The rain had stopped.
Junpei Yoshino walked towards Satozakura High School with his head down.
Attached to the inside of his collar, right against his skin, was a cold metal badge.
"Does that thing... really work?"
Junpei muttered to himself. Last night's encounter felt like a dream, but the cold touch against his neck was a constant reminder—it was real.
...
Satozakura High School, a corner behind the school building.
This was a blind spot for the security cameras, and the site of Junpei's nightmares.
"Hey, Yoshino."
A frivolous voice dripping with malice rang out.
Junpei's body stiffened instinctively, his hand trembling so much the cola he was holding shook.
Shota Ito. The blonde delinquent who derived pleasure from bullying him was blocking his path with two lackeys in tow.
"Heard you've been avoiding us lately?"
Ito exhaled a smoke ring, walking up to Junpei with a mocking look on his face and patting him on the cheek.
"What? Think just because the wound on your forehead healed, you can forget who's in charge?"
Junpei didn't speak.
"Cat got your tongue?"
Seeing Junpei's silence, Ito felt an inexplicable surge of irritation. Usually, this worm would be on his knees begging for mercy by now.
"Those dead fish eyes of yours really piss me off."
The malice in Ito's eyes exploded.
He raised his hand abruptly and jammed the burning cigarette butt straight toward Junpei's left eye!
"If you don't want to watch where you're going, then don't watch at all!"
"Sizzle—"
Time seemed to freeze in that moment.
Junpei squeezed his eyes shut instinctively.
But he didn't dodge.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!!"
The anticipated searing pain never came. Instead, a scream of absolute agony instantly shattered the campus's tranquility.
Junpei snapped his eyes open.
The scene before him made his pupils quake.
He was unharmed.
But the arrogant Ito was currently clutching his own right eye, kneeling on the ground in agony and rolling around frantically.
"My eye! My eye is burning!!"
Blood and fluid seeped through Ito's fingers. That right eye looked as if it had been scorched by invisible fire, rapidly swelling and blistering.
The moment the cigarette butt touched Junpei's "shield," the [Malice Reflection Mirror] had activated.
Double reflection.
Not only did it block the attack, but it also returned the pain of that "burn" twofold to the abuser.
"Ito-bro?!"
The two lackeys beside him were scared witless. They looked at the unharmed Junpei with horror, as if looking at a monster.
"You... what did you do?!"
Junpei stood there, dazed.
He touched his own face. It didn't hurt.
He looked again at Ito wailing on the ground.
An unprecedented rush of pleasure shot straight to his brain.
"It really..."
Junpei's hands were trembling—trembling from extreme excitement.
"It really works!"
"This is... the power the owner spoke of!"
He slowly lowered his head, looking at the Ito who used to make him shake with fear. His eyes had changed.
They were no longer the eyes of a victim.
" When you were bullying others, did you ever think this day would come?"
Junpei squatted down coldly and slowly poured the entire bottle of cola in his hand over Ito's head.
The cola flowed over Ito's hands clutching his eye, onto his face, head, and neck.
Seeing this, the two lackeys, not understanding the situation, rushed forward to avenge their boss.
The result, naturally, was them clutching their stomachs and collapsing to the ground.
The three of them helped each other limp away from the scene.
Only Junpei remained in the corner.
He took a deep breath, feeling like a completely new person.
"Thank you... Boss."
Junpei adjusted his collar and turned to walk out of the school.
...
The next day.
Following Lynn's instructions, Junpei skipped class and went to the dilapidated movie theater named "Kinema."
He bought a ticket. Back row, corner.
The movie was a trashy B-grade horror film called Earthworm Man 3.
In the dim light, Junpei wasn't watching the screen.
His peripheral vision was locked dead on the front row.
Shota Ito, and his two lackeys.
They had their feet up on the seats in front of them, making noise without a care in the world, mocking the movie's special effects, and throwing popcorn.
"Disgusting."
