*CHAPTER 2: NINE SECONDS TOO LATE*

The school didn’t breathe after the third toll.

It waited.

Kaze didn’t sleep.

No one in Room 32 did.

Nine beds.

Nine people.

One room that was supposed to hold two.

The paper cranes above them didn’t move.

Yui was curled in the corner, folding even in her sleep.

Ren sat on the floor with his back to the door and a knife in his hand.

Mizuki stood at the window, watching the bell tower.

It was dark.

It was silent.

For now.

Kaze counted his own breathing.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

If he could count that, maybe he could count the space between now and the next time his chest went cold.

“Did you see her face?” Mizuki asked.

She didn’t turn around.

“No,” Kaze said. “Just the hair. Long. Dark.”

“There are two hundred girls with long dark hair here.”

“I know.”

Ren shifted.

“Then we watch all of them.”

“For six more weeks?”

“We don’t have a choice.”

The bell didn’t ring.

Not that night.

The quiet was worse.

Morning came through the windows like an apology.

Headmaster Hoshizaki sent for all nine of them before first period.

Room 32 emptied out and walked together down the hall.

No one talked.

Her office smelled like tea and old paper and something metallic underneath.

Hoshizaki was writing when they came in.

She didn’t look up.

“Sit.”

Nine chairs.

In a circle.

The other five candidates were already there.

Kaze didn’t know their names.

A tall boy with glasses that kept sliding down his nose.

A girl with short hair and scarred knuckles.

Twins who didn’t speak and sat too close together.

And a boy who kept looking at the door like he was measuring how fast he could run.

Hoshizaki set her pen down.

“The rules are simple,” she said. “The bell tolls nine times. Once a week. On the ninth toll, one of you dies. The school feeds. We all live another nine years.”

“That’s not a rule,” Ren said. “That’s murder.”

Hoshizaki smiled. “Call it what you want.”

She slid a paper across the desk.

Nine names.

Nine photos.

Nine birthdays.

“Our candidates,” she said. “You’re marked. The Veil knows you. That’s why it comes for you first.”

“What about the rest of the school?” Mizuki asked.

“They aren’t on the list. Yet.”

The word _yet_ landed like a stone.

“The fourth toll is soon,” Hoshizaki said. “I suggest you use the time.”

She stood.

Meeting over.

As they filed out, Kaze saw it.

Yui’s photo.

Tucked behind the others.

Her name wasn’t on the list.

But her face was.

They didn’t go to class.

Class 3-A spent the day in the library because it had the most exits.

Mizuki read about curses and wards.

Ren read about weapons.

The twins didn’t read anything.

Yui folded paper.

Kaze watched the doors.

Every time someone walked past, his chest went cold.

_Echo Sight_ flickered and died.

False alarms.

“Stop doing that,” Ren muttered.

“Doing what?”

“Looking like you’re going to die every time someone coughs.”

“I can’t help it.”

At night they moved.

Never alone.

Never in the same place twice.

It didn’t matter.

The cold hit Kaze in the stairwell.

_Echo Sight._

Nine seconds.

West wing.

Stairs.

The girl with short hair and scarred knuckles.

She was climbing.

Alone.

Above her, a shadow with too many hands.

“West stairs!” Kaze shouted.

They ran.

Nine seconds.

They hit the third floor landing in seven.

The girl was there.

Frozen.

Looking up.

The shadow was above her, reaching down.

Ren threw a knife.

It went through the shadow and hit the wall.

The shadow turned its head.

It didn’t have a face.

It reached.

Kaze grabbed the girl and yanked her back.

The shadow’s hand closed on nothing.

It screamed.

Not with a mouth.

With the sound of every bell in the tower.

Then it was gone.

The girl was shaking.

“Who— what—”

“It’s okay,” Mizuki said, already kneeling. “You’re okay.”

Footsteps.

Hoshizaki.

She looked at the knife in the wall.

At the empty air.

At Kaze.

“The Veil missed,” she said. “Again. How disappointing.”

She pulled the knife out.

Handed it to Ren.

“You’re making this difficult.”

She left.

The girl’s name was Sora.

She cried for an hour.

Then she asked if she could stay in Room 32.

No one said no.

After that, they weren’t allowed to leave Room 32 without an escort.

“To keep you safe,” the announcement said.

“To keep us contained,” Ren said.

They ignored it.

They made a schedule.

Two people awake.

Always.

Watching Kaze.

Waiting for the cold.

It came at four in the morning.

_Echo Sight._

Nine seconds.

Bathroom.

First floor.

The boy who kept looking at the door.

He was at the sink.

In the mirror behind him, a shadow was smiling.

“Bathroom. First floor!”

Eight seconds.

They broke the door down.

The boy was staring at the mirror.

The shadow reached out of the glass.

Ren smashed the mirror with his elbow.

Glass everywhere.

The shadow screamed and pulled back.

The boy fainted.

Hoshizaki was there before the medics.

She looked at the broken glass.

At Ren’s bleeding arm.

