Last Man On Earth When There Is No Earth ?

Planet Rooster, wasteland outside Gram city, Seven

"…hey…" walking beside me, Lilia whispered holding her left hand to cover her mouth "was finding that small Herara really what made you so happy? I don't think I understand…"

I had some expectations of her getting a little jealous, seeing me talk so enthusiastically about other girls -females-, but her lips curving into a smile and the slight pinkish color on her cheeks indicated those thoughts didn't even cross her mind.

"Hmm… I don't know how to explain this but…"

How do you explain cat-girl culture to someone who until a day ago didn't know what a cat-girl is?

To begin with, why do we love cat-girls so much?

Is it because they are cute? Is that it?

"… you see, Lilia, back on my planet we had those small animals called cats. They are so cute that people usually kept them as pets"

"Hm-hm" Lilia nodded her head telling me to go on

"you know how humans don't have anything outstanding appearance wise? Wel, I don't know who was the first to do it but someone out there -probably from Japan- decided to take the ears and tail from the cats and put them on cute girls"

"Eh!? That's cruel!!"

"he? Ah! I'm talking about drawings by the way, no cats were harming during the process"

"O~~h…" to think someone would actually see it that way. For a warrior that easily ripped apart her enemies she sure has a soft spot.

Lilia's eyes drifted to the upper left as she twirled a few strands of her golden hair around her fingers. I don't think understanding what I said takes this much effort, but she continued humming to herself for a few seconds before suddenly looking at me

"… you said those cat-girls were made by combining a human and a cat right?"

"Well… something like that"

"Does that mean whoever made them never ever met a female Herara befor?"

"obviously…"

"Whoa…" her eyes began to sparkle "so someone came up with the idea without ever meeting the real thing… humans are really amazing"

"that I can agree with. By the way, I can't say for sure, but there is a high possibility that someone else drew characters with horns like yours. To be honest the first time we met I thought you were just another human dressing up like a fictional character"

"Really?" Lilia lightly brushed her horn with her left hand "there are many who like taking care of their horns but… I don't think they are that important"

"Maybe you think that way because everyone else had them on your planet. Humans look to boring sometimes, that's why they add those things to make some characters standout…"

Then, it suddenly hit me. There is Lilia who although transcends norms of beauty still looks like a human doing cosplay. Then there is the little cat-girl who stole my book yesterday.

Two creatures right out of a fantasy work, but both of them are real…

If that is the case, is there a possibility for other fictional race, like elves, oni-girls and the like to exist somewhere out there?

"Honestly, don't you think you are pushing your luck too much?"

'Let a man dream, you should know by now that I always wanted to do it with an elf'

"what's the difference? Aren't they just humans with long ears?"

'I'm not gonna fall for that trap again…'

"well, I understand why someone would d.e.s.i.r.e elves , but to think you would l.e.w.d your own pets. And I wondered why you all went extinct" Iris sighed, shaking her head looking displeased.

On the other side Lilia was still thinking about the deep philosophy behind human love for nonhuman traits

"Hmmm….so humans made their pets look more human, but since they aren't real…." She mumbled to herself, playing with the same strands of hair as usual. Then, seemingly figuring something out, she looked my way with wade open eyes

"So in short, humans really liked the idea of their pets looking like humans…"

"Yes…"

"But they were not able to make it a reality"

"mhum"

"Then, the reason why you are happy is, now that you know those cat-girls are real, you want to find one and make her your pet?"

"That… sounds really bad when you put it that way…"

"Of course! Slavery is a bad thing! Seven, what were you thinking?" Lilia angrily yelled at me. Her point is valid, after all the Herara are an independent race that has nothing to do with either humans nor cats, so there is only one thing you could call keeping them against their will, slavery.

"Hold on for a second! No one said anything about enslaving them!" oh God, I feel like it will be such a big pain to explain.

"You said you always wanted to have one of those!"

"Bo I didn't!"

"Yes you did! You said that you want to go to Namira so you…. You want to get more than one!!?"

"Wait! Hold on for a moment! Aren't you misunderstanding something here?"

'Some help please'

"Why? Was what she said wrong in any way?" Turning her back to us, Iris slowly distanced herself from the conversation "weren't you planning on waiting until they are in heat so you could have your way after getting them?"

'well…'

"Just what I thought" from over her shoulder, she glanced at me with disgusted in her eyes "pervert"

"You can't own people!!" meanwhile , Lilia is still going with her lecture telling me how the intergalactic union had laws against slavery and that intelligent creatures are people too even if they are from other species and that I must never think of doing such horrible things and so on

"Okay okay! I never said anything about slavery alright!?"

