Griseo kept her head down, her eyes fixed on the withered, rotting leaves beneath her feet.
She wore a bright red hooded cloak, her hands clenched tight around a roughly woven wicker basket.
The forest around her had been painted in a suffocating shade of lead-gray, twisted branches interlocking overhead like withered claws, slicing the sky into broken fragments.
There was no color here.
The vividly colorful world she once knew had been utterly drained into a near-deathly gray-white.
"Good girl, keep moving."
The voice sounded again.
"You've been trapped here for a long time now. If you don't hurry and deliver that basket to Grandmother's house... just think how bad things could get."
Griseo's shoulders flinched.
"Mommy and Daddy would be worried sick."
"And Aponia—the sister who always shields you—she'd blame herself terribly for failing to protect you. She might even go kneel in the chapel every day, confessing."
The voice paused, its tone taking on a deliberately light, teasing edge.
"Oh, right."
"And everyone else too—Elysia, Eden, Kevin... how heartbroken they'd be."
"And most of all, that Brother Su Yu, who's had dark circles under his eyes lately and barely has time for a proper meal. You've seen it, haven't you? The weight on his shoulders is so heavy now. The colors on him haven't stayed bright for a long time."
"And if you get lost here and force him to stop everything just to come find you..."
"No..." Griseo hugged the basket tighter and quickened her pace.
"That's right," the voice chuckled softly. "You don't want to be a burden to everyone. You don't want to see Brother Su Yu wear that exhausted look because of you, do you?"
"So be a good little Red Riding Hood. See the hunter up ahead? Follow him, kill that troublesome big bad wolf, and you'll clear this damned dream and get back to everyone."
Griseo raised her head.
Standing ahead amid the drifting gray mist was a tall man.
He wore an old trench coat whose original color could no longer be told, an old-fashioned double-barreled shotgun cradled in his arms.
The man's face was veiled in a layer of blurred shadow; only a pair of hollow eyes stared fixedly at her.
Griseo hated that hunter.
A nauseating smell of rust clung to him.
But she had no choice—she didn't want everyone outside to worry.
"Let's go, Little Red Riding Hood," the hunter said, turning away, his boots landing on the rotten leaves with dull thuds.
Griseo silently followed.
They hadn't gone far when the bushes ahead began to shake violently.
With a gust of foul, bloody wind, an enormous black-furred wolf lunged out of the shadows, blocking the only path leading to the cabin in the woods.
The huge wolf was even larger than a full-grown brown bear.
Its fur had crusted into hardened scabs, as if soaked in blood, and several deep wounds ran along its spine, dark red blood dripping from its coat into the dirt.
It didn't lunge at Griseo. Its blood-red eyes were locked firmly on the hunter, a rolling thunder-like growl rumbling from its throat, its massive claws tearing deep furrows into the mud, barring the way forward.
"Look, that pesky beast is back again," the voice sighed against her ear. "Shoot it, Little Red Riding Hood. If you don't kill it, it'll eat you. Just pull the trigger, and it'll all be over."
The hunter shoved the heavy double-barreled shotgun into Griseo's hands, then stepped back.
The barrel was cold, its metal edges digging painfully into her small palms.
She struggled to lift the muzzle, the stock pressing against her thin shoulder.
The great wolf didn't flinch or dodge.
It only glanced at Griseo once—those blood-red eyes held no hunger, no ferocity, only a stubbornness that made her heart ache.
Then it turned its head again, letting out an even fiercer roar at the hunter.
"Shoot!" the voice urged in her ear.
Griseo closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
BANG—!
The massive recoil slammed her thin body hard onto the ground.
The acrid smell of burnt gunpowder spread instantly.
The wolf's huge body staggered, a bloom of blood bursting from its belly.
It let out a whimper and crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Griseo sat on the ground, her ears ringing.
She stared at the wolf lying in a pool of blood, and for some reason the air seemed to drain from her chest, her fingers trembling uncontrollably.
"Well done, good girl," the hunter said, walking past, stepping coldly over the wolf's corpse. "Grandmother's house is just ahead."
But how many times had this happened now?
Griseo couldn't remember.
In this twisted, ashen forest, the great wolf was like a ghost she could never shake off.
Every time she followed the hunter to a new fork in the path, the wolf would drag its increasingly battered body out to block the way, more broken than the time before.
