The scalpel-fingers descended.
Reiji threw himself sideways, hitting the floorboards hard.
SHING!
The blades sliced through the mattress like it was made of water, shredding the pillow where his head had been a second ago. Feathers exploded into the air, drifting down in the moonlight.
Reiji scrambled backward, his breath ragged. He tried to shout, to summon a roar of Hellfire, but his throat was dead. It felt like he was screaming into a vacuum.
[Status: Silenced.][Spirit: 5%. Skill Activation Failed.]
The creature—Project Silence—didn't chase immediately. It twitched its massive ears, tracking the sound of Reiji's bare feet scuffing against the carpet.
It turned its eyeless head.
Reiji tightened his grip on the combat knife. 'It tracks sound. Even the smallest vibration.'
He stopped breathing. He froze his muscles, ignoring the burning pain in his ribs.
The room fell into a terrifying stillness.
Then, the creature vanished.
WHOOSH.
Reiji's instincts screamed. He didn't see it move, but he felt the air displacement. He raised the knife blindly to his left.
CLANG!
Metal met bone.
The creature's arm blocked the knife effortlessly. Its other hand shot out, grabbing Reiji by the throat and lifting him off the ground.
Reiji kicked out, his feet finding purchase on the creature's chest, but it was like kicking a concrete pillar.
The creature leaned in. Its stitched mouth stretched, the threads tearing slightly.
It raised its free hand to finish the job.
'Move,' Reiji commanded his body. 'Move, damn it!'
Suddenly, a dull thump vibrated through the floor.
The creature froze. Its ears swiveled toward the door.
From the hallway, a faint, rhythmic sound began to grow louder. Like a bass drum.
THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.
"Amplifier Jack..."
BOOOOOOM!
The door to Reiji's room didn't open—it exploded inward.
A massive wall of concentrated soundwaves slammed into the room, shattering the windows and sending the furniture flying.
The creature shrieked—a high-pitched, ultrasonic wail of pain. Its sensitive ears were its greatest strength, but against a sonic attack, they were its greatest weakness.
It dropped Reiji.
Reiji hit the floor, gasping for air, clutching his bruised throat.
Standing in the doorway, plugging her earphone jacks into the speakers of her boots, was Kyoka Jiro. She wore her pajamas, her hair messy, but her eyes were wide with panic and focus.
"I heard a heartbeat skip," Jiro yelled over the ringing in everyone's ears. "Who the hell is that?!"
The creature recovered instantly. It crouched on the walls like a spider, hissing. It prepared to launch itself at Jiro.
SWISH.
"Revelry in the dark."
A massive black claw erupted from the shadows of the hallway, snatching the creature out of the air.
Tokoyami Fumikage stepped into the room, Dark Shadow flaring wildly around him. The bird-headed student looked furious.
"You dare disturb the sanctuary of rest?" Tokoyami intoned. "Dark Shadow! Crush it!"
"GRAAAH!" Dark Shadow roared, squeezing the grey Nomu.
But the Nomu was slippery. It dislocated its own shoulders, sliding out of Dark Shadow's grip like a wet bar of soap. It landed on the balcony railing, looking back at the three students.
It locked onto Reiji one last time.
Reiji, still unable to speak, glared back. He raised his knife and pointed it at the creature.
'Next time,' his eyes said. 'You die.'
The creature didn't take the bait. The element of surprise was lost. The mission was a failure.
It backflipped off the balcony, plummeting four stories down into the darkness of the campus grounds.
"After it!" Tokoyami shouted, rushing to the balcony.
He looked down, but the grounds were empty. No footprints. No sound.
"It's gone," Tokoyami muttered.
Jiro rushed to Reiji's side. "Kurobane! Are you okay? You're bleeding!"
Reiji coughed, rubbing his neck. He opened his mouth to say 'I'm fine,' but nothing came out.
Jiro blinked. "Reiji?"
Reiji pointed to his throat, then made a 'cutting' motion with his hand.
"He can't talk," Tokoyami realized, stepping back inside. "A Quirk effect?"
Reiji nodded. He grabbed a pen and a notepad from his desk—miraculously surviving the sonic blast—and scribbled rapidly.
ASSASSIN. TRACKS SOUND. THANK YOU.
He turned the notepad to them.
Jiro read it and shivered, rubbing her arms. "Tracks sound? That explains why my jacks went crazy. I heard... I heard your heart rate spike to 180 through the wall. I thought you were having a heart attack."
Reiji looked at Jiro. For the first time, he felt a genuine spike of gratitude that had nothing to do with the System. She had saved his life.
[System Notification: Bond Level Increased.][Kyoka Jiro: Acquaintance -> Ally.][Tokoyami Fumikage: Acquaintance -> Ally.]
Suddenly, the hallway lights flickered on. Voices erupted from downstairs.
"What was that explosion?!" (Iida) "Did something blow up?!" (Ashido)
Reiji leaned back against his overturned bedframe, closing his eyes. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by the crushing weight of his stat penalty.
He was safe. But the message was clear.
The villains weren't waiting for him to graduate. They weren't waiting for the plot to happen.
They were hunting him.
End of Chapter 105.
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