Breath ragged, Yuki cursed inside "Why the f*ck something like that existed."
She tried to cry out loud, but the wound on her chest kept her voice inside, alongside a cough of blood. She can't believe it. Why do things never go her way in this world?
After another bloody cough, she felt the world spin sideways, and Yuki crumpled into unconsciousness.
—--
Yuki didn't know how much time had passed. But the only thing that came out of her was dry blood, stuck in her throat.
Then the pain, spaming adrenaline around her system, which gave her unprecedented awareness of her surroundings."A forest." She thought.
Yuki stirred with a groan, her eyes fluttering open. The forest above her spun with towering trees and shivering moonlight. Cold bit through her damp clothes. Every muscle screamed in warning, but the agony in her chest drowned out all else.
Her right chest—there was a deep, gouging pain there. Not just bruised, but torn.
"I should try to bandage this." Yuki sighed while trying to stand up.
"Argh.." Yuki screamed, tears in her eyes.
She looked down.
Her right foot—if it could even still be called that—was now a grotesque, mangled ruin.
The boot she wore had ruptured along the seams, the pieces of leather peeled back like torn flesh, flapping loosely by her foot. What lay beneath was not the shape of a human foot, but a blood-drenched mass of raw tissue, muscle slick and dark, skin shredded in layers like butchered meat.
Her heel was split, the outer edge collapsed inward as though it had been crushed. Blood oozed between the fragmented bones. And from the arch of her foot, piercing all the way through with horrifying precision, three obsidian claws jutted out, still embedded deep—unnatural, rigid, and cruelly stuck onto her leg.
Flashes of memory came towards her like a flood. The moment that humanoid thing lunged, its nails spearing into her flesh, gripping, and pulling at her. She remembered the moment the claw pierced deep into her skin, the pain ripping into her.
She gritted her teeth, trying to sit up.
Her right leg buckled beneath her.
Yuki tried to rationalize herself and took a deep breath. Holding back her tears. Her stomach turned at the sight of the bloody mess.
And then she saw it.
Her blood froze all over again. The visions from the recent encounter made her body wince.
A severed hand.
A monstrous, twisted hand—long-nailed, ash-grey, with scrawny skin stretched tight over corded muscle—lay tangled in her leg wraps. Still clenching hard,
It had come with her.
"At least I got one of his arms down with me…" Yuki ironically snickers.
A dry sob escaped her throat. She shoved it away with her good leg, the thing flopping uselessly into the snow. She didn't know what was worse, the fact it was there… or the fact it wasn't moving anymore.
She forced herself to breathe. One hand fumbled for the water bag—the same one from the cave—and took another gulp of spirit sprig water. The cold glow spread through her, numbing some of the pain, but it couldn't undo the damage. Her body was still bleeding. Still broken.
She needed to move. Somewhere. Anywhere.
She grabbed the cloth again, tied off her foot and chest as best she could. The right side of her chest pulsed with agony—breathing too deeply sent stabbing shocks down her ribs. The clothes soaked through quickly.
Still, she walked.
She didn't know how long she pushed through the trees. Ten minutes. An hour. Her limping foot left bloody prints in the snow. Her vision blurred again and again.
There seemed to be something behind those trees, but Yuki had no luxury to care. Something rustled in the trees—but she didn't look. She knew that she couldn't afford to stop.
Her breath rasped.
After an unknown amount of time, her knee gave out. She stumbled forward one more time.
"Haha… Is this the end ?" Yuki sneered.
Then, just before her mind blacked out again—
"Hey—!"
The voice was distant, but urgent. Real.
A figure—barely visible through her haze. Running toward her.
She tried to say something.
Nothing came. Her vision blurred.
And Yuki fell once more, this time into someone's arms.
—
Cold. That's what Yuki felt first thing when she woke up. Of course, it's beside the comfy bed che had been lying on.
A strange contrast to the cold agony of pain and blood she remembered. A blanket of quiet heat—gentle, sterile, and unfamiliar.
Yuki's eyes opened slowly.
The ceiling above her was white. Too white. Bright, like polished glass. Her body rested on something soft and level—definitely not a forest floor. Clean sheets covered her up to the chest. Monitors beeped rhythmically beside her.
She was… in a hospital?
Her last memory was collapsing in the middle of a forest, bleeding, broken. Then—someone was running toward her.
"Ah, you're awake!" a voice said warmly.
A nurse approached, smiling with professional calm. Young, maybe in her mid-twenties, with dark tied-back hair and a soft blue uniform.
"You've been unconscious for almost two days. We weren't sure when you'd wake up."
Yuki tried to sit up—only to grimace as her chest flared in dull warning.
"Careful," the nurse said gently. "Your injuries are still stabilizing. You've been through a lot."
"…Where am I?" Yuki rasped.
"Cloudveil City Medical Pavilion. Emergency wing. You were carried here by a middle-aged man who called himself Master Jian. He found you in the wild and administered emergency treatment on-site.
" You are very fortunate. The middle-aged man was a master, and he administered a healing pill to keep your condition from collapsing further."
"So that happened," Yuki thought. The voice. She hadn't imagined it.
"The master who saved you also left a message," the nurse continued, adjusting her clipboard. "He said, when you wake up… you're to go see him. He's waiting for you in the room next door."
Yuki blinked.
"...What?"
The nurse smiled knowingly. "Room 104. Just beside this one. He told me you'd come. Said it wouldn't take long for someone like you to wake up. As expected of a healing pill." The nurse giggled.
Yuki looked down at herself—bandaged, sore, and still tethered to IV lines. Yet, underneath all that, she could feel the faint pulse of warmth in her veins. The healing pill was still working.
Yuki felt silent for a moment before she asked again.
"Did he say anything else?"
The nurse hesitated, then added, "He said if you're strong enough to walk, you're strong enough to listen."
Yuki muttered softly."Arrogant bastard."
But her heart beat faster.
Yuki moved her legs, testing them. Her foot was still numb, but it responded. Someone had wrapped it carefully. Tight, secure, but not restrictive.
"I need to see him," she muttered.
"I'll help you up," the nurse said. "But take it slow."
Yuki nodded, letting herself be guided to the edge of the bed. Pain whispered at her ribs, but her breath held steady.
As she stood, wrapped in bandages and hospital robes, something sharp flickered behind her eyes.