Hello, and welcome to the newly edited chapter three! This should be longer than it originally was, but still pretty short compared to chapters you normally see from me, so I apologise for that. There's gonna be a little more character interaction between our main leads than there originally was, and there'll even be a portion in the third person at the end in order to deal with the thoughts of our favourite purple-haired samurai. I hope you all enjoy.

Let's begin.


The Wheels on the Bus Crush Zombies' Skulls~

"What did you mean?"

I was brought out of my dazed state, staring out the window of the bus, when Takashi sat down next to me. I looked at him, trying to regain my senses after having been staring out the window for so long, and raised an eyebrow at him in question. I didn't quite understand what he was asking.

"You said you're expendable," he said. "What did you mean by that?"

"What does it sound like?" I asked, and a yawn escaped my lips. I was finally getting tired, it would seem.

"It sounds like bullshit," he said, fixing me with a firm stare. "Why are you expendable? What makes you think your life is worth any less than any of ours?"

"… You all have family to find," I said. I didn't want to say it; it was actually somewhat painful to admit out loud. "I have one person who could be considered my family, and they're not only out of reach, they don't particularly give a shit. That's why, Takashi. Your families are waiting for you, probably even looking for you … but I don't have anyone like that. That's why I'm expendable."

There was an uncomfortable silence that felt like it lasted a lot longer than it actually did. Anyone else in my position probably would've cried, but I was experienced at holding back tears.

"Not to me," said Takashi. "You're my best friend, Paul … you've been there when I've been going through so much shit. I never asked you to, but you were there anyway. And there's no one I'd rather have with me in a survival situation. So don't go dying on me, you got it?"

I was genuinely stunned into silence. You see, the thing with me and Takashi is that we never had to have long conversations with each other. We were both relatively quiet when it came to social situations, so when we were in each other's company, we could say very little but still understand what the other was trying to say perfectly. However, I had never gotten the sense that any of my friends thought this highly of me, and as such, I was in no way prepared for this.

"… Takashi …" It was all I could bring myself to say, I was so stunned.

"No one ever stuck up for me like you did," Kouta said, and I turned to look at him. He was sitting next to Takagi-san, who seemed to be trying her best to look like she wasn't listening in on the conversation. "Whenever people picked on me, I normally just stood there and took it, tried to laugh it off because no one ever did anything about it … but whenever you were around, you told them where they could shove it. And that other time, when you found that guy beating me up, and you ended up sending him to the nurse's office … no one has ever stood up for me like that." He smiled at me. "Like Komuro said, don't you dare die on us, Paul. I'd hate to lose you."

This time a tear did manage to escape from my eye, but I was quick to wipe it away before anyone noticed. "Damn it, you two …" I said, then let out a little laugh. "All right, I won't go getting myself killed … at least, not intentionally." We shared a small laugh, and the tension was eased.

I moved my eyes over them and around the bus, and eventually my eyes landed on Busujima-san. She was looking in this direction, but the second my eyes landed on her, she moved her eyes away, almost like she was afraid to make eye contact …

Curious, I thought. I didn't know what that look in her eyes had been before she'd turned them away, but it sure as hell wasn't a glare … What the hell's up with her?

Silence reigned once again after that. The only sounds that could be heard were coming from the outside of the bus, and they were anything but pleasant. There was the occasional bump against the front of the bus whenever it hit a zombie in the road, along with the cracks and splats that could only barely be heard when they were crushed beneath our wheels. Outside, the streets were war-torn. Every now and then, an explosion could be heard from somewhere outside, though I never once actually saw one. I saw a lot of flaming buildings, and there was a lot of smoke rising into the air both close and at a distance, but that was about it. One of the students at the back started talking to everyone, but I paid little attention.

Until he started shouting, anyway.

"I'm telling you!" the student, a blonde guy, yelled at everyone on the bus. "We'll only be in danger if we keep going like this! And anyway!" His shouting was beginning to annoy me. "Why should we have to go with Komuro and these guys? You're the only ones who decided to go back to town! Shouldn't we have looked for a safe place in the dorms or in the school!?"

