Forest of Horrors

Save Your Story

Synopsis: An experiment goes wrong and seems to really be affecting Ryouma. Takatora is confused by how upset this mistake has made Ryouma and discovers more than he had asked for as a result.

CW// self-harm

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Takatora knew going into things that he should always be prepared for the unknown. With what his job entailed, there were bound to be many things unexpected that popped up along the way. However, this... this was not something he had ever prepared to deal with.

When he first met Ryouma, the young scientist seemed very put together. He was always very confident and proud of his work. Always seemed to know exactly what needed to be done to improve things.

So when things went wrong, things really went wrong. Ryouma had been testing out some minor things with Helheim. It hadn't ended well, unfortunately. The experiment failed and caused quite a bit of damage.

Nothing major. No one had gotten badly hurt. And it had been in Helheim so who really cared if the forest got a bit destroyed?

Ryouma had retreated from everyone once things had settled down. His head had been hung low. Takatora wasn't used to seeing him defeated like that. Sure, he had only been working with Ryouma for a few months, but he felt like he knew him quite well by now. Arguably he knew him better than he probably should for how little time they've known each other for.

Then again, this was the most major mess up he had made since they had joined forces. Maybe that had something to do with how dejected he seemed.

Takatora went after Ryouma. He wanted to make sure he was alright. He hadn't said anything about if he had been injured or not from it.

Ryouma had left quickly. Takatora had no idea where he had gone. He took a guess that he may be in his lab and went there. Perhaps he was going to look over his notes on this experiment and try to figure out what had gone wrong?

Instead of that, Takatora stumbled into a much worse scene. Ryouma had flung papers everywhere and was looking quite upset.

"You idiot! Stupid! Stupid!" He was yelling at himself, going and hitting himself as he spoke as well. "Why can't you do anything right?!"

Takatora found himself unable to move. He was stuck watching the scene unfold. He was startled too much by the sudden change in Ryouma's demeanor. He had never seen him act this way before. It was concerning.

"Why... why can't I just die...?"

Those words were enough to make Takatora move. "Ryouma."

Ryouma whipped around at the sound of his voice. It was clear that he had also been crying.

"What do you want?" Ryouma's voice was flat as he spoke.

"To make sure you're alright." Takatora stated, inviting himself into the room.

"I'm fine. Go away." Ryouma grumbled, turning away.

"You aren't fine. What's going on? Why are you so upset?" Takatora questioned, "Mistakes happen. There's no need to beat yourself up so much about it."

"I don't need your help. Leave me alone."

"Ryouma-"

"Leave me alone!" Ryouma whipped back around and snapped at him.

Takatora took a step back. "Ryouma, please. You're my friend. I don't want to see you like this."

"Then get out!" Ryouma shoved him out the door and slammed it in his face.