*ZRRAASSSHHHHH*

  “URRGGHHH!!”

  Kevin pulls the silver katana out of Hana’s right shoulder, violently. Hana immediately jumps back away from him to keep her distance.

  “Urgh. . .”

  Hana puts her left hand over the hole on her right shoulder.

  “(This is bad. . . Kaito-senpai. . . I didn’t expect that I would run into one of the ‘officers’ this soon! He showed himself to me even before that announcement! Which means the Game Master intended to have a few kills in case no one obeys his game rules to set off this entire game faster!)”

  “Hmm, you are a strong woman, aren’t you? Instead of succumbing to despair, you immediately jumped away from me as soon as I pulled my sword out! That was an excellent, quick thinking.”

  “(Kaito-senpai. . . I’m hurt. . . Will you take care of my wound if I show you this, or will you be worried sick and scold me so I don’t get hurt as easily next time?)”

  “. . .”

  “Woman, what are you even thinking about right now? I introduced myself using the name of someone who’s already died! Kevin Freighter was the name of the murdered victim announced by the Game Master, remember? Why didn’t you find it suspicious?”

  “(Kaito-senpai. . . I miss you so much. Do you miss me as much as I miss you, Kaito-senpai? Aaaahhh! I’m really worried sick about him. I’ve been away from him for quite a while now. I feel like I’m going insane any minute now.)”

  “. . .”

  “Kaito-senpai this, Kaito-senpai that. Woman, do you even fucking realize the situation that you’re in right now?”

  “Ah, shut up! I don’t really care about anything other than my Kaito-senpai! I am his girlfriend/fiancée anyway!”

  “Is that so? How annoying! At least I get to kill you soon enough!”

  . . . .

  “(Huh? Wait a minute! How did he know that I was thinking about Kaito-senpai at all? I haven’t spoken out loud mentioning his name, have I?)”

  “There’s no need to be confused, Sakurai-san! I simply read your mind after all!”

  “Huh??”

  “You see, my Faith power allows me to be connected with anyone that I stabbed with this silver katana of mine. That’s why right now, we are connected! I know every move that you’re going to make! You have no chance of defeating me! You’re gonna die here today!”

  *!*

  Right after his sentence ends, the male ‘officer’ activates his Vein Armor, where his veins across his body glow in gray, and he immediately jumps forward and reaches Hana instantly.

  *WUUSSHHH*

  He swings his silver katana at Hana’s neck, but she ducks out of the way and immediately swings her right fist from below at his chin.

  *BAM*

  *!!*

  “Oh, c’mon now! Like, no way in hell is a normal human being even able to hurt me through my Vein Armor!”

  Hana retracts her right hand and thrusts her left fist at his stomach.

  *BAM*

  “Again, there’s no way you can hurt me! Didn’t you fucking hear me? Are you doing this on purpose, you dumb woman?”

  Hana pulls back her left fist, and now she thrusts her right hand at his stomach again, but this time, her entire body suddenly glows red, and red sparks occasionally spark throughout her.

  *CTANG*

  The man moves his silver katana to the front of his stomach and turns it sideways to block Hana’s punch with its flat side.

  “DIDN’T I JUST FUCKING TELL YOU THAT I CAN READ YOUR MIND!! WE ARE CURRENTLY CONNECTED!! I CAN HEAR YOUR EVERY THOUGHT!! YOU CAN’T COMPREHEND THAT OR SOMETHING?”

  Hana swings her left foot next at his waist. The man deflects Hana’s right hand away and immediately moves its sharp side of the blade to block the kick. But Hana suddenly stops her kick when it almost touches his blade. She immediately jumps away to gain another distance from him.

  *!!*

  “HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I CAN HEAR YOUR EVERY THOUGHT?”

  The man was already behind Hana before she even recovered from her landing.

  *ZRAAASSSHHHHH*

  The man slashes Hana on her back, diagonally to the left with his silver katana. The slash wasn’t deep because it was intentional. The man did not want to kill Hana so easily.

  “URGH!!”

  Hana immediately jumps away from the man once again and lands about 2 meters away.

  The man stands up this time, instead of following after her.

  “The name’s Darius! People call me Bond Cutter! It’s my epithet, but you get it right? It’s because of my Faith power! The way I ended the people I was connected to, so that’s why---, y-you get it, right?”

  “I couldn’t care less to be honest.”

  “*Sigh* That is fine. Arts are usually appreciated only once the artists have left the world after hundreds of years. Anyway, I am from the Underworld! I have agreed to participate in this whole thing because when I first heard about it, it excited me to no end! I was waiting very patiently till this day came! I really LOVE killing people after I get to take a peek inside their heart and mind! The exhilaration I got whenever I finished off someone whom I understood from the bottom of my heart always satisfied me to no end! I’m sorry, I can’t really explain it properly!”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Darius’s face went insane when he went to explain to Hana the highs he got whenever he killed someone, and it only resulted in Hana being disgusted.

