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I woke up with my face buried in a pile of manga, drool and sweat everywhere. My stomach growled. I peeled myself off the pages and shuffled to my tiny fridge to see if there was anything for breakfast. Of course, there wasn’t.
Well, there was actually something, but I had to get my face way too close just to figure out what it once was. I stared at it for a bit, debating if I could still eat it. Then it bubbled, changed shape, and for a moment, I swear it whispered my name.
I slammed the fridge door shut. No way. I wasn’t mentally ready to talk to instant ramen yet. So I put on some clothes and walked up the hill to the market to buy something for breakfast.
Sure, there was one across the street too. It was closer and way cheaper. But the one up the hill had Hana at the counter. A sweet girl from my high school. She had that wavy brown hair, sparkling eyes, a pretty face, and… a uniform that looked like it had given up on holding things in place.
After walking an extra five minutes for some cheap, little dreams, I finally made it to the market. I grabbed a week’s worth of instant noodles, ramen, and anything else that wouldn't burn my wallet, then dragged myself to the counter.
The moment Hana saw me, her eyes lit up, her face blooming with a perfect smile. Anyone watching might think her heart skipped a beat when our eyes met. Of course it didn’t. Yeah, I wished it had, but that was just her usual act.
And I’m not kidding. If a goblin or a skeleton walked in, grabbed a soda, and came to the counter, Hana’s face wouldn’t change at all. Not even a blink. The worst part was that a small part of me felt she might even look more relaxed.
“Oh, not these unhealthy things again?” she scolded with a pouty, slightly annoyed face as she scanned my items. “You should take better care of yourself…”
“Y-yeah, sure... I guess,” I muttered, hating how frozen and stupid I sounded.
I paid, packed my stuff, and before leaving, gave a small nod with a faint smile, and walked out feeling a little less dead inside. I knew her caring was just part of the job, but a stupid part of me wanted to believe it was not.
“Have a nice day! And take care of yourself, okay?” Hana called as I stepped out, like she somehow knew what fate awaited me on the very next step.
I was halfway across the street, my mind replaying the last few minutes, when a horn tried to murder my ears. I turned and saw a truck racing up the hill at full speed. The driver pressed the brake and leaned on the horn, his face was helpless, begging me to get out of the way. But both of us knew that it was already too late.
In just a few seconds, the truck was on me. There was nowhere to run, and it wasn’t slowing down. I looked left, I looked right. I had to think fast, but my noodle?powered brain refused to help. The driver’s eyes were shut, already accepting the inevitable end.
Then suddenly, years of trauma kicked in. All my grandpa's beatings and teachings... My body moved before I could even think, a reflex carved into my bones, and blood rushed to my legs. I didn’t plan anything. I just shot forward like a perfectly launched human cannonball.
I threw myself on the ground and glued my body straight to the asphalt. By some mix of pure panic and a lot of luck, I slid right into the tiny gap between the wheels of the truck. It roared over me a second later. And somehow, against all logic and every rule of physics, I pulled off a move that would have made my grandpa proud.
The truck finally stopped a little ahead, and I let out a shaky breath once the danger passed. I tried to stand, but my legs refused and shook on their own. So I stayed there on the ground, trying to process what had just happened. Somehow, I had pulled off the impossible, and probably used up every bit of luck I had left in this life.
The truck door slammed shut, making me nearly jump. When I looked up, the driver was running toward me, probably to check if I was still in one piece. Then I noticed something was off about the truck. He saw it too, just a moment too late for either of us to do anything about it.
The driver had probably jumped out of the truck in pure panic and forgot to pull the handbrake. The stubborn truck began rolling back, clearly hated leaving things unfinished. It picked up speed, heading straight for me to take me on a small trip.
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I tried to move while the driver ran after it, waving his arms like that would change anything. And then… it happened. The truck slammed me face?first into the ground with a sharp hit at the back of my neck.
?
I woke up with my face smashed into the ground and my butt sticking up like an ostrich hiding in sand. I pushed myself up a little and looked around, but all I saw was thick black smoke everywhere. Then, through the haze, I heard a faint woman’s voice calling out, soft and distant.
“Ugh… cough cough… I-is someone there?”
I squinted through the smoke, trying to figure out where that voice came from, but couldn’t even see my own hands, let alone someone else. Then the voice came again.
“Hello, can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Suddenly, the smoke thinned and vanished in seconds, like someone swiped it away with a giant vacuum cleaner. When it cleared, I scanned the room and saw nothing but endless white in every direction. No one was in sight, until I turned around.