Its claws always swung at the hunter, yet it always kept its back turned to Griseo's gun.
Again and again she pulled the trigger, again and again the wolf fell, only to appear once more at the next crossroads.
There was hardly a patch of unbroken fur left on it; in some places its bones showed through, ghostly pale.
Its movements grew slower, its growls fainter, but the stance it took between her and the hunter grew more resolute each time.
The last time she pulled the trigger, it was in front of a dilapidated wooden cabin.
The cabin's windows were sealed with blackened boards, no smoke rose from the chimney, and the air was thick with a lingering stench of mildew and rot.
The gunshot cracked through the empty clearing.
The wolf's hind leg shattered.
Its massive body tumbled through the air twice like a kite with its string cut, crashing hard onto the steps in front of the cabin.
Splinters flew.
This time, it did not get back up.
It lay on its side on the moss-covered boards, each labored breath bringing up a mouthful of blood-foam mixed with fragments of viscera.
Griseo threw the gun to the ground, its barrel still smoking.
She kept her head bowed, the red hood covering most of her face, hiding her expression.
The hunter walked up, kicked the wolf's head with his boot, sneered, and stepped back toward the door.
Griseo shuffled toward the cabin, step by step.
As she passed the wolf, her steps faltered.
The dying beast forced its eyes open, its blood-red pupils already unfocused.
It struggled to lift one paw, caked in mud and blood, and reached it toward Griseo.
Griseo froze where she stood.
She stared at the bloodied paw hanging in midair, and her vision blurred without warning.
She didn't know why she wanted to cry.
"Griseo, hurry inside," the voice urged. "Don't waste time."
Griseo wiped away her tears and walked toward the cabin, basket in hand.
The hunter followed behind her, a satisfied smile on his face.
Griseo pushed open the cabin door.
Inside, it was warm.
An old woman sat in a rocking chair; seeing Griseo enter, she broke into a kindly smile.
"Little Red Riding Hood, you've come," Grandmother said, her voice gentle and warm. "Hurry and give me the basket."
Griseo stepped forward and handed the basket to Grandmother.
The moment her hand touched the basket, the door behind her slammed shut.
Griseo spun around and saw the hunter standing by the door, his smile twisting into something grotesque.
Grandmother rose to her feet too, her kindly face beginning to melt, warping into something covered in cracks.
"Stay here forever, Griseo," Grandmother's voice turned shrill and piercing.
"The truth is, you've only ever been playing the role of an obedient child," the hunter said, his voice dripping with mockery. "You never wanted to do any of this."
"You wanted to whine and act spoiled without restraint."
"You wanted Mommy and Daddy to come to your art exhibition."
"You wanted everyone to fawn over you like a princess."
"You wanted..." the hunter paused, "to go back to that summer when Brother Su Yu took you around the studio."
Griseo's body went rigid in an instant.
"Because in that studio, you didn't have to bear those invisible pressures," Grandmother said. "The expectations of classmates. The expectations of teachers. The expectations of the atmosphere itself."
"You didn't have to fixate on being a good girl."
"You didn't have to be a genius painter."
"You only had to be yourself."
They spoke in unison, their voices echoing through the room.
Griseo covered her ears.
She didn't want to hear it.
She didn't want to admit it.
But those words pierced her heart like needles.
Yes, she was tired.
She was sick of being a perfect child.
She wanted to cry, to make a fuss, to be willful.
She wanted her Mommy and Daddy to spend more time with her, instead of always saying, "Griseo's such a good girl, go play by yourself for a while, okay?"
She wanted to see her parents' proud smiles at her art exhibition, not just praise from teachers and classmates.
She wanted to go back to that summer.
That summer at miHoYo Studio.
There, Brother Su Yu would pat her head, take her out for ice cream, sit with her while she painted.
There, she wasn't the genius painter Griseo—just an ordinary little girl.
"Stay," Grandmother and the hunter said, reaching out toward her, closing in slowly. "Here, you can be a child forever."
Griseo's legs trembled faintly.
She wanted to flee, but her body felt bound by some invisible force, unable to move.
Grandmother's and the hunter's hands drew closer, almost brushing her shoulders.
At that moment, a deafening roar rang out.
The cabin window shattered.
A massive gray shape burst in from outside, slamming into Grandmother and the hunter, knocking them both flying.
