The night before everything ended,

I stayed up late.

Takashi stood on the roof of the school, leaning on the guard rails. Sakura leaves blowing all around him. generally, this would be quite a beautiful scene. Fall was beginning and for a week, Japan would become a beautiful land of floating sakura. A whirlwind of pink engulfing giant cities of grey, Yet, Takashi could simply not find it in himself to be happy.

"Kit, there is no point dwelling on the past. One vixen left you, that doesn't mean you are out of options."

Takashi just yawned, deciding to ignore the voice inside of him. To explain it to someone would be pointless, who would believe the fact that he had a voice in his head that believed it was a fox demon?

Takashi Komuro, the eldest son of the Takashi-Namikaze bloodline. He was from an old house, one that could trace it's origins back to when Japan was a nation at war with itself. Some even claimed that the bloodline was far more ancient. Takashi himself didn't care. For all it mattered to him, his ancestors could go suck it.

There was simply one thing that he couldn't explain about his descent, though. And that was the fact that the eldest child of his family would always be born with a voice in his head. The same voice, what more. One of a demon fox. The family itself was too prideful to ever consult a doctor, a psychiatrist, or even a priest for that matter. The voice was never bothersome, even if it was a bit intrusive.

Noticing the silence of his mental companion, Takashi started to speak "It isn't about how many vixen there are in the forest, Kurama. It is about the one I lost."

Takashi Komuro, 18, a certified loony, and a man with a broken heart. It had been merely a week since his childhood friend and erstwhile friend, Rei Miyamoto, had broken up with him and started dating his best friend, Hisashi Igou. It wasn't just heartache he felt, but betrayal too.

Hisashi had been Takashi's main man all his life. They had been fast friends ever since high school began, and he had been with Takashi every time he got into a sticky situation. He was the first guy who understood Takashi and the fact that his relationship with Rei was on the rocks. And he had taken the best opportunity to pounce.

What a great friend.

"Kit, she's gone. Stolen away by that teme. Forget her, you'll find someone better. You house the great Kyuubi in you, Kurama!"

"Yeah, there's that. Sure. If you are to be believed, I'm the human equivalent of a nuclear reactor" Takashi mumbled to himself. Kurama was known to speak of the days when he was great. When he was revered by many as a god, and his container as a messiah. But Takashi knew when to call bullshit on someone's tales.

If he was supposed to be destined for greatness, how come he lost the only woman he had ever loved?

"I give up, you keep coming back to her again and again. At least I can say that I tried."

With that, the fox's signature disappeared from his mind, allowing him the peace and quiet he so rightly deserved.

While it was his plan to relax, take his time and get over Rei, his mind simply wouldn't let him have that. The first memory his mind threw up was of him and a much younger Rei, of the day she promised to marry him. They were kids back then, when everything was much more simple.

"Pinky promise, what a load of bull." Takashi murmured, splaying his arms across the guardrail in a position of defeat. he let his head hang low, wondering whether he should just jump and end it all.

"Kit, if you were to kill yourself, the earth would never know days of peace again."

Takashi groaned as he straightened himself. Then, he noticed someone at the school gates, banging them as hard as he possibly could.

"He wants to get in? I'd pay him to let me out!" Takashi exclaimed, flinging his arms up in exasperation.

"Takashi, something is...wrong about that human."

Takashi stiffened up. The only time Kurama used his given name was when something serious was going down. Takashi diverted his attention towards the gate, noticing that it had attracted a small crowd towards it, with the PE instructor and the new comprehension teacher in the lead. From his distance, he couldn't hear them at all. So he used one of the techniques that Kurama had taught him in his youth.

He manipulated chakra towards his ears, making them hyper sensitive. As a result, he was able to clearly hear what was going on .

"I see my tutelage is not lost on you, Takashi."

"What's happening here?" The busty female teacher asked the man who was banging on the gate. The man seemed to not even hear her, as he continued banging on the door.

"Hold your horses, Hayashi-san!" The PE instructor yelled, walking towards the gate as he rolled back his sleeves. "There is no need to call anyone when we can simply show this imbecile who's boss."

"This is not going to end well." Takashi spoke, a feeling of dread blossoming in his mind. When Kurama spoke, Takashi could almost visualize Kurama nodding in agreement.

