{Observation 1; Abnormal days become even more so}

How to begin the story of a young man who told a massive lie... I wonder?

I guess asking a question is one way of doing it, but perhaps I needed something much more flashy to grab your attention.

...Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself; Nice to meet you, I'm Narrator. I will tell you the story of how a myth began.

...My real name? Now that doesn't matter, does it? After all, you're just here to read a story, are you not?

I can't progress the story if you keep asking questions like, 'Why is he breaking the fourth wall', or, 'Uwa, what a bland and unimaginative way to start'.

Don't think about it too hard, you'll hurt yourself otherwise.

Anyways, our story begins in another, unattractive way; in an abandoned alley where our protagonist is standing over a freshly killed corpse.

Comparing that to my introduction, wouldn't you say I did well, given the circumstance?

"Let's see here; value, value..."

Our protagonist, named 'Laurence' isn't a nice person; quite the opposite, in fact. That corpse he just started looting is actually a victim of his metal baseball bat, currently laying on the brick ground, covered in blood.

"Ah, this looks like it'll take care of dinner... anything else?"

So he proclaims to nobody in particular, patting down the lifeless body of a woman; blond and beautiful, she would have been called.

With no context at all, surely this is making your stomach churn? A tasteless act such as killing isn't considered abysmal anymore, however. The scene that is unfolding now could even be considered common these days; a part of a daily routine.

"Tch... only the watch, huh?"

Laurence finished his business and made his way out of the alleyway, entering the crowded sidewalks that ignored the mess on his shirt.

...He forgot his bat, didn't he?

"Shit!"

Laurence seemed to remember just before he walked too far and retrieved his weapon, placing it in the black bag he carried, and slung it around his shoulder.

Content he wasn't forgetting anything else, Laurence finally got a good pace going as he made his way to the usual trade centre for food.

* * * * * *

Welcome to 'The City', the most poorly named setting you'll ever see in a novel.

This is a crime-free place where people live however they want with no restrictions placed on their daily lives.

Naturally, the reason there was no crime was because no act was considered 'illegal'.

The short version is; due to long-winded plot reasons, this was a place without morals and little to no order.

The long version? I suppose I have time for that.

A long, long, loooooong time ago (like fifty years or something), there was a meteor shower that wiped out a good chunk of the human race.

Nobody knew how it happened because the meteors radiated something that caused memory loss. (Making my job much easier.)

After this 'apocalypse' occurred, the remaining humans gathered in The City for reasons nobody quite knows. (Once again, making my job easier.)

This city was made of towering buildings of brick, and had many streets to roam around.

Simply finding your way through the city was difficult, but the residents were accustomed to this.

Most likely because the only world they knew was here.

Nobody bothered to check outside the city for any other living settlements.

As far as they could care, they were the only ones living on the planet.

The memory loss I mentioned earlier was to blame, as it took everyone's memory away, leaving them to figure things out on their own.

I haven't lost you yet, have I? Well, it's not like I can actually hear you, so I'm just going to assume you're following along perfectly.

Anyways, the public of the city soon turned violent; they still understood speech, but the apocalypse reset everything, including the knowledge of how important order truly was. Anarchy was what this society was based on.

That being said, there was one thing that remained the same after the collapse of the previous world; If you want something, you have to work for it. Whether it was searching the darkest corners of the city or killing someone who had what you wanted, you still had to earn it.

This is why Laurence wouldn't be punished for what he had done, because no one would condemn him for it... well, except for that girl's lover, but let's leave that for later.

* * * * * *

If society were what it was before, than Laurence would be considered 'shady'. He wore a black cap over his messy, unwashed, short brown hair and his eyes were shifting back and forth, studying the crowd for danger.

His black dress pants and black buttoned up shirt (stained with blood) completed his outfit, along with the black bag containing his baseball bat; it was also black.

He really loved black, you see.

The crowd didn't particularly care about Laurence's appearance, however.

In said crowd was someone wearing a yukata and boots.

Another person wore a turban on her head and a flowery dress (a woman, of course).

Left to pick up what remained, fashion wasn't defined by anything but what the person felt like wearing.

They never had a sense of what went well with what, since fashion magazines were scarce; not that they cared what previous people thought, however.

Laurence prefered simple outfits of a single color, but he liked what he was wearing the most.

Why? Because it was black, of course.

He could blend in easier with the shadows the large buildings cast while he was hiding. This made it much easier to launch a surprise attack on someone who came through for whatever reason.

I guess his taste in tactics were simple as well.

Anyways, the outfits were a reflection of the society itself; without any set rules as to what you wore.

This was indeed a messed up world compared to the previous one, but it achieved a goal dreamed by many in it's predecessor.

You could be whoever you wanted without anybody judging you for who you were.

If there was any reason someone got killed, it wouldn't be because of their skin color or views, it would be because their luck had run out.

This society didn't discriminate... well, unless you were dead, of course.

No one treats the dead the same as the living.

* * * * * *

Laurence kept walking along, weaving in and out of the crowd with a few bumps here and there.

It was always busy at around this time; 'work' was usually over for most people and they went into the trade center's for various products.

Replacing stores in this world were 'trade centers'. Since currency was non-existent, you had to give something that the owner wanted in order to receive what they had.

There were four main ways to get what you wanted in this town; Hunting, Trading, Producing and Networking.

Hunting is pretty self-explanatory; you hunt down someone who can't defend themselves and take what they got. Laurence himself was a hunter.

