The city was both the same as Leo remembered it, but also nothing alike.

The dog park where he appeared upon his return used to be one of the many open-field car parks. The street that he walked according to that woman's advice used to be much dimmer, plainer. Today, all the storefronts shone with a bright, piercing light of neons, blasting the light at full force despite it being pretty much the middle of the day.

Still, for how busy the city's main street was, it was now surrounded by all sorts of greenery, counteracting the much-increased noise of the street itself, now filled with crowds instead of endless traffic.

Leo passed by the huge roundabout the woman spoke off and then took a left right after, all according to her advice. From there on, though, rather than heading straight to the massive colossus of the city's medical center, he walked straight past it.

In the end, Leo's walk continued for over half an hour while the young man forced himself to maintain a steady, casual pace.

He both wanted to hurry up, to rush with all his inhumanly might to check what became of his family while he was gone, but…

'I still need some time to think.'

The experiences of his past six lives easily put a solid stop to Leo's excitement, plans, and hopes.

'I was summoned to this world, there's no doubt about it. And that means…'

Unconsciously slowing his steps down a bit, Leo took a deep breath. Then, he slowly raised his head while giving the world an exhausted, blank stare.

'I'm not here to return, but to save this world again.'

Leo's expression dropped an additional note.

Long gone were his dreams and naive if not outright infantile perspective on such a task. Saving the world lost its initial charm with the death of Leo's first companion, mere months into his first summoning. This monumental task lost its grandeur when Leo first realized how it was all about him drowning in a sea of blood of his own making.

And the third summoning taught him well that there was a lot more to saving the world than just killing whichever big bad evil the beautiful, innocent-looking princess would point him at while clouding his thoughts with her perfected art of subtle seduction.

By his fourth summoning, Leo knew better than to look forward to this repeating mission of his, filled with all sorts of regrets one could imagine.

'This is going to be the same kind of hell as all the others,' Leo somberly thought, right as he approached the very last corner he had to take.

And just like that, by taking one step after the other for nearly an hour, he managed to leave the bustling center of the city and arrive on its relative outskirts, amidst the peaceful apartment district, filled to the brim with an arrangement of multi-family high-rises and housing blocks.

"The fuck do you think you are going?"

'Eh?'

Leo stopped in his tracks, his rapid heartbeat stalling as his rushing thoughts came to a sudden stop.

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'I knew I was summoned here, but for this tendency to continue…' Leo's face darkened as he noticed the similarity between how things went in every world he was summoned to and his current experience.

Up until this point, he still harbored some hopes that he had, indeed, returned back home. Some years later, but still, he was still back in the world he came from, able to finally reunite with his family and live a leisurely life in the comforts the modern world readily offered.

But with every passing moment, those hopes continued to wither, battered by the constant onslaught of connections that drew to Leo's past experiences.

Still.

His initial assessment of the situation changed as soon as his eyes reached the source of the commotion.

'I thought this was going to be a typical, entry-level quest to solve, but this…'

A group of nasty-looking late teens and young adults crowded a narrow pass, gate leading to the inner courtyard of a housing block. Surrounded by them was a slightly younger kid, somewhere in the middle of his teens.

Leo only needed a single glance to get the gist of what was going on.

"Are you for real?" one of the two, scantily dressed girls within the group rolled her eyes while relaxing on a long, portable chair. Neither she nor anyone else within the group showed any eagerness to put a stop to this stupid, ugly situation.

Strangely enough, the bullied kid simply wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve before standing back up.

He didn't utter a single word, nor did he bother sparing a single look at his oppressors.

'Hmm?'

Strangely enough, despite his circumstances, that kid lacked the natural aura of a victim. His back wasn't hunched nor was he slumping down. Sure, he didn't look up at his bullies' faces, but…

'He can't be bothered to waste a glance at them?' Leo thought, his eyebrow moving up a bit. Then, the corner of his mouth twitched a bit. 'It's mildly impressive,' Leo's second eyebrow joined its twin high on the now young man's forehead.

It was a rare sight, to see someone so obviously bullied and yet… refusing to acknowledge it.

The smallest boy in the group then proceeded to take a step forward, in the same, perfectly silent fashion.

Moving by the main bully, he only spared him a single, tired glance in passing.

'Interesting,' Leo thought, the twitch of the corner of his mouth now transforming into a fully-fledged smirk.

"I asked you a fucking…" the leader of the scene turned on his heel, breaking free from the momentary stun and reaching out for the kid's arm. Yet, before his hand could latch on its target, a door slammed open with a vengeful banshee storming out the next instant, only to hang over the second floor's balcony's railing and bring its burning, furious stare down.

"What in the name of your late father do you think you are doing, Mark Pesterny?!"

Already taking a step forward, Leo suddenly froze.

'What the…'

His eyes rocketed up, to where a mad, extremely weary-looking woman roughly in her fifties stared daggers at the gathering below.

'That's…'

The surname matched. The balcony matched.

Leo's eyes rushed down, at the bully and his victim duo.

'Which one…'

The huge bully gritted his teeth and slowly, reluctantly raised his head up.

"Mom, it's nothing," the smaller of the two spoke out in a deep, calm and composed voice. The kid then raised his head as well, allowing Leo a proper look at his face.

'Don't you fucking tell me…'

The girl who lightly protested has now pulled her bare legs up, fully removing herself from the woman's field of vision. And as she stared up at the bully, a small smirk danced on her lips.

'How in all hell did this happen?' Leo stared, too baffled to take another step.

It wasn't the situation that took him aback so much… At least, it wasn't the major part.

His eyes drew to the duo of the bully and the victim, dancing from one to the other as greater and greater disbelief raged in his soul.

'Rob? Mark?'

Leo barely managed to keep his jaw from dropping.

The youngest of the family, the golden child with exemplary results in the school and praise of all the teachers he interacted with.

The middle child, two years older, solid but average student, too silent and someone preferring to keep to himself. Thanks to his sudden growth spur, he managed to match Leo's height before his first summoning, despite the further three years that separated them.

Mark, the youngest. And Rob, the middle child.

Leo's two brothers, along with their step-mom, currently spawning fires from her eyes as she looked down at her quarreling sons.

And then, the meaning behind Leo's stepmom's words hit him.

'Late father?'