Breathing Life into Real Dolls

1.

The three of us entered a motel room nearby. It was a motel where the water supply hadn’t been cut off yet.

After washing up with warm water, Serena and Ciel went into the bathroom together.

The sound of rushing water was followed by giggling and laughter as they cleaned each other’s bodies.

“Hee hee, hee hee hee! That tickles, sis!”

“Hehe, I always wanted to play like this with soap bubbles if I ever had a younger sister!”

“Really? In that case… I’ll happily fulfill your wish.”

“Kyaaa, my eyes sting—!”

The sound of sisters happily bathing together.

“……”

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. I seriously considered joining them and taking turns, but I held back.

There would be more opportunities. We planned to sleep early tonight and leave first thing tomorrow morning. We had left the D-Mart shelter in Seoul vacant for too long.

After waiting about 30 minutes, Serena and Ciel finished their bath.

And Ciel’s… her massive white wings were soaked with water.

‘……What to do.’

There was no other way. Even if it took a long time, I had to dry them with a hairdryer.

I had Ciel sit in front of me and held her wings as I blew them with the hairdryer.

Ciel’s wings, filled with soft, dense feathers, felt warm, with blood flowing through them, a true physical organ, just like a swan’s wings.

Whirrrrrr—

“———♪ ———♬”

Ciel sat still, entrusting her wings to me, quietly humming through her nose. She seemed to be in a good mood.

Finally, after drying her wings completely, the three of us lay down side by side on the bed.

I looked at Ciel lying down and asked,

“…… Doesn’t it bother you to lie down with your wings?”

Ciel smiled and nestled closer to me,

“It’s uncomfortable. So please hold me closer, Master.”

“Alright, alright.”

As I wrapped my arm around Ciel’s waist and gently stroked her hips, she seemed to have something on her mind and candidly confessed,

“……Actually, it’s not uncomfortable. I’m not that fragile.”

“I know that.”

“Hee hee hee.”

Ciel let out another cheerful laugh.

Feeling guilty for paying attention only to Ciel, I turned to look at Serena. But my concern was unfounded.

“Master… Ciel…”

Muttering in her sleep, Serena had already fallen asleep, hugging my arm tightly and wedged between my legs like a koala claiming an arm as its main habitat.

“Your sister is really cute. So innocent.”

“……And you, Ciel? Not innocent?”

“Hee hee. You’ll have to judge that, Master.”

…I would have to watch her more closely, but Ciel seemed to have a fox-like aspect to her in a positive way.

Thus, we fell asleep, embracing each other.

2.

The next morning, we set out straight for Seoul.

The distance from Paju to Seoul’s D-Mart was roughly 60 to 70 km. If we rode a bicycle fast, it would take about 4 to 5 hours to arrive.

As a result of pedaling hard with Ciel on my back, we entered Seoul around lunchtime.

Suddenly, my cell phone went off with a zing.

“…… What’s this?”

In this ruined world, there weren’t many people who would contact me.

Baek Suna, Baek Jihun, Lee Jinah, Jin Serim, and…… no one else.

I took out my phone to check who it was. The name of the person who sent me a message through the messenger app was…… ‘Kim Byungho.’

‘Ah, the one who lost his left arm to a mutant zombie.’

What could it be? I immediately went into the chat room to check the content of the message.

「Doha-nim. Nearby military forces are threatening us, demanding we hand over the man with the white sword and the blonde woman.」

「Serim noona said there was nothing to be done even if she called you and asked me not to contact you, but I shamelessly speak to you this way.」

「Please help us. If things continue like this, the women will be captured and become sex slaves, and the men will all be killed. The enemies are all armed with military weapons and are ability users.」

As I read, strength was gathering in my jaw, and by the time I finished reading, I could taste a faint trace of blood from my gums.

“……How did these bastards……”

I had indeed attacked the military forces. I killed five men armed with K2 rifles.

However, there were no witnesses there. I had Serena check if anyone else was around, but it was definitely just the two of us.

So then, perhaps…… a special ability.

They must have seen us using an ability that allowed surveillance from afar.

‘And…… they probably tied me to Jin Serim after seeing the sword on my waist.’

So what was their purpose with us? Revenge? Or did they simply want the woman, Serena?

Regardless of the reason, I had to leave as soon as possible to rescue the people in the department store.

Their chances of repelling the military forces themselves would be next to zero.

I checked the image that Kim Byungho sent at the end of the message.

A long barrel was aimed at the department store building. If it fired, dozens of people would die in a single blast.

It was…… the K-2 Black Panther, a tank developed in South Korea, the so-called emperor of modern ground warfare.

3.

Currently, the department store next to Jeongbalsan Station was in a state of extreme emergency.

This was because the building was completely surrounded by nearby military forces.

Just a few minutes ago, the incident started with a loud explosion.

Boom and Crash———!!

“Aaaaaaaaaaah—!”

“What, what’s happening!”

“It’s an earthquake!”

“An explosion!?”

Jin Serim, who was on the second floor of the department store at the time, thought that the world was finally coming to an end and did not know what was going on. That was how big the noise and shock were.

After a brief wait, the rumbling of the ground subsided.

Eeeeeeeee—

A ringing in her ears. Yet, she was still alive.

There was only one thing she could grasp at the moment.

‘Something big exploded on the first floor.’

In that instant of trying to understand the situation, a voice amplified by a speaker came from outside the building.

“Ah, ah— Can you hear me—?”

