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End of the World · Night
Creak, creak...
A Kettenkrad rumbled out of a dilapidated building.
It had barely cleared the entrance when it stopped. Two small girls in green steel helmets tilted their heads up at the sky.
Yuuri, golden hair spilling out from under her helmet, threw her arms around Chito's neck and shouted with delight. "It's sparkling! Chito! Look!"
Chito stared up at the sky in blank silence for a long moment.
"...So this is night," she said softly.
While the two of them were still gazing upward in a daze, Yuuri's stomach let out a long, emphatic rumble.
"Hehe! We finally made it back outside! Can we have some soup?"
Yuuri pressed her cheek against Chito's, clinging to her and wheedling.
"Mmm... alright. We can call it a celebration. Welcome back to the light."
Chito spoke with some difficulty, squirming under the contact.
"Yay! Food time!"
Yuuri released her and pumped her fist.
A while later, the two sat side by side staring intently at a tin can balanced over a small bonfire.
"Gulp... Is it ready yet?"
Yuuri swallowed and looked at Chito with barely contained anticipation.
"Yes."
Chito picked up the can and poured the contents carefully into their two mugs.
"Here. This was the last one."
Yuuri took her mug and immediately lifted it to her lips.
"Ah! Hot!"
They looked at the steam rising from their soup, blew on it in unison, and each took a careful sip.
"Mmm! So good!"
Warmth spread through Yuuri's whole body. The satisfaction on her face was complete.
"I never knew the night could be this bright."
"We've been in total darkness underground for so long. Our eyes have gotten more sensitive to light."
After they finished eating, Yuuri wrapped her arms around Chito and the two looked up at the sky together.
"So when the sun actually comes up... what's that going to feel like?"
Yuuri gazed at the star-filled sky, eyes unfocused.
"We'll get roasted alive."
"Ehhhh!!!"
"You're so loud."
Before they could continue bickering, streaks of meteors cut across the sky above them, pulling both their gazes upward into silence.
Time passed.
In what felt like an instant, it was daytime.
The entire world was buried under snow. A faint white haze filled the air, softening the light before it could reach the ground.
Bang!
"Hit!"
Bang!
"Hit!"
"Chito, aren't you going to try?"
Yuuri lowered her rifle and looked over at Chito, who was watching a distant tin can tumble through the air with binoculars.
"No."
"Right, right. Chito's aim has always been terrible."
"But you should still carry a weapon!"
Chito looked out at the surrounding ruins and murmured, "What use are weapons here anymore?"
Seeing the gloom settle over Chito's face, Yuuri broke into a wide grin.
"Chito! Let's go look for food!"
Chito surveyed the weapons half-buried in deep snow all around them and said quietly, "That might be a bit difficult. Military rations, maybe..."
"Exploring is always worth it!"
While the two were picking through the snow in search of supplies, Kaito and Sakuya walked through the ruins of the city at a leisurely pace.
Snowflakes drifted down through the silence, as if narrating the world's quiet, inevitable end.
Kaito took it all in and sighed. "The afterglow of the apocalypse, casting its light over the remnants of human civilization, the arrogance of mankind... mankind... man..."
He trailed off.
"Damn it, I don't have nearly enough cultural literacy to keep that going."
He shook his head. "The humans in this world really did play themselves to death."
Sakuya walked beside him, holding her umbrella steady against the snowfall. "Humans are always like this. They never learn."
"Hahaha! The only lesson humans ever learn from history is that they never learn from history!"
"My, Master is feeling poetic today."
"Oh! I didn't expect you of all people to start joking with me, Sakuya!"
Kaito looked at her with genuine surprise.
She really had changed. When he had first summoned Sakuya, she had kept herself rigidly composed at all times, cold and unsmiling. Now she smiled occasionally, and apparently made jokes.
"People change, don't they?"
At those words, Kaito found himself thinking back. The fragments of everything that had happened since the day he had been hurled into the Slime World by that absurd Chinese-style Iaido move.
He smiled, quietly.
"Yeah. They do."
He had once been nothing but a 996 workhorse. Work, leave work, eat, sleep. An endless loop, day after day.
Now he had a family worth protecting. Friends he could be genuinely, shamelessly ridiculous with. And a large group of loyal subordinates who had chosen to follow him.
He liked this life. He liked it very much.
He had even made a private oath: whoever dared to disturb this peace would find themselves taking an extended vacation inside the Conqueror's Banner.
"You're still looking for those two children, aren't you? Is it really alright to be wandering around this leisurely?"
Sakuya glanced at him.
"Hahaha! Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts for a moment. Let's go. Time to meet those two little ones."
Inside an abandoned transport aircraft, Chito and Yuuri stood before a military ration crate, eyes gleaming with the light of true discovery.
Yuuri had, in fact, already flung herself bodily on top of it.
"Yuuri! We need to carry it outside first!"
"Hai~!"
Once they had hauled the crate to the ground, Chito opened a pack and examined the contents.
After they had each eaten two pieces of hardtack, Chito eyed the single remaining piece and began to think out loud. "Five pieces per pack. Odd number. So we split it evenly..."
Before she could break it in half, Yuuri's hand shot out and snatched the whole piece.
"Hey!"
Chito looked up to protest and found herself staring directly down the barrel of Yuuri's rifle. Yuuri's eyes were completely, disconcertingly calm.
A moment of silence.
"...You're right," Chito said slowly, expression shifting to one of genuine realization. "I really should carry a weapon too."
"Exactly! This is called war!"
Yuuri opened her mouth and ate the entire piece of hardtack in one go.
"Ah! You actually ate it!"
Chew, chew, chew.
Yuuri turned her head and chewed with great dedication.
"You... you!"
Chito launched herself at Yuuri, tackled her to the ground, and began shaking her by the collar.
Yuuri responded to this with a completely unrepentant grin.
"Hehehe!!!"
Thump!
"Itai~!"
"That's for you, and that's for you..."
The two were still bickering and tumbling around when voices, unmistakably human, drifted in from somewhere nearby.
"Well, Sakuya? I was right, wasn't I? They really are very sensible children..."