Time slipped by without anyone noticing, and before they knew it, Takashiro Xiangzi's survivor camp had arrived at January 29.
The camp had changed quite a bit again. Low outer walls and a fairly deep trench now surrounded the main house and the visitor center.
Even in winter, when digging into the frozen ground was difficult, they had still managed it.
They had burned kindling, sawdust, dead branches, and rotting leaves left over from logging to heat the frozen surface, stirring the moisture trapped in the soil and softening the earth. Once it was no longer locked down by the cold, they could dig.
Of course, that method only worked in places where the permafrost wasn't too deep and fuel was plentiful. Farther north, it would have been useless.
And Xiangzi herself hadn't been idle these past three days, either. She'd been leading scavenging teams out to gather supplies while also planning for the future. On top of that, she'd been making time to teach Hyakuzono Huaxiu how to use a rifle and mediating disputes within the growing little community. Her days had been packed full.
Yet after all that labor, the sight of their neatly stacked supplies indoors and their steadily expanding fortifications outside filled her with fresh energy.
There weren't many infected nearby. For the time being, they didn't have to worry too much about outside attacks or going hungry. Life felt almost... peaceful.
And yet there was one stain on that peace.
One of the newly joined members had died.
There were no horrific wounds, no pool of blood, no struggle, no sound.
He had simply died of illness, leaving behind only a cold corpse that had already stiffened.
He'd died earlier that morning. No matter how his bunkmate tried to wake him, he wouldn't stir. It wasn't until the man reached out and touched him that he realized something was wrong.
The body was already cold enough to make the skin recoil.
That was when he understood that his companion had died sometime in the night.
When they pulled back the blanket, the dead man had left behind a final, miserable mess. Without the control of the central nervous system, his whole body had gone slack, and the bed was a disaster.
Birth, aging, sickness, death—such things were part of nature.
But when it was someone who had been alive yesterday, someone who had talked and laughed and worked beside you, only to die in the night for no dramatic reason at all, it couldn't help but stir a grim sense that any of them might be next.
Before, people had died all the time—and in far greater numbers.
But that had been under different circumstances. Back then they had all been standing beneath a crumbling wall, knowing full well that their lives might end at any moment. Early or late, death had always been just a step away.
Now, after finally securing a place that felt stable, after surviving the infected and the bullets and the starvation and the freezing cold... to have someone simply fall ill and die like this felt almost unbearably cruel.
Among the new arrivals in the camp, a quiet gloom spread.
Since this was the first death by illness in the camp, and because it had affected everyone so strongly, Xiangzi took it seriously.
She carved half a day out of their schedule and gave everyone else—who had also been working hard for three straight days—a chance to breathe.
Concerned about the risks a corpse might still pose in a world full of infection, she had the body cremated before burial.
After that, they held a brief funeral.
A thin, rectangular box became the man's final resting place, and they buried him in a scenic spot in the mountains of Azuma.
Once it was over, the flame that consumed his body also seemed to burn away the cloud hanging over everyone's heads.
And when a hot, fragrant dinner was set before them afterward, the people in the camp slowly recovered that fragile hope for tomorrow.
They wanted days like these to last a little longer.
After the funeral, the crowd dispersed. Snow was beginning to fall lightly again that evening, and Xiangzi persuaded the newer members who still wanted to keep working into going back inside where it was warm.
Of course, some people simply couldn't sit still. They lingered inside the walls, enjoying the precious chance to relax.
After making one round of the perimeter, Saito went off to rest as well.
Mm. Saito and his family had moved in over the last two days too.
After all, it was safer here. More people. More weapons. More defenses.
Xiangzi hadn't even needed to persuade them. The old hunter and his family had asked to move in themselves.
Now Kuriyo and Chihaya Ai were living among Xiangzi's group of girls.
Saito, naturally, had been assigned to the newly opened communal sleeping quarters instead.
Not long after dinner, Miranda showed up in the weapons storage room where Xiangzi was maintaining equipment.
When she entered, her footsteps were soft, as if she didn't want to make any noise at all. Only after she came close did she finally speak.
Xiangzi had noticed her the moment the door opened, but she hadn't greeted her right away because she was busy screwing in an extremely tiny bolt.
"Xiang... Xiangzi, I need to talk to you tonight. Could you come over to my place for a bit?"
Miranda stood there with her hands behind her back, speaking with an unusual stammer. Even though she was a centimeter taller than Xiangzi, the way she hunched slightly and kept her head lowered made her seem smaller.
Takashiro Xiangzi looked up. Miranda's face was mostly hidden behind her blue hair, so Xiangzi couldn't read her expression clearly.
"What is it? Something urgent?"
Hearing the way Miranda spoke, Xiangzi found it strange. Homesick? Overwhelmed by the work? Sick?
