January 16
It was another beautiful day.
Kyoko rose from Huaxiu's bedside and began to dress. The warmth indoors had driven away every trace of winter's chill. Smooth, tender skin bore faint red marks left by the wrinkles of the bedsheets from the night before.
She reached out and opened the window to let in some air, but no icy gust rushed inside. There was no bite of cold outdoors at all.
The weather forecaster had clearly warned of heavy snow in the coming days, yet it was warmer outside than it had been over the previous few. Then again, melting snow absorbed heat, and thawing changed everything. Kyoko really ought to remember that.
For now, things were looking good.
Huaxiu's temperature had returned to normal last night—Kyoko had personally confirmed that, so there was no room for error.
The pale, fragile look Huaxiu had worn while unconscious was gone. Her face had regained its color, and after the virus-enhanced change to her body, the once-delicate girl now looked sturdier than before.
Kyoko was certain Huaxiu would wake soon.
Today, at some point.
The room had cooled slightly, so Kyoko went to the furnace room to add more fuel.
She casually took apart some unneeded wooden furniture, chopped the pieces into long, narrow firewood with an axe, and stacked them away. She had already filled an entire room with wood—more than enough to last the two of them a long time. She even covered it all with a rain tarp to keep leaks from soaking the pile.
That blue tarp reminded her of the strange infected she had encountered yesterday.
Among the bloodstains downstairs, she had found one patch that was different. Not the usual green, but a ghostly blue—almost fluorescent. Yet after searching everywhere, she had found no corpse that matched it. Perhaps whatever it was had escaped.
Still, she did not dwell on it.
There had been too much to collect on the ground already; Kyoko had nearly run herself ragged, working hands and feet alike just to gather it all. The orange-yellow smoke drifting overhead had driven off every last remnant of the infected forces, leaving none behind.
And really—what worse trouble could one fleeing infected with strange blood possibly cause now? On the ground lay the shattered remains of the former Monarch-class infected. Once so imposing, so massive and tyrannical, it had become nothing but scraps of flesh and broken bone.
Claiming the spoils of victory—that was what mattered.
Kyoko had worked until sunset the day before, and the haul had been tremendous.
"Life is getting better by the day. So what if it's the apocalypse? It can't defeat people with determination, courage, and brains!"
She stood in front of the storeroom piled high with supplies and declared it proudly.
Their safehold was complete. Their stores were abundant. Everything was proceeding according to plan. Once Huaxiu recovered, the two of them could finally begin exploring farther afield.
Then the system chimed as the points were added. The sound was heavenly. Watching wealth accumulate like this was simply too satisfying.
[Yesterday's points: Ordinary Infected 3214, Special Infected 4322, Exploration 1145, Mission 300, Recovery 2544. Previous balance 4823. Total: 16048.]
Kyoko rubbed her eyes again, then pinched her own cheek before finally accepting that the number in front of her was real.
"Yes! We're rich, we're rich! Huaxiu, we're rich!"
The sheer amount nearly made her dizzy with excitement. She almost scooped up the still-recovering Huaxiu in her arms.
Even after buying so much ammunition yesterday, the return had been absurdly profitable. A little over a thousand points spent on ammo had brought back over ten times that amount. Even if the fighter jet had stolen part of her kill count, the gas it had deployed had cleared out the surviving infected and created the perfect looting environment, which had vastly sped up her work.
They were past the point of worrying about food and clothing now. If they spent those points on nothing but basic survival supplies, she and Huaxiu could live comfortably for over a year.
A beautiful future lay right ahead.
The system had not yet refreshed its missions, and nothing in the random shop looked urgently necessary.
There was still one task left incomplete, but it would require leaving home for a while. And with Huaxiu still asleep, how could Kyoko possibly do that?
Field Exploration: To keep supplies plentiful in the apocalypse, survival demands scouting special locations such as convenience stores and bars.
Reward: 3 Blind Box Coins
Sitting at her desk, Kyoko fiddled with the M4A1 she had acquired the day before. Modification parts were spread across the tabletop.
She planned to upgrade the caliber, swapping out the original barrel for an experimental 6.8mm barrel to improve penetration. She would also mount a holographic sight with a 3x magnifier for greater tactical flexibility.
Just as she was carefully disassembling a component with a screwdriver, she noticed movement from the bed.
Huaxiu's finger had twitched.
Was that her imagination?
No.
No—it was real.
Huaxiu was waking up.
"Huh? Ah? Did I see that wrong…? No! No, it's real! Huaxiu's awake!"
She dropped everything. The system panel vanished from her mind. Huaxiu waking up was more important than anything else in the world.
Kyoko crossed the room in a few hurried steps and reached the bedside.
There, she met Huaxiu's eyes the instant they opened.
Kyoko froze.
The two girls stared at each other as if time itself had been stopped. Outwardly, Kyoko stood rigid as a wooden doll, but inside, a storm had already broken loose.
As she looked at the girl before her, it felt as though someone had splashed pepper water into her eyes. Tears slipped endlessly from the corners of them, soaking into the bedsheets below. She had a thousand things she wanted to say. During Huaxiu's long sleep, Kyoko had been unable to eat, unable to rest properly, and with no one to confide in, every negative feeling had built and built inside her until she had dealt with things in ever more extreme ways.
"Huaxiu… does anything hurt? Do you feel unwell anywhere?"
Light flooded Huaxiu's vision and drove away the darkness she had been trapped in for so long. Her eyes, unaccustomed to brightness, could not bear it. She turned her head away from the glare—and found herself looking directly into Kyoko's tearful eyes.
I'm not dreaming?
This is real?
