Chapter 2: First Unexpected Guiding

Lumi had barely processed the fact that she was falling when a large hand suddenly shot upward.

Instead of catching her gently, however, his fingers closed around her neck.

Her eyes widened.

For one terrifying moment, Lumi thought that perhaps falling from the tenth floor to the ground would have been the better option.

The impact she had expected never came. Somehow, he had caught her before she could hit the ground, but the relief lasted for less than a second. His fingers remained firmly around her throat, leaving her body hanging awkwardly in the air as the pressure against her neck slowly became more difficult to ignore.

Lumi instinctively grabbed his wrist.

Her heart pounded violently as she stared at him. Up close, the strange yellowish colour in his hazel eyes looked even more frightening, his gaze empty and unfocused as though he was looking directly at her without truly recognizing what he was seeing.

For a few terrible seconds, neither of them moved.

Then, in the blink of an eye, his fingers tightened.

Lumi’s mind went blank as her throat constricted and she began to choke. Before the lack of oxygen could completely cloud her thoughts, she desperately searched her mind for anything that might keep her alive and finally blurted out, "Wait! Wait! Wait...!"

The man stared at her.

’Come on, smart brain. Work, work... What should I do? I can’t Guide!’

His grip loosened slightly as he tilted his head, still staring blankly at her.

Lumi stared back at him, her mind racing.

’What should I do?’

She could not Guide him. She had never been able to Guide anyone in her life, and there was no way she would suddenly know how just because an SSS-rank Sentinel had decided to choke her to death.

She had heard that physical contact could strengthen Guiding, but there was no way in hell she was going to kiss him, and as for those other intimate methods she had heard about...

’Absolutely not.’

Lumi would rather die. Except she was currently dying.

Then, without warning, his fingers tightened again.

Lumi’s eyes widened. Before she could react, he suddenly pulled her closer. Her body jerked forward, and in the next moment, his face was directly in front of hers.

Lumi froze.

Those strange hazel-yellow eyes stared into hers from only a few inches away, completely empty and unfocused. She could even feel his uneven breath against her face.

’Oh, no.’

The man remained completely silent as he stared at her from such an impossibly close distance that Lumi could barely think properly.

Her gaze darted between his strange eyes and his face.

’Don’t tell me—’

Before the thought could even finish forming, the pressure around her neck began to increase again.

Lumi’s expression immediately changed.

No.

Absolutely not.

She had already decided that whatever people meant when they talked about using physical contact to improve Guiding, she was not doing any of that. Especially not with a man who was currently choking her.

’Then what am I supposed to do?’

Her mind raced, but there was no time to think.

Lumi raised her hand and slapped him across the face. The sharp sound echoed through the empty street.

The man’s head turned slightly to the side.

Lumi froze.

For several seconds, neither of them moved.

Before the man slowly turned back. Those hazel-yellow eyes stared directly at her.

Lumi stared back.

’Damn it! I should have kicked him down below.’

Just as Lumi began wondering whether she had somehow made the situation even worse, something strange happened.

The yellowish colour in his eyes flickered.

She froze.

The strange glow slowly weakened, the hazel colour beneath it gradually returning as the wild electricity snapping around his body began to disappear. The change was so subtle that Lumi was not even sure she had actually seen it at first.

Then his eyes finally cleared and he stared at her for several seconds.

His lips moved slightly, "Name..."

The voice that emerged was low and rough, as though he had not spoken for a long time.

Lumi blinked. "Lu... Lumi Pei."

His expression did not change.

For one moment, nothing happened. Then his grip suddenly disappeared.

Lumi did not even have time to react before she dropped.

"Ah—!"

She hit the ground with an undignified thump.

The man, however, remained standing for barely another second before his body swayed.

Lumi’s eyes widened the moment he collapsed on the ground.

Silence returned to the empty street.

Lumi remained sitting on the ground, staring at the unconscious man lying only a few steps away.

Her throat hurt and her entire body in pain.

She had just fallen from the tenth floor, nearly been choked to death, slapped a terrifying Rampaging Sentinel across the face, and somehow survived all of it.

’I need to leave.’

Lumi quickly scrambled to her feet. She took one last look at the unconscious man before turning around and running.

She did not stop to check whether he was breathing or had enough time to wonder why his eyes had changed colour and she definitely did not stop to question why the electricity around him had suddenly disappeared.

Those were problems for someone else. Lumi had already done enough for one night.

By the time she reached the streets outside the demolition district, the emergency alarms were still echoing in the distance. She ran until her lungs burned, then continued moving even after she was no longer sure where she was going.

Only when the familiar outline of the Pei residence finally appeared in the distance did she slow down.

Lumi stood there for several seconds, breathing heavily as she stared at the place she had left only hours earlier.

Then she walked toward the front gate.

’Whatever had happened tonight... let’s keep it a secret.’