Those you thought you knew...

They made it out of the mountain with little trouble after that, though Kurai noticed that Zane constantly kept an eye on him, and those who had helped him, found themselves in the proverbial dog box.

It wasn't really the mission to save Hozumi that had the older man so concerned, according to what Kurai later learned from Ren, but the fact that he'd gone and infiltrated an enemy fortress without informing them of his plans.

Even though Satoru, Taya, and Reese had accompanied him, and even though Lee and Rin's groups had cleared out most of the enemies from the camp up until the mountain, Zane seemed hurt by the fact that his nephew hadn't trusted him enough to tell him about his plans.

Then there was also the fact that they had technically acted without the guild master's permission, but it didn't seem as if Zane was even thinking about that at the moment.

It didn't take long to get back to camp and it was there that Kurai learned that the enemy forces had surrendered after the death of the king and that many of them were actually glad for the swift end to the tyrannical king's reign.

It was only later that Kurai found out that even the king's own subjects hadn't been spared from being experimented on, given that the king wanted to create a super army that could both heal themselves and destroy anything in their path, hence the healers that had been captured.

Most of the other guilds had already left, followed by the king that also seemed to be strangely bummed out that it hadn't been one glorious battle that allowed him to slay the tyrannical king to save his own kingdom.

Apparently, according to one of the guards, the king was one of those who could daydream with his eyes open and he had a flare for dramatics.

Satoru reassured him that the king wasn't the type to hold onto a grudge though, and even less so when Kurai explained that he, Satoru, Reese, and Taya had been the ones to bring the king down, much to the trio's confusion, given that they hadn't done anything to fight the boss.

Kurai later explained to them that it would look far more suspicious for him to be the one to have defeated the boss on his own, even though he was still only at level 16, to which they fully agreed, though he found both Taya and Reese watching him with curious expressions after the talk.

After that, they slowly made their way back to the city and Kurai felt the strangest sense of displacement as he entered his room with Hozumi in tow.

Even though it had only been a few weeks, Kurai could already tell that he felt different and he felt a strange sense of loss as he compared the person he'd been to what he was now.

It was proof that none of the players would be able to escape the game mentally unscathed as he found himself getting up from the chair he'd collapsed on as soon as they got home.

He glanced over at Hozumi and found her lying on the bed with a confused grimace on her face, "Feels strange to not have the threat of life and death over our heads…"

Hozumi nodded with a sigh before she turned her head toward him, "Want to head to the guild and see if they have a mission system or something?"

Kurai snorted a laugh as he got up, "They better have, wouldn't be much of a guild otherwise, though I wonder what Zane's reaction would be if we took a request so soon after the war."

It seemed that she was just as new to the game as he was, and yet her character had been quite convincing when he'd first met her.

She gave him an unimpressed look, "I'd be surprised if he allows you to even leave the city… I'm indeed grateful for the rescue, but that was one astronomically stupid stunt you pulled."

The impact of the glare she leveled at him was lessened by the worry that Kurai could clearly see in her expression and he held up his hands in mock surrender, "I know, but I couldn't help it. When I felt your energy flare up I knew that there was a good chance that they had captured you and then Satoru confirmed it, which left us with little to no time to get to you before they did something to you."

Hozumi's eyebrows raised slightly, "What could they have done except to torture and kill us?"

Kurai felt his expression slip and she became deadly serious as she stood and made her way toward him, "What really happened in that boss room? I heard what you told the king, but I also happened to be watching Satoru and the siblings quite closely and I saw their confused expressions."

He didn't immediately answer and she allowed a frustrated sigh to escape, "I also saw the way that Satoru seemed to be fighting with himself over something ever since you rescued me, so you can either tell me, or I can bother Satoru until he cracks."

Kurai winced, "It's something personal and I don't fully know what happened, but once I do I will tell you."

She looked into his eyes for a long moment before nodding her acceptance, "Fine, but honestly don't ever do something like that again. I'm pretty sure I lost a few digital years when I first saw you, I thought you'd been captured."

He gave her an apologetic smile before his expression became serious, "One thing I do know, however, is that the boss was able to use abyssal energy and that he planned to use it on Seraphs to turn them into demons."

Hozumi's eyes grew wide at that, "He could have corrupted you?!"

Kurai nodded but didn't say any more to that and Hozumi seemed to realize that she needed to drop the subject.

