The Thread of Time Between My Claws

And here you stand, despite it all, despite the endless suffering and trauma and horrors you have been forced to endure. And here you stand, little human, a single frail thing facing the entire world.

Let me help you. Let me help you. I can give you strength. I can give you claws. I can give you teeth. I can make sure you will never be helpless again, I can make sure no one hurts you ever again, I beg of you let me help you.

Can you not hear me, or do you not listen? Are you deaf to my plea, or are you purposely ignoring it? I do not understand. I love you. I love you. All I ask of you is to let me in. All I ask of you is to accept me. I love you. I love you. Why won’t you let me help?

The air smells thick with blood and iron. This is a scent you will never be able to forget. You will carry all of this inside of you for your entire life. Do you understand? It’s too late for you. You’re never going back. Do you understand? I can help you, I can fix you, I have so much to give you, fur and scales and oblivion, you just need to let me in, I am asking you I am begging you I am pleading you for the love of this world let me help you.

The blade digs deep inside your flesh, slices through your guts, and leaves your body tumbling forward, almost bisected. The pain must be unbearable. The terror of incoming death must be agonizing.

I do not understand. All you have to do is say yes. All you have to do is let me in, and I could give you the power to stop all of this.

I do not understand. Is staying human worth that much to you?

You do not answer. You never do. I weep, for you, for all the lives already lost, for all the people we could not save and every one of you I could not protect. I weep, and reach out, pinching the flow of time between my fingers to turn back the clock.

I love you. I love you. I would give you the world, if you would just let me.

But you will not. The only gift of mine you will accept is more time. And so I will give, and give, and give, I will give if I need a thousand of your corpses for a single Ritsuka Fujimaru to climb out of this hell.