  “So, there are a lot of people behind this, huh?”

  *!!*

  Darius knows where Hana’s thoughts are going with that sentence she just said.

  “You don’t fucking dare. . .”

  “Those who killed two people are allowed to leave and even have an audience with the Game Master himself. Does killing the officers count?”

  “HOOOOO?!”

  Darius suddenly has veins on his face. His anger skyrocketed at Hana’s question.

  “ARE YOU SERIOUSLY THINKING YOU CAN KILL ME, YOU DUMB WOMAN?”

  “Beats me! Let’s find out!” said Hana with an innocent smile.

  Darius suddenly jumps forward and reaches Hana instantly. He swings his silver katana once again at Hana’s neck.

  *CTANG*

  Hana pulls out her survival knife from her pocket and deflects his katana with it.

  “I already know you’re going to pull that out! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I KNOW YOUR HEART, SAKURAI-SAN!!”

  *CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG CTANG*

  Darius suddenly bombarded Hana with continuous swings of his silver katana. Each swing was aimed at her neck, but Hana deflected each swing successfully as well.

  “(This woman! She deflected my swings easily! She’s not struggling at all, who on earth is she? Not to mention, I can’t predict her deflection. What is this?)”

  “Say, are we really connected??”

  *CTANG*

  “I keep telling you this over and over again.”

  *CTANG*

  They are engaging in a conversation as Darius keeps swinging his katana at Hana, but Hana keeps deflecting every single swing without fail.

  *CTANG*

  “Then how come I can’t read your mind as well?”

  *CTANG**

  “Well, duh! My Faith power only benefits me, of course!”

  *CTANG*

  “Why would I want a Faith power that has such an obvious flaw in its design?”

  *CTANG*

  “I see.”

  *CTANG*

  After that last clash, Darius stops his swing and suddenly rushes forward at her. He thrusts his silver katana at Hana’s stomach.

  *CTANG*

  Hana flips her knife, grabs its handle, and now she holds it backward. She pushes his katana to the right with it, altering its trajectory while also simultaneously moving out of the way to the left. Her strength was supposed to be far below Darius’ Vein Armor, but her Faith power is active, and her current strength was enough to decently fight back against it.

  *!*

  Darius spins himself when his katana is deflected, taking advantage of the momentum of being deflected to increase the power of his spin. He now swings his silver katana at Hana’s right waist from the right.

  *!*

  But Hana suddenly jumps and does a backflip out of the katana’s swing trajectory. Her hair almost touched the katana’s swing when she did the backflip.

  *THUD*

  She lands on the ground safely. She immediately lunges at Darius with her left hand curled into a fist.

  *BAAAM*

  Hana punches the outer space floor below, but the floor wasn’t damaged in the slightest. Darius jumped away from her, knowing that her punch was coming.

  *THUD*

  *BWOOOSSHHH*

  But as soon as Darius lands, he immediately jumps forward again. He thrusts his sword at Hana’s head.

  *BAM*

  Hana flips herself backward to do a handstand and kicks Darius’s hand away with her right kick from below. Darius was launched slightly upwards, and he went past Hana on the floor. Hana successfully does a backflip on the ground and recovers. She quickly turns around and runs after Darius.

  “(Something’s wrong here!)”

  Darius landed safely on the floor. He immediately turns around and swings his silver katana horizontally.

  “HRAAAHHH!!”

  *!*

  Hana ducks and slides on the floor. She reached Darius’s legs, slid past between them, and slashed them at both of his ankles.

  *CTANG*

  *!*

  Hana’s survival knife bounced off when it touched Darius’s skin. It seems like his Vein Armor is far stronger than a normal military-grade knife. Hana stops sliding about 1 meter away behind Darius. She stands up and quickly turns around to immediately charge at him again.

  *!!!*

  But suddenly, Darius was nowhere to be seen.

  “W-What? Where did he--? I didn’t think he was this fast!”

  “Oh, no, I wasn’t fast at all!! At the very least, our speeds are close!”

  *ZRRAAASSHHHHH*

  Hana was pierced on her left foot. Darius was suddenly next to him, and he simply stabbed her left foot nonchalantly without Hana ever reacting to his presence, given how close he was.

  “UURRGGHH!!!”

  Hana immediately swings a backhanded bash at Darius with her left hand.

  *BWUUSSHH*

  *!!*

  But Darius suddenly disappeared yet again from Hana’s vision.

  “(Where did he go? He just said it himself that he is not faster than me! So, how on earth did I completely miss where he moved?)”

  *!!*

  Suddenly, a silver katana was swung at her forehead.

  *CTANG*

  “OH?!”

