Remember... my previous life?
What did that mean? Why ask that all of a sudden?
Hadn't they just been talking about whether he was a Reincarnator or not...
Though he had rejected that.
Hearing this sudden question, completely disconnected from what had come before, Chiba instinctively had that thought.
"What? Don't tell me you can't remember?"
Then, almost instinctively, he replied.
Yet unlike his earlier sharp, confrontational tone, as though they were about to start cursing at each other, Chiba's voice somehow carried a hint of gentleness. Perhaps after seeing the bleakness and loneliness of this "Chiba," he could not bear to speak too harshly.
Perhaps, even though this "Chiba" had acknowledged that while they were each other and fundamentally the same person, they were still two independent consciousnesses with vastly different personalities—and had even mocked each other a little—he was still himself in the end. Seeing himself so bleak and lonely, Chiba could not help feeling a little pity, and so he did not speak too harshly.
"I want to hear you say it."
At this, "Chiba" shook his head. Though some of the gloom containing bleakness and loneliness still lingered on his face, he seemed to have calmed down now. He looked much more composed, and a quiet serenity gradually returned around him.
"My previous life... the one where I was constantly bullied... Hm? Bullied?"
Hearing that, Chiba instinctively began to speak.
As far as he was concerned, he was extremely familiar with his previous life. It was precisely because he had suffered constant bullying in that life and ultimately died for no clear reason that he had been driven in this life to disregard everything and train desperately. He had even cast aside life and death, running toward any place that was dangerous. To preserve everything he