[ HARU'S POINT OF VIEW ]

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar white ceiling. Trying to get up proved to be a challenge when I felt resonating pain in my legs as if I had just run a thousand mile marathon. Judging by the curtains and blinds on the wall, I deduced that I was brought into a hospital after the fight with that giant monster. The sky was also already dark and only a little noise can be heard outside. I winced while massaging my legs, trying to reduce the pain even for a little bit.

"Probably because of carrying Ueda while running." I mumbled to myself.

Hearing a familiar "Hmm." almost made me jump in shock before Ueda Nozomi's voice broke the silence. "Cheeky brat. Are you implying that I'm heavy?" It was dumbfounding that I didn't even realize someone was sitting on another bed just beside mine. I turned my head towards Ueda who was already glaring at me. Bandages covered her arms and the top of her head but over all she seemed like she had recovered compared to the state she had been in a few hours ago. It also seemed like they had changed our outer clothing with clean ones.

"No." I replied. "The fact that I was able to carry you at all is enough proof that you are very light." she didn't seem convinced nor amused with my response but oh well.

"Still as cheeky as ever huh, Takahashi Haruto." I felt a little shocked when I heard her say my name. "You're not hurt anywhere else?"

So she had already learned my name. I guess someone told her. But still, it felt surreal to have some as popular as her to know about me. It took me a couple seconds to contemplate the answer to her question. "My head does hurt a little. It's a side effect whenever my barrier gets broken."

"I see."

After a short period of silence, I decided to speak up for the sake of politeness. "And yourself?" she suddenly looked up in my direction. "You were way beat up earlier than I was, and yet you look like nothing ever happened."

"Rapid healing." she quickly answered. "I recover almost twenty times as fast as other people do. If it weren't for this, we would have been dead."

What a convenient ability. On top of monstrous strength, her body also automatically healed damage. Though she wasn't fully invincible if the rate of damage she received surpassed that of her self-healing, or the damage she sustained was way too severe.

"You're right." I said, facing her properly as I continued. "Thank you for saving me."

She stared at me, the tension in her eyebrows releasing, turning her glare into a blank gaze. Her notorious demeanor seemed to have softened. Kind of ironic how someone who was supposed to be a hero was acting like a full fledged delinquent.

"Don't thank me." she said before her eyes dropped on her thighs.

"What?"

"Shinohara Kazuki." I felt the urge to swallow the lump in my throat as I heard the name that came from Ueda's lips. Though, it was quite surprising that she had already learned about us in such a short period of time. "He was your friend, right?"

Her expression had become too hard for me to read when she gazed into nothingness while gripping the bedsheets tightly. "Yes." I simply answered before silence dampened the mood once again.

"He's... dead because of me." she suddenly blurted out, still not making any eye contact. "Masashi and Ryosuke too." her voice got more unstable as she spoke. "So don't thank me. I didn't save anyone."

People always gave off a certain energy around them whenever they were feeling like shit, and Ueda had almost drowned me with it. Silence grew colder as I chose to keep my mouth shut because I didn't really know what words to say in this type of situation. And then suddenly, as rare as crows turning white, my one prayer at the moment had come true.

Our heads turned to the door that had just been pushed open gently as a girl slowly peeped into the room.

"Excuse me." Narumi Shiho whispered as she stepped inside, she was holding a basket of what I thought to be apples and some utensils.

"Shiho-chan?" Ueda uttered as their eyes met. "You're safe."

Narumi's gaze fell to the floor as I saw her shoulders drop. "Yeah." she quietly replied before walking up to us and then placing her things on the table between my bed and Ueda's. She took a deep breath before speaking. "H-How's your recovery going, Ueda-senpai?" her tone didn't even bother to try and sound lively, it was full of glum.

Narumi Shiho— one of the five members of Saito Masashi's club, and one of the three that remained. Her ability "Healing" was a truly spectacular superpower that could nullify even the most fatal injury. From just hearsay information I had, her ability worked by reversing time only within the body of her target. That meant she healed her targets by reverting their bodies back to their state during a certain point of time within a maximum of two hours as long as the target was still alive. Her downside would be she wouldn't be able to heal people if their injury had happened more than two hours ago. Additionally, she wasn't able to cause damage with her ability. Although her ability was about reversing the body's condition, she, for some reason, couldn't bring back a wound that had already been healed even if it was within her time limit range. In other words, all she could do was heal injuries.

