Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

"No way…" Hitori muttered, thinking of the only possible outcome.

"I am a weak mage since I had to drop out of the academy, so I could not cast levitation without my wand. I kept my eyes on the photo to make sure it does not fly away as Jigoku went to the door.

"I waited till he left, then I did the impossible. I leaned down and picked the photo. At first, only my nails touched the photo, and it felt like my backbone might snap at anytime– it was hanging somehow. But I had to get the photo that was lying on its face."

"No, no, no way you did that! Damn, who in the right mind would?"

"I was not in the right mind, you should know that. I was devastated by the recent events. Onogi raping me, then my own father beating… that was awful. And perhaps that was the time I fell in love with him. Because he made me feel so special– even after all that happened– he could have abandoned me like the world already had, but he went home and stole the money to the last note. He treated me."

Hitori felt like crying. He knew Kamiya was a good man, but this good, he had never imagined. Through this little incident that she told, he started respecting Kamiya some more than before.

"I lowered my hip and extended my arm. And… shit went wrong." She looked at him and tried to put on an awkward smile. "I fell from my bed. My scream called the nearest healers and followed by Jigoku. I grabbed the card and tucked it into my robes."

"What was the photo about?"

"After they lifted me, Jigoku stayed with me for another hour. And there I was, sitting on the bed, suffering from pain because I refused to take the intense-healing potion since that means I would sleep for the next ten hours, waiting for him to leave so that I could take a look at that hideous picture."

Hitori waited for her to continue, but she seemed lost in the thought. So he reached out to her legs and patted her foot, but she still kept staring at the bed and her thighs.

"Are you okay? Akemi-san, are you okay?" He tried to shake her legs, but she looked at him at that instant.

Then smiled with a chuckle. "Oh, you really are fun to be with. Just so you know, I can not feel my legs though."

He pulled back his hand and never touched her legs again. He was embarrassed for a moment before she went back to tell him about that incident.

"So he left after an hour and I was still trying not to cry in pain. I went for the piece of paper in my robe. The image had Onogi's arm on the front and behind that hand was another woman."

"Huh? What, what does that mean?"

"I asked the same question, just that the room was empty and no one could answer me. I started studying the photo, I was immersed in it, so much that I even forgot my pain. After studying it for a while, it hit me. Onogi was making out with someone. It was a horrible moment for me– fuck, I dated him for, what, a month or so?"

Hitori closed his mouth and nodded. "I, I don't know how… I am sorry." He ended with that. "So that is how you came to know about his photo collection?"

"No, actually not. Happened while I was studying the photo I discovered the paper was too thick to be a single photo. I realized two photos were stuck into each other, maybe because of Jigoku's sweat, but I was happy– relieved to know I had another photo to study.

"Only that I did not have to study it. It was a clear, black and white photo of Kuzu and Onogi leaving the city Vr-cade, their side faces were visible.."

"The Vr-cade? How do you know it was the Vr-cade? I mean, they are scientists."

"Well, Jigoku was a mage, and after I asked him, I realized that he was spending the time playing games instead of going to the academy, and that is how he was supporting my treatment."

"Damn. Wait, did he even go home?"

"He did. Only when it was after midnight. Mom would keep his food on the table. He only went home for dinner, then came back to me with something to eat."

Hitori was left petrified. When he thought about all the things Kamiya did and never told him about, he did feel hurt, but he admired him even more as the perfect brother.

"And that sums it all. I knew he was spying on them and taking their photos behind them– tracking their activities, you know. I confronted him about it the time you two were over-confident about Onogi's situation, but now you know that he was out of your league."

"Nah, he is not out of anyone's league…" he said. "He has been into that shit for years and way before us. We just lacked the experience, Akemi-san."

She stared at him, refusing the admit that, and ready to argue. But she let it go. She shook her head side to side and said, "And so let it be that way. But now, you have experience."

He nodded in response, he preferred to stay quiet instead of creating the image of an over-confident revenger– or of a stupid one.

"What else did you find in his room? Something taboo or something he should not have?"

The image of the black gun formed in his mind, and he decided it was time to tell her. So he said with confidence, "Under his bed, on the top side, I did find something he should not have."

"What? What? An erotic magazine?" she asked, jokingly. "No wonder I never found it."

But the joke did not hit him since he never had to hide a magazine. He never bought one, Eya would have found it the same day. "It was a gun, actually, packed in a plastic bag with bullets."