A shorter chapter to counter-balance the huge previous one that was a massive chunk to pull out. Though it was for the most part an entire monologue. Heh.

A fly could be heard right now in the Service clubroom, because of the unraveled truth of Hikigaya Hachiman, and the man posing as him, right this very moment. No one was screaming bullshit, no one was panicking or even saying a word, except for a few pairs of lips parted slightly, but no noise was coming out. From a third person's point of view, it was looking like a small classroom staring at a student showing on his laptop a visual part of his presentation. Even with the two oldest females to whom said 'student' had already confessed the truth, it was still a tough deal to process the same informations a second time.

Where it could've been a more 'lively' and 'alive' ambiance, it was quite the opposite, something most would find frightening for good reasons.

Deadly quiet.

"I believe I pretty much all you basically need to know about me, and the former owner of this body I'm stuck in. If you have any questions however, feel free to ask, but be precise and quick. Just because we have been given the entire afternoon doesn't mean we have all day." Hikigaya spoke, turning off the laptop and placing back into the sport bag on the floor.

For a few minutes, the awkward silence stayed and no one uttered a word, simply exchanging stares and nod until Hikigaya Komachi came up with a question.

"If.. If you aren't Onii-chan then, if he truly is... dead... Then who are you? You never gave us your name, only brief glimpses of what your life has been." She spoke softly and meekly, the complete opposite of the bright and cheerful cute little sister she always was.

He nodded, brushing his hair to give them a more untamed look, pulled out 4 items from his right pocket, placing one of them around his neck, and 3 smaller ones on his fingers, 2 on the left hand and a single one on his right hand.

"When I was alive, Komachi, I went by the name that was given to me at birth, Alexander 'Alex' L. I won't say my former family name because it's something I unfortunately inherited from a person I hated my whole life, and it wasn't my mother. Born at the end of May 1989 only to die at the age of 30, near my 31st birthday, 2020. That being said, Alex isn't the name I'm going to go by now, and keeping the use of your departed brother's name wouldn't be right, none of those two choices would be due to the fact we both died. So I gave some thought and found one I quite like, Damian."

Yui gained a shocked face when he mentionned his birthdate, and voiced her own question using her voice, not as loud as usual but close.

"Which day is your birthdate Hikki? Are you too being a Gem-"

"Yes Yui, I'm a Gemini too. You were born June 16th if my memory serves me right, and I was born a few days before the end of May, so according to the zodiacal calendar, the two of us are Geminis, birthed under the sign that is both a blessing and a curse at the same time. Depending on what are your beliefs, what you've been through in life, you could be on one or the other plate of the scale: someone good, or someone bad. I never paid much attention to my horoscope in general and only read and remembered the important parts of being one. Funny though, I never pictured you as an astrologic-related nerd." He chuckled at the light jab at the end, making her pout cutely.

Said expression was short-lived as a faint blush crept up her cheeks and a small smile made its way on her lips.

"It's not that... I'm just happy to know that we have something in commong, something important..."

His eyes widened for a bit before returning to their natural half-lidded shape, a ghost of a smile in response to hers.

"You know, one thing to keep in mind even though we have that in common indeed, is to not lose yourself like I did. While I read and discovered the traits of the people born under that sign and find pretty much all of it to be insanely accurate, it is as unlikely to find 2 Gemini being exactly the same. In fact, it is as unlikely as finding two perfectly identical water drops on a rainy day. What makes you who you are isn't a a 'brand', a 'mark' or whatever. It's what you believe in, how you see things, how you have been raised, what you went through... That is what shapes you into who you are, and what you'll become. But I'm glad not to be alone anymore in that regard..."

His voice was calm and deep. It was as if he was speaking like an old wise sage, which didn't escaped the two oldest persons in the room, and the resident chuunibyou as well.

"Humu! I see my old battle partner has not lost his smarts and wisdom! No matter what form or name you take, we both will outlive others and spread out the tales of our glorious lives to the future generations! Mwahahahaha!" Zaimokuza exclaimed loudly as he stood up from his chair with a wild grin and a thumbs up, staring at a facepalmed exasperate schoolmate.

"Zaimokuza, while I will take as compliments the few parts in your short speech which I assume were legitimate compliments, I am also both amazed and scared at the same time by your enthousiasm. In the company of the wrong people, a guy as committed and passionate as you could very well be responsible for the emergence of a Fourth Reich... And we already have enough bullshit going in the World we live in right now. So if you don't mind my blunt way of saying it, please sit the fuck back down and shut your mouth."

Zaimokuza wasn't fazed whatsoever by the recently revealed older man and sat down, proudly keeping his grin and crossing his arms over his puffing chest.

"Hmm, senpai?"

Hikigaya, or Damian now that he has established his new private identity, shifted his gaze towards a shy-looking Isshiki, but he knew better not to stare at her for too long, or he might forget what kind of person was hiding underneath her own mask.

