Yuji picked up the heavy wooden sword in the corner of his room and went back into the living room, where his uncle and sister had just begun eating. It was a simple to-order meal of many burgers and fries, which Yuji loved, but whatever appetite he may have had was long gone after what he had just seen.

  "Where you going, boy?" Gavin asked when he saw that Yuji was leaving instead of getting ready to eat.

  "... I'm gonna train for a little bit."

  "I thought you were worn out and sore??" Lisa asked, but Yuji ignored her. He quickly left the trailer and began running up the slope that led to the ground level. It was dark out now, so he'd normally slow down since the ambient lighting from the city wasn't enough to see his immediate surroundings, but he kept his pace this time.

  His sister was right, he was exhausted, but he needed to be alone more than anything right now. And swinging the sword he'd had since he was a kid was what he'd always done when he needed to clear his mind, so he latched onto it and hoped it'd help him again.

  Halfway to the ground level, he turned to the right and ran onto a cliff that protruded out of the slope. He could see that the main platform that shuttled between the two levels of the city was still moving. It was a few hundred meters away from him and had plenty of lighting on it, so he could make out at least seventy or eighty people on it.

  The only reason he had even taken note of them though was because he saw several Protectorate uniforms on the platform, and he was now in the unfortunate position of making sure he didn't do anything weird around them. But at that distance, coupled with the zero lighting around him, he knew they wouldn't be able to see him. And even if they could do so due to abilities or tech, what he was about to do shouldn't look too out of place... Probably.

  After kicking away enough snow to create a small area for his feet to move around in, he held the sword up and began swinging it down in an overhead attack.

  Again and again he swung, but the sounds of laughing and music echoing out from the platform and the city above were grating on him. It had never bothered him before, but right now he couldn't get it out of his head.

  Damnit...

  He swung again, looking sideways at the three Protectors who were talking to a group of young girls.

  Damnit...!

  Multiple images flashed through his mind as he continued to swing.

  Ryu's bloodied corpse on his bedroom floor.

  The popping sounds his bones made inside the incinerator.

  The Archives demanding that he make himself easily traceable.

  And finally, the letter that mockingly blackmailed him.

  DAMNIT!!!

  He swung one last time and then collapsed onto the snow. Far from feeling better, he was beginning to feel a level of rage he'd never even come close to experiencing before. It was obvious after last night that his life was forever changed, but on some level, he hadn't accepted it. At least, not until those photos showed up in his trailer. And now thanks to that, all he could think about was ripping the face off of the person who sent them to him.

  Hah... And they want me to kill Ryu's father of all people?

  Dai Murakami was a weird person. He was either super loved, an unknown, or absolutely despised. Yuji had never heard anyone simply say that they didn't have a problem with him. As for Yuji, Dai was pretty much an unknown. He'd worked for the man for several years now and had only met him once to confirm the marriage. But outside of that? He was just some guy who was always in the office on the second floor of his workplace.

  Who was it that hated him again? My uncle refuses to talk about him and always looks like he's gritting his teeth when Dai is mentioned, but I'm going to assume he's not the one who's blackmailing me. Which leaves all of the hearsay I've heard over the years and nothing more? Someone really wants him dead though, so Akira might know something. He's worked for the man his whole life.

  A thought occurred to Yuji as he stood up. If he jumped down and floated onto the right side using his floating ability, he'd be able to slide all the way down to the water depository where he disposed of Ryu.

  He obviously wasn't going to spot the blackmailer recharging the camera or something along those lines, but since he was already outside at night, he wanted to enter the depository from the other side and take a look around with fresh eyes that weren't in a hurry to dispose of a body.

  Yuji couldn't think of a single reason why there would be a camera in there, and so he wanted to try and see if there were any hidden cubbies with packages inside of them. He'd found them in the past in the main depository and was given a pretty big bonus for reporting them. He never did know what was in those packages, but he assumed they were drugs of some kind that were supposed to be disposed of in the incinerator. It wouldn't come as a huge surprise if someone saved them and tried to sell them, especially if it was corrupted Lavos dust. They'd make a fortune off of even a tiny amount of that.

  The platform had been ascending, and it was impossible for anyone to see him now, so he jumped off the cliff toward the city below, activating his floating ability about halfway down.

  The way it works is so strange. It's one thing if the ability made me weigh less, but when I activate it, my fall speed is forcibly pulled back to the same speed every time.

  Ever-so-slowly he floated toward the snow-covered slope between the platform and the hillside. On the way, the nightly alarm sounded out, but he knew that only the lower sections would actually go to sleep. On the ground level they'd be partying for the next five days, which was when the warm front was supposed to dissipate.

