Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

It was another weekday afternoon, and a thin layer of dark clouds gathered in the sky, filtering the sunlight into a pale, cold light.

Sumiki Kawakawa was sitting in the consultation room, writing the last line of medical advice on the patient's medical record.

The nib of the fountain pen made a soft scratching sound as it glided across the paper.

Just then, the personal cell phone on the table emitted a short but intense vibration.

Kikawa Sumi paused slightly as she wrote, and looked up.

A text message from "Junpei Yoshino" popped up on the screen.

There is only one lonely location share that is still moving in real time.

Sumi Kichikawa frowned almost imperceptibly between her brows.

He seemed to realize something, and suddenly stood up, tearing off his white coat and draping it over the back of the chair.

Those deep black eyes, which always held a gentle smile, suddenly turned cold.

Meanwhile, at the back of the commercial street, in an abandoned underground parking garage stairwell.

It was cold and damp, with the air filled with the musty smell of perpetual darkness and the pungent odor of urine.

Yoshino Junpei huddled in the corner of the small, dark electrical room, trembling all over.

His coat was torn, his face had several obvious bruises, and there was a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

Just a few minutes earlier, he went out to buy some daily necessities for his mother, and then he bumped into those three familiar figures at the entrance of a secluded alley.

"Hey, isn't this Yoshino?"

The boy in the lead had half a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The moment he saw Shunping, his eyes flashed with a malicious excitement.

"Long time no see! Since you dropped out of school, we haven't been able to find anything fun at school anymore."

Yoshino Junpei's pupils suddenly contracted, and his breathing stopped for a moment.

His stomach spasmed reflexively, and the deep-seated fear made him instinctively want to back away.

But he couldn't escape.

A rough hand suddenly grabbed his collar, followed by a merciless kick that slammed into his stomach.

A plastic bag fell to the ground, and a round onion rolled into a dirty puddle.

"Why are you running? Aren't you going to say hello to an old friend?"

The three men dragged Shunping, who was hunched over in pain, into the stairwell of the underground parking lot of an abandoned shopping mall next door, as if driving livestock.

Fists and hard-soled shoes rained down on him.

They used every vulgar and vicious word they could to humiliate him.

"That's disgusting, you look like a victim." The boy squatted down and patted Shunping's face, which was covered in dust and blood.

"I heard your mom's been telling everyone you're sick lately? Mentally ill? Hahahaha!"

Shunping gritted his teeth, his mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood.

Before being dragged into the cramped electrical room at the very back, he mustered the last of his strength, broke free from one hand, and snatched the phone that had been thrown on the ground.

He only had time to send a location.

"Snapped!"

The next second, the phone was kicked away by a foot and crashed into a rough cement wall, the screen shattering into a spider web instantly.

Shunping was kicked into the dark electrical room.

With a loud bang, the heavy iron door slammed shut.

Immediately afterwards, a piercing sound of metal scraping against metal came from outside—

They used a discarded, thick steel pipe to firmly wed the doorknob from the outside.

"Go inside and reflect on your actions, you disgusting wretch!"

"Hey, lock the door! Let's see how many days he can stay in there, hahaha!"

The footsteps gradually faded into the distance until they disappeared completely.

The boundless darkness surged in like a tide, instantly engulfing Shunping.

Fear, humiliation, despair, and a deep sense of powerlessness transformed into thick negative emotions that churned around him.

Just then, a light, whimsical voice, carrying a strange laugh, suddenly rang out from the darkness.

"Do you need my help?"

Shunping suddenly raised his head, his pupils contracting sharply due to extreme fear.

In the shadows of a corner of the power distribution room, someone was standing there.

He had long blue hair, his face was covered with strange stitches, and his eyes shone with a childlike, pure yet cruel curiosity.

"Who...who are you?" Shunping's voice trembled uncontrollably.

The man didn't answer, but simply tilted his head and looked at him with interest.

He extended a finger and gently touched a mouse gnawing on an electrical wire in the corner.

"grumble--!"

A piercing scream shattered the darkness.

