This story is also on Royal Road.
{Rough Draft Phase}
Harlow Blackburne, an enthusiast of the famous manga known as "Gods Don't Bleed", finds his life turned upside down when a routine test reveals a shocking truth: he's a 100% monster.
Thrust into...
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Harlow blinked, trying to clear his head as the strange, heavy feeling drifted away. When his eyes adjusted, he found himself back in the mall, standing in the middle of a bright, bustling food court.
The place was filled with people, no monsters, no chaos. Just people, shopping bags in hand, laughing and chatting like it was any other day. It looked...peaceful. Harlow's mind struggled to catch up, and then he scowled. His fists clenched, and he stomped a foot hard on the polished mall floor.
THIS IS SO ANNOYING WHERE'S MY MANGA!!!
He could still remember holding that volume, and could practically feel the weight of it in his hand.
I was almost done with a chapter again too...
He didn't have time to spiral, though. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone familiar. That girl—the one who'd been staring him down with that dead-eyed look.
Only, this time, she looked... different. She was walking down the mall, smiling brightly, practically skipping, alongside an older boy. Harlow squinted. He hadn't seen this guy before, but judging by the way the two interacted, it seemed like he was her brother.
Ignoring his surroundings, Harlow jogged over to them, his frustration simmering back to the surface. That girl had made his life a hassle earlier; he was more than ready to give her a piece of his mind.
Maybe a punch would do her some good too. He started to raise his fist, but then he stopped short. She had something in her hands, something that made him stare.
Volume 1 of Gods Don't Bleed.
His own Volume 1—the same one he'd lost.
Harlow's mind took a second to piece things together, and in that second, the girl and her brother walked right past him as though he weren't even there.
Harlow frowned.
Was he seeing things? No, the cover was unmistakable. The girl was carrying his manga. He cleared his throat, expecting her to turn, to flinch, to react—but she didn't. Not even a blink in his direction.
Harlow stepped forward, waving a hand in front of her face. She didn't flinch, didn't react. She just kept smiling, her eyes focused on her brother, completely ignoring him.
A realization started to form, one that made him uncomfortable. Maybe this wasn't the mall. Or, at least, it wasn't the mall in the way he was used to seeing it. Could he be in someone's mind?
He didn't know how that worked, but he remembered that in the prologue of Gods Don't Bleed, there was a villain with the power to manipulate minds and create entire worlds that weren't real.
"Wait... Am I in someone's imagination or something?" he mumbled.
The boy, noticing that his sister was distracted, turned to her. "Hey, Kyoufu. What are you staring at?"
