The brisk pace of the town quickly came to a stop. All eyes turned to him. He could feel their gazes piercing his skin from all angles. A barrage of insults soon washed over Akuma like a tidal wave.

  “Demon.”

  Out of all the insults they threw at him, that one seemed the most common.

  It wasn't the insult itself that hurt, but the utter isolation it carried. The way it reinforced the invisible barrier between him and everyone else.

  Not to mention their eyes.

  Always those same cold, unforgiving glares as if he were a monster who might attack at any moment.

  Akuma ran through the hallway of judgment, but his situation didn’t seem to get any better. No matter how far his legs carried him, their resentment, their eyes didn’t go away. They followed him like hounds.

  “Just my luck. This is why I hate this jacket. The damn hood is too damn loose.”

  Akuma struggled to cover his head with his hoodie as he raced through the Active District. In one hand, he was holding a Pandota plushie. The other was preoccupied with ensuring his hoodie didn’t fall back from his almost inhuman speed.

  Akuma ran, and ran, and ran. Even as the noise of the festival got so distant that he could barely hear it, Akuma kept running. Until the eyes that had seen his hoodie fly off were few in numbers. Until that number had diminished entirely. Until his throat burned with a metallic sensation.

  “......”

  Finally, his legs stopped.

  He was standing in the middle of a field of fresh green. There was a single concrete walkway of the field in the middle—decorated only by a few benches placed every 30 or so feet from one another.

  But most importantly, there weren't that many people. Certainly not any that had seen Akuma’s face.

  Akuma was a little surprised. It was near the end of the week, and the weather was good. Even at a distance, he had noticed that the park’s usual evening crowd had thinned to nearly nothing.

  Akuma breathed a sigh of relief.

  It was a fortunate turn of events for him. Had he ran any more than this, he would’ve probably passed out.

  Not that he was physically exhausted. Dashing through the town street had proved effortless seeing as any pedestrian that was in his way jumped to the side, thus clearing a path. Along with his ridiculously honed body—crafted after years and years of training in the mountains off to the east.

  So, all in all, Akuma more than had the stamina and ability to lap around the city a handful of times without stopping if he wanted.

  Crazy what the power of mental exhaustion could do to someone.

  Akuma took some time to collect his breath. He hunched over beside a random tree in the park, holding himself by placing his only free hand on a tree. Then, after his breathing had calmed, he finally fixed his jacket’s hood over his head. While doing so, he noticed that a young woman was quickly packing up her golden retriever's toys with suspicious haste, shooting nervous glances in his direction.

  He found it strange, but didn’t think much of it at first. Until she muttered something under her breath…

  “Don’t look at me, you demon.”

  He didn’t hear the words, as he was much too far away, but the movements of her lips were impossible to misinterpret. It was a familiar motion. One he’d seen countless times for the past 3 years.

  After collecting her things, the woman hurried away, practically dragging her confused dog behind her.

  “...”

  A dry and bitter laugh escaped the boy.

  “...What the hell is their problem? They act like I’m just an animal who lashes out at anyone I see!”

  3 years now.

  That’s how long his life had been a constant game of hide and seek. A game where it was impossible for anyone else to be “it."

  When would it end? Was such a thing even possible? Why him? Why now? Why? Why? Why? Why?

  The sound of splintering wood forcibly pulled Akuma back to reality. While his mind mulled over his life leading to this moment, his hand had unconsciously tightened around a chunk of the tree he was using to hold his body, thus causing his hand to carve into the tree’s trunk.

  “...”

  Akuma rose from his hunched over position and with an aggressive click of his tongue. He’d have taken his frustrations out on the stuffed animal between his arms, but after seeing what he did to the tree, he realized it was hardly worth it. No sense in causing more damage.

  Akuma sighed once again.

  He pulled the stuffed animal away from him, holding it up as if it were a lost child he found on the side of the street. He had won the prized stuffed animal in hopes of giving it to someone he knew. A gift, of sorts. But now the embarrassment was beginning to kick in.

