2 - New Life, Old Me

Sakuto slowly made his way to the campus.

His choice of wear was a simple pair of black jeans and a dark gray shirt suited for the cold and cloudy weather. His hair was still a little untidy, the wind glossed over it, it felt like it was ignoring it even. He saw a lot of people there, a lot of his peers, a few teachers and lecturers, some security, some drivers...

After he would finish high school, he was supposed to go to a university just like this one. He’d learn, graduate, get a job, and live the rest of his life normally and peacefully. Of course, that option was thrown out of the window the moment his soulful awakening took place. When the painkiller was still in full effect, he had forgotten about education completely.

“What, nothing so far?” Oskar asked over the phone.

“Nah.” Sakuto replied. “No soul presences at all. Just plain nothing. God, this place is reeking with soulless garbage.”

“Well, it is what it is.” Oskar said. “Gotta be interesting to be you right now.”

“Come join me then if it’s so interesting.” Sakuto said, abruptly.

“Alright, well...take care.” Oskar left the call.

“Was I too rough with him? Is he gonna get upset now?” Sakuto thought. “Oh well, he should be more considerate himself.”

“My stomach isn't growling, at least. I’ve gotten used to eating once a day. But my headache...”

“Just look at this building. I mean, really, how beautiful would a perfectly placed flying slash look like if fired at it. Just...a clean cut, and a pool of-”

“Hey, are you from here?” One of the security guards approached him.

“Yeah, I just got enrolled.” Sakuto replied, grabbing his student ID from his pocket which he picked up earlier in the morning from one of Kaito’s associates.

“Right, go ahead then. Don’t be late for class.” The guard said in a friendly tone, walking away. Sakuto smiled at him, but the smile quickly abandoned his face once the interaction was concluded.

“Yeah, it’s not like I have a way to see the time. It’s not like I’m here early.”

“At least I arrived at the perfect time. Not too early to awkwardly hang around campus like a lost boy, but with enough leeway to find my classroom and enter it precisely two minutes before class. I’ve perfected that skill since school.”

He entered the main building and made his way to the third floor, climbing the rather crowded flights of laminated wooden stairs. The walls were painted bright yellow, many silver and bronze signs spelling the names of various professors and donors hung from them, as well as well-reserved paintings of historical figures and intellectuals.

Sakuto made his way to class, his first round of social torture was a course on communications. It’s something he found to be ironic, moronic, and funny at the same time. But hey, every student takes some general education courses to complement their specialized courses. It’s a nice break from the difficult subjects and a good way to recover your grades. Sakuto thought that Kaito must’ve been laughing his ass off while making the schedule.

He entered the classroom 1 minute late, but it was fine. He sat down by the row of windows that looked outside, showcasing the boring scenery of a busy college campus. The class was already divided into small friend groups, which were loudly chatting about whatever crossed their minds. Sakuto wasn’t annoyed, he was kind of used to this.

“Alright, class! Welcome, how are you guys doing today?” The instructor said, it was a woman in her 30s with long curly hair and a surprisingly positive and life-loving attitude for someone who got divorced 4 times.

“Just like the good old times.” Sakuto sighed. “But I don’t care about what the teacher’s yapping about. I need to concentrate.”

He got distracted by one of his classmates asking the instructor a question.

“I need to concentrate...and try to sniff out a soul presence...”

He got distracted by another classmate talking with her friend.

“That is unstable...and potentially creepy...”

He got distracted by a small bird landing outside on the windowsill.

“You know, at least a bird like this is a pretty thing, it’s part of nature. It’s not some underdeveloped monkey asking a stupid question that’s probably been answered five times in the course syllabus.”

“It looks like we have a new airhead in the classroom, haha.” The instructor said, looking at Sakuto who was distracted by the bird. Soon, the whole classroom’s eyes were locked onto him.

“Kill yourself.” Sakuto thought, almost saying it out loud.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself to the rest of the class? I’m Mrs. Tetra. What’s your name?” The instructor asked.

“My name’s Sakuto Hitori. I just enrolled here.” Sakuto said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Can you tell us a few things about yourself, Sakuto? Do you have any hobbies?” Tetra asked, her smile reaching from ear to ear.

“I like...uhh...”

“Fuck.”

