"Seele..............are you sure you aren't imagining things?" Asked Bronya in a serious tone.

The last time she had seen and heard from him was prior to when he and Mei had arrived at Nagazora.

In fact it had been even longer since she last saw him in person, that being back during Sirin's awakening a year ago.

Seele noticed the slight desperation in Bronya's voice so she closed her eyes and tried to remember more clearly as to not give her hopes up.

Though she still wasn't able to get a completely clear picture of what had happened in the theater, more memories came back to her and sure enough, Alex was in them.

"I'm sure of it Bronya. Alex was there. We walked through the theater together. I guess we wound up escaping at the same time, but he ended up somewhere else." Explained Seele.

Bronya kept quiet for a moment before having a sigh of relief after knowing that he was still safe somewhere out there.

"Okay. We'll report back to Dr. Einstein and Dr. Tesla once we return. Let's resume the investigation." She said as Seele nodded.

[A Few Days Later, Elsewhere]

'The wind...........it feels so nice.......'

Currently, Alex was alone on the roof of Serpent HQ as he just stared out into the city not saying a word.

After all how could he?

What he witnessed in that weird theater was way more than anything he had expected.

The image of his shadow self being broken down piece by piece from skin, to muscles, to bones, down to even his nerves and organs was harrowing.

It was, traumatizing to say the least.

'Whatever that puppet could be, it's clear what game it's trying to play. It asserts control through mind games and not pure intimidation.' He thought once again as he shook his head in frustration. 'Whatever it's plan may be, I won't let it get to me again.'

The door to the rooftop would open as Alex turned and saw Mei approach as the boy waved hello.

"Raven told me you were up here. She said how you looked a little out of it and even pale. Are you sure you're okay? Come on Alex you can tell me. We're friends after all." Said Mei.

As much as he really wanted to tell her, Alex felt like it was in his best interest if Mei wasn't involved with whatever was going on, at least not yet.

"Sensei's just overreacting. I'm fine. Just a little overworked from all the crap Jackal constantly has me do." He said.

Mei simply sighed as that answer didn't really ease her concerns however she knew that was as much as she was gonna get out of him.

"Don't be afraid to ask me for anything okay? I'll help in an instant." She said, waving him goodbye before leaving the rooftop.

The boy would stay on the roof for a while longer before deciding to head out for a walk to clear his mind.

After having a brief chat with Jackal with the girl warning him to not stay out for too long or else, he went out into the city for a bit.

Unlike last time when he had ran into that Hua clone, it thankfully wasn't raining.

As he walked along the streets, he heard a commotion nearby.

'Probably some petty theft or something.' He thought as the city usually was crime-ridden at this time of hour.

Despite not really wanting to pay it too much attention, he looked up and saw what he assumed was the perpetrator run into an alleyway, seemingly losing his pursuer.

Deciding to lend a hand and return whatever was stolen, Alex walked into the alleyway.

"Hey. Care to explain what ya got there?" He asked.

"Huh? Get lose kid! This is adult business here!" Said the crook as he immediately pulled out a firearm and shot at him with Alex dodging the bullet.

"At least I tried a conversation." Said the boy with a sigh.

Before he took a step forward his head began to hurt as he held a hand up to it in pain, groaning in pain.

It only lasted for a brief moment as when he looked back ahead, he suddenly saw the puppet from the theater charging at him as Alex immediately grabbed Olympus and cleanly slashed it's lower left let off as it fell onto the floor.

'The hell? Why is that thing here!? Is this some kind of game!?' Thought Alex.

At that moment, all Alex could see was red as he wanted to tear that doll to shreds, not wanting to put up with another one of its mind games.

Unfortunately, Alex was none to wiser as he had already fallen victim to it.

In reality there was no puppet there.

It was still the crook as he yelped in pain from his missing limb, slowly crawling away as he saw Alex slowly approach him, not uttering a word.

"H-Hey! What's wrong with you freak!? Back away!" Pleaded the man as he shot multiple rounds at Alex, however to his horror the boy simply deflected and blocked them all with ease.

Soon, the crook crawled up against a wall as Alex grabbed and held him up by the neck.

As the crook gasped for hair, he looked at the boy's face.

The Honkai Infection on his left arm had slowly trickled up, just barely reaching past his collar and on his neck however that wasn't what unsettled the crook the most.

It was his eyes.

Instead of their usual red, they were a bright golden yellow which only added more fear onto Alex's eerie quietness.

It was clear that the Honkai Infection was acting up somehow and that it was making him see something that wasn't there, however his rage at the puppet was just too strong for him to snap out of it.

From his perspective, he held said puppet up by the throat and in stark contrast to the crook's fear, the puppet merely laughed it off and taunted Alex.

In a sense, it was mocking the boy even in a vulnerable position.

At this point, Alex had snapped as he aimed his sword and slashed the puppet's head off.

In reality, he had left a critical slash across the crook's throat as blood gushed out and splattered onto Alex's face.

The boy would finally let go of the crook as its lifeless body slumped onto the floor.

Alex stared at bit for a while before his eyes reverted back to normal, the yellow color went away.

Now that he had ess returned to reality, Alex saw the corpse of the crook and quickly realized what had happened.

More accurately, what he had just done.

His eyes widened in shock as he quickly exited the alleyway before throwing up nearby.

Despite being a merc, Alex himself hadn't really ever killed anyone before as he normally focused on apprehending targets or simply knocking them out and letting others take care of them.

It took a long time for Alex to regain his composure as he walked back to Serpent Quarters, clearly having had enough.

Thankfully he made it back to his room without anyone seeing him as he walked in and took off his gloves before running the sink and beginning to wash the blood off his face.

As he did so, he heard a faint giggle in front of him.

When Alex looked up in the mirror, instead of his reflection he saw the puppet once again staring back at him.

The boy immediately punched at the mirror, shattering it as the puppet went away now showing his reflection in the cracked surface.

The boy panted heavily, his fist now bleeding from the multiple cuts he had just given it.

All he could think about despite the pain was one thing.

That damn puppet.

'Who or what the hell is that thing? Why.............................why does it have such a stranglehold on my mind!?'

A few minutes later, Raven would enter the room after hearing the glass shatter as she saw the state Alex's hand was in.

She'd leave and quickly come back before beginning to patch it up with a first aid kit.

"You seriously can be a handful at times you know that?" She said while cleaning all the wounds to avoid any infections as Alex groaned a bit from the stinging pain.

After doing that, she began to wrap up the hand in bandages.

"I've refrained from prying too much but this time I can't do that. What the hell happened?" She asked.

Alex simply remained silent.

He had no clue on how to describe the whole situation to her as doing so would make him sound clinically insane, even schizophrenic to some as Raven simply sighed at his refusal to answer.

"Is it about that investigation I assigned you too? If anything bad happened then I apologize." She said as Alex shook his head no.

"It isn't your fault." He said.

Raven would finish wrapping up his hand before standing up and patting him on the head.

"I'm here for you. Mei Raiden as well. Don't forget that. One last thing, don't worry about the mirror. I'll find some way to get that replaced without Jackal noticing."

Raven would leave the room as Alex laid down on his bed, having a heavy sigh as he was mentally defeated from everything that had happened recently.

He raised up his bandaged hand to look at it for a moment.

'I'm losing my mind right now.'

--------------------------------------------------------

Alex finally killed a person! Let's celebrate! Yippee! 🥳 🎉 🎊

Chapter 23: Complete