Pain cut at her with each step she took. Her lungs burned and her arms throbbed with the little scratches that covered them. Her body slowed for just a moment, begging for a break. 

The sound of the monster following behind pushed her on. The fear pushed her like a master that whipped his horse to run. 

“You can’t get away from me,” it hissed. It’s stomping steps continued to follow, never stopping for a moment. 

She glanced behind her, it had only gotten closer. The monster was jogging at most, it taunted her with it’s slow pace. It meant to heighten her fear before killing her. How she wished that she could escape it with thought alone.

She knew that this was all a dream, something that her mind made up. That everything she felt was simply a fantasy that her mind made to cope. Yet the monster that followed her made no sense. It was the stuff of nightmares…just not hers.

Pain overwhelmed her as her vision darkened for a moment. Her lungs screamed for air and burned her in rage of the lack. She tripped as it all overwhelmed her.

Izumi turned to look at the monster that quickened it’s pace towards her. She knew in that moment that if she didn’t do something fast then she would be killed.

How she wished that Kacchan was there.

She closed her eyes as she tried to stand again. Her legs protested against it as she forced herself. 

Suddenly a deafening roar surrounded her. She opened her eyes and found herself overwhelmed by everything in front of her. The monster that wanted to kill her, rape her and devour her was nowhere to be seen.

That did not make her surroundings any better.

Izumi wondered why she stood in a battle with monsters and savages. She stared at the men that surrounded her. Her mind whispered of long buried memories she tried not to think of. 

This was Kacchan’s tribe. 

Red tattoos, gold jewelry and the same woven clothes as she remembered. Tears ran as she thought of Kacchan and if he were in that very battle. What did it all mean? Was she just tormenting herself? she feared that to be the case.

She had always hated violence ever since childhood. Still she found herself in a battle.

Was her subconscious trying to tell her something? Or was this all because of the battle she faced with her illness? 

“What is this?” She whispered to herself. “Why is this happening?”

No one answered her but then no one was meant to. Everyone just kept fighting. Killing their enemy as she stood in the center of it all. A spectator of death and violence. How she wanted to escape it.

She felt so overwhelmed by everything. From the moment she had entered her apartment, it felt as if nothing had gone as planned.

“This all needs to stop,” she muttered to herself. She screamed at the top of her lungs to stop them.

They didn’t bat an eye at her, never seemed to even see nor hear her.

So she moved to grab a man, only to be pushed away. Her balance was lost from the action and she tripped backwards over a dead man’s body. She stared in shock with her legs still on him.

The world went silent despite the battle still raging on. Her heart stopped in her chest as well she stared at him.

It was how she knew that he was still alive. The feeling of his chest rising and falling told her all she needed to know. Without another thought, she went to aid him. The sight of his wounds were horrifying. Like acid had been painted upon his skin and deep cuts stabbed at him.

It was as inhuman as the monsters the men fought. How could her mind create such horror? It made her feel as though she were the monster rather then the ones the men fought.

She pushed the thought away and touched her hands to his neck. She needed to know how his pulse was before she could try to help him.

“A…a woman?” a weak voice whispered.

She looked at the man, his voice so weak and his eyes stared at nothing. She didn’t think he could see her with the acid burns over them. “How did you know?”

“…h…h..hands.”

“Keep calm, I’m going to help you as best as I can.”

“…lea…leave…now…da…dan…danger-”

“Dangerous? I know but you’re what’s important right now, not me.” She meant them. Even if this was just something that her mind had created, she had worked to become a nurse for a reason. 

She would never stop working toward helping others in need.

The only question was…how could she help him? She had no supplies, the man was too weak to move under his own power. There was also the fact that a battle raged around them that added to the danger.

“L…le…leave…go…t…t…to tribe,” he begged her. His hand twitched as he tried to lift it.

“Don’t try to move! Or talk, you need all the strength you have,” she told him calmly. She took her hands from his pulse to grab his hand, it was then that blood exploded from him.

She stared, unable to process what had just happened before her. Some kind of spiked tail was stabbed into the man’s chest. She followed that tail to find it attached to a monster. It gave her a sadistic smile as the tail twisted in and out of the man’s flesh.

She didn’t even need to look at the man to know that he had passed. The fact that he had died before she even had a chance to save him did something to her. It had cut into the heart of who she was.

He hadn’t been real. but his pain had been to her. It had filled Izumi with an ache that she didn’t even have the chance to ease his pain. It had made his passing harder than it should have been. She would never forgive herself if this had been a real person.

This was just the beginning. A battle raged and she stood in the heart of it. It needed to stop; her subconscious could not win. If it did then all the pain around her would continue in an endless loop. She would take control to stop it all. This was her mind despite the fantasy. 

“What the fuck was that for?” She hissed at it.

“To wake you up!” it laughed at her.

She stared at it, not understanding what it was talking about. She was locked away in her mind; she wanted to wake up. “Then why are you doing all of this?”

“Because you love these people, you always have and he wants you to suffer for it.”

Her heart stopped in her chest in that moment. Then rage and terror filled every cell in her body. Her eyes saw red as she stood up with the intent to harm the monster her mind had created. She stopped before she could do anything, the monster pulled it’s tail from the man. 

The sound filled her ears. it echoed in them over and over. “Why? Who wants me to suffer?”

The tail turned to her, slowly moving towards her until it was pointed at her throat. She looked at the monster to see it’s sadistic smile was all the wider. “There’s no fun in telling you everything.”

She stared at him as she processed what he said to her. It was like it was all a game to this other person. Another person that shouldn’t exist in her own mind.

This was a fantasy, she knew that. Her desire for Kacchan had created all of this. Her illness had poisoned her life and was now poisoning her subconscious. It needed to stop.

Everything needed to stop.

A spear slammed down on the tail as someone pushed her behind them. Though she had never seen the person in real life, everything just stopped. Izumi stared at his back as she processed the joy that filled her. It filled her so much that it overflowed into tears.

He was the light that she needed so badly in that moment.

“Kacchan? Please tell me…it’s you?” Hope bloomed in her chest as she stared at him. The hope was the antidote that she needed for the poison that filled her.

He said nothing to her, never turned to her as he batted the tail away. Before she could say anything else to him, he raised an open hand to the monster’s face. Her heart stopped again  as she watched the smile on the monster’s face became even bigger.

That smile seemed to only make the monster’s head grow. Still, Kacchan did nothing-

“Woman,” another monster suddenly hissed from her right.

“Die.” An explosion suddenly burst from Kacchan’s hand, destroying the monster’s head. Izumi never had the chance to look at the other monster. Kacchan’s spear whizzed past her head and she found herself looking at him. 

The ruby eyes that she had dreams of countless times stared at her.

“Kacchan,” she whispered as more tears spilled. Her happiness couldn’t be contained at the sight of him.

Without another word, he took her into his arms. He held her tightly, almost like he was afraid to ever let her go again. That only served to make her cry all the more.  How long had she wanted this?

To see him, to have him hold her and be with him again? She never wanted to wake up again if she could say with him. 

It was then that her happiness turned to despair.

This was her illness talking. Her illness and her subconscious were her enemies, making the thing that she wanted appear. They meant to stop her from fighting for herself. How badly she wanted to let them win as she was held in his arms.

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Chapter 2 Otherworldly Love Chapters Chapter 4