:A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long! I most certainly haven't had this sitting on my computer half-finished for months… With exams and the term ending and everything I haven't had much of a spare moment to myself, but now I'm back for a while, and will hopefully be updating on a fairly regular basis… (Which I believe I have said a few times before…). And on a slightly different note, I have been pondering for a while about making this story a crossover, and pulling in another one of my favourite characters a little further on. I kind of have my heart set on Urabe Mikoto form Mysterious Girlfriend X, or perhaps Misaki Ayuzawa, from Kaichou wa Maid-Sama, but I am open to suggestions. Or if you want it to stay a straight ToraDora! Story, I'm also fine with that, but either way please comment and tell me what you think! One last thing before I get started; WOOOOO 1000 VIEWS! Thanks for sticking with me so far, and now without further ado, (and hopefully copyright infringement), meet thing one and thing two… er, story…. thing!

She stood in awe, the sun bright in her eyes as she watched the last of… Them slink into homes that They may or may not have previously occupied. She was sure she had overheard Ryuuji referring to the earlier as "Zombies," but she was not going to be so quick to label the staggering forms now taking their last steps through thresholds and under the sheltering shade of raised patios. Simply acknowledging their difference from herself was enough, she did not want to do them any more damage in the eyes of those still lucid, still remotely human, than they had already done for themselves. Shakespeare once wrote, "A rose, by any other name, smells as sweet." These creatures were no roses; they did have a certain odor, certainly - she could discern that even from the great distance at which she found herself musing over them - but to mark them with a name holding such negative connotation not only seemed to mar them in her eyes, it implied something far deeper and more disturbing. It implied that they could not be fixed.

Taiga moved forward to clutch the thick railing in her comparatively miniscule hands, and leaned out slowly, scanning the surrounding area for danger and more unwanted surprises. The coast seemed clear, for the moment at least. She brought herself back to a more vertical position, and turned to Ryuuji, "It looks like they really are all gone, I say we drop down to ground level, and climb over into the next yard."

"I'll go first, and you can cover me from the top of the fence, if that's alright with you," He replied cautiously. She knew he had meant to hide the uneasiness playing through his voice, but she was better at picking up on such subtleties than she let on, and knew immediately what he meant. He was saying that if something were to happen to him, she should be in a position to run, and get herself to safety. She moved in on him quickly, and noticed him wince; probably expecting something entirely different from what she was planning. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her level, planting a quick, but passionate kiss on his lips.

"If anything happens, I'm not leaving you." She stated, planting her foot defiantly behind her. He sighed.

"I had a feeling… You can't blame a guy for trying." And with that he smiled, grabbed her up by the waist, and hoisted her over the edge of his veranda before she had a chance to protest. She dropped lightly to her feet, and he came a split second later, and far more clumsily. There was a small space between the edge of his building and her own complex, with a high wooden fence on either side. Which in retrospect was probably a good thing, it was shady, and probably a great place for Them to hide. She would have to find the builders after all this was over and thank them, hell perhaps even treat them to dinner. Out of the corner of her eye Taiga noticed Ryuuji slide a knife out of a makeshift sheath he had fashioned out of some old cloth.

"We go up on three," He said, obviously meaning the rear fence, and proceeded to count down. At his "Two," Taiga broke into a run and by "Three," was already taking the barrier at speed. She perched on top, waiting for her Fiancé to clamber up after her. He was tall, and cute, and surprisingly strong, but he was not much of a climber. She made a mental note to point this out to him once they were out of harm's way, and drill him in the art of agility. He hopped over, knife bared, dropped into a crouch and waited. And waited. Several minutes passed and when it was clear that nothing was forthcoming he spun to her, raising his arms to help her down. A shadow in a doorway of the house's attached garage matched his turn, and froze, melding again into the background. He stood to pluck her from her post; the shadow became suddenly human, and then not as it stepped respectively into the waxing light, and began to sprint haphazardly through it. She sailed over him as It came barreling across the lawn, aiming to hit him square in the lower back with the jagged teeth bristling from It's ragged maw. She drew quickly, and plunged her dagger between It's eyes with all the force of their combined momentums. They rolled several times, and stopped hard against a heavy wrought iron lawn chair, she on the air side, It on the chair side. The force of the impact flung her off to the side at speed, which turned out to be yet another stroke of good luck; she took the roll and came out on her feet, sliding off the last few Newtons of force, and saw that the arm of the chair had buried its-self deep in one side of the Creature's neck, and come clean out the other. Right where her head would have been if they had hit at a less favourable angle. She was seriously going to have to start praying, luck like that didn't just up and happen of its own accord.

