after junior brother had forcefully pulled me into the forest, he had immediately let go of his hand. i rejoiced, but at the same time i could tell that a certain fujoshi was crestfallen.

serves you right. hmph.

i inwardly smiled before i turned my attention towards the forest and the direction we were going towards. the forest really was an explosive pink, and i felt my eyeballs burn in their sockets at every tree i managed to glance upon.

what was really weird, however, was that the branches and other foliage on the ground wasn't pink; instead, it was black. but i didn't get the same burning sensation when i looked at the ground instead of the trees.

junior brother continued to weave his ways through the trees and i followed him, watching his feet and paying extra attention to the sounds of the forest. it was a game that i often played with angel, though it was with her dolls.

the objective of the game was to find the doll. however, i had to find the doll blindfolded.

let's just say that i've gotten extremely good at memorizing sounds and the location of the object that made that sound.

the odd thing was that there were almost no sounds in the forest except for the muted crunching of branches underneath both junior brother and my feet.

obviously, that was odd. any normal forest would have various animal sounds, the dripping of water, yadda yadda. but there was no other sound except for the ones that we made. i shivered. it was unnatural.

furthermore, i couldn't help but begin to think about the trees.

my eyes really did burn every time i looked at them.

don't tell me... the poison is in each tree?

but if that were true, wouldn't junior brother and i be in extreme danger?

[system has detected large amounts of substance %?@!$. host is advised to escape immediately.]

system, both you and i know that substance %?@!$ or whatever you call it is demon poison. and why didn't you tell me earlier!?!?

[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]

calming breaths. in. out. in. out.

okay.

i looked up, braving the pain that the blinding hot pink was inflicting to each of my eyeballs. i called out to junior brother, but then i realized that no sound came out of my mouth.

i couldn't speak.

the f*ck!?

my eyes widened as i noticed junior brother going faster and faster through the forest. on the other hand, i could barely move anymore. i felt as if there was a strong *ss force at the soles of my feet, preventing me from moving.

my eyes darted around the forest, and i realized that the trees began to turn a deeper color of pink before they began to reach shades of magenta.

oh sh*t.

system.

[yes, host?]

how many points do i have?

[three.]

anything helpful i can have with three points?

[...]

you really are useless, aren't you, system?

[system suggests that host dances.]

but there's nobody here. i looked around, the magenta trees not having stopped their color change, getting eerily closer and closer to the color black.

well, f*ck.

the sprinkler, anyone?

qaq