Fortune Cookie (19)

We ended up getting caught by Licorice after watching Kyle's execution of Roxy, and had to immediately go wash up. We got an earful for coming back after getting covered in all sorts of grime from the residential area.

She wasn't wrong, and the stench was so bad it was giving me a headache, so we headed straight for the showers. Spare clothes were already laid out for us.

Originally, the work suits were practically consumables. Lately, though, they'd become basically disposable. The quality of the suits hadn't changed, but our behavior patterns and the circumstances around us had shifted dramatically.

As I stood under the hot water, letting it wash down my skin, I looked into the mirror. The fact that I needed a new suit meant my body couldn't be in much better condition.

Was my skin always this dark purplish color? That question came to me as I looked at the bruises all over my body. I suddenly understood—I was going to be dead tired tonight.

'I'll be suffering for a while, huh.'

Still, I counted myself lucky. If I'd died, I wouldn't even be able to feel this pain. Besides, all my limbs were still intact.

Looking back, we'd had no right to call Roxy crazy. We were just as crazy as him. Not a single one of us had behaved normally.

As the water rinsed away the filth clinging to my body, a wave of relaxation swept over me. The tension in my muscles unwound, and all the knots that had built up seemed to just melt away.

Once I finished washing up, I finally looked human again. The feeling of being alive was a welcome bonus.

The first thing I saw when I exited was Nadia, diligently cleaning Carry. From the droplets still clinging to the tip of her tail, it looked like she'd rushed out of the shower.

At least since we were indoors, we could wear lighter clothes; otherwise, her clothes would've been soaked from all that water.

"What's up? Why are you out so fast? Or am I just late?"

"I came out fast, Hyun-woo. I hurried up because I wanted to get Carry cleaned up."

Sometimes I felt like Nadia took care of Carry more than I did. Actually, that was true. I didn't mean to push the work onto her, but whenever I tried, it had already been done.

"I could've done it... You should take a little longer to rest, especially when you're hurt."

"Oh, honestly, that was why I came out, too. I saw earlier that the bruises were no joke... It hurts even when just water touches."

Nadia gave a sheepish laugh, scratching her cheek. Through her thin clothes, reddish splotches bloomed like flowers on her skin. Now that I saw, she hadn't dried off properly not just because she rushed, but because it hurt to try.

I let out a small sigh and pulled out a fresh towel—a soft one with great absorbency.

"You're even scrubbing Carry all over? That's enough; let me do it."

"I just want to take care of Carry. It really helped me a lot, you know. It's so smart."

Nadia hugged Carry like she couldn't help but find it adorable, and it flapped its assistant arms in response. I couldn't help but chuckle and asked:"Carry, do you like it?"

【(b˙◁˙ )b】

It sure did. Jeez.

Still, I had no choice. Whether Carry liked it or not, I couldn't let Nadia push herself any more. She'd just taken her medication, so her pain was lessened—for now. Once her body relaxed, she'd probably be out of commission before long.

I gently lifted Nadia, who was clinging to Carry. Maybe it was all we'd been through lately, but she'd lost weight—she felt even lighter than before.

"Ugh."

"Let's go."

"Huh, where?"

"Where else? My room. Carry's repair kit is there."

"Ugh... I'm being moved..."

Nadia struggled for a moment before gradually going limp—her tail sagged as well.

Initially, I thought about carrying her wrapped around my waist, but that would put more strain on her, so I shifted her to my forearm instead. She was small enough that it wasn't awkward or unstable.

But it was ticklish. The fluffy end of Nadia's tail curved like a hook, scratching the back of my hand. It felt like someone was lightly brushing me with a paintbrush.

I shot her a look to say 'cut it out', and all I got was giggled laughter in return. Nadia surrendered her weight to me; it made carrying her even easier. Carry followed right after us.

Once inside my room—with the door held wide for Carry—I realized Nadia's body was now quite warm, as if her tension was only just easing. Not burning hot, but warmer than usual. I gently set her down on my bed.

"Turn around. I'll dry your hair."

"Just my hair?"

"Want me to dry your tail, too?"

"Yes...! I trust my tail with you, Hyun-woo."

Nadia perked her ears as her tail, damp and less fluffy than usual, swayed. Some beastkin weren't like this, but for beastkin like Nadia, you could tell how much they trusted someone by the way they offered their tail.

How much contact you were allowed determined how much you were trusted. When I first rescued Nadia, she'd let me touch her ears, but never her tail.

It was months after that before I could touch her tail freely. I wasn't sure when exactly it changed. When had Nadia stopped tensing up when I petted her tail?

It had changed little by little, so there was no clear line.

Before the residential area went down, I often brushed her tail. Each time, Nadia would flinch—and even now, that hadn't changed.

A tail pointed up meant she was anticipating something. Seeing her enjoy it already made me chuckle.

Of course, I couldn't brush her tail until I dried it first. To keep her twitching ears still, I cocooned them in a towel from above. Beastkin ears were just as sensitive as tails, so I had to be gentle.

I didn't go for the ears first, but started to dry around them, working inward. I dried the other damp areas first. The soft towel soaked up the water from her sky-blue hair, and gradually, its natural color returned.

As her hair slid between the towel and my fingers, I gently massaged her scalp. Nadia's ears perked up—that was my cue. I carefully dried the fine fur on her ears, making sure no water went inside.

"All done with your hair. Now your tail. Tell me if it hurts."

"Okay..."

Even though I'd barely begun, Nadia was slumping forward—almost faceplanted already. I asked Carry to blow warm air for me. A hairdryer would've been easier, but I didn't have one yet. I made a mental note to get one later as I started working on her tail.

"Oooh... Mmm..."

