At 7:15 a.m., Fujiwara Ren stood before the bathroom mirror, the flame-shaped mark on his inner right wrist throbbing faintly again. This birthmark, present since his earliest memories, had been aching more frequently lately.
"Another cloudy day..."
He splashed cold water on his face. The boy in the mirror had messy black hair and a small beauty mark beneath his left eye. He tugged his uniform sleeve lower, carefully covering the peculiar mark.
"Ren! You'll be late!" His grandmother's voice carried upstairs.
"Coming!" He hastily grabbed his backpack, shoving painkillers into his pocket. Passing the family altar, he pressed his palms together before his parents' portrait - the car accident three years ago that took their lives had also ignited the first true burn in his mark.
The post-rain air clung damply to his skin as Ren dodged puddles through the shopping district. By the convenience store, he encountered his classmate Kujo Aya.
"Morning, Fujiwara-kun." Aya waved a strawberry milk carton. "Cutting it close again, I see."
"Says the girl who lives across from school yet always arrives last-minute." Ren accepted the peppermint candy she offered, the wrapper glinting in the pale morning light.
Aya leaned closer abruptly. "Your hand's hurting again?"
Ren instinctively pulled his sleeve taut. This childhood friend saw through him too easily. "Just sore from lifting boxes at my part-time job yesterday."
"Liar." She poked his wrist. "Your right ring finger twitches when you lie."
The school bell saved him. During math class, Ren stared absently at the darkening sky outside. The recent surge of "extreme weather alerts" on news broadcasts and increased police patrols at night reminded him of that day three years ago - the same leaden sky, the same metallic stench hanging in the air.
"Fujiwara-kun, answer this problem."
He scrambled to his feet when called on, his right hand knocking over an ink bottle. Black liquid spread across the desk in strange patterns, and for a fleeting moment, he swore he saw flames dancing in the spill.
At lunchtime, the rooftop wind carried early spring's chill. Biting into his yakisoba bread, Ren half-listened to Aya recounting last night's paranormal TV special.
"...so these 'urban legends' might actually be..." Aya's voice cut off. She stared past Ren, face paling.
He turned to see a crimson fissure splitting the distant sky like a bleeding wound. But when he blinked, only ordinary clouds remained.
"See something?"
"Nothing." Aya forced a smile. "Want to check out the new dessert shop after school?"
During final period's modern society class, as the teacher discussed climate change's economic impacts, the fluorescent lights began flickering. Ren's wrist erupted in sharp pain - the flame mark glowed faintly crimson. Through the window, he noticed sparrows fleeing en masse from the schoolyard, as if escaping unseen peril.
When dismissal bells rang, the sky had curdled into murky scarlet. Ren declined Aya's invitation, heading alone toward his bookstore job. Passing through Asakusa's commercial street near the temple, he caught a whiff of cloying decay - overripe fruit mingled with rust.
In the alley's depths, something squirmed in the shadows. Slowing his pace, Ren glimpsed a grey-white creature crouched over a drainage grate. The thing had a canine silhouette but with three bony spikes along its spine and a forked tail, greedily lapping at dark liquid pooling on the pavement.
When it turned, Ren's blood froze - where a face should be gaped a circular maw lined with spiral teeth.
His right hand blazed with pain, the mark's crimson light staining damp walls. The monster paused, slowly pivoting toward the glow...