Pulsating Fate
I lost consciousness before I could even uncover the identity of that pulsating fate. The exhaustion piled up throughout my body had exceeded its limit, and the moment I felt even a shred of comfort, my mind simply shut down. As a result, I sank into such a deep sleep that I couldn't even tell when I had fallen asleep, and I began to regain consciousness while continuing to sleep without knowing where I was or where I had dozed off.
Though I felt something strange about how clean it was—none of the sensations I usually felt even when losing consciousness were present—I first began to steady the consciousness I had regained not long after. Because I had slept so deeply, I started retracing the fleeting memories I had forgotten, one by one.
Right, that girl. I could remember up to the point where the girl with the peculiar atmosphere had found me, but what happened after that? Even now that I had regained consciousness, I couldn't recall those parts at all. Judging from her outfit, she didn't seem like someone you'd often see on a beach like this. It was almost like she was wearing a white coat over a zip-up hoodie with a hood, resembling a researcher who had stepped out for a quick drink.
“···· Ugh··”
However, while I was retracing those memories, I gradually felt sensation returning to my entire body. For some reason, this time there were external sensations I hadn't felt even when I lost consciousness, and though I felt a strange sense of unease, I soon began to slowly open my eyes.
“Ughhh———!”
In that instant, I felt an explosive pain shooting through the muscles all over my body. Though it seemed several times more agonizing than the pain I should normally have felt.
“Ugh, huff·····!”
Regardless, I spent some time writhing on the floor, trembling all over, and it was only after several minutes that I finally came to my senses. While struggling, I peeled off my sweat-soaked clothes that had become thoroughly drenched and let out a long breath.
“···· Haaah··”
Only then did I realize where this place was and where I had been lying. It was like a coastal cave. A small campfire crackled beneath my feet, burning dry branches, and my completely soaked shoes were flipped over beside it, drying. At that sight, I suddenly looked down at my own feet and saw that, contrary to expectations, my swollen feet had returned to their original dry state without much issue.
“··· That can't be right··”
I had thought my condition shouldn't have recovered this well, so I looked around again. It seemed the girl who saved me had done something for me. But before I could even look for her, I noticed a different scent coming from my body than the one I usually gave off, so I began examining myself more closely. That was when I realized the clothes I was wearing weren't my original ones either.
“···”
It was certain. This scent was the one she gave off. For some reason, it was a creepy, sharp chemical smell unique to methanol. As I fiddled with the clothes while staring at the campfire—
“You're awake~”
“Ah——”
The moment I heard her voice by my ear and flinched in surprise—
“It took a while~ I was drying your clothes.”
She spoke in a slimy voice that sounded exactly like the hissing movement of a snake, then placed my now-dry clothes on my knees.
“How's your condition? Your muscles—do they feel loose or anything?”
Once again, she thrust those eyes with their greatly dilated pupils right in front of me.
“Th-that, ugh···”
For some reason, this slimy voice didn't feel like the annoying kind of slickness, but rather something grotesquely inhuman. It felt like a snake coiling around its prey's neck to eat it. Even though I sensed something was off about her question, I couldn't bring myself to meet her gaze properly and just gave a vague answer.
“··· I'm fine··”
She stared at me for a moment with an inexplicable faint smile, then said,
“My name is Sierra~”
As if hoping I would tell her my name, she revealed hers first. When I hesitated a little and tried to meet her eyes to answer after she repeated that her name was Sierra—
“Karia···”
Why was her hand—Sierra's hand—why was it—since when—sliding—beneath my chest, touching the ribs below my underbust? The moment I saw that—
“Th-that, uh, ugh———”
The instant I startled and tried to pull her hand away—
“It's fine~”
Sierra casually scattered her voice while grabbing my wrist and pulling me closer.
“I tried using a drug that's still in clinical trials, and it worked really well~”
“Wh-what did you——”
I felt a moment of confusion remembering that I hadn't felt any sensations even while unconscious, but then I became greatly flustered and felt a bit of anger at the sight of her conducting clinical experiments on my body without permission.
“Without even asking permission, touching someone else's body····!”
The moment I began to struggle and resist her, trying to get away—
“But I saved you~”
She said,
“And is there anyone in this world who could just leave such a cute girl alone~”
As if it were only natural, she let out that grotesque voice and suddenly—
“Don't worry, I just restructured your muscles~”
She suddenly grabbed the hem of my top and yanked it up—
“Kyaa——!?”
