Part Sixty-Five

Unavenged – A Title awarded to those who have defeated a monster modified by the V77 Protocol. Grants forewarning of further activations of the Protocol.

Upgrade Requirement: Defeat five monsters modified by Protocol V77 to unlock the next tier of this Title.

I’d been so taken with my coat earlier that I’d completely forgotten about my newest Title, so I was just now getting around to checking it. Overall, it wasn’t the most impressive Title I’d gotten, but it did tell me something new: that Titles could be upgraded too.

Forewarning? Like, it’ll tell me if I get targeted by another obsessive monster? I’ll just stick to not having that happen. Though it’s not like I actually know how it did happen, so I couldn’t really stop it either way. Yay, sucks to be me.

By the way, shouldn’t the Title be De-avenged? An avenger is supposed to be someone who takes revenge for another, right? If that person fails, then the one who they’re taking revenge for would go unavenged. So why am I the Unavenged here? Or am I just speaking crazy?

I gazed at the unnatural sunset, and ignoring the nonsense going through my head, I actually felt at peace for once. Aside from the War-Machines earlier, the fort hadn’t been attacked today, and the mages were saying we wouldn’t be. Not after we’d killed one of the enemy leaders. It was a bit of an odd feeling to know we wouldn’t be attacked at any moment. And I knew that I wasn’t the only one relaxing. I could hear merriment from all across the fort, not that I would actually take part in it. I wasn’t one for parties.

Besides, I had a prior commitment, one which I desperately wanted to avoid, but couldn’t. I simply didn’t see a way out of it.

Haaah. Damnit. Did I just do a bad job, or did someone meddle? Well okay, Alicia obviously meddled here, but I meant someone else. Or is Kalia more observant than I thought? She’s struck me as ditzy up to now, but is it possible she’s more aware than I’ve given her credit for? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’m not usually wrong when it comes to reading people.

Maybe I should just stop thinking about it. It’s possible that this has nothing to do with what happened in the forest at all. It could be a separate issue. Don’t know what though.

As for where I was, well, I was on the northeastern watchtower. Just before I slipped away, Kalia had caught me and told me to meet her here. And since I didn’t really want this conversation to be overheard, I was fine with it..

And so I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Okay, where the hell is she? I can take someone being a few minutes late, but an hour!? This is getting ridiculous! I’m of half a mind to leave.

*Thudududududud*

And I really would’ve, except for the fact that I heard footsteps moments before I could storm off. Kalia burst out of the doorway leading to the stairs, and nearly tripped on her own feet. By the time I’d gotten up, she’d already recovered and was clutching the railing, trying to catch her breath.

“I’m so… sorry I’m…late. I got… caught up in….something, and only….now got….away.”

“Erm, okay? I’m not that upset, I’m just wondering why you’re so out-of-breath.”

“Well…it’s cause…we finally…-.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Catch your breath, then speak." Yep, she’s a ditz.

“Thank…you.”

I waited awkwardly next to her while she recovered. She must’ve sprinted across the entire fort to be this gassed. Really makes me curious about where she was.

“Thanks for…waiting. Ehem. Mn, okay, I’m alright now.”

“Uh-huh. So, what’s this about?”

“Well, before we get to that, I’ve got this for you. The others finished sorting through Finnél’s possessions. I know you said that you didn’t care, but Braddock and Sampson insisted that you get this.”

She practically forced the bag into my hands, leaving me with little choice but to take it. Wait, Sampson insisted that I should get something? That’s weird. Hm, I smell something fishy here. But I’ll deal with that later. Right now, I need to out all my focus on Kalia.

I folded my arms, waiting for her to get to it. The bag could wait ‘til later. I simply gave Kalia my most intense look as I waited for her to get to it.

“Ahaha, um, yeah. So I kind of had this whole speech I wanted to give, but I’ve forgotten it. Umm, so I’ll just come out and say it. You need to stop avoiding Alicia. She’s not that angry, just worried about you. You, uh, you seem to have a penchant for getting into trouble.”

“Pft, that’s the understatement of the year. It starting to seem like I can’t take a step without stepping in something. Enemies just seem to crop up no matter what I do. And I don’t need you telling me about Alicia. I’m already aware of that.”

“Huh? But then, why avoid her? It’s not like drawing it out will help you. So why do it? And what about me? Why would you purposely try to make me afraid of you?”

Damn, she did figure it out. Ah fuck, this is gonna be a pain in the ass.

“Why would you think that? If I was trying to intimidate you, wouldn’t I have gone about it more directly? I don’t think I’ve done anything to do that.”

“Not directly, no. But I’ve been thinking lately, and my talk with Alicia confirmed it. You deliberately set things up so that I’d misunderstand what happened with Mark, but I can’t understand why. What did that get you, besides making me afraid?”

So she’s gotten that far. Haah, maybe I shouldn’t have even bothered with that ruse. It obviously didn’t work the way I wanted it to. Though that’s completely my fault since I couldn’t commit to it. I just can’t maintain that level of hostility towards people I actually like. But I suppose I have to answer her question, don’t I?

“Haah. Cause I wanted to keep you away from me. Though I guess I could’ve been more proactive about it.”

“Huh? You, you wanted to keep me away? W-why? Why would you do something like that?”

Well that was a complex question. The simple answer was that I thought she was too nice, too good. I wasn’t exactly evil, but I was more than willing to kill people who got in my way. Someone like Kalia, who was highly compassionate, was the complete opposite of me. After watching how she’d reacted to Mark’s lethal injuries, I knew that we were too different.

