Disaster's Choice

Shao had a dream, a long dream, in which the world was similar to his previous experiences, but not exactly the same.

He dreamt that he and his lover, when their relationship was still in its early stages, were suddenly separated, and all that remained was the harmonica the girl gave him as his only memento.

He dreamt that his senior, with whom he had spent every day, was forced to sacrifice himself in a difficult choice, and that after that he no longer trusted the Heroes he once admired, and betrayed the organization as a monster.

He dreamed again that he finally returned to the organization and learned to control the power called "man-made collapse" with the help of Dr. Madman. Then in the final battle, he chose to sacrifice himself to buy a moment of time for the hero who would bear everything.

Civilization withered once again, and people slumbered in a state of numbness and hesitation about the future, awaiting the arrival of the next era.

When everything had come to an end, he stood on the moon, looking at himself leaning against a lunar rock. He squatted down, picked up the harmonica that had fallen to the ground, and placed it in the hands of his other self.

"So... is that what Kaede said before, that the story was supposed to happen?"

Kosma slowly opened his eyes and sat up in bed. Logically speaking, after lying in bed for several days, he should be unable to exert himself for a while. However, he is now Fusion Warrior, and Fusion Warrior have a constitution that is different from ordinary people. Even if he lies in bed for a few more days, there will be no problem.

If we disregard the feelings of the girl who is currently sleeping soundly beside him.

"Disaster ..." Kosma softly uttered the girl's name.

The girl seemed to have been awakened by the noise he made. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and said with some surprise, "Amo, you're awake!"

The next moment, she was pulled into the arms of the young man on the hospital bed. Kosma's voice trembled slightly. "That's great, this time, I finally protected you, that's great..."

Disaster paused for a moment, then gently hugged Kosma back. "Yes, this time, you protected me and everyone else. Amo, you've truly become a great Heroes, and... you'll always be my Heroes..."

Outside the ward, Michael gently opened the door, glanced at the person inside, smiled faintly, placed the breakfast that had been brought over aside, and then gently closed the door again.

The head nurse was a little puzzled and was about to ask why she had only glanced at the room before leaving when Michael put his index finger to his lips and said softly, "Now might not be the time for us to go in. I think we should give the people inside more time to be alone."

"Could it be Kosma..." The nurses exchanged glances, all understanding what was going on. It must be Kosma had woken up. Right now, the only other person in the ward besides Kosma was Disaster, Disaster had been awake for a while.

"Then let's come back later for a check-up. Let's give them some time to talk privately," the head nurse said with a hint of sarcasm.

Inside the ward, the young man and the girl hugged tightly for a long time before separating.

After regaining his senses a little, Kosma realized how daring he had just done. He almost instinctively wanted to run away, but when he looked at Disaster, whose cheeks were also slightly flushed, he couldn't help but suppress the shameful urge to escape. Not knowing what to say, he just stared blankly at Disaster.

He... succeeded...

He... did it.

"Hey, Amo, you... don't keep staring at me like that!" Disaster was already a little embarrassed, and then Kosma kept staring at her, which made her even more embarrassed. She reached out and covered Kosma's eyes with her own hand.

After a while of commotion, the two of them finally calmed down a bit. Seeing that the ward had fallen silent again, Disaster decided to take the initiative to start a conversation. After all, if Kosma were to come, who knows what kind of blunt things he would say that would embarrass her. It's true, Amo used to be so easy to handle, but ever since the Fire Moth came, the number of times she had been humiliated by Amo had increased exponentially...

"Um... Amo, I'm also thinking of signing up for the Fusion Warrior Project." Disaster said hesitantly. She was certainly qualified to perform the surgery, but the risks were too high at this stage. She wasn't sure if Kosma would agree, and she knew that Kosma had taken a huge risk to perform the Fusion Warrior surgery just to save her, so...

She didn't want to be protected by Amo forever. She wanted to stand on the same level as Amo and fight side by side. It was basically certain that the Fusion Warrior, led by Kevin and Feng, would be the main force in the future battles against the Herrscher. If it weren't for the Fusion Warrior themselves, they would eventually fall behind Amo.

She had consulted Mobius before, and was busy trying to locate the Herrscher Core position of the Eighth Herrscher. Mobius simply said, "You can ask Lionel to arrange a time for you. If you have any other questions, you can ask Rovoc or Beifengge."

Disaster: "..."

Shouldn't the normal procedure be for you to explain the pros and cons to me, or to mock me for how much effort Amo put into saving me, and then I'm here trying to die?

That makes sense, given Mobius's personality. Aside from her own research, she rarely bothers with matters other than Maple or Klein's leave. Besides, she could easily refrain from explaining matters related to the Fusion Warrior surgery, since the main person in charge was Lionel and the deputy was Beifengge.

Lionel ... Disaster still doesn't have a good impression of this guy, but he's the person in charge, and she has to go through Lionel to get the paperwork done—this is partly because Mobius had previously performed the Fusion Warrior surgery ahead of time to create the first Fusion Warrior, Xila. Now, every Fusion Warrior must have a detailed file created, and they need to go through a bunch of procedures before the surgery, just to prevent Mobius or other researchers who might be as crazy as Mobius from performing Fusion Warrior surgery in private.

As for Beifengge... Disaster would rather go to Lionel than Beifengge...

So she had no choice but to reluctantly go to Lionel. Fortunately, Lionel didn't make things difficult for her. He just said, "I can approve your surgery application, but before that, I think you need to ask your lover what he thinks."

