Chapter 305 Exhausted.

Chapter 305 Exhausted.

"I-I'm back..."

As soon as she announced her return, Ichigo was stunned by the silence that suddenly took over the living room following every pair of eyes turning in her direction. For a moment she considered escaping, but before she could her arms were grabbed and she was dragged to the sofa, forced to sit at the center as questions began falling on her one after the other.

The Valkyries were eager to know the details of their friend's first night shift, and though it was quite embarrassing, Ichigo did her best to answer, a bashful smile on her lips the whole time.

The living room was filled with delighted squeals as the Valkyries continued to probe for details, however not all of them were in a good mood. Sitting at the table near one of the corners, Miku listened to the conversations with her back turned to the others. Her brows would twitch every now and then, but she didn't her best to hide her anger not wanting to spoil the mood.

Sipping from the steaming cup in her hands she heaved a sigh with the one sitting beside her doing the same as if they were in sync. Venti was in a similarly bad mood and the cause was the same as Miku's. They glanced at each other for a moment only to sigh again.

Though she understood that the Doctor was the only one who decides who gets to sleep with him, Miku was still angry that he didn't invite her to spend the night with him after she guarded him for three days. As if that wasn't enough, he went and used the free time he had to make another Personal Valkyrie. She was happy for her pink haired friend, having always been proud of her desire to serve the Doctor, but she couldn't help the jealousy festering in her chest, especially after hearing what Nine did.

"Maybe I should try and be a little more aggressive..." she muttered to herself. A moment later she noticed Venti's gaze. "What?"

"Nothing."

With the Doctor disappearing alongside Nine Venti had no choice but to return to the residence, and to avoid the nagging she was sure would come from the others she went to her room and stayed there for quite a while. As she thought about everything that happened, her anger slowly built up. With how things were going it looked like she was next after Ichigo, but the blonde one appeared and snatched the man away spilling cold water on her expectations. Only then did she realize she was expecting something.Explore the genesis of this content at nov@lbin

Venti was angry at Nine for ruining things for her, but more than that she was angry at herself for getting excited by what happened in that hallway. As her mind kept going back to it despite her best attempts to forget, she ended up touching herself to relieve some of the frustration, but that only helped stack more shame on top of everything bothering her.

"I can't believe they're still at it..." she commented after a while.

"That's Doctor for you." Miku said, following with a sigh. "A strong appetite is required for a harem protagonist."

The day was nearing its end yet those two had yet to give it a break. CS came out from the gym with Zero Five following after her. They were surprised to see that Ichigo had returned, but soon they were looking up with a grimace on their faces as if asking whether their blonde friend was still at it.

The rooms in the residence had good sound blocking, but not a perfect one. If they were to focus they could hear the rhythmic slapping of wet flesh, the moans and the delighted screams, however none of the Valkyries wished to do so, having concluded that eavesdropping could be considered the same as peeping. That said, every now and then they checked to see if it was over, and from the look on CS and Five's face it apparently wasn't. The Valkyries chatted for a while then had their dinner. For a while they believed that it wouldn't be over even after they went to bed, but as they sat around watching TV and playing among themselves they all heard a door on the second floor open, freezing all of their movements.

As the sound of footsteps gradually approached the staircase, all eyes turned in its direction, everyone holding their breaths and waiting.

A few seconds later the familiar lab coat came into sight, but seeing the expression on its wearer they all kept their mouths shut and spoke no words.

Sam was spent. His artificial body wasn't supposed to tire like that of a normal human, however emulated the mental exhaustion he was feeling, leaving him unable to stand straight with hollowed cheeks and dark circles around his eyes. His hair was disheveled and so were his clothes. It was clear that he didn't bother to tidy himself before coming out, but as he looked around the room they all realized keeping their mouths shut was the right choice all along.

Before the panic set in he quickly locked his emotions away and stood up. Everything became clear the next second.

Sam calmly studied his surroundings. He was surrounded by fire and rubble. The ground rumbled slightly every few seconds. He raised his head and saw the blood red sky with the clouds themselves had taken the color, divided by the flowing streams of charcoal black smoke.

Beams of light flashed above him coming and going from different directions followed by deafening explosions somewhere in the distance. Buildings slowly collapsed unable to hold themselves together and the ground parted every few meters swallowing everything unfortunate enough to be near the cracks.

A head splitting pain began pulsating through his skull as he listened to the distant screams and wails. Even so, Sam continued looking around with an unchanging expression taking in the apocalyptic sights as if calmly studying the cause behind them.

His concentration faltered for a moment as a vast shadow fell on his surroundings prompting him to raise his head. Looking down at him were a number of gigantic eyes each one like a large pond filled with nothing but corrupted black mud. The sky became a ripped curtain as long lumps of disgusting old flesh extended slowly reaching down toward him. As he stood still in the same spot gazing at the horrifying scenery, Sam heaved a sigh and closed his eyes.

"A dream, huh?"

Opening his eyes once more, he was met with the familiar ceiling of his dimly lit underground lab. The towel covering his face had fallen at some point but from the looks of it he wasn't asleep for long

"Maybe I really am exhausted..."

He was about to heave a sigh but at that moment something rushed up from the depth of his stomach, racing all the way to his throat causing his cheeks to bulge. Having already lost control he leaned forward and allowed all of it to spill out, a nauseating sensation accompanying it as he unloaded the contents of his stomach.

"Damn it..."

Throwing up was the last thing he expected now that his body was no longer a sack of meat, but maybe it was a good thing, a reminder that he was still a human despite everything that he went through.

Leaning back in his seat, he began to ponder how locking away his emotions didn't get erased. It was a good way to prevent them from hindering him during sensitive situations, but the longer she suppresses them the more severe the blowback would be.

"I... might need a therapist..." he muttered, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Sam grabbed his glasses and began busying himself hoping to forget about the nightmare he just had. Just as the cleaning drone came out to deal with the mess he made, his eyes glimpsed something drawing his attention to one of the terminals.

"This is..."

His eyes narrowed as soon as he realized it was the results of the analysis of the readings they gathered from observing the Key for the past three days. Its relation with human souls was quite suspicious so, even though Atropos confirmed that it was nothing more than a high grade artifact, Sam and the other scientists were still adamant about studying it as much as they could if only to satisfy their curiosity. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary just like before, but as he looked at the readings he began to notice that the supposedly constant patterns created by the Aether were changing randomly at times, something that shouldn't be possible without outside influence.

The key has been placed on its own floor and isolated completely and there was no sign of anyone messing around with it since it was sealed.

Sam was quite confused by the results of the analysis, a suffocating sense of dread clawing at his chest as he considered the potential danger that might've sneaked its way past their defenses. Not wanting to cause chaos by triggering a false alarm, he forced himself to swallow his worries and sat down, his eyes studying the readings once more hoping to understand what was happening with the glowing orb filled to the brim with countless souls.