She lifted it forcefully, exposing my stomach completely. The moment I panicked and grabbed her wrist, about to shout at her to stop—
“Ta-da~”
While rubbing my stomach with one hand, she said,
“How about it, these clean and firm abs~”
“Uh, uh···”
For some reason, my once-pretty and beautiful abs now looked even more toned, feminine, attractive, and incredibly soft. She showed them to me, and I was flustered, wondering if they had always been this cleanly defined. Sierra soon seemed satisfied with my reaction and smiled with her eyes as she spoke.
“I administered this kind of drug, so it's fine~ I used one without side effects, so you don't need to worry about it from now on~”
Feeling awkward, as if I had misunderstood something, I hurriedly pulled my hem back down to cover my stomach and said,
“Th-then···· thank you.”
I offered an embarrassed thanks, and she—
“Hehe, I knew it was good····”
—looked down at me with an inexplicably sinister smile. When I looked at her, feeling some kind of shrinking sensation—
“Ah, ah wait···· Time has already passed this much···”
She briefly averted her gaze to check her wristwatch and said,
“I have to go now~”
She immediately stood up and tried to leave the place. The moment I reached out my hand to stop her, looking at her with eyes that wanted to repay her—
“Hey, Sierra——”
“Hm~?”
In that fleeting moment, she stared at me with smiling eyes for a second, then—
“Ah, take the clothes~ I have plenty of them~”
—completely ignored my intentions and just left right away.
“···”
She seemed so busy that I didn't think I could stop her a second time. I blankly watched her retreating figure for a moment before—
“···· Ah.”
—I noticed the name of the research institute attached to the clothes she had dressed me in, realizing that she really was a researcher.
“··· Sipheltera Research Institute.”
I made sure to remember the institute's name, thinking that if the day ever came when I met her again, I would definitely repay the woman who had saved my life. That was the resolve I made.
“···”
So for now, I had to somehow preserve the life she saved and move again. My plan was very simple. If I could gather enough information to prove it, then all I needed was to make contact with the seven kings who were still active, even if just once. Therefore, right now, I needed to go somewhere like a library where I could collect information.
Grumble grumble grumble———
But just now, didn't I hear a thunderous sound? There was no way such a sound could come from my stomach. Damn it, this is bad.
“··· This··”
Food. Food was the top priority. More than information, food. I couldn't starve to death, after all. So, I should head to the city as soon as possible. I still had some knowledge about hunting left, but with this body, attempting to hunt bare-handed would only barely preserve the life I had just saved, so I had no choice. This time, I had no option but to rely on someone else again.
“···”
Thus, I hurriedly put my shoes back on, roughly straightened my clothes, packed them into the bag she had left beside me, and slowly draped one of my own short jackets over the clothes with the Sipheltera Research Institute name written on them before shouldering the bag.
“···”
The moment I was about to leave again like that, the moment I saw the name Sipheltera Research Institute, I thought of her. Siphel, who had been unusually timid, came to mind, and I blankly stared at my own outfit for a moment. But for now, this might just be a coincidence, so I decided to secure food first, find some stability, and then investigate step by step. Once again—
Step———
—I took a step toward the streets of the Caspia Border Region.
Sierra. She was truly the owner of a grotesque appearance, but at least her heart had been kind. I had to remember her well and, if we met again someday, greet her warmly and repay the favor I received. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been able to get back on my feet so safely. So, this time as well, I would move forward once again.
***
However—
Thud———
What on earth was this? I hadn't eaten anything for several hours already. Other than the water Sierra had provided, I hadn't consumed any food or provisions. My stomach kept letting out ridiculously loud sounds at every moment, strongly striking my ears, but—
Was the world—had the world changed so much? Right. The first emotion I felt upon entering the streets of Caspia right after leaving that coastal cave was, along with joy, a sense of wonder. It wasn't the bleak, barren, and diminutive Caspia I had known, positioned at the front lines. Instead, it was highly developed, to the point where it could be called a new city. The shapes of the buildings hadn't changed much, but there were many sophisticated structures and facilities that were difficult for me to understand now. And above all—above all, the roads were paved extremely cleanly. The perfectly uniform sidewalk blocks lined up in long rows, as if they had transcended human hands, felt truly—truly pleasant.
