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Dying has been something that I've always been afraid of. I think it's rather normal to have that mindset towards death. It means that everything you've done is over and its time to rest. Of course, this means that you leave things unfinished and no one ever plans to die. Those things left behind can be rather critical.

Just like with my father. I'm sure he didn't plan to die when he did. I mean, who could ever guess that some lunatic company would unleash a giant killer robot on a nation and cause an unprecedented amount of damage?

I fully expected to die or at least be heavily handicap when I risked my life against the ancient dragon. The details to what happened to me scare me to this day when I think about it. Nearly every bone in my body broken, organs heavily damaged, muscles destroyed, heavy blood loss, and the list just went on. If the hospital truly was able to save me, I would have lived in a bed for the rest of my life. Being able to maintain my current life would've been impossible.

Which brings me to now. I'm currently in the hospital laying awake going over what's recently happened. And what didn't happen. After that wolf jumped me, everything went blank. I fully expected to be dead and go to wherever I'm supposed to go after death. I mean, I would've assumed I'm dead right now, but I already pinched myself. Also the nurse that came in when I woke up cemented the fact that I'm alive.

I would be going absolute bonkers thinking about how I somehow survived that situation, if it wasn't for the fact that the nurse informed me that Noire had bought me into the hospital. Thankfully that piece of information was enough to stop me from panicking. After checking me over, the nurse told me that she would inform Noire that I was awake and in that time I've just been thinking.

This is my second near encounter with death. I've never been so close to death than the encounter with the dragon and wolves and it's making me seriously rethink my life choices. No doubt my mom already knows I've landed myself back in the hospital. She's going to lay it in on me for worrying her again and honestly at this point, she would be completely right to. Maybe I should stop. I've been putting myself into dangerous situations that have nearly cost me my life. This one from me just slacking. I shouldn't have fallen asleep in the middle of the field. I shouldn't have let my emotions posses me the way they did, but if I do stop hunting, what am I going to do for an income?

Putting that topic aside for now. I'm surprised that I'm not covered head to toe in bandages or anything. A quick scan over my body reveals that there isn't any visible damage. My shoulder doesn't have a sling or anything, in fact, the claw scars that I was sure I'd get are nowhere in sight. My muscles and body don't ache at all either. It's almost as if the wolves never hurt me. Makes me wonder if Noire was able to save/heal me again before I was goner.

Knock knock

"Are you awake Adam?" Well that's a good way to have my train of thought broken. Noire should be able to help clear my mind. "Yea I'm awake, come in."

With my response, Noire enters the room swiftly and makes long strides to arrive at my bedside quickly, the worry of her face fading as she sees me awake.

"It's so good to see you awake so soon." She says with a small smile. That one sentence automatically makes me feel a lot better. That means I haven't been here for long and I'll likely be able to go home today.

"Sorry to be worrying you again Noire, thank you for saving me again." Instead of responding in thanks like I expected her to, she gives me a quizzical look instead. Did I say something?

"As much as it's nice to hear that Adam, but I didn't do much to warrant thanks. The only thing I did was save you from the elements. In fact, I want to know what happen to you. When I found you, there was a large puddle of blood, your clothes and armor were shredded, but there weren't any visible wounds on you. When we got here and got you checked out, turned out you had just passed out from exhaustion. Nothing was wrong with you according to the doctor, aside from that. So, what happen to you?"

….Huh. Well. This is interesting.

"Your sure nothing was wrong with me?" She shakes her head. "You didn't heal me like you did before to close any wounds?" Another shake. "Well. To tell the truth, I'm not exactly sure either." She gives me a pensive stare at that, before saying, "Can you tell me what happened before you passed out? That might help paint a better picture." I nod and begin to tell her as much as I can. From being out in the wild and falling asleep (she promptly scolded me for a while about that), waking up and battling the wolves (she had me pause over the more gruesome parts), and finally to when I blacked out after being downed by the last wolf.

"So, if you didn't save me and the wolf was nowhere in sight, did you see anyone else right by chance?."

"You know as well as I do that no one would be just roaming the forests at that hour Adam." True, there aren't any hunters after all.

"I was…investigating something and found you by yourself passed out. If it wasn't for the fact that your blood was everywhere and your stuff destroyed, I would've assumed you were just sleeping on the floor."

That's….interesting.

"There really wasn't anyone around?" Noire shakes her head. "So. How am I alive?"

