Woods Astraf was on his way to his school when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. It was his childhood friend; Aira Stelle. It was the last day of school.

"Good morning!" she said in an enthusiastic voice.

"Aira, you're too excited."

"It's the last day of school before summer vacation! How can you not be excited?"

"I am, but it still is just a normal day other than that, so don't get too excited."

"Whatever, anyways, can you head to the rooftop at lunch? I have to tell you something."

"Why not now? We have more than enough time to talk."

"It's a secret," she said in a teasing voice.

"Alright, see you." Woods went ahead while Aira went with some of her friends. After sitting at his chair in their classroom, Woods was called out by his other friends Rigor, Rafa, and Charles.

"Yo! It's the last day of school, I can finally play Legacy Infinite all day!" Charles started.

"I heard the new update will be out in a week, you guys up for raids?" Rafa asked.

"Hell yeah!" Charles and Rigor shouted.

"How about you Woods? Up for raids?" Rigor asked

"Nope, my parents and I are gonna be gone for a while, I can't play on my pc until the end of summer vacation. The place also does not have any signal since it's on a mountain, it's my grandparents' house after all." Woods answered.

"Well too bad, anyways, we have been setting up an alliance with another union, 'Deimos Industries' was the name of it I think." Rafa changed the topic.

"I heard they were Rank 1 in multiple servers, man I wish we can get Rank 1 as much as they can, unfortunately that would take years." Rigor complained. "Oh yeah, Woods aren't you gonna tell Aira-"

"I will, just not now." The teacher arrived right after.

Lunch finally arrived and Woods came to the rooftop of the school, he found Aira waiting for him up there.

"Hey, why'd you call me up here for that 'important' thing you want to talk about?"

"I- uhh just wanted to chat! Yeah! I just wanted to chat! Definitely just that!"

"Alright? But why not earlier? Also why are you acting weird all of a sudden? Is something wrong? Are you sick?"

"Wh- wh- what? No! No, I'm fine! Definitely just fine!"

"Alright, do I need to bring you to the nurse's office?"

"No! It's just that I~"

"You what?"

"I'm...going to Canada…"

"Huh?"

"My parents decided that I would be better off studying there than here. They think I can't focus here, even though I have good grades, they still think I would be able to reach my goals studying overseas than here."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Honestly, it caught me by surprise too. They only told me about it yesterday."

"You have quite the parents there."

"I guess,"

"Well, good luck then, I wish you the best overseas."

"Wait, y- you're not mad are you?"

"No? Why would I be mad? In my opinion they made the best choice, you could finally be a doctor, and you could get out of that introverted shell of yours."

"My what?"

"Everyone is aware that you can't communicate with others you don't know, that's normal nowadays, but you're gonna have a hard time finding friends if you keep going like that." Woods pinched her cheek.

"Oww!"

"Anyways, I wanted to tell you something too."

"What?"

"I-" Woods was interrupted by the school bell, signifying that lunch break was over. Woods and Aira rushed back to their classroom with haste. Woods was a master at hiding his emotions, it wasn't shown in his face but he was on a panic, not only is Aira leaving but the place he and his parents were going to does not have signal since it was on a mountain.

It was now math class and Charles, who was behind Woods, poked him. They started to whisper to each other.

"Did you get to tell her yet?"

"No, not yet, maybe after class. And.....that may be my last chance to tell her, me and my parents will be leaving for our trip tonight. She's also...going to Canada." Woods had a sad and almost teary look on his face.

"She's what? Bro you need to tell her today!"

"I know! I'm trying to think how to do it and I may have an idea."

"Let's hear it,"

"I'm gonna-"

"Woods Astraf and Charles Peda, pay attention, no talking in my class." The teacher noticed the two chatting.

"Yes ma'am!" Both of them shouted, the whole class laughed. They also got a punishment for that, they were gonna clean the classroom instead of the assigned group.

15 minutes after school was over.

"Man this is gonna take us a while!" Charles complained.

"Stop complaining and do more cleaning." Woods replied.

"Man it's your fault we got punished!"

