The gust echoed throughout her skull, rattling her brain as the blood continued to pool around her.
It was surprising how unpainful it was. The axe lodged in her skull. And the sound on her head; it was like walking down the beach barefoot, with the sounds of a serene wave layered with an angelic choir.
But as the short gust ended no longer than 1.8 seconds later she reappeared sitting on the rock with the axe flying towards her. Her body rocked to the right and the axe whizzed past her. If it wasn't for the headscarf she adorned, once again she would have lost some hair.
She didn't even try to see who or what the figure that threw the axe was. She just grabbed her coat, her makeshift cane, and her bottle that was still lying down in the stream, and booked it.
The adrenaline did little to hide the pain in her foot and swinging arms, but she didn't care. She just ran.
And run she did, probably the fastest she ever ran in her life, but I mean that tends to happen to you when your life is on the line. That is, if you don't freeze up.
The world seemingly narrowed as she ran. Even if she looked around she saw nothing, just the trees and other foliage ahead.
Side effects of tunnel vision.
The different shades of brown and gray bark on the trees, the bright greens of leaves reflecting sunlight along with the occasional bright odd color of a flower or weird fruit, all of this dissapeared as she ran past it, all vanishing.
It's a lot like the life she had before really. The wonderful life she had before, gone. Buried deep within. Like a funeral of loved ones but for her memories. Of a past she wants to forget, one she hopes will never resurface, one she wishes to cover up with her own effort. To make her own legacy, all so she can finally forget.
After an unknown amount of time of running from who knows what, she collapsed. The exhaustion and injuries have defeated her. She is just a fourteen-year-old gir, after all.
She lied on the dirt and soil, her chest heaving, and her entire body aching – her foot and arm, especially. She rolled over onto her back, her right arm over her face, covering her eyes, while the left lay next to her, gripping her coat. Small quiet sobs could be heard coming from her, as well as sniffles.
"I-I'm s-shorry. I'm so s-sorry, you guys. I-I didn't mean to endanger myself and worry you guys. F-forgive me…!"
Through her sobs, she begged a pair for forgiveness, people whom have seemingly tasked her with self-preservation. This state she was in was then disrupted and broken by a certain man, or should I say…
"Shōko. Miss Shōko, are you alright?" said the worried but familiar voice. Shōko immediately lifted her head up. Wiping away her tears as she looked around. "H-hello? Count…? M-Mr. Count?!!"
She swayed her head side to side and slowly stood up on shaky legs. "Wh-where ar-uhm... Where are you, Mr. Count??"
She took a few stumbling steps around before dropping to her knees, her glances getting slightly more frantic and worried before that consoling voice answered.
"Up here, girl. Right above you."
Shōko swiftly aimed her gaze up at the branches, and as her eyes landed on the cat, her hand shot to her mouth, her eyes wide in horror. She tried to suppress her shock and newfound grief, but could barely hold it in.
"C-coun— Mr. Count!! Are you— What happen— M-Mr. Count I—!" She counldn't find the words, the sight making her speechless. She tried to rise to take a step towards him but stumbled back down, her legs way too shaky and weak. For what she gazed upon was the cat's small body impaled by a branch right through his chest. Tear drops started forming at the corners of her eyes, while her breathing swiftly turned very coarse.
She tried to open her mouth again to speak, but the cat interrupted her. "You need not worry, Shōko. I am alright, as I am a doll. I don't even feel pain in zhe traditional sense. Hohoho!"
But Shōko's expression didn't shift much. In fact, she was all the more shocked that he was laughing in such a situation, and although she would never admit it, it did calm her a little. She sighed, letting some tension leave her body. But it immediately returned as her eyes landed on the small pink hat in the cat's grasp. She wanted to lash out at the cat and berate him for his recklessness but she knew that that wasn't important right now, and she didn't even have the strength to yell in any case.
She tried to crawl nearer to the tree the cat was impaled on, but her movements were slow and her breathing was labored. The cat, noticing this, immediately tried intervening.
"Miss Shōko, I zhink you should razher rest zhan attempt to un-impale me. In zhe state you're currently in, I doubt you could do much…" His words were rational and filled with worry, but Shōko didn't care. For her, they were on a time limit.