"It's going well." Ueda tried to smile, but it barely reached her eyes. "Thank you for these." she said, referring to the food she bought.

"Yamada-kun is resting in another room." Narumi said.

Ueda nodded. "I know."

I knew I wished for someone to enter the room and save me the awkward conversation, and it had happened. But the atmosphere now had just become worse with the conversation happening before my eyes. As much as I wanted to walk away, I knew that I needed to rest.

Of course Narumi just had to turn to me. "You must be Takahashi-san." she said, finally including me in the conversation.

"Yes." I simply answered looking at her eyes. "How'd you know me?"

"Your club mates probably told her." Ueda answered for her. "They were here when I woke up, they were worried about you."

"I see." my short response. I hoped that she didn't scare them or anything.

I couldn't help but be shocked when Narumi suddenly bowed before me, her hair fell downwards, covering whatever expression she was making. "Thank you for saving Ueda-senpai." she said, bending down firmly.

I put my hands up in front of me. "Please raise your head, Narumi-san. Anyone would have done the same."

"No." she quickly remarked. "No one but you could've done that." she stood up straight but her gaze still remained on the floor. "I selfishly ran without even thinking, I was so scared."

"Shiho-chan." Ueda spoke. "I completely understand. What you did back there was the best course of action."

Narumi turned to Ueda. "But..."

"If anything, I'm glad that you chose to run. Had you ended up getting hurt too, I..."

How sweet. Anyway, now that my legs seemed to have recovered, I thought that I could just sneak out. While the two of the most famous girls in my school chattered about friendship and stuff, I quietly got off of bed and slowly walked up to the door. I had a feeling that all of this still wasn't over. That mysterious ability that saved us from the monster—I had never seen anything like that before. Someone as powerful as that wouldn't be hiding their ability and just randomly reveal it for that situation. Deep in thought, I approached the door until Ueda's voice stopped my tracks.

"Where are you going?" she simply asked.

I was about to reach for the door when I heard her. I then turned to look at them both.

"Out?" I answered. "Don't you two want some privacy?"

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Her piercing gaze made me feel my soul being revealed inside out. I didn't know if it was just her, or girls were just naturally scary.

"You should rest more." she replied.

What now? Why was she even minding my business? She shouldn't have anything to do with me now that the battle was over, right?

"I agree, Takahashi-san." Narumi seconded.

"Besides," Ueda's tone had gone colder. "I have questions for you."

There it was. I knew she was smarter than she appeared to be, but I didn't expect her to catch a thing just by me fighting with her in one battle. I had no choice but to conform. I walked back to the bed and sat there.

"What do you wanna ask?" I started. There was no point in dragging things out. For a few seconds, her eyes locked with mine, but before it turned into a staring contest, I decided to call out to her once more. "Ueda-san?"

She let out a sigh. "You're weird."

After processing what she said, I couldn't help but blurt out a random noise. "Eh?"

"Back then, when we were fighting the monster who killed the strongest man in Kyoto, you..." she paused, as if searching for the right words to continue. "I sensed absolutely no fear in you." Her statement made Narumi Shiho turn to me. As for me, I silently cursed myself for not being able to make the perfect response aside from silence. "You were calmer than even Masashi-kun himself. And even now, it's still as if... you're looking down on us."

"Aren't you imagining things at this point, Ueda-san?" I replied to prevent her from going deeper into the topic. "Honestly, I came charging in without a proper plan. I was just really lucky to have survived that." Silence filled the room once again. Ueda was scanning my very being, Narumi was confusedly tracing back the conversation, while I sat there hoping that they'd drop the talk anytime soon.

"Nobody has ever heard about you up until now. And then suddenly, you showed up and fought the strongest monster that I've ever seen in my life, toe to toe. While using that shitty ability of yours too, to say the least." Ueda sounded like there was no stopping her. Now, even I was starting to worry. "Answer me, cheeky brat. Just who the hell are you?" she ultimately asked.

