Modern Monster

“It's always too late to change the past, but never too late to forget it.”

Sen’s head was filled with heavy fog. He could barely listen to the commotion around him, let alone think to himself. Unknowingly, Sen was strapped to a doctor's table, unable to move a single part of his body. A coherent thought refused to be formed in his proactive mind. However, a distant thought couldn't help but recognize he’d been here before.

“Yes, #299 hasn’t died yet,” a blurry voice said. “Hm, no, there haven’t been any unusual side effects yet. Although we always need to wipe his memories clean because he keeps waking up. Truly annoying.”

Sen’s brain gave him every possible piece of information about his current predicament, even though he was completely unconscious and unaware of his current surroundings.

“Male, sounds... 26, height? maybe…” Sen murmured in a drowsy state.

The person who was in deep conversation over the phone suddenly stopped speaking. His jaw dropped as his phone fell to the ground with a crack. The stranger blinked in confusion as he touched his chin, stroking his five o’clock shadow.

“Ha... Ha...” he let out a nervous, sardonic chuckle. “Hahaha! What the fu*k am I seeing?”

Picking up his cracked smartphone, he grinned with a mixture of amusement and fright.

“What are you feeding this kid, Boss? Seriously, how the hell is he able to accurately deduce my age without even being awake?” a shiver went down the man’s spine. “Shit is freaky.”

“None of your business. Your job is just to watch the child and make sure you observe the side effects.”

“Cut the bullshit, boss. Obviously, I’m doing my job, but you didn’t warn me that this kid is… I don’t know, like a friggin' genius. Was this your doing too!?” the man exclaimed.

The voice over the phone let out a tired sigh before replying.“If you’re implying that I somehow changed his brain to become more intelligent, then you’d be mistaken...”

“Then you mean...”

“Yes, that boy was born with that intelligence. I had no involvement. It was all decided by fate,” the phone ominously said.

“You have to be joking. How is it even possible? We’ve tested more vessels than I can count, and all of them would either die right off the bat or, well... eventually die after a little while. So does that mean his intelligence has something to do with it?” The man took a risky glance at the white- and black-haired boy. He felt cold sweats drip in between his lab coat from his uneasiness.

“I have no idea. All I do know is... he might be the perfect *****...”

“Wait, hold that thought, boss. I think he might be waking up. Oh great, here we go again.”

#

“Sen? Is everything alright?” Kaiyo asked beside him. Sen caught himself dazing out. With a quick shake of his head, he attempted to wake himself up. “Did you not sleep well today?” She asked worryingly.

“No, I’m fine, just trying to remember something,” he yawned.

“Oh, I see. Well, what is it?” she tilted her head cutely. “Maybe I can help you remember it.”

Doubtful. He gave her an appreciative nod before denying her offer.

“No, no, it's not like I have an idea of what I’m forgetting. It's just a feeling that I am—nothing to concern yourself with. I guess the sleep schedule is finally catching up to me,” he lied. It was apparent he had a perfect sleeping schedule, and he didn’t compromise that for anything. He needed to fuel and take care of his body so he was at peak performance. It didn’t matter if he was Senseless; it was still necessary.

“No, that’s not true,” Kaiyo puffed, almost hurt he would lie to her like that. “You go to sleep early and wake up at the same time practically every day.”

He was almost surprised she had caught him in a lie. Even Hana (who lived with him) barely noticed what he did during the day. Maybe she paid closer attention to him than he first thought. Sen wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

“Well, you have a decent point there. Perhaps it’s something else,” he replied vaguely.

It's not something physical. I feel like I'm forgetting a core memory. This shouldn’t even be the case since I remember almost everything. Again, I'm looking into things too much. He massaged his temples to calm his anticipatory mind. Ah, yes, the challenge; I forgot I was participating momentarily. Sen let out a tired sigh.

The map is useless; it doesn’t even show us where to go. It just marks the paths we’ve already taken. I guess it's to prevent us from getting lost. But it sure doesn’t help when the main objective of the challenge is to escape. I want a chat with whoever organized this exam.

