Bright Vermillion

“Dad, why isn’t Mom with us?”

His father stood right beside him with a sullen look on his face. The expression his father made was there. Pained, worn, and exhausted. The older man glanced down at him and crouched low to rest a palm on his shoulder.

“Fumihito, your mother is… We’ve agreed to fewer visits. Things are getting tougher for her and she needs time. I’ve talked things out with some of the doctors. I’m going to have you spend some time around a relative’s place for a bit while I’m here.”

Fumihito raised his brows and looked over at the door his mother was behind. He couldn’t see her past the solid white frame that concealed her from the rest of the world.

His eyes softened and he glanced at his father’s face.

“Dad, are you going to help Mom?”

His father simply looked away.

That was the first time in his life when he learned his father had no intention of pushing treatment any further.

“...cuse me? Are you alright? Please be alright. If you’re the Shepherd of Souls and I end up braining you by accident, then nobody’s ever going to credit me as a scholar! A-Ah, not that I’m that vain, but…”

Who was that? His hearing returned and his eyes were starting to flutter open. The only downside of waking back up again was the splitting headache his skull received. A hand went up to his head instinctively and he regretted that choice the moment a spike of pain stabbed at his forehead.

“Oh, please don’t touch your head. You’re lucky your skull missed the stone, but you still hit a hard part of the ground. Here, open your eyes. I need to see if you’re okay…,” The voice was soothing. It was a little panicky, but it sounded like they were trying their best.

His eyes slowly peered open and he was met with a pale face with a blanket of thick purple hair stretching past her shoulders. A large black hat obscured the night skies from his view and left him with only a single visible trait upon a feminine face.

Vermillion eyes.

For a moment, he ignored this situation and felt his heart skip a beat. This was the first time in his life that he could say that someone had left him gobsmacked. He nearly reached out with his hand as the woman’s concerned expression grew hopeful.

“You’re awake! That’s good… Here, drink this and…”

And whatever illusion of grandeur and beauty his mind had conjured up was wiped away the moment the woman lifted a vial of bubbling liquid close to his face. The cap had been tossed aside and the smell hit him like a truck.

Putrid.

Like rotten meat.

His expression turned foul and he promptly pushed his hands against the stranger’s shoulders.

“Uwah!” The vermillion-eyed woman landed on her back and he met the floor once again. His eyes darted around the area and his body began to pick itself up in moments. Graves as far as the eye could see stretched from his vision. Numerous trees and overgrown plant life practically littered the entirety of the area, candles strewn around him, and a night sky he didn’t remember.

Where was he? What happened? What was this woman trying to do?

“W-Wait! Please, your head… If I don’t treat it, you’re going to collapse again…”

She was already clambering back to her feet with that nauseating concoction in hand once again. Fumihito had experienced many things in his life ranging from migraines, collapsing from overworking, and pushing his mental limits to the breaking point with studying, but he had never once found himself in an uncharted place away from his room.

So, he did what any sane person would do when met with a woman trying to force-feed him a drink in a cemetery.

He promptly turned around and ran.

“H-Hey, stop! Just wait a minute…”

She chased after him with a cry as she held the vial high up to avoid dropping it.

“Would you slow down? I’m not trying to hurt you… J-Just give me a moment!”

As if he’d ever give his kidnapper a moment of his time. He stumbled around and slammed into the floor briefly. Fumihito instinctively pushed his hands forward before a sudden jolt of purple cushioned his fall and hit the earth beneath his fingertips. It was for a single moment, but he swore he could see something like tendrils reaching into the ground before they vanished.

‘Wha…’

He didn’t have enough time to speak about it. The frantic girl’s shouting was getting closer. The college student pushed himself to his feet and began sprinting once again, unaware of the large stone statue that stood right beside him. His breath strained his lungs and his body wasn’t built for moving, but in this moment of fight-or-flight, he felt like he could run down to the ends of the world.

And there, in the distance, he could see buildings.

Help.

“Almost there! Just need to find somebody…”

The girl behind him was crying out and her noises were becoming distant. Luckily for him, it seemed that his pursuer wasn’t very athletic either. A smile nearly graced his face before he saw a stone archway up ahead, rustic black gates swung wide open and leading down a road to the small town.

It wasn’t too long before he could make out the buildings and the fluttering lights up ahead. There were people still awake inside. The dirt road eventually became solid stone. Small buildings were built alongside one another, people were wandering the place with lanterns in hand, and the buildings looked like they weren’t Japanese. If anything, they looked like they were from Europe.

“Help! Please, somebody… Somebody’s chasing me, I need help!”

He was desperate for someone, anybody, to hear his call.

As expected, a man screaming into town would draw attention to anybody. People stopped and he rushed toward the nearest person standing alongside a group of cloaked individuals. His hands grabbed at their cloth and he tugged on it harshly.

“Please, you need to help me! There’s some crazy woman chasing after…”

The large individual pulled back and the words on his lips died out like a flame being snuffed. A large figure stood before him. Their skin was as green as the leaves on a tree, their muscles about the size of his skull alone, and their horns pointed around their brows. The heavy muscular creature stared at him and his companions looked over as well.

They looked just like their friends.

“Oi, what’s it to ya, brat?”

Another leaned over.

“You tryin’ to start somethin’?”

His eyes widened and his heart was pounding before he stepped back. A sudden obstruction caught him and the young man was frozen on the spot as something tugged at his pants.

“Hey, watch where you’re going. Some of us are on business here. Can you believe this guy, fellas?”

There, at a quarter of his height, arguably about the size of his skull, was a creature with a red pointed hat and an offended look on its face. There beside him were a slew of them chittering amongst themselves. They stormed off in a hurry and Fumihto stumbled away as the freakish green men approached him, some of them annoyed, before another series of individuals stepped into view from one of the buildings.

“There, that’s the man!”

A woman pointed at him and all Fumihito could see next was a troop of men approaching him. Under most circumstances, he would have assumed they were authorities. Last he checked, authorities didn’t come in wielding spears and shields in hand when they approached someone.

“Excuse me, but we’re going to have to ask you to come with us. You seem to be causing some kind of commotion. We can talk about this back at the barracks.”

One of the warriors motioned for their comrades to step in and whatever sense Fumihito might have had was beginning to dip. This place wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. It just had to be a dream, a drug, or something, right?

“W-Wait, it’s not what you all think! Please, just…”

And there was the familiar woman rushing over with the same vial in hand and a panicked expression across her face.

“Potion!”

One of the soldiers screamed and the girl froze inches away from Fumihito, her face had gone pale.

“E-Eh?”

The same soldier from before pointed a finger over at the woman.

“Running around with an unidentified potion is liable for an offense. We’re going to have to see about you as well. Come with us and we’ll sort this all out.”

Next thing he knew, a series of men were crowding against him and the mysterious woman. Fumihito could only recall the scared expression on the woman’s face as she stammered and apologized before they escorted her off. Just like he was once two men stepped forward and roughly grabbed his shoulders.

“H-Hey, wait! You can’t… This is a misunderstanding!” The woman yelped in protest.

‘I… I wanna go home…’