Disclaimer: I am a big fan of Saeko, and I loathe Rei, so Takashi will end up with Saeko. Hirano and Saya never felt like a natural pairing to me, so I'll decide later if I want to pursue that. That doesn't mean that I won't be focusing on their characters. I've added some OCs to the story to help it along.
This starts off around Ep 7 or 8, just after the groups are separated near Saya's house. That said, I don't own HOTD or any of its characters, much as I may want to.
Hope you enjoy it. Reviews, criticisms and praise are all much appreciated.
Currently reformatting and editing!
-Split-
Takashi saw Rei thrown off the Humvee, her hand just beyond his grasp as Shizuka suddenly applied the brakes. Her body flew in a graceful arc, her back crashing down on the vehicle's fender before bouncing on to the street, front-first. She landed about two meters ahead of the vehicle, and didn't seem like she could move. Takashi quickly jumped off the side of the van. He saw Them approaching, hardly fifty meters away. He quickly moved to the other side, and saw Saeko getting out through the door.
"Get her, Takashi. But move quickly", she said. They'd both agreed to address each other by their first names the previous night, considering the fact that they had become quite close the past few days.
"I'll try to keep em occupied too", called Kohta from the top of the van. He setup a rifle and started firing at the approaching horde.
"Thanks, guys", said Takashi, before rushing off to get Rei.
"That's what we do now, isn't it", said Saeko, before rushing off to fight the horde with her bokken, her trusty wooden sword.
Takashi picked Rei up, and brought her to the side of the door. "Saya, can you take her? I'm going to help Saeko."
"Of course, Takashi", said the pink-haired genius.
Takashi nodded, and loaded up his shotgun to join Saeko. He was a short range fighter, and the Ithaca was perfect for him. Kohta had shown him how to use it the previous night. Everyone had picked a firearm and gotten comfortable with it, and they'd hoarded as much as they could carry from Shizuka's friend's vast store of ammo and guns. Even Saeko had acquiesced to carry a Beretta 92FS. Kohta used a Springfield M1A1, as did Rei, though she had one with a bayonet attached, and had hardly fired it. Saya had picked herself a handgun similar to Saeko's, and Shizuka had picked up as much medical equipment as she could find and store in the van. There was more than enough for the medical savant to start a field hospital right there, in the middle of the battlefield that was Tokonosu City.
Saya took Rei's gun off her, and helped her up into the Humvee. She laid her on the floor, and hoped that someone at her family's estate would have noticed their entrance. Either way, Komuro, Hirano and Busujima had to try and clear a path for them, in case the estate was overrun. Gunshots were fired at regular intervals from the top of the van - Hirano was having a ball. Saya looked out to see Saeko slice and dice Them like it was nothing, despite using just a wooden sword. Takashi shot Them down as fast as he could, sometimes using the shotgun as a blunt weapon to bash their heads in. He seemed to have gotten a lot stronger and his movements were a lot more fluid, less inefficient than before.
"Adrenaline", she concluded. "And Takashi-kun has possibly been getting some tips from Miss. Busujima. Hmm, did something happen yesterday, though?"
Saya considered the situation. Miyamoto-chan had seemed a bit moody ever since they'd left the apartment, and Takashi-kun had been stealing glances at Saeko-chan rather than her.
If Saya wasn't wrong, and she rarely ever was (especially about Takashi) Takashi was slowly, but surely, starting to let go of the feelings he thought he had (and she was sure there was never anything there to begin with) for Rei, and possibly letting Saeko in. She was happy for him, she knew how depressed her best friend had been the past year, after the girl he (said he) loved had started going out with that snake who called himself his friend. Previously, he'd been indifferent to most things in life, just drifting along where it took him. She had wished she could be more like him, laid-back and carefree, but she had to be top of class to keep her parents happy, and to satisfy herself. She wanted to continue having fun with Takashi. Since she was the sort of person who would deny herself all manner of fun, and could not be happy unless she was the very best at what she did, she had to make sure she continued living up to her high standards to continue being around Takashi.
Komuro was decently smart, and an above-average student. He always managed a place in the top ten or so of the class-mostly, with help at the last minute from Takagi every semester. Of course, Takagi gave it to him kicking and screaming about how he never changed, but she did it just to keep up appearances. The relationship between the two of them was something beyond just the best of friends. They'd been inseparable since their childhood, they understood and trusted each other implicitly, shared each other's secrets, and were almost always together. This had been especially true in the last year, since Takashi had drifted apart from Hisashi and Rei in the aftermath of the commencement of their relationship.
