Chapter 10: 10. The First

Almost perfect timing—just as I begin to feel depressed at how this part of the world works. . . I see her.

Rise Lavinia.

I see her as soon as she walks through the door. She's wearing a simple tan overcoat, layered on top of a grey formal dress shirt, and a darker grey skirt. Her clothing isn't flashy in the the slightest, but it still creates a strong contrast. Her hair is a deep blue color, she wears it styled into two twin tails—both of them perfectly braided. Her deep blue hair is close to being the exact same color as her eyes.

Her skin is a pure white color—without any kind of blemish or impurity. She seems completely oblivious to everyone around her, she keeps her head down, and doesn't seem to care at all about the crowd. Her cute face gives off a slightly cold feeling—the impassive expression she wears seems somewhat incompatible with the intimate social gathering going on around her.

Unlike Ritsuko who often has the impassive expression of a cold beauty, Rise's is more akin to a calm, mature woman, who would be more interested in reading, or doing something more productive. Even though she's clearly aware that she's surrounded by people, she remains silent and distant from the group. No doubt because she's trying to avoid drawing attention to herself. And yet despite her quiet demeanor, I can tell that she's intensely observing everything around her—she's always been very astute, but she's never been outgoing, or talented at social interaction.

No matter how hard I try, I can't help but stare at her. I've seen countless girls before, but I've never felt this strongly towards anyone before.

She really looks like a doll.

She's a few inches shy of five feet tall. Much to Rise's chagrin—my mother has always told me that she hasn't grown an inch since the day she turned fifteen. They grew up together as childhood friends, so they've always been close. And even though Rise has continued to mature, and has already turned twenty nine this year—she's about the same height as me.

She's petite, and delicate.

Her slender frame is accentuated by her light weight, allowing her to move gracefully across the room. Despite being quite short, she's surprisingly athletic and graceful. Her movements are fluid and natural, and her posture is impeccably straight.

I believe that people will often have a person in their life that is worth more to them than anything. For me, that person is probably Rise. When I was young, and my mother wasn't around, Rise was always the person I'd spend time with. She taught me much of what I know, and she showed me how the world should be.

She became a police investigator to do the right thing—help people, and make the world a better place. As a child, I could listen to her talk about justice, and morality for hours. She seemed so passionate about helping others, and protecting people from harm. She made me want to protect people too.

Even though she always seems to be impassive—uncaring of the world around her, when she talks about something she cares about, she becomes excited like a child—becoming almost infectious with her passion.

The one part I admire most about her is how steadfast she is.

As a police investigator, she's undoubtedly confronted by the awful reality of the world constantly. Yet somehow, she's able to see primarily the beauty—the good in the world. Her sense of justice is incorruptible.

She's somehow able to always view the world positively, even when faced with the worst parts of humanity. She's so full of optimism, and hope. It truly amazes me every time I see her—it feels as if she sees the best in both the world—and people, rather than the worst. The only exception to this rule is when she's talking about herself, then she becomes self deprecating—almost embarrassed by her accomplishments.

Since she's finally here, I break away from my mother and make a dash straight towards her.

Eh?

I thought she came here alone, but. . .

When I look over I see him next to her. Kenzo Tsubasa. He's a few years older than Rise, and has worked as her police partner for quite a few years. He wears his black hair in a short crop cut, he somehow manages to look like a clean cut police officer, and a scraggly investigator at the same time.

As an investigator, he's the exact opposite of Rise. Rise always stays within the confines of her own morals and the law, but he's the kind of person that's willing to disregard all of that—so long as he wins. If he's able to arrest and punish somebody that he perceives to be a criminal—it doesn't matter how he does it, or if they're even truly guilty. To him, justice is defined by victory—not fairness or mercy.

He's incredibly skilled at manipulating situations—he's the type of man who would happily kill someone if it meant winning . . . which is precisely why I despise him so much.

Kenzo's also extremely arrogant, cocky, and prideful—which makes him even worse.

Even though he's not physically intimidating, his sway over Rise is infuriating.

They've been investigative partners for years after all. I'm currently just...

I truly don't know what label Rise would use for me, or what label I would use for her. I can't summarize our relationship with a single word.

But they have been partners since I was in elementary school, so he's also met my mother multiple times—and I've known him for years.

