And the world went black.
~~~
After Ren had got hit by the unknown yokai, he'd passed out.
Five hours later....
Ren woke up feeling like someone had drop-kicked his soul. His whole body ached, and his chest felt… weird. Not painful, just off. Like something was etched into his skin.
He groaned, forcing himself upright, then looked down.
There, right on his chest, was a verse:
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I took your soul—
It's non-refundable too."
Ren blinked. Stared.
Read it again.
Then, with all the energy of a man too exhausted to question reality, he groaned:
"...Bro, what?"
He pressed a hand to it. Didn't hurt. Didn't smudge. Didn't feel like ink.
It was just... part of him now.
"...Okay. Sure. Why not. First, I get my entire existence scammed, and now my soul's got a damn receipt."
He let out a slow exhale, then flopped back onto the ground.
"Cool. Simply cool."
He stared at the sky for a long moment, then side-eyed the empty space around him.
"You. Mind explaining what in the Tumblr poetry hell is this?"
Silence.
Then, with a cackle, Nurarihyon said:
||That's a truck yokai for you, Renny. ||
Ren paused.
For ten entire seconds, his brain went into overdrive.
But then, he realised.
His eyes widened as the realisation struck him.
"No way man. "
Jorogumo, confused, asked:
||What way?||
Trembling—both from excitement and dread —he said:
"Say, I didn't get isekai'd or something, right?"
Silence engulfed the hall.
Then, in a confused tone, all the yokai asked:
|| Ise—what? ||
Ren stared.
"Wait, you guys seriously don't know?"
||No, Ren-san||
"Y'know, another world? Transported? Reincarnated? Protagonist powers?"
The yokai looked even more bewildered now.
Ren left a heavy sigh—of both disappointment and relief.
Nurarihyon realised something:
||Oh wait. You mean the weird timespace-meddling-stuff from Re:Zero? That thing?||
Now it was Ren's turn to get confused.
Nurarihyon, meanwhile, was explaining isekai to the other yokai:
||....you know, main character gets yeeted into another world—sometimes OP, sometimes dead inside.||
Jorogumo, still confused af, said:
||So you're telling me, isekai is nothing but 'Thrown into another world—could be a god, could be screwed.'||
Ren was vibing with Nurarihyon's explanation by now.
"Yeah, you got it. That was fire, Gramps!"
However, there was something wrong. Ren could feel it.
All the yokai were staring at him.
Panicking, Ren stuttered:
"W-What?"
The tension was almost palpable.
Suddenly, all of them started laughing.
Even the usually stoic Karasujin was sniggering.
"Uh, hold on guys, I don't quite see the joke here...."
Nurarihyon punched him in the back in a carefree way:
||Guess what, Renny my boy...||
Pause.
The room held its breath.
Then, in a voice dripping with menace, Nurarihyon said:
||You ain't even the first Ren we scammed this week.||