"Hello? Wanna say something? I don't know, maybe plead for mercy."
Kai waved his arms in front of the man's eyes. Still, there was no response. The man wasn't even looking at him directly. His eyes were fixed somewhere behind Kai.
'Wait a second!'
A chill stabbed down his spine. Kai whipped around, baseball bat raised, ready to smash in whoever had snuck up behind him. But… there was no one there.
'Huh? Then why…'
In the middle of his confusion, a hand slid down the back of his neck and clamped around it tightly. The grip was cold, unbearably cold.
"Huh? Did you just play me like a fiddle?"
Humiliation and anger flared through him. He jerked his body with full force, trying to pry himself free, but… the man he'd been looking down on was far stronger than he looked.
No matter how much Kai struggled, wiggling like a worm or thrashing like a butcher's next meal, he couldn't escape the grip.
'This skinny body holds this much strength…? Does this mean all those skinny otakus getting bullied every day in college are telling the truth? They might actually have the monstrous strength they boast about.'
The man's grip tightened around his neck with each passing second. His other hand clawed at the baseball bat, trying to rip it from Kai's grasp.
'This counts as self-defence, right? He's literally trying to kill me… well, let's see how this goes.'
He didn't have any other options, besides dying, of course. So he shifted his grip from the bottom of the bat to the middle and slammed it into the man's face.
A crack sounded as the bat connected with the man's skull. The grip around Kai's neck loosened instantly.
Kai didn't waste the chance. He scrambled back, widening the distance between them, then sucked in a much-needed breath before speaking.
"Hey, you good? I didn't hit you too hard, right? Can you see? Hey, look! Tell me how many fingers I'm holding."
He waved two fingers. Even though the man had come into the house with clearly malicious intent and literally tried to kill him, Kai still cared. But it wasn't out of kindness. It was solely because he didn't want to end up in jail.
Thankfully, luck seemed to be on his side. After a couple of seconds, the man regained his footing, moving again in that eerie, puppet-like manner.
With staggered, jerky steps, he started closing the distance, arms stretched forward like a zombie.
'Is he blind? But then how did he enter the apartment?'
Kai threw the thought away just as quickly. The man wasn't blind. If anything then he was just weird… And if he started listing the weird things about him, he'd end up with a dozen: that unnatural puppet-like movement, the deathly malnourished body, the inhuman strength, the wandering eyes, and lastly, his complete inability or refusal to speak.
Though these things didn't make the man any less threatening, if anything they made him even more dangerous and unsettling.
Holding his baseball bat, Kai contemplated what to do next. Getting close to the man was risky, so he couldn't just apprehend him. But hitting him from afar was dangerous too. With how skinny the man was, there was a high chance Kai might accidentally kill him.
'I need to call the police… but if this guy keeps coming at me, I won't be able to call them. How should I call them? Hmmm… Oh wait! I know how!'
If he couldn't call them, then someone else would have to. And that someone happened to be his little sister, Iuno.
Wasting no time, Kai sprinted toward Iuno's room, staying alert in case someone else was inside.
As he neared the room, his eyes fell on the door. It was slightly open.
'Iuno isn't the type to keep her door open. She is even worse than me when it comes to privacy. So, why…?'
A really bad thought formed in his mind. Refusing to entertain it for more than a second, Kai rushed forward and burst into the room.
Inside, the lights were off and the curtains drawn. It was pitch black, except for the faint light filtering in from outside.
He could only make out a vague figure in the corner. Huddled and shaking, wiggling like a worm.
Kai switched on the lights in an instant. As the room brightened, he finally saw the person clearly.
It was his little sister Iuno, but her condition was terrible. She was tied up tightly by rope, and it was so tight her white skin had turned bluish.
Kai's brain stopped working. His grip loosened.
Thud—!
The bat hit the floor with an echo. Kai didn't even register the sound. He walked forward in a daze and crouched beside Iuno.
He tried untying the ropes with his hands at first, but the knot was too tight. The more he struggled, the more she winced in pain.
Not willing to see his sister suffer, Kai rummaged through the closet and grabbed a pair of scissors.
Using them, he freed Iuno without hurting her. The moment the ropes fell away, she leapt forward and hugged him tightly.