  Around thirty seconds later his butt finally hit the snow, and he kept the ability on, which made the slide down the snow rather peaceful.

  When he reached the bottom, he tried to run with the ability, but he gave up soon after that since he kept fumbling over his own footing.

  If nothing else, it feels really good to glide around. And now that I think about it, wouldn't it make running for long distances really easy? And it should make sneaking around a lot easier too... I wonder how many other uses I can get out of it?

  The depository was close by to where he landed, so after a quick look around while approaching the back door to make sure nobody was there, he reached out and opened the door that was unlocked just like the front had been the previous night.

  Yuji slowly opened the door, activating his ability again so his footsteps made next to no noise. It wasn't easy to walk around like that, but if someone happened to be inside, it was for the best that he kept it on. And the sooner he got used to it, the better it'd be in the long run.

  The back door led to a storage room full of boxes that different companies' employees had been too lazy to burn and just dropped them off in there. Every half a year or so the outpost would be forced to deal with the mess, which usually meant more money for Yuji and Akira since anyone could sign up for it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  He snuck through the storage until he reached the partly-opened door on the other side. After pushing that open, he was already back inside the main area.

  Let's see, it was kind of a direct shot of me in the photos, so it should be around the door here... Eh?

  Part of the 'Exit' sign's glass above the door was broken on the bottom of the 'E', and inside of it he could see a tiny, transparent crystal.

  Well, that was easier than I had expected it to be. Which is all thanks to knowing where it came from, but still... Hmm.

  Now he had a decision to make. Should he break it? It'd feel good to get one over on the blackmailer, but he also didn't know how unhinged they were. If they were the kind of person who'd release the photos over any little slant, then it wasn't worth the risk. But still, now that he knew where it was, he could just cover it up for now and take a quick look around the area for any hidden materials. Now that he would steal or burn. Even if they knew it was most likely Yuji's fault since he should be the only one to know about the hidden crystal camera, they'd have no way of knowing for sure.

  Yuji went back into the storage room and began looking through the open boxes for anything he could use to place in front of the crystal, but most of it looked like the shattered remains of crystals.

  What kind of bums did they hire at the new Crystal Factory? We never broke anywhere near this amount at the old factory, and we burned the trash damnit. I'm getting annoyed thinking about the kind of idiots they had replace me---

  The sound of a door opening inside the main area made him jolt into an upright position before he hurriedly scrambled to hide next to the storage room's entrance.

  "Thanks again for the ride, Lundy~." A female voice said.

  "Hah, you know I wouldn't miss it." A man said in reply. The sounds of two people kissing could be heard soon after.

  Yuji didn't recognize the man's voice, but he immediately knew who the woman was, and that's when he knew it was time to leave. Thanks to her arrival, he knew exactly why that crystal was there now, and just how much of a monumental case of bad luck it had been for him that she was using the depository for her sexual flings.

  He slipped out the back and kept his ability on, which allowed him to wall jump up onto the awning, and from there to the sloped roof, where he crawled upwards until he could peek over the top of it.

  A few minutes later, Dai's wife, Tina, walked toward the western region where her home was while in a full set of snow gear to hide her appearance, but he already knew it was her. Especially since her gait was the most recognizable gait in all of Gallios-5.

  The man, however, was not in a full set of snow equipment, but that didn't mean Yuji recognized him. At least not from behind. He was a Human wearing an expensive-looking black suit and had slicked back brown hair, but that was all he was able to glean.

  That is, until the man entered the Hargraven's mansion.

  A butler, maybe...? There's no way he's a part of the family if he's a Human.

  Yuji crawled off the roof and began scaling the slope he had come down before. Light jumps are what he started with, and even when he slipped and fell, there wasn't any pain associated with it thanks to his ability and the snow cushioning his fall, so it was the perfect training environment.

  Light jumps, big leaps, forward dashes, and jumping at the hillside that he'd kick off of back onto the slope. He repeatedly did that until he saw the platform coming back his way.

  Alright, this is good enough for now.

  He stood at a corner in the hillside where he'd have plenty of area to kick off of, then jumped up as far as he could go. When he began to slow down, he'd kick himself upwards again, propelling himself through the air.

  Yuji ended up reaching the top around the same time the platform was level with him. As a just-in-case, he laid down in the snow and waited there for the platform to descend a bit more.

  I can't believe how good this ability feels! At first I only saw it as an 'Oh, that's kind of cool' ability, but now I can't even imagine ever giving it up.

