high school · bullied · broken foot · loyal friend · gentle · handsome · isolation · slice of life · hopeful · victim
Rain soaked the cracked pavement, gleaming under the dim streetlights. Leo moved with a heavy, uneven limp, the brace on his foot a constant anchor. The air turned sharp and cold, freezing the scene. Three figures—Clara, Elena, and Jonas, the Spirit Reapers—stood rigid, their faces pale with shock. Their partner, Dante, had just been consumed by a third-level spirit; his power source had blinked out of the sky like a dying star. A spectral shape, half-formed and desperate, swept over the gathered students. It paused, then plunged into Leo, seizing on the volatile storm of anger and passion he’d buried for years. The Reapers stared, unaware that the ordinary boy with the injured leg now housed a shattered, hungry soul.