Maruki barely had time to process the voice before his brain went completely blank.
The feathers. The wings. The talons flexing under gloved hands.
His soul nearly left his body.
A squeak—an actual, genuine squeak—escaped him before he could stop it. His glasses nearly slid right off his nose as he jerked backward, his foot catching on the uneven floor.
"—!! I- I won’t tell anyone about this! I swear!"
His hands shot up instinctively, one gripping at the air like he might catch hold of common sense itself before it fully abandoned him.
This—this was a monster.
No, wait, that wasn’t right. The bone structures littering the landscape, the winged figures circling the ruined skyline—they had been monstrous, but this? This had intent. He wasn’t just looking at another one of those twisted creatures.
This was a person.
Which, in some ways, was actually more terrifying.
1/2
The feathers. The wings. The talons flexing under gloved hands.
His soul nearly left his body.
A squeak—an actual, genuine squeak—escaped him before he could stop it. His glasses nearly slid right off his nose as he jerked backward, his foot catching on the uneven floor.
"—!! I- I won’t tell anyone about this! I swear!"
His hands shot up instinctively, one gripping at the air like he might catch hold of common sense itself before it fully abandoned him.
This—this was a monster.
No, wait, that wasn’t right. The bone structures littering the landscape, the winged figures circling the ruined skyline—they had been monstrous, but this? This had intent. He wasn’t just looking at another one of those twisted creatures.
This was a person.
Which, in some ways, was actually more terrifying.