Modern Monster

Deciding not to tread on the topic any further, Sen walked up to his team and sat down to join them. Hana was in deep thought while reading the menu of the bar, briefly flipping through pages in hopes of finding something she wanted to eat.

This feels weird. I'm usually not the emotional type, but I have a good sense of when things are off, and this is definitely one of them. Sen couldn’t describe the feeling and put it into words. It simply felt like his whole body was on edge for some reason. But when he skimmed through his team, they casually exchanged what they sought to eat, hardly like they had a care in the world.

Am I the only one?

Observing a little further, he noticed Hono flipping through the menu pages, yet her eyes remained completely still as if attempting to make it seem like she was reading. Sen wondered momentarily if she also felt the same but quickly dismissed the thought.

She’s most likely acting weird because of embarrassment, he concluded.

“Would you guys like to order now?” Gyro inquired, washing cups as he spoke. Baru eagerly nodded with a grin.

“Gimme a big burger and some fries, please. Today’s my cheat day.” He kissed his biceps.

“Ho ho! Gotta keep that motivation going; remember not to have too many carbs if you’re cutting,” the barista murmured with amusement.

“Trust me, I take care of my body better than I take care of my mental health.”

“I feel like that’s a lie. You seem too much of a blockhead even to get depressed,” Hana snorted.

Baru gasped with hurt. “Did you just make fun of mental illness? Somebody, please cancel her!"

“Oh wow, when I make one dark joke, you all go wild, but when you borderline harass me, it's perfectly fine? The double standards are crazy.”

“Nah, it's okay when I do it because it’s actually funny. But it's never funny when a woman does it. Ya'll don’t have that talen–”

Sen decided to turn his head away from them. All he heard after Baru’s following words were a few punches, sounds of snapping chairs, and most importantly, cries of agony that were being inflicted by Hana.

Not that he’ll get very hurt. People with Touch can cultivate their powers to a point where they can withstand bullets even without activating their Sense. That’s one of the reasons it's debated as the most powerful super sense.

However, getting to that level was extremely difficult. But at its core, all Sense’s affect a person’s body to some extent, even without activating them. To further strengthen those changes, however, was similar to cultivating a Super Sense. He wasn’t too sure if making a Sense stronger would automatically make the body stronger.

In the past, doing research on these topics didn’t intrigue him, but now, since circumstances have changed, he would need to do extensive research regarding them.

If I pass, that is. I’ll only have one real shot at becoming a knight. Asashi Is bound to pull something out of his ass and blacklist me from attending. It isn’t really that hard to do. Of course, it isn’t fair, but the government as a whole is comprised of lies and injustice. He’s a high-ranking individual as well, so he knows that more than anyone else. If I play my cards right, I can use Kaiyo to my advantage to bypass her father. Albeit, realistically, I only have one chance since Asashi wasn’t expecting this. The next time, I doubt I'll be as luck–

“What would you like to eat, erm– what's your name again, youngin?” Gyro's question jerked him back into reality. Sen wasn’t really inclined to respond; The muscular barista had rudely interrupted his thought process. Sen lifted his head to meet his demanding gaze.

Gyro flinched momentarily, his pupils shrinking with fear. Muscles rippled beneath his attire as he tensed up. The glass cup he was carefully drying with a cloth shattered in the palm of his hand, resulting in strays of glass pieces flying everywhere. Gyro grunted darkly as if his own body were moving on its own. His expression turned savage, that of a man who’d seen the battlefield a thousand times over.

The very own palm that destroyed the glass cup a second ago was now lurching towards Sen–

“Oh, I apologize for the mess…” Gyro’s powerful and challenging façade disappeared so fast that Sen wondered if he even saw it in the first place. The clutched-up hand that was headed straight toward Sen’s face was keenly redirected to the ground as if he was merely picking up his mess behind the counter.

“Oh no, do you need help cleaning that up?” Kaiyo offered after hearing the glass cup shatter.

Gyro shook his head. “No need. This was solely my fault. Dear, I guess I must check my eyesight. I’ve been getting slightly clumsy lately, Ho Ho Ho.” He warmly replied, absent of any sign of anger or distress.

“Well, if you insist, however, please feel no pressure about getting our food right away. You should take care of your injuries from the broken glass that went everywhere; you were quite close to it.”

“Ah, you’re a sweet girl, but I assure you I’m quite alright. See?” Gyro lifted both his palms up, and to Sen’s astonishment, they were both unscathed. “No scratches, I’m quite alright. In fact, I’m more worried about you,” he keenly shifted his gaze at Sen, a large fake smile plastered across his face.

Everything happened so quickly that the others didn’t even see he attempted to hit me. His movement was so fluid and precise that if he truly wanted to, my head would have been separated from my body in an instant; who was this man? And why did he want to decapitate him after Sen had just glanced at him?

Sen was more confused than scared, but the lingering thought that his life would have been over in an instant gave him a shiver, one that he’d never had before. Sen calmly looked at Gyro as if nothing had happened and returned his fake smile.

“No worries, Mr Gyro, mistakes happen, and I promise I didn’t get hurt anywhere. I do really appreciate the concern, though.”

“Oh well, that’s a relief!” He let out a thankful laugh. “I sure wouldn’t want to injure one of the contestants; that’s an easy way to get fired!”

“Of course not; that certainly would be a bummer!” Sen joined in his fake laughter. His team Gawked at him with wide eyes, not even knowing he was capable of smiling.

Of course, they were somewhat right; his laughter was completely fake. Pausing his laughter momentarily, Sen asked Gyro, “Say, Mr Gyro? Is your job really to serve the contestants? You sure do seem more capable than doing this grunt work.”

The fake smile Gyro was holding glitched for a moment, but then he quickly recovered and returned back to his original state.

“Pardon? I am not too sure what you mean, young man,” Gyro's emphasis on ‘young man’ sounded like a threat to him. Attentively intertwining his fingers, Sen grew serious.

I finally realized who you are and what exactly is going on here. I’ll make sure you show your true colors. But If I’m correct, we don’t have much time. Hmph, the academy is a bunch of sneaky bastards. I certainly didn’t expect the academy to go to this extent. I mean, they are really deceitful.

Sen almost wanted to laugh amusingly. A dark blue hue exuded his body, a presence that no one could physically see, yet the room grew grim as a result. Everyone felt a shiver run down their spine from unease, but none decided to speak out about it. Gyro gawked at Sen, bearing a tense mien. Deep inside him, the barista was certain the source of the eerie sensation was from the young white-black-haired boy.

Deciding to put some space between them, Gyro cautiously treaded away from him.

But then–

“Gyro,” Sen started calmly, a fake smile daubed on his face, “where are you from?”