Izzy’s POV:

Oh my god, I can’t believe she actually came back to me! It’s been nearly an entire year since I last saw her. I’ve missed her so much, needed her so much.

She’s an important part of my life that I thought I’d never see again. She’s my best friend, and I don’t think I could’ve kept going on much longer without her. Kyle and I have barely even been existing since a year ago, if you can even call it that.

After just holding her for a while, Ivy began to relax. At some point, Kyle had moved to her other side and was gently rubbing her back.

“God, I’ve been so terrified of rejection all this time,” Ivy said.

“It must’ve been hard,” I responded. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not yet, but I guess I can think of this as a sort of practice run for tomorrow. I’m going to tell the Defense Station Leader about what happened to me.”

“…I’m sure you have a reason, but what for, exactly?”

“Well, I’m a Cursed One who isn’t cursed anymore. And I found out from someone that there’s a medical research facility on the other end of the continent. So maybe they can figure something out?”

My eyes opened wide. “Seriously…? Such a place is still around in a world like this?”

“Well, who even knows for sure at this point? It doesn’t seem like there are many more places like it, but that one in particular is said to be pretty advanced.

“Anyway, I feel obligated to go. The amount of death that happens in this world every single day is just disgusting, and I might be able to do something about it just by showing up.”

With the happiness we were all feeling at being reunited, Kyle felt the need to interrupt with a bad joke, “So if you’re a Cursed One without the curse, does that just make you the One?”

She couldn’t help but chortle at hearing his stupid sense of humor again but was trying to hold it in. “For fuck’s sake Kyle. That was just… Oh wait, shit, I kind of might be. God fucking damn it. I blame you for this, Kyle.”

He began laughing way too hard.

“I came back for this?” she sighed and shook her head, but she was smiling.

Still laughing, he replied. “You know you missed me.”

She smiled softly. “I really did, though. I mean, you’ve basically become my annoying little brother at this point.”

“But I’m older than you, so that means you’re the annoying little one.”

She stood up to her full, towering height of over two meters, taking my breath away.

I’d kind of already noticed her height when she was sitting down, but damn!

She grinned. “Are you sure you’re not the little brother?” Sitting back down, she added, “ And I was referring to mental age, anyway.”

“Oof. Ouch.”

She smiled, but it quickly faded away. “Well, let’s get this over with. I’ll want to hear about what both of you have been up to after I’m done.”

“Not much, but we’ll still tell you,” I replied.

She nodded, “Okay, so after I got infected, I was actually lucky enough that one of the fighter’s attempts to kill me before I could turn had failed. His attack hit the Cursed One holding onto me, instead.

“It got chased out of the barrier while still holding onto me, where it then bled out and fell to the ground. At that point, they recognized me as one of their own and the nanites were doing their damnedest to keep my mind intact.

“The transformation was excruciating, and the bloodlust was…” she shivered, “…intense.

“I’m so incredibly lucky that there was no one else around, because I’m certain that I would not have been able to hold myself back from attacking them at that time.

“Instead, I somehow forced myself to just run away from the city, away from any single person I could possibly hurt. I just kept running and running and running, just barely sustaining myself with monsters I came across.

“The tiny little shred of my mind that was still there was all that kept me from turning around. And it was like that that I spent three horrible, agonizing months waiting for death to take me while still trying to survive.

“In the background of all that, the nanites in my blood had begun to counteract the effects of the curse by starving it out. They had adapted to the existence of mana and cut off the curse’s connection to it.

“Oh yeah, and that little system thingy that my nanites have has changed a bit. It now tells me my capacity and efficiency levels.”

“You got an isekai system!? That’s the most unfair shit I’ve ever heard of!” Kyle exclaimed.

She laughed. “That’s all it says, though. Not that I’m complaining about that. And it doesn’t give me any skills or appraise or anything like every single isekai protagonist seems to have.”

“I will bitch about this until my final breath.”

“Well, that’s more productive than the words that usually come out of your mouth.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “I can make other things come out, too.”

“No one wants to hear about your fetishes.

“Continuing on, after three months, a married couple who had also fled from Asallte came across me. They heard me talking to myself and decided to risk seeing if I was some sort of variant of the curse.

