Fuuyp! New chapter! And as always, thanks for reading me!
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DreXy, SilverWolf, SNIPERSLAYER999, jacob hixson, LeadStar, Nathan Hall, Ghostwolf928, carl hoffmen, Alexander Spoor, Akshay P Raj M, Xavier Luna, White Wolf, Austin, Damon potter!
Isao Tsumugi's POV
Isao sighed as he drove, simultaneously obliterating every zombie in the vicinity with a small, dense sphere of steel.
The Sensor trait was damn useful; I could feel the murky, swamp-green life force of the zombies, and I didn't even have to look in their direction to kill them.
I simply and easily dispatched every zombie heading toward our roaring vehicle, piercing their heads and the life-force core located somewhere in the center of their chests with the steel marble.
Yes, this trait was incredibly useful, even though the range at which I could sense life force was only about twenty or thirty meters—but that was more than enough.
"Um, Isao, can I ask you something?" Rei's voice called out from the passenger seat. I answered her without looking away from the road.
"Yes, Rei? Did something happen?"
"N-nothing special... I just wanted to ask you one thing." Her voice sounded slightly nervous, which made me turn my head just enough to see her out of the corner of my eye.
She was looking at me bashfully with her new black-and-white eyes; her cheeks were flushed, and her hands were fidgeting with her skirt in a nervous cycle of embarrassment and anxiety.
"Well, I said yes. Go ahead and ask, Rei." I smiled slightly, amused by how she blushed and clutched her skirt exactly the way she did when we were kids.
"Ah... I just wanted to know... what is the relationship between you and Saeko-san? You two seemed very close when I saw you together in the backyard..." As she asked this, she looked away. Judging by her reddened ears, she seemed deeply embarrassed by her own question.
"Well..." While thinking of an answer, I killed about eight more zombies with the steel ball. It had lost a bit of mass, so I added a few more scraps to it mid-flight and continued the slaughter.
At the same time, I thought about who Saeko was to me. She was a skilled swordswoman, someone who could protect others and herself; she was the one who reached out her hand so that I could accept her... she was also a very good girl with a personality I had yet to fully uncover, and she was an incredibly beautiful woman. But last, and most importantly, she was the mother of my children who would appear in due time.
In short...
"...You could say she's my wife," I answered. I saw her snap her head toward me, eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
"What?!" Her cry of disbelief, confusion, and a dozen other negative emotions nearly deafened me, making me wince and cover one ear with my hand. "That can't be! You've only known each other for a little over a day!"
"Oh! But what a day it's been! The sakura is blooming, the sun is high in the sky, and people are running into each other's arms on the streets just to slit throats and eat the flesh of their living kin!" I made a stupid joke, thinking it might calm her down, but instead, she just stared at me intensely. "What?"
"And if you're being serious?" She furrowed her brows and pouted, looking at me with offended eyes.
"If I'm being serious, then she is my wife. I like her, she likes me, we like each other. In times like these, I don't think relationship drama would be good for anyone. She thinks so too, so we basically threw the whole 'dating' phase into the trash." I shrugged, swerving to avoid a zombie I hadn't noticed with my sensor—its life energy felt dimmer, which made me frown before stitching it through several times with the steel ball. "So, you could say we just skipped over all that."
"And she accepted that?!" She narrowed her eyes, looking at me with a mix of resentment and something else I couldn't quite place.
At that moment, I remembered how Saeko had actually been the architect of our relationship, initiating it in the most unexpected way, and I smiled.
"Yep."
"That's...! That's just... just ridiculous!" Her voice sounded like she couldn't process it, making me sigh. "Then what about Saya?!"
"Well... she's like my... girlfriend?" As soon as I said that, Rei went completely silent. Glancing at her, I saw a look of disbelief mixed with a hint of anger. "Don't worry, Rei, I'm not deceiving them. Saya is just, how should I put it... a bit different. She wanted to be surrounded by love and care before everything develops further."
"She didn't tell you that." Her voice was dead serious and quiet.
"No, but anyone who tries to see the real her will notice how much she craves recognition. How she wants others to hug her, tell her she's good, pat her head, and just show her love in every way." Her gaze deepened, as if she were seeing the real me for the first time in... five? Seven years? Her slightly widened eyes showed her surprise.
"I didn't know you were so sensitive to other people's emotions..." She looked back ahead, then seemed to remember something and snapped her head back toward me. "Ah... well, I wanted to ask, how do you kill all those zombies around us without even looking at them?" Her voice held genuine interest.
"I just feel their life force and direct my Steel ball to where their 'core' is. Then I repeat it with the next one, dozens, if not hundreds of times." Honestly, it was a boring chore—just tracking those blue energy blobs in my mind and piercing the swampy-green spheres that represented the zombies' life cores.
"They have life energy?"
"Yep." I swerved again to avoid a zombie lying on the ground that looked dead and was masking its life energy. If I hadn't, it would have ended up on our windshield. I clicked my tongue and sent the steel ball through it several times just to be sure. "But their life force or energy is different compared to a human's. It's... weaker? Or less dense? Probably both. Plus, it's that sickly green color. I think that's why they go after humans—to eat them and become more..."
"Alive!" she blurted out, jolting in her seat.
"Yeah. To thicken their life energy. That's likely how they'll start evolving and becoming stronger, which is a damn bad thing." She looked ahead thoughtfully after my words, beginning to ponder the implications while I kept driving.
