Call Me Mother

The girl ran toward the starting point.

Screeeech—!

The shock of loss didn't last long—an ominous noise was rising from somewhere close by. A familiar sound. How could I ever forget it? It was the sound of the monster that had taken my arms and legs.

"Your heart rate has spiked. What are you so afraid of?"

There was no time to answer. I threw my unfamiliar body into motion at once, small limbs flailing as they searched for balance.

"Don't panic. Stay calm."

"Now's not the time for that...!"

The moment I managed to stand, I snatched up the clothes scattered around me and ran. My bare white feet pushed through the rough debris, yet I felt no pain at all.

Tap-tap—!

'I'm... light?'

The initial awkwardness melted away in seconds, replaced by a speed beyond anything I'd ever known. Every time my feet kicked off the ground, the scenery blurred past—and the moment that fact registered, my vision widened and every sense in my body seemed to stretch outward.

"An awakened body, infused with the power of me, the Heavenly Dragon King. Did you think it would be the same as before? Though what I have passed on to you is but the tiniest fraction..."

Screech—!

The rusted shriek seemed to close in within an instant—and then the grotesque silhouette of the monster surged up into my field of view. Skeletal limbs, and a body like a giant flashlight. Its blinking light swung toward me.

Bzzt—

I had to dodge. That much was certain in my mind. But this tiny girl's body refused to obey. An instinct buried in my flesh whispered—no, shouted—go forward.

My legs tensed and drove off the ground, my small hand closing into a fist and shooting straight out.

And then the light came pouring down over me.

"Your body already carries the Dragon's Authority."

Shaaaaa— A transparent ripple spread across my skin, and instinct told me what it was: whatever now wrapped around my body was a power meant to keep that light out.

Then—

CRUNCH—!

My entire small arm punched clean through the front face of the flashlight.

"Th... this is..."

"You're astonished over having dispatched a mere lower-grade mutant?"

Gasping ragged breaths, I wrenched my right hand free from where it had sunk deep inside. The hand that emerged from what had looked like sharp glass was completely unscathed.

'Lower-grade mutant? Dragon's Authority?'

"You didn't even know what a lower-grade mutant was? And you used to crawl around the Abyss?"

"Status window."

"This child. When your mother asks you something, you answer—"

The voice chattering in my head faded into the distance. A moment later, the status window that only awakeners could see popped up before my eyes.

A skill I had never seen before now sat inside the status window. Its rank currently read F, but this was no skill to be taken lightly.

'A percentage next to the rank... this is one of those growth-types, isn't it...'

Growth-type skills—special abilities that couldn't be obtained through any ordinary means, or so I'd heard. Which meant the madwoman's voice lodged in my head hadn't been a hallucination after all.

'Is this a good thing?'

The power to carve an unidentified monster to pieces in a single blow. Anyone who acquired a skill with that kind of performance ought to be celebrating. But my body, changed without my consent, and the madwoman prattling endlessly inside my skull made it impossible to simply be happy.

"You're having some very impure thoughts."

'You can read my mind?'

"Of course. Did you think I couldn't?"

"Son of a—"

Having someone rummage through my thoughts without permission felt utterly vile.

"I-I'm grateful for the help and all, but... can't you put this back the way it was?"

I waved my small arms this way and that as I spoke. Perhaps because the monster that had loomed as the greatest threat had just been smashed to pieces, the tension drained out of me all at once.

"You want to go back? To that limbless body of yours?"

"That's..."

I shut my mouth at the madwoman's question. I did want my old body back—but not without arms and legs attached. My current situation beat being a torso, at the very least.

"You've been grating on my nerves for a while now. 'Madwoman,' was it? Did I not warn you clearly? You will call me Mother."

"That's bull... ugh... gkk... gkk..."

"I suppose I shall have to turn up the restriction's intensity."

The unfinished words spilled out of my mouth and warped into grotesque noise. The headache that struck without warning made any complicated thought impossible—and then a warm trickle ran down from beneath my nose.

"St... stop..."

"Now, repeat after me. Mother."

"Mmmoth...hhh..."

I lay sprawled on the ground, flailing my limbs in the most undignified way, for a long while. It didn't take me long to realize that the damp liquid trailing down over my chin wasn't snot—it was blood. Was I going to die of blood loss before anything else got me?