“They turned out to be nice people, and they took care of me as my mind continued recovering and the curse faded away. They mentioned that research place I told you about, and I decided that I should go there. I waited until my system told me the curse was completely gone before leaving, though. I didn’t want to have even the smallest chance of spreading it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We then made our way to Asallte first, then came here. The only notable thing that happened along the way was when we were attacked by a couple errant Cursed Ones, and they came after me just like they would anyone else, which I was actually glad about because it meant that they didn’t see me as one of them anymore.”

“That sounds harsh,” I said. “And also like you probably skipped over the nastiest stuff.”

She nodded. “I did. I didn’t really leave any of the events out, I just… didn’t go into any detail at all about how horrific of an experience it all was. On top of everything, I had no idea if either of you had even survived. The not knowing was even worse than getting cursed was.”

My arm that was still around her held her tighter. She returned the gesture with a grateful smile on her face.

“So what about you? I want to hear what happened.”

I nodded sadly, “Well… I thought you were dead. It was so horrible. I never could’ve imagined that I would get to see you again,” I was tearing up already. “I hid in that shop for a long time, until people began announcing that all of them were dead and that we needed to immediately head out. That it would be easier to travel elsewhere than to try and get new barriers up and running.

“I was so numb and miserable at the time… I barely remember how I got from there to here. I vaguely remember fighting some monsters along the way and the more powerful people killing some Cursed Ones, but it’s all just… It was like I’d been ripped from this world and into an even bleaker one.”

She wrapped both arms around me while we all kept crying.

This feels incredible. She's even doing that thing with her thumb that she used to do. She really is back.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, she asked, “By the way, is there a private place to sleep? I can’t maintain my illusion while I’m asleep yet.”

“We’re in a shared room, but we have partitions that divide up the space. They block everything and have enchantments to muffle noise. Nobody ever peeks.”

“Are you sure? Because if someone catches even a glimpse…”

“Yeah, you’ll be safe,” Kyle said. “People don’t have a lot, so they respect at least this much.”

“Alright, then, if you’re certain. Then the last thing is, I’d like both of you to come with me to the meeting tomorrow morning. Can you make it?”

“We can, yeah. This is a smaller city than Asallte was, so people just… go where they need to go, wherever that might be for the day. If someone’s slacking off, it’ll become apparent. Heading to the Defense Station won’t be seen as slacking off.”

“What a lax apocalypse,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, it’s late now, and crying makes me sleepy. Oh…” she trailed off, after standing all the way up to her amazing new height.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I haven’t slept in a bed in like a year. The idea that I can sleep one in again had honestly not occurred to me. Are there any spare beds near you?”

“Probably somewhere, but it’s too late to look. Just get in mine. They make them big enough to accommodate lots of sizes.”

“Ah… U-Um, okay.”

She put her illusion back on, and we led the way back to our shared house. I directed her to my bed, feeling a little nervous suddenly.

We’ve never slept in the same before, and the last time I had a girl in bed with me was… two years ago? Aw, piss. Whatever, best friend cuddle time!

With her strong arms around me, I had what was probably my first restful sleep in this world.

———

Ivy’s POV:

After breakfast the following morning, the three of us left for the Defense Station. Upon arriving, we found Sarrin and Rhem already waiting for us.

“Hey,” I waved to them. “Izzy, Kyle, this is Sarrin and Rhem, the ones I told you about last night. Sarrin, Rhem, this is Izzy and Kyle, my friends.”

“Looks like it went well, then,” Sarrin said, smiling. “Now, let’s get moving. We’ve already notified him that we’ll be coming, and I’m sure he’s waiting for us impatiently.”

“How’d you get a meeting with him so easily?”

“If you just tell him it’s important, he’ll listen. There are few people who would break that kind of trust.”

“I see.”

The five of us were led into an office where the Leader was already waiting for us. His head reminded me of a walnut, and I felt super guilty for making that comparison.

“I’m Defense Leader Yrro. Let’s get right to it, what is it you have to tell me?”

Rhem stated, “Recently, we came across a Cursed One that was talking and didn’t try to kill us.”

He froze and looked at each of us individually. “You’d better not be lying to me.”

“I swear to you, we’re not.”

