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CHAPTER 48: Tangerines

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Suyeon’s POV

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POV

        "We're almost there!" He shouted out loud as we follow him through the forest. We enter back into the section where the bandit's hideout entrance is located and ran past it only to go beyond the other side of the forest exiting to another section of burnt trees. Even though we see the dead trees again, nobody stopped as everyone ran past the burnt trees into a section that the fire didn't spread to. It still baffles me why the forest turned into this state. The forest was full of life in my memories. But now, it looks like a section from a horror movie.

        I run as fast as I can trying to keep up with the person in front of me, but I can see the people behind me is running out of stamina as I noticed them slowing down. They're probably not used to running this much. Since I traveled with Yasu, I can run for hours without stopping to get a drink. But I guess everybody knows now is not the time to actually take a breather. If the gold team survived Yasu attacks, they probably will come right after us. But somehow, I don't feel like we won that fight. Deep down inside my heart, I know that we lost that fight and I feel frustrated I couldn't do anything to help Yasu.

        After running for so long, we came across a cave that's well hidden with leaves, twigs, and grass. I almost missed it if the guy in front of me didn't run through a bush head on. We all ran in the cave and everyone flopped to the ground as soon as they arrived inside. Torches dimly lit the cave itself and the far end had a small waterfall dropping down towards a puddle. I see the guy that picked up Yasu stop near the puddle and place him on what seems like a makeshift bed made from leaves and grass.

       "Guys, wait here, I'll be back." He says as he runs out of the cave and disappears into the forest. I sat down near Yasu's unconscious body and looked for any wounds he sustained.

        "I-Is he alright?" Kana asks as she approaches me from behind. Her shirt was ripped open near the chest where Yasu stabbed her and she probably doesn't notice her chest is showing.

        "Item bag," I called out my bag and quickly grab a shirt Yasu gave me from before. I hand it to her pointing at her chest and the minute she looks down, she quickly covered herself, her face turns red from embarrassment as she quickly wore the shirt on top of her clothes.

        "Holy pant* pant* Shit," Amaguchi says as he approaches the puddle and started drinking from it.

        "Amaguchi! Wait! What if that's contaminated?!" Miki-sensei tries to stop him, but he just kept drinking trying to quench his thirst. I wouldn't blame him; we've run away from the scene to here without any breaks. And this place was quite far off from where we originally were.

        "I-its ok Miki-sensei. We've been drinking from puddles and streams, we never got sick." I tell her and after hearing me say it, they all ran towards the tiny waterfall and started drinking like it's the first time they had water for years. After a couple of minutes, I hear something scuffling outside and I see the light from the exit being blocked off by something. I was about to run out thinking he's trapping us in when he walks in and finished the makeshift door from inside. He turns around and approaches us slowly making all of us huddled close together. We're all on our guard as we don't know who he is. As of now, we followed a complete stranger and have no idea what he wants from us.

        "Takumi." The lady named Sam blurts out making us turn towards her.

        "Who is he?" Kana says standing beside her and if this lady knows who Yasu is, she might be someone trustworthy.

        "He's part of the Gold District guild." She tells us and the minute she says it, everything went silent as our gazes went towards him. Everyone grabbed whatever weapon they had inside their dimensional bag. Most likely, the same weapon Yasu gave them before we left the Auction house.

        "Whoa whoa. Relax. I'm not here to fight. If I was, I would have attacked you along with them." He tells us as he held out two hands trying to calm us down.

        "Then what the hell do you want from us? Do you know what your fucking team did to Yasu and Kana?" Daikichi snarls at him standing in front of us. I can see him quite furious, but I know he doesn't have the strength to overpower him if, Takumi is as strong as one of them. Daikichi seems like he lost the axes Yasu gave him due to the chaos. I stand beside Daikichi to help him just in case.

        "Look, I left their team not too long ago. Our views are different. I want nothing but to help you guys since my views are kind of the same with that person behind you." He says as he points towards Yasu who remains unconscious near the puddle.

        "And how the hell would we know what you're saying is true?" Daikichi snarls at him back and Takumi grabbed both his swords making us step back a little bit. But instead of unsheathing it, he removed it from his waist and threw it at us.

      "Here, I'm unarmed. If you want, I can empty my dimensional bag also." He tells us as he raises his hands up in the sky like the ones I see on TV when a policeman catches a criminal.