At Kaze.

“You’re interfering,” she said.

“Good,” Kaze said.

Hoshizaki smiled.

“Then I’ll make it faster.”

The boy didn’t wake up for two days.

That night they met in a circle on the floor.

“The bell is speeding up,” Mizuki said. “She’s scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Of us not dying.”

Kaze was staring at his hands.

“It comes nine seconds before,” he said. “Every time.

That means I can see it coming.

If we use those nine seconds, we can move the target.”

“What?”

“If the Veil wants one person, and that person isn’t there...”

“It takes nothing,” Mizuki finished.

“Exactly.”

“So we rotate,” Ren said. “No one sleeps in the same place.

No one walks alone.

We make it impossible.”

Yui stopped folding.

“It will adapt,” she said.

“How?”

“If you keep moving the target, it will stop aiming at people.

It will aim at all of you.”

Silence.

“Then we’re ready for that too,” Kaze said.

They had no better plan.

It came at noon.

In the courtyard.

In front of everyone.

_DONG._

Kaze felt it in his chest like ice.

Nine seconds.

Courtyard.

All of them.

One shadow.

Bigger than before.

Too many hands.

One mouth.

`NINE.`

`ONE.`

It spoke in their heads.

“IT’S COMING FOR ALL OF US!” Kaze yelled.

They ran, but there was nowhere to run.

The shadow rose from the ground.

Ren threw knives.

Mizuki’s hands lit up.

The twins linked hands and pushed.

Yui threw a crane.

It burst into light.

The shadow hit the light and staggered.

Kaze grabbed Mizuki’s hand.

And Ren’s.

And pulled them into the light.

The shadow shrieked and collapsed.

The bell cut off mid-ring.

Silence.

Hoshizaki stood at the edge of the courtyard.

Clapping.

Slow.

“Impressive,” she said. “Really.”

She looked at Kaze.

“You’re ruining tradition.”

“Good,” Kaze said.

Her smile vanished.

“You have four tolls left. Let’s see how long that lasts.”

They didn’t sleep in Room 32 that night.

They slept in the garden.

All nine.

In a circle.

Kaze stared at the stars.

The tower was dark above them.

“You think we can make it?” Ren asked.

“Make what?”

“All nine tolls.”

“I don’t know.”

“But we have to try,” Mizuki said.

Yui was quiet for a long time.

Then: “It’s not about surviving the tolls.”

“What is it then?”

“It’s about who rings the ninth bell.”

Everyone went still.

“The Headmaster said the ninth toll takes one,” Yui said. “But she never said who rings it.”

Kaze sat up.

“You think someone has to—”

“I think someone has to choose,” Yui said. “And whoever does, dies.”

Mizuki looked at Kaze.

“No,” Kaze said.

“You don’t get to—”

“I’m not saying I will,” Mizuki said. “I’m saying we need to be ready.”

Kaze looked at the tower.

At the silent bell.

Four tolls left.

He thought of his sister.

Of being nine seconds too late.

He wouldn’t be late again.

“Then we break the bell,” Kaze said.

Ren grinned.

“Now that’s a plan.”

They spent the next day planning.

How to get into the tower.

How to break the bell.

What to do if Hoshizaki stopped them.

That night the bell rang.

But not a toll.

A single low note that shook the windows.

No vision came.

No attack.

Just a voice in their heads.

`I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE PLANNING.`

Hoshizaki.

`TRY IT.`

Silence.

It came at three in the morning.

_DONG._

Kaze was already on his feet.

_Echo Sight._

Nine seconds.

Hallway.

Third floor.

The twins.

Separate.

Two shadows.

“Third floor! Split up!”

They ran.

Kaze and Ren took the left hall.

Mizuki and Yui took the right.

Nine seconds.

Kaze hit the corner and saw it.

One twin, pinned against the wall.

A shadow with hands around her throat.

Ren threw a knife.

The shadow turned.

Kaze tackled the twin out of the way.

The shadow screamed and lunged.

Mizuki’s light hit it from the other side.

It turned to smoke.

The twin was breathing.

Alive.

The other twin was fine too.

Barely.

The bell stopped.

Hoshizaki was waiting in the hall.

She looked at all of them.

At the smoke.

At Kaze.

“You’re learning,” she said. “Pity.”

She walked away.

They didn’t talk for a long time after that.

Room 32 was quiet.

The cranes above them didn’t move.

Kaze sat on his bed and looked at his hands.

They weren’t shaking.

Not this time.

“We need to get into that tower,” Ren said finally.

“Before the seventh toll.”

“How?”

“We find a way in,” Mizuki said. “Tonight.”

Yui was folding.

Faster now.

“Be careful,” she said without looking up.

“The bell remembers sound.”

Kaze nodded.

Outside, the tower stood silent.

Waiting.

Three tolls left.

And Kaze had nine seconds to figure out how to stop the next one.

He closed his eyes.

Breathed in.

Breathed out.

Not late.

Not this time.

*END CHAPTER 2*

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