[Choice confirmed. Your partner is ‘Onigiri’.]

The strange voice echoed within my head, spouting a nonsensical word. I thought that my senses were supposed to be better, not worse, I scoffed.

However, I was soon proven wrong.

Out from the flash of crimson spawned a certain creature. Its body was small, only around the size of a housecat, but it was anything but a regular mammal. It was standing on two hind legs, each bent down ready for a major jump. The silver wings on its back buzzed, eager to take flight. The shining red armor that covered its entire body gleamed like polished gems. Its beady eyes were somewhat cute, but didn’t lack any fighting spirit. But the most prominent feature that caught my eyes had got to be its two scythe-like forearms—each bearing a top half of the same crimson color as its exoskeleton, while the bottom half of the blade-like limb was a pure, unadulterated white.

I didn’t need to say anything. Or rather, I couldn’t anyway, for the poison from the hornets had already ravaged enough of my nervous system that even uttering a single word was a monumental task. But the little creature seemed to have understood what I needed it to do at once.

With a powerful leap, it sprang forward, straight into the heart of the hornets. There were no signs of struggle—all it took was one swing of its arms. The bladed limb moved so fast that I couldn’t detect any movement, yet without a single sound, enough to not even hear any gust of wind forming in its path. Meanwhile, on one of the hornets, a small, thin line appeared right in the middle of its body.

Soon, the hornet was split in half, its violent face still unchanging even as its corpse fell to the ground, splashing an unknown goo of strange color in the process. The death of one of their comrades caused the hornets to screech in rage, their wings beating in a frenzy as if trying to drown its prey in the sound waves alone. With a unifying scream, the hornets blitzed their way towards their new target.

It was the last mistake that they’d made.

The red creature almost turned into a single line. With one jump, it flew from one end of the flock to the other, delivering another deathly slash at one of the hornets, this time taking off its head. Just one more jump, and it appeared on the opposite end again, bursting open another one in the pack.

Again. And again. And again.

The giant hornets dropped like flies. None of them stood any chance before the small, but powerful creature.

Only now did I fully understand the delirious message I had received when I was at death’s door.

Onigiri. Not the name of a mere common snack, but a true, genuine demon slayer. That was this creature’s nature.

The result of its onslaught was clear, even to vicious and aggressive monsters like the giant hornets. As their numbers dwindled, the survivors started to grow quiet. Their wings beat slower, their screech was less apparent, and I could see them backing ever so slightly away from me and the little assassin. In the end, there were only four left, and those four finally scurried away from our sight, quickly fleeing back to their giant hive.

Only then did I let out a sigh of relief, and along with it, my body collapsed in pain and fatigue. But I wasn’t so lucky to be knocked unconscious—far from it. The aftereffects of those hornets’ poison still lingered, and so, I still had to experience everything in a dimension too high for my regular brain to handle.

Suddenly, I felt a hard shell rubbing onto my hand, almost sending me to a jump had I not been paralyzed. Gazing my eyes downward, I couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle as I saw the creature from before, now gone with all of its murderous intent, lightly nudging its head towards me as if asking to be petted.

“Laughing is still painful, though…” I mumbled. “But this isn’t too bad. You are kind of cute.”

Before I could pick myself up, however, the hallucinating screen floated before me yet again.

[Would you like to name your partner?]

The question was most certain to be referring to the strange creature. As much as I hated to admit it, that final sequence was no mere illusion—somehow, this “thing”, a man-made screen that should never be here, was in front of me, and it was the one that saved me from the predicament I was in.

Though… a name for the creature, huh?

At the same time, as if sensing my thoughts about it, the critter leapt from my palm straight onto my head and curled up its limbs, making it look like an oversize helmet.

“Kurii!” It cried out with joy, nudging its body in excitement.

“Rice ball, and now chestnut, eh?” I snickered. “Must be a hungry fellow, you. But naming you after a food isn’t really fitting… How about Akari? You’re red, after all.”

“Kuri!”

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“I’d take that as a ‘yes’ then. Glad to have you around, Akari.”

As soon as the name was given, another splitting headache coursed through me, and the mechanical voice echoed soon after:

[Starter quest complete. Welcome, Player, to the world of Omushi.]

“Omushi…” Perhaps it was due to the residual poison in my body, but my memories were now sharper than ever. Immediately, I could recall the exact moment that I had encountered the word, down to the smallest detail—even the number of moldy spots on my room’s wall, or the number of seconds it took me to click on that shitty spam email and delete it.

As the flow of past recollections played back in my head, I gritted my teeth in anger and disgust. “A shitty game world…”

Was all of my life’s worth now in this fictional game? The nature that I was living in right now, was it all numbers and signals on some higher being’s screen?