  Hana ducks a bit and deflects the katana with her survival knife from below. She immediately looks to her right to swing her knife at Darius.

  *!*

  “He disappears again. . .”

  *ZRRAAASSSHHHH*

  “UUUUUUUURRRGGGHHHHH!!!!”

  All of a sudden, Hana’s right leg was pierced through with Darius’s silver katana. He stabbed her lower leg diagonally from above at an angle.

  *ZRASSHH*

  “URGH!”

  He violently pulls out his katana from her lower right leg.

  “Hahahahahaha! You don’t understand what’s going on, do you, Sakurai-san?”

  “. . .Is this some kinda illusion?”

  “Hm? Hmm. . . Now that you say it like that, it kinda did look like an illusion, didn’t it? Wow! I never thought of it that way. Thanks, Sakurai-san! You’ve opened my eyes to the idea of thinking from my victim’s perspective! They all must’ve been so weirded out every time I did this to them. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

  “URGH!!”

  *THUD*

  Hana falls on her knees. The stab wound on her right leg was too painful for her to continue standing still. She holds over the stab wounds on her leg.

  “Hmmm, I kinda feel bad, so I’m just gonna tell you.”

  Darius walks to Hana’s front and sits down on the floor. He puts his silver katana on his right side, on the outer space floor.

  “My Faith power is called Silver Bond, an Armament type. I can know someone else’s thoughts once I pierce them with my Silver Katana. I don’t have anything to do with the blood; all I need is for the blood of someone I want a bond with to touch my silver katana, and my Faith power will activate properly. This lasts for as long as I want it to be, though once that person dies, I am no longer connected with them, though that is obvious. Plus, I can only be connected with one person at one time. If my silver katana touches someone else’s blood, I can freely switch my bond to that new blood instead. Though if I wanted to be connected with the first person again, I would need their blood again to re-establish the connection.”

  “. . .”

  Hana listens carefully to Darius’s explanation in hopes of finding a weakness regarding his Faith power since he decided willingly to share it, but she also perfectly knows that he did this because he severely underestimated her. But it also makes sense given the number of wounds she suddenly suffered within the last few seconds, compared to the zero wounds Darius has.

  “But, not only do I know every single thing that they’re thinking of, I can also erase my physical presence from their mind!”

  “(What?)”

  “Let me demonstrate!”

  *!!*

  Within milliseconds, Darius quickly fades away before Hana’s very eyes.

  “. . .”

  Hana looked to her left and right to look for him, but it was futile. She can only realize that she is all alone in this outer-space-themed room.

  *ZRAASSHHH*

  “UUURRGGHHH!!!”

  This time, Hana was pierced on her left forearm.

  *ZRRSSHH*

  “URGH!!”

  And Darius quickly pulled out his katana from Hana’s forearm. He suddenly appeared to her right.

  “Sakurai-san, you can’t win against me!” said Darius with a creepy and murderous smile at Hana.

  Hana lifts her right hand and swings her survival knife at Darius’s forehead.

  *GRABS*

  Darius caught Hana’s hand on the wrist easily since he knew it was coming.

  “Sneak attack doesn’t work. *SIGH* I am so fucking tired of explaining this to you over and over again. It’s like either you don’t listen or you don’t wanna admit the fact that I can read your mind as clear as day.”

  “. . .”

  “BUT THE MOST ANNOYING THING OF ALL IS THE FACT THAT YOU KEPT THINKING ABOUT YOUR KAITO-SENPAI OVER AND OVER AGAIN, NO MATTER THE SITUATION!! CAN YOU FUCKING STOP? I AM SO FUCKING TIRED OF HEARING YOU SAID KAITO-SENPAI MORE THAN A HUNDRED TIMES ALREADY!! AND I’VE ONLY BEEN CONNECTED TO YOU FOR ABOUT ROUGHLY 5 MINUTES!! CAN YOU FUCKING SHUT UP ABOUT HIM ALREADY? HOW THE FUCK DID YOU REACT TO ALL OF MY ATTACKS PREVIOUSLY WHILE STILL THINKING ABOUT HIM IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU??”

  “Heh! NO CAN DO!!” said Hana proudly.

  “GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! WHO IS THIS KAITO-SENPAI OF YOURS?”

  “I’ve said it to you that he’s my boyfriend/fiancée!”

  “THEN AFTER I KILLED YOU, I AM GOING AFTER HIM!! I AM GOING TO HUMILIATE HIM WITH MY FAITH POWER JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT!! MARK MY WORDS, SAKURAI-SAN!! REMEMBER THAT I ONLY DECIDED TO DO THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE PISSING ME THE FUCK OFF!!”

  *!!!*

  *BAAAAAMMM*

  *GRAAAHHHKKKK*

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!”

  All of a sudden, Darius was punched in the face and crashes into the floor below from its sheer force alone by Hana.