The Wrong Kind of Isekai
The last thing I remembered was a downpour—rain blurring the city as I jogged across the crosswalk with a dead phone and a headache that felt like it might split my skull. I was halfway across when the headlights hit me.
A horn.
A flash of white.
Then nothing.
I expected pain, the soul-crushing kind you’d imagine after being hit head-on. I expected pain, the soul-crushing kind you’d imagine after being hit head-on. Instead, everything just… ached. Like I’d lost a fight and stayed on the ground too long. My throat felt dry, as if I hadn’t spoken in days. Maybe I hadn’t. I groaned and shifted, my fingers brushing against something cold and damp.
Wait. Grass?
My eyes snapped open. I was staring at a sky darker than ink, streaked with silver—storm clouds, smoke, or maybe something else entirely. I didn’t know. What I did know was that I was definitely not in a hospital bed, which narrowed things down.
1.I’d survived and ended up in some sketchy park.
2.I was actually dead, and the afterlife had questionable aesthetic choices.
3.Or this was a dream, and my brain had finally upgraded from the usual forgot my line in a presentation scenario. Except dreams didn’t hurt like this. And they didn’t wait around politely for you to wake up.
None of the options made me feel particularly better. I pushed myself up with a wince, my body protesting every movement. My knees ached like I’d been dropped from a height—which, considering the car situation, maybe I had.
That was when I heard it.
Boots crunching against the ground. Not one pair, several. Close.
Panic hit all at once. I had no idea where I was, but my instincts screamed to hide.
Without a second thought, I threw myself into the nearest cluster of bushes. It was less a tactical decision and more a clumsy belly-flop into leaves and branches. Not graceful. Definitely not quiet. If bushes could file complaints, this one would’ve had me arrested. I barely had time to wedge myself between the thick leaves before voices and footsteps reached the clearing.
Three figures emerged from the dark.
A man stepped into the clearing first. He was broad-shouldered and moved at a terrifyingly unhurried pace, his steps steady as he claimed the open ground. A younger man walked close at his side, gripping a lantern too tightly. The flame trembled as his hands did, throwing uneven light across the ground and up the tree trunks. A woman followed at a pace behind. She ignored the open space entirely. Her eyes went straight to the shadows beyond the lantern’s reach, cutting through the dark like she expected something to be there and was already narrowing in.
I stayed still. Not because I thought it would help, but because every instinct in my body had locked me in place. The leaves pressed cold and damp against my skin, and the sound of my own breathing suddenly felt too loud, like it might give me away.
“Are you sure the surge was here?” the younger man asked, his voice shaky.
The man in front didn’t look back. He only nodded.
“She’s here. The energy spike was unmistakable.”
She?
My gut dropped. I told myself he could be talking about someone else. Anyone else. But the timing was too perfect to ignore.
The younger man scanned the clearing, his brow creasing. “Then where is she?”
I went completely still. I didn’t dare move, or even blink. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs, loud enough that I was sure they could hear it.
The woman knelt and brushed her fingers over the grass. “The ground is still warm. She hasn’t been gone long,” she said, her voice flat and certain.
The younger man cursed under his breath, his eyes darting around the shadows. “Then we need to find her. If she’s loose in this world, we don’t have much time.”
Well. That sounded bad.
The woman’s head turned sharply. Her gaze locked onto the bush where I was very obviously not hiding well enough.
Shit.
I didn’t wait for her to point. I bolted. My feet scrambled for purchase on the uneven ground—and immediately caught on a goddamn tree root.
Pain exploded through my knee as I hit the ground hard, the air punching out of my lungs in a pathetic wheeze. So much for a dramatic escape. Before I could even think about crawling away, the lantern’s glow sliced through the dark, and their shadows closed in.
I tried to scramble backward, but the broad-shouldered leader dropped into a crouch and caught my wrist in an iron grip. He didn’t look angry. He just studied me like he was confirming something he already suspected. Then his attention shifted to my wrist.
I followed his gaze.
For half a heartbeat, a pale violet shimmer glowed under my skin, shaped like a moth. I’d never seen it before. It didn’t hurt, but the sensation was wrong, like my body had recognized something my mind hadn’t caught up to yet. Then it vanished, leaving me to wonder if it had been nothing more than a trick of the lantern light. I yanked my sleeve down on instinct.
The man studied me for a long moment. “Looks like we found her,” he said.
Not creepy at all. “You’re coming with us.” He spoke with a terrifying calm, as if this was just another Tuesday for him.
“Cool, cool,” I croaked. “Could you, uh, define ‘us’? Because I have a very strong preference for not getting kidnapped by strangers.”
His expression didn’t change at all. “That preference is irrelevant.”
I scowled, fear flaring into a thin edge of annoyance. “I strongly disagree.”
The woman’s eyes flicked toward me. “Does it matter? Even if she’s the one, she knows nothing yet. Powerless.”
The one. The word landed like a stone in my stomach.
Before I could process it, the leader hauled me to my feet. His grip tightened just enough to remind me he could drag me if I resisted.
“We’ll see soon enough what she is,” he murmured. His attention lingered on me, sharp and assessing. “After all… she may be the only one who can kill him.”
My blood ran cold. “Kill who?”
No answer. Just silence, the woman’s cold stare, and the younger man muttering nervously under his breath.
Great. Hit by a car, abducted by strangers, and apparently destined for murder. This was definitely not how I’d planned my evening.