"You don't understand, Mr. Count. We can't stay in this place. It's filled with unknown dangers, a-and… A-and I almo—"
"Vell, zhat may be true, but honestly tell me: vhat can you do? You can't even stand upright, let alone climb a tree and pull me off zhis branch...!!"
Shōko wanted to protest, but she knew that the cat was right. She sat up and reached for her glass bottle which she somehow didn't drop during her little 'jog'. She practically ripped off the cap and started chugging. Absorbing the water like a sponge until there was nothing left. Her chest slowed it's heaving as she looked back up at the impaled cat. "S-so what now? You can't expect me to pass out on the ground and hope I remain unscathed and even rejuvenated in the morning… That's just unreasonable Mr. Count…!!"
The cat didn't reply. He already knew that.
He racked that tiny, non-existent brain of his for a solution. His gaze landed on Shōko, specifically her right hand, with red skin that looked very apparent and familiar. His eyes seemed to shine as he recognized the cause and solution. He opened his mouth and spoke, his voice carrying a tinge of excitement. "M-miss Shōko! Have you tried using Flow in zhe slightest??"
Shōko stared at him, slightly confused, before it hit her like a wave. The memories, the fact that she had to resort to them again, made her clench her jaw in frustration, but she knew it was necessary. She swallowed hard, the words she intends to utter getting stuck halfway before bursting out of her mouth. "Ah, h-how do you know about Flow, Mr. Count?!"
The cat hesitated for a split-second, long enough for Shōko to notice. Probably her heightened senses allowing her to pick it up.
"Zhat is not important at zhe moment. But vhat is, is vhether you used Flow or not!? Since you can use Spiral, you should be able to use Flow correct?"
Shōko stared at him again, puzzled. She slowly opened her mouth before asking, her voice shaky and softer. "H-how do you, uhm, know that I c-can use Spiral, Mr. Count…?"
The cat took a moment to respond, wondering why she's feeling so agitated and apprehensive. "Vell, one look at your right hand tells me all I need to know. I've hear— seen other Uneri newbies suffer similar side effects after using Spiral…!" The cat almost seemed to gulp, his slip-up too obvious. But that's not what puzzled Shōko, no. What puzzled her was…
"O-other Uneri users??! There are others who know of this martial art!?"
The cat simply nodded, slightly confused by her cluelessness. But it seems everyone is confused and befuddled nowadays, Count and Shōko included.
The cat took a sharp breath before continuing. "But anyhow Shōko, if you are to recover in time, you need to use Flow. You should know how to use it, right??"
Shōko sat back onto her butt, crossing her legs into the Lotus position. She racked her brain, reluctantly trying to remember what her teachers taught her. But unfortunately – or maybe fortunately, for her, at least – she came up blank.
She shook her head slightly before looking up at him again.
"Please give me a refresher, Mr. Count!"
Despite her words, the cat knew she was completely clueless. He simply sighed before answering her eager question. "Vell, for starters, don't do vhat you did vhen using Spiral. Instead of focusing on zhe blood flow in one specific place, feel your blood all over your body. Instead of aiming for an adrenaline-type energization, aim for a rejuvenation-type energization. Zhink of it like a good night's sleep..!"
'A good night's sleep, huh? When was the last time I had a truly good night's sleep??' Is probably what Shōko was thinking. This isn't to say Shōko has some kind of insomnia or has trouble sleeping. She actually can fall asleep pretty fast. But what came to her mind was a sleep where you wake up and feel zero grogginess or sluggishness. Like falling asleep with your head in your mother's lap, in fact. That's exactly what Shōko thought of.
She straightened her back, rested her palms on her knees gently and closed her eyes, filtering bad memories out of her mind, and making sure all that filled her headspace was that peaceful sleep. The kind where you forget any worries you have, however miniscule or magiscule they may be. She continued to empty her mind of anything unnecessary, her breathing naturally aligning. In through her nose using her diaphragm, then into her lungs and holding it there for a second before releasing it through her mouth in what seems to be a sigh, tension escaping her.
This continued on for minutes. In through her nose deeply, then out through her mouth.
The world seemed to distort around her, the colours all mixing and blurring together before stabilizing into a bright white.
