Chapter 480: Amane Returns

Reaching District C didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

Apparently, Ling Xin knew the layout of the Fortress quite well, so she navigated us through many shortcuts that I had never even known about until today. Being an urban, cyberpunk city, there are many ‘paths’ that wouldn’t be considered paths in a real city. Here, however, running along roofs and ziplining across high-voltage power lines were a common occurrence. So long as you don’t touch both of the lines at once, you won’t be electrocuted.

Soon, the girls and I arrived at what seemed like a road leading into a dead end. However, along this road were eight buildings, each respective to a Demihuman clan. There were the cathumans, doghumans, wolfhumans, foxhumans, snakehumans, tigerhumans, deerhumans, and seahumans. I didn’t know much about the last one, but I would have to guess they were like mermaids, somehow…? They probably had legs to help them walk on land, but preferred to be in the water.

“Wow… this place is a lot unlike the rest of the city, huh?” Feng Mian murmured, looking around in awe. We had already made sure no Midnight Syndicate scouts were anywhere near us—Lorelei’s sensing abilities could tell me that much.

“Mhm,” Ling Xin nodded in response. “This place is known as the Demihuman Lane. It’s famous around the Fortress for having an old-fashioned architecture style rather than the urban, futuristic city setting of the rest of the Fortress. A nice, fresh twist for a change, don’t you think?”

“… Not, bad,” Zhao Xiuying commented, which was rare for her. She had her arms stretched out in front of her face, and appeared to be making a rectangular shape with her thumbs and index fingers, like finger framing. One of her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be trying to grasp at the ratio of the buildings. “This is, the Golden, Ratio.”

“Huh… you’re quite well-versed in things like this,” Ling Xin murmured, surprised.

“She’s actually a great artist,” Feng Mian said. “When all this is over, we should all admire some of her works together.”

“I, refuse,” Zhao Xiuying said matter-of-factly and lowered her arms, then boldly strode forward.

Well, I can appreciate the straight-forward attitude, at the very least,

I thought, and followed after her.

*****

Xiang Peng had told me the other survivors would most likely be in the cathumans’ lair, since that was the biggest and most powerful clan of them all. When Amane’s mother died, she had taken over as chief, so most likely, she was the one administrating and watching over this safezone.

Just to be safe, we knocked on all the other clans’ doors, but no one answered. The only one left now was the cathumans’, and after a deep breath, I lifted my hand to knock.

“It’ll be fine, Big Brother Xuan Kai,” Qing Yue encouraged. “Just tell her the truth, and she’ll understand.”

“Right… well, here goes nothing.”

Gulping without even knowing why I was so damn nervous, I knocked on the metal doors, painted yellow to make it look like gold. Or maybe it actually was gold. I didn’t know, and I couldn’t be bothered to check with Metal Magic.

At first, I thought no one was here either, and Xiang Peng had either lied to me or just been wrong. Silently, the girls and I waited for an awkward few seconds, and I was getting ready to leave. But then-

“Hmph. The Midnight Syndicate, huh? You have the audacity to knock on my door… how insolent. I will cut you down until you go from ‘is’ to ‘was’!”

The doors suddenly swung open with a loud creak, and out came a single girl wielding a long katana. She had long, bright turquoise hair, and red eyes that shone like a ruby embedded with blood. At the top of her head, within her hair, were two pointy cat ears, and from the back of her waist came a long furry tail. She had a dauntless aura to her, like a cold and fierce warrior who would kill anyone who posed a threat to her—much like my own personality.

“U-Uh… calm down,” I hurriedly said, taken by surprise and backing away from the girl cautiously. “We’re not from the Midnight Syndicate. We’re just here in search of other survivors…”

But then after hearing my voice, the catgirl gave a little sniff of the air, and widened her eyes.

“Xuan Kai…?”

“H-Huh?”

“Xuan Kai!” She yelled happily, immediately tossing her katana and sheath aside like they were nothing and dove into me, sending us both tumbling to the floor.

“W-Woah- hey!” I cried for help, but the other girls were taken by surprise as well, and could only watch in surprise.

“Xuan Kai… Xuan Kai… mm… this scent, there’s no doubt about it… my fiancee has returned…”

“W-What? I’m your fiancee…?”

“Oh… you don’t remember me?” The catgirl looked up into my eyes, then switched to a straddling position with me still pinned against the concrete ground and smiled warmly. “It’s me, Xuan Kai. Amane.”