“I like to watch martial arts, and uhh...uhh...” He glanced at the small birdie outside, the little creature was also watching his performance. “I like watching nature.”

“Wow, that’s...interesting!” Tetra said. “Anyways, today we have a special activity.”

Sakuto sighed in relief. He tried to concentrate again, but he heard something mentioning the word ‘eyepatch’, and he heard a few small chuckles from the other end of the classroom. There’s a chance he didn’t even hear anything, or whatever he heard had nothing to do with him, but it made him aware regardless.

“Today, we’ll continue carrying out our group projects, so sit with your groups.” Tetra said. Sakuto looked in confusion as everyone around him quickly assembled into their little social circles, who just so happened to be the same as their groups for the project. That means either everyone knows everyone in this classroom, or that the groups were made by choice. In both cases, Sakuto was in an awkward situation.

“Sakuto, please join Lily’s group. They need an additional member anyways.” Tetra said, pointing at a desk with 4 people around it instead of the intended 5. Sakuto awkwardly waved and approached them, the group consisting of a girl and three guys glanced at him with welcoming gazes. Sakuto sat down by the desk, and got a brief introduction to the project. But he didn’t pay much attention to it. He smiled throughout the conversations, he wanted to both be left alone and be involved in them.

A few moments later, the discussion derailed, as the four of them began to talk about their inside jokes and retell stories from their past. Sakuto listened, pretended to laugh, he even tried doing actual research on the project. But ultimately, he found himself zoned out.

“All of them...are like a pack.”

“And I’m the outsider.”

“When I joined the little gang, and Hayk’s team...it was a bit different, but I felt much more at ease. I don’t know what I can talk to them about or what makes them like me.”

This story originates from NovelBin. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He glanced at his group.

“They don’t even care about me, do they?”

He sat, pondering, in his mind various scenarios were playing out, and many memories resurfaced. He was finally back where he belonged - high in the mountains, high above the fields, an outsider.

“Just look at them, happy and laughing to their hearts’ content. All of them are soulless.”

“And yet, they’re all happy. And I’m...like this.”

“I don’t wanna be here anymore.”

“Nobody cares about you. That’s the truth of the world. Nobody fucking cares.”

“Nobody would care if you just disappeared right now.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s who you are, Sakuto. You’re worthless. You’re meant to be forgotten.”

“Please...”

“I don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to look at them anymore.”

“Why? Do you get jealous? Do you get angry that others are happy?”

“I just don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Please...”

“Someone, anyone...”

“Help.”

“Help me. Please...look at me, pay attention to me...”

“Get me out of here.”

“Help me leave and never come back.”

“Do they know?”

“And even if they did, they’d only react out of required sympathy, right? None of them would genuinely try to care.”

“No one ever cares.”

“No one ever cared. No, they did care. But I just let them down and everything went to shit. That’s what happened, right?”

“Just get me out of here.”

“Hey, um...” Lily asked. Sakuto’s mind quickly recalibrated itself into defensive mode, but there was no point in doing so. “I’m sorry if it’s personal, but I’m curious...what happened to uhh, you know...” She pointed at the eyepatch.

“I got hurt pretty bad in a fight.” Sakuto said.

“You can see fine though, right?” Lily asked again.

“Well, my field of vision is a bit more limited, but I’m getting used to it. My other senses all got a little sharper.” Sakuto said.

And after that, the old situation resumed. A monk on the mountains, and a village on the fields.

His next class was after a half-hour break, and it was high-level geometry. He was confused, he didn’t know what to do, so he instead chose to drain most of his mental stamina on trying to act as a radar. But all his efforts were fruitless. So after a while of trying, he just laid his head on the desk and daydreamed about nothing while the lecturer was explaining the subject.

The final class he had for that day was calculus. He was instantly confused by the array of weird symbols on the whiteboard, and the somehow “clearly logical” mathematical operations. He wanted to go home and sleep and die. He focused on his mission.

He overheard a few more instances of the word ‘eyepatch’, the same thing he heard in communications class. He felt a few gazes strike him. He was back in the good old days. His breathing became a little more irregular.

At last, he covered up his ears and closed his eye. Despite those words and laughter taunting him with their absence...

“Found something.”

“I’ll get him now.”

“And I won’t have to come here ever again...”

