It took 2 hours of walking to arrive home again. The endless winding streets and prying eyes blurred in my vision. It was still late, but there were still the average homeless, hidden in cracks and crevices, usually always mumbling to themself about being useful, not getting given a chance. What bumbling idiots…maybe I should put themselves out of their misery. Yet I can’t say much. My clothes are cindered, they probably didn’t bother me because of my appearance. Believing I am just as desperate as them, what a humorous prospect. I mean the world is my oyster now right? Opening the door to my home, the walls are torn, the only thing I can scrape together supported by the government in order to remain at school only got me this far, a one bedroomed apartment, the bathroom with no door. The kitchen only has one working tap, I try my best to keep it clean. I do the dishes, but I basically only eat garbage. Skinny and pathetic. I laugh to myself, that’s exactly what I want him to think. Jason you rat bastard I am going to make sure you remember our moments together forever, I won’t reveal myself immediately. There will be a right time. If I really want him to despair, it has to be perfect. Walking into my bathroom. Dry blood patches cover the floor, most of my money is spent on medical supplies. First aid is probably one of the only classes I paid attention in. I have plenty of scars. Notably my burns…They cover my arms and shoulders. I look like a mess. Maybe I would've looked handsome if it weren’t for the injuries. Looking in the mirror, cracked but I can still see my face. Emerald green eyes and brown hair, a tired expression. The lines under my eyes make me look so frail…I always talk to myself this way when I look in the mirror. I’m determined to change the way I am, and have been living. That thing “Name guy” or whatever, he looked like me, but he looked so strong. Walking back into the main room. It’s dark. No power reaches the light for some reason and the curtains are closed, I plop myself down on the bed, It all begins tomorrow. My eyes close and a familiar nothingness takes over me.

“How was it?” a voice echoes out to me, I open my eyes. I’m back in the white room. It’s Guy before me again.

“It's incredible.” I tell him, no point in lying. He can probably tell anyway. He grins,

“You already seem a little different!” Exclaiming he walks towards me,

“But is that really for the better?” His eyes stare into my very consciousness. Of course it's for the better. Now I can finally deal with my own hand. Guy puts his hand forward, “I have an offer for you, and I think It might interest you!” I peer at him,

“What kind of deal?”

“One that’ll benefit the both of us and it all starts with the spirits.” The spirits? Is he explaining who he is?

“Go on.” I prompt,

“It’s simple really, all the people you may find who possess a spirit. I want you to kill them!”

I blink a couple times.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” Guy gets right into my face.

“You need to kill them all, and I'll reward you!”

“Wait but that's everyone, in the entire world!” I don’t understand, a confused expression crosses my face.

“I didn’t say all at once, here listen, you’ll have plenty of incentive, after every human you kill that possesses a spirit that spirit becomes infused into me, and you will unlock another percentage of your power.” a percentage? It doesn’t sound like a lot but 0.1% is enough to compete with Jason, so wouldn’t that make me stronger now? “I’ll even throw this in there.” My arm begins to burn suddenly, engravings in small words are imprinted on it, I wince in pain.

“What the hell did you do!” lunging at him, he easily dodges.

“Calm down, just read it!” Guy assures me, reeling back into his white throne.

Looking at my arm, a small dash and a percentage number next to it. “The percentage is obvious, it'll tell you what percentage of your power you can access, but you will need to train as well. If you try to take on more power than your body can withstand, well…you should try to avoid this.” he then points towards the dash. “That is your kill count. As you can see, that nurse counts as a spirit kill.” The dash begins to glow a dull green, “Not only will you unlock more of your own power, but you will inherit the unique bonus that the person you kill was able to use. Typically you won’t know until you see it, but I’ll give you a freeby. That nurse had a minor healing spirit, Damu, who assisted in physician work with Nisina who was worshiped for her work.” Minor healing spirit…dependant on the activation process this could be extremely useful, I’ll have to experiment with my own powers, Jason is an experienced fighter, I might now be more than his power at 0.11% but I am no fool to neglect his years of experience and my lack thereof, he managed to keep my school submissive with his power alone. Despite my hatred towards him, it's impressive work. I smile, there are plenty of homeless that I’m sure would like a second chance to show off their power. That way I’ll be able to increase my power, and learn of its possibilities, I start laughing maniacally, I feel giddy. “Wow, you're already a sick bastard aren’t you?” Guy states pointedly at me. I glare at him.

“They made their own monster.”

