Paradigm Parasite

no….

 

A scene from my previous life reappears in my mind.

　A junior high school classroom.
Uniforms covered in dust from being trampled on.
A gaze looking down at me.
Ridicule, ridicule, ridicule.

　Kick, kick, kick against the rounded back.
More mockery.

 

　The dusky black stuff erupted from my mind.

　It instantly took control of my body.

 

　I'll kill you!　I'll kill you!　I'm going to kill you….

　Wait, wait, wait!

 

　I bit into the leg of the guy who was stomping on me.

　I bit him off.
There was a bone, but I crushed it whole.

Naturally, my teeth were shattered, too.

 

　The guy who was stomping on me moved away from me.
The teeth grew back at a great speed.

　No, that's too fast.

　I punched the guy who had been eaten in the leg and was unable to move.

 

The guy who was punched did not seem to endure it a bit, since my arm strength was not so different from a human's.
I used my other arm to make more fists.

　I started to punch him again with my other arm.
No, it didn't work.

The head I hit exploded.

 

　Die!　Die!　Die!

　What?　What?　How did that happen!?

 

　I turn my attention to my arms.
My arms had become huge.

It was not the arm I had before, but an arm that was disproportionately large for a body with dark skin and veins showing through it.

　What is this arm?

 

　Wait a minute.

　It looks familiar.
That's it.
It's a troll's arm.

Did I rebuild it? How did I do that?

　That's when I suddenly realized.
It's the regeneration I've been doing without even thinking about it.

 

　Wasn't that regeneration?　Perhaps it was “making”?

　If so, then what I had thought of as regeneration was the ability to compose a body.

　Along those lines, the next question is how it is being restored.

 

　The answer is probably memory.

I must have unconsciously composed my body based on Rothfeldt's memories.

So, this time, I had to reference the troll's memories to remake this arm.

 

　Ah, I see, that makes sense.

　But what concerns me more is this situation.

　My body is out of my control and is running amok on its own.

　To be precise, most of my thoughts were tinged with anger, and the rest were confused.

 

　I had unintentionally grabbed a guy who jumped in front of me with his mouth open, slammed him to the ground, and then smashed his head with a fist strike.

　I should describe this situation as a memory taking over….

　I can barely think in part, but the majority of my head is red with rage and hatred in my vision.

 

　The trigger must be the traumatic stimulus.

　In fact, the situation was really similar to that time.
After that, the homeroom teacher showed up and the situation was resolved.

My classmates made a token apology and we called it off, but at the time I saw everyone around me as nothing more than enemies.

 

With the goblins, it was just a matter of being a stranger, so I could get away with that much, but this is what happens when I face it firsthand.

　I guess this situation was not all bad, because I discovered many things, but it was still a bad situation.

　I wanted to be able to destroy all the enemies by awakening new power with anger, but the learning ability of the enemies was also quite good.

 

　They seemed to have switched to a one-strike-and-you're-out strategy, taking advantage of their footwork.

　They repeatedly strike from a blind spot with their claws and move out of range.

　In contrast, I, in anger mode, had my physical attack power jumped up due to the giant size of my arms, but my movements were slowed down due to the size of my arms.

 

　Why don't I just replace my whole body with a troll? I wondered, but it seems I can't think of anything else to do with my body.

　Besides, this reconfiguration is not very fuel-efficient.

　My body is beginning to complain of hunger.
It seems that the fast healing and reconstructing of my injuries used up all the calories I had stored up from eating goblins.

 

　I mean, I didn't realize it, but my spine was crushed and broken, but it's healed before I knew it.

The claw wounds I've been suffering from are also recovering at a rapid rate.

Or should I say it's healing? …Either way, it doesn't matter.

 

　But the one on my finger is not healing.
The wound is still black.

　I guess this one won't heal until that one disappears.
Oh, I ate off the black part.

　Oh, it grew back.
Oh, so I just cut off the black part.
Oh, my gosh, the body's instincts are telling it to do it.

 

　But if I don't do anything, I'm going to lose.

　I have to somehow regain control of my body.

　But looking at myself objectively is an amazing experience for me.

 

　I'm so angry that I'm swinging my arms and legs around and trying to hold my body down, which has attacked nothing but empty space since a while ago.

　My thoughts are still filled with death and killing, but I manage to intervene to calm them down by thinking about something else.

 

　It's like some kind of dual personality.

 

　On second thought, it may be similar.

This one will have to be dealt with, but I'd keep it off for now.

I force myself to take several deep breaths while eating the claws.

 

　Hot breath like steam came out of my mouth.

　I did this a few times and calmed down a bit.

　Body control…seems doable.

 

　First, I had to deal with my arms, which had grown too big.

The muscles themselves were replaced with those of a troll to increase density while returning them to human form.

　The rest of the arms will be balanced and treated in the same way.

　The power would be slightly reduced, but the fists would be powerful enough to kill.

 

　I countered a guy who had gotten carried away and stepped in too deep by slamming my fist into his face.

　The guy didn't explode, but the place where I hit him caved in.

　The guy who was hit fell down and was convulsing.

 

　6 left.

　I grabbed the corpse of the guy I beat to death and threw him at the nearest guy.

When he ducked, I closed the gap with my enhanced leg strength and punched him in the jaw, shattering it, then struck another blow and crushed his skull.

 

　5 left.

He tried to bite me from behind, so I ducked and bit him on his long neck and ate him up.

 

　4 left.

Two of them came at the same time, so I grabbed the one that bit me and swung it around like a hammer toss to reave each other.

　They both rolled on the ground, so I stomped on their heads.

 

　2 left.

　I guessed he felt threatened because his friends had been killed, and he seemed to be looking for an opening at a distance.

So I snickered at them, making a mocking face.

　The animal seemed to understand the meaning of the provocation, and came at me head-on.

Naturally, I beat them to death.

 

　1 remaining.

　The last one ran off into the aisle they came out of, but where they came out was not an aisle but a narrow cul-de-sac, so I easily caught up with it.

　It started whimpering pitifully, but I ignored it and beat it to death.

 

　I managed to wipe them out…for the time being.

 

　”I'm hungry.”

 

　Let's go eat.