Ryuuji came sprinting, having stared through the initial few seconds of shock, and rammed his own knife into It's head, as though to make sure It was extra dead, then dashed to her side. She was on all fours, the adrenaline rush had worn off and she was panting hard. Forget Ryuuji's agility, she was going to have to severely overhaul her endurance. It took a while, but slowly she got to her feet, and managed to look Ryuuji in the eye, she could tell he was nearly in tears. He grabbed her and held her close, far too briefly for her tastes, and then mouthed a muted, "Let's go."

They made their way cautiously across the remainder of the yard, trying not to think too hard about the body draped unceremoniously around the piece of ornate furniture behind them. After that they didn't have any more incidents, and made it successfully to the street leading up the low hill advancing from the opposite side of the block. Minorin's night job, waitressing at a family restaurant, lay up and beyond it a ways, and considering the fact that this whole affair had begun around the time when she would have been working there, it seemed the most likely place to look for her. The best case scenario, the one Taiga hoped for the most, was that they would find her huddled in the corner with a group of scared customers and staff, or perhaps even defending the place, taunting Them in her obnoxiously loud, endearing way. The alternatives at the opposing end of the spectrum were ones that she didn't even want to imagine.

A short conversation led them to the decision of taking the street; after what they had seen so far as long as they stuck to the light and found shelter before nightfall they should encounter only trivial resistance. At least in theory, but neither brought that up. Ryuuji had retrieved his knife from the skull of the Creature in the yard, but Taiga's fierce attack had bent hers, and it had been blunted irreparably when it collided with the metal chair, so they had left it. They would likely find more either in a house along the way if they were required to shelter or at the restaurant, so neither of them made much of a fuss.

Taiga pulled her remaining knife from her pack as they set foot on the road, the existence of which she could thank Ryuuji for later. The sun was still approaching its zenith, and by her calculations they still had plenty of daylight to burn. Of course that was a theory she didn't really want to test unless she absolutely had to. She turned to her fiancé, she was really going to have to make that husband soon, (Who knew how long the two of them would last in such conditions as those they were currently facing). With a slight nod of her head she signaled her desire to move on, and began mulling over dress choices. They had agreed in that same conversation to not speak unless they really had to, she had no idea what kind of hearing They possessed, but she was not going to give Them any advantages if she could help it.

All of her planning for the future; finding and thanking other human beings, thinking tactically, planning weddings, struck her as suddenly and morbidly hilarious, and she had to pause for a moment to catch the laughter threatening to bubble from her throat. Ryuuji turned and raised an eyebrow, but she just waved him on, smiling to herself. Maybe she didn't want to admit that her world was gone, not just yet, but she was a realist. One who battled constantly with an inner inclination towards optimism. She scolded that part of herself sternly; after all, what were the chances that this bizarre fairy-tale would have a happy ending?

All the houses they passed on their way seemed empty. Not empty in the normal sense, where you could tell that the wife had gone off to work, neatly placing the trash under the net by the curb, and the husband had left perhaps a little later with the children in tow, securely bolting the front door against intrusion as he went. These houses seemed less empty, than utterly devoid of life. Front doors were left hanging open, some barely clinging to mangled hinges, frames shattered and clawed. The trash lay not by the side of the road, but all over it. It was starting to reek in the heat of the high sun, and she could tell it was affecting Ryuuji just as much as her. Perhaps even more so, his work in the bakery required the development of an especially acute sense of smell, and his Sensei had put him through rigorous training to do so. Either way he did not look impressed.

