Touji stood on the edge of a vast body of water. Below him, the ocean stretched endlessly in all directions, blending in with the clear, blue sky above. There was a certain stillness about the place, something which gave off an aura of an eerie quiet.

There were no ripples or wind, and while the sun still draped its mantle over the earth, the heat it produced felt stale and lifeless.

He stood on the ocean's surface. The waves lapped below his feet but sat like they were on solid ground."

As he gazed off into the distance, not knowing why or even inclined to ask, he felt as if this place was strangely familiar or at least gave a nostalgic vibe. He almost uttered the word “home” aloud, but his lips began to move he found that he was unable to say it. He wanted to punch himself for making a connection in his mind since there was no correlation. And besides it would be an insult to compare the two.

He was abruptly broken out from his train of thought as the outline of a human began to form on the edge of the horizon. It seemed to materialize from the water below as it swirled upwards to form the shape of a female figure.

Touji stared, barely moving a muscle. Suddenly the wind blew causing the long, familiar pink hair to dance to and fro omits the cold breeze. Touji’s quickly lost his serenity as he rushed toward the silhouette.

“Claria!”

She stood stationary, failing to react to his calls and shouts. When Touji finally reached her, he stopped to catch his breath.

“Hey, ah.” *pant, pant* “You, ok? I don’t know what happened back there. But I think I did something. Or did I?”

He scratched his head trying to remember something which felt important but hung just out of his memory’s grasp.

“Gosh, there was something bad that happened.” He finally continued, “Anyway some sort of misunderstanding. Can’t remember but I feel like I might have gotten you involved.”

There was no response.

“Look, I know it might sound fake but I literally can’t remember what I did. Whatever it may have been, I’m sorry. I really am.”

There was another moment of silence. Then the girl spoke.

“If you didn’t, then who did this to me?”

Her face turned to look at Touji’s. His expression turned to that of horror as he gazed at the disfigured face of the moving corpse.

Her eyes were missing from their sockets and her tongue and jaw were torn apart. A black liquid flowed like tears from out of the holes and cracks.

Touji’s heart stopped.

***

He sat up, shaking from the terrifying dream only to wake up into a reality, a reality filled with the twist and turns attributed that could only be described as nightmarish. He was sitting in a stone hallway, the floor unmaintained and covered in soil and cracks The ceiling was quite low and the walls were strung with aposs lamps running as far as the eye could see. Touji combed his hands through his hair and scraped the dirt off of his face.

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“I didn’t kill her.” He said softly to himself.

Why he had to convince himself of this he was unsure. There was so much confusion in his mind that at this point whatever he had once assumed to be true was now being called into question. No one remembered him. He saw a completely different side to everyone he had known up until this point causing him to ask if he had ever really known any of them.

Touji hugged his knees in despair. There was no place to go. It started to feel the same as when he first woke up in this world, only this time there were places he dared not go back to.

“Ahh. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!”

There was a muffled almost tearing sound as Touji felt a trickle of blood run down his forehead. His thoughts were broken as he discovered he was holding a handful of his hair. It was becoming apparent he needed to stop thinking and move before his sanity became unrepairable.

He sighed, standing up with difficulty and began to limp his way down the lonely passage.

-Now that I think about it, I have no idea where this will bring me. It was right beside the road which led to the Shizma but it’s turned multiple times so I am completely lost sense of my direction. I don’t have a choice though.

After walking under the dim light of the aposs for what felt like hours, Touji stopped in his tracks. The lonely thud of his footsteps hitting the floor had been disturbed by a faint whisper.

Somebody was in the tunnel, and more than one. The voices began to grow quiet, signifying that the holders were getting further away. Touji cautiously began to follow them down the tunnel, his hand against the wall, giving him some much-needed support. Suddenly Touji was surprised by a loud bang that echoed down the corridor. The voices then disappeared.

Touji quickly rushed forward and found himself in front of a door.

He put his shaking hands over the nob and opened it. There behind the door stood a flight of stone stairs leading up to a trap door in the roof.

-Why have a door leading to a trap door? Just use one door ya dimwits.

He climbed to the top of the stairs and removed the latch. He peered out into the darkness of a room and was greeted with the sight of a large number of wooden boxes stacked all around him. They all carried strange engravings imprinted over their lids, something to the effect of a coffin with a bird's main body inside and its wings outside. He paused but quickly resumed his search as it told him nothing of where he was. As he had suspected the outline of a corridor at the far end of the room lay visible. While there were no windows there always seemed to be a conveniently placed aposs to give a bit of light on the subject.

He quickly stepped out, shutting the door and locking it back into place. He then headed into the hallway, passing several more rooms, but found nothing of interest except for the fact that they were filled to the brim with crates. After reaching the other end of the supposed floor, he ascended another flight of stairs, feeling extremely pissed at the idiot architect who made this many stairs without installing an elevator for the handicapped.

When he reached the top, a small light began to glow through a keyhole of another door. Reaching his hand out, he turned the knob and hastily opened it. He was greeted with a warm gush of wind and a pleasant smell of what he presumed was roasted meat complete with spices.

The room he had entered bore a strong resemblance to that of a very old bar. Not old as in rundown, but more antique with its knotted wooden tables and the Viking-type weapons hanging behind the counter for completely no reason other than to add atmosphere.

The aroma of food caught Touji’s attention immediately as he approached the counter and saw plates of assorted foods set out in a neat and tidy fashion. He had completely neglected the site of the other men in the room who for the most part ignored his presence entirely.

The plate in front of him contained various exotic fruits and veggies with a large helping of something Touji could only describe as bubbling raw meat. This would not ordinarily make Touji’s stomach rumble, but due to his circumstances, he was famished.

He placed his hand over his chest as the pain inside increased. Though the hunger persisted viciously, the reality crossed him that he would be unable to stomach anything yet.

Not like he would get away with stealing food off of a bar counter, he thought to himself as he sadly passed by and regretfully left the building.

As he stepped outside Touji was forced to cover his eyes, letting them adjust to sudden exposure to the sun.

-Looks like I made it to Shizma in the end. I guess I’m at least a little lucky.