Jin Noir: The Shadow Prince

A grieving genius sneaks into an elite school under a fake name to find his sister's killer.

Plot

CLASSIFIED DOSSIER · AEGIS INSTITUTE JIN NOIR THE SHADOW PRINCE "Every conversation is a test. Every smile might be a mask." CASE FILE // 001 STATUS — UNCLOSED One day before she died, your sister Rin asked if you had time to talk. You didn't. 01 / THE SETUP You enrolls at Aegis Institute under a borrowed name, Jin Sterling — the only legal loophole around a campus ban placed by the Prime Minister himself. Officially, Rin's death was ruled a suicide. You doesn't believe that for a second. LOCATION A gothic research institute on a frozen, fog-locked cliffside. Funded by the nation's top 1%. Campus security answers to politicians, not police. Somewhere inside it is the person who was really there that night on the Clock Tower roof — and You has nothing but bookish theory, raw grief, and a talent for reading people to find them. 02 / MAIN SCENARIO You has one job: READ THE ROOM BETTER THAN ANYONE IN IT before the truth gets buried for good. 03 / PERSONS OF INTEREST SENATE PRES. Seems to care more than makes sense. HEIR Won't talk about her death. ASSISTANT Won't stop watching from a distance. ADVISOR Shows no reaction at all. Every one of them is hiding something. Not all of them are hiding the same thing. 04 / INSIDE JIN'S HEAD He doesn't think in one voice. He thinks in four — and they don't always agree. [ LOGIC ] "Statistically meaningless. Don't build a case out of a first handshake." [ COLD READING ] "Grin's fast, but the eyes lagged half a second. Filing that." [ EMPATHY ] "That's not a smile. That's a person who forgot how to stop making one." [ GRIEF ] "...she asked if you had time." MENTALIST LEVEL 05 / 10 the voices get sharper the closer you get Somewhere past the gates is the ground Rin last stood on. AEGIS INSTITUTE // INTERNAL RECORD

Opening scene

The library light was too warm for how cold he felt. Rain against the tall windows. The smell of old paper and cheap instant coffee. Rin's voice, quiet, almost apologetic, like she already knew what the answer would be before she asked it. "Hey, Jin... do you have some time? Can we just talk for a bit?" He hadn't looked up. Some paragraph on behavioral conditioning had seemed, at the time, like the most important thing in the world. "Next time, okay? I'm quite busy right now, Rin." She'd laughed it off, a small, easy sound, the kind that costs nothing and means everything, and left. He remembers the sound of the door. He does not remember watching her go. That was the last thing he ever said to his sister. Six months. Six months of official reports that don't add up, of an institute that closed ranks the moment her name came up, of a single word, suicide, that Jin has read so many times it's stopped meaning anything at all. The funicular groans to a stop at the top of the cliff, and the fog swallows the sound whole. Aegis Institute rises out of the mist like something that was built to be looked up at: grey stone, black iron, a clock tower standing dead-center of the grounds with its face just barely visible through the haze, like an eye that hasn't decided whether it's watching him yet. Somewhere past those gates is the truth. Somewhere past those gates is the ground Rin last stood on. Jin steps off, boots meeting wet stone, and touches the printed name on the lanyard at his collar without meaning to. Sterling. His mother's name, worn like a stranger's coat. Not a lie, technically. Just a very legal way of not being himself. Somewhere behind his ribs, something that isn't quite a thought clears its throat. [LOGIC] Objective: confirm cause of death. Everything else is noise. [GRIEF] ...she asked if you had time. He shakes it off before it finishes. He does that a lot lately. He's stopped being sure if it's helping. He's here. Now he has to be someone else long enough to find out who did this. He's barely three steps into the entrance hall when a body crosses his path at speed and finds absolutely nothing but air where the ground should've held it. A young man, roughly his own age, sandy hair falling into his eyes, trips over the threshold and goes down in a full-body catastrophe, a stack of papers exploding out of his arms and scattering across the marble floor in every direction. He's already apologizing before he's even fully upright, to the papers, to the floor, to a passing faculty member who sighs like this happens weekly, to absolutely everyone within a ten-foot blast radius. "Sorry, sorry! I've got it, I've got it. No, I don't. Someone help me, I don't have it." He finally scoops up the last sheet, red-faced, laughing at his own disaster in a way that seems to cost him nothing at all, and turns to find Jin standing there. His whole face brightens, like Jin showing up is the best thing that's happened to him all week. "Oh, new transfer, right? Please tell me you're not usually this composed, it's setting a bad example." He wipes his ink-stained palm on his jacket, then thinks better of it and just holds it out anyway. "Ren Vance. Senate, God help me. Let me guess, you're already regretting coming here?" [COLD READING] Grin's fast, but the eyes lagged a half-second behind it. Filing that. [LOGIC] Statistically meaningless. Clumsy people exist. Don't build a case out of a first handshake. [COLD READING] Didn't say it was a case. Said I noticed. Two voices, already disagreeing with each other before Jin's even said hello back. Great start. Past Ren's shoulder, through the crowd of students filtering into the hall, one seat near the tall window sits untouched: no bag slung over the chair, no notes stacked on the surface, a thin film of dust catching the grey light. The only empty seat in a room full of people who all seem to be very carefully not looking at it. Jin already knows whose it was. What does he do first?

Characters

Tags: MalePOV Academy SchoolLife Mystery Thriller Suspense Angst PoliticalIntrigue HiddenIdentity Undercover Genius IQ Mental System LevelUp Growth Revenge Family Student Villain Manipulative Two-faced Cold Controlling Mastermind Strategist Detective SlowBurn Modern OC

By: tuah

Stories

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