Isekai de “Kuro no Iyashi Te” tte Yobarete Imasu (WN) Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Prologue

A cold winter night.

I, Kanzaki Misuzu, was in high spirits.

I had just met with a friend I hadn’t seen a while to go to an anime song karaoke. We spent a long time chatting about a game we’re both addicted to, and I even received a present. The bar they recommended, a small hidden-away pub, was super good.

[Guu—, so cold!]
Walking out of the station, I glanced at my smartphone and saw that it was already nearly midnight.
We had talked for a really long time. I hadn’t planned to stay out so late, but I can just rest tomorrow.

As I walked, thinking about the game that we had talked about, the ground suddenly started rumbling and shaking.

The waves rippled through my body with great force.
“Earthquake?”, I thought, as I fell into a shadow.

Not just a shadow, total darkness.

There was no light, so it wasn’t a shadow, but rather some kind of complete darkness coming from a black fog.

I felt nauseous as staggered around heavy-headed, looking at my surroundings.
The darkness was deep, and I couldn’t tell if the place I was caught in was s.p.a.cious or narrow, outside or indoors.

[What is this. What?]

Did I get super drunk? Or was there an earthquake?
No, that’s not it. What is this? Where is this?

In this crazy, dangerous situation my head started spinning and spinning, and I felt that I was about to snap, ready to scream.

Suddenly, an arm stretched out from the heart of the darkness and gripped my left arm.

[Gyaaaaaaa!!!!!!]

The arm pulled hard, as if it were saying “Come here.”

No no no no no let go!
The arm stretched out from the darkness, and I couldn’t see anything else.
The arm, bright against the darkness, seemed like it came straight out of a horror movie.

[Nooooo!!]

I struggled frantically as I screamed.
I kicked out at where the body of the arm should be, but didn’t connect.

[Guaaaa! Let me go–!! Gyeeee!!]

As I let out strange screams that only I could understand, trying to escape the grasp of the arm, another arm shot out from the darkness and grabbed my right arm.

It began pulling me in the same direction.
I stretched my arms forward in vain, because I really didn’t want to go! Because it’s too gross! Too scary!
If I go in there, something bad is definitely going to happen. My danger sensor is going crazy.
It’s a terrible emergency. But, it’s hopeless.

This is a matter of life and death. I absolutely cannot lose.

Unable to move forward, I used the heel of my boots to dig into the ground so that I wouldn’t get pulled any further.

It’s the only way!
The two arms only grabbed onto my upper arm, so I can move my elbow a bit.

I continued struggling, about to lose my balance, trying to loosen the grip on my left arm using my right elbow.

Just a bit more.
Just a bit more, or so I thought. Two more arms manifested themselves, and jerked me backwards.

My precarious balance disappeared as I fell backwards.

The dragging arms.

Before I was engulfed in darkness, I saw the arms stiffen and stop pulling.
I tried to squirm out of their grasp, and just as I escaped their grip, I fell into the darkness.