Misora had a confused look.
"What? What's happening, why the heck is the great Toshiro Fukumoto himself here?" she questioned curiously.
"Alright, Fukumot—" Toshiro Fukumoto cut me off.
"You can just call me Toshiro, and I'll call you Kuroto," he said casually.
"Alright, that'll do. So, when are we meeting?" I asked, ignoring Misora.
"As per your discharge, I'll meet you in two days in this hospital when you're discharged. That sound good?" he replied.
"Yeah, that'll do," I said, finishing our chat.
Toshiro then slowly left the room alongside the cadet Haruka, after she placed the basket on the bedside table to my right.
I then turned toward the confused Misora standing there.
"Hey, uhm..." She was confused.
Just as I was about to speak, VoidMind started speaking in my head.
VoidMind: "Before you continue forward and talk to your sister about what happened, I recommend using an ability of mine to do so. I'm able to copy and put your memories into anyone's mind if both sides agree to do it while having physical contact. I suggest you use that—it's way faster than manually just speaking it to her."
Huh? It can transfer my memories to anyone? Well, I guess I took VoidMind too lightly when it told me the consequences of the only good thing it did—and that was Instinct Takeover, which almost killed me.
Guess this ability is better than I thought.
"Hey Misora, I know you're confused, but give me your hand," I said and grabbed her hand.
"What?" she said, confused.
"Do what I say." She was still confused and didn't buy it, since she freed her hand with a frown.
"What are you doing? I don't understand what you're trying to do," she said.
I realized in my excitement I had been way too straightforward without telling her anything—and doing weird things like grabbing her and asking her to follow what I say.
Guess the excitement always gets me, especially when Toshiro had arrived and my day has been going so good thus far.
"VoidMind, can you tone down my excitement—not remove it, just reduce it?" I asked VoidMind.
VoidMind: "I'm unable to do so in situations like these, where my involvement is minimal to none. Even if you commanded, I still wouldn't be able to."
Damn it... but I guess that works in my favor since I wouldn't get dependent on it.
"Okay, my bad. I'm sorry for that. Even if I'm being too straightforward—Misora, I want you to give me your hand as that'll explain everything to you. Even if you're confused," I said.
She nodded, and I proceeded to grab her hand.
"VoidMind, instructions?" I asked VoidMind.
VoidMind: "Just tell her to feel that if she receives all your memories, she'll agree."
"Misora, I want you to think—like, if you were receiving my memories, you'd agree upon receiving them," I followed VoidMind's instructions.
"What do you mean?" she said, still confused.
"Just think like you want to receive my memories," I said.
VoidMind: "Good. Now the connection has been made. I want you to say 'Execute!' in order to commence the memory transfer."
"Execute!" I exclaimed.
Suddenly I felt some of my mana being drained. Although minor, it was still a drain.
Misora slowly received my memories. She processed the memories at a normal pace—as if watching it on a TV—but in real time it only lasted a few seconds because VoidMind had used Thought Acceleration.
Just then, she let go of my hand instantly. Worried, she backed a step in an act to let go. Then she suddenly hugged me, which was unexpected.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she said while sobbing, her head on my shoulders.
I let that moment sink in, smiled and after a few seconds said, "Your brother is not dying as long as this God of Death is inside him," I said and chuckled.
She backed down and said, "I have some important work to do. After your discharge, we'll become cadets."
I nodded and let her leave, as there was nothing more to say to each other if the memories were transferred like that.
As Misora left, the room grew silent. I was just sitting on the bed.
"Figured you'd come, huh, God of Absolute," I said as I turned back and saw God of Absolute sitting on air like a throne a meter above and between the space of the bed and the wall behind.
"Why would I not? After all, my dear old friend was reincarnated and had his first major experience," he said and chuckled.
God of Absolute's looks were very human, since he once was one.
He had silver-white, handsome-looking hair with bangs resting gently on his forehead. His eyes—vibrant almond-green—held the entire universe if you looked deep enough. His skin was pale, and his build was tall and lean. He looked too perfect for this world—and it's because he wasn't a person of era but a person from the Era of Perfection.
We both looked at each other and smiled. God of Absolute raised his hand."Let's take it somewhere else, shall we?" Then he snapped his fingers.
And all of a sudden, I was in the middle of a never-ending flower field with roses, irises, dandelions, and white zinnia flowers.
I now had casual clothes and I was feeling a lot more energetic and refreshed here.
Beneath the night sky, with thousands of glittering stars and a radiant full moon, we stood facing each other a few meters apart.
God of Absolute smiled, and so did I.
As the God of Death, God of Absolute was an important friend of mine. He may have been the ruler of all reality, but he never lost his humanity. He never lost his way of living as a human, and even among Gods, he still made friends—with me being his old best friend.
"You haven't changed, have you?" I said to God of Absolute.
He chuckled and replied, "Neither have you. You're still the same God of Death I knew from the very start."
"Well, that's your fault for reincarnating me into the body of Kuroto Kurogane. It seems he was the human version of mine—he had the same agenda but not the power to achieve it.
I'll follow the path of righteousness, even if it kills me—for both my sake and Kuroto's," I said boldly in a happy tone.
