Chapter 23: Veil of Tears (Chapter 21)
"Saki, I'm wanted again…" Saki looks surprised and says, "But isn't it over?" Leo responds, "No, they've raised my bounty to 5 million." Saki, in terror, says, "You have to flee, Leo. Everyone will be after you." Leo looks silently at Saki and says, "Well, it is what it is." Tears fall down his face. Saki tries to comfort him, but Leo pushes her away, telling her to leave him alone. He sits on the ground in his bedroom, sobbing hysterically, while Saki sits outside in the living room. Leo stands up, heads out the window, and walks around town, eventually making his way to the beach. He sits, staring into the sea, while kids have fun around him. Suddenly, a classmate named Shiro spots him and says hi. Leo remains silent, telling him to leave him alone. Shiro sits beside Leo and asks what's wrong. Leo sighs and says, "It's nothing, really. I just found out how useless and fucked up I am." Leo begins sobbing, and kids and parents stare at him. Both shocked and strangely,
Leo stands up and walks towards a convenience store. He goes in, heads to the cashier, and says, "One pack of cigarettes, please, and a bottle of liquor." The cashier looks at Leo and asks for his ID. Leo just stares at the innocent girl behind the desk, feeling intimidated. She scans the cigarettes and bottle, and Leo heads out of the store, still sobbing, while whispering to himself, "Am I really a monster?" He walks to an excluded place where he sits and drinks from the bottle, taking a big sip and barely getting it down while mumbling, "This tastes like shit…" Leo then takes out the cigarettes, lights one, and smokes while sitting in an excluded place under a bridge. He drinks and smokes for two hours, his phone flooded by messages from Saki, every single one unseen: "Where are you, Leo? Are you okay?" "Hello?" "Please respond." Leo sits under the bridge, drunk, barely able to move, on the verge of blacking out, the bottle empty beside him, 3 cigarettes left in the pack.
Afterward, with 3 cigarettes left in the pack, he sits, mumbling to himself, "Shit, it's getting dark, man. I've never felt so weird before. It's almost like, in the snap of the moment…" Leo pukes, disoriented, then stands up, wobbly, walking around the city at night. He finally takes out his phone, barely able to read the messages correctly, but responds with a horribly misspelled "soon." Leo continues to walk around the city when he finds two teenage guys who have also been drinking. They talk and become good friends. One of the teenage boys offers him drugs in pill form. Leo looks down, takes the pill, while the two boys cheer him on. He silently just takes and swallows it. Leo looks around, the world is tripping, his eyesight becoming darker, his eyes twitching. The teenage boys look at him, asking if he's okay, but Leo doesn't respond. They run away in fear. Leo continues to walk down alleyways until suddenly everything goes dark, feeling goes numb, eyes close, he drops to the ground.
Despite his hearing remaining intact, Leo hears nothing but silence. He attempts to open his eyes but fails, lying there in utter darkness. Suddenly, a buzzing sound emerges—it's his phone. However, he finds himself unable to move his limbs. An hour passes, still enveloped in complete darkness, his heart racing faster with each passing moment. Slowly, the sound begins to fade until he hears the piercing screech of tires and worried screams, reminiscent of Saki, Juko, and Rico. Leo's facial expression fades as he feels himself floating in the air, only for his body to suddenly regain feeling, accompanied by a sharp pain coursing through him. Despite his screams, he is unheard by anyone, his attempts to call for help proving futile. Soon after, he descends once again into a state of numbness, his surroundings filled with the sounds of cars on the road and worried voices resembling paramedics. "How is he doing?" they inquire. "He is stable for now, but not much else. I think he took some dangerous drug or something. Drive faster towards the hospital; at this pace, we won't make it. I'll need to perform a full-body scan to save this boy in time."
END OF CHAPTER 21
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone