Kim saw the final blow and felt the bit of trauma she had vanished, giving her the courage to come out of hiding. Akira and Reia both let out a sigh of relief as it was one less current problem.
Kim walked to Lou's side looking at the corpse of Klein. Getting up from Klein's body Lou pulled out her beretta and faced Kim.
"Let's get rid of her together." Needing to burn the body, Lou offered for them to both fire the beretta together. Kim nodded her head and so they moved further back while holding the pistol together with both fingers on the trigger.
"Ready?"
"Mhm."
Aiming the beretta at Klein's body, they fired together setting it ablaze. Kim had started to cry and instantly grabbed onto Lou finally feeling free of the trauma she had received. Holstering her beretta Lou embraced Kim while patting her head, letting her cry it out.
"Damn never knew they could be so sweet." Akira's image of Lou was rather skewed, thinking she was some sort of beast that is incapable of being romantic, but that seemed to be the opposite.
"Aha well Kim is her weakness, but also her strength so be careful how you poke the beast." Reia, being friends with Lou for years, knew a lot of sides of her, even some she wished she never found out.
"I'm just glad we are on her side." Akira watching what Lou did to Klein, sent shivers making him slightly terrified of her.
However, while they were hugging, Lou had collapsed as she had not recovered at all and it took almost all her energy to finish Klein.
"Damn it." Kim knew exactly why Lou had suddenly passed out and would have stopped her from coming out if it wasn't for Klein being at their front door. Reia and Akira ran over and got Lou off Kim as she was mentally exhausted and was unable to move Lou on her own.
"Let's head back inside, once Lou wakes up we will have a meeting of what we have discovered so far." Reia taking charge helped Akira carry Lou back inside.
Letting the body burn outside, they locked themselves into the bunker, giving themselves some time to think.
***
Lou had not woken up for a few hours and so Akira and Reia spent that time continuing their supply gathering mission. Now knowing where some locations were, they had made rather quick trips back and forth with their bags as well as some loose bags they found in the stores.
They had fully stocked the pantry as well as the fridge and freezer with varying products which allowed them to have proper meals.
Kim was in her room with Lou on the bed still passed out from exhaustion waiting for her to wake up.
***
A few days had passed and Lou had finally opened her eyes after being in a small coma. Although she was asleep they were able to still give her soft foods as expiration dates on a lot of foods were yet to pass.
Lou raised from the bed rubbing her eyes, still feeling extremely sleepy.
"I don't think I have ever slept that well in my life." letting out a yawn while she stretched herself out, she had finally awoken from her small coma.
"Lou!" Kim, who was sitting next to Lou, jumped at her to hug her.
"Jeez, no need to be so excited I was only sleeping." Lou was completely unaware and thought it had only been at least a day.
"It's almost been 4 days." Kim pouted while holding Lou tighter as she had been rather stressed out throughout the last couple of days.
"O-oh, I see." Lou was a bit shocked to hear how long she was out and was a little mad at herself.
'Tsk, why was I sleeping when I could've been out killing mutants or rebels.'
Reia hearing Kim's shout had walked into the room to check what was going on and saw Lou awake.
"Oh good you are awake, hurry and get out of bed, we have a lot of things to discuss." Reia, knowing Lou would want to get right into action quickly told her their next steps, which got Lou out of bed.
"Come on Kim, we can hug more later if you're that upset." Kim had not let go of Lou and refused to budge.
"Hmph."
*Sigh*
Giving up, Lou had picked Kim up from the ground, putting her over Lou's shoulder and began to walk out of the room.
"Wha- this isn't fair, AHH!" Kim was not prepared to be lifted, let alone over Lou's shoulder and could not help but feel incredibly unsafe.
"Quiet you." Lou smacked Kim's ass to get her to stop moving and yelling.
"AHH~!" Kim had let out a moan, but she had instantly shut her mouth as she didn't want Reia or Akira to hear.
Going out to the common room Akira and Reia were sitting at the table with some food out, waiting for them to come out.
Akira had turned his head to avoid looking up Kim's skirt since Reia glared at him once she realised the position Kim was in. Lou put Kim down, who was completely red in the face and quickly sat down while looking at the table to avoid their gazes. Lou pulled out the chair while grabbing her food and put her feet up on the table as she sat down.
"Now, what is it that you wanted to discuss?" Lou was rather keen as she was full of energy and was ready to go. Although her wounds were not fully healed, they equated to just small scratches and were in the final stages of healing.
