One of the gymnasium lights was out and flickering on and off.
A chilling pressure hung in the air, making it difficult to breathe.
Today's trial had only one protagonist: Hiroki Kanbara, a first-year high school student guilty of killing a spirit.
But what truly alarmed the student council weren't the "spirit killings," but rather his actions "for his sister."
The boy was bound by a rune array. His uniform was torn and he had scratches on his shoulders. A corner of his soul seemed to have been ripped open, revealing a charred crack.
Mio gasped. "Is his soul already this badly damaged?"
White Raven said in a low voice, "This means it's not his first encounter with spirits."
The boy gritted his teeth and remained silent, but he clenched his fists until they turned white.
Li stepped forward, seeing for the first time someone "corrupted by the mark of sin yet still maintaining their will" up close.
It was an indescribable feeling—like seeing a kind of courage about to crumble.
Bai Ya spoke. "Kamihara Hiroki, first year, class three—do you admit that last night in the old gymnasium warehouse, you dispersed or even killed a low-level spirit?"
The boy looked up, his eyes hard. "I admit it. But I don't regret it."
"Why?" Bai Ya asked.
The boy stopped, his throat feeling like it was being choked. "If I hadn't done it, my sister would be gone."
The courtroom fell silent for a moment.
Bai Ya whispered, "Li, see the truth about him."
Li nodded, took a deep breath, and looked up.
The next instant, the whole world seemed to tear apart.
Li saw:
A small, thin middle school girl being chased by a shadowy spirit.
Late at night in an empty school warehouse, the spirit's claws were about to choke her.
The boy rushed in without even putting on his shoes.
He didn't use psychic power; rather, he used his own body to ram into the spirit.
He knelt in pain but held onto the dark figure, pressing it down onto a pile of talismans.
He picked up a broken pair of mirrors, cut his palm, and pressed his blood onto the talismans to activate the barrier.
The spirit let out a piercing scream and was forcibly purified.
In the final scene, the boy held his sister and cried as if he were about to suffocate.
"I protected you... I finally... did it..."
That wasn't a sin.
It was "protection bought with his own soul."
Li suddenly opened his eyes, and his back was completely soaked.
Bai Ya noticed his tremor. "You saw it?"
His throat tightened and he was unable to utter a sound. He could only nod.
A sharp pain gripped his chest, like being struck by a heavy object.
For the first time, he truly felt that some sins are not evil but love.
The Boy's True "Sin"
The rules of judgment don't consider motives; they only consider actions.
Killing a spirit is still killing a spirit.
But Li's gaze remained fixed on the boy.
He suddenly noticed a very fine purple mark on the boy's soul.
It wasn't a scar left by the crack; it was like some kind of "force that once interfered from the outside."
Li stared at the mark and suddenly heard a whisper so soft it was almost imperceptible:
"Lend me your power to protect her."
"The price...we'll talk about it later..."
Li's face instantly turned pale.
That wasn't the boy's own power.
It was something a spirit—or perhaps a human—had "exchanged" with him.
And that purple mark...
It was extremely similar to the voice that came from the crack yesterday—the "whisper of the judge."
This child was caught up in a much larger conspiracy.
Bai Ya raised his gavel. "According to the school's rules, he committed the sin of killing a spirit. His soul must undergo purification."
"Wait." Li interrupted the trial for the first time.
The entire room froze.
Bai Ya raised an eyebrow. "Li?"
Li clenched his fist. His voice trembled yet remained firm.
"His actions were a sin, but his motive wasn't. He didn't act maliciously, but he was forced to become the one who bore the burden."
Mio echoed, "He rushed to save people without treating his own wounds. If someone like that is purified, their soul will be severed."
Bai Ya remained silent.
This was the first time a member of the trial had questioned the "formal judgment."
He turned to Li and asked, "Then what do you think his sin is?"
Li took a deep breath.
"His sin is 'having no choice.'"
The boy raised his head at these words.
Just as White Crow was about to pass judgment, the purple mark on the boy's chest suddenly began to glow.
Mio cried out, "No! It's external interference!"
A black mist exploded from the boy's soul—not his spiritual energy, but an odd, cold, consuming force.
The boy knelt in pain, struggling to grab Li's wrist.
"No, don't purify me! That voice will come and take my sister away!"
Li's hand trembled.
He suddenly heard that familiar whisper echo within him again:
"Save someone? Judgment? Who are you?"
"Li, you know...you'll soon be like him, won't you?"
Li's mind went blank as if someone had pressed on his heart.
The terrified boy cried out, "Please, save me, Witness!"
