WELCOME, EXECUTIONER (3)

In the break of dawn, a butterfly explores the world at its most peaceful hour.

The tiny creature flies above a cemetery, drawing the attention of the unknown monsters lurking in the shadows.

The monsters watch it hover above them with interest, the elegant movement of its colorful wings catches them all in a trance.

When the butterfly landed on one of the branches, they all huddled together to observe the little creature.

Its wings flutter under the attentive gaze of many, its beauty unrivaled compared to the deformed and crooked monsters around it.

The peace was short-lived when a particular greedy monster with eyes adorning every part of its body, leaped to capture the butterfly between its teeth.

The surrounding monsters observe the one that dared to break the silence. Said spotlight was happily crushing the poor soul.

Then, its eyes widened before it inflated like a balloon and popped, turning into a puddle of inky liquid.

Panic rises among the audience and the crowd scatters, not a single soul dares to stay back.

Then, a figure emerges from the remains. A new creature is then born. It shifts for a while before molding itself to look human without the skin.

The nearby monsters stare in amazement at the perfect replica of a human anatomy. In their time wandering endlessly around the surface of the earth, none of their species had been able to achieve such a feat.

Pearly white eyes without irises stand out from the dark flesh on its face. It smacks its lips together to feel the movement of its newly formed jaw and teeth. Its talons come up to hold its abdomen before vomiting the contents inside.

More inky liquids come out, this time with eyeballs joining it on the ground. Eyes of the monster that had lived with them before committing the grave mistake of devouring the little butterfly.

Its sharp nails come up to feel its eye sockets. It rips one of its eyes out and replaces it with one of the available ones that it had puked out earlier.

With its enhanced regeneration, the eyes stick perfectly into the empty socket like it belongs there.

It gasps, breathing heavily. Trying out the functions of its newly constructed lungs.

It blinks once, then twice. Adjusting to its new-found vision.

"Ah…" The sound vibrates in its throat. A deeper vocal cord than its last revival but nothing it's not used to.

The new layer of skin stops midway at its elbows, not having enough stamina to continue further.

It tilts its head to look at its eyewitnesses, all of them flinching in unison.

A smile breaks out, a predatory grin that nestles fear within them.

"You guys will do."

——

I feel my head throbbing from the lack of sleep I had managed last night.

After the nightmare that had occurred and finding out a one-eyed creature had been on my face, I couldn't fall asleep right away. My eyes stared up at the ceiling until I was too tired to stay awake

I cycled past the food vendor with Granny possibly waiting for me. The anxiety of missing half a school day had my stomach full already.

The headmistress had said that my classmates would be thrilled to help me catch up on what I've missed. But for me to approach them would mean that I'll break one of my rules…

But technically I've already broken it with yesterday's spectacle.

…

I should not be thinking about myself when a classmate of mine died yesterday.

With all of my willpower, I forced myself to ignore the flocks of the creature that had invaded my room yesterday.

The security guard gives me one glance and that's it. I don't say anything to him as I lead my bike past the giant slug whispering lies into his ears.

When I approached the campus, some students were giving me strange looks. I already knew what it was about so I quickly avoided eye contact from everyone.

Besides the murmur coming from them, alongside the students were creatures of different shapes and forms. All of them were whispering into each of their ears, wrapping their limbs around as if staking claims on each of them.

With my back hunched and face downwards, no doubt making me look more suspicious, I quickly walked inside to find a part of the school without many students.

However, my eyes fall onto the figure of a familiar person. One that I've seen quite a few times before. If it weren't for yesterday's dream, I would have ignored him…

Gray eyes that mirror the color of the blue moonlight.

He appeared in my dream yesterday… Dressed in a ridiculous robe and holding a sword…

Said person noticed my gaze and regarded me in surprise. As if he recognizes me, a flash of panic filters in those stormy eyes before quickly looking away.

I was left feeling conflicted, cautiously watching him walk away. I must've looked like a stalker just standing there. A guy walks by me and hits me on the head telling me to wake up.