The moment I first returned to Caspia, the fact that the world I had risked my life to protect had developed into such a beautiful form, and the fact that even though I hadn't been gone for very long, so much progress had been made in that short time—made me think that I had done well to risk my life protecting it.
“····”
Though I couldn't be certain whether I had truly protected it now. Still—still, the vision of that world the Transcendent had shown me remained vivid before my eyes. But even so, it was good. Bad feelings were bad feelings, and good feelings were good feelings. That was what it meant to be human, wasn't it? Well, regardless of how things actually turned out—
“····”
My stomach hurt. It hurt so much from hunger. Had people's hearts changed as much as the buildings and lifestyles had? In this place where I had started with nothing, not only could I not see anything I could do, but now, even wandering around looking emaciated, no one at the market offered me fruit first, and the currency had changed from the form I originally knew to a new type of gold coin. In truth, when I thought about it, it wasn't that different from before, but—
Now, the first impression I felt upon returning to my hometown world after so long—the visceral impression I felt with my own skin—was just one thing. Everything seemed to be connected to money. Perhaps people's heads were filled only with thoughts that they had to prioritize value judgments first. What I felt while wandering around this place for the first time was that people's expressions had become too bleak, and that now, even if someone fell while walking down the street, no one would help them. Because helping that person wouldn't bring any immediate valuable profit to themselves. So—
“····”
The Caspia I knew had changed a lot. The shapes of the buildings hadn't been repaired or anything, but the atmosphere itself had become much more sophisticated, and the miscellaneous things had disappeared, making it extremely clean and forward-looking. But other than that—other than that, there was nothing. The era when people looked out for each other seemed to have disappeared now. Was it because of the absence of heroes? Or perhaps—perhaps it had already been like this for a long time. From the time when the hero stepped forward to unify the seven kingdoms, from the time when everyone kept their mouths shut and stayed still, from the time when we, the fifteen of us, began to move and they slowly started to show themselves—perhaps this future of theirs was inevitable. Without someone standing in front of them to lead them, perhaps this form was only natural. If so, then what on earth were the kings doing now? Now, in this world—how was our human time flowing?
“···· Ugh···”
However, there was something even more serious than such important worries. Really—really, it truly felt like my stomach was about to stick to my spine. The hunger was so intense that it felt like my stomach was melting. I had to eat something, anything, but where and how was I supposed to get it? In the streets of Caspia, which had grown larger than before, forests where I could hunt were no longer easily visible, and now, really, there was nowhere I could easily obtain food. Moreover, with my current appearance, I had no idea how to even earn money to buy food. No—actually, actually, there was one thing I did know. But I absolutely didn't want that. Even if the day came when I died, I didn't want to earn money that way. If I had to sell my body like that, I'd rather starve to death. And besides, I already had an owner, didn't I? So···
Grumble grumble grumble———
I was hungry. Really, I had to eat something. “····” I was crouching in a corner of the city, blankly staring at the sky, when I tried to stand up again and wander through the shopping district. However—
“Miss, is something wrong?”
When several burly men approached me from somewhere, I was momentarily flustered, but—
“Are you okay? You don't look well··· Are you an employee at Sipheltera Research Institute? Did you get fired?”
For some reason, at the sight of them genuinely wanting to help me with pure intentions—
“Or maybe she escaped after participating in a clinical trial··”
“Hey, do you believe those rumors?”
—as they conversed as if something was happening at Sipheltera Research Institute, I—still, I—
“My stomach·····”
“Huh?”
—realized that even if the world changed, there still seemed to be hearts that hadn't changed. “I'm···· hungry····” However, I couldn't let my guard down until the very end. “Hey, hold her tight.” “What are you——” Grab—— In the midst of an endless, infinite hunger, had I completely forgotten that my body was that of a frail female? With my mind half-lost to hunger, I ended up showing a defenseless appearance in front of those burly males, and before I knew it, I was being taken somewhere with few people around. “No one's coming, right? Watch properly, you idiot.” “Hurry up and finish, I want a turn too.” With my mouth covered and both arms grabbed—
“Mmph, mmph mmph······!!”
—in the end, I was sweetly receiving the punishment for not properly understanding this world. Step——— However, at that moment—
“———Hey, you idiots.”
