Kirio had the most confused face in the world as he asked Ryuga,

“Who the hell is Alicia?”

Ryuga was left in utter shock.

“This isn’t a time for jokes, Dakai.”

Ryuga nervously smiled and replied to Kirio.

Kirio just couldn’t understand what Ryuga wanted to say and continued to say the same thing,

“I seriously don’t know man, who is Alicia? Is she like some kinda crush of yours or anything?”

Kirio asks Ryuga.

“Tell me something Dakai. Do you remember what happened yesterday night?”

Ryuga asks Kirio but he didn’t have any strength in his voice.

“Last night? Yeah, you were telling me about your ex and you two got together and then broke up then we spoke a little about Jojo and went back home.”

Ryuga controlled himself and looked away.

“I will see you later, Kirio.”

Ryuga says and walks away.

Ryuga walked away after Kirio realized something.

“What a weirdo. Then again, he is a Jojo fan.”

Kirio commented.

(Something is wrong. Dakai doesn’t seem like a person who would easily forget about that incident. Heck, no one would forget about that incident that easily.

Alicia got killed right in front of us but Dakai just now acted like he didn’t know anything...No, he didn’t act like he didn’t know anything more like he actually didn’t know anything.

One thing is sure though, he has for some reason forgotten about Alicia. I wonder why. Why would he forget about such a brutal incident?)

While in deep thought, Ryuga bumps into a familiar tall figure.

“Sorry!”

Ryuga picks both his hands up and apologizes to bump into a certain person.

“Ah, it’s you Ryuga Aragi, human boy.”

The familiar figure spoke.

Ryuga instantly recognized that voice and looked right towards the familiar face of Gordon Jordon, the vampire.

“Oh, vampire dude, hello.”

Ryuga greets Gordon.

“Also, I prefer being called Aragi.”

Ryuga says to Gordon.

“Ah, but I will call you Ryuga because that is the name you were given.”

Gordon says with a smile.

Ryuga sighs, “Fine, call me whatever you want.”

Ryuga says.

“Anyways, there is something strange going on, human.”

Ryuga at that time thought,

“Didn’t you say, you wanted to call me Ryuga?”

“What did you mean by something strange?”

Ryuga asks Gordon.

“Ryuga, do you remember someone named Alicia?”

Gordon asks Ryuga.

At that time, Ryuga couldn’t understand why Gordon would ask him such a weird question.Of course, he remembered Alicia. He saw her get killed in front of him. Of course, he would never forget her.

So why would Gordon ask him such a weird question? That’s Ryuga had on his mind and with an obvious answer he said,

“Of course I remember her.”

Even after giving Gordon a proper answer, Ryuga couldn’t help but ask him,

“Why would you ask me such a question, Gordon?”

Gordon looked delighted.

It was almost as if he had finally found a gem,

“Finally!”

He said with a delighted face.

“What’s wrong, Gordon?”

Ryuga asked Gordon.

Just before Gordon could answer Ryuga’s question, the lunch break gets over and it turns out they have to wait until the school is over.

“Let’s walk together after school. I will explain what is happening.”

Gordon says.

Ryuga nods.

The Elf Freda was teaching after the lunch break.Ryuga attends the classes for the second half of the day. There were moments where he and Kirio were slacking off and having fun but even those moments, Ryuga couldn’t help but think about Alicia who was missing from the seat behind it. During those final five periods of the second half of the day, Ryuga also realized another thing. Everyone was acting as if nothing has happened.

Finally, the school bell for the end of the final period ends and it’s already 4 in the evening. Everyone begins to leave but Ryuga stays seated and waits for Gordon.

“Let’s walk home, Ryuga.”

Gordon says.

“I have someone else I want to bring along if you don’t mind.”

Ryuga says.

Gordon nods but is kinda surprised.

Ryuga waits outside Class 2-A along with Gordon.

“Let’s walk home together Jau!”