Noire stares at me directly in my eyes as I say this and for a moment, it feels as if she's looking at something deeper. Something I have no idea about, but she can see it.

"You really don't remember anything after passing out?"

"No, nothing at all."

"You don't know any magic that could have saved you at the last second?"

"Absolutely none. Magic has never been something I've dabbled in."

Magic is something that is possible in this world, but not everyone has the ability to make use of it. Techniques are another ability that can use MP, but I don't have anything amazing that would have helped in that situation. Something or someone must have come in at the last second to save me. I should honestly be dead right now according to what Noire has told me.

Noire has been standing in place while looking upwards to the ceiling. She's mumbling some stuff that I can't make out, but maybe she knows something I don't?

"Uh Noire. Is everything alright?" She snaps to me and begins to move towards the door.

"I'm going to have them do a quick blood test on you Adam. Stay right there, if my suspicions are right, then I know what's going on." She said all this quick enough that I didn't get a chance to respond before she was out the door and disappeared.

"Not like I can move even if I wanted to." I say to myself as I lay back down into the bed and wait for the Noire to come back.

The doctors came quickly and toke my blood for the test. I'm just waiting in my room for the results to come back. Noire came back for a bit to tell me that she had informed my mother what had happened to me. She apparently handled the news fairly well and is trusting Noire to ensure my health. Which honestly surprised me. I expected her to come down to the hospital with the force of a pack of rhinos the second she heard I was in the hospital again, but Noire must have said something to prevent that.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand now back to waiting. Noire left after telling me about my mom and it's been a while since that actually. I'd be using my phone to distract myself if it wasn't for the fact that it has a fairly large crack on it. Noire did say that my armor was also destroyed, along with the sword I had bought. I'm going to have to get all of it replaced again and repair my armor when I get out…if I even want to do all that.

Knock knock

Is that Noire? "Come in." Without looking towards the door, I half yell to whomever is knocking. I really hope that's Noire. I wanna go home already.

The door clicks open and it obviously isn't Noire since she would have walked over to me quickly while talking about something, instead the footsteps are slow and hesitant. As if they aren't sure they should be here. I glance over to see who it is, and my eyes freeze over the person the second I register who it is.

Kasumi is who came in, wearing blue jeans, black flats, and a yellow shirt with her hair up in a pony tail. She has her eyes locked on me as she walks over, her eyes are unsure and seem a little scared.

"Adam." She says as she reaches my bedside and takes a seat next to my bed.

"Hey Kasumi." I'm rather shocked and have no idea what to say in response to her being here. The first thing that enters my mind is how the hell does she know that I'm here? Second, why is she here? We didn't end off on the nicest note last time we spoke, so I'm a little tense as to why she's here now…and excited. Maybe she's had a change of heart from this second accident? As bad as that sounds, I wouldn't be against the idea, but that thought is vanquished just as quickly as it came. Since Kasumi is obviously too nervous to start a conversation. She's just staring at her hands that are in her lap. Thanks to her hair being up in a pony tail, I can see the troubled expression on her face. I… don't know what to do. Should I spark conversation or let her work up the nerve? Ugh, breaking awkward tensions is always so embarrassing.

"So uh." Crap, now she's looking straight at me. "What's up?"

…

…

…

…

I want to die.

Kasumi lifts her head up fully and looks at me with the most confused face I've ever seen her wear.

"…Pushing that awkward attempt to start a conversation aside, I should be asking you that question Adam. So, how are you doing and what happened this time?" As awkward as that start was, it did get the conversation started. For the next fifteen or so minutes, I retold Kasumi the events that led me to being in the hospital again. I'd love to take some time in this moment to talk about Noire, but this isn't the time to be addressing that. Even though I'd love to so we can move on from it, that topic is best for another time.

All throughout my tale Kasumi has remained silent and hasn't really changed expressions. If it was anyone else, they'd think she's being heartless for not showing any sort of emotion towards my story, but I've been around Kasumi long enough to pick up her subtle gestures. The slight quiver of the eyes, her fist making a slight fist, and her lips moving so subtly, you wouldn't be able to tell that she was biting the inside of her mouth. As rude as it may sound, I'm enjoying seeing her like this. Not for anything sadistic mind you, it's just that she doesn't show her emotions like this since we were in high school. Something like this is rare, and… very eye catching.

