Suddenly, all the pain that his body has been hiding, hit him all at once.
Ishiki fell to his knees, hitting tile with a dull thud that sent pain radiating up his thighs. His shoulder—the one the Xenon had clawed and had glass embedded from the railing—suddenly decided to remind him it existed by lighting up with white-hot agony.
'Crap!'
He mentally commanded the Black Tether to disappear and it dissolved into motes of light, then he tightly clutched the torn fabric against his bleeding skin, trying to apply pressure.
His blood seeped between his fingers, staining the fabric in crimson.
Kaori reached him first, dropping to her knees beside him. Her hands immediately went to his shoulder, peeling away torn fabric to assess the damage.
There were three deep claw marks and a glass shard completely embedded withing the flesh. She unpacked her bag and brought out a surgical spatula. Ishiki looked at it and frowned.
"What are you doing?" He blurted out in a panic.
"Just shut up and stay still dumbass. I was a doctor you know." She gave him a smile and then said in an uneven tone. "It might hurt a bit, and don't you dare scream."
Akari stood a few steps away, her hand pressed against her mouth as she looked at the carnage.
Two massive Xenon corpses. Lay in a pool of oppressive green blood and sludge. One with its spine severed, the other decapitated so cleanly the cut looked like it came from an industrial blade.
"How..." Her voice came out small. "How did you kill them in the dark?"
But Ishiki wasn't paying attention to either of them now. His eyes were locked on the dead Xenons, with a weird smile still plastered across his face, lost somewhere in his own head.
'How do you like that, bastards?' He grin pulled at his lips... which didn't look entirely sane. 'Not so tough without your advantage, are you?'
"Whatever you're thinking in that perverted mind of yours," Kaori said sharply, deliberately applying pressure to his wound, "stop it and pay attention. This is going to hurt."
"Huh?" Ishiki snapped back to awareness. "What—"
Pain exploded through his shoulder and down his entire arm like someone had shoved a branding iron into the wound. His jaw clenched so hard his teeth creaked.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the pain vanished—replaced by a strange, tingling numbness.
Kaori stood up with a shard of glass stained in red, as large as Ishiki's palm. "How did you even fight? This thing cut three of your vessels. You are lucky to be breathing."
Of course Ishiki didn't hear any of that. His mind was getting dizzy.
Then, something cold splashed over his shoulder. He flinched.
"What's that?" he managed, looking at Kaori with suspicion.
"Anti-infection solution." She poured more of the clear liquid directly into the wound, watching his face for reaction. "It'll sting a little."
'Sting' was a generous description. It felt like someone was scrubbing his exposed flesh with sandpaper soaked in acid. But compared to the claws tearing through him or the initial treatment, it was almost bearable.
'Screw It... I will never fight around glasses again!'
Kaori stood, leaving him and walked over to examine the Xenon corpses up close. She crouched beside the decapitated one, studying the cut with the curious eyes.
Akari approached Ishiki instead and gave him a warm smile.
"Are you okay?" Her voice carried actual concern. "That was... that was really impressive. Amazing, actually."
Heat flooded Ishiki's face. Not from pain, but embarrassment of what he had said a while back.
He managed to stammer out. "I—uh—thanks. I just... got lucky."
Akari's smile widened. She opened her mouth to respond—
But then a strange shudder ran through the entire mall. Everyone froze and looked around as the afternoon light flooded from everywhere, feeling like salvation after drowning.
The security system had finally been disengaged.
Hurried footsteps came from below and soon Kenji appeared from the stairs, fixing his blonde hair. He looked tired but unharmed. He took three steps into the lobby, saw the group, opened his mouth to speak—
Then his eyes went to the dead Xenon's.
His mouth froze open, but no words came out. His eyes went wide, darting between the corpses and Ishiki and back again like his brain was refusing to process the connection.
"You..." He swallowed hard. "You killed them?"
Ishiki gave him a flat look. "No. I danced in front of them and they killed themselves in shame. How does that sound?"
Kenji blinked a couple of times. Then gave Ishiki a weird look. Then He shook his head and explained.
"The Xenons must have bumped into one of the emergency buttons and the lockdown. I managed to override it from the basement control room. Took a while to figure out but its done."
Kaori nodded, filing that information away. "Good work. We need to move. Grab whatever supplies you can carry."