Jau-Unfurn walks out of the class along with a few human girls but her face is quite easily not a happy one. Her gaze goes towards Ryuga who is standing outside the class with Gordon and she smiles.

“I have to help a junior of mine today, so you girls go home alone today.”

Jau-Unfurn says to the human girls.

“Alright Jau, see you.”

One of the girls says.

“See you.”

Jau says and walks to Ryuga.

“Yo Jau-Unfurn, wanna walk together?”

Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn.

“Why would I say that I want to help a junior if I didn’t want to walk with you?”

Jau-Unfurn looks at Ryuga and smiles.

“Jau-Unfurn, this is Gordon Jordon. He is an acquaintance of mine and a friend of Alicia.”

Ryuga says.

“I see. Nice to meet you, Gordon, I am Jau-Unfurn, Alicia’s elder sister.”

Jau-Unfurn introduces herself to Gordon.

“Ah, I see. You are much stronger than her physically I must say.”

Gordon says with a smile.

“Anyways, you can share anything with both of us, we won’t leak anything out.”

Ryuga ensures Gordon.

Gordon nods.

Ryuga, Gordon and Jau-Unfurn all of them are sitting near the railway station. Ryuga is sitting on a bench with Jau-Unfurn and Gordon is sitting on a chair near them.

“The thing I wanted to say is that everyone except us has lost the memories of Alicia Arkwet.” Gordon says.

Ryuga holds his hands tightly controlling his feelings and Jau-Unfurn looks quite sad. “I knew something like that might have happened. I mean, no one asked me about Alicia and treated this incident like just some other Ogre did it.”Jau-Unfurn says with a disappointed tone.

“Yeah, no one questioned the empty seat behind me either. Everyone acted like it was quite normal.” Ryuga grits his teeth in anger.

“Whoever the fuck is messing with Alicia even after her death...I am seriously going to fucking kill them.”

No one ever thought that they would experience such a strong aura but Ryuga was emitting a strong killing aura. Jau-Unfurn and Gordon started to sweat from Ryuga’s pure killing aura. It was as if they were looking at a beast tiger wanting to munch onto someone.

Not only them but everyone who is near the station is feeling that aura and is sweating purely from it.

“Oi Aragi, you okay man?” A familiar figure walked to Ryuga and the others. Ryuga stopped emitting the aura and looked at the familiar figure,.

“Dakai?” Ryuga was surprised to find that Kirio appeared in front of them suddenly.

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~

Kirio who is sweating heavily from Ryuga’s pressure asks him, “Oi Aragi, you good man?” Kirio also seemed concerned about Ryuga while asking him the question.

“Yeah...It’s nothing.” Ryuga says in reply to Kirio’s question. The train arrives.

“Alright, I think so I will take my leave. Are you coming with me Dakai?” Ryuga asks Kirio. Kirio nods.

Ryuga and Kirio walk to the train. Ryuga turns around and looks at Jau-Unfurn and Gordon. “Take care, Ryuga.” Jau-Unfurn says.

“Yeah, I will.” Ryuga says as the doors to the train shut and it begins to leave.

As soon as the train leaves, Gordon asks Jau-Unfurn, “It’s a surprise, you know? The S-Tier Hero of our world, Mighty Idol would trust someone but herself.” Gordon says. “It’s a surprise that the son of the famous S-Tier Hero, Night Tooth would have spared a human.” Jau-Unfurn says. Quickly in defense, Gordon speaks.

“I have my personal reasons to spare that human but what are your reasons to spare a human? Don’t you hate them too?” Gordon asks Jau-Unfurn.

Jau-Unfurn hesitates to speak at first but she soon remembers something that Ryuga said, “I will protect you.” This brings a huge grin on Jau-Unfurn’s face with her horn turning pink, “That’s because that human is different.”

Gordon gets surprised and realizes that Jau-Unfurn’s horn has turned pink. This only makes Gordon think one thing, “Don’t tell me, she has fallen for that guy...” Thinking about the situation Gordon can do nothing but sigh in disappointment.