"I'm not warning you, but I'm telling you—the path you're choosing is worse than death. The path you're choosing isn't heroism, nor is it a villain's path.
People might hate you. They might love you.
The path you're choosing is completely uncertain, and every little action you take can change your entire future.
So I'll ask you again—do you still prefer to choose the same path?" he said and asked, his tone serious now.
"I already told you, I'm choosing this path, even in the worst-case scenario. I can't let everything up till now go to waste," I replied and stated.
God of Absolute chuckled and replied, "It seems you truly will never change, huh."
"You're one to talk. You're the one that altered some of my memories in order to leave me curious and make me find some truths that I would know otherwise," I said.
"Well, nothing can be hidden from you, can it? You're simply too smart, huh?" he stated.
"I still haven't forgotten one of the reasons you were chosen as the God of Absolute after the Original Creator.
You're able to make decisions that no one else can. Even if it harms others, it's important for you to make them—otherwise, the world the Original Creator wanted wouldn't be here.
If you reincarnated me, that still doesn't mean I can't die at any moment. That only means you won't straight-up kill me yourself, but you'll definitely try your best to put me through a lot. It seems life isn't the only thing that's unfair, huh," I reminded him.
He remained silent and didn't reply, but I knew he heard me.
"Well, I have a question: Why did you put a bounty on me? It's not like my mana is the strongest in the world, if they're weaker they can't kill me, and if they're stronger they wouldn't need to kill me?" I asked him.
"Well it was just an idea I came up with, I guess it wasn't that significant since what you're saying is absolutely right, well I guess the bounty was truly meaningless," he replied.
"I figured that'd be the case. Well, God of Absolute isn't the type to lie about something like this, so I'll believe him, I thought to myself," I thought to myself.
"Well, I need to go back. It seems it's goodbye for now," I said.
He sighed and replied, "Goodbye, Kuroto. Will see you again sometime."
We both smiled. And just like that, I was back in the hospital bed—with the same clothes, the same fatigue, and our conversation in my head.
A couple of days later, I had been discharged.
When I was discharged, Toshiro came to pick me up in his car from the hospital.
I sat in the front seat, and Misora was sitting in the back.
"So, where are we going?" I asked Toshiro.
"We're going to the Crimson Order's base," he replied.
"Base?" I questioned.
"Well, the Crimson Order doesn't have a big HQ like the major Orders in other countries. We have a base where everyone lives. Don't worry, there are more than enough rooms. It's called a base because no one outside the members can enter—or even see—it, since it's a restricted area," he explained.
We were driving through Tokyo, but I had thought it was inside Tokyo.
After an hour of exiting Tokyo, I found us driving in a desert lane with nothing in sight .
"Kuroto, be prepared, because you'll be loaded with questions," Toshiro said.
"What do you mean?" I questioned, confused.
"Well, you see, it's been a while since we were hunting for the Black Cloaked Manipulator. In fact, all five full members, including me, and a few cadets were all on a mission to hunt down the Black Cloaked Manipulator," he answered.
"Five full members?" I asked. It was a valid question—because as far as I knew, there were six.
"Well, I can't tell you right now," he replied, scratching his head.
"But wait, how did you know about the Black Cloaked Manipulator?" I questioned again.
"Well, I raided a dungeon of a Cloaked Manipulator," he said. My expression shifted to curiosity. "It was a Phase 1 complete and a red on Phase 2.
The fight was extremely tough—I almost lost to the Cloaked Manipulator before finally being able to defeat that monstrosity.
That thing told me about how the Black Cloaked Manipulator would destroy its gate, get out, and destroy everything," he said.
"Well, I think the Red Cloaked Manipulator was telling the truth, considering the Black Cloaked Manipulator's ability to not only bring back the dead and turn them into whatever monster it wants, but also multiply their mana by a thousand times—essentially increasing their power by almost a thousand times as well.
I'm damn sure if he had taken the kid as his pawn, it would've been too late for me to even use my last resort," I replied honestly.
Toshiro nodded.
After about 30 more minutes, still on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere, Toshiro stopped the car.
"What happened?" Misora questioned.
"Well, we're going by foot from here on out," he replied.
"Why?" I questioned.
"Because, from here on out, there are places where a car can't go—so we'll need to run there," he answered.
I was confused but I still nodded in agreement.
We got out of the car and stepped toward the hood.
Toshiro seemed to be preparing to run fast, well he might be too fast for us.
"Will you be able to keep up with me?" Toshiro questioned.
"Well I might, but I don't think Misora will be able to," I said flatly.
Misora's expression shifted.
"Hey, brother, you might not know but I've been training a lot more than you were able to, ever since the day you told me you were the Go-," she cut herself, realizing what she was about to say.
"What did he tell you?" Toshiro questioned.
"Well it was just…" she got nervous, "Well, ever since he told me he was going to train his magic so did I, and 'the' I said was a tongue slip on my part.
"Well… okay I guess," he replied.
I got a bit nervous when Misora almost spilled the beans, anyone other than Misora and the other God reincarnates must never find out I'm the God of Death.