Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

The kitchen was arranged as new, and the bullet holes were just as minimum as they were before. That proved Tengoku had not fired at the house, or he was waiting for the right moment to come when he will open fire.

Hitori slid to the left side of the door, away from the range of the machine guns and close enough to the exit. Reon went to the other side, she would be safe too, unless someone comes from the backside.

Reon pulled her gun near her chest, then lowered it and pulled the barrel, to cock it. Akira joined them last, standing outside the kitchen. "Do you have any connection with them?" she asked.

Akira looked for even a subtle sign of anyone, then pulled himself back. Reon still looked like someone just got out of bed. "Are you prepared to continue if something happens to them?" he asked.

Reon frowned. "What kind of a question is that? Of course, I am prepared."

Hitori clicked his tongue, then frowned at Akira and said, "What is the status, Akira?"

"Tengoku is still not in the sight. Eya-nee and Kakashi are trying to make sense of the current situation. The men are hurting the woods as if they know Kakashi\'s bond with them. And they have not attacked the house yet," he said.

Hitori nodded. "They are not going to attack the house either way."

The corner of Akira\'s eyes narrowed along with his eyebrows. "How are you so sure?" he asked as a crease formed on his forehead.

Hitori smelled the gunpowder in the air, then the light summer morning air. Then he moved his eyes to the chinaware utensils and the cooking place where Kiku-san used to cook breakfast, lunch, supper, and dinner. Always the best, not that he misses it.

Then one day this man just forced into the house and killed Kiku for what? A wand, a thing he does not even use.

Hitori clenched the legendary wand in his hand. If Kiku was still alive and Tengoku still wanted the wand, he would have given it away if her safety was concerned.

But this was different. He was not here for the wand. Hitori moved his eyes from the kitchen to Akira, and said, "Because he wants to kill us. Not the house. He wants us, not the house."

Hitori looked into Akira\'s eyes, without moving, waiting for him to say something. Then his wand vibrated, disturbing the tension between them. His fingers clenched the wand in a tight grip as he raised it to his mouth.

"Yes," Akira said. Then he waited for them to complete. When it was over, he pulled the wand away from his lips and looked back at Hitori.

"What did they say?" Hitori asked. His voice had tension in it as if talking while standing on the cliff of a hill, a little push and he would fall.

"Eya-nee told us to show ourselves. Perhaps that will bring out Kakashi and we may be able to end this, but it would never end if we keep hiding."

"We are not hiding," Reon said. "We are waiting for the best time—"

"Then that best time will never come, this way." Akira\'s interruption silenced her, she was convinced that she was not hiding.

"The time has come for us to move," Hitori said as he jumped off the kitchen and onto the grass. He bent a little, then raised his wand, like a gun. "Get a spell ready, Akira. And do not use magic, Reon."

Akira thought of a quick spell as Hitori walked past Reon. Then he turned to follow Hitori to the right side of the backside.

Reon took a step forward when Hitori leaned back and glared at her. "You are not coming to the front. You will go into the house and prepare for an ambush on Tengoku."

She hated Hitori\'s tone and the way he said that. "Will I?" she said, clenching her gun.

Akira raised his hands, then shook them to stop Reon from firing back a reply.

He was about to open his mouth when she continued, "If you want Tengoku to show himself, then why do you not go to the front under Eya-nee\'s protection and show yourself to him?"

"No," Akira interrupted this time without caring about interrupting them. He just spread his arms open and said, "No one is going in that house. What if he has planted dynamites under it?"

That idea was stupid, but it was logical at that time. Hitori and Reon exchanged glances, then nodded. "We are not going in, but then we need another way to confront =Tenogku and let him know we are here."

Akira hummed, then fell into thought for a minute. He raised his head, and said, "We will just take this side and show ourselves to him with a shield of our own."

"That would not be a good idea." He leaned forward and took a glance at the other side. They were still firing at the woods. "They have machine guns this time, we can not risk exposing ourselves."

"Your shields will not hold against their machine guns. That is out of the question." Only she knew about the guns on the other side and their true caliber.

"But we ought to do something, right?"  Akira lowered his hands. "A subtle hint that will let Tengoku know we are waiting for him."

Now Hitori spent a minute or two thinking. He would have spent even more time if Akira did not have to answer the wand.

"Yes?" he said. "Y-Yeah, we are planning something. We can not go out— we do not have to go out? How?" They waited will Akira was done hearing the plan. He nodded to himself as he pulled down his wand.

"What is her plan?"

"No plan. She just did a big revelation."

"A big reveal? What?"

Akira gulped, then smiled. "The men with machine guns… are not men. They robots. Machines with only one object of shooting down the woods."

Hitori opened his mouth, then paused. Silence for a moment, then he sighed. "So they would not… like—"

What Hitori wanted to say was visible on his face, and subtle enough for Akira to catch and read it. "Yes, yes. If we get close to them, they would not bother to turn and shoot us. Only Tengoku will, but he has a katana, not a gun– or at least, he would not use one."

Hitori jerked his arm. "Attack then," he muttered.