Act 6: Live and Let Die

The bus was moving at a painfully slow pace at the moment, though frankly, with what I already see going around me thus far, I don't mind terribly much. I look outside the windows of bus, looking at the scenes developing all around us. I can't help but sigh, as I look off into the scenery in front of us, and off in the distance. It's very... bittersweet. Sweet in that I saw that there was a lot more people alive than I would've ever imagined possible. Bitter when I could see that a lot of people looked quite... defeated... sad... If you look at any one specific group, you could already tell they had some sort of story going with how they got here. You see a mother carrying her baby here, a family hauling enough luggage to fill up a house over there...

And off in the distance, Tokonosu City didn't look any better since yesterday. It still looked as shitty as it did when all of us left Fujimi Academy, and saw it off in the horizon...

Buildings aflame, smoke rising in the sky, and everything just looking a hell of a lot worse for wear.

It makes me wonder if Komuro and Miyamoto made it. Damn it, that Miyamoto's an idiot... she's probably dead right now, dragging Komuro with her. For what? Her personal dislike of Mr. Shido? The fact that the entirety of survivors from Fujimi Academy were restricted to this bus, and moreso that they were just recently deducted by two, kinda depresses me.

But then I glance around at the traffic, the honking cars, and people walking about from the city and possibly abroad. At least some portion of the city is alive. I feel relieved things could've been a hell of a lot worse than they are now.

"Shio-kun? Is something wrong? You've been awfully quiet since this morning."

Well, I know that. Not that I didn't have some pretty damn good justification for it, given that crazy fucking dream I had. I'm already getting paranoid that this may very well be how I spend the rest of my nights when I fall asleep. Nothing but reminiscing on better times, only for it to be fucked up by everything that's going on right now. I glance over at Fumiko. Since this whole 'end of the world' thing started, she's usually been in a frantic, or panicked state. But now she's kinda got this cute little concerned look on her face. It's not unlike the kind of face she used to use whenever I got into a fight or a got injured in baseball practice: Genuinely, and wholeheartedly concerned, but sweetly encouraging to try and get me back up on my feet.

"Yeah... I'm okay, Miko-chan. I've just been having a rough time. You understand, right?"

I felt comfortable enough to whisper her nickname, and she did express just a slightest bit of surprise at hearing again. Nonetheless, she stayed at my side. Fumiko paused for a moment, thinking, before slowly nodding her head.

"I... think so. But I've heard some things from people around here. I was in Shido-sensei's class the whole time this happened, but... for those that went outside... it sounded like a truly horrid nightmare. When all of us were running to this bus, I never felt so scared in my life!"

I knew that she was trying to comfort me. However, what disturbed me was that she recalled running out to the bus with as much "fear" as if it were like her recalling an embarrassing moment from her past in front of a full classroom. I dunno if she was merely trying to keep up a somewhat cheery demeanor, or if she felt kinda... disattatched from recent events... but it just didn't feel too natural.

"Yeah... me too..." I weakly replied. No doubt she knew something was up by now.

Fumiko cocked her head slightly, noting my facial expression to be... not as uplifted as hers. Figures. She then placed her hand in mind, tightened by her delicate grip. The gesture caught me off guard as I glanced back at her.

"Don't worry, Shio-kun. I'm sure Shido-sensei will help all of us pull through in this."

Now her rather touching gesture with her hand felt cheap. There she went with her faith in Mr. Shido again. Maybe my faith isn't as strong as hers, but she does seem to put an awful lot of trust in him. I mean, back during the school year, he was her favorite teacher, and she always talked to him for some sort of counseling whenever it came to one issue or another. All-in-all, I have to say that from what I've heard, he doesn't sound like a bad guy. But still...

I glanced over near towards the middle of the bus, and saw Momo gesturing over to Fumiko. I felt goosebumps again just looking at her.

After I... well, put her out of her misery in that dream of mine, it feels so, so weird seeing her again. My image of Fumiko's best friend has probably been forever tarnished. I look over and see the girl beside me nodding her head towards her friend, as she glanced back at me.

