Fox Girl In An Apocalyptic World

Sitting on the couches, Reia explained what had happened in the nest with the core and how it allowed her to use essence on her own body.

"So the mutant parts you had, actually made it so you didn\'t have any side effects?" Kim was finding it hard to believe, but since it was Reia, she just had to believe.

"I felt completely fine, but I will point out that I was injured a lot by the mutants so I don\'t know if the core infected me or it was the mutants." The potential of the core was still dangerous and without using it in an isolated environment, made some details still blurry. Reia also wanted to believe it was safe and that because of the injuries that the infection stayed.

"We will need to find another nest and I don\'t want to be going through those caves, so we should probably explore the city some more." Lou wanted a core for herself as from what Reia said it had improved her essence.

"I\'m unsure if anything has improved, but as far as I can tell my essence capacity has increased and feels a lot more volatile." Reia who has been on home arrest for a week hasn\'t had the chance to test her essence.

"I don\'t think we should go out of our way to look for one, but definitely should keep these locations in mind." Akira who sat next to Reia would rather focus on other things than clearing the nest.

"We need to get everyone together before we even attempt one again as I barely survived." Reia would have liked to obtain more cores for the squad, but as it stands, it was a miracle that she lived.

"Well how about we try to look for Aoi and the others then?" Kim figured they may as well search the city some more and since they have been in the bunker for about a week, everyone has been itching to get out.

"Mhm I agree, we need to backtrack towards gates 12 and 11 which is rather far, seeing as we are at gate 2." Reia wanted to make the journey and map out the city a bit more despite them having to leave the bunker possibly for a couple of days.

"It\'s very unlikely that we will run into them, but it isn\'t a bad idea." Lou didn\'t like their chances but wasn\'t opposed to some more exploring.

"Sounds like a plan. We will leave tomorrow, so make sure we are all packed and ready to go." Everyone nodded agreeing with Reia\'s decision. So she sunk back into the couch and leaned into Akira as serious discussions were over.

"Geh." Kadi, who was lying in Kim\'s lap, turned around to avoid seeing their affection.

"Pfft." Kim chuckled as what Kadi was doing right now was no better than them.

"Well seeing as we will be leaving you alone, will you be alright with keeping your routine?" Lou didn\'t plan to take Kadi just yet as she still struggled to get essence into her hands and into Klein\'s gun.

"But I want to come!" Kadi had thought she was coming and hearing that she would be locked up in the bunker even longer, protested against staying.

"I think we should let her go out." Kim didn\'t see an issue and if they were to give Kadi a normal pistol, she would be able to somewhat use it.

"I don\'t have an issue as long as you protect her." Reia didn\'t really mind as it wasn\'t dangerous where they were going.

"Hmmm, fine, but are you sure you can cope?" Lou knew Kadi had some trauma with the mutants and didn\'t know how she would react if she saw one.

"I-I think so." Kadi believed she would be able to handle it, but there was no way of knowing until she went out.

"Klein did have a pistol on her which shouldn\'t be a special model, unlike her MP7, so as long as you can get essence into your hand then it should be okay." Akira knew that it took much more concentration and more refined essence to use specialised weapons, but things like basic pistols were easy to use for anyone.

"Seeing as she has made great progress she should be able to use it." Reia had the same thoughts and if Kadi was able to move her essence, then there was a high chance of her being able to use one.

Kadi had sat up with her eyes shining as she wanted to be able to use a gun since it was her main goal for trying to cultivate her essence in the first place.

"Please?" Kadi turned to Lou looking at her full of excitement.

Lou struggled at finding a reason to not let her go and didn\'t want to shatter her hopes of leaving.

*Sigh* "Fine, you can come." Caving into the rather cute side Kadi had just shown, she decided to see this as a reward for all her hard work.

"YES!" Kadi jumped off the couch in excitement and ran to her room to get ready.

"Does she even know how to hold a gun?" Reia who has been rather disconnected from her training didn\'t know exactly how much progress she has made.

Lou and Kim both looked away avoiding Reia\'s gaze as they just realised they hadn\'t taught her anything like that.

