WARNING: Mentions of self-harm in this chapter. Just… so you know. It's not quite depression related, but it's still a little bit harsh.

Alright, It's official: I am a fucking moron.

I'd been trying to rationalize things up until this point. I mean, who wouldn't in my position? I was in a world that, until recently, I thought was fictional. On top of that, the world I was in was an honest to god hentai.

I've been in denial until now. I knew when I met that slime girl, and yet I just couldn't bring myself to believe it. Micaela had simply been the final nail in the coffin. For some reason, she was a character I always remembered, though I could never figure out why.

Anyways, I was… Less than pleased. I had to bite my lip just to keep myself from screeching in a horrible mixture of rage, fear, and just about every other awful emotion.

Yuri didn't seem to notice how close I was to snapping, as she was explaining what happened between us. Of course, her retelling of those events were colored with her thoughts and beliefs. Micaela did notice my distress, but bought into Yuri's story and assumed that I was just a scared child.

I began to taste copper in my mouth, and I realized that if I continued to bite my lip so I wouldn't scream, then I might just end up biting through it. So, I settled for digging my nails into my arms instead.

When she started talking about how it was "obvious" that I was abused, I decided to step in.

"I was not!" I yelled, blood and spittle flying everywhere. "I already told you my parents were wonderful people!"

Yuri's eyes suddenly gleamed with sudden realization, as if she had just figured out the secrets to the universe.

"You said 'were'." She said, her tone laden with suspicion.

It didn't take a genius to figure out where she was going. Shit, if she decides that my parents are dead, then I probably won't ever be able to convince her otherwise.

"My parents are alive, thank you very much." I snapped at her, glaring into her eyes. "You shouldn't speak about things that you know nothing about."

Yuri frowned, annoyed.

"I just wish to help you." She said, frustration rising in her voice. "Why do you feel the need to be so secretive about your life?"

I felt the urge to punch her. I felt the familiar feeling of wanting to brutalize something, so I relied on an old tactic for reigning in my anger.

I started to scratch my arms, digging bloody furrows into my skin. It was all I could do to keep from exploding. Did she even realize how angry she was making me?

"I already told you the truth." I hissed, glaring right into her eyes. "And even if that was a lie, which it wasn't, I'm entitled to privacy."

Yuri opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off when Micaela rushed over to me, grabbing my hands.

"What on earth are you doing to your arms?!" She asked somewhat loudly, calling attention to my scratches.

Yuri looked down at my arms, her eyes widening in horror.

I looked down and winced as the pain of what I was doing suddenly caught up with me. My arms were more than a little shredded, and they were bleeding profusely.

Without thinking, I muttered: "Shit, I haven't scratched myself this badly in years."

Micaela brought one of her hands up to my chest. She muttered something that I didn't quite catch, and her hand began to glow with a soft golden light.

I looked down as the pain in my arms began to fade, and watched in amazement as my wounds quickly knitted themselves back together. As soon as I was healed, she snatched my free hand faster than I could blink.

Now, from an outsider's perspective, this might be rather concerning. After all, self-harm is a serious issue. However, my situation was a bit different. I didn't hate myself, nor was I suicidal. I never quite liked myself, but I thought that I was okay in the grand scheme of things. No, my reason for doing such things wasn't based on anything like that.

As you've probably guessed by now, I have some... rather extreme anger issues. When I was little, I would often get into fights with other kids over the smallest things. One day, I went a little too far, and nearly got into actual legal trouble. After nearly being tossed into an institution, I decided that I probably shouldn't keep beating the shit out of other kids. However, whenever I got really mad (which happened a lot.), I still felt the urge to hurt somebody.

So, I just decided to hurt myself. Whenever I wanted to punch the kid that sat next to me, I'd stab my pencil into my leg, or stick a toothpick in my arm, or heat up a paperclip and burn myself. It satisfied my urge to hurt things while keeping me from getting to violent with others.

Of course, I got caught quickly, as I didn't really hide it. After plenty of talks with counselors and therapists, I ended up getting prescribed medication, under the threat that I'd be put in a facility if I didn't take it. I didn't really understand what that meant at the time, but my parents seemed really afraid of that, so I assumed it was really bad.

