I Have Simply Lost My Mind
Hair like a night galaxy melted down and forged anew—a deep ash-gray—glittered beneath the frail light of a streetlamp.
"Hmm... so this is the place."
It was the park where Han Baekwoo had died in the daytime. And yet the fact of his death did not exist, and the park lay far too clean.
Click. The tap of a heel woke the night.
"An effort was made... yet this thick reek of blood could not be concealed."
A metallic tang of blood crept in, sharp enough to sting. The scent was so dense it was difficult to believe it had come from a single human being.
"They slew him with true cruelty."
The scene held no trace of a battle, nor any trace of a corpse. Even so, when it came to blood, she was more sensitive than anyone.
"The corpse I beheld before was steeped in thick rage... ha. This time, it is cold beyond measure."
She walked on.
Click. Click.
And then she stopped at a certain point.
"And yet... one so strong as this shed blood?"
A faint afterscent of scorched blood rose from the ground. What was peculiar was that blood burned like this gave off a sweet smell.
The dead one was said to wield fire.
Click. She walked.
"How truly strange. To think it lies so near."
An apartment building entered her gaze—the apartment where Yuhwa lived.
With a wet rush, blood spread out behind her and tangled together. The blood became wings.
She gave them a light beat, and her body rose.
Last time they scattered even the scent itself... is this meant as a provocation?
Once before, she had found a Hero slain in the very same manner. Interest stirred, and she had gone looking, yet she could not find the killer. That time, every trace had been erased, and the work had been meticulous enough to wipe away even the scent of blood.
Now, however, it was far too careless. The smell of blood lay scattered across the ground. Fire had scorched it and thinned the scent, and yet a blood-reek much like it could be felt nearby.
It seems blood was shed only moments ago as well.
The sweet, vivid fragrance of fresh blood drifting toward her stirred something in her.
The home she arrived at stood thirteen stories up. Every light inside the room was out.
She slid open a window that had not been properly latched.
A chill silence hung through the interior. For a place where someone lived, there was scarcely any trace of a life.
"Hah..."
Had there not been the sound of breathing from the bedroom, she might well have thought no one lived there at all. She walked slowly and stepped into the room. Her heels made no sound whatsoever.
A child... a truly small child killed that one?
What occupied the room was a girl with silver hair that shone bright, unlike her own. Whatever pained her so, the girl lay with her face tightly knotted in a frown.
"Save me... mm..."
The one who had killed Han Baekwoo was indeed this girl. The faint scent of blood was much the same as what rose from the back of the child's hand.
This frail, little thing...
Her hand came to rest upon the girl.
"Nn...!"
At the touch, the girl shifted as though uncomfortable.
"Hoh...!"
Was something so strong, so cruel, truly this fragile girl? A child who, even under her hand, did no more than grimace?
How curious.
To claim this child had not killed Han Baekwoo would be difficult, for the scent of blood was far too alike. A smell this sweet, this mouth-watering, was not something easily hidden even when scorched. Had it not been for the filthy reek of Han Baekwoo's blood mingled through the body, she might have lost her reason and sunk her teeth into that throat.
When was the last time I smelled a sweetness like this...
It had been a long while. A long while since anyone had drawn her interest so, and a long while since she had tasted a blood-scent this sweet.
"...Ordinarily, I would kill you, or make you my thrall."
She looked at the girl before her. Even when a finger tapped, tap-tap, against her cheek, the girl did not stir.
She had smeared thick blood all over her body, and yet she slept in perfect peace.
"To do so would be a waste."
What, she wondered, lay inside that innocent face. How had this young, frail thing so simply cut a villain to pieces?
She let out a soft laugh and slipped back out the window.
"For a while... this shall be amusing."
The Last Vampire, Alice del Rugenaria.
Beneath the moonlight she spread her blood-red wings, and her crimson eyes gleamed.
Beep-beep. Beep-beep.
Eight in the morning, and the alarm went off.
"...Ugh."
Sleepy. I shut the alarm off and flopped down however I landed.
Eyes closed, I rested my face against the bed. Sleep came creeping back.
My cheek itched strangely, so I gave it a light scratch.
Weird... this is softer than my hands ought to be.
The hands that had taken on all the chores at the orphanage had been rough, not soft like this.
The wrongness of it made me crack my eyes open, and what I saw was a small, frail hand. And then, all over again, it hit me.
Ah... why won't this turn out to be a dream.
Morning had come, and I was still in the world of Hero Record.
