As Kyo opened the door, to his surprise, there he saw Winter, wide awake reading a book.
"Y-you really are still alive..." Kyo stammered, his face pale as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Hm? Oh, sup Kyo," Winter replied nonchalantly, barely glancing up from his book.
"Wait a minute, did he really die?" Eldo whispered, more to himself than anyone else.
"I swear I saw his lifeless—" Before Kyo could finish, Winter snapped his book shut and rose from his chair.
"Let's just say I've been given another chance, and now I'm trying to pay off the debt," Winter said cryptically, brushing past the boys as he headed outside.
"Hey, wait up a minute, we're still not finished yet!" Eldo shouted, waving his arms in frustration.
Winter paused briefly at the doorway. "If it's about the cabin, it's yours—I don't care anymore."
"NOT ABOUT THE DANG CABIN! About what happened yesterday!" Eldo's voice cracked with emotion.
"Hey, don't stress out about it too much. We'll address that dilemma some other time." Winter winked at Eldo before continuing his path away from the cabin.
Eldo watched him go, concern etched across his features. "He didn't even give himself a chance to properly rest," he thought.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kyo asked, noting Eldo's discomfort. "He probably has attachment issues or something. Why else would he be so distant and mysterious?"
"Well, he is an assassin or whatever..." Eldo mumbled.
Well, hey, don't worry about him! If he does try and pull anything funny, I'll give him a good shock!" Said Kyo trying to lighten up the mood.
Within a few hours, Winter was far from the cabin in grassy plains with great hills off to the sides. On his travels, he kept thinking about Strider and how he could possibly better rebuild his body, but to no avail could he find a reasonable solution.
"Ugh, what am I going to do..." He said, pinching his forehead.
"His current body won't do... I mean one good kick to it, and it's finished." He said before laying on the floor looking up at the ocean blue sky.
"I got eyes on the target, No.5," a petite woman said through a walkie-talkie laying on top of a distant hill.
"Shall we end this?" She continued.
Winter's time lying down and enjoying the fresh breeze were short-lived as he saw a rather big muscular man with metallic gauntlets pointing at his face.
"#31537, that is you correct?" The towering figure above him asked.
"So what if I am?" Winter said before he yawned.
The hulking man reached out to grab him off the floor, but Winter hastily dodged as he got up.
"Let me guess, your apart of division 1?" Said Winter nonchalantly.
"What number are you!?" He asked a twisted smile growing on his face
The big man fell silent for a few seconds.
"Seeing as you're going to die anyway,
I am No.5 The strongest of the division. You truly have no chance out of this, like how you took out those members of your division." No.5 spoke up.
"Heh, well No.5, you should know that out of everyone in my former squad, I was the strongest." Winter quips back his smile growing ever more.
"It's such a shame, really. Your group was second to ours, and yet it fell so far from grace. You even killed the last two remaining members trying to bring you back." No.5 said before taking a deep sigh then reapproaching winter.
"You know, I've always wanted to see a member of Division 1 in action again! Even more so killing one!" Said Winter holding his ground.