The three exited the forest and found themselves on the beach.

“Come on, the noble’s estate is just a little more up north.” Aria stated.

“Eh? You can tell how far away we are?” Ren questioned.

“Let’s just say that if I picture ourselves on a map then I know our relative distance, not our exact distance.” Aria replied as the three quickly continued north until they arrived at the noble’s mansion. It was a large building that stretched itself down the beach for what seemed like forever.

As the three eventually reached a door, Ren questioned, “So, is this the back door or front door?”

“This is the back door, the front door is blocked by a large wall that stretches along the entire front side of the estate. The only way past that wall is to scale it or break through the front gate. Both of which are too conspicuous of actions for what I would expect the rebels to take. I expect them to have entered through this central backdoor, but…” Aria trailed off as she opened the door and her concerns felt justified. The inside of the mansion was completely empty. There was light, but there were no butlers or maids to greet the three as they entered the building. With a building this large, there should have been an overabundance of servants, but for there to not be a single one in sight, that was frightening to Aria. Ren and Steven didn’t quite realize this distinction; even so, the two were also set back by the strange quietness from within the building. The two had expected the place to have been in chaos with people running around in fright, but there was no one, and no sound at all. “It shouldn’t be this empty.”

“Where should the villagers be, Aria? That’s where we need to get to.” Ren questioned.

“Right. There should be an underground cellar. If the villagers had to go somewhere within the estate to remain protected, then they would hide in the cellar.”

“Any clue where that is?”

“No. I’ve never stepped foot into a noble’s mansion before and they never taught us the layout in the knight’s academy. I don’t know the layout any more than you do.”

“So wandering around in a building as big as Valenthia’s campus? That’ll take forever.” Steven said.

“Oh come on, Valenthia’s campus is still way bigger than this.” Ren retorted.

“Yeah, yeah. It was meant as hyperbole.” Steven responded. “But for this, we should have a clue, remember?” Steven must’ve been referring to the rebels somehow. “Something’s wrong here. The three of us can see that clearly. The initial thought that should come to mind is the rebels: they must be the cause of this somehow. They must be causing a commotion somewhere in this mansion and have drawn all of the attention towards them.”

“Right, that must be where all the servants are.” Aria tried to convince herself that was true, but would all the servants really all concentrate in one place along with the rebels? Most servants aren’t suited to combat. If they can’t fight, then they should’ve been as far away from the fight as possible.

“So what should we be looking for?” Ren asked.

“Anything that shows us that the rebels were here. Something like a trail of destruction or the sound of combat.” Steven stated. “We’ll need to start walking around to find anything of interest.” The three had been discussing this in the middle of the foyar. There were three ways they could go: left, right, or forward. The three chose to walk forward together and go towards the mansion’s center since it was possible that the rebels had entered through a different door.

The three continued down various hallways, all the while checking random doors to see if there was any sign of life. All of the doors they opened were all dark and contained not even the slightest sign of life. There was also no sign of any combat whatsoever. Nothing. The mansion remained lifeless, as if the only three living beings within the mansion were Ren, Steven, and Aria. The three had been walking for what seemed like an eternity when they came across the center of the mansion: Ren opened the door to the central garden that stood at the middle of the estate. The design of the mansion reminded Ren of Centiria’s layout. The difference being that this mansion was a complex of confusing hallways while Centiria’s roads were very simple. Ren didn’t think much of the flower garden until Steven brought up his idea.

“We haven’t seen any sign of life on this side of the mansion, but this garden gives us a chance to get a quick look at the other three directions all at once. Look. There is one door in each direction: north, east, south, and west, so if we each take a different door then we can take a glimpse at the remaining three directions we have left to check.”

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Ren agreed, but as he was going to one of the doors he noticed something peculiar about the ground. The ground was soft and mudlike, but what really stood out to Ren was that there were multiple tracks in the mud, one set clearly belonged to the lizardman. The direction the tracks were pointed in showed that the lizardman went towards the door Ren was walking towards. “Hey! It’s this way!” Ren yelled as he quickly ran to the door. He waited for Aria and Steven to catch up to him before opening the door to look inside. Upon opening the door it was revealed to them the muddy carpet of the hallway and the walls with large slashes in them, as if someone took a claymore and swung it with the intention to hit the wall, leaving large gashes along the walls. Whatever happened here, it appeared deadly. What Ren didn’t quite understand was the number of tracks in the mud. The number appeared to be a multitude of people who ran through the mud. The only reason the lizardman’s tracks stood out would be because he must’ve ran through last. So what? Did that mean the small group of rebels chased all of the villagers through the mansion. Why would a group of about seven rebels seem so threatening? Wouldn’t the servants be able to defend against a group that small? Nevertheless, there was no point wondering about what the reason was, for the reason was somewhere up ahead.

