Walking along the streets, exploring further away from the military base, Reia and her squad were looking for any points of interest.
Along the street were a lot of collapsed buildings, suggesting giant mutants had run through chasing people who attempted to escape.
"We should head back soon." Reia was getting rather bored and there had been no sign of rebels or any important families.
"We are in an area where there are hardly any buildings still standing, so I doubt we will find anything more." They had reached near the outskirts of the city through a couple of hours of walking, and Akira didn't see the point in exploring more unless they wanted to see what outside the city was like.
"At least we know that things will be more central, but this is only a small part of the city as there are still hundreds of kilometres left to see." Kim, who had a better grasp on the size of the city, saw this as just a tiny part, so the conditions of where they are can't apply everywhere else.
"Oh well, let's get back to the bunker." Reia figured they may as well head back as there was no point in going further unless they had a reason.
*
They went to go back the way they came, but then suddenly someone had fallen over and yelled out.
"Ow!" The voice was that of a young girl who was amongst the collapsed building following Reia and her squad. The young girl was about 5'2" and wore a light pink dress that went down to her knees alongside a purple jacket that was the same length. She also had light brown hair, with brown eyes.
Her clothes were rather ruined and cuts could be seen along her body. Lou, knowing what the girl was most likely going to ask, went up to her and picked the girl up by grabbing the back of her clothes.
"If you are going to ask for help, we won't give it, so you either run along or try to fight the mutants on your own." Although cruel, she knew it was better if the girl went to the rebels or survival group as they were only a small group.
"Tch, shut up you hot she-wolf, I wasn't going to ask. Just planned to steal directly from your base." The girl pouted and glared at Lou who now had a grin at her comment.
"Ara~ quite the tongue on this one, I like you." Lou was already getting fond of the girl and almost wanted to keep her.
"Huh? Are you stupid? I know I called you hot, but are you going to ignore the last part of my sentence?" The girl was rather baffled at Lou's response.
"Oh, good luck getting in and out of a bunker that requires your handprint~." Lou had disregarded it as it was impossible unless you were military.
"Damn." The girl turned her head a bit disappointed that the first group of people she found had an actual base.
"Come on Lou stop teasing the girl and let's get going." Reia wanted to move on as leaving someone who only looked 13 was not a good feeling.
"I kinda like her, can we keep her Kim?" Lou ignored Reia and didn't even consult her about keeping the girl.
"Wait you want to adopt her?" Kim blushed a little at the implication as it meant being a mother.
"I mean sure why not, I like her attitude." Lou looked at the girl who was in disbelief.
"Unhand me at once you hot bitch, I don't want to be adopted by someone crazy like you." The girl swung her arms wanting to escape as she might be dragged along with having to play pretend daughter.
"We don't really have the room and do you seriously want that responsibility at a time like this?" Akira shook his head while facepalming as it's like Lou found a new toy to play with.
"I'm sure it won't be a problem, plus I won't ask you to look after her, I just want her since I see some potential." Lou felt a bit proud as she saw the inner bitch in the girl and wanted to cultivate that.
"We did not just come out on this exploration trip just to adopt a child." Reia couldn't believe what she was hearing, but they did have Klein's weapon so maybe it wasn't a bad idea to train the girl to eventually join them.
'But why wouldn't we just pick someone who is older?' Reia liked the idea of getting someone to be able to use Klein's weapon but to pick a child seemed completely impractical.
"So, what's your name?" Lou looked at the girl who was trying her best to hit Lou to let her go.
"It's Kadi!"Grabbing the gun out of Lou's holster she pointed it at Lou.
"Ooh Feisty, come on, I dare you to shoot." Putting her face up to the gun, Kadi's hand shook as she had the perfect opportunity to fire. Kim, who was in her own little fantasy of having a child with Lou. Was waving her head back and forth with her hands on her cheeks, until she realised Lou had a gun pointed at her head.
"Wait what?!" Kim freaked for a moment, but before she could do anything Kadi had pressed the trigger. However, the gun was empty and fired nothing.
Lou grabbed the end of the gun, taking it from Kadi's shaking hands.
"You got some guts for what? A thirteen-year-old?" Lou was rather impressed by Kadi and was only getting more convinced to take her along.
"I-I, yes." Kadi spoke in a low voice and despite her defiant attitude she actually wanted to be taken along.
"So Kadi, how about coming with us?" Lou put down Kadi who was no longer flailing her limbs around.
"We haven't agreed to anything!" Reia was getting rather annoyed but was also impressed that Kadi was able to pull the trigger especially since she was so young.
"Oh shut it, I will take full responsibility alongside Kim." Lou wasn't going to listen to Reia or Akira and was going to do what she wanted.
Kim, who had a small panic attack about the situation, had caught her breath and walked beside Lou.
"It's okay we can protect you and if you're up to we can raise you, so it's up to you." Kim with a much more gentle approach reached out her hand to Kadi. She was also taking being Kadi's mother a lot more serious, even though Lou didn't see it that way at all, and it was just Kim playing out her fantasies.
'Not like she has a choice.' Lou either way was going to take her even if she didn't want to, but at that point, it would be kidnapping and Reia would most likely jump in to stop her.