"I'm gonna go back over there now, okay? I hope you feel better, Toshio..."

She got up from her seat. My own grip on her hand conversely tightened, halting her before she got far away.

Fumiko looks at me, genuinely surprised. She gave me the same look kinda like she would some kind of hurt puppy dog. I didn't know whether or not to consider that a good or a bad thing. But then she showed the slightest bit of resistance and I allowed her to free herself from my grasp without hesitation.

"I'm sorry, Shio-kun. We'll talk later, I'm sure."

I see her leave and walk on over towards her friend Momo. She sits down, and starts to discuss whoever the hell know's what.

Seeing her with Momo again made me feel uneasy. The point that I had to kill her aside, there was also the fact that... I remember seeing Momo rushing away from me, thinking I was some kinda maniac, taking Fumiko with her. That... lead to their doom.

I sighed, as I slunk back into my chair.

Okay, so I guess there's really no denying it: I'm apparently the third-most important person to her on this bus. Momo and Mr. Shido seem to be the second-most and most important, respectively.

Shit, I can't help but think of how fucking stupid it is that she's all that's on my mind lately. It's the end of the fucking world and all... but when Fumiko is all I seemingly have left that's important to me in this world, is it okay to feel just a little jealous right now?

I'm certainly not hoping for those guys to die or anything. Hell no, I'm not that much of a bastard. In fact, Fumiko must be the luckiest girl in Tokonosu right now. She's got her best friend, her favorite teacher, who's almost been like a second father in her own words, and... well, she's got me. And I'm still not sure what I am to her.

"So, uh... having girl problems, I guess?"

I glance over to my side. I recognized the person's face, though I didn't immediately have a name to attribute towards him. He had short brown hair, and looked like a first-year. And if I remember correctly, also the person who introduced himself first when Shido asked us to yesterday.

"Uh, right... Yamada, was it?" I asked.

The brown haired guy nodded his head.

"Yeah, Masato Yamada... glad to see that somebody's remembered my name."

He took a quick glance over his shoulder, towards everyone else on the bus, before sitting down on the seat across from mine.

"You know, I'm almost envious of you, having girl problems of all things. I guess even when everything's fallen apart like this, it's nice to have some distraction. Even for you, if it's not... necessarily a good distraction, it's something to take your mind off of this end of the world thing..."

I raised a brow at him.

"You think I don't care about the shit going on around us? I'm scared as hell. You don't know what's been going on in my head lately. I'm sure as hell worried about the well-being of everyone on this bus too. It makes me paranoid. So don't think I'm trying to distract myself, when I talk to people."

Taken aback by my words, he hung his head a bit, before nodding in my direction.

"I... I see. Well, sorry for that misunderstanding. I myself haven't talked to a lot of people because I've sorta just been worried about my family. Heck, I'm wondering if I can find them amidst this traffic here... then again, they lived on the far end of Tokonosu City..."

"Family, huh?"

I lean back in my seat, thinking about families... mine, Fumiko's, and what others might be thinking.

I know that I am a bit indifferent, and maybe I don't even care about what happens to my family. My dad treated me like shit, anyway. Always strict, quick to shoot down my enthusiasm whenever he thought I was showing off about one or another thing. He was a tough bastard to please. Mom was more lenient, but... well, I think she kinda got to the way she was because of my dad. Mom and Dad always fought about stuff, stuff I couldn't understand at that age. And I'm still not sure about why they split up. On top of all this, I was an only child, and I've got no siblings to be worried for. If anything, I have mild concern for my mother's well-being. But I'm not gonna lose sleep over not knowing what's happened to her by now.

Shifting my vision back towards Fumiko, who seemed to having a somewhat serious conversation with Momo, I think about her family, namely her parents. I never knew how close she was to them, but from what I remember, she loved them, and they loved her. At least that's what she told me. It's all a bunch of fuzzy memories whenever I look back to when I was younger and met them, but it seemed that they cared about her a fair bit at least. Of course seeing as how Fumiko hasn't said a word of concern about her family, I'm guessing she's either oblivious to the possibility of them suffering a rather harsh fate, or she's taking it quite well.