“Let’s go!” Aria exclaimed as she led the way, following the trail of destruction. Ren and Steven followed after her as they ran down a series of hallways to follow the dried mud tracks on the carpet and the ever apparent large gashes in the walls that showed some kind of struggle. As Aria turned a corner, she stopped as she saw that the tracks had led into the first door on the left. Aria reached for the door and opened it. Ren and Steven had just caught up to her as she opened the door to see a small staircase leading down to another door, except that this door appeared to be a heavy steel door.

“So this is probably the cellar.” Steven inferred.

“Probably,” Ren replied, “but… why are the lights off?” Ren was right, the staircase’s light had not been turned on. Well that’s not exactly correct: the light used for the staircase was a wall lantern but it was broken into pieces that laid on the steps. Aria continued to lead the way down the stairs and then lifted her hand to the door handle to open the steel door. “Be ready for anything.”

Aria pushed the door open with all of her strength. Ren stepped into the room with her. The room was pitch black. No lights were on at all and there were no signs of life.

“Is there a light switch in here?” Ren questioned. Ren felt the wall on the left side of the doorway and felt a lightswitch. He flipped the switch to turn the lightswitch on. Ren’s expression immediately became one of shock and disgust as he saw what was in the room. Then the smell hit him as well, causing him to feel nauseous and lean against the wall for support. Ren looked over to Aria and Steven, who were standing in the doorway, and saw that their expressions were mostly the same.

“What… happened here?” Aria questioned as she looked around the large underground cellar. The room itself was like one long, enlarged hallway with wines aligning the walls all the way down. The room may have been impressive if one had found themselves wandering into it during a party, but this room was nothing to be impressed by at the moment. While the walls may have been aligned with a multitude of wines, the floor was covered in liters upon liters of blood and a massive number of dead bodies.

“What the hell is this?” Ren asked as he began to walk into the room, scanning for any survivors. “A fight where everyone died? But there were only seven rebels, right? And why would they kill all of the villagers?” That’s when Ren stumbled upon his body -- the lizardman’s corpse. “What the hell?” he asked himself quietly. The lizardman had lacerations all across his body, but those weren’t likely to be the killing blow. Of course, so many lacerations meant he was losing a lot of blood, but the cause of death was most certainly the gaping hole in his neck. Ren questioned how the head was still attached at all but couldn’t stand to look at the corpse any longer. He continued through the room as he continued speaking, “I don’t think the rebels were what they were fighting here; it just doesn’t make sense with the information we’ve been given.”

“I would have to agree.” Steven said as he also began walking around looking for survivors.

“But then what could the cause be?” Aria questioned, “What could be so fearful that the entire village of people fled here along with the rebels where they both ended up killed?” That’s when Ren heard a peculiar sound coming from the middle of the room. He stopped in his tracks and looked in the direction of the sound where he saw a small square panel of floor being lifted upwards. Blood spilled off the sides as the square of floor was lifted up out of the ground. The reason the floor was being lifted was because of some man. The man had his back turned from Ren as he continued to lift the square piece of floor out of the way so he could climb out of some hole in the ground. The man set the piece of floor down and climbed out of the hole. After getting out of the hole the man stared down at the ground, then slowly moved his head from side to side (most likely scanning the area of bodies). The man then turned around to see Ren, Steven, and Aria staring at him. The man was spooked and fell over into the sea of blood that covered the floor.

“Who--who are you!” The man shouted. “Have you come to kill me, too?”

“No! We’re not your enemies!” Ren yelled back.

“You--you mean you won’t kill me?” The man questioned.

“That’s right. We just want to know what happened.” Ren said as he began to walk over to the man. Ren leaned over to help the man off of the ground. Ren reached out his hand and the man grabbed it to be lifted to his feet. Aria and Steven stood behind Ren as Ren began the questioning: “What really happened here?”

