Ren felt a kiss on his lips, and when his eyes opened he saw Reiko in the darkness. She was on top of him, completely naked, and in her eyes he saw absolute lust.

The first kiss was followed by the next one, as she grabbed his face only to kiss him deeper. His hands moved on their own touching her legs and wandering up, through the hips to her back. He rolled with her on the futon and when she was under him he saw her gorgeous body. The full, round, and tender breasts. The pink lips she was biting, showing her anticipation and desire.

The view was too much to handle and his mind went blank, allowing the instinct to take over. He groped her breasts, squeezing them tight, and forcing her to moan. Then he practically tore his clothes off, only to free his member, and slide it in. Carried by passion he started trusting. At first slow, but the pace increased with each move, making him go faster and faster. She moaned at each of his moves, reaching for his head, and then she pulled him closer, burying him between her breasts.

He gasped, and his eyes shot open, only to be met by the darkness that surrounded him.

"Damn," he muttered, realizing he had just experienced a vivid dream involving Reiko. Another realization hit him: during the dream, he hadn't once thought about Mirai. "Damn," he repeated as he covered his face and began rubbing it.

He quickly shifted into a sitting position, attempting to stand, but in the darkness, this proved to be a challenging task. On foot, he fumbled his way to where the window should be and began searching for it. It took a while, but he finally found it and opened the shutters, allowing some much-needed light to flood the room.

The brightness indicated that he had slept longer than intended. As if to confirm his thoughts, there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he called out.

The door slid open, revealing Sora, who was carrying a tray of food.

"Good morning!" she greeted him with sparkling eyes.

"Good morning," he replied, returning her smile.

She entered the room, and her nervousness was palpable in her gait. She nearly dropped the tray, clearly embarrassed. Her gaze stayed fixed on the floor.

Ren smiled, finding her shyness quite endearing. He moved closer to her and joined her on the floor. "Have you already eaten?" he asked.

"Y-yes," she replied, still unable to meet his gaze.

"Well then, I'll go ahead and eat this," he said, picking up the chopsticks. He took a bite of rice and a slice of meat and then continued, "You know, you don't have to go out of your way to bring me breakfast in my room."

"But...," she began to protest. "I wanted to thank you. If you don't want me to, then..."

He noticed that he had unintentionally made her feel bad, so he quickly reassured her before things escalated further. "No. I'm very thankful, but you already work so hard... I feel bad making you do this for me when you're already so busy."

She grabbed her arm, only to start rubbing it nervously. "I-It's fine," she mumbled. "I... I don't mind if it's for you, big brother."

Her voice was barely above a whisper, and she dared to steal a quick glance at his face, her own cheeks flushed a deep shade of red.

"That's very kind of you," he replied, with a warm smile on his face as he found her reaction quite endearing.

She struggled to contain her embarrassment, and Ren decided not to press her further. He focused on his meal, which kept the awkwardness from escalating. As time passed, the atmosphere slowly became more comfortable. Ren consumed his food quickly, anticipating a long and tiring day ahead.

"Thank you for this," he said as he cleaned every bowl.

She offered a slight bow, unable to meet his eyes. Then, she grabbed the tray and hurriedly left the room, leaving Ren alone. He watched her go with a smile before leaving the room himself.

He headed straight to the meditation chamber, where the elderly saishu awaited him. The space, as always, was shrouded in smoke, but Ren hardly noticed it anymore.

"Good morning," he greeted the saishu with a polite bow.

"Good morning," she replied. "Let's not waste any time. Let's get to work. Come, sit."

Ren knew what to do and sat down, carefully pulling the blade from the saya and placing it on his lap. He was cautious not to activate the razor wire. Then he closed his eyes, allowing his mind to enter a state of calm.

Everything seemed to be in place for the vision to come, but it didn't. Frustration began to set in, and at that moment, he heard a voice in his mind.

'Heart! Feed me!' the ghost demanded.

'Heart?' Ren asked, completely taken aback by this sudden proposition. It took a moment for him to even make sense of what he had heard; it was so unexpected. 'No! I won't feed you a heart!'

'I'm hungry! I need to eat! I need it! You hear me?! I need it!'

'If you need it so badly, then promise me you will behave. You will cooperate. You will stop acting out, and you will share your strength!'

'Feed me! Hearts! I need hearts! Feed me!'

'Does it have to be a human heart? Because I'm not feeding you a human heart!'

'Feed me! A heart! I need a heart!'

'Fine! I'll feed you a heart, but it won't be a human heart, and if you won't cooperate, this is the first and the last time I'm letting you eat!' Ren declared, his eyes snapping open.

'Feed me, and I'll give you your peace!' the voice of the ghost still resonated in his mind.

"What is it? Something happened?" The saishu asked, noticing Ren's unexpected behavior.

"Yes," he confirmed. "I didn't have a vision, but I spoke with the ghost," he informed.

"The hearteater? What did he say?" she immediately became curious. "If he threatened you, you should ignore it and press on."

"No. He didn't threaten me... He... He asked me to feed him. He asked for a heart. I think any heart would do, so maybe there is an animal I could kill, like a chicken or something?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Animal? I think we can come up with something," she pointed out, nodding slowly, and then began getting up.

