Chapter 12: What Come After Death Is Decay (1)
''Speak''
'Thought'
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~Ryu Pov~
'Where the hell am I?'
The last thing that I remember was me fighting that Jean person and losing consciousness in a fight due to my injuries.
But right now, where I am now, is an empty dark space, and there is nothing except me, who is floating mindlessly in this void of spaces.
Am I dead? Is this what the afterlife is like?
If this is the afterlife, then the afterlife suck. There is nothing for me to do here; the only thing happening to me like now is just me floating around in this void aimlessly. But what if this isn't the afterlife?
Maybe this is nothing more than a dream that I have right now? But is this a dream or reality? How could I know?
Me, who doesn't even know that the life I was living is a dream or reality, a person who doesn't even know the difference between dream and reality?
Maybe this is the real world, and all of those memories that I have right now is nothing more than a dream? Or maybe this is nothing more than a dream?
I don't know; I truly don't know.
All I can do right now is wait for something to happen, and I have no way out; I have no idea what to do; even if I decide to activate my Rashomon, it will not come out like I don't have the power in the first place.
Floating around mindlessly, I have no idea what to do.
In the end, I hope this is nothing more than a dream—a dream where I will quickly wake up from. Before, I did not care about dreams or reality, but now, I start wishing this was nothing more than a dream and hoped to wake back up to a reality that I wish for.
But what if this is indeed reality?
Then I hope to close my eyes and go back to my dream, wishing to never come back to this reality again.
Finally, after who knows how long, I see something different in this endless void. I see a figure, not a humanoid, but a figure that looks similar to that of an eastern dragon.
Looking at it, I can see the dragon flying toward me, with its mouth open wide; I know immediately know what it tries to do.
With me nearing its mouth, I wait for my fate.
I hope that the moment that the dragon jaw comes down on me, I will wake up from this dream or escape this reality and go back to my eternal dream.
With the dragon jaws coming down on me, I can feel the feeling of my body again.
Opening up my eyes, I can see that I have escaped from that void and now back to this world, to this reality, or maybe dream? It's doesn't matter anymore.
Laying down on what appears to be a field of grass, I try to move my arms, but what greet me is this feeling of an indescribable pain coming from both of my arms, causing my eyes to snap toward both my arms.
What I see are numerous small black spikes on both of my arms, sticking out of my arms like nails. I remember what happened.
'Oh right, both of my arms are broken, and Rashomon only attaches them together so that I can use them for a set amount of time.'
I can feel the pain coming from my bones, muscles, nerves, and skin by moving my arms alone. It's painful, but right now, this is all I can do to use my arm properly. I have no way of healing both of my arms on my own. All I can do right now is to go to the hospital...
No, that wouldn't work either. There is no way any doctors can heal these arms; the only way I think that they can do is to cut it off. That mean, if I want to heal both my arms, I need to find some super-genius doctor or someone to have the power to heal both my arms.
With both options being utterly absurd, there is no way I could heal my arms.
Grunting in pain, I slowly stood back up, still covered in the blood that was not mine; I looked around the area.
It was clear the moment I opened my eyes that I was not in that damn hell hole anymore; the place that I'm currently in is the middle of the forest.
Of course, my first question is, how did I get here?
Maybe that woman, Jean, send me here? Yeah, there is no way she would kill me on the spot the moment she sees me. Trying to think up with any conclusion, I come up with one answer.
Activating my Rashomon, I can see it fly out of my cloth, and I can see the difference in its appearance.
It now has a blood-red aura surrounding it, with a pair of black horns coming out of its head, and I can see the shape of its jaw become more defined, and its fangs seem to become even sharper.
But what stands out the most about Rashomon is that the area, or space near Rashomon, seems to be distorted, like it was being destroyed by something, which in this case must be Rashomon.
Just from the look, it was clear that Rashomon is destroyed this space by simply existing alone, but that still doesn't explain how it teleported me from that city to here.
'Maybe, it's somehow evolved and now can teleport? But how? If Rashomon did indeed evolve, then how does it happen? Is it because it eats so many humans that evolve to this, or is it because it eats those two mutants?'
'That would not seem too far fetched, considering one of them can teleport, it would not be too far fetched to think Rashomon has also acquired that ability by eating him. That would also explain why that guy didn't teleport out of Rashomon grip.' I thought
If Rashomon did indeed teleport me here, then why did it teleport me here? I know that, when coming to Rashomon IQ, it is somewhere around semi-sentient, and it has a goal of protecting me from any danger, no matter the cause.
So, if that is the case then, did it teleport me here so that I can as far away from that Jean girl as possible? Or does it also have a deeper motive?
Maybe it teleports me here, not only because it gets me away from that Jean girl, but there is also someone that can help me here? Maybe someone that has the power to help me or heal me?
I mean, if Rashomon did indeed evolve, who said it didn't become smarter? Maybe it's choosing a place where they have a technology to heal my arms or a healer that can do it?
But that would simply bring out more questions. How does it know there is something or someone that can help me here? If that is the case, then does it have all of the pieces of knowledge of this world? But how come my Rashomon know all of that?
Just because my Rashomon evolved, it doesn't mean it became omniscience. The only way I can see it become omniscience is for my Rashomon to eat something that has the power of God itself.
Or maybe it did? Who knows at this point?
Putting all of that thought behind my mind, I start to walk while moving my arm as much as possible.
I can see that the sun is finally setting down, creating the orange sky. I immediately frown knowing that, the night would quickly come, and living in the middle of the forest at night would be foolish.
Of course, I know that I could defend myself using Rashomon but considering my injury right now, I might die from blood loss.
With every step I took, I could feel the pain from my arms; just a slight wind hitting my arms would cause me to grunt in pain, but I fought through while walking.
Finally arrive, outside of the forest. What greets me is a sight to behold.
A massive stone castle stood before me on top of the hill, with the setting sun shining from behind the castle, giving off some sort of holy vibe from it, but the castle itself is anything but holy. Just from its appearance alone, I would think this castle came out from some gothic novel itself.
Looking at it alone gives me the feeling there is a monster living inside that damn castle. But I knew that I did not have many options, so in the end, I decided to walk toward the castle, trying to seek some sort of help.
Who knows? Maybe there is a monster living inside the castle?
If there is a monster, I just hope that it's not a vampire.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone