Ring, ring, ring.

'Huh? Oh, right, this is lunchtime.'

A young man sitting on the school rooftop lets out a tired yawn as he hears the sound of the school bell ringing. He remembers he used to jump in joy whenever he heard this stupid bell when he was a few yours younger.

'Ah, elementary school was a heaven wasn't it?'

Well, at the high school before you know it you will lose most of your old pals and the remaining few will start distancing themselves later.

He wanted to go down but the school kinda locked him here because the basement room was full. The Trials Of Returner or the Trials for short is something akin to the awakening in the webtoons and comics.

The only difference is the powers aren't given simply free to earn them one will be sent back to one of their past lives and solve their regrets. After that, they will gain certain memories of that lifetime which can be used to draw supernatural powers from it.

If you gained the memory of swordmaster then you will gain sword-related powers from it or if it is archmage then now you will gain one related to magic. Of course, there is no free lunch in this world once failed to resolve your regrets you will be possessed by the vengeful spirit of your past life. Vengeful spirits are mostly controlled by their bloodlust and hatred so the only thing they will do is cause havoc. Especially since they keep the powers of their previous life they can cause quite a carnage when gone rampage.

Currently only known way to end the possession is destroying all the vital signs of the possessed aka being killed. 

'Well, this is shitty. Why the hell am I supposed to clean the mess caused by past life?'

The feeling of wanting to sleep becomes stronger, he wants to sleep but he is kind of obligated to hold back his sleep till the officials come to help.

'When will the police come? Damn, when will the Returners arrive?'

His eyelids are becoming heavier and heavier. If he was in the special cell located in the school basement at least he would have got a bed for himself. Sadly the basement is full so now he is trapped at the rooftop.

He looked at his phone, it was an old model touch screen hard mobile phone. Sadly his family wasn't rich enough to bring the cyber glasses so he is stuck with this old stuff.

'Battery life is so crappy it already reached the thirty percent mark.'

He looked at his phone for a few seconds of hesitation then decided to spend the possible last few moments of his life for the things he liked to do. He unlocked his phone and started playing a mobile game.

***

[You Lost!]

Two big words appeared on his screen as his face grimaced.

'Damn it! Because I am so sleepy my fingers won't move properly. It's definitely not because he sucks at this game but too addicted to stop playing.' 

He shook his head, what is he thinking, he is clearly good at this game it's that the Trial is getting closer and he is becoming more and more sleepy.

"Damn it, where are the damn Returners?!"

He couldn't help but curse under his breath.

"You should be careful with what you are saying you know. If you speak too much the devil might hear it." 

Suddenly childish yet pleasant to hear a female voice ring beside him. Slowly he turned to his side and saw a girl who wasn't much older than him.

Her hair was ash grey, her orange eyes shone as bright as the sun, and her mischievous smile added a mysterious charm to her already delicate face.

"Agh!"

The young man stumbled back in fright as he saw the girl appear beside him out of nowhere. He looked at the old metal door one must need to use to enter the room and saw it was still closed.

'How?'

If he knew one thing about the rooftop then that would be the old metal door over there is both hard to move and extremely loud either you were opening it or closing it. But he heard no sound like that when the girl came here, did she climb here from the side or something?

"Am I that scary?"

The girl asked in a curious tone.

"O-of course you are! You come out of nowhere! How have you been beside me?! No, how the hell did you get here so silently in the first place?!"

He blurted out all his questions in shock causing the girl to giggle at his scaredly face.

"Oh, coming here was easy, I just jumped from the first floor to here."

The girl told her to answer so nonchalantly that made him sweat in fear.

'What the hell do you mean you "just" jumped?! This is the sixth floor goddammit!'

"As for how long I have been beside you..."

She then took a thinking pose.

"About five minutes? You were so focused on the game I didn't want to disturb you."

His eyes twitched at her answers once again. He didn't even notice the arrival of the girl let alone her being beside him.

"Anyway, you are really sleepy right now, right? After all, it's about time for you to start your Trials."

Only when the girl talked about the Trials did his mind remember why she was here in the first place?

"My name is Lucian, but you may just call me Lucy. As a proud member of the 7th squad of the Returner Registration Center, I am here to supervise your First Trial."

'Well, that's little chuunibyou.'

Returner Registration Center aka R.R.C. is the government organisation that oversees all the troubles related to the Returners. You could understand as the special police for the Returners. As for the name? It was actually started as the government program to register recently awakened Returners but one thing led to another in the end it is a fully pledged organization responsible for all the Returners. Still, they kept their name the same for some reason.

"Hey, the earth to the newly awakening. It isn't time for you monologue you know."

"Ah, sorry."

She pouts cutely at his reaction.

"Anyway, as I was saying you soon will going to your First Trial. Because it's the First Trial only your spiritual body will leave while your physical remains under my supervision."

He nods his head, at least he knows that much from the emergency classes that the school taught. Lucy's face brimmed with pride as if proud of herself for explaining this before turning into a serious one.

"Before that I have a question."

He blinked at the sudden change in the atmosphere.

"Who are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just answer it with your name."

"Jack... my name is Jack Rights. That's my name."

Lucy nodded her head with a smile on her face.

"Remember that well. You are Jack Rights of the Earth. Not whoever you were called in that life you are going to experience. Remember that fact well okay?"

Jack could only nod his head dumbly at her warning.

"Sometimes people come back from their Trials changed, I guess it can't be helped, if you wanna survive there then you have no choice but to change. But no matter what happens in there you must always remember where you belong and who you truly are."

There was unexplained sadness and sorrow in her voice as she kept speaking.

"Remember whatever happened there won't have much effect on your life here so just treat it like a simulation. Because in the end, you will always return to the real world."

Jack becomes silent he remembers that this was the similar advice given to them by the teachers of the special classes. Because the Trial's main goal is to resolve your past life's regret it's not uncommon to have some very unethical quests. Starting from simple as assassination to something way more unethical. That will change people without a doubt as is it good or bad. Who knows.

"I understood."

"Good, good students like you will definitely 

survive."

'I'm not much younger than you.'

She then pets him before saying.

"I think it's time for you to go to sleep. Leave your body to me and quickly finish that Trial of yours Jack."

A small smile appeared on his face as the world slowly faded away. After all, it's nice to hear something pleasant before going to possibly last trip of yours.

Soon darkness enveloped him and he heard a voice that was both ancient yet young as if thousands of beings talking same time.

[Welcome home, the Returner Jack Rights. Shall we help you remember back your old times?]