The man looked down, visibly shaken, as he began to remember the events that led to the murder of many people. “Today was a day as normal as any other. My servants woke me up and I went through the day doing my daily tasks.” Those words allowed Ren to realize that the person standing in front of him was the noble. His appearance sure didn’t look that way. His black hair was all frizzled and messed up as if he had major bedhead and his dark suit was covered in dirt and blood. “Things were normal until a group of rebels showed up around dinner time. We were at the dining hall, ready to begin our meal when I was informed that a group of seven armed individuals were causing trouble at the front gate. I ran out there with a group of my most well trained, combat-ready servants to see what was going on. The bandits had broken through my front gate and were engaged in combat with my servants! As I yelled at them from my front porch, my servants ran in to assist their comrades but alas… that was when he showed up.”

“He?” Ren questioned.

“The executioner known as Illness. That dark, hooded figure had suddenly appeared at the front gate. Once I noticed him, it took me a few seconds to realize who it was but it caused me to cheer in celebration that we would have an easy victory… that was when Illness began to move… He slowly walked forward towards the combat. I questioned why he was moving so slowly. If he wanted to end the fight quickly, he most certainly had the power to! That’s when he stopped again and raised his left arm out in front of him… and disappeared… only to reappear next to one of my servants! He was holding him by the neck, when suddenly -- his head! -- it just! It just… came off! Blood went everywhere! The sight of it gushing from his neck! I’ll never forget the sight! The fear! Why had he killed one of my servants? Was I not loyal enough? Was I going to be killed? Those are the thoughts that ran through my head as both the servants and bandits had stopped fighting. I took the initiative to recall my servants and run for this cellar where I thought we could hide in. However, I should’ve realized that anything I did was going to be pointless....”

“What do you mean?”

“Just look around… everyone’s dead, and even if we hadn’t ran then we all would’ve been killed anyways. It was pointless to run.”

“I disagree. If you had stayed out there and done nothing, you would be dead as well.”

“Heh.” The noble laughed. “Do you think that I want to live anymore? After all the death I saw? After I’ve found out that everything I know is a lie!” The delirious noble grabbed onto Ren’s arms as he recalled what he saw. “How do you think I felt when I turned to see that lizardman fighting off Illness as he chased us through the hallways? He was protecting us… and yet I despised him! ‘If only if it weren’t for these rebels!’ is what I had thought, yet it was because of him that I had survived. Even after being injured so badly, being covered in more cuts that I could count, when we had gotten to this room and sealed the door, the first thing he had said was, ‘Is there some kind of secret exit? We need to get these people to safety!’ I replied that there was no exit, only a small hole in the floor used to store my most secret wine. The lizardman only asked how many could fit in the hole. He wanted to let someone live. One person to survive. Everyone began to argue over who was going to live. Some servants argued it should be me to live, other servants agreed with the villagers that one of the villagers’ kids should be the one to live, while others even vouched for themselves, but the lizardman… he took action. He grabbed me and threw me into the hole in the floor. When asking for his reason, he justified it by using my position as a noble. He said that after seeing what I had seen, I would be the one with the power to change the world. He must’ve been referring to my position as a noble. He must’ve thought my position would give me some kind of authority to do something. But that’s not how things work in this world! Tye provides me with tasks to do: roads to make, technology to implement, trees to cut down, or whatever he wants done. The result is the betterment of the peoples’ lives in my domain! I have no political power whatsoever! The person he saved--me!--I am no one!” The noble fell to his knees in tears.

Ren had no words to say to the noble to convince him that saving him was the right decision. There was no way he could justify that his life was worth saving over anyone else’s. How could there be a way to measure that? There wasn’t, because all lives have the same weight. Then how could the noble be happy about being alive?

“You might think you have no reason to live, but being alive is the reason to live.” Ren said confidently. “You might not think you have the power to do anything to change the world, but that’s not true. Just being alive gives you the power: it gives you the power of chance -- the chance to do something -- anything! If you think that you’re not strong enough to fight back against someone like Illness, then you’re wrong! You don’t have to win against him in a fight of strength, it can be in a fight of wits. Take the chance to do anything and everything in your power because you’re alive!”

