PoV Tsuitame
The bed I was sleeping on was extremely comfortable. It smelled nice, but that was probably what we used to wash ourselves. It was a level of comfort I was never acquainted with: three extremely generous meals a day, snacks on the side; no one was constantly nagging me except for my older brother, who wanted me to train every day.
I woke up thanks to the fizzling sound of something being fried. With a couple of quick sniffs, I was able to immediately recognize the dish: fried eggs.
'Is it time for breakfast yet? I thought while half-bakingly opening one eye to check the window.
The skies were still, for the most part, dark. I could see some orange on the horizon, but I was too tired to give it any attention.
Diego was happily humming and whistling while cooking his breakfast. His voice was easy to recognize, mainly because, out of the three men in the house, he had the highest pitched voice—not to the point of sounding like a child or a woman, but still the highest among us.
The scent of the fried eggs gave me enough strength to get out of bed. It was extremely cold outside, or maybe it was the down-filled comforter that was particularly hot. The difference in temperature was enough to send chills all over my body, making my head and shoulders twitch instinctively.
I quickly put on a robe and went to the kitchen. The reason was that, lately, the girls have been a bit uncomfortable with me not wearing clothes. I tried to explain that since I have fur, I don't really need clothes, but they still felt uncomfortable, so I conceded at the end.
As I predicted, he was cooking eggs. He was also toasting some bread and cooking some bacon.
"Oh, hi Tsui, just wait a bit; the breakfast is almost ready." he said while turning the bacon upside down in the pan.
'He recognized me without even looking at me. His senses have improved greatly lately.'
He probably sensed my aura, and he managed to recognize me immediately as soon as I entered his range.
He then quickly prepared some tea and served it to me with a cup full of sugar. He put about five teaspoons of sugar in his glass.
After that, he finally took out the bacon and served it with the omelets, toasted bread, and some fruit salad.
After properly waking up, I noticed that Diego was carrying various weapons on his body. There were some small throwing knives, a couple of handguns on both sides, a giant rifle on his back, and a utility belt that was filled with random stuff I had never seen before.
"Are you going somewhere?"
He didn't immediately respond. He first put the rifle in front of him and put on a massive backpack.
"It's a secret. What I can tell you is that the rest of the day will not be fun for you all. I suggest you find another hiding spot for today. Sorry in advance."
"What-"
He then used the aura to make one of the windows explode and immediately jumped out.
"I'm sorryyy!" He shouted while falling.
He then opened his parachute and started gliding away.
'You mother fucker, at least tell me why we have to hide!'
Then I suddenly realized what he was doing. He was using us as bait once again, or maybe it was him the bait. Whatever it was, it was too flashy a move to go unnoticed, especially when the nation is against you.
"Shit!"
I then kicked the nearest seat away.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
I also flipped the nearest table.
"This is the second time, goddammit! Why must you always screw us in that way? "
PoV Valis
"You're going to be fine." whispered an elderly woman in my ears.
She was wearing a white shirt under a pink sweater, but for some reason I couldn't see her lower body.
I didn't know who she was; her face was blurred out, yet it felt familiar. She was caressing my hands with one, and with the other, she was caressing my hand.
"But I don't want to go." My body responded.
I think I was having an out-of-body experience at that moment. I could clearly see my face filled with tears as I desperately hugged that woman. The woman, in response, was trying to console me while holding back her tears. Her eyes were also red, but she was strong enough to keep her composure.
Next to me were a couple of people dressed in black. Their faces were also blurred, but they were far bigger than me. They were holding some special handcuffs in their hands.
"Don't worry, honey, nothing bad will happen to you." She kept repeating it in my ears.
over and over and over and over and over again.
"Don't worry." She kept saying this as she clutched my head against her chest.
"I don't want to die." My body responded with a feeble voice, almost inaudible.
The woman then tightened the clutch to avoid making me see her tears. She was sobbing, trying to say something, but her lips were trembling too much to let her speak. Then a man suddenly appeared behind her. He didn't have a head or legs; it was just a red and blue shirt with hands.
He posed his hand on her shoulder and, after a while, proceeded to hug both of us.
The men in black in the background were instead loudly tapping their feet on the white background for every second that passed.
"???! ??????, ? ????'? ???? ?? ???!" For some reason, the words that came out of my mouth were blurred.
"Everything will go well.-----------------------------"
I then woke up.
After opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was an unconscious Tsuitame. He had fallen unconscious on my body.
I tried to push him to the side, but my body felt strangely weak. I was also depleted of all my mana. As I tried to pull mana from his body, I noticed that he also didn't have any left.
"Tsui!" I tried to call him a bit annoyed.
I then felt something sharp in my hands. When I put them over my head to check, I noticed that they were also covered in blood.
