The human mind is truly the scariest thing of all.

It had been years sense the voices had slowly moved out from my head but now after leaving the comfort of Kyoto for the first time and moving to the city of Ikebukuro they flooded my brain like a steam engine. I turned to the internet, like I always used to, to get some peace and quiet. It had always been a lot easier to focus on small amounts of people rather then the whole pack at the train station. That's how I learned control it in the first place, after finding out what I was.

The age of six had to of been one of the hardest times of my life. I didn't know any better and when I first heard the voices I thought it was just my father talking to some coworker on the phone. Turns out the coworker was his most recent fling and asking my mother about it got me the first ticket available to the most isolated boarding school in the country. She never did want to give up the status my father gave her, always enjoying the nicer things in life even if it meant turning a blind eye to the cheating man that was her husband. However, talking became hard after that.

Yes there were a few incidents during my years through grade school but overall I kept my head down and learned to observe and figure people out. It wasn't until my freshman year of high school that I learned it worked with technology as well. Reading someone's true thoughts was always odd to me, no one ever told the truth. So many lies, so many false loves, and false hopes that by the time I had everything figured out I was more afraid of the human mind then a gun.

***Message Available***

I was new to the chat community in Ikebukuro but from all the voices and the news itself I learned fast that this wasn't a town for optimist people. They played you like a violin, if you let them, and saw nothing but fun when you started to drown. My motive for coming here however was not to get involved but to learn more about what I could do. I had felt dull the last few years in Kyoto, like nothing was really new to me anymore. All the people I pasted by day in and day out all had the same thoughts and problems, it made me want to puke. Coming here has been overwhelming yes, but the thoughts are different, darker, but carry more information than even I can handle.

*Nakura: You're new, right? Why this chat room?

Everything had stopped right there. I dropped the bag of gummies I held in my hand and stared. There was nothing, no second response, no bold print telling me their true thoughts, nothing. This was new.

*Oki: Just got my internet hooked up yesterday actually. I just haven't been feeling myself lately.

*Nakura: Oh! Would you like to talk about it that's what were here for anyway, no?

My brain was working in overdrive. I've done many things over the years with this ability, from cheating in class to making a little extra money for myself on the side, however never being able to see a person's thoughts was not one of them. How much information should I give? What should I expect?

*Oki: It's just been a long-time sense I've been on my own. I know I'm in my twenties and this is stupid but I feel so alone here and it hasn't even been a week. Things kind of fell apart at home over the last few years and I finally just decided to get out.

*Nakura: Are you here in Ikebukuro? So you're running from something right?

Smart boy was what came to my mind. I had over my teenage years turned to suicide on more than one occasion. The first being when I came home for summer vacation my sophomore year of high school. I had caught my father and his mistress going at it while my mother was away with her family. Father had beaten me senseless then, before throwing his bank card at me, clearly telling me to go get whatever I wanted and not to tell a soul what I had seen. He got so paranoid that he beat me every night after, making sure he drilled into my head that no one was to know. Too bad mother knew.

*Oki: Yes I am. I don't know if running is the right term to use anymore. There's nothing behind me to run from.

*Nukura: So you feel empty?

*Oki: Mhmm, I always have. Father was always unfaithful and mother never cared, all she wanted was her status, it didn't matter to her so long as father played the role of husband when they were out in public. I found out one day and that's when the beatings started. I got lucky though. I was away at school for most of the year so I had maybe three months of beatings to put up with at most, but that was just at home. I never made friends in school and always got bullied by my other classmates including my roommate.

I took my father's bank card and did exactly what he said, bought whatever I wanted. This included full sets of ear studs, six studs on each ear, along with a nose ring, some new hair dye, and a brand-new closet. My brain I guess had kicked into fight or flight mode that summer. It shut down with the beatings and kicked on again when I woke the next morning to start my planning. I learned to shoot a gun and with that same bank card bought two pistols for myself. They currently lay under my bed in there casing, ready to go if needed.

*Nukura: You poor thing. How have you made it this far?

I smiled for the first time sense the move. Coning someone into killing themselves is one thing, but he was interested in me. He knew he had hit a dead end when I put no feeling behind my words, so I guess sarcasm was the way to go in the end.

*Oki: Nukura may I ask you a question?

*Nukura: Of course, whatever you like!

*Oki: What makes you feel alive?

*Nukura: People do of course! You my dear friend?

*Oki: You don't seem like a fool Nukura, so I'll be honest. At first it was the voices, the constant feeling of knowing what a person's true thoughts were even when they vomited up false lies to your face. After a while that got boring, at least when you hear those same thoughts day in and day out, read those same thoughts day in and day out. Then, I thought it was keeping a secret, getting dads bank card just to keep my mouth shut, but he was always so passionate about his flings that those thoughts were always pushed on me even if I was trying to keep them out. I didn't learn until a few years ago that the moments right before those voices go silent are the best moments that time could ever offer. Everyone is so honest at that point it doesn't matter if they speak.

He didn't reply right away. If anything, I thought he had left the chat to clear his mind. It gave me enough time to grab my snacks off the floor and check my phone for any business update. I'll have to get to that explanation later I guess, but you can do a lot when people's minds are an open book.

*Nukura: What have I been thinking?

I smiled again, this time crushing the bag in my hand.

*Oki: That's the thing, I don't know.

***Nukura has signed off***

With a sigh I turned away from my computer to my balcony that overlooked a small backstreet, nothing special when you don't need a lot to begin with. Ikebukuro was a new start even if that meant still having some of the fun I used to in the old days. Just one person wouldn't be bad so long as everything just stayed online. How wrong I would end up being in the end. If only I had realized that the one person I couldn't hear was the one person I didn't want to be silent. Maybe it was my minds way of telling me that you don't need to know everything.

***New Message Received***

Little Bird: Don't think this will be the last time you and I have a conversation. I much enjoy talking with humans and you are sure to be of some entertainment. I will find you my little Oki rest assured. I'd love to know more about these voices you speak of, or better yet, why you can't hear mine. Don't make this easy as I can see you already blocked me from finding out where you're currently located across the city, but it will only take me so long to sift through upper class murders throughout Japan over that last few years. I hope you enjoy this game just as much as I will.

With Love

Nukura.

The human mind is truly the scariest thing of all.