Last Man On Earth When There Is No Earth ?

I feel sick…

Oh…my….GOD!!

"ugh…"

This feeling, it reminds me of that day in summer... or was it autumn? I think it was a really grey colored day, probably a not so sunny school day in the middle of November, one of those days I would rather stay bed after nine hours of trying to beat the world record of a dark souls boss.

But a perfect attendance record was the deal I made with the devil –my father- to protect the precious shelter and internet connection he sold his soul to another devil –my mother- so he could pay for.

But my family isn't important right now, yeah, it's this feeling like I'm stuck in a public toilet the employees were too lazy to clean, or weren't paid enough to risk their life doing it.

So, that morning , much like the one from before and the one before it, I was trying to beat that dark souls boss –don't remember which one only that it's regarded as the second or third hardest in the series- and it was six in the morning so I decided to leave for school since going to bed now isn't a really smart thing to do –especially after playing that game- and the desks at school were rather comfortable.

Any hardcore gamer who spends –wastes- most of his time in front of a monitor could tell you at which level their concentration would be after such nights, so I didn't care when I drank from the milk bottle, nor did I pay any mind to the sour taste that completely covered my tongue and lasted all the way to school.

The expired milk and all the midnight snacks I ate mixed together to make the nastiest potion straight out of a witch's pot, except that pot was my stomach. for a city boy I handled the urge to puke rather well but the crushing sounds of a failing engine coming from my belly were heard and the teacher whose name I can't remember –not because of my memory loss- ordered me to visit the nurse office.

For the rest of the day – after spending a few hours I the toilet- I struggled with a strong headache and the horrible aftertaste of the milk, the next day wasn't any good, and I rested at home unable to hold a controller.

That feeling hunts me right now, to the point where my brain seized all functions as my body focused completely on healing, little by little the sickness is suppressed, but never fully dealt with.

….

"ugh…"

"ah! did you wake up? Seven?" a voice so sweet whispered curing the sickness I felt like the c.a.r.e.s.s of a holly maiden.

How long have I been asleep?

So soft…

My head rested of something soft, the fabric covering it is so thin, and this scent… like I'm in the center of a flower bed relaxing under the worm rays of a spring sun. my head feels the comforts o a eternal rest I willingly surrender myself to, never had I slept on such a relaxing pillow before. Changing my posture resulted in my cheeks making contact with a unknown surface, it seems to be the origin of the softness, but also an otherworldly smoothness that slowly absorbed all the worries and pain of a really lonely life.

Aahhhh, I don't want to open my eyes… I want to stay like this until I die from satisfaction.

"HYAAH!!! S-S-Seven,w-what are you…hya!!!!" I hear some voice as I rub my cheek on this smooth and soft pillow trying to get the maximum amount enjoyment before my brain decides to wake up.

A pillow that talks

A talking pillow

"I think he is still asleep…"with that sentence that didn't seem to be directed at me and the ability to process the surroundings slowly returning, I open my eyes feeling the unwanted gaze of a really annoying third party

"Lilia… is that you?" I ask looking up

" yeah? Are you feeling… ahm… could you please stop touching me that way? "

Her cheeks were dyed in red as I slowly and unconsciously c.a.r.e.s.sed her legs, my face diving into the long d.e.s.i.r.ed feeling of her perfectly soft t.h.i.g.hs

Another one of the unrealistic dreams mankind has imagined surprisingly become a reality, now that I'm in this situation with this fantastical beauty, I have no regrets.

" is our friend here enjoying himself? Or is he still half asleep?"

Only my eyes slowly turned toward the source of the voice, to find an old looking guy smiling smugly in my direction

Our eyes met, and a "guh!" sound escaped me as his expression told me "I see what you did there"

"it's really strange, but at the same time it's not!! Human resemble us a lot after all so it's understandable for you to mistake her for one, and getting yourself captivated by our little princess is a normal case" his white back teeth shined as his smile stretched to the edges of his face " and getting that treatment isn't something anyone could dream of"

Unable to enjoy the heavenly sensation any longer I lift myself and sit down beside the blushing golden haired beauty.

We were in a really spacious room, three of its walls were decorated with paintings? The forth displayed a dark sky filled with bright stars that gave the feeling of an unrealistic night sky. In front of it is a huge white desk made of materials I couldn't possible guess with no legs as it floated above a small cylinder fixed to the floor. sitting behind it is the old looking man.

