Chapter 4: Benevolence.
Mitsuki barely registered it, too absorbed in his fantasy. "Must be some guy," he muttered under his breath,getting ready to reach for his zipper. "Can't wait to get to college tomorrow and hopefully run into that girl again. Maybe this time I'll actually—"
Instantly, Something slammed into him from behind.
' The Fxck?!'
His body flew forward, propelled by an impossibly strong force. The world became a blur of motion before he knew it and then a sharp, explosive CRACK as his head collided with the restroom mirror. Glass shattered and pain erupted across his skull. He crumpled, disoriented, hands scrabbling uselessly against the sink counter.
Before he could process what had happened, before he could even draw breath to scream, something cold and sharp punched into his back.
Once.
Twice.
Three times in rapid succession.
Mitsuki's mouth opened, but only a wet gurgle emerged. He coughed, and his vision swam red as blood splattered across the cracked mirror, across the sink, across his own trembling hands.
' What—who—' were the only broken thoughts he could come up with before he felt another stab, for some reason, it was more deeper as if containing the attackers fury. He felt it in his lungs, in his spine, in places he didn't have names for.
His legs gave out the next moment and he collapsed onto the tile floor, cheek pressed against cold, grimy concrete that was quickly becoming slick with his own blood. His body felt distant, numb, like it belonged to someone else. But the pain—the pain was very, very much real.
Bastard, he thought, the word echoing hollowly in his fading mind. Just who's the bastard behind this?
He couldn't help blaming the heavens, thinking that they couldn't endure the fact that he'd finally gotten a chance to meet a girl who could very much become his girlfriend.
He tried to turn his head. The pain assaulted him every second, His vision was tunneling, edges darkening, but even then, he caught a blurred glimpse—
Of Shoes.
Butterfly-encrusted shoes. Seemingly delicate, realising he'd actually been assaulted by a woman left a strange taste in his mouth, very much different than the already present blood.
To think the last thing Mitsuki saw before the darkness swallowed him whole was a single butterfly, staring back at him from the toe of a shoe.
Mitsuki's eyes hurriedly snapped open.
He gasped, lungs burning as his hands flew to his chest, his stomach, his back, searching and grasping, seemingly expecting to find gaping wounds or sticky blood. Anything that would point towards his unexpected demise.
But even as his fingers pressed against the fabric of his clothes, or skin. He felt nothing but the faint sheen of sweat that coated his entire body.
No holes. No blood. Nothing of the sort that could point back to the unimaginable pain he'd just experienced.
Rather than lying dead in the restroom. Right now he was in his apartment. Laying on his bed. The morning light filtered through his curtains, painting pale stripes across his rumpled bedsheets.
His eyes unconsciously shifted towards his clock, which read 8:47 AM. The same time he'd seen this morning after waking up, or should he say the previous morning?
Right now, Everything was normal and fine, without a single oddity in sight.
"I'm not dead," Mitsuki whispered. His voice cracked. "I'm not dead?"
His words were first said with confusion which was overwhelmed by relief.
The relief lasted approximately three seconds before the sheer impossibility of the situation crashed into him.
To think he'd been stabbed. Not once even, but multiple times before dying.
He'd felt the blade tear through his flesh, had coughed up blood, and watched his life spill across a convenience store bathroom floor.
And now he was in bed. Alive and without a wound in sight, the meer thought of it was nerve wracking.
"Just what the hell—"
" Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
A familiar laugh rang through the room before he could finish his sentence, sounding very much pleased and amused.
The nine-tailed fox materialized at the foot of his bed, rolling onto her back, paws waving in the air as she cackled.
"Oh—oh, your face—" The fox gasped between laughs. "If only you could see yourself right now, the sheer horror—"
" Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
" Shut the f*CK up!" Mitsuki grabbed his pillow and hurled it at her.
It passed straight through her holographic form and smacked against his wall.
The fox sat up, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. "You know, I did try to warn you. But did you listen? No, no, you were too busy being 'not a loser' and making eyes at a random girl on the street."
" You make it sound like I'm some creep..."
" Aren't you?" She replied with a sneer.
Mitsuki's hands began shaking at his sides. He clenched them into fists, pressing them into the mattress. "You knew this would happen."
"I knew something would happen." The fox shrugged, entirely unbothered. "No one who gains the heavens' ire ever goes unscathed. I assumed you understood that on some level, but clearly—" She gestured at his trembling form. "—you did not."
He said nothing to disapprove of her words, Mitsuki's breathing came fast and shallow. He could still feel it, the cold slice of the blade, the wet warmth of his own blood, the darkness closing in. His chest began heaving at the thought, it really wasn't easy to get over such a thing.
Who on earth wouldn't be horrified to realise they'd just died in such a way?
' Breathe.'
'Breathe.'
' It's not like you didn't see this coming completely.' he told himself.
' You're alive. You're alive, and that's all that matters.'
Slowly, yet painfully, he forced his lungs to cooperate. In. Out. In. Out. The panic soon receded, replaced by a numb sort of acceptance that he recognized as shock but couldn't do anything about.
" What's happened has happened, now I just have to be careful. I was just careless that's all."
The fox tilted her head, curious.
Mitsuki ran a hand through his hair, ignoring how it trembled. "At least I have experience dealing with crap like this."
"Experience?" The fox's eyebrow arched. "What experience? your not possibly thinking of relying on the useless experience you got from watching content online, are you?"