[Aspirant. Welcome to the Nightmare ???ll. Prepare for your first trial.]
...
Perhaps there was a part somewhere within me that didn't want this to happen. Maybe I wanted my reunion with him to be satisfactory. Maybe I wanted others with me.
Two "l"s had appeared in the censored message. I hoped that it could have played out differently, but now everything is set in stone and there's no point regretting it.
I waited for pain to find its way to me, but when it came, it was manageable. I thought the pain would be lessened by 40% if any lessening at all, but there's barely any pain now.
I looked toward him and he just smiled almost mockingly. I have no choice but to comply.
"Is there any other clue we have except for just these runes that get translated to our minds?"
I saw him just shake his head with a weak smile.
"No, these are the only clues we have managed to find."
So they were working on just one hope to get them to success. Or that's what I chose to believe. When you are in a challenge, you even lie to your own mind despite knowing the truth.
"So how long are we going to stay here?"
He looked all over the broken house and the surrounding houses too for a second; only after that did he reply.
"There's a pattern. Depends on the number of houses. If it's a small village, like ten houses, the time limit is seventy minutes. When that time passes, the entire village crumbles into dust. The Vowalkers go into a frenzy."
If ten houses equaled seventy minutes, then each house granted roughly seven minutes. But what interested me more was the phrase "Vowalkers go into a frenzy." Things are aligning too well with my theory, but I still need to see it for myself to fully believe him.
"So the village collapses all at once?"
He nodded before saying, "We're hopping from village to village, hoping to complete the poem."
Hoping. I can only imagine how much he would dislike just believing something without any definitive proof. It goes against everything we are taught.
I also had to be aware that I didn't ask any questions that mistakenly revealed where I came from or anything about me, despite us already being in an unspoken battle.
But I had no choice but to ask him.
"Did your nightmare start in this forest?"
He tilted his head.
"Yours didn't?"
...
This was even more disadvantageous for me. Not only was I not aware of the story being written here, I also had no idea of the terrain. If he was here from the beginning, he was far, far more knowledgeable about it than me.
I shook my head, but before I could reply and give an excuse, a voice interrupted us before the person even reached the door. It was just a cough before the girl appeared in the door frame.
She had been considerate, coughing a second before she came to let us know that she was coming, because we couldn't hear her footsteps now that she had her emotions under control.
She had brown hair as well as a brown skin tone and blue eyes with little dots on her face, and stood somewhere around 5'7.
Her tone was still filled with a little grief and her eyes showed me she wasn't really that comfortable around me. Also, where I had made her bleed was now covered in dirt.
Impressive.
"There are thirty houses in this village."
The one beside me just smiled and nodded at her and gestured for her to go back, which she followed.
Once she went away, we just looked at each other but didn't talk about what she had informed us. We both knew it.
Three and a half hours remain before this village collapses.
"How many Vowalkers have you killed, Kiyotaka? And how much information do you have about them?"
So we were exchanging information about the Vowalkers now. I had no reason to decline; in fact, it was good for me too. I wanted to learn just how differently these Vowalkers acted than those before the lake.
"I really only directly killed one while others were killed through a trap. I have some facts and some theories regarding the Vowalkers."
I didn't try to lie to him. He knows what I am capable of, and if I try to lie, it won't be hard for him to figure out way more about me than I wanted.
I was also sure he had the same unproven theories about Vowalkers as me.
"I don't need to explain their abilities. You've probably figured it out from the name. Vowalkers. Beings bound by vows. The more water they absorb, the slower they get, but they become tougher too. That's the most relevant information for surviving in this forest."
I wasn't lying, but it didn't mean I would tell him everything. I just told him the basics.
Now it was his turn.
The theories matched. It was obvious that he was holding some truths back as well.
I took a few steps toward the door. Just before leaving, I said, "Let me talk to the others. Try to fix things between us. Malice in a team only lowers our chances of survival."
I began to exit the room, but right before I could, I heard him.
"Don't fly too close to the sun, Kiyotaka."
...
I looked back once and left.
***
I came out of the house and began to look around the village. All the houses and huts were broken, with moss growing on them and a foul smell. In just a few hours, this entire village would perish.
I walked for a moment until I saw the girl looking down the well with a monotonous expression.
I began to approach her and let the sound of my footsteps come out. She didn't look back, but I saw her hand tense just a little.
I walked until I stopped just behind her.