He pursed his lips and nodded. “Tell me about this talking Cursed One, then.”

Then began Rhem and Sarrin’s recounting of my humiliating early days with them. Eventually, it came to the big reveal, that I was the very Cursed One they were discussing.

Once he got over his shock and everything was explained to him, he became very excited and began drafting plans on the spot for a small escort party to take us all the way to Moriste. Because traveling in a large group would be more likely to attract Cursed Ones, it was actually safer to keep your numbers low.

While the walnut man was practically vibrating from the excitement, I turned to my friends. “I guess I should’ve asked you this earlier, but do you want to come with? If so, now’s the time to convince the guy,” I gestured with my head at the walnut.

“Yes! Of course I do!” Izzy near shouted. “I just got you back… No matter what, I’m going wherever you go!”

Izzy’s sudden outburst had brought silence to the room.

“What’s the story here?” Yrro asked. “I don’t know that language.”

I said, “These are my important friends that I got separated with 10 months ago at Asallte. Up until last night, they thought I was dead, and I didn’t know if they’d survived or not. Izzy here would like to come with, but Kyle has not said his opinion yet.”

“Obviously I will go,” he said, visibly restraining himself from being sassy.

Yrro looked at both of them. “Capacity levels? Skills?”

“U-Um, 39, bow and shortsword. I can also do field dressing and-” Izzy nervously began, then was cut off.

“I don’t need you to list every single ability that most others will also have some experience in. And you?” He asked, looking at Kyle.”

“38. Spear, daggers.”

“Rather low…” He then turned to Sarrin and Rhem. “And you two? Do you also wish to join?”

“Who wouldn’t want to be a part of something like this?” Sarrin responded. “89, spear.”

Rhem spoke, “79, sword.”

Yrro then looked at me, “And come to think of it, what are you at?”

“86, sword and claws. Though, I hate using those.”

“What!?” Izzy and Kyle both exclaimed.

“I spent several months alone just killing monster after monster. My skills didn’t necessarily increase during that time because of my mental state, but my capacity did.”

Nobody had mentioned their magic skills, as it’s just sort of assumed that everyone has a general amount of skill befitting their capacity. If they didn’t, then they would just say so.

It’s still jarring how in this world how everyone has such a trusting mentality. Everyone’s been forced into an “If we don't cooperate, we’ll die,” situation, and this is the end result. There are very few who would abuse that trust.

“Hmm…” Yrro considered, then turned his attention to my hands. “Ah, are your claws retractable?”

“Yeah. Is it alright if I show you?” I asked, holding my hands out, palms up.

“Go ahead,” he nodded.

I flexed my fingers and my claws came out. They were a few centimeters long and were shiny and white.

“Why do you dislike using them?”

“They splatter gore everywhere and all over me. It’s disgusting.”

Rhem interjected, “We can vouch that she uses them as much as necessary. She doesn’t hold herself back just because of some blood or viscera.”

“I see,” Yrro replied, nodding. Looking back at me, he asked, “Do you know if they can still curse people?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I doubt it. My nanites tell me the curse is completely gone, and the two Cursed Ones we encountered on the way here attacked me as they would anyone else. And it’s not something I want to test, either.”

“It’s probably best if we test it, then, before leaving.”

“What!? No! I don’t want to kill anyone!”

“If an infected body part is severed from the rest of the body quickly enough, that person will not become infected, and the lost body part can be regrown.”

“I…! O-Oh... That’s still… But I get it. Okay.”

“Okay, here’s where I’m at so far. I think 10 people should be about the upper limit of how many it’s safe to travel with. We want to deal with as few encounters from Cursed Ones as possible while also being able to take care of yourselves should you be under attack from them or monsters.

“Ivy is obviously mandatory for the group, so that’s one person. She already trusts and has spent with Sarrin and Rhem, and their abilities should be enough. But you two…”

Yrro’s gaze switched between my friends’ faces and mine. “I’ll give you a test, a mock battle. I won’t say what the criteria for passing are. If you do pass, you’ll mostly be doing chores and such for the group until you become stronger and duties can be distributed more evenly. The only reason I’m even considering this is because of how much she clearly trusts and cares about the two of you.”

With the meeting concluded, the six of us left for the training yard.