I Can’t Run Away From the Girl Who Saved Me



0 – PROLOGUE

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I suddenly came to my senses.

It felt like waking up from a long slumber.

I forgot what I had been dreaming just moments before, but I vaguely sensed it was an extremely frightening nightmare.

I shook my head to clear my disturbed mind and looked around with bleary eyes.

“…Uh, uwaa!”

I was standing among people torn limb from limb.

Someone’s leg was hanging from a tall tree, and someone’s torso was split open vertically, staining the green grass red.

It seemed the awful nightmare I barely remembered was not just a simple dream.

Or maybe I’m still dreaming?

That pathetic attempt at denying reality was immediately refuted by the weight I felt in both hands.

I looked down at my own two hands.

A head of someone with their throat ripped out, hot blood spurting, was gripped in both my hands, and I had my thumbs deeply jammed into the eye sockets to hold the head firmly.

The contents of the moist, sticky eyeballs rolled down my thumbs.

“Uwaaah!”

Only then did I scream and fling away the head.

Thud.

The head fell limply by my feet with a dull sound.

My legs were shaking so badly I couldn’t stand, so I toppled over on my butt.

“This is…I did…”

I couldn’t continue the words.

Even as I fell, my gaze remained fixed on the severed head.

The damn head didn’t even roll away, just stared back at me with its hollow, punctured eyes.

The holes made by my fingers.

This carnage was surely my doing.

I clutched my head in fear and guilt, curling into a ball.

“Wuh… uuh…”

Just then, someone embraced me from behind.

Warm, soft warmth, and the faint scent of wildflowers quietly approached.

Those arms slipped between mine to hug my waist, then gently rested their cheek on my quivering shoulder.

Huge, soft breasts pressed against my chest thumping in terror, seeming to tenderly soothe my pounding heart.

Without a word, I let tears fall and surrendered to her touch.

She embraced my bloody self without hesitation, simply hugging me close without saying anything.

After some time passed and my trembling subsided, she slightly lifted her face from my shoulder and whispered in my ear in a gentle voice.

A joyful voice, like birds singing under morning sunshine filtering between branches.

“Ash…”

Excerpt 2:

The thought occurs to me sometimes.

If there was some kind of magic or machine that could let you go back to the past, wouldn’t that be great?

Having experienced so many misfortunes that could have been prevented if I’d known beforehand, I would often fantasize about that.

Alright, so if I really could go back, when would I return to?

When my older sister died?

When my uncle killed my parents to seize control of the family?

When I was on the run from my uncle’s men and my younger sister died in an accident?

“I told you, Ash.”

“…”

“You can’t leave now.”

No, I would definitely go back to before I met her.

“…Uh.”

“You can’t get away from me.”

But time travel is just a delusion.

Of course, such magic doesn’t exist, and neither does such a machine in this world.

All I had was the future with her.

“…Yeah.”

Only now did I clearly realize my plight.

I’ve become a monster.

Just like her.

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