CHAPTER 46: Outside the illusion

We bumped fist like it's the good old days and Kana jumped on both of us as they laughed and cried. I can't blame them; they were cooped up in that cage probably for a long time. They told me since they entered the bandit town, they've never seen daylight. Something I can relate to. Their skinny body reminds me when I was starving in the first dungeon making me look like a skeleton. Seeing the outline of my bones as I slowly deteriorate was something that brought down hope and they probably felt the same every single day.

I'm glad I was able to save them before its too late. I say in my mind as I smile in my own world.

After calming down, Kana and Daikichi bombarded me with questions about what happened to me. I told them everything they need to know while leaving out parts about the first dungeon. I told them bits and pieces. How I was inside the dungeon and mistakenly picked the wrong class. I left out the part where I was eaten alive, tortured by trolls and goblins. I feel like it's a burden that I have to carry alone. I told everything to them including up to the point I met Suyeon. I left a couple of parts out such as how I killed the governor since I'm afraid they'll think of me differently.

Why can't I come clean? Why can't I tell them everything?I whisper in my mind over and over.

"Oh Yasu, I-I –I don't know what to say," Kana says as she tries to wipe her tears while Daikichi strokes her back trying to calm her.

After telling each other stories, they asked Suyeon what else happened to her and what happened to everyone inside their dungeon. She told them what she told me and what she went through trying to hold back her tears and I can see the girl named Lisa is on the verge of tears as she jumps and hugs Suyeon.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She said over and over again as she cried on Suyeons shoulders with her frail body. "E-even now I-I has nightmares about that time. It must have been worse for you."

"It's ok now Lisa. And it's all thanks to Yasu. He saved me from that dark place. He saved me not only once but three times." She tells them and I tried counting in my head how many times I saved her.

"Three times? When's the third one?" I asked her.

"U-um when you c-came here and found me." She replied to me but I don't remember saving her. I remember coming here and seeing her kick the bandit to the sky like a bird.

"Oh." I whisper as I didn't' want to go on details what we did or what she did to those guys in front of Daikichi and Kana.

“Good thing you found her Yasu. Thank you.” Kana hugs Suyeon and they both started getting teary.

"Well, it's fate," I tell them as I look up the sky. "I don't know if you know but, the dungeon you guys woke up in, is the same dungeon I woke up in a year ago."

“Seriously?” Daikichi was surprised and I gave him a nod.

“That's the same place. The place Suyeon kept running into is the room I woke up in.” I tell them and even Suyeon was surprised.

“O-oh! I remember seeing your name when I inspected the dungeon!” Suyeon says in surprise and everyone looked at her making her revert to her passive self.

“You did? When?” Kana asked and Suyeon tried hard to remember.

“I-it was when before w-we opened t-the door," Suyeon explains and I can see she’s having a hard time talking again as if something in her memory triggered her stuttering.

"Did you, did you ever meet him?" Lisa asked Suyeon and the atmosphere got heavy. Somehow I know whom she's talking about.

"N-no. I never saw him after that." Suyeon says looking down.

"That fucking bastard. Wait till I find him, I'm going to wrangle his neck." Lisa says and I can see the real fury in her eyes.

"How about you Yasu, did you ever meet them?" Kana asked me and all eyes went on me.

"Meet who?" I suddenly asked thinking that they know about Junpei and them but I suddenly realized they're asking about Suyeon's brother and his group.

"Oh, well, after Luro told me he's bringing a new group to this world, I rushed to get to the dungeon. I did meet Suyeon's brother. Stopping me like he knows me preventing me from going in the dungeon. I should have cut his fucking head off." I told them and somehow, they seem surprised at what I said.

"Yasu! You shouldn't talk like that." Kana tells me. "Killing is not the answer. Besides, I don't want you to be a murderer."

Somehow I felt something turn in my gut and I just blurted it out. "Too late."

"What?" She says confused and I can see Daikichi knows what I'm talking about since he has seen me kill a few bandits after saving him and he probably remembers what Suyeon and I did to one bandit.

Shit, stupid stupid stupid.I curse myself in my mind.

"Yasu, tell me what you mean?" She says and knowing her personality, She will never let this go.

"Since that hell hole of a dungeon, I killed everything that came my way from then on. Whether it's monsters," I paused for a minute and I slowly stood up as I feel my body strong enough to move around. I turned away from them and before walking off to take a piss somewhere in the forest, I spoke again. "Whether its monsters or humans, I will kill them if they get in my way. You guys eat, I'm going to piss."

