ingredient I needed off their respective shelves, walked back to the counter, and placed the items down for the store clerk to scan. My foot tapped impatiently on the floor as I waited. The clerk, who had also seemed to want the same thing as me, which of course at the moment was to be home, scanned the given items and plainly stated the total cost. Thankfully I still had a couple of dollars in my wallet to pay for everything exactly. When they asked me if I wanted a bag I kindly accepted, to which they placed all my items, precariously into one single paper bag before pushing it over to me on the counter. I would have hoped they wouldn't have put the heavier items together with the lighter items I had in my inventory, but I figured I could let it slide as the store clerk looked to have just about had it with their day.

So I flashed the clerk a small sympathetic smile as I picked up my bag and receipt before heading for the door. The small bell at the top sounded as I pushed the door open to leave, just as it had when I entered. I took a left and proceeded to walk until I reached a cross section in the street. My feet had already started to ache from walking all day, and as I waited for the light to change I switched my weight from one foot to the other. The light remained the same for what seemed like 5 minutes, but finally changed when I pulled my phone out to look at the time.

6:34 P.M.

I sighed and crossed the street. Then, after slipping my phone back into my pocket, I dropped my gaze to the ground for a moment, only looking up once when I saw the end of the street coming into my peripheral. The sun was even lower in the sky now, but the humidity in the air threatened to make me sweat. After which the strong bustling wind would cool me down to the point of shivering. That same wind would breeze past me, pushing various items of trash across the ground.

There was an alleyway to my left, one that I had never paid any attention to, but just as I was about to turn right to walk down the street, I heard a scream.

My head whipped in the direction of the alley but struggling to see I narrowed my eyes. It didn't help much anyway. I still couldn't see no matter how hard I tried. So, against my better judgment, I took a step forward.

I didn't know what possessed me to keep walking down the alley when I heard the screaming stop, but I just kept going; unable to stop myself even after I had gotten so far down that I could hardly see in front of me.

With the screaming completely silenced, there was no longer any indication of anyone being in the alley with me. The sound of my rustling grocery bag only intensified in my ears, and I briefly wondered if I would have been better off ignoring the screams on my way home. If there was someone here that could possibly hurt me or worse, kill me, I guessed that I had about 10 seconds to turn back around before I could regret my decision of trying to be a good samaritan. In my past experiences of doing so, leaving the person would have served me much better than helping them. And given the fact that the screaming I heard had stopped, whoever it was that was in danger was most likely dead already, and I would have most definitely been better off leaving now while I still had the chance. However, I was already there, and the guilt of being able to have done something and choosing not to was far too overwhelming. So, before I could turn back around and wipe the record of what I heard from my memory, I took another step forward. My mouth opened and the words left my lips before I could stop myself.

"Hello? Is...somebody there?"

When only a low gurgle came echoing back in my ears, I froze.

"W-who is there? W-who are you?!"

I couldn't stop the panic that bubbled in my throat as I called out into the alley. The gurgle only echoed louder, rising in pitch until I nearly had to cover my ears from the noise. Then, almost as if on cue my vision began to clear. I could clearly make out the body of a person lying motionless on the ground and over the body, was an enormous and grotesque creature. It smelled of burning rubber, and its flesh looked like a pale, sewage-like green. It dripped and sagged off its form almost as though it were melting.

The grocery bag dropped to the ground. My hands flew to cover my mouth, and my body hunched as my first reflex was to throw up. At the sound of my gagging, the creature turned at me. Immediately my back straightened, and I stumbled back, nearly tripping over my own feet. My widened eyes never left the creature as it gurgled louder and louder. The stand-off between the two of us lasted only long enough for me to try to make sense of what I was even looking at. But I couldn't think of anything that would even make logical sense. There was only one thing that could match the description of what I was seeing. My mind failed to remember exactly what it was that man had called them, but the word that had come to mind had to be close enough. But there was no way that could have been true.

Monsters weren't real...They couldn't be...

Right?

Then, it lunged at me.

Without even the slightest warning...

...it lunged at me.

Its movements were far faster and much more erratic than I could have even imagined. But my body had moved before my brain could even think of how to react, and I jumped to the right. I wasn't prepared to make such actions and as such I failed to stick the landing, forcing me to roll to a stop until I felt my back crack against the nearest wall. I let out a hard cough, the creature turning back to lunge at me once again, and my jaw clenched.

I let out a strangled scream as my hands pressed against the floor, helping me up as I scrambled to jump out of the way yet again. The monster lunged, crashing its fleshy molten body against the wall. Just barely missing me.

I only looked back at the monster once before running over to where I saw the person laying on the ground. Turning them over I placed a shaky hand by their mouth, and I waited for any sign of life, but when I felt no breathing against my hand I cursed. And by the time I had looked back up, the creature was already upon me.

