“I have the right to decline any requests.”

 

“I can take a leave anytime soon. However, if there is anything important, I will try to be there.”

 

Iris listed her conditions out. 

 

“No sexual favors.”

 

“Deal.” She glanced at the girl looking at her hand while listing the favors with a light smile. If it were any other person, she would’ve turned them down right away. Unfortunately, she was attracted to Iris.

 

Especially her ears and tail. It was her first time in two lives seeing a partially transformed person. Nor did she know any prominent figures who looked like her. If there was one, they would’ve definitely stood out.

 

Most likely, she had died, probably in the early stages of the apocalypse. 

 

Iris looked at her in doubt. “If you agree so easily, how can I trust you?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders. “Without trust, we can’t have cooperation, nor can we build anything meaningful.”

 

She decided to gamble on Iris. If she didn’t do something different this time around, then the ending would only repeat itself.

 

It was definitely not because she found the girl in front of her cute.

 

Iris’ ears twitched. She was correct, if she didn’t trust anyone, then there would be no start. It was by no means that she found her attractive and completely her type. Definitely not.

 

She also needed to find her dad. Something she actually didn’t dare to do. 

 

“I’ll let mom decide.” Feeling like she shouldn’t be blinded by beauty, she left the question to her mom. 

 

The girl also didn’t appear to be a bad person.

 

“Is there anyone else aside from you?”

 

“None. I was planning to go solo.” 

 

Iris rolled her eyes. 

 

“Then, what’s your name? Wait, in this case, I should introduce myself first. I’m Iris.” 

 

“Rhea.” 

 

Rhea glanced over at Iris’ hand. “You’re not going to absorb the core?”

 

“... Do you know how?” After a brief hesitation, Iris asked. 

 

“Place it in your mouth.”

 

Iris stuck her tongue out. “It came out of a bird’s brain.”

 

“Wash it.” Rhea rolled her eyes. “Fortunately, the water systems are still working, and it hasn’t been polluted yet. You can even boil it if you want. There's another back in the room.”

 

Iris took her advice and went back into her mom’s room. The floor was drenched with blood causing a heavy iron and putrid smell to fill the air. 

 

She walked forward towards the bird, before grabbing a tuft of its feather to hold it in place. With her other arm, she stabbed the knife forward. The knife seemed to have hit something hard.

 

She didn’t give up and started to stab into other parts of the bird, until she found a spot in its temples. 

 

Iris gritted her teeth and  pushed her hands inside.

 

Yuck.

 

While feeling through its brain and juices, she finally extracted the core. She covered her mouth other hand, and unable to stand it anymore, she began to throw up. 

 

Though since she hadn’t eaten anything, all she threw up was fluids. The smell in the room also wasn’t helping her.

 

She pulled the color of her shirt up to cover her nose before making a dash outside.

 

“Hah….hah…” after slamming the door shut, she got on her knees and started to take deep breaths. She glanced up in tears at Rhea. How did she extract the core so easily?

 

Rhea came over and patted her back, helping her to ease her discomfort.

 

Iris continued to take deep breaths. 

 

Gradually, she calmed down.

 

“Thanks.” 

 

“No problem.”

 

Rhea went back to the couch while Iris went over to the kitchen sink. She ran water over her arm.

 

The soft mushy feeling of brain matter and juice still remained fresh on her mind. 

 

Feeling like it would take forever, before she would stop feeling like something was enveloping her arm, she stopped. 

 

Don’t pay attention to it….

 

She said to herself before going to the large pot. She placed the cores inside and filled it with water before placing it on the stove. She turned the fire on.

 

Iris then turned around to find that she left bloodied footsteps everywhere. She sighed.

 

The whole house was a mess. 

 

Going over to the couch, she sat back down on her seat, next to Rhea.

 

Due to their close proximity, her scent and presence was enveloping her. She felt it was strangely comforting.

 

Time slowly ticked by and her mom finally left the shower. She had changed into a fresh new set of clothing and was carrying Rose in her arms. The kit was sound asleep.

 

Seeing the newcomer, she showed a curious look.

 

“You are?”

 

“Rhea.” Rhea got up and greeted her before glancing at Rose. She was reminded of one of the bosses in the area in her previous life. A thunder fox.

 

“Aly,” Iris’ mom nodded, she reached a hand forward, and the two shook it. “Do you need something? Also, why are you in our house?”

 

“Auntie, I coincidentally saw a large bird lying on the Fire Escape….. I thought there was something it was after inside of the apartment, and thinking it was someone who needed rescuing, I came inside.”

 

“Thanks, but we were doing fine.” Aly smiled. 

 

“Hehe,” Rhea laughed nervously, “it seems to be the case….” 

 

Seeing how Rhea seemed to be at a loss, Iris chuckled. She was so high up before about having her work for her, however, in front of her mom, it looked like she couldn’t ask. 

 

She also sighed in relief, at least she wasn’t hostile towards her little sister. Nor was she showing any intent to take her mom hostage.

 

“Do you want to join us?” 

 

Rhea nodded.

 

For some reason, the situation had reversed! 

 

The middle aged lady in front of her was releasing some strange sort of charisma. Rhea found it hard to ask her to work under her. She felt she had read the situation wrong. It was like she had thrown a masterball at a pok*mon who already had a trainer.

 

Aly looked around the messy place. After all that happened, even without her being outside, she could tell that the world was a mess. She would treat it like she had taken in an additional stray. 

 

“Iris, go take a shower.”

 

“Oh,” Iris returned to her room.

 

“Rhea, you’ll clean the blood off the floor,” her mom started to delegate tasks. 

 

When Iris came out of her room, she widened her eyes. From Rhea’s hand was a vine. It had extended onto the floor and started to absorb the blood.

 

“Creepy…” She muttered.

 

Rhea glanced at her and rolled her eyes. 

 

“Hehe…” Iris ran off to the bathroom, leaving Rhea to clean the mess she had made.