*SPLAT*

KYAAA!!

The street was immediately dyed red as blood splattered all over the place. Screams filled the street as people began to scramble away while some neared his body to see what was happening. Some were already taking their phone out in order to call for help.

‘Shit. It’s the last time I believe something that is written in a light novel.’

Kuroha, on the other hand, was busy reconnecting his bones and manipulating his blood to change them in a little ball and discard them later.

Seeing the floating blood, people began to stop screaming as they warily eyed the situation. It didn’t take long for most of them to understand that the one who had fallen from such a high building was still somehow alive.

Then, as if by magic, that person mysteriously disappeared. The streets completely spotless, as if nothing ever happened.

That day, a new urban legend was born.

---

Kuroha, who had teleported back to his room looked at the state of his clothes with a bitter smile.

When he fell, some of his bones went out of his body and pierced his clothes. Even without that, this amount of blood wasn’t something that could be cleaned.

‘Those clothes are unusable. I should burn them later.’

He discarded them before throwing them into the Trash bin. He also did the same with his underwear.

Now facing the mirror in his birthday suit, he examined all his body with a certain curiosity. He was in no way narcissistic, but even he had to admit that he was rather handsome and his body was very well sculpted.

He rotated his shoulder as he thought so.

‘My regeneration speed increased.’

He was sure of it. He can only feel it a few times, but generally when he received damages that should have been otherwise fatal, his body would shut down. From his last experience with that crazy girl wearing maid clothes, it should be just a few seconds. During those few seconds, he would experience “death” before waking up. This time though, he didn’t. He stayed perfectly awake and his regeneration was a little faster.

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He touched his face in the mirror,

‘I wonder if I am even human.’

He always asked himself this question. But it was the first time he felt it so strongly. He began to trace the contour of his neck,

‘Will I die If I cut my head?’

Technically he should be able to recover from anything as long as he had enough energy. His experience with the bomb in the laboratory proved it. But, what about his head. Normal people died when their head was removed, but what about him?

{Could you please stop having suicidal thoughts. Sigh, you’re so troublesome sometimes. Why do you have to always try to understand everything.}

Kuroha paused his morbid thoughts as he said,

“Madness. Been a while. I thought you wouldn’t talk anymore.”

{Ahaha...Do not worry. Soon you’ll most likely never hear anything from me.}

This bitter laugh and those weird words brought an uneasy feeling in Kuroha. He frowned a little and asked,

{Nothing you should mind now. Soon, you’ll understand many many things.}

“Madness...Madness?”

He continued to call, but no one answered him back. This situation brought his feeling of worry to an all-time high.

He immediately sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes as he tried to meditate. It didn’t take long for him to reach the door.

“Open the door.”

Still, he received no answer. He waited, waited and waited some more. But still nothing. In the end, he could only reluctantly give up. Any more than this would just be a waste of time.

He opened his eyes and decided to go take a bath. He had a meeting with Himiko this night.

----

The sun was slowly setting down. Dusk was upon the world. At this time, people were going back home from a hard day of work while others were going to party.

The world became illuminated by a brilliant light, but what people forgot was that the brighter the light, the larger the shadow.

Some people would never be able to appear in the light. Some by choices, other because of the circumstances they found themselves in. Bubaigawara Jin was such a man. A man who asked for nothing more to be accepted by society, but was sadly rejected by it because of events out of his power.

Right now, in one apartment, Bubaigawara Jin was feeling the greatest stress of his life

Bubaigawara, commonly known as Twice, was currently anticipating the visit of the girl he liked to call a friend. In this cold and dark world, she was really one of the few who still cared about him, sometimes bringing him food and sometimes going out in the arcade with him.

Right now though, he was feeling a gut-wrenching stress as he sat in the corner of his room, with the light turned off. After all, from what Himiko said, her boyfriend would meet them today.

Remembering this, he couldn’t help but wonder.

‘Will he be a good guy? Will we be able to become friends? Will he find me weird?’

Twice was a man extremely starved for interactions. He wanted to have friends. Many friends. He didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t like to be alone. It was this need to have others close to him that brought the event that caused his current trauma.

Right now, as the clock ticked and the minutes passed, deep inside him, a great fear was steadily growing.

‘What if he doesn’t like me?’

He had absolutely no doubt that Himiko would listen to anything that Kuroha would say. As such, if he gave a bad impression, not only would only lose a potential new friend, he would also lose one he already made.

He grabbed his head that was still covered with a bag and began to hyperventilate.

“What should I do? What should I do?”

Anyone able to see his face would see that his eyes were currently bloodshot. A proof of his current state.

Fear was truly a curious thing, for it followed no logic. Some fears were so illogical that most people could never understand it. But, if there was one fear that all humans shared, it was the fear of loneliness.

Some people thought that simply staying in their room for a few days means that they didn’t fear loneliness. Those people were just childish little kids who never experienced what it means to be truly alone.

Humans were social animals. It was in their instinct to form a society. This society didn’t even have to be real. Even internet societies were a form of interaction.

Lonely people were dangerous. Lonely people were ready to do anything to get rid of this loneliness.

Right now, right here, Twice only had one wish,

“I don’t want to be alone.”