I glance up, looking at the population of the bus. I see the others sitting around. There's Momo, Tsunoda, and Kurokami, all of whom I know next to nothing about them, personally. I see Yuuki sitting off by herself near the back, talking to Mr. Shido. She's likely a bitch who'd be able to get over and ignore her family, if she hasn't already before this whole apocalypse even happened. So I'm not worried about her too much at the moment. On that note, I let out a heavy sigh.

"I dunno. Shido kinda said everyone on this bus was gonna be a family now. I feel a bit weird about it, but I've felt that I should come to terms with that sooner or later. It's at least practical to stay in a group to survive this mayhem. And forgive me if I'm not really holding much optimism for my own family right now. I've pretty much assumed the whole world's gone to shit."

Yamada looked slightly surprised at my response this time, and stayed silent for a while. I could see him taking a gulp, as his eyes darted here and there, his mind probably going over different directions of scenarios this whole predicament could lead to. I started to wonder whether or not I might've been a bit harsh towards him in saying that.

"Well... I guess I understand that. And I know that we're all here to help each other out now. But I lost a bunch of friends back at Fujimi Academy. I don't want to lose my family, too."

I lost a bunch of friends too. Hell, I saw one die in front of my eyes. But... my mind was fixated on Fumiko the whole time. And really, I feel content alone, just knowing she's okay. But I guess looking back, it sucks to know that all the other friends I had are now just a group of mindless zombies. Those... things that now walk around this city. But at least I have an affirmation that everyone that I gave a shit about, or everyone who gave a shit about me are all either dead or turned into one of them. Or they're on this bus, with me. But I guess Yamada still had to play guessing games inside his head as to whether or not his family was alright. And if it eventually crops up into Fumiko's, or anyone else's heads, then I guess I feel an inkling of hope that their families or loved ones might be alright. For their sakes, at the very least. Despite my pessimism, I'm sure someone they cared for was still alive out there.

"Well, Yamada-kun, Ozaki-kun does have a point, if I may so grudgingly admit it. I will have to painfully agree, that it does seem slim that we will find our respective families..."

I looked over my shoulder and saw Mr. Shido looking at both of us. I had no idea how long he was eavesdropping, though the feeling that he would be listening in on the most random of moments was kinda creepy. Another thing I noted was how loudly he seemed to announce this, obviously trying drawing the attention of everyone else on the bus. Sure enough, I notice that everyone in the rear half of the bus has their gaze fixated on him. I glance a bit further down, and i

"Our survival, is one of our most vital of objectives. We cannot allow our constant worries and woes to weigh us down. We must keep our cool in this predicament."

I was sorta nodding my head in agreement. A bit more of a subtle gesture of approval, when I see some people either cheering, clapping, or simply staring in awe. When everyone's either confused or scared, I guess it makes sense that you'd readily depend on someone who thinks they can make things better. Fumiko's hype about Shido hasn't really struck me as anything significant, from what I've seen of him. But hell, what Shido's saying right now already seems like the most realistic thing that he's proclaimed in a while. So I'll at least commend him for that.

"Now, I realize that some of you are no doubt worried about something, or someone, but for their sake, we must upkeep our discipline. And we must keep calm. For while their chances are indeed slim, slim is better than nothing, if we spend all our time panicking over everything happening around us in the coming days."

Gradually ignoring Shido's rants, I looked further down the bus, at the group that saved us the other day. They looked like they were all whispering and discussing things amongst themselves, taking occasional glances back here at Shido and everyone else. Now I'm almost starting to feel bad. As grateful as we should be for letting us on this bus, we've been almost nothing but trouble for them. We made Komuro and Miyamoto leave the bus... though to be honest, I only feel bad about Komuro in particular (that girl probably suffered a pointless death over the fact she simply hates Shido for whatever reason). And we then get into fights and senseless conflicts that also put us on uneasy terms. Then again, Saya's a bitch, so I don't feel like that could've been avoided. But I at least know some of the others might be a bit more respectable, especially Busujima-senpai. Not that I know her well or anything, but you do hear a lot of stories and whatnot about her. All of them good.