Sheesh, why is she like this all of a sudden? Usually she would at least try to understand my intentions but…

Well, it's does seem really bad when I think about it. In the first place even if the outside appearance is that of a cat-girl there is no telling if their behavior is the same as that of the cat-girls I know.

"umm… look, Lilia, I swear I have no intention of forcing my will on anyone… how do I say this…" it's not something to be ashamed of. Indeed, I do d.e.s.i.r.e a few things , but it's not like I have no self restrain or am so self centered that I don't see the any reason for other living beings to have rights "itit'not that I want to own those cat-girls, but I want to take them in and care for them like my own kids, you know… if I could…"

"… you are one sick bastard aren't you?" now in front of us, Iris floated a few feet above my head . She covered her mouth with one hand while looking as if she is about to vomit, but instead she glared at me like one would do at the sight of the lowest of trash.

'Oh com'on!! What did you see this time?'

"something that made me lose fate in humanity"

'did you have some to begin with?'

There is one condition in which my argument would be taken at face value by both Lilia and Iris, and that is to take in a very young cat-girl and raise her as our own child.

Putting it that way may sound bad, but that is only if you thought I would do those things.

Rules When it comes to lolies

Number one: do not l.e.w.d them

And of course, and this is one of the most fundamental rules in human society, leave your daughters alone.

I will make sure to kill myself before I ever end up in a situation to that anime, or the other one. No way in hell.

"You… want to adopt one?" Lilia froze, her expression shifting to a perplexed one.

"Yeah, something like that" thanks God, it finally got through to her "they are so cute that you just want to pamper them. I'm sure that once you get to see one up close you would understand"

"Hmmm…" seemingly unable to find something to say she went silent for a while. I wasn't careless enough to claim that as a victory, so I waited for her to find a comeback -though we aren't really arguing- and surely after a minute of silence Lilia opened her mouth and said, not even looking me in the eyes

"…well, if it's to help someone then I don't mind"

"Sigh…" finally. Man, is this how it feels to explain things to your parents when they find your p.o.r.n folder? I don't ever want to go through this again.

"Oh, you will, as long as you plan on visiting that planet"

'you… could you leave me alone for sometime?'

Yeah, I know it's a really tight place to be in.

It's not that I'm complaining or anything. But now that I have an extremely gorgeous wife that I have to work extra hard to please so she won't leave, I won't get the chance to built a harem of nekos that every man dream of.

"I used to think you are you were pathetic, but now I see that you are just some greedy gross pervert"

'You see, Iris, I don't really give a f.u.c.k about what you think of me, so could you stop messing inside my mind and shut the f.u.c.k up for a minute?'

In the first place, I already know I'm not the kind of person with enough luck to attract average women. Lilia is a special case, and I don't think I would ever get a chance with her if we met somewhere else, so however much I want to the possibility of me getting romantically involved with another female is in the negative zone.

"that you are right about. You can't even get it on with your wife, there is no way you would be able to seduce the Herara with their sharp sens-"

'…'

"…hey now, don't look at me like that.."

I was about to say something really nasty when I felt Lilia tugging on my shirt

"Umm.. Seven…" she pointed in the direction we were walking in for sometime. A short distance from us was Jar the four armed weapons dealer who lead the way all along. She stood at a corner waving her upper left arm

It seems that our speed dropped while we were arguing so she just went ahead and left us to it.

"over here!!" she shouted, pointing at something behind the gigantic rock.

…..

After spending the night at the weapon shop -well, you can't really call it a night since the morning never come- we decided to leave Rooster. We were too fatigued to think about it before, and Jar was kind enough to let us bunk with her even after all the trouble I caused her . And after we woke up we immediately began preparations for travel.

With what happened yesterday it would be too troublesome to stay around for any longer, and coincidentally there is a public carrier -outer space public transportations- that is heading toward Imar nine.

Obviously I had Namira in mind as our next destination, but since Rooster is in twenty first sector and Namira is in the thirteenth we have no choice but to make some stops along the way.

I took a quick shower as Lilia prepared herself the three of us sat to eat breakfast. We got to taste some traditional Homr bread which had a light sweetness that went well with bagra milk Jar served us.

After we were done and just before we said our goodbyes Jar stopped us saying she had something to talk to us about.

Apparently it had something to do with the Herara crew we dealt with yesterday

"Before Mr.Seven completely disintegrated the corpses on the ground I managed to recover a few things"

Looting the dead when their blood hasn't cooled yet isn't a honorable deed, but she was glad she did it before I unintentionally erased every last trace of them.

What she put on the table were two items. The first is a rectangular smartphone like device, although different in design we could tell it's a book. The second was a metal plate with two simple blue lines on it's surface.

