After studying for days, Kale realised Sin Mana wasn't simple.
It wasn't just about getting someone to do something wrong. It was about timing and emotion. And most importantly, depth. Guilt had a scent, yes, but it was like breathing in mist. Unsatisfying and thin. Kale needed something denser and he had a feeling it was possible.
So, He followed the noise.
It wasn't audible in normal sense. But emotions in cloud. On quiet streets, the emotions was flat, but the moment Kale stepped onto the university campus, the site buzzed with different textures of emotions.
Hundreds of minds, all tangled in confusion and stress and hormones. Each person a thread of potential. Some were too calm, too resolved. Not worth the trouble. But others… others carried storms inside them. Jealousy. Anger. Shame. Longing. Rage. The damaged ones. The ones who fought with themselves. These were the ones Kale followed.
One boy stood out: James.
Tall, athletic, always surrounded by people but somehow always alone. He smiled at his girlfriend like he meant it. But his eyes lingered too long when another girl passed by. A girl with sharp eyes and a bright smile like the sun.
There it was. Kale could feel it from twenty feet away.
Better than guilt. This was temptation. The beginning of a fracture. And if Kale could widen the crack, coax it to split and maybe he could harvest something stronger.
He began his work.
For the next few days, Kale shadowed James. Learned his routines. Watched who he texted. Who he avoided. Noted when he lingered at doors, when he lied with a too casual shrug, when he scrolled too long on someone else's form page. Kale whispered one or two thoughts.
Every time James fought with his girlfriend, Kale nudged him closer to the edge. He would whisper something like "She doesn't trust you." "Why doesn't she reply so fast anymore?" "Why are you even still with her?"
And every time he glanced at the other girl — Elissa , Kale added a little spark to the light. "She looked at you again." "She understands you." "Would it really be so bad?"
Slowly this turned into an art.
Soon, James began to change. He got offensive faster. He started "missing" texts from his girlfriend. "Forgetting" their plans. But somehow, he always had time when the girl showed up at the campus café. Twice he "accidentally" ran into her on her way to class.
Kale knew it was time to take the shot. So he stirred up a storm in his relationship.
One night, after a brutal argument, James stormed out. Kale was already there, waiting in the dark outside the dorms, pulsing low like a heartbeat in the air. James didn't go home. He didn't go to a friend's place either. He went to Elissa.
He didn't plan it. Not consciously. But he was drunk and under Kale influence Elissa opened the door.
One kiss. Then two. Then the fall.
When James crossed the line, Kale felt it.
It wasn't just energy. It was a rush. A flood ofmana, Kale called it Betrayal Mana, itroared through him like thunder. He had to brace against a tree just to stay upright.
Betrayal Mana was heavier. Denser. It didn't flutter like guilt. It hummed with weight and fury. Richer. Deeper. And oh, so powerful.
Kale stood under the streetlights, shivering with delight. Now he understood. Guilt was child's play. This… this was evolution. A soul caught between love and lust, trust and transgression, and tipping the wrong way? That was the good stuff.
But something else stirred in the back of his mind.
A thought. If Betrayal could give him a denser energy like this, what could despair do?
Someone so broken they stopped trying. Someone who looked at the pieces of their life and let them stay broken.
A new goal began to form. A bigger one.
But not everything went his way.
Three days later, Kale felt it, the Mana reducing.
He returned to James, hoping to feel that beautiful weight again.
Instead, he found healing.
James had confessed.
To his girlfriend. To Elissa. To himself.
He cried. He begged. And somehow somehow, they forgave him.
He didn't get away with it. Not entirely. His girlfriend was hurt. Elissa was distant. But there was closure. An attempt at honesty. Kale watched from the shadows as James sat beside his girlfriend on a campus bench and held her hand with both of his.
They were trying again.
The emotional storm died and half of the Mana evaporated.
Kale was stunned. He never taught the sin mana could evaporate when things change from his host.
Infact, he hadn't known emotions could close. That the cracks he widened could knit back together. That people could choose not to fall apart.
And when they did, he got only half payment.
He stood on the sidewalk and stared at the couple until they walked away, laughing through tired tears. Kale felt sick. Empty.
However, it taught him something crucial. Not everyone was a target. Not everyone cracked the same way.
Some people didn't loose control. They fought. They reached out. They held themselves together.
He couldn't afford another waste of energy like James.
No more guesswork. No more random flirting with potential.
He needed precision.
He began mapping the campus with a new understanding of its target. Watching faces, posture and tone of voice. Looking for the ones who hesitated when spoken to. Who laughed too hard and too loud to cover something raw. The ones who isolated themselves. Who hid their pain behind headphones or sarcasm. Who stared out of windows too long.
The vulnerable, isolated and unstable ones.
That was the new target profile.
He didn't need drama. He needed souls already hanging by threads.
As he wandered across the campus, a sudden gust of wind swept a newspaper into his path. It fluttered and skidded to a halt right in front of him. At first, he paid it no mind, but just as his form dipped lower, his eyes caught a glimpse of the image on the front page. He froze.
A girl stood on a step, a bag slung over her shoulder, books in her arms, smiling. She looked like Mira.
He reached for the paper, but the wind snatched it away again. His form wasn't solid enough to hold it. He couldn't be sure if it was her, but the moment the thought of Mira entered his mind, everything sharpened. His awareness, his urgency, his will.
He decided he had to regain his form. Fast. There was no time to waste.