There were only the two of them in the room right now, and yet Miranda was asking her to go elsewhere to talk... just what kind of matter was this? What couldn't be said face-to-face?
Because she'd been staring at screws for too long, Xiangzi's head was still a little fuzzy, and she didn't notice all the subtle signs of unease hanging around Miranda.
"It's... not that. This isn't really the place. And it's not that urgent, either. Tonight. We can talk tonight."
Miranda hurried to explain.
Now Xiangzi really did pause.
She set down her tools, peeled off her oil-stained gloves, and went to the window to crack it open. Wind blew snowflakes against the mesh, where they melted into droplets almost at once.
The cold air cleared her head.
Something was definitely off. There was a weight in Miranda's voice.
And from the look of her, she seemed like a city under storm clouds.
This was the first time Xiangzi had seen Miranda like this since the day they met.
"All right. Then I'll come by around nine. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'll help if I can."
"Mm. Xiangzi... then I'll go ahead. See you later."
Xiangzi didn't stop her or press her for answers.
The door closed again, and Miranda disappeared from sight.
Xiangzi returned to maintaining the weapons, though she worked more slowly now.
What had happened? What about Brent and Doris?
She set the assembled rifle down and crossed to the table, lifting her thermos to take a few swallows of the honey water she'd prepared earlier.
"Keeping the team stable is your job too, Takashiro Xiangzi. This isn't the time to sit around worrying."
That was what she told herself.
Tonight, when she went to Miranda's room, she intended to bring something with her. Maybe it would help.
It wasn't strange for people far from home to get homesick. And with no way of knowing whether their families were even alive, it was only natural that worry would build up.
She wandered over to her phone, now fully charged. Still no signal. The most recent messages were still the official emergency notices from the collapse.
And before that... the last message Kawano Chiyo had ever sent her.
She stared at it.
She was worried about her guardian too.
How was Kawano doing in Hawaii? Did she think about her? Miss her?
They weren't mother and daughter. They weren't related by blood.
But after both her parents had died, Kawano Chiyo was the only "family" she still had any real connection to.
Though even "family" felt like the wrong word. By rights she should have become Xiangzi's stepmother after taking her in, but Xiangzi had never called her that, and Kawano herself had never forced the issue. It had always remained "Auntie."
And in truth, the two of them had never shared that much of daily life together. After Xiangzi's parents died and Kawano became her guardian, they had seen less of each other than when her parents were still alive. Mostly Kawano only appeared on holidays or for school matters.
But Xiangzi understood. Kawano's work had always kept her busy. She had known that for years.
Outside the window, clouds had covered most of the moon, leaving only a curved sliver.
The moon from her previous life and the moon of this life looked exactly the same.
She found herself wondering how things were on that great eastern continent. How were the brave people there faring...?
Then she shook her head sharply, hauling her drifting thoughts back down to earth.
"I hope Auntie is safe in Hawaii."
Takashiro Xiangzi clasped her hands together and whispered the prayer before shutting the window.
She didn't want to reach the end of all this only to find that not a single familiar person from before the apocalypse was still left alive.
Leaving the fogged-up window behind, she turned to what she actually needed to do.
She opened the system exchange list and started searching. Her fingers moved back and forth over the interface as she hunted for the items she wanted. Then, with a few taps, she bought quite a few things.
"I just hope this will cheer her up a little."
Arms full of carefully packaged goods, she headed into the small second-floor kitchen she had set aside for making special items herself.
Ye Ling wasn't in the room—probably downstairs somewhere. Ever since the other survivors had seen her fox ears and tail, more than a few of them had started treating her like some kind of miracle. When Xiangzi heard that, she had jokingly nicknamed the big fox-girl Tamamo-no-Mae.
"Huaxiu, come give me a hand."
"Coming, Xiangzi-jie. What is it?"
Huaxiu, who had been watching TV, set the G18C Xiangzi had given her down on the table and hurried over in her light house robe.
"To the kitchen. Hurry."
The chopping board inside rang out under the steady beat of the kitchen knife. Xiangzi poked her head out from the doorway and beckoned Huaxiu in.
A thick stream of smoke was rising from the little kitchen chimney. It had gotten so warm in there that Xiangzi had already taken off her outer layer.
Some time later, the work in the kitchen was finally finished.
Xiangzi and Huaxiu came back out and settled into the living room to watch TV for a while. Ye Ling returned not long afterward, but didn't interrupt. She simply went off to her own room to sleep.
The crackling of burning firewood and the sound of the television merged together into a drowsy haze.
Since they had power again, both buildings and the courtyard lights could be supplied.
At last they had regained the freedom to watch television.
Still, any room with windows needed its curtains drawn while the TV was on. They didn't want to attract light-seeking infected from outside.
The yard lights were another matter. Those weren't especially bright, and Xiangzi made sure they were turned off before bed anyway so no one would come snooping around after dark.
