The rain wouldn't stop. It hadn't for two days.
Reika Aizora stood quietly under the cracked shelter outside the hunter association's south branch. Her cheap cloak soaked through, water trailing down her collarbone and vanishing beneath armor that was more duct tape than steel. No one looked at her, and that suited her just fine.
Behind the glass wall of the building, laughter echoed. A group of mid-rank hunters were celebrating. Loud voices, clinking glasses, and the soft blue glow of screens displaying their dungeon clear times. Another successful raid. Another pile of corpses left behind none of theirs, of course.
Reika didn't blame them. They'd earned their victory. She hadn't earned anything. She adjusted the strap of her chipped dagger, worn to the hilt and dulled at the edges. It wasn't ceremonial. It wasn't even hers originally. But it cut well enough when the monsters weren't moving. Her reflection caught in the glass. A girl with tired, sleep-deprived eyes. Pale. Small. Forgotten.
"E-Rank, huh?" someone muttered as they passed behind her. "Why do they even let trash like her register?" Reika didn't turn. Didn't flinch. She'd heard worse. Much worse. She'd only signed up for this raid because she needed the money. Enough to keep her apartment warm for one more week, maybe eat something better than expired instant noodles. She hadn't expected them to actually accept her request. But they had. Not out of kindness. Never that.
Just bait. "Hey, Reika!"
She turned slowly. A man stood near the entrance tall, broad-shouldered, armor gleaming. His badge shone C-Rank, but his confidence screamed higher. Kenji Yamada, party leader for today's dungeon expedition.
"Hope you're not too scared. This one's a bit nasty," he said with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. Reika offered a weak nod. "I'm ready." Liar.
She wasn't ready. Not for the blood. Not for the noise. Not for the way they always looked at her like she was disposable, a meat shield wrapped in old gear. But she'd go anyway. Because what choice did she have?
The dungeon appeared like a scar in the world. A swirling fracture in the air, pulsing with unnatural light, surrounded by twisted roots and red grass. The wind that blew from it was cold, sterile. Dead.
"Alright, team!" Kenji barked, clapping his hands. "Formation Delta. Reika, you're left flank support."
Left flank. Always the first to die. She didn't complain. Just walked silently into her assigned position. As they entered, the world changed. The light dimmed. The sky vanished. The dungeon's interior was a dead forest tall black trees, their leaves like ash, branches like claws. The ground squished under their boots, soaked in something that smelled like rot.
The others talked. Laughed. Kenji even told a joke about a goblin and a brothel. Reika didn't join in. She felt it that cold pressure in her chest, like something was watching. Waiting. Breathing.
Monsters came quick malformed beasts with cracked bones and eyeless sockets. The higher ranks made quick work of them. Blades danced. Magic flared. Blood sizzled on the ground. Reika kept to the edges, striking only when it was safe. She got a few kills, but no one noticed. No one cared.
Until the floor cracked beneath her. The ground didn't shatter all at once. It groaned first a deep, guttural crack like the dungeon itself was gritting its teeth. Reika felt it before she heard it. The soil under her boots trembled, then gave way. "Watch out!" she shouted, but her voice vanished under the chaos.
The floor caved in beneath her, roots snapping like bone, stone splitting in jagged lines. She fell hard shoulder first then tumbled into a pit so black it seemed endless. Her scream didn't echo. It just disappeared.
Then impact.
Her body slammed against cold stone, ribs flaring with pain, breath knocked from her lungs. Darkness swallowed her completely. The only sound was the slow drip of water, like a leaky faucet in a silent room. She coughed, tasting copper.
Something was wrong. Dungeons didn't just have random pit traps this deep. Especially not in classified C-Rank zones. Unless…
"Kenji…" she whispered, eyes narrowing. "You knew." A sound above. Faint.
A voice. "…She fell?"
Another. "She'll slow us down anyway. Better this way." A pause. Then Kenji's voice. "She won't be missed. Move out."
The footsteps receded. One by one. Until there was nothing. The silence hurt more than the fall. Reika didn't cry. Not anymore. Not after losing her family. Not after scraping through survival in a city where kindness was currency, and she was broke. She sat up slowly, every joint screaming in protest.
A faint blue glow illuminated the space. Cracked stones. Moss. And at the far end a door. Not a dungeon gate. Not the usual rusted kind the guilds documented. This one was different.
Old. Black stone carved with twisting symbols. Something shimmered along its surface like veins of liquid shadow pulsing beneath the rock. A door like a heartbeat. And it was calling to her.
Reika didn't know why her feet moved. Or why her fingers reached for the handle. Only that she had nothing left to lose.
She pulled. The door opened with a whisper like an exhale from something ancient.
Inside… was a chamber. Empty. Silent. And in the center hovered a sphere. No bigger than her fist. Floating inches above a broken pedestal. Blacker than ink, yet glowing faintly with violet strands that coiled like smoke.
It pulsed once. Then again.Then "So small… yet still breathing."
Reika froze. The voice didn't come from behind her. Or from inside the room. It came from everywhere. From within.
"Who's there?" she whispered.
The sphere twitched in midair. A ripple of shadow spread through the floor. "You were left to die. But you came here… Why?"
