Shorter chapter for the start and since I'm working on a long one after, school also started but it's not that bad.

"Wa—?" I stopped myself from jumping out of my bed as my drowsy eyes recognised the shape of the small amphibian that was croaking on my chest.

I also recognised it's purple coloured skin with black spots located randomly on it.

It was something I grew up seeing on my desk all too often.

An old friend that I had lost a while ago.

"Ryounosuke!" I grabbed him from my chest and raised it above my head.

He croaked out laughter.

"Where were you buddy! I was searching for you!" My old friends' presence made me forget about what happened… yesterday…

Oh.

I put him down on top of my forehead gently as the events of yesterday returned to my mind.

I went on a date.

I had fun.

I died.

I saw a giant snake—

"Not a snake." — !!??!??!?!?!

"AHH!" This time I actually jumped– no, flew off my bed and landed with a spin to face the gruff voice that had surprised me with one leg crouched and the other ready to push off a wall I had landed near to.

"I'm not letting you get Ryounosuke!" Without a single thought or even looking at what has spoken I pushed myself off my wall and leaped at my bed while rotating my crouched leg to throw down a kick in mid ai—

Wait! if I kick it Ryounosuke might get crushed. And then my thoughts caught up to me.

I sped up my leg and let the kick go through before I was even near my bed. The force of it made me spin around and crash into the wall nearest to my bed, not breaking it because I wasn't overweight but most certainly waking up my parents, if they weren't already awake because of the noise I had made by pushing off the wall.

"Bwahahahaha!! That's a good kick barin." Barin? Where have I…

"Ow… Jormungandr?" I stared up at the ceiling, not there.

"Look at your bed." I moved my eyes to my bed, there was only Ryounosuke there.

Weird. I thought his voice came from there—

" I am the frog!"

.

No. No he isn't.

"I am!" Ryounosuke jumped down at me from my bed, a distance that a normal frog would not have been able to reach but Ryounosuke had survived eight years by my side so I knew he could live that

"Haha… yeah right. You're the purple toad I have fed, bathed and taken care of for the last eight years… even if I was killed by Shinohara-san himself I wouldn't believe that." I lifted myself from the floor and lightly stretched my legs before going and lifting Ryounosuke and going into the bathroom.

"You need a wash buddy. I'm sure I do too after what happened yesterday."

"When are you going to believe that I am inhabiting this frog's soul!"

"Toad, Jourmangandr. Toad."

"How are you not fazed by this!? You almost died yesterday!"

"I'm going to think about that after I take a bath. Now to the basin you go!"

G-44

The only living organism that I have found inside this world's trench and it is… odd.

It has gained all the evolutionary traits of what I expect from an organism yet it has one other trait that I did not expect.

The trait of reverse pressure flow.

When turned into a weapon, this organism turns into a dark blue and abyss black gauntlet that extracts the pressure from around it and if the user comes into contact with another physical being, they can release all the pressure into the entity they came into contact with.

As I said, odd. But not useless for the next one who will inherit it.

Watching Ryounosuke just relax as the water dribbled down his head relaxed me as well. The old toad loved having water poured on his head as much as he loved eating the flies in the house.

"You done?" While drying myself off, I forgot that I didn't bring spare clothes so I had to use my towel while using the mirror to do some light arm exercises. You couldn't be more prepared after yesterday.

If I hadn't taken up that lap pillow. I wouldn't have been able to experience a lap pillow but I wouldn't have died, probably have gotten hurt in a lot of places but I wouldn't have died. Not at all. I was certain of that.

"That's a lot of confidence for something you didn't do." And he's back.

"I'm just thinking." I replied while twisting my right arm just right so that I could hear an audible crack without twisting it.

That's one cramp gone.

"And I didn't see what weapon she was using so I don't even know what killed me."

"It was the girl."

"Yeah, what killed me. I'm asking for the thing that ended my life, not the one who used it to end my—" crack "—life." Oh now that felt good. Now for my back.

"Oh and by the way, you don't have to come out. I don't think Kuoh could— hell I don't think the earth would fit your size."

"I'm—"

I lifted a leg as I bent myself backward, reaching for the ground and gracefully flipping half forward on the other side as another crack popped in my spine.

"Ah, that felt good after so many months." Now I could actually move properly, almost like Shinohara-san.

I gently grabbed Ryounosuke from his little bath and dried him off on another towel I had made for him before letting my fat little friend sit ontop of my head.

He croaked in approval.

