The Meeting

Jay woke up groggily and looked around. He saw a room that was in tatters and recognized nothing around him and tried to recall the last thing he remembered.

It was then that the door opened.

He tried to leap out of the bed but failed as a searing pain assault his entire body.

"Don't try to get up!" A woman appeared and rushed towards him

He recognized her as the woman that he had saved. He tried to speak but was stopped when the woman placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Don't try to speak right now. You're still badly injured, I can answer your questions later"

He nodded and laid down. He didn't know why she trusted this woman but somehow he did, even though he had only met her twice.

It was only then that he realized that his shirt and armor was off when the woman touched his chest. He had certain thoughts in his head but after glancing at the woman, he saw nothing but care and worry in her eyes.

The woman started bandaging his chest and arms and after several minutes and a few grunts of pain from him, it all ended fairly quickly.

She sat down on a chair that was placed beside the bed that he was laying on.

"Who are you?" That was the first thought that had entered his head.

"My name is Ayame Harahumi and i...used to live in this village of survivors a year after the fall of everything really," He thought that she was Asian when he first saw her.

"Next question. What do you want?"

"What?" Ayame asked in surprise and looked at him in confusion.

"No one in this world does anything for free and I'm sure that some people would have even resorted to cannibalism" This was the first real conversation he had in years and he couldn't be blamed since he didn't know anything that happened in the outside world and being cautious and suspicious was safer than being a naive fool.

"What!?" She screamed in anger at him

"Don't tell me that you haven't thought about it? We're in a world with limited resources and simply living in an area poses the danger of death to you and everyone else. I'm guessing that it was because it was you that they found this place wasn't it?"

"Urk..." She choked back and thought that maybe he was right. This village had never had any encounter with the Edens. And the only time that they were found out was when she left the village in curiosity and search of supplies.

Seeing that the woman was deep in thought and possibly the verge of crying. He cringed back at the fact that the first person he had met in this world and he just made them cry. He sighed and spoke out.

"Look, woman, this wasn't any of your faults alright? This place would have been discovered eventually. And the fact that they found you means that they were already close by right? That meant in maybe a week or less the Village would have still been destroyed." He tried to calm the woman down and saw it mildly working as she started wiping away the tears that were building upon her eyes.

"Let me join you"

"..." It took a second for him to process what the woman had just said.

"What?"

"I said I want to come with you" He was still shocked when the woman confirmed it. He hadn't thought the woman would be so bold to ask to come with him.

"No." He couldn't bring someone else with him since that meant that he would need to feed another person and protecting himself was easier than protecting another person as he had no idea what they would do and the dangers that it would present.

"Why!"

"Simply because you would be a burden" He decided that a blunt approach would be better rather than going about it in a roundabout way that would give her hope.

"But I can fight!" To demonstrate she held her palm out and a small flame started flying out before she quickly extinguished it.

"Look, that magic might be as useful as an insect repellant to them."

"But I can get better! You just need to teach me!" Wow, would you look at this woman? First, she wants him to protect her and now she wants him to be her teacher. He could see the benefits in having another person with the ability to kill Edens was, but he also didn't know that woman too well and she could stab him in the back at any time.

He took a gamble and answered.

"Sure"

"Ye-"

"But under certain conditions. First, you need to hunt for yourself when I declare it and second, you can't touch anything that belongs to me and most important of all. You can't say my name to anyone." The last one was just a preference as he didn't like his name being used by random people.

She nodded her head quickly and jumped around.

He watched her jump around and thought how she acts like a little girl even though she looks to be in her 20's. He lied down and slept.

When morning came they all moved and started taking their belongings with them. Jay had already skinned the dead Edens and is carrying them in backpacks that were left intact in the village.

"We'll be heading to the town first since I left some things there and after looking around it for anything useful, we'll head out towards the city" He had left some things there since he had rushed off to the village when he saw the fire and smoke in the distance meaning a majority of his things were at the pharmacy that he called home for a short while.

Ayame nodded and walked beside Jay.

They took longer to return to the town as they were just walking instead of running like a madman like he did when he saw the fire.

When they reached the town, they separated while he got his things and searched while she would do her own thing.

