Chapter 1

Droplets of blood fell onto the floor of a dimming alley-way. As the sunset hung bit by bit lower in the darkening sky. I thought for a moment, ‘What is this heat I am feeling in my hands?’

Looking down, I could not help but stare as blank as a rock, at the grisly spectacle in front of me. As my right hand pierced into a young boy’s flesh. Shocked by the scenery, I found myself swiftly retracting my hand in a panic.

I was in disbelief of what I saw, trying to understand the situation. Was this a dream? Yeah, that was the only explanation.

I concluded this from the events before this horrible scene. It was another strange dream-like situation. Where things abruptly stopped moving along with everything turning ruby colored.

I looked around in wonder and anxiety, trying to find a single clue on what had occurred.

Suddenly, I heard a strange voice that said, “Do not worry. I merely altered your perception of time. Your brain-waves are moving faster, and, as a result, producing an Illusion-like world. In essence, time flows faster here than in your reality.”

Muddled I was, I attempt to grasp the situation, “What do you mean? Who are you? No, how’s that even possible?”

The voice then answered, “I am not here to explain things, I am here to awaken your powers. Altering your perception of time was only a temporary process. That shouldn’t continued for much longer, so let me say this flat out. I offer you a chance to awaken your power. Do you want to become stronger, strong enough to overcome those boys?”

As fascinated by the words uttered. The words implied his knowledge of the events transpiring these past few months. Before I reveal what is entirely the cause of motivation behind my response to the offer. I must touch on the unfortunate story of my past self, when my trauma initiated. The truth of my circumstances.

As I flashed back to the scenes listed in my brain, I remembered that group of students. They would not stop harassing students in my school in a various ways. inclined to bully a person I considered a friend in the same class as me. As we had spoken together a couple of times after we started the school semester, in no time I found myself hanging with him everyday.

Everything was fine until, one-day I found him hanging out with those delinquents. At first, I thought they were friends hanging out together. Later found out that they were abusing him in various ways.

To make it clear, he was a target for bullying. As a friend, I wanted to prevent that, so I had decided to speak to them in an attempt to convince them, one way or another. I did not for once think that they would not care about anything I had to say. As their bullying was not a matter of discussion.

So I attempt to follow them as they took my friend to the school bathroom, and there they began to oppress him. At the moment upon entering the door, I saw one of them using a bucket to throw water on that boy’s head.

He followed that with a menacing yell, “Is that all you got? Didn’t I tell you to get everything in the paper I gave you yesterday? Huh?”

Hearing him shout, I stepped forward. When they noticed me, I stopped and questioned, “Why do this to a fellow classmate? Aren’t you friends?”

They burst out laughing at these words that seemed nothing but a joke to them. Smug, the boy who seemed to be their leader smirked, “Ha, who is this sissy?”

Compelled to reply I said, “How absurd, that word would fit you better!”

I immediately realized what I had said, but there was no way to back off now. He was Enraged by what I said, then he smiled and moved to my friend and said, “What if I prove that you are the one at fault here?

You defended this weakling. I will show you how mistaken you are, so you can learn not to speak careless to me.”

I was Struck speechless. I couldn’t understand what he meant.

He stepped out from his position behind the boy’s back, while holding a smile on his face. He approached me step by step.

Observing him, I tried to figure out what he is planning. Coming closer, he raised his hands and pushed me, hard. As a result, I toppled after losing my balance.

I tried to grasp the reason behind his action as I attempted to stand up. He looked towards his friends and commanded, “Restrain him.”

I commented, “What are you trying to do?”

Pursued, two of his friends approached and gripped me from my armpits. So they restrained my movement completely.

Their leader then sneered at the boy behind him, “I can forgive you on one condition, if you beat that boy’s good-looking face for once.”

Shocked by his words, the boy looked at the ground anxious about what he said. As he tried to think about it, their leader said impatiently, “What are you waiting for?”

In consternation, the boy approached me, hesitant to follow the command. He was hesitating to punch me. Had no choice so he punched me. But he didn’t put enough force to meet the leader satisfaction, although it had enough sound to smack.

Livid, the leader said, “Is that everything you have? It seems you don’t want my forgiveness.”

The boy panicked and whispered, “I’m sorry please give me another chance.”

The leader said, “There won’t be a next time, this is your last chance.” As the boy was frightened, he become aggressive and punched my face. Following his punch, I felt dizzy as I tumbled, landing with my weight onto the ground. Seeing the bleeding on my face afterwards, he shuddered, cringing. Their leader stepped forward and squatted by my face. His lips were moving but I couldn’t hear a thing.

I barely heard him saying, “Come here tomorrow and you better have my stuff with you.”

Then he threw the paper with the list of items in my face. Going to the boy who had punched me, he grinned? With a mean, hard look on his face, “Wasn’t that easy? Since we have this, As promised you are free to go, don’t ever let me see your face again, you hear me?”

Fleeing from them, he runs without looking back. Afterwards, they left the place one after another, as they chattered about what they would do next.

After a while, I was able to regain my consciousness. I decided to go to the nursing room after reporting this to our private tutor.

