I'm Alone In This Apocalypse Vault With 14 Girls?

"Because I don't want to," Jin said firmly.

"Oh." Eve looked genuinely perplexed, as if this possibility had never occurred to her. "But... it's for saving humanity. Don't you want to save humanity?"

"Of course I do, but not like that."

"Hmm." Eve tapped her pen against her chin, thinking. "This is a problem. I'll need to change my plan. Maybe show off my special powers? Or show how I'm better than everyone else?" She perked up. "I could fight some of those mutated creatures outside! That would show how useful I am! Would that make you more interested in having babies with me?"

Jin just stared at her, completely at a loss for words.

Scarlett watched the exchange with growing concern. Eve wasn't just a threat—she was a person, albeit one with a completely warped perspective. She genuinely believed in her mission, her purpose. And that made her both more dangerous and more complicated to deal with.

Amirah stepped forward, her diplomatic instincts kicking in. "Eve, perhaps we should discuss this more reasonably. There are rules for how people talk to each other, for making friends—"

"Friends?" Eve tilted her head. "Oh! You mean the stuff humans do before making babies! I studied those! Flowers, dinner, awkward talking, then eventually babies! That seems slow. Why not skip to the baby-making part?"

Luna sighed, pulling out her own tablet. "Let me see if I can find any information about the Chimera Project. If she's connected to the same old research as the Phoenix Project, there might be files—"

"Oh, the Chimera Project!" Eve said brightly. "That's me! I was their best test subject. Well, only the living test subject, really. The others had... problems." She made a little explosion gesture with her hands. "But I'm totally fine! Mostly."

Shin stepped forward, her medical training overriding her fear. "Eve, I need to understand how your body works. If we could run some tests—"

"Ooh! Tests!" Eve bounced excitedly. "I love tests! The scientists used to give me puzzles and mazes. One time they put me in a room with a monster and told me to make friends. I did! He was very nice until I got hungry."

Shin paled slightly. "I-I... see. Perhaps we'll start with something simpler. A blood sample, maybe?"

Eve held out her arm immediately. "Sure! But I get to keep the needle. I collect them." She leaned closer to Shin, whispering conspiratorially, "They're great for picking locks."

Anna Volkov stepped forward, her mind already processing the implications. "You mentioned being in Pod 735. That's in the off-limits area, isn't it? The one with the extra strong walls?"

Eve nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! They said I was special. The walls were super thick because I kept breaking out. One time I got all the way to the cafeteria before they caught me. That was a good day. They had chocolate pudding."

"The off-limits area was built for dangerous biological stuff," Anna said, more to herself than to Eve. "The walls were meant to contain virus outbreaks, not just keep people in. How did you...?"

Eve grinned, showing those too-sharp canines again. "I'm good at finding weak spots. Like this one wall that had a tiny crack behind the vending machine. It took me three months to wiggle through it, but I made it!"

Luna's eyes widened. "You broke through a containment wall? Those are built to withstand explosions!"

"It was just a little crack!" Eve said defensively. "And I fixed it with gum afterwards. Mostly."

Yuki, who had been silently observing, finally spoke. "There's a darkness around you. Like something that shouldn't exist in this world."

Eve tilted her head. "Oh, that's probably the alien DNA! The scientists found some weird genetic stuff in a space rock and thought it would be fun to mix it in! It's why my hair does this." She made her white hair float around her head like it was underwater. "Cool, right?"

"This is insane," Sera muttered, rubbing her temples. "We've got a lab-made girl who wants to repopulate the earth with Jin, and she's part alien?"

"Part everything!" Eve corrected cheerfully. "Human, monster, Tsurugi, alien, and some secret stuff the scientists wouldn't tell me about. They said I was 'perfectly weird'—I took it as a compliment!"

Rosa snorted. "Well, they weren't wrong about the weird part. Not sure about perfect, though."

Eve's face fell slightly. "You don't think I'm perfect?"

"I think you're scary," Rosa said honestly. "But in a kinda fascinating way? Like a car crash you can't look away from."

Eve perked up again. "Oh! Like when I made that scientist's head explode! That was fascinating! And messy!"

The room fell silent, everyone staring at Eve in horror.

"What?" Eve asked innocently. "He was trying to take my lady parts out without putting me to sleep first. That's not nice. So I made his head explode. It was self-defense!"

Clara looked like she might faint. "You... you can make people's heads explode?"

Eve nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! It's one of my cooler tricks. Want to see? I can show you on one of those mutated creatures outside!"

"Absolutely not!" Sera snapped. "No exploding heads! No demonstrations! No... whatever this is!" She gestured wildly at Eve.

Scarlett stepped forward, trying to regain some control of the situation. "Eve, while we're processing all... this... perhaps you could tell us more about your job? Why were you made? What exactly were you supposed to do?"

Eve's cheerful demeanor softened slightly, becoming more focused. "My main job is to make sure humans keep going and get better by making babies with the best possible genes. Other jobs include surviving, getting rid of threats, and finding stuff we need." She looked directly at Jin. "Jin Tsurugi is the best possible match for my job. His Phoenix upgrades, combined with my Chimera changes, would make babies with amazing powers to survive."

She pulled out her notebook again, flipping to a page filled with complex genetic charts. "The numbers show a 97.3% chance of making babies with special powers. If we pick the best babies over three generations, we could make enough people to live well in this broken world."

She looked up at Jin, her crimson eyes serious. "This isn't just about making babies, Jin. This is about making sure people don't die out. That we don't just survive, but get strong enough to handle this new world."

The room was silent, everyone processing the weight of what Eve was saying. Despite her bizarre delivery and casual mentions of getting rid of people and exploding heads, there was a terrifying logic to her mission.

Jin sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Eve, I understand that people need to survive. But we can rebuild without... without me making a bunch of super-powered babies."

Eve tilted her head, genuinely confused. "But why would you want to do it the slow, hard way when we can do it right? That doesn't make sense."

"People aren't just about logic," Scarlett said gently. "It's about choice and love. About building something together, not ... making babies for the best genes."

Eve looked thoughtful. "Love... that's the chemical stuff that happens in human brains, right? The one that makes people act weird and make bad choices?"

"That's one way to put it," Rosa said with a wry smile.

"Interesting," Eve murmured, scribbling in her notebook. "Note: Look into love as a reason to make babies. Might need to test it."

"Absolutely not," Sera, Scarlett, and Shūmei said in unison.

Eve pouted. "You're all so boring. Fine, I'll watch for now. But I'm keeping you on my list, Jin." She pointed her pen at him. "You're still my number one baby-making guy."

Jin just sighed, looking utterly defeated.