"I am sorry."
Her reply came, but it wasn't really what I expected. It was somewhat humorous.
"What exactly are you sorry for? Making me bleed? Choking me? Taking me hostage? Or dislocating my knee? I will let you decide."
I really didn't expect her mood to return to normal so quickly. Was this acting, or was what she did in front of the house acting?
I have reasons to believe she is far more than I originally believed.
"I am sorry for everything."
She finally turned and looked toward me, then slowly looked down at the ground.
"We're in a nightmare. What you did was the logical choice."
I looked down at her feet using my peripheral vision. There wasn't a single scar on them, and there was still no footprint on the ground beside her even after she turned.
"I heard about your friends."
Her eyes closed for just a second and she took a small, sighed breath.
"They mistook the nightmare for a dream. It was coming."
...
Was she being factual right now or trying to cope with the loss of her friends by saying they died for being weak? I really couldn't figure it out.
"I can't see your footsteps."
She said something, but I couldn't hear it. The sound was just missing. But there had been something that I was noticing for a while now.
Whenever she opened her mouth, the words that came out were from the English language, but what her lips formed was Latin, while his words and lips both matched English. There's a translator translating everything for us.
"I heard none of that."
She frowned but didn't argue. Instead, she stepped away from the well and turned toward the edge of the village.
Then, without warning, she crouched low and sprang up onto the nearest tree branch. Her feet landed with perfect traction.
"You might attract Vowalkers if you keep standing there."
When she jumped into that tree, it still didn't make any sound. There was movement, but it moved in a way that her foothold wouldn't be interrupted.
"I'm showing you my ability."
I paused for a second, looking at her hand. It didn't shake even for a second and her face held nothing but determination. Holding hands with her could very well be a trap. I looked at her face and tried to find even the smallest micro-reaction that could say she was trying to trap me, but I found none.
I didn't really trust her, but the first step to building trust is to trust the other person first.
I stepped forward and took her hand. She pulled her lower back backward a little, giving herself enough push to pull me up the tree, which she did.
...
"You'll understand when we run. Focus on your footing."
After saying that, she jumped, yanking me from the ground and making me follow her. She jumped from one tree to another. I had no other way but to follow her movement so I didn't get left behind and make her fall.
There was no longer wind resistance on my body, and my weight had decreased a little, as well as my body being practically glued to the trees, which I could unglue at will.
I still tried to find any micro-reaction on her face. There was barely any. She is far from naive; it's going to be hard to clear this nightmare.
To test my theory, I weakened my grip on her hand just a little.
I felt wind hitting my chest and the trees becoming slippery again. I was no longer welcomed by the forest. Not even a second after weakening the grip, I grabbed her hand again.
So this is your ability. You become one with the laws of nature and by skin contact can share it with others.
It was still a little difficult for me. In the White Room, I wasn't really taught parkour, so I was just jumping through sheer will.
I looked toward how her shoulders leaned forward with each leap, her spine arching low to absorb impact. Every limb stayed tucked in tight. Her knees bent enough to bounce; her hands clutched bark. Her posture was professional. She had prior experience.
I began to copy her exactly. My steps began to synchronize with her. With each passing tree, I copied her even better. My shoulders leaned forward, and I began to grab onto trees to redirect myself so as not to be a liability.
When she twisted mid-air to redirect their momentum off a sideways trunk, I adjusted a breath ahead of her.
"You're adapting fast."
...
Even while parkouring through a forest surrounded by the dead, she was able to focus on my change in movements without an issue. She is not just impressive, but terrifying.
I didn't reply to her and kept parkouring, preparing my plan as to how I am going to kill her.
Suddenly we were surrounded by footsteps, a lot of them, and the forest screamed. The Vowalkers had found us.
Amidst all this, she said what I didn't want to hear.
"Take the lead."
This had always been a test by her to gauge my abilities. She must have been curious after she saw how he acted around me. If I reject her, she wouldn't trust me with her life.
My tone turned cold just a little.
"Of course."
She tried to go up a high arching root, but my grip redirected her upward. I had spotted a lattice of vines forming a pseudo-overhead path. We vaulted toward it.
All this time she had been taking the lead, but now she pulled back and let me go ahead. In fact, she tried to take a more time-consuming way to test me further, so I had no choice but to forcefully redirect her.
Below us, the Vowalkers following us had their feet slam into the bark, damaging the tree as more blood came out of it. We didn't stop running.