Unfortunately, that was not helpful at all. No, it made things worse for me. Their bullying increased even in the classroom by placing traps for me. Which made my school life harder to bear. With this, I can wrap up the situation that occurred in these past months. Which led up to the day when everything changed.

That day began as every normal school day, but as I was taking my leave from the school grounds. I decided to take a shortcut to my home. Passing through the dark road anxious about it. I approached that fateful abandoned alley with a cold atmosphere and fishy odor.

As I stepped into that alley, I was suddenly caught off guard by a girl’s beauty. She was real petite, with a slim body. Silky hair glowing violet in the darkness. Brilliant purple eyes and a gleaming, angelic face with such an innocent look in her eyes.

But, I could hear her shouting, saying words with a meaning I couldn’t grasp at first. However, I then noticed the group of four young men around her. She kept trying to pass through, but they kept approaching her, and one of them suddenly grabbed her hand. As I got frustrated, I was about to walk closer with the intention of helping her. A sudden flashback brought me back to the memory of what happened back then with my friend.

Hesitating to move towards her, I thought that I was such a weakling, unable to help her with this weak, fragile body of mine. Frustrated, I tried to think of a means by which I could salvage her from this situation.

I had thought to rush towards the main street to ask for help, but then I realized it would be too late once I did so.

Unexpectedly, our eyes came into contact the same moment the boy yanked her away. That was when time in suddenly stopped, and the rest is as I mentioned before.

The voice continued what it was saying, “What are you going to do? Will you accept my offer? Or do you want to deal with it your own way?”

I thought, why shouldn’t I just agree to the offer? If there really was a power that the voice could give to me, why would the voice do such a thing? Is there some kind of price I will have to pay?

Thus, I decided to ask, “If you are really willing and able to grant me with such power, how would you do that? Would there be some kind of side effect or price I must pay?”

The voice laughed and then answered,”As usual, you wonder a lot. Your decisions are slow, weren’t you supposed to protect that poor girl? I will tell you that no physical harm will come to you, but there may be some psychological complications. Although, I expect you to overcome them, and I can tell that you won’t accept staying the way you are now at any price.”

I thought about what the voice said and then concluded that it’s risky to accept the offer instantly without thinking deeply about it. I am not sure if I am dreaming or not and whether that offer was real, but what could I lose more than what I stand to lose right now? No, I would rather become something else than stay the same as I am now, weak and useless.

Anxious, I declared, “Hey you, if you are the real deal, I will accept your offer at whatever price you ask, so grant me enough power to overcome this situation.”

The voice then replied, “I expected this from you. Do not worry about the sudden physical side effects you will get when time returns to its normal flow. They are all temporary, but I would tell you to be careful, beware of the blood. That is all, I will now free up the energy sealed inside of your heart.”

There was a strong glow of light that made me close my eyes, and when I opened them again I felt dizzy. There were unclear voices that I could not hear over the ringing of my ears. But the strangest thing was that things were still ruby colored, as if everything was covered with blood.

Something dull-colored was moving and approaching me. A few voices were speaking, but I could not distinguish nor understand their contents. I put my hand to my head and looked at the ground as I tried to clear my head. Things were gradually returning to normal.

As I started to notice new things I couldn’t before, I discovered that the dull thing was one of those boys. Approaching me, he was saying,”You wuss, didn’t I tell you to come here? Are you ignoring me now?”

Furiously moving his hand, while trying to place them at my shoulder, I was reminded of bad memories. I reflexively pushed him back anxiously, but unwillingly I found my right hand had penetrated his flesh, causing him to bleed onto my hand.

His eyes rolled up in anguish as he screamed from the pain. His voice was so high that his friends panicked, trying to figure out what had happened to him. As I pulled my hand out of his flesh, he dropped to the floor from the pain.

At that moment, I had various feelings turning from one into another. Starting with shock, I felt a strange pleasure from seeing his anguished face!

I then awoke from that pleasure. What had I done? Did I kill someone just now with my bare hands? Flabbergasted, I stepped back as I tried to figure out what had happened, but no amount of common sense could explain such a thing to me.

At the same time, his friends could clearly hear his scream. They panicked, hoping that nothing bad had happened to their friend. As they approached him, they found him bleeding from a wound in his stomach.

One of them said,”What happened? Did that boy kill him?!”

One of them tried to see if he is dead by checking his pulse. Fortunately, he found a heartbeat on his neck and a sign of relief appeared on his face.

He shouted,”He is still alive, but the bleeding must be stopped.”

Moving quickly, he took off his shirt and then folded it to press onto the boy’s wound. The other boys were furious as they approached. In their attempt to attack me, their movement weren’t planned. They turned from their injured friend with one of them following the other.

I thought that I should run away to prevent myself from causing more casualties. All I could think of was to run away and call for help somewhere. But as I was thinking, I found myself strangely willing to continue the fight.

That feeling was strong enough to urge me to approach them. As they stepped forward, I disappeared completely from their front in an instant, appearing near the first boy. I found my hand stroking his armpit like a blade as I knelt in a crouch underneath him.