Talent Reborn - Season 2

Talent Reborn – Season 2

Episode 5: Stolen Power

Haruto's body felt heavy.

His head throbbed with a dull, suffocating pain.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the abandoned warehouse anymore.

He was in a sterile white room—cold, clinical, and eerily silent.

A hospital bed. Monitors beeped softly beside him.

Strapped to his wrist was a metallic bracelet, blinking with a faint blue light.

Haruto's heart pounded as he tried to move—

But the moment he did, a searing pain shot through his body.

Something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

He couldn't feel his ability.

The door slid open with a quiet hiss.

Dr. Ryunosuke Saito walked in, hands in the pockets of his pristine lab coat.

"Awake already?" he mused. "Good. I was hoping we wouldn't have to sedate you again."

Haruto gritted his teeth. "What did you do to me?"

Saito tilted his head.

"You mean your little gift?" he said casually. "I simply… turned it off."

Haruto's blood ran cold.

Saito pointed to the bracelet on Haruto's wrist.

"A suppression device," he explained. "It neutralizes any unnatural enhancements in the brain. Meaning—"

He smirked.

"You're just an ordinary man now."

Haruto refused to believe it.

His ability wasn't just gone.

He struggled against the pain, forcing himself to sit up.

Saito raised an eyebrow.

"Still determined?" He chuckled. "Let's put that to the test."

He snapped his fingers—

And the walls shifted.

Panels slid back, revealing a glass window.

On the other side—

Renji.

He was restrained in a separate room, strapped to a chair, his face bruised but defiant.

A red light blinked above him.

A countdown timer.

It read 60 seconds.

Haruto's heart nearly stopped.

"What are you doing?!"

Saito's expression didn't change.

"Renji's room is filling with a paralyzing nerve agent," he said smoothly. "If you want to save him, all you have to do is—"

He tapped the bracelet on Haruto's wrist.

"—figure out how to break this."

Haruto stared at the timer.

55 seconds.

His mind raced.

His ability was gone. He couldn't copy movements, couldn't analyze techniques.

All he had left was himself.

Haruto forced himself to think.

The bracelet was a medical device. That meant—

It had a failsafe.

He glanced at the monitors beside him.

A heart rate sensor. A body temperature monitor.

If it was programmed to suppress unnatural brain activity… then it had to react to his vitals.

Which meant—

He had to trick it.

40 seconds.

Haruto grabbed a nearby scalpel.

Before he could hesitate, he stabbed it into his own thigh.

Pain shot through him like wildfire, his body instinctively panicking.

His heart rate spiked.

The bracelet flickered—then sparked.

It malfunctioned.

The suppression lifted—

And in an instant, Haruto's ability returned.

25 seconds.

Haruto memorized the way Saito had tapped the control panel.

Every movement, every exact keystroke.

He copied it perfectly.

A warning alarm blared. The lock disengaged—

Renji gasped as the gas chamber powered down.

Haruto stumbled forward, gripping his bleeding leg as he slammed open the door.

Renji coughed, blinking through the haze.

"You crazy bastard," he muttered, grinning weakly. "You really stabbed yourself?"

Haruto smirked. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Renji chuckled—then his eyes widened.

"Haruto—look out!"

Haruto turned just in time—

To see Saito aiming a syringe at his neck.

A sharp sting—

Then darkness.

To Be Continued…