The pills made me really tired, but seemed to take away most of the anger and the urge to hurt, so I guess they worked. I ended up taking them throughout most of my life. They were expensive as hell, but they did their job.

But now, since I haven't taken them since before I died, I have to deal with all of that bloodlust.

I never did quite understand why people were so upset whenever I cut myself up a little. They tried to explain it to me multiple times, but I just couldn't get it.

Anyways, I should probably quit talking about my past. It pisses me off, and we've just established why that's a bad thing. It already annoys me that I have to deal with Micaela and Yuri. I mean, the concern is nice, but I don't understand what the problem is and that made me want scream.

"You've done this before?" Yuri asked softly, her voice tinged with concern.

…I really should've kept my mouth shut. Now I've gotta explain this to them, and that makes me really, really mad, because I know they're gonna make a whole thing about it.

"Yeah." I growled, trying (and failing miserably) to snatch my hands from Micaela's tight grip. "What's the issue? It's not like I'm hurting anyone else."

Yuri and Micaela exchanged concerned glances, before Yuri decided to speak. I cut her off before she could get a word out.

"I'm not fucking depressed." I said angrily, continuing to attempt wriggling away from Micaela. "I'd just rather hurt myself instead of some poor shmuck that set me off."

Micaela noticed my pathetic attempts to free my hands, and sat down so that she could more easily look me in the eye.

"If I were to let go of your hands right now, would you… scratch yourself?" She asked quietly.

…This answer really pissed me off. She knew what the answer was. We both knew. And yet, she still felt the need to ask that. Was she just trying to make sure I give a bad answer? Well, if it's the truth she wants, it's the truth she'll get.

"Would you rather I scratch myself, or try to gouge out your eyeballs?" I snarled. "Because I'd love to cut loose for once."

I meant that, and it scared me. I so badly wanted to bury a knife into her throat, to absolutely butcher her. I was going to start fighting soon, and that was a fight I'd lose immediately. I mean, this was Micaela we were talking about, someone who, at her full power could take out nearly a third of Ilias' health. She was incredibly strong, and just because she didn't want to hurt me, didn't mean that she'd take too kindly to me attacking her either.

Micaela was taken aback by my words. She looked to Yuri, who was just as shocked.

"Listen, if you don't let me go right now, I'm going to bite my tounge off." I said, ninety percent sure I was bluffing. Honestly, I just might do it out of spite.

I was hoping they'd let me go so I could try and make a break for it. Maybe I'd let some of my frustration out on the plants in the forest, before finding a way to civilization.

Apparently, I was too convincing, because Yuri dashed over to me, and stuck her hand in my mouth, which was disgusting, but more than that, it pissed me off. This was a challenge, whether she meant it to be or not.

I decided that it would be okay to harm somebody else, just this once. So, I chomped down as hard as I could…

And promptly felt my teeth fucking snap.

I howled in pain, filled with sudden, unexpected agony. It definitely wasn't the worst pain I'd ever felt, but it caught me off-guard.

Micaela quickly put her hand on my chest yet again, and healed me (And let me tell you, feeling your teeth spontaneously regenerate was weird as hell.). This time I tried to preemptively move my hand, but yet again, she reacted faster than I could blink, grabbing it with a gentle, yet unbreakable hold.

Yuri's eyes were wide with concern.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice somewhat frantic. "I'm so sorry."

I just stared at her in awe. Like, what the actual fuck just happened. That was like biting a fucking brick, except somehow worse. It did do some good though, lessening my lust for violence, if only slightly.

I couldn't answer her, so I just stared with a deadpan expression. Eventually, she got the hint.

"If I take my hand away, will you bite your tongue?" She asked.

I shook my head. My rage was sated somewhat.

She retracted her hand, and I took a large breath.

"Fucking hell!" I exclaimed. "Are you made of metal or something?"

She winced, feeling bad for accidently hurting me.

"So, you hurt yourself when you get mad?" Micaela asked, trying desperately to get the conversation back on track.

I nodded, pointedly ignoring the fact that this had already been established. I didn't like to repeat myself.

"And talking to us makes you angry?" She asked.

My eye began to twitch, and I nodded with more force than strictly necessary.

She sighed.

"Please don't hurt yourself while we sort things out." Micaela asked. "That'll just make it take longer, and I'm sure you want to get this over as soon as possible."

