Yuzuki's gaze drifted up to the dust-laden wooden ceiling of the house.
The boards groaning under the weight of time and neglect, their creaks echoing through the empty room.
Her eyes were hollow as she pinched her cheeks, desperately wishing this was all a dream. But no matter how hard she pinched, no matter how sharp it stings, she could not wake up.
This was no illusion.
'This… is real.'
And with that realization was cold as ice, As the truth about her situation sink in.
This was her new reality.
And she had no choice but to live with it.
Questions stormed through her mind.
How am I here?
Why am I here?
From being stabbed in the middle of the streets of London to suddenly finding herself inside a game character she had once played, nothing made any sense.
And then, as she slowly shifted her gaze to the mirror once more, trying to convince herself she hadn't truly changed, a sudden, wrenching wrongness gripped her stomach and clawed its way up into her throat.
Panic surged through her as she instinctively as she brought both hands to her mouth.
Her mouth convulsed violently.
Something hot and liquid burst forth, spilling over her small, frail, bandaged hands.
She looked down with trembling eyes.
Blood thick and red stained her fingers.
Dripping in horrifying waves. Her throat burned, heat searing through her body, and the sheer volume of blood made it feel as if she had plunged her hands into a bucket of red colour.
Her eyes widened in shock and terror. This… this can't be happening…
Before she could even think, the coughing returned this time harsher and more painful like she entire stomach was throwing up.
More and more blood spilled out of her mouth an onto her hands, slipping through her hands and splattering onto the wooden floor, staining it dark red.
"No… no— it hurts! What… what is happening…?" she thought, gasping for air amidst her coughing, clutching her stomach as waves of pain twisted through her.
Her shirt grew wet, soaked through with blood, as her convulsions slowly—agonizingly—began to subside.
"Ha…" she let out a ragged, uneven breath, each exhale heavy with pain.
her face collapsed onto the floor, clutching her stomach, trembling violently from the ordeal. To Yuki, it had felt like hours of suffering, though in reality only minutes had passed.
Her dress which was already dirty was now stained a deep, dirty red. Its original colour lost beneath the spreading, relentless blood
For a while, she remained there, sitting in that position without moving so still that anyone from afar might have mistaken her for a statue.
But she wasn't a statue.
From the corner of her eyes, tears slipped free, trailing down her cheeks and falling to the floor. They mingled with the blood that had already pooled there, a silent testament to her suffering.
She didn't know how much time had passed. She hadn't moved, hadn't shifted her body even once.
Only when the endless stream of tears finally ceased did silence return. But it brought no comfort. Instead, it pressed down on her, suffocating and heavy.
She felt utterly alone.
Not just in this room.
Not just in this house.
But in this entire world.
This wasn't where she was born.
This wasn't the place where she had spent time with her parents.
This was the world of the game a fictional world that shouldn't even exist.
'What… what am I supposed to do now?'
Her mind raced, looping over the impossible reality she faced. She was alive, yet trapped in someone else's body a frail, malnourished body that didn't even belong to her
The laws and rules she had known back on Earth meant nothing here.
And yet… she had to survive.
Survive long enough to find a way back home. Back to Earth. Back to her parents, who were surely worried sick.
Knowing them, they're probably already looking for me… Yuzuki thought, lips pursed, the bitter taste of blood lingering on her tongue.
"Tch."
yuki produce the sound from her mouth as she tasted the blood in her mouth.
A memory flashed through her mind her father's words, clear despite the pain it recalled. She remembered it vividly, even thou it was not a good memory.
She had fallen face-first to the ground, scraping her knee. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried.
Her father knelt beside her. "Oh, Yuki, calm down. It will heal you don't need to cry this much."
"But… it hurts!" she had sobbed, clutching her knee tightly.
"Well, it's natural that it hurts," he replied gently, his words deliberate, measured. A small, comforting smile appeared as he carefully placed his hand on her wounded knee.
"If you ever feel pain in your life, it's good to remember the happy times… like eating ice cream," he said, a smile still on his face now slightly goofy. "So, what do you say, Yuki? Want to go get some ice cream?"
The words distracted her enough to forget the ache in her knee. She looked up at her father's silly expression and couldn't help but smile, laughing at him. For a moment, the pain vanished, replaced by joy and warmth.
Later, he had bought her two ice creams. Somehow, holding them in her hands, savoring the cold sweetness, the pain in her knee had felt a little lighter, softened by the memory of laughter and love.
Thinking about it now, Yuzuki realized she had carried those words and that goofy expression more seriously than she ever imagined she would.
She began recalling all the happy memories with her family, pushing the pain and grim moments deep down into her heart, as if pretending they had never existed.
For a brief moment, the warmth of those memories softened the harshness of her current reality, giving her a fleeting sense of comfort amidst the chaos.
"I need to wash up… and take my medicine," Yuzuki muttered to herself, slowly pushing herself to her feet. She stumbled out of the room and into the bathroom, each step heavy with exhaustion.
Hesitating, she turned on the light, her trembling hands leaving faint red smears on the switch. The bulb flickered weakly before stabilizing, casting the cramped room in a pale, uneven glow.
Her sharp onyx eyes immediately fell on the dirty mirror. A jagged crack ran along its surface, branching out like a spider's web.