“Is there even a point?” The noble questioned. “This isn’t even our world you know. We’re here in some other world -- what’s the point of living if our lives have been stolen from us!”

“You! You remember our world?” Ren exclaimed.

“What? A noble? But that -- that can’t be!” Aria said in shock. The noble looked up at Ren with a ray of hope, but that ray of hope was extinguished as the noble made a grunting noise and blood spewed from his mouth. The cause was Illness’s arm piercing through the noble’s chest.

“Illness!” Ren yelled as he took a leap backwards to put some distance between him and the opponent who had appeared out of nowhere. Aria and Steven took a leap backwards as well.

“Oho? What’s this?” Illness said in a delighted voice from underneath his black hood. “One priority citizen along with one executioner in training and one useless extra? I believe those three weren’t on the list to kill for today, but shall I make an exception?” Illness brought his hand up to his face, where Ren could now clearly see that the arm that had pierced through the noble was some kind of black gauntlet that had spikes for fingers. Illness licked the blood off of his gauntlet’s fingers which Ren found extremely disturbing. From what Ren could remember from Illness, he had recalled that his personality had appeared to be a bit strange… but he hadn’t caught on that he was completely insane until that moment. “Ah,” Illness sighed, “what to do, what to do. I can’t kill you three or else Finite will be mad at me… ooooh, but I really want to kill you though. Maybe just one would be all right? Any volunteers? You? Useless extra?” He pointed at Steven.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Ren, can we kill this idiot already?” Steven asked with a face of pure disgust that Ren recognized from the original world. Perhaps Illness’s insanity reminded Steven of Jonathan.

“Ah, no. I can’t fight the three of you or else I’ll end up killing all three.” Illness said. “Perhaps I really should just fall back for now. Well, see ya.” Illness waved at the three and then disappeared.

“Wait!” Ren yelled. He then quickly moved to leave the mansion. At the top of the stairs, Ren caught a glimpse of Illness which meant that he wasn’t teleporting, Illness was just moving incredibly fast (either that or letting Ren follow). Ren chased after Illness and Aria and Steven chased after Ren. Ren chased Illness all the way out the front door of the mansion where Illness turned around at the broken front gate.

“You really don’t give up, do you?” Illness smiled.

“I’ll kill you!” Ren yelled.

“Big words coming from the one who won’t kill.”

“Wha-- how do you--”

“It’s pretty obvious to a crazed killer like me. I saw you that night, remember? You didn’t kill a single knight that night. I’ve gotta say I’m impressed… oh, but then that girl was killed by Finite right in front of you! The look on your face! Hahaha! Oh, it made me want to kill you. Although I wanted to kill that girl even more though. She was the only target I’ve ever let escape my grasp before…”

“You!” Ren remembered how Terra had trembled at the mention of how she had gained her memories. It was him. Illness was the reason why she had suffered. While he wasn’t the one who killed her, he still needed to suffer for putting her through misery. Before Ren could do anything, Aria burst out of the door behind him.

“Wait!” Aria yelled. “I need to know the truth! Was what that noble said about there being another world true?”

“Ha! You’re still doubting that at this point? Of course there is! Why do you think I had to kill all of these people in the first place?”

“Wait, what did you just say?” Ren asked.

“My job was to kill everyone at this mansion because they risked gaining their memories out of fear! That’s how it always is! That’s why we kill! Didn’t you ever catch on? Well, for me, I do it for fun of course, but you really are an idiot if you never caught on!”

Ren’s pendant burst with overflowing energy as Ren became enraged. “This world… it’s wrong!” Ren lifted his arm to fire a supercharged fireblast at Illness. “Fireblast!” he yelled as the gigantic ball of fire launched at Illness. There was an impact, but it had not impacted Illness. Presumably due to his ability to move quickly, Illness dodged the blast. When the smoke cleared, Ren saw that Illness had been replaced by a minotaur.

Ren heard Illness’s voice from somewhere as his pendant reformed: “Have fun,” it said.