Somehow, no one stopped me, as the camp got silent. I walked off and disappeared into the woods.

Suyeon's POV

I watched him walk towards the dark forest and no one stopped him. Somehow, his back looked sadder than ever. It was the first time I saw him with such a sad atmosphere since he’s usually angry.

"K-killed humans?" Amaguchi asked and I can see Daikichi-san and Kana-san in a daze. "H-h-he's safe to be around right?"

"He's not a bad guy!" I suddenly blurted out and they all looked at me. I can see Kana and Daikichi snap out of their trance and life went back into their expression. “He really isn’t.”

I was on the verge of tears remembering what Yasu told me about his experience in the dungeon. The one he left out when he talked to Kana and Daikichi earlier.

"Yea, I believe in him. No matter what he becomes, I will continue to be his friend." Daikichi says and I can see him and Kana having the same expression. Warmth, love, caring, they all genuinely mean what they say.

"Yea, I just feel like he's hiding something from us," Kana says with a bit of a sad expression. She suddenly slapped her cheeks. "Get yourself together, that's Yasu. Yeah, you're right Daikichi, no matter what, we need to stick with family."

Then she looks up to me and my heart suddenly started beating fast. "Suyeon, you've been with him all this time, is there anything else you know about him?"

I wanted to tell them what he told me. What he went through in the dungeon with his teammates. But I held my tongue and shake my head. "N-no I don't."

It's better if they hear it from him.I say in my mind.

"Well, who cares? He saved all of us and that's what matters. I owe him my life. If he didn't come, we all probably would have died. I mean look at us, compared to Suyeon, we're skin and bones." Mr. Goro-sensei says as he looks at smiles and me. "I'm really glad your alive kiddo."

"Me too! I'm so happy I get to see you again~" Miki-sensei says as she hugs me along with Lisa and the warmth and affection they're giving me is making my eyes tear up again as I couldn't hold back.

"I-I'm glad we found you guys," I say and I started crying. Then Kana approached me and hugged me as tight as she can.

"Suyeon. Thank you for saving me at that time. Thank you." She says and I can feel her body tremble as she cries and I just nod as more emotions take over my speech making me cry non-stop.

"Ugh, let's stop crying. Sniff* I'm afraid I'll cry to death." Kana says and we all started chuckling a bit. "Daikichi, can you check on Yasu? He's been gone awfully long."

"Sure, I need to take a piss anyway," Daikichi says as he stands up dusting off his worn out pants.

"I'll go with you, I also need to go." Mr. Goro-sensei says.

"Me too! This is the first time I drank that much water~" Amaguchi stood up and all three of them walked towards where Yasu went.

"Sensei, how is he?" Kana asked when Miki-sensei approached Mamoru who remained unconscious.

"He's fine now since we got a healing potion," Miki-sensei says as he checked on Mamoru's temperature, placing her and over his forehead. “He doesn't have a fever so all we have to do is wait for him to wake up. I wished I were strong enough to heal something like this without relying on a potion. If it wasn't for your friend finding us and giving us potion, I don't know how we would have survived another day."

"I know, I thought we would lose Mamoru. We owe Yasu a lot." Kana says and she turns back to me and looks me up and down making me blush.

"Suyeon, your hair, you cut it. I can see your beautiful face so clear now." She says as she places her hands on my cheeks. She stares at me and it’s making me blush.

"Hair? Forget about the hair holy hell Suyeon you're hot! Look at your clothes and your body. Ugggggghhhh, you must have worked out a lot to get this flat stomach. Well, I have a flat stomach also but it's not the flat I want." Lisa says as she lifts up her shirt halfway showing her stomach that also has the outline of her ribcage.

"I-I was that skinny before. Then Yasu fed me good food." I tell them smiling and I took out the boar and wolf meat he cooked and stored in my bag.

"Want some?" held it out to them and they happily took it.

"MMMmmmmmm, this is so good~" Lisa say as she munch on the boar meat and while they're busy eating, I gave some to Miki-sensei who happily took it and ate beside Mamoru.

"I-it doesn't take long to gain your body weight," I tell them as I remember me gaining mine in a short amount of time.

"I hope so, I don't want to look like this forever," Lisa tells me as she looks at herself.

“You’re kidding?!" I hear Amaguchi walks back with Daikichi, Mr. Goro-sensei, and Yasu. Daikichi arm is around Yasu shoulders and I can see Yasu smiling which is making me feel hot and smile at the same time.

