I woke up within a void-like space again, looking around and trying to figure out what happened. “So you ended up back here again..?” a voice said as I looked and reached out for my sword, grabbing nothing but air since my sword was gone from its sheath.

“You’re willing to go that far huh…”

The voice said again as I then turned around to see an even thinner version of myself, he had even longer hair with his eyes being dull brown and a tint of gray, He now wore a hospital gown as there was a IV cable in his forearm. I could see the Nervegear on his head as he sighed. “Same thing as last time me…” he said as he put out his hand, his hand was very skinny to where you can see his wrist joint.

I hesitated as I asked him “How can you be me..?” As I was confused at this, he didn’t hesitate to reply as he said up-front, “It’s a thing you and I share… Same person.. Same gifts…”. I was confused at what he meant as I asked him “What gifts…?”, he sighed and said “I’ll tell you more when you wake up… just shake my hand…please…” as I hesitated to shake his hand.

He waited there patiently as I gently shook his hand, but within a second he gripped onto my hand, with a pretty strong grip too amongst his skinny structure. He then told me “You and I are born from the same mother, a Shawoman.. Just remember that…” as what I thought was a dream snapped me back into reality, waking up from the bedroom, sweating and breathing heavily.

I looked at my hand as I looked around and saw that it was the log cabin, I layed back down onto the bed thinking to myself “Am…Am I going insane…” as I tried to fall back to sleep once more. The thought of it couldn’t leave my mind as I sat up and walked out into the living room, unable to sleep. I sat down as I rustled my hair a bit trying to get the thought out “Shawoman shawoman… What does that mean…” I thought as I heard footsteps walk down the hallway.

I stared at the hallway as I saw Toru walk out, wearing shorts and a shirt as she had a concerned look on her face. “Is…Is something wrong Toru..?” I asked her as she sighed saying “I’m…I’m just worried that’s all..”. I sighed and stood back up, walked to the door and opened it, “I can’t sleep.. I’ll be back when I run out of energy” I told her as she fiddled with something in her hand, I sighed and said “I won’t be out long” as it raised her morale a bit more. She then said “Okay.. Goodnight Kirin..” as I waved bye to her, closing the door behind me and leaving for Kamdet City.

I rubbed my head thinking to myself “Man that head injury from the cave really did a number on me…” as I walked into the restaurant, seeing Izah and waving to him, he waved back as he remembered something and said “Kirin c’mere for a second”. I walked over to Izah as he handed me a map saying “thanks for the herbs yesterday, as promised here’s the map.” He said as he handed me the map.

“Thanks Izah, and no problem”

I told him as I took the map as I remembered something as I checked the date. “December 7th, 2022…” I thought as I saw the date and swiped away the calendar. “Anyways.. I should be going now” I told Izah as I left the restaurant, Heading out towards the Darkwood Forest and following a path on the map. I headed down the pathway as I looked forward thinking to myself “Toru wouldn't be mad with me if I went ahead of her…” as I stopped halfway and opened my menu, checking my stats.

Name: Kirin

HP: 401/401

LVL: 17

EXP: 301/510

STR: 25

VIT: 20

AGI: 16

DEX: 7

LUK: 8

Proficiencies

1h Sword: 10

2h Sword: 1

1h Mace: 1

2h Mace: 1

Dagger: 3

Archery: 1

Martial Arts: 5

Cooking: 2

Blacksmith: 4

Fishing: 3

“17… I can get higher if I can keep grinding off these Forest Mutants..” I thought as I closed my stats menu and swiped up. I then headed towards the next town, Hearing more footsteps as I pulled out my blade and stood in place. “Stop trying to hide, if you’re gonna fight, do it now..” I said as I turned around and stared at a certain tree.

“So the rumors were true…”

The voice behind the tree said as they came out and I saw their indicator, I sighed a little heavily saying “A PKer.. and what’s this rumor…” in a bitter tone. “There’s this RUMOR… Going around… of a player in white and black, a large black star on the back fighting back and even scaring off PKers of some guilds…” as I replied “So what.. There could be a thousand others that have the same coat..” trying to stall.

“No, you see here… The description is… Brown hair, brown eyes, Peachy skin, Bangs that split off from the left… and lookie here…” the PKer said as he held up what was a bounty poster with a description at the bottom. “Oh great… Now I guess I have a bounty on my head…” I thought as I said to him “Alright enough playing…” as I readied my sword and lunged forward. “Ah ah ah! Not so fast!!” The PKer said as I swung and he jumped back with a damn grin on his face. I gritted my teeth as I heard a rustle from behind. Another PKer jumped out as I dodged a dagger swing with a graze to my upper shoulder.