  “...Crap, I didn’t think this far ahead…”

  A teenager carrying around a stuffed animal the size of a small child. It made him look just like a teenage girl in love. It was a look that didn’t suit his character.

  “...Maybe I could play it off like it's my younger sister’s? Or that I’m holding it for a friend? But what if someone asks what my friend’s name is? Should I just say ‘Alice’? But what if they know Alice? …No, what am I even saying? Why would they? Not unless they’re another student that goes to our school. And if that’s the case, there’s no way they’d approach me.”

  Akuma’s mind danced all around the place before finally returning to his original purpose in winning the Pandota plushie.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “In the first place, how am I supposed to even give this to her? It’s not like it’s her birthday or anything, and Christmas is nowhere near now. I’d just be giving her a stupid panda for seemingly no reason... Can I seriously just hand it to her? ‘Here, this is for you Alice. For being so good to me while everyone else treats me like... Gah! That makes me sound so cheesy!”

  Akuma flailed the Pandota around as if he were trying to throw it, but it was unfortunately glued to his hands. For a split second, Akuma thought an evil witch was laughing beside him. Only to look and realise it was the angel.

  “So you think it was a dumb idea too, huh…”

  Floating above Akuma was a child-like entity. An angel with an uncanny vibe. Like always, the angel did not give Akuma an answer. Instead, it chuckled at his dilemma.

  “Dammit. What am I supposed to do? I already won the damn thing… Maybe I should just toss it…”

  Whatever, he thought.

  It only mattered as much as he let it. So, what he should be doing right now is head back home and leave it all behind him. Plus, it was starting to get really dark out. He had school tomorrow too.

  His feet had all but decided to take him back home, when a rather curious sight caught his eyes.

  Up ahead, Akuma had spotted a strange girl heading towards him. Or more accurately, she was heading past him—as they were standing on the sidewalk. She pulled along a large suitcase, leading him to believe that she was a traveller. Just passing through town, most likely.

  Akuma found that a bit odd considering the town they were in. It wasn’t like other towns. It was a town that harbored a certain phenomenon that couldn’t quite be called a superstition, but at the same time couldn’t be labeled fully supernatural either. Everyone knew about it. That’s why they all avoided that town.

  Seeing as she looked to be around his age, or slightly older, Akuma found it hard to believe that she was an exception to that.

  Perhaps she was interested in the festival?

  No, that was unlikely. If that were the case, she’d have chosen to visit during a much bigger festival. The one going on today could hardly count as a festival compared to the big ones. Especially the festivals they usually hold on the mayor’s birthday. Which if he remembered correctly, wasn’t that far off, actually. About a week from now.

  Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she really was visiting for the festival. If so, it took some real enthusiasm to arrive a week prior.

  “...”

  As Akuma’s mind wondered about the girl some meters away from him, the distance between them gradually shrunk.

  Eventually, they got so close that Akuma couldn’t help but notice all of her details. His gaze looked her over in a way that might’ve come off as ogling had his face not been hidden from view. Her eyes and her hair. Those two details stood out to him the most.

  Such purple hair… A foreigner maybe?

  The distance between them got smaller and smaller. He was now only a few inches from passing her on the sidewalk. From up close, her eyes looked even more dazzling. If Akuma had to make a comparison, it was like watching an aurora—though he had never seen one in person. But if he had seen one, he was sure they’d look the same.

  As Akuma and the presumed foreigner passed one another, they found themselves briefly exchanging eye contact. The instance had lasted but a few milliseconds, yet Akuma felt like an eternity had gone by before its end. He wondered if it was the same for her.

  Probably not, considering his face was covered by his hood.

  Thus, the two passed one another like any other pair of pedestrians on the street. Or so he thought…

  “Hey, you there!”

