Can I not create just one problem for the time being?

I only intended to finish one, but look at what I've done!

What exactly was that girl saying? I don't understand... Why did she even tell me to give up? Why is everyone forcing me to run away!? I don't want to live in worry forever!

I want to get something done! I want to see everyone happy... Is it really impossible? Is it really not permissible for me to pursue the impossible?

Why am I so angry with Ellie? Why did I tell her to shut up?

If… If only…

“If only this curse didn't exist… If only we never met... That's what you want to say, right?”

Elis… That’s not…

“Just take a rest, Daniel.”

Yeah… I guess you’re right…

Okay… Time to restart myself…

~~~~~

But first, I have to find out exactly where I am right now.

“Yep. You've walked quite a distance from that campus, anyway… You're lucky we're in Guinaian City.”

Lucky, huh…

Yeah… Yay… Guinaian city…

~~~~~

I turn off my cell phone for some reason. Then I walked around the city until midnight finally picked up.

The last thing that I noticed is that I arrived right in front of my old boarding house. So I locked the door slowly, then was silent in the middle of this empty room.

“Ugh... Dusty… What do you want to eat, Elis?”

“Hmm… Maybe kebabs?”

“One o'clock in the morning? Really?”

“You're the one who asked me.”

“Well… The curfew hasn't been lifted after all this time, so I'm not sure any of them are still open now. But would you like fried instant noodles?”

“Oh! I like that too!”

“Then it's decided…”

It's not that hard. I used to cook it often... Just before I decided to die, there I tried to cook something for myself…

Oops… I mean before I died...

I also actually never felt hungry after that incident though. Each time I say “I’m hungry,” it’s just because I want to eat something delicious. My taste buds are still hoping for something good even if my stomach doesn't ask for it…

“Wait… But why am I actually cooking right now?”

~~~~~

A light from the window woke me up from the bed...

It's been quite a while since the last time I used my powers…

And it's been quite a few times that I fell asleep soundly.

Should I continue to live my daily life here? Should I catch up with Sion and the others? Or should I just do whatever I really love from now on? Alone?

If I search for Deo's whereabouts, will I go back to ruining the one more thing that is left in this useless life of mine?

Yeah... Maybe I'm just really going to break it anyway…

I closed the window curtains, then lay back down again on the bed…

I want to have a rest as much as I can.

“Tomorrow I'm going to call Ellie to get me back on duty with my own team…”

That's the only option I have just for now... Back to the original position where I was questioning about my own problem and some shit...

~~~~~

“Here I am.”

“Niel… I’m sorry…”

We met in a lonely alley like we used to do a while ago.

Where Ellie's face looked quite regretful as to something that would be awkward if we discussed it right now, so I just laughed and apologized back for how I told her yesterday to shut up while she herself just came to say hello.

“I've completed all the tasks and there won't be anyone who needs my teleportation ability for quite some time to come. That’s why I'm also going with you, to the rest of the campuses that our team hasn't visited yet.”

At least she seemed excited to say that as we teleported to another place…

~~~~~

“Wow... I've never seen Evelin holding the hand of anyone other than Novita before to teleport them. What is this? You mind explaining it, Daniel?”

“So what Frans? Do you also want to hold my hand? Here!”

“Eh? Nah… I’m good, man…”

Laughing casually, the man then led us to move across some of these faculty buildings…

I actually have something in my heart that wants to curse at all these stupid things I'm currently doing, pretending everything is fine as if the problem never even happened in the first place... Because this is how we all have to act around every different person we know, right?

This is how society works…

~~~~~

Talking and walking until we got into the elevator as we went about our usual activities after the afternoon came to pick us up, the time came when we asked who was interested in enrolling in the Sins Taker organization.

And as usual, only one or two people raised their hands... Sometimes even none at all. Next, it was my duty to usher them into another room which had been prepared for those who had dared to follow in our footsteps as their own future plan.

But this time Ellie helped me to share and collect the data form sheets that these people need to join Sins Taker...

Where sometimes they dare to ask for the name and even Ellie's cell phone number.