I'm alive…
Kyoko…
Kyoko knelt by the bedside so that her face was level with Huaxiu's. Her eyes traced every feature of the girl before her—her lips, her nose, her eyes, her brows—burning them one by one into her memory.
Huaxiu's mind was still a haze.
The events before she lost consciousness remained vivid in her memory. She had truly believed she and Kyoko would go together to some heaven beyond death, leaving this filthy world behind.
But now she had been saved.
What had happened after that?
And—most importantly—had Kyoko heard her confession before she blacked out?
This was mortifying no matter the answer. If Kyoko had not heard, Huaxiu alone would have to carry that embarrassment. If she had heard… and rejected her… then what was Huaxiu supposed to do?
Even in her weakness, those thoughts made her face flush.
Her body was still pale, but a soft redness rose over her cheeks as she struggled to gather herself enough to answer.
"I don't… think anything feels wrong… Kyoko… how long did I… sleep…?"
Seeing the faint color in Huaxiu's face and hearing how rough her voice sounded, Kyoko hurried to bring over the water she had already prepared.
"Easy, easy, don't rush. Drink some water first. Wet your throat. And don't try to move by yourself!"
When Huaxiu tried to sit up, Kyoko pressed her gently back down.
Afraid she might spill the water, Kyoko took up a spoon and began feeding it to her mouthful by mouthful, which made Huaxiu blush all the more. Meanwhile Kyoko talked without pause, words pouring from her like machine-gun fire.
"Huaxiu, you've been unconscious since the 13th. It's the 16th now—you were out for three full days. I've been taking care of you the whole time, waiting for you to wake up. At first, your condition was terrible. You were really in bad shape. Thank goodness your body pulled through. Otherwise… otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do."
Too embarrassed to keep being spoon-fed, Huaxiu finally refused any more water and insisted on sitting up to talk properly. She did not want Kyoko kneeling on the floor in front of her any longer. The floor was dirty—she did not want Kyoko's clothes getting stained because of her.
So with several pillows piled behind her as support, Huaxiu was able to sit upright at last.
The scene no longer resembled some melodramatic bedside deathbed confession.
"How… did you deal with all those infected back then, Kyoko?"
Kyoko grinned.
"Well… at the very moment you kissed me, my body suddenly filled with this mysterious power, and then I fought the infected outside for three hundred rounds and wiped them all out. So really, thank you for filling me with Huaxiu Energy."
She said it jokingly, but it was not entirely false. The truth was that the moment Huaxiu kissed her, she really had entered that superhuman state.
[System: Kyoko, you ungrateful woman blinded by beauty!!]
In reality it had been the system's emergency boost, but Kyoko had no intention of bringing that up now.
Huaxiu could barely keep her expression steady.
So she had heard it.
Kyoko had heard everything she had said before passing out.
Then what now?
Should she press forward?
Feelings had to be fought for. She could not keep running from them. Whether Kyoko saw her as a younger girl, a companion, a friend—it did not matter. Huaxiu loved her. She could not keep this buried any longer.
Kyoko's expression softened.
"All jokes aside, no matter what happened, we're both alive now. While you were asleep, I improved our home a lot. We've got more than enough supplies to last us, and I've driven out all the infected downstairs. We're safe now."
Huaxiu listened in silence.
Then she gathered her courage. Whether it ended in success or heartbreak, she had to say it again. At least then she would have no regrets.
"Kyoko… we… I… there's something I want to ask you… Kyoko, I—mmph…"
Before she could finish, Kyoko pulled her into an embrace.
Caught off guard, Huaxiu froze. Her words cut off halfway. Just as she tried to continue, something soft and warm sealed her lips, stealing away the rest of her voice.
Kyoko had not needed to hear the whole sentence. She already knew what Huaxiu was trying to say.
And she had no intention of dodging the subject.
So she gave the most direct answer she could.
Wrapping her arms around Huaxiu's body, Kyoko leaned in without warning and captured her lips with perfect accuracy.
With a soft smack, the distance between them disappeared.
For a moment Huaxiu was too stunned to react, especially when she felt Kyoko's tongue slipping into her mouth. But wasn't this the clearest answer possible?
So she stopped resisting.
She let Kyoko in.
Mindful of Huaxiu's weakness, Kyoko did not go too far. She simply held her and kissed her deeply.
It should have ended there.
But Huaxiu had no intention of letting Kyoko escape so easily.
Kyoko had assumed that, having just woken up, Huaxiu would have no strength. That illusion shattered the instant Huaxiu suddenly pulled her down onto the bed.
The balance of power flipped in an instant.
Afraid of hurting Huaxiu, Kyoko did not struggle, never realizing that the virus had transformed Huaxiu no less than it had transformed her.
For now, this was Huaxiu's field.
…
What followed went no further than kissing.
…
Pinned beneath Huaxiu, clothes disheveled, Kyoko could not help blushing. Huaxiu, on the other hand, basked in the warmth of the older girl's smooth skin and body heat, utterly satisfied. The big sister she had admired and longed for was now her girlfriend.
Who would have imagined that Kyoko—so strong, so decisive, so lethal in battle—would end up pressed beneath a girl a head shorter than her, flushed and shy?
Yet as Kyoko lay there, she felt as though something heavy had finally vanished from her chest.
Huaxiu was back.
The restless, noisy thing inside her heart quieted, if only for now.
After the dizzying kisses, the two of them lay sprawled on the soft bed, minds blank.
Then Huaxiu's stomach growled loudly.
Huaxiu's face turned scarlet.
Kyoko burst into laughter.
It was time to eat.
Now Kyoko had to go cook.
[Kyoko is the top!!!! Huaxiu's only just recovered, so what's wrong with Kyoko letting her wife have her way for once?]
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
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