I heard a rustle a couple of hours after Silla went to sleep. The creature failed in its stealthy approach, I turned around.
If it was the city-boy entirely controlling this body, I might have freaked out completely already, but half of me was Shiki. He was taught about situations like this.
I approached the sleeping Silla, shook her a little, "Hey, Hey, wake up, we have a guest"
"Nngggh… what?", Silla rubbed her tired eyes and asked.
"We have a guest, get ready", she stood up immediately and readied herself.
I readied my spear quickly. It was a simple, sturdy and lengthy stick with a sharpened stone tied with a rope at the top, I didn't think about it earlier but my weapon is not the greatest… I have no clue how to smelt and forge metal, so I've got to deal with what I was given I guess.
I looked again at the direction of the sound and there I saw it, it was another Arvo. It looked a little different from my(Shiki's) memories though, it looked extremely intimidating compared to the Arvo in my memories.
I took a strong stance, readied myself for its attack. If it came toward us humans, which is pretty rare, it's definitely here to attack, and it has some confidence of success.
Swish, crunch!
"Kughh!! My shoulder!! Arghhh"
It hurts!!! I didn't even see it! Why is this Arvo so fast? When did it attack? "Argghh"
I saw the thing on my shoulder, I didn't even bother thinking before trying to smash it with my other hand and it was stupid enough to stay munching the top of my shoulder while I tried to get him off. Maybe it wasn't as stupid as I thought at the time because I was weakened greatly by the sudden shock and pain and it probably didn’t hurt the creature too much. Every time I've tried to crush it I felt the tearing of the meat on my shoulder. It seemed like I was helping it more than myself.
"Silla!!", I screamed looking for Silla to help me get that thing off.
I finally found her after a second. She stood there looking at the berserk creature on my shoulder terrified. She looked like she was almost crying looking at my suffering and her hands holding the spear trembled.
"Silla!! Snap.. out of it… kuhh… Stab it before it tears off my SHOULDER ARGHH", I cried for her help when it bit hard again.
She looked as if a bolt of lightning struck her, her eyes started to fill with determination, "Yes, I'm coming!!", she screamed.
She ran our way with her spear ready for an attack.
The Arvo was smarter than I thought, it saw her running and jumped off quickly to the side. I held my shoulder to feel how much blood I was losing and saw the deep bite marks. Wait, ****, is she okay? That damned Arvo went her way!
I looked towards her again and saw a weird dance, she tried to impale, and it jumped, she tried again, and it jumped again, her muscles probably hurt from the two strong bursts of power but she didn't stop and tried again, She seemed to have gambled on one-hit kills, as she figured a prolonged battle with it would be hopeless as the Arvo seemed more powerful and quicker than us. The Arvo jumped out of the way and headbutted her stomach, she lost her breath from the sudden attack. She was already weakened, it became very dangerous very quickly. The Arvo was also stunned for a second, its muscles were stronger than normal, but the skull wasn't thicker and the brain wasn't much sturdier.
Stab.
My spear penetrated its defenseless neck in that second.
When I saw it toying with her, A sudden strong urge to protect her overruled all of my thoughts, we were close to each other and the Arvo had just jumped towards her stomach. I grabbed my spear with my head spinning from blood loss and left hand hurting like hell and with all my remaining power, its neck was stabbed. Stab…Stab…Stab…Stab I tried stabbing it again so it won't manage to run away without getting punished. I felt like I lost almost all of my remaining energy and fell on my knees, I dropped my spear but even in this state I continued to vent my hate by smashing it with my right fist, I wanted to hit it with both of them but I could barely lift the left one at that point.
Bang…bang… I've smashed my fist on the thing.
I didn't even notice Silla getting up from the ground after heaving for breaths, but she did. She stared at me butchering the thing, her eyes reddened and tears were in her eyes, she looked at my bloodied shoulder and limp left hand while crying. She ran to our bags, fortunately, nothing stole them while we were fighting, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if something did.
Bang…bang… I didn't even know where my energy came from at that point.
"STOP! STOP! It's already dead, you'll worsen the wound!!", She cried and grabbed me.
I stopped and looked at her dazedly, I didn't know how many times I tried to squish the thing but I stopped when I heard her, she rummaged through her bag, and took out some healing salve and applied it to the zones where the Arvo's teeth bit me. The salve was practically magical, its action was quick. I felt a sensation as if alcohol was rubbed on my wound and I hissed from the pain. After some time, it soothed. The salve even blocked my wound and helped with its scabbing quickly. This thing is miraculous, where did she get it from?
"Can you help me sit?", I said while gesturing at my left hand, my legs were getting tired of kneeling.
"Uh yes, yes!", she helped me sit on my butt. And sat close by in front of me herself after wiping her tears quickly. We both seemed to want to ignore what just happened.