Sakuto left the classroom, the lecturer didn’t care. He overheard a few whispers, they haunted him again, but he couldn’t make anything of their short appearance and unintelligible nature. Sakuto rushed to the source of the presence, it led him down to the first floor, and down underground, where the gymnasium was.

He opened the heavy iron doors, and was greeted by the sight of a volleyball game. The source of the presence was a guy with blonde-ish hair who was having the time of his life.

“Is that him?”

“No, I don’t know that yet. Should I flare up my soul presence and see how he reacts? His soul presence isn’t unstable either, it’s...relatively low, but it’s still there.”

At that moment, one of the players struck the ball right at Sakuto. Instinctively, Sakuto reinforced his body with soul prowess, blocking the shot. Had he been a little less careful, he would’ve destroyed the ball completely.

The girl who struck the ball didn’t apologize, she just awkwardly raised her hand before laughing with her friends. But Sakuto was distracted by something else. At that moment, the suspect stopped in his tracks and looked around. He asked to leave the game for a few minutes, and his teammate swiftly replaced him.

“He’s approaching me.” Sakuto increased his soul presence a little more.

“Woah...are you a soulful?” The guy asked.

“You are one too.” Sakuto said. “Did you feel my presence?”

“Yeah. Hah, it’s uh...it’s a pretty scary presence, I can’t lie. My name’s Jacob.” Jacob introduced himself, extending his hand. Sakuto shook it.

“Name’s Sakuto. Your soul presence feels fairly stable, though.”

“That’s...a good thing, right?” Jacob asked.

“Whatever, forget it.” Sakuto said. “I’m glad there’s at least another soulful here. They say soulfuls are everywhere, but you’re the first one I found. Unless there’s others I’m not aware of.”

“I know two people that are soulfuls.” Jacob said. “A few days ago I felt a few soul presences too, they were pretty weird. Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure- wait, you said you-”

“Your eye...did you lose it in the war?” Jacob asked, a little concerned.

“Not exactly, but for the sake of the response, yes.” Sakuto said, rushing to push the conversation into the direction he wanted. “You said you felt something weird.”

“Yeah.” Jacob said. “I don’t remember how he looked, I don’t think I even saw him properly. Maybe I worded it wrong, it didn’t feel weird, more like...dangerous. Yours, though, is scary. And it’s kind of high too. Was it you?”

“No, I got enrolled today.” Sakuto said. “Where did you feel it? At what time exactly?”

“At around noon I think? It was on the second floor, I don’t remember what day it was.” Jacob said. He heard some of his teammates call out his name. “I’m sorry I don’t have any more information.”

“Right.” Sakuto sighed. “Hey, nice to meet you, Jacob. You helped me quite a bit.”

“Nice meeting you too, man!” Jacob exclaimed, rejoining the intense game.

“He at least confirmed that I’m in the right place.” Sakuto thought, leaving the gymnasium. “At noon, on the second floor, something scary lurked around. If I can just be even in the general area, I’ll detect it.”

“Hey, the dude was pretty chill too. At least I know this place isn’t completely littered with soulless garbage.”

He got zoned out at that thought.

“Why aren’t all people like him?”

...

“So, how’s student life?” Oskar asked over the phone, as Sakuto laid on his bed again. His laptop was placed on the small bedside table, where he could see Oskar’s messages.

“It’s shit. It’s really annoying.” Sakuto said. “Everyone’s soulless. I met this one soulful today though, and I confirmed that the guy we’re hunting is indeed here.”

“I see...”

“...”

“Hey, Oskar...”

“Hm?”

“What would you do if I disappeared one day?”

“Well, It’d be pretty unfortunate.”

“And what would you do?”

“I’d be sad over it I guess... I really don’t know what answer you’re looking for, dude.”

“It’s like...I don’t know, man. I need some sleep. Yeah, I probably just need some sleep.”

Sakuto left the call.

“I hoped you’d tell me more.”

“Hmm...what would Ichika think?”

“Ah, of course I’m thinking about her. I can’t get her off of my mind. And once again, I’ll overthink it, I’ll fail to get proper sleep, and I have to get up early tomorrow too, and go...there...”

“And no matter how hard I try, I can’t skip through these bits or thoughts.”

He rolled over in bed and covered himself with the bedsheets. He laid his head on one of the pillows and used the other one as a plushie.