The tension in the air was so thick, that you couldn't even cut it with a knife.
A chainsaw would be required to do the trick.
"Hello, Sebastian."
Damien smiled and greeted Seb.
"I must say, I didn't really expect us to meet under such … circumstances."
His voice was calm and even, without even the slightest emotional fluctuations hidden within.
"Judging from your current state, it looks like the two of us need to have a talk."
At least none that Sebastian could detect.
"But first, why don't you have a seat."
Damien got up from his chair and pushed it towards Sebastian.
Sebastian looked at the chair, then at Damien, then at the chair again.
Seb sighed.
Just what had he expected.
This was Damien after all.
Every single action he took was dictated using cold, hard logic.
Ronnie may have just died.
Sebastian may be showing skills that he shouldn't really possess.
His identity as part of the mafia had been leaked.
Yet the man hadn't lost even an inch of his composure.
It was as if this was just another Tuesday to him.
The calm and easygoing smile that usually made Damien seem reliable and friendly now sent shivers down Sebastian's spine.
He felt uneasy.
He felt unsettled.
Sebastian hadn't felt this way in a long time.
Sebastian had let go of the chains binding him at the end of the first phase.
The second phase had deepened his resolve and sent him hurtling down this path of no return.
And so far, he had abandoned all his fear, hesitation, and other weaker emotions in order to forge himself anew in the third phase.
It didn't matter how many times he died.
Or how gruesome the deaths were.
He just had to get back up and grow stronger.
All to achieve his insane goal of rebelling against purgatory.
Trying to go against a force whose magnitude he couldn't even begin to understand.
Yet none of that could make Sebastian feel as out of place as he was now.
There was something about Damien that made Sebastian feel a sense of repulsion and unease.
Perhaps the old Sebastian wouldn't have felt this way.
On the surface, there was nothing wrong with the way Damien was acting.
It was also normal for him to feel a bit distant meeting Damien after such a long time.
Yet that wasn't the case here.
Something fundamental had changed about Sebastian after experiencing the tutorial so far.
And this change was what led to Sebastian's current feelings.
Pushing down his feelings down his throat, Seb decided to take up Damien's offer and sit down.
Did Damien notice the complex feelings going through Seb's mind?
It wasn't certain.
Even if he did, Damien showed no signs of acknowledging it and proceeded to introduce himself to Sebastian once again.
"My name is Damien Caputo, and as you can see, I am the heir to the Caputo Familia."
It truly felt as if Sebastian was getting to know Damien for the first time in his life.
"The Caputo Familia is one of the oldest Italian mafia families to exist. We thus have a lot of history, tradition and of course… enemies."
No, this was actually the first time Sebastian was seeing this side of Damien.
"One of them is the D'yavol Bratva, an old Russian mafia. Their name literally means the Devil's Brotherhood."
The person in front of Sebastian wasn't his old friend.
"We have a long history written in blood."
It was just another stranger.
"It seems that you were unfortunately caught up in between our feud this tim-"
"-Is that all this is to you?"
"What do you mean?"
I looked deep into Damien's eyes while repeating my question.
"Is this entire incident, just an unfortunate ACCIDENT in your eyes?"
Damien paused for a bit.
For the briefest of moments there seemed to be an emotion resembling hesitation that flickered across his eyes.
It didn't last for long.
"As off-putting as that might sound, this incident was an unfortunate accident after all. No one was supposed to know about my identity. At least not until graduation."
Sebastian quietly clenched his fists.
Damien took a deep breath before continuing.
"I am not even a formal member of the mafia yet. I was supposed to live a normal life until the coming-of-age ceremony. In the end, you were just caught up in my affairs."
Sebastian's fists began to tremble.
"I am sorry for bringing you into this Sebastian."
Damien placed a map of the city in front of Sebastian and pointed to a red line drawn on it.
"This is an escape route that I have prepared for you. You just need to follow my arrangements and lay low for the next few days. I will take care of the bratva. Once it all blows over, I will be gone from your life."
