- 01 -
- Persistence -
"To love means loving the unlovable.
To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable.
Faith means believing the unbelievable.
Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."
— Gilbert K. Chesterton
As Naegi walked the streets among his classmates, his mind was crawling with thoughts. He couldn't help but think about everything that's changed.
There were many, many obvious things that changed over the last eight or so months (it was hard to tell the exact date without a phone calendar to keep track of). And yet, it was the smaller things that people don't often talk about that really hammered it in. Such as the smell. The nauseating, dirty stench that permanently embedded itself into the air, no matter if you were inside or out — the entire idea of 'fresh air' was left behind. A lot of ideas were.
How about the fact that he had been walking along a four-lane road, with no one around but a few other students? Yeah, that's a weird development. He remembers how packed this very street would be before everything happened. How he'd be in the car with his parents, with his sister, stuck in traffic for… for… That line of thought trails off. He didn't want to think about Komaru right now.
He makes a step and instead of his foot clashing against the road as it would've beforehand, it squishes in. That's another thing he's used to. Every other step sunk his shoe into rotten flesh. Flesh. He figures it's supposed to be soft, but that doesn't make each step any easier. Especially considering where it all came from.
"Hey, Naegi."
A voice brings him back to reality. He recoils as a hand shakes his shoulder about. "You okay in there?"
Naegi looks up and sees that it's Oowada talking to him. His hair isn't as long as it was. Kirigiri insisted that long hair is a hazard nowadays; she cut her hair as well, so Oowada's eventually went from sitting about a foot in front of his face to being tied up in a rope somewhere back home. His signature biker jacket never went anywhere, though.
Naegi blinks. "Ah… okay in where?"
"That damn head'a yours!" Oowada flicks Naegi in the side of his head. "You've been too quiet."
"O-Oh, I'm sorry," he says with a nervous smile, "I've just been thinking."
Kuwata shudders. "Bad idea, bro."
The ex-baseball player's right. Thinking too much is a bad idea.
So he stopped. Optimism is Naegi's thing, after all. And now isn't the time to be downtrodden over things that, in comparison, are really quite trivial.
Not while Maizono's back home with a bite that shredded her entire shin apart.
It happened a couple weeks ago now. She tagged along for what was supposed to be just another supply run, but it didn't go that away. The group was ambushed. Five healthy students left and four came back, one of them taking a bite with them. It was Hagakure who couldn't make it. They were only asked what happened once and it was never brought up again, but Asahina said something to the lines of Hagakure staying behind to hold back the horde. Of course he would. Leave it to the oldest to play the hero. Apparently, it was that or none of the five would've returned.
So, in essence, Naegi had to be grateful Maizono is alive at all. That's the kind of world he lived in now.
"Hey, while we're out… Do you guys wanna start looking for food?" Asahina asks.
"Eh!?" Oowada looks at the swimmer, "What, are you hungry?"
"Well, yeah!" Asahina pouts. "I didn't eat since last night. And that was like, a can of beans or something…"
"We do need some more food…" Naegi agrees, scratching his neck. He dug at the thin layer of dried dirt that's been there since who knows how long.
"So are we out already then?" Oowada asks with an irritated tone.
"Huh? No, we probably won't be out for a little while-"
"Then why are you stressin' over food?" Oowada says, "If we're still eating, then don't worry about it!" He shakes his head in dismay.
"That's all I ate yesterday!" Asahina protests.
"Tch…" Oowada frowns, "What about you two?"
"I shared some soup with Maizono," Kuwata says. He was absentmindedly twirling his stained baseball bat around. Sometimes he wonders how he managed to hang on to it this long, it being one of the very few things he still has from before the outbreak.
"I… didn't eat at all, haha…" Naegi admits.
"Wait, what!?" Oowada raises his voice again. "The whole day!?"
"I-It's okay! I'm used to it." Naegi puts up his hands in defense, as if to say there's nothing wrong with that. He planned on following up to that, but then he looks away in silence, realizing what he just said.
"See? We're starting to ration the food." Asahina frowns.
"What about Maizono? When was her last Iris?" Oowada asks.
"Four or five days... She's really overdue." Naegi says.
"That leg's killin' her, literally." Kuwata sighs. "Kimura said she might not make it through the night."
The quartet goes quiet as they continue on their way. The rest of the group needs food or they're going to starve to death, and Maizono needs an Iris or she's going to turn.
"Maizono needs her damn medication now." Oowada eventually decides, "So we're getting her her damn medication first!"
"I just meant on the way back!" Asahina says.