She felt her blood flowing through her veins, hearing it even. Calmly carrying oxygenated blood and nutrients through her, absorbing into her tissue and rapidly recovering it. Not at all like the rough aggressive filling of Spiral that expanded her vessels and filled it to the brim with blood and adrenaline. But a simple passing, like walking down the street and waving at whoever you see with zero awkwardness. How nice!
She slower opened her eyes, the white floor becoming visible to her. She lifted her head, and the rest of the white space entered her view, all to her confusion. But what puzzled her the most was not the weird space, nor was it the cat's mysterious knowledge of Uneri, but instead the boy in the space with her. He wore what seemed to be a uniform, one she had never seen before. The jacket he donned was of a deep navy blue with a buttoned-up shirt and a navy blue-and-white-striped necktie. His pants also matched the color of his jacket, and he wore weird-looking shoes. His skin was a creamy pale, and his short mushroom-like hair was a sleek, shiny black, glinting in the light.
He sat in a half-cross-legged position, with his left leg – which was facing her – in the cross-legged pose, while his right leg had his knee pointing up, like if one sat with their legs against their chest. His right arm was resting atop his right knee while his left arm was behind him, being use as a makeshift stand.
He gazed upward, facing to her left, away from her. She was about to speak up, to question his strange and sudden appearance, but before she could, she heard him speak.
"Ah! My dear beloved, my dear Moon~! You shine so bright, like a guide in the dark of the night. Like a pearl glinting at the bottom of the deepest ocean. If it wasn't for my love of the warmth of the sun, I would be up every night just to observe your beauty. Please forgive my disloyalty, my dear~!!" His words were those of a desperate, hopeless romantic.
Shōko shifted her gaze to where the boy – who, mind you, looked only about a year or two older than her – was gazing at. And she saw a large platinum orb with faint gray splotches covering it, glowing in the now darkened black of the night sky. Her gaze once again shifted to the boy, her surroundings now dark like the night. And in the shine of the moonlight, she saw him reach out his right hand towards the moon, his mouth opening to speak his desperate foolish words once more. "Oh, how I wish I was a vampire, a child of the night, a dark knight. Just so that I can bathe in your beautiful light just for a little longer, my dear~!"
Hearing his once more reminded her. He sounded exactly how she imagined, and he looked exactly like how he was described. And she couldn't help forming an expression of unconscious disgust onto her face. Yes, she remembered all too clearly, as this was the main character of the book she had read the day prior to today. Before that cat had sprung into her life. Yes, this was the main character of 'Looks to the Moon'. She absolutely abhorred him. How pathetic he was, how little action he took to achieving his dreams. And yet, she was now apparently thinking of him in her moment of peace and rest. Why??!
Her sudden inner turmoil sprung her out of the space and back into reality, the nighttime setting blurred and warping back to the dreadful forest she was in minutes prior. Her mind was now clouded with even more confusion then before she used Flow….
She rattled her cerebral information-computing machine. Searching all the files for answers to what she just experienced. But, like usual, she couldn't find anything. But nonetheless, she continued searching.
"...ko! …iss Shō…! Miss Shōko!!" The cat's exclaiming had shaken her out of her deformative state, and her gaze shot towards him.
"Miss Shōko, look at your hand!"
She raised an eyebrow at the cat's protest, but complied. And to her utter shock, the color in her right hand was mostly gone. She rolled up her sleeve all the way to her shoulder and gasped sharply. The nasty color was indeed gone, the previous reds and purples now a faded orange. Like turmeric-stained fingertips.
Speaking of fingertips, she poked her arm with her other hand, running her finger along the slim muscle and applying pressure in various spots, grimacing in anticipation, but shocked at no traces of pain. Just slight tingles.
She looked to her left hand and rolled up that sleeve as well. Unlike her right arm, her left arm was completely fine. Even though the previous color was faint and completely unlike her right arm, it's all gone now. She grabbed her right foot and moved it around the ankle joint, even applying pressure. Once again, to her surprise, nothing. She stood up and took a few steps around, and still no pain. She stomped her foot into the dirt, and the most she felt was a tingling feeling around the top of her foot and ankle, but nothing compared to the possibly fractured injury from before.
"I-I guess it wasn't broken to begin with, haha…!"
She ran her right hand through her brunette hair and stared at the cat with gratitude and a newfound confidence, her previous confusion about the weird white space and weird character momentarily forgotten to make way for more important matters….