Sebastian could feel his nerves popping out of his forehead. Only he knew how hard it was to hold himself back at this moment.
"This is my apology to you… and my last gift… as a friend."
*SMACK*
Sebastian could no longer hold himself back and punched Damien's face in with all the strength that he could muster within his right hand.
"I guess I should be grateful that YOUR HIGHNESS still deems this lowly peasant as a friend."
Damien raised a finger to his lips and noticed that they were bleeding.
He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the blood before replying.
"Calm down Sebastian. You are not in a stable frame of mind right no-"
"I AM CALM! DAMIEN CAPUTO! I AM FUCKING CALM!"
Seb smashed his fist into the glass window, breaking it into a thousand pieces!
Damien looked down at Seb's bloodied fists before just giving him a doubtful look.
"OF COURSE, I AM NOT CALM DAMIEN! RONNIE JUST FREAKING DIED! HE KILLED HIMSELF! YOU FUCKING SAW IT HAPPEN!"
"That was his choice…"
"HIS CHOICE! ARE YOU HEARING THE WORDS COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH? I should have known that you were the sniper all along. After all, you are the only person who would refuse to save your friends for shit like that."
"It's not that simple Seb… there are certain rules…"
"Rules. Logic. Calmness. Is that all you are about Damien? Are you a robot or a person?"
"You don't understand…"
"Ok Fine! Let's ignore the past for a moment. Are you not even going to ask me how I managed to get out of that warehouse alive? How am I able to use a pistol with such skill? How do I seem used to killing people?"
Damien finally fell silent for a moment as if was genuinely contemplating that question.
"If I were to ask… would you really tell? It's clear that you also have secrets that you haven't told Sebastian. Don't be unreasonable."
"You are the one who is being unreasonable. So what if I might not tell you, as a friend is it not your duty to ask?"
"Fine then. Sebastian, could you please tell me how you managed to acquire your skills in killing people."
"I won't tell you. I don't feel like sharing anymore. I am in a bad mood. Ask me later."
"You are just being a bitch now Sebastian Alaister."
"You are the one who is being a dick, Robo-face. Are you the only one who is so bloody stuck-up or does it run in the family?"
Damien's calm smile began to falter as anger and frustration started to break through his façade.
His voice was cold as ice.
"The members of the Caputo family might not be the strongest, the smartest, the richest or the craftiest. But do you know how we managed to climb our way to the top?"
It was now Sebastian's turn to fall silent.
"It was our ability to remain calm and think with a logical mind in the most critical and deadly of scenarios."
Damien clenched his fists, unaware that his voice was slowly getting higher.
"While others were busy panicking and running around, we would hold our ground and win the fight no matter how bad the odds were stacked against us."
Coming to the end of his speech, Damien finally lowered his volume.
"Do not insult my family, Sebastian."
Sebastian also found himself taken aback by Damien's harsh response.
His anger cooled down and he was able to look at the situation more calmly.
After having reached a conclusion, he sneered at Damien in response.
"All I see is a wimp hiding away from his true emotions just to think he has some semblance of control."
Damien growled.
"You. Take. That. Back."
Sebastian just grinned wider.
"I hit the nail right on the head, didn't I? I won't take it back. In fact, I bet that the rest of your family are also wimps."
He raised his finger and jabbed it right at Damien's chest.
"Just. Like. You."
*SMACK*
Damien swung his fist right into Sebastian's face.
And he swung hard.
So hard that Sebastian briefly see stars spin across his vision as he almost lost consciousness.
Raising a hand to wipe the blood off his face, Sebastian grinned widely at the furious Damien.
"Looks like you finally let it out, eh! Not so calm anymore, are you!"
Damien stared at Sebastian in confusion before his eyes widened in realization of what he had just done.
He stood still in shock as he gazed off vacantly for a few moments.
It was as if something fundamental within him had been broken.
He looked back at Sebastian's grinning face before chuckling self-deprecatingly.
