Darkness.
That was the first thing Kurai noticed... not a darkness of emptiness, but something denser. Like tar smeared across the walls of reality. The air was thick, too thick. And his body? He couldn't move.
His eyes cracked open slowly. The world around him was surreal, yet oppressively close. He sat tied to a chair in the middle of a small, silent room. The walls were shifting colors... liquid transitions of deep crimson to electric green, from ghostly blue to sterile white, like a heartbeat pulsing in chromatic rhythm.
"What...? Seiko...?" Kurai said, dizzy.
A shadow passed over the room like a wave of static. A deep, calm voice echoed, without origin.
"You already woke up?" said a manly voice.
Kurai's head snapped to the left. Nothing. Right. Still nothing. The voice had no body... just presence. The hairs on his arms stood up.
Then, like a whisper of fog, a ghostly hand emerged from thin air and glided gently through Kurai's chest. It was cold. Not temperature-cold... existence-cold. Its fingers curled into his ribcage until one touched his heart.
Kurai's body flinched violently as he felt a jolt of pain. It wasn't physical... it was soul-deep.
"This sign I put on your heart's inside will make you stronger," the voice said.
"Stronger? Who are you?!" Kurai said, tense.
"You already know me. But you don't need to find out right now. Focus on what matters... getting stronger," the voice replied.
The hand retracted and vanished, just like the colored walls and the rope that bound him. The room melted into blackness. Not even his own body had a shadow now. It was just him. Him and the feeling that something was very wrong.
Then...
A sudden thud in his chest.
"What...was that...?" Kurai gasped.
A silhouette slowly emerged from the void... a twisted, grotesque creature with flickering arms and dripping flesh that shimmered like oil. It hissed. Then lunged.
Kurai didn't hesitate. His katana was already in his hand... he didn't remember pulling it out... but he used it, cleaving the creature in half with a single practiced stroke.
Its body evaporated like smoke.
"Where... did that thing come from? And where am I?" Kurai asked, confused.
"That's a dream. I know because it feels different from reality. I've never dreamed... but I can tell the difference," Aghanashini said inside his mind, calm.
"So tha..." Kurai began.
Another jolt, deep in his heart, stronger than before. He winced and stumbled, holding his chest.
"I don't know... This pain actually hurts," Kurai said, gritting his teeth.
"Imagination. Get over it. That's a nightmare. If you can wake up, just do it," Aghanashini said.
"That's not how this works..." Kurai growled.
From the shadows, more creatures appeared... thin-legged horrors, hollow-eyed, swaying as if puppets without strings. Kurai cut through them again. Easy. Too easy. Their blood left no stain. Their bodies dissolved into nothing.
But the feeling in his heart didn't go away. It only grew sharper.
"Where are these things coming from...?" Kurai panted.
"You. They're from your imagination. I've heard of dreams... anything can happen here," Aghanashini said.
Another blow to his heart. This time, it buckled him to one knee. He clenched his chest. The pain wasn't metaphorical anymore. It was like a black hole was being born inside him.
"I... don't know if I can bear this anymore. Is this a heart attack?" Kurai said, choking.
But there was no time to reflect. Seven monsters... twisted human shapes with mirror-like faces... walked slowly out from the pitch. Their movements were slow... deliberate... menacing.
"This is starting to piss me off," Kurai said, furious.
He raised his katana, but the ground beneath him shifted. It bubbled. Then split.
A massive slime-like creature began rising, faceless and slick, its semi-liquid arms slithering toward him. One gripped his ankle, another grabbed his shoulder, and before he could react, it began dragging him downward... his legs sinking into the floor as if it were molten stone.
Kurai thrashed. He tried to cut it, but the blade passed through uselessly. It wasn't something that could be killed.
The other creatures closed in, limbs raised, mouths opening impossibly wide. Kurai spun his blade and killed three of them... but the rest overwhelmed him. He screamed as they clawed at his skin, as the ground swallowed him further.
"LET ME GO!!" Kurai screamed, desperate.
He was melting. His bones felt like wax, his body hollowed by invisible hands.
The slime wrapped around his chest now, and the pressure in his heart reached a crescendo.
And then...
"AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Kurai screamed.
Kurai's eyelids fluttered open.
For a moment, he didn't know where he was... only that something was different. The sterile ceiling above him was cracked and peeling, flickering with cold fluorescent light. A dull ache throbbed in his chest, as if something still lingered there... clawing from the inside.
He sat up with a sharp inhale.
A girl was sitting near the edge of the hospital bed, arms wrapped around her knees. She was staring at the floor until his sudden movement made her jump.
"You're awake," Novva whispered, as if she wasn't sure she believed it herself.
Kurai blinked at her, confusion clouding his face. "Where... am I?"
"Some kind of facility," Novva said softly. "Seiko brought us here. After everything."
He tried to stand, but his legs betrayed him. Novva instinctively leaned forward to catch him, hands trembling as they steadied his shoulders.
"You shouldn't move yet," she said.
Kurai looked at her, not with anger or suspicion... just exhaustion. His voice came out hoarse. "Why are you here?"
Novva hesitated. "Because I didn't want to leave you."
He stared through her, barely hearing the words.
"I know you don't trust anyone anymore," she added. "But I do. I trust you, Kurai. Even after what happened back there."
She paused, then her voice broke a little.
"You're the only one I still believe in."
Kurai looked away, his throat tightening. He didn't respond, but something in his chest... just beneath the pain... shifted.
Novva stood, brushing dust from her sleeves. "I'll go get Seiko. She's been waiting."
He didn't stop her.
Not because he didn't want to.
But because he didn't know if he could.
