Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Sarrin, Rhem and I left the forest once my curse was finally, completely eradicated. After it was gone, I got another notification that said [Developing curse countermeasures… 0%]. When I looked at the details of it, it was basically making it so that my mind and body couldn’t be tampered with again by extending the insulation effect on my mana to my body as well.

With no idea how long that would take, I decided I didn’t want to wait for it to finish before leaving. I was desperate to find my friends.

The nanites also adapted to mana unusually fast. Mana is said to be a natural part of all life, even though some worlds don’t have access to it. I think that’s the reason for it. If mana was a natural part of me, even if I didn’t have it before, then the integration of it would be easy.

During my time in the forest, I learned what I could from Sarrin and Rhem, whether it was magic, weapons or common sense.

I didn’t have a weapon of my own, but I at least had my claws that I’d been using quite a bit. I’d still prefer to not get my hands covered in blood all the time. Thankfully, I can gather water from the air onto my hands to wash them quickly. It’s still disgusting, though.

I also discovered yesterday that my claws are retractable, which I am immensely grateful for. I don’t know how girls with really long nails do it. I hate it. At least I don’t have to type on a computer or phone anymore, not that it’s an issue now that I know they’re retractable.

One thing I am working on really hard is my efficiency. That’s something you can raise on your own, even without a high capacity. The reason I’m doing this is so that I can hopefully maintain my illusion nonstop.

My initial flight from Asallte had been just running and killing, running and killing, running and killing. Sarrin and Rhem, who had carefully made their way into the forest without ever staying in one place for more than a single night, took three months to catch up to me.

Now with three people, we went a little bit faster than they did on the way in, taking two months now. They may never have slept in the same place twice, but they did take their time to be extremely careful and thorough before.

When Asallte was finally in my sights once again, I was disheartened. There was no one patrolling the walls, no barriers, there was a massive breach in one part of the wall and corpses were everywhere.

I have to check that store. The last place I saw her.

“Looks like the survivors headed east, toward Triteos. It’s the closest city of decent size, so it makes sense,” Sarrin said.

“How can you tell?” I asked, getting my hopes up that even if my friends weren’t here, they’d be there.

“You see that massive trail where thousands of people clearly traipsed through the field in the eastern direction? I think that might be it.”

I gave her a flat look.

She smirked. “You’re the one who asked an incredibly obvious question.”

I sighed. “Where I grew up was peaceful. Things like looking for trails in the grass aren’t habitual to me, even with the past months spent with you two.

“When they brought us to this world, they did teach us some things about surviving in the wild, but I spent those months behind the walls and never had to use any of it.”

“Ah, I just remembered!” Rhem exclaimed. “Your world had no mana, right?”

“No, it didn’t.”

“And no mana means no monsters. …Or fucked-up-as-shit curses.”

“…People did horrible things in the absence of monsters,” I said quietly. I’d seen far too many people ruined by capitalism.

“Yeah… People will always find a way to be assholes, I guess. Right now, it’s just the summoning rituals, but I’m sure that in a world without Cursed Ones, we’d go back to being our own worst enemies.”

I sighed again and decided to change topics. “Right now, I’m worried about whether or not my friends are even alive. And if they are, will they still accept me? One of them even saw me get carried away by a pair of massive talons.”

“There’s no point in speculating,” Sarrin said. “Just do your best to find them, and when the time comes, you’ll find out if they’re really your friends or not.”

“Yeah…”

———

We made it behind the walls of Asallte once again. Fortunately, the corpses were mostly just bones, clothes and ugly stains after so many months.

I immediately headed for the place I last saw Izzy. I wasn’t expecting her to have remained behind, but I’d at least know if she died there or maybe even left a message. Looking around the shop’s interior, I couldn’t find a single thing.

Nothing. It’s exactly as I was expecting, but the feelings of hope were still strong.

We rummaged around the city for what supplies we could. I got some real clothes, armor, a spear and a sword, then we set off to follow the trail.

Being in the place where I last saw other humans got me thinking about trying different types of magic like what you would often see in stories.

“Does magic to create something like a small personal dimension exist?” I asked the married couple.

“It does,” Sarrin responded. “But it’s tricky to learn and drains quite a bit of mana from what I know. And it disappears once you’re not using it. Anything inside will just pop out. Why do you ask?”

“I was thinking about other ways I could disguise myself. If I could put my wings, tail and horns in their own pockets then put illusions over those areas, it’d be a bit like I didn’t have them at all.”

“If someone has a body part inside the dimension when the spell is canceled, it is violently forced out. It nearly always causes injuries.”

“Oh. Scrap that, then.”

I’ll actually put it on hold for now. Learning how to do it might be painful, but it could be helpful later on. I guess that means there’s no such thing as an isekai inventory, either.

For now, I should focus on the spells that I do know and my efficiency with them.

———

It was another three or so months before we finally saw Moriste. I spent all that time training, fighting and worrying.

We still had to be careful of the various monsters we came across, and we even dealt with a couple stray Cursed Ones that attacked me in addition to Rhem and Sarrin. They no longer see me as one of their own, which is another sign that the curse is gone.

Sarrin and Rhem were good company all this time, despite how we were all usually silent. My skill with the spear and the sword could be called decent, though a fair amount of my successes with them were just raw power. I’m much stronger than I used to be, and that’s before applying any body enhancing spells.

A small door near the gate was opened for us to step through. For now, we were telling the story that we’d been forced to run in a different direction from Asallte than everyone else. That much was true. One of the guards even mentioned that stragglers still showed up occasionally.

