Author's Note: Please leave as many comments as you'd like, and maybe even drop a review! I know it's early, but I would really appreciate any feedback. I need to know if it's worth it to spend my energy writing this fic.
Also, I would appreciate if you do the poll at the end! Thanks!
"Bold" - Mizuki speaking.
Italics - Narrator
(Alyssa's POV)
About fifteen minutes later, I stepped out onto the apartment's balcony, and the moment I did, I was hit with the cool spring breeze of Kuoh City.
The scenery was great, too. There was a park in my direct line of sight and then a couple of really expensive-looking homes, followed by a mountain resting at the very back.
This was Mizuki's favorite spot whenever he wanted to drink, or just relax.
Holding the icy cold glass of... Orange Death Supreme in my hands, I let it sit for a bit, mostly cause my mouth wasn't quite ready to be stuffed by his cold masterpiece yet.
He had made me fill the glass to the brim with crushed ice.
Speaking of the drink, it looked like the type of beverage you'd only find in fancy bars, the kind where they charge an ungodly amount for no apparent reason.
How did I make it, you ask?
Step 1: fill a tall glass with lots of crushed ice.
Step 2: add half a glass of... herbal extract. I did not know what this actually was. Mizuki had made me pour it from a green bottle from the top of his collection. It had Japanese labels so I could not read it, but from the way it looked, it definitely didn't look like a bottle of premium alcohol.
Besides, Mizuki wasn't crazy enough to make me drink alcohol, would he? If he did, then he must know he would die too.
Step 3: fill the other half of the glass with an orange syrup or juice. Mizuki didn't have any on hand, so he made me pour in an orange Monster energy drink. I panicked a bit when he made me do that, but he assured me it was a very low-caffeinated version. Plus, it also had Japanese labels, so I could only trust his wisdom.
Step 4: take an orange peel and rub it on the rim of the glass to add that tangy aroma and mask the medicinal smell of the herbal extract. And then, drop that peel right inside the drink.
Step 5: enjoy this juicy paradise.
On a second note, my inability to read Japanese really surprised me. It should be mentioned that I did not have full access to Mizuki's memories, as there were gaps and bits of info I was genuinely blanking on.
Living in Japan when you can't read Japanese... it must be a nightmare. At least I can speak and understand it thanks to what I already have.
"Are you just going to keep gawking or drink? My body is thirsty, so hurry up. It's better served cold!"
I heard my partner speak up. This time, he really did manifest that mouth on the back of my hand, which I was using to hold the glass.
Yes, partner. We talked it out peacefully and accepted our newfound reality. We realized we could only benefit each other and live like this if we formed a partnership. I also told him my name so now he knows. I even laughed a bit when he realized I was a woman a whole decade older than him.
"So impatient, are we?" I clicked my tongue.
But instead of waiting any further, I brought the chilled glass toward my lips and took a big sip.
I could see Mizuki's hand-mouth grinning slightly like a madman, but my focus was entirely on the drink.
The very first thing that flooded my senses was the zesty aroma of the orange peel I'd just rubbed on the rim. And as the icy-cold liquid flowed down my throat...an explosion of flavor hit me. It was incredibly sweet, and it must have been the work of that Monster which helped perfectly mask the bitter taste of the herbal extract.
I lowered the glass, letting out a long, satisfied sigh as I walked over and sat onto one of the balcony chairs.
"I gotta admit," I smirked, glancing down at the glass. "I've swallowed a lot of questionable things in my life... but you really know how to make it perfectly thick and sweet. I can't wait to chug every last drop."
Surprisingly, he didn't say a word. Hah. He must be blushing right now. It was way too easy to tease him.
I leaned back in the chair, letting myself totally relax. Raising the glass again, I chugged the last of the drink and let out a satisfied burp.
Thinking about it...against all odds, I'd somehow managed to make peace with a teenager who was ready to end me minutes ago.
Maybe... maybe things will actually go my way for once. I didn't want to be a porn actress in this life, too. I just wanted to live a little. Maybe find a soulmate who truly understood me. As long as I avoided the crazy dangers of this world, my new life won't be so bad-
But right then, a strange and suffocating warmth started creeping up to my neck.
I blinked, suddenly feeling my face flush. Then a massive wave of nausea hit my stomach out of nowhere.
Ugh... what the...?
Thump.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
My chest fluttered violently. My heart rate was increasing, it steady at first, but then it skyrocketed to an unnatural level.
CLINK.
The glass slipped from my trembling fingers, shattering into pieces across the balcony floor.