It was the great wolf.
It was covered in blood, several bullet wounds in its chest, blood dripping from its fur onto the floor. But it still rose to its feet, shielding Griseo behind it.
Griseo stared at the wolf's broad back.
That back was so wide it blocked out Grandmother and the hunter, blocked out every fear rising in her chest.
Then, Griseo saw color.
In this dark dream, in this world tainted purple, she suddenly saw color.
It radiated from the great wolf.
Warm orange, resolute blue, gentle yellow.
Those colors flowed and danced, shielding her.
Griseo recognized those colors.
They were Brother Su Yu's colors.
"Brother... Su Yu?"
The great wolf turned its head and looked at her.
In those amber eyes was tenderness, heartache, and a kind of relief that seemed to say, "you finally figured it out."
Griseo's tears burst forth all at once.
She finally understood.
From the very beginning, the great wolf had been Brother Su Yu.
Every time he'd blocked her path, it wasn't to hurt her—it was to stop her from walking into danger.
Every time she'd killed him, he'd come back to life again and again, just to protect her one more time.
And she—she'd pulled the trigger, again and again.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Griseo sobbed, her voice choked.
She looked at the horrifying bullet wounds on the wolf's body, at the wounds still bleeding, and her heart clenched as if something had seized it violently.
Those wounds—she had caused every one of them with her own hands.
The great wolf shook its head.
It gently patted her head with its paw, the way Brother Su Yu usually did.
It turned, facing the reassembling monster.
Grandmother's and the hunter's bodies had fused together into a single creature, covered in eyes and mouths.
"Leave!"
"Leave!"
"Leave!"
"You don't belong here!"
"This is her dream!"
"Her cage!"
"Her destination!"
The sickening voice came from the rotting flesh, its shrill frequency piercing the eardrums.
Countless barbed tentacles, like a swarm of frenzied sea serpents, lashed out at the great wolf from every direction, trying to drive out this intruder who had broken the dream's rules.
The great wolf let out a low, drawn-out howl.
It gently picked Griseo up by the scruff of her cloak with its mouth and tossed her into a relatively safe corner of the ruins behind it.
Then it turned to face the massive, twisted monster.
Through Griseo's tear-blurred eyes, the wounded, battered wolf's fur began to flake away like ash.
The black fur receded, the blood-red beast eyes dissolved, and slender human limbs replaced the thick beast legs.
Su Yu flexed his limbs; the bullet wounds on his body were still seeping blood.
But within a single breath, his self-healing body expelled the bullets, and they clattered to the ground one by one.
Seeing Su Yu whole again, as though he had never been hurt at all, the monster clearly froze.
Why—!!
Why, in this domain... can you still retain such Strength?
Your spiritual core should have shattered long ago!
Su Yu slowly rose to his feet.
He rolled his still-stiff wrists, his knuckles giving off soft cracking sounds.
"Ah, well, sorry about that," Su Yu sneered.
"Compared to these child's-play bullets... honestly, I'd say getting skewered by the Herrscher of the Void's Subspace Lance hurts a lot more."
His right hand suddenly clenched around empty air.
"Griseo, close your eyes. What comes next isn't for children."
The ripples of Tai Xu Sword Qi condensed in Su Yu's palm into a nearly transparent, blade-shaped afterimage.
The tangled monster didn't even have time to scream.
Its body split down the middle, like a wax figure scorched by intense heat—first solidifying, then cracking, and finally crumbling into countless flecks of gray dust, swept away by a wind that seemed to come from nowhere.
The boards, tangled with twisted vines, peeled away like old wallpaper being stripped layer by layer, revealing what lay beneath.
Flowers.
Griseo knelt on the ground, watching flowers push up through the cracks of the ruined cabin.
They were so vivid it made them seem unreal, in a world that had just been suffocatingly gray moments before.
The daisies were lemon-yellow, the cornflowers a diamond blue, the poppies a vermilion red.
Within seconds they carpeted the entire ground.
The cabin collapsed completely, dissolving without a sound into the sea of flowers.
A crack opened in the lead-gray sky overhead.
Sunlight poured through the crack, falling across Griseo's face.
She instinctively squinted, feeling a warmth she hadn't felt in so long.
She saw color.
The sky was a washed, clean blue, the clouds cream-white, and the distant hills a mosaic of layered greens.