The bus grazed the side of a car. The owner's yelling quickly faded into the distance.

"He's right …" said another male student, this one with pale skin and black hair. "If we keep this up, we're just putting ourselves in danger. We should hole ourselves up somewhere. Like the convenience store we just passed by …"

Did we pass by a store …? I asked in my mind as I hummed, staring out the window once again. I may have been looking out the window, but I really wasn't paying much attention to what we were passing by. If I was being honest, I was just glad to finally have the opportunity to get some rest, though all of the shouting prevented me from drifting off to sleep, as my yawning mouth was begging me to do. I tried my best to focus on what was outside only to see a man jumping out of a burning, crashing helicopter. Shit, that's just fucking tragic …

"It's not too late!" the blonde asshole continued. "Plus, I—"

That was when the bus suddenly jerked to a stop. The sudden stop caused me to fly forward, and while I managed to keep myself seated, unfortunately my forehead ended up colliding with the metal top of the seat in front of me. I immediately brought a hand up to it and found that I was bleeding slightly, but it was nothing to fuss over; it would probably dry up in a couple of minutes. I managed to focus myself enough to see that Marikawa-sensei was leaning out of her seat to glare at the people at the back of the bus.

"That's enough!" she yelled, fixing them with a glare. Because her seatbelt was still hooked up, it was squeezing her shirt as she leaned over, making her incredibly large breasts practically hang on display for all to see. I'm man enough to admit that it made me blush, though what with the pain in my head I didn't really notice it at the time. "I can't drive like this!" I wasn't the only one, either. Both Takashi and Kouta had their mouths slightly agape as their eyes fixed on Mawikawa-sensei's bosom.

The blonde guy who had been yelling seemed to struggle with his words for a moment. I turned to look at him, as did most of our group, but his eyes only seemed to zone in on Takashi. "What's your problem?" he asked aggressively. "What're you looking at? You wanna fight!?"

I mentally prepared myself to get up and start beating on him if he got too aggressive toward my friend.

"Then what do you want to do?" Busujima-san asked calmly.

The blonde guy turned his glare on her for a moment, which pissed me off a little, then pointed a finger at Takashi like he was accusing him of something. "I don't like him!" he yelled. "I don't like this guy! Acting like he's the big shit!"

I was silently seething. The urge to punch this guy was growing by the second.

"Where are you getting that?" asked Takashi. "When did I ever say anything to you?"

The blonde guy went silent for a moment. Then his teeth began to grind together and his fists clenched. "Why, you …!" he growled. He made a sudden lunge for Takashi, and I quickly grabbed up my golf club and stood up, but …

… Rei had beaten me to the punch.

She had slammed the side of her makeshift spear directly into the asshole's stomach. A small amount of vomit flew from his mouth, and he fell to his knees, groaning out in pain.

I put my golf club down and sat back in my seat. I continued to glare at the student as he writhed on the ground, however. I would have gladly knocked his lights out given half a chance. If it had been me in Rei's position, I probably would have gone for the face …

"You scum," Rei said to the blonde guy. She talked down to him, like she was talking to an insect she had crushed with her shoe.

The slow, clear sound of clapping took everyone's attention away from the downed student. It was Shidou. He was clapping his hands together with a wide, calculating grin on his face.

"Most impressive!" Shidou said loudly. I immediately levelled my glare at him. My ethics wouldn't have allowed me to leave him to die at the school, but as I looked at him then, I couldn't help but regret not trying to talk Takashi into leaving him as Rei had. There was just something … wrong about him. "Superb teamwork, Komuro-kun, Miyamoto-san! But … if fights are going to break out like this, then it backs up my position." He walked near us at the front of the bus, leering. His eyes narrowed, and I really didn't like the look he had on his face. "That's why we need a leader."

"I take it there's only one candidate for the job?" Takagi-san asked, though it was very clear she knew the answer. We all did.