Panic surged up, and I forced my mouth open.

"M-Mother..."

"There. Much more pleasant to the ear. But don't worry yourself—this is only dead blood leaving the body."

Only then did the headache vanish.

Gasping, I pushed myself up off the ground. The pain that had disappeared in an instant felt like it had never existed at all.

"Haa... haa..."

Wiping away the blood and drool, I slumped where I was. My life, nearly lost, had been spared—but looking at where I stood now, it was hard to call that an improvement.

Wouldn't it have been better to just die back there?

The bleak thoughts kept coming, and why wouldn't they? An uninvited guest had taken up residence in my head—one who could read my mind at will and deal out agony with some strange power she called a "restriction."

'This is slavery, isn't it...'

"Slavery? What an insolent thought. What goes out must come back, no? I granted your wish first, so it is only right that you grant mine in return. I saved your life and even handed you a new skill—you ought to be thanking me, if anything."

'Does it work like that...?'

"Did you not wish to live?"

Thinking it over slowly... yeah, I supposed that was true.

"Still, my body..."

"It was the only way to save you."

But come to think of it again, it felt less like she'd been trying to save me and more like she'd been trying to take my body for herself.

"You seem to have misunderstood my intent. Think back carefully. I clearly worked to revive your body."

Did she...? Now that I thought about it, maybe that was what had happened.

"Then... should I be thanking you...?"

"...Enough. I took a brief look through your head and I grasp the situation now. First, check your remaining punishment time."

"Punishment time... it says there is an hour left?"

I stopped mid-reply and clamped my mouth shut. For some reason, finishing the sentence felt strange—like my vocabulary had taken ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a sudden nosedive. The aftereffects of that restriction-induced headache seemed to linger still.

'Fuck... is this actually okay?'

"You will be a little confused for now. But there is nothing to worry about. It will pass soon enough."

"Got it. But, um... could you maybe stop reading my thoughts?"

"I shall endeavor to."

"Anyway—you said I have to grant your wish, right? What exactly is it?"

"I must find a vessel capable of containing my soul in its entirety."

"You mean you want a new body?"

"You could put it that way."

Wasn't that just a pretty word for stealing someone else's body?

"It is not theft. It is closer to a purchase made at a fair price."

"I see..."

Yeah, she was a madwoman, all right. Calling theft a "purchase." I should have caught on back when she started calling herself a king. What if the thing that had latched onto me was the soul of some wicked necromancer?

I remembered reading ghost stories like that on the community boards—tales of necromancers who had lost their bodies stealing other people's instead. They said necromancers like that were still hiding out in our society even now.

"Such insolent thoughts—"

"Y-you said you'd stop reading...!"

"Enough. I shall let it pass this once."

"..."

I couldn't think of a single thing to say. Letting out a sigh of relief, I fumbled the clothes I'd grabbed into something I could wear. Underwear was, naturally, out of the question. I tried stepping into the bloodstained pants, but they simply slid right back down—the only thing I could actually keep on was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an enormous shirt.

"Just how small did I get...?"

As I stood there flapping around in the billowing shirt, a voice sounded in my head.

"If you're quite finished calming down, start moving."

"Move to do what? Explore the Abyss?"

I had barely an hour left. Far better to wait right here and let the remaining time drain away. If I went wandering again, I might cross paths with another one of those things called mutants.

'Not that I didn't handle it easily...' The memory of my limbs being severed in the span of a breath wasn't going anywhere.

"The Abyss is a garbage dump—all the refuse produced in the tower's upper floors comes tumbling down into it. Rummage through it thoroughly, corner to corner, and you may well salvage an item or two worth having. Wouldn't you say?"

"Well..."

I frowned, glancing around. Every manner of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠junk lay strewn across the devastated ground.

I'd gone digging a few times with that same idea myself. But even the things that had looked reasonably useful crumbled to nothing the moment I gripped them, so I'd given up on finding anything worthwhile here a long time ago.

"Here? But didn't you say you were a king? A king, digging through a garbage d—AAAAHHH...!"

The headache that struck out of nowhere sent me rolling across the ground.