I wait for Shinichi to finish his morning routine and then settle in to finish the third book.

Once I finish it, I decide to hold off on the fourth book as I had a thought.

I look around the room a bit and notice a framed picture of me sitting on top of the bookshelf.

In front of the picture is a small dish with one of the cookies Takahiro brought the other day.

It has probably been out a couple of days but, it won’t kill me if I eat it so, don’t mind if I do.

It is a little stale but it tastes pretty good.

Wish I knew about that bakery when I was alive.

I pick up the plate and put it in the sink so that I make him think that he threw the cookie away.

After that, I head over to his closet and start looking through his clothes.

Just the usual casual wear he always wore when we were together, so it hasn’t really changed for him much.

I look in the back of the closet.

What’s this?

I pull out a lab coat and followed a suit.

The lab coat has our college logo on it along with his name and seems to be in good shape but, the suit looks like moths have gotten to it.

There are a couple of small holes in the slacks and the shirt is nowhere near as white as it used to be.

I remember this suit now.

He looked so handsome in this.

It was one we went to get about a year before graduation.

The one he used for his job interview that he was going to work at once we graduated.

I can see why he didn’t get rid of it but, it’s not very useful right now.

I guess I can see about getting a new one for him later.

For now, I’ll just put the lab coat up on top of his clothes as a sign to go see Takahiro and close the closet.

With that I start to read book four and wait for Shinichi to come back home.

Just a little bit before Shinichi is due to come home, my reading gets interrupted by some loud noises coming from the apartment next door.

I put the book back on the shelf and peek my head through the wall and look outside.

It seems the person next door is moving out.

Just as I finish figuring out what’s going on I see Shinichi walking up the stairs.

He looks perplexed and takes a peek in the door.

“Rin-san are you ok?”

“Oh, Kitaji-san. Yeah, the place I worked at recently went out of business.”

“Wow! That anime studio had been around for a long time and they made some classics too. Didn’t you work there for a quite a while as well?”

“Yes, they did but things were going bad the last couple of years making some bad decisions until finally they couldn’t hold on any more. Luckily, I was able to find a new job quickly.”

“That’s good but why are you leaving?”

“Sadly, the new job doesn’t pay as much as my previous one so I need to get a place closer to my new job to cut down on costs.”

“I see. I will miss our talks about classic anime.”

“I’m not going too far, just the other side of town. Maybe we can get some coffee some time later when I’ve settled in.”

“Sure, as long as you lay off the yaoi talk a bit.”

She lets out a laugh.

“You know I just do that to make you a bit uncomfortable.”

“I know, I figured as much. Well, I hope to hear from you sometime.”

“Oh, definitely and you take care of yourself. Things will get better just see.”

“Thanks, take care.” Shinichi waves to Rin-san and heads for his apartment.

Well at least he was personable to one of his neighbors.

She seems nice.

She’s a bit older than him maybe five or more years.

I don’t get any sort of vibe between them other than friendly neighbors who share some interests.

Besides I have a plan for his future.

I watch him enter the apartment and prepare for his night of gaming.

I don’t quite understand what he’s doing.

He seems to be going to various places and fighting specific types of monsters.

It kinda looks like he’s getting materials for something to make.

He continues this well into the night stopping to craft a few small things here and there to clear up some inventory space.

“Okay, I got almost everything for today. Now I can sleep.”

With that he gets up, logs off, and turns the PC off.

He heads off to bed, I follow him and wait for him to fall asleep so I can enter his dreams.

* * *

I find myself in what looks like an elaborate cave system.

There’s some smaller caves and passageways and creatures called that resemble yellow caterpillars called Lesser Silk Worms.

They are about waist high tall and about the length of a person.

If these are the lesser ones, I’d hate to see the greater ones.

In one of the small dead-end caves is a treasure chest and next to it is Shinichi opening it.

He’s wearing a redish-brown outfit which includes a long fur lined jacket going down to his knees leaving him bare chested, matching fur lined briefs, a horned helmet and two small axes one on each side of his hip.

He looks like someone out of a barbarian movie.

“There you are.” I let out.

“Ah yes, I had a treasure coffer key for this place and saw it so I opened it. All the items in it are random when it shows up but, luckily it had the item I needed.”

“I see, what is with that outfit? It’s pretty …um interesting. I mean I like the macho look.”

“Heh, I had to change to a more defensive and attack heavy job. It’s called Viking and we’re gonna need the extra power here.”

“Oh? I assume it’s these worms we’re fighting.”

“Yup, I need your treasure skill to get one last item needed to make a special gift I feel you will need soon.”

“OH! I can’t wait!”

“Right just like before use your bow and attack one of the worms.”

“Got it.”

I pull out my bow and aim for one of the worms.

I let my arrow fly and it hits its target.

Once it makes its way toward me, Shinichi readies his axes, outstretches his right arm and lets out a roar.

The worm changes its focus and heads to Shinichi and he greets it with an attack from his giant axe.

“Something I forgot to ask you last time was, are you planning on visiting Takahiro?”

“I’m not really sure.”

“What? Come on. I mean he took a huge risk to even meet you let alone invite you to see his project.”

“I’ve been out of the lab for four years now.”

“So what? You are still doing things even if it’s as a pharmacy tech.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“I guess so. I just don’t have the same desire to do the research like I had before.”

“I bet if you go, you might find at least a spark of that desire you had before.”