“What?!” The girls collectively cried in shock, and I did as well, only a second later so it sounded terribly not in sync. My reaction time was delayed by a second.

“There’s no way…” Feng Mian whispered. “Amane…? But she has short hair, and her way of talking…”

“Oh, that. After mother died, I got rid of that bad habit of mine. I realized back then I was just being nothing but a burden to you guys, so… but now, I’ve changed a lot, didn’t I?”

“Uh, no shit, you did,” I said sarcastically, still uncomfortably having no way to escape from the ground.

Amane smiled warmly, a touch of maturity in her expression. “I’m strong now, Xuan Kai. No longer the child-like kitten from the past. Maybe now, you’ll finally accept me as something other than a burden.”

“That’s… great and all, but uh… mind moving? The ground’s kind of dirty.”

“Oh, sorry…!” Amane hurriedly got off of me, then laughed awkwardly and tapped herself on the head a few times. “Heheh… I guess I’m still a bit of a klutz sometimes, huh?”

I rose to my feet at last, feeling exhausted, but I had a smile on my face.

“That’s fine,” I said. “All that matters if that you’ve grown now. That klutz part of your personality… don’t ever try to get rid of it. That’s what makes you unique. That’s what makes you you.”

“Xuan Kai…” Amane smiled faintly, and tears arose to her eyes. Before I knew it, the next instant, she had jumped into my arms and planted her lips against mine, trying to enter my mouth with her tongue. My eyes widened in surprise, and the other girls cheered in response.

“Amane, what happened? Who is at the gate-“

The bulky catman who had been about to walk over from inside the structure suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw Amane in my arms, kissing me deeply, and dropped his jaw.

“A-Amane!” The catman hurriedly rushed over and drew his sword at us, charging as if to protect her, and I was going to blast him away, but Amane acted first.

“Hmph… annoying.”

Unwillingly breaking away from our kiss, she dashed at an unimaginable speed towards the incoming catman and sank a fist straight into his stomach by moving beneath his sword, sending him flying backwards before finally crashing into a wall.

“Agh!” The young man cried out in pain as he hit the wall, and I was honestly impressed he didn’t go unconscious. Demihumans naturally had tougher bodies, apparently. “Ow…”

“How many times do I have to tell you… no one is allowed to call me by that name, reserved only for my lover? And to think you interrupted our reunion after so long… tch. Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you on the spot right here, right now.”

The other girls and I watched, slack-jawed, as Amane drew her katana from her sheath and pointed it at the collapsed man. When had she even picked those up? When she was dashing towards him? But that was too fast to even perceive…

“H-Huh? You’d kill me over this…? I apologize for the name thing, but this isn’t like you… did those outsiders brainwash you or something?! Was it the Midnight Syndicate?! Gah, I’ll destroy the-“

“Enough slander!” Amane yelled ferociously, enough to make even the girls and I back up from all the way here. “How dare you accuse Xuan Kai of brainwashing me… and even being with the Midnight Syndicate? Hmph. Pay for that… with your life.”

“Xuan Kai, do something!” Feng Mian whispered sharply, tugging on my arm.

“W-W-Woah, wait!” I hurriedly cut in before Amane swung her blade, and she turned her head to me in surprise.

“Hm? What’s wrong, Xuan Kai?”

“There’s no need to kill him,” I replied, clearing my throat. “I mean… for my plan, we’ll need all the helpers we can get.”

“But…” Amane bit her lip and glanced at the man on the other end of her blade. “We finally met again after so long, and the first thing he does upon seeing you is slander you with baseless accusations. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about cathumans, so this is unacceptable…”

“Relax,” I sighed. “Every race has its scum. Just one individual isn’t enough to represent the entire race. Just leave the guy be, and let him reflect on his mistakes.”

Amane still appeared conflicted, but ultimately gave in and took a deep breath, then glared at the man.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Get out of my sight.”

“A-Ah, yes!”

The catman hurriedly ran away with his tail tucked between his legs, then ran back after a few seconds, retrieved his fallen sword, and ran away again. It was awkward to watch, to say the least.

Once he was finally gone, Amane let out a deep sigh.

“… Sorry, Xuan Kai… I shouldn’t have lost my temper there. It’s just… there’s nothing I hate more in this world than my loved ones getting mistreated.”

I smiled and walked up beside her, then pulled her close for a hug.

“No need to apologize. I share that sentiment. And besides… if there’s anyone who needs to say ‘sorry’ here, it’s me.”