"You ain't supposed to go anymore than a few days without an Iris if you're infected! We don't know how long she has!" Oowada retorts,
"Hey, big guy, shut up!" Kuwata says in a hushed tone, suddenly stopping in front of the group and shooting an arm out. Asahina didn't look as if she was about to retort, anyway. He had a point.
"Huh?" Naegi asks, looking around Kuwata to see what he pointed at. "What is— ohh…"
There was a bit of a scene in the middle of the road.
Three humanoid figures crowded around another on the ground. At least, that's all it appeared to be at first. But that's more than enough evidence to tell what it really is.
The figures would never look human. Maybe they had the general shape of one, all four limbs usually accounted for, a head, a torso, and so on, but that's where the similarities ended. Saying they were skinny would be an understatement — dull, empty grey skin wrapped around the bones of their legs like an airtight seal with no meat between the two, and it was a wonder how they got around with those twigs holding up their entire weight. Though, considering how their cracked yellow ribs were often exposed, most of their weight just rotted off the body anyway. They never had much for hair. Whatever hadn't fallen off yet instead became thin, white, and each one few and far between. One of the things no one usually mentions, usually because no one wants to look at them long enough to notice it, is what happened to their eyes. It happens a lot, Naegi would recall walking through the halls at school and notice that some people just had more life in their eyes than others. But as for them, there was nothing in their eyes. No light. No life. They turned into the eyes of an animal. Where eyes once carried depth, and some felt as if you could stare into them and see miles and miles in, infected eyes felt like there was a wall right behind the pupil.
And that's just what they looked like. The ones in front of Naegi and his friends were digging their long, deformed fingers into a human corpse on the road, picking up pieces of its red — dark enough that it appeared black from the group's perspective — flesh and eating it like they were grabbing handfuls of popcorn. All they knew was aggression, hunger. Combine that with a lack of control and you have a hell of a problem.
"You see?" Oowada whispers to Asahina, pointing at the scene. "You want Maizono to become one of those?"
"What are you talking about? A-Are you stupid? Hell no!" Asahina grits her teeth.
"Then we're rushing back with an Iris!" Oowada says, before waving everyone over to the sidewalk.
…
The four sneak by the infected successfully. They were so focused on the current task that they weren't able to hear the group. An upside to their lack of reasoning was that, assuming they weren't actively targeting you, they were easy to avoid.
The group went quiet for a while.
Oowada sighs, slicing into the thick atmosphere. "Hey, look, I'm sorry, okay? I just want to get that Iris to Maizono as fast as we can. I didn't mean to say all that shit."
"I know," Asahina gives a little smile. "It's okay."
"How about we go on another run after, then?" Naegi suggests.
Asahina agrees. She knows Maizono is in trouble. But without food, the entire group is. Everyone needs to be looked after.
"I'll go on that run with you guys," Kuwata says.
"I'm taggin' along too." Oowada agrees.
The silence in the city eventually faded away as the group approached the government service center. A large sign in the middle of the road read the purple words 'Iris Sold Here' with an arrow pointing to the building, and the words 'Future Foundation' next to it. Around it were dozens of men in black from the riot helmet down to the combat boots, all carrying presumably automatic rifles. Some military vehicles were scattered around the area as well. Seeing the army was a common thing. The first time the army was called in, it was one of the many signs that drove home the devastation of the new world - now, it's as common as seeing a plainclothes police officer. Maybe even moreso.
"I can't believe they're still so expensive. Who has a job anymore?"
"I swear the government's the only people that even uses money at all still…"
"Right? Everyone prefers favors now. Or food."
"Or Irises."
"Aaaagh…" Kuwata groans, taking Naegi out of his focus on the conversation he was listening to. "I hate lines."
"This is bullshit, man." Oowada says, "How much you wanna bet they're gonna be out by the time we even get inside?"
"Don't say that! We'll get some this time." Asahina frowns.
"He's right though! It feels like nine times out of ten they're out of Irises." Kuwata comments.
"All we can do is hope this is the one time they aren't, then." Naegi says.
"...You and your hope, man." Kuwata says, but he can't stop the smile from coming on his face.
"Haha."
It took about fifteen minutes for them to even get inside. They were in a large room with a blue carpet and dozens of chairs scattered around in front of the long desk used for sales. It took another fifteen minutes of mundane waiting for people to start leaving.
"Huh? What's goin' on?" Kuwata asks to no one in particular, having just thrown the question out there.
"They're out."
The group's heads all turned to the elder passing by them.
"Again. And there won't be anymore until next week." she says in a quiet voice. Her eyes were red.
The students went silent as the building slowly emptied around them. Oowada marched right up to the desk as soon as he got a chance.
"What the fuck happened?" Without as much as a hello, he glares down the staff worker behind the desk.
"I'm afraid we're out of Irises today. We'll be open again next week, thank y—" the staffer started.
