Kai reached the end of the corridor.
The reinforced door leading to the training range and hall was ajar, enveloped in an unnatural silence.
There was no rhythmic thump of punching bags or the clatter of weights.
Strange.
Pushing the door open, Kai slipped inside.
The room was vast, lit by cold neon lights that gave the metal walls a clinical look.
Immediately, he sensed a void.
He didn't even try to call her name.
For some reason, Kai felt that Hiromi Tanaka wasn't here.
He was completely sure about that.
The air, usually thick with sweat and gunpowder, felt heavy.
Something was wrong.
His eyes darted, scanning the corners, the empty racks.
That's when he saw it: a combat knife, blade facing up, abandoned in the center of the rubber floor.
Kai froze.
This wasn't negligence.
This was a signal.
Instinct, not experience, moved him.
It was the cold, dark voice of Hina deep in his mind: "Don't stop. Don't listen. Act."
Kai didn't remember if he had heard those words from Hina, but that was the only thing he thought, by instinct.
Kai moved. Immediately.
He bent down, grabbing the knife's handle in one fluid motion, and as his fingers tightened on the cold steel, he sensed the warm breath behind him.
A presence.
Too close.
Without looking, he rolled sideways in an emergency somersault, the blade he'd just grabbed pressed against his chest.
A hiss tore through the air where he had been a moment before.
When he straightened up, the knife steady in his hand, horror replaced surprise.
Standing before him, his face contorted with hatred and a black-stained knife clutched in his hand, was the man he'd "fought" the day before.
A soldier of Rei.
Furious.
"Is everything alright?" Kai hissed, realizing the situation.
The man seemed to be ignoring his words.
He just looked at the knife in his hands and then gave Kai a deadly glare.
Moreover, the man seemed to be different.
Kai analyzed his face for some seconds and felt that the man wanted to kill him.
"Oka then. I guess... we're fine." Kai said, with a sigh.
Adrenaline started to flow in his veins.
"Please, stop it. Rei won't allow that," Kai said.
"Who cares about that fucking crazy megalomaniac. I just need to kill you to get out of here, I don't care about anything."
It wasn't a warning.
It was a death battle.
"Eh? What?" Kai's eyes widened.
The soldier didn't respond. He lunged forward with a roar of repressed anger.
Kai barely dodged.
Quick moves, learned from Hiromi's harsh training: weight on the heels, eyes focused, the body's movement as the only weapon.
But his hand trembled.
His mind, however, was clear.
He remembered Hina's glazed eyes when she fought, her silent philosophy: "Every strike must be the last."
The soldier was stronger, heavier.
A swipe grazed Kai's face, leaving a streak of warm blood on his cheek.
Kai staggered back.
He couldn't win by skill.
He had to win by brutality.
"Why are you hesitating, Kai? Your life is over now. You have no other choices~" Hina's voice echoed inside Kai's mind.
It seemed like his soul was speaking to him.
The soldier attacked again, a straight thrust.
Kai, instead of retreating, plunged into the attack.
Using the tactic he'd observed in Hina—sacrificing a small risk for a fatal gain—Kai allowed the blade to graze his arm, and in that same instant, used all his strength to deliver a dry, violent kick to his assailant's groin.
The man folded in half with a choked groan, his breath caught.
This was the chance.
The last chance.
There was no time for hesitation.
Kai's eyes glazed over.
Was it disgust? Rage? It didn't matter. Only survival.
With a silent scream, Kai grabbed the soldier's neck with his free arm and, using the blade he held, plunged it with all his might into the empty space between the ribs, aiming for the heart or lung.
"I'm sorry, but you wouldn't have let me live." Kai repeated in his mind.
The hit wasn't clean. It was an act of primal desperation.
The soldier emitted a horrifying gurgle, his body twisted and then slumped, a dead weight, as his weapon fell to the floor with a metallic clang.
Kai let him go. He stumbled back a couple of steps, breath ragged, eyes fixed on the blood-soaked steel in his hand.
It had happened.
He had killed, again.
But this time was different.
He had the choice of spare him, but a part of him didn't want to.
"Why? What am I... becoming?" He asked to himself.
His shirt was torn, his head pounded, his heart raced uncontrollably.
A sense of nausea and terror choked him.
"Damn it... what did I do..." he muttered, his voice barely a whisper in the silence of the hall.
He collapsed to the floor, the knife falling from his bloody hand.
He was a trembling wreck.
His soul had shattered.
His humanity was officially dead, and this was probably... a test.
------
Click. Click.
The steps weren't his. They were measured, rhythmic, and all too familiar.
Kai looked up in terror.
Standing in the doorway of the training hall, two figures were silhouetted against the cold corridor lights.
Rei stood there, hands casually tucked into his pockets, a thin, almost amused smile crinkling his lips.
Beside him was Hiromi Tanaka, holding the very note Kai had found on his pillow.
Hiromi didn't look surprised or horrified.
She looked "happy" in some ways.
A small smirk was printed on her face, like she was saying "I'm proud of you."
Rei took a step forward, his head tilted in mock curiosity.
His eyes fell on the soldier's lifeless body, then on the abandoned blade, and finally, on Kai, sitting in a pool of his own panic.
Rei chuckled. A light laugh that held no joy. Only sadism.
"Oh... what happened here?" Rei asked, his voice a melodic, sarcastic whisper. "Looks like you got a little dirty, Kai."
Hiromi took a step back, slowly closing the door.
"Looks like he passed the test," Hiromi muttered, her tone brooking no argument, directed at Rei. "I'll take him. The plan is officially ready."
Kai stared at them, unable to speak, the terror mingling with the burning realization that he never had a choice.