Barely any time had passed, and Nadia was already completely sprawled out, making weak noises. Her accumulated fatigue must have caught up with her.

'... So fluffy.'

Her tail, once its texture started coming back, felt lighter than it looked. The tail itself wasn't thick and heavy—it was just that the fur was dense, so the sensation was incredibly soft. It was addictive—once you started touching it, you didn't want to stop.

She kept twitching her tail, so to keep her hips from lifting, I gently pressed down on her back and held the fluffy tail steady. Subduing her squirming legs was easy; I didn't have to do much—just squeeze and release her soft fur until her body relaxed and went limp.

Having turned off the hot air, Carry glanced at Nadia and suddenly looked embarrassed. I paused mid-tail-brushing and glanced over at Nadia.

She was splayed out on the bed, her body twitching slightly. Her face was buried in the pillow, so I couldn't see her expression—just her small hands gripping the bedsheet for dear life. She was clutching it so hard, the sheet was practically screaming.

"... Nadia?"

No response. Dead—no, passed out.

I squeezed her tail a little more, and the tip trembled before going limp. For a second, I thought if I pulled, she'd come right up with it. I quickly set up her blanket so she could rest.

I gently rolled her from her face-down sprawl onto her back, and finally saw her expression—glazed eyes staring dreamily at the ceiling, the look of someone utterly relaxed.

It wasn't really late at night yet, and this was my room, but I left her to sleep. No need to wake up a tired person for nothing.

I quietly left the room with Carry. I considered getting some rest myself, but strangely, I wasn't sleepy, despite my fatigue.

'I might as well get something done.'

Just sitting there made me fidgety, and I hadn't fixed Carry with the repair kit yet. I thought about finding an empty room nearby to work, but in the end, I grabbed my suit from my room and went out dressed, intending to work outside or on the first floor—since repairs would inevitably create noise and dust.

"Carry, let's go."

【ヾ(*´∇`)ﾉ】

Carry wobbled with excitement that his turn had finally come, pushing me from behind and making me giggle at how cute he was.

Outside, the town was mid-construction, so I gave up on going outdoors and settled for repairing Carry in a vacant space near the first-floor lobby.

Like opening a street stall, I spread out the repair kit, and Carry settled in place without needing guidance. He was used to self-repair, so it came naturally.

"You're a total mess, Carry. This is beyond what a repair kit can handle."

【Σ(・Д・)!?】

"It's not that bad. I'm just saying there are so many parts that need outright replacing, I wanted to warn you in advance."

Up close, Carry's condition was even more apparent. All sorts of scrapes and—worse—the circuitry had been affected quite a lot by the raw Blue Crystal.

I remembered all those containers in the mining base, Heaven's cargo sector. I could probably find new modules there that fit Carry, but couldn't do it now—not with the shuttle waiting on repairs. It was badly damaged and would take a while to fix.

"Still, I'll do what I can. Maybe I'm making empty promises, but next time I get a chance, I'll find you some new parts and swap them in."

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌ )】

As I was hammering away at Carry with my tools, thoroughly immersed in repairs, I heard the sound of a metal door opening. Licorice entered, brushing snow off her shoulders, accompanied by a security robot.

She looked around as if searching for something or someone until our eyes met, and came straight over, sweeping a wand-like device over my body. Turned out it was one of the scanner gadgets Nadia had salvaged from the lab complex.

"Beep—Human."

"... What are you doing?"

"Just what I was asked to do. All I have to do is scan and report the results."

Licorice said Carrot had sent her and showed me my data from the scanner. The hologram display confirmed I had a purely natural body, no prosthetics, and no trace of nanorobots.

"As you can see, you're just—well, a lot stronger than average for a human. However you do it, you're unrelated to that experiment."

"I assume Carrot told you everything."

"Do we have anything to hide between us?"

"I mean, I do have a private life—"

"Enough. Come and massage my shoulders. I don't like moving my body much, but if I keep going I'll collapse."

"...."

I was so dumbfounded I was lost for words, but I didn't show it. She plopped down on Carry and turned her back to me, making it clear she wouldn't go anywhere until I massaged her shoulders. So I did as asked, gently working her shoulders.

Looking satisfied, she went into detail about what she'd seen in the residential area for Carrot, and explained she was on her way back from handing off small samples the Alpha Series security robots had collected, giving me an almost speech-like rundown of how busy she'd been.

She included that they'd decided to call the bizarre bio-organic tissue covering the streets as 'Creep', and that they'd updated and revised the data on Ghouls and Mimics and so on.

"You're amazing, as always."

She seemed to be fishing for that compliment, so I played along, and her nose shot up smugly. Putting her hands on her hips, Licorice let out a pleased "hmph" and strutted.

But suddenly, as she glanced back at me, her brow furrowed. Something had irked her; she leapt to her feet. I scrambled up after her.

"But why are you walking around with fur stuck on you? So careless."

Rising onto her toes, Licorice picked a single sky-blue strand from my shoulder. Must've gotten stuck there when I brushed Nadia's tail.

When I told her I'd been brushing Nadia's tail and laid her down to rest, the response was something else.

"... So you went and ensured the continuation of humanity?"

"What kind of madness is that?"

I made a face that said I'd heard everything now, and Licorice let out an embarrassed cough.

"Well, you know... They say after going through a life-threatening situation, humans (and other living things) often feel a surge of certain desires..."

"...."

"I mean, I don't get it personally, but I'm not condemning you. It's just instinct, right? Yeah, totally natural."

Licorice babbled, then abruptly clamped her mouth shut, stared at me, her ears turning bright red.

And then she bolted, muttering something about taking things in moderation.

Frankly, I thought the person who needed to exercise moderation was someone else.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=It seems Hyun-woo is getting stronger every time he over-exert himself.【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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