To avoid any more suspicions from her, I had to think of an answer quickly. "Like I said, I was just really lucky that time." I said, adding a little bit more depth to my tone. "If you didn't intercept at the right moment, I would have died. And why are you talking like I've beaten the monster? If memory serves, someone also just saved us, right?"

Before Ueda could speak, Narumi had joined the conversation. "Yes, it is as you've said." Ueda and I shifted our attention towards her as I silently thanked her in my mind. "We thought you have been unconscious to witness it, but a Sentinel did arrive to defeat the monster."

So it was a Sentinel after all. Some people who were blessed with strong abilities had chosen a profession that specialized in handling monster attacks. They operated separately from the government military and police force, but they sometimes worked together. They were called Sentinels—the modern day Monster Hunters.

"I've been told as well." Ueda said as she crossed her arms. "But even so, I find it abnormal for a nobody like you to have what it takes to do what you did."

"That's rather harsh." I remarked.

"I know, but that's what I think." she replied. But I guess she had a point. If I were her, I would also find it unrealistic for someone like me to accomplish such a feat when even Saito Masashi, the strongest student in our school had been defeated by the same monster.

"Sorry, but I don't really know what you're talking about." That response was all I could think of at the moment. Hopefully she would drop the talk.

Narumi put a hand on Ueda's shoulder to get her attention. "Senpai.. I think that's enough." she said to her. "Both of you are in the middle of recovery."

Ueda looked at her before turning to me again. I will never forget this, Narumi.

After a bit of silence, she sighed and then finally spoke. "Fine. But I'm still suspicious of you."

I stood up, bowed and then wordlessly left the room.

The private hospital was small but complete in facilities. I passed by other patients and nurses and nobody seemed to mind me exiting the building at the time of the day. As I walked out of the building, a cool breeze of air blew towards me, smoothly caressing my hair. It was already getting late, and even though I didn't know whether I was already allowed to go home or not, I decided to leave the place.

Kazuki had died. It wasn't like I was new to having people around me dying, but somehow, it felt regrettable. Thoughts like "If I have done this differently, he would have been still alive." lingered in my mind as I walked along the dark, silent parking lot. Not that I could turn back time and redo it, and not that I would want to.

I stopped my tracks as soon as I heard footsteps coming from behind me. It was something distinguishable from someone-minding-their-own-business type of footsteps, kinda ominous if you'd ask me.

Obviously, the person whom the footsteps belonged to was walking up to me, so I ultimately decided to turn and face whoever it was.

"Greetings, Takahashi-san." was the first words I heard, her small voice faintly reverberated through the area. It was a woman in a dark office-suit standing before me.

"Uhm. Have we met before?" I asked, trying to scan her from her shiny black sandals to her long, wavey hair.

"No. This is the first time I've seen you face to face." she said with a blank expression. "Though that being said, I know quite a lot about you."

I'd never considered myself good at reading people, but I was pretty sure that this woman was bad news.

'Who randomly walks up to people in the middle of the night and says things like that?'

I pulled out my hand from my pocket. "Are you sure you have the right person?"

"I just called you by your name, didn't I?" she quickly responded. "Or would you rather be referred to as 715?" The next moments were hazy enough for me to not be able to tell what was going on. The next thing I knew was I had stepped closer to her and was about to grab her neck hadn't she stopped me with her words. "Bad move, Takahashi.. bad move..."

"Who are you?"

"Please.. I know you pretty much have guessed." she gently pushed me in the chest to create some distance between us. Even I would be troubled if a commotion was caused here so I backed away. "But anyway, I'll tell you." All noise faded into the background while her voice was the only thing my ears attended to. I tracked every movement of her lips, making sure that I didn't miss a single word. "My name... well, the one I chose at least—is Watanabe Ichika. You may call me that." she adjusted the glasses on her eyes before she continued. "Also, I was the one who saved your lives."

My eyes widened. "You mean..."

"Yes. The ability that killed the monster at your school was mine."

