Chapter Text
She huffs as she runs past the medical beds as the sounds of crashing and growling can be heard behind her. She doesn't dare look back because if she does she knows her legs will give out and she'll be frozen with fear. Instead she focuses on trying not to trip as she rushes up the stairs to the doorway of the clinic and rams the closed door with her shoulder to force it open. The lock gives way as it breaks open and the wood splints apart and she sees day light suddenly surround her as she goes barreling forward into the front yard of the clinic.
She's barely able to keep herself upright as she looks for where to go as the growling behind her grows louder. Only one of the gates is open and she quickly rushes through it and runs as fast as she can until she comes to an intersection leading towards a random street or a house and she picks the house because maybe someone can help her there.
She runs as fast as she can as howling is not far behind her and thankfully she makes it to the building, but something seems strange about it. The doors cracked wide open and it's broken off it's hinges and the insides dark, too dark. But the sound of the wolf monster behind her forces her inside as she looks around for help or something to defend herself with.
Then in the darkness she sees someone holding a torch and her heart picks up as she rushes towards them.
"Please help me there's a monster trying to-!" But as soon as she steps close to them they turn around and try and shove the torch in her face.
"Stop! What the hell are you-!"
"Wicked beast away with you!" She hears the man's garbled voice yell at her and it's then that she realizes his face isn't human, but anymore. It's covered in fur and bandages as wicked teeth sprout from his mouth. Then she senses something behind her and quickly dodges out of the way as another person swings an axe where her head used to be.
They both yell at her as she begins to run up the stair case to escape from them and just as she's about to reach the top that wolf from earlier breaks into the house and begins to make it's way towards her. She hurries to what she can see is light coming through the exit of the building and she hopes it's safe past that door.
But then a gun shot rings out from behind her seconds after she feels the pain in her shoulder and she crashes into the wall next to her but is barely able to grab on to it to keep herself from falling. She pushes down the burning pain in her left shoulder as she wobbles to the door and makes sure to keep her head down as another shot rings out from behind her, she's a foot away from the door when another shot barely grazes her leg causing her to wince but she ignores it and pushes herself through the doorway and stumbles as she has nothing to hang on to any more and collapses on the chiseled stone of wherever she is.
She takes a breath to calm herself as she tries to figure out where to go now. But then she hears growling again and this time it's twice as loud and she turns to find not one but two different giant wolves staring at her. She begins to cry as all she can do is think about her mother and father and how much she misses them and how she'll never get to see them again.
She knows this is where she'll die but she may as well put up a fight before then, she looks at the broken and discard items on the ground around her from all the stuff the wolves had been eating and chewing on and finds a rickety old bunch of wooden planks held together by nails and rope. It's almost useless but it's better than nothing.
She drags her body up until she's standing despite the pain from her wounds and holds up the rickety piece of wood to defend herself.
"What are you waiting for!" she yells as loud as she can at the wolves as she prepares to fight and die. Then the wolves growl in anger as they both charge towards her and she can't help but close her eyes as they are about to pounce.
She hopes its a quick death so she doesn't suffer. But then she feels them run past her and she opens her eyes and looks behind her. Then she watches as the two wolves go and fight the other wolf that was chasing her from earlier.
She feels like she would have lost control of her bladder if she wasn't so poor she couldn't even afford to drink enough liquids. But she quickly comes out of her stupor as she sees the first wolf bite into the second wolfs throat before using it's claws and pulls both it's throat and arm off.
She quickly realizes no matter which wolf wins or if any of them do she still loses. She quickly limps her way away from them and tries to find a place to hide or somewhere safe to go. She comes to an intersection and she chooses to go right.
It turns out to be a mistake because it's a dead end leading to a giant sewer pit. She quickly tries to turn back and go the other way but finds it's too late the first wolf won and has already caught up. Ochako tries to look for a way past them but the wolf hounds them as it gets closer and closer pushing her towards the edge.
She doesn't know what to do, she's trapped and she knows she can't win a fight against the wolf it tore those other two apart easily. But she has to do something anything.
