Charlie closed the door of the unfamiliar apartment unit slowly. Given his true nature, he was the type of person who was always curious about new things.
After all, that was one of the most prominent characteristics of Generation Z—always inquisitive and finding it difficult to hold back from exploring a new environment.
He began to walk around, observing the layout and the condition of the apartment unit's interior.
Based on his observations, the owner of this place had to be a single man. More precisely, a salaryman, otherwise known as a corporate slave.
When Charlie stepped into the small kitchen and opened the refrigerator door, his assumption was instantly proven right.
Inside, rows of cheap beer cans were arranged messily, filling the shelves, while there were absolutely no fresh food ingredients that could be cooked.
Moving to the living room, a mountain of cigarette butts lay scattered in the ashtray on top of the table in front of the television, and several plastic bags filled with trash appeared to pile up in the corner of the room, waiting for the disposal day to arrive.
The strong, lingering aroma of tobacco in the air felt highly suffocating for a non-smoker like Charlie.
Unable to stand the musty smell, he stepped toward the balcony area and slid the glass door open to breathe in much fresher air.
From the balcony, Charlie leaned both of his hands on the guardrail.
Thanks to his sharp eyesight as a Level 6 Adventurer, he could see very clearly, piercing right through the transparent glass windows of the skyscrapers that stood firmly in the distance.
In the middle of the day, which was gradually entering the break hour and should have been a relaxing lunchtime, the office workers inside those buildings instead appeared to still be busy, sitting hunched in front of their monitors and typing for the sake of finishing their mountains of documents.
Charlie exhaled a long breath, staring at the urban dystopian sight with a look of pity.
"Haaah... I really can never get used to this workaholic culture of the Japanese people."
"They devote most of their lifespans solely for the sake of work, to the point of returning home late, or even rarely returning home at all. Interaction within the family becomes highly minimal as a result of the mental pressure at the workplace."
He shook his head slowly.
"It's no wonder that in this country, so many people suddenly suffer a heart attack due to work exhaustion, and that phenomenon even has its own term: karoshi."
"How truly tragic. You only live once. Whether you are born rich or poor, there is one absolute equality in this world, which is that everyone has only one life."
"They should be able to appreciate their lives better, instead of wasting it away until death solely for the sake of enriching corporate owners."
As a part of Generation Z, Charlie felt a sense of disgust toward the system of labor exploitation that was frequently normalized by the boomer generations above them.
When Generation Z kids tried to be realistic by working just enough according to their job descriptions, leaving on time according to the schedule, and refusing unpaid overtime, those old-fashioned folks would immediately start accusing them of being a generation that is lazy, spoiled, and lacking dedication.
However, the actual fact was not like that.
Generation Z merely refused to be enslaved and utilized for nothing by the capitalist system, a tragic fate previously experienced by the millennial generation—who tended to be overly compliant, fearful, and always bowed their heads in front of superiors for the sake of an illusion of safety.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
*THUD!*
A loud sound of impact coming from the direction of the next unit snapped Charlie out of his daydream on the balcony.
That very second, a terrible premonition instantly struck his chest, making his heart race rapidly.
"It can't be, right...?"
An absurd, horrific notion, yet impossible to deny, suddenly appeared within his mind.
To confirm what was actually happening, Charlie wasted no more time and instantly activated Senrigan.
The next second, his pupils constricted drastically. The horror caught by his vision made his blood feel as though it were freezing.
"Mahiru!!!"
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Charlie immediately teleported through the Hundred Gauntlets.
*SHUA!*
Charlie's figure vanished from the balcony of that empty apartment and in the blink of an eye immediately appeared inside the living room of Mahiru's apartment unit.
The pungent, metallic aroma of fresh blood instantly pierced Charlie's nose the moment he set foot inside.
The sight laid out before him was truly capable of making anyone who witnessed it feel horrified.
Mahiru was already lying weakly on top of the wooden floor, which was now starting to be flooded by a thick red liquid.
Tears kept flowing profusely from her pair of eyes that were starting to lose their light, staring straight toward the woman above her with a gaze filled with an incredibly deep sense of sadness, shattered disbelief, and intense fear.
Above her body, Sayo appeared to have lost all her sanity.
With a facial expression of madness, full of rage, and appearing highly terrifying just like a demon, the woman kept gripping a kitchen knife that gleamed sharply.
