Tear in the Light

Inferno at Mitaka High — Evening

The evening sunlight bathed the walls of Mitaka High in warm orange hues. Inside the gym, the atmosphere was gently buzzing—paintbrushes tapping jars, soft chatter drifting, sneakers scuffing the polished floor. Students leaned over canvases with the relaxed anticipation of a normal school event.

Everything felt ordinary.

Bright.

Normal.

Then came the second tremor.

Sharper.

Meaner.

Paint jars rattled. A canvas nearly slid off its stand. The water in cups rippled in perfect circles.

And then reality tore open.

A soundless rip split the gym floor-to-ceiling—thin as a thread at first, a distortion shimmering like heat above asphalt. Then it widened with a violent pulse, jagged edges glowing with cold, impossible light.

Darkness spilled through.

Shadows poured out like thick ink, crawling across the gym floor, staining the walls as they expanded, deepened, solidified. Shapes twisted inside the abyss—shoulders, limbs, claws dragging along the polished wood. And then—

Eyes.

Red, ember-bright, flaring awake inside the black.

A student screamed.

Chaos snapped open like a trap. Paint cups exploded across the floor. Easels toppled. Canvases shattered like glass. Students scattered, tripping over palettes, chairs, each other—some sprinting for the doors, others frozen, helpless beneath a terror too ancient to name.

And before panic could swallow the room whole—

two figures moved.

Rei’s disguise detonated in a burst of blue-white light.

Wings tore free from his back—sleek, sharp, feathered in crackling energy. His aura surged outward, slicing clean through the crawling shadows. A blade materialized in his hand, forged from pure spiritual force, humming like something alive.

Ayame followed a heartbeat later.

Her transformation struck like a star going supernova. Golden radiance erupted from her skin. Her wings unfurled in dark, elegant metallic tones, feathers gleaming like molten sunlight. Heat rolled off her aura in waves, burning back the encroaching dark.

Her sword appeared in a flash—long, bright, and deadly.

Her voice carried through the chaos, steady as iron:

“Rei. We protect everyone inside, especially Miyu. Nothing gets through.”

The demons roared.

A wave of claws and teeth and shadow slammed across the floor, heat and darkness warping the air as they surged toward the nearest human shape.

Rei didn’t retreat.

He launched forward—silent, precise, unstoppable.

His blade sliced upward, leaving a streak of electric blue in its wake. The demon he struck split cleanly, dissolving into a spray of burning sparks.

“Stronger than last week,” he muttered, spinning away from another lunge, movement too fast to track.

Ayame answered the next beast with fire.

Her sword slammed through its chest, unleashing a golden shockwave that sent three more creatures staggering. She shot upward, wings beating once—twice—before she spun through the air and cut down two demons mid-flight. They shattered upon impact with the floor.

“We hold them until reinforcements arrive,” she called, landing lightly.

But the tear widened.

And more poured out—

crawling along the ceiling like spiders,

clawing up the walls,

charging across the floor with snapping jaws.

Rei’s jaw tightened.

“Perfect,” he hissed. “Just perfect.”

He leapt into them, blade flashing in long, fluid arcs. He ducked beneath a molten swipe, slashed upward, pivoted, and released a burst of light that incinerated five demons in a single sweep.

Ayame dropped from above, wings folding tight as she slammed her blade into the floor. A dome of golden energy detonated outward—demons howled as their bodies disintegrated into ash.

But the creatures were adapting.

Their shadows hardened, twisting around their limbs like armor. Their movements sharpened, becoming more coordinated, less chaotic—like someone was guiding them from the other side of the tear.

One massive demon swung its molten claw toward Ayame. She blocked, but the force blasted her across the gym. She skidded back, wings flaring to regain balance.

“Ayame!” Rei shouted.

“I’m fine!” she snapped, though her breath shook. “They’re evolving too fast.”

A demon lunged toward a cluster of terrified students.

