AN: Here is the start of Segment 2 - Rika's Apartment. Since I'm not including Takashi's and Rei's separation from the group. I have planned certain additions which will not make this segment seem short compared to the others.
Going back to the previous chapter, there were no casualties to none of the three groups that were in the school escape. However, apart from the major ones, most will not get mentioned in the story. So in short they were there to not be added to the death count of the school segment, nothing more.
Anyway on with the chapter.
I do not own H.O.T.D or any of its characters apart from my own.
"James, wake up." A soothing voice called to him as he stirred from his sleep.
'That voice, it sounds familiar.' James thought as he awoke from his slumber.
James looked around and saw that he was not in the bus anymore, not even in Japan. He was back home in England, in his room.
'Ok pinch me because I must be dreaming.' James thought.
"James are you awake yet? You promised to teach me your sword techniques." the voice called out to him once again.
'Sword techniques? I have said to only one person, wait...' James thought as a girl with brown hair stood at his doorway.
"Hello? James? Are you in there?" the girl asked him with annoyance in her voice.
'Ok, I am definitely dreaming. Better play along until I wake up.' James thought.
"I'm awake, Je-Jessica." James pretended to yawn whilst looking at her.
Jessica was standing at 5ft 6 with medium length brown hair. She was wearing a dark green tank top with black jogging bottoms.
"Come on James, you said you were teach me how to use a sword today." Jessica walked up to him as they both stared each other in their eyes.
'It may feel real but remember its not.' James thought.
Unfortunately a hand came from Jessica and slapped him hard and everything faded to black.
James felt a throbbing on left cheek, he opened his eyes to see a purple haired girl glaring at him. He checked himself and sure enough Saeko had slapped him in the same spot as the dream.
"Saeko-san? What was that for?" James asked
"First off, Shizuka's getting tired so we need you to take over. Second, you wouldn't wake up when I asked so I improvised, and finally..." Saeko told James and as he continued she lent down to be on James level.
"I may not understand English but I know I'm not called Jessica now am I, James-san?" Saeko teased as she let out a small giggle.
James, not liking that he was talking about his personal matters in his seat, quickly rose out of his seat and picked up his sword before moving out of the seats but not before turning to Saeko.
"You heard nothing." James hissed as he quickly rose and stormed off towards the front of the bus leaving a surprised Saeko sitting in the empty seat next to where James was.
'Maybe I should not have pushed that.' Saeko thought as she tilted her head.
James put on his bandoleers and put on everything except his sword before approaching Shizuka who was still at the drivers seat. James could tell by her current driving position that she was getting tired as no-one would lean on the wheel like that. Well it wasn't because they weren't going anywhere, they were in a traffic jam and it looked they weren't going anytime soon. He will still pretty annoyed by the events which greeted him when whilst he was asleep. This feeling did not go unnoticed by Saya as she looked at him and saw the red mark on his left cheek as he walked past Kohta and her's seats.
'I wonder on what's his mind?' Saya thought as looked behind to see Saeko with her head down looking sad.
'I wonder what happened between those two? Either way I get to pick his mind today.' Saya thought once more and a smile crept on her face, finally she could a grisp on what really was going on here and to pick James' mind was on her mind ever since he showed up in the first place.
James got to the front of the bus and tapped Shizuka on the shoulder, she startled at his presence but soon regained her composure to face him.
"I'll take over now Shizuka-sensei, go get some rest." James told her.
"Oh alright, its not like we will be moving away." Shizuka replied as she rose from her seat to allow him to take her place.
"I'm going to be making a call anyway." James informed her as he sat down and lent his sword against the vehicle's dashboard before taking out his phone and dialing his mother's office number.
The phone rang twice before the call was picked up by his mother.
"James, I was expecting you a little sooner but I suppose i'll let it slide this time." Kath greeted through the phone with some added teasing for being his mother.
"Forgive me mother but I have little patience for humor right about now." James told her in English with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"What's caused it then?" Kath spoke down the phone.
"Nothing serious, just bad memories." James replied.
"Then remember the training we worked on over the last two years, you can't let the past interfere with what's going on here and now. Now then, give me an update of your current movements." Kath informed James.
