Sen isn’t out of his tent for long when Xue exits her tent as well, clearly unable to sleep. Her inability to sleep is for a completely different reason than Sen though. Sen pats the ground beside him, and she comes up to him, sitting down and holding his arm as she leans into him, wanting as much comfort as she can get.

Sen ends up wrapping his arms around her, and simply sits with her. She slowly calms down, eventually falling asleep in Sen’s arms. The rest of the night is spent in that manner, Sen eventually falling asleep in his sitting position.

He wakes early, the sound of someone exiting their tent putting him instantly alert. Looking over, it’s Alice, the first one up as usual. She gives an unhappy look to Sen, who is still holding Xue, going over to his other side to sit.

They stay there in silence, Alice leaning on Sen’s side while Xue sleeps on his other. It’s a good thirty minutes before the next person wakes, and Sen blinks when he sees Jennifer come out of Lynna’s tent. He looks to Alice in confusion, only to see her as surprised as he is.

Jennifer comes over, clearly going to explain, but she quiets down, not wanting to wake Xue. Pulling up the hologram from her bracelet, she sends a message to the two of them saying Lynna wasn’t able to get any sleep, so she’d been talking with her until the two of them fell asleep.

Sen expects Lynna had done that as much for Jennifer’s sake as for her own. Even if Jennifer seems fine, that’s only because her anger is outweighing all of her other emotions. Julie is the next one to come out, and from the circles under her eyes she didn’t get much sleep, if she got any at all.

She comes and sits across from Sen. Lynna is the last to come out of her tent, though Xue is still sleeping, and the group all sits there in silence for a time until Xue wakes up. Sen is actually forced to wake her, as the soldiers start to pack up their tents. Sen and the group copy them, and they’re soon marching back to the massive off road vehicles they’d taken from the rallying point.

They get there around halfway through the day, and everyone loads up into the uncomfortable seats of the vehicles that seem to be more like oversized armored personnel carriers than anything else. They’re shaken around on the drive back, and everyone loads into the gravity car they’d taken to get there. They aren’t able to escape before the same person who had given the speech before they left gives another one, thanking everyone for their contribution to the Allied Worlds, and informing the hunters that their crystals will be delivered to them.

The group is too out of sorts to properly listen aside from Sen and Alice, and they’re soon on their way back to the massive apartment. There’s very little conversation along the way, most the group still in shock from the battle, Sen and Alice leaving them with their thoughts for now. They will do their best to help, but they all need to come to terms with what they’ve done, and what they will need to do.

They arrive at the apartment, and everyone piles out of the gravity vehicle. The first stop for everyone is the showers, Sen as usual having the bad luck to be the last one in. Sen has to wait a very long time, everyone taking their showers much longer than usual except for Alice. Alice exits the bathroom in nothing but a towel, not even bothering to blush as she heads to her room, giving a wink to Sen for good measure.

She’s soon out and dressed, and comes to sit by Sen.

“Do you think they’ll be ok?” she asks.

“Lynna and Xue will be okay after a while I think. The ones I worry about are Julie and Jennifer.”

Alice nods. “I shall spend some more time with Julie. Lynna will help make sure Jennifer doesn’t break once she starts to get through her rage.”

Sen agrees with her, and Alice orders breakfast while they wait for everyone to finish their showers. Lynna is the first one out, and Sen takes her place in the shower, bringing in his clothes so he doesn’t copy Alice in giving a show. He carefully removes his many bandages, and makes sure not to bother his wounds too much. He’s impressed by how much they seem to have healed already, while they won’t be fully healed for a while, he’d expected to need some stitches, but they seem to have pressed together of their own volition.

Sen wonders how the hell that healing salve works as he finishes getting clean, and pulls it up on his bracelet. According to the most simplified version he can find, the healing salves and potions basically fix the energy flows, which drags the flesh along with it. A powerful enough healing potion will literally drag the flesh back into place before speeding up the healing process. It’s heavily warned not to use them for complex fractures however, as the bones will get caught on each other.

This only works because there is a way energy is supposed to flow in a body after practicing the body enhancement skills, so they don’t work on anyone who hasn’t practiced them, the only reason they haven’t all but outdated modern medicine.

As Sen exits the shower, Xue is waiting for him just outside. She drags him to his room, and orders him to strip again. She has some more bandages and healing salve, and liberally applies it on him before wrapping him up with bandages once again. This time, she spends the majority of it blushing, which Sen finds terribly cute. Sen gives her a short kiss as she finishes and leaves the room. Sen gets dressed before exiting, noting that he’s no longer limping on the leg he is sure was cracked just the day before.

As he leaves the room, he sees Xue blushing at something that Lynna has said, and smiles. If Lynna is up for teasing Xue, she’s definitely doing better than before. As he gets out, the doorbell rings, and Alice opens the door to see that breakfast has arrived.

