The sun was dipping low on the horizon, painting the campus in a haze of burnt orange and blood-red hues. Shadows stretched across the cracked pavement, long and crooked like claws reaching from the underworld itself. The acrid scent of smoke clung to the air, carried from the incinerator that glowed faintly behind the school like a beast waiting to devour anything cast into its maw.

Osoro Shidesu leaned casually against its cold, rusted frame, arms crossed over her chest. The faint glint of steel in her piercings caught the dying light, and her golden eyes burned with a predatory sharpness that made it clear she wasn’t just another student. She scanned the area with a look equal parts boredom and disdain, her lips quirking into the faintest smirk whenever someone avoided her gaze.

Around her, her loyal crew of delinquents gathered, voices low but unruly. The metallic clang of long weapons slung over their shoulders echoed whenever they shifted, their laughter loud and shameless as they threw around plans for how they’d ditch class again—where they’d loiter, who they’d intimidate, what chaos they’d stir up. The faint thrill of rebellion seemed to pulse in the air, thick and heavy, the kind that only grew when Osoro herself was at the center.

To the rest of the school, it was a scene to fear—a queen of delinquents standing tall at the edge of the fire, commanding loyalty with nothing more than her presence.