It's a shame though, that until now I still haven't really asked this girl to be my girlfriend. So I have no right to stab every heart those people have with a real knife for now.

Then I suddenly realized something…

Strange…

The sequence of numbers that this girl had mentioned to them all felt very familiar…

Wait… That is… Hei!

That's not her phone number, but that’s mine!

“Ellie!? What the fuck are you doing!?” I whispered because I was slightly embarrassed.

Just laughing cutely, this girl then whispered back.

“If they dare to call, you're the one who explains everything… Trust me, it would be so much fun!”

“You want me to fucking what?”

Paying no heed to my words, this girl stepped up eagerly to say goodbye and leave the room before her lies were exposed too soon than she expected.

“Twenty from this campus… Niel, how many people have registered from all places combined?”

“One thousand two hundred people... And tomorrow is the last campus we have to visit.”

“About twice less than our own batch six month ago…”

“Seven…”

“Yeah… Seven month… Hard to believe, but it feels like we've known each other for over thousands of years longer, right? While actually just five months ago when I first found you, Niel.”

“You talk as if you are picking up a kitten.”

“Yes!”

The fuck, girl?

“Evelin. Daniel. There is a bit of a problem.” Startled us from behind, Novita seemed worried about something. So we followed her to a place.

~~~~~

“They say that three of their friends disappeared about a week ago.”

I shifted my eyes from Frans who was explaining the situation, to the two students who were sitting with their worried faces. The two girls confessed that their male friend had disappeared somewhere and were now trying to ask us for help.

“Sorry miss, but if they are not carriers, we cannot interfere. This is more of a problem that the police should be involved in.” Frans has a point.

“We have contacted the police, but they don't even bother to listen to all our statements! Aren't you guys in charge of solving problems that the police can't handle?!”

“Not what they can't deal with, but only carrier- and great-carrier-related matters that we're allowed to touch. That is all…”

“Are you sure none of them are carriers?” I added Frans's explanation with a little question of certainty.

“I am sure... They're all our best friends, so we're sure that none of them are carriers, but please! No one wants to accept our report!”

Well…

I keep it a secret that I am a carrier, from Fanya and Deo until they find it out for themselves. What's more, I'm not just an ordinary carrier…

So it's still not certain if their guess is correct.

“Did they ever talk about something that is a little too carrier-related or something?”

“Often, but all the boys that we know talk about it every day, don't they? They always feel that this kind of magic is such a cool thing to talk about.”

“Daniel… We're past the schedule while there is still a meeting at the base and…”

“Wait Frans… Just… Wait. Miss? Is there anything else? Just tell us everything. Whatever it is, even if it feels unrelated, just let us know.”

“Oh… Okay! Umm… They always wished to be a carrier. That's why they sometimes dream of becoming a Sins Taker. Because you came here recruiting people, we just remembered them and told you all about this… And then... Before you guys explain about the thing today, we all really thought that if Sins Taker could turn someone into a carrier or something. After that…”

Eh? They think that we can turn anyone into a carrier?

That sounds stupid…

But perhaps this is also why our agenda to provide genuine information to these people is the most appropriate thing to do…

So… They wish they could turn into a carrier, huh?

It's not a rare thing to happen.

I used to want to be a carrier too. That now I think everyone wants to be one.

But as far as I know, each carrier is chosen for more random reasons, or even just based on the luck that each person has… Well, of course things are different when we talk about how to become a great carrier.

Even if you're not the lucky one, there's still a chance that you still can become a great carrier if you experience certain things needed to be a vessel…

Talking about all of those criteria…

For example, the criteria for becoming a vessel of the power previously owned by Ellis.

If what Elis said is true, that it wasn't this power that destined me to meet Ellie, but we ourselves from each of our own worlds, meaning that there is actually a very, very high possibility if this power falls into the hands of someone other than myself, right?

As Elis often mentions, that this magical world will always evolve according to the wishes of the major voices… Everything about this wizarding world is not a constant thing.

Then again… People who have a past similar to mine, huh?

Is it really that rare? Isn't the world wide enough to have more than one person who is exactly like myself? A doppelgänger, eh?

Someone who is meant to suffer…

Something that Fanya once said just yesterday…

Of course, Deo also had something in his life that made him feel like he was suffering. The three of us…

Wait… Is this really just a coincidence, if we have lost something in our lives?

Like… Parents?

“Miss? Is there any one of them that is an orphan?” My one dumbest question of the day, everyone…

“What the fuck, Daniel? Why all of a sudden? How does that relate at all to this case? That's too random, bro…”

“Yes… We are all from the same orphanage… But how did you know that?” Sion's rebuke was suddenly silenced by the girls' positive confirmation.

“I see…”