"Ha… alright, you win. I'm talkin' from inside your head."

Hah. Called it.

"You didn't."

Yes I didn't. I took out two shirts from my closet and held them above my head.

"Which one bud?"

"Ribbit."

The green one. "Good choice." I put the blue one back and picked out some shorts before pulling out…

"Huh?"

I reached inside my closet to see where my school uniform was… it wasn't in there.

What?

"Where did it—?"

"That's a good disposal job if I've seen one. Just forgot to disintegrate the body first."

Everything clicked into place.

"Yuuma-san took my school clothes…"

"I wouldn't just be sure with that, check your par—"

I knew the word he was about to say. I slammed my closet shut and spun the opposite direction before accelerating into a swift sprint towards the door.

They didn't check on me yet.

The noise should have awoken them and— even if my dad was a little clueless at times mom would have come to check if I was ok.

I knew my family better than anyone.

Turning the heel to the hallway that led to my parents room and sped myself up to zoom past the warm floor of the ground.

I had looked out of the window earlier and even checked the clock as I got up, it should be a hand past six at this point.

Mom should already be awake and preparing breakfast and dad should be getting ready to go to work.

Yet I couldn't hear a single noise from downstairs.

Not my mother calling out for me when I crashed into the wall earlier nor my father calling me to come down so we could have breakfast as a family.

No.

Eyes steeled I stopped at the door that led to my parents' room, almost burning my foot because of the force of stopping myself yet I ignored the pain and twisted the handle to their door.

*Creak…*

My eyes scanned the entire room faster than my mind could track them.

No broken windows, no broken floor or walls, no ripped clothes and no damage to their bed.

There wasn't even a hint of a struggle— not even a hint of someone entering or leaving their room.

"...mom…dad…?" The word escaped my throat with a sound almost reminiscent of rugged knives stabbing into soft flesh.

I walked forward, almost in a trance while holding my hand out to grab… something, anythin—

"They're alive."

Jourmangandr's voice snapped me out of my trance like a twig.

"Alive and unhurt."

Ryounosuke jumped down from my head and landed on my outstretched hand.

"Ribbit." "No one entered here."

I walked upto their sleeping bodies Iike a doll running on clockwork.

Then, taking a deep breath I—

Mom, dad's going to be late for work."

—ran.

Releasing those words as fast as I could, I ran. Placing Ryounosuke ontop of my head just in time for him to latch on.

If my mother was truly unhurt, my father would not be in seven seconds.

Four. I counted down while jumping down to the ground floor and grabbing my school bag from the chair I had kept it on before going on my date with Yuuma.

Two. I made my way to our fridge and took out some leftovers from yesterday before speeding through the doo—

"GARRROOOOUUUU!!!! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!!!"

Crisis averted.

The door shut itself from the sheer force of my mother's shout.

May god bless my father.

"Ha…ha…" I breathed out harshly, my breaths strained as I stood infront of my school after three minutes of running and jumping over trees and buildings as fast as I could.

Oh, and I was also screaming the entire time. Might have woken up some people.

"I'm…"

"Late. You have a good reason for today I believe?"

…hehe… Jormungandr-san?

"Uh… what?"

Can you self-destruct me?

The toad ontop of my head looked down at me, menacingly.

"Ribbit."

"No."

Aha… I'm going to die a second time…

"And I see you've found Ryounosuke again, I guess we don't have to search for him anymore." Souna senpai said with the most bland tone that I had heard since… three years ago.

"I… uh… I was looking for him before I came to school?" Jourmangandr, can I tell her I… I held my breath for a moment before releasing. I…

"Not yet."

I took down Ryounosuke from my head. He croaked in approval.

"And as you can tell!" With a poorly made smile I held out my purple toad to her.

"..."

"..."

Her face twitched, then with a slow sigh that dragged on for what felt like more than seven minutes, she began to speak again.

"Hyoudou, you're smart. But even a child can lie better than you."

Shit!

"Language, as he would have told you."

Tilting her glasses back into place, Souna senpai walked past me without… reprimanding me? …Eh?

"I will send Saji… no, Reya… no… Kiba. I'll send Kiba to bring you to the student council later."

"But why?" My voice betrayed myself, asking a question I meant to think of.

Her head slightly turned, not enough to face me but enough for me to see her frown.

"We know what happened yesterday."

Oh.

I tilted my head to the side, almost like a broken puppet.

That's bad?

"It might be since she mentioned 'we' and not 'I'."

…