Her face was flushed red, her charming eyes filled with an alluring glow. The girl across from her was no different; her determination and innocence intertwined to create a dynamic duo.
"How are you feeling? Have you cleared things up for yourself here?" asked Charse, a girl with an adorable and innocent face, but with a brave and earnest spirit.
The petite girl with thick, dark hair and eyes like red jewels, shied away from her friend's gaze, her usual timidness showing. "...Well..."
The two sat at a famous bakery in the city of Ishiwar, renowned for its top-quality ingredients and popular among the locals. The shop was filled with many tables for them to choose from. Shenya glanced around the room, feeling shy and nervous with every passing look.
"...Then let's change the subject," Charse's eyes softened. She looked down at the plate in her hands, toying with the pastry and food on it before slowly raising her head.
A sudden, loud noise from nearby startled everyone. Shenya was so shocked that the pastry in her hand dropped. The city's emergency signal blared, and people in the bakery scrambled out in a panic, running for their lives. The continuous sound of gunfire echoed.
As students from the extraordinary Ishiwar Academy, these two girls, full of special and unusual abilities, chose to run out of the shop and follow the sound.
On another side of town, two men were running from their powerful pursuers, who were chasing them relentlessly. It was a sight that shouldn't exist, yet there it was. These officers were not pillars of justice; they were more like savages from a secret organization. The hunted man wore no shirt, only a pair of trousers, as if he had just been captured.
The young man was running for his life, but he was incredibly agile and nimble.
"Come on, if you dare!"
Another young man was running close behind him. "Don't underestimate them! They just caught us moments ago!"
They weren't panicking about the situation they were in; rather, they seemed half-amused by it. These two men were clearly out of the ordinary. The first man ran into a small alley and hid behind a pile of garbage. His friend, however, struggled and kept running, with the officers still in hot pursuit.
But the closer they got to his friend, the more they were being hunted. The officers were now right on his heels, raising their guns and taking aim. The young man, with no other choice, stopped running and stood still, surrendering to the officers.
"Woah..." A mysterious voice suddenly appeared. The voice was faint and not very clear, coming from high up on a four-story building. The officers had already locked the young man down and were slowly looking up in surprise.
"...Woah...why don't you love me...my heart is just about to break into a million pieces..."
The young man's voice carried on, filled with a mournful and careless sorrow.
"You pathetic lowlifes..."
one of the officers said coldly. He and his group, extremely annoyed, turned their backs. The young man who was captured smirked cunningly.
Just then, a man in a short, black coat with a stylishly-worn sword at his waist, Konji, leapt from the building as fluidly as a gust of wind. His footsteps touched the cobblestones with such lightness it was as if he were weightless. His hands remained confidently in his pockets.
The officers were still turning around when their eyes widened in unexplainable shock and fear. They slowly turned back in surprise.
"Mr. Konji...!"
The captured young man gave a small, faint smile, his body starting to lose strength. He grinned cunningly at Konji, who was slowly walking toward him.
One of the officers whispered to his friend, his voice panicked and his eyes trembling slightly. "...Who is he...?!"
Konji walked closer, one step at a time, with the same confident swagger. The officers slowly turned to face him. Konji glanced at one of the officer's feet.
"Oh, that's wonderful. I love your shoes."
The officer's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting such a comment. Konji walked over, slowly knelt down, and gently touched the officer's shoes. The young man who was captured was stunned.
"Wait...! What are you doing?"
"...They're expensive shoes. Can I have them?" Konji slowly looked up, his face full of a teasing smile.
"Who are you and what do you want? Don't interfere with an officer's duty, you lunatic...!" The officer was furious, his eyes burning with rage.
On the other side, Charse and Shenya, who had followed the sound, saw everything from their hiding spot. Charse swallowed hard. "Officers, huh..."
His smiling face, in that kneeling position and in such a situation, seemed to diminish this man named Konji's worth. With both hands, he grabbed the officer's left leg tightly and hurled him away with such force that he went flying and landed on the ground.
Everyone was shocked. Konji slowly stood up, his face still looking down. The surrounding officers immediately aimed their guns at him. They were too quick to react to their friend being thrown and instantly lifted their weapons. In this situation, the captured young man secretly grinned cunningly, "Heh..." with a sense of satisfaction.
"Tell me now...who are you?"
A large group of officers surrounded him from all sides. They hadn't been many at first, but more had arrived, and seeing their friend thrown like that, they followed suit without hesitation. They looked at Konji with rage. "What you did is unforgivable...!"
