Sui was calmly sitting on her grandmother’s couch. Yarn in a basket beside her knitting needles in hand, with the tv on but volume low, with a… scarf? If you could call it, that stretched out over her short legs made of various scraped thread.

Sui herself was calm. The smooth practiced motions of her threadwork serving as a way to calm her mind after a busy day at work. Sui’s appearance would surprise many. She was extremely short for her age at 150cm and had the petite frame to go along. Though she didn’t participate in drinking, she was sure they’d never serve her even with a valid ID.

She had her black hair cut short, with it flowing loosely around her. She was no longer in her work uniform and wore a plain dress shirt instead with some minor lace embellishments around the sleeves, all hand sewn, of course. Her eyes were a slight red. An oddity, somewhat, but you would just have assumed they were brown in the right lighting.

It was late in the afternoon, just barely evening, and Sui was using this time to waste a bit of thread and calm her mind. Her job at Spotright was alright. It paid an acceptable wage for someone living with their grandmother, and the discounted yarn was truly what made her go. Of course, she had another round of customers questioning why such a young kid could land a job there.

Sui didn’t hate her looks, and she was glad for her short stature; it meant less material going into each outfit. Her reserved frame easy to sew when she got around to making new outfits. That did not, however, mean she was ok with the problems it often caused. She just wished that she’d be treated like someone at least close to her real age of twenty-one.

The needles clicked quickly as Sui burned through her thread. It was all the last dregs of whatever cloth she had around. Sui debating over how wasteful such an activity was many a time but had reached no conclusion. It was a good end to her old and emptied cloth bolt and good practice. However, the end product was never anything to be kept around.

Maybe I should just use a stool at work. Thought Sui. If I looked somewhat tall behind the checkout counter, perhaps they wouldn’t question me so much. Of course, she wasn’t very committed to doing anything about it. As much as she might complain, truth be told, it was an excellent excuse to wind down with some mindless knitting, and any excuse for some needlework was perfect for her.

Just as she ran out of her current bolt and was about to pick up another, something strange happened… a box with blue and white text appeared before her.

Welcome Sui, to the-

Whatever it was, was interrupting her knitting time; she swiped at the air in front of her face and the thing dissipated. Welp must just be an illusion then. Settling herself back down into the couch, Sui replaced her thread and got back to work.

Around five minutes later, another box appeared, though.

Sui, you have gai-

Swiping the air once again removed the box. Sui was slightly suspicious of what was going on now but still wasn’t bothered. It was knitting time, and until Grandma came home and told her otherwise, she wasn’t going to stop.

Another minute passed, and once again as if on queue, another box appeared.

Sui, in-

Sui tried to dismiss whatever it was once again but found her hand phasing through it. Scowling at the box that was interrupting her knitting time, she actually read this one.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Sui, in 3:23 seconds you will be attacked by your first wave of monsters. Please prepare yourself.

Sui noticed that the timer was actually ticking down, but once again, it was not her concern. Trying to dismiss the notice this time, it seemed to vanish. Sui looked warily around the room and felt her face. No strange glasses and she couldn’t see any mirrors or whatever might cause such a thing.

Aw, well, it isn’t important. Of course, three and a half minutes later, Sui would rapidly reconsider this thought. Just as the timer would have ticked over, Sui heard a crash coming from behind her.

The urge to ignore whatever was going on and keep knitting was strong, but her irritation was growing. Three interruptions in less than ten minutes, and one of them was the sound of her window shattering. Sui thought of herself as a calm person, of course, but her two friends would always say she became a bit of a demon when she was knitting.

Sui gently placed down her knitting tools and stood up. Utilising her full and lacklustre, height to make an impression on whoever dared to interrupt her—whatever words Sui had prepared died on her lips though, as she saw what had caused the noise.

Standing in her living room, surrounded by broken glass, was the most adorable thing she’d ever seen. It was a bunny that looked to be made up more of fluff than stuff. It was white, and adorable and resisting the urge to run over broken glass to hug it was harder than Sui would care to admit.

Ok. This is a little weird… just don’t walk over to the bunny. It isn’t worth the cuts later and explaining to Grandma why you got blood on the carpet. At least, these were Sui’s thoughts until the bunny turned to face Sui.

It had large red eyes and long pointy teeth. As it turned to face her, it smiled, and Sui decided maybe it wasn’t quite so cute after all. The rabbit lunged straight at Sui, but its flight path was slow and predictable.

Catching the thing by the floof on its neck Sui held it up, though not too close, to her face to examine the bunny properly.

Now that it had attacked her, Sui was examining its fur. It was rather long but seemed to be individual strands. It was soft, but she could also feel it giving way under her grip, even with the rabbits extremely lightweight.

Hmm. Unsuitable for making anything with. It is still very fluffy, so perhaps as inner lining on a jumper or something? The rabbit struggled in Sui’s grip and tried to bite her, but it wasn’t able to get a good angle.

It was then though that Sui caught movement in the corner of her eye. As she turned, she saw another rabbit jumping towards her. Taking a basic fighting stance, she simply kicked it straight out of the air and sent it flying towards the wall.

When the rabbit collided with the wall, Sui was expecting a crunch, or perhaps a thud. Instead, there was a poof, and whatever the rabbit was, it was now floating dust that sank into her floor.

What. Sui’s eyes went from the spot on the wall to the ground and back. Ok… that’s not normal… Just as she was thinking that, she felt something else coming from her right side. Turning with the rabbit still in hand, Sui unleashed another straight kick throwing a second bunny careening into a wall only for it too to explode into dust.

“Ha, take that, Grandma. You said one day I’d need these stupid martial arts lessons…” said Sui. “Well, ok, you were correct, but I bet there is no way this is what you had in mind.”

Sui thought back to all the times her grandmother had made her attend those Ti Kwon Do lessons and shivered. So much time wasted on not knitting. I’ll never know what Grandma was thinking.

Of course, the rabbit in Sui’s hand used this distraction as a chance to bite her hard on the hand. Brining its teeth down on her soft flesh, it… didn’t do anything. Sui looked at the odd bunny now hanging from its teeth instead of its fur.

Sui lightly moved her hand up and down and saw the bunny stayed fixed in place but looking very closely for any sign of blood, there was no evidence that the rabbit had even broken the skin.

Sui poked the rabbit in the cheeks, and it growled in response. Sui could only find the thing adorable once again. Whatever it was, strong was not the correct descriptor. Sitting back down on the couch, she lowered it onto her lap. The bun refused to let go of her hand, but that was ok; it wasn’t hurting anyway.

She stroked its soft fur and thought about all the different little hats she could knit for it. Hmm, what would look best? The problem is that so much of it is fluff that I think it would just look silly with anything… a shame. That means I can’t get any knitting practice out of this.

Sui gave the rabbit a critical look. But what exactly am I supposed to do with you? I mean, whatever that weird box was said that monsters were attacking, but I mean… surely it can’t have been talking about you, right?