Rei teleported—one burst of light, one heartbeat—and appeared between them. His blade flashed horizontally, cleaving the demon in two.

It vanished with a shriek.

“GET THEM OUT!” he shouted at the teachers.

Adults scrambled to usher students out the doors—crying, shaking, stumbling over each other in panic. Ayame shielded their retreat, wings forming a radiant barrier as she cut down the demons that tried to break through.

One demon crawled up the basketball hoop, molten cracks splitting across its face. It opened its mouth and spewed a torrent of black fire.

Rei shot into the air, blade glowing with fierce radiance, and slashed through the flames. The fire split cleanly around him.

Ayame met the creature mid-air, driving her sword deep into its core. It burst into molten gold before its body hit the ground.

But the tear pulsed again—harder.

Three more demons tore through.

Ayame landed beside Rei, both panting, wings trembling with effort.

“They’re coming faster,” she said.

Rei wiped soot from his cheek, eyes narrowing.

“So are our reinforcements. We hold them just a little longer.”

They exchanged one breath.

Two demons broke off from the main swarm and sprinted toward the far side of the gym—toward Miyu. She froze, eyes wide, breath hitching as the creatures closed in.

Before either could reach her, Rei cut across the court in a burst of blue-white light. His blade sliced the first demon clean through; the second he blasted back with a sharp pulse of energy that cracked against the wall.

Miyu stumbled backward, shaken but unharmed.

Rei’s eyes narrowed—not at her, but at the complete stillness of her aura.

No reaction.

No surge.

No spark.

Nothing.

He said to him self when looking at Miyu.

“She didn’t release any energy. Not even instinctively.”

Then he slammed his blade into the floor, unleashing a tidal wave of blue flame that burned across the gym, swallowing smaller demons in its path.

Ayame soared upward, wings unfurling in dark, elegant metallic tones that gleamed like molten sunlight. She folded them inward as she fell, her sword glowing pure white. When she struck, golden fire erupted outward, annihilating the remaining beasts in a cascade of light.

The tear flickered.

And then—

silence.

Rei’s comm buzzed.

“Reinforcements incoming,” he said quietly.

Ayame let out one shaky breath.

“We did it.”

Rei nodded—relieved, but not relaxed.

Because he knew the truth:

A tear that large didn’t open by accident.

The Quiet Aftermath — Restored Reality

Reinforcements swept into the gym in a rush of wings and cool, shimmering light. The demonic residue dissolved into fading embers. The tear snapped shut with a blinding burst as angels sealed it from both sides.

Ayame collapsed onto the bleachers, wiping ash from her sword before it vanished in a shimmer of light. Rei leaned against the wall, trying to catch a breath that wouldn’t come.

“We held them,” she whispered.

“Barely,” he answered, though a spark of pride lit his eyes. “But yes.”

They shared a look—the fierce, wordless bond of warriors who walked through fire together and lived.

Then came the second wave.

Not fighters.

Not warriors.

Repairers.

Erasers.

Repairers moved like drifting light—

their wings soft,

their footsteps weightless,

their hands leaving gold trails as they touched shattered surfaces.

A broken floor panel re-knit itself.

Shattered glass rose and slotted perfectly back into its pane.

Burned mats rewove thread by thread.

Walls straightened.

Lights brightened.

Reality stitched itself closed like a wound healing instantly.

Erasers swept through the students—the ones hiding under tables, the ones whose legs wouldn’t move fast enough, the ones who had seen too much.

A pulse of light.

And fear dissolved.

Memory curled into fog.

Images of demons and wings evaporated like smoke.

By the time the bell rang for the next period, everyone believed they’d been evacuated for a routine fire drill.

The gym stood pristine.

Sunlit.

Orderly.

As if nothing had ever happened.

Rei and Ayame remained in the center—human forms restored, uniforms rumpled, sweat drying on their skin.

They stood quietly amid the newly repaired gym, the scent of ozone still hanging faintly in the air.

Only they remembered the inferno.

Only they knew what had truly happened.