CHAPTER IV KEIRO OF THE DIRGE

He found Noen near the underground train platform two days later.

Keiro.

It wasn’t a meeting. It was a collision. One moment Noen was walking, trying to outrun the hum in his ears. The next he was face to face with a man who looked like he stepped out of a model magazine.

Red hair, brown eyes, handsome and tall. But oh. Their other eye was… violet?

Noen’s body locked up on instinct.

Keiro smiled, like someone remembering an old joke with a knife hidden behind it.

“I wondered when you’d start seeing it.” Keiro said with a smirk. 

Noen didn’t move. Couldn’t

Keiro circled him like a hawk. “You don’t know what you are yet. Thats good. It means the break hasn’t finished yet.”
“What break?” Noen managed to ask

Keiro leaned in. “The one between you and what you thought you were.”      

Behind Keiro, something stirred. 

A Mourner, barely visible, swaying like a candle flame in human shape. It didn’t come closer. It simply just hummed.

“You don’t need to fear them, Noen. You need to understand them. They’re what grief becomes when it’s denied long enough.”

Noen looked at him deadpanned and said “You think I care about your cult speeches?”

“You will. Soon. When the second song begins.” Keiro smirked and chuckled.

“What are you talking about” Noen was confused and he felt his hands starting to sweat.

“She heard it too. Before she burned.”

At that Noen lunged, fury flooding him. But Keiro was already gone. A shadow slipping through the cracks of reality. Noen stood alone on the platform, fists clenched, chest heaving. But in the reflection of the glass… his shadow was no longer shaped like a human. It was shaped like a mourner.