Kadi pouted and looked like she was on the verge of crying, and although she wanted to be independent, it was undeniable she was weak. So by being presented with the opportunity to get stronger it was hard to say no.
Without saying a word she ran into Kim, hugging her and started to cry. Kadi was also a little shorter than Kim so her head was right on her chest.
"Tch, I see she has already chosen a favourite." Lou's eyebrows twitched and her voice was rather strained like she was holding back.
Still having the energy, Kadi turned her head and poked her tongue out at Lou. Clenching her fists, Lou was rather annoyed, but she also loved how annoying Kadi was.
"There is a way you have to treat a child." Kim looked at Lou while patting Kadi's head like she had trained to be a mother beforehand.
"Hello!? Are you going to ignore our input or what?" Reia still wanted an answer and although she now saw the use in Kadi, it wasn't easy to just suddenly accept her into the bunker.
"What?" Lou with a blank face responded to Reia as she couldn't care less about her input, but still may as well let her say her piece.
"I get that she has good potential, but are you even up to being a parent?" Reia who at this point gave up on stopping Lou wanted to point out the clear flaws in taking Kadi in.
"I'm sure it isn't that hard, people become parents all the time, plus we skipped the horrible few years where you have to watch her every hour of the day." Lou shrugged as Kadi seemed to already be a teenager making it much easier to look after her.
"That's not her point." Akira felt a headache coming as it was clear Lou was going to struggle greatly.
'Kim, I hope you can get through this.' Akira knew that Kim would be taking most of the responsibility and although it helped Kadi was older, she still needed somewhat of a parent figure.
*Sigh* "Whatever, it's your fault if anything happens and she is to stay in the bunker if we go out on long expeditions like this one." Reia didn't want to argue and as long as it didn't bother her, she was okay with Kadi coming with them.
"Heh, that's fine." Lou intended to train the hell out of Kadi and seeing as they have an extra weapon, it was a perfect opportunity to create her own little devil.
Kadi who was still in Kim's arms kinda admired Lou, although she hadn't quite realised it, she was already attaching herself to them.
Reia and Akira walked off, heading back to the bunker by themselves not wanting to deal with Kadi anymore.
"Alright, let's get you some new clothes." Kim looked at the state of Kadi and it was not the best. Nodding her head she let go of Kim and held her hand instead.
Lou was a little unsure how to act and the words of Reia echoed in her head.
'This won't be easy.'
**
Lou and Kim took a detour on the way back to the bunker to get Kadi some more clothes to replace the torn and dirty ones she had. Lou was able to pick up a few things from Kim on how to act, but she found it to be rather awkward.
"How do I look? Pretty right?" Kadi had come out of the change rooms in the clothes store they found. Doing a small twirl she showed off the clothes she had chosen.
Wearing a skirt that went to her knees and had light purple colour along the bottom. She paired it with a black jacket and light purple shirt underneath. She had also opted for thigh-high socks that had a purple lining. It was also clear she had tried to combine both Kim and Lou's outfits with her own colour scheme.
"Pffthahaha, adorable." Kim couldn't help but chuckle at Kadi, as she didn't have the slightest idea why Kim wears a skirt in the first place.
"Looking good, make sure to take a few extra pairs." Lou liked the look and her compliment had caused Kadi to blush and look away.
"Hmph, of course I look good."
"Alright, let's get going once you are ready." Kim knew they shouldn't get too distracted as she rather not deal with mutants while they were with Kadi.
"Mhm." Kadi went over and grabbed a bag and started to fill it with some extra clothes for herself.
*
Walking out of the store they had walked for another hour and no longer could see Reia or Akira.
"They really did leave us behind." Kim was a little bit worried, but they knew where they were going so it wasn't too much of a problem.
"Better for us, we can do what we want without Reia shouting at us." Lou wasn't worried at all and as long as they didn't run into any survivor groups or rebels it didn't concern her.
"True." Kim knew it was just Reia trying to make sure they were safe as possible, especially since Lou wasn't fully recovered.
"Now for a tough question Kadi, you don't have to answer, but what happened to your family." A thought crossed Lou's mind and wondered if they had just stolen someone's daughter who still had alive parents or family.
"O-oh, they d-died to weird monsters." Kadi's voice trembled as she spoke since she had witnessed them be killed right in front of her.
"If I-I'm honest, I didn't like them all too much, but it still hurt to see them go." Kadi, who didn't have a great relationship with her parents at the time, was still traumatised by seeing them killed.
"Hmm I won't pry, but know we won't die that easily." Kim who was able to sympathise with having trauma tried to comfort Kadi.
However, as they were walking mutants had run out onto the street in front of them. Kadi freaked out and quickly hid behind Kim as it reminded her of her parents, and it didn't help that she was just thinking about them.
"What great timing." Kim could feel Kadi shake from fear and knew this was going to be a problem.
"Kadi, watch and learn." Lou now having the chance to show off only knew one way to overcome the trauma. It was to beat it in a battle so she hoped that Kadi would build up the courage to fight in the future.
'Let's hope once she picks up a gun she can fire and not freeze up like this when facing mutants or even people.' Lou pulled out her berettas and seeing Kadi tremble told her everything about the problems she has.