FI CH 5

Chapter 5: The Out-of-Control Guide (V)

“What a shame. Looks like I missed quite the show.” Kurosawa had a smile on his face, pretending he’d just arrived.

Bai Hua couldn’t be bothered to call him out on it and simply shoved Jing He’s fragment of consciousness toward him.

Kurosawa had just begun to act when the surroundings suddenly shifted again. The shoreline vanished, the forest disappeared, and they were back on the original street.

It was clear—Jing He had withdrawn her mental landscape. Rather than continue clashing with them, she’d rather abandon a portion of her own consciousness.

The situation had veered completely off course from their original plan. Whether this turn of events was a good thing or something worse was hard to say.

“She’s trying to run,” Bai Hua said.

Kurosawa replied in a neutral tone, “Because you scared her.”

“Sorry,” Bai Hua admitted.

He knew he’d disrupted Kurosawa’s plan. He hadn’t fulfilled his role as bait before taking action on his own.

“No need to apologize. I’m not blaming you. You actually did quite well.” Kurosawa glanced at the fragment of consciousness in Bai Hua’s hand.

“She won’t get far. You’re capable of tracking her,” Bai Hua said.

Once a mental consciousness was forcefully ejected from its owner’s mental landscape, it was tantamount to a form of self-mutilation. But in a life-or-death battle, it was sometimes the best option.

Very few knew that a residual mental fragment—before it completely vanished—still held significant strategic value.

It was no surprise a Guide would know this. But hearing it from a Sentinel was a different story—either he was well-read or extremely battle-hardened.

Kurosawa dismissed the former outright. Judging from this man’s personality, the latter seemed far more likely.

The look he gave Bai Hua was now tinged with curiosity and something deeper.

“Looks like you know quite a bit about Guides too…”

Bai Hua said flatly, “I’ve just dealt with a few of them before, that’s all…”

Kurosawa dropped his teasing tone. He reached out and took hold of Jing He’s mental fragment, channeling his abilities to read her residual thoughts. But even as he worked, he spoke to Bai Hua: “You’re actually quite impressive. You’ve made me want to start taking things seriously…”

Bai Hua wasn’t sure what Kurosawa meant by “seriously,” and he didn’t intend to ask—nor did he want to interrupt his work.

It didn’t take long for Kurosawa to extract the information he needed. Jing He’s remaining mental fragment began to fade away.

“One o’clock direction^[1],” Kurosawa reported. “There’s a river there. She’s planning to escape into the water.”

Bai Hua immediately moved to give chase.

But Kurosawa stopped him.

“Wait. Her mental form is a fish—she’ll be stronger in the water. You won’t be able to catch her once she’s submerged.”

“Then I’ll stop her before she gets in.”

“It’s too late. The two stationed outside can’t hold her. We’ll split up. I’ll head downstream—there’s a bridge. Try to drive her toward it. We’ll trap her from both sides.”

“Got it.”

Guides may not excel at hand-to-hand combat, but their intelligence gathering and tactical analysis were unmatched. Especially since a Guide’s mental form was directly tied to their core ability, once it was understood, it became the key to developing effective countermeasures.

So Bai Hua had no reason to doubt Kurosawa’s strategy.

The two of them split up immediately.

Kurosawa had already read from Jing He’s memory the terrain map of the area. That was what made Guides so terrifying—they could seize and absorb everything from a person: what they saw, heard, felt, and thought.

He took a shortcut straight to the bridge, completely unconcerned about Bai Hua’s side of the mission.

And just as Kurosawa predicted, by the time Bai Hua reached the riverbank, Jing He had already broken through the outer mental barrier and fled into the water.

It was pitch-dark by the river, nearly impossible to see. But that didn’t hinder Bai Hua at all.

He closed his eyes, listening carefully to the flow of water. She hadn’t gone far—some traces of her scent still lingered on the stems of grass near the bank, not yet dispersed.

As soon as he caught a distinct sound, he leapt into the river without hesitation.

Jing He had completely lost herself.

