Reappearance

The lingering sense of victory wasn’t strong enough to make me ignore the monster’s disgusting blood that had splattered all over my clothes and face. It was heavy. Lumps of warm blood slapped onto the floor as I leant over and shook as much of it off of me as I could.

It would’ve been nice to have a bath or shower somewhere nearby.

Ren was lucky in that regard. Now morphed back into his regular self, his clothes, his face, everything about him seemed untouched, despite taking quite the beating from the monster.

The game, of course, must function in a way to make that happen. After using a Pink Strawberry, I’d therefore assume you return to a perfect state of your previous self — that’s why Ren was as clean as an untouched avatar. This was, however, one of the first things about the game that I didn’t feel like criticising.

It was also nice to know that, following eating a Pink Strawberry and reverting back to your normal form, you wouldn’t have to continue the game walking around half-naked.

Once I had rid my clothing of as much blood as possible, I went over to Ren to congratulate him on his wonderful display.

“Ren! That was amazing! Especially when you picked up your sword and sliced it in half! I didn’t know your weapon could—”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t wanna hear it right now, Taro. I’m not really in the mood,” Ren responded coldly.

“What do you mean, Ren? I was just—”

“Not now!”

I listened, like always, confusion and hurt etched across my face.

I found it strange. Why was Ren now acting like he was so angry again? He appeared to be enjoying himself throughout the entire fight, and consistently spoke to both me and Izumi.

Thinking about it, he must’ve been so immersed in the fight that he forgot about what he was really feeling and what was really going on beforehand. He probably momentarily forgot that he was angry at me.

Therefore, it’s no surprise he had reverted back to his old, grumpy and unfriendly state.

It was easy for me to sympathise in this circumstance, however. I experienced this sort of emotional fluctuation shortly after Junpei was killed. Though the change was minimal, there were times where something distracted me enough for it not to feel as though I didn’t have a heart at all; or that my body wasn’t harshly cold and riddled with chills of anguish.

So, we went back to the silence that was becoming too frequent.

As much as I wanted to talk to Izumi, I thought it made sense to not bother Ren anymore. I knew, at some point, he’d come round and be himself again.

The walk was long and gruelling, but eventually we made it out of the cave. I thought that reaching its end would be celebrated with a well-deserved rest.

The sun had other plans.

Its blinding shine deeply contrasted the glooming darkness of the cave. My pupils shot to the sides of my eyes, begging for my forearm to protect them from its harsh attack. Even when my forearm provided a useful barrier, it didn’t stop my eyes being forced to squint, and my surroundings to become faint and blurry.

It wasn’t only my sight that became irregular, however. The feeling of my body, too.

I was struggling to move, so I called for Ren and Izumi to wait and help me.

“Ren, Izumi! Something’s happening to me. Help me…” I struggled to get out my last word, “...please.”

Though faint, I could see them vaguely in the distance, not being able to tell how far away they were from me.

I shouted at the top of my voice this time. “Ren, Izumi, I need you!”

They refused to listen. They kept walking, not even flinching as I called for them. It seemed as though the thought of turning around to look at me never crossed their minds.

I soon found the strength to speedily walk toward them, the distance closing much slower than it should have. Nothing made sense. But that wasn’t the main issue. I needed to reunite with the other two first. After that, we could solve this together.

I finally reached them, and grabbed Izumi’s shoulder. But the moment I did, Ren, at last, turned around.

Not for the reason I had anticipated; it was because he wanted me nowhere near them.

His two hands shoved me down to the floor as his palms slammed against my chest. “Didn’t I tell you to quit talking? God, you never stop, do you?”

“Ren? What are you talking about? I thought we’d gone past that. I thought you were getting over it all.”

Ren ignored me, and turned back around, continuing to leave with Izumi.

Still, I couldn’t see much. I rubbed my eyes with a desperate vigour and, to my luck, my vision unblurred, and my surroundings became clearer again.

“Ren!” I got up, and caught up to them once again.

This time, I went to grab Ren’s shoulder, hoping that he would accept my presence this time. He didn’t.

Without looking, Ren half-turned and thrust his arm into the air, knocking it against mine and pushing it back and almost disjointing it.

“Ren, what are you—”

WHAMM!

I felt a monstrous heel shatter one of my ribs as my head unwillingly folded to the side and my body plunged to the floor.

“Stop getting in our way, fool!” Ren menacingly ordered, not even gracing me with his look.

The pain was almost unbearable, but it wasn’t enough to take me out. I sat up on my knees, clenching my gut that Ren had kicked and just about managed to keep one eye open, while the other helped me deal with the pain.

I couldn’t quite speak just yet, so instead of asking, I tried to figure out what was happening.

Perhaps Khrom was taking control of his mind. While I don’t affirmatively know anything about him as a character, the one obvious thing is that he likes to fight, and uses his rage to excel at it. Logically, it made sense. Khrom’s anger could’ve been usurping Ren’s mind.

But why wasn’t that happening to me with Sabar? That wasn’t important right now. It was my only thought, and I had to do what I could to keep the others next to me before they walked away again.

“R–Ren. I think it’s Khrom. You–You have to fight it. Otherwise—”

“Didn’t you hear what he said?” Izumi interjected with a dauntingly cruel tone.

Unlike Ren, she turned to face me. Yet I couldn’t see her eyes. They were darkened and shaded, obstructed from my view somehow. She grinned vilely, and bombarded me with tough words.

“I didn’t really get it at the beginning. I thought Khrom was just being harsh. But now…now I can confidently say that he wasn’t being dramatic, nor was he wrong. He was completely justified in saying all of those things to you. You really are useless.”

“Izumi? What–” I didn’t know what to say. Surely this wasn’t something the developers had programmed to happen?

“You do realise that we won’t need you anymore. To be honest, we never did. All you ever did was get in our way. You’re nothing but a weak burden that we have to carry unnecessarily. It will only help us if we get rid of you.”

Then she put the nail in the coffin.

“Why don’t you just go and die in a ditch, huh? I’m sure there’s one lying around here somewhere. You should go and find it and make yourself comfortable!”

A tear began running down my face. My mouth began to crumble, and my body began to shake lightly.

It was just like back in the real world. I had to endure someone else telling how pathetic I was.

And in this instance, I didn’t have Ren to save me. In fact, he was the one who had instigated it.

I didn’t understand what was happening. Why was nothing happening during this hellish minute making any sense?

“Player.” A resonant, familiar voice rang behind me.

“I have another offer you cannot refuse. Do you want to hear it?”

My chest stopped freezing, and began pounding.

I knew exactly who was behind me. What was it talking about? Another offer? What was it doing here?

But most importantly, what did it mean?