"For once, Takashi, it would seem that we are both in agreement."

What happened next could only be described as complete chaos.

As the teacher tried to manhandle the guy on the other side of the gate. the man didn't fight back. instead, he BIT the teacher in the jugular. The sight of blood was enough to make most students run away. But the ones who did stay, didn't stay for long.

As the PE teacher lay dying, he caught hold of the female teacher and bit her.

And then, the school went into anarchy. as everyone started to run around.

Takashi could only watch in horror as something he could only imagine as a part of a B-grade horror flick started to bleed into his reality.

"Kit, whatever you do, just RUN!"

That was all the motivation Takashi needed as he infused his legs with chakra and bolted down the stairs, leaving nothing but the whirling sakura leaves in his wake.

In the morning light, one could say that the sakura looked different.

Almost like drops of blood in the sky.

Takashi's first impulse was to warn Rei, let her know what was coming. As he rushed past another empty corridor, he noticed that the chaos that permeated the school field yard not yet reached the classes. Lessons were still being delivered and students were still sitting in their classes, the sense of normalcy the school radiated almost made Takashi forget about what he had just witnessed for a second.

As he rounded the last corner to his class, he stopped. The glass-cut of the class door afforded him a view of the entire room. And in the last row sat Rei, he was about to step in, when he noticed that Hisashi was sitting right next to her, holding her hand.

As altruistic as Takashi would like to believe he was, he wasn't selfless. Neither had he been brought up that way, not had Kurama been a very good influence on him in that particular regard.

"Do you really want to do this, kit? Do you really attach more value to the life of someone who blew you off for no reason than you do to your own?"

Takashi looked back at Rei, who seemed to look out of the glass at that very moment. Takashi turned around and walked off. He had more important things to take care of is he wished to survive. Food, water, weaponry. The three things that were more crucial than Rei's well being.

He simply walked off, not even realizing that the look Rei gave his retreating back was not one of condescension, but of concern.

As Takashi neared the dorm building, he passed by the Kendo club. He heard a yell from inside. The door opened and a girl with purple hair and a shinai ran out. Three of the undead followed her out, walking faster than what Takashi has observed till now.

The girl drew her shinai, surprising Takashi with the accuracy of her swing. She had managed to crush the head of one of the undead while moving. But she had overextended. The next one of the undead continued, unaffected by the death of its comrade.

That's when Takashi noticed the girl's face.

It was a beautiful face, contorted by a murderous smile. While the smile alone would be enough to scare most opponents away, It only served to make Takashi more curious. What exactly this girl had lived through that had made her this way, only god knew. What Takashi knew, though was how inquisitive it made him.

He couldn't let this woman die here.

"Kit, you're thinking like a real man now. So, are you okay with her knowing what you are capable of doing?"

Instead of responding, Takashi simply infuse chakra into his muscles and leapt forward, faster than the human eye could follow. Out of seemingly nowhere, he drew an ancient Japanese kunai and sliced through the necks of both the remaining undead.

"I see, in this world that has lost its peace, you have lost your inhibitions. Just don't overdo it."

All his life, Takashi had hidden under others. He had hidden his brilliant analytical mind under Saya Takagi's genius, his good looks under Hisashi's radiance, his strength under Morita's slacker attitude.

And his powers deep within his psyche.

That wasn't to say that he was some kind of superhuman. Using chakra, he could move faster, hit harder, and take more hits. But he wasn't even close to the immortal warriors Kurama spoke so fondly of.

A well placed bullet, a blade to the jugular, a bite of the undead.

Would all take him down just as easy as they would anyone else.

Kurama had made clear to him how little chakra humans now possessed. How one could no longer reproduce the powerful, elemental powers of the past.

He had mentioned how the only way Takashi could grow stronger was through control.

And he was right.

The purple haired girl looked at Takashi. Now that her crazy grin was gone, Takashi realized who he was looking at. Saeko Busujima, head of the kendo club. The woman of many a man's dream. One of the most popular people in the social circles of Tokonosu.

And someone who had never interacted with him, or possibly even knew his name.

Takashi simply turned on his heel and shot off toward the hostel, leaving the bewildered swords woman with a single question in her mind.