"What about that human friend though?" Gordon asks about the girl who she was with. "Her? To begin with...I am not even sure if she is a human or something else." Jau looks quite nervous. "Hmm?" Gordon looked confused as their train arrives.

"Let's go Gordon. We don't have all day." Jau says to Gordon. "Yeah...Let's go..." Gordon watched Jau go and joined her in the train.

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~

Ryuga and Kirio are on a train together. Ryuga is browsing for clothes online since he realizes that his old clothes are getting too tight for him.

“Aragi, can I ask you something?” Kirio asks. “Shoot with your question. You don’t need to ask me for asking me questions.” Ryuga says while browsing online.

“Tell me, dude, why were you with that Ogre? Wasn’t it her sister who was with the Illuminati?” The question that Kirio asked bought a sudden silence.

Ryuga wasn’t able to properly answer that question since Kirio didn’t remember anything from yesterday night and he knew if he tried to say something to Kirio he wouldn’t believe him. So he only had one choice in this situation.

“Dakai, what makes you say that her sister was with Illuminati?” Ryuga asked Kirio with a straight face while looking right into his eyes.

“Dude, that shit was all over the internet and newspaper! Didn’t you see that?! Are you telling me that you ignored all of that?!” Kirio argued with Ryuga and Ryuga only kept on looking in Kirio’s eyes.

“Have you seen Jau-Unfurn’s sister collaborate with Illuminati? Did you see her being part of it? Have you seen that person do any bad deeds? Do you think that she was really bad? Or do you think that she is framed? Do you think that you can believe every single word that the internet, newspapers, T.V.s and radio throw out? Can you answer all the questions? Dakai, one can’t believe something unless and until they see something with their own two eyes.” Ryuga’s rebuttal puts Kirio in silence.

Still, Kirio broke that silence by saying, “Weren’t they official reports by Ghosts?” Ryuga looked right into Kirio’s eyes and answered Dakai’s questions.

“Ghosts huh? How many Ghosts have turned up to be corrupt? How many have turned to the dark side and worked for Illuminati? How many have killed their own comrades because they were jealous? How many have pushed down others so that they can rise? You talk about being a Ghost but to be a Ghost, you must know that the world you are entering to be a Ghost is a cruel one. That’s one of the reasons I find no interest in being a Ghost.” Ryuga looks outside the windows of the train where he sees the dimensional space that they are going through.

Kirio looks the other way around and talks to Ryuga, “You are right Aragi but there are good Ghosts out there too, you know. Not every Ghost is out there for fame, glory, luxury. Some genuinely care for people.” Kirio says.

“I never said that there weren’t any good Ghosts out there but even if you are a good Ghost, you can’t do anything to help out people when the higher-ups themselves are corrupted. You will always be suppressed and that’s that. There is nothing more or nothing less to that.” Ryuga says as keeps his phone in the pocket and takes a seat.

Kirio couldn’t say anything to that. Ryuga was right. There was nothing that he said wrong. Even if you come out at the top and do the best you can, you will always be suppressed by someone. Kirio remembered that.

He remembered something from his past which made his heartbreak. He looked away from Ryuga and thought about it. About that time when his friend was a sacrifice for someone, someone they thought would have saved him. He remembered the reason he wanted to become a Ghost. He just stopped thinking and started reading the newspaper that was in the stall next to the seat.

On the other end, Ryuga had no reason to become Ghost yet he stared at the dimensional space and just thought about the things he said. He knows he wasn’t wrong and yet he couldn’t help but think that there might have been a way that he could have saved Alicia.

Ryuga thought of this whole incident as a chess game and not being able to save Alicia was his biggest blunder. He thought that he has been checked right now and the mate is waiting for him somewhere. It’s just a matter of time.

Just then, Ryuga saw something behind the newspaper. He realized something. This realization gave him a ray of hope and he finally got out of the mate endeavor. He quickly asked Kirio, “Hey, is this the company name that produces this newspaper?” Ryuga pointed at the top right of the outside of the newspaper where the name of a certain company was highlighted in dark red.