Yuzuki paused, glancing nervously around the cramped bathroom, half-expecting something to be… off. But everything was ordinary.
A small sigh of relief escaped her lips.
Like the room before, this place was old and worn. The bathroom itself was cramped, no larger than what could fit a sofa and a small table. A sink, a shower and a toilet crowded together, the walls lined with faint creaks and stains.
Her trembling hands reached for the faucet. Cold water spilled out in a harsh stream, flowing out from the faucet on her bloodied hands. As she scrubbed intensely to remove the blood from her hand, watching the red colour disappeared from her skin and mixing with the water as it flow down the drain.
Then, with a sharp inhale, she scooped the icy water in her palms and splashed it onto her face, forcing her breath to steady as the cold surged across her skin, filling her with a fleeting sense of energy.
Water dripped down her chin, soaking her already damp shirt. Yuzuki leaned over the sink, breathing shallowly, her reflection trembling in the cracked mirror before her.
For a long moment, she studied herself from the black strands of hair framing her face to her cracked, pale lips.
It was still her… and yet, it wasn't.
she was in no good situation.
Piecing together fragments of memory that belonged to this body and combining them with what she knew of the game, Yuzuki finally understood the gravity of her predicament.
Blood River Illness.
One of the most dangerous conditions in this world highly fatal to those infected. It struck individuals with an excess of essence.
Essence was the energy that flowed through every living and non-living thing in this world. It was like a natural element, much like oxygen on Earth, but with a magical quality.
Essence existed everywhere from the tiniest ant to the largest dragon, from blades of grass to falling rain. Every object, every creature, carried at least a small amount of it.
With essence, one could control the four permanent elements: water, fire, air and earth. These formed the foundation of the elemental in human civilization.
and the one which human body had adapt too really well.
that's why four main elements of water, fire, air, and earth are seen as the human element by other races as human have naturally adapted to it, granting most humans high affinity with them.
This are not only element human can use.
There were other elements as well.
The light element, for example, was more common among those with strong religious and spiritual beliefs, while the darkness element was extremely rare among humans.
thousands more elements but are very uncommon and unlikely to appeared in widely in human civilizations or in any race.
Other races in this world had their own common and uncommon elements, with unique affinities tied to their biology.
In total, there were numerous elements that one might encounter in battle. Anyone hoping to survive a fight needed to be prepared to face the full variety, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and unpredictable effects.
And that wasn't even taking into account the wild animals and beasts. Unlike humans or other races, many of these creatures had the ability to wield elemental powers in the wild, making them unpredictable and incredibly dangerous.
Survival in this world meant more than just knowing the elements of humans it meant being ready for anything, from skilled warriors to untamed, elemental-infused beasts lurking in every corner..
Why was Yuzuki thinking about essence and the elements instead of her own body?
Because it all traced back to her lifeline. She had been born with a body that produced an unusually large amount of essence.
But there was one thing her body had not been born with something crucial for her survival.
That thing was an Anchor.
What was an Anchor?
An Anchor was any essential organ or component in the human body required for proper function. Without it, even a body brimming with essence could not survive.
An Anchor drew in natural essence from both the surroundings and the body itself, merging them together to stabilize and refine it into elemental power.
The amount of essence a body produced determined how effectively one could shape and control the essence in the air by blending the two. A high level of internal essence meant longer endurance on the battlefield, the ability to sustain elemental power far longer than others.
An Anchor acted as both storage and regulator within the body. It could hold essence for later use, then release it as needed. Beyond that, it reinforced the body, subtly strengthening it, much like adrenaline coursing through a person's veins.
For a human, having an Anchor meant more than just survival it was the very foundation of their abilities, their elemental control, and their future.
Yuzuki… had been born with broken one.
That meant she couldn't regulate essence at all. Worse still, her body produced far more of it than normal.
What should have been a blessing was nothing more than a curse.
With a broken Anchor, her essence regulation was uneven. To compensate, her body began producing excessive amounts of blood far more than it ever needed. At first, it seemed like a desperate attempt at balance.
Thus, her condition came to be known as Blood River Illness began.
At first, it seemed like the body's way of maintaining balance. But the consequences were catastrophic.
Excess blood surged violently through her veins, wild and uncontrolled. Nutrients were distributed unevenly, vital systems thrown into chaos. Some organs swelled from oversaturation, while others withered, starved of what they needed to survive.
Her body was unstable teetering constantly on the edge of collapse. Death could claim her at any moment.
Yuzuki's hands tightened around the edge of the sink, her knuckles paling beneath the bandages. A bitter laugh escaped her lips, hollow and fractured.
"Of course…" she whispered to the cracked mirror. "Out of everyone… I end up in this body."
Her reflection stared back at her, black onyx eyes trembling with despair.
It was almost laughable. She had been stabbed to death in the streets of London, only to awaken here in the weakest body imaginable.
A body without an Anchor.
A body cursed with an illness that, even in the game, had been nothing more than a tragic footnote.
Her chest tightened not just from pain, but from the crushing weight of irony.
She hadn't been important back on Earth and now… she wasn't important here either.
The thought clawed into her mind.
Am I really going to die twice?
Once in my world… and once here, in someone else's body?
---
pain is the most human emotion