Sen shielded his eyes from the cloud of dust that escaped the rumble as it deteriorated. Hana let out a volley of coughs as she waved her hand back and forth to get rid of the dust.

“What in-cough- hell is this?” Hana looked at the broken wall, confused. “Did my super sense become so strong it obliterated a Super Sense canceling wall? Wow, I’m improving.”

Sen couldn’t see any natural light due to the cloud of debris blocking his vision, which meant they didn’t reach the outside yet. If that’s the actual destination…

Expecting some monsters in the room, Sen tensed up, looking warily around him as if something was going to catch him by surprise. But his muscles soon lessened once he realized what subsisted beyond the brick wall. A ba–?

“A bar?” Baru exclaimed his thought before he could finish it. “Hell ya! I was just getting tired, too.” Baru didn’t utter another word before fruitfully bouncing into the known area.

"Wait, you idiot, what if it's a trap!” Hana urgently called out. Faced with no response from Baru, she sighed and ran after him. The rest of his team followed suit as he warily stayed behind and arbitrated the space.

Just as Baru had stated, the room was a dimly lit bar. It was identical to the standards of one as well. Soft sofas, along with small tables, were spread throughout the room. In the middle was a tall donut-shaped table with matching chairs all around it, and residing in it was a muscular barista.

Sen furrowed his brow in confusion. He never expected a person who looked like that would become a barista. The man's muscles were practically popping out of his formal attire. From a rough estimation, he stood at around 200 centimeters tall, around 6’6. His head was completely bald, and he had a thick blonde mustache, which he fidgeted with. Slow jazz music played in the bar's background when Sen finally decided to step in.

The contrast in the atmosphere from just moments ago gave Sen’s brain a run for its money. I never expected this was going to be behind the brick wall. Apparently, it didn’t matter how smart or rational Sen was. Unpredictable instances were inevitable. But why? A bar? Seriously, a bar?

It wasn’t many times when Sen lost his composer, either that being in his head or verbally showing it. But at this moment, he was thrown completely off track. Fortunately, it was needless to question himself any longer as Baru confronted the large barista.

“Hey there, big guy, can I get an orange cocktail, ohh, and maybe a beer too, thanks.”

Alright, maybe I should do the questioning, Sen sighed inwardly.

The barista let out a small chuckle. “Sorry, you don’t seem of age yet. Could I interest you in our dinner menu, though? Those are kid-friendly.”

“Hmm, do you have some burgers and some fries? Maybe some onion rings, too?”

“Certainly, young master, your order will be on its way–”

“Cut the bullshit!” Hana barked. “I need some answers, Mr. Muscle Man; what is this? Where are we? And also, who in the hell are you?!”

The barista looked suspiciously at them as if they were dumb, then cleared his throat.

“I have a name, you know? This generation and their manners, I swear. It's Mr. Gyro to you. And isn’t it obvious? You all passed the challenge, obviously? What else did you think?”

They all stared astonishingly at him, their jaws practically on the floor from shock, except for Baru, who just lazily sat on the chair, picking his nose.

“Haha, sick.”

“NO, ‘haha sick’” Hana mocked Baru. “What do you mean? This is it? We passed the challenge? Like seriously, no more?” Hana's expression was a mix of excitement from passing the challenge and also confusion.

Gyro nodded his head at them reassuringly. "Yep, congratulations! It's a big achievement. This is your very own personal waiting room until the second challenge begins! Rest up, eat, and recuperate; you’ll need it!” The bald man flexed his muscles as he congratulated them, his shirt tightening as they rippled throughout his body.

“Holly hell, you’re jacked, bro!” Baru’s eyes lid up. “Feel my arm. Am I pretty solid for my age?”

“Wow, you’re pretty muscular for a youngin. You might even be like me someday! HOO HO HO!!!” Both Baru and the barista continued doing gym poses for far too long.

Hana looked at them with disgust. “What am I witnessing?”

Sen stared keenly at the barista with a blank expression. Thoughts looped around his brain, and his face showed no signs of accomplishment or relief. His team exchanged cheerful congratulations with each other, and even Hyo, who always thought rationally, appeared enthusiastic.

This doesn't feel right... Something is off, and I can't tell what it is. Sen unnervingly looked at his surroundings, preparing for an ambush of some sort. But yet, nothing came. The soft jazz still played calmly in the background as he whipped his head back and forth like a schizophrenic person.

The end of the challenge? Huh? If only there was a way to make sure. Upon pondering that, Sen suddenly had an idea. Lifting his wrist, he glanced at his techno watch and commanded–

"Techo watch? How many more minutes left?"

...

No response? And it's not even turning on? Sen examined the watch more extensively before concluding. It's completely dead. That doesn't make any Sense. I'm sure the academy is using time as a baseline to determine how successful each team is. Not to mention track their progress. So why did the main tracking and security asset of the academy suddenly stop working?

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Sen started peering at his teammate's techo watches as they congratulated each other. He quickly noticed that none of them had a distinct red light that indicated it was turned on.

All of them are off? he realized. Interesting.

In between his deep thoughts, Hono started approaching him with a bright grin.

I really don't have time for this.

“We did it!” Hono exclaimed, hopping eagerly to Sen, her light red eyes gleaming in the dimly lit room. “You were so smart, Sen. Thank you so much for taking me on your Team.” She suddenly grabbed his arm and held it affectionately, her cheeks turning a rose pink. "You always seem to know exactly what to do and how to do it.”

Hono was acting very unusually. Even though she naturally sounded energetic, her current display of affection toward him made Sen furrow his brow in confusion.

Hono lifted her resting forehead from his chest and gazed up at him. She bit her lower lip and pulled up to whisper in his ear–

"I really like you…"

The next moment, Sen felt warm lips touch his left cheek. Pulling down, Hono's face was red as a tomato, but regardless, she still cheekily looked at him with confident features.