        "Guys relax. Please, no more bloodshed or fighting. I've had enough." Ms. Sam drops down to her knees as she cries and breaks down. It seems like all of this has taken a toll on her as she just cried and cried non-stop. Everyone relaxes their body, as they probably felt tired also. They just got out of the bandit and it isn’t even long till they tasted freedom and now, they went straight into a big fight. Kana and Daikichi went to comfort her while Takumi slowly walked towards the small waterfall and drank from it washing his face at the same time. After that, he took a seat near the wall of the cave and started playing with his status window as I see him look at something in midair. I walk back towards Yasu and sat beside him waiting for him to wake up while keeping guard just in case this Takumi guy tries something.

         Yasu…I whisper in my mind as I watch him breathe in his sleep.

End of Suyeon POV

YASU POV

         "Hey Yasu, how was school?" My mom asked me as soon as I entered the apartment.

         Huh, when did she get home?I asked in my mind as I remove my shoes near the entrance.

        "School was fine. Had a lot of things to study for the upcoming test but it should be fine." I say as I watch her sit around the floor table peeling a tangerine.

        "Want some?" She asked me to hold out a peeled tangerine and I nod walking towards the table and sat across from her.

        "Anything new?" She asks me again as she grabs another tangerine to peel for herself.

        "Well, this smartest student in school business is getting annoying. Everyone thinks I'm a genius when in reality I'm not. I just studied harder than everyone else." I tell her slumping down the table as I eat a piece of the tangerine one by one.

        "Don't you like being the smartest?" She asked me again and I shook my head.

       "It's like everyone thinks I can analyze everything including real life, but, I'm just good at the subject in school. It's not my fault I actually took my time to study compared to the gifted people around me that can ace a test without even studying. Those guys are smart. Me? I just worked harder than all of them." I tell her as I finish the tangerine and my mother places another peeled one on my open palm.

        "Oh, thank you," I tell her as I give her a smile and she gave one back to me. "And you know mom, it's not like I'm a genius at everything. But, like one freaking mistake I do, everyone is going crazy and tell me that I should have never made that wrong choice because I'm smart and only need to make smart choices. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm human and I know for a fact that if I don't study or slack for the next year or so, I'll be the last place in the school."

        "It's an ok son. I know you, and I want you to live a life you want to live. You shouldn't go thinking about what they say and just pursue what you want to pursue." She tells me as she peels another tangerine.

       I hope she doesn't give that to me; I'll just eat this one slowly. I say in my mind as I slowly eat the second tangerine she gave me.

        "I know," I tell her. But somehow today, even when my mom tries to comfort me, I feel depressed. "I just want them to get the fact that being the smartest student in school is just a title and doesn't really mean I'm a genius. As I keep telling them, I just worked really hard."

        "hmmm…" My mother's response wasn't something I expected making me look up to her. I see her looking down at the tangerine in her hand as she peels another one.

       There are already two tangerines peeled beside her. How many does she want?I say in my mind looking confused as she grabbed another tangerine after peeling the third one.

        "So, Yasu, how's revenge?" She suddenly asks me, this made me confused.

        "Revenge?" I asked her and she never averted her gaze towards the fourth tangerine she's peeling.

        "Yes. Revenge. Did you accomplish it?" She asks me and suddenly, I felt like I'm missing something. That I forgot something really important. All of a sudden, a throbbing pain happened near my temple and I grab my head dropping to the ground as the pain feels like someone is jamming a long needle in my brain. I Scream in pain as I trash around the ground but I couldn't stop the pain even when I bash my head onto the floor. Images suddenly flashed before me making me stop as I watch all of them, remembering everything. The dungeon, the other world, Luro, I remembered everything like it happened yesterday.

        The images flashing one after another and it happened too fast that it's making me nauseous and I ended up vomiting on the floor. All of a sudden, it stopped as I flip to my back making me stare at the ceiling and tears flow out of my eyes. I watched the fan goes around until I notice my mom enter my vision from the side looking down at me. She's holding all the tangerines she peeled and gave me a smile as she bends down to give me a closer look.

       "W-w-who are you?" I asked her and she didn't reply but just smiled at me. “You’re not my mother!"