She didn't have much of an opinion on Rei (basically seeing her as someone she had to tolerate), until she'd 'dumped' him before even being committed to him. After that, she'd hated her for what she'd done to Takashi. Takashi had accepted it soon enough, but he'd not let her go. Now, Saya truly believed he had, especially with the way he'd pushed her away last night at the apartment when she'd thrown herself on him. (Saya hadn't meant to spy, but well, it had happened, and she'd been weirdly angry about it, for some reason unknown even to herself) Well, he hadn't really pushed her away, but he'd looked away when she'd tried to kiss him, and his look had been directed toward the kitchen, where Saeko had been cooking something. Saya probably read a lot more into that than she should have, but she knew Takashi, and she knew it was probably significant. The dog barking was what had really brought Takashi to his senses.
Saya turned her head back to observe the fighting.
Takashi and Saeko were back to back, and she had to admit, the two of them worked brilliantly as a team. Saeko was undoubtedly more skilled, more agile and more controlled, but she couldn't do it all on her own. Takashi was a literal jack of all trades; he just seemed to pick up the slack wherever it was needed, and not just while they fought. The group seemed to be looking to him more and more for leadership.
Saya had always sensed the latent leadership qualities Takashi possessed - he genuinely cared for people, he tried to get them to believe in themselves, and he always supported them when they needed it. She had seen it time and again in their own interactions, in his interactions with Hisashi and Rei, when he'd just backed off for them, despite his own sadness, and most recently during this ordeal, where he'd encouraged Kohta to use his knowledge of guns and military equipment to their advantage. These were just the examples she could think of off the top of her head, but he'd always been that way. Almost poetically, he'd wasted it all with his almost nihilistic outlook on life. But, maybe it could rise to the surface and help them survive this together, now. She knew they most certainly needed it.
Saya snapped her mind back to the situation on hand. She could muse later.
She was the brains of the group - the ideator. Takashi had told her as much. She had to do something to find out if her family was alive, and could help them. She thought for a bit, and suddenly remembered that there was an alarm near where they were standing. It would alert her family estate's security force to outside presence. They could help. They had to...IF they had managed to survive thus far, that is.
She spotted the red square of glass that needed to be broken during such emergencies, across the fence. She picked up a stone from nearby, and aimed it carefully, before throwing it toward the alarm. She missed with her first two tries, before finally hitting it on her third.
"Whew!" she thought. "I was running out of stones. Now, if they're alive, they should be here soon. Please let them be okay!"
She sent a small prayer toward the sky hoping for the safety of the people on her family's estate. Belatedly, she realized that asking Kohta to aim and shoot the damn thing would have accomplished her goal faster. Oh well...
Kohta shouted, "Damn it, what are those two doing?"
She ran to the other side of the Humvee to see what Kohta meant. It hit her immediately. Saeko and Takashi did not have a clear route back to the vehicle.
She quickly realized that the other horde of Them had come down the other side of the intersection and cut them off. They were blocked on all sides, and their only option for escape was the stairs to the park. Saya despaired. What could they do now? Takashi and Saeko were separated from them, and the hordes of Them seemed to be equally intent on killing both their separate groups.
"Saya!", called a voice, strangely familiar.
She turned back to see…. her mother! "Mommy! Quick, we need help!", she shouted.
Her mother nodded, and said, "We'll pull the wires up, you need to scramble through. Leave the vehicle, we'll secure it later."
"Wait, I'll get Rei first, she's injured."
Saya rushed in and called to Shizuka, "Sensei, we need to get outta here. Leave everything behind, we'll get them later. You need to handle Alice-chan."
Shizuka nodded and got out of the car, running toward where Saya's mother and the group of guards were standing. Saya's mother indicated a gap in the fence, which was being lifted up by some of the men there. Shizuka nodded, and rushed over, pushing Alice to the other side. Alice had Zeke with her. Shizuka then scrambled across as well.
Saya and Hirano followed in a short while, supporting Rei. She was having trouble remaining upright. They set her down near the opening and pushed her gently through. Shizuka and Saya's mother both pulled from the other side to help.
Once they were through, Saya looked at Kohta and told him, "Your turn, Chubby, don't take too long, all right. I'll go try and see about Saeko and Takashi."
She rushed off to her vantage point atop the Humvee and saw that Takashi and Saeko had no chance of getting across the same way as them.
She yelled, "Takashi, Saeko, we'll be at my house. Please find a way to get to us!
Takashi and Saeko turned and ran toward the stairs to the park.
They reached the top of the stairs and saw the undead nearly at the fence to Saya's estate. The guards there were shooting them down, but the horde just kept advancing. Saya scrambled her way through to the other side of the fence.
