Start of the chapter will be mildly disturbing. At least that's what I aimed for. Don't know if I hit the mark. Warning for Child Abuse.
Also, Neve will act childish a lot because she is a child. While she was an adult (and guy) in her last life, her current body affects her mentality a lot. She also won't exactly care much that her gender changed. That's because she didn't really care in her last life and she isn't old enough to feel the differences yet.
Chapter Start
I'm looking at my reflection in a mirror. Pure white hair that goes below my lower back, skin so pale it's almost white, clear blue eyes that seem to pierce through all. As I'm admiring the reflection, the mirror shatters. Each shard shows a different scene, a different memory.
I see a bunch of people I don't recognise. They all seem oddly familiar though. There's a man, a woman, and two children. The faces of the children and the woman are twisted in disgust when they look at me, as if I'm a vile monster. The man refuses to even acknowledge my existence.
I see the times they didn't feed me. Barely able to move, I had to learn to steal more food from the kitchen. There was no one nice to me. Most either ignored me or bullied me, but a few took it further and hit me. I didn't even have a proper bed to sleep on most of the time.
I saw them cut me with knives, they burned me with cigars, they did all sorts of atrocious things to me. I have no doubt that my skin is covered in scars and burns.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Why are they hitting me? Why are they insulting me? What do they mean 'filthy hybrid'? Why do they all seem to hate me? What's that stick? Why is it glowing red? It hurts, it burns, stop it, stop it, stop it!
[.....................]
It hurts!
[...a….….….e]
It's so painful
[...a….u….N….e]
Huh, who's there?
[W..k…p…N…ve.]
Why is the voice so soothing?
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[Wake up, Neve! You're okay, it's going to be okay!]
"H…uh? W-what h-happened?"(Neve)
[You were having nightmares so I woke you up. Are you okay? You're crying.]
My voice was refusing to go above a whisper, no matter how much I tried.
"I-I'm fine, I t-think? It hurt, t-they hit me a lot, l-looking disgusted at my v-very existence. A-at so-some point they pulled out a br-br-branding iron. It hurt, it burned."(Neve)
[Ah, those must have been your memories of this life. It's okay, you don't have to go back there. They can't reach you here.]
"Th-thank you…"(Neve)
It took me a while to stop shaking and sort out my memories. That… was horrible. I know that those were my memories, but that was way more vivid and brutal than I expected from when I read the letter.
I have decided. Even from just these small fragments of memories, that aren't even complete, were painful. So I shall get payback. They hurt me, I'll hurt them back. I refuse to allow such vile people to walk around freely.
"Is… is there any sort of branding on my skin that I can't see?"(Neve)
[No, any markings and scars like that were removed once I joined you. So there's no need to worry about anything like that.]
"Thank you…"(Neve)
That is honestly extremely relieving. I'll never be able to forget those memories again, so having a mark that would actively drag them to the front of my mind would be hellish. Anyways, I need to check the shop for today.
"Hey Yuki, can you open up the <Dimensional Shop> for me, please?"(Neve)
[Sure, here you go.]
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<Dimensional Shop>
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Current DP: 1998
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<Constant Shop>
{Supplies}
{Materials}
{Foodstuffs}
{Basic Ammunition}
{Basic Weaponry}
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Refreshes in 14 Hrs
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<Random Shop>
Slot 1: (Rare) Mythril Rapier - A high quality Rapier made of Mythril.[2000 DP]
Slot 2: (Trash) Vampiric Rubber Ducky - A rubber ducky that looks like it's wearing a vampire outfit. [5 DP]
Slot 3: (Legendary) Founder's Book of Blood - A Tome of Blood Magic made by an Ancient Vampire. [500000000 DP]
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"I buy the Rubber Ducky."(Neve)
[What are you…]
"I buy the Rubber Ducky."(Neve)
[Did you really just waste DP on a rubber ducky, when there is a Mythril Rapier only TWO DP AHEAD!?!]
Yuki is angry. Yuki is very angry. I need to calm her down, Yuki is someone I've quickly grown to care for so what should I do? AH! Right, I can apologise! I don't want her to leave me.
"I'm sorry Yuki, It was an impulse buy. I'll try not to do it again…"(Neve)
[Okay, sheesh, quit looking like a kicked puppy. It's okay, just don't do it again, Okay?]
"Ah, question, as we're in a dungeon, where do the monsters come from? I need to know if I'm at risk of wiping out the rat population"(Neve)
[Don't worry about that, most creatures here are born through the Mana the creature sealed at the bottom gives off. As such, the further you go down, the more difficult they become. They'll also 'spawn' new creatures over time, and spawn rates increase at lower floors.]
"I see… so I can massacre the rats to try and get more DP?"(Neve)
[Yes, yes you can.]
"Then Let's go!"(Neve)
======Scene Break======
Well, this is certainly a situation. I have managed to kill and sell four large rats so far, but that has led to this rather unpleasant issue. I walked into a somewhat small room with three large rats and two bunnies. All of them are now currently staring at me.
"I feel like I made a big mistake…"(Neve)
[Huh, strange, I also feel like you made a big mistake.]
"Can we please not talk about the rubber ducky? I said I'm sorry!"(Neve)
[Nope, sorry but I'm never going to let you live this down.]
"Crap, this wouldn't be so bad if the door wasn't fricken trapped to shut behind us. Now I have to fight."(Neve)
[Then fight.]
As soon as Yuki says that, two of the rats and a bunny immediately rush towards me and I freeze up. One rat manages to trip over it's own feet, unable to bite at me, the other rat and bunny, however, manage to bite at me. I took a step back causing them to both miss, before taking a slash at the rat, ending It's life on the spot. Before the bunny can move, I make a second slash towards it, hitting, but not immediately lethal.
The remaining bunny and rat finally start moving to bite. The large rat lands a nasty bite against me, painfully piercing my flesh, as does the rabbit.
The survivors of the first attempt of bites try again, I barely managed to dodge them and step out of the way. I stab towards the injured bunny, finally landing a lethal blow, before slashing at the first rat to attack, barely managing to kill it.
I'm barely hanging on. The bites they gave me were nasty and the pain is threatening to knock me out as the remaining two attack again, aiming for the same spot they hit last time. After dodging their attacks by the skin of my teeth, I slash the rabbit twice, killing it on the spot.
All that's left is the last Rabbit. We both go to attack at the same time, it manages to painfully bite my arm, while I manage to slash it's throat. By the time all is over, I'm barely conscious, with everything slowly going black. I doubt I'll remain conscious enough to unlock the doors keeping me in here, as all are currently shut. I manage to store all the bodies, selling rats, keeping the rabbits, and buying the rapier before truly losing consciousness.
I wonder If I'll somehow manage to survive this.
Chapter End
She took a lot of damage from this encounter, and it will probably have some consequences once she manages to wake back up. I'm not gonna bother with death saves, she'll just survive. After this, she's going to take the dungeon a bit more seriously. This was kinda like her wake up call.