This dream was being restored.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
Griseo didn't turn around.
She knew who it was.
The figure walked up to her and crouched down.
Su Yu's shirt was still torn, its cuffs shredded into ragged strips hanging by his wrists.
But the horrifying bullet wounds and bloodstains on his body had vanished completely, leaving only a few faint pink marks on his skin.
He reached out with his right hand, wiping the dust and tear tracks from Griseo's cheek with his thumb.
The gesture wasn't especially gentle—more like wiping down a grubby little kitten's face.
"You know," Su Yu said, "school really can be a scary place."
Griseo looked up at him.
"Don't let the way I am now fool you, like nothing scares me," he said, rubbing the back of his hand across his nose. "Back when I was in school, every time the bell rang for class, my heart would drop—especially for math class."
As he spoke, his gaze fell on the crooked red hood on top of Griseo's head.
"Your hood's crooked."
He reached over and straightened it for her.
Griseo kept staring at him.
Her lips moved, as if trying to arrange words, but they stuck in her throat for a long time, refusing to form a complete sentence.
Finally, she gritted her teeth.
"Brother Su Yu."
"Hm?"
"Would Brother Su Yu... hate Griseo?"
Su Yu's hand stilled on her hood.
"Why would you think that?"
Griseo lowered her head.
Her fingers twisted at the edge of her cloak, wringing the red fabric into a mess of wrinkles.
"Because... Griseo is a disobedient child."
Her voice was so small it nearly scattered on the wind.
"Griseo... doesn't want to attend the art exhibition."
"Griseo doesn't want to be sensible."
"Griseo wants Mommy and Daddy to put down their work and come play with Griseo."
"Wants to whine and be spoiled."
"Wants to eat lots and lots of ice cream."
"Wants..."
Her voice grew softer and softer.
"A disobedient, unruly Griseo like that..."
She raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears she fought hard to hold back.
"Would Brother Su Yu hate her?"
Su Yu looked at her.
Then he raised his index finger, aimed it at Griseo's forehead, and flicked it.
"Ow!"
Griseo covered her forehead, letting out a startled yelp.
The sound was completely unlike her usual quiet, reserved self—more like the protest of a kitten whose owner had just flicked its nose.
"What on earth is going on in that little head of yours?"
Su Yu tapped her forehead with his finger, his tone carrying something hard to place—somewhere between exasperation and amusement.
"Is that really something you need to worry about at your age?"
Griseo covered her forehead, tears still clinging to her lashes, but her expression had shifted from sorrow to a sulky pout.
Su Yu withdrew his hand and sat down cross-legged in front of her.
His posture was casual—one leg stretched out, the other bent, elbow resting on his knee.
"Being spoiled and whiny is a kid's right, you know."
As he said this, his gaze drifted past Griseo, out toward the wildly blooming field of flowers in the distance.
"And besides, I'd never hate you over something like that."
He brought his gaze back, settling it on Griseo.
"Whether it's the Griseo who tries so hard to act like a little grown-up."
"Or the Griseo who gets so absorbed in painting that she forgets to eat for an entire day."
"Or maybe..." he paused, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"The Griseo who secretly hides under her blanket, drawing that... unspeakable doujinshi."
Griseo's body went rigid.
Her face turned red from the base of her neck upward, visibly, in real time.
"That, that's..."
"Don't bother explaining," Su Yu waved a hand, his expression complicated. "Though I still can't figure out where a grade-schooler like you learned those... composition techniques. Never mind, doesn't matter."
He took a deep breath and forcibly steered the conversation away from that topic.
"What I'm trying to say is, all of that together—that's Griseo. Just like your paintings."
"Griseo, when you paint, do you only ever use one color?"
Griseo shook her head.
"Right," Su Yu said. "You use blue for the sky, yellow for the sun, red for flowers. Sometimes you even mix blue and yellow together to make green."
"What makes up a person is never just a single color either."
"The Griseo who wants to be spoiled is one color. The Griseo who works hard is another. The Griseo who secretly draws doujinshi... well, that color gives me a bit of a headache, but it's still your color too."
"Put all those colors together, and that's what makes up this vibrant, colorful world of ours."
A breeze blew in from the flower field, carrying the sweet mingled scent of daisies and cornflowers.
Griseo looked at the man in front of her.