"Hello, are you Kai?"

A voice asked me, I looked up to see a girl with blonde hair stopping past her shoulders and bangs just above her blue eyes. She gives me a smile and a nervous look on her face.

"Um, yes? Yeah, that's me…" I replied reluctantly, I recognized her. She's older than me by one year and is my senior.

"I just want to say that you were really brave, standing up for that student! It's a pity what happened to her!" Her smile widens before she bows as a thank you.

I flinched at the sudden action, struggling to form appropriate words for the situation I knew nothing about.

"What are you talking about?"

"Huh? Madam Aurelia came to the school yesterday and gave us a speech. She said you stood up for a classmate when she was being bullied…

I think you know as much as I do that teachers usually turn a blind eye to the violence at this school, but that was because none of us were brave enough to speak to them about it or fight back…

She said you were the first to do so."

Her eyes droop downwards in mocked sorrow, lips tighten into a line. I look at her for a while before concluding the emotions in her eyes as jealousy and hatred. Hatred as deep as the neverending ocean.

"It's nothing, really." I try my best to politely dismiss her but she keeps insisting.

"No way! Everyone was so shocked at the assembly! My name is Kristin, I'm a transfer student from the US." She swiftly introduces herself, holding a hand on her chest.

"That's quite enough Ms. Brown."

A tall lady strides forward, stopping behind Kristin while she freezes in place. We both look back at the woman with auburn wavy hair, staring down at us with golden eyes.

"Mrs. Aurelia!" Kristin exclaims, jumping back in surprise while also distancing herself. My eyes looked at her with interest, it was the name of the person on call with the headmistress…

"Now, Kai was it? Would you mind following me to the headmistress's office? There is someone who would like to see you." She smiles at me, eyes turning crescents while motioning me to follow.

The lady doesn't even wait to see if I agree to or not before leaving, I hurriedly follow her without protest, shooting Kristin one last glance.

"Am I in trouble again?" I quietly asked, and the woman only chuckled in reply.

She opened the familiar door and let me enter before her. The sound of the door being closed follows after the sound of her heels clicking.

The headmistress is talking to someone. A boy my age.

With messy raven hair in the style of a short wolfcut. He's wearing the school's uniform but I've never seen him before. Noticing a new presence, he turns around, completely ignoring the headmistress calling him.

My eyes widened at the different sets of eyes on him. Bright yellow eyes and a silver blue. His face was almost like a doll, pretty and perfect. He regards me with boredom before it dissipates into shock and then excitement.

"YOU!"

What.

"Me?"

He even gets up to kneel on the chair, facing towards me with a finger pointed out. The cold facade morphs into the look of a kid in a carnival. His smile was so wide that it must've hurt, revealing his rows of fangs.

…It's not the regular simple smile girls show boys to attract them, no, with her razor-sharp teeth greeting me and lifeless eyes widened, almost bulging out of their sockets to stare at me…

"Tu Diep, you are scaring him." Mrs Aurelia snaps. Immediately, he scowls in a hostile manner and outright growls at the lady.

"You don't get to fucking call me that!" The boy snarls like a feral animal, his grip on the back of the chair tightens until I can see scratch marks on the poor furniture.

"Hey! That's the school's property! Control yourself, you blight!" The headmistress roars, standing up and coming over to pull the ravenette by the back of his collar. He hisses in distress but the glare she gives him demands no talkback.

"Um…"

All eyes turn to me.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" I ask, with trembling hands.

The adults immediately settled down while 'Tu Diep' pouted like a child. He kicks the desk to gain a boost as his chair rolls across the room…right in front of me.

Hands, with sharp nails, familiarly clawed at my wrists and I yelped in pain. He pulls me to bend at his height… Smiling seems to be his favorite thing to do…

"We're friends! He doesn't need any explanation!" The boy bluntly states. In a panic, I pull my arm away from him in vain. His grip on me was deadly strong. If I had pulled any further I might've torn off my arm…

Mrs. Aurelia sighs before coming over to separate us two. The boy was feral enough to attempt to bite at her hand which she quickly deflected. I stared in horror at the sound of teeth snapping shut from him.

