The Oni turned.
||NEXT STOP: DENIAL||
Jorogumo beamed.
||OOH! THAT’S WHERE WIG #3 GOT STOLEN BY THAT EMOTIONALLY UNAVAILABLE CENTIPEDE.||
Ren’s eye twitched so hard it started buffering.
~~~
Fr tho, Ren was curious.
Ren stepped forward outside— and immediately regretted it.
The air felt off. Like walking into a bathroom right after someone had unleashed a war crime in there, but emotional.
The sky was a pale grayscale bruise, like a watercolor painting someone tried to erase but gave up halfway. Buildings leaned at impossible angles, stretching toward the clouds like they were trying to escape the shame of being constructed here.
Giant floating mirrors hovered midair, cracked but not broken, reflecting not what was— but what should’ve been. Streets twisted in loops, leading nowhere and everywhere at once, paved in receipts Ren never wanted to read.
Even the wind whispered dumb shit like,
"You’re totally fine."
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“They’ll text back any minute now.”
Lies. All of it.
Lies dipped in serotonin and denial sauce.
Ren, rubbing his face, said:
"Okay what fresh Tumblr-ass hell is this?"
Nurarihyon was sliding in like a sleazy mob boss from a psychological horror anime.
||Welcome,|| Nurarihyon said, arms wide like he was giving a TED Talk on emotional repression. ||To the Realm of Denial. Where reality checks bounce and accountability is a foreign language.||
He was wearing a bathrobe over a Gucci suit, sipping on a martini glass full of tears.
Literal tears. Some of them were sobbing. The glass whimpered when he sipped it.
||You've reached the mental loading screen people hit when they're so not ready to deal with their shit, they accidentally astral project here.||
Ren looked around.
"This place looks like a Pinterest board made by someone who peaked in 2014 and never moved on."
Nurarihyon nodded.
||Exactly. The vibe is terminally online. The aesthetics are delusion-core. We got echo chambers, projection fields, repression gardens... oh and that thing.||
He pointed to a giant statue of Ren. But it wasn’t him— it was the version of him that was successful, loved, confident, taller, somehow had abs, and was making direct eye contact like a functioning person.
Ren, who'd already given up on logic:
"Oh no."
Jorogumo crashed in.
She was silk-draped and sassier than a fashion week judge.
She purred, descending from a building like a chandelier on crack.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
||Darling, everyone here has a statue. Isn't it beautiful? All the versions of you that you think you should be but aren't. Adorable, really."
She blew a kiss. It turned into a spider and bit Ren in the ego.
||Denial is such a cozy little web, sweetie. You tell yourself enough stories and suddenly? Boom. You’re the main character of a fanfiction you wrote about yourself. Except the plot sucks and you never leave your room.||
Ren, pale af now:
"Do I get to leave this emotional void or do I have to cry into a motivational mug until I get enlightenment?"
Jorogumo smirked.
||Only if you admit why you're here.||
The wind howled louder, now mumbling excuses like:
“I was just tired”
"They never actually said no”
"It was a misunderstanding.”
The sky blinked.
Literally.
Ren looked up and saw an eyeball the size of a stadium staring back at him. It was his.
The pupil dilated with anxiety.
Ren sighed.
"I need a therapist. Or a priest. Or like... a very strong drink."
Enter Aka Manto, appearing behind him like a regret in the shower.
He rasped, voice soft like a funeral dirge in an empty bathroom stall.
||Red or blue?||
Ren screamed and slapped him with a (practically non-existent) Croc.
"STOP DOING THAT."
Aka Manto held up a mirror. Not the regular kind.
This one showed moments Ren had gaslit himself. Times he smiled when he should’ve snapped.
Said “I’m fine” with blood in his throat. Times he stayed in places where he was clearly unwanted, but convinced himself he was being loyal.
Loyal? Nah bro, that was codependency with extra steps.
Ren stared at the mirror.
It stared back harder.
Aka Manto whispered:
||This is the part where most people lie to themselves. Do you want to?||
Ren, confused now:
"...God, yes. But no. F*ck."
