Author's Note:

My first official fanfic! Oh joy! This story revolves around my character: Gojo Sakakibara; as he journeys around the new world he and his friends find themselves in after the assault on Fujimi Academy.

Keep this in mind: a good number of characters who have (or were) killed off in the canon story will be kept alive (in some cases only for certain amounts of time) for my story. This fic will follow the canon story and contain characters from the main story, just not as frequently (things might change though as we get closer to the end, however).

Disclaimer:

Highschool of the Dead is property of Daisuke Sato and his brother Shoji Sato. I thank these men with all my heart for creating this series. These men own all characters except Gojo and any other original characters I may come up with. Enjoy!

Dead Scars

Prologue: Dead Illusion

Today, I assume, is a great day, for being blank.

Tell me, have you ever wondered what would happen if the world abruptly entered a new era? Would a meteor like the one that killed most of the prehistoric animals hit us and cause the humanitarian extinction? Would WWIII start and make the entire planet fight against one another? Or rather, how about if a gate from hell suddenly appeared and yoma, demons from hell, emerged and started feasting on the living's flesh?

What's happening now…is almost exactly like that last mentioned premonition.

We wouldn't find out how it began until that moment during the final battle against that man.

That menacing smirk, hidden beneath such innocent eyes.

It was a lovely spring day in the Land of the Rising Sun. The sun was descending over the mountains and the wind blew swiftly through the trees. Sakura petals moved through the air surrounding a campus and continued to fly well past the walls and beyond. A bystander would've been captivated if they could see the many cherry trees blowing through the school.

There may not have been any bystanders watching the pedals that day, but there was a spectator watching them that day.

The person in question was standing at the top of the roof sipping a Sprite bottle next to the observatory. He wore a military-style gakuran, had brown skin, white hair which was spiky due to hair gel he put in there, and red eyes that were covered by a pair of black shades. On his back he carried a wooden sword due to his position in the school kendo club.

His name, or rather, my name, was Gojo Sakakibara, a student at Fujimi Academy in the town of Tokonosu.

After I finished by Sprite, I briefly entered the observatory, trashed the bottle and then headed back outside. I gave a small smile as I looked down at the trees blowing in the wind. It was just such a sweet sorrow watching them flutter.

The reason for me having a wooden sword is, well, I'm part of the kendo club as well as its vice-captain. Our main captain was the nation kendo champion Saeko Busujima. Quite popular with both genders, the captain displayed a powerful yet kind aura and had the older sister type going for her. While I agree that Busujima-taicho was good at heart and that she showed a great loyalty to her friends, it felt like there was something more sinister to her. We were friends, and yet…

"Listen to me, worrying about this shit." I muttered, turning to face the cherry trees.

"Oi, Gojo! You gonna stare at those things all day?"

The voice belonged to another guy who was sitting on the staircase leading to the observatory. He had shoulder length dark colored hair, earrings on his left ear, and he wore his gakuran jacket open, revealing an electric blue shirt. On the shirt printed in bold red letters it read "Bad Line". Not to mention, he also had on a steel bracelet on his right arm and a few rings on his left fingers.

I just smiled in response.

"Heh. It's just like you to not appreciate nature's gift of wonder, Ryoyuki."

"Tch."

My best friend, Ryoyuki Imamura, turned and lit a cigarette. Yeah, I know, he smokes which is against better judgment, but I'd never tattle on a friend. Ryo blew some smoke and sighed, gazing at the lower area of the roof. I could tell he was bored out of his mind for reasons I can understand.

You see, Ryoyuki was part of the school's ping pong club. However, it seemed that the only reason he went to those club meetings was to ogle the club's leader, Kyoko Hayashi. Hayashi-sensei was more than aware of this, as most of the male students came to her class made it painfully obvious. Needless to say, sensei quickly whipped them (not literally) into shape in hope of going to the national championship. She had bad blood with him due to a mishap that Ryo and his other friend Oda caused which cost the ping pong team any chances at going to the nationals.

As I continued to think on this, my eyes and ears shifted to another student stringing a guitar. The young man had blonde hair which was spiked in the center area but normal everywhere else. Like Imamura he also wore his gakuran open, revealing a green high-collar shirt with a checkered pattern that had the collar bent downwards.

It was then that I saw the door to the roof access open and out came another boy. He had spiky brownish black hair and also wore his uniform unbuttoned, revealing a plain red shirt. He walked over to the blond kid who was singing.

