12 June 2018

  *step step step*

  A slow and big thumping can be heard across a fancy and luxurious hallway.

  *pant pant*

  "(If I can't get out of here, I'm done for!)"

  *pant pant*

  A 45-year-old man is running across a bright and fancy hallway. The man's figure is fat, and he is wearing a dark blue fancy suit with long dark blue trousers. A pair of golden socks and a pair of shiny brown shoes.

  *thud thud thud*

  Behind the man, slower-paced steps can be heard chasing the man. From the sound of them, the person behind the steps is chasing him by walking.

  The person is 170cm tall and weighs around 73kg. He has dark red hair that is long enough that it reaches his back, but his hair is stiff and spiky throughout, with an antenna hair on top sticking upwards. The person has a different colour in each eye. His left eye is red, while his right eye is orange with an X scar crossing it. The person is wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a black and red horizontal stripes motif, as well as a pair of dark brown jeans and a pair of dark red shoes.

  "There's no way to run. You're just delaying your death for a little bit."

  The man finally hits a dead end. The hallway is long, but it leads nowhere. Moreover, it is a hallway that the man himself designed to trap any potential people who would go after his wealth. The hallway is inside his own mansion, and he has already prepared a gun inside a flower vase at the end of the hallway.

  "(This is it, time to stall for time until I can take out the gun without him knowing.)"

  "W-WAIT! PLEASE! SPARE ME! L-LETS TALK ABOUT THIS!"

  "There's nothing to talk about."

  "NO! I BEG YOU! W-What do you want? Money? Fame? Women? I can give you anything if you let me live!"

  "Oh, really? You'll give me anything?"

  "Y-YES! ANYTHING! I'll even give you all of my money. I'll give you my credit card! Complete with the PIN, CVC, and everything else."

  "Now that's delightful. I'll take it!"

  "E-Eh? Really? You'll let me go?"

  "As soon as you hand me your credit card."

  "Here! Take it!"

  The man takes out his credit card and offers it on the floor as he bows. The person who's been chasing him takes the credit card from the floor.

  "So, you'll let me go now?"

  "Of course, a deal is a deal after all."

  The person turns around and walks away from the man. The man was a little bit shocked that the person let him go so easily, especially after the fact that the person said he had been searching for him for quite some time.

  "(Heh. . . Heheh, Heheheheheh, HAHAHAHAHAH! You punk! Now you'll taste death at my hands!)"

  The man has successfully taken out the gun from the vase.

  "(Oops! I almost yelled and alerted him. I should've just shot him silently just as I silently aim this gun.)"

  The man points his gun towards the person who keeps walking away across the hallway from him. Even if there is quite a distance, the man is confident that he can land the shot.

  "(Sayonara, asshole! I hope you suffer in hell!)" said the man inside his head while giving off a very nasty and creepy smile.

  *BANG*

  The man shoots the gun right towards the person's head from behind.

  "W-Wha--?"

  The bullet could be seen approaching behind the person's head, but then it suddenly split in two and went off in two completely different directions, and missed the person's head entirely. The person turns his head around slowly and looks at the man.

  "In the end, losers from the underworld will always act the same. The only difference between each one was their physical appearances." said the person with a malicious stare and a confident smile.

  The person turns around and walks slowly towards the man.

  "D-DON'T COME CLOSE!"

  *BANG*

  The man shoots the person again, but as the bullet almost landed on the person's face, it splits up again and misses again.

  "STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!"

  *BANG BANG BANG*

  The man shoots multiple times, but it ends the same way every single time.

  *click click*

  "W-Wha-? No more bullets?"

  *click click*

  "DON'T COME CLOSE! STAY AWAAAAY!!"

  The person taps his right foot on the floor once. Suddenly, something invisible is grazing the floor and moves forward towards the man, moving at the speed of sound.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"

  The man's right leg suddenly splits open in two from his toes up to his kneecap.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!"

  The man did his best to endure the pain, yet his screams show how intense the pain in his leg is.

  "You know, I seriously was going to let you go just now, but you had to ruin that chance, all because you went mad a little, how unfortunate! I guess all scumbags act the same after all!"

  "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHH!!!"

  The man's two hands and his other leg were suddenly cut off, and his blood spilled everywhere.

  "Enjoy your painfully slow death, human garbage!" said the person with a grin on his face as he dropped the credit card on the floor.

  "NO! WAIT! PLEASE KILL ME!!"

  The person turns around and walks away from the dying man.

  "WAIT! KILL ME!! WAIIIITT! KILL MEEEEEE!!!" his voice is slowly fading away as the person walks further and further from him.

  "Oh, you're done?"

  *!!*

  The person was greeted by a sudden someone suddenly. He looks to his left and his right, but he couldn't find anyone. Then he looks upward to the right.

  "Such a shame, I thought this case was mine, seeing all this wealthy stuff around the mansion."

  "Who are you?"

  "You should've noticed. I've been watching for a while after all."

  There was a girl sitting on the handle of a giant scythe with its blade stabbing the ceiling, leaving the entire thing hanging as if they're a ceiling ornament. The girl unsummons her big scythe and jumps down.

  "A Judge? Which number are you?" asks the person.

  "Sixth. What about you?" asks the girl.

  "Seventh."

  "Oh, you're the rumored serial killer Judge, aren't you? I guess the rumors were true. You do leave the people you killed dying from extreme blood loss."

  "What? You're here to give me a lecture about how I do things?"

  "No. In fact, it is of no concern of mine how you do your Judgment. We all have our way of doing things after all. . . but I'm not sure about him, though."

  "You're saying someone will come after me? One of the Judges? Which one?"

  "People call him Nightmare. He's said to be the First Judge, so basically, our leader."

  "Our leader, huh?"