I wanted to see if my friends were here first, and after that is when I would meet with the defense leader. Hopefully, I’d be able to secure an escort to Moriste. Attempting to go all the way to Moriste with only a few people seemed suicidal.

Triteos was smaller than Asallte, so that meant the attacks here weren’t as bad, but they still had a lot to deal with. And from here on out, as I traveled from city to city to stock up supplies, it would only get more dangerous as we began contending with stronger monsters.

Asallte had actually been based in a relatively peaceful part of the world. Peaceful from monsters only, that is. They are weaker and less numerous around this area. But that is exactly what caused so many people to gather there, and eventually, attract more Cursed Ones.

I went to the Defense Station to register in this city and to see if my friends were here. Because managing people and resources was so extremely vital, everyone was required to register in every city. Everyone who could work had to, because everyone might actually die otherwise.

Even places like shops are more or less just places to barter frivolous things rather than actual necessities. It’s actually a necessary job, though, because having anything at all for people to do other than just “survive” is a boost to morale.

To my immense relief, both Izzy and Kyle were registered here. I left a message for both of them saying, “Your friend is alive. Meet Ivy in meeting room 4 at 9 pm. I will be there every night.” I even wrote it in English, so I hope that adds a bit more credibility to me.

This is going to be hard.

———

I’d barely been sitting down for even a minute when Izzy and Kyle burst in.

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“You’re Ivy?” she said icily.

Seeing the two of them again after all this time, my mind went blank and my eyes began to water.

“Well?”

“Ah! Y-Yes, I’m Ivy,” I choked out.

“Why are you crying? What happened? How could he possibly be alive!?” she demanded. It was obvious she thought I was lying.

The tears were pouring out now at seeing my friend who didn’t recognize me and was so furious with me. “N-Nanites,” I managed to get out.

She froze.

“Let’s at least listen to her, Iz,” Kyle placated.

They both sat down, looking wary, but the mention of nanites had at least quelled the initial hostility.

I’d practiced this in my head so many times over the past half year or so since regaining my mind, but right now, I felt like I’d lost it all over again. Regardless, I had to talk.

“S-So… after he was turned,” They both looked pissed at me for saying he was alive just now, and then claiming he was infected. “Um, a-after that happened, the nanites s-salvaged his mind. But it was an extremely slow process to regaining full control.

“Th-They… The nanites… They became aware of the damage to his mind and began healing it, and from there, began dealing with the curse.

“A-And now, his mind is completely fine and the curse is gone, but his body is changed.”

“…Do you really expect us to believe that machines can heal a curse?” Izzy intoned.

“Why would I lie about this!? What could I possibly gain by lying to you!?”

“…Prove it, then. Take me to him.”

I thought this might happen. I need to go over the memories we have. That’s what I decided on.

“The last thing he said to you was about wanting to eat cotton-candy flavored ice cream! There was that time when you farted on stream and I- he took the blame for you! You pretend to hate spiders but you think they’re actually super cute! Y-You call your cat Snuggle Muffin when he’s sleepy and then you bury your face in his fur!”

“Wh-What? I told you to take me to him, not…! Not… that… Just please tell me where he is, I’ll go there myself.”

“Here,” I whispered.

“What?”

“I-I’m right here. It’s me!” I’d been looking down, but I met her gaze again tears streaming down my face.

“I… You… But you look nothing like him…”

“Well… It took me getting seriously mega cursed to realize I’m trans…”

She just stared for at least a minute, but I could see that she was finally believing it. A fact she hadn’t known about me was what began to sway her.

“That makes so much sense in retrospect…” she muttered.

“How do you think I feel?” I laughed, wiping tears from my face.

“It’s… really you?” she asked with a clear look of hope on her face.

“Yes! Yes, it’s really me, Izzy. I’m back.”

She, my best friend who finally believed that I am who I said I was, came over and hugged me.

“Oh my god,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “I haven’t been hugged in like, actually a year, I think.”

We spent a long time hugging and crying. Eventually, she backed away to compare my past self with my current self.

“So this is what you look like now? Why would the curse do this?”

“Uh, I’ll answer the second question first. So when the curse transforms someone, it more or less optimizes them for battle. Or makes them more functional, I’m not really sure.

“Anyway, the keyword there is ‘optimize’. Essentially, I’ve never been functioning optimally because of dysphoria, so it fixed that issue. That’s my guess on that. So I got a cursed transition, I guess.”

“Makes about as much sense as anything else in this fucked up world,” Kyle said, finally joining the conversation. “Sorry I didn’t say anything until now. I haven’t known you for even half as long as she has, and… I guess I’ve just become numb to so much lately. I’m kind of falling apart, eheh,” he chuckled awkwardly at the end.

“If anyone has it together in this world, I’d be actually worried for them.”

“That’s true…”

“So, the first question?” Izzy asked.

“What was it again?”

“I asked why you look like that, but I guess you answered it with what you said before.”

“Well… those are my thoughts on why my body changed, but… I don’t actually look like this,” I became tense from the sheer anxiety of what I was about to reveal. “This is just an illusion over my real appearance.”

“Why? What do you look like, then?”

“…Like every single one of the other Cursed Ones…” I said quietly, afraid of what they might say.

Izzy was quiet for a little bit, but then said, “Show me.”

“What? A-Are you sure?”

“Yes. I want to see you.”

“O-Okay, but… try not to panic?”

She nodded. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, then let go of my illusion. I heard two gasps but was too scared to open my eyes.

“I’m going to hug you again, okay?” Izzy said softly. She gently slid her arm around me and I began crying again in relief. So many months of fear of rejection, all proven wrong.

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