“Illness!” Ren yelled as he summoned his gear to fight the minotaur. The minotaur was more than twice Ren’s height and dual wielded two large axes. Ren ran at the minotaur and so did Steven (who had came out the door with Aria). Aria summoned her vortex sword and earth sword to assist Ren and Steven from afar. Ren was the first to reach the minotaur and was met with a downward swing from one axe. Ren deflected the axe and dodged to the minotaur’s right side. Steven then approached the minotaur and was met with the minotaur’s other axe. Steven dodged out of the way of the axe and moved to the minotaur’s left side. Aria then hit the minotaur in the back with a wall of air to knock it off balance while Ren and Steven swung their swords at the same time to cut through the minotaur’s legs. As the minotaur fell to the ground, Aria sent a stone spike into the minotaur’s chest, killing it.

Ren took a quick look around to make sure that this minotaur was the only gift Illness had left with them. It appeared so. That one minotaur probably gave Illness the time he needed to make a clean getaway, so while the minotaur was defeated easily, as Ren made his gear disappear he felt unsatisfied. If there was another executioner to look out for besides Finite, it was Illness: a crazed killer whose powers still remained a mystery. Was he just incredibly fast or was his ability some kind of super speed, and how did a minotaur just suddenly appear like that? He left too many questions, yet answered a question that needed answering. The reason Tye needed the executioners, the reason the executioners killed, was because people remembered the old world or out of fear that people would remember the old world. So the assault on the mall in the previous world, the reason for slaughtering the people who had witnessed Tye’s uprising in Averaelia, the reason for killing all of the villagers of Heath Village, they were all to prevent people from remembering the original world and gaining an ability as a result. But why did they gain their memories and a power when fearing for their lives? Ren thought back to when he questioned Mana about this and how she thought that Tye may have given them powers along with their false memories. Then why did they regain their memories? This was what even Mana failed to understand, but Ren knew why it was hard to take in… because of such a conclusion: that the people of this world were given their powers by Tye. Wouldn’t that also imply that one possibility would be that Tye was responsible for returning their memories of the original world as well? Mana was right, it’s completely nonsensical, but Ren was beginning to believe that it was true.

----------------------------------------

Finite had been standing next to Tye’s throne, observing Tye, as turned to look at Dee rush into Tye’s throne room. Dee kneeled before Tye’s throne, one of his arms missing.

“Dee, huh. So, you made it out alive?” Finite questioned.

“You sound surprised, Finite. As if it wasn’t part of the plan for me to make it out of there alive.” Finite turned his head towards to look at the door Dee had entered from, then turned his head back to Dee.

“And our trainee? Aria. Where is she?”

“Wha-- you’re just going to ignore the fact that I almost died?”

“Hmmm.” Finite ignored Dee. “So you left her with Ren?”

“What are you going on about? Was the girl important or somethi--” Dee was cut off, and so was his head.

“Yes, that means things are going according to plan, Dee. Thank you for fulfilling your role perfectly.” Finite used the same ability he had used on Terra and disintegrated Dee into a puddle of blood on the ground. “And Illness should be arriving about… now.” He turned to the door and watched Illness walk into the throne room.

“Oho? You ended Dee? You should’ve let me do it!” Illness exclaimed.

“Illness, did you complete your mission exactly as planned?”

“Yeah, yeah. A ton of villagers and that noble and his servants. That priority citizen, the executioner trainee, and that other random guy were there just like you said they would be.”

“And you didn’t fight them?”

“I wanted to at least kill one of them but if I fought one then the other two would join in and they’d all end up dead, so I did as I was told and only killed the specified individuals… but… my next mission better be to kill those three.” Illness liked his lips. “Do you have any idea just how long I’ve been waiting to kill that priority citizen of yours? Huh! Have you?”

“Kill him… and you’re dead.”

“Tsk. Then don’t call on me. I’m going out to kill some random citizens.” Finite watched Illness leave the room.

“Good. It seems everything… is going exactly as planned.” Finite then felt an intense pressure and turned to look back at Tye. The pressure quickly dissipated but Finite knew what it meant. “So then, it’s almost time.”

----------------------------------------

Steven volunteered for first watch that night. Ren volunteered for third and then immediately fell asleep. Aria was sitting next to the campfire they had set up. The events of the day plagued her mind, refusing to allow her any sleep. After seeing that Aria was still awake, Steven walked over to talk to her.

“You should really get some sleep before it’s your turn to stay on watch, Aria.”