"Isshiki Iroha, I thought I already told you at least once to not call me like that, but also that I would kill you if you did. So unless you stop doing that permanently, the Student Council Presidency will find itself without a candidate, considering you're the only one running right now. Aside from that, go on."

By any means, the way he spoke held no malice or ill intentions whatsoever, but for most except Isshiki herself and a few others, Hikigaya talking so casually about killing someone was really disturbing and downright scary as hell.

"Ne senpai~, what is your goal in life now? And what was it in the past?"

Yes indeed, that question had been in a lot of minds up until now, even Shizuka and Haruno's, and his own as well.

The surprising action on his end was to widen his eyes a bit in surprise, picking a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, and placing one in his mouth without lighting it. He sat on the edge of the table, his left leg dangling in the air, placed his forearms on his knees and took a fake drag on the item in his mouth before huffing loudly, head hung low.

"Hikigaya Hachiman's goal for the future was to become a househusband. To a certain point my goal was pretty much the same in my former life, all the way to when I exited middle school. For some reason, the concept of being married to a beautiful faithful woman I would love, have kids with her, a house, living a normal life and even getting a job was everything I wanted. Others were more focused about what they wanted to do, focusing on their high school, college, getting a degree and stuff like that, but to me, this was the one and only important thing..."

"Of course, nothing go as planned, and the dreams I had been having ever since I was 10 or 11 were crushed into dust the moment all that childish time came to an end, everyone drifting apart as life goes on. Soon enough, I felt left in the dirt, left to rot in the loneliness and solitude I feared more than anything. Days transformed into weeks, months, and before I realized, I had grown accustomed to those fears and accepted them willingly as my own life. It dawned upon me that I had reached the proverbial 'bottom of the well'... And I was past the point of no return."

"I was comfortable in that pit of emptiness, alone, surrounded by silence, and I would occasionally remember bits of my past, wondering about 'what ifs' displayed in an endless black void. I unconsciously went into the 5 stages of grief very quickly, and the last one, Acceptance, was shockingly the easiest to deal with. But instead of feeling completly empty and dead inside as I should have after going through the final step, I stayed alive because the 2nd step was deep-rooted inside my mind, more than I had ever thought: Anger!"

He stood up and walked towards the windows and stared at the blue sky outside, his narrowed eyes closing for a few seconds before opening again, glaring at something or someone, perhaps his own reflection in the glass.

"All the repressed anger and negative feelings, emotions I had kept locked up were brought back, awakened from a forced slumber after all those years. Despite being a much calmer, wiser person as time went one, those mental scars never disappeared, no matter how deep I tried to push them. The moment I accepted the 'end' of my 'dreams' and hopes for a future, the moment I mentally died, all of that negativity was brought back and replaced the life I had just gave up. I remained mature and composed, but it was only a mask to hide this new me, reborn from anger and hatred, with a single purpose in mind: Bring down with me those who wronged me in any way, shape or form. No one would be safe, there would be no more family, friends, acquaintances... Only victims and piles of dead bodies with mine on top once it was over..."

He let out a dark and hollow chuckle as he kept going on, letting a short pose after another fake drag on his cigarette.

"Eventually, that twisted state of mind accelerated the rate of my organs failures, and probably played a part in my death. Then, as you all know by now, I was 'transfered' in this body, and had time to accustom myself to this place, its people, and started embracing a new life. Slowly but surely, I might be able to let go of the past, but it's gonna take some time. So don't expect me to go all mushy and nice on any of you anytime soon. Call that some sort of 'recovery'..."

The last part of his sentence brought a few small laughs and giggles from the females, AND Totsuka. Sagami Minami stayed silent and Saki Kawasaki was having a bright blush on her cheeks for... whatever reason.

"Yeah yeah, make fun of me, go on. I am the oldest person in this clubroom, so technically, I am the authority right here and now! But because I'm in a decent mood, I'll let it slide this time around." He waved dismissingly, placing back the intact cigarette into the back pocket of his black large jeans and sat back on the edge of the table he was using as a desk.

"So, anythin' else you wanna ask?"

Once more, a bit of silence until it was broken by a question no one necessarely expected after the ramble Damian had just been through. But it was also the person who asked that was just as unexpected as the question itself.

"Hermm, Damian-kun... Do you have your eyes on someone at the moment?"

All eyes, especially the red-brownish ones turned towards none other than Hina Ebina.

To those wondering the reason behind the title of each chapter, those are songs from my favorite spotify playlist. I am for the most part what could be 'classified' as a hard-rocker/metalhead. I try as best as I can to make the content of each chapter to match the ambiance, lyrics and even title of each song. The reason why I assume so many people went reading the improved 1st chapter 'The Loner' for example isn't because it's the first one of the story, but because it clearly relates to Hikigaya Hachiman and who he is. However, I chose this title based on a song from late guitarist Gary Moore, a mainly instrumental where he displayed his many great abilities with a guitar and set up a very specific mood. Many people say the man didn't quite got the respect he deserved as one of the many great of all times, but that's another whole subject entirely.