Drip.
Drip.
The beads of sweat dropped to the desk. Aleph's consciousness was extremely fuzzy—blurred, even.
'Am I dreaming?' He thought.
He could not control the movements of his body. His perspective was stuck on a desk with a notebook. Aleph could see that "he" is planning to write something on that notebook.
"The headaches happened again. I remembered some things I have supposedly forgotten."
Aleph could hear his own voice. He was writing something as he spoke.
"I finally remembered what this world was. I never thought that I could still remember things like this. I'll put forth a theory about my reincarnation…"
The next couple of details talked all about Aleph's so-called "reincarnation" which confirmed his guesses. He died once and was 'reincarnated' to a new life.
Aleph theorized that there were some intricacies behind that phenomena. It detailed him losing a huge part of his past life's memories. The ones with the greatest impact remained in his mind, but the rest was strangely forgotten.
Fortunately, he found a solution for this. As long as he sees something that bears semblance to those forgotten memories, Aleph found out that he could recall them. After doing so, all of those memories became extremely detailed and stuck on his mind.
It was as if he got a photographic memory of sorts. He would not be able to forget those memories, or so he posited.
"That person… rather, the zombie I saw one night. It reminded me of some memories…" He muttered for a while before writing a certain word using unknown characters of this world. "...Honkai."
Aleph's attention froze. Chills were 'sent' up to his spine the moment he heard him mutter about it.
'That's why it felt so damn familiar..!'
When Aleph was introduced to the honkai and honkai beast, there was a slight sense of deja vu. He nearly forgot it if not for this dream.
Once again, he learned not to dismiss some trivial feelings so easily.
'I already knew about the honkai… or at least its existence. Did I know something else? And if I did, how did I know about it?!'
He became eager to know about his not-so-normal previous self.
"It reminded me of the disaster it brought. Beasts… undeads… and those Herscherrs."
Aleph was surprised again.
'I even knew about that? How?'
Unfortunately, his dream self wouldn't stop to satisfy his curiosity.
"It became evident that my passage to this world affected me somehow. It must be my mind or memories. I didn't receive any physical enhancements whatsoever, which was a pity."
From then on, Aleph's mutterings became more intermittent as he focused more on writing in his diary. Each of the characters he wrote were similar to lines that formed a single character. It felt familiar yet unfamiliar for him as he stared at them blankly.
It didn't take long before Aleph remembered what it was.
'Encryption Type Five. A new language created to pass on highly confidential information.'
Bit by bit, the memories about these characters began returning to Aleph. His eyes scanned through the pages as he was starting to understand some of them.
The Encryption Type Five facilitated the rules of Eastern Characters and Western Grammatical norms.
A character could represent several dozen things alone, but if it was accompanied by other characters, its meaning would change. The stroke order as well as the small circles and boxes could also change the entire meaning.
At this moment, Aleph only caught some words such as "Divine Keys", "Fire",
"Fenghuang Down", "Judah", "MANTIS" and "Golden Courtyard" when his sight began to get blurry. It was as if his eyelids were about to fall down.
The final thing that he heard before his consciousness faded was:
"After the third… nine years… that time… world… will end."
*****
"Ugh…"
"Assistant Director, are you alright? I think you need to visit the infirmary."
"No, it's alright. I already visited the infirmary. I won't do much work today."
After dismissing one of the researchers who came to him, Aleph laid his back on the wall. His current state is a disaster. He couldn't stop having cold sweat as his entire body felt like it was pricked with needles.
Aside from that sensation, his muscles randomly spasmed now and then. Worst of all, he couldn't stop having a nosebleed.
"I'm fine with physical injuries, but why a fever?"
From the moment Aleph woke up from that dream, he immediately vomited in the bathroom. He woke up with such dire traits that he could only rest for the time being. He planned to finish some important workload before he did so, however.
'I could perfectly remember that dream.'
It was the first oddity he discovered. He couldn't remember most of his dreams' contents before. Aleph could only vaguely feel that it was related to his life prior to his amnesia.
'Why did this happen? What was the difference?'
The only thing he could think of were his sudden increase of cursed energy and the arrival of the unique skill [Great Sage].
'Cursed energy… I do feel it's more metaphysical.'
The prickling sensation Aleph felt was not only from his body. He guessed that it penetrated something beyond that—like his soul.
What he didn't know was that, yet again, the lack of knowledge towards jujutsu sorcerers affected him.
Within their world, the body and soul are mutually coexisting.
Only, the soul wouldn't get affected if the body gets damaged, but the vice versa is true. A certain damage to the soul could severely harm the body.
'It's not just the cursed energy. It should also be [Great Sage].'
A month and a half passed without him recalling his dreams. Aleph guessed that the "inactive" [Great Sage] must've done something else.
'This isn't a huge problem. I could finally remember my dreams. If I could piece more things together…'
Aleph continued sorting some dissertation papers hazily. He sometimes had to double check whether he placed them in the right spot due to his current condition and his flying thoughts.
'Those final words. The third… it should point to the third eruption. Then, nine years until the end? Was it our end?'
His previous self knew bizarre things. Just the fact that he knew top-secret things made him dumbfounded. Aleph already knew its validity when he saw the "Divine Keys" written in his diary. It was the formal name for the weaponized herscherr cores of the second research institute.
Just as he was about to finish his work, someone paid him a visit.
"I've heard you were sick. It's fine to leave this to others."
"I'm already finished here, Doctor Einstein."
"Go get some rest first. Seeing you are in that state, I'll turn down the guest."
"Mn? Visitor?"
Einstein looked straight into his eyes.
"It's the aftermath. Many people became curious about your strength." She explained. "The director of the fifth research institute specifically paid you a visit today."
"Doctor Mobius?"
Aleph jolted for a moment.
"Was it related to her research? The honkai augmentation one."
"You're right."
He hesitated for a while. Mobius' honkai augmentation was still in the animal testing stages, though the existence of "MANTIS" in his notebook indirectly proved its success.
That was proven when he saw its full name in his encrypted notebook.
Unlike "MANTIS" which was written in a single character, its full name was written with simpler characters. He swiftly read it as "Massively Augmented Neo-Tech Integrated Soldiers". Such a formal title suggested that it was successful later on.
'My body is quite fragile, but those purple lines… I can't stop associating it with honkai.'
In the end, he made his choice.
"I want to meet her."