Chapter 0
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: What's My Name?
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What's my name?
The first thing I discarded was my name.
The choice was easy. Because the other side of the scale held my life.
I survived by offering my name to the Anomaly.
Not long after that, I lost half my body.
I thought I would die right then and there.
Squelch-!
But something unknown latched onto the empty space. It moved as naturally as if it had always been part of my body.
I had to accept it.
Or I would have died.
After that, I wandered endlessly for an indeterminable stretch of time. Searching for a way back home.
I devoured anything I could eat. Killed anything I could kill. I even welcomed the mutations of my flesh.
I did whatever it took to survive.
In the process, I lost any certainty that I was still human.
But my goal remained unshaken.
Returning home.
I kept walking toward that one singular purpose, step after grueling step.
And I wondered.
How had I ended up here?
The first thing that came to mind was the door.
'The door.'
One day, I found a door.
Out of curiosity, I opened it—and stepped through into this unfamiliar world.
A world that wasn't meant for humans.
When I looked back, the door was gone.
"Hoo..."
Honestly, at this point, I didn't even think I could make it back.
Yet I couldn't stop. Probably momentum, or inertia.
After all, searching for the way home was the only thing I could do.
Then one day.
"Ah-."
So utterly anticlimactically.
I found a door.
At first, I thought it was a hallucination.
But it was real.
I might not remember who I used to be, but that door? I remembered it crystal clear.
So I ran toward it without hesitation and tried to open it.
Thud!
But the door wouldn't budge. And I quickly realized why.
My current 'body' wasn't suitable for crossing through.
It was too contaminated.
So I began stripping it away.
Splurt-.
I cut off the things sprouting from my body.
Vomited up the powers that weren't mine. Cut. Sliced. Sliced. Sliced. Expelled. Carved out. Ripped free. Sliced.
After repeating that process countless times.
I had become something alien in form.
Snow-white skin, short and fragile limbs that looked like they'd snap at a touch.
No matter how I thought about it, this was far from my original appearance. I had been a sturdy adult man.
But it didn't matter.
As long as I could get out.
I cautiously gripped the doorknob.
Creeeak-.
The door opened smoothly, without issue.
Beyond it lay only thick darkness, but I stepped forward without hesitation.
And soon, I arrived.
In the middle of some nameless abandoned building.
"Ah, aaah-."
Stumbling as I emerged, I looked around. That's when something caught my eye.
A half-shattered mirror.
Drawn to it like a moth to flame, I approached—and in its reflection—
stood a small, slender girl with silver hair.