Sen was stalking closer. He didn’t even need his Sense to hear the murmured voices of the contestants anymore–their confusion, their anxiety as they waited like prey being stalked–and, above all else, their fear... he could feel it all. His shoes dug into the ground, leaving deep imprints in the earth as he pushed aside large branches that obstructed his path with a simple wave of his hand.

  A veil of dark blue energy surrounded him–one that an ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to see unless they trained their eyes to perceive the fine particles of Sense energy being emitted. However, while a person wouldn’t be able to see the immense aura surrounding him, its mere presence was clear, and the multitude of fear trails leading in the direction of the clearing was proof of that.

  The contestants waiting for Sen didn’t even know him; they hadn’t even seen his face, much less talked with him, yet his sheer power left them petrified as they waited. Yet Sen simply continued toward them, feeling the sensation grow and the addictive power course through the channels in his body.

  There are dozens of people waiting for me… Sen thought absentmindedly as he stopped in his tracks. A fallen tree trunk, half bent and leaning, blocked his path. Sen knew he could simply walk through the opening underneath or even around it, but for some odd reason, he found it unnecessary–a waste of time. Sen breathed in, his eyes shimmering with a brilliant blue hue, and with a simple punch at its center, the leaning trunk exploded into fragments, causing a large explosion to echo. The power of his attack sent a shock wave through the forest, rustling the trees and birds that inhabited them.

  He continued onward.

  Those who kidnapped Kaiyo are waiting for me, Sen thought again, continuing his reflection. Yet I don’t feel worried or scared. Why? Sen believed he finally had the ability to experience the emotions that had been dulled in his life—the ability to fear, to feel happiness, and to recognize guilt for his actions.

  Why didn’t he feel any of them now?

  No… that wasn’t the case. He still felt them; it was simply that some were overwhelming the others. The anguish, despair, and fear he had felt were all dominated by one thing–his anger. He didn’t have a chance to feel conflicted or reflect on his problems because, at the moment, the only thing he cared about was soothing the unreachable itch he had for revenge.

  Sen stopped…

  The faint blue trails that had guided him vanished, replaced by a large dome of fear as he found himself in an open clearing within the forest. On both sides of Sen, a dozen hooded contestants stood with their sense swords poised, waiting for him. If he hadn’t awakened his ability of Sight, their figures would barely be distinguishable in the night's veil–but unfortunately, he saw their features in picture-perfect detail and light. He wished he hadn’t. He truly wished so.

  Then, he wouldn’t need to see how hurt Kaiyo was in the middle of the clearing, brutally restrained by two male contestants holding her arms. Deep cuts–half inflamed and still bloody–covered her usual pale, smooth skin, and her brilliant dark, carmine hair was tainted with dirty earth, although she normally kept it clean even in such an intense challenge.

  Sen could see Kaiyo desperately gazing at him, tears trailing down her cheeks amidst the rain. Her mouth moved and quivered frantically, yet no words came out. She had lost her voice.

  The anger inside him overflowed… like boiling water in a pot. He thought he had experienced its grasp before, but that seemed like a mere introduction to its true form. Every single hair on his body stood on end. Sen’s heart hastened, and his aching muscles screamed to be used–to finally let loose.

  To finally scratch that unreachable itch.

  All Sen wanted at this mere nanosecond was to feel flesh underneath his clutching hands as he choked whoever was responsible for harming her.

  Sen stepped forward.

  “Hey there, buddy,” a deep voice called from the side, causing Sen to jerk his head to meet them. A large contestant, at least a foot taller than Sen, who had been talking with two others, stalked toward him, his face concealed by the hoodie of his tracksuit. “Nice for you to finally show up.”

  Then Sen felt it.

  Thump…

  His heart began fluttering with a sudden sensation, and his Senses flickered on and off violently. Colors that his Sight enhanced vanished and reappeared with a boom of bright light, blinding him.

  Thump…

  His muscles twitched with every thump of his heart, possessing a mind of their own, while a flurry of fierce, lurid sounds that came from a mile radius impaled his eardrums–blood trickled between his fingers, which desperately tried to cover his ears.

  Thump…

  Then, a flurry of recorded memories uncontrollably filled his mind when different scents entered his nostrils. Sen let out a violent scream, holding his head to stay in one place as the world spun in nauseous circles. He could feel the bile rise in his throat, though he doubted he had any food left in his system to throw up.

  Thump…

  All the pain abruptly ceased, and Sen found himself pitifully hunched over on the forest floor, gasping for an ounce of air. His head still spun from his episode, but eventually, the strength returned to his body like a cascading river, finally flowing through a dam that had once blocked it.

  I know that feeling. Sen’s eyes widened as he managed to pick himself off the ground with a sickly groan. I had it when I…

  “Who are you?” Sen asked the Leader, his wide eyes glowing like a stalking beast in the deluge of rain as he confronted the larger opponent. Sen’s sheer intimidation caused the Leader to reconsider taking another step toward him–although he was far more threatening than Sen in terms of physical appearance.