Footsteps echoed beyond the door.
Not rushed. Calm. Controlled. Like someone who already knew how the conversation would end.
The handle turned.
Seiko stepped in first, brushing aside the curtain. Her coat was partially unzipped, and her hair looked like she hadn't slept in days... but her expression was unwavering.
Seiko hesitated for a moment, then added gently,
"And... one of the people who helped us the most during all this was Ren."
She watched his face closely, searching for any sign of warmth... any flicker of understanding.
"He's been with us these last few months. He saved lives, risked his own more than once. Without him... we might not have made it to you in time."
Ren enters the room.
Tall. Relaxed. Smiling.
To Novva, he looked like the perfect stranger... clean-cut, gentle eyes, casual confidence. Like someone you'd immediately trust without knowing why.
To Kurai, he was something else entirely.
The moment their eyes met, the lights in the room dimmed, flickering as if the air itself had turned sour. The walls melted for a split-second, and the stranger's smile stretched unnaturally wide... his teeth were too many, and too sharp. His pupils twisted like holes. Shadows clung to him like oil, dripping from his shoulders as if the light rejected him.
Kurai froze, every muscle in his body locking down like he'd been impaled.
"Who the hell...?" he muttered.
But Novva stood up quickly, her tone light. "Oh... this is Ren. He's with Seiko. He helped get us here."
Kurai looked at her, horrified. "You don't see it...?"
"See what?" Novva blinked.
Seiko stepped between them, her eyes narrowing. "Kurai. Don't start."
"I'm not..." he started, then stopped. The man... this Ren... was still smiling. But now, he looked amused.
As if he knew Kurai could see through him.
"You've been through a lot," Ren said warmly, stepping forward. His voice was smooth, too smooth... like syrup hiding something rotten. "It's a miracle you survived what you did. We've been waiting for you to wake up."
Kurai's hands clenched the bed sheets so tightly they began to tear. "Don't come near me."
Novva gave him a confused glance. "He's trying to help."
"That thing," Kurai said, pointing at him, "is not a person."
Seiko let out a sharp breath and turned toward him. "That's enough."
"Is it?" Kurai snapped. "You don't see what I see. You don't hear what I hear."
Ren took another step forward. "You must be disoriented. Don't worry... we've been monitoring your vitals."
The way he spoke was so rehearsed, so precisely measured... it made Kurai want to scream.
Seiko sighed, clearly holding back frustration. "You might see things, Kurai. You've been through a lot, and probably got traumatized. I can assure you he is a good guy. We will come later when u feel better, to talk more about what happened in this past year."
Kurai's jaw trembled. "I saw you, you bastard. Not your illusion. You can fool them, but you can't fool me."
Ren tilted his head, smiling wider... but only in Kurai's vision did his neck bend too far, creaking like rotting wood.
He leaned in just slightly, his words a whisper only Kurai could feel, not hear:
"We're going to have so much fun."
He sat on the edge of the hospital bed long after Ren and Seiko had left the room. The silence they left behind felt heavier than anything he'd felt in the prison. Even heavier than Anna's blood on his chest.
His breath was calm, but his insides felt like glass under pressure.
Outside, the sun had set, but the city lights glowed through the window, casting long shadows across the room. Novva sat on a chair near the door, knees pulled to her chest, hugging them. She hadn't said anything in a while. She kept looking at him... like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.
"I'm leaving," Kurai finally said, staring at the floor.
Novva blinked, sitting up. "What?"
"I can't stay here. Not with that... thing walking around like nothing happened."
"But Seiko said she trusts him. She said he helped us."
"This is sketchy. I can't stay and pretend that thing is human."
He stood, moving to grab the jacket on the edge of the bed. His movements were stiff, but purposeful. Like someone who had already made peace with the road ahead... no matter how lonely it might be.
Novva stood too. "Then let me come with you."
Kurai paused. Slowly turned to face her.
She took a breath, her voice soft. "I don't trust anyone here anyway. Except you."
"That's a mistake," he said, putting one arm through his sleeve. "I'm not the hero you think I am."
"I don't care," Novva said. Her voice trembled, but didn't break. "I just know that wherever you're going... you'll need someone to stop you from destroying yourself."
Kurai looked into her eyes.
Not the brat with the sharp tongue he first met in the prison. Not the scared girl he saw last time . This was someone else... someone tired of being left behind.
"You sure?" he asked.
Novva nodded.
"Then pack light," he said. "We're not coming back."
Later, in the hallway outside the room, Seiko leaned against the wall. She had heard everything but she hadn't followed him.
As Kurai and Novva walked past, she didn't speak... not right away.
Only once he was almost at the stairs did she say, "That's not how it should have been."
Kurai stopped.
"I don't know what you saw in him," she said, referring to Ren. "But I wish you'd told me instead of treating me like a stranger."
"I did tell you," Kurai said, his voice low. "You just didn't believe me."
A quiet pause.
Seiko sighed. "You're still like a kid, Kurai."
He looked up at her, furious, with a strange hollowness in his gaze.
"You are dead to me."
Then he turned, and Novva followed.
Seiko stood still as the two disappeared down the corridor. For a second, she looked like she might follow... then didn't.
She just whispered to herself, "You were supposed to be safe now...I missed you..."
Down the stairs.
Out the building.
Into the world again.
The cold wind outside hit Kurai's face like a slap, but he didn't flinch. Novva zipped her hoodie tighter, walking beside him, unsure where they were going.
He didn't tell her. He didn't need to.
In the distance, a train passed.
And as the two disappeared into the night of the city, one last thought lingered in Kurai's mind:
'This time... I'll make peace with myself, and avenge my mother.'