"Kana, your friend, he's fucking hot." Lisa whispers and Kana looks at Lisa.

"Off limits." She tells her and Lisa gave Kana puppy eyes. Kana then look at me and smiled. "That's Suyeons~"

I felt happy when she said that but I still feared guys in general. After what I went through the dungeon, it even makes me feel uncomfortable to be in the bandit town full of men. Only Yasu I feel a bit comfortable with.

End of Suyeon POV

Yasu POV

We walked back towards the camp after taking a piss. I'm glad Daikichi doesn't seem too different towards me and even the two guys he came with name Goro and Amaguchi treated me like they knew me for years.

"So, have you seen any elves?" Amaguchi asked me as we slowly walk back towards camp.

"I don't remember. All I've seen are humans so far." I tell him and somehow, with his skinny body, this guy looks like he's full of energy.

"Awww, dang. We never really got to explore since we got out. I wonder what types of monsters are here~" He replied to me as he started daydreaming. Even after going through hell and becoming slaves, he seems unfazed.

"Well, around this forest, outside of the illusion barrier," I tell him and they all listened as we walked through the forest. "There's boars, wolves, and bears. Only in the dungeons, you see those undead skeletons. Oh, I did fight a dragon."

"A dragon?!" Amaguchi suddenly stepped back with his mouth open. "A Dragon?! How was it?! Did you tame it?! Ride it?! Dang, I want to ride a dragon!"

Is this guy right in the head?I asked myself in my mind.

"Well, It was big. Bigger than the gatekeeper. And it tried to kill me. I managed to kill and gain a few skills from it." I tell him remembering the Sky King.

"Oh?! Show us show us!" He says like an excited kid. I called out my dimensional back and took out a sword.

"Dragon’s breath," I whisper my skill and my sword was encased with fire.

"Ohhh that is so cool!" Amaguchi stared at the sword as if it was a circus play.

Is this guy really fine in the head?I say in my mind as I disperse the flame and store the blade back in my bag. We kept walking back to camp and they all bombarded me with more question about the class system and how to survive in this world.

After arriving, we see the girls together while one of them is with the unconscious kid. It's nice to see Suyeon found her group since her attitude has become a bit different ever since finding Kana and that girl named Lisa who keeps glancing my way.

I sat back down where I was before and rested my back on the log. "So, can you tell me your classes?"

The minute I asked them, they all told me their class one by one. Kana and the older female name Miki picked the healer class. Lisa is a mage while Daikichi is a class called dual. Something I wanted in the beginning. The older guy named Goro is a guardian while the Amaguchi is a berserker. The unconscious kid named Mamoru chose a class called warlock and he's the one that can create portals that lead to random places. Ever since the bandits kidnapped them, they forced Mamoru to work in a different section and when they tried to break him out, that's when they found him unconscious. That's also when they got caught where Daikichi was sentenced to the guillotine.

"Hmmm, what level are you guys?" I asked them and they all called out their status window.

"I think all of us here don't exceed level 20. They didn't give us any chance to level up." Daikichi says as he looks into his palm.

"Hmm, well after we get out of this illusion barrier, I'll train you guys like what I did to Suyeon. The more you level up, the more skills you obtain. You guys have it easy since I have to cook what I kill to get experience orbs." I tell them.

"So, what now?" Goro asked me as he sat around the campfire putting more sticks in to keep the fire going. I never really thought that far ahead. All I was the focus is finding them. I never really thought about what to do after I found them.

Ah, I know. I say in my mind.

"Well, we need to establish a place we can rest. Camping in the forest is a pain in the neck every time. Daikichi, call out your status window." I tell him and he nods at me.

"Status window. Ok, now what?" He says as he reads something I can't see.

"Tell me what you see in a section that says, guild," I asked him.

"It’s nothing. It's blank." He tells me.

"So you guys are not in a guild. Shit, if only I know how to invite you in." I say trying to see if there's any command to invite people in the guild.

"Guild?! There are guilds?!" Amaguchi says surprised.

"Yes. I'm actually part of one. You can say I'm the leader, I guess." I tell him and it looks like he's about to pass out due to the excitement.

"What?! What guild?!" He asked me with a big smile on his face.

"A guild called Diamond District. There are actually two guilds as of now that I know. One is the Gold District, which consists of the other people that were transported here. Then there's the Diamond District, which consists of only me. I would invite all of you if I know how but I tried all commands but nothing." I explained to him.

"Oh damn, diamond district sound fancy~ I wanna be on that one," Lisa says and they all nod.

