Awake

The next morning, Hina had woken up.

What happened was that we heard some faint rustling early in the morning. My body at the time, was still groggy and sore from yesterday’s experience. I guess even if your hp and stamina get maxed, you still feel the soreness and ache from everything.

As I struggled to get up, from the corner of my eyes, I could see the sleepy eyed Cielle bolt up right from her originally slouched seating position.

She had stayed up all night last night upon her own volition. She was saying something about how we needed to have a look out at all times, especially when it was dark. I agreed with this idea, but I proposed that we took turns, so both of us could get equal amounts of rest.

To my surprise, Cielle insisted that her by herself was good enough. She also said something else, but I’m not too sure, since she mumbled the rest of her sentences so indistinguishably, that they might as well had been gibberish.

It was something like, “You need to…..” or was it “To...pay back…”

...I’m not sure.

Anyways, that explains the red eyed and haggard appearance of Cielle.

Normally a person would be dead tired had they pulled an all nighter, especially after the events that happened, but right now she was absolutely brimming with excitement. And there was one easy explanation for that; Hina.

As I groggily rubbed away the sleepiness from my eyes, I saw through my peripheral vision that Hina was moving about in her slumber. Or rather, she looked like a person who was about to awaken.

I finally sat up right as I stared at the scene, half dazed.

Hina was still entrapped within the cot of jackets that Cielle and I prepared for her last night. Her figure, a voluptuous figure too curvy for a high schooler, was half covered in cloth, while her short-ish skirt began riding up her leg. Through that gap of flesh, I could see that her skin wasn’t as pale as it was last night. In fact, it gave off a healthy glow, the type that you wouldn’t find odd on a swimsuit model or actress or something.

Cielle rushes over to Hina.

In contrast, Cielle was the one who looked like she just came out of death’s door. Panda eyes that rivaled mine, her usually unkempt hair was even more ragged than usual. It stuck up and sideways, making her head resemble a bird’s nest rather than actual hair.

She also wasn’t wearing her usual sweater. Right now she sported the typical summer styled, short sleeved uniform for this school. While on most girls, it was rather form fitting (much like it was on her sister) but on Cielle, it hanged loose and flappy.

I noticed it now in particular since she wasn’t wearing baggy clothes anymore, but Cielle was a particularly… small person. I wouldn’t say child sized, but somewhere in between a regular teenage girl and a kid….

Petite! That’s what she had; a petite figure.

As Cielle ran towards her sister with an ecstatic smile that did not suit her current appearance, all of a sudden, Hina’s figure bolted up right as an inhuman shriek escaped from her dry legs.

At first, I winced at this sudden noise, but my expression suddenly darkened.

My body suddenly went on high alert as I grabbed Efhermet from next to where I was sleeping and I jumped up onto the balls of my feet. My eyes instinctively moved over to the closed door of the art room as I yelled out to Cielle.

“Cielle!”

My voice strained to be heard through the noise that filled the room.

Cielle, whose expression showed great shock, instantly turned towards me, and nodded vigorously.

She then sprinted a full run directly towards her screaming sister, who by now was vigorously sweating while her eyes were clamped close.

Cielle frantically crashed down next to her sister and in an effort to keep her quiet, blocked her mouth with an open palm, causing muffled erratic to leak through Cielle’s fingertips.

Satisfied that at least some effort was put into restraining Hina’s screaming, I swiveled my head towards the door. I bent my knees down and entered into a fighting stance.

I keenly fixated my gaze at the still undisturbed doorway, while I positioned Efhermet in front of me.

From behind, I could hear Hina’s muffled screams subsiding as, from what I could guess, was her waking up from her nightmare.

The struggling of bodies, and the rustling of jackets preceded before an eerie calm fell within the room.

Hina had stopped screaming and there was practically no noise, besides my frantic, unsteady breathing, but I still stared daringly at the door.

I waited, and waited. Anticipating, hoping that the recent noise hadn’t attracted any monsters.

From behind me, I couldn’t hear nor see anything, so I could only guess as to what was going on. Maybe Hina had gone back to sleep? Maybe that’s why she wasn’t screaming anymore? Or maybe Cielle had done something…

Thoughts like this filled my head and in no time, 15 minutes passed.

By this point, while I was still on edge, I dropped my arms and sighed out in relief. While keeping a firm grasp on Efhermet, in case something unexpected were to occur, I slowly turned around to look at the girls.

There I saw their two silhouettes looking straight at me, one of them had a look of calm reassurance, while the other’s face was filled with unease and a tinge of fear.

I walked briskly to their location.

Before any of the girls could say anything, I instantly reprimanded the once comatose highschooler.

“Oi! You know how dangerous that was! You’re sudden screaming could have gotten all of us killed! I knew you were having a nightmare, but, sheesh!”

Under my barrage of rebukes, Hina, the girl whom I’ve never exchanged so much as a word with, drew back into Cielle with a cute but frightened “Hiii!”

Despite her voluptuous appearance, from this brief interaction, I could tell she was as meek as a small woodland creature. Well at least that was my first impression.

