Chapter 10: Chapter 09- Horror Style World

Kaz looked at me with fear in his eyes as those black wisps flickered around him. They were invisible to him, but they told me all I needed to know.

"What did you say to me?" he stammered.

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"H-Help me! Please! My foot is stuck!"

"It is, isn't it?"

I took a step closer to him.

"I think it's just tangled--"

Kaz choked as I pressed my heel into his throat and plunged him into the mists crawling on the forest floor. He grabbed my foot and tried to remove it, but I was a human with peak condition, and he was a sorry excuse for a man. Then, I watched as some of the wisps clinging to him whirled around my leg and soaked into it.

I smiled. "Good."

Those black wisps--they were a signal to a person's nature. By staring into them, the story of the wisps origins would unfold.

I called the energy that made them Vengeance because why not? I would 'hurt' evildoers and exact vengeance in the stead of those who could no longer act, like those kids Kaz had run over. The more I 'hurt' them, the more Vengeance I would absorb. If I killed them, I would get all the Vengeance automatically.

I noticed that my Vengeance had been depleted upon arriving here. Traditionally, I could use it to shield myself once I had it--what I called Vengeance's Favor--but I couldn't recall ever using that function during my final battle with the goddess... So, either the goddess must have depleted it, or this world must have messed with it like it did my mana reserves, but now? Yeah, I was building it back up. And what was better? I felt my body coming alive. My other power was waking up properly. The pair of butterfly wings now fluttering in my palm was the sign. Maybe the familiar energy entering my body was doing it.

"Hmm... I underestimated my abilities," I said as I removed my foot from Kaz's neck and finally let him breathe.

He sprang up from the mist, coughing. "What were you doing?! What's wrong with you?!"

"I could ask you the same. Chasing after a pair of girls because they took your bag? Have you seen the woods we're in?"

"It's important!" he snapped back.

I stomped on his hand and ground my heel in as he yelped. "I'm sure it is... but I don't know that it will be so useful for you anymore."

I removed my foot from his hand, taking some Vengeance with the movement.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he said as he cradled his hand.

I looked into his eyes, and he winced. That was a good reaction. I decided I would share a little of my thoughts with the despicable man. I always got talkative when confronted with people like him. Their reactions were always so good for the soul.

"I loved watching horror movies when I was younger... Some would say exposure to that material at such a young age ruined me, but that material didn't make me who I was. I was already the kind of person who was accustomed to it and sought it out."

"Why are you telling me this? S-Stop yapping and help me--"

"No, Kaz. No. A strange, hidden village that no one can escape? Sketchy residents who refuse to explain everything clearly? A busload of people who get trapped in these woods? Howls? Creepy mist? The godamn crows? See, this world really feels like a horror-style world. And in those kinds of world, a man like you, so drenched in evil, is just going to cause trouble."

"'Horror-style' world? What are you talking about, you crazy bitch!?" His eyes were almost bulging out of his head. "This is the real world! Not some kind of movie!"

I looked around at the encroaching mist and listened to echoing howls. I couldn't help but chuckle.

"This reminds me of the time when some funny people told me their world wasn't game-like... My apologies; I didn't mean to laugh at you for that. Surely, there is something that justifies your worldview." 

Tears escaped him. "Please, come on. Help me," he said as he tugged on his leg.

I kicked him right in the chin and watched as his head fell back into the mist. He came back out, coughing and with his chin split. I watched on as trails of black wisps left him and soaked into my body.

"Kaz, one thing has already been decided."

He stared at me, his lips quivering.

"I am not going to risk having such a volatile, violent and disgusting man so nearby. You're likely to get everyone killed in your ambitious folly. So, make no mistake. This is your final night."

His eyes trembled.

"The only question is..." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who exactly is going to see you off to the next world..."

 

***

There were two scenarios in my mind.

Scenario A: I dispatch him myself. I would end him, extract all the Vengance that I could, and be on my way. Surely, a veil of Vengeance would be helpful later. I could also study the Vengeance again and try to learn more about this world by looking at the recorded memories. Maybe whatever was howling would mangle the body and further hide my involvement. Then, when confronted by others--

"Mari, what happened to Kaz?"

"Kaz? He was killed by strange beasts in the woods, (or insert some creature here). There was nothing I could do. I'm just a weak woman."

If it ended there, that would be fine. It would be my victory. Days, if not weeks, would pass as I diligently worked on getting my bearings. But what if someone came across the body later on? A murderer getting caught because of an inconvenient corpse being found was a common occurrence. And here is where the problems could begin. They would ask me--

"Mari, we found the body... but there were no signs of the monsters getting him... Someone had kicked him. Are you sure monsters killed him?"

In the face of such a question, I would have to lie. As it stood, I had no idea whether or not these monsters cared about a lifeless body. If this was the real world, hungry monsters would eat a dead body, even if it was as malnourished as Kaz's. But, if this world ran on different rules... 

Would the monster in a horror story care about a body it couldn't terrorize? I'd be walking into a trap of my own making if I ignored the fact that I didn't know what rules governed this world. 

If I make the assumption that "monsters eat corpses," I might be made the fool when finding out that the monsters feed on terror or something similar. And then, the poor foolish Mari would have to spin lies, until the innocent villagers captured her and finally shut her mouth. This fool could try to explain who the man, Kaz Kitanari, was and what she saw when she "hurt him" but who would listen? This fool would end up hanging.

Bad End.

