This cruel world [Levi Ackerman x Neko reader]

23.

"Is that all of you?" I ask, with the help of Alice lifting out from the ground the last child. The girl nods, exhausted from all the lifting. Everyone quickly took shelter in the shadows of some ruins that managed to stay standing to avoid unnecessary attention while me and Alice got my gear and bag out.

"Thanks." Alice exclaims after I give her a hand to pull her out.

"You're very welcome." I smile, but soon stop as my body aches even worse after all the lifting. "Feed them all and yourself. I'll patch my wounds up, get geared up and we'll move out as soon as possible."

"Roger that." the girl nods, grabs the remaining food packets and water and heads off to the children.

I take another bottle of water that I had saved for myself beforehand and clenching my jaws together, start cleaning out the biggest wounds. I can't reach the back of my head, where the biggest injury is, so I leave it open. For now I need to use the bandages on arms, legs and tail. I restrict my left shoulder with a couple of rounds of bandaging just in case I need to fight - that'll help me avoid overdoing it.

Biting off the last peace of bandaging tape, I start securing the gear. Thank God, it's completely fine. It lessens my anxiety slightly, but I start noticing some concerns rise up. As I look around now that there is slightly more light in the Underground, I notice that half of the city is destroyed. Newer buildings are fine, some that had fallen are even being repaired, but the older, more ancient buildings were left in crumbles. 

That means, it was not only our mansion that was meant to be destroyed. And considering by the spread out random buildings that were done for, it wasn't planned at all. Something must've happened big to shake up everything and destroy the weaker houses.

"Something Upperground." I whisper looking up. I lock the last of my gear on my body and stand up, throwing my bag on my right shoulder.

So their mission was inside the city. And it made such a big mess of it that it reached the Underground. Must've been something drastic.

"We're ready." Alice's voice interrupts my thoughts and I'm quite grateful for that.

"Then let's move out." I nod and we finally set off. I put on my cape and pull up its hood, also taking one of the youngest children into my arms. Each step is painful, but it fuels our hope to escape unscathed.

We slowly get off the mountain, after some good scouting, entering the city itself. My only hope is Raven. It hasn't been that long since the mission's start so he shouldn't have left just yet, but he might've migrated to another place and that would be a problem.

I feel myself get exhausted more quickly than expected as I haven't had the time to properly rest and heal for a while now, but we manage to get to the inn we stayed in before, in around two hours. Surprisingly, nobody cared about our band of children passing through town. There were many who even matched our looks - all thanks to the destruction of the city. Everyone was looking for shelter. It was the beginning of a new war between civilians over territory.

A light ring from the bell announces our arrival as the man behind the counter quickly recognizes me. He's part of the Raven's informants so he sends a signal to another man to inform the boss.

That means Raven is still here.

I exhale in relief, putting the child I was carrying on a chair at one of the tables. We're going to survive.

"Take a seat, everyone." Alice guides the kids to the table. The children are exhausted from all the walking and stressing about being noticed. 

Even though they're young, they're not dumb enough to not be able to grasp the concept of danger. Children read people quite well, especially if they grow up in unsafety. But now that they see me more relaxed, they calm down as well and, therefore, their bodies quickly are overrun with exhaustion from the built up stress.