Kisho, or rather Noah Barton, was staring intently at the monster beneath his feet.
Noah's emotions rarely fluctuated.
But right now, his emotions were completely stirred by the monster.
Just as the monster craved killing Noah to obtain his power, Noah likewise felt an endless hunger for the energy within its body.
When Noah fully took control of the body, the power this body could wield was of the same origin as that monster's.
—That was why he could so easily break through the monster's defenses, and so effortlessly inflict severe damage upon it.
...
Kisho stared blankly at the thing pinned beneath him, still struggling.
"Thump. Thump."
The heartbeat became stronger than ever before.
"Thump. Thump."
An indescribable, mysterious energy flowed out from the monster's body, along the weapon in his hand, little by little merging into his own body.
Like parched earth greedily devouring spring water, like flames greedily devouring fuel.
As the uncontrollable devouring continued, the monster's vitality neared its end.
Yet it still kept its silver-blue eyes wide open, staring fixedly at Kisho.
Kisho raised his hand and with a "shhk" pulled the triangular spike out of its heart.
Blood sprayed out, the monster's struggle ceased, yet its formidable vitality allowed it to remain alive even when shriveled like dead wood.
But at this moment, in the eyes staring at Kisho, there gathered a terror so thick it could not be dispersed.
"It's afraid… of me?"
This conclusion made Kisho feel both amused and inexplicably furious.
This monster that wasn't even human—why should it be afraid of him!?
How could it… be afraid of a human!?
As the last wisp of energy flowed into Kisho's body, it completely became a shriveled empty shell.
Then, a few seconds later, it turned into a pile of dust.
Kisho gazed at the heap of black ashes and slowly stepped back.
From the hand gripping the triangular spike, a stream of water several times greater than before surged out from his fingertips, washing away all the filthy blood on the weapon.
"You…"
Roy Kuhl looked at Kisho, who had his back turned to him, head lowered.
He wanted to say something, but swallowed everything he had intended to say, then stayed quiet.
For some reason, even though he couldn't see the kid's face, Roy still felt that the kid standing before him now was absolutely not the same as before.
—Extremely dangerous. Even the slightest provocation might cost one's life.
He watched the kid put the triangular spike back into his sleeve, watched the kid slowly turn around.
But the moment he turned around, the frozen time and space around them seemed to thaw instantly.
"Sorry about that. I couldn't hold back."
Kisho gave a cold smile and offered an "explanation" for his actions:
"Where I come from, we don't let go of anyone who casually attacks us."
Roy Kuhl: "…"
He felt like he was hallucinating.
Even though this kid was still annoying, compared to the one just now, the difference was huge.
Clearly the same voice, the same back—so why did he feel like they were two completely opposite people?
The smile in Kisho's eyes never reached the depths:
"So… I didn't hold back and accidentally killed it—no problem, right?"
Roy fell silent.
He kind of wanted to curse out loud, but he was afraid the kid might transform again.
So he could only swallow his resentment and grit his teeth as he spoke:
"It's fine. It was just an experimental subject. There are plenty of backups elsewhere."
"…Is that so."
He said softly, "Then that's fine."
Plenty of backups—meaning there were still many of these monsters—put another way, there were still many… who might once have been like Noah…
Kisho unobtrusively grasped his wrist, which was itching to move.
He was soothing the other self within his body, restraining the boundless anger and killing intent spilling from that other self.
His gaze fell upon the seemingly endless corridor, those tightly locked rooms—each one of them could be imprisoning countless wronged souls.
...
The two returned to the surface.
The driver had been standing by the sedan the whole time. When he saw Kisho and Roy return, he hurriedly opened the car door with great respect.
On the return trip, Kisho sat in the back seat, while Roy sat in the front passenger seat in silence.
He felt Kisho staring at him and quietly shrank a bit toward the window.
Kisho: "…"
He turned his head to look out the window, raised his hand, and stared at his own palm.
Come to think of it, the place where he had awakened in this world was Meteor City.
Why had Noah appeared in Meteor City?
Why could he use this body so smoothly even though the original owner hadn't died?
What exactly was the relationship between that one-eyed old man whose grave grass was already ten meters tall and Noah?
Silver-blue eyes… both that monster and Noah had silver-blue eyes.
Was that trait some kind of clue?
And then there was… "raw liquid." Could it be related to this?
Chaotic clues tangled together like a ball of yarn, filling Kisho's mind and leaving him only able to sigh inwardly.
In the world of consciousness, Noah still sat on that snow-white experimental bed.
—As he was brought out more frequently, the surrounding instruments that caused visceral revulsion had disappeared; at least now Noah no longer had those multicolored tubes attached to him.
Still, he remained silent.
"Noah."
Kisho walked to the bedside, picked him up, turned around, and walked into the darkness.
As he walked, he spoke softly by Noah's ear: "We've already left that place."
He showed a gentle smile and met Noah's large silver-blue eyes.
Facing these eyes from hell that others dared not meet, Kisho made a soft yet firm promise:
"Even if I don't have the right to say this yet… no matter how difficult it is, I will definitely get to the bottom of all of this."
Noah neither agreed nor disagreed. He continued to stare at his other self, then after a long while, gently blinked.
Kisho smiled and gently set him down in the darkness.
In the night, mountain mist spread across the sky above the cliff, turning it into a passage leading toward the abyss, with no visible boundary.
As time passed, the sedan returned to the Bankro family estate, stopping before the final fork leading to the main residence, per Roy's request.
Roy lived in the dormitories.
As Kisho waited for him to get out of the car, he suddenly noticed his pager vibrating.
It was a text message from Roy: Employee dormitory, your room.
Kisho: "…?"
He slowly raised his head and looked toward Roy in the passenger seat.
The man was still sitting there properly, without any unusual reaction at all.
That just made it even more suspicious, didn't it!?
"Related to the 'laboratory.'"
Seeing that Kisho didn't react, a second message was sent.
A few seconds later, both messages were automatically deleted without warning.
Kisho fell silent for a moment, then pushed open the car door.