"I am currently on a bus in the middle of a rather large deadlock in Tokyo, the group I am with linked up with two additional groups on our way out of the school. One of them however, seems to be quite the preacher of himself, I am getting a bad vibe off of his words though, they seem to be able to corrupt weaker minds." James explained.
"Interesting, have you got a name on the guy? I would like to run a check on him." Kath asked.
"Koichi Shido." James lowered his voice as to not give away who he was talking about to the rest of the bus.
"Hmm, his name isn't on any of the reports I have commissioned, I'll have to check with your father as he is more likely have a file on him since he spent some time in Japan. This will take time though so I will have to get back to you on that." Kath explained.
"I can wait for that, its not like I can't practice my arts of death now." James sarcastically responded.
"Indeed, anyway anything you want to bring forward?" Kath once again asked.
"Yeah there is one thing..." James turned to look a Saeko who was still looking sad.
"My tenant's daughter is currently in our group and her father went to a tournament in the States just before all of this started. As a way of repaying the debt of our deception to them can I request that we look for him just to ease his daughter's worries." James explained to his mother.
"I understand, its quite fortunate that your father did mention a tournament dedicated to the arts of the sword being held in the States last week. In fact and it is also quite fortunate I had sent a couple of my contacts over there to watch over the tournament. If you give me his name I will inform my contacts, if they are still alive that is. You don't need to tell me his name as I can retrieve your assignment documents now actually." Kath told the boy.
"Thats good news, I'll let his daughter know but one thing, why were you placing your contacts at that tournament anyway?" James asked with interest.
"Oh that, well. Let be honest here James, you and your brother still have not tied yourself down to a woman yet. So for you we are looking for those who are strong enough to be of interest to you." Kath explained.
James went slightly red before both sighing and face-palming himself.
"I am in no position yet to claim someone for myself as right now we all have work to do." James responded.
"Indeed we do, I'll make sure to get in contact with our leads in the States and I'll see what I can do. Make sure you check in same time tomorrow." Kath finished.
"That's fine. Take care." James ended the phone and turned to look at Saeko who was looking down at him. He gave a her signal for her to come to the front of the bus
"I have called home, our contacts in the States are not too far from the event where your father is stationed. We'll know in the next day or two if they have found him or not." James explained to Saeko who took in every word.
Saeko nodded as she processed the information that she was given.
"James-san, about earlier..." Saeko spoke but James held his hand to silence her.
"Save it, you didn't know and its best you don't know. Now isn't the time anyway." James told her as he saw Saya approach.
"Right now Carter-san, tell me whats caused this all to start." Saya asked.
"Morning to you too Takagi-san. I'll talk until you are satisfied." James greeted the pink haired girl.
James told her about the experiments at the facility they met each other in before the outbreak along with the composite of the vials he collected. Saya processed his words closely before coming up with a question for him.
"So what you're saying is that my family funded this outbreak?" Saya concluded.
"Only a very small proportion, but I think there is a bigger picture behind this, money alone won't have came up with this idea but its all theories at the moment, once I get back home I'll work on who supplied the idea or even the goods needed for the experiments." James informed her, just then the group heard talking coming from the rear of the bus. They turned to find Shido awake and preaching to the inhabitants of the bus.
"We should be worrying about the safety of own families, only with discipline and order can we create a plan as a group..." Shido preached with his back turned towards the front of the bus.
"Takagi-san please wake up Hirano, we need to plan our next moves." James continued and Saya walked away to wake Kohta.
"What do you mean next moves?" Saeko asked.
"Look at this traffic, if we want to link up with Komuro and Miyamoto then it becomes more and more likely that we need leave the bus." James answered.
"WAH." Came a startled cry from Kohta as he was awoken by Saya. After a minute they joined Saeko and James at the front.
"Are you hearing what he is saying? It sounds like he is creating a religous cult." Saya noticed of the teachers words.
"He is doing what most people would naturally would do in his position, create a small community in which he can control. Difference is he is likely to abuse that power to his advantage." James concluded.
"Should we remove him from the bus?" Kohta asked whilst gripping his nail gun tightly.
"As much as we want to we cant. He already has the rest of them under his control, if he remove him, we would have to deal with the rest of the people on this bus as well." James replied making notions towards the rest of the inhabitants of the bus.
"So then what we need is a plan on how we move forward." Saya announced to the group.