“Yeah, it says Arkwet, why though?” Finding Ryuga’s question strange, Kirio asks him. Ryuga answers with a smile, “That’s because I just got a checkmate.” Ryuga says with a smile.

Again Kirio couldn’t understand a single thing that Ryuga said and he just thought Ryuga was being weird.

“Hey Dakai, tomorrow before we go to school, how about we go visit Arkwet’s Printing Press?” Ryuga asks Kirio. “Sure...I don’t see a problem with that but why do you want to go there?” Kirio asks Ryuga. “No particular reason.” That’s what Ryuga wanted Kirio to think but for Ryuga who already knew what this meant, he was ready to do this investigation.

Kirio wasn’t dumb either. He wanted Ryuga to say what he wanted to do at Arkwet’s Printing Press and why he wanted to go there.

“Ryuga, why do you want to go there?” Kirio asked him the big question again and this time his tone was quite serious. Ryuga knew that Kirio wanted a specific answer. Yet Ryuga maintained his calm nature and smile. He even gave Kirio a calm answer.

“To know what really happened yesterday night. We will be going here.” Ryuga spoke. Kirio wanted to dwell deeper, he wanted to know more but he stopped himself. For some reason, even Kirio felt a need to believe in Ryuga’s words. He felt like he needed to know what is really happening and what the truth is.

That is why, he answered with, “Alright, that’s fair enough. I will take you there.” And with that their stop also arrived. “Alright Kirio, see you tomorrow.” Ryuga said and left. Kirio left as well but he had to go in a different direction.

So he just watched Ryuga leave. Kirio on the other hand was left with a huge puzzle face since he had no idea what was going on.

(What are you hiding from me, Aragi? What is it that you can’t tell me? I know that I am not that close to you but still. I consider you a friend. So I hope that you don’t make me do something that I am going to regret doing.)

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~

Ryuga opens the door to his house with an exhausted sigh. As he entered the house, his mother Kaori was waiting for him at the doorstep with both her hands folded and an angry face. Ryuga realized that he was screwed and the only thing he could say was, “Hi...Mother.” Ryuga nervously smiled and greeted his mother.

“So Ryuga Aragi, do you want to tell me where you spent half your day from your school?” Kaori asked Ryuga. It was clear that she was asserting her dominance over Ryuga with such an angry tone. “Umm...It’s tough to explain...” Ryuga tries to look around and try to explain the situation but Kaori then popped up a question.

“Tell me, why you have a bandage on your head? Did you get into a fight or something?” Kaori asked Ryuga. From Kaori’s question, Ryuga remembered what happened today morning. He silently answered, “Yeah, you could say that it was a fight.” He looked at his mother with a smile.

Of course, it was a fake smile. Kaori realized that something was wrong with Ryuga. That sudden turn in his expression and the fake smile gave it away.

Ryuga placed his shoes on the shoe racket and walked past Kaori. “Hiro won’t say anything to you but he is always quite upset about you not speaking about your problems with us.”

Kaori says to Ryuga. Ryuga thought about talking to his mother about the situation but soon changed his mind, “If I ever need to speak to you mother, I will definitely do.” That’s the answer that Ryuga came up with. “As you wish, sweetie. Just know that we are here for you.” Those words gave Ryuga a vote of confidence.

Ryuga walked up the stairs and fell onto his bed. Silently, he looked up at the ceiling without uttering a word. He just had nothing he could do, he had nothing he could think of, he had nothing he could say about or someone to speak with.

Of course, he had his parents but for a teen like him, a parent could never be friends. All he could think is that he needed someone else other than his parents that he needed to speak to. He checked his phone and looked at the contact that was named ‘Mayumi Revons’. He definitely thought of calling Mayumi but he threw his phone aside and decided not to call her.