"Looks like you got me good this time Seb. You got me… real good."
Seb also started laughing in response.
It felt as if the tension between them had finally been broken.
The sickening, uneasy and repulsive feeling that Sebastian had been feeling from Damien was finally gone.
The person in front of him was his best friend, Damien Caputo.
Not a stranger.
After laughing together for a while, Damien eventually calmed down and sat on the floor opposite Sebastian.
.
.
.
"So… what did you really come here for Seb?"
Sebastian also stopped laughing and got serious.
"Let's just say… if I were to have a way… to go back to 5 minutes before I and Ronnie got kidnapped. Is there any way that I could contact you?"
Damien nodded and threw over a business card.
"The number on it is the one I use for 'Family Business' purposes."
Seb couldn't help but smirk at that.
It was a long time since he had heard that old lame excuse about 'Family Business'.
After memorizing the number, he put the card away.
"You are not even going to ask me if I have the ability to time travel?"
"Nope."
"Tch, Boring."
"Bitch"
"Dick"
"…"
"…"
"Say, If I asked you to gather a large number of explosives and rig them up around the warehouse before we got there, could you do it."
"Why would you want that? I could do it though I might not agree… just say the words 'Groundhog Day' to me and I will probably believe you."
"Seriously?"
"Do I look like I am joking?"
"But… that's seriously such a cringe catchphrase, don't you have anything better?"
"It's not cringe, it's a classic."
"…"
"…"
"Say… are you just going to disappear forever after this?"
"Yes… now that my cover is blown, I have no choice. I still don't know which fucker was behind this."
"So, this is the last time we are meeting?"
"Probably. I am not even sure if I will be able to stop my guys from going after you to silence you after everything blows over"
"Seriously?"
"Just kidding, the Caputos are incredibly disciplined. My word as heir still bears quite a lot of weight."
"What if… I could prevent this kidnapping from ever happening. Will you still have to go"
Damien paused.
He looked deeply into Sebastian's eyes.
Countless complicated emotions seemed to flash within his eyes.
"I… don't think so. The fact that my identity was exposed means that the both of you will be in constant danger from associating with me."
"You sure are a fucking saint, Damien. Guess I should thank you for that."
"You are such a bitch Seb."
"Says the Dick."
"…"
"…"
"Now you are just making this weird."
"Shut up."
"…"
"…"
Seb finally decided to get up from his spot on the ground.
He had finally managed to recover from Damien's punch.
He offered his hand to Damien who took it and got up.
"I am leaving now."
"Okay."
Sebastian walked towards the door of the room before suddenly pausing.
"Hey, Damien."
He suddenly had an epiphany.
"What is it, Seb?"
Seb understood that the Damien he had just reconciled with truly disappear once he died and reset or even if he cleared and finished the tutorial.
"I was a little curious."
The real Damien would still be the same stuck-up self, suppressing his emotions under a mask of indifference.
"If you ever had to choose between your friends and your family? What choice would you make?"
If Seb ever managed to escape from Purgatory and meet Damien in the real world again, the feelings of repulsion and alienation might arise again.
At that time, things might not get resolved so peacefully.
"That's a really weird fucking question, Seb. What led to this curiosity?"
Sebastian also realized what exactly had changed within him fundamentally since the start of the tutorial.
"Nothing Damien. It's just plain simple curiosity."
Seb opened the door and stepped out.
"Well if you don't know the answer, why don't we try finding out right now?"
An incredibly twisted and depraved grin spread across Seb's face as he tilted his head back towards Damien while raising the M1911 in his hand.
Sebastian had realized. No, he had remembered that he was... Insane.
Damien's eyes flinched in horror as he suddenly realized what Seb was trying to do.
*BANG!*
But it was too late.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
Sebastian had just killed the senior mafia member that had led him to the room Damien was in.
Sebastian lowered the pistol, staring at Damien with eyes full of childlike curiosity.
"What are you going to do now, Damien?"