This man is officially the first one on my new "not going to forgive, ever!" list after he disturbed my time on Lilia's l.a.p. I stare daggers at him to which he responded by the same smug smile that didn't suit his slightly wrinkled face

" it's about time I introduce myself" said the man leaving his seat "my name is Blitz Firestone, I'm the prime commander of the Zesionien Space Fleet Center of Operation number 0303, a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to meet you Mr. Seven"

I look toward Lilia for a moment –she is as cute as ever- then turned toward the man and activated my mad talk skill

" you are the one in charge around here huh" I put on the most serious tone I could muster, and with a rough voice spoke " I have to say, I'm a little disappointed with how you treat your guests around here"

The man wasn't fazed by the way I glared at him, and with each step the difference in size flipped the tale ad his intimidating shadow made me clinch my b.u.t.t

"hahaha, sorry sorry" he laughed out loud, apologizing with no remorse in his words. He stopped for a moment and sighed a little, then without drastically changing his relaxed expression he resumed the talk

"indeed we may have shown a little mistreatment considering your peaceful behavior at the start, but you have to know by now that we are a foreign military organization and you are an unregistered traveler that didn't exactly prove to be peaceful anymore" said the really large guy " how many bones do you think you broke today?"

" don't know, how many does Zesioniens have?" seriously, how did he expect me to answer that? I never look at my kill count unless I'm losing

A load laugh met my serious response and the really large guy returned to his desk, scrolling through a window that floated on its surface

"anyways, since the daughter of the Stoneheart vows for you we will look away this time. She said you lost most your memories, is that right?"

" most of them…" I still can't remember my name, even though I'm beginning to remember little by little, nothing important has returned yet. Where I used to live, how my parents looked like, what their name are etcetera etcetera … none of that seems to matter that much for me to remember it

" aaaand you already know what I'm right?" I look at Lilia at my side, to which she reacted by looking away

"hahaha, you don't have to worry, lad! I'm aware of your situation and how to deal with it! no one outside this room will ever know what you don't want them to know "

" good" like hell I would believe that!

" just so we are clear on this, hiding your race won't work the way you think it would. I already knew what you are before I was told. and if you are planning to travel around there will be no shortage of people able to recognize you by appearance alone; no horns, no tail, no scales, no fur, no feathers, no wings, no claws, no fangs, and then your pale skin and round ears, humans are the easiest to recognize since they don't have any unique features "

" I'm… not sure I got what you mean… "

" you know that human males went extinct right?"

"….yeah? "

" every planet with a civilized race has one of those, the places where they display really old things, what's it called again…."

" a museum?"

"yeah! Some places call it that. on our planet we just call them libraries. Anyways, on 'open planets' those museums are a real tourist attraction, they gather a lot of things from all around the universe which tickles the curiosity of a lot of people from a lot of different planets. there you can see a sample of most species, be it sentient or not"

"ooh….." oh shit

" yes. It was on new Thian I think, " the man looked upward his hand brushing his beard I remember taking my kids for vacation, yes, and there we saw it, the sculpture of a human male, extinct four thousand years ago"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… wiat…" I close my eyes and think for a moment what this alien dude just said "…what?"

" I know I know. I also believed that at first. But here you are! Although I'm not completely convinced about our claim"

" slow down… just what are you talking about?"

" listen, lad, I'm also not really knowledgeable about aliens, and our database doesn't have much info on humans, let alone extinct types, so I can't really help you with this" he posed for a moment taking a long breath " you will find out soon anyway, if you plan on traveling that is"

Conspiracy theory time!!

So, humans went extinct about four thousand years ago, but I'm alive and well, what does that mean?

One : all my current memories are fake, implanted in my head, maybe an error happened while uploading them, causing this memory loss.

Two : I'm not human. This also makes a lot of sense. The boost in physical abilities, the power to absorb energy, all the craziness -well, that last part is probably just me- my body was manufactured recently and it's not a human body, but something that looked like it, and someone's mind had to be uploaded in to help piloting it.

Three : a number of males were kept in a top secret institution the whole time. The fragments of everyday life I remember was an illusion and everyone around were fooled with thinking they are lived in 2000s, while it's actually the 6020s. a farm to produce more males to reproduce more humans, to keep humanity from kicking a really big bucket. This makes a lot of sense and at the same time doesn't. the attack I always dream of is actually an attack on the plantation as a strategy to push human further toward their doom, I can understand that, but if the reason we were there is to make more kids, why am I still a v.i.r.g.i.n?

Four : it was all a dream, or this is all a dream. Maybe I lived in a simulation, and what little I can remember comes from it.

Five: I survived the attack and have been alive for four thousand years.

"…Seven?"

I come back to reality on the concerned voice calling me. Lilia seemed to speculate what went through my mind and understood how I felt. Her sky blue eyes looked at me with worry in them

Six: this is a whole different world/dimension where humans went extinct that I reincarnated in. really cute nonhuman girl, check! Cheat level powers I didn't have before, check! everything around is new and confusing, check! All factors point at the famous reincarnated/transferred into another world that was trending for the past few years in the anime community, if only this was in a fantasy setting rather than sci-fi…

" it's better if you take your time processing it. now, to the few problems at hand" Blitz scrolled on the half transparent window on his desk, tapping it a few times " you don't have an identity file, and you don't know where you are from , which means you practically don't exist!" he laughed again, like it was something funny

"if you were a Zesionien I could have made a passport for you, sadly you are not, so there is one option left. I will make an intergalactic identity card for you. You have to understand though that most people registered this way are criminals who fled their home world, even without a criminal record you may not get treated well if you plan on visiting 'closed planets'"

"closed planets?"

