My name is Ellie.
I am a nine-year-old Ursus.
Tomorrow is my tenth birthday.
Before my father died, he was still whispering to me about the cake he promised to find.
I didn’t know what the Reunion Movement was.
Mom would only hold me tight and say they were a bunch of lunatics covered in black stones.
They appeared out of nowhere one day.
The supermarkets, the primary schools, the factories…
everything shattered into dust and ash.
Overnight, we lost our warm home and had to crawl into a damp, freezing basement.
All those sturdy walls and all those smiling neighbors—in a single night, they were just gone.
That was the first time I learned what real hunger felt like.
The basement was pitch-black and biting cold.
When Mom and Dad crept outside to scavenge for scraps, I curled up in the corner, terrified.
Why did those people with the stones have to hurt us?
Other survivors hiding in the dark whispered that Reunion blades had pierced Dad’s chest.
But Mom had covered my eyes tightly with her trembling hands, hiding us behind a pile of rubble.
Dad fell without making a single sound.
I knew nothing until it was over.
When I told this story to the person wearing the heavy black hood, he hesitated for a long moment.
He knelt down to my level and told me that I had a father who loved me very, very much.
Many years later, when I grew up, I finally understood what he meant.
Dad must have been in agonizing pain when the blades hit him.
But he was afraid that if I heard him scream, I would cry, and the bad men would hear us.
So, at the very end of his life, he swallowed his agony and didn’t make a single sound.
Ah, speaking of that person in the hood…
the others call him the Doctor.
It sounds like a title for someone incredibly smart and powerful.
When Mom and I were cornered in the ruins, about to be caught by the Reunion monsters, he stepped out of the smoke and saved us.
He said he came from a place called Rhodes Island.
I didn’t understand most of his complicated words, but I learned one important thing that day.
Not everyone with stones on their skin is a bad person.
The people from Rhodes Island are very, very kind.
They give me warm food, they give Mom medicine, and they stand between us and the monsters.
But I still like the Doctor the most.
He looks like a total weirdo wrapped in all those coats, but he lets us stay close to his side and actually talks to us.
The older brothers and sisters from Rhodes Island are as powerful as the superheroes in my comic books.
Yet, every single one of them listens to his orders without question.
He is brilliant.
He can guess exactly what everyone is going to do before they even move.
Even those terrifying Reunion enemies cannot hide a single trick from him.
It feels as if the whole world is secretly helping him.
When he points his finger, even the falling rubble from the ceiling only crushes the enemies.
No one can escape his gaze.
Under his command, the brothers and sisters of Rhodes Island always find the perfect cover and strike at the exact right second.
But the funny thing is, he isn’t physically powerful at all.
Honestly, he might not even be as strong as I am.
After that tall, shining sister named Nearl had to leave our group to fight elsewhere, he actually needed me to help support his weight while he walked.
Ever since I met him, I have been worried he might trip and die at any moment.
He is also incredibly disobedient.
Even though that strict sister named Dobermann has yelled at him through the radio a dozen times, he still refuses to hide and always stands right in the most dangerous spots.
“Doctor, if you keep putting yourself in the line of fire like this, you will regret it!”
“Dobermann, I am the Commander on this battlefield.”
Bang!
Please do not misunderstand, that was just the sound of a massive explosion caused by Amiya’s Originium Arts blasting a wall apart.
Even with explosions shaking the ground, he remains perfectly calm.
When the shockwave hit, he shielded me and covered my eyes with his gloved hand, just like Mom did.
His heavy coat carries a faint, clean smell of medical disinfectant, completely overpowering the pungent stench of blood in the air.
“Ellie, do not be afraid.
I will protect all of you.”
He always says things like that, but doesn’t he realize he still needs me to protect him?
I quickly kicked away a jagged piece of concrete that he definitely would have tripped over.
I can tell that the other adult refugees are still terrified of the Rhodes Island people because of the black stones growing on their skin.
But they clearly just saved our lives!
They are completely different from those Reunion murderers!
It is such an obvious truth, yet the adults refuse to see it.
Sometimes grownups are not even as smart as kids.
Only a few of us children dare to approach our rescuers.
Because of that, only we know that these superheroes are actually incredibly gentle and not scary in the slightest.
“…Even if you are covered in stones, I will never be afraid of you!” I promised him with absolute seriousness.
He wears such thick, heavy clothing all the time.
Is it not because he is afraid of us seeing the ugly stones on his body?
“…Probably?” His voice sounded a bit strange, muffled behind his mask.
See, sometimes he really isn’t that smart either.
After all, he doesn’t even know how to get angry when people treat him badly, he doesn’t know how to run away when he is in danger, and he doesn’t even seem to know if he actually has stones on him or not!
“Doctor, even when dealing with a child, you must maintain basic tactical vigilance.
The attitude of Ursus civilians who have just lost their homes toward the Infected is highly volatile…”
The Doctor stood there, obediently taking Dobermann’s nagging through his earpiece, while his hand quietly patted my round bear ears.
If this were a comic book, Dobermann would have a big caption reading ‘Vigilant but nagging’while the Doctor would be labeled’Obedient but absolutely refusing to change’.
“On this broken land, everyone is simply struggling to survive, Instructor Dobermann,” he replied, using those complicated adult words I barely understood.
“As far as my fragmented memories serve me, I trust her.
I trust them.
What we need to shatter right now is nothing more than the baseline wariness between the Infected and ordinary people.
In my tactical estimation, I have the ability to pay the price for this choice.”
That familiar, overly philosophical tone—a speaking style the other operators secretly called his ‘Old Cat’ impression—finally made Dobermann fall silent.
I grumbled and struggled to pull my fluffy Ursus ears out of his grip.
It hurts!
Do not use my ears as a stress ball when you are thinking!
He chuckled softly and opened his mouth to say something else.
Then, without warning, his hand shoved me firmly backward.
“Go back to your mother, Ellie.
Now.”
When he stood up straight, the gentle weirdo vanished.
It felt as if an invisible, suffocating weight had crashed down over the entire street.
His posture shifted, radiating a heavy, precise, and terrifying aura of absolute control.
“All operators, fall back to defensive positions.
That boy called Mephisto is here.”