“You really trust someone who was just your enemy to watch over you as you sleep?” she questioned as Steven sat down next to her.

“But you’re one of us now, right? Illness said it himself. This world is a false one. We belong to another world, one that was taken from us by Tye.”

“Well… tell me about it… this other world that is…”

“What kind of stuff do you want to know?”

“What’s it like! Obviously! The history, the culture!”

“Well… I’ve lived on the Valenthia mainland and on Kizuna Island but the culture is pretty much the same. To explain the culture you’d have to look at our history, but… well, as for history, even historians aren’t very sure what happened in the past.”

“Eh? This world has a history of at least five hundred years on record, or well… I guess that’s false. Still! How many years back do you guys know about?”

“A little over one hundred years, I guess.”

“What!”

“Well, from what I understand, people hadn’t began writing records until a few years ago. So the only records we have from before that come from firsthand stories.”

“No way…”

“I admit it does sound a little weird to not know your history, but it’s not that big of a deal. You just go through your daily life like normal. We may not know the reason for the customs we have or how the island of Kizuna came to be; even so, it doesn’t matter.”

“I… suppose so…” Aria didn’t quite agree with the sentiment. She thought that being unable to recall history from before one hundred years ago sounded strange. “Well then, if you can’t answer about your world, then what about you? What’s your history?”

Steven laid back on the ground as he began to go into a long story. “Well, let me first begin by saying that Ren and I knew each other in the old world. We didn’t meet here. Ren, Tye, Terra, and I were all friends in the original world.”

“Wait… Tye? As in, that Tye?”

“Yeah, that Tye. He was Ren’s best friend. I won’t be able to speak for them. I’ve only known them for one year so I don’t know much about them besides the fact that they’ve been together for as long as they’ve been alive. I’m the only one that I can give you any detail about… and it’s not a great story. In fact, just thinking about it pisses me off.”

“What happened?” Aria inquired.

Steven continued to look up into the sky as he began to speak, “I was a normal kid until my second year of middle school. Well, I don’t know if you could really call me normal. I was a quiet kid who never spoke to anyone. I simply went to school, got good grades, and lived a secluded life at home. There was nothing that stood out about me, or at least, nothing that was visible to anyone else. The one thing that stood out to me, was my sense of justice. No matter what, I had to help someone who was in trouble. That was the only time I’d go out of the way to do anything. That’s why it bothered me when he showed up.”

“Who?”

“The worst possible disaster: Jonathan. Apparently he had moved from another school after causing too much trouble there. I didn’t think anything of him until the first incident occurred. I wasn’t there, but apparently he had beat up another student and stole their lunch money. Apparently the kid was so scared by Jonathan that he moved to a different school the next day. Instances of Jonathan bullying other students happened one after another. Jonathan had shoved a student down the stairs, shoved a student into a locker, threw a student out of the second floor window, his stunts were endless… and the teachers did nothing. The teachers had stopped punishing Jonathan after they had seen that their punishments did nothing besides make him lash out more. That’s when I couldn’t take it any longer. With my strong sense of justice, I decided I would be the one to stand up to Jonathan. I arrived early that day and stood at the school’s entrance, waiting for Jonathan to show his face. Once he did, I confronted him and challenged him to a fight.” The memory was burned into Steven’s mind. He could remember the events flawlessly.

“Oh? You’re that kid who never speaks aren’t you?” Jonathan questioned. “Whaaaaat? You’ve got some kind of problem with me?” Jonathan began to circle around Steven, eventually arriving back in front of Steven’s face. “Hmmm, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything to you? Have I? No wait. Sorry. Even if I had, I wouldn’t be able to remember a nobody like you.” As Jonathan stood still and began to laugh, Steven gave him a right hook to the jaw. That shut Jonathan right up as he reached his left hand up to feel where he had been punched. “That’s a first…” Jonathan said quietly. Then he went into a rage: “I’ll kill you! You’re just a nobody!” Jonathan lifted his right arm to punch Steven but Steven had already given Jonathan another right hook. Jonathan fell back and then was hit by another one of Steven’s fists.

A crowd began to gather around the two, amazed by the fact that the quiet kid was standing up to the infamous Jonathan. Steven gave Jonathan another punch, but this time, Jonathan did not flinch. Jonathan returned a punch to Steven at full force to Steven’s jaw. That was the first real punch Steven had ever felt. Steven made sure to return the favor with another punch.

