My vision of Shao on her knees faded, and suddenly…
I saw myself as a young girl running around a small Japanese style home. I accidentally knocked over a vase. There was the thudding of feet as a large man came from the next room. He was Japanese, with a beer in his hand and a belt in the other. I feared this man. He started hitting me. He wouldn't stop. A beautiful Japanese woman ran out, grabbing his arm. He started hitting her too.
The vision of the pair of us returned. Was this her memories? She collapsed to the floor. The darkness, the hate, the vengeance, the desire to destroy everything, it was flowing into me. However, I was a White Mage. I was most resistant to these kinds of spiritual attacks.
"Remove Curse!" I said through gritted teeth, taking another step forward.
I was at a funeral. Father had died in a car crash. Mother started drinking. She started inviting strange men over to her home. They'd do things to her. Some of them were violent. She said she needed the money. However, I only saw her spend the money on more booze and something she liked to snort. One night, I woke up to find Mother on the floor. She was cold to the touch.
The dark miasma in me seemed to be changing. It was as if my body was rejecting it. The miasma that entered my body cracked apart and dissipated. Why was that happening? It felt painful. Shao was on the ground. Her life was ebbing away. Without a thought, I activated the skill from Hero, Give Life. Just as Miki had given me life, I started to feed life into Shao.
It was different though. The life I gave was my own. I took her corrupted life. It burned and twisted inside me, but eventually, it purified as I made it my own. Then I gave her my life. I took another step forward.
I was older now. I was in a foster home. I was too old now for anyone to have any interest in adopting me. I lived with three female siblings. They made my life hell. The torture didn't end at home. At school, it wasn't any better. They went to the same school as me and were more popular. My name was written in the bathrooms with the word 'slut' and my phone number. My foster parents got calls from dozens of boys, some perverted and some pranking. I told them I didn't give our number out. They didn't believe me and I was grounded.
When I recovered, Shao was looking up at me, a strangely vacant look on her face. Had she seen a vision too? Was she seeing my own life? I took a step forward.
My reputation as a school slut grew. I went out with a guy I liked, but when I didn't kiss him at the end of the date, he started claiming I had done all kinds of things. More guys tried to ask me out, hoping to get sex. I couldn't trust them. I couldn't trust anybody. I thought I could trust my teacher, but then he put his hand on my knee and tried to kiss me. I tried to tell people, but no one believed me. I was suspended for spreading lies. I hate this world.
My body felt like it was breaking. It was simply unimaginable stress. Her anger, her frustration, her hopelessness pummeled my body. I felt like I was a sieve filtering out a lifetime of negative emotions. I collapsed down to my knees, but I couldn't stop, I began to crawl.
I had gotten into a fight today. I beat up my foster sister. My foster parents called the cops. Was I going to go to jail? I started running. Then, exhaustion overtook me. I collapsed. When I woke up, I was somewhere else. It was like a videogame. There were monsters and stats! Finally, I could live a new life. I could be someone better. Someone people liked. Someone… better. The town I appeared at was immediately attacked by slavers. I tried to help, but these were level 30 bad guys and I was a level 1 jobless. What's with this kind of bullshit difficulty curve?
I managed to reach her. We were both on our hands and knees. She was looking at me, I was looking at her. The miasma flowing between us was becoming less and less dark. It was now a light grey. She no longer emmitted any sort of miasma.
The slaver said I was a demon. I had a chance to reincarnate, and I ended up on the wrong team? What is with my luck? He started training me, day and night. I was forced to fight monster after monster, growing stronger and stronger. I wasn't the only one, but I was the only one who survived. I killed and I killed, yet no job ever appeared. Even after 90 levels, three years of battling daily and creating rivers of blood, I had no particular talent. I ended up being sold to some small slaver's guild in some backwater country. They didn't know what to make of me. This world is just as awful as the last one. Everything should just die.
"Shao…" I said, my eyes red. "I'm sorry, for everything…"
"You…" Her words didn't sound cold or dark, but terrified and confused, like a lost little girl. "You're like me?"
I smiled bitterly. "You can stop this. You must stop this."
"Please… kill me," she responded.