Scenario B: I cripple him and leave him to whatever was about to come out. I would lose out on extracting the maximum Vengeance, since I don't get anything if I'm not the one hurting him directly. That would be a worthy sacrifice, however. In this scenario, I cripple him, the monsters finish him off, and I lie, saying the monsters caught him. Done deal.

The thing that could ruin this scenario was the eventual monster "capturing" Kaz instead of slaying him. Given the way the villagers were reacting, though... I was biased to believe that there was no "Hope" on the table if one was captured.

The critical assumption here was "monsters kill, not capture."

A second preferred option was that if they did capture humans, that they tortured them to death.

If I was grossly incorrect, then Kaz would eventually get found and would be able to tell his saviors exactly what happened. That would just take me to Scenario A's bad end.

***

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I decided to believe in Scenario B. The monsters would have their way with him.

"W-Why are you smiling?" Kaz whimpered.

I touched my lips. "My apologies. It slipped... I just get so happy when I do some good in the world."

"Good--YARGH!"

I had used my peak condition and boot to break his kneecap.

"That's one... and now."

He cried out again as I broke his ankle--the free one.

I stood up and patted my hands clean of the clingy mist. "Well, there we go. I exacted some Vengeance, and I prepared an obstacle for removal at the hands of useful monsters." I turned on my heels and began walking in the direction I was sure the girls were headed towards.

"WAAAAIIIT!" Kaz cried between heavy breaths. His face contorted in pain as he attempted to pull his body out, but it was to no avail. "You can't just leave me, bitch!"

I turned around. "Interesting negotiation tactic there, Kaz--"

He had that tiny gun pointed at me. I was surprised.

"Huh... So it was still on your person... And here I thought it was single use."

"Bitch," he spat. "Help me. Or I'm shooting you."

"Hmm."

"You hear me!?" he cried. "We both go down here! We both go down, and those dogs chew us up! All because of you! Huh? You want that?"

I shrugged. "Don't really care."

As his eyes went wide, my grin grew wider.

"Kaz, I honestly just would rather you suffer for what you did--"

A crack-like bang echoed.

Kaz was laughing while crying.

My head was falling backward, and my foot was leaving the ground. I was perplexed, though.

That... That wasn't gunpowder. And the bang sounded different. There was a cloud of plasma discharge around the muzzle. Plasma--was it magic? But... are we in a magictech world? But the bus looked modern... Oh, I'm about to fall backward, aren't I? How humorous, I was so mystified by the gun that I didn't realize that my power was working. Okay, let's give this man the second to last great scare of his life.

I slammed my foot back down and stood straight. His mouth dropped, and he went white.

"W-w-w-wha--"

His stammering was endless. Meanwhile, I was feeling a familiar sensation inside my forehead. I pointed at it and made sure he was watching. I felt the many little legs moving around, gently tickling the inside of my cranium. They were there, coming into being with their wet little wings dragging against tissue and taking little strands with them. They crawled up the hole his bullet made and started poking out. I held my hand beneath my chin, and the tiny bullet fell out from my head and onto it. 

"How?" he said, wide-eyed.

Then, a few black butterflies crawled out and flew around me. I chuckled as I watched the butterflies flutter. I held out my finger and let one land on my finger.

"I had underestimated my power. Already, it is repairing itself and adapting... This was a power that beat a goddess's rules... I was stupid to worry so much."

The butterflies flew around me for a few more seconds before landing on my forehead again.

"My powers continue to evolve."

The butterflies sank into the bullet hole in my forehead and reformed my bone and flesh, essentially making it so that the wound never existed. This was the side effect of the second of my powers--it afforded me something sort of like invulnerability.

I sneered at the speechless Kaz. "Those howlers aren't the only monsters in these woods."

Then, as if something was agreeing with me, the ground shook, and the mist started buzzing.

"What are you doing?!" Kaz yelled.

"Me? Nothing!"

I got a strange sense of anxiety and looked to my right. Kaz must have sensed it too. He was looking in the same direction. 

There was something there behind a layer of mist. I took a step backward before I could even notice. It took everything I had to stop my body from fluttering away. I looked at my hand and forced a smile.

"This is new... I'm trembling."

I found the courage to--ack, what? I needed to find courage? No, I looked at the figure beyond the mist.

"H-Hey, hey, come on--please, help me," Kaz said, tears streaming from his eyes. "Sorry for shooting you, but you're fine, aren't you?"

A low booming echoed from where the figure was, and then, all at once, the mist parted and billowed upward like it was an artistic frame around a horrible picture.

Kaz let out a whine. "Hey, hey, no I didn't shoot you. I never shot at you! You're still there! Please, help me! I'm sorry."

My heart raced as the creature's figure was seared into my mind.

The easiest to interpret part of its body was its trunk. It had the body of a hairless deer with gray skin. Things became stranger as one's eyes went up its veiny, throbbing neck. At the head was a pair of plump human legs. The knees jutted upward, and the legs dangled, its toes squirming. 

Oh god, it turned this way. It was spreading its legs.

In between those legs, right where you would expect the head of a deer to be was a slit, complete with all the folds, and with drool-like liquid dripping out the bottom.

I forced the words out of my mouth.

"This isn't just horror... that's full on eldritch!"

Then, it let out a low but powerful moan. The folds around the slit wiggled as dozens of tiny hands burst out from within the slit and from between folds, every single one of its tiny fingers was squirming.