The closed domain cut you off from the rest of the world. There was no city, no people, no sounds coming from outside. Only the heavy, suffocating atmosphere filled with cursed energy. The air trembled with the presence of his curses, lurking behind him in the shadows. Their distorted forms moved slowly, patiently, like predators watching a wounded prey, waiting only for the moment he allowed them to strike.

Yet you looked only at him.

At Suguru.

At the person you once knew.

You couldn't accept that the boy standing in front of you was the same person who once sat beside you after missions, exhausted but still smiling. You were only a group of kids. Kids who had been thrown into a world they were never supposed to be ready for. You were supposed to dream about ordinary things. First loves. Parties after a difficult week. Stupid conversations that lasted until late at night. A future where your biggest concern wasn't how many people you would have to kill the next day.

But instead of growing up like normal teenagers, you learned how to kill.

You learned how to look at cursed beings that wanted to destroy you. You learned how to hold a weapon before you even learned how to truly live. You saw things no child should ever see. Death became something ordinary. Other people's suffering became something normal. And you were expected to pretend it never changed you.

Suguru was the only one who stopped pretending.

The only one who said out loud what everyone else was afraid to admit.

He slowly stepped closer. His eyes settled on your wound. He saw how weakened you were. He saw that you were barely holding onto consciousness. He knelt in front of you and, without warning, pressed his hand against the bleeding wound on your stomach.

Pain shot through you instantly.

The air left your lungs, and your fingers tightened against the ground beneath you. Every instinct screamed at you to push him away, but your body no longer had enough strength.

He wasn't doing it to help you.

He wasn't trying to stop the bleeding.

He wanted you to feel your weakness. He wanted you to understand how far apart you had become from who you once were.

"You were always like this... too attached. Too sentimental. To the people you try to protect. To the memories you can't let go of. To a world that never returned that loyalty."

His voice was calm. Almost quiet. And that was what made it worse. There was no anger in it. He didn't need to raise his voice for you to understand how far he had drifted from the Suguru you once knew.

"The most ironic part is that once, we all had the same questions. We all saw that this world was rotten. We all knew the price of being a sorcerer. The difference is that I stopped looking away."

His eyes never left yours.

"You are still trying to save something that never wanted to be saved. You are still giving pieces of yourself to people who don't even know you exist. And I... I simply accepted the truth."

His hand remained pressed against the wound.

"That is why, even though we once stood on the same side... now we are here. You are trying to protect this world. I am trying to change it."