*SQUELCH!* *SQUELCH!* *SQUELCH!*
Her hand moved brutally, stabbing and plunging into Mahiru's chest and stomach repeatedly without mercy, letting sprays of blood stain her own clothes and face.
"This is all your fault! This is all because of your mistake, Mahiru!" Sayo screamed in a piercing, crazed voice, her breath panting heavily in between each of her rough stabs. "If only you had never been born into this world, my life would never have become this miserable!"
"I could have gotten a divorce a long time ago and continued my life freely, instead of having to maintain that hollow, hell-like marriage merely as a form of formal responsibility toward your existence!"
Sayo raised her knife high once again, her eyes widening large, radiating pure hatred toward her own biological daughter.
"You are just a burden! You are a curse that binds me! Why didn't you just die a long time ago?!"
"Die, you jinx of a child!"
"Return the freedom of my life that you have snatched away for over a decade!"
Just as Sayo was about to swing the kitchen knife covered in the red liquid to claim the remainder of her daughter's life, the movement of her hand suddenly ground to a halt in midair.
"Enough."
A robust hand that was like a giant iron vice had gripped her wrist with an absolute hold.
No matter how hard Sayo tried to press down or move her arm, her hand did not budge at all, held fast in place.
Her roughly panting breath stopped for a moment. With a pair of eyes that turned red and were filled with bulging veins of anger, Sayo turned her head to the side, staring at the figure of the foreign man she had met only a few minutes ago in the outer corridor.
"W-Who are you?! How could you get in here?!" she screamed hysterically, her voice shrill, filled with madness.
"..."
Charlie had absolutely no intention of replying with a single word. His eyes radiated a coldness capable of freezing blood.
Under the control of his mind, an invisible ripple of his Spirit Art instantly went to work, striking Sayo's conscious nerves in an instant.
That very moment, the woman's crazed look dimmed, and her body instantly lost its entire supply of energy.
*CLANG!*
The kitchen knife in Sayo's grip slipped and fell freely downward. However, before the sharp edge of the metal could touch or injure Mahiru's already critical body, Charlie kicked the knife until it sent flying far away and embedded itself into the wall of the room's corner.
With one rough jerk, Charlie threw Sayo's already unconscious body onto the wooden floor, letting her lie helpless like a pile of dirty cloth.
Without wasting a single millisecond of time, he immediately crouched beside Mahiru, whose body was currently trembling violently, with the remnant of one last breath hitching in her throat.
Charlie prepared to perform a medical intervention.
However, the condition in front of him was far more complicated than a mere tearing of flesh.
It was not just physical pain that was destroying the girl's body, but rather mental pain whose scale was far more destructive.
Mahiru's gradually dimming look stared at the empty ceiling; she had completely lost all motivation to continue living in this world after hearing all those poisonous words from her biological mother, coupled with this brutal attempted murder.
Even though Mahiru's paling lips were completely unable to produce a sound, Charlie could understand very clearly the implied instinctive message: "Let me die, Charlie-kun... Please, just let me die."
How could Charlie possibly be willing to indulge that selfish wish?
"Don't be ridiculous!"
While pressing his palm on top of the most severe stab wound on Mahiru's stomach, Charlie instantly activated the Reverse Cursed Technique (RCT).
*FSHHHHH—!*
Pure positive energy instantly exploded from Charlie's palm, flowing rapidly to flood the entirety of Mahiru's damaged body tissues.
Within a matter of seconds, a biological miracle directly occurred in front of his eyes.
The heavy flow of blood suddenly stopped running, followed by muscle fibers, severed blood vessels, and even the torn skin starting to close up and knit back together at a speed visible to the naked eye without leaving the slightest bit of a scar.
It had to be admitted, in terms of instant regeneration from the brink of death, the Reverse Cursed Technique was one of the strongest healer-type abilities in the entire anime universe.
In just less than ten seconds, the entirety of Mahiru's destroyed internal organs had returned to prime condition as if the stabbing had never happened.
As the flow of positive energy subsided, Mahiru slowly opened her eyelids, which felt heavy.
Feeling her body whole again yet with a chest that still felt suffocating, she stared at Charlie with the remnants of tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.
"Why...?" Mahiru asked in a voice that was extremely weak and trembling, radiating a lack of understanding as to why this man refused to let her go from this living hell.
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