"The fuck you mean, next week!?" Oowada cut in, "We don't have until next week!"
"The demand is just too high. I'm sorry." he apologized.
"Bullshit!"
Oowada wasn't here for any one-liner excuses. His arms lunged over the desk, grabbing the worker by the scruff of his shirt and raising him in the air like his weight suddenly didn't matter. He stared down at Oowada and immediately struggled to get out of his iron grip as gasps rang out from the remaining crowd as a response.
"You know Maizono? Maizono Sayaka, the SHSL Idol?" Oowada says, each word carrying his seething anger, "She's back home with a fucking bite! She hasn't had an Iris in days!"
"Wh—what do you want me to do!? There's no more!" the worker says.
"I'm saying that's bullshit! You're holding it back for yourselves, aren't you!? Probably getting high off it or something, you bastards!"
"Oowada!" Kuwata had already left. He holds one of the doors open and leans in halfway, calling out to Oowada and says, "Drop him, I got an idea."
Several soldiers had surrounded Oowada already, each having the sights of their weapons trained on the biker's head. Kuwata motions for him to hurry up.
"Come on Oowada," Naegi says, "This isn't going to help…"
His voice is low. It has been days. Maizono barely got out of bed yesterday and not once today. When Naegi tried talking to her before leaving, she was almost unresponsive.
Even so, he refused to lose hope.
Not while she had breath in her lungs. Her only response to Naegi was to curl her fingers around his own to tell him she's still around, but that was more than enough. She's still alive.
It's not over yet. It's looking bad, but it's not over yet.
"Come on, Oowada, drop him! We don't know how much more time we can waste!" Asahina says, not explicitly mentioning why, but everyone got the idea, since they were already thinking it. Maizono's hours are numbered.
"Piece of crap," Oowada snarls at the worker, "You're lucky I ain't with the Diamonds right now."
To say he dropped him would be an understatement - he sort of threw him against the floor instead, which prompted more yelling from the soldiers and being forced outside. It was a shock they weren't shot on the spot.
"Alright, come on, come on!" Kuwata says as soon as everyone was back out in the cool autumn weather, already breaking into a jog away from the service center.
"Where are we going? We should be going that way—" Asahina says, jabbing a thumb behind her before getting cut off.
"The last guy who got an Iris. He went this way." Kuwata says, pointing ahead with his bat. He speeds up.
"Huh? And? What about him?" Asahina asks.
"We're gonna go get it from him!" Kuwata says.
"H-Huh!?" Asahina says in surprise.
"Aaaah, shit…" Oowada keeps up, but he hangs his head as he runs alongside Kuwata. "I didn't want to do this, man. We've never stolen from anyone before!"
"Weren't you a biker, dude? C'mon!" Kuwata frowns.
"Yeah, not just any biker, the leader of the goddamn Crazy Diamonds! What's that gotta do with anything?"
"What do you mean? That's your thing! Stealing!" Kuwata says, looking at Oowada in actual surprise.
Oowada scoffs. Just because he was a gang member before doesn't mean anything. That being said, Maizono isn't going to last much longer. From what the others said, from what he's seen, Maizono might not make it through the night. And he's not about to 'mercy kill' her. "Fuck! Alright. Just this once. I'm not trying to be that kinda guy again." He's seen too much evil lately. There's no way he's going to add to it any more than he needs to.
"Guys, I- a-are you serious?" Naegi manages to find it in himself to argue. He knows the suffering Maizono's currently going through. He knows that she might be dead as they spoke, he knows that while being behind on her Irises she may have turned and promptly bitten everyone else, and yet he can't just agree to this so easily. "What if they need an Iris too? Why are we—"
"Because for all we know, Maizono might not see tomorrow morning, man!" Kuwata replies. He's been spending a lot of time with her since she got bit. So he knows exactly how she's doing, and as much as he hates to admit it, he knows that Maizono is not well. "This is an emergency!"
"B-But it might be an emergency for them, too!" Naegi protests.
"I'm not going back empty-handed!" Oowada says, "I hate this too, but what the hell are we gonna do? Let her die?"
"What if we got the last Iris, huh? And someone attacked us? Would that be okay?" Asahina pipes up. A lot of people lost their humanity. It was the transition from having the comfort of knowing there'll be food on the table that night, to a relentless winter without a roof over their head that ripped it away. Now it's everyone for themselves, no matter what. Asahina was one of the lucky ones who still had their morals.
"Maizono's dying, man." Kuwata says, repeating the one thing no one isn't aware of, "Can't we talk about ethics and stuff later?"
"Who was it?" Oowada asks.
"Huh?" Kuwata looks back at him with furrowed, overgrown eyebrows.
