Chapter 4

"I'm home!"

Komachi announced as she opened her and her brother's apartment door. She looked around and saw no sign that her brother had arrived home. Frowning, Komachi closed the door behind her and dropped her school bag by the foot of the coffee table. To her left, the fluffy sight of Kamakura brought a smile to her face as she watched him yawn while he stretched.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Komachi said while scratching underneath her cat's jaw, eliciting a pleased meow from the feline. "How about we get dinner started? What do you think, Kamakura?"

The family cat meowed at the question but moved into a new, comfortable position. Chuckling at the feline's laziness, Komachi walked to the kitchen and placed an apron around herself. Just as she was about to begin preparing tonight's dinner, a quick ping erupted from her phone, which she had left in her bag. Unzipping it, she unlocked the phone and saw a notification from one of her new friends.

[Hitomi-chan: we'll be at the karaoke spot until seven if you change your mind!]

Komachi smiled at the message and replied. [Komachi: Sorry! I'm super busy today! Maybe next time.]

Clicking the screen off, Komachi placed her phone on the coffee table and resumed her earlier task. As she worked away at cutting an onion, she couldn't help but feel an odd sense of foreboding. Looking at the clock on the wall, Komachi saw it was approaching five-thirty. Usually, her beloved brother would have come home before her or around this time when he went out to do a dungeon raid.

But there were times when he came home extremely late. When that happened, he was usually always covered in bandages. He would be injured and in a lot of pain, and when that happened. Komachi couldn't help but let her mind wander about what would happen if he never came home one day. The day he finally falls at whatever horrific monsters lay beyond the gates.

Komachi couldn't help the rise of frustration within her. Why couldn't her brother continue working at the harbor like he did a year ago? Sure, it didn't pay very well, and he always came home smelling of dead fish, but it was a safe job. But after two months of working there, her brother became one of the awakened. He could become a hunter and travel beyond the gates. A career that promised riches and notoriety. But he was an E-rank hunter. One of the weakest to exist. Sure, he made more money on one raid than in a month's worth of work at the harbor. But were the benefits worth the risk?

"You worry too much, Komachi. Just keep working hard at school and live your life." Hachiman said with a smile. His face and arms were covered in bloody bandages as they sat on the couch. "Just leave everything to me!"

Komachi frowned at the memory and lost focus. The knife in her hand continued moving quickly and without focus. "Ouch!" Komachi cried as the knife in her hand sliced a shallow cut into her pointer finger. Placing the knife down, she walked to the far right drawer near the wall and pulled out a first aid kit.

Once she was done placing a bandage on her cut, Komachi looked down at the drop of blood on the cutting board. Her lips pursed as she looked over at the apartment's front door.

"Onii-chan… please come home safe."

x x x

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Miura Yumiko tossed another pebble into the steady waters that made up Lake Teganuma. The young blonde-haired girl had a somber expression as she heard the wet sploosh caused by the pebble entering the water. She was dressed in her Sobu high uniform. School had ended around an hour ago or so, and she had decided to take a slight detour home.

With that in mind, Yumiko arrived at Lake Teganuma. It was a familiar location that she and her family visited often when she was younger, but that changed once she entered junior high. On days she felt sad or anxious, she would head to the lake and watch the calm waters from her favorite spot. Said spot was far off where any of the lake's casual visitors would go. The large tree behind her offered her plenty of shade and privacy.

"Hayato-kun… why won't you talk to me?" Yumiko said quietly, another pebble in hand.

What had brought her to the lake today was the object of her affection. Hayama Hayato. She had fallen for him ever since she met him during their first year at Sobu High. The first one and a half years were great and full of fond memories. That was until they had to choose their career paths around the later part of their second year. Hayama had become distant and silent. No matter what she did or said, he would brush her off.

Yumiko grew so desperate for answers that she visited the Service Club at Hina's suggestion. But when she visited the club room, it was empty. With no one else to turn to, Yumiko gathered her courage to ask Hayama directly.

"It has nothing to do with you."

Her beloved Hayama's words echoed in her mind. The memory of the cold, detached look he had that day plagued her every day. Even after apologizing for his words the next day, Yumiko still remembered the sheer sincerity in the way he spoke.

