The rain stopped.
Yoshino Junpei walked toward Satozakura High School with his head down.
Against the skin of his collar, a cold badge was pinned.
"Does that thing... really work?"
Junpei murmured to himself. Last night's experience felt like a dream, but the sensation under his collar reminded him at every moment—it was real... A corner behind the Satozakura High School teaching building.
This was a surveillance blind spot, and Junpei's nightmare location.
"Hey, Yoshino."
A frivolous and malicious voice rang out.
Junpei's body instinctively stiffened, causing the cola in his hand to shake.
Ito Shota. The school bully with dyed yellow hair who took pleasure in tormenting him, blocked his path with two lackeys.
"I heard you've been avoiding us lately?"
Ito blew a smoke ring, walked up to Junpei with a playful look, and reached out to pat Junpei's cheek.
"What? Think because the wound on your forehead healed, you can forget who's boss?"
Junpei said nothing.
"Cat got your tongue?"
Seeing Junpei remain silent, Ito felt an inexplicable irritability. Usually, this bug should have been on his knees begging for mercy by now.
"You're really pissing me off, with those dead-fish eyes."
The malice in Ito's eyes suddenly erupted.
He abruptly raised his hand and slammed the burning cigarette butt toward Junpei's left eye!
"Since you don't want to watch where you're going, then don't look at all!"
"Sizzle—"
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Junpei instinctively closed his eyes.
But he didn't dodge.
"Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!"
The expected sharp pain didn't come. Instead, a piercingly shrill scream instantly shattered the campus's peace.
Junpei snapped his eyes open.
The sight before him made his pupils tremble.
He was completely unharmed.
Meanwhile, the arrogant Ito was now clutching his right eye, kneeling on the ground in agony, rolling around frantically.
"My eye! My eye is so hot!!"
Blood seeped from between Ito's fingers; his right eye looked as if it had been scorched by an invisible fire, rapidly swelling and blistering.
Just as the cigarette butt touched Junpei's "shield" a moment ago, the [malice reflection mirror] activated.
Double reflection.
Not only did it block the attack, but it also returned that "burn" pain to the perpetrator twofold.
"Brother Ito?!"
The two lackeys nearby were scared witless, staring in horror at the unharmed Junpei as if looking at a monster.
"You... what did you do?!"
Junpei stood there blankly.
He touched his face. It didn't hurt.
He looked again at Ito wailing on the ground.
An unprecedented sense of pleasure rushed straight to the top of his head.
"It really..."
Junpei's hands were trembling—trembling with extreme excitement.
"It really works!"
"This is... the power the Boss talked about!"
He slowly lowered his head, looking at the Ito who once made him tremble with fear; his gaze had changed.
It was no longer the gaze of a victim.
"When you were bullying others, did you ever think this day would come?"
Junpei squatted down coldly and slowly poured all the cola in his hand over Ito's head.
The cola flowed past Ito's hand covering his eye, down his face, head, and neck.
Seeing this, the two lackeys didn't quite understand the situation and rushed forward to avenge their boss.
Naturally, they ended up clutching their stomachs and collapsing to the ground.
The three of them supported each other as they fled the scene.
Only Junpei remained in the corner.
He took a deep breath, feeling like a brand new person.
"Thank you... Boss."
Junpei straightened his collar and turned to walk out of the school... The next day.
Following Lynn's instructions, Junpei skipped class and walked toward that old movie theater named "Kinema."
He bought a ticket, back row, in the corner.
The movie was a trashy B-grade horror film, Earthworm Man 3.
Under the dim lights, Junpei wasn't watching the screen.
Out of the corner of his eye, he stared intently at the front row.
Ito Shota and his two lackeys.
They had their feet up on the seats in front of them, making a racket without restraint, mocking the movie's special effects, and throwing popcorn.
"Disgusting."
Junpei muttered in his heart.
Even after being taught a lesson by Junpei yesterday, some people's nature never changes.
"So noisy."
A light, airy voice rang out abruptly in the theater.
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
Junpei's heart contracted sharply.
It's here.
He turned his head.
Not far from Ito, a strange man was sitting.
Long grey-blue hair tied in a braid, his face... covered in stitches.
Ito clearly didn't realize Death had arrived.