" Iris said that they are planets with really strict regulations against outsiders, most of them prohibit the entrance of those that are not from the ruling race" Lilia explained

"that's some high level racism"

" Zesion is a closed planet by the way. you may get permission if you are accompanied by the little princess , but you won't get in alone"

I look at my beautiful alien wife for a moment, then put my hand beside my mouth to block my voice from reaching the man

" hey, he keeps calling you princess, is there something I should know?"

"eh…ummm…" her eyes slid to the bottom right corner and her cheeks start to blush "actually…" her fingers twirled her hair around as she thought about something for a long time

The large commander caught up fast on the topic and took the opportunity to explain

" well, an outsider wouldn't possibly know about the Stoneheart family" smiling lightly the Zesionien man went and said "they are one of the most influential families in Zesion, as they own nineteen percent of the glassume mines in the planet, and more than five percent of the lands. Not only that but they own Stoneheart industries, a weaponry manufacturing and trading company. The Zesionien forces relay mostly on their products, in fact this ship we are on is actually designed from scratch by one of her older brothers!"

"…" I look at Lilia, eyes half closed

" well, I'm the twenty third daughter so…it doesn't really matter"

So, Lilia is the daughter of some excessively rich house. Is this a good thing? or is it a bad thing?

Rich girls were always a pain back on earth, at least that's what novels and manga made them to be, I'm pretty sure I had a long distance between me and any potential bitch even if I don't remember it. now I'm in a relationship –finally- with not only an alien girl, but also a filthy rich one.

Well, I'm not even planning to care. Lilia treated me well and never showed any of the 'a princess that lived an easy, pampered life' attitude. Not to mention, she is really cute!! Can't wait for the time I get to hug her all I want, and maybe, just maybe, go beyond the kissing stage

That's right, it's hand holding next time!

" well, I never cared about those things" problems will come rushing sooner or later, but that won't stop me from being with the girl I like, especially when she feels the same.

Some dark thoughts crawled up my back, a topic I tried my best not to think about ever since we left Gorgola, but I brushed it away, now isn't the time to think about it.

The Zesionien Space Fleet Center of Operation number 0303 prime commander Blitz Firestone took the liberty of cutting my train of thoughts

" back to your identity card, what would you like to be called? "

"Seven"

"is that your real name?"

"that's what Lilia calls me, I still don't remember" and I'm strangely comfortable with that.

" just Seven?"

"just seven"

He went and tapped on the half transparent window a few times before asking the next thing

" you don't want the knowledge of you being human to spread right? Then would you like to be registered under the 'artificial life form' category?"

" what?"

" let's see… the best example I can find are sentient machinery, and living planets, simply put this category is made for those that can't belong to any of the existing species, or are too few in numbers to be called one"

A certain talking raccoon appeared in my mind for a moment

"let's go with that"

The next few steps were the same. A picture of my face was taken, then one of my whole body. They scanned retinal as it's the only method of recognition that's hard to fabricate, and that's it. a lot of steps were skipped, like blood sampling, since most artificial life forms didn't have it.

while we waited for the registration to be done, we were invited for lunch by Blitz. the inside of this center of operation made me dobt the reason they still call it a ship even when it stretches as wide as a whole city with multistory buildings packed together and streets with people walking around although most of them wore the same uniform. I felt some unfriendly eyes following us –me to be exact- as we walked around even though the commander is with us, but soon enough we learned that a rumors spread saying Lilia and I spent months alone on an uninhabited planet –which is somewhat true- and that all the male soldiers are dying from jealousy seeing me walk by her side.

'That's right! She is with me! Die you damn muscle packed good looking freaks!' I thought to myself smiling in secret. Of course none of it showed on my face. Lilia's shyness showed on her face most of the time, having a continuously blushing girl beside me gave the feeling of a first day –and what a good feeling it is!- but it can't be called one with the oversized, black horned, bearded guy with us, as he left the impact of a 'will literally crush you if you make my daughter sad' father type.

In the restaurant we were left alone for a few minutes, probably half an hour, as old man Blitz went to check on something –probably visited the toilet, but who knows-. In that short period of time there was no shortage of guys coming to flirt with Lilia, the rare angel that graced this place with her presence, asking her to join their table. I have to respect the bravery they showed –or the foolishness- since most of them didn't run the other way the moment they noticed my existence.

Seeing those fools get rejected with this gorgeous girl accompanying me was a happiness straight out of a romantic comedy.