After that, their relationship with the rest of the group began to deteriorate. No one talked to each other as much as before. It was awkward and uncomfortable. Day in and day out, Yumiko thought long and hard about what she could do to fix everything. It wouldn't be long before their last year of high school would end. That meant everything would end. Yumiko couldn't allow that to happen. Not the way things were.

Stepping out of her thoughts, Yumiko looked up at the darkening sky. It wouldn't be long before it became dark. She knew too well that being a young woman in the dark streets alone was not a good idea. Standing up to her full height, Yumiko looked at the pebble in her hand. Pulling her arm back, she threw the small rock into the lake. Yumiko watched the pebble fly through the air and fall toward the water. As she followed the pebble, Yumiko watched as, instead of it impacting the water. It landed on something floating along its surface.

"What the?" Yumiko said as she squinted and focused. After a few seconds, her eyes grew wide in shock. "Is that… a person?!"

Yumiko ran along the shore of the lake towards the person floating in the water. Their body was face down, half submerged, with no signs of moving. The person was almost naked, their tattered and burned jeans being the only article of clothing they had on. Their skin was also bright red. Yumiko stood on the shore with a nervous expression as she watched the person float. She pulled out her phone to call the police but at that exact moment. She saw the person's arm twitch. Without thinking twice, Yumiko ran into the water and towards the person.

Her shoes and skirt became soaked with cold water; she ignored the cold sting and reached her arms under the person's body. With a heave, Yumiko flipped them around so their face could be above water. Sliding her hands under the person's armpits, Yumiko pulled the individual towards the shore with great effort. Despite seemingly being in the cold water for who knows how long, the person's skin was extremely warm, to the point it was almost too hot to the touch.

"Come on!" Yumiko said with a grunt. Finally, she reached the shore. Dragging the person as far away from the water and onto the grass. Yumiko looked down at the person's face and saw someone she hadn't seen for around a year.

"Hi-Hikio?!" Yumiko yelled. Indeed, it was her old classmate from her second year. She knew she didn't have time to sit around and stare at him. Who knows how long he's gone without breathing? Yumiko leaned over her old classmate's face to hear any signs of breathing. Finding none, she placed her hands on his torso and started to perform chest compressions.

"Just like Papa said! Push down and let their chest spring back!" Yumiko said to herself. She was never as grateful as she was to have listened to her father's instructions on how to perform CPR. It seemed that being the daughter of a doctor was paying off when she least expected it. "Come on, Hikio! Breath!"

Yumiko looked at his still face with panic. After her thirtieth compression, she moved her hands over Hikio's forehead and chin. Tilting his head, Yumiko pinched his nose and leaned over his face. As her face moved towards him, Yumiko froze and felt her cheeks burn. "Damn it, Yumiko! This isn't the time!"

With a frustrated shake of her head, Yumiko moved in and placed her lips over his own. Yumiko breathed into his mouth for a second and watched to see if his chest would rise. Seeing that it did, she breathed once more. She was careful not to apply too much force. Rising up, Yumiko began to do more compressions with a scared expression.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Yumiko shouted and moved in to do mouth-to-mouth again. After the next set of compressions, she watched with a large smile as Hikio coughed out a mouthful of water. Yumiko quickly tilted his head to the side while pulling out her phone to find a familiar number.

"Papa! Help me!"

x x x

"What more do you want from me?! What more will you take?!"

Everything.

I shot up to my feet with a deep gasp. I held my chest tightly as my breathing came out in quick, uncontrollable intervals. Focusing on regaining control, I slowed my inhales and exhales until my breathing was back to normal. Once I was calm, I looked around and saw that I was in a small room. I was standing on a bed with a lone chair beside it. Where am I? What happened? My skin… I was on fire!

I grabbed my head as a headache exploded in my skull. The memories of everything that happened in that large room flooded my brain. Being surrounded by magma. The statues. Furutani and Sakura's dead bodies on that bloodied platform. My hands using a sword to cut off Mori's…

I jumped off the bed and ran towards what I assumed was a bathroom. After opening the door, I saw that it was indeed one. Sliding next to the toilet, I threw up everything that was in my stomach. I hurled clear liquid and gripped the porcelain toilet tightly. Once I was done, I slid down and rested my head on the seat.

