Hello everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own School-Live.
Ezra's just an average 18-year old cosplay-fanatic from America.
He decides to go to Comiket in Japan for his first foreign trip, only to find that when he arrives, the apocalypse has kicked off!
Armed with nothing other than his heavily tricked out cosplay of the Ultraman Ace Suit, our protagonist fights for his survival, in the hopes of finding a way back home, or finding friends to live with.
He looks no further than a group of kids living in Megurigaoka Private High School.
Day 23.
Ezra weaved through the streets, quickly fiddling with his clothes, and shouldering all of his gear.
At first, he usually wore his street clothes, or a coat over his cosplay.
His coat caught fire, and he lost all of his shirts, Lord knows what happened to his shoes. He'd been wearing his heavily modified Ace Suit from the Ultraman Manga with parachute pants and boots he put into the costume ever since.
How did his first Comiket turn into The Last Of Us? He'd been running through the streets by day, building makeshift walls to seal up whatever room he was sleeping in by night. Though this way of living did work, he was always quite lonely.
He'd only been at this for less than a month, and already it felt like it'd been forever.
He pulled out his phone, attempting to make another call back home. His phone ran out of power, instead of getting no connection. He was quite nervous the zombie outbreak ravaged America. He could only pray that his friends and family were safe.
Maybe he shouldn't have spent all that time looking at memes, he'd already ran out of ideas on the Meme Generator app.
He also needed to recharge the electronics he built into the Ace Suit.
Ever since the day he made his Ace Suit cosplay, Ezra took priority into seriously modifying his costume.
The original cosplay was a Homemade Suit he made out of sports gear. Although it was a cute idea, even holding up to normal stress-testing really well, it didn't meet his expectations.
His second cosplay actually looked like the Ace Suit. But it was little more than a mere high-budget Halloween costume.
He'd gone all out on his third version. He'd made this one out of body armor used by bikers, a few extra pieces of gadgets and gizmos, and his older Ace Suit. He could've sold this thing as a genuine super-suit!
After all, it's what kept him alive for this long.
He couldn't find another living soul that didn't want to eat him alive. Man, the neighbors around the place were really into vore! Ezra internalized his banter, in case he'd actually offend someone who was still uninfected.
Oh, more zombies were showing up. How. Positively. Fucking. Wonder-fucking-ful.
The only good thing about the zombie apocalypse was no more Facebook updates. Suck it Zuckerberg.
Ever wonder how a zombie perceives their own condition? Is it some sort of twisted thinking that everything is just like normal?
Ezra's mind certainly had to be failing it's duty if it was wandering so far, so fast from his surroundings.
It's not as though dealing with zombies was a challenge however. Ezra fought his way through massive hordes with his fists and wits.
It was really interesting, since Ezra decided to do some research on zombies. Currently, he'd picked quite a few interesting details. Oddly, zombie tissue was full of cellular decay. It's almost as if the zombie virus was a bunch of people going insane over their eroding bodies. The more realistic, when one thought about it enough. At least it didn't take too much to beat one.
His left wrist was itching again, he rubbed his arm without taking off the costume.
He needed to find a place to stop, so he could charge his phone and the electronic functions of his cosplay. Although it appeared the power grid wasn't running to his current location, he could use the portable solar panel he fixed up for these sorts of situations. The panel itself was further self-sustaining thanks to a UV light Ezra brought from home.
He was running out of food and water.
He'd always made sure to keep at least three full plastic bottles of water, and some backup MREs he found lying around. He went through at least two out of 8 MREs he had, and only had one-and-a-half bottles of water left. He always made sure to boil his water, and left it cool down.
It still tasted crappy, since he didn't have a cooler to put things in.
He needed a place to live, an end-goal, a place that still has Wi-Fi, and friends.
The lack of companionship really made things worse than they needed to be.
Oh! What luck! A convenience store! It'd probably be entirely empty by now...
It wasn't! Despite all the smashed glass windows, there was still items in the store!
Ezra rummaged through anything that remained. He came up with a few batteries, a lighter, some office supplies, a few snacks (must've been overlooked by previous scavengers), and a cooler!
A cooler! This was just what he needed! He strapped the cooler to the rest of his stuff, and filled as much of his food supplies as he could into it.
Wait.
If he got to the roof, he could have time to charge his stuff! He might even have enough height to get phone reception!
Ezra raced outside, and parkour-ed his way to the roof of the store. He eagerly set up his solar panel, and began to plug in all of his electronic devices. He then took out all of his Ace Suit gear.
Among this collection were spare helmets, two extra suits (A spare white Ace Suit with different functions than his current, and a black version of the Ace Suit he dubbed the "Stealth Suit"), extra gadgets, bandages, replacement parts for damaged pieces, and a radio he'd found and fixed.
Even during the Apocalypse, Ezra still found that DIY stuff was fun to do.
He couldn't build advanced stuff, such as an Iron Man Repulsor, or build a genuine super suit. It was still nice to have the suit he used now.
Ezra surveyed everything as far as he could see. It was nearly sundown, he needed a place to sleep.
