"Ashes of Crestfall: The Rise of Aaron San Agustin"

He thought as the city skyline came into view through the bus window.

Velmont City looked the same. The streets buzzed with impatient cars and scattered pedestrians, towering buildings casting shadows over sidewalks cracked by decades of neglect. Yet to Aaron, everything felt smaller, as if the world he once knew could no longer contain the man he had become.

He stepped off the bus and walked toward the old apartment complex he used to share with Lucas. Its peeling paint and rusted gates greeted him with stale familiarity. He climbed the narrow staircase, boots thudding against metal, each step echoing with memories of nights spent silently eating instant noodles, coding until dawn, and whispering half-forgotten dreams into the dark.

But when he reached their old unit, the door was ajar. The interior was stripped bare—no couch, no dishes, not even the faded curtains they used to argue about replacing. Dust coated the windowsill where Lucas once placed his cactus.

He stood silently, absorbing the emptiness. A neighbor passing by paused to look at him.

"You looking for Lucas?" she asked, her voice tired and disinterested.

He nodded.

"He moved out two years ago," she said. "Don't know where he went."

She didn't wait for a reply before disappearing down the hall.

Aaron walked back down the stairs without looking back.

Later that day, he found himself standing in front of Velmont University's gleaming glass gates. Memories flickered through his mind—of Selena Fonte laughing under cherry blossom trees, of her gentle hands brushing against his when she passed him notes in class, of her eyes that saw purpose in him when the world saw nothing.

He wandered across the campus, the smell of fresh-cut grass and library dust swirling around him, hoping to catch even a glimpse of her. But she was nowhere to be found.

At the administration office, a bored-looking clerk scrolled lazily on her computer as he asked about Selena's whereabouts.

"Selena Fonte?" she repeated, tapping at her keyboard. "Let's see… oh. She withdrew a year after you enlisted. Says here she received sponsorship from her paternal family abroad. They're… quite prestigious, apparently. She transferred to a university overseas."

Aaron stood silently, the sounds of bustling students outside muffled against the glass walls. He felt something heavy sink into his chest—a quiet emptiness that pulsed with resignation.

That evening, as the sun dipped below Velmont City's fractured skyline, he walked toward the bus station with his duffel bag slung over his broad shoulder. Neon lights flickered to life, bathing the cracked pavement in pink and blue. The city felt unfamiliar despite its sameness. Or perhaps he had become too different to belong here.

He purchased a one-way ticket to Crestfall. The woman at the counter didn't look up from her phone as she handed him his change.

As he boarded the empty bus and settled by the window, he closed his eyes. For the first time in five years, he allowed himself to think of home—not the distant memory of silent fields and poverty's weight, but of what awaited him there now. Of what he would reclaim. Of who he would become.

Because Velmont City held nothing for him anymore.

He was going back to his origin.

And from there, he would decide what the rest of his life would become.