"You're here faster than I expected, Devon."
The blonde man, now known as Devon, glared at Justin. He was dressed neatly, unlike the red-haired who had almost half his buttons undone and looked like a ruffian.
His rough hair added to that look quite well.
Devon, with a coat handing over his shoulder and neat black gloves on his hands, looked at the 'unconscious' Alice on the broken ground and scowled at him.
"Justin, how could you be so reckless?" He yelled at him after seeing the state Alice was in. "We were just discussing how to approach her and then you disappeared. I had my suspicion but I didn't think you were going to do something so rash. I should've known you were up to no good."
"What are you yelling at?" The red-haired, now known as Justin asked with his eyebrows furrowed. "I just came to see for myself if she was as big a deal as you guys were taking it." He acted like he was obligated and nothing was out of the ordinary. He acted haughty. "And look, she's not the extraordinary talent you lots were making her out to be. She's already down from a few punches."
"That's reckless and crazy, Justin. What would you have done if you had killed her?" He asked but Justin went silent, throwing his face aside as he picked his ear nonchalantly. And Devon stared in utter disbelief. "Don't tell me, were you really trying to kill her?" Justin stayed silent.
This gave Devon the answer. He was pissed. So pissed that he wanted to bury Justin in the ground but he contained himself and turned to Alice.
'Are they done?' Alice thought. 'Playing dead is making me sleepy. They should just conclude that I'm dead and leave already.'
Her plan was to sneak out of there and find a place to hide. A place where they would not be able to find her.
But before she knew it, her body was being lifted.
'Wait, what's happening? I can't tell with my eyes closed. Why am I being lifted off the ground?'
Devon carried Alice in his arms and stared pitifully at her. She didn't deserve to be beaten to such an extent.
No matter if she was an extraordinary talent or not, if she were a criminal or a hero, she was still just a human being. And yet, she couldn't even be treated as one, just because she manifested a strange power.
He turned to glare at Justin.
"You're crazy, Justin. You've always been and always will be. If I had been a moment too late, you could've killed her."
"And how's that supposed to be my problem?" He asked, nonchalantly gazing at Devon with glazed eyes.
"You..."
"Besides, if she had died from my attacks, then it only means she's weak, and we don't need weak people." Justin said, justifying his actions.
Devon glared at him like he was unforgivable but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't start a fight out of the blue and drag innocent people into it.
"It's people like you that make this world rotten."
'Ouch.' Alice thought. 'But as much as those words sound harsh, it's true. That guy's a lunatic. If everyone with power turns out to be like that then the world will definitely fall.'
"Justin, know that a day will come when you will come to reject your actions." Devon said and disappeared, teleporting out of that vicinity.
"And I long for that day where I, Justin, will have the leisure of feeling of regret." Justin said to no one in particular and the building behind him collapsed. "Heh!" He scoffed. "Too bad that day will never come."
He said flew out of there.
Alice lost her consciousness in the interval of the teleportation. It was like a looming darkness fell over her shoulder, causing her to feel overwhelming exhaustion.
Maybe it was because she used power that wasn't hers and she was paying the price for it. Her body felt the strain of it all.
In any case, when she woke up, she found herself behind bars.
But, it wasn't a usual cell. The bed was very wide; there was furniture, a nice comfortable couch, and even a dressing table.
It looked like a hotel room. So luxurious.
"Did I perchance die? Am I in heaven?" She asked and she heard a man's response from behind the bars.
"Really? Is your imagination of Heaven behind bars?" He asked and she subconsciously answered,
"Well, not really. But if there's a comfortable bed and enough to eat, I'd say yeah. Oh, and lots of fried chicken too." She explained and the person standing at the other side of the bars stifled a laugh.
"You're quite simple and easy to please." He said. "But unfortunately, this is not heaven. You're being Imprisoned for hiding your abilities as an awakened."
"An awakened?" Alice asked as she got down from the bed.
She approached the bars.
"But I'm not an awakened though." She said and reached out to touch the bars which promoted the voice to warn her in a haste.
"Don't touch the bars." He yelled.
But her brain had already sent the command to her hands and she touched them. But surprisingly, to the guy on the other side, it didn't do anything.
"What? Why shouldn't I touch it?" Alice asked.
"Ah, fascinating." He said with an amused tone. "If an awakened touched those bars while closed, they would get electrocuted and faint. And if an average person touched it, they would instantly die."
"What?!" Alice immediately let go and looked at her hands. "Why would you put me in a cage with such things? I could've died."
"But you didn't." He pointed out.
"Maybe the mana died." Alice said. It was a good explanation. "Anyway, I'm not an awakened."
"How sure are you? From what we've seen, you hold enough power to be an A-class awakened and above. How can you say you're not an awakened?"
His voice sounded friendly but she could tell from his tone that he was cunning.
Thanks to the bars, she could not see anything beyond her cell but she could faintly see the structure of the person standing behind it.
And from what she could tell, he was a guy a few inches taller than her, slim, not too muscular and... Calculative. It only took a few exchanges of words with him for her to tell that he wasn't someone simple.
He was waiting for her response, but she never gave it and instead sought to find out who he was.
"Wait, who are you anyway?" She asked.
"Quite late to ask, isn't it, Miss Alice?" He said, exposing the fact that he knew who she was.
"Well, it's only fair that I get to know who the person that's been so 'kind' as to explain my situation to me, is."
"Then, does that make me your benefactor?" He asked but she gave him a disgruntled look, causing him to laugh.
'He definitely isn't on the muscular side.' She thought.
"Well, I'll tell you who I am. After all, we'll be seeing each other a lot once you get out of this place." He said and she nodded. "I am..."
He paused, suddenly feeling a presence approach, and like the wind, he faded away from her sight.
"Hey," she called but she could no longer sense his presence. "He's gone." She muttered.
Rather, another replaced his presence and stood in front of her.
"Hey, where did that guy go?" She asked and the person standing in front of her immediately ran away and announced, "The criminal is awake."