I couldn't help but clench my fist as a familiar feeling grew in my chest. "And what do you want from me?"

"Well, it's simple." she replied, our eyes not drifting away from one another even for a second. "Work with us." as she spoke those words, questions began to pop in my mind. Regarding who she was, how she knew my true identity, what her goal was, I had no clue. But one thing was certain. She was not a friend.

"And if I don't?"

There was a brief silence before she responded. "Takahashi. You do know that you don't have a choice, right?"

"Why is that?"

"I just told you. That powerful ability was mine." She replied with the same cold but confident tone she had from the beginning. "What do you think would I do if you choose to defy me? How easy would it be for me to force you into doing whatever we want when our powers are levels apart?"

All the stress had dissipated from my body the moment I heard her response. The hands that were trembling had also stopped. It was a pleasant feeling of relief.

"Huh?"

"Are you deaf, or just stupid?" she asked, irritated. "It means I'll kill you if you do-"

"Yeah, yeah I heard you." I said, cutting her off. "I was just confused for a second, that's all. What makes you think you can defeat me?"

I saw her eyebrows narrowing as she gritted her teeth in anger. "Aren't you cocky?" Even though the place was dimly lit, I was still able to see the billions of tiny dark particles in the sky merging together to form a shadowy figure of a gigantic hand, materializing in the air above us. "Perhaps I should show you a little bit. How much powerless you really are against me."

"Watanabe." I said just before she could raise her hand. It seemed to me that she controlled it by moving her own right hand.

"What? Did you change your mind?"

"You know nothing about me, after all."

Her expression somewhat softened and looked like she wanted me to continue speaking. "What do you mean?"

I stared at her eyes as I spoke. "Something like that... would never be enough to defeat me." As expected, I still lacked a lot of experience. I thought at first that she had some sort of trump card to make me obey her, but it turned out that she was just relying on her own power to corner me. Luckily, that would never work. She might have known some properties about my ability, but she underestimated me bigtime. Watanabe gave a troubled expression after hearing my words. Maybe she was contemplating whether to believe me or not, but if she decided to risk it all, it would certainly end horribly for her and this whole city. "Whoever sent you must've wanted you killed." Seconds later, the giant hand in the sky had disappeared. So she chose to believe me. She valued her life after all. Well, it was a good thing that we didn't have to get violent, because I would rather resolve this peacefully than having to find a new place to start. "Now, you'll have to answer my questions-"

"Cheeky brat!" Ueda's voice echoed through the parking lot as we turned our heads to her entry. She, together with Narumi Shiho walked up to us while scanning the adult standing next to me. "That must be your mother." she said when she got close and then both her and Narumi bowed.

"You've got it wrong, Ueda-san, Narumi-san." I quickly said.

"Eh?" Ueda looked at me. "S-Sorry for assuming things."

"Sorry." Narumi said to Watanabe.

Before I could open my mouth, Watanabe already spoke. "No, it's fine. I was just asking for directions. Well then, I'll get going." Watanabe stormed off before I could think of an excuse to make her stay. I had been outsmarted I see.

All I could do was sigh. As expected, I needed answers from her. Well, if ever she decided to reveal my true identity, I could always just...

"Takahashi." Ueda called out to me once again, this time by my actual name. "The doctors said we can go home— though I take it that you would have gone regardless."

"Well, I miss my own bed. The one they have is quite uncomfortable." I answered before turning and walking away. "Well then, I'll get going too-"

"Wait!" She shouted, stopping my tracks. "I want to tell you something."

I turned around to face them only to see Narumi faintly smiling, and Ueda's embarrassed face. "What is it?" I asked.

She took a deep breath before starting. "I went and said rude things to you earlier. I wanted to apologize for that." she said, bit by bit her facial expression grew more relaxed. "You risked your life for me." she added as she bent downwards for a polite bow. "Thank you for saving my life."

'Kazuki is the one who deserves your words, Ueda. I would have left you to die if it weren't for him. And just now, I even thought of killing everyone and starting anew.'

"Well, you did save us first." I replied. "That makes us even, I guess."

[End of Chapter]