When Disaster revealed her thoughts, she hesitated to look Kosma in the eye. She didn't know how Amo would react. She felt her idea was selfish; Amo had gone to such great lengths to save her, even risking his life... and yet she had only thought about being able to stand by Amo's Amo and be with him, and thus chose this path...

She saw everything Amo had done for her, she saw Amo's feelings for her, so... she didn't want to become Amo's weakness, making Amo constantly worry about her safety.

But if Amo really objects...

"Although I really want to tell myself to show my senior sister's spirit, but..." Disaster thought with a wry smile, "If Amo says anything against me, I'll definitely surrender immediately..."

After a while, just when Disaster thought Kosma was definitely against her undergoing the Fusion Warrior surgery, Kosma spoke up, "Disaster, I... don't object to your choice..."

"Huh?"

"After all, we were both initially against having this surgery," Kosma said with a smile. "But in the end, I was the one who broke the agreement first..."

"Aren't you... worried that my surgery might fail?" Disaster asked, somewhat puzzled.

"How could I not worry?" Kosma said with a hint of helplessness. "But... I respect your choice."

He couldn't possibly say that he already knew Disaster could undergo the Fusion Warrior surgery, could he? Although he couldn't rule out the possibility of an accident, Kosma also knew that if he kept hesitating and overprotecting Disaster in order to protect her, it might backfire in the end.

Just like how he tried to prevent Disaster from participating in the Eighth Herrscher positioning by dragging Disaster along to avoid undergoing the Fusion Warrior surgery, in the Disaster Desdovia still got caught, and he was almost powerless to stop it.

Compared to the unknown, at least if we arrange surgery for Disaster this time, Mobius shouldn't have any problems, right?

If all else fails, although Admil was a bit of a jerk, Admil owes me something this time. With Admil and Mobius together, surely nothing else can go wrong?

To be honest, Kosma was still reluctant to let Disaster take this risk. However, he knew Disaster's personality. During the battle against the Eighth Herrscher, Seele secretly slipped him some information about Disaster's dreams. He then realized that Disaster was prone to keeping things buried deep in her heart, which could later be detonated as a hidden bomb.

Last time, Disaster chose to escape reality because of constant difficult choices. This time, she is escaping again because she doesn't want to see her comrades, especially herself, leave. Fortunately... her feelings for herself are strong enough to help her overcome her fear of losing her.

Therefore, Kosma knew that as long as he objected, Disaster would definitely not undergo the Fusion Warrior surgery, but she would always mind it and feel uneasy about it.

She's actually... a very strong-willed girl, yet also a very sensitive one. He risked everything to undergo the Fusion Warrior surgery to save her. Even if he himself wouldn't mind, in the Fire Moth gossip of the Firemoth warriors, when Disaster is mentioned, they'll mostly say, "Oh, that Kosma risked his life to save his lover, right?"

Kosma had always been clear that Disaster was not his vassal; in fact, he felt that Disaster was superior to him in many ways, so he did not want such a situation to occur.

Therefore, he chose to respect Disaster's choice.

This time, Disaster understood Kosma's thoughts. She grasped Kosma's hands and whispered, "Thank you, Amo... Heh... I... I'm really a very willful girl, aren't I? Even though..."

"There's no need to continue, Disaster." Kosma grasped Disaster's hand and said earnestly, "No matter what kind of girl you are, you are the one I love, my... my..."

Kosma suddenly stammered, unable to utter the word "lover."

Disaster smiled. Now you've finally made yourself embarrassed by your own words, huh? Well then, don't blame me for saying it out loud.

"Because we are lovers, you did everything you could to save me, so I will do everything I can to stand by your side."

After saying that, Disaster leaned forward and kissed Kosma's lips.

Kosma: "!"

After a while, the two of them separated, both blushing, neither daring to look at the other.

"So this is what it feels like to kiss Amo...? Why does it feel different from when Lilith and Elysia kissed Feng?" Disaster thought, covering her face with her back to Kosma. "Is it... is it because they're used to it?"

Kosma looked down and rubbed his forehead.

(Disaster's reaction this time... no, the book says that relationships will definitely develop like this when they reach a certain point... and later on, too... should I ask Maple for some experience...?)

"Ahem..." Kosma coughed twice to change the subject, "Speaking of which, how are Feng and the others doing now?"

Disaster was also trying to change the subject, immediately interjected, "Feng is fine, but Astaroth... because she was severely Corrosion by Honkai Energy, she has to undergo Fusion Warrior surgery today... She's the youngest person to have undergone Fusion Warrior surgery so far... Feng has no choice..."

"Is that so..." Kosma lowered his eyes, "Is it... also a matter of no choice..."

"Dr. Admil even came all the way from Europe for this surgery," Disaster said. "Astaroth... will definitely be alright. Dr. Admil and Dr. Mobius are both top figures in the field of biology."

Admil has come to the front lines too? That's certainly true...

"Let's go take a look later," Kosma said. He was confident that Zhu Yufeng would be waiting outside the lab, and he also had something to say to Zhu Yufeng.

"Of course, after all, Astaroth is Maple's little sister now." Disaster stroked her chin. "Although little Griseo seems quite unhappy about this..."

(It's probably because after Kaede brought Astaroth back to the Fire Moth, he spent less time playing with Griseo... After all, after Astaroth returned to the Fire Moth, Kaede was indeed a bit too... indulgent towards Astaroth.)

"Speaking of which, I remember that every day at this time, a nurse would come to deliver breakfast..." Disaster said, shifting her gaze to the door, and then saw the breakfast quietly placed beside her.

Disaster: "..."

When will they arrive?

Kosma: "..."

I guess I didn't see anything, right?