NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: Chapter 40
In the deep darkness, no one could hear your screams.
Murata Himeko woke up, feeling a cold air seeping into her lungs, making her cough. Cold sweat covered her body, dripping onto the mattress. The space around her was hazy, as if a thick black fog was squeezing the small room. She raised her hand to her forehead, her heart pounding as if it wanted to escape from her chest.
"Where is this?" she muttered, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness.
Suddenly, a small laugh, soft but sharp as a knife, rang out from behind her.
"You ask where is this? Isn't this your own mind?"
Himeko turned around. She found herself standing in the middle of an endless hallway, the walls covered in cracks. The ceiling lights flickered, emitting ear-piercing screeches. The ground beneath her feet seemed slimy, each step making a sound like stepping on something wet.
But what was more terrifying was the smell of blood.
She could smell it, strong, as if the whole space were filled with the stench of things that had once lived but had rotted.
"You run again, Himeko," the ghostly voice echoed from all directions, like an echo in a bottomless pit. "But this time… you won't get away."
Himeko ran.
She didn't know where to run, nor did she care where she was going. Her bare feet were torn, blood seeping out but not slowing her steps. Behind her, strange clanking sounds followed, like chains being dragged across the ground.
Suddenly, she stopped when she realized the hallway had led her to a large door. The door, made of dark wood, looked as if it had been rotted by years, but on it was carved a hauntingly familiar symbol: a bloody rose.
Himeko trembled as she touched the door, and it opened without her having to use any force.
The room behind was the living room in her memory—warm, familiar, and… horrifyingly wrong.
She saw her father, Murata Ryusuke, sitting at his desk. His eyes were glazed, his body twitching, his mouth muttering meaningless words.
"Just a little more… just a little more…"
Himeko wanted to call out, but her voice was stuck in her throat. She saw a thin, pale hand reach out from the darkness behind her father. The hand landed on his shoulder, pulling him back and disappearing into the darkness.
"Father!"
Himeko rushed forward, but instead of reaching him, she found herself falling. The space around her shattered like shards of glass.
She landed roughly on the ground, her entire body aching. When she raised her head, she found herself in the middle of a field of blood-red flowers.
Not flowers—they were corpses.
The twisted bodies lay piled on top of each other, and in the center stood the silhouette of a small girl.
The girl turned, and Himeko recognized her childhood self. Her face was pale, her eyes bloodshot with hatred.
"You're the one who let everyone die."
Himeko sprang to her feet, her scream stuck in her throat.
The girl disappeared, but in her place, familiar faces began to appear from all over the field of corpses. Kiana, Mei, Bronya—her students, their faces cold, their eyes empty, their mouths twisted in mocking smiles.
"You're a failure."
"You couldn't save anyone."
"Teacher, why did you let us die?"
Himeko couldn't take it anymore. She collapsed, clutching her head, screaming desperately.
"Stop! Stop!"
"Stop?" the ghostly voice from the beginning rang out again, this time clearer, closer. "Then let me give you a chance, Himeko… A chance to escape all this pain."
From the darkness, another version of her stepped out. A distorted Murata Himeko.
She was dressed in a pure white dress, but her fiery red hair was matted like blood. Her eyes were red as fire, but there was a dead silence in them instead of life.
"Do you want your family back? Do you want to go back to that beautiful childhood, where there was no loss, no pain?"
Himeko looked up, her whole body trembling.
"All you have to do is let me help you," her distorted self whispered. "Give me your hand, and everything will be as you wish."
Himeko hesitated, but happy images—her mother's smile, her father's deep voice, the bright sunlight on the flower fields—suddenly flooded back to her.
She reached out, her fingers trembling as she touched her other self.
As their hands touched, the darkness around her vanished.
Himeko opened her eyes.
A gentle light filled the room. The scent of rose tea wafted through the air. She heard birds chirping outside the window.
A familiar voice rang out:
"Himeko, wake up! Breakfast's getting cold!"
It was her mother's voice.
Himeko sat up, her eyes wide as she looked at the familiar room.
"This is…"
But she couldn't finish her sentence. A strange sense of peace enveloped her, erasing the terrifying memories from just now.
For a moment, Himeko forgot everything.
***********
I continued to wander in the dark, hazy, and creepy mental world. Following the streaks of starlight that were floating, forming a path to guide me.
As I walked, I thought, why did I choose this way? When I could have ended it more quickly by other methods. Well, of course, those methods couldn't eliminate the consequences that would happen to Himeko-Sensei later.
Perhaps I had become much weaker than before. Because if I had chosen to defeat this troublesome teacher from the beginning by overpowering her with violence and knocking her out, there would have been no need to take such a risky and tiring gamble.
'So you owe me a lot! I'll make you pay back this debt later! Hmph! Hmph!'
With those thoughts in my head, I continued to wander in Himeko's mental world, which was now covered by the hazy black mist that symbolized Honkai energy.
Although the Honkai consciousness infected my mind through the Xuanyuan sword, the important memories engraved in my soul were very difficult to attack and taint.
The proof was that the door leading to Himeko's consciousness was still extremely sturdy and was strictly guarded.
'Where should I go now?'
As if responding to my wish, the emerald green constellations gathered and spread out into a starry path that led me out of the maze woven by the black mist of Honkai energy
Step by step, I moved along the indicated path to the place I was looking for.
And then after a long while, I found what I was looking for. At that moment, the mist stirred, making a chirping sound like an insect to show its vigilance towards me.
Even so, they still couldn't harm me, because the starry path under my feet had erected a barrier that prevented any evil spirits from invading my spiritual body.
I looked at the thing in front of me, if I had to describe it, it was like a giant image bubble.
And that bubble was projecting Himeko-sensei's dream.
I squinted as each scene that passed by told of someone's ideal world.
'Enchanted by illusions?'
As I said before, the door to a person's subconscious is very difficult to penetrate, so the only thing that hypnosis can do is to charm that person's perception.