Chapter 14: Rich Harvest! Aya’s Massage Technique!

(NOTE: I edited this chapter, before it was just a warning, but so as not to interfere with my average word count per chapter data I decided to edit it)

Chapter 14: Rich Harvest! Aya's Massage Technique!

After throwing all the corpses of the bandits outside and cleaning up all that blood splattered everywhere, the three girls immediately started counting the supplies.

— "Five tons of meat."

— "Eight tons of rice."

— "Over three hundred tons of vegetables and fresh fruits."

— "Two tons of aquatic products, including crustaceans, mollusks, and fish."

— "More than three thousand cans of various types of canned food with different flavors..."

The absurd amount of stock inside this supermarket is seriously jaw-dropping.

Looks like, before the virus outbreak, this supermarket had probably just been restocked not long ago...

Which means, with this massive volume of supplies, basically, they don't need to worry about food anymore.

Enough to guarantee more than enough food for quite a long time.

— "Choose those with the shortest shelf life and prioritize consuming them first before they spoil, to avoid any kind of waste."

Akira ordered, with a direct and objective tone.

— "Yes!"

Aya answered immediately, starting to classify all the food and label the expiration dates, sticking small adhesive notes on the packages.

Then, she separated the ingredients they planned to consume in the next few days.

She is meticulous, extremely calm in everything she does, and acts like a true chief assistant to Akira, taking care of details that very few notice.

On the other hand, Alyna is the most powerful one in terms of brute strength — practically a walking battle tank who can handle any combat situation entirely on her own.

As for Hinata...

Akira looked at that adorable girl, who at that very moment was snuggled in his arms, staring at him with those sweet, needy, and deeply affectionate eyes.

Well... think of her as the mascot of the group.

— "Go to the home appliances section and look for portable kitchen items. Today, we're gonna cook a real meal!"

Said Akira, with a smile on his face.

It had already been ten days since he last tasted real meat. Up until now, he had only eaten processed crap, biscuits, and snacks... nothing even remotely close to a proper meal.

Honestly, he was at a point where it felt like he could chew down an entire cow without thinking twice.

— "Perfect!"

— "Let's cook a real meal!"

Hinata and Alyna dashed off running, all excited, practically jumping from so much enthusiasm.

Akira smiled.

Surrounded by three beauties like this, this life in the apocalypse... well, it's not gonna be lonely at all. Not even a little.

After they finished organizing everything...

— "All the materials are already separated."

— "We also found five working radio communicators."

Aya came to report, always precise and efficient.

Akira nodded.

When the networks go down, a cellphone becomes nothing more than a useless weight, basically an expensive brick.

In conditions like this, radio communicators are still extremely useful and make a huge difference.

But of course, there's an inevitable problem: the power outage is just a matter of time.

The underground warehouse does have a diesel generator.

However, that generator only serves as an emergency power source. Its performance is very limited, absolutely incapable of functioning as the main power supply.

If they want to keep the refrigeration of the stock running for a long time, they will need huge amounts of diesel and, more importantly, urgently find a high-power, high-capacity generator.

"Humm..."

Akira brought his hand to his chin, thoughtful. Suddenly, he remembered a place.

He was studying mechanical and electrical engineering at the University of Tokyo. Last year, the university organized a visit to a big factory.

There, he saw tons of cutting-edge electrical and mechanical equipment. Everything imported, high-quality machinery.

Mitsubishi Electric Electromechanical Equipment Factory.

Akira pulled up the map on his phone.

The factory was located about four kilometers from there.

"Yeah... it's not exactly close. If I want to bring any equipment from there, I'm gonna have to figure out a way to get a truck..." — he murmured, frowning, clearly deep in his own thoughts.

Until suddenly...

A pair of soft hands, slender, thin, and incredibly delicate, landed on his temples, starting to make slow and rhythmic movements. A firm but gentle pressure that immediately started relieving his tension.

"Aya...? You...?" — Akira blinked, slightly surprised.

Aya always had a very firm personality, even kind of strict. Even after they signed that master-servant contract, she had never made any more intimate approach. Always focused, always reserved.

"You looked kind of worried... so I thought I could help you relax a little..." — she replied, with a sweet tone, almost sulky, slightly spoiled. "Or maybe... I'm not as good as Hinata?"

She pouted, a little sulky, but with that subtle touch of affection.