"Just like a poison eel! Manda, Manda! Manda, Manda, Manda! Manda, Manda! Manda, Man-"

It sounded like a parody of the band Blue Heart's song, Linda Linda.

Takashi Komuro, the black haired boy, sat down near the blondie, Natsuhiko Morita. He had an amused look.

"Morita, what the hell kind of a song is that?"

"Oh, Komuro! Don't see you up here too often after school."

I watched the two talking and decided to join in.

"Ryo, can you move?"

He did as I said and scooted aside. I walked down and approached them.

"Hey, Sakakibara!" Morita waved as I got closer. "What're you doing up here?"

"Just hanging; there's no club for either me or Ryo today so we came up here." My thumb pointed to my friend at the staircase.

I than glanced at Komuro, who was looking at me half-heartedly. Unlike Morita, Komuro was more quiet and a bit of a drifter bordering on aloof. Of course, I knew full well the reason for his gloomy attitude.

"What's wrong?" Morita asked jokingly. "Don't tell me Miyamoto hurt your feelings again?"

Komuro suddenly face faulted and hung his head in shame. "Rei…" He began moaning as the atmosphere around his body gloomed.

"Whoa, hey! I didn't know that it was for real! I'm sorry!"

Sighing in pity, I gave Komuro a pat on the shoulder. I call him Ko for short, by the way. If I had been in this position, I'd feel fucked too.

Komuro's childhood sweetheart, Rei Miyamoto, had vowed via pinky promise to wed him when they were older. As I heard from Takeda, another one of Morita's buddies, Miyamoto was held back a year (despite having excellent grades) and when asked why, she told her friend that he wouldn't understand and refused to answer. A few days later, Komuro saw Miyamoto with her arm around his best friend's, Hisashi Igo. The following day, when Rei confronted her childhood friend, she told him that she was moving on because he never was open about his feelings for her. The two apparently had a falling out and hadn't spoken to each other since.

To say that I felt sorry for the guy was an understatement. I mean, it wasn't entirely his fault that he got dumped. Ko couldn't help but be who he was, and trying to be perfect just wasn't his style. Of course, hardly anyone would ever know this, even among his other friends besides Igo.

Morita placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, but the depressed look on Komuro's face didn't change.

"Don't get down about it! There are plenty more fish in the sea!"

"Huh?"

"Plenty of fish, Morita?" I inquired.

"Sure! Which reminds me, Komuro; I've got something to show you!"

Komuro turned and saw Morita reach into his gakuran and pulled something out.

"It's a secret but I'm gonna let you in on it!"

In his hand was a green notebook with a chibi version of him pictured on the cover dressed in a rockstar outfit; and also on the cover there was a title that read: Master Morita's Top Secret List of Fujimi Academy's Triple-A Hot Girls. At the bottom right it said: written by Natsuhiko Morita of class 2-A.

"Whaddaya think? This is my list of all the triple-A hot girls on campus!"

I raised a brow.

"This hardly looks 'top' secret."

"Tell me about it!" Komuro said glumly, though he seemed to have cheered up considerably than before when Morita made fun of his losing Miyamoto.

"So what's in here anyway?" I asked as the amateur guitar player began flipping through the notebook.

"Girls, man! Girls! Once my band gets its big break, our groupies will be all the girls here on this list! In other words: a list of the academy's available girls!"

Deciding to briefly change the subject, I asked. "Which reminds me, how's your instrument hunting going?"

Morita glanced at me. For a moment, his carefree expression seemed to change into something slightly more serious.

"It's alright, I guess. Takeda was able to scrounge up some old drums and Murashi purchased his own guitar."

"I see. Hasn't Miura gotten or found one yet?"

"Bah, Toshio's too busy with baseball club to play with us! He's occupied with that, not to mention trying to win over that Taniuchi girl from 3-A."

"Really? He actually likes mousey girls?"

He and Komuro laughed a bit.

"Eh, if Toshio heard ya say that, he'd crush your balls!"

"Ehehehe."

"Anyways; first up we have…"

I saw him stop flipping through his report and he was on a page of a purple haired young woman with blue eyes. She was tying her hair into a ponytail and her chest was tied down in bandages, her back facing the camera. I recognized her without even giving a second look.

"Captain of the kendo club: Saeko Busujima! Not only does she have beauty, but she has a dazzling combination of severity and kind-heartedness. And best of all: she's gotta totally dominating older sister-type feel to her! She's every guy's dream!"

Komuro's face brightened up as Morita gave him the photo.

"Oh I've heard of her! She definitely has something to her!"

