Chapter 168 His Signature

Lee Seng kept quiet for the next couple of days. He avoided Manny as much as possible, only staying in his room when he was sleeping and getting ready for school. Besides that, Lee Seng spent the next few days waiting for news to come up about him.

He picked at his food, slouched over and leaning on the table with his arm propping him up. Thursday came and went as Lee Seng sat with the whole group as they chatted away.

"Yeah, classes have been pretty easy. I think I'm getting into the groove of things, finally." Olivia acknowledged.

"That's good." Liz nodded. "You guys have honestly adjusted better than most transfer students. I'm glad you guys are getting into the groove of things."

"Oh, speaking of the groove of things." Evan turned to his right. He tapped Lee Seng who ignored him. "Lee Seng." Evan shook Lee Seng out of his daze and he looked up.

"Huh?" He quietly answered.Evan and the others gave him a concerned look. He tried his best to not make eye contact with Manny who was right next to Liz.

"Could you help me with English? Ritsuka says you're a pro at English."

"Mmm." Lee Seng nodded. His eyes drifted back to his food and he began to pick at it, again. Evan turned to look at Ritsuka who gave him a shrug. The group turned to look at Manny who didn't give them any indication of what was wrong.

"How long has he been like this?" Evan leaned over and whispered to the group.

"He's been like this for a couple of days, I think." Ritsuka quietly answered.

"Did the incident with the training bot get to him or something? He's… not as talkative as he was." Olivia added. Liz sighed and watched Lee Seng's spaghetti fall as he forked it into his mouth. He sighed and started to fork some more spaghetti.

"What happened? You aren't even saying anything." Liz turned to Manny. Manny shrugged and took a sip of his water.

"That's how he usually acts." Manny lied. "He spaces out a lot."

"He's quiet, yeah, but he isn't this quiet. Did something happen between you two? You've been just as quiet as him the last couple of days." Lee Seng stood up, dragging all of the attention back onto him. He picked up his backpack and strung it over his shoulder as he grabbed his tray.

"I'm leaving first." Lee Seng told them. He pushed his chair in and moved out of the cafeteria.

"O-okay. See ya." Ritsuka waved. Lee Seng set the tray down as his phone began to buzz.

'What now?' Lee Seng pulled his phone out and noticed Akio was calling him. Lee Seng moved out of the cafeteria and picked up the phone.

"What?" Lee Seng asked. He hovered the phone between his forehead and fox ears.

"I thought I would call and check up on you. How're you doing?" Akio asked with a tinge of seriousness in his voice.

"I'm doing fine. Why?" Lee Seng asked as he moved down the long hallway. "What's wrong?" There was a long silent pause followed by a sigh.

"Are you somewhere private?"

"Give me a sec. I'm walking back from dinner."

"Alright." Akio sighed, again. Lee Seng picked up his pace to a jog and turned left before the elevators. He reached the stairs in no time and opened the door and went up the stairs in twos. Lee Seng opened the door open and raced down the hall, avoiding the students moving by. He made it to the end of the hallway and turned into his hall. He punched the code in and listened to the door beep and turn green.

"Alright, what is it?" Lee Seng asked as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

'Probably about the incident a couple of days ago…' Lee Seng thought as he slipped his shoes off and dropped his bag next to his bed and fell onto the bed.

"There's been multiple people on watch for those surgeons who did surgery on you the other day.." Akio started. He cleared his throat. "It looks like someone made a move."

"So I should be ready for the high amount of gossip there's going to be about me?"

"When I say 'made a move' I don't mean they went to the tabloids, per se."

"What do you mean?" Lee Seng sat up holding his phone in front of him.

"One of them went out for a couple of hours and a scout followed them. This person, in particular, was one of the nurses who gave us a lot of the information on Dr. Reynolds' report. She went to do some errands and ended up getting into a really bad accident." Akio explained.

"What does this have to do with me?" Lee Seng was confused. Accidents happened all the time and he couldn't wrap his head around the situation.

"Some guys got access to her stuff and noticed she had contacted a mysterious number right before she went out. We obviously kept an eye on her, only to discover she's in critical condition and in a coma…"

"I don't see how this relates to me." Lee Seng narrowed his eyes and scanned the dark room. Akio sighed and Lee Seng could hear his brother wiping his face.

"I got a call saying three other individuals got hit too around the same time. They're in different injury states, but they're not going to be… talking for a while."

"What? You think someone's targeting them on purpose to get some information on me or something?"

"Hehe." Akio sarcastically chuckled. "You wouldn't be wrong about that…"

"There's people out there trying to get information on me about the recent event? That doesn't surprise me. I do have a lot of people who don't like me… What makes these guys stand out? They attacked the people who got hurt performing a surgery on me."

"Well…" Akio's voice trailed off.

"Oh my god, give me the phone!" Akali snatched the phone from Akio's hands and sighed. "The incidents occured around the same time and we're to believe there's multiple people coming for you."

"Someone would dare do that in the Numbers Academy? Security is alright, but there's a lot of people here. They couldn't just waltz up in here and —"

"Don't make assumptions until you hear the rest of what I'm about to say." Akali spoke. Lee Seng impatiently sighed and nodded. Akali's voice switched to a more quiet tone. "They all left the engraving rune of Number 2's signature rune." Number 2's signature rune blazed in Lee Seng's head. It wasn't a rune that could be replicated among the runic community. This was a rune specifically made by him and only used by him.

"What're you saying?"

"These guys are using Number 2's signature rune as a warning." Akali sighed. "The other Numbers are upset about this. People are using his rune to specifically pick a fight with us so they can get to you."

"So this is throwing everyone off?"

"Mmm, it is."

"Well," Lee Seng sighed. He crossed his legs and glanced around. "Anything else?" There was another long pause.

"The notes." Akio mentioned. "Tell him about the notes."

"I'm not gonna tell him about that! It's way too disturbing." Akali hissed. She had pulled the phone away so Lee Seng "couldn't" hear them. He didn't know if he should be amused or hurt. Akali had forgotten about his senses being sharpened.

"What if the threat is real? He should be rea–"

BEEP.

Lee Seng glanced at the phone and tapped it. The call had hung up.

"What the hell? Do they have a bad connection or something?" He glanced at his bars and noticed they were fine. He sighed, set his phone on his pillow as he unfolded his legs and set his head on to the pillow. "Niko's rune… It's not the first time someone has publicly used it… But for a hit on the people who helped me?" Lee Seng sat back up and folded his arms together. He leaned over and grabbed his backpack and pulled his tablet and pin out. He moved over to a drawing app he had installed and drew the rune.

It was one of the specialized runes he remembered because Niko had incorporated his number into a diamond shape. It was a simple rune that evoked Niko's powerful Specialist abilities. He stared down at the rune for a bit before raising it in the air.

"Yeah it's scary that some of those people who operated on me are now in the hospital, but… What does this rune have to do with anything?" Lee Seng muttered to himself. Lee Seng's phone buzzed and he snatched it and glanced at the caller ID. Ritsuka was calling him.

"What's up?" Lee Seng asked.

"Lee Seng, where are you?" Ritsuka asked in a panicked voice.

"I'm in my room, what's wrong?"

"Open your door! We're all coming in! Something happ–"

BEEP!