When she’d been betrayed by the one she loved most, her mind could no longer think straight—she was consumed by one thought: kill.

She wanted to slaughter every couple she saw, to soothe her shattered, wounded heart.

Because of her abilities, she’d been treated like a monster since she was young. She had tried so hard to live like a normal person, but it had all been in vain.

Even the slightest contact with someone would let her hear the voices in their heart—those raw, cruel, and malicious thoughts full of judgment and lust.

And through them, she came to understand: the human heart is the most wicked thing of all.

So when that boy appeared, it was the first time she ever saw hope—because she couldn’t read his emotions.

From his sincere and warm smile, she felt his care and affection. She truly believed he had come to save her. She trusted him, gave him everything she had.

But in the end, what she received in return… was the sight of him holding another girl in his arms, intimately and lovingly.

She heard him whisper to that girl:

“Everyone said she was special, so I just wanted to try it out.”

She heard him say:

“I wasn’t serious about her. It was just a game.”

She even heard him say:

“After we bonded, she wouldn’t be able to do anything to me. And she didn’t even know she was a Guide…”

She suddenly recalled that chaotic night—the moment when she couldn’t help herself, kissing him, craving a bond with all her heart.

It was only then that she realized—it hadn’t been love. It had been instinct.

So that’s what it was. The silence, the inability to hear his emotions…It wasn’t a miracle.

That had been his true heart.

So—She killed her Sentinel with her own hands. Then she killed the girl he had been with.

That was the first time she used her Guide abilities to kill—using her mental landscape to craft a hopeless, suffocating hell for the two of them.

It must have been that incident that alerted the Sentinel-Guide Association. Not long after, they began hunting her down.

By then, her mind had already collapsed. She often didn’t even know what she was doing anymore. Sometimes, she couldn’t even feel what it meant to be alive.

Later, a pair of Sentinels and Guides found her. They told her they wanted to bring her back—that they could offer her a safe place to stay.

She had been moved. She wanted to go with them.

But when she saw them showing even the slightest intimacy in front of her, she lost control again.

She could no longer believe in love.

So with cruel intent, she made them test each other inside her mental landscape. She cast mental veils^[2] over their vision so that when they looked at one another, they no longer saw their beloved, but the face of an enemy.

Would they still recognize each other by instinct alone, when the one in front of them no longer looked familiar?

They couldn’t.

And so, just as she wished, they began to kill each other.

She should’ve been happy. Because finally—she wasn’t the only one blind to love.

She laughed. She laughed uncontrollably.

And then, she cried.

Later, four more Sentinel-Guides came after her. When they saw the brutal deaths of their comrades, they began to attack her in turn.

She never meant to kill innocent people. But in the end, she did.

Even though there was still a faint voice in her subconscious begging her to stop—she just couldn’t control herself anymore.

She knew those people would never let her off so easily. She would be hunted for the rest of her life.

Maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad. She had really thought that.

But when she encountered a Sentinel who could forcibly break through her mental barriers with a defense shield—she panicked. At that moment, she became terrified of dying.

She had never met a Sentinel so powerful. It was instinct that made her flee in fear.

But that terrifying Sentinel still chased her—relentlessly, right on her heels.

Why are you chasing me?
Why won’t you let me go?
I’ve got nowhere left to run. Do you really have to force me to die?

Jing He didn’t realize that she’d already walked straight into a trap. Little by little, she was being driven downstream.

As she neared the bridge, she suddenly dove deeper into the water. This section of the river was intricate and full of crisscrossing currents, but there was one branch that led out to the sea.

She knew—if she could reach that route, she could escape the Sentinel. All she had to do was use a few tricks to throw him off her trail, and she’d be free.

She was too focused on what was behind her… and completely overlooked what lay ahead.

Just as she was about to break through to the open sea—a net of mental power suddenly appeared before her, locking her in place and dragging her up from the depths.

Eyes wide with shock, she stared at the handsome young Guide in front of her.

She had completely forgotten—this Sentinel wasn’t acting alone.

Kurosawa gazed coldly at her and said:

“Got you.”

(To be continued…)