Everyone enjoys the sumptuous breakfast, and while Lynna isn’t up for anymore teasing, going silent again, she seems to be a bit less pained than the day before. The rest of the day is spent much like their usual rest days, the girls watching a drama while Sen reads on his bracelet hologram.

None of them are up for anything, and the group simply spends the day relaxing. Towards the end of the day, alcohol is brought out, and Sen makes sure not to have too much this time, though the girls excluding Alice have quite a bit. Sen wonders if it’s a good idea, but doesn’t say anything. Lynna and Julie both break down a bit again, both of them drinking too much alcohol in order to help get their minds off of what they had done.

Jennifer has a good deal of drink, though Sen has a suspicion that it’s more from what Alliance had done rather than due to having killed. They all head to their beds, Jennifer and Lynna leaning on each other for support as they go, and Alice supports Julie to her room as well. Sen is the one to help Xue to bed. As he reaches her room, she asks him to stay with her for now, to help her get some sleep. Sen is planning on saying no, not wanting to tempt himself when she’s not only vulnerable, but drunk as well, but cracks after a “Please?” matched with a very sad look.

Nothing ends up happening, Xue apparently just not willing to sleep alone, wanting the comfort of being with him. Sen simply holds her as she sobs herself to sleep. The next morning, Sen wakes and hops out of bed, being careful not to wake Xue.

He heads to his room to get changed into a new pair of clothing, then heads out to see if breakfast has been brought up. He greets Alice, who gives him a flat look, looking away unhappily. He feels guilty, even though he shouldn’t. He heads to the table, and grabs some congee to eat.

Alice is silent as they eat, but speaks up once he finishes his meal.

“Have fun last night?”

Sen shifts uncomfortably. He shouldn’t, but feels pressed to explain anyway. “Nothing happened. She just wanted some comfort to sleep.”

Alice gives him an unhappy look, but she accepts his explanation, knowing he wouldn’t dare to lie to his lady. Lynna and Jennifer are the next ones out, and both of them are holding their head. While hangovers aren’t quite so bad as they were before they’d enhanced themselves with crystals, they’re still not fun.

They sit down, looking at the food with a bit of a sick look on their faces, but eventually grab some of the congee that Sen had been eating. Julie is the next one out, and apparently doesn’t have nearly so much of a hangover, as she happily grabs some breakfast sausage and hashbrowns.

Xue is the last one out, and she looks to Sen with a blush before sitting down and grabbing some congee. Lynna looks from her to Sen a few times, before getting a smirk on her face. Sen cuts her off before she says anything.

“Nothing happened.”

Lynna pouts. She gives him a look that says she’s going to be talking to him about it later anyway. At least she’s up for teasing, even if it is only a defense mechanism at this point. Sen lets out a sigh, and has some more water. While he isn’t hung over in the same way as the rest of the group, he’s still feeling quite dehydrated.

The group spends the day getting new hunting clothes, as Sen’s are completely trashed at this point, and all of the others have a few cuts in theirs as well. This time, there’s no attempted assassination, and Sen finally ends up asking why they had only had a large scale battle rather than eliminating the other city.

“Neither side has any A ranked hunters, which are required to be able to take down a city with their railgun defenses. Unless an A rank hunting area is discovered, that’s unlikely to change.” Alice is the one to explain.

“So how do A rank hunters handle the railguns?” Lynna is the one to ask.

“They simply move too quickly for the railguns to track, and their skills are powerful enough to destroy the railguns.”

Everyone stares at her. The railguns are made of very thick metal, and absolutely massive. They keep underestimating how powerful high rank hunters are. While Sen is pretty sure he could cut into a railgun a decent amount with Bloody Peak, there’s no way he could completely destroy one without a lot of time and energy.

The group eventually gets back to their apartment, and have a filling dinner before heading off to sleep. Sen ends up in his room this time, staying up a bit late wondering if he should go check on Xue. It isn’t long until he’s at her door, softly knocking. He waits a tense few moments before it’s answered, the door swinging open. Xue hugs him, holding tightly, and he ends up holding her to sleep yet again.

The rest of the week is spent doing nothing, everyone needing time to get their mental states back to the point that they’ll be up for hunting again. After a few days, Sen ends up sleeping on his own again, but it’s more because the two of them aren’t quite comfortable sharing a room with the rest of the group living with them. Lynna coming to check on Xue one of the nights also ends up curtailing any activities they are considering. They talk for a time about getting their own place, but decide against it. They need to focus on the upcoming war for Alpha.

Their crystals for having participated in the large battle end up being delivered, and everyone downs them, making up a little for the hunting they’ve missed out on. They’re informed that the crystals for those they’ve captured will be delivered within the next few months, but given no proper time frame. They all assume that the AW will have to get a ransom price out of the UFoH first.