  An unfamiliar, cute voice suddenly called out to Akuma. His shoulders nearly jumped off his torso from the sudden screech. Her voice sounded fierce, carrying with a commanding undertone. It was the kind of command you’d hear from a general conversing with his soldiers... Not a cute girl…

  “Hey, I am talking to you! Do not ignore me! Hurry up and face me already!”

  After receiving no response from Akuma, she shouted once more, each word laced with a sharp accent.

  “…..” Akuma slowly turned around, his expression a precarious mix of nervousness and vexation. He glanced to his left and right to check if she was really talking to him. And after confirming that the two of them were the only ones on this side of the road, he asked, “Who, me?”

  The foreigner did not answer. Not verbally anyway.

  Instead, she left her luggage behind and approached Akuma. In just three hard steps, she got close enough that the two were standing face to face.

  “…!”

  Startled by the foreigner’s actions, Akuma attempted to take a step back, but she matched his movements with a step forward of her own. Did she predict his movements?

  Before Akuma could come to a conclusion, the beautiful girl leaned closer in, as if to press her lips against his. Since she was on the taller side for girls, it wouldn’t have been all that difficult for her to do so. In fact, they were now so close that Akuma could feel her delicate breath against his skin, as well as the fabric of her shirt sliding against his forearms that were choking the Pandota plushie for dear life.

  “I–Is there something I can help you with…?” Akuma immediately asked.

  For a long while, the foreigner didn’t say a word. She just continued to pierce through the veil of his hood.

  Standing so closely, Akuma couldn’t help but leer at her details once more.

  Her amethyst eyes had a slight gradient look to them—a deep purple at the base that slowly shifted to a lighter color that was reminiscent of a sunset. Her hair was of a similar color. Her long and firm legs were covered by a pair of black stockings and a pleated skirt that resembled a school uniform.

  This girl was beautiful, by no stretch of the word. Even Akuma had to admit that.

  “Um…? Is there something on my face?” Akuma asked once more.

  Still, the beautiful girl continued to pierce him with her glare. Then her nose flared a bit, and a suction type of noise could be heard.

  Akuma couldn’t believe it, but she had no doubt just sniffed him. Like a dog or something. This random girl had just approached him and sniffed his face. She didn’t even look ashamed of it either.

  “You smell awfully sweet for a human.”

  “...”

  What?

  Akuma ran it over it in his mind with the precision of a super computer, but it still didn’t make sense.

  He didn’t remember putting on any cologne today, or the whole week for that matter. Doing something like that would no doubt draw attention to himself. Possibly even incite another reason for his peers to hate him. There was also the matter of her choice of pronoun.

  “Human.”

  Who in the world addresses someone like that?

  If he had to put it into words, it sounded like she had learned most of her English, not from dictionaries or learning apps or conversing with other English speakers, but from old tv shows and dramas. It was an old and grandiose version of English. Something you’d usually hear in a play.

  “With such an overwhelming sweet scent, I would almost be inclined to think you were one of them…”

  The foreigner’s nose flared once again. Akuma’s body cringed in response. He felt as if his limbs were pinned by the slimy tentacles of a squid.

  Why did this random girl suddenly leap at him, stop, and then sniff him? Why was she so convinced he had applied some sort of sweet cologne? Why was she rattling on about some guy named Noah? About people hiding their presence from her?

  He had always heard the term, but could this be what people referred to as a “culture shock”?

  “...I knew that a good number of them had managed to bypass Noah’s barrier, but to think it was to this extent,” the presumed foreigner continued, completely ignoring Akuma’s very obvious signs of agony. “...No, you can’t be one of them. If you were, Noah would’ve surely bestowed me with a different revelation… And yet, you carry their sweetness… How peculiar. Tell me, human, what are you exactly?”

  “.......................................”

  Akuma nearly scoffed in her face.

  What a fascinating question, random person I’ve never met before… Just one problem. How the fuck am I supposed to answer that?