Chapter 1: The Dragon Who Woke Up.
Gidorah stared at himself.
No, that wasn't quite right. He stared at the thing that he had become with hints of helplessness.
One of his massive forelimbs rested against the stone of the cave he'd long since decided to make his shelter, thick with muscle and wrapped in overlapping emerald-green scales that shimmered faintly in the dim cave light.
Each of his claws were the size of a sword, curved and sharp enough that even a careless twitch could gouge stone. Besides those, he seemed to possess new appendages he never thought he would one day have, a pair of powerful, skin covered wings, with claw tips at their apex joints.
When he shifted, his ridged spine scraped against the cavern wall, producing a low, grinding sound that vibrated through his bones, whilst causing faint sparks to fall stop his scales.
If one were to measure his form, they would dumbfounded to realise that he was a creature averaging a length of 27 meters.
Gidorah exhaled, and the breath came out hot, unnaturally hot, fogging the air with a faint greenish haze.
"Fantastic," he muttered, his voice deep, layered, and echoing in a way no human throat could ever manage. "I die of a heart attack… and wake up as an overgrown lizard."
" I should've known that isekai troupe wasn't just someone else's imagination." Formerly a gamer and weeb himself, he'd played lots of games and watched countless anime, but never once did he think he'd get a first hand experience of such things himself.
Two pairs of horns rose from his skull, sweeping backward and upward like a crown carved for a tyrant. His reflection shimmered faintly on a pool of water near the cave floor, and when his eyes met it, a pair of menacing emerald pupils stared back, giving of an ancient, sharp, and utterly inhuman vibe.
Out of all the things he could become, to think he'd actually turned into a bluming dragon.
' I couldn't have just died... Why did they have to give me a second chance.... Couldn't I have at least gone to meet...'
He let out a long sigh and lowered his head, the weight of it alone enough to crack stone.
'How did it even come to this?' he wondered to himself, The memories coming uninvited into his mind as he recalled the last things he had before finding himself in such a body..
*****
The last things he recalled were his small, quiet apartment with the curtains drawn as if he feared the sunlight itself. The glow of a screen painting the walls blue.
Empty ramen cups stacked in corners, their lids half-peeled, the smell of salt and artificial broth lingering in the air. A controller resting loosely in his hands as hours blurred together into days.
He hadn't needed much nor did he want much.
For as long as he could remember, his food always arrived in cups. He never left his apartment because to him, his entertainment always came from his screen.
His finances came from the inheritance his parents had left behind, which was a lot since they were quite well off before they left him. money that steadily shrank but had always been enough. Enough to stay inside and to never really face the outside world.
*****
At the thought of his parents, something inside him tightened.
Their faces surfaced in his mind, their warm smiles, tired eyes and hands that used to rest on his shoulders when he was younger. They had worked hard. Harder than he ever had. And then, suddenly, one day, they were gone, leaving him alone to fend for himself. Even while he never left his room, even while others would mock him on occasion when they saw him, his parents never treated him as a disgrace nor as some kind of embarrassment, rather they treated him kindly, even when he brought up his dream to be a streamer, they never once complained, only encouraging him to follow his heart.
At the thought of those good days, The cave suddenly felt colder.
Gidorah slowly lowered his massive body to the stone floor, curling his tail around himself.
His wings, as enormous as they were, folded tight along his sides, shifted with a faint rustle. For a while, he simply lay there, staring at nothing, the glow in his eyes dimming.
"….With this body, I definitely won't be able to do anything fun again." he murmured, staring at his huge hands.
" The only thing I can still do is... rest." Before he knew it, his eyelids began feeling heavier. A yawn escaping his huge maw, sending forth a gust of wind.
" AHHH!!!!" But his eyes were forced to open up once more when he heard a sudden shrill scream.
One definitely belonging to a desperate and frightened person.
*****
Mitsuki was running on pure terror.
Branches tore at her skin, while thorns snagged her blood-soaked dress, but she didn't stop.
She couldn't stop, because she knew if she did, what awaited her was a horrendous death.
Her lungs burned, her legs screamed, and her vision blurred with tears she didn't have the time to shed because behind her came the sound of constantly snarling creatures.
Shortly after she escaped the confines of the bush, The beasts burst through the undergrowth.
They resembled wolves, but no wolf should look like that, for their bodies were larger, thicker, warped with muscle, and each snarling head bore four eyes, two glowing crimson pairs that locked onto her with a predatory light.
Saliva dripped from their elongated jaws as they closed the distance, claws tearing through soil with terrifying ease.
She stumbled into a clearing, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw something ahead.
It was a cave.
Finally, she thought, feeling as if she'd been granted a miracle. The thought of running in there and hiding from these monsters was now the only thing on her mind.
Without hesitation, she rushed inside, nearly collapsing against the stone walls only to catch her self with her hand.
"RAWRR!"
Mitsuki's back was instantly drenched in cold sweat realising she'd made a grave mistake by wasting that much time.
As she spun around to face her pursuers. Her chest heaved as she waited for the impact, for the beasts claws and teeth to sink into her flesh and tear her apart.
Alas, she was fortunate enough that such a thing never happened.
Rather than lounging at her, The wolves stopped at the cave's mouth.
They paced around and snarled for a moment, but suddenly began to whine the next second.
Their bodies now looked tense, their many eyes darting nervously toward the darkness beyond her. One of them let out a sharp, agitated howl before stepping back.
Then another.
Then all of them turned and fled into the forest, disappearing as if chased by something unseen.