Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (Final Revision)

You (4)

On a rooftop, two people and one ignored doll were present.

'She' was there.

Klein felt the fresh air on his face.

The cold breeze lifted the long brown hair next to him, making it float in the wind.

Time seemed to stop as he stayed still.

The hand released his wrist but he remained unmoving.

As the person behind him straightened up, the hair left his field of vision and he finally snapped out of his daze.

Very slowly, Klein turned around.

He saw the familiar ordinary face, brown hair and eyes as she bore a playful smile on her face. She hadn't changed at all.

He opened his mouth, the words stuck in throat, and stared fixedly at the person he thought he would never see ever again.

"You..."

He addressed the person whom he didn't remember the name, trying to retrieve a proof of her existence as if she was about to disappear forever.

"What's your name?"

The woman tilted her head.

"Guess?"

Xin Jian knew why he was asking this question, but didn't answer.

"If you had to give me a name, how would you name me?"

Because she originally had no name to begin with.

Her name was given to her by the Fool.

Klein simply stared at her.

Sporting the same amused expression, she continued in an expressionless voice.

"I'm hurt that you don't even remember my name, did I only mean so much to you?"

Klein pursed his lips. Wasn't she supposed to make a dramatically aggrieved face then?

"...You don't look hurt at all."

She returned to her usual stoic expression and pointed at her face.

"I don't look like it but I'm actually very sad, though?"

A moment of silence ensued.

Then, Klein recalled the people fighting below and reacted.

"Why don't you let me kill myself? I can resurrect, and I'm the strongest. I have to die to let more people survive."

Xin Jian humphed and put a hand on her hip.

"I refuse."

"Why?"

She picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground in his daze and pointed at him.

"Because I don't want to."

As usual, her words didn't make sense. She didn't even have a good reason.

Since she knew that she couldn't convince him with words, she attacked. If she could defeat him, she could prove her opinion whether what she said was right or not. She would make him have no choice but to listen to her.

She swung her dagger at him and he used the clown's abilities to stand up from the edge of the roof and evade her blow.

After a few more failed attacks like this one, at a speed slow enough that skilled fighters who weren't Beyonders could have easily beaten Xin Jian, Klein spoke up.

"...You don't even have Beyonder powers anymore."

How would she beat him, a Great Old One, without any Beyonder powers?