        Even my yelling didn't make her answer, all of a sudden; I felt a heavy weight on my arms and legs forcing it to the floor preventing me from moving. 

        "If life gives you lemons, you make a lemon cake~ What if I give you tangerines?" She suddenly shoved a whole tangerine in my mouth forcing it down my throat making me gag. She kept shoving one after another not giving a damn on the limit of tangerines I can fit in my mouth.

        "You see, this is just the beginning." She says as she keeps forcing tangerines and the juice coming out of the pulp oozed out the side of my mouth as she pushes more in. I can feel it stuck in my throat cutting off my oxygen and I started choking from the tangerines. More tears came out of my eyes making my vision blurry, but I notice her come close to whisper something in my ear.

        "This time, I didn't make you eat black vomit. Enjoy the tangerines~ we'll meet soon enough." And I blacked out as her hand goes over my eyes gauging it out.

GASP!!!

cough*

Cough*

        I held my throat thinking I'm still choking on tangerines. My breathing is back to normal and I blink my eyes as my vision is a bit blurry. Once it clears up, I look around and see everyone sleeping huddled around me. One guy that seems like he's supposed to be a lookout is sleeping as he leans on a log.

         A cave?I whisper in my mind as I try to slowly sit up, but I felt something looped around my waist preventing my weak body from even moving properly.

        "Fuck, another dream. Fucking Unum." I whisper to myself as I laid on my back with my arms over my eyes trying to relax. I look down to see an arm around my waist and as I follow it to see whose arms it is, I see Suyeon is right beside me and tears coming down her cheeks as she probably fell asleep crying.

       What the fuck was that. How does he know what my mother looks like?I whisper in my mind as I try my best to remove Suyeon's arms looped around me.

        As soon as I free myself, I stood up and walked towards a small waterfall to wash my face. "Ugh, what the fuck happened?"

        "You almost killed them all." I hear a voice behind me and once I turn around, I see the guy that's leaning on the log has woken up and is staring at me.

        "You….I remember you." I tell him and he shushes me pointing towards the exit which is blocked by leaves and twigs. He stood up leaving his swords leaning on the log and started walking towards the exit. I followed behind him trying to figure out what's he's doing with us.

        He removed the barricade completely letting the moonlight in and as soon as we got out, I grabbed his collar and pushed him against the wall of the cave outside while glaring at him. He has his hands up like he was a criminal.

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        "Speak, why are you here? And where the fuck are we? What happened to everyone?" I glared at him still remembering what Junpei did.

        "Chill, I'm here because I carried you here when you were unconscious and as for the gold members, I don't know. We ran away after you passed out, so I didn't get to see if they survived or not.” He replied and I remembered I didn’t see him during the battle.

        "And?" I asked him as I loosen my grip on his neck.

        "Look, I'm not here to fight, I have no quarrel with you.” He tells me as he kept his hands raised. I slowly let him go and he started fixing his shirt. “Matter of fact, I wanna join you guys."

        "Join us?" I raised an eyebrow as I stared at him.  

        "Yea, the diamond district guild. Didn't you say to us, in the beginning, you're its leader?" He asked me to make me reminisce our first interaction.

        "And why do you want to join us?" I asked him as I see him dusting off his shoulders from the dirt that got on it.

       "Well, your aim and mine are the same. Unless I'm wrong." He tells me.

       "Ha, and what do you think my aim is?" I asked him before walking towards the log to sit down as I felt it takes all my energy to even stand. He followed me as he sat down across me and worked on lighting the firepit in front of us. I stopped him thinking that it would only bring attention to anyone in the forest if they see a light from a distance. He probably noticed as he puts away his tools.

        "Don't you want to go home back to earth? Same for me. I don't want to live here. I want to go back home. I miss my family, my girlfriend, I miss earth. This place is no home for me." He tells me without hesitation, and I paused for a moment trying to understand the situation and he sees me confused.

       "Look, I know you hate those guys but I'm not one of them. I left the gold district team not too long ago and I happen to run across your team after seeing some random forest appearing out of nowhere. And besides, I got nothing to go on right now. I would have gone and tried to find Luro myself, but it seems like you have more information about where he is that those idiots in gold." He tells me making me scoff.

       "And why do you think I would share this information with you? What makes you think I can trust you? You might be a spy trying to get information out so you can run back to your little fucking kingdom telling everyone everything." I tell him.