The moment our eyes met, the woman rushed at me and jumped on me like I was the first human she’d seen in a thousand years. She hugged me so hard my face got smashed in her suffocating chest. Breathing instantly became a side quest.
While I was fighting for my life, she talked nonstop, putting words together one after another without a single pause. I couldn’t do anything but hope she stopped before she strangled me by accident.
“Yay! Oh my gosh, I did it! I really, really did it! I thought I’d never pull it off. After like tens, no, hundreds of failed tries! But I actually did the ancient spell! Can you believe it? I-I finally did it! I can’t even… this is amazing!!”
I managed to wiggle a little out of her tight, vine-like hug, freeing my head for just long enough to take a deep breath. After surviving the life threatening moment, I asked.
“So what is that thing you did?”
Finally, she let go and stepped back, leaning forward just enough to eye me from head to toe. That gave me a chance to really look at her too.
Her wavy pink hair fell all the way to her waist, framing a pretty face with sparkling pink eyes. She had a tall, hourglass body, curvy in all the right places. Her short white kimono, trimmed with gold lace. A tight black sash flared at the hips, and her legs were wrapped in white thigh-highs ending in strappy golden heels.
She looked like a supernatural being… an angel, or something even higher that no one would question if you worshipped. You wouldn’t meet her on the street; you’d meet her, pass out, and spend weeks trying to explain it to a therapist.
Then my brain finally caught up. Her face. That was the problem. It was too familiar. The eyes, the shape, the expression. It was Hana, my Hana. Like an older twin or some crazy relative. I knew it wasn't her. I knew I wasn't home. I just had no idea if I had walked into a nightmare or some twisted miracle.
After sizing me up thoroughly for a while, she moved closer and started poking at my arms and legs, asking random questions like I was some kind of failed science experiment.
“You’re okay, right? Nothing wrong? Your arms, legs... Everything in its place?”
“Everything in its... what?!”
Something about that didn't feel right. A chill ran through me, and I tensed up. I was the one supposed to be asking questions here, confused as I was, so I couldn’t hold back anymore and fired my questions straight at her while she kept messing with my body parts.
“What do you mean by that?! And who even are you?”
“Ah, me? You’re totally right, I completely forgot the whole ‘introduce myself’ part!” she muttered, stopping her poking and stepping in front of me.
With a snap of her fingers, a fancy white-and-gold throne appeared. She sat, legs crossed, chest resting on her arms, and gave me a teasing, warm smile.
“I’m Desira, the Goddess of Lust, basically the source of all desires… and, well, some fun parts of being an adult.”
“Excuse me but… the goddess of what?!”
She stretched one leg out and crossed the other over it, taking her time to make sure I didn’t miss a single second of it. Then she let out a slow breath, leaned back, and shot me this look from under her lashes. It was the kind of stare that said I might be the dumbest guy she ever dragged into her divine mess.
“Ah… yes. Lust,” I stammered.
Every move she made had this soft, hypnotic charm. Soon, my brain started screaming from the overload. It was like staring at the sun bare-eyed; too bright, too stunning, and totally frying. Like overdosing on all sweet things at once.
And then it hit me. This was the cashier’s curse. Yes. It all made sense. If I hadn’t gone to that store this morning just to reward my eyes, the truck wouldn’t have hit me. And I wouldn’t be here now, stuck in front of some goddess of lust, about to pay the price for my own low moral desires.
I drifted in my own messy thoughts, trying to guess what kind of weird torture was coming next, when her voice pulled me back. She leaned forward, resting her face in her hands with bright and curious eyes.
“So, what’s your name?” she asked.
“W-who, me? Uh... Hayato. Hayato Fujimura.”
“And your age?”
“Sixteen. Or sixteen and a half. It's been a while.”
“Oh, that’s plenty.”
“Plenty for what? Also... I did die, right? Is this some kind of afterlife?”
“Oh yeah, you died. But this isn’t the afterlife. I grabbed you before you reached that boring part.”
“Huh?!”
For a while, I tried to look away, but my eyes kept drifting back to her. She sat there, letting out slow, annoyed sighs, sneaking looks at me when she thought I wasn’t watching. Since she didn’t seem like she’d speak anytime soon, I went ahead.
“Well, you called me here for a reason, right? I mean, there must be something—”
“Ah, yes, of course! There’s a reason," she cut me off, "I didn’t call you here just for small talk, that would be awkward..." She forced a smile to cover her nerves.
“So?”
“Um, well, let’s get to the point then,” the goddess said, “I called you here because my world is collapsing, and... whether it survives or not now depends on you.”
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