A/N: My headcanon for Pharos. Minato knew him all this time.


"When did you start talking to him?"

Mitsuru asked. She was standing next to his bed. Akihiko was there, too, and Yukari was behind the seniors.

Minato wished he could have slept a little more. Weird things kept happening since he arrived in this city. Is that not enough? Not being bombarded with questions after he woke up would be nice, and waking up from a week of sleep at that. "Since the start."

"When is the start?"

Here. That night.

Minato stopped himself from saying that. They didn't need to know. "Ten years ago at the hospital."

Yukari gave him a knowing look. Mitsuru asked, "Was it that long ago?"

Minato nodded. "I had a dream… It was a grey place. There was a cage. The blue flame was chained. We first talked there."

"Could you elaborate?"

Minato could. He had never told anyone. He wouldn't have a dorm to stay if he didn't tell them right here and now.

Minato thought for a moment to relive the past memory. "Everything was grey and black. It's like a void, but in the middle of it all, there's blue flame… and chains… and there was a boy inside that giant chained cage."

Yukari hid behind Akihiko. The senior wasn't afraid and that was enough for the brunette to use him as a shield.

"He said, 'I am a prisoner. I am a prisoner…' over and over again. So, I guess we didn't really talk the first time."

Mitsuru made a thinking pose. "Please continue."

"I can't enter the prison," Minato said. "At least it looked like one and he said so. He didn't listen to me, so I sat down right outside and closed my eyes." He paused. "Then I woke up."

"You don't need to…" Yukari said.

They had read his files anyways. "I woke up in a white room, a hospital room. It hurt. My nails, my ribs, my ears… my whole body. Yeah. My parents were dead. Now that they're gone, everything seems so boring…"

Yukari looked sad and almost guilty.

"Anyway," Minato hummed and recalled the story. "A few days after that, I was there again, in the grey void. The kid was calmer so I talked with him. I call him Pharos. He said he's lonely, and he wanted to see the world."

"See?" Mitsuru asked. She was the most curious here, or nosy, whatever fit. "Like, traveling?"

"Yeah. That's what I do for the past ten years." Minato shrugged. "I let him out, and I always talked to him ever since."

"How?" Akihiko asked. 'Let him out' was not physical or else they would have seen this mysterious boy.

"In my head. He's always with me."

Yukari, who was starting to become interested, went and hid behind the senior again. Akihiko didn't really mind if that made her feel better.

"Did this Pharos tell you anything?" Mitsuru asked.

"He's amnesiac."

"And now? Did he recall anything else?"

"… The end."

"Huh?" Yukari poked her head out from the shelter.

"The end will come."

Three people looked at each other. They shook their heads. No one got it. Finally, Mitsuru turned to him. "What does that suppose to mean?"

Minato also shook his head. "I don't know." Even Pharos himself didn't know.

"Creepy..." Yukari said. Minato wondered if she was that afraid. It's not even midnight.

"Anything else?" Akihiko asked.

"Oh," Minato nodded. "It's important. It was a request and I promised him I would do it."

The three of them all looked at him. Minato didn't mean to tell them at first, but it shouldn't hurt. It was not their business, but they couldn't understand it either way. Soon, they would be gone anyway, like the coffins and other people in his life.

Only Pharos mattered.

"He asked me… to set him free."