"I'm a teacher, Takagi-san," said Shidou, like he was talking to a small child. "Everyone else is a student. That alone speaks volumes in my merit."

"Maybe if it was a teacher who did his fucking job," I said. I made no effort to hide the disdain in my voice. He taught, yes, but he very rarely did anything else teachers did. The bullying that ran rampant in his classes was a prime example of that; as a matter of fact, I'd heard rumours that he often took part in it himself.

He ignored me entirely, instead turning to face the people at the back of the bus. "How about it, everyone?" he asked them. "If you go with me … I will do whatever it takes to keep you all alive, all right?"

The blonde student on the floor stopped huffing and puffing for breath and looked up at Shidou in clear admiration. The students at the back of the bus began cheering for Shidou, clapping for him. I genuinely couldn't believe what I was seeing. Surely they weren't that stupid …

Shidou took a bow for the students who were clapping for him, then turned back to us with open arms and a wide grin on his face. "… And there you have it. Through a majority vote, I have become the leader." The cocky way he said it finally cemented just how I felt about him – I hated the vile bastard. "Starting now …"

Rei abruptly turned away from Shidou and walked to the very front of the bus. "Sensei, open the doors … please open them!" she said to Marikawa-sensei, who was looking at her inquisitively. "I'm getting off!" Strangely, I was shocked but by no means surprised by this turn of events. Rei's hatred of Shidou had been very clear from the second we saw him running toward the bus. The thing that really surprised me, however, was that Marikawa-sensei actually opened the doors and let her leave. Takashi made to go after her, but she had already gone out the doors by the time he got there. "I won't have it! I don't want to be anywhere near that guy!"

"If she's saying she can't go along with the group, then …" Shidou sighed, placing a hand against his forehead in clearly fake disappointment and sadness, "… nothing we can do about it."

"You're just a model teacher, you know that?" I asked sarcastically. "It's so inspiring, the way you "look out" for your students. How could we ever have doubted your fantastic fucking leaderships skills?"

I actually thought I heard him growl at me for a moment. Then he coughed, I assume in an attempt to hide it.

A moment later, Takashi jumped off the bus after Rei. Admittedly, I had expected him to do so, knowing what he was like when it concerned her, and I also knew that if anyone could talk Rei back on the bus, it was him. That being said, I also knew it was an extremely bad idea for the both of them to be outside the bus, so a sense of worry began building up inside me.

"Just until town!" I heard Takashi saying. "Put up with him until we get to town. It's dangerous out there!"

"I told you you'd regret it!" Rei yelled.

"Either way, for now—!"

Whatever Takashi was going to say was cut off by the sound of screeching tires. Looking out the window, I saw another bus, this one out of control and rocketing toward where Takashi and Rei were standing at an incredibly fast pace.

"Guys, fucking move!" I shouted out the window of the bus. It was rare that I let my emotions appear in my voice, but I couldn't stop the panic and worry from entering as I shouted at my two friends.

I saw Takashi push Rei out of the way just before the other bus obscured my vision of them. The bus collided with a few abandoned cars, and the resulting explosion was deafening. There was ringing in my ears from the noise, and it almost seemed to shake the very earth beneath our feet … or the bus' wheels, as the case was. I managed to look out the window again, and saw that there was now a hulking wall of metal and fire separating us from Takashi and Rei.

Busujima-san stepped out of the bus and began to yell over the wreckage. "Komuro-kun, are you okay!?"

"Let's meet up … at the Eastern Police Station!" Takashi's voice was barely audible over the roar of the fire.

"What time!?" Busujima-san asked.

"Five!" Takashi yelled back. "If not today, then tomorrow at the same time!"

Busujima-san closed the doors quickly, then turned to Marikawa-sensei. "Nurse Marikawa!" she said. "We can't go this way any more."

"Okay!" Marikawa-sensei said as she started up the engines once again. "I'm going to go back and try a different route!" Once she'd gotten the bus up and started again, we were going back the way we came. The scenery wasn't any less depressing the second time around.

