"Hmm, hmm," hummed Shizuka, gazing into the lighted mirror. She squirted some moisturizer into her hand and began to rub it all over her face, all over her cheeks, all over her forehead, all over her nose. Proper hydration of the skin was essential. She smiled into the mirror. "He deserves only the best."
She was wearing a jet black teddy and nothing else, its dark color a striking contrast with her hazel eyes and blond hair. It swelled with silk and lace, and in the old world it had clearly been very expensive. She smirked with pleasure. She'd only had it about a week. She and Takashi were so close now that he'd felt comfortable asking about her clothing sizes, and one day, before he'd set out with a scouting party, he'd asked for her size in lingerie. Suspecting that he planned to bring her back something, Shizuka had deliberately told him one size smaller than what she normally wore.
The results spoke for themselves: she overflowed the teddy in all the best ways. Her big, plump bottom swelled far out of the lower skirt, which barely covered her crotch. Meanwhile, the top was far, far too small for her, and her breasts were ready to pop out at the slightest motion. Which was exactly what she wanted. "All for our fearless leader," she said.
It was now almost the end of Spring, and the days and nights were quite warm. They had made it, eventually, to Rei and Takashi's neighborhood. There they had met countless other survivors, including both of Rei and Taksahi's parents. Shizuka rarely felt remorse about anything these days, but she still felt a pang in her chest when she remembered Rei's mother and father getting the news of their daughter's death. Shizuka had comforted Rei's bawling mother personally. She had done the best she could.
Shizuka scowled. She saw, for a moment, the flicker of Rei's face in the mirror. "Fuck off," she snarled at the mirror. "It's over. I did what had to be done." She grabbed a brush and began to run it through her beautiful blond hair. "I did what I had to do to survive."
Having fulfilled their mission, they had returned to the ryokan, whose backup generator was still more than capable of powering the whole place, from the hotel itself to the various buildings on the grounds. They had returned with all the survivors who would come with them, and it had begun to be gradually known in the surrounding areas that the hotel was a safe space, a headquarters for those who had survived the end of the world. The party still led scouting missions out into the neighborhoods, towards the high rises, the shopping centers, the downtown areas. Where before it had only been the seven, and then the six of them, these days they went out with a veritable army.
"Rika's sure come in handy on that front," said Shizuka. Minami Rika, her old friend from the special assault police, had shown up on their doorstep about a month ago, bringing a few of her comrades with her. But as soon as Shizuka mentioned Rika's name, she frowned. She and Rika were much less… close… than they used to be. Indeed, it sometimes felt like Rika avoided her at times. Rika claimed that this was due to how much Shizuka had changed; she'd repeatedly told the big-bodied nurse that she barely recognized her these days. Shizuka scowled into the mirror again. "But at least she's useful against "them.""
Although there wasn't nearly as much fear of the dead as there used to be. "They" had truly begun to rot in huge numbers, just as Shizuka had suspected all those months ago. Just the other day, she'd sat on the roof of the ryokan with Kohta, and they'd looked through binoculars out into the neighborhood. She'd personally seen one of "them" shambling along, falling apart as it walked, muscles oozing off its limbs and rotten guts slopping from its front. She'd seen it fall apart with her own eyes, and collapse to the ground. It was much the same everywhere they went.
No, now they had new things to worry about. There were rumors of tanks on the major roads, and in the past month they'd more than once seen helicopters and aircraft in the sky. "Could it be the SDF?" pondered Shizuka to herself in the mirror, not for the first time. "Well, the others might be in trouble, then. Like Saya says, the military's going to want to reassert order, and they might not listen to a bunch of teenagers." Shizuka tilted her head and tapped a finger to her chin. "But I'm sure they'd be happy to have me. Trained medical personnel are always valuable."
But, in truth, that wasn't what she hoped—and, in fact, that wasn't what Kohta and Saya suspected. In fact, the real rumor was that at least some of those tanks and other military vehicles didn't belong to the SDF—that they belonged, instead, to armed gangs, to right-wing paramilitary groups, and to bands of marauders that had "commandeered" them. Saya had been piecing together the reports from the survivors who arrived, and she had more and more concluded that, even with "them" rapidly going away, Japan was becoming a dangerous place.
