𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 || 𝐉𝐔𝐉𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐔 𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐍

Chapter 1: A certain Special Grade Curse

Something felt off.

She felt comfortable. That was a first.

A faint beeping sound roused her from the remnants of her sleep.

She woke up to find herself in an unfamiliar white room, the smell of lilies hanging in the air, a cloying, sickening smell. It came from the vase of flowers on a small table beside the bed.

Funeral flowers.

Her breathing quickened.

Had they captured me already? How long have I been unconscious? Where am I? These thoughts warred in her mind.

She jumped as a nurse entered the room, gripping the sheets tightly until her knuckles turned white.

"Looks like you've finally woken up, you've been asleep for nearly 2 weeks," the nurse said cheerily. Something about her manner put her slightly at ease. She unclenched her fists slightly.

"Where am I?" she asked cautiously.

"The hospital. Someone had found you passed out in the middle of the road, you poor thing," she fussed, checking her vitals.

"It's weird though," the nurse said, looking over to her curiously.

"The man who brought you in said that you appeared out of nowhere. One minute the road was empty, and the next, there you were, lying on the ground," the nurse frowned at the memory.

Mina relaxed slightly at those familiar words. So she had managed to travel to a different world safely.

The last time she'd ever tried travelling between worlds like that, it had knocked her out for two weeks as well. She wondered if that would be her standard recovery time from now on.

All that matters is that I'm safe in this world for now. Glancing outside the window, she squinted as the sun glared high above.

"Now, I just need to take some blood samples to check up on some things," the nurse said, prepping a syringe. Mina's eyes widened as she saw the needle, her lungs emptying themselves of air as her vision tunnelled.

She wasn't aware of the tray of medical equipment flying out of the nurse's hands, crashing into the wall. She didn't notice as the nurse had been flung to the side like a ragdoll by an unseen force.

She just knew that she wanted to leave, and put distance between herself and those needles.

She dimly registered the sound of glass shattering.

That must be the window, Mina thought blearily, struggling to breathe. She just knew she wanted to leave.

She pictured the hospital grounds she'd seen outside her window and closed her eyes, feeling the familiar sensation of space folding in on itself as she blinked out of existence-

-and fell onto the grass outside.

She started coughing at the impact which had knocked what little air she had managed to retain, out of her lungs.

She lay on the grass for a moment, breathing deeply as she got her breath back.

"Where am I? When am I?" she murmured to herself, grunting as she pushed herself to her feet.

Much to her relief, she still wore her usual clothes.

Black slacks and a white shirt covered by her dependable navy trench coat. She checked their pockets, confirming she still had nothing in them.

She didn't need those sorts of pockets to store the things she needed to keep safe.

She heard the faint sound of an alarm go off inside the hospital.