A leisurely male voice. The moment Jin Serim heard it, her mind snapped to attention, and her thoughts began to turn.

‘A big explosion on the first floor. The only ones who can use such a firearm are the military forces. That relaxed voice. They are already sure of victory. We are surrounded.’

“Were you surprised by the sudden explosion?”

The man speaking from outside was teasing, with a calm and nonchalant tone.

‘The enemy is showing complacency. This could be an opportunity.’

Jin Serim quickly went down to the first floor. The first floor was now a scene straight out of hell.

“Ugh, uuugh……!”

“Ow, it hurts……”

“Save me……!”

Chunks of concrete shattered by the explosion, people were injured by them, and corpses were directly caught in the explosion.

“……”

Jin Serim steeled herself. She thought about surprising the complacent enemy and turning the situation to her advantage.

But the moment she saw the enemy’s weapons outside the first-floor entrance with her own eyes, she fell into despair.

“Oh……”

Wheels with an endless track, thick composite armor, and a weapon equipped with a machine gun that emitted overwhelming firepower.

A massive tool of violence that the mere flesh and blood of a human could never resist.

It was a tank.

The identity of the recent explosion had been the artillery fire from that tank.

“We have some scores to settle with the people here.”

Jin Serim quickly regained her composure and revised her plan.

A surprise attack on the tank was impossible. Instead, she would evacuate the wounded and reorganize the front line.

“Serim noona! Are you okay!?”

Byungho came up to her, waving his one remaining arm. He was wounded, but as a person with abilities, he was strong.

“Byungho, mobilize healthy people to evacuate the injured on the first floor. Get them up at least to the fifth floor!”

“Yes, yes!”

Jin Serim, while also helping the injured, was listening to what the military jerks outside were saying.

“Five of our precious soldiers died at the hands of your ability users yesterday.”

“The man with the white sword and the blonde woman. You know them, right?”

“That sword originally belonged to Jin Serim here. We know all about it.”

“Bring those bastards here right now. Then, I’ll spare your lives.”

Jin Serim furrowed her brows.

‘How did those guys know that the sword was originally mine? I’ve hardly ever carried it around…’

Among them, there must be someone with the ability to gather information. And they had been surveilled for a very long time. That was the conclusion she reached.

The problem was that understanding a situation like this didn’t provide any real solutions.

“You have 3 minutes to answer. I don’t know what floor you’re all gathered on, but a grenade will be fired randomly if there’s no response. It will hurt if it hits.”

“……Phew.”

The people inside the department store were all evacuated to the 7th floor.

Even the elite ability users who had been honed by fighting zombies were now ready.

They gathered for a brief meeting.

“What should we do, Serim?”

“From what I heard, they want Doha and Rena.”

“You know what those bastards will do. They’ll either kill all the people here or take them as slaves. It’s obvious.”

“……Then we have no choice but to fight.”

“Against a tank? Will it even scratch if we use our abilities?”

“So what should we do?”

“……Enough.”

When Jin Serim opened her mouth, everyone fell silent.

In this desperate situation, the department store’s 7th floor was filled with a gloomy atmosphere, filled with the moans of those wounded by the shelling.

Everyone was on edge. Nothing good could come of this.

“Everyone, calm down. For now… I will step forward and respond to them.”

“……Yes, sister.”

“……Alright.”

Jin Serim quickly headed to the rooftop, megaphone in hand. It would be a disaster if they truly fired a shell after 3 minutes.

Byungho followed her, saying,

“Sister! Shouldn’t we inform Doha? Since we’re surrounded by the military, ask for help…!”

“To tell them what? To request being buried together in our communal grave? Adding one or two ability users against a tank won’t make a difference.”

“But…!”

“How long do you think it would take for them to get here? It’s an unreasonable request, to begin with. We have to find our own way out.”

“…Yes.”

The two, being ability users, quickly arrived at the rooftop. Jin Serim stepped forward, megaphone in hand.

“…”

Although Byungho seemed to agree on the surface, he secretly sent a text to Doha, along with a picture of the tank taken from the rooftop.

「This is Jin Serim—!」

She announced, her voice amplified by the megaphone, catching the attention of the military forces.

The response came from a man sitting in the tank’s machine gun seat.

「Ms. Jin Serim, nice to meet you! You heard what I said, right? We want revenge! Bring the man with the white sword and the blonde woman, and we’ll let you go.」

‘Ridiculous.’

Their claim of wanting revenge was just a pretext. Their real aim was likely to acquire new slaves for their faction.

Jin Serim scoffed at the man’s words but responded as if she agreed.

「 I’ve already contacted them after hearing your words! They’re coming, but it will take about an hour!」

She was buying time.

From the rooftop, the surroundings were in full view.

There was only one tank.

That tank couldn’t block the department store’s exit from all sides.

‘Form a suicide squad of ability users to counter the tank. Others can escape through the back door…!’

Jin Serim herself intended to be part of the suicide squad, risking her life to stop the tank, perhaps even throwing herself into its fire…

…But was her response too transparent?

The enemy was no fool.

「An hour is too long! To pass the time, Ms. Jin Serim, come down and play with us.」

The man locked eyes with Jin Serim on the rooftop, sneering as he spoke.

「Come down within 3 minutes. If not, an anti-tank shell will pay a visit. The 7th floor, right? Where the people are gathered.」

What Jin Serim didn’t know was that, due to the enemy’s ability ‘Familiar,’ the interior locations were already completely exposed to them.

“…”

She gritted her teeth.

It was the worst situation.