I sighed. She had a point. That made me really mad, but I tried my hardest to ignore it.

"Fine." I said. "But if I start scratching, don't stop me unless it gets serious."

She let go of my hands, and I sat down on the floor, arms crossed.

"So," Micaela began. "Why exactly are you so upset with Yuri?"

Okay, that was an easy question. At least she's not starting out with the hard-hitters.

"Well, she basically kidnapped me." I deadpanned. "And then she wouldn't let me leave."

Yuri frowned, displeased at my rendition of the event.

"It was highly possible that you would've died had I let you go." She stated flatly. "I couldn't allow you to endanger yourself simply because you wanted to get away from me."

I could already tell that this was going to explode into another large argument. This just wasn't something that either of us could leave alone, for some fucking reason.

"If I died, that would've been on me." I snapped at her. "But you decided instead to fucking take me against my will, all because you think I'm a broken child in need of protecting."

Yuri scoffed, and shook her head.

"A normal child wouldn't scratch their arms to ribbons because they got too mad." She deadpanned.

My eye twitched. She wasn't wrong, per se, but you don't just say that so someone. Like, the fucking audacity of this bitch!

"You cannot simply say that to someone who you believe has mental problems!" I exclaimed, almost floored at the stupidity of her statement. "That would only make them feel self-conscious!"

Micaela slammed her fist down on the wall, interrupting the argument before it could go further.

"How about I hear your side of the story, child?" She suggested. "Yuri, please wait outside."

Yuri didn't seem to like this suggestion, but she obeyed. Quietly, she walked out of the house, shutting the door behind her with a little more force than was strictly necessary.

After a moment, Micaela sighed.

"I'm sorry about her." She said. "Yuri means well, but she's not a very well-adjusted person."

I winced at that. I mean, the lady had gone through some rough shit. Perhaps I'd been too hard on her…

Wait, what am I thinking? She fucking kidnapped me!

"She took me against my will because she decided I needed help." I deadpanned. "I don't think your description quite matches the level of bat-shit insanity that resides within her mind."

Micaela frowned, displeased at how I spoke of Yuri.

"Did she tell you about what happened to her?" Micaela asked me, her voice somber.

I nodded.

"Well, she was injured severely in the attack which took her parents." Micaela explained. "As a result, she was left unable to have children."

… Okay, I'm really starting to feel badly for this lady.

"She's loved kids for as long as I've known her." Micaela continued. "She always wanted to raise one of her own."

…That would explain why she latched onto me so hard. I mean, I am in the body of a child, and I don't seem to have any connections to people around here. It would've been perfect for her, had I not been the child she'd found. I'm irritable at the best of times, and a spiteful piece of shit at worst.

"Well, as horrible as that is," I said flatly. "She still fucking kidnapped me. I'm not letting that go just because her intentions are pure."

Micaela rubbed her temples, obviously annoyed at something I said.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" She asked. "Anyone who'd be looking for you?"

That question sounded shady as all hell. I'm sure she meant well, but that set off all the alarm bells in my brain. There wasn't anything I could really say, either. So, I decided to tell her the truth. I figured that she might believe it, because she's probably seen some shit. She's one of the oldest fucking beings in the world.

"Now, this is actually kind of complicated." I muttered. "What I'm about to tell you is rather… difficult to believe."

Micaela raised an eyebrow, as if urging me to continue.

"So, I'm quite a bit older than I look." I explained, hoping against hope that she'd believe me. "I'm in my twenties, actually. This body isn't mine."

She crossed her arms, staring me down.

"I'm going to have to ask you to give some more details." She said. "I have seen many strange things in my life, but I am no fool."

I winced, dreading this conversation.

You see, I'd tried not to think about my death ever since I woke up here. Whenever my mind wandered in that direction, I would feel my anger, which currently seemed to be set at a constant simmer, surge like a boiling geyser. Other emotions would combine with my rage, creating a torturous hellfire of fury, anguish, and fear.

Let me let you kids in on a little secret. Dying is not good for the psyche, especially when you've been murdered. My mind has never been in good shape, and this certainly wasn't helping.

So, in short, just thinking about that made me want to scream. Yet, I knew she wouldn't believe me if I didn't provide full details.