Junpei silently thought to himself.
Even after being taught a lesson yesterday, some people's nature never changed.
"You're too loud."
A light, airy voice suddenly sounded in the theater.
The voice wasn't loud, yet it carried a piercing chill.
Junpei's heart constricted.
Here it comes.
He turned his head.
Not far from Ito sat a strange man.
Gray-blue long hair tied in a braid, face... covered in stitch marks.
Ito clearly didn't realize the Grim Reaper had arrived.
He turned around, his face full of hostility:
"Hah? Who are you? What's it to you if I talk?"
"Believe it or not, I'll beat..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
The patch-faced man stood up.
He was smiling—a smile as innocent as a child's.
"Humans really have no manners."
He raised his hand and gently patted Ito's shoulder.
"Just... be a little quieter."
"Squelch—"
No screams.
No blood splatter.
Junpei watched with his own eyes as Ito's head twisted, expanded, and deformed like dough.
Features squeezed together.
Eyeballs bulging.
Instantly turning into a giant, grotesque tumor.
Immediately after.
"Pop, pop."
The other two lackeys also instantly twisted, turning into two writhing lumps of meat.
The theater was dead silent.
Only the screams from the movie 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 inhuman power.
But more than that, there was a trembling in the depths of his soul and... a sense of gratification.
Dead.
Those who 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.
...
The back alley outside the movie theater.
Puddles of water accumulated on the ground after the rain.
Mahito walked nonchalantly, savoring the feeling from just now.
"Transfigured human souls are still too fragile, after all..."
"Wait!"
Rapid footsteps came from behind.
Mahito stopped and looked back, somewhat surprised.
The boy who was shivering in the back row of the theater?
"Please... please wait!"
Junpei caught up, panting heavily, hands on his knees, his face flushed.
Mahito tilted his head, a flash of interest in his heterochromatic eyes.
"Oh? You can see me?"
Junpei swallowed hard.
He looked at that terrifying patchwork face.
"Just now... those people..."
Junpei pointed toward the movie theater, his voice trembling, but his eyes locked dead on Mahito.
"Did you do that?"
Mahito smiled.
"Yep. Because they were too loud."
He took a step toward Junpei, testing him with malice.
"Why? Were they your friends? Want to avenge them?"
"No!"
Junpei blurted out.
He raised his head, a twisted yet 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 become like that a long time ago."
Mahito's steps paused.
He stared at Junpei for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha!"
"Interesting! Very interesting!"
Mahito walked up to Junpei, like he had discovered a new toy.
"Boy, your soul... is very special."
"Full of hatred, yet so clear."
"Do you also find this world boring?"
"Are those humans who trample on others indiscriminately an eyesore?"
Junpei looked at the monster inches away.
Forcing down the instinct to retreat, Junpei nodded.
"Can I... do it too?"
Junpei reached out, pointing at the movie theater.
"Possess that kind of power... like you?"
"Of course."
Mahito narrowed his eyes; he really liked the look in this boy's eyes.
That thirst for power, that hatred for the current world.
This was simply the best experimental material.
"However, whether you can learn it depends on your aptitude."
"I like your eyes."
"The current you is still too weak."
Mahito clasped his hands behind his back, walking around Junpei like a mentor.
"Want to learn?"
"Tomorrow at this time, come find me in the sewers here."
"I will teach you... knowledge about the soul."
Junpei froze.
He was a bit at a loss, but this dazed look appeared to Mahito as "shock from being chosen."
"What? Dare not 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 fluid puddle and slipping into the gap of a nearby manhole cover.
"Then, see you tomorrow."
"Interesting boy."
...
Only when Mahito's aura completely disappeared.
Did Junpei's legs go weak, and he leaned against the wall.
Cold sweat had long soaked his uniform.
He succeeded.
He had successfully infiltrated the side of this monster.
"The sewers, huh..."
Junpei looked at the pitch-black manhole cover, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.
...