Why had she failed to notice someone that intimidating in her school, her own domain?

"I thought you stopped carrying Kunai after that ordeal with the metal scanner at the airport."

"I never stopped carrying one, I simply learnt how to hide it better." Takashi spoke, throwing stuff out of his cupboard. As he finished emptying it out, he punched through the fake wooden back, not having the time to take it out properly. His hand shot back out with a scroll in it.

A scroll that contained the weapon he needed.

"Hopefully you still know how to use that."

Takashi merely scoffed at the idea. Sealing things into a scroll was the first thing he had ever learnt in his life. He cut his finger on his kunai and dragged it across the scroll. The blood was soaked up by it and an ethereal glow emanated from the scroll as a cubical shape started to rise from it. Takashi grabbed this shape and pulled it out. In his hands, the object stopped glowing. It was an o-katana of ancient make.

"Ah, the teme's sword, quite ironic how it ended up in the hands of the dobe's descendant."

"You use those two words quite often, Kurama. Who exactly are you referring to?" Takashi questioned, drawing the sword. The blade was unblemished, sharp enough to cut through rock.

"People who I met and fought with during the course of my eternal life. "

Takashi grunted, sheathing the sword again. The last thing he needed right now was a history lesson, and it seemed Kurama wasn't in the mood to provide one either.

In a matter of minutes, Takashi had entered the hostel's pantry. Sealing all possible food items in his scroll, he quickly shot back towards the main building.

Just as he entered the main building, He heard the intercom crackle to life.

This was not good.

Takashi had to cross the main school building to get to the teachers' garage, sadly for him, the building was overrun with people trying to get out. What these people did not realize was that the school doors were only wide enough to let around five students in at a go. The school builder seemed to have a lot of tact, for the way he built the door would facilitate timely exit in case of a fire drill, or even a real fire.

Sadly, a fire was something completely different from the rising of the dead.

People tend to differentiate between two things that are both likely to kill them. While people could die of fire as easily as they could by an infection, they would always fear the infection more. And an infection that turned the dead into shambling nightmares was something that wasn't easy to believe or accept.

And hence, the door became a choke point for students rushing towards the main gate. Many weaker students were crushed in the subsequent stampede. The ones who did make it out were greeted by a scene from their wildest nightmares.

Their juniors, seniors and classmates. Shambling around the school grounds. Not alive, not dead.

coming for their flesh.

It was almost a cathartic moment for Takashi. He never liked his 'schoolmates' much. All his life, he had been treated like an inferior person. Just because he had things to hide didn't mean he was as worthless as they made him out to be.

And what better way to prove it than to survive while they all fell.

As Takashi passed through the main building, he noticed that there were three people on the skywalk that connected the main building to the admin building. He himself stood on the skywalk right opposite to it, leading to the teacher's lounge. Reinforcing his eyes, Takashi could make out that the people on the skywalk were indeed Rei and Hisashi.

And facing off against them was one of the undead.

"Kit, there is no reason for you to be concerned about those two."

Takashi nodded uncertainly. He watched as Rei skewered the undead through the heart.

Rookie mistake.

The undead simply kept moving. Hisashi tried to punch it, but it had no effect. The undead steadily gained on Rei, who was crawling back towards then skywalk's guard rails.

Before the undead could bite her, though. It fell dead at her feet. An oddly shaped knife embedded in his skull. Hisashi quickly turned to look at the direction where the knife came from, only to find an empty skywalk on the other side.

Unnerved, yet calm. Hisashi quickly grabbed Rei and pulled her up. he then pulled out the knife from the undead's head and scrutinized it. There were no markings on it except for one single line on the haft.

Property of TK

Rei shook herself out of her reverie, grabbing Hisashi's arm and running off the skywalk.

As the couple left, Takashi stepped out of the shadows, casting a glance at the dead figure on the ground. He grunted, Hisashi wasn't content enough with stealing his girl, apparently. For he had stolen his kunai too.

"I hope you know that you didn't have to do that."

A dry chuckle emanated from Takashi's throat as he looked out towards the swarming school grounds.

"It wasn't for them. Those two were probably the only people who treated me as an equal all my life." Takashi stated, turning around and walking towards the teacher's lounge, and then towards the garage.