  Once enough time had passed, he stood up and went over to the spot where he had been training and retrieved his wooden sword.

  Hmm, I'm more interested in finding the blackmailer than I am in following his orders, but now that I know about Dai's wife, it can't hurt to get close to him for the time being. That was too lucky of a find not to use it, and it'll make the blackmailer believe I'm going along with him.

  "Feelin better?" Gavin asked from the couch as Yuji closed the door behind him.

  "Mentally. But physically I know I'm going to be hurting in the morning."

  "We left your food in the heater," Lisa said idly while watching TV.

  Yuji walked over to the kitchen and pulled up the old metallic heater. Inside were two medium-sized burgers and way too many fries on a black plate. He carried them over to the table and then went to the cooler to retrieve a Udine.

  "You're going to get fat if you keep drinking those..." Lisa said, still watching the TV, which was reflecting a bunch of young people having fun at the beach somewhere.

  "What? I've been drinking these as far back as I can remember, and I've never once been fat. And you used to drink them too!"

  Gavin chuckled, "Why do you think she stopped drinking them?"

  Lisa picked up a pillow on the couch and threw it at Gavin, "I lost those extra pounds the second I dropped that sugary garbage!"

  "Well, no matter what you say, this is the most delicious blue sugary garbage I've ever known, and I'm not going to stop drinking it," Yuji said before pulling the top off the glass bottle. The fizzing sound that followed was always his favorite part of every meal.

  He sat down and bit into one of the burgers while wondering if he should tell Lisa the good news. It was the best news possible for her, but the Archives having an article titled 'The bonuses of killing other Awakened' was more than enough to give him pause. He needed to come up with a way for the highly ascended healer to heal her without ever actually meeting Yuji.

  Akira and Irena would handle it for me. They'll want to know why, but I was planning on talking to them about it anyway.

  Hiring a non-Awakened healer was also an option, but unless something massive had changed since he last looked, that would be an even more difficult option. They were way too rare and sought after, which led to severe background checks before they'd even consider you.

  And those checks include thorough soul scans, so, nope. Not happening. Plus, they cost much more than an Awakened healer, so I doubt I could even afford one.

  Thinking about the Archives reminded him of the one thing he still needed to try. He finished his meal as quickly as possible and then retreated to his room. Both his sister and uncle said nothing, as they were glued to the TV for the same, yet also completely different reasons.

  Meditation, huh? It's been a while since I tried this.

  The article had simply stated that meditating on your perfect inner world was all that was needed. If you had a soul world, you'd enter it.

  What would my perfect world even be? This snowy landscape, but living in a mansion? I honestly don't know, so how the hell do I visualize it...

  Yuji laid on the bed, interlocked his hands on his lower stomach, and then tried his best to empty his mind. It wasn't easy with how loud the TV was, and the occasional 'Ooh!' or 'Wow...' from Lisa wasn't helping either.

  After trying for nearly ten minutes, he knew it wasn't going to happen. He sighed and sat up in his bed while rubbing the back of his head.

  What a waste of time. Not that I expected a different result.

  He opened his eyes and turned to get off the bed, but when he saw what was around him, he immediately froze.

  Yuji was clearly no longer in his bedroom, but he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was looking at. The single door in the small room and the walls both looked organic and not organic at the same time. Aside from him and his bed, everything was pitch black.

  He stood up from the bed and walked over to the nearby wall, running his right hand along it. Mana was something he hadn't put much thought into yet after Awakening, but even he knew it was going to become the most important part of his life soon enough. He had to use it on his old job at the Crystal Factory, so he was already familiar with how it felt. Which is why he could tell that there was mana pulsing through the wall, traveling to and fro.

  His mind was ablaze as he tried to make sense of the situation. The idea that this weird room was his perfect world made absolutely no sense. He didn't even know what the hell he was looking at, so how did he even create it?

  Yuji walked over to the door and immediately a pulse ran through him. It was a familiar feeling. It was what happened when you were being scanned, which made the situation even more confusing. Why was his imaginary world scanning him?

  The door opened up soon after, but not in the conventional way. The blackened substance making up the door morphed into a thick liquid and separated while pulling apart in both directions. Once the liquid hit the door frame, it melded directly into it and vanished from sight.

  "......"

  After a brief pause, Yuji walked through the 'Door' and into the large open room beyond, which looked nothing like the room he had just left, but he was barely able to take a quick glance around before spotting something else that caught his attention. There was a nameplate next to the door he had just walked through. It was a simple white slip, with the words 'Yuji's Room' signed on it in children's handwriting.