"Good thing Carter-san is here." she breathed out, unfortunately Kohta had heard her say that.
"You like Carter-san do you?" Kohta asked Saya causing her to go red in the face.
"Don't be stupid." Saya quickly dismissed and that got the attention of the group who looked her awkwardly.
"Hmph, think what you want." Saya gained her composure as Shido continued his preaching whilst the group was talking.
"We need to take pride in that we are still among the living and will not be forgotten like those who perished in Fujimi High School, we had the intelligence to find this bus. People like Miyamoto and Komuro did not fit with us and we did not need them. Now then, let us work together to survive and together we can avert this crisis." Shido continued his preach.
"This is getting bad." Saya concluded from the teachers words once more.
"Well look at them, only weak-minded individuals will become corrupted to his words because they fail to see the bigger picture. Anyway our next move?" James informed the group in front of him.
"With the road like this I suggest we leave the bus behind, we can cross Onbetsu Bridge which is the closest one from here but we would be heading away from the Police station I promised Komuro-kun we meet him at." Saeko suggested to the group.
"You seem to be worried about Komuro, aren't you Busujima-sempai? What about your own family?" Saya queried to the swords-woman.
"Of course I am worried, but my father is the States and James-san has people looking for him but for me I have gave my word to my father that I would keep James-san out of trouble and he gave the same for me and I have my promise to Komuro-kun as well. If there is one thing my family has taught me that its to value my promises as much as my own life. What about you Takagi-san?" Saeko answered whilst smiling at the pink haired 'genius'.
"I live not too far from Komuro, on the other of Onbetsu Bridge." Takagi answered with the shrug of her shoulders.
"My family are not in the country, so I'll go wherever Carter-san and Takagi-san will go." Kohta spoke up whilst getting a nod from James.
"Where is your family Hirano-kun?" Saeko asked.
"Well my father is in Holland on business in dealing in Jewelry but my mother is in Paris as a fashion designer." Kohta answered, getting looks from Saya and Shizuka.
'Fashion designer? I always needed better clothes.' Shizuka thought as she fantasized herself wearing highly priced clothing.
'If he was much better looking.' Saya thought.
"So what are we going to do? Because I want to come along with you guys." asked Shizuka as she got the attention of the group.
"Are you sure Shizuka-sensei?" Saya asked.
"I hate to be a bother but, I don't have any family as mine live very far away from here but truthfully, I don't like Shido-sensei." Shizuka continued, getting the smiles and chuckles out of the rest of the group.
Shido finally noticing the group at the front turned to face them.
"What are guys up to? We're supposed to be working together." Shido questioned the group.
"Sorry to tell you sensei but we have our own objectives and this isn't a school event so we don't have to follow your orders." Saya explained.
"Hmm...interesting." Shido looked at the group at the front as they were glaring back at him.
"Well its your decision, this is a free country after all so go and do as you please Takagi-san. But..." Shido put his hands together as he continued to eye the group, his eyes finally rested on one of the group.
"Mariwaka-sensei is a different story." Shido told the group causing Shizuka to gasp.
"We simply cannot afford to lose our only nurse." Shido went on before taking a step forward.
"We have students which need you, and if you stay Takagi-san and her friends will have to as well." Shido continued as he took another step forward whilst licking his lips.
That step two flashes scrap his cheek before hitting the seats in the row behind him. To his right was a nail which came from Kohta and to his left was a throwing knife which came from James, both instruments had blood on them as they scraped Shido cheeks, this had him frozen to the spot and Kohta aimed his weapon at him and James who had remained quiet for a while had risen and walked to the front of the group to face Shido directly. The event caused Shido's followers to gasp in fright.
"Ca...Carter-san, Hir...Hirano-kun?" Shido gasped out whilst holding his cheeks where the wounds were now bleeding.
"I didn't intent miss you, you're lucky you're alive right now." Kohta darkly informed Shido.
'Well I did.' James looked at Kohta before turning back to Shido.
"If it wasn't for Carter-san next to me, I would rant at you about the treatment you and your cronies gave me during our school year, but thanks to him I have already proven that I am a far better person than you will ever be." Kohta told the rest of the bus.
"Saeko-san, lead our group out, Hirano-san and I will follow." James ordered.
