Chapter 41: Finally Home

In the neighborhood where Jay lived, it was currently morning, a few hours after Nozar woke up.

"...Hng..."

Slowly, a young man with brown hair opened his eyes, lazily inspecting his surroundings.

The first thing he saw was several pieces of furniture around him, with a small table in the middle of the space and a medium sized TV in front of it.

"!"

When he saw the unknown scenario in front of him, his sense of alarm was triggered.

'Where...where am I...?' he thought.

Now standing, another thing that caught his attention was what appeared to be the kitchen of this place.

The refrigerator in particular, which seemed to have been completely looted, in fact, not even the shelves had been spared, and there was not a single part of the kitchen that looked tidy.

'This place, it's not mine...let's see, the last thing I remember is...I was hitting the Wolf's Fang member...and after he hit me, I lost consciousness...damn.'

He didn't know the outcome of that battle, but seeing that he wasn't tied up or in a cage, Noah more or less could guess what had happened.

'Jay won...and we made it out of the South Zone...?'

Although his opponent had been a member of Wolf's Fang, Noah could not deny that the air around Jay was certainly no less threatening than that of his opponent, so he believed that his chances of winning, after he helped him distract the enemy, were not that low.

As for the fact that they had left the South Zone, Noah believed that because, judging by the state of the house, except for the kitchen, everything seemed clean and tidy.

From the furniture, the television, the electronics in the kitchen, even the coats on the coat rack in the entryway, none of those things looked like this house had been abandoned.

In fact, everything looked better than even his own apartment!

Such a house was only given to the guardians of the South Zone, and even them didn't always lived in a house of their own.

That's why Noah believed that this house was not in the South Zone, but in a completely different place.

Of course, there was also the possibility that they were still in the South Zone and Jay could have taken him to a house that happened to look like a person was living there.

It was possible, yes, but Noah felt that the first option was more feasible.

*Shr*

"?"

Suddenly, the sound of plastic bags reached Noah's ears, the sound was coming from the kitchen, or more specifically, the kitchen floor, in the space that was hidden from Noah's view by the island in between.

"...Jay...?" Noah asked, slowly approaching the kitchen.

"!"

Right after he said that, a head peeked out over the kitchen island, its cheeks full of something.

"HM" said Jay, mouth full of food, standing up to get a better look at Noah.

Noah, seeing that the person in front of him was actually Jay, relaxed quite a bit, as that meant they were actually safe...although...the look Jay had was... "different" than what Noah remembered.

"First of all, don't talk with your mouth full, and secondly...why the hell are you naked...?" he asked, his left eyebrow shaking from what he was seeing.

His face, which was now no longer wrapped in bandages, was the same as Noah had seen before, blond hair, blue eyes and a slightly conspicuous appearance in general...everything looked the same...except for the fact that he was naked.

*Gulp*

"Welcome to my house, and...uh, well, it was really hot before, and since you weren't awake, I thought it didn't matter much." He replied, totally unconcerned about being naked in front of Noah, with only the kitchen island covering his lower body.

'This guy...well, at least he doesn't seem to have any serious injuries, although...I feel that something is wrong with him...' Noah thought, again feeling relieved that both of them had been able to get out of that dangerous situation in the South Zone.

And since the question of where he was had already been resolved, the details could wait.

For the moment, there was something more important to do...

"Put on clothes."

"But it's hot..."

"..."

"..."

Convincing Jay to wear clothes.

***

15 minutes later.

"Haa, I still think it's hot..." said Jay, who was now wearing short shorts and releasing some small air currents to cool down, although he was still a bit uncomfortable.

After an argument in which Noah threatened to also get naked if Jay didn't put on some clothes, he had no choice but to go up to his room and put on those shorts.

Noah instead asked permission to use the shower because he was starting to smell bad, in addition to a change of clothes.

When the two were done, they met in the living room, sitting on different couches to discuss what had happened and what they would do next.

However, before they started, now being able to observe Jay more closely, Noah noticed that Jay's entire body, although it had quite a few painful looking bruises on different parts of his body, was in very good condition.

It was similar to the body of a person who had been exercising constantly, with hir arms, legs, pectorals and abdomen marked, giving him a ripped appearance.

In fact, if someone told him that Jay was an athlete, he would definitely believe it.

'Hmm...'

But even though Jay's appearance only indicated that the most serious thing he had were the bruises, there was something that didn't feel right to Noah, which is why he was watching Jay more closely.

"...Aren't you looking a little too much...?" Jay said, seeing that Noah hadn't taken his eyes off him for a while.

"Your muscles still hurt, don't they?"

Noah, instead of answering him, responded with another question, getting up from the couch they were on and approaching him.

"Of course not, I'm already..."

*Tap*

It was interrupted by a light touch on his shoulder, which caused him to freeze momentarily due to the pain.

"OUCH, fuck, why did you do that?!" He complained, putting his hand on his shoulder while a small tear was peeking out of the corner of his eyes.

"I knew it...the effects of the technique you used yesterday must still be affecting your body..." Said Noah, ignoring Jay's claim, "But, you're lucky, my skill may be able to help you in this situation!"

'At least that's what I think...'

"...Haaa, you should have said so earlier..." Jay sighed, relieved that he no longer had to pretend he was okay, though he was also somewhat surprised by what Noah had said.

He knew that Noah's skill was of the passive type, which usually meant that the person had extremely limited control over his ability, so it was really a surprise that Noah could use his skill on someone other than himself.

Then, Noah, not knowing what Jay was thinking, instructed him to lie on the couch face down, which Jay did slowly and carefully.

Jay suddenly felt cold hands on his back, the sensation reminding him of the Wind Control Parasite, the next second, the cold feeling spread through his entire body.

"Ohh, this...is great~" Jay said, feeling his whole body relax, or rather, feeling how every sore part of his body, from his muscles, to his bones and tendons, all were recovering at a slow pace.

This massage, although cold, was quite comforting for Jay, making him appreciate this moment to the fullest. After all, the only thing he had experienced for quite some time were incredibly painful sensations.

"Alright, that's all I can do."

However, after a couple of minutes, Noah stopped abruptly, sitting on the floor, visibly tired and with a few drops of sweat on his face, showing that this small massage session had cost him a considerable amount of energy.

"Wow, I didn't know you could use your skill in this way." Said Jay, standing up and stretching, with his body in a slightly better state than before, "I think you could even work from this."

"Haha, I don't think so, just a pair of minutes and I'm ground up, I can only do it once a day at most." Noah replied.

"Anyway, thank you, I'm feeling better now."

At this point, Jay was quite grateful to Noah, not only for the fact that he had just given him a really useful massage, but also for the help in the battle the night before.

The Wolf's Fang member had undoubtedly been the strongest opponent Jay had faced so far, completely dominating the battle from the beginning. In fact, if he hadn't held back from the beginning in order to catch him, Jay was sure they would still be in the South Zone.

However, even though he had won, the battle had left a great burden on Jay's body, which had resulted in him fainting from exhaustion as soon as he arrived to the living room, finally giving his body the rest it had been begging for.

Although things didn't end there of course, after a few hours of sleep, Jay woke up, incredibly sore, hungry and thirsty, as well as feeling a strong metallic taste in his mouth.

So neither short nor lazy, he proceeded to raid his kitchen as if today was the last time he would ever eat and drink in his entire life, ignoring the reason his mouth had that particular metallic flavor.

As to why he had undressed ...he honestly didn't remember.