Akito stood frozen, his heart pounding with confusion and fear. The air around him was thick, as if the very world had become a fragile web, one wrong move away from shattering. The crackling energy inside him had faded, leaving behind a deep emptiness in its wake. But it wasn’t just that. There was something more—something insidious—something that gnawed at the edge of his consciousness.

His left hand, still glowing faintly from the residual power, trembled at his side. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it, as if it were a foreign object, something that didn’t belong to him.

"Akito, stop," Aya's voice cut through the fog of his thoughts, her tone softer now, almost pleading. But her words held a warning. "You have to understand what this means. Your left hand... it’s the Hand of Sin. It can erase anything it touches."

Erase. The word hung in the air like a death sentence.

Akito stared at his hand, the words echoing in his mind. “Erase... anything?”

Aya nodded, her gaze filled with a mixture of pity and fear. "Anything. People, objects, memories… even entire moments can be wiped away." She took a step back, as if the air between them had suddenly grown colder, more dangerous. “It’s not just a power—it’s a curse.”

Akito’s mind reeled. His left hand—he could feel it, the energy pulsing under his skin. He instinctively clenched his fist, the tremors still shaking through him. "I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for any of this."

He looked down at his hand again, the faint glow slowly flickering out, leaving only the normal appearance of his skin behind. But the weight of it—the knowledge of what it could do—settled deep in his chest, heavy and suffocating.

Aya stepped closer, her voice almost a whisper. "You didn’t ask for it, but it’s yours now. And you have to learn how to control it, or it will consume you."

Akito’s breath quickened as he balled his fist tighter. “And if I don’t? If I can’t control it?”

Aya’s eyes darkened, and for a moment, she looked as if she were about to say something more. But she hesitated, her lips trembling as if the words were too dangerous to speak.

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"You’ll destroy everything you touch," she said quietly, her gaze dropping to the ground. "Including yourself."

The weight of her words hit him harder than the power itself. Akito’s body stiffened as if he had just been slapped, the truth of what she said sinking in. He was dangerous. To the people he loved. To anyone who came near him.

Suddenly, something snapped inside him. The ground under his feet seemed to tremble, and the air around him grew colder, charged with the strange energy that still lingered in his veins. He looked at the streetlamp nearby, and in an instant, he saw the dark shadow of his own power beginning to manifest.

Without thinking, Akito extended his left hand, his fingers curling towards the base of the streetlamp. He didn’t mean to do it—it was like his hand was acting on its own. The moment his fingers made contact with the metal, there was a sharp crack, like the sound of glass shattering, and the streetlamp flickered before going dark.

Akito’s breath caught in his throat. The light was gone. The entire streetlamp had vanished as though it never existed. The world around him felt wrong, incomplete. He could still see the imprint of the lamplight in his mind, the outline of the structure against the night sky, but now there was nothing. No trace. Just the dark, empty space where the light used to be.

“Akito, no!” Aya’s voice broke through his dazed thoughts, and he turned to see her rushing toward him. But she stopped short, her eyes wide with horror. “You didn’t just destroy it. You erased it. You’ve wiped it out of existence.”

Akito’s heart sank. He opened his hand, staring at his palm as if it were an alien thing. “I… I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even know it was possible.”

“It’s not just possible,” Aya said, stepping back, her voice sharp now. “It’s the essence of your power. Your left hand erases things. And once something is erased, it’s gone forever. Nothing can bring it back.”

Akito’s mind swam with the implications. He had destroyed the streetlamp. But it wasn’t just an object. If he couldn’t control this power, if he couldn’t understand it, he might erase people. People he cared about. His memories. His very existence.

“Aya…” His voice trembled as he reached out toward her, his left hand still trembling with the aftershock of what he had done. “What happens if I touch... someone?”

Aya’s face tightened with sorrow, and she looked away, as if the answer was too painful to give. But there was no avoiding it.

“Then you’ll erase them,” she said quietly. “And they’ll be lost. Gone forever.”

Akito’s breath hitched, and he took a step back, his legs unsteady beneath him. The world around him began to spin, the weight of his curse settling on him like a dark cloud. He had the power to destroy anything. But with that power came a terrible price.

“Then…” he whispered, the words barely escaping his lips, “What am I supposed to do?”

Aya looked at him one last time, her expression haunted. “You have to choose, Akito. You either learn to control it… or you let it destroy everything.”

END OF CHAPTER 3 "E-R-A-S-E"