Just like that time she had run into the infected moths.
"Huaxiu, keep watching if you want. I'm going over to Miranda's place for a bit. She's not in a good state. She's probably homesick."
Huaxiu nodded and curled herself sideways on the comfortable sofa.
Then Xiangzi picked up the things she had prepared and headed for the door.
"If I come back late, just go to sleep first. Don't wait up."
"I know. But don't go spending the whole night over there, all right? If you get carried away with those sisters and forget all about me, my poor heart's going to shatter."
"Oh? So that's how you're teasing me now? Then maybe I really should leave you alone tonight."
She paused, then smiled.
"Just kidding. Huaxiu needs proper sleep. Healthy schedule, remember?"
She closed the door gently behind her.
Huaxiu stretched out on the couch and kept watching television, though that didn't mean she wasn't thinking about it.
She trusted Miranda's trio well enough. They had all been together since the Nihonmatsu days, and she wasn't worried they would pose any danger to Xiangzi, of all people.
No, what worried her was something else entirely.
What if Miranda—or one of the others—started to develop feelings for her brave, capable, gorgeous, black-haired, golden-eyed Xiangzi?
The warning bell had already rung.
A few days ago, Miranda had circled around the topic and quietly asked Huaxiu what she thought about love.
Huaxiu had answered the same way she had at the very beginning, when she first gave Xiangzi that letter—and the same way she had always lived since then. She didn't object to Xiangzi being with other women.
Even so, how could she truly not care?
At the very least, she wanted to be the first one Xiangzi truly belonged to.
Clenching her fists, she resolved herself.
Not long after, the water in her cup was gone. The mandarin-orange compote on the table had been scraped clean. Having taken a bath, Huaxiu emerged wrapped in nothing but a towel, steam still rising faintly from her skin. The white towel barely covered her, and too much pale skin glimmered through the gaps.
She switched off the television. The light in Ye Ling's room went out too.
The house sank into darkness.
At the same time, in Miranda's room, Miranda had already sent Brent and Doris off to bed.
Now only she and Takashiro Xiangzi remained.
They had already talked while sharing the food Xiangzi had brought.
Xiangzi now understood what was troubling her.
It was homesickness, yes—but not only that. Through some careful probing, Xiangzi had also realized Miranda was anxious. With more and more people joining them, she feared she and the others might slowly cease to matter.
"Thank you, Xiangzi. It's been so long since I've had a real Neapolitan Margherita pizza... and tortelloni too. They were delicious. Really delicious. Just like Aunt Snyder used to make. I had no idea you'd prepare something like this for me."
Miranda's voice was bright now, completely different from the low, heavy tone she had worn earlier in the day.
The food Xiangzi had brought had clearly worked wonders.
"You don't need to thank me. Being far from home is hard. If something like this is weighing on you, don't keep it bottled up. Just talk to me."
"Mm. Actually... actually, I have something for you too. I know a promise for the future isn't worth much on its own, but in the name of myself and the Clichens family, I want to make you one. If I ever make it back to Italy, I will never forget what you've done for us. We'll stand with you, all of us—with you, with Huaxiu, with everyone. We'll get through this terrible time together…"
Miranda fixed her bright eyes on Xiangzi and spoke each word with deliberate care.
But she was trembling with heat now, almost as if steam were about to start rising off her body.
Xiangzi sat on the edge of the bed and, at last, realized with absolute clarity that something was very wrong.
Then came the soft rustle of cloth sliding to the floor.
"So," Miranda said, voice trembling now not with fear but with resolve, "surely I can't just hand you an empty promise for the future. That would be meaningless. So I'd rather pay part of it in advance... right now."
For someone raised with such strict decorum, this was no small leap. Her cheeks were red as apples, her entire body warm and trembling.
Then the last piece of fabric that stood in the way finally fell away.
There, before Xiangzi's eyes, was the proof of Miranda's resolve.
The graceful rise of her figure, the deep and elegant valley between, the softness of her body, the staggering beauty of it all...
How could so much breathtaking scenery be hidden in one person?
"Xiangzi... Xiangzi-jie... I'm not trying to destroy what you and Huaxiu have. I asked her already. You don't need to feel guilty, jiejie..."
"W-Wait—don't pull at my clothes—!"
That repeated jiejie, that soft, teasing voice, made Xiangzi's mind reel.
Never mind that Miranda was older than she was.
Perhaps because she had been suppressing too much for too long, Xiangzi found herself being drawn in too.
Their skin pressed together. They could feel each other's heat, each other's pulse.
A beauty in her arms.
Huaxiu, forgive me.
Time for a little... learning.
Let me check whether your academic credentials are really legitimate—
And then—
The door opened.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 25
After Maxing Out Every Class 25
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