"As of now, there are two members of diamond officially. One is Suyeon, the other is me." I tell them and I see Suyeon looked up to be with a surprised expression.

"Me?" She asked me surprised.

"Uh yeah? You didn't think I helped you out because I wanted to right?" I tell her and she shakes her head.

"N-no I didn't know I was part of the guild." She says to me feeling happy. Somehow, in front of everyone, my conversation with Suyeon now feels embarrassing.

"Well, until I figure out how this guild stuff works, just stick close to me and I'll help all of you level up. I actually need to find something."

"Find what?" Kana asked me and I fed the fire with more sticks.

"My castle. Or I should say, Diamond District's castle." I tell them remembering what Luro said to me while I was in the hidden dungeon. He visited me one time and told me about how each guild has its own home base.

"C-castle?!" Amaguchi says and it seems like he's really enjoying all this information.

"When Luro brought us here, he put us into two teams. One Gold, one diamond, and each team or I should say, guild, have their own castle. As you all know, our main goal is to kill Luro so we can go home. If we can't do it, he will crash this planet with earth killing everyone in both planets. I recently found a way to find him but I missed my chance earlier when I let that damn demon run away." I told them while clenching my fist.

"Demon?" Lisa asked me with a worried look. I understand why all of these are new to them. Since they got out of the dungeon, all they know was the information they learned inside, which is probably not much.

"Well, to sum it up, there are eight overlords that terrorize this planet. Their leader is called Unum. He's the one we need to find since he knows where Luro's located. If we find the overlords and find Unum, we might have a chance of finding Luro." I explained to them.

“How do we find him?" Miki asked.

"I guess I best bet is to locate the other overlords and get information out of them," I tell her and she looked worried. “Seems like its even rare for them to see Unum."

"Oh." She replies looking a bit down as she stroke Mamoru's hair.

I wonder what happened to him? I say in my mind getting a bit distracted.

"But, we need a safe place to stay and think of a way to find him and kill him otherwise, we'll be camping nonstop exposing ourselves to the risk of being abducted by another bandit group," I tell them and they all nod in unison. "It won't be a problem for Suyeon and me but for you guys that are low level, it's too dangerous. It was pure luck I came across this bandit town."

I can't protect all of them at the same time. I say in my mind as I looked at them. Protect? All of them? Why? They survived this far, they can protect themselves.

I started pressing my temple as my own voice in my mind echoed giving me a headache. Here it is again. Wait, why am I like this? I should be happy they're safe and with me.

"Tch," I mutter as I tap my head.

"Are you okay?" Miki says as she comes close worried about me.

"Oh, oh yeah. Sorry. Force of habit." I lied to her about my headache. She placed her hand on my forehead and I just sat there while she mutters her skill.

"Heal." Her hand felt cool and somehow, it calmed my mind as my headache slowly disappeared. “Feel better?”

"Yeah. Thank you." I tell her averting her gaze.

“Good, we’re here. Let us know if you feel anything.” She tells me as she sat back down smiling and I gave her a nod.

"Y-you all should sleep. I have insomnia so I can stay up and stay watch.” I tell them as the moon illuminated the forest around us. “We'll leave tomorrow morning as soon as the sun rises."

"No, we'll take turns," Daikichi says but I can see they all are exhausted also.

"No, it's fine. You all sleep. I and Suyeon will take turns.” I tell them regretting leaving them earlier. If a bandit came while I was taking a piss, it would have been bad but, somehow I trusted Suyeon to protect all of them. “It's safer this way since we both have the strength to deter anyone coming by."

"Well, we'll go sleep but wake us up if you need us to take over alright dude?" Daikichi says as he held out a fist towards me and I pound it nodding towards him. They all started sleeping huddling next to each other near the campfire. The air at night is a lot colder during the day and I'm worried about them since they have no layer of fat to protect them from the wind. I took out a couple of blankets and placed it over them while they slept. I told Suyeon to sleep first and I'll wake her up when I feel tired and she nods sleeping near me so it's easier for me to shake her awake.

What is wrong with me? Why am I acting like this?I whisper in my mind as I feed the fire more twigs. No matter how I look at it, I felt it, for a brief moment I suddenly felt they're a burden.

"Calm down Yasu. You found them. No need to be worried. They won't betray you. These are your friends Yasu. They won't leave you alone." I whisper as I rest my head on top of my knee. I suddenly felt someone touch my back lightly making me jolt up and my scalp ended up hitting something.

"Ah!" I see him fall back as he grabs his chin and rubs it from the pain.