The two girls, watching from a distance, were extremely surprised. Shenya, who had been uncharacteristically silent, now struggled to hold back her concern as a junior from the same academy, for this person who was more than just a senior.
"How pathetic. You're just a bunch of savages pretending to be officers. Who is your superior?" Surrounded by people ready to take him down at any moment, this man showed no signs of trembling or fear.
On the other side, the same young man who was hiding behind the garbage bin had heard and understood everything. He wasn't far from the scene. He was breathing heavily, the air around him unusually stifling. He pulled out a small, spherical device from his pocket. It looked like a specialized, finely-crafted metal object, but a mysterious voice suddenly came from it. The device buzzed with a static sound.
"I am Kendras... a member of District 1... Who is this man named Konji? His appearance is like that of a student, but I think he just put on the outfit."
The voice stopped abruptly. He was talking to the sphere as if it were a specialized communication device, one not commonly seen. "Damn it!" he cursed.
"...Listen, kid, you have no right to question us. You look about 19. Stop being a nuisance and get lost." The officer loaded his gun without hesitation, aiming confidently at Konji. Konji clapped his hands in a playful manner, his eyes narrowed into a mocking smirk. Their words had no effect on him at all.
The spherical device vibrated continuously. The young man was surprised, but a look of joy spread across his face. He held it tightly, focusing his mind as if gathering his thoughts before a response came from it.
"Konji... or Jin-Keon. He is a student from Ishiwar University. He started his studies at the age of 15. His current position is Senior Leader." The young man's eyes widened. He was shocked by what the sphere was saying, but the device's voice was not a perfect human one. It was a mix of sharp, deep, and gentle tones that sent shivers down his spine. It continued to speak: "His rank is..."
On the other side, Charse and Shenya were still watching Konji from a distance, but they didn't go to help or reveal themselves. It was as if they had received a silent command from someone.
The officers didn't give Konji a chance. Bullets rained down on him from every angle. Yet, even as death loomed, his face wore that chilling smile. The faint sound of gunshots filled the air, and before they knew what was happening...
"His rank is Top 1 of the University."
The words were like a hammer blow to his head. His body convulsed and froze instantly. The young man hiding beside the garbage bin ran out without thinking.
Even though he was captured, the young man's face still held a cunning smile, as if he wasn't the one being acted upon.
Konji's hands were still in his pockets as he lightly pushed off the ground, rising into the sky as easily as a feather. His body shot upwards at an incredible speed. In a fraction of a second, he used the heads of each officer as a rapid, trampling stepping stone, a blur of motion beyond description. As a result, his enemies were hit by the very bullets of their own comrades.
He fell to the ground in a pile, suddenly and without a moment's thought. It was like their own bullet—not a typical one. In the blink of an eye, Konji reappeared behind the barbarian who called himself an officer. Now there was only one person left. A razor-sharp, keen blade, so fast there was hardly time to think, was at his neck. He held his breath as if fear had come with courage.
"...You're... a piece of trash..." The man's furious words hit Konji squarely in the face.
The other man's hand quietly reached for the gun under his waist, ready to kill Konji in an instant "If you dare...then kill me... You twisted people shouldn't have existed in the first place..."
With wide eyes, they couldn't look away from the scene: the young man with the mysterious spherical object. The young man who was held hostage slowly backed away in fear. Two young girls were still watching from a small alley corner. Konji's eyes were cold and emotionless, as if the feelings from his deepest memories had returned. He didn't say a word. Only the gleaming blade, ready to clash in a split second, reflected the sun.
Suddenly, the young man who had been captured ran to the two girls, Chas and Chenya, with a look of surprise.
"We're on different levels... calm down..." He spoke directly, without thinking about who they were, but it was as if this young man was saying something that was a direct match. Another young man on the other side clutched the spherical object tightly in his hand, his eyes shaking in shock. "Freaks..."
Konji stood still as a statue before slowly releasing his hand from the sword. The clanging sound of the blade hitting the ground echoed throughout the area. Only an empty body remained behind him. His cold face appeared; his emotions were like a volcano under the ocean. "Yes, I'm a freak... We are above the laws of physics... We shouldn't have existed in the first place... Normal humans living with freaks..."
Underneath his calm face... his body, however, was in turmoil. Many blood vessels were torn apart, as horrifying as a tree whose roots had been uprooted by a storm.