"I… I killed someone. I'm a m-murderer." I whispered. I felt ashamed and disgusted by my actions, that was until I remembered the sword that Mori stabbed deep into my chest. The pain I felt was still fresh in my mind. I clenched my white shirt with a shaky hand. "No… I did what I had to do. Otherwise, I would've died."

Flushing the toilet, I walked over to the sink and washed my mouth. Turning my head to look at the mirror. My reflection looked back at me with sharp, angry eyes. I did nothing wrong. If it weren't for him, then maybe Sakura would still be alive! He brought it onto himself!

"It's good to see you're finally awake."

I turned my head and saw an older man with blond hair and green eyes. He was dressed in a tie and dress shirt with brown dress pants. Over his clothes was a doctor's lab coat while a clipboard rested in his left hand. I eyed him with suspicion, my body tensing.

"Easy there, Hikigaya-kun. My name is Miura Kotaro. I've been taking care of you ever since you arrived here. You're currently at my private clinic in Kashiwa." Miura said with a kind smile. His last name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where I heard it. "Please have a seat. I have some questions I want to ask you."

I eyed him a second longer and nodded. It seemed I was still high-strung after everything that happened. I needed to calm myself. I'm not in a dungeon anymore. I'm safe. I walked out of the bathroom and took a seat on the bed. Miura took the chair by the bed.

"Can you tell me your name and the last thing you remember?" Miura said.

"My name is Hikigaya Hachiman… I was in a dungeon raid. And it… it all went terribly wrong. We were trapped, and we had to fight for our lives. Everyone was dying… I thought I was going to die." I said slowly. Again, the memories of what happened replayed themselves. I shut my eyes tight, my feeble attempt to stifle the memories.

Miura nodded in understanding and lifted the clipboard that was in his hand. He began writing on it. "Are you in any pain?" He said while looking me in the eyes.

"No. I'm fine." I said honestly. Miura nodded and placed the clipboard down.

"Hikigaya-kun. You see, you were found floating in the Teganuma Lake a day ago. Your clothes were in shambles, and your skin was covered hot to the touch. Other than that, your body was in perfect condition. Do you remember how you ended up in that lake?" Miura asked with a serious look.

"A day?! I was asleep for an entire day! I have to call Komachi!" I said with wide eyes. I looked around for my stuff to find my phone but then remembered what the doctor said.

"It's okay. We informed your sister of your situation. She's aware of your location and condition. We'll let her know you have woken up once we finish our talk." Miura said, calming my growing panic. I sighed with relief and retook my seat.

"Ah… good. That's good." I said. "I was in a lake? No… I don't remember how I ended up there. Isn't Teganuma Lake just behind Sankyo Frontier Stadium? I don't even remember leaving the gate."

"I see. Despite that, it seems that no one else from your raid party has been found. But if what you said about everyone dying is true, then there is very little hope of finding them." Miura said with a frown. He then stood up and looked at me with a smile. "Your body is in perfect health. After a thorough check-up, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to head home today. However, before you do. I was informed to contact the hunters association once you woke up. I believe they have some questions for you as well."

I nodded, and he told me he would call for someone to bring me something to eat while I waited. It was then that I felt my stomach rumble in hunger. Miura chuckled and left the room. I sighed and laid a hand on my head. I then looked up and stared at the odd floating black and red screen. Miura-san didn't say or even look at that. Could it be he can't see it? Am I going mad?

[Notification: You have unread messages.]

I reached up and swiped at the screen, only to watch as my hand passed through it. The screen reminded me of the old game screens that I used to play on my PS Vita, at least before I sold them.

"Uh… open messages?" I said tentatively and watched as the screen changed.

[Notification: Congratulations, you've become a Player! Your journey to become the one above all has begun. This system is designed to help your growth and development.]

[Notification: Failure to comply with the system could result in a penalty.]

[Notification: The Main Menu is now available.]

Main menu? Is this some sort of game? Just thinking of the main menu seemed enough to prompt it to appear in front of me.

[Main Menu]

[Status | Quests | Weapons | Armor | Skills | Map | Inventory | Crafting]

My mouth dropped at the extensive game-like menu in front of me. The broad list of options floated in a line next to one another without impeding my sight. Similar to a HUD. Down at the bottom left of the screen were two bars. One was for HP, signified in green, and the other for MP, this time in blue.

