"H-Huh?" Sheep blinked a couple of times after finally waking up, "What happened?"

"We are not your enemies. You are safe." Energy began explaining the entire situation from the start, "To begin with, your name is..."

"Hold on, he's not an angel, so he still has his memories." Vastoria stopped him.

"...Come again?"

With a tired sigh, Sheep finally sat himself up, rubbing his groggy head all the while.

"Ugh, yep. I'm what you would call a shopkeeper."

"Ah, I see. I was unfamiliar with that bit of info." He replied, "Then, can you please tell me what it is you were doing in this house?"

Eh? He's asking like he owns the place, the hell? For your information, pal—you may have come here before us, but this is MY house! And I don't care what kind of apocalypse era you hail from, stealing from other people's residences is not okay!

"This house belongs to Migu." Vastoria reached into my pocket to show him the photo, "We found this and wanted to figure out who these people were to her."

"Her house...?" Energy looked up at me confusedly, "I see. That complicates some things."

Leaving that last part as nothing more than an ambiguous mutter he refused to elaborate on, he kept staring at everyone in the photo.

"Yeah, so you can just return all the stuff you might have taken from me." I put my hand out.

"Huh? I didn't come here to take any of this junk." He furrowed his brows, "Hmm, so these people are..."

Wait, he recognizes them?

"I see, it's good that you found this." He handed it back to me, "Keep it safe until we figure out which one of them is us."

"Huh? Why would you be in the picture?" Sheep cocked his head back.

"Because—it's a family picture." He praised the details, "And a rather well-made one."

Ah, guess he's also from the "pre-camera" era...

"Hold on, this is MY family." I reiterated.

"I suppose you wouldn't know, so please follow me to my home." He sighed.

What the hell is he doing all of a sudden? Leading us away from here, spouting random nonsense like him being one of the people here... What makes him think he's my family? Ah, but his house is super close to mine. Just a few houses away, actually. What the hell, it's seated on a giant block of concrete.

"See here, the proximity between our abodes is measly." He knocked on the heavily fortified home's cubic concrete base, "House location is based on familial relations."

"...Whuh?" Vastoria's mouth stood agape, "How is that even possible? Who told you that?"

"The Gods." He revealed, "If you go around a dozen blocks that way, you'll see..."

"We know where the Gods live!" I fussed, "H-Hold on, so are you saying the house next to me is my human parent's house?!"

"That is what they told me." He nodded.

"So then, that makes you Migu's ancestor." Sheep realized, "But wait, you're still relatively far from her home."

"So?"

"So, you're ancient compared to her!" He explained, "Let's say a generation is around 25-30ish years. That'd mean you're at least 300 years older than her."

Oh yeah, the math adds up. But I still don't understand what he's getting at.

"You still don't get it?" He then turned to me, "The picture, he can't be in it, because he would've been dead five times over by the time it was illustrated!"

"Ah." Vastoria paused before correcting him, "...Shot."

"Hm?"

"Photos are shot, not illustrated."

"Future tech, you wouldn't get it." I chimed in with a smirk.

As the poor primitive Sheep tried his best and failed to comprehend our mind blowing news about the state of modern image capturing technology, Energy was quick to steer the conversation back on track.

"Well, regardless, what he said is probably true."

"Hey, don't be sad." I comforted him, "At the very least, I'm glad I have a family member to talk to in here. Even if you are my great-great-great-great-great-great..."

"I'm not that old!"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Heh, gramps is frowning. But to think our house location is based on our family ties. I guess it makes sense, when you think about it. If everyone who has ever and will ever live their lives down there is up here now, then it'd make sense for them to be arranged appropriately. This way, you're essentially traveling through time as you make your way forwards or backwards. Well, humans had to have started off from one guy and one girl, so in a way, we ARE all related to some extent...

"H-Hold on!" I noticed, turning my head back to where we came from, "If house proximity dictates family ties...!"

"Huh? Oh goodness!" Vastoria understood from my gaze, "You and Gale are practically neighbors!"

Gale's house is in the same direction as Energy's, just way closer to mine. Does that make him my ancestor too? If that's the case, he could very well be my father or grandfather. Given we're all arranged in a uniform grid pattern, this hypothesis has a slight margin of error. Geez, just who the hell is Energy? He waltzes in unannounced, gives us a boatload of shocking news, then refuses to elaborate!

"Heh, looks like our dear friend Gale is a rather close relative." Sheep chuckled, though his smirk quickly dropped down once he recalled something, "Crap! Quick, gimme the picture!"

"Photo." Vastoria corrected him, but he hastily took it from her anyways, "H-Hey!"

"Heh." His smirk returned, now with a slight sigh of relief as he showed everyone the man with the Rainbow Eyes again, "I knew I recognized those scars on his forearms!"

We all huddled around him to see, and... Wow, the scratches really are there! Not only that, but he's showing off his hand that's missing a pinkie. Just like Gale's golden one! So this man, he really is...

