Chapter Text
You were entirely under the impression that you would die in these godforsaken woods. Somewhere beyond the searing pain that coursed through at least seven separate parts of your body, there was a serious anxiety building in the pit of your stomach.
You cursed yourself inwardly, first for deciding to go hiking on your own. You knew from the beginning that you probably shouldn’t have done that. But what can you say? You had no friends interested in hiking and you loved a good walk through nature.
Second, you probably, probably, shouldn’t have wandered from the trail. In your defense though, there was a really cute bunny that you just had to get a picture of, but it ran away. You had assured yourself that the picture would be worth it, a great topic and the envy of your friends. That would show them for not wanting to enjoy the outdoors with you.
Or rather, that would have been the case if you hadn’t stepped in the wrong spot, lost your footing, and subsequently fallen down the steep hillside that you had no idea existed.
So, a slip, a tumble, and a crash later, you ended up in your current position. That is to say, you ended up wedged against a tree, with your leg sticking out in a position that you deemed to be not entirely natural. You didn’t have the strength to move into a different position, least of all lift yourself up off of the brush.
You tried to call for help, but your voice came in little more than a scratchy groan. Your pleas would only be heard in a very close radius. Even if there was someone up on the trail, there was no way they would be able to hear you.
You were going to die here. This is how it was going to end. You knew it. You weren’t some miracle worker, nor were you some superhuman survivalist. You worked retail and you didn’t even exercise. You were going to die in the stupidest way possible.
At least, that’s what you thought, until you heard a voice.
“Hey, uh, are you okay?”
That’s not something you had expected. It was a male voice coming from just outside your field of vision. When did he get there? You didn’t hear him walk up to you. Had he just watched you fall and then stood there for 45 minutes? You hoped not.
“Ahh, h-help…” you rasped out your eloquent reply.
You heard leaves crunch under the mystery man’s feet as he meandered closer to you. Suddenly, he came into view as he leaned over you. He was normal-looking, for the most part. He had a slender build and black hair styled into a lazy bowl cut. He wore a somewhat wrinkled white dress shirt and black jeans. He had pale skin and a pair of horns on his head. And demonic wings on his back. And a demon tail.
You decided that you were probably hallucinating. You must’ve hit your head on the way down as well. At least you wouldn’t die lonely.
“Ah man, that sure was one hell of a drop,” he was smiling at you now. Did he find your current predicament funny? You wondered absently if you would find this funny if you were in his shoes. He continued on either way. “I was waiting for you to kick the bucket but I guess you’re tougher than ya look.”
That seemed a bit rude, to say the least. That’s not exactly the help you requested. In fact, that was pretty much the opposite. You tried to get a word in—any word—but he continued on.
“Well,” He stretched his arms out above his head, “I think I should be able to cut you a deal, since technically ‘m not supposed to save people from dyin’ ‘cause that’s not really my thing. It’s more Ichimatsu’s thing, I guess. But not really. Well, whatever.”
He leaned down and reached over to your left hand. You tried to crane your neck into the right position to see what he was doing, but you had no such luck. Instead, you waited until his hand came back into view. He had something pinched between his fingers. It took a few seconds for you to focus on what, but when you did you could see that he was holding a thread of red string. Where did that come from?
“I can fix you up, but it’ll cost ya. Don’t worry, it won’t be your soul or anything like that,” he chuckled to himself like that was the most unrealistic part of this situation. He pulled a portion of the thread taut between his hands. “I’d take this instead.”
You were, needless to say, very confused. Nonetheless, you decided to roll with it and let your hallucination friend have his fun.
“In case you were wondering, because a lot of people do…,” there was a small uncomfortable pause where he expected to you respond. When you didn’t, he continued on, “This string is your fate. One end is tied to you,” He pulled on the string, and in return, you felt a slight pull on your left hand. “And the other end...well, that’s tied to your soulmate.”
You think you’ve heard of this tale. You thought it was cute, but never even considered the notion that it might be true. But, sure, why not?
“So if you let me cut it,” he makes a snipping motion with his fingers, “ I can fix you up all nice and pretty and you can go on your way after that.” He looked down at you. “You won’t be able to meet your soulmate, but, uh, I don’t think this is an offer you can refuse. Well, I mean you could, but...I wouldn’t recommend it.”
So, to sum up, you fell down a hill, probably broke your spine, couldn’t call for help, couldn’t get up, and you were probably about to die. You were talking to a hallucination who was offering to help you out. This hallucinatory man was saying that you’d have to give up the potential love of your life to do so.
Ignoring many separate levels of sense this whole situation was not making, you gave thought to his offer. You had two choices laid out in front of you: you could give him your fate, so to speak, and live. Or, you could ignore him and quite possibly die a very slow, agonizing death.
No matter what route your pain-addled mind came to, the conclusion was always the same. You’d like to entertain the idea that any life without love isn’t one worth living. However, when you were actually presented with a decision to make, the answer seemed pretty obvious.
Plus, you were pretty sure all of this was your subconscious trying to keep you from dying sad and alone.
“Okay,” you groaned, summing your internal process up nicely.
The man pumped his fist in the air, “Woo! For a second there I was starting to think you might’ve gone brain dead.” He rubbed a finger under his nose.
He reached out of your field of view and procured what seemed to be an old pair of rusty scissors. Without ceremony, he lifted them up and closed them around the string, cutting it.
And that was it. You didn't feel anything, not sadness, not pain. Nothing.
