It had been a week since I possessed this body.
In that time, I had adapted pretty well to life as a hunter.
To begin with, my sister only gave me odd jobs because I was still young,
and the other members of the clan were good to me too, since I was a kid.
As the youngest and most inexperienced person in this clan,
I got plenty of help with all sorts of things,
and was excluded from dangerous work like hunting.
It had literally been a week of everyone fussing over me,
and today was not much different from yesterday.
My sister and several clan members went out hunting,
while I wandered around near the clan grounds.
As usual, I went into the forest and snapped off branches
that would be good for firewood.
Bang!
A sudden gunshot rang out,
and warm blood began flowing from my side.
When I turned around,
a stranger was pointing a gun at me.
He began aiming at me again.
I ran through the forest with everything I had.
My red blood fell onto the pure white snow,
while behind me came the harsh crunch of someone stomping through the snow.
The place where the clan was staying was still far away,
but they must have heard the gunshots, so it would be okay.
Thinking that, I ran until my thighs felt like they would burst.
Blood was starting to soak through my pants.
My vision kept fading to black,
and I had the feeling that if I lost consciousness now, I would die.
Bang!
One of the countless bullets he had fired
pierced through my thigh, and I fell.
The clan was just a little farther away.
To die here so pathetically...
I had not even set foot in America, let alone Night City.
"Kid, your sister was the one who messed up.
If you want someone to blame, blame that sister of yours for running around sticking her nose where it did not belong."
"...Fuck... you."
"What was that? I could not hear you very well."
"Fuck you. Go eat shit, you fucking bastard."
"Ha! Such a foul mouth on a little brat. I was going to send you off easy, but..."
Think. The forest is small, so if I stall for time,
the clan members will definitely come.
Five minutes? No, even one minute would be enough.
If I could just draw his attention somehow—
Thud!
"I can hear that little brat brain of yours whirring all the way from here.
You think if you stall, your clan members will come—Aagh!"
I bit him.
Right in his weak spot, with my teeth.
Apparently overwhelmed by pain, he collapsed on the spot
and dropped his gun.
If I ran now—
"You little fucker!"
His huge hand closed around my throat.
Bang! Bang!
"Bane!!!"
It was my sister's voice.
Why had she taken so long?
"Bane! Stay awake! Do not close your eyes!"
I could feel my sister hurriedly pulling me into her arms.
I could hear one of the clan members shouting at me too.
But my eyes kept closing.
·
·
·
·
·
Two hours had passed since Bane was shot.
He still had not opened his eyes.
He had been hit by three bullets—in his side, thigh, and shoulder—
and had run at least two hundred meters in that condition.
Normally, he would have died from blood loss long ago,
yet he was still alive.
Why was he still alive?
Though he was breathing normally, why
could he not wake up?
What state was he in right now,
and what was he doing in his unconscious mind?
Of course, I was not making any effort to wake up.
How much time had passed since that bastard shot me
and I lost consciousness?
It felt like I had spent hours
just lying still in this snow-covered wasteland.
I had no idea how to wake up,
or even what I was supposed to do right now.
Grrr!
"Yeah, you do not know either, do you?"
This one growling beside me
had been here from the moment I opened my eyes in this place.
This wolf, covered in pure white fur—
I had no idea why it was here,
but in this snowy wasteland where I could pointlessly feel the cold,
it was the only being sharing its warmth with me.
"Get up already.
How long are you going to lie there?"
"Aah! Wh-Who are you?"
"Doesn't matter. Get up, now.
If you keep lying there, you really will die."
Brown hair. An unkempt beard.
An old-fashioned shotgun slung across his back.
"Die? You cannot just suddenly say something like that..."
"You are still young, so I have been protecting you.
But it is about time you learned the truth."
The man said only what he wanted to say,
then began taking off his shirt.
I was so startled that I covered my eyes with my hands,
but he paid me no mind and finished undressing.
"Kid, open your eyes now."
"No, why are you suddenly taking your clothes off?"
A tiger. A pure white tiger beastman stood before me.
"You will find out who you are in time.
As a little hint, remember [Kresnik]."
Leaving only those words behind, the man
used a large hand covered in thick, fluffy fur
to cover my face so tightly that I could not breathe.
I struggled, batting at his hand because I was suffocating,
when suddenly, the world before my eyes brightened,
and faces I had grown familiar with over the last week came into view.
They began hugging me tightly in relief,
but I could not do the same.
I had been certain the world I fell into was Cyberpunk,
but for a moment, I was confused whether the genre was actually fantasy.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register