“If I have to stay in this shitty dungeon, I'm going to lose it!” Baru collapsed on his knees, letting out groans of despair. Sen expected spiteful remarks from his sister, but surprisingly, she reluctantly nodded her head.

“As much as I hate to agree with him, he's right. This is becoming a little odd. Do these paths actually lead somewhere? This hallway keeps twisting and turning without any reason. It doesn’t make sense why the academy would do this. How does this help us become Knights?” Hana criticized.

“The academy definitely did this on purpose. Being a Knight is not always about being strong and fighting monsters. It's about rational thinking and adapting,” Hyo explained.

Sen nodded his head in agreement. Hyo is a smart guy. Obviously, not as smart as me, but if you compare him to others, he is leagues ahead. Sen still didn’t view him as a real friend, but he was comfortable in saying he was trustworthy.

“I guess so…” Hana murmured aversely.

“You look worried, Hana. What’s wrong?” Hono chimed in cheerfully. She shook her head after a long pause and gave a half-hearted smile.

“Nothing, it's just… we left Ayame and her brother to fight that bearwolf alone. It should have been me who fought that monster. Especially since they don’t have Touch as I do. I'm worried they’ll get hurt—”

“They won't,” Sen cut her off confidently. Her sister glared at him with a puzzled frown.

“How would you know? They could be seriously hurt out there.”

Sen wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. Did they seriously not notice it before? I mean, I told them when I jumped into the snake pit. Maybe they forgot? That’s right. Normal people don’t pay attention for more than a couple of seconds, Sen thought amusingly. “They might get hurt, sure, but they won’t die.” He shrugged while walking along.

“Please explain, Sen, I can’t read your friggin' mind,” Hana sighed. It appeared they didn’t notice it after all. I guess I’ll have to explain then.

“I already told you at the beginning of the challenge. They won't put their participants in such danger. Do you really think an average teenager can take down a bearwolf? That’s absurd. Their whole plan, from the looks of it, is to test how the contestants react to situations rather than actually putting them in it. Granted, most people will think it’s real, so it makes for a fun little game,” he rationalized.

“I don’t understand shit,” Baru replied bluntly, his eyes moving in circles of confusion. Sen suppressed a sigh.

“You mean to tell me that bearwolf wasn’t real?” Hana gaped. “That’s impossible.”

Sen shook his head. “No, it was definitely real. And yes, we most likely would’ve gotten hurt if we had stayed there any longer than we did. But there was one thing I noticed while Hana attacked the monster,” he recalled. “First, I was also confused about why the academy would put such a dangerous monster and expect the contestants to defeat it. That was until I realized on the monster's neck was a collar.”

“What? A collar? Like for dogs?”

“Yes, and I doubt Ayame would have seen it because of the monster's fur. Especially when faced with such a monster, you can quickly lose your rational thinking.”

“So what’s the collar for?” Baru asked.

Sen shook his head with disappointment. Anyone could piece the clues together by now.

“Hmm, clever,” Hyo murmured, adjusting his squared glasses. “The bearwolf is indeed real. However, they use a device as insurance if something goes wrong.”

Sen nodded gratefully at Hyo’s explanation. Baru, on the other hand, squinted his eyes, still trying to decipher what that meant.

“Oh, I forgot to put it into your language,” Hyo noticed his confusion. “Monster real, monster dangerous, but if something goes bad, the academy kills the monster before it kills us…”

“Ohhhh! Well, you could have just said so. Seriously, you guys overcomplicate things.”

“No, it's just that you’re dumb,” Hana snorted.

“Well, you didn’t know that, did you? Exactly, that’s what I thought. You’re not better than me!” Baru retorted.

“What? Dont you dare compare us to eachoth–"

"Blah blah blah!"

Please, let this challenge end. I don’t know how much more I can take. Sen’s wish was instantly granted, just not in the way he had hoped. His steps came to a halt, and he was greeted with—

“A dead end…” Sen announced. Hana and Baru stopped their bickering almost immediately when they heard his words. The air around them grew silent and tense. Sen let out a murmur of amusement. This is getting interesting.