Cliche Rat Infestation

"So, what can you tell me about yourself?" Melanie asked with a kind smile as she slowly ate some of the food.

"Hmm… Nothing much, I guess?" Sion took a sip of the soup, noticing how delicious it was. Smiling, he continued. "But you could say that I'm just a run of the mill kind of guy."

"Oh? Then, do you have any past events you could tell us?" Nicole's rabbit ears twitched when her mother asked this kind of question.

She was a sucker for others' stories. She had a reading habit, and her room was chock full of literature from the BD era that survived.

Especially those that pertained to boy-on-boy action.

"Well, I do have some stories to tell, but they aren't anything special." Sion shrugged as he shoveled a spoonful of meat and vegetables into his mouth. "It's something that can happen anywhere in this wasteland."

"Still, we would like to hear it, right? Nicole?" The rabbit girl winced slightly when Sion's attention focused on her, but otherwise nodded with a faint blush.

"Well, sure." Sion placed his eating utensils down and chuckled slightly. "Well, this one time, I was tasked with delivering a parcel to the next Sector over. Nothing too dangerous. Get the parcel to the guards, and go back after getting the payment."

Sion recalled the guard's face, the man scowling at him slightly as he haughtily grabbed the parcel from his hands.

"Then he gave me the payment, and guess what? It was short of a few hundred Fall Coins." Melanie nodded gravely, while Nicole tilted her head in confusion.

"Mom, what are Fall Coins?" Nicole stared at her mother with a curious gaze, and Melanie opted to pat her head and smile gently.

"Fall Coins are the currency used in each Sector. In this region, at least." Melanie rubbed her daughter's rabbit ears as the young girl nuzzled into her fingers. "Sorry for not telling you before, but I keep on forgetting to."

"It's not a problem, mom." Nicole hummed, and Melanie retracted her hands. Sion watched the scene with a smile, even if it was giving him diabetes.

"Continuing with the story, I told the man the payment was short, and he told me to piss off." Sion smirked at the memory of him beating up the guard with his bare fists. "Apparently, the man I gave the parcel wasn't a guard and was trying to steal it. Too bad, he didn't expect me to beat him up in front of hundreds of eyes."

"Well, the man had it coming." Melanie sighed sorrowfully, while Sion chuckled at how golden-hearted the woman was. At least she knew when to draw the line.

In her seat, Nicole rolled her eyes. "Of course, that man had it coming. Stealing under the noses of the Sectors is a guaranteed death warrant."

"Well, that's one of the stories I got." Sion breathed out as he rubbed his belly. "This is some mighty fine lunch you got here, Melanie. Thanks for the food."

"You're welcome, Sion." Melanie giggled while Nicole silently continued eating her food.

A few minutes later, Sion was resting in the living room, waiting for Melanie to give him some supplies he had asked for earlier. She agreed and told him to wait patiently in the living room.

As he waited, he twiddled with his System once again.

'So, nothing new, eh?' Sion hummed as he closed each tab with a thought. 'At least no one other than me could see the holographic screens, at least.'

Breathing a sigh of relief at the fact, Sion leaned into the couch, his back sinking into the comfortable foam.

As the seconds ticked into minutes, he heard some shuffling coming from the hallway going deeper into the house. Glancing in its direction, he saw Nicole hefting a baseball bat and heading towards a door.

"Where're you going?" Sion asked the girl, to which she replied with a shrug.

"Some mutated rats infested our basement… Again…" Hearing her sigh told Sion enough that their basement was a hot spot for mutated rodents. "I'm going to clean them up."

"Want me to help?" Sion stood up and grabbed his mace, hefting it up on his shoulders.

"Sure. The faster we get this done, the better." Nicole scowled as she opened the door silently. Following her lead, they both descended the stairs as quietly as possible so as not to scare the rodents.

Not like they would be scared.

Reaching the bottom, they saw three rats the size of small dogs scurrying about. Truth be told, they weren't anything like the mutated rats mentioned in books.

Going by cliche themes, mutated rats would be the size of small dogs and have a horrifying appearance. But here? They were just giant, ordinary rats.

They're cute looking and have a face that makes you want to cuddle with them. Except, here's the thing: they carry a bunch of diseases that are amplified thanks to the radiation. So, if a person wants to get a mutated pet rat (there have been some who have had those, Sion recalled), they'd have to be careful. Otherwise, a single bite is an instant trip to the ER, which is known to be a glorified clinic.

The rats looked at the new faces and hissed. Not taking any time to give the rats reprieve, Nicole lunged at the closest rat with surprising speed and bashed its head with the bat.

The rat fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, its head crushed and blood leaking out of the cut.

'She is a Rabbit Radite, so of course her legs are strong.' Sion shrugged before nimbly leaping at the other rat with his mace held high. He swung down, and it dodged before leaping at Sion, ready to bite.

Clicking his tongue, Sion gave the mutated rat the boot. His boot smashed against the stomach of the rat, and it crashed against the wall after being sent flying.

Taking a step forward, Sion lifted his mace and smashed the rat's head, causing blood to explode and stain the wall, ground, and his clothes.

Cringing at the stench, Sion looked back only to see Nicole dealing with the last rodent with her baseball bat, some blood staining her clothes as well.

"Well, that was quick." Sion rolled his shoulders as he stepped away from the corpse.

"Grab the bag over there. The stench is killing me." Following her orders, Sion grabbed the nearby trash bag and stuffed the three dead mutated rats inside. Cringing in disgust, Sion quickly tied up the bag and dragged it up the stairs.

"Ugh… No matter how used I get to doing this, the stench always kills me." Nicole held her nose with her other hand.

"You and me both."

They headed back up the stairs, and Sion threw the bag outside in a nearby compost pit. Heading back inside, he waited for Nicole to finish showering, and soon after, Sion did as well.

'Well, from that exchange, I can certainly say I got stronger.' Sion thought as he dumped a dipper of water over his head, the ice cold water causing his body to shake.