He reached the pharmacy and went inside. After searching around he found his bags in the back storage room and left after taking anything valuable like a few meds. Just because they had magic didn't mean that they could fix everything and increase their regeneration or anything. It was all propaganda I tell you.

He left the pharmacy and searched the houses since they might have an unexpected goldmine somewhere within them.

It was not unusual for people to leave things behind when leaving suddenly. But after three years he was sure that someone else would have taken them already.

After searching for several hours he found nothing of interest and went to the center of the town to wait for Ayame to arrive. After waiting for an hour Ayame arrived and waved towards him.

He nodded back and waited for her to approach and asked her about what she had gotten.

She said it was just some small things such as a backpack, clothes and some accessories. Somehow even in the apocalypse women still had a liking for such things.

He started walking down the road that leads out of town. It was vague for him since he wasn't able to distinctly remember the streets as the last time he walked these roads was when he ran away.

Nightfall soon descended and they decided to camp beside the road. It was just a simple camp if you could even call it that. They had no tents or sleeping bags so they merely gathered leaves on the grass and gathered them as a makeshift bed.

This was the first night that they had spent together in their journey and was the first of many nights like these.

Several days had passed when they had finally seen the city in the distance. The past few days have been peaceful, to say the least since they hadn't encountered any Edens on the way here. But they had to dedicate time to hunting in the forest as their food supply had already run out on the second day. This reduced the time they had to travel and their nights were sometimes sleepless as they would be assaulted by bugs and other insects in their sleep.

So the fact that they could now see the destination was a relief for them.

Instead of walking like they usually did. They instead started jogging towards the city as to not have to spend another night in the outdoors anymore.

When they reached the city, all they could see was ruin. Many of the buildings were broken down and dilapidated. They explored the city looking for anyone that may have lived here and maybe a place to stay for the night.

Sunset was approaching so they went into a nearby office building and decided to camp on the second floor. They didn't have the luxury of leaves for a bed anymore so they had to make due by taking a piece of paper that was scattered in cubicles and on the floor before they realized that the chairs could be disassembled.

They tore off the seat cushions and stacked them for a pillow and several more for a bed. This was the most comfortable they've been in the last few days even if the cushions were a bit lumpy and hard.

Dawn came and they roused from their sleep.

He stood up and scattered the cushions around the office as to not give any signs that anyone was here. This was a habit they picked up while living near the roads towards the city as to not let any signs for anyone that were possibly following them.

They were grabbing their things when they heard a crash down the street. Both of them ducked and approached the window peering out into the street. They saw several Edens walking down the street. But what caught his eye was the smaller Eden in the middle of the group. His fear grew as this was the first time he had met a [Commander] level Eden.

He pulled Ayame back and threw them both to the floor. He motioned for Ayame to keep quiet and stay still. They waited as they could hear their footsteps pass by their building and when they couldn't hear it anymore he sighed in relief.

Jay felt tapping on his shoulder as he realized that his hand was still grabbing Ayame's arm and let go. He told Ayame to hurry up and get ready and grab their things so they could find a more hidden area to stay and find any supplies within the city, such as perhaps a sleeping bag and food as they still had no food.

They both hurried down while keeping as quiet as they could. They traversed the city while on the lookout for the [Commander] Eden, soon they arrived at a large white building with many of its windows already broken and barricaded. There were sandbags and broken vehicles piled outside along with a large number of skeletons in both Army and Police Uniform.

They went in the building avoiding the skeletons while on the lookout for anything useful on the bodies. As the neared the door, there were skeletons by the door and judging by the stars on their shoulders. They would be Generals of an army.

But why would an army be guarding this building?

They entered and saw it in disarray with hundreds of gunshots holes on the walls and ceilings while the floor was littered by bullet casings.

"I'll go look down here, you go upstairs and see if it's safe enough."

Ayame nodded and went up to the stairs.

He continued walking around on the bottom floor until he arrived in a large room with a desk in the middle of the room. He approached the desk and saw several scattered papers, picking one up and reading it's contents he found that this used to be the mayor's office and that he was planning an evacuation but was proven useless if what he saw outside was any indication.

He thought it was lucky that he found a paper that perfectly described what he needed and gave him all the necessary information. Then again the papers around were also copies of this single paper, with which he might add had the great idea to add the big words of TOP SECRET marking it with his name below it.