A few days after confronting Rin, I was still thinking about her true feelings about me. She was right, this whole thing was my undoing. "By simply existing" she said. It is true, if I wasn't born in this world, everything might be better. I thought of this every now and then for a few days. Wandering about my future and the future of this community of survivors. I spent my nights overthinking. Sometimes I could even hear voices, mumbling in my head.

One night, Ishigaki visited my room. He told me that for a couple weeks, he had the same dream over and over again. He was so bothered by it, the moment he told me about it. "I was in a jungle of some sort. Then I saw a man, older than me, wearing hooded armor. He sat beside me and began talking. I perceived it as him explaining something... maybe some strategies, but it was strange..."

A hooded armor? I saw that kind of person months ago, also in my dream. My question at that point was: does he have a connection with Ishigaki somehow?

"What's so strange about it?" I asked for more details from him.

"I was looking at him from the perspective of another person, not myself. I figured that I was in the eyes of a girl. Then I laughed hysterically at him, I don't know why,"

Hmm... I helped Ishigaki thinking what the dream meant, then I told him about the man that he had described five minutes earlier. "I also had a dream about the same man. He approached me in a white place... as far as my eyes can see, it was only white. He approached me, then showed me his ring, the same as mine here," I showed my ring to him.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

After theorizing back and forth trying to figure out who the mysterious man was, we ended up just sighing. Our heads hurt, so we figured to just chill and eat some instant noodles together. It hits differently. At that moment, I didn't feel like I was in another place. I felt like home, and we were just friends hanging out for the night.

We laughed, and told our stories for that night. It was wonderful, I still remember this brief happiness... I wonder if Ishigaki's still---

You know what, never mind. Let's continue the story.

"Ah, I'm full..." Ishigaki stretched his body upwards, then patted his full belly. "I think it's enough for tonight, thanks for the food Kyuuto," Ishigaki gave a thumbs up. Not long after that, he went back to his room.

As I clean the plates, I suddenly remember my previous life. The life of normality, when I was playing video games all the time, while in the evening training with Koori. I suddenly remembered my old friends when I was just an elementary student. I wonder where they went...

A few weeks went by, and we were prepared for the next mission. Yuukai explained to us that morning that we were going to raid Sector 24. A sector larger than Sector 35, which was the location of the previous mission. This area was particularly dangerous, because as Raizen further told us, this area was filled with hunters. The stronger form of the possessed, they are more agile than the normal ones.

As we were preparing ourselves to hop on the choppers once again, someone approached me from behind. When I turned my head around, it was Ishigaki.

"Yo, how are you guys doing?" he greeted us with his brilliant smile.

"Well, just preparing for hell again," Kotetsu briefly answered, wiping the blade of his Zodiac sword. "How are you Ishigaki? Why are you here?"

Ishigaki smirked, then answered with a smug face, "Well, I am your new Ora now,"