"Daikichi, what the hell dude," I whisper to him as I rub my scalp.

"Sorry man, I couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you to sleep but you suddenly looked up. Ah, damn man, what's your head made out of? Metal?" He joked around rubbing his chin.

"Haha very funny. Go sleep." I tell him and he sat beside me.

"I told you I cant and…what do you mean they betrayed you?" The minute he asked I felt my body go rigid. I didn't know how to respond and I didn't want to tell him since it's not his problem.

"It's nothing man. Just go sleep." I brush it off as I feed the fire more twigs.

"Come on bro, we've been friends for a long time. What's buggin' you? I promise I won't judge you for it." He tells me and somehow, I felt like I wanted to tell him. I paused for a good minute and deep inside, I felt scared. I don't know why I’m scared to tell him but I should be able to tell him and Kana what's going on since I know them more than anyone.

"It's going to take a long time to explain. Go sleep." I tell him and he placed the blanket over him and fed the fire some twigs.

"I got all night." He tells me as he smiles my way.

"Alright," I tell him and I explained to him everything in detail from the first day up now. I told him about Junpei, Hiroko, and the rest of the ex-diamonds and how they made a choice for me. I told him how I was tortured alive, eaten alive, how I wished to die so many times while they ate me. How I begged the monsters for mercy and end my life. Explaining him everything made my voice shake and my heart was beating so fast but all he did was stare at the fire and listened to everything I told him. After finishing, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders but somehow it was hard to swallow as I wait for him to give me an answer.

"Damn. Bro, you went through some shit." He tells me joking around and it's a typical Daikichi reply that made me relax a bit. "I can't even process that…holy hell…"

"It's a memory I wished I forgot but even now, I can steep feel my skin being peeled off and my flesh being ripped apart," I tell him and he was silent for a brief moment.

“Those guys…did you ever meet them again?” He asked me and my fear became anger being reminded by them.

"No. And I don't want to. But a part of me wants to meet them and beat the living shit out of them with frying. I swore to myself I would. Item bag." I called out my bag and took out the beat up pan I used in the very beginning. " I even took good care of this to do it."

He grabs the frying pan and inspects it. "Jeez, what did you do to this? Is this the weapon you used to beat the wolves up?"

"Yeah," I tell him and he hands the frying pan back to me.

"So, what is your real goal dude? Revenge?" He asked me and I paused for a good minute before giving him the answer.

"No. I want to go home." I tell him as I place my head back down my knees. "I want to see my mother."

He didn't say anything and just kept feeding the fire for a minute. "Yasu, no matter what you have become or what you do, I will support you as long as you think about your mother. Just don't stop being Yasu."

I look up to him and he gave me a smile as he put his fist out towards me.

"Yeah," I say as I give him a pound. That whole night, we talked and talked about everything we missed back home. He told me about my mother that brought a warm feeling to my chest. Hearing how she's doing well is music to my ears. He told me their experiences inside the bandit's town. Lisa and Kana were almost sold to the old lady that runs the brothel. They made up a lie that Lisa and Kana were pregnant with Daikichi and Amaguchi baby. At that time, Lisa had a fear of men due to what she went through in the dungeon and it took them a while to help boost her confidence. Even now, they tell me she's still afraid that, can talk normally as long as she's not completely making a lot of body contact with guys she's not familiar with and she’s not alone with them.

And since they liked about being pregnant, no one wanted to take responsibility of taking care of a kid so no one bought them and they remained in the cage while the guys were sold off to other parts of the town. Daikichi was sold towards some old lady that only wanted a male companion and he was lucky enough she didn't want sex. Goro who used to be big was actually recruited to be a bandit along with Amaguchi and that's how he was able to check up on Kana and Lisa from time to time who was forced to work digging. I guess they wanted them to have a miscarriage but since their pregnancy was a fake, they never did and worked in the mines digging.

Miki was sold off towards a restaurant and she worked there as a waitress at the owner took a liking of her and took good care of her. The only one that got the short end of the stick was that Mamoru kid who was forced to work with other warlock and create portals. But after they found out he was being mistreated, they tried to break him out and that's how they put them all together in jail. The bandits only fed them a small amount of food starving them. I guess this is the condition Dorang was talking about. They told me they would starve people and when they are on the brink of death, they would feed them a little bit and use a potion to keep them alive but would starve them all over again. Some would go insane and kill themselves but they didn't lose hope and kept trying to survive to hope that one day they would escape. When they found a chance, they tried to escape to be only stopped by some bandits and that's how Daikichi was forced up the stage to get his head chopped off.