"Well, I guess we can teach her along the way." Reia rubbed her forehead as it was going to be either a headache or Kadi would pick it up quickly.

"It\'s not our problem." Akira wrapped his arm around Reia, not concerned about the issue as Kadi wasn\'t their responsibility.

"True, good luck Lou and Kim." Reia followed along and made sure all responsibility fell upon the two.

"Tsk." Lou couldn\'t argue as they agreed before taking in Kadi that Reia and Akira are not obliged to look after her.

"The spare pistol should be on top of the cabinet in the kitchen." Akira told them where he had put it and everyone was rather confused by its location.

"What? I put it up high so a sneaky brat didn\'t get it." Akira saw the rather confused looks and elaborated further on why he did it. So after explaining everyone shook their heads and Kadi pouted as she knew exactly who Akira was referring to.

*

Everyone had gotten into their tactical clothes and were now just outside the bunker double checking they had everything.

"Now Kadi, I will give you the pistol, but first we need you to have a little practice." Kim had been bestowed upon the responsibilities of teaching Kadi and although Kim thought Lou would have been a better fit.

"Mhm." Kadi vigorously shook her head and carefully took the pistol from Kim\'s hand. Examining the pistol she got, it was a P226R which was a standard pistol that everyone carried as a backup weapon or if their essence was low.

Kim then proceeded to get Kadi out on the street and guided her on how to hold the pistol.

"Now try to move your essence into your hands and the pistol should fill itself up." Kim stood behind Kadi and was holding her hands to keep them steady.

Concentrating on using her essence, Kadi slowly moved it to her hands and the white line on the handle began to glow. Trying to contain her excitement she made sure she followed every single instruction.

"Alright now try to line up the sight at one of the windows." Kim pointed at a store that still had some windows.

Kadi concentrated on lining up the dots at the window. The pistol was now full of essence and Kim was making sure her hands were steady.

Pulling the trigger a white essence bullet came out of the gun and went straight for the window. The recoil of the gun was not too much for Kadi to handle and thanks to Kim holding her hands, had kept the gun completely still.

The bullet flew through the air and hit the window in the middle, completely shattering it.

"Yes!" Kadi jumped up in excitement and Kim couldn\'t help smiling.

"Now make sure you don\'t accidentally fire, so get your finger off the trigger. Only have it on the trigger once you are going to make a shot as we don\'t want you hitting us by accident." Kim had gone over some fundamental rules and although it was for self-defence, it was better safe than sorry.

Kadi instantly did what Kim said and made sure her finger wasn\'t near the trigger.

"Nice shot~." Lou was impressed and although with Kim\'s help, being able to fire a gun at 13 years old was not something many could do as in military school it wouldn\'t be till you were 16.

"Hehe~ thank yo- ahem of course it was a nice shot." Kadi was pleased to get praise from Lou, but she didn\'t want to give up her bratty persona.

"Ehhh~ what was that? Come ooon, Say it again~." Lou did not let what Kadi said slip by and leaned into her face trying to get an answer.

"Hmph." Kadi\'s face was red and turned her head to get away from Lou\'s face.

"Tsssk, one day." Lou did not want to waste much more time as Reia and Akira were out in the street waiting.

Kim shook her head at the scene, realising that Kadi only acted this way towards Lou and found Kadi would only break character with Kim.

"You guys done? She can practice later on some mutants since we can disable them." Reia called out seeing that they were done practising and were back to teasing.

"Ooo good idea, next mutant we find, try to make it so it can\'t attack." Lou liked Reia\'s idea of disabling the mutants as it will be a great way for Kadi to get her first kill and get over her trauma.

Kadi hearing this idea was intrigued, but also a little terrified. Kim had put her hand on her shoulder to provide a little comfort and also a bit of encouragement.

"Alright we will try, but no guarantees as they seem to travel by packs rather than by themselves." Reia had noticed that mutants were always in groups and the lowest you would see is a pair.

"That shouldn\'t be an issue, now let\'s get going, we don\'t have all day." Lou wanted to get a move on and so Reia started to move. Everyone followed Reia with Akira by her side and they began to make their way towards gate 12.