...Who am I?
When I opened my eyes, a scene I’d never seen before spread out in front of me.
Blood and chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere, and the broken debris from a building’s outer wall had piled up in a grotesque heap.
And I...
...Ghk.
Grrrrk.
Th... th... it hurts.
A searing pain, like I was being torn apart and burned all at once, started stabbing through my entire body.
...Strangely enough, there was an unfamiliar heaviness in my stomach, and my blood-blurred vision was full of irritating motion.
Then, all at once, I recognized what was stepping on my stomach.
“Huff, hheh... Hahaha! I got it! I caught this monster!!!”
...What?
This is... a human.
Right. A human.
......That’s a little strange.
Why did he choose the word “human” instead of “person”?
As if I were somehow different from the thing in front of me...
“Ah, yes. I’m C-rank, number 37, Gogmuboots! Gya-hah-hah!”
...Annoying.
I didn’t know why, but that’s how it felt.
Who do you think you are, stepping on my stomach?
You worthless piece of food...
...Ah, I’m hungry.
“No, but what kind of job do you do that this bastard is this messed up? At this point, this bastard’s practically a hole!”
...I’m hungry.
Yeah.
I’m really hungry.
“Uh, anyway, so...”
...Hungry?
Then kill it.
Kill it.
Kill it.
Kill that noisy food in front of me.
Rip it apart.
Split it in half.
And then, that blood and flesh...
“......Ah?”
“..................?”
A dull, soft thud.
I saw the expression on the man who had been stepping on my stomach change from surprise to horror.
...But.
Maybe my expression wasn’t any different from his.
“Kh... hhk...”
I stretched out my forelimb.
A reptilian hand far larger than anything I’d ever seen suddenly appeared and pierced straight through the human’s stomach.
Why?
Where did it come from?
Why did it punch through that man’s belly?
...No.
No.
It didn’t suddenly appear.
It didn’t attack for no reason.
It had always been there.
I had followed my instincts.
This was my “forelimb.”
It was mine.
It had been attached to my body from the very beginning.
“Keh, hee... hha... aghaah...”
The human let out a shriek and twisted his body wildly.
That smug expression was gone now.
With his insides torn open, he spat out saliva mixed with clean blood and began to crawl away.
...No.
Where do you think you’re going, “food”?
Eat quietly.
I thrust out my sharp-clawed “forelimb” and pressed down hard on the food that was struggling to get away from me.
“Kehuwehehehk?! Kuaaaah!!! N-nooo...! S-stoppp...!”
I’d only pinned him with my forelimb, and yet...
Before I knew it, my mouth had filled with saliva, and I clicked my tongue.
Grrrrumble.
Ah. I can’t take this anymore.
My trampled stomach rumbled and screamed in protest.
Hurry.
Bring me food. Now.
Right. I’ll do it, so stop rushing me.
“Ah... I-I don’t want to... I don’t want to die... I don’t want to be eaten...!!!”
Shut up. Be quiet.
I hate it when food makes a racket.
Crunch.
With a loud biting sound, I swallowed the man’s head whole.
“.........Huh?”
...What was I doing just now?
Where am I?
What time is it?
I can’t remember anything.
“......Ah.”
No.
I remember.
This place... right, was it called City A?
That seems right.
...How do I know that? Did someone tell me?
...Why do I feel like that memory just surfaced in my head?
I have no way to check the time, so I don’t know.
What I was doing was...
“.........Ah... ah?”
...I ate something.
What was it?
It was some incredibly noisy food.
Noisy?
Did I eat something alive?
Alive?
What...
“Ah...”
Then a memory suddenly surfaced.
When I opened my eyes, I was falling out of the sky without warning.
...I landed on the ground and was somehow fine. Though I did collapse one abandoned building that was being torn down.
Then a being called a “hero” appeared.
And after that.
It was pain, nonstop.
...I remember my body hurting, but right now I can’t feel a single wound or any pain at all.
Anyway, it hurt.
And I was probably wronged.
I didn’t do anything.
I just got cut, torn, and beaten.
So I fell, scattering blood and chunks of flesh everywhere.
But I survived.
So.
I took advantage of the moment he let his guard down, pierced his stomach, pinned him with my forelimb, opened my mouth...
“...Ugh.”
Only then.
Only then did I remember what I had done.
There was no corpse of that hero nearby.
Of course not.
It was already in my stomach.
So.
I ate a person?
“Ugh, ughaaaeek...!”
I gagged, and then I vomited.
But all that came out was a pair of half-digested boots, limp and soggy.
The rest... seemed to have already been completely digested.
I ate it.
I ate a person.
I killed a person.
I devoured someone who was screaming.
Why?
Why?
...The digestive fluid surged back up again.
Disgusting.
I’m disgusting.
What in the world...
What did I do?
I shouldn’t have done that.
I shouldn’t have killed a person.
I shouldn’t have killed a human.
The human who made me suffer, I shouldn’t have...
...Why shouldn’t I have?
He hurt me.
He tried to kill me.
Even when I begged him to stop.
Even though I didn’t resist at all.
He stabbed, cut, and tore at me.
He made me hurt.
So I hurt him back.
Wasn’t that justified?
He aimed for my life, but never once thought his own life might be targeted in return?
That’s awfully arrogant.
For something as insignificant as food...
“...Hhngh... sniff.”
I don’t know.
I don’t understand any of it.
What am I thinking?
I’m human, aren’t I?
I’m a person.
I am.
I am.
I am...
“...Mon... ster.”
How long had it been since the rain started?
At some point, in a puddle of collected water, I was finally able to see myself.
What I saw was.
Truly, horribly.
A being far removed from a human.
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