“Maybe, but I don’t know if I will or not.”

“How will you know or not if you don’t go.”

Shinichi swings his axe and the worm dies.

I fire my bow and get another one for us to continue fighting.

Shinichi once again outstretches his right arm and lets out a roar causing the worm to head toward him.

“Yeah, you’re right as always. But I still have a lot of apprehension to going there.”

“I see. I wonder why that is?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I was doing it for our future together. I pretty much lost any reason to keep doing my research.”

“I get it. I’m not asking you to forget about me but you need to live your life to the fullest.”

“Do you remember when we first met?”

“How could I forget. It was one of the happiest days of my life.” I say as I land the killing blow on the worm.

I then pull out my bow, fire a shot at another worm and we repeat the cycle.

Shinichi replies, “It was a surprise for me to be sure.”

“I remember you mentioning that you were surprised I even suggested going with you to the bookstore.”

“Yeah, once we finally went out, I was able to tell you about my dark days.”

“Oh, that’s right. I was so shocked because you were so kind and happy around me.”

“Well, I’m not some psycho who would go around hurting people or anything. I just came out of a bad relationship and my friends weren’t really there to help me so I became a bit of a loner.”

“Yeah, I was surprised you were even still going to school and didn’t become a shut in.”

“You mean like I am now?”

“Probably. Why now and not back then?”

“I’m not the same person I was then.”

“How so?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious? You showed me that things can’t always be bad and I wanted to do everything I could to hold onto that hope and happiness.”

“You always did know how to make a girl feel special.” I blushingly reply, as I once again land the final blow on the worm.

I grab another worm with my bow and Shinichi takes it using his roar and we continue fighting.

“So, going to go back to our original discussion, I’m still not sure about meeting Takahiro.”

“Could there be something stopping you maybe?”

“It is possible. I mean just about anything is possible really. You’re here for instance so who am I to cast doubts on what’s possible.”

“Fair enough. What do you think might be stopping you?”

“Other than what I mentioned about building our future together, I don’t know. I just feel something stopping me from moving forward.”

“I see.”

So maybe there is something affecting him.

Maybe it’s hiding itself buried deep down.

With that I once again land the killing blow on the worm.

“Hold up before you pull.”

Shinichi bends down grabs a blue crystal and a few herbs from his pouch and the crystal spins around and draws the herbs into itself. A few rotations later a couple of potions pop out and the crystal disappears.

“Here drink this.”

We both drink our potions and I have all my wounds gone from the previous battle.

Shinichi continues, “Now see that worm that is a little bigger than the rest?”

“Yeah, it says ‘Creepy Crawly’ above it right?”

“Right. Let’s go for that one. We’ll need to be very careful though. It’s pretty tough but will be worth it.”

“O…ok. Here I go.”

Once again, I ready my bow but this time I aim for the lone stand out called ‘Creepy Crawly’.

The shot lands and it heads toward me.

Shinichi readies his axes and lets out his roar which makes the ‘Creepy Crawly’ change its focus to him.

He wasn’t kidding this guy is a lot stronger than the normal worms.

It’s kinda hard to continue the conversation and fight this guy.

I’m doing lots of dodging and parrying.

It is focused on Shinichi but still taking swipes at me.

“It’s pretty close but I need you to go behind me and use your Trick Slash Skill. It’ll do a bunch of damage and if it still survives after that, it’ll keep its focus on me.”

“Okay!”

I move out from behind the worm to line up behind Shinichi.

I prepare my skill and stab deep into the worm.

“OK here I go!” Shinichi says.

He lets loose a spinning attack and lands both axes into the worm.

It looks about ready to fall and just as I think that my next stab is the fatal one and it falls to the ground.

We are both greeted with the Level Up message above us.

“WE DID IT SHINICHI!”

“Yes, we did. Congrats on defeating your first Named Monster.”

“Wow is that what that was? What are those really?”

“Think of them like mini bosses.”

“I see.”

Just as I say that the corpse starts to disappear and in its place is what looks like a spool of silk thread.

“What’s that?” I say as I point to the spool.

“This is what I have been looking for. High Quality Silk Thread.”

As he finishes his reply he bends down and picks it up.

He then reaches into his pouch to grab some other items and a red crystal.

He kneels and starts the crystal spinning.

One by one the items are drawn into the crystal until the last item, the silk thread, is drawn in.

The crystal starts to take form and morphs into a blade, a dagger.

Once the process is done it is a dagger with a beautiful triangular blade with a half of a blue snowflake at the base of the hilt and three blue lines that look like rays radiating from the snowflake.

“I think you have outgrown your current dagger. I think this one will be better for you. I have a feeling you’re gonna need it soon.”

“Thanks. But I didn’t get you anything.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You being here is a present in and of itself.”

“Well, I know you haven’t really fully decided to go see Takahiro but, I did set aside your old lab coat in the closet. So, please take a look at it and at least think about seeing him a little more.”

“I will.”

As Shinichi let out his reply everything goes black once again.

* * *

I open my eyes and see Shinichi sitting up in bed.

He stands up, makes his way to the closet and opens it up.

He looks directly at the lab coat.

Reaching out, he scoops it up and brings it to his chest and gives a deep sigh.

He unfolds it and puts it on.

“Heh, still fits of course.”

He takes the coat back off, refolds it and places it back in the closet.

After closing the closet, he takes a look over at the clock and rushes to the bathroom to start his morning routine.