To Shunping's utter horror, the rat's body seemed to be kneaded by some invisible force, its bones cracking with a teeth-grinding sound, its flesh swelling and twisting strangely, eventually turning into a disfigured, still slightly twitching mass of flesh.

"A hallucination...or a vengeful spirit? What exactly are you?!" Shunping pressed himself tightly against the wall, almost suffocating.

"Identity isn't important, is it?" The stitches on the real man's face twitched slightly as he smiled.

He crouched down, looked Shunping straight in the eye, and slowly asked, "Hey, Shunping, do you think humans have a 'heart'?"

Before Shunping could answer, he continued, as if talking to himself, "If they really have a 'heart,' why would they harbor such pure malice towards their own kind? It's strange."

He leaned closer, his voice becoming seductive: "What do you think humans are most afraid of?"

Shunping gasped for breath, his mind a jumbled mess: "...A natural disaster?"

"It's so relaxing chatting with you~" The real person clapped her hands lightly, her eyes crinkling with a smile.

"Yes, humanity fears the forest, fears the sea, fears all uncontrollable forces. So, just consider me a natural disaster that has befallen us. And those few pieces of trash outside just happened to be caught in the crossfire... Isn't that better?"

He patiently and skillfully led the boy into the abyss of hatred.

Shunping was stunned.

In the countless days and nights he had been beaten, pinned to the toilet, and burned by cigarette butts, he had also felt countless times that it was more correct to associate with people with malice than to not associate with them at all.

He had no hope for this rotten world and felt that indifference was the essence of humanity.

but……

But things are different now.

In the darkness, images flashed uncontrollably through Shunping's mind.

It was Kikawa Sumi who looked at him with those gentle, all-encompassing eyes and handed him a cup of warm water;

It was Hisahito Itadori on the riverbank, with a head of bright pink hair, who put his arm around his shoulder without any hesitation and said with a big laugh, "We are already friends."

It was his mother, Yoshino Nagi, in the kitchen late at night, her eyes red but holding him tightly, choking back tears as she said, "Junpei, if you don't want to go to school, then don't go. Mom just wants you to be safe."

These are not empty preachings, but real, warm memories of how he was treated gently by the world.

Shunping slowly clenched his fist, his nails digging deep into his palm.

Looking at the monster before him, radiating pure malice, his previously wavering gaze miraculously gradually calmed down.

"You're right." Shunping's voice was still trembling slightly, but it was unusually clear. "Those people are indeed trash, and I... I really hate them."

He took a deep breath and met the person's gaze:

"But I don't want to become like them. If I use your power to take revenge, then I'll be letting down those... the people who finally pulled me out of the mire."

A more intense interest flashed in Zhenren's eyes.

"That's an interesting choice," he said, tilting his head.

Just then, a series of hurried yet steady and powerful footsteps suddenly echoed in the empty corridor outside the power distribution room.

The man narrowed his eyes slightly and turned to look at the tightly closed iron gate.

"Looks like your 'saviors' have arrived."

The real person chuckled softly, and his body began to seep into the ground like a melting candle.

Before disappearing completely, he gave Shunping a deep look and said in a light tone, "See you next time, Shunping."

"Bang--!!!"

A deafening roar exploded in Shunping's ears.

The heavy iron door, which was held firmly in place by thick steel pipes, was forcibly pulled open from the outside.

The steel pipe let out a mournful cry of being unable to bear the weight, and was bent into a strange "V" shape before falling to the ground with a clatter.

The blinding corridor lights instantly flooded the dark electrical room.

Shunping subconsciously raised his hand to cover his eyes.

In the backlight between his fingers, he saw a tall and slender silhouette.

"Shunping".

Kikawa Sumi's voice echoed in the empty basement. It lacked her usual composure, carrying a hint of hoarse urgency.

Shunping stared blankly at the man standing against the light at the door.

Kikawa Sumi strode over, squatted down, and without caring about the dust and dirt on the boy's body, pulled him into her arms and pressed her palm firmly against the back of his head.

"It's alright. I'm here."

Half an hour later, a taxi stopped downstairs at Yoshinoya.

Along the way, Shunpei, wrapped in the coat that Kikawa Sumi had given him, sat in the back seat and recounted the events in fits and starts.

