Full Consumed
The two stood still, eyes locked, analyzing each other's movements beneath the burning noon sun. Around them, the sound of panicked students echoed across the campus, blending with the tense atmosphere that weighed heavy like a storm cloud. Dust floated in the air. A breeze swept past, but neither moved.
Ron's chest rose and fell slowly. His fists clenched tight as his own Nent—Cage—manifested around him. Invisible chains coiled around his limbs, flickering into sight like ghostly iron before fading. His body felt heavy, burdened not by the chains, but by what they represented: his lifelong struggle against the control of his parents, the confinement of expectations, and the lingering fear of never breaking free.
A hollow smile stretched across his lips. "...Take back what you said about my grandpa being proud of me," he said coldly, voice trembling beneath the weight of his emotions.
The girl across from him tilted her head slightly, her grey eyes dull yet unreadable beneath her long dark-blue hair. She remained silent.
Ron's voice cracked. "If Grandpa saw me today—this present day—he'd be disappointed. For not facing my fear… for letting myself stay caged… for letting them control me! Why do you care?! Why do you tell me lies?!"
The frustration boiled over into rage. He screamed, the chains of his Nent rattling and tightening around him, before snapping outward in a burst of power. He charged, his killing intent tangible in the air, like an iron wall pressing toward the mysterious girl.
As he approached, she sighed, summoning her own Nent: Chase. A faint silhouette of a shadowy runner appeared behind her, mirroring her posture as it shimmered with silver lines of speed. Her tired grey eyes narrowed.
She wore a sleek black uniform, marked with an insignia Ron couldn't recognize—a symbol foreign to him, unfamiliar, threatening.
She dodged his first punch effortlessly, her body moving like water, bending and weaving through the fury of his chained strikes. The air crackled with the sound of whipping metal as Ron's invisible chains lashed out, each failed strike gouging into the earth or smashing into stone pillars.
"Fine. If you want it… you'll have it," she murmured, her voice cold yet resigned.
But Ron wasn't listening. His berserk state deepened. The chains wrapped tighter around him, his Nent consuming his sanity. With a guttural roar, he tore through the school's front gate, collapsing iron and concrete in an explosion of debris. Screams erupted as rubble fell toward fleeing students.
The mysterious girl's eyes widened. "No!" she shouted, immediately leaping forward. Her Nent's silhouette accelerated, and she blurred across the courtyard, grabbing three students and rolling them to safety as a beam of steel crashed inches behind them.
In that heartbeat of distraction, Ron was upon her.
His fist swung down—a monstrous blow wreathed in dark shadows, his face now hidden beneath an abyss of black, his eyes reduced to wild white scribbles that danced erratically.
"...You bast—!" she hissed, realizing too late.
A blur of pink intercepted the punch. A second girl appeared between them, her short pink hair glowing faintly beneath the sun, her tired crimson eyes half-lidded yet unwavering. She raised her arm, catching Ron's punch with a shocking clang that rippled through the ground.
The force pushed her back a step, but she held.
"Damn it, Ron… I hate being the cleaner for berserk Nent users," she muttered, voice heavy with fatigue. Without warning, she twisted her stance and drove her palm into Ron's chest, releasing a pulse of energy that hurled him back into the wreckage of the school yard.
Ron crashed through a stone bench, rolling across the dirt before skidding to a halt. He groaned, chains twitching around him like serpents.
The pink-haired girl cracked her neck and sighed. "He's deeper than last time."
The mysterious girl with blue hair stepped beside her, catching her breath. "...Thanks, Mina."
"Don't thank me yet," Mina grumbled, brushing dust off her jacket. "He's not done."
True to her words, Ron staggered to his feet, his silhouette wreathed in even more chains, thicker and heavier, forming a jagged cage around his body. Inside, his expression was vacant, eyes shadowed.
Chains slammed into the ground, digging trenches. A massive iron gate materialized behind him, creaking ominously as it swung open, unleashing a rush of dark fog.
"His Cage Nent's evolving mid-berserk," Mina muttered. "We need to cut him off before he locks down the area."
The mysterious girl's eyes darkened. "If he completes the lock… no one's getting out."
The ground trembled beneath them. The iron gate behind Ron groaned wider, and spectral chains burst outward, spiraling into the sky like tendrils searching for prey.
"RON!" the blue-haired girl shouted, her voice sharper than before. "You're stronger than this! Stop locking yourself away! Don't let the cage define you!"
Ron's head twitched. A flicker of clarity crossed his face.
But then the gate clanged fully open.
With a deafening roar, the chains slammed into the earth, wrapping around lampposts, walls, and even the skies above, forming a dome of confinement over the entire school. The sunlight dimmed. The air grew cold.
Inside the iron dome, only the three of them remained.
Mina cracked her knuckles, sighing deeper. "...Great. Guess we're trapped in his nightmare now."
The blue-haired girl's fists clenched. "Then we break through it. We save him."
Ron stood at the center of the growing maze of chains, his figure barely visible inside the swirling shadows, the iron gate looming behind him like a grim judge.
"…I never wanted this cage," he whispered, barely audible.
But the chains rattled louder.
The battle for his freedom had only just begun.
—and the nightmare was far from over.
Then hearing the negative of his parents wanting him to be perfect and a doctor that he doesn't want he remembers that he given this world a chance even it changed but nothing really changed in his life.
Then the two sees Ron's body now in full Nent his one with his Nent now then.
Chapter 9 end's.