This is something I'm not sure of, but I liked to think that the female soldiers around were interested in me too–even if it's just nonromantic curiosity- but with the SSSR beauty named Lilia overshadowing their appeal, none of them approached the table –I have to admit though, those military uniforms look good on-

An hour and a half later we were accompanied back to the commander's office by one of the 'security managers' that didn't show any friendliness in the way she looked at me.

My new 'intergalactic' identity card was done. A device that is simple yet complicated at the same time, it looked like a normal grey plastic credit card with a black crescent moon and star at the bottom left, but when I tapped on it a window appeared displaying my image and some writings I couldn't read. Now, to the part most shocking about this meeting

With the identification problem out of the way for now the prime commander brought out the main topic and the reason I was permitted enter his office in the first place

"then, let me welcome you once more to our center of operation, mister Seven"

" yeah, I hope we get along"

Keeping my composure talking to this man was a hard thing, and the act I have to perform so I won't appear as the weak and afraid nerd I'm – at least on the inside, cause I can't say I'm physically weak anymore- took a toll on my mind.

" now that Gorgola is accessible, it's ownership should go to the first person who set foot on it, a lot of people tried but this is the first time one comes back. when we were discussing the matter , the little princess told me you lived there way before her ship landed, which means you are the new owner of the planet!"

"… can you repeat that for a moment?"

" HAHAHAHAHA!!! That's right! That's the reaction! You should have seen how the little princess reacted when I first told her! it's only natural to do so!" the really large Zesionien man laughed until he was out of breath. I'm sure I would have laughed the same after telling such a joke even in a serious conversation, but when he stopped gasping for air, and put on a serious expression retelling that sentence, I know for a fact that it was anything but a joke

" but, just wait… I remember you saying something about this section of space being under the Zesionien rule… "

" well, the outer space, especially the safe traveling paths, those are directly governed by us, but there are many planets inhabited by races other than Zesioniens, we provide them with protection, but we don't own them"

Aaahhhh not again, something told me this is something along the lines of the American style protection policy, but I'm not gonna think about modern day –or long past?- colonization forms while I'm here, nope, not gonna happen

" since the deal wasn't set yet we took the liberty of scanning it, this rock is two times the size Proteus"

"how big is this Proteus?" I whisper to Lilia

"I think it's the third largest star in our galaxy" her answer wasn't truly helpful, but if it's a plat the size of the sun I know then it must be really big. Scratch that, a planet the size of a sun I humongous.

"do you want to know how lucky you were to land in that exact spot? The rest of the planet is a home for horrifying monstrosities from all around the universe! There are even a number of undiscovered species and some extinct ones here and there! And it was just a quick scan!"

He explained and showed us what the drone like scouts they sent found, night crawlers were the least frightening of what's out there, while none of them seemed to be on the level a fully unleashed Verta, I don't want to think about what would have happened if we took one step outside the safe zone

" it's too dangerous to mine for natural resources, the Zesionien council will propose that you turn it into a biological reserve, if so then you my get some recognition from our government and a free pass to the plants. you will have to worry about pirates hunting there too, so you must find someone to keep a watchful eye on it while you are away!" he smiled a meaningful smile

" and the Zesionien government plans on providing their service right?"

" no no no! there is no need for us to get involved, financing a plant we don't own isn't a good strategy! You are already familiar with someone more than capable of providing those services!"

"ah!" Lilia gasped " I… I can make some calls. I'm sure father would be happy to help!"

" of course he would! This is a one of a kind business opportunity for the company! He won't come out empty handed no matter what!!"

" I will leave it to you then, Lilia" I think about it for a moment " actually, I'm forced to, I know nothing about business, I can't even read"

"eh? I told you before didn't I! I'm more of an athlete and those things need a lot of brains!!" she yelled at me then covered her mouth to which the commander laughed in amus.e.m.e.nt.

" all I can do is introduce you to the right people, I'm not capable of handling those sort of things"

"…right"

"… if only Iris was still around…" a gloomy shadow slowly crept in hiding her usual radiance.

"… it will be fine…" I don't know why, but ever since that voice started speaking to me the cowardliness I show in moments like this was no longer able to effect the way I should act.

But even so, I couldn't just put my hand around her shoulder an pull her closer so she could cry on my c.h.e.s.t. A slight touch, that's all, I moved my hand and held hers , and as embarrassed as I'm right now, I did my best to look in her eyes.

" thank you, Seven" once again I was reminded of how destructive the force of her smile is. Her rosy lips in that small curve captivated my heart as the voice inside screamed this is the right moment to take that kiss

" ahm!" the laud fake cough wracked the nice atmosphere between m and Lilia and each of s looked the other way

This was enough of a reason for this oversized muscle packed Zesionien old man to get his name written a second time in the grudge list. But this kind of thing isn't all bad, like a certain someone said

Little things matter.