Mia Decision

Joanna embraced Mia tightly, burying her beautiful, young face in her arms. Seth walked over to retrieve the two laser pistols he had previously thrown, annoyed with Mia.

"Why are you always being so rude to women?" Joanna asked.

Joanna's face took on an angry look, her eyebrows dropping sharply with her eyes firmly fixed on Seth. She said so because Seth had also slapped her earlier for being overly scared about cockroaches.

"I acted violently because I care. If I don't scold her, she won't think realistically about this world," Seth retorted.

"Think realistically? Is that what you think about?" Joanna asked.

"Yes. Thinking like natural fear, excessive affection, and anxiety will only bother you. The world is not as peaceful as it used to be. Nowadays, if you are weak, you won't be able to survive," Seth replied.

"But you didn't have to strangle her either! Look, she has red bruises on her neck," Joanna explained, showing Mia's neck, which was red from Seth's grip.

Seth sighed softly. He stopped collecting shards of life, unzipped his bag and took out a bottle of healing medicine. He rolled the bottle across the flat office floor, aiming it at Joanna.

"Drink it to her. The bruises will disappear instantly," Seth explained.

The man resumed his activity, collecting the hundreds of shards of life scattered across the office floor. Seth's eyes had to be careful because many of the stones were still inside the monster's body.

Joanna herself opened the bottle, helping Mia gulp down the green liquid. There wasn't any flavour from the healing bottle, but the red bruise on Mia's neck instantly disappeared after the woman drank the medicine down.

"After this floor quest is over, I'll take care of Mia," Joanna stated.

Seth was temporarily silent. His current location was with his back to the two women, with both eyes focused on the shards of life stones. Seth could be heard taking a deep breath, then blowing it out slowly.

"If Mia doesn't mind, then go ahead. I've also promised to let her go if she's already good at taking care of herself," Seth said, his voice sounding faint when he heard that.

"I don't need to ask for her approval. She would have chosen to go with me instead of a rude man like you," Joanna complained.

The man fell silent again, busy picking up the shards of life until there were 137 of them. If totalled with the shards of life they had, it amounted to 189 shards of life.

Mia herself was still shocked by what had happened. She never thought the man who had always protected her could be so rude. She had not yet thought that what Seth was doing was merely to discipline her to become stronger.

For Seth, the way to discipline or train someone is through violence. However, not many people think so. They believe violence won't solve anything.

After picking up all the shards of life and putting them in his bag, Seth walked away from the two to reach the roof of the building. Seth's eyes found nothing on the rooftop, neither the rabbit monster nor the hoverbike.

He walked close to the edge of the roof, looking down at where his hoverbike had fallen and burned in a sizable blaze. As a result of the flames, Seth could see the situation around the burning hoverbike, the bodies of people lying helplessly with the monster rabbits eating those bodies.

Not only did the sound of burning things sound in Seth's ears, but he could also hear the faint screams of humans coming from various directions. The man guessed that those screams came from the people who were killed by the predatory monster.

Joanna's words hurt Seth right after what he did to Mia. The man chose to sit cross-legged on the roof, enjoying the cold midnight air without any threat. 

The two women were still in place, Joanna persuading Mia to rest for the night, with the woman taking care of Mia no matter what.

"How can he be so rude to a woman," Joanna complained.

"That's my fault, too. I couldn't separate my pet rabbit from that monster rabbit," Mia retorted.

"You don't have to feel guilty like that. We're women. It's natural to have feelings like that, isn't it?" Joanna asked.

Mia was silent at Joanna's words, both of them sitting on the long sofa in the same room they slept in. She could see that the candles were still burning, although there were few left, as well as a pile of books near the candles.

The woman's heart melted, imagining Seth continuing to guard the two while they were asleep. He had to endure the drowsiness that struck him just so he could protect them.

"Did you ever think that Seth was protecting us all this time?" asked Mia.

"What do you mean?" asked Joanna, confused.

"While we were sleeping, Seth didn't fall asleep and instead busied himself with the books," Mia said, pointing at the stack of books, which numbered about 10 and were of different thicknesses.

"He keeps alert for the worst that could happen. We survived the rabbit monster threat because of Seth's alertness," Mia continued.

"So, what are you trying to say exactly?" asked Joanna.

Mia was silent for a while, her eyes rolling from staring at the candle to the glass window that was no longer covered by the curtains. She could still imagine Seth's silhouette there, looking out to check something out.

"I feel safe around Seth. In fact, I think Seth protects me a lot," Mia said.

"I'm not underestimating your abilities, but I'm more confident if I go with that man," Mia said.

"If you stay with him, he'll torture you far worse than this," Joanna insisted, trying to persuade Mia.

"This is the first time Seth has done this. Before, he used to be so nice to me. He only gets angry if I do something wrong," Mia said.

Joanna remained silent with a thoughtful look in her eyes. The woman didn't expect Mia's answer to be much different than she had expected. If that was what Mia wanted, then Joanna could no longer force her.

"Alright then. I will no longer force you," Joanna complained, sighing softly.

Mia smiled broadly, hugging the woman who was four years older than her. Joanna was happy, too, resting her head warmly on Mia's right shoulder.

"If he hurts you again, I want you to punch him in the face," Joanna pleaded.

The woman in her arms laughed softly at Joanna's words, "Of course I can't do that."

"Don't tell me you like him?" asked Joanna.

Mia's first response to Joanna's question was a blush on her cheeks, looking away and acting strange. Joanna cleared her throat while occasionally nodding in understanding.

"Ah, I can see now."