As per usual, Lou was able to take out the mutants without an issue. Stomping down on the last core, she flicked her hair and turned to Kim and Kadi.
"Wow." Kadi was amazed by Lou and had felt a bit of courage build up inside her.
"So how was that?" Lou smiled at Kadi who had a face filled with amazement.
"I-it was cool." Shaking her head, Kadi turned her head away while admitting how she felt.
"Awww, no need to be embarrassed, after all, I will be teaching you how to fight." Lou walked up to Kadi poking her cheek. Kadi kept her mouth shut while trying to dodge Lou's finger trying to escape the embarrassment.
"Hehe~, already acting like a family." Kim, who was still swept up in her family fantasy chuckled at the scene.
"I'm not calling her mum."
"We're not actually adopting her."
Both of them spoke at the same time while looking at Kim as it was clear she had taken the adoption way too seriously. The comments had also woken Kim up from her fantasy and became a blushing mess for taking the whole thing too seriously.
"Oi, that stings." Lou looked at kadi since she realised what Kadi said and although she wasn't going to really adopt her, hearing those words still hurt. Kadi in response poked her tongue out and turned around crossing her arms.
"You damn brat." Lou grabbed the top of Kadi's head, which had scared her enough to retract her statements.
"Ahhh! I'm sorry, I-I-It just doesn't feel right yet." Kadi had suddenly become bashful which was rather adorable to Lou. Kim had also heard the words yet and her fantasy for a family was relit.
'Maybe not now, but perhaps soon.' Kim was determined to see this through and hopefully be able to get Kadi to be their adoptive daughter.
"Ara~ I see, also Kim I can see what you're thinking and stop that before you get ahead of yourself." Lou let go of Kadi and was able to tell from Kim's face exactly what she was thinking.
"I-I umm, okay." Kim lowered her head since she had been shut down and felt a little disheartened.
Lou let out a sigh as she felt the situation suddenly get more complicated.
"Let's just get back to the bunker." Lou shook her head, hoping things will go back to normal and so she started walking off towards the bunker. Kim followed behind Lou feeling a little saddened, but knew she was being overdramatic for no reason.
Kadi had realised they were moving and quickly caught up to them while also grabbing Kim's hand. This lifted Kim's mood and despite not adopting Kadi, it was still a nice feeling.
***
Making it back to the bunker, They could tell Akira and Reia were back as it sounded like they were in the kitchen.
"Better not be having a spicy time in the kitchen!"
"Shut up Lou!" Reia called out from the kitchen, knowing exactly what Lou meant.
"Wait so those two are not dating?" Kadi thought the two other people were a couple judging from how they acted.
"Fufu~ not yet." Lou whispered to Kadi and also realised she could use Kadi's innocence to tease Reia.
"Not another one." Akira heard Kadi's comment as he came out to the common area while shaking his head.
"Oho I see, one is too scared to confess and the other just hasn't realised it." Kadi had hit the mark surprisingly well with her guess and had hit Akira right in the heart, making him stumble.
"You don't have to say it out loud." Akira's mouth twitched from the comment as Kadi was just a more vocal Lou.
Reia who was in the kitchen heard as well, but she continued what she was doing while blushing like crazy.
"Why not? Shouldn't you just be honest?" Kadi tried to mimic Lou's confidence and was trying to be rather imposing.
"It's a lot more complicated than that and if you are finished now, why don't you come eat before we chuck out your portion." Akira wanted to move on from the topic before it got too awkward.
Lou was laughing and had almost fallen to the floor as she couldn't believe how preceptive Kadi was. Kim didn't want to laugh, but at the same time Kadi wasn't wrong and what she said was what Kim has been saying to Akira for the past few years.
"Hmph." Getting threatened with her food being thrown away had caused her to shut up.
"Good, now come and eat." Akira sighed while dishing out the food.
"Pffftthahaha… Okay... I'm good. After you eat, get settled into your own room and tomorrow we will begin your training." Lou now having something to pre-occupy herself hoped the next few days will go by quickly.
Kadi nodded her head and the excitement was already building as watching Lou's display of killing the mutants was something she now aspired to do herself.
'If I can just be like Lou then I will be able to survive on my own.' Driven by the will to be independent and wanting to look graceful while surviving she was going to put her full effort into the training ahead.
***
"If you can't even survive running for 30 seconds there is no way you will be able to do any acrobatics!" Lou and Kadi were outside doing some training while Kim watched on the sidelines.
Kadi was currently doing laps on the street building up her stamina and was already finding it difficult.
"You may be young, but it's never too early to build up a good foundation!" Lou was taking it rather seriously and she knew Kadi would not be able to meet the military standard, but hoped she would still be better than most.
Kadi was glad that she had picked out more moveable clothes as she felt sweaty and her rather prideful self when it came to looks, would despise the situation if she was in better clothes.
Some mutants had been drawn to Lou's voice but they were dealt with by Kim or Lou and it provided good trauma training as Kadi was getting less scared with each encounter.
Once they had returned to in front of the alley, Lou opted to do a bit of essence training in an attempt to draw it out and develop her own unique kind of essence.