"Huuu...!"
Still face-down, I pushed up into a cat stretch and arched my back. Doing it in a man's body had always left me stiff, but this body extended in one long line, just like a real cat.
I got up and looked in the mirror.
Hair a bright silver, nearly white, stuck out in every direction. Through hazy eyes, the vivid gold of my irises looked like cut gemstones.
"...No matter how many times I look, I'm seriously cute."
Anyone listening might have taken me for a narcissist, but I had only been in this body since yesterday.
Roughly... the look of a kid in the upper grades of elementary school. There were none of the puffed-up cheeks children usually have, though the baby fat hadn't quite left yet. The shape of the face was sharp for the age, so the leftover softness only made the cuteness stand out more.
...Am I on the short side?
Eyeballing it, was I even past four foot seven? I was very petite. Fortunately the proportions seemed decent enough; the figure in the mirror didn't look quite that small.
"My age... I wouldn't know."
In this world, a body could even be reshaped according to the ability one gained, so the build I had now might be a physique fitted to that power.
Instead of being able to change between adult and child, am I locked into this body?
As a rule, most abilities carried a Risk. Unless the form was a permanent alteration of the body, there was always a price for using one's power.
Like the ability to become a beastfolk.
Other races did exist in this world. But every one of them had been born human and merely reshaped through an ability; they were not wholly different species.
The Risk... I don't know. Anyway... I'm squishy.
Watching the mirror, I tugged my cheeks out long and tried all sorts of expressions and poses. Was this what it felt like, that virtual-avatar chatting my roommate was always going on about? With a face this cute, I found myself making expressions my original face would have died before wearing.
Sticking out my tongue. Framing my face with peace signs in both hands. Exactly the sorts of things a girl this age would do.
"Waaah! No, I'm not!!"
A thought struck me out of nowhere, and I bolted away from the mirror.
I'm insane!
The curses surged up from inside.
"Ugh...!"
And yet, on the outside, all that came out was an angry little groan like that.
Becoming a woman's body? That could happen. Get used to it, and you could live as the opposite sex. Getting younger? That wasn't even bad. For someone who had been single since birth, a woman's body was far too stimulating.
But turning into a little girl and acting cute all alone in front of a mirror? Insane. Self-loathing came flooding in.
"Right... I've simply lost my mind..."
Even my manner of speaking had been corrected to match, and the dizziness hit hard.
Is this the Risk...?
No. That didn't seem right. There were abilities whose Risk took the form of eroding the mind, but those usually meant losing one's reason, or being steeped in madness. There was no Risk that took the form of simply becoming an ordinary girl.
"Because it's the price you pay for using an ability."
A trivial Risk like this could not exist. In the afterword to Part One, the author had said it outright: abilities that were too weak had no Risk.
I don't know what the standard for that weakness even is...
At the very least, this ability was guaranteed to fall inside that category of weakness. Wasn't it obvious, looking at this frail body? Even if this was a transformed state, I was already bearing the Risk.
"Ugh, I just don't know."
I opened the closet. The hoodie I had worn yesterday was still hanging there.
...I'll just wash that.
I had thought it would be fine, since I had only worn it a little while, but looking now, it was caked in dirt. From rolling around on the ground yesterday, no doubt.
I looked for something else. Once again, I pulled out adult Yuhwa's clothes and put them on.
What I wore this time had a pretty funky feel to it. A black tee, printed with a picture of a guitar being played at full volume.
"Hmm... does this look weird?"
I didn't like the clothes on me in the mirror. If I was going to wear something, something cuter would be...
"Not again...!"
Out of sheer rebellion I meant to go out in them anyway, but I disliked them too much. This little girl's sense of style seemed to have absolutely no love for a look like this.
Just looking at the outfit, irritation started climbing, so I was better off taking it off.
"...Fine. I lose."
I rummaged through the closet, gathered up some clothes, and put them on.
This time it was jeans and a white tee. There was exactly one pair of jeans that fit, and over them I put on a loose black shirt.
Even if they were the adult Yuhwa version of clothes, on me now they came out as a decent oversized fit, so it was fine.
...This time seems all right.
The girl-sensibility inside me appeared willing to give this a passing grade.
Dressed like that, I tugged down low the hat I had tossed onto the desk.
"...Well then, shall I go buy something to eat."
Today, I was absolutely not buying spicy food.
...Then again, just in case, maybe I should get one? There was bound to be something a little less spicy...