“Oooo scary, it doesn’t matter to me but you know they say vengeance is a weakness.” his voice playful, he grins,

“Who cares? I'm so very curious what you do from now, best of luck.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” My smile matches his, what a sickly spirit I think to myself. Perfect.

Opening my eyes, rays of sunlight shine through the hole plastering my curtains. It’s morning. I wonder what time it is? Searching my pockets, I find nothing but lint. Oh…of course, they would’ve taken it. I laugh, such naivety after so many years. It was probably for the better, it buys me some time. I can play off remaining in the hospital with the excuse I had “lost” my mobile phone for a few days, allowing me a few days to get to work. What a strange thought I think to myself happily, I finally have my opportunity to get back at this world and its inhabitants. I get up, picking up an old ragged shirt and shorts, a black coat thrown hap-hazardly against the wall. Probably from a fit of rage. That’s another thing I need to be careful of, my own home isn’t safe from Jason's influence, he is most of the reason I can’t keep it clean. God is he truly responsible for all my hardships? If I kill him will I even have a reason to continue fighting? Well of course, how stupid of me. There must be others like myself out there, I can act as their messiah. I mean I’m only at 0.11%! It’ll only take another 9,998 lives to reach my limit and there are far more than that in total. Realisticly 1% is already 10 times that of Jason. I should get started, but I can’t just go around murdering the homeless. I need something to hide my identity, scanning my room, what can I use? A towel? No, it's covered in blood…A face mask isn’t good enough. My eyes were too memorable, green eyes are basically unheard of in this city…In the corner of my eye I see a line of brown lunch bags, most filled with vomit from Jason throwing parties in my house. But I can cut eye holes in some of the clean ones. There's one named tuesday. The writing will be upside down, not like they’re gonna get the chance to read it. I snicker to myself poking holes with my fingers. Walking into the bathroom wearing the bag I look at my reflection in the mirror. I look terrifying. Good. I can’t help but smile, that sadistic smile Jason has taught me, engraved in my memory I’m sure it’ll outlive Jason, I laugh at the thought. I should leave the building, any longer increases the chances of Jason or his goons making an appearance. I’d assume it's about midday, the sun is high, and people are going about their day to day lives. I’m not currently wearing the brown bag, It would obviously draw a lot of attention. I pull up the hoody of my coat, putting on a face mask. I’ve used this get-up countless times to avoid attention from everyone too many times to count. I make my way down the streets, searching for the alleyways I had cut through the previous night, even in these hours there's bound to be some wretched animals in these dark areas. I was fortunate in some regard when it came to housing despite the state of my room. The area I’m situated in isn’t too bad, not living in the slums anymore. The school pays for my small apartment. Their high regard and popularity amongst the people allows them to do this, so I have to walk quite the distance to find where I started, even then they might have moved so the alleyways isn’t the main objective, I intend to go somewhere further, a place I’m very familiar with. The city's slums. No police intervention or government support, scum run amok and unconstrained, leaving those like my family victims to them, just like they did. I bite my lip as the memories I’d like to forget resurface. The people there are all vermin, they’ll be just fine for target practice. After about 15 minutes of cutting through alleyways none of the people who were there last night remain, probably leaving due to police. I arrive at the border of the Uppers, looking down I don’t see much. Just alleyways and neon lights. The lowers, also known as the slums. This is how our city, Phenyl separates themselves, or more like how the privileged look down upon others. The uppers live on the surface, and is where the city originated. Starting off as a mining town, the original settlers mining deep into the ground, and years after its abandonment and the expansion of the town into a city, the creation of the lowers was conceived, lining the walls from concrete, a no-man's land of gang violence and uncontained convicts. My hometown. The contrast is ridiculous, those without the money, or without morals are the ones forced to live here. Forging with scrap in the shape of buildings, banding into groups of dirt to achieve survival. The uppers, a high class estate, of industry and business. Those of wealth or fortune live here. Yet they follow the same rules in reality, building from shinier scraps, and forming groups of more solid dirt. It's just pathetic, I will scrub the dirt off this world with my own hands. The wall is at least 30 meters high. Better experiment with my durability now, I close my eyes. I need to activate my spirit power. I’m told typically that you can just concentrate to activate the power, but I believe my circumstances differ, it stems from my rage and resentment right? So if I just think about what that bastard Jason has done to me. My scars burn as thoughts suddenly fly through my mind, but it works. I grit my teeth as the white veins pulse on my hands slowly, I put the bag on my head and jump.