The Day of Thunder

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara found herself again in the realm of dreams. She had done everything to try and fix it - had taken a fortifying draft, had sought magical healing and rest... and found herself in an empty room. It was not like any room she had seen before, with finely crafted paper doors, bamboo floors, and dark wood ceilings.

It was also utterly empty, save for her. She realized her hand was covered in blood, and it was staining the ground, and no matter how she wiped at it with her clothes, it did not come clean. Her lips were warm... and she realized her face was damp with freshly spilled blood, dripping from sharp fangs.

She was... some sort of animal. A monster. A demon.

Bolting to her feet, she turned left and right, calling out for someone to come, to help her. She was not like this - this was a disguise... a mask, it was not her true face! She was sure of it. It could not be her true self - she was a woman, a human... someone who loved and could be loved! Someone who could find a home where she belonged!

Rushing to the doors, she threw them open, and gaped, dumbstruck at the sight. There was an empty void, and across it, distantly, other rooms. She could see into each, as if there were a secret portal into them. Some held families, parents and children. Some held lovers caught in amorous embraces. Some held elderly with their grandchildren, or sensei's with their classes. It was a thousand scenes of life, of human connection, of belonging...

And she could not reach any of them.

Desperately, she leapt into the void, trying to reach out and touch even one, but they receded away as she did, and she fell through darkness, until she landed on hard bamboo floors with a painful crack, losing her breath. When she gathered her wits, she looked and saw she was back where she had started.

Alone.

No matter what she told herself, how she pretended she wasn't a monster, a predator in human form... that wasn't going to ever change. Not tonight.

Tonight she was alone.

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Fail + Fail on Luck reroll https://sakkaku.org/r/11909