       "And? We all gotta kill Euro one way or another. Besides, I'm never going back there. If I do, they'll probably put me in jail since Kumiko-sensei saw me save you and your group."

       "Kumiko-sensei?" I asked him.

       "The Healer. Look, I can tell you all their names. There's Akane, who's a mage. The one you saved from the ogre king. Then there's Balo, the leader. There are Masato and Naoki. They're like sheep, following Balo around without saying anything. And then, there's your group. Oh, I should say ex-group members." He says and luckily, he didn’t mention their name. He started talking about their city and how they came across their castle. He told me how to kill Luro and how he showed them my past experiences. He went on to talk about how the gold district team appointed a bandit, which turns out to be the governor that I killed.

       "And that's all I know. Look, you don't have to tell me what you know. Let me just help you find Luro. Two heads are better than one. At least, I know your aim is better than them who wants to play around becoming royalty." He continued on.

       "And what would my aim be?" I asked him.

        "You said it before, you're on a path to do something and no one will get in your way. I doubt it's getting revenge on those guys." He tells me and I smirk a little.

       "Revenge? I hate them to the core. But, to waste my time to actually pursuing them? Ha, not a chance. I got better things to do. It just happened that they got in my way when I got out of the Bandit town. To find closure, I wanted to fulfill what I promised myself that I would do when I come across them again. Otherwise, I wouldn't take my time off looking for them. Well, they're all dead now probably so who cares. This way I can focus more on finding Luro." I tell him as I look up the night sky. I must have been asleep for a couple of hours as last I remember; it was daytime.

       “You’ve been asleep for three days.” He said and I gave him a surprised look. But then again, it’s usually the time I sleep after activating overdrive a second time. "Bandit town? Wait, don't tell me. I don't wanna know. So, what's the next step?"

        Another annoying tick.I whisper in my mind. But then again, He might be useful.

        "Well, I want to train those guys on the inside. You, you've probably increased your level, right?" I asked him and he nods.

       "I trained the most out of all of them. In reality, I'm a higher level than Balo." He tells me.

       "Well, can you train Daikichi? He's a dual like you." I tell him testing to see what his reply will be. If he doesn't want to pass on his knowledge about his class, then that means he has an ulterior motive.

         "Sure, no problem. I'll help the others also since I've seen how Kumiko-sensei and Akane train themselves. We can start tomorrow if you want." He tells me without hesitation and from there I have a feeling this guy is serious about following me around. His eyes are full of honesty as I can hear his voice doesn't waver one bit.

       "I'll see if I can trust you. Do anything funny, to them and I will focus my goal of killing you. Understand?" I tell him as I get closer and he just nods. "Good."

       "Hey, can I ask, why do you want to train them? You're practically strong enough to take care of two overlords." He tells me.

        "I am but Luro might be on another level and I might need help," I tell him and continued talking without waiting for him to reply back. It's also to prevent them from dying. If you were watching that fight, you probably notice, we fucking lost that one big time."

        I look down at my hand clench my palm to make a fist. Not being able to break free from those roots and watching everyone dear to me get hurt is pissing me off. Relying on my mind break skill was also the last thing I wanted to do.

      I can't protect them forever.I say in my mind the real answer to his questions, but he just let it go and yawned.

        "I can start tomorrow but holy hell, why is their body like that?" He asked me while looking inside the cave.

        "They were captured by bandits and was put up for slavery. They made them like that so they couldn't retaliate." I tell him and his mouth forms a circle nodding his head letting out a sound as he exhales.

        "Ok well, go get some rest, I'll stay up and watch." He tells me and now that I'm thinking about it, they're all asleep while he was the only one awake. If he wanted to kill all of us or even me, I wouldn't have woken up. This made me feel a bit reassured.

        "No, I have insomnia. After waking up, I won't be able to sleep." I tell him as I look up the night sky.

        "Ok, well then I'll go sleep since I'm tired." He says as he walks back inside the cave yawning.

       If he had a motive, he wouldn't be sleeping with his enemy…I whisper as I watch him lay down near the fireplace that was built inside the cave. Even with the door open, the leaves hanging over the entrance trapped the light from the inside. I turn around and look up at the moon shining down towards me.