It took them till after midday to reach their destination; they had stopped briefly to eat, crouched back to back in the middle of the road, wary of danger from all directions. The sun lay at their backs as they strolled up to knock on the closed doors of the restaurant. There was no response from within when Ryuuji rapped sharply on the glass, but Taiga was not willing to despair yet, none of the windows looked broken, and after trying the doors to find them locked her spirits soared just a little. Locked doors and intact glass meant that either they would find everyone inside alive and well, or the place would have been empty to begin with.

She suggested that they should go around the back and try the kitchen entrance, not waiting for a reply from Ryuuji as she dashed around the side of the building. She rounded the back corner and stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ryuuji to nearly barrel into her.

"Taiga!" He exclaimed in a harsh whisper, "What the hell was that fo…" His voice dropped off, the irritation draining from it as he realized what had caused her to stop so abruptly. The back door stood wide open, and a small trail of blood lead inside. She started jerkily forward, tripping over her own feet, she had to see what lay inside, no matter the cost. He called after her, but she barely heard him, her heartbeat loud in her ears. She stepped in front of the entrance and found a small Thing crouched over a body, picking carefully at its insides. It looked like it had once been a child; she guessed It was scarcely 4 feet tall, and it had not appeared to have heard her. She crept up behind It, and before It could react, slit Its tiny throat with her remaining knife. One more quick slice and the head came neatly off, a small trickle of blood dribbling from exposed flesh at its base. She tossed it nonchalantly across the kitchen, and it landed with a clatter in a soup pot. She spun around, but did not see anything else creeping around her immediate vicinity, Ryuuji stood at the door, awestruck. Or perhaps horror-struck, she didn't care to try and differentiate at the moment. She made her way to the restaurant's double doors, noticing a weak attempt at a barricade that had been tossed aside, a sliding prep table and some pots, and pushed on them. And they did not budge.

She stood on her tiptoes and peeked through the round glass window at most people's eye level. It was barred from the other side with some tables, and from the feel of it a broom or two stuck through the handles. She began frantically pounding on the door.

"Minorin!" She exclaimed, then louder, "MINORIN!" She kept calling louder and louder for her friend, voice reaching a fevered pitch. Ryuuji came rushing in to silence her.

"Taiga, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" He cried in a hushed tone, "I'm not sure if you've noticed the situation here, but we really don't want to be attracting attention to ourselves!" Again though she barely heard him or anything else for that matter over the blood roaring through her ears. The doors began to cave under the assault of her fists without warning, and flung themselves wide open, or seemed to at least; standing before them, backlit by the setting sun, was none other than the one they had come seeking.

"TAIGA!" She howled, and scooped the girl up in her arms. She motioned Ryuuji in through the crushing embrace she was engaged in, and quickly re-barred the door. She swept past him into the large dining area, still squeezing the life out of Taiga, and moved to the opposite end of the restaurant in the direction of a door with a large, professionally lettered sign that read "Employees Only."

She watched over Minorin's shoulder as he seemed to realize what had happened, and moved to race after them. And then there was a rapid change of direction, a slam as the door shut behind them, and a blur as Minorin set her down. He came bustling in after them in short order, but was still far kinder to the door than her friend had been, actually using the handle to open and close it. She spun around and what she observed shocked her, they were among a smattering of other survivors, all of whom looked ragged and worn but otherwise alright. She scanned them, seeing only a trivial array of minor wounds, all cuts and bruises likely from their fight and or flight the previous night. That was certainly promising. She counted seven, plus the three of them, ten all told; a pair of middle aged men, one with the look of a businessman about him, the other a farmer, strong and tan. There was what appeared to be the broken remains of a family, a young mother clutching a girl that couldn't be more than thirteen as though she were a deep sea anchor and the mother herself a schooner being cycled through the full swell of a mid-ocean gale, and beside them an independent looking woman who appeared to be in her mid-forties who was rubbing her back in a gesture of comfort. Finally there were a young man and a boy in the far corner, seemingly brothers, who were staring back at her in a manner that simultaneously conveyed defiance and fear.