Thinking about the logistics of moving hundreds of people on a ferry, I realized one thing: if we don't find a few people among the survivors who know how to operate it, we might be stuck there for a while.
Same goes for fuel. If the ferry is empty, we'll have to find some in the port and figure out how to refuel it... and I have absolutely no clue how to do that.
God, I just want to drop all of this and go draw something... I want to so badly, but now is not the time. Dammit.
Whoops! Almost missed the turn!
I jerked the wheel onto the right road, realizing we'd be at our destination in about ten minutes. I was slightly relieved to notice fewer undead here than there were five minutes ago.
"Are you sure your mom will be home? Are you sure about this?" I glanced at her, and she nodded.
"Yes. Yesterday morning she was saying, 'To hell with it, I'm not going to work today! I want to rest!'" She made a funny face and mimicked a raspy voice, making me smile. "That was when I was leaving for school. So I'm sure she's home. When she says things like that, the chance of her stepping outside is close to zero."
"Alright then. As long as she hasn't wandered off, otherwise we'll be searching the whole neighborhood." My words were calm, but something must have been off because Rei flinched and looked at me.
She bit her lower lip, watching me with intense, observant eyes, blushing slightly.
... Oh no.
"Isao, I... I wanted to say..." Her voice trembled, and she turned even redder, making my heart sink to the pit of my stomach.
Please, no!
"I... I want to be with you!" Her new eyes locked onto me with incredible focus, trying to catch every micro-expression, while I was internally freaking out!
"And why is that?" Dammit! How is my voice still so freaking calm?!
"I... I realized that you treated me much better than Takashi and Hisashi combined, and I r-realized that the only way I can... repay that is... to be with y-you and... b-b-bear a child, so they can become incredibly strong!" She was shaking, she was embarrassed, she was blushing—but she kept saying words she would never have uttered in a normal situation.
And then it hit me.
Some traits affect personality. This "Cursed" crap affects their personality! But I hadn't noticed anything in myself, even though I got more than Rei did. So why?!
That's why Kimoto let go of her grudge so easily and became more playful. And Rei... Rei wants kids because that was the goal of most women in the Kure clan!
Their goal was to bear as many children as possible from a strong man!
"..." I swallowed hard. Rei's eyes grew expectant, as if I were about to give her an answer to her confession right then and there. "That's v-very nice, Rei, but..." Her eyes suddenly narrowed, making me flinch. "W-what about Hisashi? ...And Takashi?" I could see memories flickering behind her gaze, but she didn't waver as she usually would. Instead, she sighed and shrugged with total indifference.
"Takashi? He accepted long ago that we wouldn't be together. And Hisashi? He always knew I would never truly be his; he'll accept our breakup in time. Honestly, neither of them will fight for me, so... who cares?" She shrugged again, her voice so nonchalant it shocked me.
"But... what about your promise to Takashi?" Internally, I prayed she would snap out of it. I knew she probably just needed time to adjust to her powers and become the "old" Rei again. The normal Rei would never look at a guy other than Takashi, especially if that guy had multiple girlfriends. She would have recoiled in disgust just hearing about it... which she didn't do when I told her. Dammit, how did I miss that?!
"What? That childhood promise? Who actually believes in such silly things, Isao? Kids make tons of promises to themselves, but they don't keep any of them. It's stupid to think that two children will grow up, their personalities will change over time, but they'll get married just because they made a promise as kids. That would just be ridiculous!" She dismissed the idea carelessly, waving her hands around.
I stopped the car and looked at her. She flinched slightly and looked back at me, sheepish, her cheeks turning pink again.
Thinking it over, I realized Rei had changed, and there was nothing I could do about it now... but I had to at least try something.
"Let's do this, Rei..." I placed my hand on her head and gave it a light pat, making her blush and lower her gaze. "I know you're a grown girl and not at all stupid. I'm not the one to tell you who to date or break up with. But at the same time... I realize you wouldn't act like this in a normal situation..." She looked up at me. "And I think you're in shock right now. So, let's do this: we'll discuss it in a week... or even a few weeks. Two weeks! Exactly." I nodded, patting her head a bit more gently, noticing her face scrunch up at my proposal. "If, after that time, you still want to be with me, then so be it. But..." Dammit, I wanted to say more than two weeks, but then she'd probably just jump me herself. "If you have even the slightest doubt, you shouldn't do it. Deal?" I took my hand off her head and held it out. For a moment, she stared at my hand as if it were a snake, a dozen emotions flashing across her face in a split second, making me feel awkward.
"Deal." She took my hand and squeezed it firmly. I winced slightly—it wasn't enough to cause real pain, but enough to feel her newfound strength.
"And you'll also need to get used to your new powers so you don't hurt normal people." I tried to pull my hand away, but she held on tight.
"Deal on that, too." She pumped my hand up and down once more, still gripping it.
"That wasn't a deal, you just need to do it." I sighed, still feeling her iron grip. "And yes, let go of my hand. We're almost there..."
"Oh, really?!" She suddenly let go and looked ahead at the road with a smile, regaining a somewhat carefree, girlish look. I blinked a few times, then put my hands back on the wheel and started moving again.
"Yeah, we're just a few blocks from your house." I watched her out of the corner of my eye; even then, I could see a complex emotion buried deep in her gaze.
"Oh, I know this street! We're literally two streets away!"
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At least Takashi and the others should be fine.
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