I let her know,
"Switch lanes."
Over the span of the next few minutes, we kept running away from the Vowalkers. It wasn't anything remarkable; in fact, the Vowalker count was really small compared to what first followed me. I made sure to take a mental note of this.
While running away, I once again left her hand and then grabbed it a second later. I heard her voice calling me out.
"Stop experimenting."
Her observation is uncanny.
***
We made it back to the village. These Vowalkers acted differently. I will have to look deeper into it.
She was catching her breath a little while sweating and sitting on one of the rocks.
"No wonder he was so cautious."
I suppose she is talking about him; he was the only one I had talked with so far, after all.
I became her target the moment she saw how he acted. But it didn't mean I wasn't cautious of her. I was so cautious of her that I was debating with myself if I should kill her right now. She had good deception ability as well as manipulation; it would be rather idiotic of me to try to keep her alive.
She was testing me by taking wrong routes on purpose and I had no choice but to allow it. Her taking wrong routes also told me that she had absolute confidence in being able to run away from Vowalkers.
She knows how to make you hold the blade yourself.
But...
"No wonder you are the only one alive."
We basically traded an understanding of each other just now.
She didn't respond with words immediately. She was probably still trying to understand my character.
She tilted her head slightly, almost imperceptibly.
"You don't waste time with flattery. That helps."
I didn't bother replying. Words weren't going to change anything now, not after what we'd just traded.
I looked out over the silent village. Then I asked what mattered.
"Where's the third?"
I saw her eyes move toward a partially collapsed storage shed by the edge of the forest that was covered in moss and vines, with half of it fallen down and puddles everywhere around it.
"There."
"Still angry?"
"He hasn't said much since you arrived. But I don't think that means peace."
I was really curious as to who this guy was who carried such hatred toward me. I began to make my way toward the storage, and she made sure to give me some parting words.
"You passed my test. That doesn't mean he'll let you take his."
You could have just given me a "best of luck," not this ominous message.
***
I reached the vicinity of the storage and carefully walked toward it through the muddy ground as it shifted beneath my feet, and I stopped walking for a second, looking all around it.
I walked for a bit more and stopped right before its entry and began to take note of every weak point of the wall in case I had to escape. It was really weak, so pushing it won't be hard.
I was going to endure his past once I stepped in. If his hatred toward me is justifiable, I would have to be ready to discard him.
I finally went in and walked for a second, finally seeing him. He sat there on top of a broken structure with a crooked back and skin closely touching his body. He was malnourished and was looking down and had brown hair. He didn't change his posture even after I came in.
Once I stopped walking, did he finally speak? To be honest, he was barely speaking.
"You took your time."
𓁹𓁹
"You took your time."
After Ayanokouji had seen him and the girl talk about this boy in such a way, he had expected fury, but what he found was detachment... a detachment so vast that it had lost the meaning of life.
"You wanted to fix it all so we don't backstab you, right?"
The tone didn't carry any sort of disappointment or anger now; it was just moving on muscle memory. He must have said these words a lot, until they lost their meaning.
The boy's head lifted up a little... His eyes were dead; they were showing everything he had endured. In those eyes, no memory of being alive remained.
Ayanokouji's eyes widened and his limbs stiffened after he got a glimpse of the boy's face. He knew this boy... He understood what those two had talked about... He was the result of all this boy's suffering...
This couldn't be fixed by words alone.
"You think the system only wronged you? My entire life has been destroyed by it."
Ayanokouji knew his past was coming in front of him to finally teach him a lesson; he knew where this was going and he couldn't stop it. He deserved every bit of it.
"I used to think effort mattered. That trying hard enough might balance things out. That people would be okay if you were good enough at surviving."
His lips twitched just a little bit and became normal again; his expression died before it could even become a smile.
"Turns out surviving means you have to carry more."
A huge breath escaped the boy, making his entire body tremble from the fatigue of holding everything back until now. His voice began to crack as his vocal cords gave up.
"You knew what would happen if you left."
The boy's hands began to shake violently and reached for his own hair.
"You knew that if you left, we'll be crushed."
Ayanokouji didn't reply to him, absorbing everything. He knew that if he escaped, something would happen to Matsuo. He escaped anyway; he escaped knowing Matsuo would have to pay the price... and his price was also being paid by his son.
