Return Before the Apocalypse: The Countdown Only I Remember

Chapter 9 - The First Limit

Three days and eighteen hours passed.

During that interval, Kil and Axel searched the surrounding houses for supplies and plants they could transplant.

In addition to the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and carrots they already had, they acquired two orange trees. The trees had originally served as decorations on either side of a house's entrance. Each was under two meters tall and grew in a pot. But since they bore fruit, the two took them anyway.

They also found uncooked sweet potatoes in a food storage room. The tubers would grow faster than potatoes, and their young leaves could be boiled and eaten. Until they sprouted, they were also large, filling meals.

Between supply runs, they stored the weapons they found and turned the rooftop garden into a fruit and vegetable patch.

Kil pulled out and discarded every other plant, keeping only a few useful flowers with the potential to mutate. Some of the discarded plants would have been extremely expensive in normal times.

Useful? Keep it. Useless? Throw it out.

Axel winced when Kil uprooted the expensive plants, but helped clear the space. They cleaned a few rooms, disposed of the zombie bodies, and repaired the front gate. It could open and close now; at least every passing zombie would no longer have a clear way in.

“You're going to kill me, Kil!”

In the backyard, Axel kept jumping forward, backward, left, and right, even rolling across the grass. Kil pursued him with an expressionless face, slashing with a katana and ignoring his protests.

“You could at least use a wooden stick! Holy shit! That katana's still razor-sharp after you cleaned and polished it!

“Getting cut would hurt! I could die!”

“I know why your father sent you all the way out here.”

“Why are you bringing that up now?”

“You're too incompetent. You can't take anything seriously unless you're under real pressure. So tell me…

“Would gentle practice with a wooden stick make you strong as quickly as possible?”

“But this is too dangerous! Whoa!”

The blade sliced the edge of Axel's shirt. He felt the air against his skin and scrambled clear, sweat streaming down his face. This was supposed to be for his own good. Yet that blank expression made him wonder: was Kil enjoying this a little too much?

“Did I do something wrong? Can't he just talk it out? I know this is a crisis, but I'm his best friend… okay?”

He had no breath left to ask. At last, Kil lowered the blade and let him rest.

Sitting on the roof and looking over their thriving little garden, Axel spoke.

“We've had nine cups of potion, but nothing major has changed. Do you think something will happen after the tenth?”

“Yes.”

The tenth serving would take them through the first limit. Their bodies were not at their absolute peak, but neither had started from scratch.

Kil's work as a hitman had trained his judgment, speed, strength, and endurance beyond even many elite fighters. Judgment and speed were his greatest advantages, followed by strength; defense was his weakest attribute, though still above average.

Axel had trained under his parents from childhood. He could take punishment and strike with the force of an elite soldier, though his speed lagged behind abilities he had practiced longer. His judgment was harder for Kil to assess.

He remembered the wrench shaking in Axel's hand, then the same man holding the rooftop door against a rush of zombies.

Kil had kept him alive so far. That did not mean he understood everything his friend could become.

“Will we awaken special powers? Some kind of amazing ability?”

“There's a small chance.”

He could offer no better promise than that.

“Could we get fire powers or something? Controlling the elements sounds cool.

“And I want to control fire! I'm sick of waiting around with a mirror to start one! It takes forever! What a waste of time!”

“I don't think this is a high-fantasy world full of magic, Axel.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we can't get powers that let us control the elements like that.”

“Then what do we get if there's nothing like that? That's useless!”

Kil exhaled through his nose. Useless? Any talent was an advantage, however little Axel appreciated it.

There was only a small chance of a human talent awakening, perhaps one in a hundred thousand. Even then, the talent was random.

A talent could awaken only when a person broke through their body's limit for the first time. Otherwise, they would have to rely on other enhancements for the rest of their lives.

Human talents generally related to the body: eagle eyes that let people see clearly over great distances, bodily elasticity that allowed more extreme fighting styles, and even unusual talents such as Danger Sense, which let someone sense threats like an animal.

Kil's own talent had helped him survive alone in his previous life, reaching enemies and obstacles he could not approach safely.

It had never made being alone his first choice.

***

By early evening, Kil had prepared their tenth servings.

“Hey, Kil. Why'd you bring cloths along with the potions?”

Carrying two cups of potion and two clean cloths, Kil handed Axel one of each and kept the others for himself.

“It's going to hurt. Whatever happens, stay conscious and take in everything you can. That affects the final result.”

Axel tightened his grip on the cloth. “How badly?”

“Enough that you'll want this between your teeth. Just remember: don't pass out.”

Kil took his cup and clean cloth and left Axel behind, choosing a room at random on the third floor.

He entered, shut the door, sat down, and drew a deep breath.

From what he knew, the greater the breakthrough and the stronger the awakened talent, the worse the pain.

His previous awakening had been excruciating, even without this early training and rapid development. Now he braced for something worse.

He drank the potion and bit down on the clean cloth. For nearly two minutes nothing happened. He stayed alert.

Then pain pierced him from every direction. Kil rolled across the floor, teeth locked on the cloth, as though thousands of heated needles were working through his flesh.

“Not yet… It hasn't even started…”

Once the pain had spread throughout his body, what Kil had been waiting for finally arrived.

His head rang. Thought broke apart under blows that seemed to come from inside his skull. He kept his teeth clenched and held on.

Amid the overlapping waves of agony, he focused only on remaining conscious and continuing to endure.

After an unknown length of time, the pain finally faded.

By then, his entire body was drenched in sweat.

He spat out the cloth, chest heaving. At a small movement of his hand, the knife at his waist rose into the air. He smiled.

One of humanity's rarest and most powerful talents:

Telekinesis!

Exhaustion made the knife fall. Kil gazed at the ceiling in satisfaction and finally spoke.

“Now that I'm ready, it's time to go after the target!”