Once I've made my way through the crowd of people, Rise finally notices me.

"Ahh! There you are Fate."

I smile nervously back at her, "Sorry I took so long."

"Don't worry about it, I've been waiting for you, I'm happy to finally see you." she replies.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I got caught up talking to my mom—I'm glad to see you again, really—it's been way too long."

"That's alright, I understand. And I'm sorry, we've been so busy with cases lately. Ever since the task force started, we've been swamped every day." she says, smiling warmly at me. Her expression looks somewhat sleepy, but she has a faint blush.

For some reason, I feel awkward standing beside her—like we're strangers meeting for the first time.

We haven't seen each other in person for nearly four months, and we've only occasionally spoken during the last three months, so it's strange seeing her again—yet it's still very comforting.

"Well, let's go find somewhere to sit and talk," I say awkwardly.

Rise nods her head calmly, but enthusiastically "Mm, that sounds great!" I take the relative silence created by our walking to greet Kenzo.

"Hey there, Mister Kenzo."

He responds coolly, "Fate. You must be surprised to see me here."

I nod in response, "You might be right about that."

It's true, I had no idea he was coming today.

Kenzo sighs deeply, "Honestly, I didn't expect to come either. But it turns out our plans with the task force fell through—so Rise invited me to tag along."

"Oh yeah? Well, thank you for coming, I'm sure my mother will greatly appreciate your support." I make sure to give off a flawless performance—complete with smiles and all.

I may dislike this man, but there's no chance I'll ever show my displeasure outward.

Kenzo chuckles quietly, "Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

While we were speaking, Rise silently followed us, until she finally catches up with us.

"So where did you guys decide to sit?" Rise asks.

I glance around the room quickly, before responding, "Let's go sit at one of the couches in the living room, that should be a bit more private." There's still a minimum of sixty people here—I'd like to speak with Rise in my room privately, but that probably won't be an option with a third wheel.

Rise agrees, and follows behind me as we walk to the living room. After we arrive in the lounge area, I lead the two of them to one of the large sofas.

We sit down on the couch side by side, and I immediately turn to Rise, "Are you hungry? Would you like something to drink? Or maybe some food? They're cooking some amazing dishes tonight."

Rise shakes her head lightly, "No thanks. I ate dinner earlier."

With who.

"Well, it's been a while since you two have seen each other, I'll go grab a couple drinks." Kenzo says as he stands up.

"Thank you, Kenzo." Rise replies.

After Kenzo leaves , Rise speaks softly, "How have things been going for you recently? Has anything changed since the last time we met?"

If only you knew the half of it.

"Nothing too major has happened. Just the usual stuff. I've been spending a lot of time studying, and working on school work—I managed to rank first in my school again—really, nothing new's been happening."

"Hmm, well, I'm glad to hear it. Congratulations. I guess as the adult, I should start asking questions now huh?"

Rise looks at me intently, and I can't help but notice how beautiful she is—her eyes seem to pierce into mine.

Even now, part of me wants to confess my the truth about my power to her, show her what I'm capable of.

"-te, -ate, Fate!" I zoned out for a couple seconds, and missed what she said. I see her blue eyes staring straight at me.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about something."

"What were you—"

"I was just thinking about how tired you seem—you've most likely been overworking yourself like crazy with the new task force and all."

Damn. Rise was always the one person I never had to lie to. Regardless of how stupid my situation was, she'd always be the cool, collected shoulder I could lean on, and always tell the truth to. She was the one person I trusted completely. Now, I'm somehow able to lie to her without even flinching.

It's a disgusting feeling.

"Y-yeah, you're probably right. Things have gotten pretty busy lately. I've barely had any time to relax." Rise smiles gently at me, "And honestly, I'm exhausted. This whole investigation thing is taking its toll on me."

I agree, "Yeah, that's understandable. It takes a lot of energy to be a detective. I bet you need to sleep more than anybody else here."

Rise nods slowly, "Yes, that's true. Especially because of all the stress, I'm having trouble sleeping these days. So much is riding on this case."

"Do you think you'll be okay?" I ask.

Her face suddenly falls. I realize what I asked her.

"Um, I mean—do you need any help?"