As I looked up at the creature with widened eyes. Everything seemed to have moved in slow motion. I cursed myself for turning down the alley, and I cursed my decision to check on the person. Once I had heard the screaming stop after the first few steps into the alley I knew that they had to have been dead. Why did I go back to check?! I knew as well as anyone that I hadn't the skills neither to save myself much less another human being once putting myself in danger. And I cursed the fact that now when I probably needed that strange guy, he wasn't anywhere in sight.

All this I wondered to myself. I wondered if I was going to die like this. I wondered if I should have believed that guy, taken the time to listen to him, rather than ignore him. Perhaps if I had, I wouldn't be in this mess right now. Or maybe I'd have some "sorcery" skills, at least enough to protect myself. But since I hadn't done that, since there was nowhere else that I could duck and run to, since he wasn't here. All I could think to do was throw my arms up in defense and close my eyes.

It was stupid to think that that would actually do something. That some mystical power would release from me all of a sudden, saving me from this thing. But I had to do something, even if it was stupid.

And I still didn't open my eyes. Even after I heard a loud splattering sound. I assumed that the splatter was me. Maybe the creature attacked me, splattering my blood on the walls of the alleyway buildings. Maybe it had killed me. However, when I died I assumed that when I opened my eyes I would have seen a light of some sort.

But I didn't.

After the splatter, there was nothing. There was no sound. I hadn't felt a warmth, and there was no light either. But in fact, I felt a cold wet mush seeping through my clothes.

That was the key word there... I felt...

And if I could feel...then maybe I was alive.

Right?

That's what I thought at least. So, I decided to take the chance that I was alive because I could feel. Slowly but surely I opened my eyes.

Never before in my life have I ever been so happy to see the darkness of the night still around me. My hand was still extended, out in front of me, only now it had been coated in a thick layer of a wet black goo. As I lowered my arm shakily in disbelief, I lifted my eyes to look down the alleyway and out at the street in front of me. The street lights were on now, but there was something different this time.

I wasn't sure if I had gone crazy and was seeing things at this point, or if there was really someone there at the end of the street. So I narrowed my eyes to see what it was. Or rather who it was.

At the end of the street, there were two tall figures dressed in black. One of which I actually could recognize. His unmistakable white hair danced gently in the breeze, and if I were seeing correctly, I'd say that instead of his tinted shades, he was wearing a black blindfold over his eyes. And after a moment of focusing, staring at the figures in shock, I noticed that the blindfolded one...was clapping.

"My that was amazing, Y/N!" he cheered, "You know we'd make an awesome team together hm?"

I stared at the man. Team? What was he talking about?

My brows furrowed and my eyes briefly flickered over to the man next to him as they kept approaching me. His friend merely crossed his arms over his chest. He turned his head to the side and breathed an exasperated sigh through his nose. It seemed that he had tried to lower his voice as he spoke, but the echo of the alleyway didn't help much to quiet his curious statement.

"You already know her name...?"

"Of course!"

His friend shook his head in disbelief, and along with the guy in the blindfold, began to walk closer.

Immediately a million thoughts raced through my mind. Did that guy set me up? To prove his theory of the existence of monsters? It had to be some kind of weird simulation. Perhaps he kidnapped me or something on my way home, and I never really did walk through that alleyway, and everything I saw afterward was some kind of cruel simulated joke. The screams of that person in danger, the creature I saw, everything...

Now, even if that wasn't true, there was a certain palpable rage that I felt bubbling inside me, and the only thing I had felt at that moment was to kill the man. I hadn't seen the man standing next to him as they walked closer. My eyes were only glued to the white-haired man whose name I had only now remembered was Gojo. As he got closer, his tall frame blocked out the light of street lights, making it harder to see what he had actually been wearing over his eyes, but I was pretty sure it was definitely a blindfold.

Gojo leaned over me so fast that it had me reeling. His face was suddenly so close to my own that I had to jerk back away from him in an attempt to keep a reasonable distance between the two of us.

He hummed thoughtfully, "Mhmm, yeah. It's exactly as I thought! You really do have a ton of cursed energy!"

I stared at him in shock.

"What are you talking about?" I asked looking Gojo up and down with a scowl, "Get away from me!"

Just before I could push myself off the floor to leave, I felt a hand grab hold of my arm. I looked down. My eyes trailed up the hand to meet his face, and I turned on him with a scathing glare.

"Get your fucking hands off me!"

His lips formed a small smirk, "Aww, don't leave just yet, Y/n. There's still something I wanna talk about with you."

"Talk about what?" I scoffed, sharply pulling my hand away from his grasp, "I just had a near fucking death experience asshole. What in hell could you possibly want to talk about hm? Can't you tell I just want to go home?"

The man to Gojo's right crossed his arms and using one arm to prop up the other, pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Perhaps when someone says to leave them alone Gojo, maybe you should," he offered plainly.

Gojo turned his head to answer the man, still holding his hand tight around my wrist. His mouth opened to speak, but before the words could leave his mouth I moved to pull my arm out of his grip. His fingers loosened from my wrist and my arm came back around to smack his hand away. But just before my hand would reach him, I felt a strong resistance. I tried to push my hand to move forward but it was almost as though I were moving it through a wall of hardening concrete. The resistance I felt as I moved my arm grew stronger until I could no longer tell if it was even moving or not. Almost as if my arm was frozen in time.