“Unacceptable.” I spat. I didn’t care if I was dead. But portraying life—vivid, rich life at that—as some sort of gamified system was something that I could never stand.

[Would you like to open your stats menu?]

“Refused,” I immediately scoffed. “And get out of my head, you shitty screen.”

I tried to stand up, but the effects of the hornets’ toxins were still there. My legs wobbled, forcing me to use my arms as support as well. But even that proved to be of little effect, as my arms shivered at the slightest force applied. My body tumbled and fell again, rewarding me with a mouthful of dirt and grass as Akari hurriedly jumped off my head in panic.

“Kuri…” nudging its body towards my arm again, the creature cried in a soft tone.

“Sorry Akari, but it looks like we’re gonna be stuck here for a while…”

As the words left my mouth, however, another rustling sound echoed in the air. It didn’t come from the direction of the hive, thankfully enough, but right behind us wasn’t a good option either. This time, however, fortune favored us.

“Who goes there?” A voice called out to my location. A human’s voice.

“Help!” I mustered the loudest voice I could. “I was attacked, and now I can’t move!”

“We’ll be right there!” The voice answered. I breathed out a sigh of relief, thinking that I was finally saved.

I was saved, but I was relieved too soon.

As my saviors stepped out of the bushes and showed up in my line of sight, I could only gasp in shock.

They were a group of four or five “people”—humanoid in nature, but their appearance begged to differ. Their entire body was covered in armor of all kinds of colors, from a dark shade of green to a bright crimson. The boots and gloves of such armors were sharp like talons, while the long whiskers on their helmet were like whips that they could pull out at any moment. Speaking of helmets, all of them had the same weirdly large eyes that covered their faces, hiding any distinctive features of their individualities.

Is it just me, or do these people look like they came straight out of a sentai show?

As I judged their odd looks, one of them—clad in the bright red armor, fitting for a group leader— approached me as well. “No protective armor, and an Omushi partner… You’re an Unborn, aren’t you?”

From the voice that came out of the helmet, I could tell that it was a man. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but judging from his tone, the term “Unborn” wouldn’t be something dangerous that I had to worry about.

“Um… yes, I am,” I nodded. It was the best choice to just follow his lead for now.

Another armored man cut off our conversation short as I finished my answer. “Leader! There’s a Shinbachira hive!”

Hearing those words, the red man jolted in shock and ran towards the hive as fast as he could. As he soon confirmed the situation via the same method that I did—swiping through the bushes to find honey stuck in the leaves—the man ran back to me with a worried expression:

“Were you by chance attacked by them?”

I nodded.

“I see… Consider yourself lucky,” with a sigh, the red man continued. “I’ve never seen an Evolved survive a Shinbachira’s assault, let alone an Unborn. You didn’t happen to be stung too, did you?”

“I was, yes.” I nodded, pointing towards my battered back. “Right there. All over.”

“... You really were blessed. Here, eat this. Can you grab it?”

The man then took out a certain fruit from a small pouch that he carried and held it out towards me. I shook my head in response.

“I see. Open wide, then.”

I followed suit, and the man pushed the fruit into my mouth. A sense of mild sweetness spread through my tongue, bringing a juicy, refreshing taste.

“Was that a persimmon?” As I gulped down the rest of the fruit, I asked.

“Per…simmon?” The man cocked his head in confusion. “Is that what they call it in your tribe? Here, we call it the Simper fruit. It has a calming effect on your brain, so it’s often used to counteract the Shinbachira’s nerve poison. Try standing up.”

I planted my arms down and pushed my body up again. True to the man’s words, any numbness and highly acute senses I had were gone, and my body returned to normal once more.

“Thank you so much,” I bowed to pay respect to my saviors. “I was sure I would have been stuck here for the whole day at least.”

“The whole day? Surely you jest. You’re lucky to be alive still. Cases of Unborns being struck by that poison usually result in months of treatment. In fact, this is the first time I’ve seen someone just eat a single Simper fruit and return to normal bodily function.”

“Is… that so?” I let out an awkward laugh, scratching my head in embarrassment.

“Well, at least you’re safe now,” the man nodded. “And from the looks of things, you’re not from around here either. Would you like to come to our village?”

I turned to Akari. The little critter jumped up in joy, as if encouraging me to take up the offer.

“I’d love to, then.”

“Great,” the man let out a hearty laugh. “I’m Akabane Kogoro. What’s your name?”

“Utsu…”

I paused. There was no need for me to keep my old name. It served nothing but to remind me of my failure after all. As both the bearer of that name, and a person in general.

I wanted to change. My determination was peaceful no more. I wanted to save the ones I wanted to save, and I would succeed in doing so. No matter what.

“Utsu?” The man, now Akabane asked once more, tilting his head in confusion.

“Ah no, sorry about that. Ya…kushi. Just Yakushi. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Akabane-san.”