Though maybe this was just unnecessary. It was never going to work as well as I’d like, considering that it was just a half-assed plan I thought up on the spur of the moment. I may have just complicated things for me by doing this. But I can’t exactly explain that, now can I?

“…”

I honestly just couldn’t answer her. I couldn’t find the words to do so, nor could I find a way out of this situation. I’d backed myself into a corner.

“Hm, well I guess that settles that.”

“H-huh? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how you don’t know why you went to all this trouble. I figured that you might not know yourself, but I didn’t expect you to just give up like that. I thought you’d try to talk your way out of this somehow.”

“…..haaaah. have you always been this perceptive? I fell like you’re usually more airheaded than this.”

“A-airheaded!? That’s so mean. Why would you say something like to me? I know I can be a bit scatterbrained, but you don’t have to call me an airhead. I don’t like it when someone calls me that.”

“E-erm, sorry? I didn’t know you felt so strongly about that.”

I’d somehow accidentally stepped on a landmine with her. Guess I should be more careful what I say to people.

“Well so long as you know.”

We both went quiet after that. Considering that neither of us were enraged or weeping, I guess that meant this went about as well as it could’ve.

Okay, I guess this is as ideal an outcome as I could hope for. I should probably leave before I say something else. Or she doe-.

“Hey Michael, do you have any family left?”

Ah fuck. it Too late.

“Why would you want to know about that? I can’t begin to see how it’s connected to what we just discussed.”

“It’s not, not really. I was just curious, but you don’t have to answer.”

I hesitated for a moment, but I felt compelled to answer the question anyway. It wasn’t the worst thing she could’ve asked.

“Two. I have an uncle and a sister left. Though I haven’t talked to either in years.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up old wounds. Um,-"

“Nah, it’s nothing. They’re both just busy with their respective responsibilities.”

I should mention that I didn’t actually know what either of them were doing. Rina was no doubt still busy with her career, and I’d heard that uncle Chris involved in the Committee. They were both much busier than I was, though they hopefully weren’t in danger.

“Mn, well at least you know they’re okay. There’s a lot of people who still don’t know what happened to their family. There’s not much hope left for those people.”

I was well aware of that. While none of the three of us had family in Pennsylvania, Cameron was apparently from Nevada originally, there was plenty of people looking for information on their loved ones online. There was a prevalent theme of despair in every forum you looked in.

“What about you? Do you have any family?”

“Mn-hm! I was lucky. My family wasn’t anywhere near one of the zones, so they’re safe. None of them have even seen a monster."

“Hm? That makes it sound like you weren’t with your family when it happened.”

A brief flicker of emotion crossed Kalia’s face, but was gone before I could identify it.

“Yeah. I was in London when the System appeared. It’s how I meet Braddock and the others.”

I sucked in a breath in shock. The handful of reliable reports I’d seen had described the brutality of the city’s downfall. Of course, everywhere had been brutal, but first-hand reports described the nature of the monsters that emerged in England to be particularly violent, as they had destroyed buildings and other man-made constructs. It was like they wanted to thoroughly destroy all traces of the city.

Considering that I heard that the casualty rate was five times higher there than anywhere else, she and the others are lucky to have escaped alive. I should probably stay away from this topic.

Once again, it seemed like the conversation had come to a standstill. But before I could try to think of another topic, something happened to take the choice from me.

*Beepbeep Beepbeep* *Beepbeep Beepbeep* *Beepbeep Beepbeep*

“Ah, that’s right. I have night watch tonight.”

I’d forgotten that I set this alarm just in case I got caught up in something, though I’d thought it would be training, not this awkward conversation. While I still had a few minutes left, it was a long walk to where my post was, so I needed to go now.

I hurriedly explained that to Kalia, who accepted it and said good night, before going off on her own.

S-shit. I really need to get moving. I’d rather the NPCs not have any reasons to chew me out right now.

***

Well, I fell like this could have gone better. At least I’ve resolved that whole mess from before. Though I’m no closer either. I’ll need to look for more opportunities. There was more happening tonight than Michael knows.

***

“Shit! Shoot it shoot it shoot!”

“I can’t! The bullets just keep bouncing off of it!”

*Clack Clack Clack Clack clack*

In the small town of Fukuchi, a JSDF patrol ran into two of the terrible monsters known as Gluttonists. And even though they’d been warned to avoid combat with them, they still tried to eliminate the creatures. To be fair, they were trying to do their civic duty, and protect their homeland. It was just that they weren’t capable of that.

After all, the Gluttonists weren’t alone.

“Why the hell aren’t the guns working!? They said we could shoot these things if they came after us!”

“It’s that big one! Its a lot tougher than the others! Wait, what’s it doing!?”

*Crack Crack Crack. KRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!*

The “big one", as they put it, rapidly opened and closed all of its mouths, before letting out an ear-piercing scream. It was the same attack the Kumoko Matriarch had once used on Michael. And unlike him, these poor souls were only E-Rank, and relied on the power of their firearms to fight. They never stood a chance.

The high-pitched scream knocked out every single one of the patrolmen, and the Gluttonists soon fell on them. The bigger one, nearly three time the size of the others, picked up two of the men and lowered them into one of its mouths, chewing through bone, flesh and metal, all in one bite.

Soon, nothing was left of the men. Nothing, except for the ever-hungry monsters