"Those belong to Giran. His book and the key card to his ship"

According to Jar the book was set to command the ship that landed somewhere outside the city from a long distance. Without the key it is impossible for it to take off, but just in case she put it on lockdown mode and activated the defense system so no one would attempt disassembling it.

"Weren't you looking for a ship? You were the one to kill the captain so" pushing both items toward me she said "here you go"

"…For free?" after nearly destroying her house?

"W-we can't accept something like that" Lilia said

"Well it's not exactly free, I will come with you to retrieve the weapons they had in stock. That should be enough to settle things, right?"

Although hesitant Lilia finally accepted Jar's generous gift. Post pointing out trip we followed the red skinned lady outside Gram's walls.

…..

We got to see it only once on the way here, but to think it would be this harsh. It was a rocky desert all the way to the horizon. The city is located in a high ground, after following the dirt road leading down we slowly began to see that the rocky landscape is more of a series of mountains surrounded by sand like fog.

I knew this side of the planet barely sees the sun but to think it would be this cold and dry compared to the city. Did they have some kind of overpowered air conditioner in there or something?

We walked for about an hour and a half following the track shown on Giran's book. The reason as to why they chose to land so far from the city is because they have criminal records and are unable to enter the planet legally. The total bounty on their heads was more than what they would pay the security organizations after all.

But because of that those parts became a den for thieves and criminals which is why one has to avoid coming out here under normal conditions.

Thankfully stories about what happened yesterday had spread quickly. Knowing a Zesionien warrior is passing by, no idiot had the thought of showed themselves and after a while we were told there is no signs of life in the surroundings so we got to walk around carefree.

Just in case I had ghost girl do the only thing she is good at and fly to a higher altitude to look for potential sniper spots.

Two hours since our departure, we arrived at a great canyon with a small river running through it. The ship was near the entrance hidden behind one of the gigantic rocks placed here and there.

I prepared my gauntlet and Lilia equipped her spear. From what I heard some of the enemies managed to escape, the likelihood of them regrouping here with those left behind is very high.

In that case we should expect an ambush. If not from the surroundings then from inside the ship.

"you don't have to be so alert, the area is clear" Jar held up her book, a window with something like a radar floated from its screen.

"Are we sure?" It won't surprise me if someone is out there with a device that could trick those scanner, technology that makes camouflaging as other species exist after all

"What about inside the ship?" Lilia asked, scanning the huge craft up and down.

"Didn't I say it's on complete lockdown? Life support shouldn't work so if anyone is in there they are probably dead by now"

You mean we went to sleep while that little cat-girl may had been locked inside all this time?

"Isn't that a bite… he, you know, cruel?" I know we murdered most of them but leaving them to suffocate like that?

"Yeah! It is cruel? Can you not just assume everyone riding it deserves to die!?"

Upon hearing the strange voice Lilia and I jumped away from the ship and took a fighting stance. Jar slowly backed away as the back of the ship slowly opened.

Contrary to what I would have liked it to be, Lilia stood in front covering for me. She probably thinks it would be much easier for her to guard for me than gambling on me surviving another shot then vomiting laser beams.

Jar also prepared for a fight by drawing two of the four blasters strapped at her sides. She pointed the barrel in the direction the voice came from

"Whoever you are, I will give you until the count of three, drop your weapons and raise your arms in ten air!"

"yeah yeah, it's not like I'm hiding or anything" with the gate fully opened a small figure came out. He was about five feet tall and with the white and blue fur covering his body whole, it's easy to guess he is a male Herara "would you mind lowering your weapons, you can see I'm unarmed" both hands in the air he slowly walked forward with an awkward smile. I myself am amazed by how I can tell what expression he is making even thought he has a tiger face.

"Your captain is dead, why are you still lurking around?" Jar aske, but the real question she had in mind was probably why are you still alive?"

"the ship was supposed to be on lockdown, how were you able to open it?" Lilia had her own question,. Pointing her spear she was ready to jump at him in any moment.

"well, it isn't as hard when you are already familiar with how this beauty works" looking back at the ship behind him, the fur covered guy let out a small laugh

"I will ask you again, what are you still doing her?" her fingers slowly squeezed the trigger, Jar also seemed on the verge of launching an attack.

That didn't do anything other than stressing the guy even more. He began waving his hands in the air begging Jar not to shoot

"Okay okay! I already said I'm not here for a fight!" he inhaled deeply then let it out "the reason I'm here is simple" careful not to make any sudden movements he lowered his right hand, pointing one of his claws at me

"You are looking for a pilot, right? How about hiring me?"