(Alicia’s death, it’s kinda hard to swallow for me. Normally it wouldn’t be this hard to forget about a dead person but so many things have been happening simultaneously that I just can’t get over her death. I wish that Mayumi and I were still together so that I could forget about things and freely talk to her but...Now it just seems that I can’t forget about things.

One thing I realized since our break-up was that I have been running. I have been running away from all the big responsibilities. I have been hiding away from people. I realized that I was too dwelt up into this relationship that I had no one else other than a mother who I could speak up to freely. In other words, I have become a man of few words.

I have always been a man of few words but, it seems that I barely talk to people and even when people talk to me I mostly just silently listen to them. Yesterday night, Dakai and I had a little conversation but it was barely a conversation.

I mean all I told him was that my ex was Mayumi and then the whole Alicia thing happened. The second conversation I had was with Jau-Unfurn. That was today...That was...When I heard about her problems and how her sister was accused of being a part of the Illuminati.

This whole thinking about different conversations makes me think, does having friends even have any benefit? Do they have any effect on my life? Do they care for me? Will they sacrifice even their life for me? Will we really be deep friends like that? It’s tough to think that when someone who wanted to be your friend got killed by your ex-girlfriend.)

All Ryuga could do was think, think and think until his exploded but unfortunately, Ryuga’s brain was too good. It just couldn’t explode due to overthinking.

Once again, Ryuga looked at his phone. This time he picked it up, unlocked it and begun to check his contacts. This time, his finger was hovering over the name ‘Jau-Unfurn’. Ryuga leaves a sigh and says, “This month’s internet bill is going to be an expensive one.” He clicks the name and proceeds to call Jau-Unfurn using his phone.

“Hello, who is this?” Jau-Unfurn asks from the other side of the phone call. Her voice was very dull in comparison to her bold voice.

“I am just a friendly neighborhood Ghost-Boy, Ryuga Aragi.” Ryuga says with a smile. “Oh-Ryuga-Oh shit!” There were background noises of some steel things falling down from the background of Jau-Unfurn.

“Hey, Jau-Unfurn, did I call you at the wrong time?” Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn. “No, no! I am fine! Just-Just give me...FUCK!”

From how Jau-Unfurn was reacting, Ryuga could only make one assumption, “Hey Jau-Unfurn, you were asleep weren’t you?” Ryuga asks Jau-Unfurn.

“Eh?! What makes you say that?!” Jau-Unfurn had a tone of someone who was surprised. “You see, people normally react like they are surprised by someone’s call when they are asleep. You see, someone who is asleep would normally not check who called them and pick their phones up because most people when they are sleeping are quite lazy. You asked me who I am when you have my number saved, which was a dead giveaway that you were sleeping.” Ryuga’s answer made Jau-Unfurn go silent.

A few seconds passed and Ryuga asked Jau-Unfurn, “Hey Jau-Unfurn...” Ryuga looked like he already knew what was happening.

“She slept again, didn’t she?” Ryuga sighed in disappointment and cut the call. “What an idiot...If she wanted to sleep, she should have said since the beginning man.” Ryuga palmed himself in the face and kept his phone aside.

(I will just have to sleep for now. I will wake up around night time and eat some food. I also have to be healthy for tomorrow. After all, Dakai and I will be going to Arkwet Printing Press. So I will get a good night’s case.)

A whole day passes by and we are here at the Ghost World Academy. All the students have gathered and Ryuga is entering the class 1-A with Dakai.

“Hey Ryuga, sorry about yesterday, I really am, I slept a little too early.” Jau-Unfurn apologizes to Ryuga. Ryuga smiles and says, “It's okay. I mean you were feeling sleepy, right? So, it’s not a big deal.” Ryuga’s words of comfort bring Jau-Unfurn a smile.

“Yeah with all the things that people have been saying about Alicia lately. I try to control it all but...” The thing that Jau-Unfurn wasn’t expecting was the sudden shocking question that Ryuga threw at her out of nowhere, “Hey Jau-Unfurn, who is...Alicia?”

~GHOST WORLD ACADEMIA~