Akira let out a light chuckle. "No, this is perfect just like this."

He realized it would be uncomfortable for her to keep doing the massage sitting beside him, so he simply laid his head down on her lap — very naturally, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

The weather was warm, and Aya was wearing only a short little pair of shorts. Her skin, soft, smooth, and incredibly silky, was a thousand times more comfortable than any pillow.

Aya's cheeks turned red instantly. She almost froze from so much embarrassment, but she took a deep breath, held back her shyness, and continued the massage — now with even more care, as if it were a mission.

The effect was immediate. The tension Akira had been carrying on his shoulders seemed to just melt away.

"You know... this is actually really good." — he commented, closing his eyes, relaxing. "If I remember correctly... you were studying medicine, right? You know the acupuncture points?"

"Yes. I learned it by myself," she answered, with a soft smile on her lips and a playful sparkle in her eyes.

Obviously, she wasn't going to tell him that she learned all this in a hurry, on the internet, after seeing Hinata giving Akira a massage a few days ago... And honestly, it seemed like it was working really well.

While the two of them were in that slightly intimate atmosphere, the door suddenly opened.

Alyna walked in, arms full of bottles, cans, and supplies.

The moment her eyes landed on the scene in front of her... she froze. Completely static, staring, absolutely stunned.

"Master... you... you guys..."

Alyna was completely frozen when she came face-to-face with that scene.

Her face turned red instantly.

"I... I'm gonna... wash the vegetables!" — Aya blurted out, practically jumping at that very moment. She stood up so quickly that she almost tripped and ran out of the room like her life depended on it.

Alyna bit her lower lip, clearly frustrated.

"So... so even Aya is in on this with Master now...?" — she thought, grinding her teeth.

"That means... I'm the only one left out? The third wheel? The weirdo? Is that really it?"

Her chest puffed up, filled with anger.

"So annoying... SO ANNOYING!"

---

Outside the supermarket.

An old van was parked by the side of the road, half-hidden between some dry bushes.

Inside it, a middle-aged man, bulky, with a hard face full of scars, was staring straight at the building in front of him.

"Sora... are you really sure that group is inside there right now?" — he asked, with a deep voice, heavy with tension.

Sora narrowed his eyes, full of hate, and replied straight away without hesitation:

"Absolutely sure. The car they stole had a built-in GPS tracker." — he said, slapping the tablet he was holding.

"Since it stopped here, it hasn't moved even a single inch."

His expression was dark. His clenched fists trembled, almost from sheer rage.

They were part of the former Tokyo regional security squad, the ones who survived the collapse. After the outbreak, they teamed up with other survivors and managed to form a small camp.

Supplies were scarce, way scarcer than anyone liked to admit, but they managed — barely, but they managed — to stay alive.

Until yesterday.

Four of their operators went out to search for supplies and ended up falling right into an ambush set by Scarface and his thugs.

Three died on the spot, didn't even get a chance to react.

Sora only survived because, at the moment of the attack, he managed to create a distraction, making enough noise to attract a horde of zombies, which scared Scarface and forced his group to retreat.

But that... that didn't erase the pain. Not the thirst for revenge either.

"Brother Kaito, let's go in right now!" — one of the operators snapped, eyes bloodshot.

"We have to avenge Brother Lee and the others! They can't die like this, for nothing!"

Several others gathered there nodded. They were boiling with hatred. They were brothers. Companions who were born and had almost died together. Watching three of their own fall like that... it was simply unbearable.

"Don't be idiots," — Kaito, the bulky man, growled. His voice was hard, firm like steel.

"These aren't regular thieves. They're trained criminals... and there are a lot of them. If you attack on impulse, you're all going to end up dead."

He looked each one of them straight in the eye, one by one.

"And tell me... who's gonna take care of your wives and your kids back at the camp if you die here?"

Silence fell, heavy like concrete. Nobody answered, but everyone understood it immediately.

Yes. They weren't afraid of dying. That was never the issue. But... what about their families? What about those left behind?

"We'll lay low tonight. Observe. Wait. If we're lucky, maybe we can catch some fish out of water." — said Kaito, crossing his arms.

"Before anything else... we need to figure out the internal layout of that supermarket. Map everything. Only after that, we move."

He took a deep breath, staring at the building with eyes like a predator.

"This time... they're not getting away."

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