***
Twenty minutes later, they were trudging through debris-strewn streets, each carrying bags stuffed with salvaged goods.
Kaori and Akari walked point, each shouldering two large bags. They were both players and thanks to the system's boost, physical labor looked like easy work.
Behind them, Kenji struggled valiantly with four bags—two in each hand, straps cutting into his palms, sweat already soaking through his shirt despite the afternoon being relatively cool.
And besides him, Ishiki walked empty-handed.
His right arm hung in a makeshift sling Kaori had fashioned from torn fabric. Bandages wrapped his shoulder, visible beneath the new jacket he'd grabbed from the mall.
He looked at Kenji and scowled. 'This fool can't even handle four bags. Only if I was not injured I would have showed him.'
The sun hung past its peak, angling toward afternoon.
"Come on, faster!" Akari called over her shoulder. "It's already one o'clock. We're an hour late!"
Ishiki frowned. "How do you know the time?"
Akari reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a smartphone with cracked screen. She held it up with a cute little flourish. "With this!"
'Oh. Right. Phones still work for basic functions.'
Suddenly Kaori stopped and turned around, her eyes were narrowed, and her expression was serious. Business-like. The look of someone about to make a formal proposition.
Kenji set down his bags gratefully, panting.
"Ishiki and Kenji." she started. Both of them stiffened. "You two have the same timer for the scenario as me. That is we have 29 days."
Ishiki nodded, understanding where this was going.
She sighed. "The last group that vanished when their timers ran out, was more than 20 days ago. And Judging by the fact that none of them have made it back until now, further confirms my theory that the Scenario will not be an individual thing."
"The three of us," Kaori continued, gesturing to encompass Ishiki, Kenji, and herself, "are going to be sent to the same Scenario when our timers reach zero. I'm certain of it. The system operates on patterns."
"We need to function as a team," she stated flatly. "Not strangers thrown together at the last second, but an actual coordinated unit, because whatever's waiting for us there would be far worse than what we are used to. We need to trust each other."
'Trust?' Ishiki thought with a dark amusement and then nodded. 'She is insanely clever. she somehow managed to choose me and Kenji to her hunting party, so that she can bring us with her. The princess won't be a problem, because she would help her without saying. Her every action has been planned to create a group she can either lead or predict.'
But he couldn't deny the logic. Going into an unknown scenario, with strangers was almost suicide. But with people about whom you knew a little, with whom you had brief struggles, that would increase the chances of survival.
For that reason alone, she had asked Ishiki to join the hunting party.
'Besides, humans only act when they benefit from it. She benefits from having skilled teammates. I benefit from not dying alone. Fair trade.'
He met Kaori's eyes and nodded. "Makes sense. I'm in."
Kenji looked between them, and then smiled. "Yeah... we are a team."
Kaori's lips twitched—not quite a smile, but close. Satisfaction. "Good. Then let's go back."
Soon they reached the point where they had split up. Three figures stood there already, waiting.
"Well, well! Look who finally decided to show up!" The voice rang out across the ruined street, dripping with smug amusement.
Ishiki's stomach sank hearing that voice. It was that charming young man again, he leaned casually against a relatively intact wall, arms crossed with that confident smirk firmly in place.
His eyes swept over Ishiki's group, cataloging details with calculating speed. His gaze lingered on Ishiki. Looking at the bandaged shoulder and the blood-stained clothes partially hidden by the new jacket.
That smirk widened.
"I see you ran into trouble." His tone managed to be both sympathetic and mocking simultaneously. "That's Pathetic. Especially for someone who supposedly has a Title."
He chuckled. "Maybe he was just lying about it? Hard to believe someone with a Title would get injured on a simple supply run."
Ishiki's jaw tightened. His good hand clenched into a fist.
'I would wipe that smug look off your face, son of a bitch.'
But before he could open his mouth, before his Corruption could force something stupid out—Kaori stepped forward.
"We encountered complications," she said flatly, voice giving nothing away. "We handled it and got the supplies. That's what matters."
She moved past them without elaborating, gesturing for her team to follow. The message was clear: This conversation is over. We have nothing to prove to you.
They all moved towards the gates of the camp.
And now Ishiki was part of a team heading toward an unknown Scenario with twenty-nine days to prepare.
Whether that time would be enough... well, he'd find out soon enough.