This fuckin' sucked.

"Well, I suppose I'll start out by telling you that I was murdered." I said, forcefully swallowing the mucus which seemed to immediately clog up my throat, as if summoned by my discomfort like the world's most dickish genie.

Micaela's brow creased with concern, yet she quietly urged me to continue. I sighed, attempting to keep a lid on the emotional shitstorm that was brewing in my head.

"It all started out as a normal day." I explained. "I was walking to work, like I would on any other morning, when some crazy fucker came speeding down the road in a car, faster than I could react."

She stopped me, her head tilted.

"What's a 'car'?" She asked.

I AM WORLD'S BIGGEST MORON!

Holy fuck, I'm stupid! Why did I say 'car'? Why couldn't I go for more than two fucking seconds without screwing up?

No, I can fix this. I may be an incredibly incompetent fuckup, but I can fix this.

"The word 'car' basically means carriage." I half-lied. "It's a slang-term, really."

She hummed in acknowledgement, nodding at me as if to say "Please continue."

"Anyways, the carriage ran me over, essentially crippling me." I said, my chest starting to burn. I had to get through with this quickly, or else I might lose my composure. "They stopped after they'd hit me, and a man stepped out."

I felt the urge to scratch again, but held off on that. I didn't want to give Micaela any reason to doubt my story.

"Instead of helping me," I continued, feeling my eyes begin to water somewhat. "He f-fucking shot me, executing me on the spot with a gu-crossbow."

Why were my eyes wet? Was there some kind of incense in here or something? Yeah, that's probably it. I always was somewhat allergic to the stuff.

Micaela's eyes stared directly into mine, stone-faced. It was almost as if she was searching for something in my expression. I have no idea if she found what she was looking for. I'm terrible at reading people.

"…Well," She eventually said. "I have seen stranger occurrences in my lifetime."

Did she believe me? Holy fuck, I didn't think that would work!

"So, do you understand now why I wanted to get away from her?" I asked. "I just want to find a human village and figure it out from there."

She smiled, and I felt suddenly concerned. It was a patronizing smile. That kind you would give the schizophrenic guy that lived next door while he ranted about Jesus being a lizardman. It was disingenuous, and frankly I didn't like that shit at all.

"Could you please stay here for a moment?" Micaela asked, before walking outside, presumably to talk to Yuri.

I, of course, didn't sit idly by while they spoke. As quietly as I could, I crept close to the door, eavesdropping on their conversation. What I heard had me shaking with rage.

"That child is delusional." Micaela spoke in a hushed tone, trying (and failing) to keep me from hearing her words. "He seems to be dealing with some form of mental illness."

I bit my lip, trying my hardest to keep myself from growling.

"What makes you say that?" Yuri responded. "I mean, the anger issues thing is a real problem, sure, but what else is there?"

Micaela sighed.

"He seems to believe that he's in his twenties, and that his body isn't really, well, his body." Micaela explained, her voice dripping with pity.

I felt my face heat up in rage, the conversation having made me so angry that I began to shake. I clenched my fists so tightly that I could feel warm blood trickling through my fingers.

"He told me that as well." Yuri said. "I thought he was just lying. Are you telling me that he truly believes it?"

IT'S THE FUCKING TRUTH! I mentally screeched, once again tasting that familiar copper flavor as my mouth began to fill with blood.

"I can easily tell if someone is lying." Micaela scoffed, as if to say 'who do you think I am' "He thinks he's telling the truth."

I felt pain in my right eye, and half my vision turned red. I had just popped a blood vessel.

Alright, that was enough.

I ripped open the door, ready to give the both of them a piece of my mind. This was a slight that couldn't go unanswered.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I roared, both of them freezing at my voice. "I told you what happened, essentially laying my fucked up mind bare, and you have the audacity to just write me off as insane?"

Micaela slowly began to approach me, her hands raised in a placating gesture.

"Now, is that what you heard?" She asked, that disingenuous smile once again appearing on her features. "You don't have the proper context. You see, we were—"

"Don't you fucking lie to me!" I growled. "And quit with that fake-ass smile. Just point me to the nearest human village. I'm done conversing with the likes of you."

Yuri crossed her arms, frowning.

