Kuoh Academy looked normal on the outside.
Spacious grounds, neat hedges, a clock tower that chimed exactly on time, and a sea of uniforms moving like a tide through the gates. If Yuuji didn't know any better, he'd have mistaken it for just another high-end private school.
But his system buzzed in the back of his mind like a whisper he couldn't quite catch.
[Warning: Dense Supernatural Signatures Detected]
[Skill: Spy Eye (Locked) – Recommend Evolution to Improve Detection Range]
He mentally toggled the screen off. No need to alert the whole school with floating text. Again.
His first class was boring. History. He sat by the window and pretended to take notes while his eyes scanned the room. His seat partner, a spiky-haired guy with a wide grin and suspicious levels of energy, leaned over.
"Yo! I'm Issei Hyoudou! You're new, right? Cool hair, dude."
Yuuji nodded slowly. "Yuuji Ren. Transfer."
Issei lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "This school's great. So many beautiful girls, man. Like—ridiculously beautiful. It's suspicious."
Yuuji raised an eyebrow. "You think it's a conspiracy that hot girls go to school here?"
"No, not just that. It's... look, I'll show you later." He gave him a weird little wink. "We've got a whole research group going."
Yuuji blinked. "Research."
"Super important work."
Right.
By lunchtime, Yuuji had gathered more than data. His system picked up subtle anomalies in the energy patterns of certain students. Specifically:
[Target: Rias Gremory – Detected: Demonic Aura (Sealed)]
[Target: Akeno Himejima – Detected: Lightning Affinity | Race: Unknown (Suspected Fallen Hybrid)]
They sat under a tree on the far end of the courtyard, beautiful and untouchable, like royalty in a school built to worship them. Rias noticed him watching. She smiled.
It wasn't the kind of smile girls gave strangers. It was... knowing.
Like she'd seen him before.
Like she knew what he was.
Yuuji looked away quickly. His heart thumped.
[Skill: Spy Mastery has reached evolutionary threshold]
[Evolve to Spy Eye – Y/N]
He hesitated for a second, then mentally clicked Yes.
The world didn't change. Not at first.
Then he blinked—and the colors around people shifted. Auras flared faintly around the supernatural. He could see how energy pooled in their cores. See threads of magic trailing behind them like echoes.
And above Rias's head—briefly, for just a moment—was a crown made of crimson flame.
"System," he muttered under his breath, "you're not playing around, are you?"
Later that day, during a short break before club hour, he followed a subtle signal the system pinged in the west building. His evolved Spy Eye picked up a cloaked signature—someone trying to hide their presence.
He slipped around the corner, footsteps quiet.
There.
A boy stood facing a supply closet, murmuring something in a strange tongue. He looked normal. Brown hair. Thin. But Yuuji's system marked him red.
[Danger Rating: Moderate][Race: Familiar Host | Parasite Type: Low-Tier Demon]
He stepped forward. "Hey."
The boy turned—and his eyes were not human.
"Who are you?" he hissed. His voice doubled, two tones at once.
Yuuji's hand twitched. No weapon. Not yet.
"Someone who sees you. That thing inside you—it's feeding off you."
The boy snarled. Shadows curled around him like snakes.
Yuuji's system pulsed.
[Summoner's Vein: Active]
[Choose Summon – Category: Scout | Class: Basic Shadowling]
[Deploy? Y/N]
He clicked Yes.
From his shadow, something rose—sleek, small, a creature with glowing violet eyes and needle-like limbs.
The demon inside the boy froze.
"What... what are you?"
Yuuji's smile was sharp. "Someone who doesn't like freeloaders."
The Shadowling lunged. A flash of movement, a startled yelp, and the parasite was pulled screaming from the boy's body before it could react. The kid collapsed, breathing hard, eyes wide with panic but—human again.
Yuuji knelt beside him.
"Next time, don't talk to things in mirrors."
He stood and walked away, system flickering behind his eyes.
[Enemy Neutralized – XP Gained]
[Skill Progress: Summoner's Vein – 23% to next level]
Back at the dorms, he collapsed onto his bed.
A new school
More Supernatural Things...
And this was just day one.
Wow, he muttered. This is going to be complicated...