Modern Monster

“That was… a little scary, Sen. How’d you pull it off?” Hana was stunned at how easily he had fooled the registration lady.

After swiftly convincing the woman and being patted down by the security guards, his friends eyed him cautiously, their gazes suggesting his words were too well thought-out and concise, almost as if they had been rehearsed hundreds of times before.

Truthfully, this wasn’t impressive to Sen. He already knew what to do and say in these situations. He’d just gotten lucky with having such an impressionable lady in charge of the security checks.

Human psychology is quite easy to understand after you read it. It’s barely impressive. Anyone with the mental fortitude could predict what others wanted to hear. It was just taking advantage of the circumstances to achieve what was necessary.

“Shhh….” Sen shushed her with his index finger, signaling her not to discuss that in public. He had already warned them all before entering the academy: “When we get there, we must not say anything regarding me being Senseless or anything to do with the plan either. I want all the conversation to be as if I wasn’t there at all.” For those reasons, he decided not to respond to her question.

That’s one step done. Now I need to… enter where now?

They stood back, watching an irritated mob of thousands of contestants in front of the main academy display their discontent.

“COME ON, MAN! WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS!”

“When are the exams going to start?”

“I’m gonna go home. This is taking way too long…”

Sen grimaced in confusion. The clearing in front of the academy contained all the contestants who were entering this year, and by the looks of it, they were not happy. Sen decided to check for himself, so he walked up to a stranger who waited patiently at the back of the crowd.

“Hello, could I bother you for a moment?” Sen asked politely.

“Huh?” The person twisted their head abruptly, eyeing Sen narrowly. “Yeah, sure, it’s not like I’m doing anything important right now anyway.”

“Is there any reason why so many people are gathered here?” Hana chimed in beside Sen.

“Well, this is the entrance exam. You guys didn’t know or something?” the stranger chuckled.

“No, obviously, we know that,” Hana rolled her eyes. “We meant, why are you guys protesting in front of the academy?”

“Oh, here I thought you sneaked past security or something,” he joked. Sen couldn’t help but feel that was a little too close to the truth. “We’re just waiting for the exam to start. It's been far past the scheduled time. Everyone is getting bored, and some are even leaving. If this keeps up, I might leave too,” he replied, letting out a tired yawn. Sen nodded in understanding.

“I appreciate the info. Best of luck.”

“I don’t know if luck is going to cut it, but thank you, I guess.”

Sen dipped his head in appreciation and then broke away from the overcrowded area to discuss with his friends.

From the angry yelling, that’s pretty much what I thought. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out that there were delays in the academy entrance exam. But why? It seemed awfully coincidental that they only started to have delays when he arrived.

The academy was usually punctual with the timing of the exams, so he couldn’t quite figure out if his presence played a part in it. Does Asashi have something to do with this? I doubt he would know this quickly, though. He’s part of the board of directors, not the security system. Sen presumed it would take quite a bit of time before he actually found out.

Once they paced a decent distance from the crowd, they all huddled close to each other, speaking in hushed tones.

“You think this is far enough so we don’t get overheard, Kaiyo?” Sen asked quietly.

Perking her ears and trying to focus on her surroundings, Kaiyo concluded, “We should be okay. I can barely make anything out in that crowd. So, I doubt anyone with Hearing would be able to overhear us. No one is willing to open their Sense to the voices of thousands of people. Their heads would explode.”

Sometimes, Sen forgot that Senses had their own limitations and weren’t always powerful in every situation. It was logical to assume the majority wouldn’t want the hassle of having thousands of voices suddenly invade their eardrums and overwhelm their minds with too much information.

“So what’s the plan?” Hyo inquired, looking at him expectantly. Sen didn’t know why they regarded him as the leader, but the more they cooperated, the better.

“There’s nothing we can do for now, I guess,” he remarked to them. “The moment they explain the challenges at hand, I might attempt to think of something. Not to mention, the obstacles ahead could split us up.”

“But that’s why we have these, right?” Hana pointed at the small device hidden in her ear. While the device was intended to help in that scenario, it wasn’t foolproof.

“That will only be useful if we're a few miles apart. If the challenges ahead interfere with it, these devices become useless.”

“So I guess we just sit back and wait for the challenges to start, right?” Kaiyo tilted her head. He wished he could have had Brittney hack into the academy’s files to see what the challenges were, but that information was classified and only discussed in board meetings.

“The fact you got through security while being Senseless is already a big step,” Hana mused. Sen cringed inwardly at her words. He didn’t want her discussing that in public.

"Hana, for the last time… please.” Sen made a hushing hand gesture with his finger. Hana flushed with embarrassment, evidently guilty she had already forgotten the most important rule.

Although it was unlikely anyone had a reason to turn in a random, Senseless person, Sen still wanted to be cautious. I still don’t know if I’ll be able to pass through these challenges without the academy catching me. So much of their information is under wraps; the only thing I can do is wait and find out.

He suddenly noticed that Kaiyo had her eyes closed, as if concentrating on her Super Sense, as she had done before. Sen narrowed his eyes, wondering why she was doing it out of the blue. She herself had said that opening one's Sense in this environment was quite disturbing.