I then heard a pair of hands clapping. I look over to see Mr. Shido doing the gesture. Though he wasn't facing me, I think he was trying to keep everyone's attention. He may have off-handedly noticed me spacing out, and wanted my ears and eyes more fixated on him. Feels like a school lecture all over again.

"For example, worrying about the safety of our families... Only with discipline can we create a plan as a group, to enact without error and fear, can we save them!"

I looked over, and I can see Yamada was much more enthusiastic than I saw him. Looks like Shido's speech was working. Frankly, I'll admit, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little inspired by his words too. He had charisma. Something that sorta strengthened the hopes of all these broken people around me. Almost enthralled, if I say so myself. I'm not near that status, but at least Shido knew how to get morale up, if anything. Something told me that the promise of finding everyone's family's was somewhat shallow, and Shido knew it. I wasn't about to argue with him though. He seemed to be on a roll.

"As students of Fujimi Academy, it's during trying times like these that we must keep our pride! Take pride in the fact that we will not be forgotten like the rest of Fujimi Academy! We were the ones who had ingenuity to take a bus! Miyamoto-san and Komuro-kun did not fit in with the likes of us! Let's work together for our mutual survival!"

Most everyone else didn't seem to flinch at that proclamation, probably only hearing that last sentence. Hell, they were still looking on in awe of him. However... what he just said, shocked me. On one hand, was I proud that I was alive right now? Yes. Very much so. In fact, I already acknowledge that it sucks that most of the people at Fujimi Academy will be forgotten, but it's a damn unfortunate truth. His glorifying it, and his dismissal of Miyamoto and Komuro also took me off guard. Sure, it's their damn fault they're dead in a gutter or something, but... this seemed particularly harsh I looked on, with a bit of a puzzled expression on my face.

Shido seemed to take notice of me. His constant grin seemed to disappear, as he took a somewhat more concerned look towards me. I looked over beside me, and it didn't seem like Yamada was so enthralled by what he just said either.

"Ah, Ozaki-kun, Yamada-kun... I can tell you're still quite troubled at the moment. Given what's been going on with you since this morning, Ozaki-kun, I believe I can assume the hardships of yesterday's ordeal are still getting to you... what about you, Yamada-kun? What's troubling you?"

I found it weird how he was so quick to assume I was still shaken from that nightmare. I know that I still was to some degree, though his assumptions that I didn't find what he had just said crazy, was a bit... unnerving. I glanced over towards Yamada, who felt a tad uncomfortable that all eyes were on him. Understandable, I guess.

"I... I don't want to think that everyone's gonna be forgotten at Fujimi Academy. I mean, I had a bunch of friends, I don't want to be... insensitive, I want to try and honor their memory..."

Shido stared at Yamada with a bit of a sincere expression on his face, before closing his eyes and shaking his head in disapproval.

"Ah, but Yamada-kun... we must not cling to the past. All we can do as human beings is try to not fail where they did. It is imperative that we only look forward with optimism, lest we let the horrors of this past event to weigh down on us in the future. For our sakes, for everyone's sakes, we must look forward..."

Most of us were attentively looking towards Mr. Shido and Yamada, waiting for some kind of reply from either of them.

"If anything, we wouldn't want to let your friends down by dying, after we came this far, no?"

Yamada sighed, before he looked up towards the teacher and nodded his head. Satisfied, Shido tousled his hair before drawing his attention to the rest of his students.

"Well, I suppose that's that now, isn't it?"

