For once, I didn’t lose my consciousness, so I knew exactly where Akabane told the standing guards to take me. But since I didn’t black out, having my head grabbed from the back and my body lifted into the air, into being carried around like a piece of dead wood and thrown into a nearby cave with wooden bars for a prison wasn’t a fun experience by any means. On the bright side, Midorikawa was taken with me, so at least I had someone else to share the pain with.

It still took us until the sun had set to completely regain our feelings in our limbs, however. And even when night fell, there was no food or drink to be brought to us—I wondered if this was a prison or a torture chamber.

“Better get used to it, kid,” Midorikawa sighed, repeatedly opening and closing his palms to regain his touch. “You don’t get fed here, it’s the way the Mujin works. If you disagree with the chief, they throw you here and let you starve to death, or you do as they say. I might last a month without food or drink in this state, but your life is within days.”

“You underestimate me too much,” I let out a grin in response. “I’ve gone through weeks without food or drink myself.”

It was a lie, of course. Back when I first fought against my parents about the search, I went for only a couple of days locked in my own room and took the keys with me. By the time they finally broke in, I was sent to the emergency room. But I couldn’t show myself vulnerable in this world.

It seemed like it didn’t trick my current partner in crime, though. “Don’t force yourself to look tough, kid,” Midorikawa shook his head. “I’ve stayed here once. I said it just this morning, remember? I know how hard it is.”

”Then how come you’re able to survive for longer?”

“Don’t you realize it already? Us Evolved are fundamentally different from Unborns like you. Like how an evolved Omushi gained sentience and intelligence from the human it killed, a Mujin once evolved gained the Omushi’s natural body and resistance to the environment.”

Tapping his hand against his other wrist, the man continued. “This is not just protective armor, but our skin itself.”

”Wait… what?”

“You don’t know? I saw you looking at us with weird eyes from time to time, so I thought you at least had some doubts, but…”

I had to work every muscle in my throat to prevent whatever was left in my stomach from erupting out of my system—I at least had that much manners left to behave in front of a fellow partner, though calling him a “human” would be a stretch at this point. A monstrous growth for both sides, made possible by killing and consuming the other side… what horrific experience, especially if they had to do it to the ones they once called “partners”.

“Wait a minute!” Realizing my own words, I shouted as hard as I could in hope of someone outside to hear me, all while yanking on the wooden bars as hard as I could. “Akari! What did you do to Akari, bastards?”

“Wait, kid, hold up!” Midorikawa, seeing my reckless endeavor, pulled me back at once. “They wouldn’t do anything, trust me! The partner Omushi will be taken care of to the best of their abilities, since they need it alive for the ritual! Take a deep breath, calm down, and relax.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I broke free from his grasp with ease—Midorikawa only wanted to stop me from making a scene, after all. “Relax? Relax? How can I relax in this damn situation?”

“Listen to me, damn it! Did you really think I had no plans whatsoever when I brought you in with Red?”

“Then tell me, genius! What plan do you have?”

“… Fine, but first, keep your voice down. Second, no matter what you hear, don’t react. Got it?”

“Fine.”

Glancing around the premises, Midorikawa lowered his voice:

“I’m sending out Blue and Black to do some exploration, you remember that, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“They should return to report every day and learn of our situation. When they come to our cell, that’s the signal. You then agree to participate in the ritual.”

“W—”

”I told you to keep it down!” Covering my mouth with one hand and making a shush sign with his other, Midorikawa quietly raised his voice. “Remember the prophecy? They’re searching for the Dragon God’s seal. Once we’ve gotten the location, that’s when our plan starts.

“Right now, both you and Akari aren’t strong enough to undergo the evolution ritual—for it to work, you two need to be at a certain level of power. So, even if you agree to it, Red will most likely send you to a training phase—with how you’ve been behaving, he’s gonna be wary of sending you out to do field missions. Blue is the current instructor in the village, so you’ll be training under him… and he’s our ticket to sneak out of this place when you’re strong enough.”

“But where would we go, then?”

“To the Dragon God’s seal, of course. Red is too caught up in the prophecy that he doesn’t see the obvious solution—if the Dragon God hasn’t broken out yet, then we just have to destroy it before it has a chance to form. With our combined strength, we can just destroy its remnants right here, right now, and there’s no need for the evolution ritual to exist anymore, you feel me?”

Midorikawa’s solution was the dream scenario. Almost too good to be true, even. “And… what happens if our combined powers don’t work?”

“Then we fight it the old fashioned way or die,” the green man shrugged. “But it’s either dying to a natural calamity, or killing your partner for life. I’m sure which option you’d rather take, if you’re anything like what I was.”

I looked at Midorikawa, my blood pumping from the respect I felt for the man. He was right—if the prophecy was true, then I’d be dying anyway. Whether it would be physically dying by the hands of this monster, or spiritually dying by killing my partner, it was the same thing.

Besides, I’d already died once. Another time wouldn’t scare me anyway.

“I’m in.” I nodded.

“I knew you would,” Midorikawa grinned. “You really are like the kid me.”

“I don’t know if I should take it as a compliment for me or a concern for you,” I laughed at the remark.

“Course’ I meant it as a compliment. What do you take me for?” Lightly jabbing my side, the man in green chuckled. “But I guess it’s been rough for you too, huh? In your old world, I mean.”

“Tell me about it…”

I ended up sharing my past with him. Everything, from the incident that changed me into the way I was, to my last struggles and eventual death in my old world. The only thing I omitted was the fact that this world was a game on Earth—sometimes, things were best kept hidden, no matter the circumstances.

“I… I can’t believe you went through so much, kid…” Midorikawa sobbed uncontrollably as soon as I finished my tale, prompting me to pat the guy on the back to calm him down.

”There, there, …” I patted the hard exoskeleton on his body, unsure if he would even feel the force of my touch. “W-What about you? You said that I was similar, right? What was your past like?”

It seemed like the subject change worked, for Midorikawa’s tears stopped at the question. Taking a large final sniffle, the man started recounting his own tale.

“Well…”