But he subconsciously omitted the part about the real person.

Under the bright lights and the reassuring warmth of Sumi Kikawa's body, he was unsure whether the monster with the stitches was real or just a hallucination born of his fear.

Kikawa Sumi didn't press him for details, but listened quietly, occasionally handing him a tissue or gently patting his shoulder.

When Yoshino Nagi opened the door and saw her son, covered in injuries and looking disheveled, this strong single mother instantly teared up.

She rushed over and hugged Shunping.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Yoshino, it's my fault for not taking good care of him." Sumi Kikawa stood in the entrance hall, her voice gentle and apologetic.

"No, Dr. Kikawa, how can this be your fault..." Yoshino Nagi bowed repeatedly, her eyes red.

"If you hadn't arrived in time, Shunping... I'm so grateful to you."

Kikawa Sumi carefully treated the wounds on Shunpei's face, left some anti-inflammatory medicine, and repeatedly calmed the mother and son down. After confirming that the boy was completely safe and had calmed down, she took her leave.

"Dr. Kirikawa." Just as Kirikawa Sumi turned to leave, Junpei suddenly called out to him.

The boy stood in the warm light of the entryway, his eyes no longer filled with the gloom of the past, but instead with a resolute determination like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue."

Kikawa Sumi turned around, looked at him, and a gentle smile reappeared in her eyes.

He reached out and ruffled Shunping's hair: "Get some rest, everything will be alright tomorrow."

With a soft "click," the door to Yoshinoya closed.

As Sumi Kichikawa stood at the door, the gentle smile on her face vanished like the tide the moment the door closed, leaving not a trace.

The motion-sensor lights in the corridor flickered on and off, obscuring half of the man's face in shadow.

Those deep black eyes now held only cold indifference.

At night in Tokyo, neon lights paint the city sky with bizarre and dazzling colors.

Following the last location sent by Shunpei's phone, Sumi Kichikawa retrieved nearby surveillance footage and, combined with the movement patterns of the three men, quickly identified the target.

At this moment, the three teenagers who had just committed violence were gathered without any psychological burden in a large arcade at the end of the commercial street.

They laughed loudly, frantically banging on the arcade machine buttons, and occasionally boasted to each other about how they had locked that "good-for-nothing" underground that afternoon.

The arcade closes at 11:30 p.m.

They walked out reluctantly, arm in arm, and turned into a secluded alleyway in a residential area without streetlights.

"That was so much fun today! That guy must have peed his pants in fear, hahaha!"

"Let's go check there again tomorrow; maybe he's still inside crying!"

The three men's laughter sounded particularly jarring in the deathly silent alleyway.

Just then, the boy walking at the front suddenly stopped.

"Hey, who's that?"

In the middle of the narrow alley ahead, someone was standing there.

There were no streetlights, only the faint moonlight at the alley entrance barely outlined the person's slender silhouette.

He was wearing a simple white shirt, his hands casually in his trouser pockets, quietly blocking their way.

"Hey! Who are you! Playing tricks at night, get lost!" One of the boys arrogantly stepped forward and reached out to push the other person's shoulder.

However, before his hand could even touch the other person's clothes, an indescribable, terrifying pressure descended upon him like a mountain crashing down.

"what!"

His knees buckled, and he slammed heavily onto the rough asphalt road, the crisp sound of his kneecaps shattering clearly audible in the quiet alley.

"What?!" The two people behind were shocked and instinctively wanted to back away.

But to their horror, they discovered that the surrounding air seemed to have turned into solidified swamp, and even moving a finger became a luxury.

A chilling feeling, emanating from the depths of their souls, gripped their hearts.

Then, they also knelt down uncontrollably.

Susumu Kikkawa slowly emerged from the shadows, and the moonlight finally illuminated his face.

He lowered his eyes and looked down at the three abusers kneeling on the ground, sweating profusely from the pain and fear.

"I remember warning you."

Kikawa Sumi tilted her head slightly, a cold smile curving her lips.

"If I happen to be in that situation again, things won't be so simple, will they?"