The hallway had already turned into a small audience by the time Jody stepped forward. Everyone knew he was looking for someone who had disrespected him. And unfortunately, Yojiro wasn't the kind of guy people would step in for.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, BITCH?" Jody cracked his knuckles.
"I slept with your mom yesterday lol." A lazy smirk. His eyes empty, but amused.
Laughter erupted around them. Jody's face darkened.
"FUCK U YOJIRO!" Jody roared as he began to close in on him.
"Calm down son, no need to get angry, it's no big dea--"
Yojiro tried to de-escalate the situation, but his efforts were in vain.
Jody had already appeared in front of him, punching him square in the face, sending him tumbling to the floor.
"Fucking bitch." Jody retorted, followed with a barrage of kicks to his abdomen.
"Why are you people always so fucking violent...?" Yojiro muttered, coughing out blood in the process, the taste of iron -- an almost homey feeling creeping in, making him remember everything that had transpired.
"I really should just kill you right now you motherfucker." Jody stopped kicking and began rummaging in his pockets.
Yojiro saw him hold something shiny -- a knife. His pupils dilated while his face remained obscure with a hint of amusement.
Gasps rippled through the hallway. People started taking their phones out to record, but it was already too late.
Jody had already lunged the knife at Yojiro, plunging it deep in his stomach. Yojiro's face contorted with pain, but his eyes remained empty. A pool of blood already started to form around the knife, the air thick with the reeking smell of iron.
"Are you done now?" Yojiro asked, deadly serious.
"You really are a waste of space." He retorted as he twisted the knife and pulled it out in a swift motion.
Yojiro winced as the blade left his stomach. He didn't even bother trying to stop the blood from pouring out. It wasn't the first time he'd felt life slipping away -- but this time, it felt different.
The hallway noise slowly dimmed.
First came the laughter, then came the whispers.
Then even Jody's panicked breathing became muffled...
[!ALERT!]
A small red notification appeared on every device -- an eerie sound audible.
Gasps erupted through the hallway.
"Is it a government warning?" Someone asked. "It must be a test right?"
All devices started glitching and showing line of shifting symbols -- a language no one recognized.
Yojiro, barely conscious, stared at his cracked phone, the symbols rearranging into something he could read.
[!PREPARATION PHASE: 01:00:00 UNTIL GLOBAL INTEGRATION!]
A timer began counting down
00:59:59...
00:59:58...
00:59:57...
The buzzing grew louder. The eerie sound grew louder turning into something straight out of a horror movie.
Suddenly the lights above the hallway shut down. A ticking countdown appearing above hundreds of terrified eyes.
Jody stumbled backwards.
"What the hell is this?"
Text suddenly appeared underneath the countdown.
[SELECTION IN PROGRESS]
[ASSIGNING SURVIVAL PROTOCOLS...]
[LOCATING CANDIDATE: YOJIRO SATO]
"What...?" Yojiro blinked.
Suddenly a cold sensation washed over him, making him shiver.
It wasn't the cold of blood loss.
It wasn't pain.
It was something mechanical.
Something analyzing him.
Something peeling him apart layer by layer.
His breath caught as the air around him distorted — like
gravitational pressure was squeezing him from all angles.
More text burned into the air above him.
[Candidate Found]
A hopeful light -- faint blue, unreal, circling him slowly, scanning him from head to toe.
[Initiating Ability Framework...]
A new line appeared in front of him:
[Awakening Primary Trait...]
Yojiro felt something inside him pull and snap back violently, like the system was trying to hook onto something that didn't exist.
[!ERROR: Trait Unavailable!]
A low, glitchy hum, almost like the sound of a refrigerator shook the air around him. Blue light enveloping his entire body as it began to slowly flicker and distort.
Students around him flickered as spark-like distortions cracked off his body.
Another line appeared.
[Retrying Awakening...]
Yojiro gasped, the pull was even stronger this time. Deep inside his chest, something hollow opened.
[!ERROR: Core Mismatch Detected!]
The countdown kept on ticking.
00:59:29...
00:59:28...
00:59:27...
Another line promptly appeared...
[Attempting Compensation Ability Allocation...]
A sphere of light began to form above Yojiro's chest, circling violently like a tornado.
Students began to scream and leave.
The lockers in the hallway began to rattle loudly, almost as if they were about to explode.
Yojiro's eyes pupils dilated as the sphere hovered inches from his face.
Suddenly, it shattered.
Fragments of light scattered around the hallway, disappearing as they hit the ground.
[!ERROR: 'Motherfucking System' Compensation Failed!]
The air went dead silent.
The countdown seemed to fade for a moment.
"What the fuck is he?" Jody whispered.
Another line appeared slowly, every letter slowly forming from symbols unknown to mankind.
[Assigning Emergency Protocol Ability...]
The lights dimmed even more.
The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees as Yojiro felt something change inside of him -- a soothing feeling envelopped him.
[Ability Assigned: '?']
A single symbol appeared beneath it -- something that refused to settle into a form; sometimes it looked like a question mark and sometimes like an eye.
A faint whisper brushed against Yojiro's mind -- something that had been waiting.
Something began to wake up inside him.
Not human.
Not emotional.
Not like anything he could describe.
[!Warning: Incomplete Synchronization!]
[!Warning: Ability Unknown -- Classification Pending!]
[!Warning: Candidate May Experience Instability!]
Yojiro exhaled, shaking uncontrollably.
His vision blurred -- his consciousness slipping.
The world around him, once full of panic and screams suddenly turned dull. Completely silent.
"Yeah.. yeah..." He smiled faintly.
[Initialization Complete -- Temporary Success]
Yojiro's vision went pitch black.