Trading was where the trade centres came in; the Traders acquired goods from their producers and bargained with customers daily... behind a speaker, since they never did business in person.

The moment they showed their faces, you could bet they would be killed and robbed in an instant.

Producing went hand-in-hand with Trading; they made supplies for the traders and received some of valuables that had been traded in.

It was mostly a job for people who prioritized material things over basic survival, as the only producers in this city were those that were well off to begin with.

The last method, Networking, was the most difficult, yet rewarding work the city had to offer.

Well, maybe not 'offer' per se, since there was no one who gave people their jobs.

Networking involved a group of sharp individuals who specialized in observing everything that went on in the town; from where a specific person is to whether a trade shop was being plundered, they could help make your life easier... for a price.

It wasn't a job that just anyone could do, as it required a near-perfect memory as well as a keen eye to keep track of everything that went on in the city.

Laurence usually had one of them look for the building his targets previously owned so that he could loot the place, but the price was high so he only did it if he felt lucky that day.

With only a silver watch in hand, he would have to go back home and grab some of his stock of valuables for the information, and he didn't feel like doing that with the sun hovering slightly above the far away ground.

"Maybe tomorrow."

He said that as he casually stopped in the line for the trade center he was aiming for.

It wasn't a surprise to see that the line had twenty people in front of him, as he hadn't gotten anything until mid-afternoon.

If anything, he was lucky to have found anything at all; valuables were getting harder and harder to find with everyone in a mad dash for them to survive.

If worst came to worst, Laurence decided he needed to locations of the producers so that he can kill them and take over their supplies.

For that, however, he needed the information the networkers had to offer.

And that's the info that's going to have the highest price of all... Laurence thought as he shuffled forward in line, patiently waiting for his turn.

Line-ups were as orderly as the city got, since no one wanted to pick a fight and risk their life over something as silly as when they got their turn.

* * * * * *

When Laurence finally made his way to the speaker, he pressed the button and a static, gravely voice intruded his ears.

"Valuable?"

"One silver watch."

"Pocket?"

"Yes."

The speaker went silent as the voice behind was no doubt coming up with what he could let go of for what Laurence had.

The static buzzed in Laurence's ear as the voice spoke once more.

"What you want?"

"I'd like water, bread, spaghetti, and any sauce without greenery."

"Deal. Give me valuable."

A small, sliding door below the speaker slid open and Laurence placed the watch inside and the door slid shut. He heard the other side of it open up, followed by the sounds of items being moved inside.

When it opened up again, there was a 2 liter jug of water, a loaf of bread, a small package of spaghetti noodles, and a jar of sauce.

Laurence took the items, placing them in a pouch separate from the dirty baseball bat in his bag.

"Next."

As the voice urged him to move onwards, he wondered how his girlfriend, Yuna, was doing.

* * * * * *

Just because this world was twisted, didn't mean that people didn't care about anyone but themselves.

Loneliness was still an issue for many people, so at some point they let people inside their hearts.

If only a little.

Yuna and Laurence were different, however; ever since they were kids they had been together, helping each other survive in the city. This made their bound stronger than most.

They both lost their parents at an early age and met when Laurence broke into Yuna's house for supplies.

It wasn't the greatest of first impressions.

Laurence came across Yuna's parents bodies on his way back home, and used some of his valuables to pay the networkers into finding where their home was.

Yuna had no idea her parents were dead at that point, so when Laurence came busting through the door with a hammer, she was more than a little surprised.

Laurence was too, when the home he thought was empty had a little girl his age standing inside it.

Yuna reacted by grabbing a knife from the kitchen and dashing at Laurence.

"Yah!"

"Whoa!?"

Yuna was no stranger to the way the world worked; it was a kill or be killed world.

Laurence managed to knock away the knife from Yuna, since she wasn't very subtle about where she was going to stab him with it, but she grabbed onto the hammer before he could take another swing.

"Hey, let go!"

"No, you'll kill me then!"

Laurence kicked the girl in the shin, but she stubbornly held onto the weapon as hard as she could.

Still holding her ground, she kicked between Laurence's legs and he let go of the weapon with a yelp.

"I'll kill you first!"

So she declared as she swung, but Laurence dodged to the left and proceeded further into the room, running towards the knife he previously knocked away.

"Who the hell are you!?"

Laurence said this as he grabbed the knife and pointed it at her, keeping his distance.

He was still very much in pain from the previous blow, but not so much to grovel on the ground in front of a person that wanted him dead.

"That's what I should be asking!"

"A scavenger?"

"No! I live here!"

Laurence looked at the girl in confusion before his eyes widened in realization.

"Could you be-?"

A loud voice boomed throughout the room as another person entered.

"What the hell are you two brats doing in here!?"

Yuna and Laurence turned to face the third person, a large man with a nasty scowl on his face.

He was bald and wore sunglasses with a Hawaiian shirt over some jeans.

The blood stained axe and shirt told Laurence that he was the one who originally killed the people he found.

He had thought that it would have been possible to kill the hunter and make off with the valuables before he had arrived, but thanks to Yuna distracting him, he wasn't able to set up a trap to kill him before arriving.

"What do you mean, what am I doing in here?! I live here!"

At Yuna's proclamation, the man gave a sinister laugh.

"Oh yeah, they did mention they had a daughter, eh?"

Laurence could see Yuna's face go pale at the mention of her parents.

Even if the hunter didn't directly say they were dead, the fact that complete strangers were breaking into her house seemed to give her a general idea of what had happened.

"Hey, pops... if we leave quietly, would you let us live?"

