifter than sight. Yoki lunged, his body a blur, hurling himself at Troy with a force born of something primal. His fist descended with the might of a sledgehammer, aimed squarely at Troy's chest.

But Troy was ready. In a seamless motion, Troy sidestepped, almost effortlessly letting Yoki's punch sweep past him. He moved in a blur—his feet barely brushing the ground as he shifted to Yoki's flank, his palm darting toward Yoki's ribs with a speed that left no room for reaction.

Yoki felt the impact—sharp, like a sledgehammer—and staggered, his breath knocked from him. For an instant, he saw stars, but that moment was enough. Instinct took over.

Troy was already advancing, moving close, a machine of precision. But this time, Yoki's focus wasn't on the physical. Something deeper stirred within. His hand shot out without understanding or intending it, fingers spread wide.

The shadows responded before he did.

The air thickened and darkened as though something within him had been roused. It felt similar to the rampage that got him into Stonegate but different simultaneously. Yoki's senses flared as the shadows at Troy's feet writhed, stretching and twisting like tendrils of dark smoke. They reached for him, ensnaring him and gripping his legs in a way that felt… wrong.

Troy froze mid-stride, his expression contorted with bewilderment as the shadows took hold. His body jerked, thrown off balance, his foot-dragging as though trapped in quicksand. Yoki's pulse raced, his heart pounding. He hadn't intended this—Yoki hadn't even known he could—but he had pulled Troy.

Troy struggled to shake free, but the shadows tightened, winding around his limbs like chains forged of obsidian darkness.

A sickening crack echoed across the arena as Yoki's gaze locked onto the shadows, twisting under his control. The tendrils pulled harder, and for the first time, Yoki comprehended the vastness of the power at his fingertips.

Troy was yanked forward, thrown from his feet, crashing into the ground with brutal force. The floor beneath fractured, sending reverberations through the arena. The shock trembled beneath Yoki's feet, and for a heartbeat, the room seemed to inhale.

Troy scrambled, his body twisting in a desperate attempt to break free. But Yoki didn't relinquish the shadows. He couldn't. It felt like something deep within had been unleashed, a floodgate of power coursing through his veins. His breath came in ragged gasps, the world narrowing to the weight of Troy's body against the force he commanded.

"Get up!" Yoki roared, his voice thick with fury and something darker, something desperate. But the words had barely left him before he surged forward, hands stretching toward Troy's prone figure.

Troy's face twisted in a grimace, the shadows still pinning him, but his eyes sparked with defiance. For a breath, the world went still.

Yoki's fist descended like final judgment, crashing into Troy's face. The shockwave cracked the ground beneath, splitting it as if cleaved by a storm. The force sent Troy skidding across the floor, the impact shaking the entire room.

An utter silence blanketed the arena. Yoki stood over Troy, chest heaving, sweat dripping down his face. His heart raced, his body thrumming with adrenaline. His hand trembled, fingers twitching in the air as if still grasping at the retreating shadows.

No one moved.

Yoki's chest heaved as he stared down at Troy. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. He had done it. He had truly… done it.

"Class dismissed." The words were cold, as flat as if Professor Kael hadn't been watching. They rang with a finality that sliced through the silence.

No one dared speak or move.

Yoki stood there a moment longer, staring at where Troy had fallen. His mind buzzed with the raw, crackling power thrumming inside him like a tempest on the cusp of breaking. The shadows had answered his call, yet he didn't know how.

The silence stretched out beyond Yoki's endurance. His pulse thundered in his ears, his hands clenching, the lingering energy like a brand on his skin. He took a single step back, breath coming in short, sharp bursts, but as he moved, Kael's voice cut through the thick air like a dagger.

"Yoki."

He froze, reluctant to turn. The duel had ended, the class dismissed, but Kael's voice—its sharpness—felt different. The weight of his tone hung in the charged silence.

Professor Kael whispered under his breath and then paused as if listening to words that weren't audible to anyone in the room.

"Headmaster Indigo wants to see you. Now."

Yoki's stomach twisted. It wasn't an invitation; it was a command. "I didn't mean to—" Yoki started, but the words trailed off. The strange, dark power had surged uncontrollably, and now there was nothing but an aching, hollow emptiness. He didn't know what he'd done to Troy. He didn't know what had just erupted from within him.

"She'll explain it," Kael interrupted, reading Yoki's thoughts. "You're not the first. But you're the first to manifest it in this way."

Yoki swallowed, his gaze flicking to the others still near the arena. Lucia, Enrique, and a few others lingered, faces frozen between awe and trepidation.

Enrique's expression was unreadable, but Lucia's gaze was sharp and calculating. She didn't meet his eyes, but he could feel the weight of her scrutiny. That's right, Troy and she were childhood friends—

"You should go," Kael murmured, his voice more to himself than to Yoki. "Indigo's office. Now."

The words pulled Yoki forward like chains, but he didn't move. His gaze stayed locked with Lucia's, chest tight with a strange submission of guilt.