"What is this?" I asked after gesturing at my left hand again, I don't remember such things…
"Huh? Ah! You're supposed to learn about the uses of the village's medicine on your 3rd year of training, just before your pack hunt. I've also studied with the girls about what it's made of, apparently, it's effects started to get strengthened 15 years ago, we don't really know why"
"The blue clouds", I whispered still trying to ignore my pain.
"Ah, yes, it might be because of that, it might be related, we don't know", she said, confirming that it might be the case.
"Animals getting stronger, herbs more potent. It doesn't sound like a coincidence, no, it reminds me of the novels from my last life, yes, yes, MANA! Blue clouds shaped like a mushroom bursting suddenly fifteen years ago! Stronger animals! Stronger herbs! It must be it! It has to be it", I must've looked like a mad scientist at that moment because she looked flabbergasted at what I said.
"Why is there mana here? And why did it burst 15 years ago? From where? How did the animals get it? Is it working like radiation? If someone goes towards the source will he get it too? Or were these stronger animals just irradiated at the blast zone? Yes, this might be it, all the game we caught lately were the weaker Arvos and smaller animals, this one probably ran away because it was too weak to survive closer to the center. It seems like the stronger animals went towards the source. Wait, too weak??", my sense of curiosity was sending me to new levels of excitement, I was a NEET in my last life and was somewhat addicted to fantasy novels. But after I reached the last point in my deduction, my fear suddenly took over, and so much so, that I even forgot about the pain.
"HEY! What's going on??", Silla shouted and shook me after seeing me dazed and murmuring like crazy.
"Ouch, that hurt!", I said glaring at her, somewhat angrily.
"Uh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you were acting weird, and I got anxious", she panicked, then checked that my wound was fine, looked back at me, and said looking awfully sorry, as if she was about to cry again. She even lowered her head from shame.
[A/N: if someone thinks that the next part of this chapter is rushed, then I'll have to say sorry but I don't feel that way, although I will accept criticism, I didn't really feel like I was rushing it, I wanted to try this kind of thing, I've found it interesting and wanted to explore this kind of situation, I'm just a tad emotional, and I liked it better this way and found it acceptable, if you don't agree with me I could probably understand why]
Why is she suddenly so cute? Now that I think about it, why was I so agitated when I saw her being toyed with by the Arvo? Well, I guess the answer is that I've really merged with the last owner of this body, he was super protective of her. It's fine, I like her too. Am I the same 'I' at all at this point? ugh, who cares, that doesn't matter.
"It's fine, I'm fine", I said, patting her lowered head twice.
She looked as If a shock went through her after the first time and lifted her blushing head suddenly when I wanted to pat her for the third time.
"Who do you think are you patting?", She said angrily while frowning and blushing at the same time.
"Is there a problem? Do you not like it? I just wanted to calm you down", I asked, I looked confused, but deep inside I figured out already, that ever since I(we) woke up, I(we) was totally out of character…She probably noticed it too.
"I'm older than you! Why are you treating me like a child that needs to be soothed?", she shouted at me, still trying to see me as the Shiki of old, I didn't mind, so I tried to play along. Alas, I was too different, I never was good at pretending in my last life, and I didn't plan to start training it now.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I won't do that again", I lifted my right hand as if it was a white flag. I didn't even bother trying to lift the left one, hoping she'd understand. I didn't really want to argue with her about this. Well her body was older than my body, but my mind was older than her, at least just a little bit, I wasn't entirely the 21-year-old, and I also wasn't entirely the 15-year-old.
"Ughhh… no…you…", she looked as if she swallowed a fly after understanding what was implied.
"HAHAHA", I couldn't hold my laughter after seeing her reaction, she was really cute, a little bit violent and prideful but still, really cute.
She seemed confused about this weird situation and my proactiveness in what seemed to be pursuing her or at least having skinship with her.
"Come closer", I said.
"Huh?", she asked, she was still dazed, and came closer after figuring out what I said.
"Lean towards me a bit", I added.
She followed my orders and I caught her in a hug again with my right hand
"Hiaa!!", she screamed from the sudden hug. She tried to push me away, but her hands lacked strength.
"Ughhh, bad idea! Bad idea!" I didn't plan it well, my hurting left hand was squished by her right breast. I was not sure if I was in heaven or hell at that moment… Maybe it's another type of healing in a way, well, if I remember correctly, some of the healing practices from my old world were painful too.
I've let her go and leaned backward to stop the pain.
She looked at me weirdly, sort of dazed.
"Why did you do that?", she asked.
"Because I wanted to, is it not to your liking?", I retorted while smiling playfully. I wondered inside if I really had the innate potential to be a playboy or I was just too confident at this point. I seriously have no clue where this confidence came from at times like these.
"What happened to you?", I heard her say quietly, her eyes kind of vacant although she was still blushing.