Glancing around the room, Kurai suddenly realized that he was hungry, though he had no desire to eat the dry rations he still had in his inventory from the war, "How about we split up? You can go to the guild while I pick up some ingredients for dinner."

He received an eager nod in return and together they left the house once more, only to split up as she headed toward the guild and Kurai headed toward the stalls.

So, truthfully, he wasn't that hungry, but he'd needed a few moments to himself without someone constantly trying to talk to him or lecture him about something.

He also didn't feel ready to face Zane again because he wasn't used to someone being so protective over him, except for Lina and her family.

His brows furrowed as he thought about her. Previously she had contacted him quite regularly, even with the 1 week equals 1 day conversion between the game and the real world, but recently, she hadn't been on in quite a while.

However, if he timed their usual times of correspondence correctly then she was bound to contact him somewhere during the rest of the day if she didn't miss it again.

Once he bought the required ingredients, he made his way to the Guilds Hall and he was about halfway there when a familiar voice suddenly sounded out, startling him, though she sounded extremely tired as well, "Hey, I see you managed to survive the war…"

She sounded happy as she said it, although he could tell that she didn't fully believe it and his eyes narrowed, "Did you doubt that I would?"

A light laugh followed his words, "Maybe at the beginning, but then I saw how much you've adapted. Are you alright?"

Kurai sighed before he honestly replied, "I don't know, something happened and it's made me question quite a few things from my real life, though I am worried that it could be the game messing with my mind as well."

Lin was silent for a bit before she spoke, "What happened?"

He hesitated for a bit, "You remember when we visited that only place you like and you told me about stories from when you were younger, but then I couldn't do the same because I couldn't remember what my childhood had been like before I turned 6?"

"Yes…", Lin's voice sounded worried as she spoke.

Kurai took a deep breath, "Well, something happened and I saw a younger version of me trying to hide before these two familiar-looking scientists appeared and tried to take him away. My parents appeared, but instead of helping me, my mom tried to talk me into going back inside while my dad seemed more worried about helping the world than about the pain they were putting him through to try and isolate something in his DNA that had mutated."

Lin was deathly silent for a moment, and the longer her silence held, the more worried he became until she finally spoke, "I had heard of such an experiment before, but that had been years ago and they had been unable to complete it because the mutated gene attacked and consumed the DNA of anything they had tried to blend it with."

Kurai's body went cold as he heard that, "Do you think they placed it in the game for interest's sake?"

This time she immediately answered, though it sounded like she was trying to reassure him more than anything else, "Of course, it is something they would do to make the game interesting, but if you want I can try to look into it. I haven't been able to snoop around as much these last two days because my brothers came to visit and they've been keeping an eye on me, but they care about you too so I'm sure they would help me look into your past."

He immediately nodded in response, "If it won't be too much trouble. Have you heard something about my parents?"

Lin actually growled at the question, "No, I haven't. At this stage, we are even contemplating calling the police and filing a missing persons report, but I used your key to enter their house and there were no signs of a struggle. In fact, they'd even paid their neighbor to feed their dog, so it seems like it was planned."

Kurai didn't know what to say to that and he noticed that some of the NPSs were staring at him strangely since he'd simply stopped in the middle of the road, so he moved to the side.

They chatted about a few more things after that, though Kurai couldn't bring himself to tell her about Abyss and Kura just yet.

'It's weird enough that I have memory loss, if I mention them she would probably think that I have a split-personality disorder or something…'

Their conversation didn't last much longer than that as Lin promised to take a look at his file before one of her brothers called her for supper, causing Lin to excuse herself in a hurry as she hid her headset once more.

Kurai briefly wondered what the future would hold for him before he turned and made his way to the Guilds Hall.

One thing was for certain, he wasn't sure why they disappeared, but knowing his parents, despite the neglect, they never did something without taking most, if not all, the variables into account and it was safe to say that they were looking for answers rather than trying to run away from something.

The lack of notice still unsettled him though.

He finally made it to the Guilds Hall only to have the members of Abyssal Apocalypse fall silent as they watched him in awe and a creeping feeling crawled up his back.

'He wouldn't have, would he?'

Zane stepped out from nowhere and gave him an almost feral grin, "Welcome back! And here I thought you were going to miss your own welcoming party!"

Kurai shook his head in confusion before he paused and his eyes suddenly narrowed, "This is payback, isn't it?"

The guild master simply shrugged in amusement, "Who knows…"