Then again, he didn't really feel sleepy, he could keep moving. After all, zombies tended to be more active during the day, rather than night. But that wasn't to say encountering zombies wouldn't happen at night.
All those zombie games lied to him.
Wait!
It took Ezra a few seconds, but he spotted something noteworthy.
A school building a few blocks away. Normally, he would've ignored it, since a school building would be one of the worst places possible for survivors who actually wanted to survive.
But this was something new.
Unlike any other school building, this one had barricades.
If there were walls, there's bound to be people! Whether they're dead or alive!
After almost a month on the lonely road, finding any signs of people was most certainly a welcome sight. Ezra hurriedly packed up his things, climbed down to the street, and trotted all the way to his destination.
All he needed now was somebody who wouldn't want him dead.
The night sky managed to take hold as Ezra reached the school.
He never understood how the sky changed so quickly when he wasn't paying attention.
Ezra normally would've made it up as he went along when he made searches like this. But this time, he decided to formulate an actual plan first. He quickly ducked off the main street, and switched out of his white Ace Suit. He decided to use his "Stealth Suit," since it was black, and could blend with the shadows easier.
His Stealth Ace Suit was not only suited for evasion, it also had better track and search functions. One of those functions was the "Sensor Mode" app Ezra and his friends made after playing the Batman: Arkham Trilogy.
The suit's lenses were made with tech he'd stripped from phones. He'd made sure that the lenses were usable even when the helmet wasn't turned on. That way, if the power ran out in the middle of something, he wouldn't be blind. The lenses used the Sensor Mode in addition, lighting up like a video game's Heads-Up Display.
The Sensor Mode app was a camera-based app that came with multiple different functions. It was programmed with custom camera filters such as the "Detective Filter," which was designed to emulate the Detective Mode from the Batman: Arkham Trilogy. Other filters such as thermal, infrared, night-vision, and "Blind Mode" were all used and fed into the Stealth Suit's lenses.
He packed away his white Ace Suit, and began to search the area for any entrance not puppy-guarded by zombies.
After he finally got through the barricades, he had to evade a defense mechanism he never saw coming; Zombies playing soccer.
If only he could pull out his phone and take a picture! But the reason he wasn't being marauded in an instant was because the Stealth Suit smelled like zombie guts.
Ezra had discovered in Day 15 that the smell somehow threw off attention. He'd made sure that the Stealth Suit smelled like guts, to do it's job more easily. Although he'd definitely had to clean it sometime, the smell was getting to him.
Ezra thought over the possibilities.
He could clear out the zombies, he could sneak inside, he could search some more, or he could leave.
His suit wasn't fully charged, he was carrying everything he had, there's about a 25% chance of someone still living here uninfected, he had no idea how long it would take for the zombies to get wise to his little camouflage tactic, he couldn't really get into searching without alerting the horde, there's still heaps of zombies outside the barricades. He was worried that if he'd activated Sensor Mode, the light coming from the lenses would attract unwanted attention.
He had to go through the school.
At best, there'd be less zombies inside than outside. There might even be at least one uninfected person, even some useful supplies. But that meant he'd have to get inside without causing a hassle for himself.
He walked deathly slow as he carried his things. He'd suppressed the urge to move faster, and became anxious every time a zombie was looking in his general direction. Slowly but surely, he was making his way across the sports court.
After several close calls in less than a few minutes, Ezra finally reached an entrance into the school building.
Oh thank God! the door was unlocked! He wouldn't have to do something stupid!
Wait.
The door was unlocked! Anybody worth their salt would've locked the door!
But that didn't matter.
He really didn't have a better alternative behind him, so quietly crashing somewhere in the building was his best-and at this point, only-option.
He closed the door as quietly as possible as he entered the school, ready for whatever kinds lemons life was going to throw in his face.
But he certainly didn't expect what happened next.
A/N: So, you made it the the end, and decided to read the Author's Notes, huh?
Well, I'm glad you did! I just started School-Live, so I'm making it as I go along.
This time, I wanted to list off the current details and capabilities of Ezra's cosplay suits. So, let's get started!
It should be noted that, although Ezra wearing an Ace Suit from the Ultraman Manga was the original idea, he eventually felt that he could expand on the limits of what his costume could do. Before he came to Japan, he started building most of the stuff featured down below.
Main Ace Suit: this is the white suit Ezra was wearing at the start of the chapter. This suit is basically the suit he'll be wearing the most throughout the story.
This suit comes with a Heads-Up Display, a taser, an LCD projector, a blowtorch, a built-in Apple Watch, an air filter, a radio, A camera, Bluetooth, enhanced gadgetry, biker armor, and a compact Utility Belt.
Stealth Ace Suit: This was the black suit featured in this chapter.
This costume comes with the Sensor Mode-Which consists of "Blind Mode," Infrared, Thermal, Night Vision, "Detective Mode," a compact Utility Belt, enhanced gadgetry, reference materials, zombie camouflage, "Noise-Bomb," extra cameras, and Tactical Armor.
These are the two costumes featured in this chapter. I don't want it to seem like Ezra's a superhero, since the suit only gives him gadgets, not powers.
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