Saeko opened the front door to the bus and jumped out followed by Shizuka and Saya, James then nodded to Kohta who was next to leave. James turned back to Shido whilst drawing his sword and pointing at him.
"For your sake, I hope we don't meet again." James told Shido before turning his back and leaving the bus and shutting the door.
"Sensei?" asked one of the girls
"Well, that gets rid of those pests." Shido happily replied whilst having a small cloth on his cheek. He removed the throwing knife from the seat next to him and inspected it. On the knife was the crest of the Carter family although that was Shido assumed. The crest was made up a shield with a Lion on it along with two swords forming a cross shape behind the shield.
'This looks familiar, I need to make a call.' Shido thought as he reached for his phone.
"Now what? I don't really now this area." Saeko asked the group.
"What we do is make our way to the meeting point across the river." James told the group as he checked his weapons.
"We should cross Onbetsu Bridge as its closest after then I know the area." Saya piped up.
"Then take point, Saeko-san, stick with Takagi-san up front with Shizuka-sensei behind, Hirano-san and myself will take the rear." James ordered a group formation.
"Also can we avoid using the main road, too many people cause more noise which means more zombies." James went on which was met by a nod from Saya as the group started to walk down a side road.
James looked at Kohta who was checking his nailgun over.
"How are you doing for ammunition, Hirano-san?" James asked the boy.
"I have enough for about 10 shots but I really need an upgrade." Kohta told him.
"I must admit, it is effective with what you had at the school, smart thinking." James complimented Kohta which caused the boy to smile back at him.
"I haven't yet asked but I know you can use a handgun Carter-san but what else can you use?" Kohta asked.
"I can use small arms and rifles effectively. Automatic weapons and shotguns tend to be not to kind on my shoulders, that's my brothers specialty. He can use heavy weaponry much better than I can." James informed him.
"Really, what is your brother like if you don't mind me asking?." Kohta continued.
"Not at all, well he is older than me nearing 30 now, he is a lot more bulkier than me but he carries an arrogance and pride around himself. He doesn't like losing, especially to me in our spars." James said whilst chuckling at that last part. Shizuka meanwhile was fantisizing of James' brother.
'I'll leave out that he is dyslexic and thats the primary reason as to why I'm the heir to my organisation.' James thought.
'An older version of Carter-san, I would love that if we met him' Shizuka thought as she sighed.
"You spar with you brother? What do you use?" Saeko came in from the front.
"We use wooden weaponry similar to your bokken Saeko-san, I use the wooden counterpart to my current sword whilst my brother prefers to use much more heavier swords to match his power. Other than that we use fists. For the last couple of years I was winning most of our matches." James told her which caused her to giggle.
"I haven't seen you use that sword of yours yet James-san. Don't disappoint me when you do choose to use it." Saeko replied back to him.
"Don't worry about that Saeko-san, I'll be sure to put on a show for you." James promised Saeko which she smiled at that.
(Page Break)
The gang continued to walk down the street, they could not cross Onbetsu Bridge due to it being blocked by the authorities. They were also not encountering any of the zombie threat but other people looking to get away from the horde, many stopped to look at the weapons James was carrying. James however, wasn't paying attention to the onlookers but more on searching for targets. He did see the bridge in the distance which he assumed was Onbetsu Bridge, he also spotted two people in the distance, one of which was carrying a bike. After getting closer, he made out the schools uniform that they were wearing.
"Komuro-san, Miyamoto-san." James called out.
This caused the group to look at the approaching pair who one of them was running towards them, James knew this was Rei as she ran past them and hugged Shizuka.
"Oh My, Miyamoto-san. And Komuro-kun too." Shizuka gasped for air as Rei hugged her tight.
"Still hanging in there, Komuro-san." James approached Takashi.
"Yes its good to see you are not harmed Komuro-kun." Saeko happly smiled at Takashi.
"Same to you both." Takashi smiled back at the pair.
"What about me?" Saya moaned at Takashi for not mentioning her.
"I'm glad you're ok Takagi, same to you Hirano." Takashi quickly said to the pair he left out.
"I suppose you're having the same problem of crossing the river as well." Takashi pointed out the group.
"Yes it seems the bridges are closed." Saeko answered.
"What about upstream?" Takashi asked.
"Unless you want to carried away by the current then I wouldn't recommend it." James told him.