The next second, his soul spiraled out of control and turned into black smoke, rushing toward the judgment array.
Mio yelled, "His soul is going to explode!"
White Crow drew his short blade, preparing to forcibly sever the soul. At that very moment, Li rushed forward and grabbed the rampaging soul with his bare hands.
His fingers burned red from the soul's heat, but he gritted his teeth and suppressed the black mist forcefully.
"I can see you're not evil.
So I won't let you be taken away!"
In that instant, the black mist stopped.
The boy's eyes widened as he looked at Li.
Then, as if his soul had been forced back into his body, he fainted.
The courtroom was deathly silent.
Bai Ya looked at Li, and a complex, wary expression appeared in his eyes for the first time.
"Li, you didn't just use the abilities of an ordinary witness."
Li gasped for breath as if he had just been rescued from drowning.
But only one thought occupied his mind:
This boy wasn't the only one being manipulated.
That whisper was closer to him than he had imagined.
The courtroom lights were on, and the student council members dispersed one by one.
The air still carried the lingering smell of the "teenager rampage," as if charred fragments of a soul remained.
Li sat on the steps behind the judge's bench, his hands still trembling slightly.
Mio handed him a bottle of water. "Are you really alright?"
Li shook his head; his silence was unusual for him.
It wasn't that he didn't want to talk; it was that he didn't know how. That whisper seemed to crawl out from the marrow of his bones.
Bai Ya inspected the rune array. As he crouched down and touched a corner of the ground with his fingertips, his brow instantly furrowed.
"The barrier here is burned through."
Mio: "Huh? But we didn't use any fire-type spiritual energy."
Bai Ya's gaze shifted to Li.
Li froze. "I...?"
Bai Ya's tone was calm, but the pressure was immense.
"When you were suppressing the boy's soul, for a fleeting moment, your spiritual pressure wasn't 'human.'"
Li's heart felt like it had been punched.
"Your demeanor just now didn't seem like that of a mere 'witness.'"
Li's throat tightened. "I don't know why..."
Bai Ya stared at him for a long time before finally uttering four words:
"This isn't normal."
Suddenly, the emergency medical team rushed in.
"Vice President Shirai! Hiroki Kanbara is awake, but he keeps repeating the same sentence."
Everyone froze instantly.
Ryou stood up. "What did he say?"
The emergency team swallowed hard. "He said—"
"That voice...it's still laughing."
It said it wasn't me who died; it was the person you'll judge."
Mio's face turned deathly pale.
Ryou felt a chill run down her spine.
The moment he spoke those words, it felt as if a "soul current" had struck Li's mind.
His vision went black.
He saw a corridor.
A dark figure stood there.
It raised its head.
Li's heart skipped a beat.
That face...
— was almost identical to his own.
But there was no light.
No pupils.
Only a blindingly bright "eye of judgment."
Li gasped and jolted back to reality.
Mio quickly supported him. "Li! You look like you've seen a ghost."
Li shook his head, unable to utter a single coherent word.
The last words the dark figure had spoken to him were in his own voice:
"If judgment cannot make a choice,
I shall take your place."
Just as Li caught his breath, Bai Ya's phone rang.
He glanced at it, paused for a second, then continued.
"The student dark web has updated," he said.
Li and Mio leaned closer.
The new post was short and contained only a blurry photo of Li's eyes glowing as he suppressed the boy's soul.
Below was a line of text:
"Judgment Game · First Stage."
Tonight at midnight, the true judge will choose the first "sinner."
Mio's face turned green instantly. "Damn it! Who took this picture? Who uploaded it?"
Bai Ya stared at the point of light in the photo.
That light wasn't an ordinary psionic energy reflection.
It was the prelude to the activation of the Eye of Judgment.
Li's stomach sank.
Someone was watching him.
Someone was imitating him.
Someone was deciding "who the sinner is" for him.
And he had just saved a manipulated child.
A commotion erupted from the emergency room.
"He's awake again?!" Hold him down! A note? What note?"
A paramedic rushed out, holding a crumpled, sweat-soaked sticky note.
"He suddenly pulled it out of his pocket and said he wanted to give it to 'Witness Li.'"
Li's heart skipped a beat as he took it.
The handwriting on the note was shaky and almost illegible, but it contained only one sentence:
"Beware of your shadow."
The next second, the note tore in two, turned to black ash, and vanished.
Mio was completely flustered. "Damn—this is definitely not an ordinary spirit!"
Li looked up, his palms still burning.
He finally confirmed one thing: the being controlling the boy and leaving purple markings wasn't a spirit or a student.
It was something of the same origin as him.