code black ..........

As the bell echoed through the sterile halls, I felt it again—that suffocating weight in my chest. Fear. Anxiety. The same feeling that always crawled up my spine whenever the masked man summoned us. Ichika walked beside me, her steps quiet, but I could tell she felt it too. It was something we couldn’t escape—an unspoken dread that clung to all of us.

The others were already gathered by the time we arrived, faces pale, eyes wide with that familiar terror. We were supposed to be assassins, trained killers, but deep down we were still just kids. And no matter how hard they tried to shape us, fear still had its hold.

I glanced around, heart pounding in my ears. Why now? Why the sudden call? The masked man never held these meetings unless something serious—something terrible—was happening. The silence in the room was heavy, pressing down on us like a thick fog. My mind raced, and I could feel the tension building.

Then he appeared.

The masked man, standing tall, his presence casting a long, dark shadow over us. His mask—a cold, blank void—made him unreadable. But his voice, low and deliberate, was like ice, sending a chill through the air.

“Tokyo has been hit.”

The words hit like a punch to the gut. Everything around me seemed to blur for a second. *Hit? What does he mean?*

“A missile,” he continued, his tone as indifferent as always. “This means Code Black.”

The moment those words left his mouth, it felt like the floor was falling away beneath me. Code Black. The declaration of war. The nightmare we had been trained for since the day they took us. It was here. It was real.

I looked over at Ichika, my throat tight, barely able to breathe. Her face was pale, eyes wide with disbelief, but beneath the surface, I saw it—she understood. We both did. We’d known this day would come, but knowing didn’t make it any easier.

It was time. The war, the violence, the bloodshed—it was all about to begin. And we were part of it, whether we were ready or not.The masked man’s voice echoed through the cold room, chilling us to the bone.

“Get your katanas, knives, and spy gear ready,” he said, his tone flat, empty of anything resembling warmth. “It’s time, my children. You will continue the legacy I’ve given you.”

His words twisted in my gut, filling me with a familiar sense of dread. Legacy. That’s what he called it. But we knew better. This wasn’t a legacy—it was a curse. Seven years trapped in this nightmare, trained to kill for a war we never asked to be part of.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reo stand up, trembling with rage. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“What about the kids who’ve been killed during these seven years you’ve been enslaving us?” Reo’s voice cracked, filled with anger and fear.

The room fell deathly silent. No one dared to move. We all waited for the masked man’s reaction.

Without a hint of emotion, the masked man simply said, “They are nothing but collateral damage.”

Reo’s face twisted in fury. “YOU ARE A—”

Before he could finish, I lunged forward and clamped my hand over his mouth, my heart racing. Reo had been standing right next to Ichika and me when the bell rang, and now he was on the edge of something dangerous. Something he wouldn’t come back from.

“You idiot,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “Who the hell do you think you are? You’ll get yourself killed with a mouth like that.”

Reo struggled beneath my hand, his muffled voice filled with fury. “Who the hell are you?”

The air grew colder as the masked man approached us. I could feel his presence, dark and suffocating, looming over us. He stopped in front of Reo, towering over him like a nightmare made real.

“Know your place, child,” the masked man said, his voice calm but laced with something far more sinister. Without warning, he flicked Reo’s head, the gesture more terrifying in its casualness than any act of violence.

“Be prepared for war, my children,” he said, turning away from us. “The time has come.”

With that, he left, his figure disappearing into the shadows, leaving us with the suffocating silence of what was to come. Slowly, the others began moving, heading off to gather their weapons. I let go of Reo, who looked shaken but still burning with defiance.

“You idiot,” I said, my voice low but firm. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

Ichika stepped forward, her eyes full of concern as she examined Reo. “Are you okay? I’ll get you some tea from our dorm.”

She rushed off, leaving me alone with Reo, whose anger had barely subsided. He shot me a look, still fuming.

“You know, it’s pretty strange for you—a boy—to be sharing a dorm with a girl,” Reo muttered.

“Shut it,” I snapped, my voice sharper than I intended. “Next time you try something like that, the masked man won’t be so merciful.”

Reo fell silent, and I could see the realization dawning on him. The masked man didn’t care about us. To him, we were just tools, weapons to be sharpened and thrown into a war we couldn’t escape from. But I knew that defying him, challenging him like Reo had, was a death sentence.

As I watched Reo, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was only the beginning. The war outside was about to start—but the real battle, the one within us, had already begun.

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