Morita gave a perverted grin, a twinkle gleaming in his eyes. "I know, right? She's just too good to be from Earth! But what I really want…is to see her in nothing but an apron…maybe even a thong!"

Both Komuro and I sweat dropped. It wasn't weird to talk with male friends like this, but to me it was really fucked up to talk about the captain like that. I sighed before retorting.

"Morita, I can think of a million reasons on why Busujima-taicho would never wear something like that. But I'm not going to tell you what any of them are because merely the mention of them would cause her rep to be ruined."

"Huh? Whaddaya mean?" He asked with fake innocence, that annoying grin persisting.

I simply shook my arms, dismissing the subject altogether.

"Like Sakakibara said, I doubt she'd ever wear something so…so…pervy!" Komuro said.

"Bah, you're right. Sides, she'd be way too difficult to approach for us. But…"

Morita turned to me.

"You, Sakakibara, are a different story. You're the fuku-taicho of the kendo club, aren't ya? So you should be able to score her-"

"No way."

"Huh?"

"Me and the captain are purely platonic friends and nothing more. I'll admit that I had a crush back when I first started at this academy, but I gave it up."

"Why's that?" Asked Komuro.

"Because if I had started dating her, I would've had way too many enemies at school."

"Amen to that."

Shrugging, Morita turned a few more pages until he stopped on one particular page. His eyes widened and then darkened as he leaned towards us.

"Anyways, tell me what you guys think about her total opposite." He murmured.

"Why are you whispering?"

"No idea!"

This was followed by a quick punch to the face done by yours truly.

"IF YOU DON"T KNOW THEN DON'T WHISPER!"

"Ouch." Morita clutched his face in pain. "Nice hit! I think you broke my nose!" He groaned, making no effort to hide his sarcasm.

I winced. If I had done any real damage to him than-

"Hah, just kidding! After being hit by you for so long I've developed-"

I slugged him again.

"Joke like that again…and DIE!"

Turning around, I noticed Ryoyuki staring at us. Undoubtedly, he had heard my outbursts. He soon turned away, however, and continued smoking. Morita still shrugged off my offense and continued onwards.

"W-whatever! In any event, feast your eyes on this!" He handed Komuro another photo. It depicted a particularly sexy student who again I recognized off the back. She had spiky orange hair with a black headband holding it down; she also had yellow eyes. She was sitting in a beach chair wearing a revealing pink and purple striped bikini, licking a vanilla ice cream cone.

"Fujimi Academy's sexist female student: Miku Yuki! She's nothing like a high school student, and that's what makes her so hot! There are a lot of weird rumors surrounding her, but that just makes her sexier! Just look at this photo!"

"I am, and all I'm feeling is revulsion, Morita."

Morita gasped at the utter garbage I just spat. To him at least it was trash talk. Since he didn't look like he'd snap out of it on his own, I decided to reveal my reasoning.

"Yuki is as total whore and all of us here know it. Hell, the entire student body and faculty of Fujimi know it. She always finds herself a new guy every other week. I hear even Miura got caught in her web of affairs. Of course, that may be just yet another rumor, but still."

I gave the picture another look over.

"Did you take this at last year's beach trip?" He didn't answer.

The blond haired boy came back to reality when he noticed that Komuro was shivering with a mixture of both lust and anxiety. He was still clutching the photo of Yuki as he trembled.

"Nice, but I really can't see her as a good choice in a serious relationship!"

I gave Ko a brotherly pat on the back.

Glad to see someone agrees with me in this nutty circle of friends!

Don't get me wrong. Among my best (male) friends, Ryoyuki Imamura was at the top of that list, but sometimes Ryo wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospects of what I did, so I'd talk to either Komuro or Igo about them. Morita was too much of a carefree pervert to do much comforting.

"Still, it'd be nice to become a slave to her will, right?"

"I'd sooner use my bokken as firewood."

"Whatever." Morita stated, completely ignoring my comeback. "Alright then!"

Morita continued to flip through the book's contents until he stopped at an image of not one, but two girls. Once again, I instantly recognized them, but the fact that they were in there shocked me more than the previous two. Not in the sense that Morita thought they were hot enough to be included, but the fact that people I knew so well were there.

"Misuzu…and Toshimi!"

Both of the boys glanced at me in shock.

"You know them?" Komuro inquired.

"More than that!" I stated. "In terms of female friends I have they're the closest I've got."

"Really?"