Minorin must have noticed her wandering gaze, because she walked to Taiga's side and addressed the room with a wink, "Everyone, there is no need to fear, these two are good friends of mine! In fact I believe I've told some of you stories about the adventures we had back in high school…"

Ryuuji piped up from behind her, "You did what!?"

To which Minorin shrugged, "They looked like they needed a good tale to cheer them up, so we all spent some time swapping. If it helps, it did work…" Ryuuji just sighed. Minorin then re-addressed the room, "Everyone listen up! This…" she trailed off, spinning to flourish in Taiga's direction, "Is Aisaka Taiga. And this dour young man…" she said, repeating the gesture in the reverse direction, "Is Takasu Ryuuji. Say hello everyone" A weak chorus of greetings followed, to which Minorin turned, undaunted by the staggering lack of enthusiasm in the room, "These lovely people are: Kiatsu Dorono and Jeong Jeong…" indicating, respectively, the businessman and the farmer, "Kirino and Karin Kitagawa…" the mother and daughter, "Masuno Hazara…" the woman, "And finally Kirito and Ichigo Suzuka…" the older and the younger - so they were brothers - boys.

She went around the room with Ryuuji shaking hands and re-introducing herself, while the others did likewise. It did not take long; their number was pitifully small, especially against the seemingly infinite hoards of Them outside, but it was still better than nothing. Certainly better than she could ever have hoped. Minorin walked over to the door and opened it, letting in the last light of the waning day. The sun was setting which meant that, if these Things were at all predictable, they would be emerging again to feed. Her friend turned around and proclaimed, "Well folks, it's that time again, who wants first watch?" The man who she had introduced as Jeong Jeong looked around and, not seeing any other volunteers, stuck his hand up. She heard him speak for the first time past the grunt he had offered her in exchange for a handshake and her own name earlier.

"I'll do it."

He intrigued her; he had sat against the wall - still as a statue - since she had arrived, not so much as blinking. Just staring at the door with un-addled concentration. She stuck her own hand up, "I'll go too."

"Then I'll join you," Minorin replied, "I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"I'll come as well," Ryuuji joined in, "I can't let you go alo…"

"We'll be fine." Taiga cut in, an air of finality in her voice.

"Yea," Minorin agreed, "We'll have Jeong Jeong; he knows a thing or two about handling himself in a tight spot. Plus, we'll have a chance to talk later, you and I can take the next shift, I had plenty of sleep this morning and there's no point in having more tired people than we absolutely need."

"Fine," Ryuuji ceded, knowing that there was no arguing with the two of them once they set their minds on something, "But what exactly do you mean by, 'He knows how to handle himself'?"

Jeong Jeong piped up for the second time, "Believe it or not young man, back in the day I served in the military, and part of our unit's compulsory training was high risk hand to hand combat."

"Martial Arts you mean?"

"Of a sort yes."

"He told me it was called Kung Fu." Minorin chimed in.

"Northern Shaolin Kung Fu to be exact, with some influence from the Southern Dragon Claw and Xingyiquan styles." He replied with a fatherly smile, "Glad to see you remembered."

Badass, Taiga commented internally, note to self; don't piss off the old man. She spun to face her fiancé, "See, we'll be fine," she assured him, "Get some rest, and if you're lucky maybe I'll let you take the next one."

He closed his eyes and sighed, "Alright, but I swear Taiga, if you get yourself hurt… let's just say that both you and the offending party won't have long to worry about it."

"So overprotective. If you'd like I could cover myself in bubble-wrap and air filters so I don't scrape my knee or sneeze and give myself a hernia." She replied with a wink.

"As much as I appreciate the blatant sarcasm, I have a feeling you would object to the idea. You know I only worry because I love you so much, right?" He closed the distance between them in two brief strides, and moved to enfold her in his arms; she saw his advance, however, and immediately ducked out of his reach.

"Stop being so disgustingly sweet," she taunted with a smile, "I can feel my teeth rotting."

