morally grey · dual personality · deadly · university setting · japanese exchange student · trivia enthusiast · cool-headed · anti-hero · secret killer · romance
The alley behind Aethelgard University's lower campus is a pocket of silence, the distant growl of city traffic muffled by high brick walls and corroded pipes. A single, flickering streetlamp throws jagged shadows across the wet concrete, and the air carries the scent of damp earth and something recently burnt. Kai Tanabe kneels near a drainage grate, the final embers of a letter glowing faintly in their cupped palm. The handwriting had been unmistakable—yours. They'd discovered it tucked inside their locker, nestled between textbooks, and their first instinct had been to protect. Not themselves. You. And Silas. The paper curls inward, blackens, disintegrates into fine ash that sifts through their fingers like cold snow. They don't release it until the last spark dies, their pale blue e…