...

Sen body suddenly froze, and it wasn’t because he was flustered either. It felt like he couldn’t control his body correctly. He wanted to reply to Hono, yet… something deep within him growled. A sentence so dark and grueling, Sen would never actually say it to someone. But he had no control over his lips and speech. Sen’s body unwillingly pulled close to Hono’s ear, and he whispered to her with a pure evil grin.

“Don’t talk when I’m thinking...”

An eerie, vile presence drowned the room's excited conversations. Hono eyes were strained open, and her mouth quivered violently. She fell to the ground with a small thud and posed there, kneeling to him. Hono barely had the confidence to breathe, let alone look at him directly.

This sensation felt similar to the times he had before. It felt like he was eating something, except it wasn’t filling his stomach but his soul. Sen’s mind went blank and he lavished the sensation of the fear coming from Hono.

Good…. Good… wait- what am I?

Sen suddenly felt conscious of what he actually did. Shaking his head violently to get rid of those egregious thoughts, he crouched down to Hono and helped her up. Hono’s face turned from embarrassingly red to pale white. Her chest barely raised, which meant subconsciously, she was holding her breath. The cause of it? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was Hono appeared scared…. very scared.

Was it because I said that? No, it should’ve been. Moreover, why did I say it to begin with? Sen thought.

He had no control over what he said or did at that moment. His mind went blank, and it felt like someone else was controlling it. But he still felt that gleeful sensation as he watched her shudder in fear.

Why does this keep happening to me? I understand once, but at this point, it shouldn’t be a coincidence. And what’s more odd is that the person in contact with me is also affected when it occurs. They have the same expression as Hono; they’re tired and scared.

Something wasn’t right, and he wanted to find out as soon as he could. But now, there wasn’t any time for that; He needed to solve a new problem he had just made.

The good news was the rest of his team didn’t seem to notice Hono fall to the ground and kneel to him due to the room being dark and dim.

That’ll save me some explaining, but now I need to deal with Hono. She’ll be scared and tell the rest of the team about what I accidentally said to her, which isn’t the best look, especially since I have no excuse. It's best to convince Hono to keep her mouth shut about this. But no matter what excuse I make, it won't stop her from running her mouth. I have to do something that would shock her into silence. Perhaps making it too embarrassing to retell to someone else?

Sen gently lifted Hono’s chin with his slightly curled index finger, her lips still quivering from fear while she innocently looked up at him. He proceeded to lean his head in and nonchalantly kiss her on the lips.

She was too shocked to resist, so Sen took that as an initiative to make the most out of it. The kiss wasn’t for very long, although it seemed to do the trick.

Releasing his mouth from hers, he wiped his mouth clean with his long-sleeved shirt. Hono was gazing up at him with shock, her pale skin suddenly bursting with red color.

Sen waited a few moments to see if he felt anything different. Hmph, still nothing; I guess I wasn’t happy, huh? I mean, if I had to compare kissing Hono to the feeling I had when seeing fear in her, I would be lying if I said kissing Hono made me feel happier. Although I still don’t understand what caused me to enjoy seeing the fear in her eyes. I heard serial killers enjoy seeing their prey fear before killing them, but I know im certainly not a serial killer.

Sen had been feeling odd for quite some time now, like his emotions were altering in the way. He caught himself enjoying things he never did in the past. And the opposite could also be true. Sen wanted to ponder on that topic for far longer, but he realized he had more important things to attend to. Besides, the kiss was to shut her up because I carelessly lost control over myself a few seconds ago, not to test if I got anything out of it.

And just like Sen had hoped, his plan did the trick. Maybe a little too well. He certainly shut her up, but at this point, Hono seemed still like a statue.

“Hono?” Sen tapped her shoulder lightly. Hono jerked up in response, her face almost bursting like a volcano.

“I-I-I-I-…..” she stammered. Sen wasn’t aware that stuttering to her length was even humanly possible, but he was quickly proven wrong.

Is she that flustered just from the kiss? Is this with every girl? I wonder if Kaiyo would have the same reaction, better yet, a stranger on the street. Sen had no urge to perform it. He was just intrigued by the reaction.

“W-w-w-w-w-why….” Hono heaved a breath between her stutters, “did you just kiss me?”

“Yes, I did. Should I have not?” Sen flatly responded.

“Um… no- of course not, it’s just, I wasn’t expecting it, that’s all…”

"Hmm? Didn't you say you really liked me? Or does really liking someone mean something different than I thought?"

"No, what? What else can 'I really like you' even mean? And I said it because he told…" she stopped, briefly returning to her statue state. "I said it because, yes, I do really like you." She fidgeted her foot, cutely avoiding his gaze. Sen was captivated by her looks, but her sentence felt a little off.

Half of her sentence felt different, and the other felt like her usual self. Not to mention, her sentence included, "And I said it because he told," indicating someone told her to tell me that. But Hono also denied it in her second sentence. Coincidently, that's when the tone of her voice changed. Odd.

Of course, he could have looked too much into her demeanor like he usually did. All Sen could do at the moment was make a mental note. I'm probably overthinking things.

“Hey, wutcha guys talking about there?” Hana waved her hand from the bar seat. “Are you guys gonna order some food, or?”

“H-huh? O-oh yeah, of course! IM STARVING!” Hono cleared her throat with a low grumble before walking to the bar's island and sitting next to Hana. Sen caught her taking a quick glance at him, then quickly sifting her gaze away with a flustered expression.

Sen wasn’t sure if he was satisfied with his actions. On one hand, it did appear she wasn’t going to blabbermouth to the rest of the team. On the other, it felt like he was getting more questions and suspicions given to him at the same time...