keyswhisperer

[keyswhisperer]

“Through the Christmas Glass” - Ch.3 : ‘Blueberry Santa’ (excerpt)

“Less than 10 minutes later she returned with two pitch black rabbits hanging from her hand. Their necks appeared to have been snapped. Kuro wondered how they would taste, but he was too hungry to be picky. Laura skinned the  rabbits swiftly with a small knife; their blood, predictably, was not red but cyan, just like Santa's suit in his dream.” Read more here

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“Through the Christmas Glass” - Ch.2 : ‘Amber Sky’ (excerpt)

“He heard nervous footsteps and the familiar sound of water filling a   bucket. Soon that water was all over his sleepy face and damn, it was cold. Kuro was off his bed faster than a cat could eat a freshly fried smelt. No, wait, that was not his bed. Where the heck was he? He did not recognize the room or... wherever he was.” Read more here

[keyswhisperer]

“Through the Christmas Glass” - Ch.1 : ‘Black Snow’ (intro)

“Kuro tripped on a root and fell face down on the thick snow. His   pursuers were closing in but he was utterly spent. He barely ever   stopped running for his life since he came to this bizarre world. He was  also famished; his stomach was growling like a V12 car engine running on its last fuel vapors.” Read more here

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Time Capsule Ch. 12 - Taming Saiko-chan (excerpt)

“Next we needed a head of logistics. One responsible for food, water and other supplies. Arguably just as important as security. Without supplies we would all starve. And the supplies would soon dwindle. We either needed to escape Tokyo or secure a large enough garden in Tokyo, such as a greenhouse, in order to grow our own food.” Read more here

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Time Capsule Ch. 11 - The New Girl (excerpt)

“ "Wakey wakey sunshine", Fumiko-chan said to 'babe-chan' while dripping on her face a bit of water. My girl volunteered to keep an eye on her herself, since she also wanted to test her power and perhaps devise a way for those of us with no training to resist it. I warned her that she would probably go on the attack the second she woke up, like a wild cat, but she fully expected that. ” Read more here

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Time Capsule Ch. 10 - The Decision (excerpt)

“I was still unsure whether to vote for or against letting them live, but if everyone else gave a thumbs down sign I planned to give one as well.

"As you must have probably guessed these two are complete psychopaths. They kill not in order to survive or out of self-defense but simply because they enjoy it. It appears that 'babe-chan' here is the ringleader and Dai-kun follows her lead. She said she wanted to gut you all girls out like pigs and take cute little trophies from your entrails..”

Read more here

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Time Capsule Ch. 9 - A Greater Threat (excerpt)

“You see, I used to be anosmic, due to congenital anosmia. This means that since I was born I could not smell anything, and as a result my taste was affected too. Everything tasted kind of bland. Since this morning, after I woke up, I think I've started to smell things. I do not even know what smell is, other than what I've read in books, but I have no other way to explain it. I smell, still faintly, both good and bad smells.”

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Time Capsule Ch. 8 - Something Weirder (excerpt)

"Watches that never needed a battery, never rusted and unless they were physically damaged they would keep ticking for centuries. It was very hard to damage them anyway, since all of them had hard sapphire screens. They were the perfect tools to keep track of time, of shifts etc in a post-apocalyptic world. They were also exquisite pieces of extremely elaborate craftsmanship with a tradition of centuries. And we didn't need to pay a yen for them. Quite frankly we felt a bit like thieves."

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Time Capsule Ch. 7 - Something Weird (excerpt)

"My senses have been getting sharper. I can distinguish faint sounds from farther than I used to while I can hear loud sounds quite more intensely. My nose has become quite more sensitive. I can smell more acutely less intense smells, such as those of the cherry blossoms in their pre-blossom state. Their smell feels a bit raw or 'unripe', this is how I can only explain it."

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Time Capsule Ch. 6 - A Safer Place (excerpt)

"At fist light we woke up and departed after a mere 5 minutes. We wished we had some coffee or tea, but forgot to check if any had survived. Perhaps tea bags, if still dry and sealed, were still viable. Noted for our next supply run. We were now on our way to find a safer place that was free of potential hostiles."

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Time Capsule Ch. 5 - Retribution (excerpt)

“ "I was trying to be nice No 3 but your mouth clearly has not been washed for decades... literally as I can tell", she looked at his full of dental plaque teeth and shivered in disgust. These guys did not seem to care about how they looked. All except bosu were still wearing their 2025 rags and they stank like rats who just had a bath in a long stagnant sewer.”

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Time Capsule Ch. 4 - A Threat (excerpt)

“I swiftly gathered plenty of dry wood, small and larger fallen branches, some dry leaves, and a bit of semi-decayed paper from the toilets. For a moment I thought about getting some petrol from some cars that were parked close, but then I realized all the petrol ('gazoline' for any American reading) would have long evaporated by now.”

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Time Capsule Ch. 3 - Survivors (excerpt)

“I know that this might sound cruel or heartless but we cannot afford to form an orphanage. We have neither the resources nor the experience for it. In other words, with every minor we ‘adopt’ we are minimizing the chances of survival of all of us, including the children we take under our wings. Therefore Haru-kun must be the first and last child of our group, OK? Oh, Akira-kun, since you are the one who brought Haru-kun here you need to be responsible for him. We will help however we can but he is now your main responsibility, not ours”.

Read more here

[keyswhisperer]

My novel was presumably disqualified from entering the semi-finals of the contest due to its 18+ language in Chapter 9. The novels need to be 13+, not just <18 (I’m an imbecile, I know). There are two days left in the voting window of Prompt 3 (Isekai and similar). I was DQed but others keep going. If you have an account at MAL take a look!

[keyswhisperer]

Time Capsule Ch. 0 - The Aftermath (intro)

   “I start from the Aftermath because the main event was too sudden and swift to even register with most of us. I also have not fully recovered from the "survivor shock" (and/or guilt) yet, since barely a week has passed since I woke up. Writing about the 7 - 8 weeks of the so called 'Naturecaust' event itself is still quite raw and traumatic.   I write this piece in order to place it in a time capsule meant to be opened 100 years later, whether I survive in this much sparser, roomier and rather hostile new world or not. It is an account of how I and some other survivors from Japan reacted when we first woke up and how we tried to survive afterwards.

  I decided to write it in English because I am not sure who the eventual recipients of my time capsule are going to be, and I also wanted it to be readable by as many people as possible.”

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[keyswhisperer]

And.. Chapter 2, which concludes the Gathering arc.

[keyswhisperer]

The first official chapter after the prologue.