Yoki started toward them, pulling out his compass and whispering Indigo as the pointer began to spin rapidly.

Enrique broke the silence as Yoki neared them. "Hey, Yoki," he ventured, his voice softer than usual. "Don't… overthink it. It's not like we haven't seen crazy stuff before, right? But… this… was different." His gaze shifted to the rest, unease shadowing his features. "Maybe it's good you're talking to Indigo. She'll make sense of it."

Yoki nodded stiffly, but inside, turmoil raged. It wasn't just about what had happened but about what was happening within. He could feel it—crawling beneath his skin, that darkness, that insatiable hunger. Something buried deep had surfaced, and it terrified him.

"Yoki," Lucia's soft yet piercing voice finally rang out. "What did you do?"

Her deceptively simple words felt like a gauntlet thrown at his feet. The rest of the class was still, their gazes unrelenting, awaiting his answer.

"Something I didn't mean to do," Yoki murmured, though the words felt foreign. His gaze flicked to her, catching a fleeting glimmer in her expression—a trace of concern? Maybe even pity. But it vanished too quickly to be sure.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Kael interjected again, his tone gentler this time. "She's waiting, Yoki."

He wanted to explain, to say something, but the words felt hollow. Instead, he turned away, heading toward the exit, the murmurs of voices trailing like shadows behind him.

──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ────

The door to Indigo's office clicked shut, and the weight of the silence pressed in around him. His mind was still a tempest of confusion and adrenaline, but one thought rose above the chaos, sharp and undeniable:

What the hell just happened?

The room was dim, shadows stretching long across the polished floor as the air thickened with the oppressive stillness. Indigo sat behind her desk, her back straight, her hands clasped in front of her. She looked every bit the composed, calculating figure he had come to expect—but there was something new in her eyes tonight. Something sharp, almost predatory. It made Yoki's stomach twist uncomfortably.

Indigo didn't speak immediately. Her gaze swept over him like a surgeon eyeing a wound, her silence suffocating in its intensity. Yoki shifted uncomfortably under her watch, but no words came from her lips. Instead, she studied him like a puzzle to be solved, as though she could sense the storm still raging inside him, threatening to burst out at any moment.

"Sit." Her voice was clipped, every syllable deliberate, but it held an edge—cold, final.

Yoki complied, slumping into the chair opposite her. His body was still humming with the remnants of his dark power, his breath coming in ragged bursts. His actions hung heavy in the air, and he couldn't escape the gnawing feeling in his gut that he had crossed a line. He didn't understand what he had done, and that uncertainty was more terrifying than anything else.

Indigo's eyes remained locked on him, unblinking, as the silence stretched on, taut and suffocating, until it became almost unbearable. Her gaze was calculating, as though she was reading every flicker of thought that passed through his mind.

Finally, her low and firm voice broke the silence. "What did you think you were doing?" Her tone was calm, but there was no mistaking the undercurrent of something darker—a cold detachment that made Yoki's skin crawl.

Yoki swallowed hard, his throat dry. The words stumbled out in a frustrated rush. "I didn't mean to—" He stopped, frustration bubbling up. "I didn't even know what I was doing. It just… happened. I don't know how, but—" His voice trailed off, lost in the turmoil churning inside him.

Indigo raised a hand, silencing him. "You were pulling on the shadows." Her voice was matter-of-fact, as though she were simply stating an observable fact, but Yoki's heart skipped at the realization. He felt the weight of her words settle in like a cold hand on his chest. "That wasn't just a random spike of power, Yoki. That was deliberate. You instinctively reached into the darkness. Into the true art of a Nightwalker."

Yoki felt the blood drain from his face, his heart thudding painfully in his chest. The true art of a Nightwalker? He didn't even know such a thing existed. Shadows… manipulation… that wasn't something he had ever intended to tap into. He hadn't even known he could.

"I… didn't mean to," he whispered, the words tasting foreign on his tongue. He wanted to believe it wasn't his fault; it had just been some freak accident. But deep down, he knew better. He had done this. This thing inside him had awakened, and now it was out of his control.

Indigo leaned forward, narrowing her eyes as she studied him. "That's not the point, Yoki. Whether you meant to or not is irrelevant. What matters is that you've tapped into something dangerous—something that, if left unchecked, will consume you."

Looks like you have more than me to worry about now.

Yoki felt the weight of her words sink in, a deep, gut-wrenching fear rising within him. He hadn't wanted to hurt Troy. He hadn't meant to do any of this. But the power… the power felt right like it was a part of him that had been waiting to break free. And that thought terrified him more than anything else.

"You've unlocked the shadow side of your abilities," she continued, her voice low but its weight unshakable. "The part of you that bends the world around you, that tears things apart without you even realizing it. It's not just about raw strength, Yoki. It's about control." Her eyes were piercing now, and Yoki felt like she could see right through him, right down to the core of his fear and confusion.