I've always known that she's pretty. Gorgeous really. The fleeting crush that I had on her in high school comes back to memory briefly. It was an awkward time, I had really wanted to ask her out in that very short time, but I couldn't muster up the guts and concluded that being her friend was best. That memory reminded me why I had a crush on her. She's so pretty. She has an amazing personality, we got along great, and I absolutely could have saw myself with her years later at the time. Which all mostly stays true. She's changed for sure, but in the hang outs we would have from time to time, echoes of her old personality would come back. Of course, it was mixed with her current personality. This moment, right now, is seriously reminding me of those old times.

Really, what would I have to lose from marrying Kasumi? Financially, I'd be perfectly secure until I could figure out what I personally want to do with my life. I wouldn't want to rely on Kasumi my entire life. We mesh extremely well together, so fights would be scarce. I do care about her, and she obviously cares for me.

I could give many reasons as to why it would be a good idea for me to accept Kasumi's proposal, but there is one issue to it.

The why.

Kasumi is a smart girl. I'm sure she knows that if she told me why she sprung this on me so suddenly, we could work this out and continue our lives, but something about this whole proposal causes an issue. She can't/won't tell me why she's asked this of me. Nearly every time I ask her, she refuses to answer me.

I could assume it's get out of an arranged marriage or something ridiculous like that, but Kasumi has to have a solid reason. She isn't simple like that. I think. The only legitimate reason I can think of is something to do with her parents. Which is the most likely reason, after all, the topic of her parents is something Kasumi has never bought up aside from when we got to know each other initially.

I wonder just what could her parents have done or said to her for her to be like this today…

We had reached a lull in our conversation. I had finished telling Kasumi about how I ended up here, and she seems to be absorbing everything she's just heard. Since she's taking a moment, I decide do so as well. Re-analyzing what I had just thought about. So many questions…

"Adam, I'd like to make a compromise." What?

"Just what kind of compromise?" I reply warily.

"If I told you more information about the marriage, would you promise to hunt less, preferably stopping altogether." What!? "Of course, I'll give you money based on what you usually made while you hunted based on the difference if you stop or hunt less. I know you wouldn't accept money for nothing, so this is the least I can do." She says all this with her verdant eyes locked feverishly upon my own. Looking this deeply into her eyes, I can finally see it. Fear. She's scared for me. I've seen that look in my mother before, but I never thought to look for it in Kasumi's eyes. She's never shown her emotions, let alone through her eyes, but there's such a genuine fear of something happening to me that she's willing to make this offer.

It's a tempting offer at that. I'd finally learn about why she's so set on the whole marriage thing. I wouldn't have to go out and risk my life hunting, something that my mother would be pleased with. Money wouldn't be much of an issue with Kasumi's financial backing, as much as it would hurt my ego to have it. More importantly, it would likely fix the issues that me and Kasumi have. Maybe I'd even end up accepting her proposal after learning the details behind it…

But…

"I'm sorry Kasumi, you're offer is very tempting. Truthfully, it would be better for everyone if I take the deal, but right now I can't take it. I…I have to think about it and talk it over with my mother first. I know you want an answer now, but I can't give that to you. Sorry." I say as I bow my head. My answer makes sense, the offer is good. Better than I could ask for. It's not like hunting is something I love, it's something that was picked up out of necessity. The money part hurts my pride a little, but sacrifices have to be made. But I do need to talk to my mother about this. She needs to be involved since this affects her as much as it does me. I especially should talk to her about what I've thinking about Kasumi recently.

Kasumi doesn't respond immediately, but it's clear that she's upset about my answer. She probably would have wanted me to answer without my mother's input. I hope she realizes that one day she'd have to get over the issues she has with my mother, especially if we were married.

"I- I understand Adam. It's okay, the offer will still stand whenever you're ready. Just contact me when you have an answer okay?" I simply nod. "Adam. I…never mind." I was about to question her what she meant to say, but before I can articulate that, she surprises me by swiftly getting up and hugging (embracing?) me. In the time that I've been involved with Kasumi, she's never really hugged me. Sure, she's grabbed my arm sometimes when we went out. But that's all we ever really did. She's never been the physical type. Even when she does grab onto my arm, its only ever out of fear or some sort of reason.

Simply put, this is the first we've ever hugged.

It's…nice. To feel her body so close to mine, to smell her, and to just… it feels so nice. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. Honestly, this is my first time hugging someone besides my mother (which is pretty sad now that I've thought about it). It toke me a little to register what was going on, but when I did, I circled my arms around her waist and pulled her a little closer. Sure, we're not exactly in a good spot right now, but I still care for her. She obviously still cares for me too since she initiated this uncommon show of affection.