As Laurence said this, Yuna snapped her head towards him.

Naturally, she wondered why he would include her in that deal since people were selfish these days.

Laurence responded by showing his now empty hands, to which Yuna gulped dryly in understanding.

"Oh, seems like one of you is smart."

The man moved to the side, to let the two pass him.

"Go on and scram!"

"Th-thank you very much!"

Yuna stuttered as she spoke, but Laurence and the man already knew that she wasn't leaving until she got revenge.

This was the most important part; Laurence had hid the knife before the man laid eyes on him, so it wasn't impossible to kill him due to the element of surprise.

Laurence and Yuna also knew that the man wouldn't bother letting them leave. He probably planned to swing that axe down the moment they got close enough.

That's why Laurence took a chance; he mentioned Yuna as part of the deal because he knew that the man had no idea what their relationship was.

Yuna was the only one who found anything odd with what he said.

To the man, it simply seemed like a pair of easily fooled kids (who knew each other) who believed they made a good deal for their lives.

It all depended on Yuna and whether she knew Laurence's intentions.

If Yuna realized that the man wouldn't be expecting them to fight back because of his misunderstanding, then their odds were good.

Yuna dropped her weapon, since the man had already seen it, and walked towards the entrance with Laurence following closely behind.

The man wore an overconfident grin, no doubt proud of himself for what he was about to do.

Yuna and Laurence didn't look at his direction as they walked just before the entrance.

That was the moment they acted.

"Just kidding!"

The man yelled out as he swung his axe down, but Yuna was already prepared and grabbed onto his arm.

In the time he grabbed Yuna and attempted pulling her off, Laurence was already behind him, taking out the knife he hid under his shirt and stabbing him in the back of the knee.

"Gah! You fu-"

The man threw Yuna back into the room and swung around, but Laurence anticipated this and had already pulled back the knife in time to stab the same knee; this time from the front.

His scream was a pained, enraged one as he took a swing with his axe.

The damage Laurence did to the man's knee, however, caused him to lose his balance and he swung awkwardly, planting the axe in the ground to the side and ending up in a crouching position.

Laurence didn't waste a single second  and plunged the knife in the man's neck as quickly as possible.

"Gafh, glurg, bugh..."

The man's eyes grew wide through the incomprehensible sounds his throat produced, full of fear, as he pulled out the knife.

Laurence had dashed as far away from the man as possible once he struck his neck, not willing to take the chance of the man taking someone with him.

The man sputtered as he clenched his neck, trying desperately to stop the bleeding, but he gave one final, choked gasp as he went limp by the entrance.

Laurence took a couple of deep breaths; despite the fight only lasting a good fifteen seconds, it was still a fight with his life on the line.

Looking back at Yuna, he saw that she had already picked up the hammer and was prepared to attack him.

"What are you going to do?" Laurence asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" Yuna responded.

"I can take you to where your parents are for some food."

"No, you'll take me to them or I'll kill you."

"I'm going to die without some food anyways. You should consider yourself lucky I'm making this offer, because the networkers will take more than just a meal to give you information."

Yuna hesitated, and her hands trembled visibly for a moment.

Laurence took notice of this.

"Are you scared?"

"Don't make me laugh."

"You have every right to be, you know?"

"I said I'm not scared!"

Yuna's hands were full on shaking now, and she bit her lip in frustration.

"You know... if you let me live here, I'll help you through this."

"...What?"

"It's scary, all on your own, right?"

"You'll just kill me when my guards down, I'm not stupid!"

"The same goes for you though, doesn't it? You can kill me when my guards down as well."

"W-well..."

"Rather, this place is going to be targeted from now on since your parents are dead. Whether you drive me away or not, you'll still have to deal with others."

Yuna now seemed to be truly considering the idea, but she still shook her head.

"There's no reason for you to be offering to help in exchange for living in a place that's dangerous."

Laurence seemed to ponder this fact himself.

"You're right, but I'd much rather live with someone else than be on my own. As a matter of fact, you can live at my place instead, if you really wanted."

"You're way too suspicious after all."

"It's an honest offer."

"Liar."

Laurence gave Yuna a long look before sighing and standing up.

"You should already know; for people our age to exist, we needed parents. Now why would I be hunting and scavenging when my parents could do all that for me until I grow up a little?"

Yuna didn't answer, already knowing what Laurence meant.

"My parents are dead too. I can't be lying about that, now can I? Otherwise you wouldn't see me running around like this."

"...So you're saying we help each other since our family is already dead?"

"Yes."

Yuna took a deep breath as she gave the topic one final deliberation inside her mind.

It took all of a minute for her to finally lower her guard and toss the hammer to Laurence, who caught it.

"Since I'm trusting you, might as well make it even easier for you to kill me."

* * * * * *

In one of the many, many alleyways in the city, Yuna was looking down at her mom's lifeless body; her dad's was further down, a small sprint away from his dead partner.

Laurence walked over to the father's corpse and kneeled down beside it, noticing the man's back, which was face-up, had no wounds.

"He wasn't struck from behind... I wonder what happened?"

"Don't care."

Laurence looked back at Yuna, her face expressionless with the exception of her clenched fists.

It was painful for Laurence to watch her remain strong in this situation, because he remembered what he felt when he saw his own parents dead, in an alley much like this one.

He got up and approached Yuna silently, her focus completely on her mother.

She was surprised when she felt Laurence's arms wrap around her tightly.

"What are you-!?"