“Are there any more of these damn people I don’t know about…”

I thought as my vision began to blur up and I stumbled back and down a knee. I heard an echoed laughter a bit as I covered my mouth and coughed out virtual blood. I then noticed a poison effect in play as I saw a 3 minute poison effect displayed near my health bar.

“Tipped weapons… And I thought these fuckers couldn’t get anymore sadistic…”

I thought as I coughed out more blood, looking at the two PKers as one walked over and kicked me over the face. I fell backwards and landed on my back, as one of them stomped on my chest and I coughed out more virtual blood from my mouth. “I thought you would put up more of a challenge…” One said as the person standing on-top of me was wearing a black cloak covering their face.

“Go…Go eat a D**k…”

I said as I saw my health reaching towards lower yellow, I then saw the person get punched off as my vision was blurring up. “Kirin!” A faint voice said as the display for poison went away at 30 seconds, my vision came back as I saw who it was. It was Toru saying “Are you alright Kirin!” as I nodded saying “Why…are you here all of a sudden..?” still confused If it was just an illusion or if Toru was actually there.

“It’s not just me, Sato is here as well”

Toru said as Sato was fighting off the Two PKers off, I slowly sat up as Toru said “Just rest for now” as Toru got up and ran towards Sato. “Heads up!” Toru shouted with Sato ducking under a clothesline swing, smacking a PKer straight off their feet. Sato then rushes over towards the second one and starts swinging at them, missing his swings from the PKer ducking and dodging. They then got several quick hits onto Sato as Sato began to slow down from fatigue and coughed out blood like Kirin did.

“You’re all too easy!”

The PKer said in a prideful way, seeing that Sato was suffering from the attack, I got up and ran towards him as Toru rushed over and started fighting the PKer that was still up. I pulled out an antidote and healed his poison effect, I then told him “Sit tight” as I got up and picked up my sword. Toru kept boxing with the PKer, weaving around and ducking under missed swings, throwing light jabs and hard hooks on failed stab attempts, and toying with them.

“What’s wrong, got nothing to say?”

Toru said in Japanese as she was tired of speaking in English for the time being. Toru then sidestepped a lunge attack and caught the players arm, holding onto it and throwing quick jabs at their body. Toru keeps throwing punches as she lets go of the guy's arm and uses a uniquely made martial arts skill she calls “One, Two, Three”.

Toru throws a quick jab at the PKer’s face as she mocks them for a second, before ducking under a wide swing and ramming her right hook into their face again as she moves back a bit and says “Three!” lunging forward in a crouching position to slam her right arm again but into their abdomen this time.

Toru wore a cocky smile as she took a few steps back to stretch, “Are you done yet?” She said in Japanese again as Toru looked back to see me run up to her. “Is everything alright?” I asked her as she nodded but didn’t say anything as she was smiling, I then heard a little chuckle as I looked over and saw a quick lunge.

Out of instinct, I shoved Toru away and took another stab to the lower abdomen this time. “Kirin! Not again!” She shouted as I grabbed onto the blade and pulled it out, shouting to numb the pain and eventually pulled the dagger out. “What!” The PKer shouted surprised as they took a kick, making them stumble backwards a bit before I swung horizontally. The horizontal swing was above their shoulders, cutting clean through the base between the neck and the shoulders.

I watched the head fall as it shattered right beside my foot and watched the body turn cyan and shatter into pieces. Toru was horrified as she stuttered “K-K-Kirin…Y-You…” as my floating Icon above my head turned red. I stumbled down to a knee coughing blood out as I pulled out an antidote and cleansed myself from negative effects. Toru got up and walked over to me as she hesitated for the first time to ask something. “Just…take Sato and go…” I quietly said to Toru as she didn’t get the message.

I looked over and said in a little bit of an irritated tone “Take Sato and go now!” as she had jumped a little, nodding, running over to Sato and helping him up, wrapping his arm around the back of her neck and helping him walk back to Kamdet City. I looked back at Sato and Toru, seeing that Toru could be a better partner for Sato rather than me. My heart was filled with Guilt, Jealousy and Regret seeing them both together, but I thought to myself “If…If I’m not affiliated with them… It might be better off since they won’t be targeted…right..?”

I was lost for words, I couldn’t think of a solution as I had flashes of Toru’s smile in my head, I then tried to sheath my sword back as I kept missing, always slightly off as I thought to myself “Why…Why am I acting like this…” as I managed to get the sword into the Sheathe. “I usually get it on the first try…” I muttered as I started walking towards the Town nearby, I walked and thought about Toru for a bit, thinking to myself “Maybe…” as I arrived at the other side of the Darkwood Forest.

I looked and saw the next town not too far as I thought again “Maybe I am starting to fall for Toru…But…Does she think the same about me…” as I sighed and walked towards the town.