A second later, my center of gravity shifted as I hit the floor hard, desperately clutching my chest.
Why? Why is this happening?!
Wait... the drink? Did he poison me?!
I gritted my teeth while enduring the agonizing pain I was feeling on my chest.
Suddenly, my right hand moved entirely on its own.Then It forced itself upward, hovering right in front of my face. My eyes widened, locking onto that terrifying, grotesque mouth on the palm of my empty hand.
He wasn't even hiding it anymore.
"Hahaha... hahahaha! Oh, this is good... this is SO GOOD!" Mizuki laughed, he laughed like he never had this much fun before.
And then, the flesh on the upper potion of my palm split open. A single eye materialized right above the grotesque mouth on my palm. When I made direct eye contact with that, sea-green pupil... it sent shivers down my spine.
"Y-You... cough... this was a trap?!"
I struggled to utter words with this rising pain. My eyes were also on the verge of tearing up. Everything happened so fast my emotions were finally catching up.
"The t-truce... it meant nothing to you from the beginning, did it?!"
"Aww, are you gonna cry? How tragic," he mocked me yet again.
"Honestly, manipulating you was so easy it actually makes me laugh."
Manipulate me...? Wait. The warning labels. He... he took advantage of the fact that I can't read Japanese!
The horrific realization hit me all at once, draining all the colors from my face.
"No..no, no, no, no... NOOOO!" I screamed with a desperate mix of anger and tears.
Not again.
I don't wanna die again.
"Exactly!," the hand-mouth smirked. "You know earlier, when you were checking out my collection right after you took over my body? I noticed how you completely glossed over every single Japanese-labeled bottle, but read the English ones perfectly."
The sea-green eye did a devious eye smirk of victory.
"I put two and two together... and well, the rest is history.."
Why... why would you do this? Why would you kill yourself just to get rid of me? What did I ever do to you?
I had so many questions, but I had no energy left to ask them. I could only swallow them bitterly down my throat.
I was slowly losing consciousness. My already racing heartbeat showed no signs of stopping, rapidly aiming to drain the last bits of life from my body.
"You must be wondering why I'd go this far, huh? Well, let me tell you a story," the hand-mouth spoke again, while that eye on top simply watched my deteriorating state, watching me as the color of life slowly faded from my face.
"My mom once had a friend from the countryside. That friend was such a kindhearted and sweet lady, that I every tiem I visited her, she used to give me the tastiest sweet potatoes I've ever had in my life. One day, she decided to grow a bed of exotic plants on her farmland. People warned her not to do it, telling her it would be hell trying to take care of them... but she was never the type to quit."
He paused for a second, letting the silence hang a bit longer before continuing.
"She spent a whole year nurturing and taking care of those plants. The fruits of her labor were finally about to pay off since harvest season was right around the corner. But guess what? She never got to see it because she took her own life."
"Why you ask? Because a parasite had invaded her precious farm. It slowly ruined her entire year of hard work before she even realized it was there. She couldn't handle such a devastating outcome, so she took the extreme step."
The sea-green eye had a cold glint now.
"And you, my dear, are nothing but a parasite. You aren't any different. You ruined my life, and I ruined yours. We're even now."
I was barely conscious at this point. The edges of my vision were completely black. I knew I was only seconds away from
"This is goodbye, Alyssa..."
"Whatever little time we had together..it was fun while it lasted."
And with those final words ringing in my mind, my eyes closed on their own, and the darkness took over me.
(POV End)
———
(Narrator POV)
There is an old saying that a man's choice of poison reveals his true nature. But perhaps the truest saying of all is to never trust an alcohol fanatic who willingly serves you his finest collection for free.
Alyssa fell victim to brutal manipulation by a teenager a decade younger than her. Her fatal mistake was assuming that just because they shared the same body, Mizuki wouldn't be crazy enough to attempt a murder-suicide.
She learned the hard way.
Because her assimilation with his body wasn't one hundred percent complete, her access to his memories was flawed. She had acquired the ability to speak Japanese fluently, but she completely lacked the ability to read it.
Mizuki exploited this weakness and used it to trick her into making her own deadly poison.
The green bottle used to make the Orange Death Supreme was none other than Absinthe, which is a Japanese variant of a notoriously high-ABV spirit. And unlike what he had told Alyssa, the orange Monster was a highly caffeinated version of the energy drink.
Because the warning labels were printed in Kanji and Katakana, she had absolutely no idea what she was pouring.