I continued to reprimand Hina regardless. I wanted to engrave the danger of this world right from the moment she woke up. Even though my 50% reduction in fear was working quite fine even now, to be put in such a tense situation so early in the morning…. rather than fear, I felt my lethargic body grow wearier.

After I calmed down to some degree, I stopped my pseudo-yelling to catch my breath.

Using this opportunity, the one who took the blunt of my pseudo-yelling finally spoke up, directing her conversation to Cielle.

“Sis-- Who is this smelly panda?!” She asked while glaring from behind her sister.

[How rude…] I inwardly commented, but otherwise stayed silent.

Cielle let out a weak and awkward laugh, trying her best to stay neutral throughout this whole conversation.

Unfortunately Hina wouldn’t let that. “Sis! I don’t know who this loud mouthed panda barbarian is, but I say we should stay away from hi-- Sis! What happened to you!”

As if for the first time, Hina looked over at her sister and noticed her haggard appearance.

“Uwaaaaa, Sis, you look like a mess… what happened to your hair, there’s red dirt stains on your face, what happened to your favorite jacket…”

Hina, as if forgetting my complete existence, and subsequently my earlier reprimanding, turned her full attention towards Cielle, as she began to continually fuss over her.

Cielle, who could do nothing but endure this barrage of sisterly love, merely smiled crookedly as she shot awkward down casted glances my way. All the while this was happening, Cielle’s voice tried in vain to break through Hina’s louder than normal prattling. She spoke gently with words like, “Iyaa~ Stop it…” or “Y-you’re embarrassing me…”

I watched this awkward (from the perspective of an outside viewer) exchange persist for a while, before I fake coughed in order to get their attention.

This brought Hina’s attention, while Cielle, who had always been attentive, finally breathed out a relieved sigh as her sister stopped bothering her and turned my way.

“Ah~ You're still here, Panda eyes?” She stated droopily with a seriously bothersome expression.

Even though she was being rude, I couldn’t help but notice the highlights on her skin produced by the natural light that beamed in from the outside windows.

It was vexing, but she was attractive.

While I stared with drooped eyelids, I noticed from the corner of my eyes that Cielle was… unhappy? I don’t know why but I could picture her pouting even though her mat of hair that blocked much of her face.

I ignored Cielle’s unhappy mood as well as Hina’s rude comment and merely stated, “There are a lot of things we need to talk about…” I let my words trail off as I got up and walked towards the teacher’s lounge.

“Cielle, you check Hina if she’s properly healed. Tell her a little bit about the situation, while I go microwave some of the frozen foods we found yesterday. I think the electricity is still working…”

Upon hearing my commands, Cielle nodded enthusiastically while her spine shot up straight.

I walked on over and before I turned the knob of the door, I stopped and turned back. I addressed Cielle but otherwise my eyes fixed on Hina, as if what I wanted to say was actually meant for her.

“Oh, and also, watch out for monsters. Who knows how many heard Hina scream just now.”

I turned back and entered the room, but not before I caught a brief glance of the micro expression of fear which contorted Hina’s face.

***

I closed the door behind me and sighed out in relief.

I checked the analog clock that hung from the wall in the teacher’s lounge and noted that it was 10:00 AM. Usually, this was about the same time I woke up on during weekends.

I moved over, absentmindedly towards the mini fridge. As I pulled out two packages of frozen food, my eyes gleamed over the floor to where my “midnight project” laid, severely abused.

Last night, I had properly used “dissect” on the werewolf scout carcass and collected as much information as I could possibly get from it. By the end of it all, the body wasn’t even a body anymore.

Actually, this was one of the main reasons why I wanted to be the one to prepare food. It gave me an excuse to enter this room and clean up the “leftovers”.

I placed the frozen packages in the microwave, and turned it on as I pushed the corpse out and into the adjacent art room with the big hole.

I deemed it safe enough to keep the corpse outside right now since I assumed that the werewolves only roamed free at night. I mean, if I were them, it would only be logical to wander around when you have a 25% power boost applied on, and not when your weakened.

In all likelihood, they had a base of operations. Probably they’re spawn point, where they rested and waited until night fell.

I shivered at the thought of being in the middle of a pack of level 23 werewolves. Even with my 50% fear reduction, this was enough to develop a cold sweat on my back.

With a ding, the microwave ended the cooking process.

I hastily pushed out the rest of the corpse haphazardly while I used a bit of bottled water to clean my hands before I went to grab the food.

In a short while, I made it back to where the girls were waiting.

“There’s only two?” Hina noted as my figure entered her vision. “Are you not eating?”

She asked rather innocently.

“Of course not idiot.” I responded bitterly. “We’re splitting these two amongst the three of us. For now, we have to conserve. -- One of us can’t go eating all of our food supply while the other two starve.”

I reiterated the last sentence while I shot a sidelong glance towards Cielle.

Cielle in response slightly jerked up, which brought a smile to my face. It might be mean, but teasing her gave some measure of stress relief for me.

I sat down and placed the two plastic plates down on the table.

“How much have you explained to her?” I asked Cielle while I began placing about a third of the food on one plate onto the other.

I took the smaller portion for myself while I moved the larger portion over in front of the girls, implying for them to share.

