Modern Monster

She had long forgotten she could cry. After all, it’s been about a few years since the incidents. Perhaps the reason she couldn’t express herself for so long was that she cried too much after her mother’s death and her father’s abuse.

It always bothered Ayame that she couldn’t cry like she used to–

“CRACK!”

Ayame stopped. In front of her face, a sword came down and stabbed the monster's skull. The little life that the monster hung, too, was instantly extinguished. Wiping the tears from her face, she instinctively turned her head in anger.

“What are you doing you moron!” She growled at her brother. Genkai pulled out his sword from the monster’s head, and an unpleasant sticky sound came after.

“Who do you think you are, doing th-” She froze. Her brother looked at her with disappointed expression. Usually, it was pity, sympathy, and maybe some anger in rare cases, but she never saw that face.

“The way you made that monster suffer is no better than what these monsters did to mom.”

“You cant compare them to her–”

“I want you also to remember who our grandfather gave this sword to.” He sheathed his blade, turning his back on her.

“That has nothing to do with this. Don’t use this as a lame chance to brag–”

“Who….. did….. he give it to?” Genkai repeated, his voice flat.

“You…” she lowered her tone. “He gave the sword to you.”

The tunnel fell quiet. It felt like she could almost hear the people who were still trapped in the room of doors. But after a few moments, Genkai slowly turned his head.

“Now, don’t tell me when to use my sword, Ayame. Even monsters don’t let their prey suffer,” he said. “I’ll always remember what they did to our mother. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about it. And there’s isn’t a day that goes where I forget what father did to us, and more so you. But it isn’t bad trying to forget it. Mom wouldn’t want you to obsess over her. She would want you to follow your dreams and live a happy life. It's always too late to change the past, but never too late to forget it.”

Ayame didn’t manage to muster up a response. Her gaze focused downward as the last of her tears fell. Genkai gave out a tired sigh and attempted to walk away.

“Come on now, team Sen is waiting for–”

“I’m scared…” Ayame’s voice quivered, leaving her brother to stop in his tracks. “I’m scared to forget.” Drops of tears splashed in the pools of blood, leaving the sound echoing through the halls. A shadow appeared under Genkai’s eyes while his sister blubbered.

“I don’t want to forget her!” she cried, her breath barely being able to keep up with her ugly sobs.

But then, her tears came to an abrupt pause. Genkai appeared Infront of Ayame, grasping her and slowing stroking her silky blue hair.

“Genkai, you–” Ayame fumbled her words as her face was forcefully embraced into his chest.

“You expect me just to coldly stand by while my younger sister is bawling her eyes out?”

“I-im not bawling my eyes out–”

“Then why aren’t you letting go?”

“Because…. Well, because you’re holding onto me too tight, dumbass.”

Genkai shook his head with a slight murmur of amusement. He stroked her hair reassuringly.

“It’s okay to be scared,” Genkai murmured. “But you don’t have to try so hard to carry those memories. Let them go.”

As much as she wanted to yell at him and say he was wrong, she simply couldn’t. She was scared to forget her mother. Ayame thought that if she didn’t constantly try avenging her and had hate brewing in the depths of her heart, Mother would be disappointed.

“Carrying those memories is tiring; it's time to take a break. But if you want to carry those around for a little while, I'll help you, okay?” He smiled.

Ayame buried her face deeper into his chest, not knowing how to reply. All she managed to conjure up was–

“Why do you suddenly speak logically..."

Her brother snorted. “Come on, get up…” Her brother held his hand out.

Ayame was afraid to look him in the eyes. She was scared that his disappointed expression would still be there. But reluctantly, she raised her eyes to meet his and was met with nothing but a cheerful smile.

“Come on now, we can't let team Sen get too ahead of us!”

“Fine…” she smugly said as she stood up. “Thanks.” She hid her gratefulness, but Genkai was well aware of it.

“Oh, come on! You’re going to make me cry!” he teased. Ayame managed to let out a soft laugh. “OH! Do I see a smile?” He narrowed his eyes. Ayame quickly closed her mouth.

“No, you didn’t. It’s just your Imagination….”

“Sure, sure.” Genkai mused as he followed her.

Slowly, they walked to the beginning of the split tunnel, where they stopped.

“I’m guessing they went into the other tunnel,” her brother guessed. Ayame nodded.

“Yeah, that’s the only place I could have gone. And honestly, our Super Senses are useless here. We're like moles at this point,” she muttered.

“Even so, we’re still the best users of our Super Sense,” he reckoned. “There’s not a lot our age who could even compare.”

It was true. In terms of raw skill, they outmatched possibly ninety-nine percent of all students. Although, she was still wary of the one percent.

“You can thank our old geezer for that,” Ayame muttered unironically. “I can’t wait to shove in his face once I become a high-rank Knight.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Ayame. There's a lot of strong people here.”

“How would you know? I thought you were talking with your fans while I was searching for doors?” Ayame recalled herself splitting from her team, which led to her meeting Kaiyo.

“No, you left the team and decided to search alone. Do you understand how hard it was to calm down the other people we were teamed up with?”

“I'm not taking any chances by being paired up with strangers. Besides, it's not against the rules to separate after registering as a team. I allowed the other goons to register as a part of mine only for the benefit of participating in the exam. I made it clear that I wasn’t going to help them pass. Not to mention, they're probably still trapped in the room of doors.”

“Ironic since we ended up following team Sen,” Genkai sighed.

“That’s different, his team is….” Ayame wasn’t sure how to word it herself.

Genkai's brow raised with amusement. “OH? What, you have a crush on that white-black-haired guy?”

“WHAT?! NO!” Ayame snapped. “It has nothing to do with that. He’s just a bit different than all those other contestants. I can’t explain what it is about him, either.”

Huh? How the hell did Genkai even come to that conclusion? I just met him, plus I don’t trust men. Ayame cleared her throat.

“Well, he is smart. More intelligent than anyone I’ve ever met. Not only that, but he always keeps himself composed, like he’s decoding some formula to figure out a solution. Even when the bear wolf appeared out of nowhere, he remained completely calm, like he knew something we didn’t.”

“Yes! That’s exactly it!” Ayame nodded eagerly without realizing it. “I–I mean, yeah, he always seems level-headed.” Ayame composed herself. Genkai gave an amused murmur.

“I heard that!” She glared at him.

“What? No, I didn’t do anything except…” Genkai paused, his playful expression coming to a close. Ayame looked at her brother with confusion.

“I know that face, you’re thinking about something. What is it?”

“Hmm, nothing really, it’s just…” he scratched his chin with a frown. “That Sen guy, something isn’t right about him.”

“Well, yes, that's what I’ve been telling you all along. He’s different than all the other people.”

“No, I’m not talking about that. It’s just, remember when he asked his friend to scout out the sounds when we were walking in the direction of the wolfbear?” he asked, to which Ayame responded with a slow nod. “Isn’t it a bit strange he asked his friend to do it while he himself has Hearing?”

“He said she was better than him at it, don’t you remember?” Ayame recalled.

“Yeah, but still, no matter how bad your Super Sense is, I’m pretty sure you should hear something like that when we were that close to it. Not to mention, he didn’t look as if he even tried concentrating on hearing his surroundings like that girl Kaiyo did,” he analyzed. “Eh, whatever, maybe I’m just speaking out of my ass here.”

“So, let me get this straight: You think he’s lying about having Hearing as his Super Sense?” Ayame asked. “Why would he lie about having another Super Sense?”

Genkai shook his head and lifted his hands over his head with a yawn. “That’s not what I mean.” His face grew serious. “I mean… I don’t think he has a Super Sense.”