He moved to embrace her again and this time she allowed it, and even went so far as to return the gesture with a slight grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, and threatening to carve a blissful smile across her face. Which she couldn't allow of course. Wouldn't want to afford him too much satisfaction. She broke free reluctantly and started off towards Minorin's group, but before she got more than three steps she decided to throw her dog a bone before abandoning him for the night, and spun on her heel. "Ryuuji!" Striding toward him with as much speed as her legs would allow, she watched him turn and leapt off of her forward foot and into the air in front of him. He caught her effortlessly as she planted a short, passionate kiss on his lips. "See you tonight."

She then bolted off after her friend and the man named Jeong Jeong, leaving Ryuuji speechless and slack-jawed to endure a chorus of Oohs and Aahs and some knowing winks and an elbow nudge.

The gap closed itself quickly, and she soon found herself jogging into Jeong Jeong's back, still in a state of bliss. The blush already present on her cheeks grew as she bounced off and landed on her backside. A hastily muttered apology saw her back on her feet again, and she moved beside the two of them to match pace. "So how long have you guys been holed up in here?" She asked, attempting to break the thick layer of ice that had seemed to have formed over them since leaving the others.

"Since last night when everyone seemed to start going crazy," Minorin replied, "Those you see are the only ones I could convince to stay, the rest ran outside and were immediately attacked, only a few managed to – turn here, we're heading to the roof – run off into the night." She indicated a large steel door that appeared to lead to a staircase. It opened with only a slight squeak for something appearing so outwardly archaic and hefty - its construction was almost reminiscent of an artifact of the Cold War – it was solid and speckled with a film of fine rust spots. Minorin explained that they had greased it with some of the kitchen lard to keep it silent, as They seemed attracted to noise, (a fact which she begrudgingly confirmed), but was not so forthcoming with why it was there in the first place.

They proceeded to the roof; Minorin held the door for them and paused once everyone was through to lock it with a key that possessed an air of age to rival that of its housing. The thing looked like something they used in old westerns to lock jail cells. "Just in case…" she hesitantly explained, and while Taiga didn't want to ask exactly what case her friend had in mind, she had all too clear a notion of what she meant.

The stairwell was covered and led to a much lighter duty door at the top which also opened noiselessly, due in large part to the sizable globs of lard she observed on its hinges, and they stepped into the scorching moonlight. After an hour - or was it a few hours? The lack of modern conveniences made it hard to tell, she had forgotten her watch - in the near total darkness of the restaurant's interior even the reflected luminescence of Earth's number-one satellite stung her retinas. Immediately after taking a quarter second to adjust to the sudden glare, she spun around in a slow clockwise circle, cataloguing the rooftop and taking note of her various escape options, resources and vulnerabilities. There was a bat leaning against the AC unit jutting from the back center of the roof over the kitchen, which had a large duct attached to it that tracked forwards to the dining area. Lying on the roof of the covered stairwell there was a blanket and a high-powered rifle tagged, 'FOR EMERGANCY USE ONLY', she rationalized that the blanket must serve as a shooter's mat, and realized upon closer inspection that the rifle was silenced, (Was that even legal?)

Off to her immediate left there was a small cache of scavenged-looking melee weapons numbering an old fire axe, the matching extinguisher, some kitchen knives and a meat tenderizer. The roof itself made a fat, lazy "L" shape, with the inside of the bottom tip serving as the kitchen entrance. "Grab a weapon and a sidearm," Minorin instructed her, "You'll be watching the back and the left hand flank, Jeong Jeong, you take back and right." She then gestured to the rifle lying atop the stairwell roof, "I'll take the front."

Taiga walked slowly over to the meager pile of weapons, and began to sift through them, "A bat is kind of like my sword I suppose," she muttered, glancing in the direction of the AC unit. She worried her fingers through the pile once more, came up with a wicked looking kitchen knife for a side-arm, and then proceeded to the back point of the "L" to locate the bat. Jeong Jeong had found himself with the fire extinguisher and axe and was already sitting, cross-legged and vigilant, on the extreme right of the roof's back edge. Minorin had climbed her parapet and was perched on top with a pair of binoculars, surveying the streets in a grid-like fashion. A few steps carried her to her friend's perch, and she promptly vaulted up the side to alight beside her.