"Alright we will now try exercising your essence, luckily there has been great progress in awakening people so it should not be too hard for you, as long as you put your mind to it." A few years ago there had only been a select few that were able to have a unique essence, but with more research, they were able to triple the amount of people awakening. The research had also found it was a trigger, so a person had to reach a certain threshold with their essence in order to gain a trait. However for a person to get a specific trait, was something research was yet to answer and so people were stuck with whatever they got.
"So… Anyone… Can get…. Special bullets like you?" Kadi was out of breath from the run and despite it being the most she has ever run, this did not deter her.
"Yep, although some people are just unable to do it or can learn in only a few weeks, it's just a matter of commitment and patience." Although Lou did not know much about how to cultivate essence as it came naturally to her, she was going to let Kim take over.
"Hmm I see, thank you sensei- I mean Lou." Kadi who felt exhausted let her rather nerdy nature out.
"Oh? Sensei? I don't mind the sound of that." Lou smiled as it seemed like Kadi was beginning to warm up to her since there were fewer snarky remarks.
"I-it was just a mistake!" Kadi felt extremely embarrassed as it broke the cool persona she was going for.
'Damn it, I was hoping I could keep in character.' Kadi was actually a rather innocent and kind person, but she liked to act out her favourite characters in her own time. And with the apocalypse in full swing, she saw it as an opportunity to change who she was into one of her all-time favourite characters.
"Fufu~ call me whatever, as long as it's not something rude." Lou did not mind at all and found Kadi's embarrassment rather adorable.
Kadi did not say a word as it was better to not speak at all to avoid any more slips of the tongue.
"I will take that as a yes. Kim!" Lou called out and Kim quickly came over as it was now her turn to teach the essence exercises.
"You know you should do them as well?" Kim, who knew Lou did as little as possible and rather trained her essence through fighting, figured she should try to learn as well.
"Tsk, I don't need it when I can just go fight a horde of mutants instead." Lou did not believe it was helpful to her and she was completely content with how her essence was.
*Sigh* "Whatever." Kim wasn't going to bother as there was no sure way to improve. However, fighting was one of them, so it was hard to argue against Lou.
"Anyway, Kadi, first we need you to try to feel your essence as it will be the first step to being able to fuel it into things like guns. Generally, people do this naturally, but it takes a bit more to be able to have no delay in fueling our guns while firing." Kim went on to explain a bit more about how essence worked and thanks to being in the military they had the most updated information.
Kadi was listening attentively and after Kim had finished, her imagination wandered to what kind of essence she could have.
"Now before you get too excited, you may be able to use essence, but having a special attribute is not something that comes quickly. You may be able to fire a gun, but it doesn't mean you will be able to shoot fire like Lou." Kim knew many people aspired to obtain a special essence, but it still required effort and a bit of luck in your genes.
"Speaking of special essence, there was a reason why families formed as they had specialised in a certain element, so people born from these families were guaranteed a trait. This does not mean you don't have one, but it goes to show that your genes may be the reason why." Kim wanted to paste a realistic picture for Kadi as it might be because of her genes that she is only able to go so far.
"I understand." Kadi understood and took it as a warning to not get frustrated if she doesn't make any progress at all.
"Okay with that said, let's begin." Kim realised that she was beginning to ramble and actually hadn't done anything yet.
Sitting down on the ground Kim gestured to Kadi to follow her movements.
"Now I want you to take slow deep breaths and try to feel the energy. It will take a while, but you will know when you do." Kim watched over Kadi who closed her eyes and began to concentrate, trying to do what Kim said.
<10 minutes later>
Kadi still had her eyes shut and Kim was rather impressed with her determination, especially at her age.
However, suddenly she opened her eyes looking a bit shocked.
"I felt it!" Kadi had felt a warm energy inside her and found it quite comforting.
"That was quicker than expected." Kim was surprised as it wasn't often people were able to touch into their essence early unless they trained.
Kadi looked at Kim with anticipation as she was unsure what it meant to be able to feel it so early.
"The next step is to try to control that energy and move it through your body, if you can do that you're already a step closer to being able to wield a weapon of your own." Kim could see the excitement in Kadi's eyes and she couldn't help but share the same excitement.
Kadi, feeling more motivated than ever, went back to trying so she could try the next step.
Kim had gotten up and gone to Lou, who was out on the street smoking a cigarette.
"How is she going?" Lou did not want to disturb them and from the sounds of things it had been going well.
"You were not wrong that she has potential, but it will still be a while until she can actually fight." Although Kadi made great progress in using essence, it didn't mean she could fight.
"Well that's one less thing to worry about, but hopefully I can train her to at least defend herself." Lou didn't care how long it took and was happy that Kadi hadn't disappointed her so far.
"I still want to adopt her." Kim had the opportunity to ask why, so she wanted to at least get a reason.
"I don't want that sort of attachment." Lou did not want Kadi to have a strong attachment just in case something went wrong.
"Still, you know I wanted to start our own family, so I don't see why not." Kim pouted and although she knew it was most likely better to not form that relationship, it also should be a good motivator to not allow that to happen.
"Give me time to think, plus it's too early for that kind of thing." Under other circumstances, Lou would have said yes, but now it was too risky, especially for Kadi's wellbeing.
"Fine." Kim gave up and was going to wait before doing anything.