Takashi looked at the shops in the street below, and said, "Hmm, Saeko-san, maybe we can take some of the pressure off them."
"You have an idea?", asked Saeko. Takashi nodded and pointed at 4 stores down the road. Three were car showrooms, one was a jewelers.
Saeko looked at Takashi, puzzled. "I'm betting they all have security alarms, right? Really loud ones to prevent burglary?"
Realization dawned upon Saeko and she clapped Takashi on his back. "My god, that's genius, Takashi!"
Takashi felt warm and tingly at the high praise he'd just received from the beautiful girl at his side. He blushed bright red.
"I'll tell them what we're gonna do, Saeko-san."
Then, he yelled in the direction of the Takagi estate, "Hey Saya, I'm gonna blast some of these shop windows - the alarms should attract Them and take some of the pressure off your estate, and if you can get the zombies clustered enough in one area, you can blow 'em all to hell with a grenade or something."
Saya shouted back after a moment, "Okay, Takashi, see if it works!"
Takashi took aim with his shotgun's scope- probably the first time he had had cause to use it, since he normally fought at close range. He said, "Okay, Saeko-san, I'll take the 2 on the right, can you try getting the 2 on the left?"
"With pleasure", she replied, before lining up her own pistol on one of the shop windows.
Within moments they had activated the alarms in all 4 shops. As Takashi had predicted, they were loud enough to attract quite a large number of Them away from the estate.
"Now, Saeko-san. I believe we should find another route to the estate like Saya said, it's too dangerous to fight our way across, and we're sitting ducks here."
"I don't know the area too well, Takashi-kun."
"That's fine, leave that to me. Saya and I have been friends since forever. We used to play around here often."
"Fine by me, then. Just inform them and we'll be on our way." She paused, and added, "Looks like we'll be getting some alone time", with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Umm, yeah, Saeko-san, we should just have made our way below the fence like they did from the beginning. I wasn't thinking. Now we're both separated from the group. I'm really sorry", said Takashi, blushing.
Before the apocalypse that was unfolding around them, he could never have even dreamed of talking to Saeko; she had been one of Fujumi High's queens, every male student's wet dream - beautiful, intelligent, athletic, and so utterly unattainable. Now, they relied on each other to survive, and he was on a first name basis with her. Things changed quickly when the world went to hell.
Saeko laughed, and said, "Takashi-kun, you ran to help me, and to create a distraction for the others to be safe. It was instinctive, but it also shows how much you care about everyone. There's certainly nothing to apologize for, and I certainly don't regret being alone with you."
Takashi's face turned crimson at that. "Err, yeah. I better tell em before they wonder what we're doing. And, we better start off quick, some of Them are making their way up the stairs", he said.
"Yo, Saya. Saeko and I will try to find another way to get to your mansion. We'll be there as soon as we can, I promise."
Saya shouted back, "Yeah, I'll be waiting."
Takashi turned back to Saeko, and gave her a grin. "Well, Saeko, ready to find our way to safety?"
She smiled and said, "Lead the way, Takashi. I'll be right behind you."
-0-
Alice realized that Takashi and Saeko hadn't turned up, as the remainder of their group, sans Rei (who'd been carried off in a stretcher ahead of them) made their way to Saya's mansion.
"Are Takashi-onii-chan and Saeko-onee-san gonna be alright?", she asked to the group in general. Zeke barked seriously, almost as if to say that he was worried about their safety as well.
The two teenagers and one adult looked at each other with some worry – they were obviously concerned about Takashi and Saeko as well.
Saya said, "It's hard to say, but I think they'll be fine. Takashi is resourceful, and he knows the area well. He can brawl pretty hard, as we've seen. Plus, all of us know Saeko is a monster when it comes to fighting Them, easily the best among us on the battlefield. Those two together – well, I'd have to say the odds are in their favor, Alice-chan…", and smiled at Alice.
Alice smiled back. "Okay, if Saya-onee-san says they're okay, then they will be okay. Takashi-nii always calls you a genius so you must know everything."
Saya blushed. "Not everything, Alice-chan. I only know what I know. I try to figure out the rest."
Kohta and Shizuka also found themselves more hopeful, as they realized that Saya's analysis was quite accurate.
Shizuka asked, "Though, when do you think they'll get here?"
Saya said, "I'd say Takashi will try to minimize the risk. So, that means no traveling after sunset. I'd estimate their arrival time early tomorrow morning. Noon at the latest."
The others nodded. "Well, here's wishing them luck. Let's hope they kick some ass too", said Kohta.