The crowd became even larger as the fistfight continued. Neither side backed down even after all of the blows they had suffered. It wasn’t until Steven gave Jonathan a punch that knocked him back a few steps that things began to get dicey. That was when Jonathan had had enough. Jonathan reached into his pocket to pull out his trusty pocket knife.

“Well, what do you think?” Jonathan asked as he pointed his blade at Steven. “Are you ready to die, nobody?” Steven smiled as he reached into his pocket to pull out his very own pocket knife.

“I bought this yesterday. Did you think I didn’t know your style by now? I’ve been watching you. Each and every one of the people you’ve hurt. That’s why it ends here, today!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself! You’re just a nobody!” Jonathan yelled as he ran towards Steven. Steven stood still and waited to see exactly what kind of movement Jonathan was going to attempt. Jonathan was going for a standard lunge that Steven was easily able to dodge. Steven plunged his knife into Jonathan’s side, causing Jonathan to fall over and curl into a ball, screaming. The crowd became silent as they had just witnessed a stabbing. That’s when the teachers burst out of the building and through the crowd.

“What the hell is going on here!” Yelled one of the male teachers. He looked down and saw Jonathan bleeding out on the ground and ordered one of the other teachers to call an ambulance. “Who did this!” He yelled as he turned to Steven who had been standing still, looking down at Jonathan with a smile. He had won.

“After that, I was yelled at by the teachers and the police officers until my parents arrived. For the rest of that school year and the next I remained in juvenile detention while Jonathan was able to roam free. I don’t know how many atrocities he committed while I was imprisoned nor do I want to know. The number would only anger me.”

“So, you have the same resolve now?”

“Fundamentally, I’m the same, but I wouldn’t take the same action if the same thing happened again right now. There’s one difference between now and then and that difference appeared on my second day of high school. I moved far away from where the incident had happened to an island called Kizuna Island. That’s where I went to school at Valenthia High, and that’s where I met Ren and Tye. I was alone, like usual, until the second day of school. I was sitting at my desk in the morning when Ren and Tye walked over to me. They just started talking to me out of nowhere. I was shocked. Who were these two? Why are they talking to me? I couldn’t understand it. It happened just like that. We were friends. They would find me sitting by myself and pull me into their group. I was given no choice in the matter, but I was happy. To this day, I still don’t know why those two chose to talk to me, but I’m glad I met them.”

“So what would you do now? If you were put into the same position as back when you were in middle school, what would you do?”

“What would I do, huh? Well I would bring Ren along so we could bash Jonathan’s face in together, that’s what!”

“Huh! No, ‘I learned it’s better to not fight at all!’ just, ‘Let’s bash his face in!’?”

“Exactly.”

“Eh?”

“Well, Jonathan actually ended up going to our high school as well and continued to cause the same kind of problems there, too. It was usually Ren and I who stood up to stop Jonathan, although I don’t know why Ren appeared to be just as motivated as me when it came to Jonathan. So bashing Jonathan together is nothing new.”

“I see…” Aria said with a broken smile.

“Yeah. Ren, Terra, Tye, and I were all great friends… until Tye came to rule this world…”

“How’d things come to this? Why are you two and Tye on opposite sides now?”

“Ren says that it was Tye who recreated the world. He said he watched Tye do it, but he never mentioned why Tye did it. I don’t think Ren knows the reason either… this is just how things came to be.”

“And you can’t give anymore information about Tye or Ren?”

“Nope. I can’t even tell you anything about their families. Hell, I don’t even think I know Ren’s last name. I just know he doesn’t like using it. That’s about the most personal information about Ren that I know.”

“Huh. He won’t even talk about it to you?”

“I never asked. Seemed insensitive.” Steven sat up and climbed back to his feet. “Come on now. That’s enough chat for one night. You should really get to sleep before it’s your turn to be on lookout duty.”

“Right. I’ll see you in a bit then.” Aria said as she closed her eyes and went to sleep. Steven smiled as he walked over to the nearest tree and put his back to it. But that conversation had sparked one interest: Steven wanted to know more about his friend Ren. Just what was so bad about his last name?