  "Yeah, the underworld top names and organizations have started talking about him in recent months. I heard a rumor that he tortured someone mercilessly. He rips apart their flesh and bones while purposely avoiding any vital organs to keep them alive so that they suffer a horrible death, pretty nasty stuff."

  "Are you trying to intimidate me? Is this a warning?" said the Seventh Judge as he glared intimidatingly towards the Sixth Judge.

  "Of course not! There's this other rumor that he has chosen his Support, and that Support is one of the top names in the underworld itself. That guy is seriously terrible. Why did God even choose him in the first place? As our leader even!"

  "You've been blabbing for quite some time now. You're lecturing me?"

  "Grrr, of course not! Why did you keep saying that? I'm just here to talk!"

  "Then I don't have time for you, move along!"

  The Seventh Judge walks past her as if the conversation never happened and leaves the hallway.

  The girl waits for a bit and then feels that the Seventh Judge is far enough that she doesn't feel his presence anymore.

  ". . .uuurrgghhhh. . ."

  The girl's legs are suddenly shaking so much that a single weak breeze would make her fall over.

  "S-s-s-s-scary!! The Seventh Judge is SCAAAARRYYYYYYY!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!"

  "What the heck are you doing?"

  "Aw!"

  Someone chops the Sixth Judge's head gently.

  "Grrrr! DON'T SURPRISE ME LIKE THAT!! I was seriously so scared!!"

  "Hahaha, sorry! So, why did you leave your Support behind and go on ahead by yourself?"

  "Well, I felt the presence of another Judge, so I wanna meet them. I am really curious about the other Judges since it’s always been the two of us this whole time. And then we keep hearing rumours about the other Judges, so my curiosity gets bigger and bigger."

  "*sigh* I get what you’re saying! I myself am also curious about their Supports! I wanna meet them too, you know!”

  "Alright, alright, I apologize for leaving you behind!”

  “Apology accepted! Now, let’s move on!”

  The Support and the Sixth Judge leave the hallway.

  .

  .

  .

  Light's house, 7:00 p.m. . .

  Light gets out of the bedroom, and at the same time, Lily also gets out of her room.

  "Morning, Light-kun!"

  "Morning, Lily!"

  ". . . "

  ". . ."

  They usually have a lot to talk about to each other, even if it's about the most trivial things, but now they're just silently staring at each other, making the atmosphere around them awkward.

  "I. . . I'm taking a bath downstairs. See you later!"

  "O-Okay. . ."

  Light quickly walks past her towards the first floor.

  "(I don't like this. There's a small distance between us now. It's as if we're bored with each other. But I know Light-kun's feeling. I felt them. He felt guilty and anxious to be around me. He's doing this because he cares about me. But still. . . I don't like this. I don't like where this relationship is going.)"

  Lily takes a bath on the second floor right after.

  Ever since that day when Lily found out about Light's darkness, Light has been quite distant from Lily. Light is afraid to have a conversation with Lily. He felt incredibly guilty after that day.

  At work, Light is trying to focus on the job to avoid talking to Lily. During their Judgment, they both still cooperate normally as if nothing had happened between them, but when they found a rape case where they arrived late, Lily immediately pulled Light away and insisted that she would be the one to take care of it.

  During dinner, they are awkwardly silent towards each other. Light is afraid to start a conversation, but Lily also didn't start a conversation because she constantly sees that Light is struggling and wonders about what to say to her, even though they still eat together in the same room.

  After dinner, they immediately take a bath and go to their room and stay up until late, then they go to sleep without contacting each other for the rest of the day.

  Both of them apologize to one another only in their own head. And they have been awkward with each other like this for a week now. They wish to have a proper talk in their mind, but none of them had the guts to bring up the topic.

  .

  .

  .

  A city in a western country. . .

  The Seventh Judge is walking down a street that is quite crowded.

  "Hm?"

  He has been noticing that someone has been following him around. Every time he looks back, that person always hides in various places. Somehow, he always misses them every time.

  "(Tsk! This is getting annoying!)"

  The Seventh Judge turns right into a lone alleyway. He baited the person who was following him to reveal themselves. He walks a bit deeper into the alley until it's quite far from the main street. The Seventh Judge abruptly stops between his steps.

  "Come out who you are! If you refuse, I'll have to resort to cruelty, and I can assure you that it will not be pretty."

  . . . . . . . .

  He waited 10 seconds, and there was no response.

  "*sigh* You asked for this."

  *SLASH SLASH SLASH*

  Suddenly, the alleyway got grazed all over, including the ground, the walls, the trash cans around, and some cardboard boxes. It's as though they were sliced with a sword all over.

  "Kyaaaah!"

  "(Hm? A girl?)"

  From one of the cardboard boxes, a girl came out. She fell to the floor in front of the Seventh Judge. The girl wears a pale blue hooded cape that covers most of her face.

  "(Judging from her heights, a middle school? What the heck does a middle school student want with a bloody man like me?)"

  "Uurrghh. . ."

  The girl holds her head, enduring slight pain from the fall. The girl then slowly looks ahead towards the Seventh Judge.

  "What do you want, little kid?" said the Seventh Judge with an intimidating glare.

  "Calling me a little kid based on my appearance, you're a very rude person, mister!" said the girl, pouting as she opened her hood.

  The girl has long, straight, pink hair. Her eyes are also pink. She has one mini side ponytail on the left side of her head with a cherry hairpin tying it together. Her clothes were covered by the cape she was wearing.

  "So, what do you want? Make it quick and short!"

  "Sheesh, you are a straight-to-the-point kinda person, huh, mister?"

  "Speak your purpose, I don't wanna hear any more babbling!"

  "TSK! *sigh* I want to ask for protection."

  The Seventh Judge took a few seconds to process what he was hearing.