"When I saw my parents dead, I wanted someone to hug me like this."

Yuna struggled pathetically in Laurence's arms, as though she wasn't even really trying, and her eyes teared up.

"Well I don't!"

"It's painful, isn't it? It feels like the entire world is crushing you, forcing you to be tough."

"I...I!"

"'I have to be strong'. 'I can't cry'. 'I must kill'. 'I can only care about myself'. It's all of those things right? But... it's no use. We cared for our parents and pretending like we aren't sad will destroy whatever we felt for them. I should know; I can't remember the warmth of their hands, the only smiles that had no malice behind them, the sense of belonging somewhere."

Laurence spoke in a calm, nostalgic tone, clutching onto Yuna a little tighter.

He was digging up the painful memories he thought he wouldn't visit again, since he knew feelings like those were bound to get you killed in the city.

But he found a person who knew exactly what it was like.

He was being selfish, if anything; he wasn't seeking to comfort her because he felt sorry for her, he just wanted someone who could be his family to fill the void left in his heart.

Yuna figured this out as well; there was no one who didn't act for their own self interest here in the city.

It was that knowledge, however, that finally allowed Yuna to break down in Laurence's arms.

Even if his motives were selfish, that didn't change the fact that he would support her at that moment.

That was good enough for her.

* * * * * *

It was a relationship built on self-interest; nothing more, nothing less.

Still, their shared experiences made each other their closest allies; as good a reason to be lovers in a world such as this.

It didn't hurt that Yuna grew into a beauty and Laurence had a face that was cleaner than most.

Most 'romantic affairs' were decided by looks and never on personality here, so Laurence and Yuna considered themselves quite lucky.

People never found anyone they could trust whole-heartedly.

Laurence and Yuna weren't sure themselves if their parents were the same way, but they knew they were different.

It was irrational and unheard of in this world which morals were long forgotten, but they truly cared for the other.

As I said before, it was a relationship built on self-interest; that's all it should have been.

But they couldn't ignore what they were feeling for one another, as they grew into young adults.

Perhaps the first hint to each other about their feelings was the fact that they had actually relaxed around one another.

There was certainly a relaxing feeling of comfort when you're around a family member, but Laurence and Yuna weren't family; they were strangers who suffered the same hardship of losing their parents.

Laurence, who was sitting alone in the dark after the two obtained nothing for dinner, was more than surprised when Yuna came in and hugged him one fateful evening, nearly two years since their first meeting.

What surprised him the most about it was the fact he felt at ease from the slender arms, holding him in that place on the couch.

To him, it was a feeling different from when his mother comforted him, yet he still felt an unexplainable warmth spreading throughout his body.

To her, she just didn't want him to feel down because they didn't eat anything that night.

From then on, Laurence and Yuna were perhaps the only genuine couple living in the city.

* * * * * *

Laurence walked through the hard, wooden door of the 'abandoned' building, it's white paint scraped off in various places; from time or whatever else, Laurence didn't know.

Through the door, a staircase leading upwards and a door leading inwards came into Laurence's field of view.

This abandoned building used to be an apartment complex; of course, without any knowledge of the previous society, no one had any idea what it was called.

The memory loss caused by the radiation from the meteors was a very curious thing; it was almost as if it's entire purpose were to reset everything and have humanity start over from the ruins.

Well, that is what an apocalypse is, but the coincidence would have been suspicious for anyone who stopped to think about it.

Maybe the radiation was also to blame for why no one thought about it?

It was, what you call, an enigma; it was even the cause of mutants in this world.

...Ah yes, I never mentioned that yet, did I?

This world also had people who gained supernatural abilities due to mutations caused from the radiation; mutants.

...Don't look at me like that; I didn't just make this up. Honest.

Well, that's not the important point right now; Laurence was making his way up the staircase, counting how many floors he went up before arriving at four.

The clearing on that floor had another door, which he went through into a hallway.

He walked to the door on his left and knocked on it with his free hand; the other occupied by his bag, now held in his hand after sliding it off his shoulder.

"Yuna, it's me."

After a quick rustle of feet and a swift 'click', the door swung open.

Yuna stood there, smiling, her long, blue-ish silver hair a mess. Her clothes also gave the impression of laziness; a grey hoodie and short jeans that implied she just threw on whatever she saw first.

After meeting her, Laurence had found out that Yuna, while able to keep her head on straight when her life was in danger, was a generally easy-going person most of the time.

He had criticised her for not taking things too seriously one time when they were setting up a trap for a hunter who had previously killed someone; much like what Laurence was trying to do to the hunter that killed Yuna's parents.

Her response was stabbing the hunter with a combat knife they found a few months earlier during a previous scavenging session.

Laurence didn't bother complaining after that.

"Welcome home~"

Yuna's grin was so bright, you'd think she couldn't hurt a fly.

In actuality, she had killed just as much as Laurence, taking to hunting as well.

Since coming to this room, however, they alternated turns, having one of them stay at the room while the other went out to hunt.

They found no key, so unless they got someone to make one for the room, they were out of luck.

It could still be locked from the inside, so it was generally safe unless someone broke down the door.

That wasn't saying much in the city, but it was better than nothing at all.

Laurence took out the items he had received from the trade center and Yuna's light blue eyes sparkled.

"Oh! Spaghetti!"

"It's nothing special unfortunately; I had to get it from Gerald's."

The trade center Laurence went to was run by a man named Gerald.

He usually dealt in low-end packages that weren't expensive at all.