The only thing to fully rip me from my trance was the feeling of his skin against mine when he held my hand in his. He lowered his head, his white hair just grazing my face as he kissed the back of my hand. It had almost felt like my entire body was struck by lightning and my head snapped up to look at the man in shock. My weary mind was completely incapable of even trying to comprehend what was happening. The initial reaction of anger I had quickly subsided when my eyes caught the sight of the everlasting smile on his lips, and almost immediately after I felt a wave of panic wash over me.

"W-what is this? What are you doing? Why can't I touch y—" my eyes widened, "Oh, I...I know what this is. N-now I know for sure."

Gojo tilted his head to the side and released my hand, crossing his arms over his chest. His smile never faded from his lips. My fists balled and my eyes narrowed at him.

"This really is some kind of sick simulation isn't it?!" you laughed humourlessly, "You set this up just to prove to me that monsters are—!"

"It's curses, princess," he corrected. "But a battle simulator? Now, that's a good one!"

I stared at the man incredulously. Nevermind. This man was probably way too stupid to generate a simulation so realistic.

"Stop ignoring me you asshole and let me go back home already! I've had a long day just packed full with your shit! I don't know what's been going on all day, and I don't wanna know, but I'm sick and tired of it! If this is some kind of sick joke or your twisted way of getting laid, kindly leave me out of it!!"

Gojo paused for a second. The look on his face displayed pure genuine bewilderment. I wondered briefly if that meant he had actually seen my distress for the first time this entire day, or if he actually had nothing to do with what had been happening. Although shocking, I was more inclined to believe the first option.

"Am I bothering you?" he asked.

What a miracle. It really was the first option. Now, I wasn't sure how... but hearing the mild level of sincerity in his voice irritated me even more, and I scowled at him.

"You son of a...Do you wanna die?"

Gojo hummed thoughtfully at this the sliver of sincerity still lacing his tone, "Not really, no."

"Great! So you'll shut up and leave me alone?"

"No?"

"Then I'm leaving," I replied plainly.

I wasn't exactly sure how or why, but I suddenly regained control over my limbs again after that, allowing me to drop my arm to my side. I had officially given up on attacking him and strictly focused myself on heading back home; ignoring the white-haired man's presence completely as well as his friend as I walked passed him down the ally.

Even though the blindfold, I could feel Gojo staring at me. The funny thing was is he actually looked confused. Hurt even.

He placed his hands on his hips as he frowned, "Huh? Where are you going?"

"Back home," I replied.

Gojo's arms dropped from his side and with such long strides didn't take much to catch up to me. Unfortunately, with how banged up my legs were, and the aching in my back from hitting that wall earlier I couldn't walk very fast anyways. I didn't spend much time trying to figure out why I would still be feeling pain if this really was a simulation. So, accepting that there was almost nothing I could do at this moment to avoid him I glanced at him as he got closer.

"You know a pretty girl like you shouldn't be walking by herself this late," said Gojo.

I chuckled humourlessly, "Oh trust me hon, I'll be fine."

"You weren't too fine just now."

"Oh wow you're funny," I said laughing again mirthlessly, "You think you're really cute don't you?"

Gojo placed a finger to his mouth and pursed his lips, "Am I not?" he asked.

"Get out of my face."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Only now trying to pick up the pace. I could only assume that as I walked further Gojo noticed my limp because just when I was halfway down the alleyway I felt my weight shift backward, my legs lifted off the floor and before I knew it I was in the air. A couple of emotions ran through me like a freight train when I realized I wasn't just off the floor and in Gojo's arms, but nearly 100 feet in the air!

I wanted to scream, and my fear prevented me from even looking to see how we had even gotten this high.

He couldn't have jumped.

Could he?

I was completely shocked into silence when I felt my feet touch the roof of a—probably 10-story high—building. Only having my shaky fear-stricken legs to stand on when he finally put me down, I fell, landing to sit on my ass. My head snapped up when he knelt in front of me, and I reeled back when his face neared mine once again.

"H-how did you do that?" I stuttered.

"I could tell you if you listened."

I stared at him in shock, "Y-you know what? J-just forget it." I swallowed thickly, "I-its probably something simple... l-like a stat-boost o-or something."

"So sure aren't we?" he hummed, "You play a lot of games often?"

I took a shallow breath watching his every move. He sat down across from me and lifted his hand to touch my thigh.

"A-and if I do?"

Like a vulture, he observed the way my body shivered in reaction to his touch. But as I was still shaken from what had just happened, I neither had the strength to fight him or snap back with a snarky insult.

Noticing this, he smirked.

"Well, you seem to be enjoying yourself quite a bit for it to be just a simulation." he lifted his blindfolded gaze, and even though I would have no way of telling, I could