Furthermore, he used the orange peel to mask the smell. He also used the crushed ice and the heavy sugar of the orange-flavored energy drink to meticulously erase the burning taste of the alcohol.
And what happens when a body that lacks the enzyme to break down alcohol consumes a literal cancer of a drink?
For a normal person, the liver processes alcohol over time, but due to his ALDH2 deficiency, Mizuki's liver lacked that ability. Instead, it rapidly converted the alcohol into a highly toxic poison.
His blood vessels violently expanded, while his blood pressure crashed soon after. To keep the body alive, his heart began pumping faster just to keep the blood flowing. And right at that moment, the high dose of caffeine from the energy drink kicked in.
It further forced his heart to accelerate way past its physical limit, causing one of the deadliest conditions known to the human body:
Heart Failure.
His heart rate surpassed the 250 mark in a span of thirty seconds. It beat with such excessive speed that the heart simply did not have time to be filled with blood. And without any blood flow, the body could not get oxygenated.
In the span of few minutes, a massive heart attack occurred, thus ending Alyssa Ashford's second chance at life.
(POV End)
———
(Mizuki's POV)
Well, that was a whole movie. Never thought I'd be the type of guy to drop cheesy villain dialogue on my body-snatcher of all people, but here we are.
Who am I you ask? The name's Mizuki Louis Jelavić. I'm an-well was an aspiring mixologist extraordinaire who was tragically burdened with what I like to call "Dead by a Bear" syndrome. Also, for the record, it's pronounced Yell-ah-vich.
I know you must be confused. You're probably thinking, 'Why the hell is your last name Serbian when you're French-Japanese?' Well, to answer your question, my maternal great-grandparents were originally from...
Oh it's that time huh?
Insert tragic backstory here: All I ever wanted was... blah, blah... good alcohol... blah, blah. I'll miss my mom... blah, blah, blah. Yeah I am too tired to do all that.
There's really nothing else left to do now. The fact that I can even form coherent thoughts right now is wild. You know that one fun fact about how the brain remains active for a few minutes even after you're clinically dead? I think that's what's happening to me right now, or I might be wrong, who cares?
Maybe Alyssa is conscious in here with me right now, screaming into the void about how unfair her life was. I would be crying too if I was in her place.
You know what? I should use this time for some self-reflection.
Nah. I don't wanna think about how fucking unfair this whole situation was.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some murder hobo or a manipulative bitch like a certain hot red-haired devil from Public Safety. I just...the very thought of being a helpless passenger in my own body? It makes me furious.
Partnership? No way in hell would I have agreed to SHARE my body with someone when I had no guarantee I would even keep even the limited control I had left.
It's MY body…If anyone gets to do whatever the fuck they want to it, it's me. Seriously, just thinking about this is starting to piss me off all over again
But no point crying over spilled milk I guess, it'll only make me depressed. At least my body got to taste one of my finest collections... even if I had to ruin it by mixing it with a fucking Monster. A high ABV spirit like Absinthe with a Monster? Who even does that unless they are planning to court death?
My tastebuds must have cried a lot, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so that had to be done.
At least I can die happily now. Maybe I'll go to Heaven...
…Who am I kidding? I am definitely going to Hell. Pulling a murder-suicide automatically qualifies you as a respected citizen of the Underworld. Plus, I've always been agnostic; I never had much faith in God to begin with.
I wonder, is Hell actually like the books say? Is the Devil gonna be some monstrous red-horned entity from the scriptures, or is he gonna be like that hot British guy I saw on Netflix? If he's a well-mannered gentleman in a suit, maybe we can share a couple of drinks.
Haha... man, I must be going insane. I don't even know if Heaven or Hell exists.
So, uh...for the meantime I'm just going to sing a song until I black out. I refuse to waste my last brain cells on depressing, useless thoughts anymore.
What was that song going viral on TikTok again? Woman was it? I have to admit, Doja Cat has some great songs.
🎵 Let me be your woman...
Woman, woman, woman...
I can be your woman...
Woman, woman, woman...
I can be your lady, I am a—
Wo...
man— 🎵
And just like that, Mizuki Louis Jelavić sang and sang to his heart's content until he could not think anymore. Thus brings an end to his short yet weird life. Maybe if he's lucky, he'll get reincarnated just like Alyssa, or maybe he's doomed to burn for eternity. But... is our boy really dead? Find out on the next episode of Dragon B—
To be continued.
(POV Emd)
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Poll:
Do you like our MC's (Mizuki's) personality so far? Let me know why or why not! Your feedback really helps me plan out future chapters.
Yes.
No.