DESCRIPTION
-FICTIONAL WORK-
The lake was silent, yet suffocating.
Shinobu’s body trembled as she knelt upon the cold, silty ground, her wrists bound cruelly behind her back. The water pressed in from every side, dark and endless, like a tomb without walls.
After destroying her clothes, Gyokko’s creation slithered around her — a grotesque mass of slime and tentacles, its movements slow, deliberate, taunting. From the ends of those limbs sprouted needle-like barbs, glinting faintly even in the murk. They hovered before her face, wavering, as if savoring the moment before striking.
Her lungs screamed for air, but her spirit refused to shatter. Fear coiled within her chest, sharp and unrelenting, yet beneath it pulsed defiance. So this is what he wants… to see me break.
The water muffled every sound, yet her heartbeat thundered in her ears, louder than any demon’s laughter. She thought of the sky above — unreachable, distant, yet still there. Gyokko wanted to see her scream, panic and drown in terror. But Shinobu won’t give him that pleasure. Even if the convulsions stroke her body with each escaping bubble from her lips.