The air reeked of sweat and blood. The alley behind the school was alive with fists slamming into flesh, grunts of pain, and the sickening sound of someone spitting out a tooth.
Souta stopped at the edge of the chaos, his hands in his pockets.
It was them. The same bastards who had jumped him yesterday. But now, they were the ones getting torn apart.
Poetic, really.
For a moment, he just stood there, watching.
"What do you feel?" the voice asked.
Souta didn’t answer.
Because he didn’t know.
---
A Lion Among Jackals
Then, one of them noticed him.
Riku, his face bloodied, looked up from where he was kneeling. He smirked. "Look who decided to show up. Here to watch us suffer?"
His voice dripped with mockery, but his eyes held something else. Fear.
Souta took a step forward. The fighting slowed. Then stopped.
One of the guys who had been winning turned to him, sneering. "What? You wanna take their place?"
Souta said nothing.
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Another step.
The guy scoffed, cracked his knuckles, and lunged—his fist colliding with Souta’s jaw, snapping his head to the side. Blood splattered onto the pavement.
The crowd gasped.
Souta… didn’t move.
Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t even wipe the blood off his lips.
His head slowly turned back, his eyes cold, dead. And then—
He spoke.
"If you're gonna hit me… at least make it hurt."
Silence.
The guy’s cocky grin wavered. His fingers twitched. He had the look of a man who just realized he made a mistake.
Souta stepped closer.
"Tell me… do you feel strong right now?"
The guy clenched his jaw.
Souta’s voice dropped to a whisper. "Or do you feel like an animal that bit off more than it could chew?"
And then—
At the same time—
He and the voice spoke.
"Because right now… the only difference between you and prey… is how long I decide to stand here."
A chill ran through the air.
The guy stumbled back. The entire alley was silent, the weight of those words crushing the atmosphere.
Souta turned his gaze to Riku.
Riku, the bastard who had beaten him to the ground just yesterday, looked small now. Like a child who just realized monsters were real.
The guys who had been fighting? They weren’t even looking at each other anymore.
Because the real fight?
It was over.
---
What It Means To Be Feared
Souta spat out the blood in his mouth, wiped his chin, and turned away.
"Are you done?" the voice asked.
"Yeah."
"And what did you learn?"
Souta exhaled through his nose.
"That strength isn’t about who throws the first punch. It’s about who walks away knowing they never had to."
The voice chuckled.
"Good. Because the moment you start chasing fear… is the moment you prove you don’t have it."
---
The Riddle That Ends The Fight
"A dog barks the loudest be
fore it runs.
A man shouts the hardest before he begs.
And a coward fights the most before he learns to kneel."