  “No…” Sen said. “I know who you are. The better question is why. Why would you do such a thing? Kidnapping an innocent girl just to lure me here? Have you lost your fucking mind? Where is Hono? Can you hear me? Why would you do this?!”

  The downpour of rain muffled his voice, but the leader had no problem hearing him, nor did Hono.

  A slim, petite figure eventually emerged from the crowd of contestants and walked toward the leader, standing by his side. Sen held his breath as the newcomer slowly undid their hoodie, revealing a familiar girl with bob-cut black hair, someone he had been friendly talking to only a few hours earlier.

  Hono... Sen thought, his teeth gritting against each other. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised; after all, the writing was on the wall the whole time since their first meeting. But seeing the extent to which she had gone wasn’t something Sen expected, and her reason for doing it... well, Sen was at a loss.

  “This has gone far beyond simple bullying and prejudice,” Sen eyed them. “No matter how much I mull over why you guys are doing this, I reach a dead end. I normally can see through people’s motives and dissect them, yet when I look at you, I can’t see anything. Can you at least show enough respect to tell me the reason for this fucking... mess? Hono and—” Sen looked at the leader. “Ze.”

  The tall contestant let out an amused laugh. “I’m surprised you remember my name. That must mean you can sense us.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Ze pulled his hoodie down. He had a very square, bald face, and various scars marked his skin—the most noticeable being a long slash across the center of his nose. At face value, he looked around thirty; however, the structure of his face—ignoring how messed up it looked—told Sen he was more likely in his early twenties.

  He and his team got second place in the last challenge, Sen remembered, glaring furiously at him. And just like with Nova, my body convulsed when I saw them, similar to what happened now. I don’t know why it only happens around them. At first, I thought I must be going crazy, but after the third time, it’s not a coincidence anymore. With all the other stuff that happened to me in the last few days, this doesn’t seem far-fetched: Something about Nova and Ze is causing my body to go crazy.

  “That must mean you can Sense us?” Sen echoed Ze’s words in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”

  Ze gave an eerie smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after a while. Right now, you are in the awakening process, so your body is still undergoing, uh... how should I put this... growth spurts.”

  Sen clenched his fist, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. How does he know about the strange feeling I get when I meet him? Can he sense me, too? And what about me in the awakening process? Just who is this guy?

  “You’re probably asking yourself a lot of questions,” Ze continued. “Why this, why that? In truth, I’d love to tell you, but unfortunately, I cannot.”

  “And why is that?” Sen asked, feeling his anger bubble more and more inside of him.

  “Again with these questions,” Ze laughed jeeringly. “I assure you, the answer to that will not satisfy your curiosity, Sen Ano. Or should I say... Sen Huya.”

  Sen froze, the light blue radiance in his eyes churning even brighter. His muscles tensed instinctively the moment he heard those words uttered by the mysterious contestant.

  “You know my father’s last name?” Sen muttered, his hair falling over his eyes, obscuring them.

  Ze shrugged with a sigh. “Again with these silly questions. How many times do I have to tell you that it’s useless—”

  “That wasn’t a question.”

  Sen unsheathed his sword from the side of his waist and pointed it at him. “It was a threat.”

  Ze held up his arms mockingly, putting on a face that said, I'm better than you. Sen stepped forward, wanting nothing more than to wipe that foolish smirk off his face, but he paused, trying his best to reassess the situation.

  Calm down... he told himself. I can’t brashly attack them. They have me outnumbered, and although I’ve just awakened most of my senses, even I can recognize that beating them all would be impossible. I have to prioritize rescuing Kaiyo—starting a fight would only agitate them and make it harder for me to close the distance, and worse, they could harm Kaiyo more than she already is—

  “Sen...” Hono said softly, like a mouse.

  He would have missed it had it not been for the acute hearing of his Sense. Sen eyed her demandingly, slowly growing sick of her innocent face after all she had done. Even after every single sign indicating she wasn’t trustworthy, he still fell for it... and he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was her appearance—the way she spoke—or some other factor, but it didn’t matter in the end.

  He had been fooled.

  “I thought you would stay silent the whole time,” Sen said. “Though I assume you’re not going to tell me anything of value.”

  Hono’s head lowered, his burning stare too intense for her to endure. Yet, for some reason, Sen felt there was more to it than that. There was a sense of shame when she averted his gaze, not fear or intimidation. Maybe I’m wrong. After all, why would she feel shame now after everything she had done?

  “Thank you for being my friend,” Hono whispered under her breath.

  ...

  The silence mixed with the rhythmic splashes of rain falling on the forest floor was patronizing to Sen, but he couldn’t break it either—he was too stunned, too unsure how to respond or, better yet, to understand what that truly meant. Thank you for being my friend? Sen echoed the words in his mind. He didn’t even have the courage to tell her that he had never once viewed her as one—but the shock got the best of him.

  “You know, Ze won’t say it, probably because he doesn’t want to jeopardize the mission, but I’ll tell you why we’re doing this,” Hono whispered as she began slowly walking in the direction of Kaiyo.