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Rise hesitates for a moment, before shaking her head, "No. No, I'll manage somehow. Thanks though, Fay."

I nod, "Alright. Sorry for bringing up your work."

Rise smiles weakly, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Just then, Kenzo returns with three cups filled with ice tea.

"Here you go. I hope you enjoy."

I accept the cup, and take a sip.

"Thanks, Kenzo." Rise and I both give our thanks.

"You're welcome."

I spend most of the rest of the celebration talking with Rise, and trying to catch up with her again—get rid of the slight awkwardness that came from being apart for so long. To my surprise, Kenzo allows us to speak without his interruption. After a while though, my mother realizes that Rise is here, and comes over to whisk her away.

Rise is incredibly flustered—they've been friends since childhood, but Rise's never been outgoing—she's the opposite of my mother and Annette. With Rise gone, Kenzo and I remain in a cold silence.

With my mind no longer on Rise, I don't really have anything to focus on. I start training my sixth sense—further expanding it's range. But in the midst of my training, I notice something across the room that makes me drop my training.

There's an old man that looks ancient, and he's leering at the group made up of my mother, Ritsuko, and RIse. At first he only looks, but eventually, he moves over to the group. It's at this point I realize how I recognize him, he's an oligarch with deep political ties, and power—and he's accused of many assault crimes involving women.

The fact that he's even allowed to attend the party is already suspicious enough—but the way he keeps looking at them, it feels wrong. He's clearly sizing them up, and judging their worth based purely off appearance.

This guy is bad news.

Once he's next to the group, he forces his way in, and starts attempting to feel each of them up. My mother tries to gently push him away, but he continues. At this point, Kenzo also notices what's going on—we both look at each other, before mutually agreeing to stop this.

Luckily for me though, I have easier options.

As we both stand up to walk over to their group, I use my power to tip the glass of wine he's holding all over himself.

A few moments later, Kenzo rushes over to the table to get paper towels, while I rush over to the old man to try to help clean him up.

My plan worked perfectly—the entire incident caused quite a scene.

Both Kenzo and I both start leading him towards the exit, but one of his assistants arrives and takes him—and starts leading him towards the exit.

Despite everything that happened, my mother seems unfazed. She comforts Ritsuko, and Kenzo comforts Rise. I'm about to join the group, but I'm still angered that someone like him would try to assault my mother, or a girl as innocent as Rise or Ritsuko.

I head straight to my room; my sole goal being to grab my pair of binoculars, as soon as I find them, I hide them beneath my jacket. Without alerting anyone, I start walking quickly to the exit of our apartment.

But just as I'm leaving I hear my mother yell out "Fate, where are you going?"

I pretend not to hear her, and I head straight to the elevator. I'm using my power to lock onto the old man's location while I make my way to the elevator. Right before I enter it, I sense what cabin he's getting into. Having made confirmation what vehicle he's in, I slam the elevator's button, immediately sending me to one of the highest floors.

Now, I wait. I still have him within my sight, I grabbed the binoculars in case he leaves the range of my sixth sense.

I see his cabin driving away. I'm able to sense him, and a male bodyguard within the vehicle. Using my power, I'm able to make out him saying something; because I can't hear anything with my power, I can only guess what he's saying.

I focus with all my might, and I can't help but make out him saying the words "attack" and "kidnap." I don't know all of what he said, but I know I'm not mistaken. I know he said those two words. What the exact context is, I don't know. Knowing that he may be involving those words with innocent women like Rise...Ritsuko... My mother? I feel my heart rate start climbing, and the slight feeling of adrenaline.

I don't want to kill him, but if he's going to scare women—or worse—he deserves to be scared as well.

Just as I'm about to use my power on him, he leaves the range of my sixth sense.

Damn it!

My plan was to use my sensor ability to precisely manipulate what I wanted to—but now, I'll have to rely on physical sight.

I use the binocular to get zoomed in as close as I can to the cabin. I'm able to barely make out the suspension that connects one of the tires to the vehicle. I decide to use my power on that to give him a bit of a scare. He's slowly getting farther and farther away, almost making it out of my view.

As his cabin changes lanes, the suspension is shown in full view for a brief second. I take the opportunity and clench my fist while using my power.

SNAP!

Shit—I must've put too much power in.

