"Come here, I'm not afraid of…!" Kikimua woke up with a scream mixed with confusion.
For a moment, he was in the forest, and now he was lying on a bed with soft sheets that smelled of lavender.
"Am I dead?" Kikimura thought he had died in the forest.
"Am I in heaven?"
"Ouch!" The beast's heavy foot still hurts his broken ribs, and he could still taste the blood in his mouth.
The ceiling above him was white and clean.
He blinked fast. his heart was still racing. Morning light came through a window. It was daylight, not the dim light of the Spirit Forest.
"The villagers were right, I didn't live to be an adult after all". Kikimura smiled in pain.
He threw off the blanket. He was excited to see what heaven was like.
"What the …?" He realised he had no clothes on after checking his bottom half.
"Where are my clothes? Does everyone live in heaven naked?" he asked in confusion and started covering his body with the white blanket.
Suddenly, the door opened.
A girl came in with a bowl of water. She stared at Kikimura, and her dark eyes went wide.
Water spilt from the bowl onto the floor.
"You are awake!" She said.
"You !!" Kikimura screamed in shock. He recognised her as the girl from the forest. The one who insulted his hair and compared him to monsters.
"Wait..." Kikimora said.
"Did the beast kill you, too?" Kikimura thought that if they were both here, then she would be dead too.
"We were lucky to end up in heaven together", he added after nodding his head.
The blanket that covered Kikimura's body started to fall slowly.
"Aaaah !" The girl shouted as she put her hands over her cheeks, and her face turned red.
"You pervert!" she said.
"You are naked and talking to me like it's nothing!"
Kikimora looked down at himself. He was still confused.
"Are you trying to seduce me? That's why you tried to help me in the forest, you wanted to capture me and do perverted things to me…" The girl kept talking and shaking.
"Your imaginations again …" Kikimura said with a twist in his mouth.
The door opened again. And a huge figure came in.
Kikimura's breath stopped.
It was the beast walking on two legs and carrying a tray of food.
"Aaah! You… Are you dead too ?" Kikimura jumped over the bed and said in shock.
"Hahaha…" The beast laughed with a rumbling sound.
"You can talk ?" Kikimora was shocked. The beast could talk.
An old man came in behind the beast.
He was tall with a thick black beard.
He was laughing with tears streaming down his face.
"What an energy! You are causing chaos as soon as you wake up !" The old man said while still laughing.
"What is happening? Why was the beast there? How was he still alive?" Kikimora started to panic.
"My granddaughter had run into the Spirit Forest". The old man said
"The beast had protected her, he thought you're a danger when you grabbed her hand, that's why he attacked you"
"You are lucky I was there. What's your name, boy ?"
"My name is Kikimura ", he said.
"Good thing you're alive, Kikimura ... Anyways, I liked how you stood up against him. You have potential."
"Potential?" Kikimura asked.
"What potential? I'm so weak. So weak that if you compare me with garbage, it will be an insult to the garbage." He added.
"Haha! It's a good thing that you know you're weak, but potential is not measured by current power. But with what you can be. You don't see it yet. My eyes are not like yours." The old man responded with a smile.
"Anyways, you can leave after you recover". The old man turned his back while waving with his hand.
"Can I stay for more days ? I don't know where to go yet..." Kikimura asked while leaning his head.
"Whatever !" The old man responded as his voice got farther.
Kikimora was excited. He stood up. He forgot he had no clothes on.
The girl shouted again.
A small bird flew past the window.
She covered her eyes with her hands. That wasn't enough to hide her distress. She kept screaming.
"You shameless pervert! Is this your idea of a trick to get close to me? Oh, I see what you're doing now, you think you're going to wait until my grandfather leaves. Then you're going to…no, no NO! I bet you're planning something bad and you're just…."
She was talking fast now with a shade of red in her face.
Kikimora stared at her with an expression. His hand moved unconsciously toward the nearest piece of cloth, which happened to be the blanket that fell.
"What have I gotten myself into?" Kikimora thought, pulling the blanket up around himself. These people are completely crazy.
The girl was still going, undeterred by facts or logic: "…. Then you'll probably try to turn me into some kind of possession, something you can go back to whenever you feel like it and oh god, you probably have some collection at home, don't you? A whole harem of…."
"Your imagination is impressive ", Kikimora said flatly, "Also really concerning."