"Why are you blaming me? I only replied to you because you were poking me."

"Yeah but no one told you to reply!"

"Are you seriously that desperate to win?"

"Yes,"

"Just get back to cleaning."

"But I don't wanna!"

"Too bad, you're still gonna do it anyway. We're almost done though."

"Good point, wait, let me take over the cleaning."

"Why?"

"Go confess to Aira dummy! She left not a while ago."

"Good point, thanks man."

"Anything for a bro, now make haste!"

"Roger!" Woods picked up his bag and made a run for it. He ran as fast as he could, hoping to catch up on Aira. He turned the street's corners faster than Takumi overtaking corners in a downhill race. He got comments like; "Why is that young man running fast?". As he was running across a street, tire screeches could be heard by the average person but Woods wasn't paying attention, then all of the sudden...…..darkness consumed his line of sight. He awoke in a hallway with a dim light at the end of it. He started to walk as he saw no other options. He could hear voices whispering, some familiar, some not. "What was the meaning of this?" He asked himself. After walking aimlessly for what felt like hours, the dim light seemed to move farther and farther, as he started hearing...…..his memories?

"Woods Astraf? Your last name is one letter away from 'astral' most people associate that with stars. Speaking of which, can we watch the stars together tonight?" A little girl's voice called out.

"Sure, oh! I just got reminded, isn't it your birthday in a few months? What do you want for a gift?" A little boy replied to the girl.

"You! I want to be with you! But my parents told me that friends aren't good for me since they distract me from my studies."

"Bad friends do, but I'm a good friend!"

"I know you are silly, you might be older than a few months but you seem more childish than me!"

"No I'm not, I'm just speaking in a way you would understand."

"Look at you speaking like an old man now."

"Aira! Where are you? I swear if I see you with that boy again, I'm gonna ground you for a week young woman! You can't just escape studying by going out here to play with your 'friends'." Her mother called.

"Well it's time for you to leave now, see you tomorrow Aira."

"Alright, see you!" The memory ended there, Woods snapped back into the hallway and kept walking forward.

"That's right, her parents are quite strict. But that never stopped her from talking to me." Woods thought to himself.

"All was fine and well wasn't it?" A deep voice said.

"Yeah, yeah it was," Woods replied.

"But it wasn't all good, wasn't it?" A memory started playing once more.

"Aira! What the hell were you doing talking to that boy in the playground?! We told you to study didn't we?! Then why are you not studying?!" The sounds of crying and hitting could be heard from the house next to Woods'. The memory was short, and thus ended there.

"Her parents would often get mad at her for just saying 'hi' or 'hello' to you."

"Yeah, but everything was fine as long as we were having fun."

"Was it? Didn't you also have regrets? Memories chained away, those you attempted to run away from." The view of the hallway changes into the look of a house, it was dark and devoid of life except for Woods and a girl. She was holding a knife and aiming it at her chest.

"Put the knife down Aira, please." Woods called out.

"No! It's all pointless if I can't even get any friends just because of studying!" Aira replied. She wasted no more time and pierced the knife into her chest. The view of the house fainted into a hospital's waiting area.

"This is your fault! If you hadn't been with Aira then this wouldn't have happened! Leave you stupid brat! She doesn't need you! No one needs you here! In fact go kill yourself!" Aira's mom screamed at him. The words were enough to make Woods sink deep into depression, tears in his eyes blurred out his vision, when he wiped it out he saw that he was on top of a tall building and at its edge. The memory ends there, his view reverted to that of a long hallway.

"N- no! That couldn't have happened! She's still alive! While I'm out here, not knowing if I'm dead or dreaming."

"Aira recovered and you got cold feet. These are memories you locked away from your head. There are more of these, you may be able to remember them all. But for now choose, do you want to face reality and the truth behind the shackles of regret? Or do you want to keep this illusion going, even after death? You must choose, meet me, above the sea of clouds. A new journey awaits you, there is no point in lingering in a place where you're already dead. I promise, I will revive you so that you may continue your previous life, but you must do something for the people of another world." The hallway he once were in now fades to darkness once more.