An instant after I first use my power, the suspension breaks off—the vehicle loses balance, and almost immediately tips onto it's side. I try to use my power on it—but it's outside of my sixth sense's range, and having to rely on my physical sight at this kind of distance dulls my response time—just barely.

But that slight delay is all it takes.

Before I have time to react, it continues sliding along the ground while on it's side. And it slams roof first directly into a retaining wall...

I'm totally helpless in my attempts to catch it.

I'm unable to do anything as I watch the cabin careen directly into the wall.

***

I stood there watching for a few seconds, but when I realized there was absolutely no movement—I went into response mode. I made my way back to the party, and acted as if I just went outside for a few moments. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, I spent time with Rise, and made plans to spend more time with her. I also hung around Ritsuko, Yumiko, and my mother.

I somehow managed to act perfectly for the remainder of the party—nobody saw anything even slightly off with me. But in my head, I was going crazy—constantly replaying everything that happened.

It was the next morning when I got confirmation on the news, Luther Kade, and his bodyguard were both found dead in their automated cabin.

To say it was a mess would be an understatement. Automated cabins don't randomly crash—that's something that's become an almost unbreakable truth. Accidents are always caused by human drivers, not AI. But, two people were dead from a crash with no other vehicles involved.

Ultimately, it was written off as a mechanical failure, they declared the vehicle's suspension was improperly maintained, and that lead to a crash at high speed.

It's been three days since then, school's supposed to start in a few days, and Jun will also be returning soon. I've gone over everything I did at least a thousand times. I've used my power so much, my control over my power is comparable to my physical body.

But I killed someone when I wasn't trying to.

That's a fact.

The only conclusion I can draw is this—my control when using my sixth sense is much more precise than when I use visual sight. And also my emotional state, along with using my physical body to direct my power also play a role in my power's control.

In that moment, I wasn't my usual calm, composed self—I allowed my emotions to control my actions—and that also affected the amount of strength I used. Lastly, when I manipulated the vehicle's suspension, I used my hand while directing my power, I believe that that also played a part in changing how strong my power was.

During the investigation, multiple things about Mr. Kade and his bodyguard were discovered. First, he had been abusing women for years—in secret. There's evidence suggesting he may have abused upwards of twenty-five women, multiple of which disappeared. And multiple women were supposedly kidnapped by his bodyguard, and then turned up dead. His bodyguard was apparently under constant surveillance due to previous incidents.

I've spent the last couple days investigating all of these facts, and I'm confident that it's true.

But does that matter?

When I killed them, I didn't know any of that. All I knew is that some guy tried to assault my mother and my closest friends.

Does that excuse killing them?

No.

But it doesn't change the fact that I killed two people who deserved to die.

I didn't do it because it was right, I didn't do it because they deserved it, I did it because I let my emotions control my actions, and I was angry. I hated always being separated from the people I care about, and then someone came to assault them in front of me.

And yet, despite what I've done, nobody has ever even seen me angry. Nobody knows what I'm thinking. They think I'm a completely normal person.

They don't know that I was capable of killing two people, and then spending the rest of the night celebrating at a party.

Who exactly am I?

Damn it...

I know I'm trying to justify my actions in some way. If I had killed them after I knew everything about them, I could claim to have some moral high ground—I could at least tell myself I'm doing the right thing to protect people. But I killed them without knowing anything—except one of them got too close to the people I care about.

I have to be better.

If I'm going to use this power... I can't allow myself to act based on my emotions. But because those two are gone, there's innocent people that won't be hurt again.

I don't think it's wrong that they disappeared. I think it's wrong that I made them disappear for the wrong reason.

If this is part of the answer I've been looking for, I can't carry out justice based on my emotions. I mean, just ridding of the world of those two will save possibly dozens of future victims. If I alone stain my hands with the sin of killing—it could allow countless innocent people to be safe.

If I continue to grow my power, I could reach a level where there won't be any more accidents.  Killing those two could potentially save dozens of future victims—there's undoubtedly more men like them out there.

I still feel somewhat sick knowing that I killed...knowing that I took another human's life.  But I've already killed two men. I've already stained my hands. I shouldn't let that fact be in vain.

I'll do what is necessary to protect the people that need to be protected, even if that potentially means staining my hands further.

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