"The one who got the last Iris, dumbass!"
"Oh! He was big. Bigger than you," Kuwata says, "Like… really big…"
"Great," Asahina rolls her eyes, "Did you even think through that we might not be able to rob this guy?"
"It'll be fine! There's four of us. Oowada could probably take him alone." Kuwata reassures, but it did nothing to calm Asahina's nerves, nor the urge to stop running and turn tail.
"What, that all I'm good for? Stealing and hurting people?" Oowada says.
"E-Eh—"
"Relax! I'm fucking with you." Oowada grins.
"Don't do that!" Kuwata snaps before sighing in relief.
The four eventually came up to an intersection.
"Hey, Kuwata… Which way did he go? He didn't turn at all?" Naegi asks.
Kuwata blinks. "Huh. That's a good question."
"Are you kidding me, Kuwata!?" Asahina practically shouts before slowing to a stop. The others do the same.
"H-Hey, I didn't see him turn!" Kuwata attempts to defend himself.
"You didn't see him go straight either, did you…?" Naegi asks.
Kuwata simply looks away, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Ahhh, shit. We need that damn Iris." Oowada shakes his head before looking around the intersection.
Naegi opted to look up, instead. The sky had previously been a slowly, steadily darkening blue, thanks to the later time of day, but he noticed the colors shifting toward orange. Sundown was coming.
"Yeaaah, when I popped in to grab you guys, I lost 'im…" Kuwata says.
"So he could've turned who knows how long ago?" Oowada asks for confirmation.
"I-I mean. Well." Kuwata can't answer that.
"Hang on… This is the first major intersection." Naegi points out. Asahina gives him a funny look - he wasn't for this not that long ago, why is he helping out now? As for Naegi, he decided that maybe they could reason with the guy who got the last Iris. Talk it out instead of resorting to violence. Maybe he had more at his base. At least, he decided that'd be how he'd convince himself that he's not becoming too desperate.
"But we passed other turns!" Oowada says.
"This is impossible." Asahina cuts in. "Let's go back. Maizono can hang in there one more night, right…?"
"I'm not ready to give up on her like that!" Oowada spits.
"And what, you think I am!?" Asahina yells back with a sudden increase in volume. "I don't want Maizono to die any more than you do! But how are we supposed to find an Iris now?"
"You guys are being too loud." Kuwata says, but it falls on deaf ears. With a sigh, he watches out for anyone who might've been attracted to the noise.
Naegi walked away for a moment. He looked around the intersection and the three ways he could've went. The one they were looking for was very likely to be gone by now, but he wasn't sure of that yet.
Straight ahead, there was a building in the midst of construction on the left corner; its signs talking about new, amazing condos, but chances are, they'll never see the light of day. He sees several infected dragging their feet behind them, wandering aimlessly.
The roads left and right opened up, becoming six lanes with islands in the middle separating the two directions. Naegi remembers the trees that grew on each island. The green is gone now, replaced by a pile of branches standing on brown dirt, thanks to no one taking any care of them. That's something that should really get fixed. Nature was one of the most unfortunate casualties of the outbreak.
While Naegi was scanning both directions, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.
Footprints in the dirt in front of him.
He kneels down to get a better look (he immediately regrets that as his slacks become soaked in something he doesn't go out of his way to find out what) at the footprints. They're awfully large; that being the reason why he even noticed them in the first place. Each one was made up of circles, rather than any pattern of grooves or anything. The prints' edges appeared to still be sharp and overall fresh, meaning the prints must've been recent.
"Hey, Kuwata." Naegi says, "Come here for a second."
He does. Looking down at the luckster with confusion he says, "What're you lookin' at down there?"
"What do you think of these prints?" Naegi asks.
"Huh…? Oh, shit, I didn't even see those!" Kuwata says after a moment, realizing there are indeed prints. He gets down on his knees and according to the slight grimace in his face, had the same reaction Naegi did to the dirty road. "So, uh, what about them?"
"Do you think our guy might've made these?"
"Well, I didn't see the bottom of the guy's shoe…" Kuwata says, scratching his head.
Naegi sighs. He'll have to get more specific. "You said he was big, right?"
"Yeah. And?" Kuwata nods.
Naegi adjusts his body so he can hover a foot next to the prints, making sure not to mess them up. "These are much bigger than mine, so…"
"Ohh…" Kuwata's eyes open up. "Yeah, he'd definitely be wearing a big shoe!"
"Were they sneakers?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember that. He was decked out in workout clothes. Well, and a gakuran, I think."
'Then we have a lead.' Naegi thinks to himself with a smile.