"I agree, I heard that they were building a river dyke upstream and I don't think it will be any shallower further down stream anyway. Plus we have had some rain recently so it has caused the water level to rise." Saya explained.
"Can I suggest something?" Shizuka piped in causing the group to turn to her.
"I think we should settle down for the day and get some rest, we don't have much daylight and when it gets dark we won't be able to see much." Shizuka explained.
"Yeah I agree on that, plus the weights I'm wearing are starting to affect me. Does anyone have a suggestion on where we can stay for the night?" James agreed and then asked the group.
"I know a place, it isn't far from here so we can walk there." Shizuka suggested.
"Is it your boyfriend's place?" Saya teased the nurse.
"No-no its one of my girlfriend's places. She's always busy with her work she gave me a key to her place to watch over it. Once we are done, we can use her car. It looks like a tank but with four doors." Shizuka went on explaining.
"So a Humvee then?" James asked. Kohta meanwhile had his jaw drop as that went through his mind.
"I think so." Shizuka answered.
"Does it have a view of the surrounding area?" Kohta asked.
"Yeah, its an apartment next to the river with a store nearby." Shizuka answered Kohta's question too.
"Either way I'm tired, I feel like going to a place and taking a shower." Saya sighed over the state of herself.
"You have a point there Takagi-san." Kohta thought as it went through his mind. Naturally this earned him a kick in his behind from Saya.
"Sensei get on the back and show me this place." Takashi motioned on the space on the bike for him.
"Okay." said Shizuka as she hurried over.
"We'll follow you both, and we'll meet you there." James told Takashi which was received by a nod from Takashi who drove away with Shizuka holding on tight. James watched as they sped away of the nurse hand movements. It didn't take long before James burst out laughing.
"Whats so funny?" Rei asked.
"If I saw that correctly, it seems Shizuka-sensei is getting a good feel of Takashi right about now." James replied was still chuckling before moving down the street to follow them.
All of the girls heard what James said and blushed red of the Nurses antics before following James down the road.
"There they are." Rei exclaimed as they approached the pair.
"It is a Humvee!" Kohta looked at the vehicle in shock.
"What kind of 'girlfriend' is this?" Saya questioned but Shizuka didn't hear her.
"They shouldn't be able to get over the fence so we can get a good nights sleep." Rei concluded.
"Still we should check to make sure nothing is already in there before occupying it." James suggested.
"Well then. Takagi do you have anything I can use, I have a gun but its unlikely I'll be able to hit anything with it." Takashi asked Saya.
"You? You have a gun? Why didn't you say so?" Kohta frantically questioned.
"Relax, I'll let you use it however..." Takashi answered but had to stop because he heard a noise coming from inside the building.
Sure enough, a few zombies were lurking about the apartment, the group knew that they had to remove them before they can get inside.
"Ok then lets role-play." James broke the silence and the zombies made their way to the fence.
"What? Now isn't the time for that Carter-san." Shizuka surprisingly said as she took it the wrong way, this caused most of the group to go red.
"No, not like that. We play the repossession company and these are the people who don't pay their bills." James corrected her whilst drawing his hidden blades.
"Here Komuro, this should help." Saya handed Takashi a crowbar to help kill the zombies.
Komuro and Saeko made their way to open the doors as James took his position to be the first to enter the apartment's lower area.
They opened the doors and James rushed forward and stabbed two zombies with his hidden blades just beyond the threshold of the gates, he dragged them to the ground and positioned himself to allow Saeko to use his back as a stepping over and jump over him to take out two more zombies in the lower level. Takashi and Rei rushed up the stairs to the outside patio of the building and taking out one each. Saeko ran up the stairs to join Takashi and Rei whilst Saya and Kohta closed the doors to the building. James threw one of his throwing knifes hitting the last zombie on the lower level. Seeing the rest of the group were already on the patio above him, he used a box as leverage to jump off and climb up there without using the stairs.
"Show-off." Takashi and Kohta breathed.
"Ok, lets check inside." James told the group as he, Takashi and Saeko took point and entered into the apartment.
After checking and found no more zombies lurking around the group could finally get some rest after a long day on the road.
AN: Most of this chapter is just setting up for latter parts to the story but next chapter is the fanservice chapter as anyone who reads the H.O.T.D will know and I have things planned for that.
As usual leave a review below.