That's lasting an awfully long time. I'm no expert on hugs or anything, but we've been in this position for a while now. It feels like she isn't going to be letting go anytime soon though.

"Hey Uh, Kasumi. Not that I'm not enjoying this, bu-"

"Shh."

"Bu-"

"Shush."

"Okay."

Well. Guess, I'll just…keep this going. The only issue is that I'm a growing male, and Kasumi has certain assets that are pressing against me. Whoa boy. Need to keep calm.

Luckily after my quickly shut down attempt to remove us from this situation, Kasumi let go and stood up. Good thing too, I might have accepted her proposal right then there if she hadn't let go.

"I'll be going now Adam. Try to take better care of yourself and please take what I said into consideration, okay?" Kasumi says as she adopts a neutral expression on her face. Her eyes tell a different story though in this moment that I can see.

"Yea, I'll do both. See ya around Kasumi." She nods and begins to leave my room. Ah.

"Hey uh, Kasumi?" She stops her exit and turns to face me with a bewildered expression.

"Yes Adam?"

"For whatever it's worth. I'm sorry." Her face morphs from shock to neutrality.

"Sorry about what?

"Everything."

"…" Man, I'm good at making things awkward today. "I'm sorry too Adam." A conflicted look crosses her face before she turns and leaves.

Well, that went better than I thought. I'm not sure why I suddenly felt the need to apologize, but it felt needed. Like, something I'd regret if I never did it.

I lay back down and close my eyes, intent on letting dreams take me until Noire comes back. It'll help clear my head for su-.

*Knock knock*

"Adam, are you awake?" Well there goes that idea.

"Yea I'm awake, come in." I had half a mind not to respond, but that'd be rude, and I'd like to know the results of the blood test.

"How are you feeling?" Noire says in soft tone as she makes her way towards me. Which is odd. It sounds the type of tone you'd take when something is seriously wrong with someone.

"Uh yea, I feel just fine. Why? Did you find something in the blood test?"

"Well…yes. Its's just…" She pauses as she stares intently at me. "You sure you feel fine? Absolutely nothing feels out of place? Don't lie to me."

"Yea, I feel good as new. Just what exactly did you find to ask that?" Now I'm really curious to what the blood test came out with.

She doesn't answer immediately, just keeps staring me down as if I was a kid hiding an injury from a parent. "You don't feel a flow of something. As if something is streaming itself into you?" That's an odd question.

"I. I don't know what you mean."

She sighs and puts her pointer thumb fingers on the bridge of her noise. "I'm really sorry Adam, but I think I did something to you than can't be reversed."

Huh.

"What do you mean?"

"When I healed you from you're fight with the Ancient Dragon. I had to pore a large amount of share energy into you since nothing else could be done." Share energy? "Sorry, what's share energy?"

Humans and Goddesses have a direct relationship. We believe in them, and in turn they protect us. That's the gist of what someone is taught from birth in this world, but not much is explained after that. Is share energy the power she gains from humans believing in her?

"Ah." She looks caught off guard for a second but recomposing herself and crossing her arms. "O-of course you don't know what share energy is! It's not exactly public information after all… Well, basically it's what empowers us Goddesses. It gives us the abilities we have like control over elements, healing, and our Hyper Drive Divinity (HDD)." That's… pretty cool.

"So, you can use that same power to heal me, but that doesn't explain how I'm alive right now."

"That's… where this gets weird. Share energy isn't exactly supposed to heal you." Wait wait wait wait. "What's it supposed to do then?" She looks away for a second, contemplating her words before she gives a sigh. "Look, share energy and magic are two different things. Share energy gives Goddesses the ability to easily use magic, but I don't know any healing magic. Heck I barely know any supportive magic." She again gains a pensive look before swooping my right hand in hers.

"Promise me." Huh?

"Promise you what?"

"Promise me that what I tell you right here and now, you won't tell anyone else. I'll think of something to tell your mother, but what I tell you here is between us." The look in her eyes gives me chills. She's so serious, but worried about me. This is really important for her to be asking me something like this.

"I promise." Not like I would've said no anyway.

She sighs again before starting to speak, "Thank you." She's still holding my hand, so soft… "Share energy isn't just for giving us power, it's what gives Goddesses life. It's what gives us our immortality, without shares, the faith of the people, we Goddesses would die."