He gets up and explains to the others what he found. The target was recently seen heading this way, wore sneakers, and they were most likely a large size. The prints match all of the parameters.
"Hang on," Asahina says, "How do you know these are sneaker prints?"
"I don't, I guess. But look at the pattern," Naegi says, pointing at a print. Asahina crouches down. "It's all circles. Boots or any other shoe would have a different pattern since they're kind of like tire tread."
"Tire tread and boots ain't always the same thing," Oowada says.
When Oowada says that, a lightbulb blinks on in Naegi's head as he realizes Oowada was a bike enthusiast. He'd have to know tires.
"What's tire tread for again, Oowada?" Naegi asks.
"What? You just said it! The pattern has all these… notches and shit so it can grab onto the road, or break away snow or somethin'. For traction. But this is a shoe!" Oowada explains, despite having no idea where Naegi's going with this.
"Boots would have to be the same thing, right? Especially winter boots?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Now, these shoes… Do they look like they were made for extra traction?"
Oowada, refusing to get anywhere close to the ground, looked down at the prints while standing. He says, "No way. It's all circles. The fuck kinda traction are you gonna get with that?"
"Ohh…" Asahina says as she gets the idea.
"Sneakers aren't made for extra traction. Therefore, this could be a sneaker!" Naegi finally concludes.
Oowada shrugs. "Well, I guess that's the best we're gonna get."
"Alright! So we ready to keep moving?" Kuwata asks.
Asahina pauses for a moment. "Yeah, looks like it," she eventually says with a nod.
With the search now back in full swing, the group turns left to follow the footprints.
The prints might not have been definitive proof, but then they started seeing the dead bodies of the infected.
They surrounded one such body. It was more put-together than the rest they've seen, lacking a lack of any body parts, and even had a little more weight. The body had long legs and appeared as if it'd be nearly a foot taller than the group that inspected it. This was one of the different types of 'special' infected.
"I've never seen one dead before," Oowada had remarked, "The normal ones are fast enough, but these guys are a whole other fuckin' story."
Naegi looked at Kuwata. "Uh… Just how big was this guy?"
"Look, I'll put it to ya this way — I thought we were in a gym for a sec when I saw him." Kuwata replied.
Asahina's eyes drifted toward the body. "What are we getting ourselves into?"
Naegi felt a little worried too. He's never seen this type defeated, either. Anyone with that specific mutation of the virus got a physical upgrade instead: their legs would become stronger somehow, which led to them being able to sprint faster than someone clean, and getting stepped on would feel like getting stomped by a horse. The color of their skin and their reduced brain power was on the same level as the 'regular' infected, so you could still sneak past them — it just became a higher risk. No one would dare try to provoke one of these, because unless you have a gun and can take it out before it gets to you, there's no outrunning or even reaction time to defend yourself. Often people would try to find a different route to get around them.
Except none of that mattered in the slightest to whoever they were looking for, considering that they killed one of them.
"I might need that bat of yours when we find him," Oowada commented to Kuwata as they left the body, continuing on their way.
"Hey, can't we at least try talking to him first?" Naegi frowns.
"You kidding? Guy's gonna fuckin' crush us if he catches us with our guard down. So I say we crush him first!"
"Always resorting to violence…" Asahina sighs.
"Hey, no objections here." Kuwata says.
"Yeah? Well, I object."
Naegi looks at Asahina. "You too?"
"Of course!" she says, nodding enthusiastically, "If we don't have to hurt him, then let's not."
"Uhhh… I'm no good at talking, man." Kuwata says.
"Yeah, me neither. You know how much easier it would be if we could just knock him out and take it?" Oowada adds.
"Then let us do the talking." Naegi says, referring to himself and Asahina.
Oowada was going to protest, but a sound nearby distracted him, as well as the rest of the group.
Kuwata looks ahead. "No way…"
"What is it?" Oowada asks.
"That's him!"
They look ahead, and sure enough, they see a large, muscular male dressed in a pair of blue trackpants and a white tanktop under a black gakuran. A huge silver chain is in his hands, and he uses it to fight an infected - another fast one.
"Him!?" Oowada points at the male.
"Yeah. I told you he's big—"
"That's Nidai Nekomaru, dumbass! The SHSL Team Manager!" Oowada explains. "You didn't tell us that!"
"H-Huh? He's got an SHSL?" Kuwata asks, confused.
"Tch. People say he's almost three hundred pounds of lean fuckin' muscle. I don't think he eats anything other than pure protein." Oowada says.
Naegi swallows. That doesn't sound good.
Nidai is able to choke out the infected. It slumps over, making a thump as it collapses onto the floor. Nidai stands in place for a moment, stopping to catch his breath.