~~~~~

Like somehow, that thing just crossed my mind and I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but they really did have the same answer as I anticipated.

But again… Is this really just a coincidence?

“I doubt that this will have anything to do with any of our problems, miss... But if it does, I… I just hope that what we do later can bring them back to you. Sorry, because that is all I can say… Sorry…”

We left the place without giving anything to make the two girls feel at ease.

Remembering everything they said, I tried to contact deo dozens of times, but…

He didn't pick up any of it at all.

“They... Perhaps Edward had already begun his plan.”

Ellie was standing here beside me, watching as I was busy fiddling with the cell phone that I had... While Sion and the others were out there, saying a few words for the new recruits.

“You, the girl… I mean Fanya and also Deo... You all have lost your… Er… You know…”

“Our parents? Yeah. But you don't have to be so awkward about it though. I don't really care at all... just take it as normal. You should already know the story of my parents' deaths, right? And how I feel for them.”

“Yeah… Is that why you are worried about Deo?”

“Uh Huh. But I'm scared to meet him.”

“Why?”

“Because I'm afraid that I'll break something else again. Like… Fanya’s mindset, Deo’s and mine are completely opposite to each other. I also don't know how the three of us managed to make it this far, but after all this stupid stuff came up, I started to feel like everything between us was starting to slowly crumble. And it would make a lot more sense if I confessed that I was the only reason why all of this happened.”

“Don’t say that…”

“I've been thinking a lot and I have also heard of Fanya's wishes. That’s why I just can't run away from that one reality anymore.”

“You will make me hate those two…”

“Eh?” Ellie? What the fuck?

“Ah! Sorry! I mean, nothing...”

I know that this Ellie is such an innocent girl that sometimes doesn't even realize she has spoken her feelings out frankly...

But didn't her words just now feel too intentional?

“They have done a lot for me even when I was at the lowest point in my life… Just like my sister Saskia, they also teach a lot of things that my father and mother did not want to give. So they're just too important to me, Ellie.”

“Okay, but… Niel? Can you promise that if these words of mine will soon make you hate... Or even drive you away from me, that it won't last forever? And after everything is done, please just promise to come back to me, okay?”

“Hah? Ellie no offense, I know that sometimes the way you speak is difficult for anyone other than me to understand, yet for this one... I'm sorry, but what the hell did you mean by that?”

“Go meet them both now and tell them one by one when they are alone, all of these sentences…”

It's rare for Ellie to be able to look me straight in the eye, other than for now.

Which meant that she was currently very serious about telling me something. “That you are ready for the bitter truth, so force them to tell everything inside of their hearts without any exception, about how you all feel between the three of you.”

“About…”

“Their hearts.”

“But why…?”

“I've read all of Edward's documents about you, Niel. Everything from beginning until the end. You know how thick all the paper with those super small letters is?”

“What the hell? Why!?”

“Uhh… To spend my free time?”

“Isn't your work too much already?!”

“Just forget about it and do what I tell you to do, because I know there’s something strange with your own life, Niel!”

There's no way it could be that easy, stupid Ellie!

Like… How the hell should I answer it?!

All of a sudden, I was just silent... Thinking alone.

It’s for some reason that I’m very curious about what this girl just said to me.

Never thought about those things before, yet suddenly I also become suspicious of many things if I remember all that I've been through with Fanya and Deo since I was just a child.

“Fuck with it… Ellie, can you take me to Guinaian this afternoon?”

“You mean now?”

“Now? Oh… Yeah… Now.”

“Sure.”

~~~~~