There was some occasional clapping at Mr. Shido's proclamation, mostly from Fumiko and Momo, but others too. Hell, I found myself doing it for a brief moment too. While it was hardly celebratory, I did still want to commend Shido for being something of a realist. Insensitive as he might be at times, we all knew he was something of a Darwinist anyway, so I wanted to let his eccentric beliefs slide; he seemed to have our survival as the utmost importance, and I would be happy with that.

The speech he gave was grand and all, but when things quieted down, all our eyes and ears then situated themselves on the group up front of the bus. When I looked at their group, I felt a bit disappointed that ever since we came onto this bus, they've isolated themselves away from us, in their own little group. It was unfortunate that being a team with them would undoubtedly be more difficult if they kept to themselves up there.

Shido himself then noticed, as he turned around.

"What's wrong, you guys? I thought we should be working together..."

I saw Takagi get up first, wearing a somewhat proud grin on her face as she glanced over at Shido. It made me raise a brow somewhat, though seeing a such a smug look on her face only reminded me of yesterday's confrontation. It annoyed me, but I sighed and waited for her to say what she was gonna say. Everyone around me seemed to perk up a bit, some of us standing to get a better look of what was going on.

"It's a bit embarrassing to say so, Shido-sensei, but we have our own goals. This isn't a school trip, so we don't have an obligation to stick around."

My eyes were raised in shock, as I found myself standing up, gripping the seat in front of me tightly. There were a lot of confused, and angered questions going on in my head. Who the hell does she think she is? Doe she actually think she and her friends can survive alone, outside of a group? As I thought through it, I noticed Tsunoda also standing up, himself containing his own rage even worse than I was.

"God damn it, that Takagi... selfish bitch, leaving us here?" he gritted through his teeth.

I frowned a bit, narrowing my eyes towards the group up ahead. I didn't argue with Tsunoda. He was right. Just what the hell were those guys up there thinking?

Shido looked on at the developing some in bemusement.

"Ah, is that so?" he calmly asked.

All of us, including the people at the front of the bus, had our eyes on him, awaiting some kind of objection or response. He looked at the leaving part in question, before brandishing a smirk and sighing.

"Well, I can see that you've already decided, so please, be my guest and do as you please, Takagi-san. Japan is a free country, after all!"

My brows raised at Shido's almost incredulous response. He wasn't gonna negotiate or anything? I thought we all had to work together or survival or something... Feeling somewhat unenthused about this anymore, I slunked back into my seat, observing the situation without as much interest in whatever the hell happens to them in the end.

Well, there was Takagi, the otaku Hirano, Busujima-senpai, and it looked like the nurse was going with them too. I guess I felt like I had to chalk up another four people from Fujimi Academy as dead. There might've been a lot of people around us at the moment, but who knows whatever they're planning. It likely wouldn't end well.

I could see Shido... smacking his lips or something, before sighing. He took a few steps closer towards the group up front.

"But... it would be bad, if you left Marikawa-sensei. In this situation, losing our nurse would be very problematic."

The nurse, Marikawa-sensei, looked at Shido, then all of us, in a state of shock, as if being caught between what to do. It seemed obvious though that she was inching towards her friends up there. She would be needed, yes, but... I didn't like this. Things would start to get bad, and I knew it.

"So how about it? Will you stay with us? There are a lot of students here who would be relying on you. In the event of an emergency, we would need..."

He was cut off by a loud, distinctive popping sound. A bunch of us looked kinda puzzled as we tried to figure out what it was. That's when I noticed that in the seat a couple rows ahead of me, Kurokami was jumping in his chair, flinching away from something. Then I noticed the blood start to drip down from Mr. Shido's cheek. What the hell just happened?

After a minute or so of silence, Kurokami eventually crawled back towards his seat and pulled something out from the cushion. His hand was trembling, and it was hard to get a good fix on what it was. Sure enough though, I was able to tell what it was: a nail.

"What the fuck...? What the fuck is this...?"

I could hear Kurokami whimpering in a fearful and confused state, as he tossed the nail aside and looked forward.