But before she can do anything the wolf growls before lunging forward and colliding with her. She feels herself tumble off the edge as the wolfs claws rake at the make shift shield and all she can think is 'i don't wanna fall' 'i don't wanna fall'
Then for a brief moment she feels completely weightless as both her and the wolf float above the pit, she feels fear coursing through her whole body but also strangely hope. But it all comes crashing down as the wolfs jaw clamps down on her shield and turns it to splinters with a single bite and whatever was keeping them a float fades away immediately as they both go crashing down into the pit. Ochako lands on the wolf before they tumble and it's razor like claws slice into her arms and legs then whatever they fell on breaks causing them to fall again and this time it's ochako that takes the brunt of the damage as her side hits something metallic and she feels something break and a few things fracture. Then when they finally land the wolf can finally get their claws enough leverage to dig their jaw deeper into her arm breaking it as the fangs try to rip her flesh apart.
She screams in agony as all she can do is hit its face and grab pieces of broken wood to stab at it's eyes but she knows she's beginning to lose conciousness from all the pain and all the blood she's losing and all she can do is cry.
"Please help me! Please!"
*Bang*
She watches as the wolfs head disintegrates as it's jaw falls apart and her arm is released. She feels its lifeless body fall on top of her and its blood from its missing head begin to spill on top of her and she wants to puke but she hasn't eaten in days and all she has left is bile in her stomach. It still doesn't keep her from making gagging noises as she tries to climb out from underneath it's dead body.
But her body is weak and her bones are broken and she's lost too much blood to stay awake, everything's getting dark. She hears footsteps in the distance as her eyes begin to close and she can only see dark shoes and a female voice as she loses consciousness.
"Tch, you're just a kid, you shouldn't be here"
...
Nightmares that's all she remembers as wakes up to a loud bang. The sound sends anxiety through her body because all she remembers is pain and the feeling of bullets hitting her. She quickly opens her eyes and cowers as she looks towards the sound.
There a few feet away from her is a older woman wearing a dark garb resembling crow feathers, she has dark purple hair with pink stripes running through it and serious expression as she holds a long scopeless barreled rifle out over the railing in front of her. She watches as she twirls her hair around one of her fingers before it turns into a solid form resembling a bullet and loads it into her gun. Then she takes steady aim and holds her breath before firing again.
"Finally awake huh" she says without looking away from what she is shooting at. Ochako freezes as she tries to think of what to say, taking note of all the empty bottles around her that smell of blood and the bandages around her wounds. All she can think of is two words.
"Thank you" she watches as the woman's expression changes for a moment before going back to a neutral expression.
"You shouldn't be here kid, it isn't safe" she fires another round and there's a distant cry from something inhuman and she doesn't want to know what that is, ever.
"I know it isn't safe but i came here to find something for my family, i-, i don't know if i can go back empty handed" then she watches as the older woman finally breaks her eyes away from her rifle and looks at her and she sees a deadly expression on her face.
"If you want to see your family again then go home, you're no beast hunter girl" she looks away from her intense gaze because she knows what she says is true, she doesn't belong here, she should just go home. But what if her mother or father geta sick or what if something happens to one of them what then? They barely have enough money to survive as is and whatever is in this city may be their only hope.
She bites her lip as she looks into the older woman's eyes and speaks.
"I can't go home, i don't have a choice, not yet" she sees anger brewing in the older womans eyes but she just bites her tongue and turns around to grab something from a box next to her.
"Fine, but you need to learn to defend yourself and I'm not gonna be around to help you like last time" she picks something up and tosses it at her feet. It's a strange looking curved blade.
"Go to the chapel if you need safety and bring any survivors there if you can but be careful of who you trust or you'll end up killing everyone" then she tosses her a few bottles of a red looking substance before climbing up on the railing and jumping off.
All she can do is stare at the bottles and the strange blade she gave her as thinks of what to do but all the emotions of the past day come collapsing in on her and she begins to cry.
She wants to go home.