Chapter 2: Noirstem

"I said, I would like to join you, your group, or whatever it is." She had a stupefied expression on her face when I said this. I then retracted my sword, waited for a bit, but still got no response. "Uhm... You' there?" As I said this she came back to her senses, giving me a confused look, "Then... Why did you attack us?" she asked, slowly standing herself up.

I stood still and stared at her for a few seconds, "I guess... I just felt like it?".

She was once again stunned stupid, we just stood there, staring at each other with the wind being the only sound that could be heard. Then she finally broke the silence, "You... Just felt like it...?" She had a look of amazement while asking the question, seeming like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

What I had said, was in fact, what I actually felt. It was basically the only reason I had fought them, even though "fight" would be an overstatement. I felt no shame in what I had done either, that was just the kind of person I had become as time passed.

She then turned her head towards the knocked-out boy and smiled bitterly, "Did you have to kick him so hard then? I'll have to carry him now." seeing me not answering she just went to the point, "Whatever, did you say you wanted to join us?".

I answered with a simple "Yes.", I wasn't very talkative unless it was to mock someone, which I found quite fun for some reason. Sometimes I would even mock beasts in the middle of a fight, although not as satisfactory as mocking other humans.

"Then come with me, sigh... But do try to restrain yourself while we meet the others." She said, picking up her companion and throwing him on her shoulder, "I'm the squad-leader of the Noirstem group, Naoki. Would you mind sharing your name?" she said and started walking back to where they came from.

I hesitated for a moment but decided to answer her, "Linn." and then I began following her, walking at a fairly slow speed, she didn't seem to mind my short answers too much.

Suddenly, she stopped as if remembering something, and looked at me from top to bottom, "Uhm, actually, I think we'll have to do a side-stop. Can't have you looking all bloody like that when you join the group.".

I hadn't really thought of it, but I was actually very dirty at that time, covered in mass amounts of blood. I usually didn't care too about my appearance, not really minding what others thought of me. I just kept following Naoki after she changed direction, going toward a nearby lake that was pretty close.

When we arrived she pointed at the clear lake and said "Wash yourself off, just don't take too long.". I removed my makeshift clothing, taking only my sword with me, walking slowly into the wavy water. As I walked, I scrubbed off the stale blood that was stuck on my body, and when the water reached the hight of my breasts I dove down forward, into the lake, letting the cold water brush alongside my face. I rubbed my face and hair a bit while still under the surface, and when I felt that most of the blood was gone I pushed off from the lake lakebed, revealing my white and curvaceous body. Though it had grown well, I was a very late bloomer. Then I flung my hair back and fixing its position with my hand.

I then saw that the boy had come awake and was staring at me in a daze. It must've been quite a nice scene, a naked beautiful girl in a lake, with the sun shining dimly from behind the trees in the distance.

I didn't bother covering anything up and he soon turned red as a tomato, quickly turning his head away and running in behind a tree on the shore. "Ahem, sorry about that, I kind of forgot he could wake up at any time." Naoki said, revealing an apologetic smile.

I just walked out of the lake and went up to her, she looked a bit afraid but then it turned to a look of resolution. "Could you hand over my clothes?" I asked and held my hand forward. She had been cleaning them while I was in the lake, and when she realized that I only wanted my clothes back, she seemed very relieved and sighed deeply.

She then wrenched my clothes of water and gave them to me, "They should be able to dry before we get back to the camp, but I think we should get you some new ones when we're back.". After I had put on my shabby clothes again Noaki turned toward where the place where the boy was hiding "Lee, you can come out now.".

The boy then peeked out of his hiding place, and when he saw me his eyes quickly shot to the ground and his cheeks became red. He then slowly walked to us and finally stoping about two meters from our position. "Have you already gotten yourself a crush?" Naoki asked, teasing him.

"Humph!", He turned his head away. Then Naoki proceeded with our greeting, "Linn, this is Lee. He might be a bit childish at times, but he's a good guy. And Lee, this is Linn, a new member of our group.".

He then turned to look at me, "I-I'm sorry about before." after he said this, he directed his eyes to the ground again, it sounded pretty sincerely.

When I didn't answer, he soon started getting even redder than before. Naoki was forced to break the silence, "Shall we go back and meet up with the others?". Lee then woke up from his daze, "A-Ah, yes, let's go back."