Just before receiving that punishment, someone—a woman with a beautiful, clear voice of unknown identity—emerged from the corner of that narrow space and said,
“What are you doing.”
“Wh-what the hell are you····”
She approached the three men who had been slowly surrounding me.
“If you want to fuck a woman, you should proudly pay money and go to a brothel. What the hell kind of sight is this in broad daylight?”
As I, whose strength had drained from my body due to hunger, began to shed tears little by little while looking at her who had suddenly appeared from deep within this narrow alley—
“Who the hell are you———!!”
Thwack———
The man who had been keeping watch suddenly rushed at her, and upon seeing her defenseless front and back, I judged that she would be subdued in an instant by such a sudden attack and was about to be startled. But in that fleeting moment, she—
“Alright, you're getting charged with attempted assault on a patrol officer.”
The mysterious woman wearing a robe flashed the badge of the uniform visible through the gaps in her fluttering robe and—
Smack———
—with extremely light movements, struck the vital point beside the chest beneath the fist the man extended, subduing him. From that moment on, I was surprised in a different sense and looked at her with slightly changed eyes, when—
“Then···· what charges are you two going to take to prison? If you speak now, I'll let you go in with the charges you want~”
—with a truly relaxed voice and extremely natural hand movements, she cuffed the fallen man with what looked like rather small handcuffs. I wondered if such small restraints would be okay, but sensing that tools had also changed as the world changed, I slowly began to look at the other two men when—
“Y-you····! Why is a patrol officer in a place like this in broad daylight, in front of a brothel like this——!!”
So the deep part of that alley was a brothel. The two men hesitated for a moment before finally preparing to run or fight. But the patrol officer paid them no mind whatsoever and said,
“I came to meet an old friend, you bastards.”
Thwack———
She delivered a swift flying knee kick to the face of the man in front, knocking him down, then—
Whoosh———!
—she slipped beneath the fist of the man who had been hanging back and tried to throw a punch, wrapped around his neck, and immediately slammed his head into the ground, finishing him off very easily.
“····”
I—who had been watching that scene in that fleeting moment—why? For some reason, I felt that her infighting style was strangely familiar, but—
“Pretty miss, are you okay?”
—and for some reason, when that pretty patrol officer with the familiar, hearty middle-aged man's way of speaking carefully approached me and extended her hand to help me up—
“···· Yes···”
—I, feeling some inexplicable strangeness, absentmindedly took that hand and began to stand up, but—
“Why are you getting caught by guys like that in broad daylight? Did something happen?”
She immediately brushed the dust off my clothes, and the moment my thoughts were about to continue, she saw the name Sipheltera written on the clothes and suddenly cut off her voice, furrowing her brows before returning to a normal expression and asking,
“Did you···· receive an experiment?”
“····”
However, at that moment, I couldn't answer. Grumble grumble grumble——— Because I was in a situation where I felt like I was about to starve to death at any moment. So, even though she had gone to the trouble of helping me up—
Slide———
—my face, which had been extremely exhausted, staggered as if I was about to collapse right onto her. “Whoops.” Thud—— She caught me as I ultimately fell and began to support me. “You need to eat something first····” She wrapped the robe she had been wearing around me, warmly embraced my sweat-drenched body, and supported me while saying,
“The world is really harsh··· but don't give up, you pretty person.”
To her, did I look like a frail girl caught in turbulent times? She slowly whispered to me,
“Even if such unpleasant and absurd situations come crashing down, even if people have become so harsh that everyone ignores you and passes by····”
Still—still, even now—
“At least I, and people like me, will grit our teeth and help you no matter where you are or what you're going through.”
She was telling me that even in this changed world, kind people like this still existed somewhere. I was able to close my eyes comfortably at that voice. Though she seemed to have bad memories of Sipheltera Research Institute—
For some reason—her tone and voice reminded me of my old friend. For some reason—
“Uh, uh huh?! H-hey, you can't fall asleep like that, you pretty person····!! If you fall asleep here, you'll die, you'll die, you know!?”
—I wanted to see him, who always showed such refreshing sides. “H-hey!! I'll buy you food——!! H-hey, come to your senses····!” If I had died that day, would I have departed peacefully? If he was still alive, was he living well somewhere? With this hungry heart that ached with longing for such sights, along with the hunger that was pounding my stomach so earnestly, I was swept away by that piercing longing.
“This is bad·····”