The ground cracked. The mirrors shattered.
One by one, statues of Alternate-Ren versions started crumbling.
Gym bro Ren got squashed by a falling illusion.
CEO Ren disintegrated mid-speech.
Softboy Ren tried to cry aesthetic tears but got deleted by reality.
Nurarihyon clapped.
||Ooooh! We love a breakdown arc! Go off, king!||
Jorogumo tossed Ren a spiderweb-styled tissue.
||Cry on, cry strong.||
Ren, mid-existential crisis:
"Why the hell are y’all even here? Aren’t you, like, evil?"
Nurarihyon grinned:
||We are evil, but denial is more powerful than any curse. You mortals live in this realm more than your own world. We just chill here for the vibes. And the drama.||
Aka Manto crooned:
||Also the food court is immaculate.||
He gestured to a nearby food stall labeled “Excuses & Comfort Food.” The menu read:
“It’s not my fault” fries
“They’re just intimidated by me” milkshake
“At least I’m not as bad as them” burger
“I didn’t ask to be born” ramen
Ren, who gave up on giving up on reality long ago:
“I hate how good that looks.”
Nurarihyon leaned in, voice suddenly way too serious.
||You know the rule, kid. You can snack on denial, but if you feast, you forget who you were. Stay here too long, and you become a permanent resident. Like—||
He pointed to a flickering figure slumped against a wall.
It looked human. Kinda.
But it was blurred, faceless, mumbling apologies to no one.
Ren shuddered.
"So how the hell do I leave?"
Aka Manto sighed, folding his arms.
||You already know, dumbass.||
Jorogumo giggled.
||Say it with your whole chest, bitch.||
Ren clenched his jaw. The Realm of Denial pulsed around him like a heartbeat made of TikTok edits and intrusive thoughts. Mirrors flashed memories. His voice trembled.
Ren, 10000% unwillingly, but also 1000000000000000000% truthfully:
“I f*cked up.”
The sky cracked.
Silence.
Not peaceful silence—
the kind that feels like the world is holding its breath, waiting to see if you'll flinch.
Even the wind stopped pretending.
Then—
BOOM.
Lightning sliced across the sky. The eyeball vanished. The statue of him shattered completely.
Ren paid no heed:
“I hurt people.
I lied.
I pretended it was all fine.
…I pretended I was fine.
But I wasn’t.”
The realm paused.
Even the wind held its breath.
Not even a whisper dared echo.
“I’m not.”
And the world went still.
Like it heard something sacred.
Like truth just punched a hole through the sky.
Ren absolutely ignored the shitshow:
“I didn’t want to feel weak. Or alone. So I kept pretending. But it didn’t make it better. It just made me stuck.”
The wind stopped whispering. It started to scream instead. Raw and unfiltered and honest.
Aka Manto tossed him a red cloak.
||Good. You’re bleeding truth now. Wrap up.||
Nurarihyon looked lowkey impressed.
||Congrats. You just ragequit your own denial.||
Jorogumo smiled like a proud chaos auntie.
||Now run, darling. Before the realm notices you’re self-aware.||
Ren, shocked:
“Wait— run?!?”
Too late.
The streets collapsed into a black hole of repressed feelings. Screaming statues lunged at him, shrieking “You said you were over it!” and “You said it didn’t bother you!”
He sprinted, tripping over broken affirmations, dodging gaslight grenades and trauma confetti.
Nurarihyon screamed,
||YOU GOTTA YEET YOURSELF OUT, BOY!||
Aka Manto chanted,
||Denial is a river in Egypt but you’re not Cleopatra, BITCH!||
Ren dove forward, headfirst into a mirror that shimmered like his last functioning brain cell.
And everything shattered.
feels safe. it’s soft, it’s quiet, it lets you pretend nothing’s wrong. but it steals time. it keeps you small. and it lies.
you deserve real peace. not pretend peace.
you’re allowed to outgrow your numbness.
you’ve got this. i swear.
—the chaos gremlin behind this mess ???????
NOTE: NOT APPLICABLE TO REN!