"And that's when you found me. Seriously, when I saw you in the crowd staring at me, I thought I was hallucinating but then you suddenly jumped up the stage and sent the leader flying." He tells me.

"I almost missed you guys," I reply to him thinking about how they were right under us. "I was in the auction room looking at who they auction off just in case I find you guys there being sold off."

"How did you know we were in there?" He asked.

"Suyeon remembered the trees around you when that unconscious kid made the portal to escape the dungeon," I explained to him. "We used that as a clue. Events happen and we ended up finding this illusion barrier created by these bandits that took you guys."

“How did you know where the town was?” He asked me as he fed the fire with more sticks. “When we got out of the elevator, it looks like it was in the middle of the forest."

"I pretended to be a bandit," I tell him as I took out a water container from my bag and handing it to him to drink. Daikichi took the container and slowly drank the water to quench his thirst. “When I talked to a bunch of bandits outside, they told me they found some weird adventurers from a far off land and led me right to you guys."

"Oh, haha that's us.” He says as he hands the container back to me. “We didn't really say we're from Earth. Yasu, be careful of Suyeon's brother. He did some pretty nasty things to her and probably everyone in there."

"Yeah," I reply remembering about him. "I felt something was wrong with him in the beginning. And when I saw her in the dungeon, I knew she didn't do that to herself. Fucking animals I should have ripped his throat out with my bare hands."

"haha….knowing the story about the governor, I think you're serious." He tells me and I give him a nervous smile.

"Well, I'll go sleep. Wake me up when you feel like sleeping." He tells me and I gave him a nod.

"I’ll wake you up when it’s morning. Don’t worry, with me here, no one will touch you guys while you sleep." I reply to him and he went and placed himself near Kana and slept through the night.

I didn't bother waking up Suyeon since I didn't feel fatigue so I let her sleep also. Once daytime hits, I woke everyone up and Kana lectured me about sleeping. We walked towards where I think the carriage was and after getting there, it was gone as if it was never there.

"Huh, so those fuckers do clean up good," I whisper as I look around and saw all the broken down trees missing but there's still stains of blood where the dead bodies were. "Well, not too good."

"Blood? Did someone fight here?" Miki asked and I looked at Suyeon who looked at me nervously.

"Uh, I don't know. Never seen this before." I say lying so they don't find out what she did all of this havoc. "Let's get out of here. Do any of you guys know how to use the ring to open the illusion barrier?"

"Yeah. We saw the auctioneer explain it to one of his men before. He said to hold the ring next to your mouth and whisper the words ‘illusion, let the path appear towards our goal' and the barrier should open up."

"Oh, ok, give me a minute," I say as I turn around and walk near where I think the border is. "Illusion let the path appear towards o-"

ZIIIING!

"Oh, Yasu, it worked!" Kana says happily as she watches the illusion barrier start disappearing from the top. Once we see the blue sky outside, happiness filled everyone as they jump with joy. But their happiness slowly disappears along with the illusion as it exposed the trees around us. I see the trees in the surrounding area without leaves, as the trees themselves are scorched black.

"What the fu- are we in hell?" Amaguchi asked as he looks around the forest that once stood to be lush and full of life that's downgraded to nothing but ashes, coal, and embers still hot from burned wood. Everyone looks around but I set my eyes on one area.

"The last tree," I whisper to myself as I see the last tree that had the yellow hue. I remember not destroying it since one of the bandits opened the portal for me. But now, that same tree is destroyed from its base. But, the tree is the least of my concerns. What's right next to the tree is what's making me feel agitated.

"Yasu, there's-," Suyeon says hiding behind me.

"I know. Would you shut the fuck up for a minute." I whisper as I clench my fist. "Well, well, well, didn't think I'd meet you here. Or I should say, all of you here. Item bag~"

I caught my bag before it dropped to the ground. I placed my hand inside gripping the handle of the beat up frying pan as I watch her run towards me leaving her group. Tears streak down her face and I see her almost tripping. Her teammate shouted her name telling her to stop but she didn't listen as she ran towards me while shouting my name over and over again. Hearing her voice was like listening to a broken record. A record I never ever want to hear again yet, it's in front of me, playing over and over as she gets closer and closer.

"Yasu!" She shouted my name as I walk towards her with my hand inside my bag.

"It's nice to meet you again, Hiroko," I whisper as I hold the frying pan I have hidden inside the bag. "It's nice to meet you again.”