"TSUI!" I tried to urgently call him while also trying to forcefully open his eyes.
"Tsui, are you okay?"
His back was full of pieces of glass stuck to it. The entire ground was full of small glass shards.
I immediately tried to slowly lift his body so that I could free myself.
After a lot of struggle, I finally freed myself.
What I saw after was pure destruction. The camp was completely destroyed. Many of the trees had been eradicated from the ground; they had all flown away, and most of the lake was depleted.
Our reserves of food had disappeared, and so did our water supplies.
Forren, Valis, and Satsui were nowhere to be seen, while Diego was also lying unconscious a dozen meters away from us.
After taking a quick look at our surroundings, I immediately tried once more to gather the mana I stored inside Tsuitame's body, but there was none.
'Shit! Now what?'
I started panicking, I got up and started circling around him, trying to think of a solution.
'Something... there must be something I can do!'
'Diego, I'm sure he knows what to do. He worked in the special forces.'
I ran over to him and immediately tried to wake him up. I slapped him across the face, but since he wouldn't wake up, I tried to kick him.
'Is he… No, he can't be; he's immortal.'
I put my finger under his nose and immediately felt his breath.
I took a sigh of relief.
After a couple more attempts at waking him up, I decided to give up on him.
'Fuck! Now what? I doubt I can find the first aid kit in time.'
I was in a panic. My first thoughts were "What can I do?", then "What do I need to cure Tusi?"; "What happened?"; "How can I solve this situation?"; "Where are the others?"; "Where do I start?"
'The tablet!'
I immediately summoned the tablet.
I had about 700 points left. The cheapest first-aid kit costs 80. Without thinking twice, I bought it.
As soon as I opened the box, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
'Now what?"
I had never used those instruments in my life. I also had almost no knowledge of how to deal with that kind of situation.
'I think, first, the glass shards.'
I took out a weird-looking scissor that wasn't sharp and started removing the bigger shards. Although they varied in size, the biggest one was the length of my index finger, and only half of it had penetrated his body, while the smallest one that I could've extracted with that instrument was the size of an acorn.
'I don't think I have enough bandages to cover his entire torso.'
Luckily, his wounds didn't start bleeding after I removed the shards.
After having removed the bigger shards, I started disinfecting the wounds with alcohol and a random piece of muffled tissue I found inside the box.
'Just what happened when I was asleep for him to be so severely injured?'
There were lots and lots of more injuries. It was hard to clearly see every single small injury due to the fur, but I was sure there were many more small ones.
'I hope his spine is ok, otherwise...'
I then started searching for any other injuries I should be wary of in his fur. There were loads and loads of smaller cuts all over his body, not to mention the burn marks all over his body.
'I should've bought something to cut the fur.'
In my mind, I was cursing myself for not thinking about that sooner.
Upon further inspection, I found that one of his legs was broken. The bone had completely snapped in two. It was his tibia.
'Right, when someone is unconscious, I should make sure they don't choke on their own tongue.'
But then he disappeared.
Suddenly, he vanished, and so did Diego. The ground around me started to fall apart, as if whatever was beneath it had suddenly disappeared, and before I could also fall with it, I was suddenly transported to a large, spacious white area. Then a few people appeared. They were the bugs that were teaming up with Satsui and Tsuitame. Then a few more appeared.
'What's going on…'
I was a bit scared.
'Tsui, he's injured. Is he going to be okay?'
This time they were worm-looking creatures. I noticed that whenever a species appeared, they all appeared in a specific area. Then Diego Valis and Forren appeared before me.
Diego and Forren, as usual, didn't have any wounds on their bodies. On the other hand, Valis had a massive piece of glass stuck to her left shoulder and many cuts on her face.
They both seemed just as confused as I.
As I tried to speak, I realized that I couldn't move a single muscle at that moment.
Then everyone started to float. Each species was sent to various places in that empty room. We were sent to a place far from all the other species, and soon after, Tsuitame and Satsui joined us.
Satsui was also heavily injured. He had many burns on his body, and despite not having anything stuck in his body, he seemed to be in pretty bad shape. Tsuitame, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. He had no injuries at all on his body.
"Attention, please; this is an important announcement." A voice echoed in our minds.
"Due to an unexpected accident, the trial will be suspended for a week. We have already finished preparing your future lodges, where you will be staying for the time being."
Each group had a different model of a house in front of them. We had a wooden mansion with two floors.
"We sincerely apologize for the trouble we caused, and we'll work hard to make sure that the participants get refunded for whatever was lost during the accident. Once again, many apologies. "
'What-'
In the blink of an eye, everything changed. I was no longer in a completely white hall but in a wooden, empty room.
"What?"