“Ah, um, I haven’t gotten far yet…” Cielle stuttered as she unconsciously began grabbing for the plate with the fork I gave her.

“I see…”

I chewed down a single bite before I swallowed and looked at Hina.

*gulp*

“Oh kay… where to begin…” I muttered to myself before I shrugged and addressed the platinum blonde female in front of me.

“Well, a lot of things happened here and there, but I guess the most important part of everything for you here is that, you almost died yesterday.”

I spoke nonchalantly, looking at Hina’s face for any sort of reaction.

She met my eyes with her own, as she nodded. From the looks of things, she had a vague recollection, more flashes and glimpses really, of what happened to her.

So she fully understood how close she had gotten near death’s door.

“P-please explain the situation.” She spoke bluntly towards me, her demeanor from before now gone, only to reveal a one third frightened, one third confused, and one third determined girl.

I looked at her for a second before I sighed.

I leaned back on my chair and began a long winded explanation of yesterday’s events.

From the initial start. How there was a countdown, and then everything else went to hell. How everyone now has these things I’ve labeled as “statuses” and about the stats. I went over extra detail regarding the monsters and their danger. Also about Hina herself. How Cielle found her half dead, and how I had to endeavor to acquire health potions in order to heal her back up.

From the start to now, I explained with as much detail as possible. Of course, I left out much information regarding my own skills and involvement. I only left a vague impression that I had somehow played a major role in reviving her.

Every now and then, Cielle would interject, talking about information from her own point of view.

As my explanation ended, Hina’s once steadfast mask had quickly crumbled down. Now, she had a look of both despair and disbelief plastered on her face.

At the end of it all, there was a moment of silence. Nobody bothered to speak as Hina ingested all this information. I on the other hand continued to broodily eat my meal.

After a while, Hina’s voice, which I hadn’t heard for over 20 minutes, finally spoke up with a single question.

“So-- You saved my life?”

She looked at me with too-serious eyes, as if trying to convey her...seriousness(?) with this one intense gaze.

From my perspective, it was more of a glare as I reflexively reared back.

After a moment, I awkwardly scratched my head as I replied.

“W-well, I helped somewhat… it was really a team effort.”

I indicated towards Cielle, who nodded in response with a face full of food. It wasn’t that I was trying to be modest, it’s just that I’m not used to such a straightforward question.

“Regardless,” Hina persisted, “You -- and Sis -- saved my life?”

“...Ah-”

“Was I really that close to dying?”

All of a sudden, before I could interject, Hina continued talking. And she continued and continued, as if the words just kept leaking out of her mouth, with no indication of stopping.

“I could have been dead had you not saved me...Would I have been eaten by a monster? Maybe I’d just be trampled by one of the big ones that I saw… What if they had just played with my dead body...I-I-I… I really could have died?”

Her words trailed off into one last sentence, as if her own mind resisted confirming this one absolute truth.

I looked at her, and answered, “Yes. You could have died.”

“Then… did you really save me?” She asked again.

This time, I had no intention of denying. I felt that, in this situation, it was best to meet her all too serious personality with a bit of seriousness on my part.

“Yes, I saved you.”

After the words left my mouth, the room entered a silence. Even Cielle, who was midway through eating, stopped, out of courtesy.

Eventually, through a wave of restrained sobs, one single phrase leaked out from Hina’s sore throat,

“Thank you…”

This time I didn’t say anything, but just solemnly nodded. Whether she saw the slight bob in my head wasn’t any concern to me, as I readily fixed myself on eating my meal.

After a while, all I could hear where the hiccuping sobs of restrained crying. From the sounds of things, it seems like she fully understood the importance of silence in this room. One loud noise could be the end of us all.

Although her earnest restraint did bring a slight frown to my face. I was the type of person who believed that sometimes, it was best to cry out your problems. That way, you won’t be burdened with saddening emotions. It relieves stress, at least for me.

I was glad Hina showed restraint, but at the same time, I felt bad that this girl who just came back from near death and discovered the world she once knew had drastically changed, couldn’t express her grief/joy through an outburst of tears.

After a while, the sniffling resided, and Hina proposed a question, one I had been mulling over for the entirety of the morning.

“W-what do we do now?”

I stayed silent for a minute, as if contemplating the question, when in fact, I was just enjoying my meal. The girls though, all looked up at me. From their expression, they were expecting something great to burst forth from my mouth. Although, the only thing bursting would be this disgusting casserole I was chewing on...

I don’t know how, but I guess I became the unspoken leader in our little trio.

Finishing the last vestiges of my still cold, frozen packaged breakfast, I swallowed the last bite and looked at both girls simultaneously.

With a hint of a smile, I said in the most impassive voice I could muster,

“How would you like to level up?”

*****

Author's Note:

Thanks for such a receptive response on the suggestions page I created. I never imagined I'd get so many people to respond. Anyways, I knew that some of you were rather disappointing about not having a new chapter when I pulled out that Suggestions page, so here you go.

I hope you enjoy.

Also, comment, follow, favorite, and rate if you enjoy this fic. It might not be much, but it keeps me going.