Chapter 6 Finding a Post-Apocalyptic Girl

It is now mid-September of 2023, while I awakened my superpowers in early April of 2019.

It's been about four and a half years since then. I was in the second semester of my third year of junior high school, still an age full of dreams.

Although people around me now say I'm a daydreamer, I was much more naive in the past. Therefore, after I awakened my superpowers, I no longer doubted the authenticity of supernatural forces, and was able to concentrate on searching for those mysterious things that those around me thought were impossible.

Legendary fairies, demons, and gods may indeed exist, and superpowered individuals like myself undoubtedly exist in some corner of this world.

I've never considered myself the only person with superpowers in the world. If one happens, there will be two—it's a very simple principle. While I don't know what kind of absurd stroke of luck led me to accidentally awaken my superpowers, even if it was a one-in-a-billion chance, there are eight billion people in the world; there should be at least a few dozen with superpowers. If you broaden your search from "superpowered" to "supernatural power," the number becomes even more unpredictable. My thinking should be correct.

However, more than four years have passed, and my search progress is still zero.

Only my power is advancing by leaps and bounds on the evolutionary track.

-

This time, Mazao did not sleep through the night as she had last time.

Only a few minutes later, she groggily opened her eyes and looked at me as if she were still dreaming.

I took the initiative to extend goodwill.

"You must still be very tired. It's okay, you can rest for a while longer."

Upon hearing this, she remained silent, merely observing me quietly, her eyes growing increasingly clear. After a moment, she threw off the covers, got out of bed, and staggered towards the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked, getting in front of her first.

"Get out of my way." She glared at me like a wounded wolf cub.

"Are you planning to leave already?"

"I told you, I'm not looking for you anymore."

“But I have something to do. I risked being arrested by the police to protect and harbor you, and I can’t just sit by and watch you act recklessly.” I gave a legitimate reason.

She ignored me and tried to walk around me quickly.

However, after taking only one step, her body swayed involuntarily, and then her knees buckled, and she was about to fall to the ground.

I quickly stepped forward to help her up, but she stubbornly shook me off and immediately took two steps back warily, maintaining a relatively safe distance from me.

"What can you do in this state?" I pressed my advantage. "You can't even walk properly, and you could faint at any moment. Besides, you're covered in blood and wearing this barely-clothed hospital gown. You'll be caught by the police very soon if you go outside."

"I won't tell anyone about your situation, is that alright?" she replied, frowning.

"What I mean is...aren't you going to take a shower first?" I racked my brains trying to buy some time so I could think of a way to persuade her to stay. "You can throw away these clothes for now, you can wear mine, and I'll get you some new underwear."

"Take a shower?" She was puzzled at first, then seemed to realize something, took two steps back, and looked at me with even more vigilance. "You don't mean...?"

"Don't misunderstand," I immediately dispelled her suspicions. "If I had those feelings for you, I would have done it already."

"That's true..." Even so, she checked her body again, and then reluctantly admitted, "Taking a shower... what you said earlier makes sense, I really can't just go outside like this..."

After much persuasion, she finally listened to my advice and went into the bathroom, turning back every three steps.

I brought her spare slippers, then took my own clothes, new underwear, and a towel from the bedside table and handed them to her. I followed her to the bathroom door and watched her close the frosted glass door.

From behind the door came the rustling sound of towels being torn from their plastic packaging, followed by the sounds of clothes being undressed. A blurry, petite shadow was reflected in the frosted glass door; she seemed to be identifying the toiletries, and the faint sounds of bottles being picked up and put down could be heard.

The showerhead turned on, and the sound of water cascading onto the floor drifted through the door. At first, it was definitely cold water, and she let out a short, cute cry, like a startled little animal.

Soon, the water must have gotten warmer, because she finally calmed down and made a soothing sound.

Just a door away was a beautiful, naked young woman. I belatedly realized that I shouldn't have been standing so close, so I went to sit on the sofa in the living room and, while thinking about what to do next, took out my phone to ask the university for leave.

Just then, I noticed several text message notifications accumulated on my phone, sent by my only friend from university. It was from last night; he was asking if I was free that evening. I was busy with something important at the time and hadn't noticed the message at all.

Is there something urgent that you suddenly want to contact me?

I replied to his text message asking about my situation, and also explained that I wouldn't be going to school today, and that I had asked the school for leave afterward.

A short while later, the sound of water in the bathroom stopped.

Perhaps survivors in the apocalypse have an inseparable habit of conserving water resources. I thought that since she was a girl, she would definitely spend a lot of time showering. In that case, I would have plenty of time to come up with a way to keep her. However, Ma Zao's showering speed was no slower than mine, and she soon put on my clothes, leaned against the wall, and staggered out of the bathroom.

I prepared a gray long-sleeved T-shirt and trousers for her, along with black boxer briefs. Unfortunately, I didn't have any proper underwear for girls, and I'm worried this might have a negative impact on a girl her age.

