NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Tragedy
In the heart of the hospital, a room filled with tranquility, washed in pristine white from floor to ceiling, stark contrast to the bustling corridors outside.
Beep – Beep – Beep ~
The space was filled with the gentle sound of machines, occasionally interrupted by beeping monitors. Despite the pristine facade of the hospital room, there was an undeniable sense of desolation that hung heavy in the air.
Ryougi Shiki sat on the bed, listlessly. She was wrapped in white sheets, with bandages covering her eyes.
'It was not supposed to be like this.'
'The world was not supposed to be like this.'
'Things were not supposed to be like this.'
'Because of that man.'
'All of this is his fault.'
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Ryougi Shiki was born into a normal loving family with normal friends and a normal everyday life. Her father, Kawahira Ryougi, is a highly accomplished chef, while her mother Akemi Ryougi was just an ordinary housewive who inherited her family's dojo and was a skilled swordswoman.
Shiki is a bright child, though she often prefers to daydream. Although quiet by nature, she has enough friends to avoid being considered an outcast. He often reads books in her free time, or practices sword arts with her mother.
Shiki is akin to any other ordinary child you might encounter in the world. The only thing that was exceptional about her was her physique. While most infants took their tentative first steps between the ages of 10 and 18 months, Shiki was different. At the tender age of six months, Shiki had already had strength in her legs, hips, and core muscles to stand on her own.
Even though the family knew that Shiki was physically gifted, it was starting to seem abnormal, almost superhuman. The parents especially realized how abnormal Shiki's body was, after seeing it firsthand.
--Flashback--
It was a hot summer day, cicadas buzzed constantly. The trees swayed, creating shadows on the ground under the clear blue sky, stretching endlessly above.
Shiki and her parents walked through the park on a sunny afternoon. Shiki looked around with excitement, holding her parents' hands tightly. Suddenly, Shiki spotted a colorful ball in the street. Excitedly, she let go of her parents' hands and ran towards it with a happy squeal.
But as she reached for the ball, her parents' hearts stopped as They saw a truck rushing down the street, heading straight for their daughter at a frightening speed.
In a nightmare-like scene, they saw Shiki thrown through the air like a ragdoll, crashing into the concrete wall.
Time seemed to slow down as they watched their daughter crash into the massive truck. For a tense moment, everything came to a halt as they felt a heavy weight of terror fall upon them.
When Shiki finally moved, her parents hurried to her side, relieved to find her battered but mostly unharmed. Tears of gratitude filled their eyes as they realized their daughter had come out of it with only minor injuries.
As they held her tightly, surrounding her with concern, they began to realize the strangeness of their daughter's body. How had their daughter come out of such a terrible accident with only injuries? What had saved her from the worst? Even if she did have a blessed body, this peculiarity was almost borderline superhuman.
--End of Flashback--
In the quiet living room, Shiki's parents exchanged tense glances, a sense of unease enveloping them.
"Should we bring her to a doctor?" With a worried expression, Shiki's mother's voice trembled with concern as she glanced at her husband.
He sighed, the lines of worry etched deep into his brow. "I think it's worth considering," he muttered.
"If I were in Shiki's place and had been hit by that truck at that speed... I don't even want to think about it." her father said, his voice trailing off, leaving a heavy silence in the room.
Behind the door, shiki heard her parents' conversation. Shiki's breath caught in her throat when she heard her father's words. The fear of her own abnormality weighed heavily on her mind, and she couldn't help but wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with her.
The door creaked open, and Shiki paused before stepping inside. "Mother, am I ... weird?" Her words trembled with anxiety.
"No, sweetheart," her mother said gently, crossing the room to embrace her daughter. "You're not weird. You're special."
Shiki's father nodded in agreement, his expression filled with a mixture of pride and concern. "We just want to make sure you're okay, Shiki. We love you, no matter what."
To any onlooker, they appeared to be the epitome of a perfect family. But what unfolded next shattered that illusion.
"What a loving family you are." Suddenly, an unknown figure appeared out of nowhere, mysterious and ominous. he stood before them with a chilling smile on his face.
The mysterious man stood before them, an unsettling sight to behold. His face was a patchwork as if it had been crafted from disparate pieces sewn together.
Long strands of grayish-blue hair cascaded down past his neck, his hair was sectioned off into three distinct strands, each tied off at the ends. On a closer look, it wasn't just his face that bore the marks of stitching. The man's entire body was adorned with rows of stitches.
"I wish I had a family like you are." His words dripped with sarcasm.