Laurence had wanted to get something better for tonight, but all he got was a silver watch after one day of hunting.

The reason he wanted to get something better today was because it was Yuna's birthday.

"I don't care, spaghetti is spaghetti."

So Yuna said as Laurence closed the door behind him upon entering the room.

Thier current home had a kitchen, a small space for a couch, a spare room, and a washroom.

The damage to the tiles in the kitchen and the carpet and walls in the other areas made it less than desirable, but you didn't complain about where you could get sleep in the city.

Tossing his bag onto the couch, Laurence made his way to the kitchen and placed the items he bought on the counter; full of chips and cracks.

After this, he looked through the various cupboards until he found a decent enough pot and placed it on the gas stove.

He needed to search for one, rather than know where it was, because they hadn't been living here for very long.

Thier other home had run out of gas in their stove, and the water stopped working for whatever reason; forcing them to move to another abandoned location.

Pouring some of the water into the pot and about to turn on the stove, Laurence felt two soft sensations pressing against his back, and a couple of arms slid around his waist in succession.

"Don't ignore me~"

"I'm not."

"You didn't even greet me."

"Hello, Yuna."

"Boo, what's with that half-hearted response!"

Yuna's grip tightened around Laurence's waist as Yuna's mounds became easier to notice along his back.

She also took the time to move her lips up to his ear.

"L-a-u-r-e-n-c-e~"

"Mhm?"

"Is this how you treat a girl on her birthday?"

Her breath brushing gently in his earlobe, Laurence shuddered, but stood strong against her temptation.

"The last time we started, you wouldn't let me go make dinner at all and we ended up doing it until late that night."

"Buuuut~!"

"Not only that, but you complained how hungry you were after we were done and pestered me to make you something despite the fact I had no energy left."

"Uuu~"

Yuna slunk away from Laurence in disappointment, knowing full well that what he said was true.

Laurence himself was disappointed as well, but he cared about Yuna's well being just as much as the quality time he spent with her; he wasn't going to compromise on that.

This event that was mentioned happened two days ago, and they didn't get to eat anything yesterday either, since Yuna's turn to hunt turned out fruitless.

Or so Laurence thought.

As he turned on the stove to get the water heated up, Yuna spoke up again.

"...Hey Laur?"

"Yes?"

"You know how I said I didn't get anything yesterday?"

Laurence turned to face Yuna at that time, since that leading question could only mean one thing.

"You lied?"

Yuna's face twinged with guilt as she grasped her hands in nervousness.

"Well... yeah, I did get something. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I figured you would be angry."

Yuna had picked up on Laurence's concern for her well-being and decided to get her treachery out in the open.

Both had a good understanding of the other at this point, but Laurence felt a bit upset at both himself and Yuna for not realizing she had lied.

It was still Yuna's birthday however, and whatever she had gotten, she said was a 'surprise'.

He felt he might as well hear her out.

"What did you get?"

At Laurence's question, Yuna's eyes lit up for a moment before sulking back, cautious not to upset Laurence by showing her happiness on him dropping the subject.

She moved into the spare room, out of sight from Laurence, and came back holding a large bottle of a dark, red liquid.

Even Laurence couldn't hide his expression of awed surprise.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Yuna's face finally relaxed into a victorious smile as she placed the bottle gently on the counter.

"Red wine. I was down at the flood and found it in a hidden cellar; I couldn't believe my luck!"

The flood was a street that had the middle of the road caved in with water on the inside.

It was also the road on the very edge of the city, closest to the outside.

Most people stayed away from those areas if they could, as there was this instilled fear of the land surrounding them.

No one knew where the fear came from, but there were a lot of things people couldn't explain these days.

"There wasn't anything else in the cellar though; someone picked it clean for the most part."

"Someone other than you likes to go to the outer streets?"

"It isn't that strange, is it? I mean, it's not like you're leaving the city, so it's all good."

Yuna also had the unexplainable fear of leaving the city, but not to the degree that she completely avoided streets like the flood.

If Laurence were only looking at her worth as a person, she would be the one you took a gamble on; there was no guarantee that the outer streets had anything valuable.

He didn't look at her for her worth, however.

Even so, the wine she just showed Laurence was worth a fortune, especially since it was beginning to reach the levels of a myth in rarity.

"...I take it you want to drink it?"

Laurence asked while gesturing at the wine and Yuna nodded her head eagerly.

Laurence and Yuna both knew how much it was worth, but Yuna wanted to try it rather than sell it, despite the fact that they could live of the worth of it for years to come.

If this were Yuna's birthday present, it would be the one to end all birthday presents.

Laurence and Yuna had an agreement to share whatever they found with the other, so, with her pleading eyes, Yuna was obviously checking with Laurence if it were alright to drink it.

"Sure, why not?"

Laurence said without much thought.

"It's okay?"

"Yeah. We might not have another chance to find something this valuable ever again, but looking at it the other way, we might never have a chance to drink it again either."

"'We'? Since when did I say I was sharing?"

"You're not going to?"

Yuna gave a knowing smile.

"I was."

"How thoughtful."

"Hey, shouldn't you be thanking me?"

Yuna leaned her head into Laurence's field of view, dangerous close to the pot that now contained boiling water.

Laurence pushed her head out of the way with his left hand.

"Idiot, stop flirting when I'm making dinner; you'll hurt yourself."

"Ah, it's tsun-Laur!"

"Calling you an idiot for doing something stupid doesn't make me a tsun. I don't want you to get burned by the stove, so can you just sit on the couch for now?"

