Weak

Jessica soon regained control over her body, realizing what she had just done. Though before she could show any sort of regret or apologize, the young man's body faded away into black mist, joining the other debris in the sky.

Soon after, the road that had stopped in the middle of nowhere gathered the black debris in the air that rapidly transformed into a long straight road. In just a few seconds, the road became so long that she couldn't even see the end. While there was fog, it was incredibly light, so it didn't really impair her vision.

Jessica dropped the double-handled katana before putting her head in her hands. If there was any doubt before, then she was directly faced with a rather undeniable truth that she was not in control of her own body. At least not fully.

Though that wasn't her main concern, right now that is. She felt an overwhelming amount of guilt for technically killing the man that she hardly knew. A strong headache came on as she closed her eyes tightly.

She took in heavy breaths as she tried to calm herself down, but in the end, found herself unable to. Realistically, the young man's death wasn't really her fault, not to mention she hardly even knew him.

And it wasn't as though Jessica didn't understand this, contrary to what someone watching her might've believed. In fact, she understood this pretty clearly. However, the trauma from running away as her best friend was crushed, and the screams that came from him.

Including screams as he begged her to save him.

In the end, it wasn't even really the fact that she killed him that weighed on Jessica's consciousness, but that it reminded her of that time. It was a time that made her incredibly sad. She desperately wanted to just forget but was unable to.

Jessica let out groans of pain before slamming her head into the tarmac. Her fingers ran through her hair as she was essentially throwing a full baby tantrum.

After a while, she gradually fell silent, just lying down on the ground cradling her head.

Jessica slowly lifted up her head, looking at the sky in a daze for a while.

"Why... does it keep happening? I don't understand. What am I doing wrong?"

She covered her face and scratched into her skin slowly.

"Is it... really my fault?"

She held out her hands, looking at them intently.

"Am I just a monster?"

While she was having her moment, figures in the distance began closing in. As they came closer, it became clear that they were all gray with all their features and clothes being various different shades. It made them appear even blurrier than they actually were.

It appeared that even if Jessica wasn't willing to move on to see the trial, it didn't mean that they would wait.

Despite all having humanoid figures, they were faceless, as the young man had said before. They were just one step closer to being human compared to mannequins, though it ironically made them seem less human than a mannequin.

Noticing them, Jessica didn't appear to have a trace of fear. Perhaps most in her position wouldn't be too fearful because of the warning. However, she wasn't exactly a cold or unfeeling person by any means.

She slowly got up, taking in a deep breath while watching the crowd of faceless gradually approaching her.

Completely unfazed by them, only a neutral frown remained on her face.

All of them slowly went forward, suddenly moving normally before transitioning to slow once more. It was almost as though someone was changing the playback speed at random intervals.

This strange scene was lost on her though, as she suddenly lunged forward. Her hair in a disheveled mess, Jessica grabbed onto the closest faceless' shoulder before shaking the thing violently.

"What's wrong with me?"

Despite not having an expression, the faceless appeared taken aback, holding its head back almost like it had a whiff of bad body odor. Though Jessica simply pulled the thing closer and leaned in close.

"Am I a monster? Is there a monster inside me?"

The faceless looked at her quizzically, despite not really having the features to do so. It was as though it was attempting to ask how it was supposed to answer the question with no mouth.

Though Jessica completely ignored anything logical, and slammed her forehead into the faceless, before screaming at it like an abusive parent.

"TELL ME!"

All of the faceless appeared rather hesitant, turning their faces towards each other as though asking one another what was happening.

Jessica grabbed the faceless and lifted him up in the air.

"Why won't you tell me?"

It was at this point that the faceless appeared to get quite nervous, flailing its limbs around. As for Jessica, her eyes were unfocused, seemingly in a daze. She parted her lips ever so slightly before speaking softly.

"What am I supposed to do? I don't know. Please tell me."

The faceless responded as it always had. By saying nothing. Eventually, Jessica simply let go, before looking at the ground lost in thought.

In the end, the faceless appeared quite reluctant to push forward any longer. They took steps backward, slowly backing off. And eventually, they turned and walked away, unwilling to bother with whatever Jessica's deal was supposed to be.

For a moment, many dead bodies flashed by Jessica's eyes. They all came from people that she knew. And were ones that had died either in front of her or were somehow related.

"Maybe I'm just a monster."

Originally, she believed that those were simply coincidences and that there wasn't much she could've done about it. However, it just kept happening over and over again. It almost seemed like the longer it continued on, the more involved she ended up being.

From just an accident unrelated to her, to actively pushing her best friend into danger, and even further just grabbing onto a blade and killing someone.

She furrowed her brows, bringing out a katana and tightly holding onto the handle. Her eyes intently studied the blade, in particular, the faint reflection that it had. Slowly, her expression hardened.

"...No. There must be a monster inside of me. It has to be taking control of my body. The issue must really be-"

Jessica clenched the handle tightly until it became trembling. Her eyes closed tightly as she took a deep breath. After exhaling, she whispered the words to herself.

"I'm too weak."

Despite the whirlwind of negative emotions she felt, it had come because she thought about what had given her this trauma. Taking it a step forward, after evaluating each scenario, she was somehow threatened, one way or another.

For whatever reason, it appeared that she recently gained the ability to wrest control over this strange will within her. Allowing her to understand everything better.

While Jessica had no idea if it made sense, if her life was never in danger, then maybe the foreign will would leave her alone. Although that sounded very far from a solution, at this point she needed any direction that could possibly have been thought of.

She opened her eyes, widening them a bit further than normal. A serious expression came over her as her breathing grew more aggressive but also controlled. As Jessica began walking down the path, the third trial appeared to come after her.

The crows that used to just be blots in the sky gradually became clearer. They took a distinct pattern, circling around with surprising coordination making it seem like the sky itself was rotating.

Jessica looked up at the sky with an eerily calm expression.

Her breathing was still incredibly aggressive but followed a rhythm. It further made her bloodshot eyes look even more red. She waited patiently for the crows to come closer.

However, she didn't have to wait long.

The crows didn't come all at once, but a wave of a dozen approached her from pretty much every angle, low and high.

Jessica's pupils rapidly moved, as did her head, noting down the position of each and every crow. After that, she did probably the most insane thing that an unskilled person could do, and closed her eyes.

Putting full faith in her memory, ability to use a katana, and judging the speed of the crows when this was literally her first time attempting something like this was incredibly reckless.

She grabbed onto the handle as hard as possible, putting incredibly large amounts of strain on her wrist, swinging it faster than the general conceivable limits.

Almost a dozen crows suddenly fell down powerless, blood spilling out of them. However, one crow grazed Jessica's side, ripping a fresh wound that spilled blood. Though considering the situation, she performed incredibly well.

In fact, it was probably too well.