Maybe you should have felt regret for this string that was just cut before you. But, to you, it really was just a string. It was hard to weigh the value of a what-if, far-off, loss of a soulmate. Especially when a large part of you was secretly convinced that you were never going to meet them anyway.
“Alright,” he laid the string down on the ground with little care. “Now for the fun part.” He smiled at you and you lost your train of thought for a moment. “I’ll just need you to close your eyes for a bit. I’ll tell you when to open ‘em again.” As an afterthought, he added, “I promise I won’t do anything too weird.”
With little reason not to, you complied.
And then your hearing cut out. Ambient sounds of nature, a bird chirping or a babbling creek nearby. One moment they were there, and the next they weren’t.
You started to panic. You tried to open your eyes, despite being told not to. You couldn’t anyway. It was almost like they were glued shut. Rather, it was like you didn’t have any control over them anymore. In fact, you couldn’t move anything. Well, you couldn’t before, but that was beside the fact. Before, when you tried to move around, there was at least something. A dull ache in your bones or a much more prevalent sting in your muscles. Now, it was like...well, it was like nothing. It was as if your nerves had been cut.
It was an odd state of combined panic and inaction, and it was not unlike your everyday life. At least you still had the presence of mind to make quips.
Eventually, maybe a couple of minutes later, maybe hours, a somewhat familiar voice faded in.
“...And, that should do it! You can open your eyes now!”
You opened your eyes, and all at once, your senses were back. You were greeted with a sunset sky and a much louder babble-y brook. The man-made his way back into view and gave you a tired smile. He seemed disheveled, to say the least.
“Ah man, can you hear me? Say ‘Osomatsu-san is the best’ if you can.”
“Osomatsu-san is the best,” you repeated without much thought. Your voice came to you without issue.
He laughed, “Ha! That’s great. I didn’t think you’d actually do it.” When you didn’t give much of a reply, a look of realization dawned on his face. “Oh, yeah, I don’t think I told you my name. That’s it, er, Osomatsu, I mean.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, anyway, you should try sitting up.”
Slowly, you sat up. You felt no pain, and you didn’t know if you expected that outcome or not. Taking in your surroundings, you found that he had moved you. You were a couple of feet away from the brook as you had expected. You wondered how long you had been out. You weren’t an expert on reading the sun, but you knew that you had probably fallen around noon. You hadn’t considered how long it might take for a demon to heal your wounds before.
“Ah, so, um,” The man—Osomatsu—called for your attention, and so you turned back to him. You became acutely aware of how close he was to you. His ears seemed to be tinted a light shade of pink. “So, you feelin’ okay? You’re not numb anywhere, are you?”
You wiggled your fingers and toes and stretched your arms up in the air to confirm your suspicions. You were fine. “I think...I’m all good, but, uh…,” there was the small problem of finding the words to ask whether or not you had been hallucinating the whole time.
He seemed to take your hesitation in the wrong way and he held his hands up in a defensive stance, “It’s, it’s not what you think! I swear I didn’t do anything I didn’t need to do!”
Oh. You look down at yourself. How had he fixed you? How...involved was this process, exactly? You started to flush and you felt a nauseous emptiness in the pit of your stomach.
“I swear! I swear, it wasn’t like that.” Osomatsu continued to try and placate you. Did he seem...scared?
You looked him in the eye, and for some reason, you had an intense inclination to believe this demon’s story. Was that his doing? Whatever the case, you felt it was best to shake your worries away as best you could.
“Thank you...Osomatsu-san.” You said, offering him a shy, if not forced, smile.
Either way, he ate it up. “Heh,” he smiled back and rubbed under his nose. “No problem.”
You didn’t really know what to say after that. This was all uncharted territory for you, after all. “So...everything’s all set then…?” You offered.
“What? Oh, yeah, you’re all set.” He looked up at the sky as he thought, “Do you know your way back from here?”
You did. All you had to do was to follow the brook east. Eventually, it would lead you back to a bridge on the road that wasn’t too far from the bus that had dropped you off.
However, you were nervous about getting yourself into any more unsavory situations.
“Could you, um, help me get back to the bus stop?” You asked hesitantly as you hoisted yourself off the ground.
If he knew you were lying, he didn’t show it. “Sure,” he said, standing up, “all you gotta do is follow the river this way,” he pointed east with a dumb smile on his face.
Well, you probably should have seen that coming.
“Um,” his smile faltered as you spoke up, “could you, please, take me there?” You bit your lip and hopped that was enough.
He looked confused but didn’t argue. “Sure, I guess.”
The walk along the bank was silent and conversationless. It was awkward, but you really weren’t too sure as to what demons like to chat about. If they even chat at all. You couldn’t help but stare at his wings. Small and black, sitting idly on his back. Surely, they couldn't actually be used for flying, right? Not like you were going to ask. You looked down at your feet and you were careful not to trip over a loose rock or branch.
Before you knew it, you made it back to the pavement without trouble.
“Well,” Osomatsu was the first one to speak. “Here you are.” He crossed his arms, looking away. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he stayed quiet.
Once again, you didn’t really know what to say. “Thanks, again.” You figured pleasantries were, at least, pleasant.
“Ah, no problem. It was my job after all.”
His statement raised questions but you decided against asking. It probably wasn’t your place to know. Without anything else to say, you gave him a deep but brief bow and walked across the street. Once you got to the bench, you sat down and looked back to the other side of the street.
He was gone. He left you wondering once again if you had just hallucinated the whole exchange.
You pinched yourself just to make sure.