"He's got that right, Komuro. Misuzu Ichijo and Toshimi Niki! Their voices double one another, which is kinda weird at first. However, once you get to know them, there's no way you'd ever be able to give 'em up! It'd be more addictive than crack!"

I felt something snap in that instant. In no time, I was on feet with my bokken in hand, and I had lifted up Morita by his collar and reeled him in so that he was only inches away from me. I would have agreed that having Misuzu and Toshimi around was pretty nice. But when he compared them to a drug such as marijuana, that felt more insulting than a slap to the face.

"Listen here, Druggy McPerv! I don't have anything against you including Misuzu and Toshimi in this little report of yours, but write this down as a side note on their page: ever do something to either girl that ends up hurting them and I'll make you the next target for my kendo practice! Understand!"

Morita could only nod his head as he trembled in fear. Realizing I had perhaps gone too far, I loosened my grip and let him go. He was gasping for breath. Komuro gave me a stern look; he was clearly unhappy with the way I handled Morita's comment.

"I'm sorry!" I bowed apologetically. "Reacting so hostile to that harmless comment was completely unreasonable!"

"Never…mind…it's all…good…" The guitar player was speaking in between breaths.

"Anyways, Sakakibara?" Komuro asked, trying to take our mind off of what transpired. "What do you know about them?"

"Well, Misuzu's father runs a small bar in Eastern Tokonosu. She also has four sisters; one who has a job, another in college, and the other two are in middle school. They can be pretty embarrassing at times, and Misuzu ends up chasing them around. I first noticed this when I visited her house. Her dad immediately tried to kick me out until he saw how 'perfect' I was."

Komuro and Morita just stared blankly, obviously surprised.

"YOU"VE BEEN OVER TO HER HOUSE?" They both shouted in union.

Morita's face was a tad red. "I've seen you guys walk home from school, but…"

"I've been to Toshimi's too."

"EHHHHH?"

I paused a bit before continuing. "I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but her family's got some money. Their house is quite massive."

"How big?" Asked Komuro. "We talking a 20 room mansion?"

"Too be honest, I've never really asked or counted myself, I think it's over 50 to 60 rooms."

"50 TO 60? THEY'VE REALLY GOT IT MADE!" This was from Morita.

It was then that Morita gave his trademark loser grin and patted me on the back.

"So when's the wedding?"

Immediately all color vanished from me. Soon afterwards the paleness was replaced with a burning red color which made me feel dizzy and very hot.

"Wh-what are you saying!"

"Eh, come on! If you manage to get one of them as your girl, you're pretty much set for life. A bartender's life ain't too bad for you, since you're good at socializing! And if Niki decides to wed you, well, then you've got it made, pal! Not to mention, Ichijo's the one who scored the highest on the midterms during our first year here, right? You've got excellent tastes, man!"

He was laughing as he said this, even though life isn't nearly that simple.

If only he knew; the true depths of our bonds…

It's true. I really liked Misuzu and Toshimi; a lot! Also, I wasn't just satisfied being merely good friends with them, either. However, when the time came, I could only chose one of them to seriously date, and I didn't want to do anything to ruin our friendship. Misuzu and Toshimi were hardly ever apart, except when one of them was out sick or on vacation. Like true sisters, they did everything together: go shopping, watched movies; they even did all their school related assignments together. Even the photo in Morita's notebook symbolized their friendship.

Misuzu had dark brown hair tied in a bun and wrapped in a cloth, along with long bangs on both sides, exposing her whole forehead, along with golden brown eyes. She looked so much like Momo Hinamori from mangaka Tite Kubo's Bleach that it was scary. Toshimi had dark blue, almost black, hair tied in a pigtail. She also had light blue eyes, about a shade lighter than Busujima-taicho's. The girls were wearing revealing bikinis and holding each other's hand. Misuzu's bikini was light blue while Toshimi's was crimson bordering on orange. Misuzu had her butt facing the camera, giving a wink at the photographer. She looked every bit as charming as she did so.

What the hell's wrong with me? I wondered.

Then suddenly, something about the photo seemed familiar. I'd seen the girls wear those swimsuits before.

"Morita, was this taken at the sports festival?"

"Yep! Takeda's the one who took the actual pic, but he didn't want it so I got it instead. Pretty addictive, right?"

"Yeah."

"You can keep that if you want. I've got a million copies in my dorm room."

"Thanks."

I then saw two birds land on the railing surrounding the rooftop. They glanced at each other before flying off into the sky.

Wonder…if they're friends? Or maybe… sisters? I thought with a smile as they joined a larger flock.