"It was for me, kind of like returning a favor. Next time I meet them, I'll owe them nothing."

As Takashi reached the teacher's garage. He noticed that the teachers didn't keep their keys there. He grunted, realizing his lack of foresight. He turned around, deciding to look around the school for keys.

All of a sudden, something behind him moved.

Following the direction of the sound, Takashi launched himself into action. His hand moved faster than his mind could think. He stopped his blade mere millimeters away from the source of the noise, ready to finish his stroke if need be.

Luckily, the man standing in front of him was very much alive.

"S-top! Don't kill me!" the man screamed as he scrambled back. His back hit a car as he realized that he was cornered.

"I don't plan to. You're a teacher, aren't you?" Takashi spoke, sheathing his sword. He got a good glimpse at the man in front of him. He has to be in his mid twenties. The man had wavy black hair and a wiry frame and half-rimmed spectacles. Takashi recognized him as the newly hired music teacher.

The thin man nodded fervently. "Tohno Hirai, I teach music. And you are?"

"Takashi Komuro, second year. You wouldn't happen to own one of these, would you?" Takashi asked. Tohno pointed towards an old ford boss standing in the back of the garage. "That's mine, but there's an Issue. My keys are in the faculty room."

Takashi turned around, thinking whether he should help out the new teacher. On one hand, he would no longer be alone, and hence, not be able to escape with ease and would have to share his resources. On the other hand, A car and someone that knew how to drive it would be priceless in such a situation. He reached into his mind, wondering what Kurama thought about this.

"You should help him. It'll not only make it much easier for you to escape, kit, but you'll be able to cover long distances faster. As for your resources, you can always give him the slip if you need to."

Takashi couldn't agree more. He turned to face Tohno, who was looking at him with anticipation.

"Hide here for ten minutes, I shall be back with your keys."
-

Takashi's first reaction on entering the corridor leading to the faculty room was one of surprise. Around half a dozen undead lay dead on the ground. While some had their brains obliterated by sheer force. Others were dispatched with skill, by a shinai, what more. Some had nails embedded in their foreheads, a gruesome way to kill, but effective nonetheless.

One of the bodies was still twitching. It was almost decapitated, but the spine still held the head in place, even though the nerves were gone and blood was pouring out of his jugular. There was no doubt about it, the weapon used to do this was a Kunai.

"Huh, so the teme has survived this far."

"He was always a good leader. I'd be surprised if he didn't make it out of here as well." Takashi replied in a carefully balanced, neutral tone. He wasn't yet stable enough to compliment Hisashi without feeling intense hatred. Instead, Takashi opened the door to the faculty room. Someone had been there recently, and he had a good idea who it, or they, were.

Paying no heed to the scene around him, Takashi started surveying the area for Tohno's cubicle. He found it in the back of the room. He opened his drawer and found what he was looking for. Key in hand, Takashi ran towards the garage.

The stage was set, now, it was time for the great escape.

Tohno sat in the car, Takashi riding shotgun. As the garage's shutter opened, Takashi braced himself to face whatever number of undead that lay between him and the school gate.

To his surprise, the nearest one of the undead was still out of earshot. Shuffling towards something in the distance. He followed the trajectory of the shuffling undead and found a bus standing in the middle of the school courtyard, students jumping into it. He could swear he saw Saeko enter it.

"Takashi, we might have a problem." Tohno spoke, pointing towards the school gate. It was overrun with them. In a car, it would be nigh impossible to run them all down. The sheer mass of their bodies would be enough to slow the card sown to a standstill.

"But would it be able to stop that bus?"

"Tohno, listen. When that bus moves. I want you to follow it out. As soon as you are out of the school, overtake it. The students in it might try to highjack your car.

As soon as he said those words, a fire seemed to light up in Tohno's eyes. The bus started moving with a jolt and Tohno quickly started tailgating it. As it plowed through the barricade of undead, Tohno yelled.

"NONE OF YOU BASTARDS ARE TOUCHING MY BABY!"

Tohno's car quickly sped past the bus, leaving it behind in the dust.

In the bus, a certain purple haired beauty snickered. Guess someone else was competent enough to survive without her help.

In her heart, she already knew who it was.

She also knew that they would meet again,

soon.

VERY soon.