As Ilaya finished her food, she laid down again in her folding bed as she felt sleepy. She picked her pillows in the corner as she used it. Then, despite of the pain in her heart, her consciousness slowly dimmed as she drifted into a deep sleep
As she's sleeping, her consciousness wakes up in a dark forest. As she saw the creepy woods again, she sighed
'Here we go again'
She braced herself as she looked back where her other self is currently waiting, only to find out that her evil self had vanished! Ilaya became shocked as she hurriedly looked around her
'Where is she!? Where did she go!?'
She would have probably overjoyed with her evil self gone from her dream. But instead, it filled her with dread as doesn't understand anything that's happening. The fact that she's still dreaming in the dark forest, meant that it's not over yet! What she feared the most is the unknown
As she didn't see anything in her surroundings, she didn't dared to take a step as she thought rapidly while carefully observing and listening around her
'Why didn't she appear? I'm still inside the dark forest from my dream, but only she is missing!'
As she thought of that, she suddenly felt her hair standing on end as she felt a gaze somewhere around her. She looked around but she couldn't pinpoint the location of the gaze
At this moment, she realized that her evil self is hiding in the dark forest. Peeking, observing, and waiting for her to make a move before appearing to kill her. She felt that the forest turned from ominous into a wilderness where a predator is eyeing her from the dark. Waiting to strike
'The other dream is much better than this! I'd rather be chased by her around than to be rooted on this spot! Not knowing when she will emerge!'
As she's thinking, she suddenly felt a jolt from her heart as she felt a hand on her shoulder! Ilaya abruptly woke up as she screams and gasped
"Ahhh!... Huff!... hahh!..."
After knowing that she's awake, she looked at her shoulder as she saw a hand placed on it. Then, she heard Mars concernedly said to her
"Ilaya, are you okay? You're mumbling in your sleep so I've woken you up"
Then, Ilaya suddenly realized that Mars and Owner were already inside the room, and their expression was filled with concern as they looked at her. Ilaya became embarrassed and sad, but said to Mars
"Yes. I just had a bad dream. Nothing to worry about"
'Rather, I'm much more concerned about my missing evil self, and the pain that's prickling my heart. Is this pain not will never subside?'
As Mars sighed, Ilaya suddenly asked her
"Wait. How long did I sleep?"
Mars patted Ilaya in her shoulder as she said to her
"It's already 3:30pm now. It seemed that you slept for about more that two hours"
Ilaya nodded and she got up from her bed. She sat in the chair at the table where Mars and Owner was already seated. Then, Ilaya greeted the Owner
"Hello Owner. I couldn't greet you properly earlier as there's so many customers"
The owner said to her calmly
"It's alright. By the way, where are you staying now? Are you okay there?"
Ilaya hesitated to answer. She really didn't want to tell them that she's already part of the Yakuza now. Even knowing that they're a necessary evil, and they prohibited from using people as merchandise, they still had the reputation of being terrible
'Maybe it's alright to tell them about my location? They're just ordinary people anyway. They'll never noticed that's it's a territory of the Yakuza'
Ilaya then said to owner
"I currently live in the western part of Chiyoda. About 20 minutes from her. I recently started my training. I need to protect myself. And also, my friend may have a clue to my past, so I'm living there to get her help"
The owner nodded as he realized something. Of course, Ilaya didn't know that the man she's facing is a former elite of the police force. So she didn't know that one of the elusive bases of Yakuza had been compromised
Thankfully, the owner had no intention of getting involved with the Yakuza. He just nodded as he knew now where to find Ilaya in case something bad happened to her. Then, after Ilaya said that, the room became silent
They all knew that they wanted to talk about what had happened to her. But no one is willing to bring up the topic for fear of hurting her. Having no choice, Ilaya brought the topic herself. Ilaya chooses her words carefully as she said
"You two must be curious about what had happened to me"
The two, Mars and Owner looked at each other as they nodded. Then Ilaya sadly said to them
"Well, after my tour, I decided to walk from Shibuya to heading towards this place. I could just ride a taxi, but I want to search briefly on my way here. So that I can start again in the morning. But…"
Ilaya fiddled with her fingers as she looked at it. Then, she said
"I heard a scream when I was walking. The scream is from a young woman, and it made me think that maybe she's being attacked by the serial killer. There's no one outside so I couldn't get help from people. So, I rushed to the location of the sound"
Then, Ilaya felt that she's not affected by the recollection of that terrible night. She wondered
'Is this progress? No… it's because of that damn Kyora! She showed me through that punch that weakness is a sin!'
Ilaya's mood soured from thinking that. But she continued her explanation
"I rushed to the scene and almost got stab by the killer. Then, I intended to flee but the whis-"
Ilaya eyes widened as she abruptly ended her sentence
'Ahh! They didn't know anything about the whispers and my powers! And I better keep that way'
Ilaya coughs and said like nothing ever happened
"Ahem! I tripped on the trash and lost my balance. Then, the killer catches up to me and knocked me unconscious"
Ilaya noticed that they're starting to feel uncomfortable. So she decided to use a friendly description in her story and make her experience sound light. And not so heavy and tragic
'It's not like a can describe; the killer kicked me in my side and grabbed my hair to bash my head into the concrete. And blood immediately came out! I'm not that terrible!'
Then, she noticed that Mars is close to crying as she immediately made her tone light and easygoing. She had a hunch that if Mars cried, she wouldn't be able to stop her tears too. And more importantly, she just didn't want her to cry
"Then, I woke up in the hideout of the serial killer. The killer was not there when I woke up. So I planned my escape. Of course, I'm really scared at that time but I really wanted to live"
Ilaya didn't bat an eye to her white lies as she really didn't want them to be guilty. She knows that they're really guilty about what happened to her. But it's all her fault anyway
'They didn't need to suffer. I alone, is enough. It's okay if I suffered alone'