Reia had fallen asleep out of exhaustion in Akira's arms, due to her using all of her essence to create the lightning blade, in an attempt to kill the old man.
Akira knew that it would take Reia at least 6 hours before waking up and recovering from the exhaustion.
Hoping that the construction site would be safe enough, Akira needed some time to rest himself.
'The essence wall should be enough to protect us, but I have no idea how long it will last.' The essence wall the old man threw down indirectly made it safe for them. However, Akira did not know how long it would last as there were varying times, depending on the model and how much was left in the essence batteries.
'I should probably move Reia away from the stairs.' Looking around, Akira looked at the dead bodies lying on the ground and figured it would be better if they moved back to the cement bags.
Standing up with Reia in his arms, Akira made his way back behind the cement bags, moving away from the dead bodies which were slowly being eaten by the corruption.
The basement was now completely dark from the sun finally setting, relying on the torch on his gun to provide light. Akira's gun pointed to the roof and it being a strong flashlight was able to provide just enough light to see around him.
Leaning Reia up against the cement bags, Akira then went back to pick up Reia's sword and her bag which were left by the stairs.
'We need to have a base where we can store our things.' Akira thought how nice it would be to set up shop somewhere so they didn't need to carry everything.
'If only my squad had made it back to base, we could have at least had the chance to grab more supplies.' Akira before meeting Reia was on his way back to the military base from a mission, so the supplies they had were rather low.
'Well let's hope that everything isn't ransacked or turned into a rebel camp.' Akira thought about how the rebels could have already set up a base and it would be logical that it was at a kind of market where there is a bunch of supplies.
'It's only been 1 day, so they wouldn't have finished preparations, so maybe we can sneak in without any issues.' Due to everything being in chaos, as long as they avoided higher-ranking rebels who were more likely to know them, they may be able to go in without any issues.
'Still too risky, I'm going to have to talk with Reia before we start making plans.' Akira walked back to Reia placing her sword and bag next to her.
Akira then sat down next to Reia pulling out a small snack of military rations from his bag.
'Horrible as ever, we really need to get some better food than this crap.' Akira reluctantly ate the rations as he would rather go through them first than the cupped noodles.
After finishing the rations, he leaned back, closing his eyes hoping to get some sleep while it was quiet and to wait for the night to pass.
**
Reia slowly opened her eyes, greeted with a dimly lit basement.
Trying to move her head, bumped into something when she tried to move. Gaining her bearings she realised that she was leaning on Akira's shoulder and his head was leaning on hers.
Freaking out, she slipped away from Akira but because she moved, Akira's support was now gone, making him fall onto Reia's lap. Landing his head on Reia's thighs, Akira had trapped her from moving.
Reia had no idea what to do as she did not want to wake him up, but she also did not want Akira on her lap.
'Damnit.' Reia slammed her head back on the cement bags confused and flustered as this was not what she was expecting to wake up to.
'I guess it isn't so bad, after seeing that old piece of shit I don't know if I would be able to keep my cool.' Reia could feel the anger build up in her, just by thinking about him, but the current situation had somewhat quelled that urge to go hunting for him.
'Here I thought I had good control over myself, it seems like things never change.' Reia thought back to the past, when she was very emotional and volatile, especially during her years at the academy.
'I turned off my emotions for a reason, hoping it would help but it seems like I still need to work on it.' Reia sighed as while she was in the military she was able to control herself, but something in her had changed making her old self come back out of its shell.
'I don't know if I should blame the collapse or this damn vixen in my lap.' Reia looked at Akira as ever since they grouped up she had been more emotional.
'It was the same in the academy, every time he was around the smallest thing could make me outraged or flustered.' Reia, trying to find an outlet to blame her emotional state on, also remembered the time they spent at the academy.
'No wonder I was always being teased by Lou about Akira.'
Lou had always been on Reia's case about Akira as in most of the situations she got into with Akira, Lou would always try to flip it to make it sound like they liked each other.
'Tch, that damn she-wolf, of course, the one person I can't get back at, is the one that teases me.' Reia had always been unsuccessful in getting the upper hand on Lou and was stuck in a constant loop of getting teased.
'We were at school, not on a dating show.' Reia always had set her mind on getting into the military and raising the ranks. So with Lou always encouraging something she never had time for, frustrated Reia.
'Maybe that's why.' Reia kept finding more excuses to blame it on Akira, but in the end, there was no way to tell.
*sigh*
'That doesn't matter anyway.' Reia shook her head, as there was no point in remembering the past.
'I need to wake Akira up, I want to get moving as soon as possible.' Reia did not want to wake up Akira, but they needed to get moving before any rebels or mutants came by.
Reia reached for Akira's ears, and pinched the tip causing him to suddenly jolt up. Because Reia was leaning over him, his head went directly into her chest causing her to push Akira off.
Akira rolled onto the floor in front of Reia disoriented and extremely confused about what happened.
"What the fuck?" Akira got up from the ground holding his head trying to get his bearings. Akira looked at where Reia was and saw her turning her head.
"Oh you are awake, but what the hell happened." Akira was glad to see Reia was okay but was confused about what the hell just happened.
"I-i uhhh…. Sorry, I pushed you since you were on my lap when I woke up." Reia purposefully avoided telling Akira what really happened just so she didn't have to deal with the embarrassment.
"Oh haha, my bad I ended up sleeping right next to you." Akira laughed it off, a little embarrassed, but he understood why Reia would have acted like that, especially the memories that would have just resurfaced recently.
"But did you have to push me that hard?" Akira stretched his back feeling sore.
"S-sorry." Reia did not have much to say but was glad she avoided an embarrassing crisis.
"Well seeing as we are awake and it is now morning, we should get out of this construction site." Akira got straight to the point and went to pick up his bag and gun.
"Oh yes." Reia got up from the ground while picking up her sword and bag.
Akira then went to the essence wall that had finally diminished, to pick up his sword that was still on the stairs.
"Before we go, what should we do if we encounter a rebel camp?" Akira wanted to have some sort of plan of action before entering. He also had his worries that the old man would be there and if that was the case it would be impossible to sneak in.
"If the old man is there I am kil-"
"No! That is too dangerous, we need to survive and regroup first before we try to go on our own personal agendas." Akira expected Reia to say something along those lines and it wasn't ideal for them especially if it is a small army's worth of rebels.
Reia shut her mouth as Akira was right and her emotions were getting the better of her again.
"I say we find a place to stay for the time being to make our base and go out to investigate." Akira knew they needed to head to the haven, but it was unlikely that they would be able to get there anytime soon, so a place to stay would be ideal.
"Hmm, it would be good to have a place to go back to that is hidden. We also have at least a week or 2 worth of supplies in our bags, so we have time to find a place to settle." Reia liked the idea as making it to the haven was getting less plausible by the day.
"Alright, it is decided, let's find a place to set up base and then we will go try to find a place to get supplies." Declaring the plan Akira and Reia had a new goal.
"Well let's get moving." Reia was content with the plan and so they got ready to leave.