Thanks for the Invite, I'm on Terra, and I'm a Parasite

"It's not... I... I... I was only... I..."

The girl choked back sobs, tears and snot streaming uncontrollably down her face.

"I... I..."

She wanted to keep speaking, but her tears completely blurred her vision, and her sobs clogged her throat.

The next moment, it was as if something had embraced her, gently patting her back again and again.

"It's okay... I'm here. You can cry as much as you want. Because I'll be here."

Zuo Jian held Anita and kept comforting her, even as her tears and snot smeared across his clothes.

Even though those clothes were essentially part of his body as well.

"Can I... can I save some food for... for Grandma Petra... and that child, Bench... and the others... the others..."

Anita spoke in a broken voice between sobs.

"Of course you can."

At that moment, Laurentina watched the two of them. For some reason, she felt a little jealous of Anita...

No... it was probably envy.

Forget it. This time, she'd treat it as a special case.

Even as she tried to comfort herself, the porridge in her mouth suddenly seemed completely tasteless...

No, wait, wasn't it tasteless to begin with?! Why was it completely different when Zuo Jian fed her?!

Late at night.

Anita had already fallen sound asleep. He had stored away the remaining porridge, and after heating it tomorrow, he could still distribute it to the others.

Zuo Jian controlled his new body as he sat atop the ruined house, gazing at the boundless starry sky above him.

The sky full of stars was utterly different from the night sky he knew, so beautiful it almost seemed fake.

After looking for only a short while, he turned his gaze back toward the dead-silent city.

The closer the houses were to the coast, the more dilapidated they became.

Yet the houses farther from the shore could only be called "intact."

"Hey... Zuo Jian."

Hearing someone call him, he turned and saw Laurentina had somehow climbed onto the roof.

"Not sleeping, Laurentina?"

"..."

The shark girl looked at Zuo Jian, who sat quietly on the rooftop, her face slightly flushed.

"I can't really sleep when you aren't back."

"No way. Isn't Laurentina a mature adult? How could you have trouble sleeping?"

Zuo Jian teased her.

"Sh-Shut up! It's just a habit! A habit! For so many nights, there was always some weird guy beside me, muttering nonstop. I got used to it!"

"When a habit suddenly changes, of course it's hard to accept!"

Laurentina shouted, her face red.

"Is that so? Then I'm really sorry, Laurentina. I'll come down right away."

Zuo Jian smiled, though he didn't look sorry at all.

"You... And why did you climb onto the roof in the middle of the night? What are you looking at, the stars in the sky or the broken houses below?"

Laurentina walked to his side, somewhat curious. By all rights, Zuo Jian didn't seem like the type to climb onto a roof in the middle of the night to watch the stars.

"I'm looking at..."

Zuo Jian lowered his head and looked at the lifeless solitary city known as Saltwind City.

"I'm looking at this city, at how many people have spent countless days and nights like Anita, able to fall asleep only with cold and hunger at their side."

"I'm thinking about what I can do to make those people live a little better."

As he spoke, he spread open his palm. Inside lay a grain taken from the rations the Inquisitor had given them, already roasted.

"You... you're actually the reincarnation of some god from some religion, aren't you?"

"Haha, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm just doing what I think is right."

Zuo Jian turned and smiled.

For an instant, Laurentina felt as though she might stop breathing.

It wasn't because of that nearly perfect face he had molded. She didn't actually like that face.

What drew her in was something even more special beneath that false shell of flesh.

Volume Two: Departure

Chapter One: Doctor: Looking for Someone, Right? An Immortal White-Haired Girl with a Follower—I Totally Get It

"Why do I do this..."

Zuo Jian raised his head and looked at the stars filling the sky.

Laurentina had already left, but he remained seated on the roof, staring at the grain in his hand.

He had never placed himself upon any scales of justice. The world was gray, and he understood that.

Once he stood on the side he had chosen, it meant drawing a line between himself and the other side.

He understood that if he wanted to protect something, if he wanted to save something, then he had to keep a firm grip on the so-called power.

It's just that...

"When I have crossed a journey of unknown length and look back, I don't want the footprints marking my path to be surrounded by abandoned conscience, justice, kindness... and humanity."

He murmured, then closed his hand around the grain.

When you wanted to keep completing journey after journey, you had to cast aside some burdensome things. Otherwise, their weight would keep pressing down on you until you collapsed before even seeing the end.

"Pant... pant..."

"Stop ringing in my head!"

The silver-haired girl curled up in a damp corner, her coat soaked by the pooled water. Her trembling voice cried out as she tried to drive away the strange thoughts that surfaced in her mind from time to time, along with fragments like memories that flashed before her eyes.

She stood up and felt the weakness in her body.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was an unfamiliar sight: an icy stone coffin, and a bizarre scene formed from concrete and all kinds of pipes.

And there was that overwhelming sense of danger, almost instinctive, as if something had fixed its gaze on her.

Something... was coming to catch her...

Before she even had time to think, footsteps came from behind the blast door.

Her head hurt, but she still made the appropriate calculations.

There were four distinct rhythms to the footsteps. Judging from their sound, they all belonged to adult males, and they carried some form of weaponry.

The faint clinks and scraping sounds of large areas of metal and composite fiber materials indicated that there was at least one shield guard among them...

Damn it! What even was a shield guard?

Instinctive calculations, unfamiliar words, and memories were brutally stuffed into her mind, making her head swim once more.

Yet she didn't dare lie down now.

That feeling of being watched gave her an unprecedented sense of danger.

At that moment, the girl was like a startled little animal, desperately searching for a way out.

Her pale gray eyes scanned the surroundings, until she finally spotted a screwdriver lying on the floor...

...and the ventilation duct on the wall beside it.

"Pant... pant..."

The girl curled up in a corner. Crawling out of the duct had nearly exhausted all her strength, and the environment outside was even worse than the underground area from before.

Her coat wasn't meant for keeping out the cold, and beneath the night sky, fierce, howling winds raged everywhere.

She looked at her small feet, red from the cold, her toes already showing faint signs of cracking.

"So cold..."

Her rapidly dropping body temperature was robbing her of what little consciousness remained, yet the cold wind knew no mercy. Along with the freezing cold came hunger.

Her stomach felt nothing but emptiness.

Her intestines churned constantly, protesting with rumbling sounds. They desperately wanted something to enter her stomach so they could digest it.

Am I going to die...

Her worsening condition told her exactly what state she was in.

No... I can't die...

In her daze, she seemed to see a blurry figure appear beside her.

She turned her head, but couldn't make out the other's face.

The other person spoke, yet she couldn't hear a single word.

But a voice in her mind kept screaming.

"Don't die!!!"

I can't fall here... There are still so many things waiting for me...

Someone entrusted something to me...

I can't remember... I can't remember anything... but... I can't die!!!!

She forced her body to stand once more.

Her stomach was empty. She needed basic food... Where could she find it...

The girl raised her head, her gray eyes settling on a snow-covered trash can nearby.

She reached out with fingers just as red from the cold and pried open its icy metal lid.

"Can't die, I can't die here. No matter what..."

"Who did I promise... Who did I make a promise to..."

She muttered to herself, using both hands to search for anything that could keep her alive.

But the next moment, a weight suddenly settled on her shoulder.

!!!

The girl jolted, then instinctively retreated. She pulled out the screwdriver she had taken earlier and aimed it at the person behind her.

But when she saw who it was, she froze.

It was a kind-looking middle-aged man with bear ears.

"Child, have you run into some trouble?"

As he spoke, he extended his hand.