His shirt was still torn, his hair still messy, dust from the fight still clinging to his face.
He sat cross-legged in the middle of a sea of flowers, explaining the meaning of colors to a little girl in a Red Riding Hood cloak.
Griseo's nose stung.
"Then... if Griseo wants to be spoiled, Brother Su Yu won't hate that either?"
"Nope. If anything, you're always welcome to."
"If Griseo is willful... will she be hated for it?"
"Then I'll just have to put up with your willfulness."
Griseo's fingers tightened on the edge of her cloak.
Her lips moved, as if she were making up her mind about something difficult.
"Then... if Griseo secretly... secretly draws doujinshi of Brother Su Yu and... someone else... will you get angry?"
The corner of Su Yu's mouth twitched.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.
"...Then I guess I'll have to claim the number one spot."
Griseo tilted her head, clearly not fully grasping the meaning of that sentence.
But from the resigned look on Su Yu's face, she read a certain message: "No matter how much you mess with me, I won't actually get mad."
Her eyes grew wet.
"Then... Griseo's going to start being spoiled now."
"Go right ahead."
"Can... can I pat Griseo's head?"
Su Yu extended his hand.
His palm settled on top of Griseo's head.
That hand was so big it nearly covered her whole small head.
His movements weren't especially gentle—almost careless, like ruffling the fur of some small furry animal.
Griseo's body stiffened for a moment.
Then, slowly, her shoulders relaxed.
Her eyes half-closed, and a soft pink, like the blush of a sunset, rose on her cheeks.
The corners of her mouth curled up—just barely, so slightly you'd miss it if you weren't looking closely.
But it was real—the first genuine smile Griseo, who rarely showed any expression at all, had ever worn in this dream.
Griseo's hands slipped out from under her cloak and carefully settled around Su Yu's wrist.
Her small hands now gently held his wrist, her fingertips pressing lightly, conveying a reluctance to let go.
Su Yu's hand stayed on top of her head for a long time.
The wind kept blowing through the flower field, stirring Griseo's loose blue hair.
Sunlight poured down through the crack in the sky, casting warm patches of light over the two of them.
"Griseo."
"Hm?"
Her voice carried a nasal, soft quality, like she'd just woken up.
"I'm sorry—I can't take you back right away."
Griseo opened her eyes and looked at Su Yu.
"This dream has more than one layer. We'll meet again soon, in the next one."
"But no matter where you end up in the next dream..."
Su Yu lowered his head, meeting Griseo's eyes.
"No matter what form you take, I'll find you." He extended his pinky finger. "That's a promise."
Griseo looked at the pinky finger held out before her.
Slowly, she extended her own and hooked it around his.
Two pinky fingers, linked together.
One rough, calloused, an adult man's finger; the other slender, stained faintly with paint, a little girl's finger.
"Mm."
The flower field beneath their feet began to glow.
The petals of the daisies, cornflowers, and poppies turned transparent from the base, like stained glass pierced by sunlight.
Light seeped out through the veins of the petals, gathering into thin streams that rose toward the sky.
The entire dream began collapsing, gently, in warmth.
The flower field turned to light, the light turned to color, the color turned to warmth, and the warmth turned into an indescribable sense of peace that made her want to close her eyes.
Su Yu's figure grew blurred amid the light.
But Griseo's pinky finger still held onto his.
She didn't let go, not until the very last moment.
The light faded away.
Griseo opened her eyes again.
Her body wouldn't move.
Something enveloped her tightly from every direction.
She tried to move her eyes.
Her field of vision was filled with a faint, pale-blue-tinted crystal.
It extended from her toes all the way up over her head, forming a perfectly sealed, coffin-shaped space.
A crystal coffin.
Griseo lay inside it, her hands folded over her chest.
The little Red Riding Hood cloak was gone, replaced by an ornate white gown.
She looked like a sleeping princess.
Outside the crystal coffin lay a stretch of pitch-black void.
No flower field, no sunlight, no wind.
Only her, alone, sealed inside this cold, transparent cage.
But Griseo wasn't afraid.
Her right pinky finger remained slightly curled, still holding the shape it had made when it hooked around Su Yu's.
Warmth still lingered faintly on her fingertip—his warmth.
He'd said it, after all.
No matter where she ended up in the next dream, no matter what form she took.
He would find her.
They'd made a promise.
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