"I guess I will start." Reia stopped glaring at Akira and began to explain what she heard from Klein.
*
"So, one of the top families is actually a big family of essence-sucking succubuses?" Lou was already smiling as it seemed like she would be able to hunt down Klein's entire bloodline.
"It seems so and they are after Akira as it seems like his essence can suppress what we call their vampire form." Reia was unsure what to call it but said vampire as judging from the physical description after transforming it resembled a vampire more than a beautiful succubus.
"Well make sure you're tied to his hip Reia." Lou did not want the responsibility of protecting anyone other than Kim so she instantly assigned that to her.
"I wasn't going to ask you anyway." Reia shook her head as she knew it was Lou trying to open up an opportunity to tease her.
"What should we do then?" Kim had calmed down and was no longer a blushing mess… for now.
"Not much other than just be careful if you meet anyone else with bright vibrant hair." Akira assumed that they all had similar hair, so it was best to stay clear of any that did.
"With that said, is there anything you two found out while on your little honeymoon alone." Reia did not expect much other than fighting a bunch of mutants and sessions they may have had.
"We actually did and it may have something to do with our essence." Lou thought back to the nest and now had the opportunity to explain her findings.
*
Giving a short brief of what she saw and found with the core that resided in the middle, everyone was quite intrigued by it.
"So the core you found resonated with your essence and it looked like the core of a mutant?" Reia was confirming information as that core in the nest may be some sort of power source or something that can upgrade their essence.
"Mhm." Lou nodded and although she had no clue what it could mean, it was still worth investigating.
"I say we head to the nest and try to extract the core. As you said it took a while before the mutants came out so we should use that window to pull it out." Reia wanted this core and if they were able to get it out of the nest, then they would be able to experiment with it and see why it resonates with essence.
"Are you sure? There seem to be mutants that can use essence and I don't think they will let us just walk out of the nest with the core." Akira was rather concerned with the idea as it seemed to be something rather important to the mutants.
"With the four of us it should not be a problem as long as it isn't too overwhelming, but we shouldn't be in there any longer than 5 minutes." Reia understood Akira's worries, but she wasn't going to sit around and do nothing when something could possibly make them stronger.
"Even if this core makes us stronger, what if only one of us could use it and how would it even make us stronger in the first place?" Kim was rather sceptical of the core as it could just be crystallised essence and is something the mutants congregate around.
"Better than not getting an upgrade, but I assume the reason it resonates is that it wants to absorb whatever is inside it." Reia was taking a shot in the dark, but seeing as it was a positive feeling it wasn't out of the realms of possibility.
"Are we forgetting it has something to do with mutants? What if we just turn into one of them?" Kim thought about it rather logically and was trying to point out the flaws in the ideas.
"We only know of the lava and tar or slime-like substance that makes up the bodies of the mutants can infect, so I doubt something made of pure essence will cause us to turn." Akira interjected as unless it was a special kind of essence, then it was near impossible for it to turn someone.
"Well there must be a reason why the mutants are attracted to such a thing, so the essence must be special to them." Lou realised that if it would have turned her, then the mutants would have done nothing, but it seemed like they were protecting it.
"Hmm, good point, if the mutants are not willing to let us touch it then it's safe to assume it won't turn us upon touch." Reia was forming the plan in her head and if things play out as Lou described, then they may have a good chance of getting out without even being stopped by mutants.
"Well, I have nothing more to argue with." Kim had no other issues about it and was happy to go along with whatever plan.
"As long as I get to kill shit I'm okay." Lou had explained her piece and was letting Reia do the thinking.
"If we are all good then we can get ready to head out in the next few days." Reia wanted to give time for everyone to fully get ready and wanted to make sure Lou had no cuts where she could get infected.
"Tsk I know what you will say." Lou saw the look on Reia's face and knew it was something to do with the cuts around her body.
"Good, is there anything else?"
"How about we go out today, all of us, to see if there are any points of interest?" Akira proposed a little expedition as he could tell Lou was itching to go out and thought it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of exploring.
"I don't see why not, we have been cooped up in the bunker for a few days now." Reia didn't mind the idea and would like to go out herself.
"Heh, I like the sound of this." Lou was getting rather excited and couldn't wait to get moving again.
"I swear if you hurt yourself again." Kim was more concerned about Lou causing more injuries as it would only delay their plans further.
"Sheesh, don't worry." Lou was well aware and wouldn't ruin the opportunity to set an entire nest on fire.
"Well if everyone is all good to go, then let's get moving."