The alloy floor beneath our feet was trembling, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, as if following some pattern. The unsecured portable equipment in the room rattled and bounced back and forth across the floor and tabletops. Yakumo Ran sprang from her chair at once, every hair on her ears and tail standing on end. She instinctively crouched half-prone on the ground and let out a low growl—under certain circumstances, the fox side of her instincts was still difficult to control, such as when she stole chicken legs from home, ran around naked, or sensed earthquakes more sharply than humans did.
Saeko was startled as well. Though she had spent a long time with the First Family, she was fundamentally still an ordinary human girl. Even after going through Resident Evil, she had never experienced the earth-shattering commotion of a warship being hit. Faced with this sudden quake, she gave a quiet cry of alarm. But it was only one cry; her strong nerves quickly calmed her down, and seeing that none of us reacted much, she relaxed too.
The shaking came quickly and went quickly, lasting less than ten seconds before everything around us fell silent. Lin Xue made an OK gesture at me, indicating that the quake was over. Ran's tail drooped again, though she was still squatting on the ground with both hands braced against it. When she looked around and realized that she might have had the most exaggerated reaction, an embarrassed expression immediately appeared on her face. Then she lifted a bare foot and scratched her cheek...
None of us reacted until the girl sat back down in her chair. Really. And Ran herself had not realized it either. Now we could confirm a piece of common sense: when natural disasters struck, wild animals often reacted intensely,