"Incredible... So this is what he looked like as a human..." Vastoria's heartbeat grew loud in excitement.

"B-But wait, everyone else is dressed so warmly, yet he's the only one pulling his sleeves up." I noted, "Not only that, but the pose with him showing off his missing finger..."

There's just no way that's the case, but... Could he have somehow known?

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"This is all just getting to be too much." Vastoria was about to lean on the concrete block.

"Wait!" Energy pulled her back up.

As soon as her back briefly made contact with the surface of the concrete, a large anvil dropped from above, hitting the exact spot where she would've been. Staring in abject horror and silence at the man whom the house belonged to, we couldn't help but yell his ear off.

"What the hell was that!?" I went first.

"You freaking booby trapped your house!?" Sheep went second.

"Thank you so much for pulling me back~!!" Vastoria vigorously shook his hand in tears.

"Huh, you're not mad at this prick?" Sheep and I turned to stare at her.

"I'm just glad to be alive!" She said in between hyperventilated sobs.

Well, that's a glass-half-full way of looking at it if ever I've seen one. Certainly, he did go out of his way to pull her out to safety, so he does deserve some praise.

"Something you should know, but this is my human counterpart's dream house." He explained, "A fully fortified, trapped to the teeth home where no one but me can safely traverse it. Inside are supplies, weapons and plant seeds that'll easily grow to last you a lifetime."

"Is there even a need for any of those in a place like Heaven?" I raised an Eyebrow.

"Sadly, the things I had most wished for in life are no longer appropriate..." He chuckled melancholically, "The irony is loud, isn't it?"

For once, he was making sense. I'll admit I see gramps in a whole new light now, but even then I can't exactly understand just what kind of horror movie era he lived in to wish for this.

"You hails from a Black Iro era." Vastoria explained, sending shivers down both Sheep's and my spine.

"A cursed era!?" He jolted.

"I thought those were just a myth!" I was taken aback, "So people with Black Irises really do exist..."

Once a baby is born with Black Colored Eyes, the entire world is cursed until that person is killed or dies. Most often, their parents are forced to kill them so as to not send the world into an era of darkness, but in the case of such a person being allowed to live, unspeakable horrors are said to enshroud the world... Or at least that's how the legend goes, but that's obviously just an old superstition, right?

"Regardless of what kind of horrors came by during your lifespan, it can't be that bad that you'd wanna live in this unapproachable death trap." Sheep glanced up.

"And if I told you a viral plague that makes the dead rise and yearn for live flesh was the norm, would you still disagree?" Energy refuted.

Yikes, that does sound unspeakably horror-ey. Like, horror squared. Now his house being on a giant cube of concrete is starting to make sense, but how does he even get in there?

"Vastoria, I see you got your wings back." He Eyed them enviously, "Good for you..."

Oh, so these two idiots are the same, after all. Both have homes that heavily rely on them flying up to reach them. Seriously, what kind of morons would ask for a house too good for them? And this is coming from a hoarder such as myself!

"Then, if I flew you up there, would you let us take some stuff with us in exchange?" Vastoria raised a deal, "We'll need all the help we can get if we wanna reach the bottom of the Shrine again."

"The Shrine?" His Eyes opened wide in response, "Vastoria, that place is dangerous! I lost my foot and Eye in there!"

"We have reason to believe that sleeping in those beds on the fourth floor advances the time in Heaven 2.0 permanently." Sheep explained, "Trust me, we wouldn't wanna go there either if we didn't have that to prove."

"Ah, the time advancement." He mulled it over in his head for a moment, "Yes, now that I think about it, the angels here have progressed right after Vastoria and I went to sleep in the Shrine's depths."

"So?"

"It's perfect, everything lines up!" He couldn't keep his grin from showing anymore.

"Lines up?" I cocked my head back.

"Yes, for you see...!" He was now grinning from ear to ear, "I was planning on going there myself too!"

"Oh, then it's perfect!" Vastoria returned a smile herself, "We can go together!"

"If you're half as capable as Gale, then we can even skip looking for him." Sheep smirked, "Gods only know where he wandered off to by now. Looking for him is a lost cause."

What the...? What's with you two? And gramps, wasn't he just warning us not to go back to the Shrine? Everyone's suddenly going back on their words, is there really no way for us to go back for Gale first?

"...Migu, don't look at us like that." Sheep noticed my sullen mood, "Looking for Gale now would be like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Yeah, and the needle and the haystack is constantly shifting, like it has worms in it or something." Vastoria was quick to gag at her own analogy, "Eugh, scratch that. Very poor example!"

"Why?" Energy turned to her, "I never understood people who are afraid of worms and other critters. When you're strapped for rations, they're nature's protein."

I... I'm not even gonna say anything to that. Yeah, the other two definitely agree with my sentiment, as they're just staring at Energy in horror right next to me. The silent surprise and subdued disgust was loud. Gramps, I understand you lived in a difficult time, but I'd rather get my flesh eaten than resort to putting a bug in my mouth. Mgh, gonna throw up...!