        "Another day, another problem," I whisper as I sat near the exit and stared at the moon the whole night. Morning came so fast as I watch the moon sink into the horizon. I watched the dark sky get brighter and brighter as the sun rises slowly behind me.

        "Yasu!" I hear a shout coming from the inside of the cave and when I peeked in, I see Suyeon frantically looking around. Her voice woke everyone up and the minute they didn't see me, they quickly jolted up looking around. I hide a bit more behind some leaves hanging down at the entrance preventing them from seeing me unless they took a closer look.

         "Ugh, she so loud early in the morning…I liked it better when she was like a puppy." I tell myself as I watch her go crazy not finding me. Somehow it made me laugh a bit as I watch all of them frantic. One even flipped the leaf bed to see if I'm underneath.

        "Seriously? How the hell can I fit in there?" I say to myself as I watch them go crazy. Daikichi suddenly grabs Takumi's collar and shakes him awake.

        "Where is he?! What did you do to him?!" He yelled at him and Takumi didn't say anything as he yawned not giving a damn that they're all surrounding him. He looked around and when he finally found me in the exit peeking in, he points towards me and their gaze followed his hand as it points directly at my face.

        "Yasu!" Kana shouted out as they all ran towards me and somehow, I feel out of energy watching them so active early in the morning. The minute they got close; Kana jumped on me hugging me tightly as she cries from happiness.

        "You’re alive! I'm glad you're alive!! I thought you would never wake up!!" She says and I notice everyone approach the exit while Takumi goes to wash his face before coming our way passing me.

       "Just gonna go piss, don't leave me." He says joking around and I nod towards him.

        "Wait, you know him?" Daikichi asked me.

        "Well, not completely but I guess he can come with us," I tell him.

        "Are you sure we can trust him?" Kana asked.

        "Well, it's not like he did me any wrong," I tell her as she gently pushes herself away from me. "Besides, he gave me good information last night."

       "You made us so worried!" I hear a voice shout behind them and as they all part, I see Ms. Sam standing there with tears in her eyes.

        "Hey, you're with us now?" I asked her and she just ran to me and gave me a hug.

       "You idiot!! I'm Always with you no matter what!!" She yelled out and somehow, I felt safe in her embrace. "Please, don't do anything crazy anymore."

        "Haha, I can't promise that," I tell her, and she pulls herself away giving me a look.

        "Please promise me one thing, don't die." She says and I can feel her sincerity with every word I couldn't say anything but a nod towards her. "Ok, good. We're getting somewhere. You also need to work on your temper. Stop shouting every minute."

        "Yea dude. You have anger management issues." Daikichi says lightly punching my arms and somehow, I feel at home with them around. I couldn't say anything but smile.

        After Takumi got back, we all went back in the cave eating boar and wolf meat Suyeon handed out. I ran out of food in my bag, so we had to use her portion since no one stored anything in their bag. Even Takumi had limited stuff from camping gear and other necessities, but no food since he left them abruptly in the middle of the night. Ms. Sam asked me everything in detail and I explained to everyone what actually happened. But it turned out they all know since Daikichi explained to them what I told him during my sleep.

        "I don’t know what to say..." Amaguchi says after hearing my story.

        "Oh god…Yasu…I’m sorry." Kana says as she looks at me almost crying. It probably was too much for them to hear my experience inside the dungeon and how they all chose to leave me behind to save themselves.

        "I’m not going to lie and say I'm over it now, even from time to time I have nightmares," I tell them and they didn't say anything. "And I don't have to be nice to them or be friends with them. But next time we meet, I'm going to make sure they understand what happens when they mess with my family.”

        “You don’t know what happened?” Daikichi asked me confused and I shake my head.

        “Ah.” I suddenly blurted out remembering about talking to my alternate self before passing out. “Now I remember or have an idea.”

        “Yasu, there’s something else you’re not telling us are you…who was that?” Kana asked me as she wiped her tears.

       “If you saw me act different, it’s probably not me. Let’s just say I have another personality.” I tell them.

        “I remember them telling me that. But I never knew what really happened until you told me…” Ms. Sam says looking dejected. "And whatever happened to you in the dungeon…Yasu, I'm glad you’re alive but I’m so sorry.”

        Ms. Sam started crying as she couldn’t hold back her tears. Everyone is already tearing up and I just sat that telling her that it’s ok.