"Alright. Naegi, Asahina, you really sure about talking to this bastard?" Oowada asks.
"Yeah!" Asahina nods, determined.
Naegi agrees as well.
"Okay. Let's do it then." Kuwata says.
A few moments later, the group has finally caught up to the one they've been chasing all this time.
'Is this right…?' Naegi thinks, now a little worried.
"Hey!" Oowada suddenly calls out. "Nice kill."
Nidai's attention has been caught. He turns to the group in confusion. Asahina glares at Oowada and whispers, "What the hell are you doing?" to which Oowada does not respond.
"Huh!? What do you want!?" Nidai shouts back. Each word sounded like a bomb went off with it.
"U-Um, sorry… W-We need some help." Naegi says.
Nidai's expression softens immediately. "Oh! Well, why didn't you just say that!?"
'Because you're not going to like what help we need from you…'
"...Do you have an Iris?" Naegi asks, getting to the point.
Nidai pauses.
"Why?" he asks.
"We have someone dying back home," Asahina takes over, "She hasn't had one in days. Sh-she might not make it through tonight!"
"Mmmmm…" Nidai seems to be in thought.
"Oi, cut the bullshit! We saw you in line earlier!" Kuwata says, glaring.
"I need to get this Iris back home too!" Nidai yells, "There's three infected back home, at least one of them needs it!"
The group went silent.
'Three… Three infected?' Naegi thinks.
"Aw, fuck, man. That's rough." Kuwata says, looking away.
"I'm so sorry," Asahina says with a frown, "I hope they get better! Okay, come on. Let's go."
At least, she said that, but no one moved.
"Thank you! I'm sorry to hear about your friend too, and I hope you are able to find an Iris tonight!" Nidai says through a massive grin. He turns around and starts to walk away.
'N-No! Maizono…'
"Hey, we just gonna let him go so fast? After all that time we took gettin' after him?" Oowada asks with widened eyes, whipping around to face the group.
"Are we going to let three of his friends die?" Naegi counters. "The night's not over yet! We can still try to find an Iris!"
"He's a fuckin' stranger! Maizono's our friend!" Oowada says.
Asahina tries to calm Oowada. Kuwata can't make up his mind whether or not they should chase after him and get the Iris through violence.
'Maizono…'
Naegi was frozen in time, and time didn't stop to wait up. The longer he stopped, the farther away Nidai got. All he could think about was Maizono.
Ever since she came home with the bite, Naegi was terrified that she was going to turn. Turn into one of those things, the things Nidai had to kill in self defense. It's how the infection spread; through bodily liquids. That and the infected people's instinctual urge to attack — through bites — meant it spread way out of control and faster than the experts ever could've predicted.
This was going to happen to Maizono if she doesn't get an Iris.
The girl he initially met in middle school. Who he had known for years.
…
'What do we do?'
'What are we supposed to do!?'
…
..
.
.
It was a bang that brought him back to reality.
"Oowada!" Asahina screams.
"Woooah!" Kuwata steps back, shaking.
A few moments later, there's another thump. Like when Nidai killed the infected, and its dead body fell to the ground.
Oowada swallows and puts the gun —
'Where did he get a gun?'
— back in his jacket.
He puts the gun back in his jacket.
He slowly walks toward Nidai.
Nidai, was face first on the asphalt and had a slowly growing puddle of blood underneath him.
He kneels down next to Nidai and starts checking his pockets. "I'm sorry!" he says, over and over again. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't— I — "
"Oowada!" Naegi screams as well. Him, Asahina, and Kuwata rush over.
'When did he get a gun?'
'I've never seen him with a gun!'
'We don't use guns!'
'Ikusaba barely uses guns!'
'So where did Oowada's come from?'
Nidai coughs, and blood sprays out alongside saliva. He spits out a thick glob of blood right after. "What the hell…?"
"I got it. I-I got it, let's go!" Oowada shouts as he shoots back up to his feet, trembling and almost tripping as he does. His shaking hand holds a translucent purple capsule with a white lid.
An Iris. He's holding an Iris. He's holding the only thing that'll keep Maizono alive.
"Are we leaving him here!? What the hell is wrong with you!?" Asahina was shrieking now. Her pitch was high enough she was almost squeaking, and her skin went almost as pale as the infected.
Nobody knew Oowada had a gun. Nobody knew he was going to shoot Nidai.
"Th-This is for Maizono!" Oowada shouts. "I-I said let's go, dammit!"
"Dude, that's- dude!" Kuwata couldn't form a coherent sentence.
Naegi couldn't speak at all.
Nidai's arm suddenly went up. Oowada noticed this and stepped back, unholstering his gun, pointing it at him with one hand again. "Stop!" he warns.
