Episode 4: "Hero Kuronaka's Curse"
Hero Kuronaka
"There's nothing here...
I checked inside the pot, just like the goddess told me to, but there's nothing here."
Hero Kuronaka mumbled subconsciously.
Hero Kuronaka
"Guess it's time to report back."
He muttered to himself, then decided to head back to the bridge.
But his feet didn't move.
Hero Kuronaka
"..."
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
But the doubt didn't go away. He couldn't ignore it.
Hero Kuronaka
"Something's not right here...
Why would I need to check an empty pot?"
Doubt and unease swelled up inside him.
Hero Kuronaka
"What's even the point of this?
Why do I have to do this?"
Static flashed across Hero Kuronaka's view.
At the same time, he was overcome with a massive headache.
Hero Kuronaka
"Arghh!"
His mind felt hazy and heavy once more.
Hero Kuronaka
"I... I can't think straight.
D-Doesn't matter. I'll return to the goddess."
He could only rely on the goddess, after all.
As long as you trusted the goddess, you couldn't go wrong.
His heart knew as much.
Hero Kuronaka's feet set forth to return to the goddess.
He crossed the bridge.
And yet...
Doubts began to simmer in him again.
Hero Kuronaka
"I wonder why...
Why is the goddess making me do this?"
His feet stopped.
The fog came back. His feet moved again.
And still...
Hero Kuronaka
"All this talk about a hero slaying the Demon King...
And yet I've never even been outside the village."
He brings himself to a stop, having only made it a couple of steps onto the bridge.
Hero Kuronaka
"How long have I even been in this village?"
More doubt crept in.
And yet every time he tried to remember something...
The haze in his mind came back.
Hero Kuronaka
"Why can't I remember anything at all?
I can't remember anything before OR after I came to the village."
Dizziness began to overtake him, little by little.
The bridge swayed under him, unstable as flowing water.
Eventually, he found he couldn't move any longer.
Hero Kuronaka
"Am I even a real hero?
Who was I before I got here? What was I doing?"
His view flickered with static again.
Hero Kuronaka
"Arghh!"
The headache came back, dropping him to his knees in an intense flash of hot-white pain.
Hero Kuronaka
"What the hell?!
Why is it that when I try to remember..."
Anytime he tried to probe further down his memories, a static haze overcame him, and pain shot through his head.
As if to block him from remembering something...
Hero Kuronaka
"What in the world?!
Wh-What's going on with me?!"
He squeezed in on himself, gripping his head.
It was then he saw it.
Just beyond the static and the haze...
He couldn't believe his eyes.
Hero Kuronaka
"Huh?"
Beyond the bridge railing...
Walking in mid-air...
...Was a person.
Someone was walking in the air just as if they were on solid ground.
It was a girl.
A girl wearing eccentric clothes and a smattering of makeup caked all over her face.
???
"Weiiird.
Thought it was this way."
She spoke, entirely unaware of Hero Kuronaka's presence.
???
"Hey, Saigo.
Didn't it smell real yummy around here?"
She looked back after she said that.
And then...
A large man, dressed rather oddly, appeared right behind her.
Just like her, he seemed to walk on thin air.
???
"Don't know. Don't have a hound's nose like yours.
And we're late. We must head to the rendezvous point."
???
"Okay, fiiine...
Oh, well."
Her shoulders slumped, defeat spelled across her body language.
And with that, the both of them turned back to wherever they came from.
...Still walking mid-air.
Hero Kuronaka
"..."
Hero Kuronaka was speechless.
Something like that was impossible, right?
Hero Kuronaka
"Huh? What was that?!
Were they... walking on thin air?!"
He had to be hallucinating, right?
Or maybe he'd just gone mad?
What was even going on?
He couldn't understand.
Just what the...
The haze in his mind lifted.
He found his footing once more.
Hero Kuronaka rushed back to the goddess.
