"He's such a troublemaker…"

"How the heck did he do that?"

"I heard that the museum lost a sword and a book…"

"No way! Are they going to sue him for it?"

"Ha! As if he could even pay for it!"

Juin was crouching down on a floor in a pitched-black environment when he heard those sentences. For some reason, he felt his mind to be unfocused and blurry. He could not recognize who spoke what, but he knew those voices. His classmates. The field trip.

Juin started to vaguely remember it. He was at the museum earlier… But how did he end up here? He tried to call for help, but he could not find his voice. It had always been that way, as far as he could remember.

"Hold my hand…" a voice appeared from within the depth of the darkness.

Juin looked up. He could not see anyone; he could not even see his own hands.

"Hold my hand…" the voice repeated itself. It was demanding, but Juin felt that he could not reject it, or something bad might happen to him.

"I'll take you to heights you've never known before… I'll make you strong," said the unfamiliar voice again.

Upon hearing that there was a possibility of him being strong, Juin's eyes lit up in the darkness, and at the moment, a pair of bright red eyes appeared right in front of him. Juin felt an unknown pressure being exerted on him, and he then moved his gaze down slightly.

For some reason, he felt that he was in the presence of something mighty with a regal, overbearing aura.

That was when he saw it.

A pair of hands, palms up, covered in a soft, red glow.

Juin put his palms up and looked down at them, even though he could not see his hands. He then turned them over and slowly reached out for those hands.

The moment he touched them, he felt a sharp pain on his cheek and heard someone say in an urgent tone, "Wake up!"

Another voice, a voice that he had never heard before, demanded, "Wake up now, you sh*thead!"

Juin felt that the second voice was scarier and that he had to obey him or something bad would happen, and all of a sudden, a bright line of light appeared in his view.

"He's waking up!"

Juin heard a gentle voice saying that as he slowly opened his eyes. The bright light on the ceiling made it hard for him to focus, and he turned his head from side to side as he tried to get his sight back.

"Juin! Juin, can you hear me?"

"Nn…" Juin raised a hand to cover his eyes, and when his sight was finally back, he saw his friend there. "Max… What happened?"

"I should be asking you that. They found you in that locked room, unconscious! What happened inside?" Max asked worriedly as she placed a hand on Juin's forehead, trying to see if he was having any fever.

"I…" Juin wanted to tell her what he saw, but he did not know if it was a dream or reality. "It's a dream, right?" he mumbled as he sat up. He then looked at his hands that were placed on his thighs. Turning them over, he looked at both his palms. Nothing. Not even a scratch on them.

"What?" Max asked, confused by his statement.

Juin shook his head. He then noticed that he was surrounded by a lot of people; his teachers, his classmates, and a couple of uniformed guards.

"What…" He gulped as he met their stares; curiosity, anger, frustration. It was like he could see their emotions running through their eyes.

"Danger!" A voice in his head warned. This time, the voice was a lot different from the other times. This voice was… stronger. More demanding. Juin immediately stood up on reflex, and his breathing quickened even though he did not know what sort of danger he was in yet.

He felt dizzy all of a sudden and had to sit back down on the bench. He could hear snickers and saw some of his classmates smirking at him.

"Wuss…"

"Weak ass…"

"Can't believe he's our age..."

He could hear them clearly even though they were whispering, and his face turned red from embarrassment. He wanted to be brave and strong, but his body just refused to listen to his mind.

"You can't even stand without falling…" Juin thought to himself angrily as he clenched his fists.

"Juin, are you alright? Did you hit your head earlier?" Max asked worriedly.

Juin looked at her and blinked a couple of times. He then shook his head as he slowly stood up. "No… I don't… think so. I can't remember."

"Kid, what were you doing in there?" one of the uniformed guards asked in a stern voice. He was even bigger than Max's boyfriend, and he seemed furious for some reason. "Did you know how much trouble you are in?!"

"I-I…" Juin stuttered as he took a step back, unconsciously hiding behind Max. He glanced at Patrick and John, who both made a slit-throat gesture, and then back at the guard. "I-I was curious…" he said in a low voice as he looked at the guard, whose features were so common that Juin would have had trouble separating him from the others, if he were in a sea of average-looking people.

"An extremely important ancient sword and a book went missing from the room we found you in. Have you seen them?" another guard asked in a low threatening tone. This one looked more menacing compared to the first guard. In fact, with the way his muscles were bulging out of his uniform, and those veins on his forehead, he looked more like a hooligan than a museum guard, and Juin did not feel comfortable with the way the guard glared at him.

Juin was about to say something when he noticed that the second guard's neck seemed to have a small bump, and that small bump appeared to be… moving?

"Urgh…" Juin groaned in disgust when that bump moved around. He looked around, but no one seemed to notice it. "Was it my imagination?" Juin thought to himself as he gulped. After all, it would not be the first time his mind played tricks on him.

"I'm asking you a question, boy. Have you seen the missing sword and book?" the second guard asked in an even angrier tone, which startled his companion.

"Robert," the first guard placed his hand on his colleague's shoulder and said, "he's just a kid."

"He was the only one in the room," the second guard growled.

"I'm sorry, guys." Mr. Smith took over as he looked at the two guards. He could care less about the kid, but if anything were to happen to him during this field trip, it would be his a*s that would be in deep sh*t. "You've seen him. He's thin as a stick. I don't think that he took it. Look at him. A book maybe, but where could he have hidden a thing like a sword on him? Besides, didn't you call the cops earlier? I think it's better to let the cops do their stuff."

The two guards ignored Mr. Smith and looked at Juin, and their sharp gazes sent shivers down his spine.

"I-I really don't know anything… I just went in to take a few photos…" Juin murmured with his shoulders hunched over slightly. He hated it when people looked at him like that.

"This one?" The first guard showed Juin the camera.

"Yes!" Juin sighed in relief. If anything had happened to the camera, he might as well just kill himself. After all, Patrick and John would have killed him for damaging the camera anyway. At least this way, he would be able to choose a less painful death.

"What the f*ck?! I'm stuck to this sh*tass coward?"

When Juin heard that condescending voice, he could vaguely remember hearing it from somewhere, although he could not pinpoint where… or whose voice was it. He looked around, but he could not place the voice to any of his classmates present.

"Kid?"

The first guard called out.

Upon hearing him, Juin looked at him, and he quickly picked up the camera. He then went through the photos… but he soon noticed that something was amiss. Everything that he took… They were all gone. All the photos.

Scratching his head, he wondered if he had actually fallen unconscious from the moment he entered the room. He clearly remembered that he took those photos.

"I think… I might have dreamt that I took photos in there…" he murmured as he allowed the guards to look at the content of the camera.

"How are we going to answer the boss?" the second guard asked the first guard as he glared at Juin.

When Juin saw his eyes, where the pupils turned into slits for a moment, he immediately looked away in fear.

"It's not on him. I'll handle it," the first guard said. He then looked at Mr. Smith and said, "Since we can't find anything on him, we will let him go for now. But we might need your cooperation in the near future. And I'll talk to the cops later. They might look for the kid as well."

"Sure," Mr. Smith said before giving the guards his name cards. "You can find us there," he added as he pointed to the address of the high school, which was printed on the name cards.