"Fineeee~"

Yuna pouted as she walked around the kitchen counter to the couch and flopped onto it.

Laurence sighed at Yuna's childish antics as he grabbed the package of spaghetti noodle and poured it into the boiling water.

After that, he rummaged through the drawers for a utensil to stir the spaghetti with.

"Laurence, I'm sorry."

As he pulled out a fork that had very little rust on it, he turned to the voice that called to him from the couch.

"You're right, it was stupid."

"...I know you're excited, but at least have some common sense in areas other than hunting."

"Right..."

After Yuna's dejected response, Laurence felt guilty for his comment, but he knew it was necessary.

When Yuna hunts, a switch flips inside of her and Laurence has never met a more capable person in the city.

When she feels she isn't in any danger, however, Yuna is a very lazy, unguarded person.

Laurence felt like their abnormal relationship, one that was truely love and not something centered in their own self interests, was partly to blame for her attitude.

Ironically, love could be interpreted as something that involved the self-interests of individuals by others, but that isn't how Laurence and Yuna saw it.

Regardless, Laurence felt the need to scold her from time to time, otherwise he would feel uneasy.

He truly loved her, and that scared him.

In this dangerous world, he wondered what would happen if the time ever came that one of them died and left the other alone.

He wanted to be even harder on her, make a bigger issue of her being too lax when she didn't think she was in danger.

Because, he feared, that when danger came at her unexpectedly, she wouldn't survive.

This fear also made him think for if he died.

He had no doubt that Yuna could make it on her own, but he didn't want his death to weigh her down.

This 'abnormal' love made each other a liability to their partner.

Laurence didn't want it to end, nor did he have any intentions of letting it end.

But.

Because he cared about Yuna, he couldn't help but worry.

* * * * * *

"Thanks for the meal!"

Yuna clasped her hands together in front of her birthday meal; spaghetti with sauce stirred in on a chipped plate, a torn off piece of bread on top and a glass of the recently opened wine to the side.

Laurence also stared down at the result of his labor and said the same as Yuna before taking a fork and putting it in the food.

Yuna went for the wine instead, deciding to taste it before taking a bite of food.

She took a brave swig and gulped it down before giving a cough in surprise.

"Bitter!"

Yuna's face scrunched up as she stuck her tongue out and Laurence laughed.

"Is it really that bad?"

"Try it."

Laurence gave a sideways glance at the glass Yuna had poured for him, and he shrugged in resignation, reaching for the drink.

Having been warned by Yuna's reaction, Laurence took a cautious sip of the liquid.

"...We sacrificed an easy life for a few years for this?"

Laurence frowned, disappointed at the taste.

It was the fact that the bottle of wine was unopened that made it extremely valuable.

No one was going to take opened alcohol, because someone could have poured something else in the container and called it valuable.

Even if the trader managed to identify it as alcohol, they still wouldn't take it if it was opened.

The reason for this was because a hunter had given a opened bottle of alcohol to a trader one time.

The hunter had poisoned it, however, and used the stock he got from the trade to pay off the networkers in helping him break into the trade center.

Everyone was impressed, except for the trader who died drinking a tainted vodka.

However, thanks to that clever trick, opened bottles of alcohol became untradeable, since traders feared the same thing would happen to them.

This meant that there was no longer any value to the wine Yuna had brought back from her scavenging expedition in the flood.

"Well... how should I put this... it's a very adult taste?"

Yuna tried to lighten the atmosphere, but Laurence still sighed.

"How do you even identify if something has an adult taste or not?"

"Intuition."

"Even if your intuition is correct, does that make it taste any better?"

"...No."

Yuna sighed, but tried a sip of it again.

"...Oh, it's not as bad as before."

"That's probably because you took a mouthful like it was water the first time."

"Hmm, maybe."

Laurence also took another sip, but the grimace was the same on his face.

"Didn't get better for me, so that must be it."

The two continued their dinner after that comment, since their growling stomachs interrupted them; a reminder that they hadn't eaten anything for two days.

By the time they finished off their portions, Yuna's cheeks were redder than before, as she had been taking sips of her wine every now and again until she finished her glass.

"You know, it kinda goes well with wine."

Yuna proclaimed with a satisfied sigh, closing her eyes and laying back in her seat.

"What does?"

"Spaghetti and bread. As I continued eating and drinking, the flavors were so good that they made my head spin."

"I'm pretty sure that was just the wine."

Yuna's eyes snapped open and she leapt up, almost knocking her empty plate over, and slammed her hands onto the table in realization.

"Wait, is this what being drunk feels like!?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Oh, right."

Yuna sat back down almost as quickly as she stood up and reached out for the bottle, pouring herself more of the wondrous liquid.

"Do you actually like drinking that stuff now?"

"Nope, but I'm starting to feel really good for some reason."

"Huh."

"You should finish your glass too! C'mon, it'll be an experience we can share!"

Yuna started drinking her second glass a Laurence looked down at his barely touched drink.

He hesitantly nodded and took another sip of the wine, with similar results from the first two times.

"Ugh... How can you even stand this stuff?"

"Hey Laur, come 'ere."

Ignoring Laurence's complaint, Yuna waved for him to move next to her.

After obeying her request, Laurence saw that Yuna's glass was empty again, despite pouring herself more a mere fifteen seconds ago.

Yuna wrapped her arms around Laurence's neck and brought his face down to hers, a flushed grin along her face.

"...What about my wine?"

"Shh."

Yuna hushed Laurence and took the initiative with a kiss.