  “You... aren’t planning on—” Ze narrowed his eyes amid the relentless rain, watching his companion stalk toward their captive. “Don’t say anything that will ruin the plan, Hono. You realize how important this is.”

  Hono’s face remained awfully dull as she stood before the helpless and broken person who had lost her voice. Even now, Kaiyo’s lips moved frantically, tears overflowing, in hopes that one of them would produce sound. Sen didn’t need to hear the words—his vision was able to read her lips without any problem.

  Why are you doing this? Sen, please help...

  Those were the imperceptible words that were spoken, and even Hono could understand them as she met her gaze.

  “I’m sorry, Kaiyo.” Hono bit her lower lip, then turned back to face Sen, who watched them, dumbfounded. “We are doing this to help you... No... to help the whole entire world.”

  Are those... Sen eyed the small girl with shock. Are those tears?

  Hono was crying. Sen wasn’t certain if that was the case initially because the rain drenched her, but her expression was unmistakable—he could hear the pitiful attempts to suppress her sobs.

  “I don’t understand,” Sen muttered. “How is this helping the world? Do you understand how crazy you sound? You can’t expect me to feel sorry for you because you're crying. All of you have gone mad—”

  “You’re right,” Hono said, half sobbing. She wiped the snot from her nose with the sleeve of her tracksuit.

  “I have gone crazy… all of us have. We’re here to destroy everything you love for no reason, just because we like seeing powerless people suffer. Yeah right… we went through all of this trouble—paying off contestants, tracking you down, monitoring you, even going as far as to kidnap one of your teammates… just because we want to pick on a little senseless boy! Right! That has to be it! Of course, that makes total sense!” Hono’s trembling voice turned into a delirious cackle filled with anger.

  “If you think that, then you’re not as smart as I thought, Sen! You wouldn’t understand an ounce of how much pain I went through… how much pain I am in now, just to fulfill this mission. You don’t know anything… no one does. I had to suffer in silence all these years, put on a brave face even though I knew the end result would have me dead. But I trusted every word he said because he was the only person that ever cared about me. And the worst part of all? No one is going to remember my story—not you, not Kaiyo; no one will even know how much I sacrificed just to save you and the world! My life has been nothing more than suffering and following a predestined life that was planned by someone else. But even so… when I infiltrated you guys and fooled you into thinking I was one of you… for the first time, I felt like I had true friends. When I talked with you guys, I forgot about fulfilling the mission. I finally wasn’t lonely.”

  Hono gasped for air from talking. Even Ze, the co-conspirator in all this, gaped at Hono with wide eyes as if she were falling into madness.

  “So I wanted to thank you for that… and apologize for what I must do.” Hono’s voice lowered back to a whisper, as if realizing her emotions got the best of her.

  Sen opened his mouth to speak—attempting to extract more information from her—but he was interrupted by the sound of a sword being unsheathed. He watched in horror as Hono raised her Sense Sword—the gem glowing in the pommel as it activated—and pointed it a few inches from Kaiyo’s frightened, pale face. Hono raised it.

  “What are you—” Sen leaped toward Kaiyo, his hand outstretched as a soft ring echoed in his ears. His fingers descended slowly, but they did not reach her in time.

  Blood spattered on his face, and a violent scream, so broken and terrified, resonated throughout the clearing—one that belonged to Kaiyo.

  Her voice, once silenced by the torture she had endured and the desperate pleas for someone to save her, now filled everyone’s ears one last time.

  Sen froze in shock, his outstretched hand unmoving like a sculpture as he looked at the hunched shape of his friend.

  He was too shocked to feel anything—too shocked that not even a single neuron in his brain attempted to confront what had happened in front of him.

  Then he saw it. An ear close to his feet.

  The two men who had held Kaiyo’s arms up backed away in horror, leaving her to sob silently on the ground as she protected the spot where her left ear had just been moments before with her trembling hands.

  Hono slashed her sword in the air to release the blood that clung to it and stepped out of the way, as if being charitable enough to allow Sen to finally reunite with his tortured friend.

  Before his brain could even process a thought, his body moved on its own, holding Kaiyo’s quivering body in his arms. Blood spurted from where her left ear had been, spilling on his tracksuit—he didn’t care one bit about the mess.

  It was odd.

  He was relieved… not because it happened, not because he could finally grasp her, but because an ear was the only thing that had been taken away.

  For that split second, when he had felt warm blood on his face and heard the silent thud of something falling to the ground, he had thought that Kaiyo was killed. Decapitated.

  But his brief moment of relief vanished when he laid eyes on her bloody and teary face. There were small wrinkles on her face that he had never noticed as she silently sobbed. Her now dull emerald eyes, which had once shimmered with hope, stared at him—he could see his own reflection in them, even in the veil of night and rain.

  He had no words to offer her pleading gaze… no ability to reassure her that things would be alright.

  The only thing he had left was his pure, unmolested rage…

  Then, at that moment, a familiar deep voice sounded within him.

  "Kill..."

  "Kill..."

  "KILL..."

  He lost control.