“Put your knees into it! One, two, one, two, one… what the fuck are you doing?”

“I… uhmm… m-moving stuff?” I said, slightly worried about why he suddenly stopped me.

“Then, what are you holding in your hands right now?”

“T-the thing that… you asked me to?”

“I said the log, you dipshit! Not the fucking branches!”

“A-ah…”

I was currently back in the Langston family's place with Worth. But not in the mansion, no, we were at the forest at the back of it. Enjoying nature at it’s best, or maybe that was just me.

“Lift, goddammit! Lift!” He shouted.

It’s already been a month since that whole ordeal ended, and I got to say, it was nice having things return back to normal.

“I! SAID!...” He zaps my feet with a little electricity. It made me jump a bit, but I hurried back to lifting, or more like pushing the six-foot long log. Let’s be real, me, lifting that thing? Impossible.

“LIFT!” He zaps my feet again.

Almost normal, I suppose. Anyway, the reason why I’m doing this was to repay my debt. Or I guess I should call it paying the rental fee for these rings that I’m wearing on my right hand. Because, when I woke up about a month ago in the hospital, Mr. Cobalt was already gone, but he left a note that said ‘Oi, kid. We’ll be going somewhere when I return in a couple of months from now, so you better train up’.

At first, I didn’t know what he meant by ‘training', but Gerard and the others soon came knocking on my apartment door and said that Worth was waiting for me at their mansion. I just went along with them because I thought I’d be able to learn how to conjure fire, or something amazing of the sort. But it’s all just sore muscles and physical training in the end.

“Hrnggg!” I push the log forward, and it moves by a few meters until I stopped to take a breath. I did this for a few more times until I finally got the log close enough to the tree that he scorch marked with a zap of electricity.

I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a while now, but I don’t think my body is getting any stronger at all. Maybe I wasn’t doing it hard enough, or maybe I wasn’t eating the right foods. I do want to at least have more endurance after this, though. And it kept my mind preoccupied from worrying about where my dad is.

It might be troubling that he acts like a child sometimes, he also forgets the things that he needs to do quite often, he also doesn’t know how to cook and... there are a lot of things my dad is lacking.

…

Ah, concetrate on what’s in front of you. Let things just happen when they happen, you can’t control it anyway.

I kept repeating those two sentences over and over, and it was doing some sort of effect, like a trans to get me out of my worrying mindset. My dad will surely return, he may have just stumbled upon something like I did. Who knows, he might already be in a different country somewhere, trying to save people in need.

“Argh! You’re pathetic!” Worth yelled. “Why the hell are you so fucking wimpy!?”

That kind of hurt me, only a little, though. But still, it hurts when someone straight up tells that to my face. He could’ve phrased that a little bit nicer like… I couldn’t think of one.

“Don’t worry about it and just take it slowly. Stressing the body too much would do the opposite effect of why your doing this anyway” Al said. “Baby steps, Rei. Baby steps!”

And also, Al returned back to normal when I woke up. I asked him what had happened to him, but all he had to say was ‘Why? What happened’ and ‘I don’t remember saying those things?’. So, I just dropped the topic there. Strange, but if he doesn’t know, then I won’t know the reason either. Maybe someday, but not today.

“Hah… just go back for today, but remember to do the routine that I told you to do” He said, a little bit depressed. “You’re honestly the second worst student that I’ve had, and it’s already been a month with almost no progress. I'll just have to pray that you’re not a total disappointment when the real lessons start”

Oh… Oh! Does that mean he’s going to teach me those things soon!?

“I need you to bring something tomorrow. Something that you’re familiar with, like a cellphone, watch, key chain, or anything, really. Make sure that it’s something that you can carry on your person most of the time. Don't bring anything too big or flashy, though… disregard what I just said, just bring anything you like”

Anything, he says, but something that’s familiar and that I can casually carry around with me everyday is the best option. Got it.

“Sir!” Somone then comes running towards us from the mansion’s direction. It was a man who's heart I saw was ripped out from his chest by a boy. I thought that he was already dead, and he should be from what I remember. But here he is, standing in the flesh.

“What is it Vic?” Worth asked.

“We’re done setting up the perimeters” He said with a salute.

Wondering why he’s still standing in front of us? Well… I don’t exactly know the reason either. There isn’t any help tabs for these kinds of things.

“Uhmm…” I raised my hand up, as if I was asking permission to go to the restroom while class is in session.

“What is it?”

I then pointed my index finger towards the new arrival while looking at him, and then switching back to Worth for a few times. Also, having a dumbfounded look to get what I meant across to him was also helpful.

“Oh, that” He said, after finally getting what I was trying to convey. “We just found out yesterday where that man hid the breath. So, after setting it back in place, the current head immediately used the reservoir of Souls to initiate a backup”

“Backup?” I asked while tilting my head to the side.

“Ah, how do I explain this…”

“Allow me, Sir” The man named Vic insisted that he would explain it to me. “The Langston group has been the k-”

“Keep it short, Vic. You don’t need to go into the history of it. And we still need to do some recruiting after this” Worth cuts him off mid sentence.