Accepting her feelings, Laurence pulled her body towards- Okay, I'll just stop narrating there.

After all, I don't need to spell out what the two did after that, right?

* * * * * *

The next day, after Yuna's special 'party'.

There was an immense feeling of regret hanging in the air of the room, of a mistake that had been made during the previous day.

This mistake, of course, was the lack of knowledge regarding a condition known as a 'hangover'.

"Uuuuughhhhhh..."

Yuna's groan only made her pale face even more painful for Laurence to see as he stood overtop of her body, laying on the couch.

"Hey Yuna."

"...Whut?"

"Can I take your wine?"

"...Throw it out... for all I care..."

Laurence nodded before patting his lovers head gently.

"I'm going out for a while. Can you get up to lock the door?"

"Nooo, stay homeeeee~"

Yuna complained in a strained voice, but Laurence shook his head.

"In order for you to get better, I'm going to trade that wine we got for supplies."

Yuna stopped groaning and gave a muted reaction of confusion towards Laurence.

"I thought of a way to trade it."

Not caring for an explanation, Yuna just nodded her head and got up reluctantly.

It wasn't that she had no curiosity towards Laurence's plan, it was just that she didn't want to do any more talking than she had to.

Laurence helped her up to her feet, but she refused his help after she was standing, and made her way gingerly towards the door.

Taking the wine and meeting her there, Laurence grabbed his black cap and bag (which he had previously moved from the couch so that Yuna could lay down) from the floor next to the entrance and turned to Yuna.

"Sorry, I promise to be back soon."

"...Mmm."

"Just get some rest once you've locked the door, alright?"

"Mmm."

"...I love you, Yuna."

"You too."

It was a half-hearted response, but one Laurence didn't blame Yuna for, considering how awful she looked.

As he walked out the door, he closed it behind him and heard the small clicks of the lock going into place, preventing people from entering.

* * * * * *

There was no way to trade the wine at the trade centers.

Laurence had thought of a method for trading it, but it required for the person he was trading it to to see the wine and what he did with it.

Trading centers with their walls and speakers made it impossible for a face to face interaction.

Networkers, however, weren't the same.

In order for networkers to make a name for themselves, they have to put their name out there, as well as their face.

Since they worked day in and day out on the streets, that meant that the only way to meet one was on said streets.

No one knew where they lived, except for maybe other networkers.

The networker Laurence was going to see was a man by the name of 'Bug', someone who usually did his business in the area Laurence and Yuna lived in.

He was obviously born with a different name, but the nickname stuck because of how he always seemed to know what you were doing at home, much like a bug that snuck in under your floorboards.

A disturbing, yet appropriate name.

Bug was, luckily enough for Laurence, walking down his very own street at the time he left the building.

Wasting little time, Laurence walked up to him.

"Bug, I have a proposition for you."

Bug, with his narrow eyes, naturally suspicious face and tangled black, curly hair, looked at Laurence for a split second before moving effortlessly towards a nearby alley.

There were very few people on the street at this time, so only a few passersbys saw them head there; none of them seemed to care enough to give a second glance, however.

Bug scratched his head as he turned to face Laurence, giving a grin that showed his missing tooth to the right of his middle teeth.

"Well now, I thought I saw your girl bringing in something special."

Bug gestured to the bottle that Laurence had hidden underneath his shirt, which was soon pulled out for him to inspect.

"So, are you doing 'show and tell'? You certainly can't persuade me to take an open bottle."

"Actually, I think I can."

Laurence took the bottle to his lips and allowed the liquid to enter his mouth.

After doing so, he opened his mouth to Bug to show that he had in fact put the wine in his mouth, then he swallowed it, holding back his disdain for the drink.

"A-ha, now I see..."

"You can't trade it for anything since the traders can't see you taste it for poison, but surely giving you the chance to taste it is worth a deal of some kind?"

"But can you prove that there truly is wine in that bottle? Barely anyone around here know what it looks like in a glass, let alone what it tastes like."

"'Barely' meaning there are those who know, and I'll bet you happen to know one of them. It's simple; we visit a person who can identify this as wine and, as an exchange for giving you and him one half of the contents each, you help me get my food's worth for the day and he gives us his services for identifying it."

Bug gave a gesture of deep thought as he combed his hair with his hand, then he smiled upon reaching a decision.

"Well, that was more of a trick question, mind you. I myself happen to know what wine tastes and smells like, so I’ll accept your offer.”

Laurence didn’t bother hiding his surprise at this declaration.

“You know what it tastes like and still want to make the deal?”

“Oh? Could it be you thought you were getting rid of something undesirable? I’m insulted!”

“Uh, well…”

“No wonder your terms only included a meal for today. Oh well, fortunately for you, I happen to like the taste of wine so I’m willing to overlook your disrespectful behaviour.”

For someone named ‘Bug’, Laurence couldn’t help but notice how much he looked down upon people.

Still, he was good at what he did, so most people overlooked his disagreeable behaviour.

“I don’t have any food on me, however, so let’s change your terms. Instead of food, I give you a location that's been recently vacated and you can scavenge it.”

“Hmm… I take it no one’s been to this location yet?”

“Oh no, why would I give you a location that's been scavenged? Unlike you, I tend to give quality product; not something I would like to get rid of on the next easy target.”

“Good to know.”

Bug reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen.

He scribbled something down, using the nearby brick wall, then ripped it off and passed it to Laurence.

“Here’s the location.”

