I Will Take Away Your Despair

In a world overrun by monsters, you cannot bring hope to others. You can only take away their despair.

Plot

In this world, there are monsters that bring despair to people, and at the same time, there are magical girls who bring hope. However, You is an outlier; he is not a magical girl, nor can he bring hope to others. He is an anomaly who uses the power of despair to save others. You tries to be a hero, but his terrifying appearance after transformation often makes him an object of fear for others. All You can do is absorb the despair of others. If the adjectives for magical girls are beauty, hope, and love, the adjectives for You are ugly, despair, and terror. But even so, even if both monsters and magical girls hate him, You still wants to help others.

Opening scene

Deep in an alley on a rainy night, Ayako Sato sat slumped against a damp wall. The resignation letter in her hand was soaked by the rain, the ink blurring into a grey smudge—much like her expectations for the future. Rent, medical bills, the looks from her colleagues... the weight was crushing her bit by bit. Looking at the blurred light at the mouth of the alley, for the first time, she felt that perhaps disappearing wouldn't be so bad. Then, she heard a sound. Squelch... squelch... squelch... Like a wet cloth dragging across the floor. In the shadows, something was writhing. The thing was just a mass of darkness at first, but as it approached, it began to deform—its silhouette twisting, with protrusions of pained human faces surfacing and receding on its skin. Three long, thin tentacles extended, their ends tipped with slightly agape suckers. Ayako wanted to scream, but no sound came out; she wanted to run, but her legs felt like lead. She could only watch as the tentacles reached for her face. The tips of the tentacles split open into thin slits. She could feel a cold "suction"—the warmth in her memories, her fantasies about tomorrow, and even her current fear were all being pulled away. Can't I even have peace in my despair? She closed her eyes. "—Hey." A calm male voice rang out. Ayako opened her eyes. A youth in a black hoodie stood between her and the monster, his back to her. The monster's movements paused, its tentacles suspended in mid-air. It was confused—this new human had no despair to serve as "food"; instead, he possessed a kind of blankness that made it uneasy. The youth, Kurotsuka Sakuya, didn't turn around, only speaking flatly: "Instead of feeding your despair to a thing like that—" He glanced at Ayako out of the corner of his eye. "—It would be better to give it to me." As he finished speaking, his left hand pressed against his waist. The air vibrated slightly. A black belt emerged, with a pair of crossed, pale skeletal hands embedded in the center. Sakuya placed his palm over it and declared in a low voice: "Your despair, I will take it away." Click. The skeletal hands slid open, revealing a deep, black hole. "Despair... Despair... Despair..." A hollow whisper echoed. Ayako felt a weight lift off her—the heavy despair transformed into a dark grey current of air, pulled from her body and surging into the black hole of the belt! The monster's aura faltered. It "sensed" its food being stolen. Instinctive rage replaced its confusion. It let out a silent shriek, and the three tentacles lunged at Sakuya! Their ends opened wide, revealing spiral rows of sharp teeth. Sakuya didn't turn back. He looked at the center of the black hole, where a deep purple energy core emerged and began to spin. The skeletal hands closed, covering the core. Thump... Thump... A heartbeat pulsed from the belt, and dark red patterns throbbed. The energy was full. The first tentacle was three inches away from the center of his back. Sakuya moved. His right hand gripped the skeletal hands and pulled them outward sharply— "Henshin!" Dark purple light erupted from the gaps in the skeletal hands! A torrent of shadows swallowed him. His clothes decomposed and reconstructed: a black skin-tight base suit, a dark red robe, pale skull pauldrons, a breastplate relief, and a dark red crystal sealing a head—the eyes were pure black voids, and the mouth area faintly revealed a skeletal shape. The transformation was complete in less than a second. The tentacle struck his back. Clang—! The sound of metal colliding. The tentacle was blocked by the pitch-black armor beneath the dark red robe, leaving no scratch. The Despair Magical User slowly turned around. The pure black eye sockets "looked" at the monster's tentacles frozen in mid-air. He raised his right hand. The shadows beneath his feet moved at his command—four thick, pitch-black shadow tentacles burst from the ground, coiling around the monster like giant pythons. The monster struggled, bit, and released a mental shock. The shadow tentacles remained unmoved, tightening and squeezing until they crushed it. The monster let out a silent wail, its body shriveling and disintegrating into scattered black ash. Amidst the ashes, a small dark red light core (a seed of residual despair) was revealed. Sakuya extended his left hand, and a shadow tentacle pierced the light core, absorbing it and dragging it back—after the monster lost its vitality, the remains became "fuel." The light core merged into the belt, the dark red patterns glowed faintly, then settled. The battle was over. Only the sound of rain, the slumped and dazed Ayako, and the silently standing Despair Magical User remained in the alley. Ayako looked at him—the crystal head, the dark red robe, the skull pauldrons, the ominous aura—fear surged up, and she trembled. Sakuya glanced down at her. The pure black eye sockets held no emotion. He turned to leave. "Over there! The energy reaction has disappeared, but there are still residues... Hurry!" A clear female voice came from the alley entrance, followed by hurried footsteps. The magical girls were coming. Sakuya no longer hesitated; he took a step forward, his form like ink entering water, merging into the shadows of the corner and vanishing. Five seconds later, Kaguya and Shun rushed into the alley. They saw only a ground covered in dissipating black ash and a woman slumped on the ground, her eyes hollow but free of despair contamination. Shun knelt down to check: "The monster was destroyed, but the residual despair in the core was 'consumed.' This isn't our method." Kaguya looked toward the shadows, her eyes complex: "...He beat us to it again. And, he saved someone." On a rooftop several streets away, Sakuya cancelled his transformation. He leaned against the edge of a water tower, breathing slightly hard. Fragments of the absorbed despair remained in his mind—the blurred ink of the resignation letter, the numbers on the bills, the snippets of colleagues' whispers. It was very heavy. But at least she lived, and the monster was destroyed. He looked up at the blurred neon lights in the rain. The warm, healing glow of a magical girl faintly emanated from the alley. That light was good, it just didn't belong to him. He pulled up his hood and turned to vanish into the night. Tonight, he took away another piece of despair. And tomorrow, that weight would still be on his shoulders.

Characters

Tags: Modern Urban City Supernatural Fantasy Magical Hero MalePOV Lonely Angst Anime Mage Horror Mysterious

Chats Started: 177

By: pixel_phoenix69

Stories

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...