Only Nidai's index finger curled out of his fist. He was pointing down the road. The group turned to follow his finger, and seen the inevitable barreling their way.
Infected are attracted to sound. Gunshots and yelling are loud. Thus, it wouldn't be too surprising if a horde were to come their way, and that's precisely what they all saw.
"Kch…" Oowada's eyes widened. "A-Alright. We're getting him outta here. We can't leave him here."
Asahina nodded. She took Nidai's head as the others came and took a part of Nidai, before a countdown from three and heaved his body up.
"There," Naegi says, nodding in the direction of a coffee shop — the only place nearby having all its windows, "In there!"
The four struggled to get Nidai through the door. Once that was done, things started moving fast.
Naegi and Asahina rushed to get Nidai on the floor as the swimmer unzipped and shrugged off her jacket. She uses it to wipe away excess blood spilling out of Nidai's wound before tying the jacket around it, which was easier said than done, thanks to his size. Oowada and Kuwata were quick to stack tables and chairs in front of the doors and windows.
"What the hell did you shoot him for!?" Asahina yells.
"It's okay!" Nidai manages to say. The others look at him, shocked he can still speak. "I understand…"
"I-It's not okay!" Asahina says, shaking her head rapidly.
"How long have you had a gun, dude?" Kuwata asks Oowada.
"I found it last week. Didn't tell anyone because I knew no one would like that I had one…" Oowada says.
The five sit in the dark, silent coffee shop. Soon enough, the horde makes it past the windows. They're all speeding by. Running like they're trying for an Olympic gold medal. Several different types of infected are seen in the crowd, and the notably weaker ones are tripping over themselves and falling, unable to keep up.
"Where the hell did all these guys come from?" Kuwata asks, watching the dozens of infected run past, from the cover of the darkness.
"From a gunshot," Asahina says.
Oowada looks over at Nidai. He lies on the ground in silence, no other sounds than him trying to regulate his breathing. No groans, no yelling, seemingly no pain. This isn't how people usually react to getting shot, Oowada notes.
"...You okay down there, bud?" Oowada asks.
Nidai puts up a thumbs up. "Heh… You misunderestimate me! I'll be fine…!" Then his face falls. "But I can't feel my legs…"
Oowada knows why. He noticed it earlier, but figured if he tried not to talk about it, or even think about it, he could possibly will the wound into not doing that. He had shot Nidai in the back near his hips.
If Nidai can live through this, he's might not walk again. He might be paralyzed.
"Sorry, I wish I could do better than this…" Asahina says, referring to her jacket. "We thought we were just going to go to the service center and right back, so we didn't bring any first aid. We didn't think anyone was going to shoot anyone!" she adds, giving Oowada a dirty glare.
"I'll be okay…" Nidai reassures once again, with a grin.
More silence. More infected past the window. Oowada may as well have awoken all of the city's infected population.
"You're Hope's Peak students, aren't you?" Nidai asks.
"Yeah," Asahina nods. "Class 78."
Nidai nods. "77… SHSL Team Manager, Nidai Nekomaru a-at your service!"
"Asahina Aoi, SHSL Swimming Pro," Asahina smiles as she introduces herself.
"Um, I'm Naegi Makoto. SHSL Lucky Student… Can you believe it? I won a lottery to get in." Naegi says.
"We have one of those too! I'll never understand that kid's luck… Thing works both ways," Nidai replies.
"I feel the same sometimes."
Kuwata continues the introductions. "Well, I'm Kuwata Leon. SHSL Musician." He grins.
Nidai gives him a confused look. "...You don't look like Ibuki."
"Shit, did you have a Musician in your class?" Kuwata asks, bluff called out.
"Mhm! I wish you could've met her while she still had a guitar…"
Kuwata knew nothing about Ibuki in the slightest, but now he wants to change that.
"Daaamn, I do too. Haven't heard one of those in a while. Well, anyway, I'm the SHSL Baseball Star." he says, rolling his eyes. "Like, for real? Baseball? How the hell'd I get scouted for that?"
Nidai grins. "So that's why I never saw you at practice..."
"Huh?" Kuwata blinks.
"I coached the baseball team for a while." Nidai says, pausing for a moment to take a breath, "They were so excited when I told them an SHSL Baseball Star was on the roster, but…"
"...That Baseball Star never showed up." Kuwata finishes the sentence.
"Of course he wouldn't." Asahina rolls her eyes.
"Hey! And how much practice did you go to, huh?" Kuwata snaps.
"Enough to represent Hope's Peak at the Olympics."
"You didn't even swim!"
"I would've one day — if the world didn't end!"
"Bullshit!"