Hirano had stepped in front of his group, with that nail gun of his aimed straight at Shido, and occasionally changing its sights on everyone else here.

"Hi... Hirano-kun?" Shido asked, visibly shaken by the display.

Hell, all of us were too. We stayed dead-silent, observing the situation with a newfound bit of fear. Hirano seemed like Mr. Nice Guy the other day, now here he is pointing a gun and seemingly threatening all of us.

"It wasn't that I missed you. I missed on purpose."

"Hirano-kun...! S-since when have you been so vio-"

The otaku stepped forward with his gun still fixated on Shido, causing him to conversely take a step back.

"How many of those corpses do you think I killed back at school? You know, you've always treated me like crap!"

He was practically yelling and screaming in his rants at this point towards Shido.

"How many times do you think I was bullied? And you didn't do a god damn thing about it! You have no idea how much I wanted to fight back... I restrained myself... I wanted to be normal..."

And in the midst of these proclamations I couldn't help but feel sympathetic, and deathly afraid of the guy at the same time. The way he sounded so maddening about being bullied here at school and shit was sad, but... it felt a bit hard to feel sorry for a guy who sounds like a deranged psychopath holding a gun up to you. I instinctively hid behind the chair in front of me for cover, if he ended up firing again. I could still hear the bastard yelling at Shido.

"I tried to be normal. But I don't need to do that anymore! Normality doesn't mean shit now! So... I'll kill you. I don't care if you're still alive, or one of them. I'll kill you anyway!"

I poked my head above the bus seat to further observe the developing situation. could see Momo and Fumiko starting to panic at this insanity, hugging each other as they ducked for cover behind their seats too. I poke my head up a little more to see Hirano gesturing towards his friends up there, as he kept his aim on Shido's head. One by one, the group up ahead that ended up saving us left the bus. Busujima-senpai, then Takagi, then Marikawa-sensei, to stopped the ignition of the bus's engine as she left. Hirano was the last one to leave, keeping that gun of his fixed on us at the last second as he backed away from us, slamming the bus door behind him as he headed off with his friends.

A lot of us watched through the windows, as we saw them heading off towards the walkways on the overhead bridge. Mr. Shido himself grabbed a cloth from his pocket to suppress the bleeding on his cheek.

The whole lot of us remained silent. It was a lot to take in. The group leaving. Hirano opening fire, and ranting like a madman. Even Shido looked visibly shaken. All of us didn't know what to make of seeing our leader like this.

I saw Momo get up from her seat leaning forward towards Mr. Shido.

"Sensei?" she softly asked, breaking the silence.

He didn't reply back, though all of us could hear that he was groaning in complete frustration, and possibly anger. He actually looked pissed over everything that had just happened. I didn't blame him, but... it was very unnerving to see him actually angry over something. I had imagined he would've been able to keep his cool. Of course, we're only human, so maybe I'm expecting too much of him.

Momo sensed his anger, as she silently went back down in her seat alongside Fumiko.

We all watched Mr. Shido, until we could hear his agitated groaning subside. With a deep and heavy sigh, he removed the cloth from his bleeding cheek and gave us all a sincere look.

"Well! Now we're rid of those pests! I suppose we can continue on with our lives, then!"

He declared that in an instantly odd jovial tone. Fumiko and Momo smiled at the teacher's apparent change of mood. I think he noticed that we were watching him getting angry, and wanted to go back to his encouraging demeanor. In fact, it was almost humorous to watch him go from angry to cheery just like that.

While some people were satisfied with Shido going back to normal (or at least forcing himself so that his students wouldn't worry), I could see that others were still shaken by what had just transpired.

"Wow... t-that Hirano guy is one tough badass..." Kurokami weakly declared.

It was odd hearing that, because it seemed like typical praise, but at the same time he saying that in a very timid and scared manner. Understandable about the being afraid part, considering Hirano almost shot Kurokami when he missed hitting Shido, but at the same time, why the hell did he commend him like that?

I could tell, others were... less-than-praising of Hirano.

"God damn it! We just let them all get away?"

