“Me…? Did… we win…?”

In disbelief, Nene approached the corpses of the Rank E Ethereals. Her body was still trembling, but she remained standing.

“Ha!” Sahara laughed. “Well done! I’ve never stopped to think about how these little things worked.”

Nene couldn’t enjoy her victory for long. As usual, something bad had to happen.

Her body twisted and collapsed onto the ground.

What the hell? Why does my whole body hurt and burn so much!?

Those were the consequences of letting Sahara take control.

“Are you alright? Switch control seems like we shouldn’t too much. Breathe.”

Nene wanted to say a thousand things, but her tongue felt numb.

So she simply lay there.

She stayed like that for a while, until she finally managed to stand again.

“Good. Now eat the core.”

Nene blinked.

She had completely forgotten.

She was supposed to eat Ethereal beings.

Seeing the slug corpses lying there like poorly made sacks of potatoes… didn’t exactly make her hungry.

“E-Eat it…?”

“That’s right.”

“Th-That could kill me… I don’t think humans can digest a core…” she murmured.

“As I said before, there’s no human food here. Besides, you’re like an Ethereal now, so you should consume power.”

Nene’s eyes widened.

She had already had those doubts before, but hearing Sahara say it so casually was horrifying.

Was she really no longer human…?

“W-What… am I?”

“Human Nene, this isn’t the time to talk about irrelevant things. First, we need to find out if you can eat cores. Otherwise, there’s no point in continuing. Kill ourselves as well we might.”

Without another word, the girl picked up a charred thorn from the remains of the plants. Her fingers trembled as, with a mix of disgust and fear, she opened the slug’s head, avoiding the acid that still faintly sizzled over the exposed flesh.

She extracted the core.

It was blue, translucent, with an irregular hollow at its center.

She shook off the viscous residue.

“This isn’t s-safe…” she said quietly. “Sahara, you’re telling me I have to… eat something that had acid?”

She swallowed.

“You do know how the human body works, right?”

“Relax. When we die, the effects of our abilities disappear. What you just shook off isn’t acid anymore. It’s just blood. It won’t burn your insides… I think.”

Just blood.

That didn’t make it any better. It was still disgusting.

And who knew if that blood was toxic, or carried some strange disease.

“JUST EAT IT!”

With a shudder, Nene sank her now-sharpened fangs into the core.

It was a bad idea.

They slipped, producing a screech that vibrated through her bones.

“Harder. Think of it as meat. Just do it.”

Again—this time with more force. The core gave way with a wet crack.

She tore off a fragment.

Chewed it.

Swallowed.

The taste was atrocious—like rancid vomit mixed with metal.

“Cough! Cough!”

She coughed as the fragments went down, feeling them scrape her throat as if her body violently rejected the decision.

“Well… we don’t feel bad. I don’t sense any ill inside either. Hmm, yes. I’d say we can safely eat cores.”

Sahara confirmed after examining the state of Nene’s body.

Meanwhile, the girl’s face was twisted in disgust.

Even defeated, some might say.

“…Seriously?” she asked between breaths. “Is that all I’m going to be able to eat now?”

“Yes. Maybe you could eat the slug meat,” Sahara replied. “Don’t know if it’s lethal for humans. So cores should be safer. After all… you have one of your own now.”

Nene sighed.

She wanted to cry.

The urge came instantly, almost automatically—but she clenched her teeth and bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted her own blood.

She didn’t want to be a crybaby anymore.

Not again.

“Fine…” she said at last. “I’ll get the others.”

“Excellent. After that, we’ll move to find shelter. The sun is about to set,” Sahara added. “CarefullyMove. We don’t want to attract other Ethereals.”

---

Shelter.

Just as Sahara said, that was their main goal for now.

Her body was begging for rest. Every muscle protested. Her head throbbed, her eyes burned.

Guided by Sahara, they moved without drawing attention from any creatures.

At least until they found a giant tree.

Nene approached carefully to inspect it.

Its surface was metallic, yet organic—an amalgam that defied logic itself.

At the base, there was a hollow. Nene peeked inside and saw that the tree was empty within. Luckily, it didn’t seem infested with parasites.

“This will do.”

Nene let herself fall inside the trunk.

The weight of her body dropped all at once, like a delayed avalanche. Her muscles ached. Thinking hurt. Being alive hurt.

She closed her eyes.

If he were here, he’d probably scold her a lot.

“…I guess I should’ve listened to you earlier.”

A name surfaced in her soul without permission.

“Is Bender your servant?” Sahara asked.

Memories flooded her.

The man’s dark hands shining under warm light as he prepared cocktails. The way he always knew what to say—even when she said nothing.

“Servant…?” she whispered. “He’s… like my…”

She stopped herself.

No. She scolded herself. That was too arrogant.

Bender probably saw her as nothing more than a stray animal he fed from time to time. Just like the raccoon that sometimes rummaged through his trash.

Nothing more.

It was just that he was always too…

“…just someone who’s kind to me.”

An orphan. Kicked out of the orphanage for being “too old.” A pathetic loner.

They weren’t family.

She wasn’t even sure he truly cared about her.

Why would he?

Who would care about someone like her?

No one. That was the truth.

And yet… he gave her shelter. Advice. A place where she could exist without being too much of a burden.

Even if he found her annoying… to her, he was more than a friend.

But she knew that wasn’t true.

So she chose the “correct” answer.

“A friend.”

---

Father?

Even though Nene didn’t finish the word, Sahara had already seen the images.

Father.

A strange concept. Even stranger, its meaning.

A father was someone who created life… and protected it.

How foreign that idea felt to the former Floor Boss.

They didn’t have the concept of “family”—whatever that meant.

Nor “friend.”

They simply existed.

For what?

Who needed a reason to exist?

The only thing every Ethereal knew was that it lived. And to live, it had to fight.

It was that simple.

The weak were crushed. The strong consumed.

From the moment of their existence, there had only been combat.

So the idea of a “father,” of something that protected the weak, felt absurd.

The same with “friend.”

Unnecessarily complex, absurd concepts…

And yet…

If that were true… then what was that emptiness she had felt?

Why had she felt that Human Nene was… similar to her?

Maybe it was just because they were both close to death.

Maybe it was frustration from not seeing the sun.

Sahara decided it wasn’t worth analyzing further.

Being with that human was making her question ridiculous things.

And yet…

As she observed the human curled up inside the hollow tree, shoulders tense, breathing uneven, she understood something that didn’t need a name.

She didn’t understand human emotions.

But she understood one thing.

The reason for that emptiness.

The reason she had thought they were the same…

Loneliness.

“What strange creatures…” Sahara thought.

---