Leon despised his alter. He dreaded falling asleep because he knew he might not wake up as himself. He blacked out randomly and came back with a blank mind and a sinking feeling in his gut because he knew whatever she done, he couldn't have stopped her.

She hurt people. She tortured and murdered them and left a guilty Leon to pick up the pieces. Syo was what she was called. He wasn't sure if she had a name before then, but he did know she picked it up and started using it because that's what everyone else called her. Genocider Syo.

Leon tried to stop her. He hid her scissors from her, wrote her notes that pleaded with her to stop; Syo felt no empathy, and she always found a way. There were quite a few times he considered turning her in himself, and maybe it was selfish to vote against it because he didn't want to have to stay in jail because of something he didn't really do.

He could still remember when she first told him she was Genocider Syo. It was in a letter, and at first Leon didn't believe her (but some part of him always did). He wasn't sure how long she'd been doing this but he did know it'd been going on for quite a while.

The baseball player came to in the middle of Syo's work sometimes-or directly after. He'd catch sight of her mutilated prey and want to scream. The first time it happened, Syo had already finished the job; Leon took in the overwhelming metallic stench of blood and the scissors in his hands and dropped them, shaking as he promptly vomited next to the crucified body up for display. He'd cleaned up the evidence, walked home from the hotel, and tried to get some sleep. (He stared blankly at the wall the entire night, trying to shake the memory of the words "Bloodstain Fever" splattered across the white wall.)

He thought he was eight when she first came around. He remembered the way he'd started out confused but soon Leon was actually excited by the thought of a new special playmate. However, it was clear from the start that his other personality detested him. He wrote many letters and when she first responded, it was nothing like he'd expected.

He came home after school to find a note under his pillow written on the back of his own from a few nights before.

Hey,

Why won't you ever write back? I'm not mean, I promise! Why don't you come out, friend? I know you usually come out when I'm scared or upset but that doesn't mean you can't talk to me. It'd be really awesome to have another boy to talk to! Do you have a name I should call you by? What do you do when you come out? What do you like to do for fun? Do you have a favorite color? What do you think of our pets, Saki and Kuzuu?

Hope you write back,

Leon

Biting his lip and trying to contain his excitement, he'd scanned the letter.

Heya,

Since you won't leave me alone, I guess I'll have to answer. We're not friends, Mr. Desperate-to-make-friends; I exist because you have rotten luck and you can't handle your awful life, so I come to take over. I'm not some imaginary friend for you to play with. Correction-I'm a girl, sorry to disappoint! All the other jazz is unnecessary to answer.

Later!

He could still perfectly recall the way his face had dropped and his mood plummeted, and suddenly he didn't feel like playing anymore.

That was a long time ago, though-that was even before things got really bad.

Now, everything was...too much. Leon wasn't a shy person by any means, but he tried to avoid getting too close to or attached to anyone so Syo couldn't become interested in them. After a while, he'd gotten used to her patterns. As a result, he became pretty withdrawn. He focused on keeping her in check much more than his school work or baseball.

Baseball-yes, that was something he'd thrown himself into. He'd wanted a distraction from everything so badly that it took him forever to realize he hated the sport. By then he'd discovered his talent already, but he'd also discovered another aspiration: singing.

Leon excused his dream to anyone who asked by saying it was for the girls. Of course, that wasn't really true. With Syo around, the redhead wasn't sure he could ever be romantically involved with anyone. So far she'd only killed males, but Leon didn't think you could be too cautious in this situation.

Leon hadn't been so scared until the incident with Kyo when he was 14. But he never let himself think about that.

Now, well, he was getting settled at Hope's Peak Academy, and so far so good. Whatever bad there was, he could figure it out; he had to.