She blinked, pain pulsing behind her eyes. "I didn't… I didn't choose to come here." "You bled. You were thrown away. You endured."
Her knees gave out. She sank to the floor, staring at the orb. "What… are you?" Her voice cracked. "Are you the dungeon core?"
Silence. Then
"No. I am older. I am the first wound. The breath that darkness took when it learned to hate the light." Her breath caught. The shadows on the walls began to move not crawl, but lean. Like they were bending toward her. Reika's body screamed in instinct. But her soul… her soul leaned forward. She didn't run. She didn't scream.
She listened. "Do you wish to live, little hunter?" She swallowed. Her heart raced, but her voice didn't tremble. "Yes." The shadows shivered. "Then take me. Bind me. Feed me your pain, and I will give you strength." The orb floated closer, hovering just before her chest. Reika hesitated.
She thought of the city. Of Kenji's laughter. Of being dragged through broken dungeons for coin. Of her brother's grave. Then she whispered one word."…Yes."
The moment she said it, the orb slammed into her chest. Pain white, searing flooded her veins like fire and ice twisted together. Her skin rippled, black veins threading across her arms. Her shadow tore itself from the ground and grinned. Then everything went dark.
It was the sound of breath that brought her back. Not hers. Something else was breathing inside the darkness slow, heavy, and hungry.
Reika's eyes fluttered open. Her vision swam with colors that shouldn't exist purples with edges of crimson, shadows layered like silk. Her chest ached, seared as if someone had carved a symbol just above her heart. Her fingertips tingled. Her pulse felt… deeper. She wasn't alone.
Her shadow moved. Not flickered moved.
It twisted beneath her, stretching unnaturally, peeling away from the floor as if it had life of its own. Then it rose. Formed. Shaped itself into something vaguely human tall, cloaked, faceless. Reika scrambled back, heart hammering. The figure bowed. "First of the Bound," it spoke a voice like a forgotten grave, layered and hollow. "I answer your call." She couldn't breathe.
This wasn't magic. Not from this world. "What… are you?" she whispered. The shadow tilted its head.
"I am pain that never died. Rage that remembers. You summoned me… and I serve."
Her back hit the cold wall. She stared at the mark on her chest a black symbol, glowing faintly like a brand. Five lines in a spiral, with a center that pulsed with each heartbeat. This was the Shadow Pact. She had accepted it. And now…
She looked up again. The shadow waited. No threat. No pressure. Just obedience.
"I didn't mean to summon anything," she muttered. "You said yes. That is enough."
For a moment, silence.
Reika closed her eyes. She could still feel Kenji's voice in her ear. Still hear the crunch of soil as they walked away from her like she was never meant to leave this pit.
Maybe she wasn't.
But now? "Can you fight?" she asked softly.
The shadow didn't speak. It simply turned and extended a hand toward the stone walls.
A pulse rippled outward. Shadows across the chamber twisted, melting upward into blades, claws, and warped beasts with glowing eyes. From the cracks in the floor, creatures began to emerge malformed, stitched together from bone and stone.
They weren't hers. But they'd felt her awaken. The dungeon was reacting. She had triggered something. A wave of monsters surged toward her. And yet, Reika stood tall.
Her fear was still there coiled in her stomach like a knot but something colder had risen above it. Resolve.
She looked at her shadow, now crouched in a defensive stance, arms stretching into blackened blades. "Then fight," she said. It moved like lightning. The chamber erupted.
Claws clashed, bone cracked, snarls echoed against stone. Her shadow tore through the creatures, slicing them apart like silk in a storm. The floor ran slick with black ichor, glowing in strange hues. She watched, frozen not from fear, but awe.
It fought not like a beast… but like a knight. Every strike was deliberate. Every dodge, clean. And it never stepped too far from her as if its only priority was to protect the one who bore the mark.
And when the last monster fell, its dying cry a whisper lost to the dark, the shadow turned and knelt before her. "They will come for you now," it said. Reika's voice cracked. "Who?" "The ones who left you. The ones who fear you. The ones who will wish they had killed you sooner."
She swallowed. A part of her wanted to laugh. Another part wanted to cry. But instead, she simply asked, "What's your name?" The shadow paused, head lowering.
"I was never given one."
She stared for a moment. Then stepped forward. "Then I'll name you," she said. "You're… Kuro." The shadow didn't react. But the moment she spoke the name, the air changed.
The mark on her chest glowed deeper. The chamber flickered like the dungeon itself had acknowledged the bond. Kuro rose. Then bowed again, this time slower. "Then Kuro I shall be. Your first. But not your last."
Reika let out a shaky breath. Her body hurt. Her mind reeled. But something inside her had settled like a puzzle piece finally dropped into place. She had nothing left in the world above. No family. No allies.
No name worth remembering. But now… she had this. Power. And a shadow that obeyed only her.
She turned toward the broken stairwell at the chamber's edge, light filtering from the collapsed ceiling above.
It was time to return. Let them think she died here. Let them celebrate her absence.
Because when she walks back through the guild's doors… she won't be the weakest one in the room anymore. She'll be the one they fear in silence.