Homecoming (3)
The story of the Ryan Incident was a genuinely shocking one.
"To think one of the Returners would end up accelerating the end of the world..."
It had been a time when the investigation into the Towers had already failed and social anxiety was climbing under the spreading desolation. One major upheaval after another had hit society in rapid succession, and the government, I read, had been scrambling just to keep up.
Worse, their early response had been so inadequate that virus carriers from the Ryan Incident had spread into other countries. From there the pandemic had gone global, and society had begun to collapse in earnest.
"At this point, you start wondering if anyone could even survive."
Fortunately, reading further, I found that the Returners and the Awakened had joined forces and all but wiped out the zombies born from the virus.
They had thought the pandemic was nearly over — only for a moment. Because they had never properly investigated the Towers, vast regions had been swept up in the Towers' desolation. After that, people had fled to places the desolation hadn't reached. Just as Partruna had said, the other gods had lent enough support for humanity to scrape by, and around a bare-bones government, people had formed scattered, cell-like communities called settlements — and somehow, they were still alive.
In Korea now, there were government-run settlements centered on city and district halls in each region; settlements where private groups had gathered in schools, villa complexes, and the like; and settlements occupied by outlaws.
"So the government-led settlements are exchanging information with the others and supplying them with goods and technology?"
In most apocalypse stories, the government vanished and no one got any support. Here, thanks to the gods' aid, it seemed to be operating at the absolute minimum.
That was Seoul, at least. In the provinces, things looked far more serious.
"I'll look into the settlements more later — or just go see one myself. Let's see... the closest one from here..."
There were no street addresses listed, only the names of the settlements. Addresses probably didn't mean much anymore. With monsters swarming under the Towers' desolation and outlaws roaming free, the site only offered a rough location and a name.
There were supposedly many more settlements than the ones listed. This site was government-run, so these were likely only the ones registered with the authorities.
"Mokdong? That's the closest. I'll aim for there first."
The Mokdong Settlement had been built around a sports stadium. The buildings were solid and massive, which had allowed a large population to gather.
My stomach growled. I looked out the window — the sky had already gone black.
"Already?! Did I really spend that long reading? Haaah~"
I stretched, got up from the bed, and headed for the kitchen, planning to reheat the leftover soup and rice from earlier.
While it warmed, I thought through what I'd found and how I was going to live from here on.
The Towers were marked on the map, and the areas colored in circles are probably where the desolation has spread.
On the map I'd seen while looking up settlements, there had been tower-shaped icons, and around many of them large swaths of brown. There had been green areas too — probably different from the ordinary Towers I'd seen during the day.
"Come to think of it, there was a lot of brown marked around the Mokdong Settlement as well. Which means there are monsters out there..."
I toyed with the rosary around my neck.
"I need to figure out how strong I am now compared to my time in Maderona — and what abilities these sacred arms actually have."
The divine power I'd felt when I equipped the arms through the rosary had been greater in quantity than anything I'd possessed in Maderona, and qualitatively different as well. I still hadn't adapted to this small, middle-school-aged body, so I couldn't expect full combat ability right away. But if I trained in the area for about a month, the way Partruna had said, and got used to this form — even as I was now, I would probably be stronger than I had been back then.
"All right! Dinner first, then I'll take a look around the neighborhood."
I was carrying the pot of soup when — still unused to this body, apparently — I put a foot wrong. My balance tipped, and I lost my grip on the pot entirely.
The floor got a fine meal of soup. As a bonus, a fair amount of the scalding broth splashed onto my feet.
"Ah! Hot—! Wait— wha— aaaaagh..!"
The burn in my feet only made me tip faster. My body went over, there was a heavy thud — and after that, I remembered nothing.
When I opened my eyes, a clammy, sticky dampness clung to me, and the smell of ramen broth filled the air.
"Ugh... my head... Did I pass out?"
"Haa... After coming back, my first blackout isn't from an enemy ambush or burning through all my divine power — it's from knocking over a pot and falling on my face like an idiot..."
Even I found it ridiculous. No one had seen it, but a wave of embarrassment still flushed heat through my face.
"Haa... Clean this up first, then shower. This sticky feeling is disgusting..."
I quickly mopped up the spilled broth and ingredients, filled the pot with water, and headed for the bathroom.
Since returning, I'd woken up, assessed the situation, and spent so long hunting for information that I hadn't paid attention — but looking down now, I was wearing a short-sleeved white T-shirt and those bottoms people used to call dolphin shorts. I'd only ever heard of them; actually wearing them, they were surprisingly comfortable.
"They're pretty comfortable, actually. No wonder so many girls wear these."
I went into the bathroom and started filling the tub. The damp clothes felt awful against my skin, so I stripped off the wet shirt, shorts, and underwear, tossed them into the washing machine with a thump, and came back.
In the mirror stood a beautiful girl with pure white skin.
My face, already warm, grew even hotter. It was a strange feeling.
"Pretty is... fine, but I still can't believe this is me."
Seeing myself flushed and even more vividly feminine left me no choice but to accept that I was no longer a man. I hurried into the shower stall and cooled my head under cold water.
"I... I can't keep doing this... If I go on like this, I feel like I won't be me anymore..."
Cold water plastered my hair to my face. Looking down, I could see the slight swell of a chest that had begun to form — and the absence of what a man should have. A hollow sense of loss settled over me.
But what was I supposed to do? Under Partruna's blessing, I would have to live as a woman from now on. The memories of the man I had been were still intact, and my memories of Earth had already grown so faint I could barely recall them — but as long as the roughly twenty years of struggle in Maderona remained, and the bonds I'd forged there, I was still firmly convinced that I was a man.
"Whatever. If I think of myself as a man, then I am one. Who's going to argue?"
I switched the water from cold to warm and washed my lengthened hair with the shampoo left out, turning over the goals I'd set earlier.
First: while I stayed here, I needed to get a clearer understanding of my divine power and the sacred arms.
Second: they called this a safe zone, but the map had shown a small Tower nearby. I would range around the area, build experience, get used to this body — and then challenge that Tower.
Third: I planned to head for the nearby Mokdong Settlement, so I needed to gather gear — a bag, a water bottle, and the like. From a quick look around the room, some of that already seemed prepared. Whether this body could carry it all was another question, but I'd figure something out over the next month.
"And fourth... I need to dig up more information on the Towers."
It might not seem like much, but the difference between the brown-marked areas around the Towers and the green ones still nagged at me for reasons I couldn't name.
I filled the tub with hot water, reviewing once more what I needed to do. When I sank into the water that had risen high enough, I found myself saying, "Ahh, that's the stuff!" — the kind of line an old man would deliver — and thought, See? Still a man after all. Hot baths were something I'd never gotten to enjoy in Maderona, and it was a genuinely pleasant stretch of time.
By the time I finished and stepped out, it was the middle of the night. That surprised me more than a little.
And so my first day after returning went like this: my head spinning with everything I was learning about the world I'd come back to, wrestling with how I was supposed to live as a woman and what goals I ought to set — and then, thanks to a long-overdue hot bath that left me soft and warm, I slept deeply.