"We've already established that doing that is unacceptable." She said, her tone a bit forceful.

I jammed my thumb into my leg, and took a deep breath. This wasn't a fight I could win. As much as I wanted to attack her, I knew that it wouldn't end well.

"You need to quit being so fucking clingy." I snapped, glaring at her. "Look, I'm sorry about whatever shit happened to you in life, but I'm not about to let you keep me here because of your unresolved issues."

I saw her fists tighten at that. So, I struck a nerve, huh?

As much as I wanted to abuse that, I didn't. I might've been a mean, angry piece of shit, but even I wasn't cruel enough to mock her because of her disturbing past.

"Please, child." Yuri said. "Give me a chance. I understand that you are upset with me, but I only want to help you."

A small part of me felt bad for her. She really just wanted to help me. But, I couldn't just ignore all she's done. Whether she meant well or not was irrelevant. You couldn't just kidnap someone and act like you did nothing wrong.

"Child, Yuri is willing to house and feed you." Micaela butted in. "You have nowhere to go. This would be the best option for you."

She was right and I fucking hated it. Her logic was sound, and there was no way for me to combat it. It just made me so fucking angry that I couldn't get out of this situation.

Loudly, I sighed, turning away from them and walking to the nearest tree.

"Where are you going?" Micaela asked, concerned.

I turned back, glaring at her.

"You may be right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." I hissed at her. "I'm just going to blow off some steam."

I reached one of the trees at the town's edge, and inspected it. It was sturdy, and the bark was thick.

So, I punched it, feeling pain shoot through my hand, reaching all the way to my elbow. I did it again with my other hand, and felt the same result.

I continued doing this until my fingers were bleeding from numerous cuts, the warm liquid dripping from my fingernails.

I couldn't move most of them, meaning that I probably broke a couple.

"Shit, I've gone too far again." I muttered, before sheepishly walking back to Micaela.

She was displeased, to say the least.

*LINEBREAK*

Micaela sighed as she healed the child yet again, mentally reflecting on her conversation with him.

He seemed to genuinely believe that story he told. There was no faking emotion like that. But, there was just no way it was true. She'd lived over thousands of years, and had never heard of anything like that. It was far more probable that it was simply a delusion of some sort.

However, he didn't seem to have the symptoms of someone who frequently hallucinates. At least, that's what she thought. Sadly, mental health was never something she'd bothered to learn about, as she was always busy with other things.

She'd never quite seen such raw anger in a child before, though. There was an incredible amount of rage within him, and it worried her, to say the least.

He seemed to purposely hurt himself whenever he got mad enough, which was very alarming. He seemed so casual about it, too, as if he didn't understand what was wrong about it. That meant that he had possibly been doing that for most, if not all of his life. She felt like addressing that would cause him to explode again, so she held off on confronting him for now.

"Child?" Micaela asked, having fixed the boy's hand with practiced ease.

He looked up at her, one eyebrow raised.

"What?" He asked, still a little annoyed at her.

She sighed.

"You never told me your name." She said. "Did you even tell Yuri?"

He thought for a moment, before shaking his head.

"No, I don't believe I did." He said. "My name's Alex. Alex Smith."

That was a rather average name. She had wanted to investigate his family, but there were probably hundreds of smiths in Iliasburg alone.

She sighed, putting those thoughts aside for now. She could do some snooping later.

"Alright, it's time for you to go with Yuri." Micaela said. "I have things that need to be attended to."

He sagged visibly, but didn't complain. Quietly, he walked back to the house with Yuri, grumbling all the while.

A/N: So, this chapter got a bit darker than the last one. If you can't tell, I'm not in the same state of mind as I was when I wrote the previous chapter. I'd tell you all about it, but it's personal and I'd rather not share it with people I don't know. That's understandable, right?

Our main character is a really exaggerated version of me, when it comes to his anger. I used to scratch myself up a bit whenever I got really mad, but it was never serious. Also, I quit that many years ago, after realizing that it was pretty stupid, and would probably make people worry unnecessarily.

I will also say that I am not a psychologist. Please don't get pissy with me if I incorrectly portray mental illness. I've got no fuckin' clue what I'm doing.

I apologize that this chapter wasn't as funny. I'm not reliably humorous. Comedy just isn't my forte.