Lein tried to distract himself, but his pale face worried Reo even more. However, Lein reassured Reo that he was fine.
'Ring! Ring! Ring!'
As the school bell sounded, Lein's face, while still pale, showed signs of calming down, and he seemed to be feeling better.
"Lein, is everything okay? You're not having trouble with your Cause, are you?" Reo asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just suddenly got lost in thought," Lein replied, trying to reassure Reo that he didn't need to worry.
Student started leaving the classroom one by one, heading home, including Reo.
"See you, Lein. If anything happens, just call me," Reo said as he walked out.
Lein stood up and approached Grace, still looking pale and weak. "Have we met before?" he asked, trying to confirm if she was the girl he had seen night before.
"Sorry, but...who are you?" Grace asked curiously, looking confused.
He breathed out slowly and looked back at Grace. "My name is Lein Arcel," he introduced himself, his voice still weak.
"Nice to meet you, Lein. Is it okay if I call you that?" Grace asked gently.
"Sure, whatever you prefer," Lein said.
. . .
"Uh, can I get your number?" Lein asked, sounding a bit awkward.
. . .
"W-what?! W-why suddenly!?" Grace asked shyly, her face turning red and her voice rising as she continued to question.
"Uh, is it not okay?" Lein asked again.
"Uh, yeah! Of course, w-wait a sec," Grace said, taking her phone out of her bag and giving her contact number to Lein.
"Thanks," Lein said with a smile, after they exchanging number contact.
Grace responded with a smile as well, a very gentle and sweet smile that could make any guy fall in love with her. However, Lein didn't feel the same way, as he had felt something was off about the girl from the first.
As Lein walked home from school, he spotted a young cat on the street. Initially, he considered leaving it behind, but the image of the puppy he saw struggling the night before stopped him in his tracks.
"Shit," Lein muttered, sighing as he gazed at the cat. He was struck by its beautiful eyes, a bright blue that seemed gleaming like frosty crystals.
He finally picked up the cat and cradled it in his arms, feeling the softness of its fur as he walked towards his apartment.
Upon arriving at the apartment, Lein saw a cars parked in front of his building. "Huh? Again?" he muttered, sighing as he headed up to the second floor where his apartment was located.
As Lein approached his apartment, he saw the owner standing outside, and his frustration grew. With a mix of stress and annoyance, Lein walked towards the owner, ready to face whatever issue was brewing.
"Hey, you! How long are you going to keep dodging rent payments for your apartment, huh?!" the landlord shouted loudly at Lein.
"Okay, okay, I'll pay soon. Just come in," Lein said weakly.
Lein went into his room to grab some money he had, but the landlord's rambling only added to his stress, and he couldn't take it anymore. Lein grabbed a hammer from his room, ran toward the landlord, and struck his head until he collapsed to the ground.
The landlord cried out, "AHH! IT HURTS! S-SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP ME!"
Overwhelmed and consumed by stress, Lein could do nothing but keep smashing the landlord's head repeatedly with the hammer.
Blood gushed out as the skull shattered into pieces—crushed all the way down to the brain.
"Die! Die! Die!" Lein screamed as he kept striking, right in front of the cat he had just adopted. His school uniform was soaked in blood, and the living room of his apartment was now covered in scattered organs and a pool of gore.
After killing the landlord, Lein quickly moved the body and the scattered organs to the kitchen, before finally closing the apartment door to make sure no one would find out.
After finishing moving the landlord's body, Lein immediately used his Cause ability to erase the bloodstains from the floor and his clothes, as if nothing had ever happened.
Lein went to the kitchen while carrying the cat he had adopted earlier. He looked into the cat's beautiful eyes once more and thought that he wanted those eyes for clearer vision.
Lein placed the cat down in the kitchen and went to his room to get a screwdriver. Eventually, he returned.
"Don't move, sweet kitty," he said before suddenly prying out one of the cat's eyes. The cat screamed in pain as its blood splattered everywhere.
Lein successfully gouged out and took the cat's eye before finally embracing the weakened, suffering creature. He then used his Cause once again, and the cat that had just lost one of its eyes now appeared whole—as if nothing had ever happened.
Lein stared into the kitchen mirror, gripping the screwdriver tightly in his hand—and then he gouged out his own right eye. "ARGHHH!!" he screamed in pain before finally managing to tear the eye out.
He then placed his gouged—out right eye on the kitchen table, looked into the mirror once more, and used his Cause for the third time—to fuse the beautiful cat's eye into the socket where his own had been. Moments later, Lein succeeded in merging the cat's eye with his own.
"Fuck," he whispered, panting heavily.
Lein felt exhausted, yet satisfied with the result—his right eye now held the beautiful eye of a cat, granting him the ability to see through the night as clearly as day. However, the toll of using his Cause ability too many times had drained him, and the heavy stress he was under weighed heavily on his mind.
Lein felt stress has pushed him to the edge, and the side effects of Cause are taking their toll, especially his growing obsession with a woman who looks like Grace.
He stepped out to the balcony, gazing up at the dark sky.
"Shit, the sky always looks dark to me," he said, his eyes eventually shifting to the apartment across the way.
He saw the girl appear again in the apartment across the way, and this time, he felt a sense of calm wash over him. He enjoyed the view, taking in her beautiful face, now lit up with a smile that chased away any hint of sadness or fear.
'Crack!'
The moment Lein looked at the girl, a massive earthquake struck, causing the floor and ground to tremble and crack. Lein struggled to stay upright as the city around him crumbled. When the quake finally stopped, the girl was nowhere to be seen, and the ground was left cracked and broken.
He looked up at the sky and was shocked to see it had turned dark, with the moon transforming into a deep orange hue, like a solar eclipse
Lein quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket, and his eyes widened in shock as he saw the time display malfunctioning, leaping forward and backward in a uncontrollably, as if time had lost all sense of order.
Lein opened his contact list and started calling Reo's number.
"Reo?! Are you okay?" Lein asked worriedly.
"Lein?! What's going on?! I just felt a massive earthquake and suddenly the sky turned pitch black?!" Reo voice was laced with confusion and fear.
"Reo, let's meet at school. I need to talk to you about something," Lein said, trying to keep his calm.
Just as Lein finished calling Reo, the earthquake resumed, this time with even massive intensity. Several houses collapsed due to the violent shaking, and Lein's apartment building was on the verge of destruction before the earthquake finally subsided.
"What the...fuck?!" Lein stunned, shocked by what he had just seen in front of him.
. . .