The next morning, Arou arrived at school earlier than usual.
He sat down at his desk and opened his textbook before the morning bell rang.
It wasn't because he had suddenly become diligent—
he simply didn't want to spend too much time lost in his thoughts.
One of his classmates walked over.
"Hey, Arou. Let's work together for the group project later, okay?"
Arou was caught off guard for a moment.
Then he gave a small nod.
"...Sure."
His classmate smiled.
"Great."
It was only a small exchange.
Yet Arou realized something—
he hadn't refused.
During class, when the teacher asked a question, Arou quietly raised his hand.
His answer was brief,
but correct.
Several students turned to look at him.
Not because of the answer itself—
but because Arou was usually silent.
At lunch break, he sat with the others.
He barely spoke.
But he listened.
From across the room, Akari watched him.
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"It looks like you're finally starting to live again," she said as she walked past him.
Arou clicked his tongue.
"You're noisy."
Even so,
the corner of his lips lifted ever so slightly.
After school, Arou walked home with lighter steps.
Not because his problems had disappeared—
but because he was no longer walking beneath their weight.
---
When he arrived home,
Lumina studied him for a while.
"You look different."
Arou took off his shoes.
"...Maybe."
Hikari smiled brightly.
"Dad came home looking happy."
Nora yawned.
"A small miracle."
Arou sat down on the sofa.
For the first time,
he didn't feel as though he was being chased by his dreams.
Because change doesn't always arrive with an explosion.
Sometimes,
it comes as a small step
that simply refuses to stop moving forward.
---
That night,
Arou didn't go to bed right away.
He sat alone in the living room.
The lights were dim.
The television remained off.
On the table lay one of his old notebooks.
The notebook he had written
back when he no longer wanted to live.
Arou slowly opened it.
The words were still there.
The names he had created.
The worlds he had built to hide inside.
His hands trembled.
"I was selfish..."
he whispered.
He covered his face with one hand.
Not because he was crying—
but because he finally understood.
"I created all of you...
and forced you to carry my loneliness."
Footsteps echoed through the room.
Lumina stood quietly at the doorway.
"You feel guilty," she said.
Arou nodded.
"I used all of you just so I could survive."
Nora jumped onto the table in her cat form.
"So?"
"I'm afraid..."
Arou continued,
"that all of this was just another way for me to run away."
Akari appeared behind Lumina.
"You feel guilty because you're alive."
Arou looked up at her.
"In your dreams,
you survived because of us.
Now...
you're living because of yourself."
Hikari slowly walked closer.
"Dad didn't do anything wrong."
Arou lowered his head.
"But I left them behind."
Lumina finally stepped into the room.
"You didn't leave them behind."
She sat in front of him.
"You simply reached the end."
Those words left Arou speechless.
"The dream world didn't collapse,"
Lumina continued.
"It simply stopped being the place where you belonged."
Arou took a long, slow breath.
The tightness in his chest gradually eased.
"...Then..."
he murmured,
"I'll keep living with this guilt."
Akari smiled gently.
"That isn't a punishment."
"It's proof that you cared."
Arou quietly closed the notebook.
Not to forget—
but because he no longer wished to remain there.
That night,
Arou fell asleep.
The guilt was still there—
but it no longer chained his feet.
Because now,
he chose to keep walking
while carrying it with him.
---
People at school slowly began to notice the change in Arou.
It wasn't dramatic.
If anything,
it was so gradual
that everyone noticed it before he did.
"Hasn't Arou been acting differently lately?"
someone whispered.
He no longer avoided people.
He no longer disappeared into the corner of the classroom.
But neither did he seek attention.
During group work,
he quietly finished his share.
When he made mistakes,
he admitted them without hesitation.
Some classmates seemed strangely uncomfortable.
As though the old Arou—
the quiet, gloomy boy who was easy to ignore—
had quietly disappeared.
After class,
one of them spoke to him.
"You're... hard to figure out these days."
Arou simply nodded.
"...Maybe."
He didn't explain.
He didn't feel the need to.
---
That evening,
Arou sat at his desk.
A brand-new notebook lay open before him.
Not the old one.
Not a notebook meant for escaping reality.
His hand hesitated for a moment.
"Writing again?"
Lumina asked from the doorway.
Arou nodded.
"Yeah.
But not the strange stuff anymore."
He began to write.
Not about a perfect world.
Not about heroes who would save him.
He wrote about today.
About exhaustion.
About the guilt that still hadn't disappeared.
Akari watched over his shoulder.
"You're not writing about us anymore."
"No."
Arou kept writing.
"I'm writing about myself."
Nora jumped onto the desk.
"That's far more dangerous."
Arou smiled faintly.
"I know."
Hikari sat beside him.
"Dad...
are you still sad?"
Arou stopped writing.
"...Yeah."
"Then why are you writing?"
He looked quietly at the page.
"So I don't have to pretend I'm strong."
He gently closed the notebook.
Not because he had finished—
only because
today was enough.
Some people at school drifted away from him.
But at home,
he wasn't alone.
Arou slowly came to understand something.
Changing meant losing parts of who he used to be—
and accepting a new version of himself that still felt unfamiliar.
Even so,
for the first time,
he had no desire
to go back.
---
The dream world created by Arou was unusually peaceful.
A pale sky stretched endlessly overhead.
A gentle breeze drifted across the empty plains.
At the center of the field stood an interdimensional portal,
its light pulsing steadily,
as though patiently waiting for someone to step through.
Nova walked at the front.
Shion yawned behind him.
"So...
this is the exit?"
Rei asked.
"It looks pretty ordinary."
Arthur nodded.
"If the portal's active,
we can finally catch up with Arou."
Feeth glanced around.
"...Strange.
This dream world is far too quiet."
Nova stopped in front of the portal.
"Relax.
As long as this world—"
Before he could finish,
the air trembled.
A faint cracking sound echoed through the sky,
like glass being pressed from the other side.
Dark ripples spread across the heavens.
"...Did you guys feel that?"
Shion muttered.
The space above the portal
tore open.
A lone figure slowly descended from the rift.
A cloak of shadows covered its body.
Its form was incomplete,
as though reality itself struggled to recognize its existence.
Long black hair flowed in the wind.
Two bright violet eyes glowed with an unsettling light.
No warning.
No words.
The figure slowly raised one hand.
In a single instant,
the laws of the world changed.
The dimensional portal shook violently—
before shattering into countless fragments of light.
Then,
it vanished completely.
"W-What?!"
Rei stumbled backward.
"The portal...
it's gone!"
Feeth instinctively took a defensive stance.
"What... is that thing?"
Nova stared at the figure,
his expression turning grim.
"...Chaos."
The surrounding space distorted.
The ground rippled unnaturally.
Gravity shifted for a brief moment—
before returning to normal,
as though nothing had happened.
"This is bad,"
Arthur said quietly.
"We can't reach Arou's world anymore."
Nova immediately activated his communicator and typed as fast as he could.
Nova → Nora
> We're under attack.
It suddenly appeared... and destroyed the portal.
We can't get there anymore.
---
In the real world,
Nora was sitting alone in the living room
in her human form.
Her phone vibrated.
She read the message.
The color drained from her face.
"...What?"
Her fingers trembled slightly.
She stared at the screen,
unable to blink.
"...The portal...
was destroyed?"
Slowly,
she turned toward the hallway—
toward Arou's room.
For the first time in a long while,
fear
appeared on Nora's face.