"Yes, I am quite sorry for our behavior. This, as you know, is Ho Ngoc Tu Diep. Your supposedly dead classmate."

Said person waves at me enthusiastically.

Yellow eye flashes like gold and pale blue that blend in with her whites. Compared to the inky puddles of black from yesterday, they made no sense.

"That can't be it. Tu Diep's eyes are pitch black!"

"That's why we've called you here."

The headmistress stands up behind her desk, adjusting her glasses. Acrylic nails come over to hold Tu Diep's face who obliges with no complaints.

"This, here, is a karma."

Again with that term.

"I'm positive that you've also seen one protruding from your junior's back."

Is that what that was?

"And I am also sure Tu Diep here had told you about our school being populated with them."

She gives me a knowing look, confident in her statements. Tu Diep gives me a smug look as if daring me to refuse any of her remarks.

"Karma is created when one is responsible for the despair of others, they are born and wander around the surface to leech on hosts like a parasite.

Because of the overpopulation of karma in our school, it is impossible for us to get rid of the ongoing violence. As many of our students are a host for at least one karma."

Immediately, I feel anger boiling up in my veins. Looking back to the times when I had to lie to my family about the bruises I gained on my body, to times when I desperately called a teacher for help just for them to turn their back on me.

"That's no excuse! You guys are responsible for your students regardless if these… things exist or not!" I snap at her, but the headmistress merely addresses me with a cold glare.

Mrs. Aurelia sighs on my left with a look of guilt flashing across her face, Tu Diep's grin only widens at my temper.

Eventually, minutes after my outburst, she drags Tu Diep upwards so the boy is off the chair.

"Would you mind doing the honor of explaining to him?" She grits out through clenched teeth.

"Since you asked so nicely~"

The boy walks over to stand in front of me, the cheeky expression remains on his face.

His hand moves up to poke at my Adam apple, I quickly back away at the strange action.

My mouth opens to snap at him but suddenly, a strange mark appears on his neck. Like two blades clash against each other to symbolize an X inside a circle of flame.

"Karma can mark on as many humans as they like but only proceed to move on if their victim dies."

His fingers trail upwards to his own neck, as if as a demonstration.

"They cling onto the human to feed on the despair their humans bring to others.

Blessings are given from the karma to their current host, for them to keep on with conducting violence.

However, if there isn't any negative energy around their human, they'll simply consume the host's lifeforce before moving on."

An audible 'CRACK!' and Tu Diep's neck is structured sideways. My eyes widened in disbelief before he laughs at readjusting his head in place.

"The influence of a blessing is taken in the form of a voice inside your head, you would think that it's you who's suggesting the idea but in truth, it's the puppeteer playing with the strings behind the scenes.

That is why Executioner exists, to rightfully cleanse a sin so they can rest eternally. Blessings are a crime as the karma is interfering with human civilization so they are to be judged and executed."

Tu Diep's crazed expression softens into a genuine smile, he stares at me as he mentions the term "Executioner". The emotions behind those eyes are making me sick…

"Why must I, out of all people, be an Executioner?!"

"Because only humans who see Karma can take over the role." Mrs. Aurelia speaks up. Placing a comforting hand on my shoulder which I quickly brushed off. Feeling tense at the pressure.

"The Executioner system had been removed since the new Divine Judge had taken over the title. Hence the overpopulation rate of karma on earth."

"If it's gone then I have no reason to become one!" I shouted at them, turning to leave the room.

"But we need you to bring balance to the two worlds!" The headmistress scolds, raising her voice at my attitude.

"I do not care!-"

But you should care.

I halt in my steps.

It's not a choice, Kai.

I slowly turn my head back to look into golden and pearl-colored eyes.

"Don't tell me…"

"You got it correct." A Cheshire smile returns. His finger pointed at his neck mark before coming to point my way.

I've already marked you.