Nidai, hearing the two athletes bicker back and forth, eventually broke out into a roaring laughter that was loud enough to turn a few of the heads outside. Somehow, whether it be good luck or what, there wasn't a large reaction.
"Th-the fact that you can laugh like that after getting shot is kind of amazing." Kuwata comments.
"That's his thing," Oowada eventually walked over to the group. He wasn't sure if he should, considering he's responsible for the guy on the floor bleeding out, but a man has to at least try to own up to what he's done, he figures. "Man, I remember bein' with my buds just walking through the halls and hearing this guy from the other end of the building. We wouldn't have a fuckin' clue what he'd be laughing about but we'd join in too."
Nidai laughs again. "So what about you? What's your name?" he asks Oowada.
"Oowada Mondo, SHSL Biker Gang Leader. Look, I'm sorry about shooting you, okay!?" Oowada says, suddenly raising his voice.
"Don't apologize for what you've done, Oowada!" Nidai retorts, before coughing. Red comes out of his mouth again. Asahina goes to try and find napkins upon seeing this, "What's done is done. I understand why you did it…"
"I shouldn't have! We should've kept looking for an Iris. The sun was still out!"
The sun had just about set by then. A blanket of darkness covered the streets, and without streetlights or neon signs, it would become much harder to navigate. Going out at night, where the infected roam and you can't see them, was suicide.
"We could've been back by now…" Oowada sighs.
"There's no point talking in should'ves and could'ves!" Nidai says. His voice is strained with each word. Asahina comes back with some napkins that weren't very soft anymore, but Nidai is able to use them to wipe his mouth. "You should be thinking about how y-you're getting out of here…"
Naegi, who had been silent again, had his attention grabbed by what Nidai just said.
"What do you mean 'how you're getting out of here'?" he asks.
Nidai goes quiet for a moment, before looking down at his legs. "I'm two hundred fifty pounds and I won't be able to walk… I'm only going to slow you all down!"
"You stupid or something!?" Oowada says, "That's nothing! I'll carry you back to our place my damn self!"
"A-Aren't you the manpower here?" Nidai asks.
"You haven't seen me take an infected out yet." Asahina says. The only problem was making the decision to go through with it: there was once a human life behind the virus, so at times it was hard to just kill them.
"And like, I got this big ass bat, anyway." Kuwata says, twirling the bat around again. Naegi, the lover rather than the fighter, had nothing to say on this front.
"I don't want any of you to get hurt…!" Nidai protests.
"Didn't you say you have three infected back home? Don't you need to go back to them?" Naegi asks.
"Night's still young. We can drop you off, head back out and grab some Irises for your friends." Oowada says.
"Mhm! If we can save any of them, that's what we'll do!" Asahina smiles.
"I can't ask you to do all that for me!" Nidai says.
"It's okay. We'll do it. We have a pharmacist back home, maybe she can help you." Naegi says, giving his own smile as well.
"You can't just leave your friends behind, man. We'll get you back to them." Kuwata says.
Nidai pauses, thinking over the offer.
"Oh, uh, by the way. You don't have a choice. We're gonna fix you up, dammit!" Oowada says.
Soon enough, Nidai's trademark boisterous laughter came back.
"Then so be it!" Nidai grins.
He grunts, moving his arms out to grab the nearby counter. Asahina tries to stop him, but he waves her off. He eventually struggles his way up onto his feet, leaning against the counter for support.
Nidai looks at the others. "Well…" he says, pausing again, this time for breath, "When are we getting out of here?"
"As soon as we find a way out," Asahina says.
"Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I don't really like the idea of going through that…" Kuwata points out, looking ahead at the horde still flying through the streets.
"Yeah, and waiting for 'em to pass ain't an option." Oowada adds.
"There has to be a back door or something, right?" Naegi says.
"Yeah, that's our best bet for sure." Kuwata says.
The group all look at one another for a moment, then give a determined nod.
"Okay," Naegi says, "Let's get back home."
[A/N: Ayylmao.
So I originally posted this over on AO3, and I figured I should put it up here too because why not.
This is, if you couldn't tell after reading like 7200 words, the introduction to a zombie apocalypse AU. I really don't know how long this is going to be. There's going to be a major plotline and I do have an ending planned out, but the in between may be long, or we might get right to it, who knows. I should. But I don't. At least not 100%. All I know is that I don't really plan on making this a 500 chapter epic with hundreds of thousands of words.
This is also my first time writing a fanfic with existing characters. I fucked around on the last couple years, but I only ever did OC inserts, lmao. So chances are everybody is incredibly out of character. Please let me know if they are.
On that note, pls do give constructive criticism? I know I can be a better writer, and some second opinions on what I'm doing right/wrong would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, that's that. Thanks for reading!]