Kyuuto's mother called emergency services after seeing Ren bled profusely and starting to lose consciousness, while little Kyuuto just stood there with blank eyes seeing a horrible event for a small child.

Not long after an ambulance arrived, soon followed by the police to investigate what had happened. Kyuuto and his mother also escorted Ren to the hospital, even calling his wife to come over and check on him.

A few minutes later, Ishigaki and her mother arrived. Ishigaki and Kyuuto's eyes met for a split moment, before he focused on his dad on the hospital bed, tearing up. Unfortunately after a small talk, little Kyuuto and his mother had to go home. They never introduced themselves, and after that encounter, they never met again.

Even after an attempt at surgery, unfortunately Ren passed away that evening. Leaving Ishigaki and his mother devastated, having to continue their lives without his presence. From there, the family must find other ways to get by, and they get started by building their fruit stall.

----

Ishigaki was unresponsive for a brief moment, realizing what had happened to his father all those years ago. And he finally remembered that it was indeed Kyuuto, the child he met back then. The one Ren chose to protect, which in turn was able to properly meet with him years after the incident. That is why Kyuuto was so familiar to him.

Immediately he felt a sudden burst in his chest, his blood boils, and his body's overall temperature raised to an abnormal degree. Tears started to trickle down his eyes, and even that was boiling hot. But in his heart, Ishigaki still could not believe that this is the reality that he lives in. He thought he was free, after all he had been through, he was still a puppet controlled by invisible strings.

Karito then threw some metal fragments from around him towards the preoccupied Ishigaki. Yamato swiftly stepped forward and protected him by conjuring a thick board of wood that shielded them from Karito's attack. Ishigaki did not even blink, he was fully absorbed in thought. "Wake up, Ishigaki!!" Yamato tried to yell at him, but he just would not listen. Meanwhile Karito kept on engaging the assaults. Forcing Yamato to block them with his inferior element.

After blocking one of Karito's metal arms, Yamato jumped back and took Ishigaki into a building to hide from further attacks. "Hey, listen to me!!" Yamato shook him multiple times, after which he finally snapped, "I don't know if what Karito said is true, but you have to remember why you even here in the first place, remember your intentions!--- I know this sounds ridiculous coming from me, a sinful soul lost in time. But know this--- you're the lucky one, you still have the ability to choose how you live your life!"

"It's too late for me too..." Ishigaki answered with a low voice, "the more I think about it, the more I realize that our lives are fucked anyways. Our lives were already programmed towards Volkus' awakening... every... second of it... even trying to stop the flow is unknowingly helping it. There has to be key moments in our lives that acted as catalyst to this, but we weren't wise enough to realize it,"

Yamato then recalled the moment Ishimaru whispered to him before he decided to chase Karito with Ishigaki, and at that moment he understood that he was behind all this. "It's him. No doubt. You have to stop him... I get it now he---" Yamato's sentence was cut by a huge metal arm puncturing the wall behind him and grabbing him tight. Yamato then got thrown away to the east into another building, meanwhile that one metal arm disintegrated and formed back into its shorter size.

Ishigaki is now presented with a choice, either to run back to his team and tell them about his findings, or fight to save Yamato, his initial enemy.

....

"I AM YOUR ENEMY NOW!!" Ishigaki blazed through the building with his aurics, then dived with his fist directly towards Karito, creating an explosion in the process.

But Karito managed to withstand Ishigaki's burst by controlling the metals around him to make a shield. The shockwave and heat from Ishigaki's punch got transferred sideways, destroying some of the the fragile buildings around, as well as helping Yamato get out of the rubble that he was under.

Karito then punched Ishigaki back with one of his appendages, then leapt on Ishigaki who was thrown and flying in mid-air, punching him multiple times until he grabbed him and threw him with even more force in the same direction.

When Karito turned his head around, he was struck by a wooden dome and quickly trapped him inside. Slowly Yamato tried to contract the dome to an even smaller size, even with the help of some wooden blocks he conjured around the dome to push it in, but Karito also held on pretty strongly inside with equal amount of force.

Ishigaki then launched himself again into the air, once again with both of his aurics flaming hot. Even his eyes were seemingly on fire and glowing bright yellow.

"This is it!!" Ishigaki thought, as his fist made contact with the cap of the dome.