"But Sakakibara, when the time comes, how will you ask one of them out? They're always together."

"That's what's so great about them, Komuro. Guess you just don't get it. Next up!"

I turned my attention to the guys as Morita flipped through the notebook. He then stopped on a page with a picture of yet another girl, again who I recognized right away. She was wearing a gym uniform and a noticeable bandage on her left ass cheek; she also had bandages on her fingers and a volleyball could be seen in the background. The girl had long pink hair and it was tied in a single ponytail, in contrast to the many other times I saw her with two ponytails.

"Hottest of all the second-years: Saya Takagi! She's pretty unpopular cause she's kinda a bitch, but that's what's great about her; she's the perfect queen for masochists! Though I'll admit her dad's kinda scary."

Indeed. Takagi's father was a Uyoku dantai politician, a real right-winger, if you know what I'm saying. I'd seen him on TV making speeches to the Japanese society; of course his daughter would never brag or discuss them with her fellow students. It's as if she'd actually had a grudge against her parents for some reason.

Morita continued: "Get this: though she looks pretty slim in her uniform, she's actually got bikini model tits!"

"Oh really?" Komuro didn't seem particularly turned on by this revelation.

Just then, the blondie got a proud smirk on his face.

"Thing is, I really can't recommend her to either of you, since I've already launched my attack on her!"

I grinned. "Wow!"

Komuro was flabbergasted. "You're seriously into her? Don't tell me you actually like being abused like that, Morita!"

Morita sighed and covered his face with his hand.

"I've already asked her out three times but she keeps ignoring me!" A small twinkle of hope glimmered in his eye. "But I'm still gonna keep trying!" He said with confidence.

Komuro and I sighed. Poor guy never had any luck with girls. Not to mention, Komuro had already been friends with Takagi since they were in kindergarten. The black haired boy looked at me and whispered.

"I don't think it's a good idea to tell him that me and Takagi are childhood friends. Takagi can be really mean sometimes, ya know?"

"I've seen it. Still, it's never a good idea to lie to friends, Komuro. You're already in too deep when it comes to how you feel about Igo after he took away Miyamoto."

"This is nothing like with Rei and Hisashi! I mean, look at him." He pointed to his friend ranting on about if the world ever came to an end, he and Takagi would still be standing on top of the rubble. I sweat dropped.

"Fine, we've got a secret." And with that we spat shook on it.

For now, anyways.

"That all you have to show us, Morita?"

He stopped ranting. "That's pretty much it for all the interesting ones, anyway. The rest are kinda boring to be honest."

"Then why bother to put them in there?"

"I wanted to include Fumiko Taniuchi, but-"

"Miura threatened you like I did minutes ago, didn't he?"

He nodded without audio.

"Jesus Christ, this is sad!"

We heard Ryoyuki's voice come from behind us and turned to face him, still smoking, standing right there.

"Oh, Imamura! Were you listening in?" Morita asked.

"You bet I was! And man, are you guys a trio of pussies!" The look on his face was one of pure disappointment. "I mean, I expected this from Morita and Komuro, but you too, Gojo?"

I felt more than a little upset that my best friend was lecturing me on how to appropriately treat women.

"Sorry, man. I know you shouldn't talk about your female friends like that to your guy buddies, but I just-"

"That's not what I mean!"

"Huh?"

Ryoyuki put a hand on my shoulder. "It's cool, man. You've got your interests and that's fine. However…" He turned to Komuro and Morita. "These guys on the other hand need a lesson in what a true woman really is!"

He smirked before making a fist of confidence. "I mean who needs kids? Older women are where it's really at!"

"O-older women?" Komuro asked.

It was then that I face faulted. What did he just say?

Oh god, not this again!

I forget to mention one thing about my friend here: he only had a thing for older women, particularly Hayashi-sensei as well as Shizuka Marikawa, the school nurse. With that, Ryoyuki reached into his gakuran and took out a violet red notebook, the cover art not unlike that of Morita's.

"There's only two listed here, but I think that'll be more than enough to wake ya both up! First up…"

The first picture he turned to showed a busty, blonde haired adult woman in a school swimsuit. From the looks of it she appeared to have taken off a swim cap as well as a pair of goggles.

It was undoubtedly Doc Marikawa.

"The school nurse: Shizuka Marikawa! She's gotta bombshell body and a great smile to boot! I'd let her examine me any day!"

"Mmm!" Komuro did this in agreement.

"Yep, those boobs are really killer." Mortia nodded his head.

