Yun Zhiyu fled the dormitory like a fish swimming against the current, plunging headfirst into the afternoon bustle of East Sea Academy.
Her steps had no direction, no purpose. She merely ran forward instinctively, mechanically. Her ink-black hair flew wildly in the autumn wind, while her moon-white short coat snapped loudly like a sail about to tear apart. Beneath her dark brown contact lenses, the vertical pupils in her violet eyes contracted sharply, taking in everything around her while seeing none of it—the students playing chess beneath the trees, the instructors wiping down soul devices beside the training grounds, the scent of food drifting from the cafeteria windows—all of it was shut out by some invisible barrier.
She was running, fleeing the indulgence in those black eyes, fleeing the tenderness of those words, "Whatever you want, I'll give you," fleeing the terrifying obsession in her heart that was spiraling out of control.
The blue bricks beneath her feet blurred into patches of color. Her breathing became rapid and shallow, her lungs seeming to be clenched by invisible hands, every expansion bringing tearing pain. Yet she did not stop. Instead, she ran even faster, as if she wanted to shake off some unseen pursuer, as if she wanted to cast her panicked, fleeing self entirely into a crack in time.
Then she crashed into someone. No—more accurately, she crashed into an embrace.
The other person's body was softer than she had expected, with the warm elasticity unique to a young girl. The instant they collided, Yun Zhiyu's body reacted before her mind could—an instinct forged through countless combat drills, a conditioned reflex developed through battling soul beasts on the Ascension Platform. Her arms wrapped around the other girl's waist, her fingers tightening as she firmly caught the figure who had been