"People warn you about monsters, ghosts, and demons. No one tells you that monsters sit in silence. They live in rooms like this, inside memories, and inside waiting. Inside you."
The boy's voice was shaking continuously and he refused to look up, or perhaps he no longer could.
"I thought it was my fault. That working harder could have saved him, but then I realized... sometimes someone else makes the decision for you, and you're left to live with it while they enjoy."
He looked up and something within his eyes flickered and died a little. It was love toward someone that watched his love die.
"After rigorous studying, I was finally accepted into a prestigious school. I had plans. I wanted to give him rest. A small house. A quiet garden. I wanted him to stop serving anyone."
A really small laugh left the boy as he remembered the sweet days.
"One day, he came home and wouldn't open the door. I stood outside knocking. I begged and cried for hours. Then I found out he was fired."
Ayanokouji couldn't find any hope to give to this boy. He tried to find an answer or anything that could make this boy trust him... He couldn't. No, in reality, Ayanokouji didn't want this boy to trust him either.
"Say something, Ayanokouji."
Ayanokouji didn't say anything.
"He had me late in life and was already old when I was twelve. I went to school and worked cafe shifts in the evening and convenience stores at night. I came home with bruises just to feed him."
As the boy continued to talk, his voice lost its volume gradually. Something was coming, and now the boy's mouth opened, but no words came out, until they did.
"But I was expelled. No reason."
The boy didn't stop.
"I didn't give up."
The boy couldn't stop. He was talking, but most of the words had become intangible to hear.
"I enrolled in local schools one after another and was expelled each time. The only way to give him peace was gone. I worked three part-time jobs every day. I checked at night to see if he ate or moved. I only heard him begging for forgiveness from behind that locked door."
With each passing second, the words gained more and more speed and tears started coming out of the boy's eyes; his mouth was moving too fast, as if he was just trying to get done with this part of the story.
But then he stopped and his entire body began to shake, and he once again looked toward Ayanokouji.
"Then one day he burned..."
The boy tried really hard to form words. He had always dreamed about how he would talk to Ayanokouji if he ever met him, but now that they were face to face, his body just would not work. He begged himself to talk; he was already dead, so he at least wanted to curse at Ayanokouji.
But his trauma was too strong; he couldn't say it no matter how much he tried...
He wanted to tell him how his father Matsuo burned himself alive, how he screamed in terror, but... his words just would not form and the tears just wouldn't stop coming out.
"I found his phone. He was in a..."
He didn't notice when blood started to come out of his mouth. His eyes shook in terror, reliving how his father had been in a video call with someone and filmed himself being burned alive... No matter how much he tried, those words just didn't come out.
"My neighbors told me he had been screaming, 'Forgive my son. Forgive my son.'"
His mouth began to shake and he desperately slowed down his talking to make more tangible words. His eyes were empty.
"I called the police and the ambulance. I told everyone what happened. They beat me and told me to shut my mouth if I wanted to live. I told the media. I got more beatings and threats."
His arms went up in the air and covered his eyes desperately. He perhaps thought if he blocked his sight, he wouldn't see the trauma before his eyes; he had lost his ability to think rationally.
Ayanokouji closed his eyes while hearing this.
"You know, I really tried to get him justice but I just couldn't. Every time I tried to sleep, he came in my dreams begging me to stop, but I couldn't give up. No matter how many beatings I took, no one listened to me... I couldn't live with the fact that I couldn't get my father justice, and every corner of our home reminded me of him, so..."
His shaking hands slowly came down from his eyes and he looked straight toward Ayanokouji with nothing but hatred.
He slowly looked up, letting Ayanokouji see what his selfish desire had caused. He showed Ayanokouji his neck as more blood came from his mouth.
"So I ended my life."
On his neck there was a big, red scar from a rope that was etched very deeply into his throat...
"But the afterlife didn't exist for me. I was thrown here to be another page in your story."
He looked down again and his words were now coherent... until they were not, until he began to scream.
"WE SUFFERED BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO PLAY HUMAN FOR THREE YEARS!"
...
"Your three years of freedom cost me my father, who nurtured me for twelve."
******
Chapter 6 Fated Reunion (3) has been Rewritten.
If you come across anything in this first nightmare that was already explained here or is inconsistent to the explanation provided here then that chapter has not been rewritten yet.
If you read something that Ayanokouji wasn't supposed to know yet, It is probably third person pov.
Alr, Peace.