The top that was originally meant for me was clearly too loose on her; the sleeves were long enough to cover her hands, and the hem was like a short dress. She simply rolled up the sleeves and pant legs, revealing her fair and slender forearms and calves.

I led her back to the bedroom. I had already removed the dirty sheets and blankets. She sat down on the bed, still smelling warm and fragrant with lemon shampoo.

It's unbelievable, but the lemon scent on her was exactly the same as the scent of my favorite shampoo. Now, it was just wafting over from her, yet it gave me a completely different, hazy atmosphere.

The clothes, so ordinary and commonplace, now inexplicably exuded a wonderful charm simply because they were worn by her.

This is probably what people mean by "boyfriend shirt" online, even though we're not in that kind of relationship. Just thinking about it makes me feel like I'm deluding myself.

"Thank you, I can't even remember the last time I had such a comfortable bath."

Perhaps the hot water temporarily softened the hedgehog's stiff feathers, and Mazao's attitude has softened now.

Then she asked me to take back her pistol.

I refused without thinking.

"Speaking of which, why do you have a pistol? Did you bring it with you when you traveled through time?"

"...This has nothing to do with you." She remained uncooperative, but her tone softened. "Since you're not going to return the gun to me, you can keep it. I'm leaving."

"You want to investigate the cause of the apocalypse, right? But do you have any leads?"

“No. But the apocalypse doesn't come suddenly; it has its signs and preludes, but people haven't paid enough attention to them yet. Incomprehensible phenomena, or bizarre monsters… things like these have certainly already appeared openly in this era.” She became slightly more patient, then issued a warning, “You must also be careful. If you encounter any suspicious signs, don't hesitate, get as far away as possible. And…”

"what else?"

"...Don't come any closer to me." She seemed to be speaking in a detached tone, "I...I'm different from you, I'm a jinx."

"People who are with me, people who get involved with me... are always far more likely than others to be drawn into bizarre events that cannot be explained by common sense, until they die tragically."

"If you value your life, then stop bothering me."

Huh? Such a good thing?

I felt a surge of energy.

“How can you do that?” I immediately said righteously, “I told you from the beginning that the reason I saved you was because I couldn’t stand by and watch a ragged girl lying in the night. And now you want me to forget about you? Isn’t that trying to kill me mentally? If I do that, am I still me?”

"Anyone can say high-sounding words, but when you're about to die, you'll definitely regret your decision." Her tone became harsher.

"Don't underestimate me. When I say I don't regret it, I mean it. In fact, you're the one who should re-evaluate yourself," I said. "Right now, you can't use your superpowers, you can't move around freely, and you need to rest. Yet you're going out and running around. Isn't that just making things worse?"

"Instead of doing that, wouldn't it be better for you to conserve your energy here so that you can better serve the mission of stopping the apocalypse? Or is it more important for you to satisfy your own desire to show off?"

"Besides, even if you really are a terrible jinx, bringing unpredictable disasters to those around you, it's not like you can't even wait a few days for someone to appear on your behalf, is it?"

"This..." she seemed to be tempted, "...if it's just for a few days..."

"How is it?" I asked tentatively.

She remained silent.

I waited anxiously for her reply.

If...

If I can't persuade her no matter what, then to put it bluntly, I'll break her legs and chain her up, and I'll imprison her in my house.

Although illegally imprisoning underage girls is both criminal and perverse, it's necessary to avoid my misdeeds being discovered by the authorities. I've already illegally possessed firearms and ammunition and harbored a serial killer, so one more won't make a difference.

I don't want to resort to such extreme measures until the very last moment. For me, this is something that requires overcoming a tremendous psychological barrier.

After a long while, she finally let out a breath and nodded reluctantly.

“…I understand.” She seemed defeated. “But just in case, I won’t stay here for many days. No matter how my recovery goes, I’ll leave in five days at most… no, three days at most.”

"And... thank you."

As she finished speaking, her voice became very soft.

My heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally felt a temporary sense of relief.

Knock knock knock.

Suddenly, there was another knock on the door from the entrance.

We fell silent at the same time, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Are they police again? Is it the same policeman who returned after leaving before?

Why did he return? Did he finally realize something was wrong here? How many policemen are outside now?

"Coming, coming," I called out towards the entrance, while simultaneously gesturing for Ma Zao to be quiet.

She nodded and curled up on the bed.

I arrived at the entrance hall, but instead of peering through the peephole, I became more cautious and slowly turned the doorknob.

There was no sudden, forceful opening of the door from the outside.

I pushed the door open and saw the person standing outside.

"It's you?" I was surprised.

Standing outside the door was none other than my only friend from university.

However, his complexion was very poor, and traces of fear could be vaguely seen, as if he had experienced some inexplicable strange event.

(End of this chapter)