Laurence eyed the paper suspiciously and briefly wondered why Bug didn’t ask for the alcohol first.

He quickly dismissed his suspicions, however, since Bug already knew that Laurence wanted to be rid of the alcohol; there was nothing strange about that.

He extended the bottle to Bug, who graciously accepted it.

“Thanks for your patronage.”

He spoke the words in a slimy way as though he was trying to get under Laurence’s skin, but he knew better than to be angry.

Bug thought he was being polite and impressive with the tone he took whenever a transaction was over with.

It was more amusing than annoying, in fact.

“Oh, and one more thing!”

Bug called out to Laurence as he started to leave.

“Tea does wonders for hangovers.”

That one comment, however, definitely made Laurence’s skin crawl.

Before he could ask how he knew, Bug simply laughed.

“It’s your girl’s turn to hunt, correct? Quite odd you're out and about instead, unless she needed to take a day off.”

With those words, Bug slid around the corner, leaving Laurence alone to remind himself just how dangerous networkers truly were.

* * * * * *

Bug’s information had been on point; Laurence found an abandoned room that had a few valuables lying around here and there.

It was enough for three meals, which was more than Laurence could ask for.

“Well, I also need to get some tea…”

As he said that out loud, Laurence’s eyes caught onto a certain run-down store; what made him stop was the unusual sight of it being filled with something on display.

“...Comic books?”

Normally all the stores before the apocalypse were ransacked with nothing left, but this store had all of its wares visible for the eye to see.

Did this mean that Laurence went inside and took whatever he could, thinking he was lucky to come across a treasure chest of valuable out in plain sight?

No he did not, for you see-

“How ridiculous.”

-comic books were all but worthless these days.

He glanced at the various superheroes the front pages depicted behind the window, and he wondered to himself why he was staying in that spot.

Laurence had no reason to stay there, but perhaps he felt like looking at this relic of the past for some answers on what society was like back then.

Heroes, huh? Laurence thought.

People were being killed all the time in the city, each for their own nefarious ends as resources ran low.

The very concept of a hero; a paragon of virtue who did selfless good deed and expected nothing in return was a joke, much less a fairy tale.

Even in the previous world, such a person did not exist and it was merely the fantasies of the weak; someone strong who would oppose all the evil in the world that they couldn’t.

Of course, Laurence had no way of knowing what it was like back then, but he knew what things were like now; cruel and merciless to those who clung to such rubbish.

The smiling good guys were all looking at him, their impossibly bright, white smiles blinding him and making him groan in disappointment over the minutes he wasted looking at the store.

“There’s no such thing as a hero, dumbasses.”

With a final kick to the glass display that remained intact, Laurence wandered off towards Gerald’s, then thought against it and went to another one entirely.

He thought he should at least splurge on a better quality tea, for Yuna’s sake.

* * * * * *

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to our climax of this little introduction.

It’s a little hard, speaking out loud like this to people you can’t even see, but it is necessary that I do so.

One might say that my role in being aware of your presence has an impact on what will happen from here on out, because whether you like it or not, my goals can’t be reached unless I show you every detail.

Narrator… what a cursed power I have, to know everything and anything.

Oh, but I suppose in due time you will understand what my place in this story truly is.

...as well as yours.

………….To tell you the truth I wanted to end it there to leave you all in suspense by giving you a massive spoiler that still somehow gave away nothing since we’re far too early in the story, but I have a much better way to end this introduction.

Something even you, the observers can make sense of at this point in time!

The event that started everything… well, “starts” everything would be more appropriate, since these events are still occurring.

To be precise, the event that begins this little game started when Laurence returned back to his home later that day.

* * * * * *

The sun, which was far off in the distance previously now shone brightly above Laurence’s head, making his all black attire more than a little uncomfortable.

The rainclouds that were forming in the far off distance mocked him, as if to say that they would arrive when he no longer had any business outdoors.

Clicking his tongue, Laurence walked into the building, but still remained hot,

There was no air conditioning in the building they took residence in, but even if they had the machines, they still needed electricity, which they sorely lacked.

Walking up the steps was painful in comparison to yesterday, since Laurence was all but tired out by being in the sun and carrying the goods he traded for.

The location Bug gave him was a long walk, so he was glad that he left early, but by the time he got all the way back to the trade centers, he was more than a little exhausted.

He drank some of the hard earned water he got the moment in came into his hands before going back home.

As he finally walked through the door on the floor he was staying on with Yuna, he noticed something amiss with the door to their room.

“...!”

The door was wide open and the frame was damaged, as though someone tore through it with a axe.

He wanted to call out to Yuna, but there was no guarantee that whoever invaded their home wasn’t still in there.

It was much better to rush in with his baseball bat to retain some element of surprise, he concluded.

He wasn’t going to hesitate and be cautious, since hesitation now could put Yuna’s life in danger.

Grabbing the baseball bat from his bag and charging through the door, he ran into the living room to find no one there. Pivoting his feet and changing directions, he ran into the spare room and came to a screeching halt.

When he saw what was inside, he dropped his bat, making a loud clang as it clumsily rolled towards the wall.

It had never occurred to Laurence that, even though he was gone for the mourning, it was too late for him to save anyone.

Why should he consider it? Yuna was someone he couldn’t even imagine living without at the moment, especially since they were just celebrating her birthday yesterday.

Even though he saw the pool of blood around her body, it wasn’t enough for him to believe she was dead.

What was enough for him to believe it was her normally beautiful face, on display from her body slumped along the wall stained with blood, mangled beyond recognition.