Steve dreamed of his old world, but it had a few differences, the most notable was that he was another person and that he didn't recognize the places he was in except that was the modern days and gave off a strong nostalgia sensation, after seeing many different places and people, he woke up feeling really well rested with a strange happiness, so he got up went to the kitchen and made some tea for himself, and he drank it while reading a book from the living room bookshelf, after some reading he thought that it was a good time to test some things about his powers, especially the mana related ones, something that was easy to forget is that his soul gaze was active since he took the elixir yesterday, but he was no longer as dizzy and had no headache, a sign that he was adapting to his new capabilities.

He finished his tea, put his book back, closed the living room curtains and made some space by moving the coffee table to the side and seated himself on the carpet. He started feeling his own mana, and it went smoothly, just like when he was practicing with Gregor, so he proceeded to the ambient mana, and it was the same, as he was sensing the mana in his house a sudden idea struck him.

'If i can sense mana, then i can maybe manipulate it like Gregor did to activate that circle, but do cool things like create a fireball instead, it obviously won't be easy but i need to start from somewhere aren't i?'

Just when he was starting to concentrate into moving his own mana he heard the sound of a small bell to the side of the door, it was this world equivalent of a pull doorbell, despite this breaking his concentration he was no angry or annoyed, but instead had a curiosity as to who could be visiting this early in the morning, especially because he hadn't received any previous letter or warning. So he got up fixed the coffee table and despite being in rather casual clothes he chose to welcome them nonetheless.

When he opened the door, despite not showing on his face, the surge of complex emotions going through his head was almost palpable, the why is right in front of him and in the core of his new memories at the same time, they were the people he hoped to avoid until he was ready. His mom and dad... He took just instants to recover, he was trying to appear as normal as possible so he started with:

He was indeed surprised and he let it be clearly shown on his face "Hi, what are you doing here? It's been some time since you contacted me"

His mom responded with a smile on her face "Hiii, unfortunately we were busy with work until recently, but when we heard you got a job with the special department we could not but arrange some time to come here. We brought cake :)"

"Come in" He said as he opened the door and gestured form them to enter, and after they entered he gestured for them to sit and said:

"You can put the cake in the coffee table" So they made themselves at home and put the box with the cake on the coffee table as he suggested.

Steve put some tea into two cups and placed them front of his parents sat down in the single seater facing them before his mother spoke:

"First of all, congratulations, it is a very respectable job, and you could say it is even a honorable one, we are very happy for you!"

His father was just nodding along, still retaining his silent nature that Steve remembers from his memories.

Steve said in response "Thank you, but i think it was actually mostly luck that made me enter this job."

"No, it was you own merit, if you had no ability on your own, they would not even give you a proposal to work with them, so have more confidence and we believe you are going to thrive on this type of work!" She said, still smiling since she arrived.

After drinking from the tea she continued by saying: "Talking about jobs, we couldn't visit you sooner because of our job, we are the only ones who can do this kind of job in our workplace, so we end up receiving quite the workload, we didn't even have time for a simple letter, so we put a extra effort and finally arranged some free time to come here personally."

Steve though of himself as Hitomu Sato deep within his soul, but along "Steve's" memories, came with them the "life" of his new body, so despite holding himself back from being affected by his memories, he still felt something after finally seeing "his parents" after a not so short time, but he endured his conflicting emotions and trying not to show any on his face he said:

"As a matter of fact, it's been some time since i last saw both of you, so just seeing both of you in person makes me very happy"

"Do you remember when you were a kid, you were running in the central park and fell face first on the ground and came running and crying to us, and we brought you a ice cream?" That's what she said.

He answered: "Actually, despite me having a pretty good memory, my memories seen to be rather fuzzy recently, so i don't remember this event" 

when they heard his answer they looked at each other and their smile grew even bigger, and Steve couldn't help but perceive happiness and a emotion they been showing since the start but he overlooked because he did not know what it was, he didn't understand why all this blinding happiness but he associated it to not seeing him for a rather long time and put it at the back of his mind.

"Unfortunately we only have enough time to come here and say hi and congratulate you, and it is time we go back" His mother said and both her and her husband got up, Steve got up and followed them to the door, and they hugged each other before saying their goodbyes.

Now Steve was again alone in his living room, the first thing he did was put the cake in the fridge and the tea cups in the sink, and then he sat down on the couch, when he did so, he finally relaxed his tense body and tried to process not only this body memories but also the emotions, the experiences and it's identity as a whole. He looked at his own hands and asked himself:

'Who am i? i am Hitomu Sato or i am Steve Holmes? I am in the right place? I was put here in time of something? What am i!?'

After a few moments of questioning himself and his will wavering just a bit he was breathing heavily while sitting on the couch with a range of emotions going through his head, but something he had maintained in since his first life was a will strong enough to dwarf a normal person, it was like comparing the earth to the sun, so after a few moments of mental struggle he told himself:

'It does not matter, the past defines the me on the present, while the present me will define my future. Hitomu or Steve, does not matter, I am myself! From now on i shall have many names with every one being "real", for now i am Steve Holmes, tomorrow i may be another. But i will be myself until the day i am not!'

He solidified who he is, but since his parents arrived he was holding himself up by his willpower alone, but now that he relaxed notably, his mental and emotional exhaustion caught up with his body and he fell asleep while sitting on the couch.