The day the earth stopped for me, I set out on the journey, thirsty for answers. I am 24 years old and my name is Aramoto Kakumo. I didn't believe my past before the tragic event would ever catch up with this bleak present.
Everything was taken from me. My homeland, my friends and my family, they were all murdered before my eyes.
I wandered through the Satsujin desert, mourning and hopeless. This desert was known for its high mortality and delusions of the senses. The sun was scorching hot, making my sweaty skin glow. I felt the need to stop hiking and just fall over.
I simply couldn't and didn't want to give in to this feeling, because that would have welcomed my death with open arms. No matter how strenuous the steps I took with excruciating exertion, I kept pushing myself forward with the flame of hope that still lingered within me.
I've been on the road for almost a month now, during this time I had eaten very little and unfortunately the few drops of water that I was able to tap off one or two old cactus trunks weren't able to quench my thirst either. Eventually, in the midst of this desolate and goddamned wasteland, I crossed a crest of a dune.
I stopped and looked up from the ocean of dust and sand at the cloudless subtropical sky with the midday sun beating down relentlessly on me.
My hand, constantly shaking, moved up my collar to where my necklace was and violently ripped the necklace off, demanding a definitive answer. I slowly looked at the necklace my brother gave me before his inexplicable disappearance. I had low self-esteem and a feeling of hopelessness. ''Why did you give me that damn thing. Tell me Kishimoto! Why did you leave without saying a word? Why aren't you here?!'' I whistled out of my physical shell into the world, mentally broken, confused and angry.
Bitterly disappointed and with a half-broken will to live, I continued panting on my recently halted journey. Whispers and lamentations of souls seeking rest plagued me throughout the journey.
The environment around me became so distorted that my body was far too overwhelmed to send impulse waves through the nerve cords in my muscles to my brain, forcing me to stagger and fall to my knees like a vanquished warrior. You could already feel my heart pounding through the heat waves in the scorching hot air that swept by in all directions through the wasteland.
Nothing could be seen except more dunes and a desolate horizon, which probably hid many more dunes behind it. Such a view could shatter any survivalist's motivation to survive with their bare hands in the vastness of drab Nirvana.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, two familiar voices came to my ears. I was startled and looked for the one source that would probably give me back my lost will to live. I constantly had to listen to the complaints of these invisible personalities, which consisted mainly of accusations and pure hate speech.
''You are a murderer! You let us die!'' these voices accused me with a snubbed undertone.
These annoying accusations kept playing in my head. However, I continued to track down the source of the voices that sounded so familiar to me. The terrain around me continued to change and slowly I began to make out two figures, now very faintly, in my field of vision on the top of the nearest sand dune.
I ran frantically up the mountain to solidify my suspicion as to who it might be. For a moment I forgot that my body was at the limit. When I arrived, I couldn't believe my eyes, ran towards the two people like a berserker and hugged them guiltily and apologetically. I finally had my ''family'' back so I burst into tears like a burst dam and apologized as often as I could.
''I'm so sorry... Forgive me... Please forgive me...'' I sobbed through tears.
Suddenly there was a soft whisper, which slowly but surely became more and more unbearable for me and turned into loud hooting. I was started and looked at the two people. Their facial expressions resembled a long-dead personality and had nothing human about them.
''You've got us on our conscience! You are a miserable murderer. Die!!'', these living undead ruthlessly accused me in a permanent endless loop.
I could watch their faces turn inward, and only emptiness and frightening blackness could be seen in their former faces. Then these voices flanked me, mentally eating away at me and I felt the madness spreading through me.
''No no! .. Please don't do this to me!'' I yelled, desperately looking for innocence and escape.
In utter panic and madness, I tried to cover my ears and seal my eyes with both of my hands. However, no part of my body was able to obey me and madness now completely took over my psyche.
The feeling of finally having a family again, of finally being perfect again, disappeared. Now I went completely insane and the characters started to melt away. The terrain began to grow unimaginably gloomy and desolate, and I began to let out shrill cries of suffering. After a few seconds of waiting, I fell out of my mind onto the hot sand floor and passed out.