The process was slow, and she groaned a lot, even when Ren sprang to his feet and helped her.

"This way," she said, the moment she escaped his hands, then headed out of the room.

'She doesn't like to be helped...' he noticed as he followed her.

They slowly made it outside. Although the old lady was trying her best to walk fast, the pace was still slow, prompting Ren to wait for her as he didn't really know where they were going.

As it soon was revealed, they headed to one of the few enclosures within the temple that had goats in them. Ren was not sure if those were the mountain ones or regular domesticated types, as he had never seen one with his own eyes, even in his past life. He only knew them from TV and the internet.

The old lady asked the saiin taking care of the animals to kill one, carve the heart, and then use the meat to make a tasty dinner. Fortunately for Ren, he didn't have to witness it.

He was genuinely afraid that his stomach would give up, which probably would be quite embarrassing for a warrior. He had seen blood multiple times and nasty open wounds too, but this, for some reason, felt different.

'Once again, my past life comes back to bite me in the ass,' he observed.

Both he and the saishu waited patiently in silence until the woman returned, holding the organ in bloody hands. She gave it to him, making his face go completely white – which was hard to notice due to his ghostly skin.

'W-what do I do with it?' he asked himself. 'D-do I... Do I have to eat this?' The sudden realization hit him like a truck, and he immediately went into complete panic mode. 'N-no. This can't be. There has to be a different way,' he thought, then he grabbed the handle of his Maken, only to immediately panic again as he realized that he was not careful enough to avoid the razor wire. Surprisingly, it didn't come out.

Intrigued, he pressed the heart against the blade. As soon as it touched the weapon, the sword changed. With a strange, resonating, and metallic sound, it transformed, bending into something that could be described as a toothy maw. It snatched the organ from him, almost taking one of his fingers in the process, and then devoured it like a beast, making fragments fall to the ground and squeezing out a lot of the blood still present inside.

It was a disgusting sight, but thankfully it passed simply, and the Maken returned to its regular form.

He expected something more, but that was it. Even the old shinshoku shared his feelings, which showed in her waiting expectantly for the further development of the situation, but nothing happened. No more visual effects, nor the ghost’s voice in Ren’s head.

The saiin, though, was quite surprised, but she didn’t say anything, instead quickly left to take care of the freshly slaughtered animal.

"Come, you should go meditate," the old saishu deemed after a moment when they both looked like they were frozen in time.

"Y-yes," he stuttered.

While the grandma immediately moved, he first glanced at his bloody hands. He really wanted to clean them up, but there seemed to be no source of water around. Thankfully, he was wrong in his first observation, as he noticed a trough with water for the goats in their enclosure.

Taking a quick look at the old lady, he noticed that she was not paying any attention to him, too focused on walking, so he seized the moment and entered the farmstead to wash his hands, throwing an apologetic glance at the animals who would have to drink that water later. He quickly wiped his hands on his kimono and rushed after the saishu.

Their return to the meditation chamber took some time, but eventually, they both were seated, inhaling the fumes of the burning incense. Ren closed his eyes, calming his mind, and soon discovered that he was in the middle of a rice field as the vision came surprisingly fast.

Despite the fact that he was calf-deep in the water, his feet weren't wet at all.

Around him, many people worked, producing a lot of noise. The weather was nice and good for this type of work, so the chatter among the working peasants was heavily present. Some looners hummed melodies as they worked, but the rest preferred to speak.

Looking around, he spotted somebody who especially pulled his attention. At first, it was hard to catch it, but there was something familiar about this young boy, working alongside the others. Some older, others just as young as him. Eventually, though, Ren recognized the eyes, and from that point, he had no doubt – it was the young Hearteater.

'This vision is different,' he immediately thought.

It indeed was, as he soon learned. First of all, it was much longer and also quite boring. He watched the kid work for a long time, then he returned to a shack, where he lived with his mother, who also worked in the fields.

She made dinner for him. Simple rice. They ate, but the boy sprung to his feet to leave their poor house as soon as the meal finished.

"Where are you going?" The woman asked.

"To train," the boy replied.

"Aren't you tired after a whole day of working?"

"I am," he admitted, "but I will never become a warrior if I won't train."

"You will never become a warrior anyway. Peasants like us work in the fields. You should focus on your life and stop dreaming about things that will never happen to you," she nagged him.

"No! I will become a warrior! And we won't have to live like this anymore! We will have more food than we can eat!" He said with confidence and then stormed outside.

With his vanishing, the vision stopped, and Ren awakened in the meditation chamber. He left with the saishu to discuss what he saw during a meal.

In the cafeteria, where all the saiins gathered, he discovered that this time they had a nice stew with goat meat, alongside rice, which was a tasty treat. Unfortunately, he had to refrain from eating, to first tell his story.

"This is a breakthrough," the old lady deemed, taking a break from eating.

Since she was now the one speaking, Ren seized this opportunity to fill his belly, but she didn't say anything more.

As soon as he finished, he left, too afraid that he could bump into Reiko. He was not yet ready to speak with her. Back in his room, he thought for quite a while in absolute darkness about everything that happened during the day, which eventually caused him to drift away.