“Ah, very well, Sir” He said. “Think of it as one of those copy and paste documents on a computer. So, what the current Langston’s family head did, is that he used the reservoir of Souls to copy a backup document of the registered people of the city who died and then pasted it in this time”

“Ahhh…” So, like, if one of those files get’s deleted, meaning, they died. Then there’s another document somewhere that we could replace it with. But there’s something that I didn’t get from what he said. “What are those, uhmm, ‘registered people’?

“People who are currently registered in the Langston record books”

“Ahhh…” I didn’t exactly know what the Langston record books are, but I kind of got the gist of it. “So, what happens to those people’s memories? Do they remember everything that happened? Uhmm, also, how about those that aren’t registered, and uh… am I registered, too? ”

“Okay-okay, I’ll answer those things one at a time” He said, putting his hand in front of me.

Maybe I should’ve asked it one at a time, instead of dropping all three of them at once. It’s kind of embarrassing that I suddenly asked that much from him on our first conversation. I should first… wait, I don’t even know how to progress a conversation with someone else. Asking questions is the only thing I know. Well, at least I don’t break eye contact anymore.

“About the memories, they’d remember the last thing that was recorded, so the last time was… a month ago, or more exactly, a week before that incident happened”

“Ahhh… but what about the… I’ll ask it later. Please go, uhmm… continue?”

“Okay” He said, as he nods. “Those people who aren’t registered won’t get ‘copy-pasted’, since we don’t have a backup for them, and as for you. The record holder should have written you down in the books by now”

“Oh” That’s nice. If something happens again, and if I somehow (I most probably will) die, then, they can just copy-paste me.

“The use of the backup depleted our reservoir, though. So, I wouldn’t count on it the next time something like that happens again. Might take a few years before it’s at a usable amount again”

“Oh… so, uhmm, how about the people who lived and saw everything. Why haven’t they, I don’t know, cause wide spread panic or something?”

“Ah, that” He said, as if he just remembered something important that he forgot. “The locals here would take care of it, since each district has a committee of sorts to regulate those kinds of problems”

“And besides” Worth cuts in. “You’d be amazed at how many people know of what’s happening, and thinks it’s a normal day-to-day thing”

“Oh…” So, there’s that many people… huh. It feels like this whole thing isn’t as secretive as I thought it would be. But then… how many people would have know already?

“Anything el-” A loud beeping sound that came from his pocket interrupted him. He reached inside of it with his left hand, took out an old brand of cellphone, and looked at its screen.

“Sir, the new recruits are already at the site” He said.

“It’s time to go then” Worth stretches his arms and legs, and started walking back towards the mansion. The two of us followed behind him while I still asked Vic some questions that came to mind. Not about the Soul things, though. Just some casual talk about what they were doing. Casual talk… heh.

Glenn was waiting at the back entrance of the mansion, standing upright with his hands at his sides.

“I prepared the car at the front entrance, Sir. Anything else you might need before you leave?”

“Nah, just the car is fine. Thanks”

We then enter the mansion where nobody was around besides the four of us. Gerrard and the other three had gone out yesterday and they still weren’t back, while Mr. Cobalt left a month ago, and Felicia was, well, I don’t know, either.

“Hop on, we'll drop you off at your place before we go do our thing”

“Uhmm, okay”

The car that Glenn prepared looked like a Humvee, but it was way bigger. Maybe half a times bigger than a normal one that you’d see on the streets. It’s not like I’ve seen a lot of Humvee's, but I know it’s not at its normal size when I could stretch my legs on the seats while only covering half of it.

The drive didn’t take too long to the apartment building. I said my thanks to them after they dropped me off and headed straight towards my room on the third floor. I was troubled about the rent for this month about a week ago, but the landlord told me that the rent has already been paid for a whole year.

Also, there’s an ATM card on top of the table in the living room that had a note that said ‘To Rei. This is for food, clothes, emergencies, and for dates to impress the ladies. Use it wisely and don’t spend it all in the red-light district' with the PIN to use it, too. I don’t know why my dad left it there, but that’s two of my concerns taken care of, for now.

I headed straight to my room and started searching for something that I would bring with me for tomorrow. I looked at all of the things that I had, but I couldn’t decide on what to pick.

“Having trouble deciding?” Al asked.

“Yeah…”

“How about you just think it over for now? You still have until tomorrow, anyway”

Yeah, but it’s not like i have a lot of choices to choose from in the first place. It's just… I’m indecisive when it comes to this kinds of things. What if I chose wrong? Do I have a second chance to pick something else? He said anything is fine, but it would be better if it’s something small or unnoticeable… Ah!

I opened the nearest box that I could set my eyes on inside of my room and started searching inside of it. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for there, I moved on to the next. I turned all of them over and scattering all of their contents on the floor to quicken my search.