"W-who are you!? How did you get in here!?" The father's voice quivered with fear and worry as he took a protective stance in front of his wife and child.
"Ah! I know." The stranger's two hands clapped. He approached, reaching out as if to touch the father and mother.
"Why don't you become my family?" His voice, accompanied by a chillling smile.
"Idle Transfiguration"
Instantly, their bodies twisted and contorted, causing them excruciating pain. They screamed in agony as their forms warped grotesque ways. Limbs stretched strangely, bones cracked, and skin twisted into horrifying shapes. The father and mother writhed in agony as their bodies transformed horribly.
As everything unfolded, Shiki was there, witnessing it all. She couldn't look away, feeling sick as she tried to grasp the sheer horror of what she saw. Every fiber of her being recoiled in fear at the grotesque spectacle playing out before her eyes. The family's screams of pain pierced her ear, carving themselves into her memory.
"Hmmm? Are they dead already?" The stranger's voice suddenly changed, with the tone of a child who saw his toy broken.
"Why are you doing this?" Shiki's voice sounded hollow and empty, devoid of its usual vitality.
"Why am I doing this?" adopting a playful tone that made Shiki dumbfounded. "Frankly, there's no reason at all. You just unlucky meeting me."
Unlucky?
The words echoed in her mind, striking her heart like a hammer.
'He killed my parent just because I'm unlucky?'
'All of this happened just because I'm unlucky?'
Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky? Unlucky?
"AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Something inside Shiki snapped. With rage, she rushed at the man, her fist clenched tight. She knew it was futile—there was no way she could hurt someone who could do that to her parents. But all logic vanished when she saw his smiling face.
Before she could reach him, he struck out swiftly, his palm connecting with her body with bone-crushing force. The impact sent Shiki hurtling through the air, her body crashing into the wall with a sickening thud before collapsing to the ground.
As Shiki lay on the ground, her voice emerged with an eerie emptiness.
"Just kill me." Those are not words you would expect to come out of a 12-year-old girl's mouth.
"Eeeeh, I dont wanna, you're still a child, you still have a bright future ahead of you"
"You should try to live your life a little, right?" Every word that came out of that man's mouth was dripped with mockery.
Her gaze hardened as she stared up at him, all she could think up was
Disgusting. Seriously disgusting.
How dare he speak of bright futures when he was the very reason all of this happen.
Before Shiki lost consciousness, she locked eyes with the man, imprinting his face in her memory, vowing never to forget him.
She will never forget that man.
especially that smile.
============
Shiki found herself in the depth of nothingness.
She doesn't know how long she has been here.
Shiki was floating in the sea of nothingness. The concept of time is nonexistent here, it's just pure emptiness. She was drifted without purpose and sank deeper and deeper into the void. It felt like a dream while also not at the same time.
She found herself powerless, akin to a doll with a dead battery—incapable of movement. Despite this, she remained acutely aware of her physical state outside, a mere shell devoid of soul, like an empty vessel.
She was truly dead while also alive at the same time. It was contradiction, but at this moment, she was the closest thing to death.
Days? Month? Year? Shiki's just stopped counting.
With each passing moment, Shiki felt herself slipping further into the void. The memories of her past life—the laughter of her friends, the warmth of the sun on her skin—Her parent face—were slowly fading. But there was one thing she vowed not to forget.
That man—she would never forget him, not for a moment. Ever.
As Shiki drifted through the empty void, she noticed a faint glimmer of light in the distance. She ventured closer and closer, and with each passing moment, the light grew brighter and more radiant.
As she drew closer, a sense of awe washed over her at the sight before her. There stood a magnificent spiral. Instinctively, Shiki understood what she was witnessing. This spiral was the nexus of all cause and effect, spanning past, present, and future—the epicenter of creation and destruction.
Shiki moved towards the spiral, encountering no resistance. As she approached, the boundaries between reality and fiction blurred. The brightness of the spiral became overwhelming, engulfing her in a blinding radiance that left her unable to see anything else.
============
Beep – Beep – Beep ~
Shiki felt herself beginning to awaken.
Beep – Beep – Beep ~
Shiki heard the familiar rhythmic beeping of a monitor.
Shiki's eyelids fluttered open, expecting to see the sterile surroundings of a hospital room—the familiar sight of white walls and ceiling.
But instead, she was met with something far beyond her expectations.
"Lines". Countless "lines" intersecting and overlapping.
It was world filled with red crimson "Lines"
[END]