I did not know how to reply, I knew I was different, too different. I knew that she saw that too and tried to ignore it, grasping for straws trying to find ways to confirm I was still him, but she couldn't anymore. You might think it was too early for her to notice it, it was barely half a day since the old 'Shiki' disappeared. She might like it if the old Shiki started to appreciate her more, but I was not great with restraining my emotions and so I went from 0 to 100 in just a second. When I like someone and trust him, I like someone and trust him. With Shiki's memories of her and feelings for her inside of me, it was kind of hard not to. Shiki seemed to not be able to restrain his emotions that well, too, from what I gathered from my memories of the wedding ceremony. Silla knew I was probably not him, or at least not entirely him because Shiki liked another girl and he didn't think about her that way.
I wasn't intending on pretending to be someone else. It might be stupid, she might hate me for stealing her friend or potential lover, but I didn’t want to pretend. I don't like lying, I'm also horrible at it. If she wants to go back, it might be even better. The village is safer than being with me. I don't mind being alone, I was used to isolation in the last years of my life. My only comfort was my family, my best friend, and my hobbies. And I saw her as my family. If it was better for Silla, I'd prefer to treck this road alone too, I didn't really mind pushing her away, I did it plenty of times in the past, I didn't even care at that point, and so I didn't even consider restraining my actions, as long as she didn’t dislike it of course.
Now that I think about it, maybe she would dislike it in a way? Wasn't I abusing my position as the owner of the body of her love? Oh no…
No, that's not right! I'm still him. In a way at least. I feel everything he felt! I would have never touched her if I didn't have his feelings. I never trusted people that easily, and I didn't even come close to girls as I was afraid of getting hurt from one-sided feelings. But Silla is the closest thing to a family member as it gets in this life, Shiki had strong trust in her.
"Why are you so different?", she said again, her eyes clearing up, she seemed to want to know very badly.
I really don't want to lie, if we separate here, it might be for the best. I don't regret my actions. I only hesitated a little before saying:
"I'm not your Shiki, or at least not entirely him". I stared at her eyes and talked slowly with certainty, so she could hear each and every word and try to comprehend them.
"When he hit his head on the tree while fighting the Arvo back then, my soul seemed to have entered his body, or awakened in it, or something else. After that, our souls seemed to have started merging after I saw your image coming our way. It might not have happened if I didn’t see you, I don't know"
"Although I do not know what I am in this world, or why am I in it. I've inherited the memories and feelings of us both. He seemed to trust and care for you dearly and so I acted the way I did, I would have not acted this way if it wasn't for those memories and feelings affecting my judgment. I'm sorry if you'd think otherwise, and I would understand if you won't trust me and go back to the village", I poured all my thoughts and feelings in front of her sincerely. I(we) was very afraid of hurting her, but I had to do it this way, or at least that's what I thought I had to do.
She seemed to be heavily concentrating on my words, her expressions changed a few times. From surprise to anxiety, to bafflement, to anxiety again. She started getting angry at some point, I was kind of afraid she might kill me for being an impostor, she was stronger than me too. I didn't think about that thoroughly, it seems. Goodbye second chance it is, huh.
Fuuuuu, she took a long breath to calm herself down and stared at me for a few moments deeply frowning. She seemed to be thinking.
"I don't want to go back to the village, and I don’t want you to abuse his identity for your favor. I won't let you. You seemed to be sincere when you said your souls have merged and so I'll follow you to see what you'd do. He was very important to me and if a part of you is still him, I don't want you guys to get hurt. Maybe I'm stupid for trusting your words, but I'll see what you're up to, I don't care if I'll regret it, you probably inherited his knowledge of me and can guess things. You seem to be at least a bit cleverer than him", she said after a while.
I looked at her deeply, I was honestly a little surprised, she was only 16, but she was pretty mature in her own way. I knew she started her words harshly, but I felt her care for me, or him, or us, and understood her completely. I didn't know what I'd do in her position myself though. I felt touched.
"Okay, thank you very much for your trust. I'll try my best not to disappoint you", I said while reaching forward with my right hand to shake hers. "Where I came from, shaking hands is a sign of agreement and new meetings. It's nice to meet you Silla"
She stared at my hand, a little dazed from my weird and new action. She hesitated a little, but in the end, she shook my hand.
"N…Nice meeting y-you too, how s-should I call you?", she asked, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
I retreated my hand to ease her comfort and said, "I shall remain as Shiki as we are one and the same, my old self has died already in that world, he shouldn't matter. I'm now Shiki, and he is now me. Would you allow me to retain his name?"
She hesitated but agreed in the end.
And so, with a new partner, I started my new life with no regrets.
[A/N: And so, If you'd feel I had rushed their relationship, I will have to disagree. I wanted them to somewhat start from scratch, they are not complete strangers, his trust comes from his memories and feelings of her, and she felt his sincerity and thinks he and Shiki might have really become one. I also do not want my character to act like someone else for his own intentions because I wouldn’t like to do that myself. I want the character to be mostly honest, caring for his loved ones, somewhat mindful, somewhat altruistic and somewhat empathic. He won't be too suicidal for others' sake, but he won't mind helping when it's not unreasonable. You might even get where this is going from the name of the story]