It took me almost an hour and a room flooded in books to finally find what I was looking for. I held it in my hands and smiled, as I remembered the first thing that I bought back when I was still a small kid.

“It’s small, alright. But it’s all worn-out, though”

I agree, but it’s something that I held onto for all these years.

It had a dark brown cover that looked tattered from the years of not properly taking care of it, but it’s spine was still intact.

“What’s the book about?”

“Uhmm…” I’m not too sure of it myself. It’s been about a decade, and I’ve read a lot of other books in that span of time that I couldn’t remember what this one was about.

I opened it and looked at the first page, and then immediately turned towards the next one, and then the next one, until I made it through the whole book and ending up in the last page after a few minutes if flipping. Oh… now I remember what it’s about, or maybe, what I did with it.

“It’s full of drawings?”

Yup. It can’t be helped. I was only about six years old back then, and my imagination, boredom, and fascination for colorful crayons got the best of me. I also still hadn’t realized my love for books back then. So, the result was this.

“Hmm…” Will this do? He didn’t necessarily say anything else besides something that I can carry on myself.

I put the small tattered book on my bed in the meantime. If I can’t find anything else, then this will have to do.

A couple hours of searching through my stuff, I found nothing that’s as small, or anything that I would normally carry around with me. The other books and things that I had where too big that I need to put it somewhere besides my pockets if I wanted to bring it along with me. Maybe I could put it inside of a bag or something, so there’s that.

“I guess… this is it?” I grabbed the small tattered book and looked at it again.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. It looks…” Al tried to say something, but he didn’t finish it. He may have wanted to say something nice about the book, but I guess he couldn’t come up with one. “… Anyway, how about you get something to eat first and then start doing your routine afterwards”

“Oh!” I looked at the clock and saw that it was already evening. I immediately grabbed some cash from my drawers and pocketed it. I then ran out of the apartment room and locked the door. I would have ordered something on the phone, but Al was adamant that I should be eating something that wasn’t considered ‘fast food' or junk food. So, here I am running on the street towards a small diner that was close by. I found it by accident when I was roaming around last week on an empty stomach, and I kept coming back ever since.

“I thought you’d never come” A middle-aged woman said after I opened the door and went in. “Come here and take a sit. I’ll whip something up for you, so just wait for a few”

I then sat at a circular chair that was screwed onto the ground near a rectangular table that served as the counter and dining area, and waited for the food to be served. This narrow place was a bit cramped for some people, and the décor looked old and it wasn’t keeping with the current trends, but to me, it was a very nice and comfortable place to eat dinner in. And also, there aren’t a lot of people who come here at this time, so it’s perfect for me.

“Here you go” She said, as she places a plate with cooked ham and some mashed potatoes in front of me. There was also a side of greens to go along with it for a well balanced meal.

I said my thanks and started eating. I didn’t want to touch the sides, though, but Al's pestering finally made me cave in and I had to reluctantly eat it. At least it wasn’t asparagus or broccoli this time, and it kind of tasted good, too.

While I was chowing down on the greens, I watched the TV and saw the news about three cities that were put on lockdown in another country because of the… undead? The media get’s desperate for the views and ratings sometimes that they’d even stoop so low as to falsify news like that. Horrible.

After I finished my dinner, I paid for my food and thanked the middle-aged lady there one more time and headed back to my apartment room. It was time to do the daily routine that Worth told me to do.

“Remember to lock the front door up before you start. We don’t want any would be robbers to come entering now, would we?”

Making sure the front door was locked properly, I then went into the bathroom to take a quick bath to refresh myself. I stayed inside the bathtub for some time, thinking of what Worth was going to teach me tomorrow. Excited, elated, and jittery is what I’m currently feeling. I was like a small boy waiting to unwrap his Christmas present the next morning.

After I felt that the bath water was getting cold, I realized that I had been in here for almost half an hour already. I then went out and wiped myself dry, while brushing my teeth, too. Efficient time management is what I’m doing… or maybe, I was just flustered because of how long I stayed in the bathtub, and now I’m rushing myself.

Running back to my room, I sat on my bed and closed my eyes. It was time to get started on meditating. Yes, meditating. The reason being, Worth said that the broader and more creative my mind and imagination were, the easier it is for me to adapt, or something like that. So, imagining I did, for an entire hour each day before I sleep.

When he said that to me on the first day, I had trouble on what to imagine. Weird for a teen who reads fantasy books to say that, right? Well, it isn’t because it was hard for me to imagine something, it was just hard to pick on what I would imagine. He didn’t really give me any stops on it, so I just thought of the first thing that came to mind. The events that happened a month ago.

I replayed what I could remember in my head every single day since then, and I’ll tell you what I realized from the repetition of those events.

I’m so lucky!

I was so lucky that I didn’t die from all of that. From the horrific dream land, to the giant murdering men, all the way to the boy that screamed death incarnate. I saw it all, and I lived through it.

When I was done recalling what had happened from a month ago. I lied down on my bed, said goodnight to Al, and then drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a day that I get to learn something amazing. I can’t wait.