"So what boy-scout camp taught you to fire a gun?" She inquired, partly in jest and partly out of genuine curiosity. She knew Minorin led a busy life, working several jobs on top of school and sports; though how the girl found time to sleep amidst all the chaos was a wonder of itself, it would not have surprised her at all to learn that her favourite ball of youthful energy had indeed attended a Boy Scout camp.

"Brownies actually," she replied, "We used twenty-two's, but it's the same basic principle: Point, click, and a little more kick."

"Thank you Dr. Seuss, when the hell did you find time for brownies?"

"In between soccer and job number 2 in Middle School."

"Right," Taiga sighed, "I forgot you went crazy around grade seven."

"Crazy is one word for it, farsighted is another, and one that I greatly prefer," She explained, her chest puffing out a degree, "By the end of this year I would have had enough money to pay my way through any university I chose, and then go traveling around the world for a year without having to work again."

"You were thinking of all that back in Middle School?" Taiga asked, astounded.

"Well, not exactly, it started out as a desire to see the world, and then when I started my first job I found that I loved the bustle of it. Always moving, always being needed, it was like traveling without having to leave the comfort of home! New people with new stories to tell always coming through, always eager to transport you to where you had never been or may never go. I decided after job number two that I would go to university and get a great job that I would love even more, and talk to every person on campus." She concluded dreamily, "Think of all the places those immaculate minds could transport you, inside an atom, to the furthest reaches of space, even inside your own head. I wanted to see it all Taiga… but now… I just hope that some of those minds are still out there. Somewhere."

A fierce stinging in her eyes was demanding attention, and she turned away to give it its due course, then with a lump in her throat she turned back to her oldest friend and embraced her. "It'll be ok." She found her own shaking shoulders beginning to time themselves with those of the girl before her as sobs threatened to rend her from her position as the comforter. "We'll find them together."

"Pardon my skepticism." She replied, "But if things are like this everywhere, then even saying we'll be together may be insolently optimistic."

"We have a plan Minorin, and it doesn't involve staying holed up in this diner forever."

"Oh?" She retorted, voice dripping with denatured venom, "And what might that be?"

"We are going to get the gang back together, as soon as it's light out tomorrow we were hoping you'd come with us to look for Kawashima and Kitamura, then once everyone was together again, we'd go from there. Rebuild perhaps."

"Well that's lovely but there are two obvious flaws in your plan."

"And what may those be." She spat, her feathers a little ruffled by her friend's sudden mood swings.

"First off, I can't just leave all of these people behind. I have basically set myself up as their leader and they need me."

"Well if you are such a great leader then make them follow!" She exclaimed as loudly as she would allow herself.

"These people are tired Taiga. They are scared and they need-"

Taiga cut her off, "What they NEED is hope. Not to mill around aimlessly. They need a goal, and a leader who is willing to see them to it. Look inside yourself, Minorin can you be that leader? Can you inspire these people? Give them a reason to fight, instead of just waiting to die?"

Her friend looked sufficiently taken aback, and then a cloud passed over her expression, darkening her face, scrunching it tight with thought. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she said, "Alright. You win Taiga, I'll try. But for your sake and theirs, you had better hope you know what you're doing."

She didn't have the heart to tell her that she hadn't the slightest clue.

"The second problem is a little tougher to overcome."

"What might that be?" She asked, somewhat perplexed.

"Kitamura is in America, remember?"

"Shit." In all the commotion of the past few days she had completely forgotten, he had gone chasing after the love of his life after high school and had enrolled in some American university.

"I know where he is, I had been keeping in contact with him up until the internet went down last night, but the major issue is that we have no way of getting to him."

The internet went down? Taiga mused to herself; I suppose I haven't really had time to check.

"Well," She began, "There's only one answer the way I see it."

"And what is that exactly?"

"We get Kawashima…" she said, biting her lip, "And then we find a plane."