        "If they didn't attack you, what would you have done?" Takumi asked me as he feeds the fire some twigs.

         "If they let me hit them until I feel satisfied, I would have left them unconscious. But after seeing what Junpei did to Kana, it’s a different story now." I tell him. “Right now, I don’t see them no different than a demon.”

        "To be honest, that dude has been shady," Takumi says towards us. "I remember, he's the one that told everybody to go to the dungeon rather than splitting into two groups. Originally, we intend for some people to stay and wait for you while the rest take care of the dungeon to pick up the new people that spawn. But he came along saying that it's faster to take care of the dungeon first then come back here. I found it stupid but, just went along with it. But now that I think about, that choice doesn't even make a damn sense." 

        He tells us making me think that Junpei never intends me to meet Hiroko. And I hope it's because he knew I was going to smack the shit out of her face with my frying pan.

        "So what now? What do we do with them? They’re still alive probably. Your alternate told us to tell you it was more fun to keep them alive." Kana says worriedly.

        "Nothing. If they died, that means they're weak. If they survived, then let them come after us. By the time they find us, we'll be strong enough to deal with them. As for now, I want to focus on trying to find one thing and that's the castle. Luro made that so it might hold some clues about where he is. And besides, it’s easier to train you all when we have an actual base." I told them trying to distract myself otherwise, my irritation will skyrocket up. 

        "We're not training them here?" Takumi asked and I shook my head.

        "No, it's too dangerous. If they survived and decided to come after us, you guys will be far too weak to handle them, and history will repeat itself. I really don't want to rely on my mind break skill." I tell them and they all nod.

        "Mindbreak huh, I heard it from them. It really does look like a disorder." Ms. Sam said as she tried to analyze the situation.

        "Why can't we just go straight to the overlords and kill them one by one like you did?" Takumi asked as he feeds the fire more stick.

        "You all will die," I tell him without faltering. I see them worried about what I said but I know it's true.

        "The two overlord I killed was amongst the weakest. They're the bottom rank. I took care of the 8th overlord easily but the 7th I had a hard time. If I didn't have a potion, I would have died from overusing a skill. As for the rest of the overlords, once I saw all of them in the bandit town, they showed no fear and that guy Unum is probably on another level." I explained to them.

        "Fuck, if only we weren't captured. We would have been stronger by now." Daikichi says as he slumps down near the fire pit beaten by the fact that he's weak. They're all weak. And they need to get stronger.

        "Item bag," I called out my dimensional bag and took out the blue sword I got after saving Suyeon. "You guys see this?"

        "Ohh, sword. That looks nice." Ms. Sam says, and I shake my head.

        "No Sam, this isn't a sword. After solving the puzzle in the hidden passage at the dungeon you all came from, it gave me this in the end. I know it's not a weapon since the weapon description voice command is not working. "You guys want to guess what this is?"

        "What is it?" Takumi asked holding the crystal sword in his hand as he whispers a command. "Whoa, you're right. It's not showing anything."

        "That's a key. That's the key to the diamond castle." I tell them and they all look at the sword while Takumi hands it back to me carefully as if it will break any minute.

        "So how do we find the castle?" Goro says and we all looked at Takumi.

        "Uh, well I don't know. For the Gold Castle, Luro actually told us the direction and how to obtain the key which is killing a dragon. So, I'm guessing, we need to kill a dragon to get to yours. As for the location of the diamond's castle, I have no idea where it is." Takumi explained as he hands the sword back to me.

        "Damn, well let's worry about that later on. First, we need to be on a move and get further away from here. Since I found you guys, I have no business here at all. You all also need to focus on eating, once your body weight goes to normal, then it will be easier for you to defend yourselves." I say looking at everyone, but I noticed one of them in a Daze throughout the whole time. "Hey, you okay?"

        I asked Mamoru who just looked at the fire not hearing what I said.

        "Mamoru, are you okay?" Miki-sensei asked again, and he snapped out of his daze as he looks at me directly.

        "Can you tell me again one of the guy’s name?" He asked me as his voice shakes.

        "What guy?" I asked him confused who he's talking about.

        "The one that...hit Kana." He replied hesitantly.

        "Oh, Junpei? What about him?" Takumi replied. The minute he hears his name, his complexion became pale as he stares at the fire pit in a daze.