"So, without us, you die?"

"That's right, without humans, we Goddesses wouldn't exist."

That's… I mean, it makes sense really. Gods can't exist if someone doesn't believe in them, it's just never occurred to me that humans and Goddesses shared THAT direct of a link. I mean, whenever I thought of the Goddesses, I just thought they were all powerful and would always remain, but to know that if every person turned on her and she ran out of share energy, she would die.

"Wait, why are you telling me this? What would share energy have to do with me?" She's still holding my hand too.

"That's where this gets complicated. See when I healed you before, I injected pure share energy into you. Share energy isn't something that we know everything about, faith isn't something you can really calculate after all, but it can do just about anything if you believe in it. I prayed that it would heal you and it did, but there's been a side effect."

"What kind of side effect?" She doesn't answer immediately, instead she turns her eyes away from me and down to our hands as she tightens her hold. "The shares didn't leave your body. They stayed. In fact, they're what's keeping you alive. They exist all over your body. Brain, heart, lungs, and anywhere you can imagine. They maintain your body from falling apart. In a sense, it's sort of a constant life support."

I…I don't know what to say. A godly energy is keeping me alive? And without said energy I'd be dead? What the heck… Wait.

"Noire." She meets my eyes as I speak. "Am I human?" Her eyes widen before they gain a melancholy look. "I'm… not sure." A chill pass through me. "You are human, but not at the same time. It's… hard to describe, but the best way I can call it is that you're a human that's been infused with shares. I can't exactly say for sure, we'd have to do more tests, but the shares may as well be your heart."

"Are you saying that without them I might die?" I ask feeling dread course through me.

"I... Yes, from what I saw from the test, the shares are acting as the main support for your cells. If we did more tests, it'd likely show the same results throughout your body. Share energy is what's keeping you alive." That's… wow. I'm honestly not sure what to say.

Well, I'm grateful in a sense that I'm alive. Not entirely sure how I feel about not being entirely human. Some kind of… human share thing. Shareman? Sounds like a tacky hero name.

"Uh, Noire, just a question." She's still holding onto my hands which is slowly making this situation worse for me than currently is. "Does this mean I'm connected to you in some way?" Her hands tighten their grip on my own, man she's strong. "Yes… in a way. I've found that the sharicite is constantly flowing a small number of shares to you as a form of life support. It wasn't noticeable until now since it was such a minuscule amount, but since you suffered so much during your battle with the wolves, it caused an influx of shares to flow to you making it noticeable now." That explains how she found me. She must have sensed it all and came running.

"So I'm connected to the sharicite…" Theres a whole bunch of questions I'd like to ask, but I think my brain is starting to slowly lose brain cells from all of this. "I'm sorry Noire, but could I ask for a moment? I need to process all of this."

"Oh! Of course, Adam. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be here, but call whenever you need to talk okay?" I nod in response and wait for her leave… of which she's making no effort to do. She's just holding onto my hands with her eyes looking straight at me.

"Uhh Noire. Not to be rude or anything but you've been holding my hands. For a while." Her eyes widen as her cheeks go red and she jumps far away from me. Man, she has some reflexes.

"S-s-sorry about that! I have no idea what got into me! Silly me! I was worried but I'm not that worried, after all it's my shares that are flowing into you so you were going to be fine no matter what!" She calms down as she says that, and eventually starts to take her leave. "I'll just… see you around Adam."

Well. That was something. I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, I now have this godly energy flowing through my veins. Who knows, I might be able to use magic like Noire can. That'd be cool, but at the same time, I feel different. Not entirely different, but now that I'm aware of my situation, I can feel it. I can feel the shares slowly coming to me, and I can faintly tell where Noire is. She's… just now leaving the hospital. I can't exactly tell where she is, and it's getting faint, but I feel like if I concentrated, I could tell where she is. This just solidifies my new position.

I feel the burdens of today suddenly flow themselves upon me, making me lay back down in bed feeling exhausted.

Before my mind surrenders to sleep once again, I have just one thought.

Am I still human?

A/N: See? Nice and fast update! How long till the next? Hopefully sometime next week? We'll see, I'm going to get quite busy sometime soon, so I'll try to get another chapter out beforehand. There'll be a rather important question at the end of this story, but that's something for later.

As always thank you to everyone who's followed/fav this story! Along with the reviews, very much appreciated. Hope you all have a great morning/afternoon/night!