As the drive went on, I couldn't help but notice Kouta looking at me in some level of concern. "What?" I asked him.

"Nothing …" he said, but a look I gave him got him to continue. "It's just that, other than that conversation we had earlier, you haven't really said all that much for a while."

I shrugged. "I'm tired, and I didn't really see the need to," I said. "And besides," I took glances at both Busujima-san and Takagi-san, "I'm pretty sure you're the only one left on this bus who wouldn't complain about me speaking."

Takagi-san huffed and turned away from me, as was expected. But Busujima-san averted her eyes again, like she didn't want to make eye contact with me … I couldn't help but associate that sort of behaviour with … shameBut that can't be it, I thought, shaking my head of such nonsense. After all this time, why would she be ashamed now?

Another yawn escaped my lips, so I tipped my head back and rested it on the back of my seat.

I fell asleep surprisingly quickly.


Saeko Busujima looks at the sleeping form of Paul Blake and feelings of shame and guilt begin to bubble up in her once again. She doesn't know if it is the fact that he had finally spoken back to her or the stress of the situation, but she has finally started feeling things that she knows she should have been feeling all along.

She knows her treatment of him was unfounded, but … she simply can't help it. He just … he reminds her so much of that incident that it is hard to look at him and not feel a spike of negative emotions. He had never argued against her before, so she had never felt particularly bad about it, though she has always known she should have, that he has done literally nothing to deserve her scorn. But again … she can't help what she feels.

She had listened to the conversation he had had with Takashi and Kouta earlier, though she had not initially meant to. The bus had been quiet, and once she had started hearing them she couldn't turn her attention away. That was when the guilt and shame had started to set in. Saeko just can't help but think that maybe she is part of the reason Paul considers himself expendable. She knows what kind of effect the way she treats him can have on a person, and … she isn't an idiot. She has seen the way he looks at her.

The look on his face every time she does something to him … the sheer look of hurt on his face … She had never really taken notice before, but now … she feels bad. She feels awful. And it isn't just the hurt looks, either … Saeko has seen how he looks at her when she isn't tormenting him …

He looks surprisingly peaceful when he's sleeping, she thinks to herself absently, not even realising she is thinking it.

It comes as a surprise to her that he can sleep at all. Kouta seems to be nodding off, but it has taken him quite a while. She knows she will sleep, too, when she finally decides to, but that is just because of how she is. She is strong, and she knows it. But it is always a surprise, albeit a pleasant one, when others display a similar strength.

Saeko decides she is going to try and be at least civil with Paul from now on. She doesn't know if she will be successful, what with the negative emotions bubbling up in her whenever she sees him, but she is going to give it her best. He doesn't deserve the treatment she has given him, and she is going to do her best to stop, but it is just so hard

Paul looks so much like him.

She clears the memories that are beginning to flood her mind, and decides to call it a night. She lays her head back for comfort's sake and closes her eyes.

It actually takes a little longer for her to get to sleep than it had taken Paul.


That's the updated chapter three, Constant Readers. What do you think of it? I think it's better than the first time, but I'd love to hear your opinions on it. I thought that scene at the end, showing Saeko's point of view on her treatment of Paul, was a necessary touch that I really missed out on the first time around.

Now, before we go, here are the review responses!

xbox432: Thank you. And yes, there will be differences to storyline eventually. Hell, there was one last chapter. I just like to take my time when it comes to big changes to the plot, really gives the Butterfly Effect some meaning.

gta-anime45: Well, there was a hint at what her problem is at the end of this chapter. You'll find out for definite eventually, though; just keep reading.

A Shadow In Chains: Thank you.

adonxxxjuri: Whoa! At least buy me a drink before saying something like that! lol. Thanks, anyway.

SharpRevan: Thank you. I'm glad I'm able to make it interesting enough for you to keep reading.

Mr Beaver Buttington: Well, I have been taking it rather slowly, and I'm glad that I did. Otherwise I wouldn't be nearly as good a writer as I am now.

That's all she (or I) wrote, folks! I'll see you next time, Constant Readers!