Immortal Children

Chapter 7.1

It's not easy

Translated by KuroNeko
Edited by KuroNeko

I heard someone’s voice.

It comes from somewhere dark, where I can’t even see my own hands. I search for the origin of the voice, but all I see is darkness. As if I were underwater, the voice that reached my ears from a far darker and deeper location was muffled and uncertain.

When I hear that voice, my heart tightens and I find myself drowning in a surge of emotions. The emotions that had filled my heart and left me with nowhere to go turned into tears that streamed down my cheeks.

I tried to block out the voices by covering my ears with my hands, but I couldn’t even recognise my own hands. My name was frequently screamed by the voice. It eventually turned into a pained scream.

Suddenly, a hazy silhouette appears from the darkness.

It has a slight red glow to it.

I saw a deformed shaped mass as I squinted and gazed at the faint light.

It crept closer in the darkness, panting in anguish.

While spilling internal organs and dripping blood.

Something brushed up against my foot, and suddenly numerous eyeballs were focused at me.

It opened its mouth wide and screamed at the top of its lungs.

“Help me”

That’s exactly what I thought I heard.

The ringing of my alarm wakes me awake.

When I lifted my upper body, I felt uneasy since my shirt was sticking to me, most likely due to nighttime sweats. I went directly to my room’s shower room. When I glanced in the mirror, I could see dried tears on my face.

I couldn’t remember crying.

Before walking to the living room, I stop by the armoury and retrieve my backpack in a plastic basket. Then I walked into the living room and poured the coffee the housekeeper droid had made into a paper cup.

I walked to the kitchen while drinking coffee, grabbed a water bottle from my backpack, and scrubbed it clean with a sponge. When I finished, I turned the water bottle upside down to dry. Then I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the empty plastic bottles I’d crushed, tossing them into the recycling bin.

There were recycling bins placed throughout the base. They were long, thin metal boxes that resembled garbage cans, but they were valuable machines from the old civilization that dismantled whatever was placed into them and utilised it as raw material to create new products.

The materials were automatically separated by material and stockpiled in the resource vault at the base.

“Good morning.” Misses smiles cheerfully as I raise my face.

Misuzu was accompanied by the housekeeper droid.

“Good morning,” I said. The housekeeper droid then made a short beeping sound as well.

“Yeah, good morning.” I replied.

“Thank you.”

Misuzu thanked the droid as she accepted the coffee offered by the housekeeper droid.

『You missed me a lot.』 The voice of Kaguya could be heard through the room’s speakers.

It amazed me that someone could be such a nagging housekeeper droid.

“Delicious. Where did you get this coffee?” Misuzu questioned the obvious.

“There’s an old civilization facility in the Birdcage, and if you pay for it, you can get the exact same items that they used to provide to the soldiers back then. It’s nothing more than instant coffee. What do you get at the Tokyo facility?”

Misuzu stared at the ceiling for a moment before responding to my question.

“It’s synthetic food, like……?”

“Like artificial meat or oatmeal?” I said.

“Oatmeal……? Yeah. Most likely, yup. Every day, the menu was the same.”

“You’ve had a difficult time. I’m growing bored, even with the wide variety of combat rations.”

“Why?” Misuzu tilted her head. “‘It’s so delicious.”

“Humans are creatures that get used to everything.”

After finishing my coffee, I tossed the paper cup into the recycle bin and exited the hallway, leaving Misuzu in the living room, who was engrossed in a discussion with Kaguya about something.

“I’m surprised.” I said.

I didn’t know Kaguya was so talkative.

I enter the armoury after continuing along the tranquil corridor.

The armoury room has a workbench in the middle, surrounded by weapons that are sorted by type and lined up against the wall.

I picked up the plastic basket of equipment that the housekeeper droid had left on the floor near the wall and set it on the workbench alongside the backpack I had brought with me.

I grabbed several old-school grenades and smoke grenades and stuffed them into the side pouches of my bulletproof vest. Even now, several centuries after the days when gunpowder equipment was the norm, the rationale for using older generation equipment was expensive. Newer weaponry, like laser guns, was too costly and could not be acquired using the benefits gained as a scavenger.

I took an empty magazine from my belt pocket and walked to a shelf against the wall, where I picked up a box of ammo by calibre and sat in a chair at the workbench.

As I was putting rounds into the magazine, Misuzu came into the room.

“I’ll help you.”

I nodded to Misuzu, and she loaded the bullets with her familiar hand. Next to her was a housekeeper droid who was working in the same manner as Misuzu.

Misuzu appeared to be about to say something, but she bit her bottom lip and resumed working with a worried face.

“I’ve been thinking about it ever since the day I got caught.”

Misuzu eventually spoke the words as if they were insignificant, but I got the impression that they had been rolled around in her mouth many times and were properly prepared for the moment when they would be used.

“I was separated from my companions and didn’t know how I was going to go back to the facility…… I was wondering how I was going to live in this collapsed world.”

I cast a brief glance towards Misuzu before returning my attention to my task.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you and Kaguya-san. In a sense, I am really grateful. I didn’t have any weapons to protect myself, and I didn’t even have water, which is essential for survival.”

Misuzu let out a self-inflicted dry laugh.

“I want to help you both.” Misuzu said.

I said this as I raised my head and gazed into Misuzu’s amber eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about it if you’re thinking about doing it to repay me for saving your life. I’m the one who rescued you initially, therefore I’ll take care of you for free until you’re able to make it in this world without problem――”

“It’s different,” Misuzu cut me off. “No…… I aspire to be as powerful as you and Kaguya-san. That’s why I want to be with you both. I hope that one day I will be able to offer the weak and helpless a free hand. To be able to accomplish what you two done for me……”

『Perhaps he had ulterior motives,』 Kaguya speculated.

“Did you have an ulterior motive?”

“No.” I shake my head.

『Items picked up in contaminated areas are the belongings of the person who picked them up. This is a right created by the union. And I am the finder. Misuzu’s body belongs to me.』

When she heard Kaguya’s weak voice coming over the speakers, Misuzu held herself and looked as if it were the end of the world.

Then I smiled and chuckled along with Kaguya.

“Just kidding.” Misuzu smiles. “But I feel like I can do anything for the two of you.”

“I don’t know if it’s such an easy decision.”

I asked Misuzu as I disassembled and serviced the rifle.