"You're finally wising up!" Ryoyuki had a proud smirk. He then turned to me. "By the way, isn't that other friend of yours her assistant?"

"You mean Kazu? Yeah, that's right."

Kazu Ishii was another good friend of mine from class 2-D. He was kind of paranoid and nervous, but still a good guy. Usually he was seen assisting Doc with carrying her medical supplies while she carried his notebook.

"Do ya think that maybe Ishii and Shizuka-sensei-"

I raised my hands in protest. "No way, you know that kind of relationship between teacher and student is strictly forbidden!"

"Sakakibara's right. Besides, Ishii doesn't look like the type to get with an adult anyway. The guy's practically more hopeless with girls than Morita."

"Hey!"

I sighed. I didn't want to admit it, but Kazu really didn't have much luck in the ladies department.

"Anyways, here's the other one." Ryo turned the page to reveal the other woman. She had dark red hair in a loose ponytail. She had a pair of glasses in one hand and a ping-pong handle in the other. Her clothing in the photo was the ping-pong club's uniform with the number 083 on the left shoulder.

"The ping-pong club's advisor: Kyoko Hayashi!" He explained. "Her body's totally filled out, plus she gives off this aura like she's unsatisfied with her life! The only one who can satisfy her is me!"

My friend closed his eyes and drooled with pleasure.

Why am I not surprised?

Komuro and Morita were both horrified as they stared at Ryoyuki.

"He- HE ONLY LIKES OLD LADIES!" They both held each other in terror as they backed into a corner of the roof.

I decided to cut in at that moment, trying desperately to contain my laughter. "Aren't you forgetting one, Ryoyuki? There's also Mrs. Allison Maresato who lives next door from us."

He snapped his fingers in recognition. "Oh yeah! The mom who lives next door!"

Komuro paled. "Th-the mom next door?"

"THE FRIGGIN' MOM NEXT DOOR!" Morita exclaimed.

Allison-san was a news reporter here in Tokonosu. She lived with her husband Ryo, who was a newspaper columnist, and their only daughter Alice in Eastern Tokonosu, right next to our home. They were a close-knit family with a lot of love.

"A woman's at her best shape when she's just a bit mature!" I saw Ryoyuki with a perverse face waving his arms around in the air suggestively.

Komuro then hung his head and Morita packed up his guitar. They began walking away in a daze.

"I've got band practice." Morita said weakly.

"And I think I'm gonna head back to the dorms…" Komuro added.

Deciding that I'd had enough of all this girl talk, I decided to follow them. When I look back and saw Ryoyuki still grasping at the air.

"I'm gonna go now, Ryo! Don't take too long, ya hear me?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Idiot was probably going to be there all night. I speed walked up to the waltzing duo to find them still talking.

"Whew!" Morita exclaimed. "That was really weird!"

"True." Komuro added. "But you got to admit, it was kind of funny!"

"It's good to be alive! I'm gonna try to get closer to one of those girls we talked about! Every day is full of opportunity!"

"Haha, how wise of you."

I chuckled a bit at their optimism. Looking up in the sky showed that a plane was passing. The sun was setting and it was time to call it a day.

"See ya around!" Morita waved goodbye as we went down one hallway.

"Bye!" Komuro waved.

The two of us reached the ground floor and got outside. Taking in a breath of yet more fresh air, I sighed in content. I put an arm around Komuro.

"Hey." I told him. "Don't let this ruin your life. Like Morita said, there are still plenty of more girls around here to bond with."

"I know but…once you bond with one and then lose them, you never forget what it was like. Trust me." Komuro looked at the plane disappearing over the horizon. "You never forget."

I sighed before he turned to me with a sad smile. "I'm gonna get some sleep. You?"

"I'm going into town, get something to eat. See you around."

"See ya."

With that I dashed off towards the front gate. After exiting the school grounds, I ran into town. I enjoyed that night hanging around the bar and other various spots. Yes…it was all very satisfying. And yet, there was a voice calling inside my head. It said: "Are you really having fun?" I was never able to answer it at the time.

Little did I know at the time, that all the chirping crickets that night and the following nights towards the end, were all desperately trying to warn me. To warn me of everything that was going to happen on April 5th, 2010.

The eventual decay, hidden beneath such a stable world.

(End)

A's N:

So how do you like it? I put a lot of effort into it, so I hope to get a lot of praise. Please review! Any kind of review is welcome. Look forward to next chapter!

Update:

Had to change some names due to recent translations in the TV Animation Complete File book. Revealed some new character names and weapons.