Tsunoda started shouting again, his anger starting to get the better of himself. I think he's now officially made himself known as the guy who yellsa lot. His presence was already starting to get the bus's population a bit uneasy again, like yesterday. Except now we don't have Miyamoto to kick his ass again.

"Why couldn't we just kill that fat fuck when we had the chance? Now those bastards ran away, our group just got smaller, and they took the nurse with them! Who the fuck do they think they are?"

I didn't feel like making an argument against the guy. Frankly, I agreed with him on some, and disagreed on others. However, I look back behind me and see that Yuuki had crawled up from behind him. I was surprised to see that orange-haired girl again, I had almost forgotten she existed on this bus. She's been pretty damn silent this whole time.

With that seductive smile of a harpy she had, she wrapped her arms around Tsunoda's neck.

"Jeez baby, you've got to calm down some... it ain't right if you're just yelling and screaming all over the place... look, you're scaring the girls over there. That's not a gentleman-ike thing to do, you know..."

Tsunoda was very caught off-guard. In fact, the look on his face would've been hilarious if we weren't in such a dramatically serious situation. He didn't exactly look like he minded his predicament at all, though he still shrugged Yuuki off of his shoulders. Looking back at Fumiko and Momo, they did seem somewhat shocked when Tsunoda was yelling, but Yuuki's oppurtune interruption lightened the mood a bit and eased their fears. Momo, Fumiko, Kurokami, and Yamada were all starting to laugh lightly at the scene.

"D-damn it, let go of me..." he meekly replied.

Our current scene now seemed like a stark contrast to what had just happened minutes ago.

"Well, whatever you say, Tsunoda-kun... just calm the hell down, and we'll be fine, alright?"

Yuuki gave off a bit of a giggle as she tousled Tsunoda's hair. Satisfied, she then gave him a quick peck on the cheek and went back to her seat in the furthest row. The look on Tsunoda's now blushing face was fucking classic, though now I could start to feel that that was the thing I paid attention to the least. Now I was starting to glance back at Yuuki... she gave me this smug grin of hers, before winking, which was starting to creep me out a bit.

"Jealous, Ozaki-kun?"

She wasn't saying out loud from halfway across the bus from me. But she said it faintly. Hell, she could be mouthing it, but at the same time, I could just hear her, in that voice of hers, saying that to me.

"Hell no..."

Yuuki cocked her head at my response, then let out a silent giggle. At least she might've been silent; it was echoing in my own head at the moment. I wasn't jealous. I was creeped the fuck out that Yuuki was already on her way trying to seduce some other poor bastard. The wench can't even wait a day after every other male died in the academy, so she turns her sights on us. And something tells me Tsunoda doesn't mind a bit.

Shaking my head, I turned forward and slunked in my chair.

"Enough!"

All of us looked forward and saw Mr. Shido, still brandishing a cheery smile to keep some hopes up.

"Miku-san, I appreciate you trying to lighten the mood for all of us. However, despite what angers we may be feeling right now in light of those unfortunate souls who chose to leave us, we must put this situation behind us. Remember what I said earlier: We must continue to keep moving forward."

Mr. Shido calmly walked over to inspect the driver's seat of the bus, while all of us started to try and chat with one another, mostly about the brazen display Yuuki exhibited earlier. Hell, I could already see a somewhat flushed-looking Tsunoda already talking to her. If I didn't know how much of a manipulative bitch Yuuki was, I would've thought it to be almost cute.

I heard the bus's engine restart, and all its functions sprang to life. At least Marikawa-sensei was courteous enough to leave the keys with us. Shido grinned slightly, as he tried to fiddle with the radio on the bus. Most of it was just garbled incoherent static and some chatter-off hand, but it was nice that he considered trying to get some ambiance to continue our social distractions.

"We must worry about ourselves, should we want to survive. With them out of the way, our tale starts now. Whatever obstacles they may meet, is their problem. Indeed... You know how the song goes: Live and Let Die..."