"D-dismiss?" I said. Sure enough, the menu disappeared. "Menu."

As prompted, the menu reappeared in front of me with a game-like sound. I was amazed and stunned at what I saw. To the point, I was almost overwhelmed. Curiosity overtook me, and I thought of choosing the first option on the list, which was the status tab.

[STATUS]

[NAME: HIKIGAYA HACHIMAN]

[JOB: NONE][TITLE: NONE]

[Lv: 1][HP: 100/100]

[MP: 55/55][FATIGUE: 0]

[STR: 17][AGI: 15]

[PER: 14][VIT: 16]

[INT: 19]

[AVAILABLE ABILITY POINTS: 0]

I looked over my apparent stats with a hum. While it was a little disquieting to see my weakness be represented with actual numbers, I had to guess that I would grow stronger by using ability points. But how do I get them? With nothing more to see, I moved on to the next tab—the quests tab. The quest screen was broken up into three sections. Main Quests, Daily Quests, and Side Quests.

[Main Quests]

[To become the One Above All. | Fight and level up to become the strongest of them all. | Reward: ?]

[Daily Quests]

[The road to strength. | Train your body to handle the battles to come. | Rewards: 3 Ability Points, +200 XP]

[Push-Ups: 0/100][Sit-Ups: 0/100]

[Squats: 0/100][Running: 0/10km]

There aren't any side quests. At least, not yet. It seems that the system's primary goal is for me to grow stronger. But why? The daily quests were a good way to get started. Baby steps. Seeing no other quests, I moved on to the weapons tab. What I found were ten grey boxes with only one item on display. The first box showed a small icon of a short sword. Hold on, that's my-!

[Short Sword | Class: E | ATK: 10 | An ordinary sword used to fend off magical beats.]

I raised my hand and tapped on the weapon icon. In a flash of red, the short sword I brought with me into the dungeon appeared in my hand. I looked at it with amazement. I held it in the air and twirled it around. It was real. This was real. Now, how do I put you back?

The sword quickly disappeared in a flash of red. The once greyed-out item option regained its color. I see... everything must work by merely thinking of it. How convenient.

I then backed out of the weapons tab and entered the armor tab. On the screen stood a box with a small chibi version of myself. There was a small grey box next to each section of the body. One for the feet, legs, arms, torso, and head. Unfortunately, there were no armor options to choose from at the moment. Leaving the armor tab, I made my way to the skills section.

[Passive Skills]

[Undying Will: The Player has the ability to recover from any injury. The Player will fully regenerate their health with a full night's rest.]

[Untouchable: The Player is immune to all diseases, poisons, and status debuffs.]

[Rage On: Should the Player's health drop below 20%, all of the Player's attacks will increase by 30%]

Three skills right off the bat? Not bad. With nothing more to see, I left the skill page and moved on to the next option. Opening the map tab, I was momentarily surprised to see a large map of Japan appear. There were landmarks and street names everywhere. Zooming in, I saw a small red dot in the northern part of Kashiwa. The dot pulsed every other second. I knew then that the dot indicated my location.

I lifted my hand towards the screen and watched as my fingers were able to interact with the map. I played around with the map and zoomed out to see the green and blue planet that was Earth. I exited the map tab and tried to see if I could manipulate any other aspect of the menu, but I saw that the touch feature was limited to the map.

"This is crazy." I mumbled. My eyes then saw two tabs on the left side of the map. One tab was titled Earth, while the other was titled Realm of Chaos.

I clicked on the Realm of Chaos tab and was shocked to see a massive and intricate world map. It was sectioned off into thirty different parts. However, most of the map, except a small middle area, was greyed out. If this map works like that of a game, I'll need to explore these greyed-out areas to get more detailed information. This means this available area has to be the starting area for me.

[Swamp Lands | Recommended Level: 1-10]

[Travel to this location?]

[Yes][No]

Wait, does that mean I'll be teleported there? It's exactly like a fast travel system in an MMORPG! Slowly, my finger grew closer to the yes option. However, I was stopped when three knocks on my room door caused me to stop. I turned to the door and dismissed the menu.

"Come in." I said, watching as a two people dressed in black suits entered my room.

"We're happy to see you awake, Hikigaya-san. We're with the Japanese Hunters Association. We have some questions for you."

x x x

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