During the time we walked back, Lee's head seemed to be spinning at full force. He only sometimes looked at me and then quickly turned away again. When we finally reached the spot where the squad of five had split up looking for me we stopped, I proceeded to sit down on the ground using my energy-absorption technique to strengthen my body. Naoki seemed to be looking around, constantly cautious of the surroundings and Lee was still in a daze, who knew what he was thinking.

After a while, the other three members of the group came back as well and saw me there, sitting on the ground. "Guess your luck was better than ours." the burly man with a greatsword said looking at me with curiosity, then he noticed I hadn't even opened my eyes and shot a questioning look towards his captain. Naoki could only sigh in response to the weird look she was getting, then saying, "Shall we introduce ourselves?".

"I'll go first then," the burly man said, looking proud of himself, "I'm Arnold. I wield a great-sword." he stated as he took out his sword and slightly flexed his muscles. Though he shot me an annoyed look when I didn't show any sign of response.

Then a young-looking girl took a step forward and said anxiously, "I'm Alisha, Uh... Uhm, nice to meet you." she looked down, embarrassed, and then continued, "I hope we can get along well."

It was then the stern but handsome guys turn, "Clive." he said, not bothering to explain more, I simply did the same only opening my eyes, and said "Linn.".

"Sigh... looks like we got another Clive in the group," Arnold said looking almost a bit sad, It seemed like he wasn't a big fan of Clive, "And what's up with Lee, is he that scared of her?" he continued. Lee was about to refute his statement when Naoki interrupted, "We can't stay here all night, let's get going to the camp."

Then they all started moving again, I didn't want to stop refining my body, but I was forced to do so if I wanted to get some new clothes, and I thought that a brake might not hurt me all too much.

We walked through the night, with the others doing some small-talk and on occasion, directing a question to me, trying to know more about me. It was mostly Alisha who was talking with me, she was rather talkative and the youngest member of the squad, only being 17 years old.

I answered most of her questions but kept the answers rather short, so a conversation didn't have the chance to form. I couldn't quite understand why she kept trying to talk to me though, as I just avoided further conversations all the time. It was strange to me.

Lee didn't say much at all throughout the journey on the other hand, but gave me a look ones in a while. He seemed to still be embarrassed by what had happened at the lake.

When we finally reached what they said to be a camp, I was surprised. You couldn't really call it a camp, it was more like a small town. It didn't look like a camp by any means.

"Impressive, right?" Naoki came up to me, "But before you go in I'll have to get you some new clothes, can't have you going around like that," She then started walking forward and said, "you can stay here with Lee as company for a while, I'll just go back and report to Jack and get some clothes." She gave a teasing look toward Lee and then went into town, followed by the others in the group.

Stunned yet again, Lee went into a daze before looking at me. He didn't seem to know what to do, while I just sat down and started absorbing energy again. After a while, he sat down about two meters from me and started doing the same, only giving an occasional glance toward me. It became less awkward when he started doing this, and it almost seemed as he had regained some sort of confidence in himself.

Soon, however, Noaki came back and threw a pair of clothing to me. It consisted of a bland pair of black underwear, black, tight-fitting shorts and a black T-shirt. I changed directly on the spot, making Lee blush like crazy. When I was done Noaki was staring at me, "Do try to change when no men are around next time.".

We then walked into the "camp", with Lee walking a few meters behind in his own little world. The people of the camp seemed relatively happy with their lives here, although technology had regressed they had it pretty good in the camp.

We walked through the camp, with Noaki explaining some of the buildings and what was supposed to be done in the places. Then we arrived at a big building that read female housing on the front.

"Lee, I didn't know you were female as well." Naoki mocked him. when we had stopped in front of the building Lee had wandered right into me and stumbled on the ground. He just said "Sorry!" and quickly left.

When he had left she continued with her explanations, "This is where you will be living for now. You'll be sharing room number 72 with Sasha.". She then gave me a key with a plate attached to it which said 72 and left waving me goodbye.

I went to the corresponding room which was on the second floor and opened the door. The room was mostly empty, there were only two beds with a drawer next to each of them placed on opposite sides of the room. I sat down on the bed that didn't seem to belong to the other person and began absorbing energy again, I always wanted to be as strong as I could be.