“Kaiyo, is everything alright?”

She didn’t respond for a few moments. Finally, she opened her eyes suddenly, in a state of panic. Sen recognized that something wasn’t right. Kaiyo stood up straight, looking around her, clearly rattled by something.

“Kaiyo, what happened? What’s going on?” Hana asked, noticing her odd reactions.

“You there!” Kaiyo suddenly exclaimed, looking at a cluster of trees a few meters away. By her words alone, it was apparent what Kaiyo had discovered. Sen let out a sigh of redundancy. I knew this would happen. A petite figure of a girl emerged from behind the trees. Her expression was twisted with anxiety as she approached.

She had short, sleek, and pitch-black hair styled into a bob cut. She stood around 5 feet tall, almost appearing to be a child. However, Sen assumed she was older than him.

“I…I,” her voice quivered as they stared at the newcomer suspiciously.

She appears genuinely scared, so I have a feeling she didn’t mean to overhear our conversation, Sen observed the frightened girl.

However, it would have been preferable not to be overheard when Hana blatantly revealed that he was Senseless. At least she seemed relatively harmless. Sen also took into account that she was a girl.

Girls are more impressionable than men. Men typically act on impulse rather than emotion, while women tend to act on emotion rather than critical thinking. This is why men are more difficult to influence than women. That’s why I’m glad it so happened to be a girl who overheard us. I need to make sure not to come across as aggressive; I don’t want her to feel threatened—

“Hey! Come here right now! How much did you hear?!” Hana demanded, her tone raised aggressively. Of course… there goes the warm welcome. Sen shook his head.

“I-I didn’t mean to, I swear—”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? Answer the god damn question!” Hana continued, not letting up.

“I SAID I DIDN’T MEAN TO! I was just passing by and—”

“You were too far to hear that if you were a normal person. You obviously used Hearing to spy on us, didn’t you?” Kaiyo interjected, her tone softer.

“I admit that I overheard you while using my Sense, but I didn’t mean to at first. I was walking around trying to find a place that wasn’t crowded so I could practice my Sense,” she began. “Then, while doing so, I overheard you guys talking, and I was curious about what you were doing so far from the rest of the contestants, and I kinda heard that you were…” The girl’s gaze nervously shifted to Sen, clearly implying she had heard what Hana had said aloud. Sen let out a sigh.

“Well, there’s no use denying it. Yes, I am Senseless,” Sen admitted reluctantly.

“WHAT! Sen, have you lost your mind? Why would you reveal that information? Didn’t you tell me not to say that to anyone?!” Hana scolded him. He just shook his head, exasperated with his sister's outburst.

“Now, now, I’m sure we can discuss this without shouting, Hana,” Hyo interjected, trying to de-escalate the situation.

“I didn’t mean to cause trouble!” the girl yelped, tears welling up in her eyes. Seeing how distraught she was, Hana cooled down, realizing the commotion she had caused.

“U-uh… It’s fine, I guess. Your call, Sen,” Hana said, avoiding eye contact apologetically.

“Don’t mind her. How about we start over? What’s your name?” Sen asked. The girl, sniffling to prevent her snot from dropping, replied with a shudder.

“M-My name is Hono.”

“Ah, I see. Well, I’m sorry for the rude welcome; it was my fault for overreacting,” he said, dipping his head politely. I need to make sure she doesn’t blabber about this. With a thoughtful, wide smile, he continued, “Now, tell me, how much did you hear exactly?”

Sen knew she had heard everything they had said, but fortunately, apart from Hana blurting out his disability, there wasn’t much they had discussed.

I’m just trying to get her to talk a little more and think we don’t seem troubled by it. But I would prefer to wrap this up as soon as possible. I can’t fake a smile for too long.

“I-I’m sorry, I heard everything you guys said!” Hono let out an anguished cry, sounding as if she were confessing to a crime she had committed. Sen clicked his tongue with impatience. Well, I tried my best to be polite, but it seems she’s just overly sensitive.

“It’s alright, just don’t snitch on us, that’s all we ask.” Sen felt like he was speaking to a child for a moment, and surprisingly, it worked quite well.

“I promise not to tell anyone!” Hono sobbed, kneeling and dramatically praying for his mercy. He twisted his expression, not quite comfortable with being treated like some sort of god. I guess it's better than having the opposite, though.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do except keep an eye on her. If we don’t, she’ll probably get us busted by the Knights,” Hyo said with a shrug. Sen nodded; they didn’t have much choice.

“We’re not mad or anything, but to make sure you don’t spill our secrets, we might need to keep you close,” Sen explained. Expecting hesitance, he was surprised to see her smile broadly, her eyes sparkling with joy.

“YAY! Does that mean we’re friends!?”

No, most definitely not. I don’t easily call people friends. Only under certain circumstances, like this one.

“Yeah, of course we’re friends,” Sen lied.

“YAY! YOU’RE THE BEST!” Hono exclaimed, jumping on him and kissing him on the cheek, which didn't really faze him at all.

“In that case, I have some information about the challenges ahead,” Hono revealed. Sen narrowed his eyes at her, his interest piqued. How does a girl like you have information about the challenges?