"Control," Yoki echoed, his voice shaking. He had no idea what control over the shadows even looked like. He couldn't even control what had happened in the arena. He hadn't meant to hurt Troy, yet the damage was done.

Indigo's expression softened slightly, but there was no mistaking the seriousness of the situation. "You need to learn to control this. If you don't, it will consume you. It will destroy you. You understand this is a relapse of the night your parents—the night your parents were killed," she said bluntly.

"What I'm about to share with you isn't to leave this room, Yoki," she gazed at him, awaiting his confirmation. He nodded, not sure where this was heading.

"The Academy council voted against you attending The Academy. Following the massacre you left in your waking with the police, Stonegate was deemed the only option viable to correct this rage of yours. After the year contract we had temporarily placed to review your admission once again, we heard the news you had died in the outbreak. However, even after we found out you'd been in the lapis cruciatus," her voice lowered as if the word itself could cause harm, "The Academy wanted you executed. It was highly inconvenient you lived, and the lapis cruciatus was just another worry of how that might impact your psyche. You're here only because I wished it, but I cannot let you run a risk to the welfare of the students here.

"With the death of the student a couple days ago, everyone is on edge. Deaths aren't uncommon here—The Academy is brutal—but this apparent suicide is not; evidence is that it's a murder. No one knows this except the counsel, and this information is something you cannot share with anyone," she paused before continuing.

"Things have been put into place this year, and it's not in a good way. I have not yet discovered what exactly has been happening, but this school year has started off differently. I speculate something sinister is at work, even within our Academy council...

"I've said more than I should. But know, you are teetering on the edge of not expulsion but a quiet execution that would simply make your presence here go away. People have linked you as the Painkiller, and whether or not that's true isn't something I speculate about, but what is my concern is The Academy's welfare. You are a Tearing Yoki, but not a normal one. You are a Nigthwalker, the rarest of the four Tearing classes, but you can access forbidden powers even for Nightwalkers. This is not just an anomaly; it's a threat to The Academy's counsel and to The Academy's donors that sustain our elite institution. The government isn't helping us at all—they are trying to destroy us, thinking Tearings are evil inherently. It's more than just this government. There's a war happening, even if you can't see it now. It's out there, being fought on Earth and in other galaxies the rift touches. Take a moment to process what I'm telling you, this is a lot."

Yoki swallowed, feeling the cold weight of her words pressing down on him. He had always known something inside him wasn't quite… right. But he had never imagined it was this dangerous, this dark. He didn't want to become this… monster. Separate from the Painkiller—before the voice had revealed itself to him. But all this new information was startling, and it was terrifying to Yoki that Indigo would tell him such classified information! He tried to focus less on all the classified things, fearing that this would bring about trouble even in addressing—similar to the compass, but that was something he did himself, not talking with others about.

"I didn't want to hurt him," Yoki mumbled, guilt gnawing at him. "I didn't mean to…"

Indigo sighed, sitting back in her chair, her expression unreadable. "You didn't mean to, but it's done." She let the words hang in the air, heavy and final. "Now we have to deal with the consequences." Yoki's chest tightened.

Indigo leaned forward again, her voice softening ever so slightly. "This is the path you've chosen, Yoki. There's no going back from this. You must embrace this part of you, or it will destroy you. It's not just about power. It's about mastering it." Her gaze bore into him, unwavering and resolute.

Indigo stood, moving to the window, her back turned to him as she gazed out into the night. For a long moment, the only sound was the faint rustling of the wind outside, but then she spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I've seen this before," she said, her words laden with something Yoki couldn't quite place. "People tapping into the darkness. It's easy to get lost in it. You'll need to learn quickly."

Yoki nodded numbly, the weight of his situation sinking in more profoundly than before. He didn't have a choice. He had no other option but to embrace this darkness and learn to control it before it consumed him or, even worse, get himself executed by The Academy itself.

Indigo turned back to him, her expression hardening once more. "You'll start by training with me. No more avoiding your true power. This is your responsibility now.

"We start tomorrow at dawn. Meet in the building holding the Colosseum—the place you struck down Troy. Now go to your night detention, or you'll be late."

Yoki stood, his legs heavy beneath him, his chest tight with anxiety and uncertainty. There was no turning back. He had already crossed this threshold and now had to survive it.

"I'll be there," and with that, he walked out of the office.

The door clinked shut behind him, but even as the door closed, he could feel the weight of the darkness inside him, still lingering and growing. For not the first time, he wondered if he would ever escape it—or if it would be the thing that ultimately defined him. Stonegate, the Painkiller, the lapis cruciatus, the death of his friends and family—his life had been leading a path of misery, and he didn't know how much longer he would withstand it. He now needed to worry about this newfound darkness within him, and he suspected there was even more to it than Indigo herself understood.

Not expulsion, but execution. Yoki's entire life was on the line now, and just three days into his first semester at The Academy, things were finally starting to get real.