He turned his head, face full of hostility:
"Huh? Who are you? What's it to you if I'm talking?"
"Believe it or not, I'll beat—"
Before he could finish.
The stitched-faced man stood up.
He was smiling—a smile as innocent as a child's.
"Humans really don't have any manners."
He raised his hand and lightly patted Ito's shoulder.
"Be... a little quiet."
"Squelch—"
No scream.
No blood splattering everywhere.
Junpei watched with wide eyes as Ito's head twisted, swelled, and deformed like dough.
His features were squashed together.
His eyeballs bulged.
In an instant, it became a giant, hideous tumor.
Immediately after.
"Pop, pop."
The other two lackeys also twisted instantly, turning into two squirming lumps of flesh.
The theater fell into dead silence.
Only the screams on the screen continued.
The man looked at the three "works" on the ground, nodded with satisfaction, hummed a little tune, and turned toward the exit.
Junpei sat in the darkness, his whole body stiff.
Fear?
Of course. That was an inhuman power.
But more than that, it was a shudder from the depths of his soul and... a sense of gratification.
Dead.
Those who had trampled him into the mud were crushed like bugs.
Junpei took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to vomit.
He stood up and rushed out of the theater... into the back alley outside.
Puddles had collected on the ground after the rain.
Mahito walked nonchalantly, savoring the sensation from just now.
"Reshaping human souls... they really are too fragile after all..."
"Wait!"
Rapid footsteps came from behind.
Mahito stopped and turned back with some surprise.
That boy who was trembling in the back row of the theater?
"Please... please wait!"
Junpei caught up panting, hands on his knees, his face flushed.
Mahito tilted his head, a flicker of interest flashing in his heterochromatic pupils.
"Oh? You can see me?"
Junpei swallowed hard.
He looked at that terrifying stitched face.
"Just now... those people..."
Junpei pointed toward the theater, his voice trembling, but his gaze was fixed on Mahito.
"Did you do that?"
Mahito smiled.
"That's right. Because they were too noisy."
He took a step toward Junpei, a malicious probe.
"What? Were they your friends? Do you want to avenge them?"
"No!"
Junpei blurted out.
He looked up, a twisted but genuine smile appearing on his face.
It wasn't an act; it was his long-suppressed dark side.
"I think..."
"It was beautiful."
"They... should have turned out like that long ago."
Mahito's footsteps paused.
He stared at Junpei for a few seconds, then burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
"Interesting! Truly interesting!"
Mahito walked up to Junpei as if he had discovered a new toy.
"Boy, your soul... is very special."
"Full of hatred, yet so clear."
"Don't you also think this world is very boring?"
"Aren't those humans who trample on others at will such an eyesore?"
Junpei looked at the monster right in front of him.
Junpei suppressed his instinct to retreat and nodded.
"Can I... do it too?"
Junpei reached out and pointed toward the theater.
"Like you... have that kind of power?"
"Of course."
Mahito narrowed his eyes; he really liked this boy's gaze.
That thirst for power, that hatred for the current world.
This was practically the best experimental material.
"However, whether you can learn it depends on your aptitude."
"I really like your eyes."
"Right now, you're still too weak."
Mahito walked around Junpei with his hands behind his back, like a mentor.
"Want to learn?"
"Come find me in the sewers here at this time tomorrow."
"I'll teach you... knowledge about the soul."
Junpei was stunned.
He was a bit at a loss, but this dazed look was seen by Mahito as "shock after being chosen."
"What? Don't dare to come?" Mahito teased.
"I'll go."
Junpei clenched his fists.
"As long as I can become stronger... I'll go anywhere."
"Very good."
Mahito waved his hand with satisfaction, his body turning into a pool of fluid and slipping into the gaps of a nearby manhole cover.
"Then, see you tomorrow."
"Interesting boy."
...Not until Mahito's presence had completely vanished.
Only then did Junpei's legs go weak, and he leaned against the wall.
Cold sweat had long since soaked through his school uniform.
He had succeeded.
He had successfully infiltrated the side of this monster.
"The sewers, huh..."
Junpei looked at that pitch-black manhole cover, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes...
________
Well, I think we can donate after this chapter since I've reached 15,000 words, so please donate energy stones and good ratings if you enjoyed the story.