Shizuka smirked then, and hummed as she brushed her hair. The ryokan had become a bit of a dangerous place itself. Many of the survivors who came to it brought guns and ammunition with them, including a few who'd arrived with heavy arms. At Shizuka's own suggestion, Kohta had taken the eager ones under his wing and begun to drill them in combat tactics and operations. There were numerous fit, young men who had arrived at their sanctuary, men in their late teens and early twenties. Absolutely none of them had any qualms about taking orders from Takashi. Indeed, many of them had come to greatly admire him, especially after listening to the stories of his exploits from Saeko, Kohta, Saya, Alice, and Shizuka. Many of them had begun to regard him as their leader, and they as his followers.
"I wonder if they'd be up for stealing tanks?" said Shizuka, tapping another finger to her chin. "After all… what did Saya and Kohta say? A Japan ruled by the military, with substantial power for local warlords? Like the Edo period." She smiled eagerly into the mirror as she brushed her hair some more. "And why can't Komuro-kun be one of those warlords? Why can't we have some of that power?" She had discussed this with Saya privately, and Saya had not dismissed the idea. She giggled. "Oh, that would make me like a duchess! Or, hold on, what's that word from the Edo period?" She cocked her head to the side as she tried to remember her schooling. She snapped her fingers. "Oh, that's right, a seishitsu!"
Setting the hairbrush down, Shizuka glanced into the mirror. Then she did what she always did these days when she was in front of a mirror: she craned back her neck and ran fingertips over her scar. It hadn't faded or receded in any way. It was still the same dull red that it had been the first night she'd noticed it, in the mall all those months ago. She supposed it truly would be with her forever, and she'd never be able to forget it was there.
And maybe… in the strangest of ways… that wasn't so bad. Maybe the scar, and what had caused it, had taught her a good lesson. A painful lesson—one that had been hard to learn—but one that it had been good to learn, regardless.
She smiled with immense satisfaction into the mirror. She was sitting in a bathroom of the ryokan's presidential suite. Takashi had been persuaded to take the suite for himself; he had taken the master bedroom, while Shizuka and Saeko each slept in one of the suite's other rooms. But she was in the main bathroom now. She hummed at the mirror. "You know, all this..." she put her chin in her hand. "You know, all of this is… better… than me finishing my clinical training and becoming some dirty, scrubby registered nurse at some overcrowded hospital in Tokyo." She had a sharp, ugly fantasy of herself wandering around a hospital, wearing ugly pink scrubs and being yelled at by doctors. It made her grimace. But she banished it at once. "This is so much better." She smiled again, and now it was fierce, and savage. "Kohta's right. This world's really quite nice… if you're strong enough to survive it."
Rei's face again flickered in the mirror.
Shizuka angrily thrust a finger at the glass. "Don't you look at me like that. You weren't strong enough. You didn't adapt. And that's why you had to die." She rubbed on some lip balm and puckered her lips. "That's why I won and you lost."
"Shizuka-chan, are you coming?" called the voice from the bedroom.
Love, warmth, joy swelled in her chest. "Cooominnng," she said, in a sing-song voice. She rose from her seat, careful to turn the lights off on the mirror. She readjusted the teddy, particularly in the chest area, and sauntered out into the master bedroom. "Komuuuro-kuuuunn…."
Takashi was lying on the bed. His upper body was bare, and Shizuka felt a swell of desire at his bare, muscled torso. But more than arousal… more than erotic delight… she felt… peace. Warmth. Completeness. Truth. Yes, it had all been worth it, what she'd had to do. This made it all worth it. He smiled at her, and butterflies bubbled in her gut. "I wondered how long you'd be in there."
"Just wanted to freshen up, sweetie," said Shizuka, crawling onto the bed and coming towards him, big breasts swinging pendulously as she did. She saw the erection in Takashi's pants, and licked her lips. "Long day?" she asked.
"Very," said Takashi, sighing tiredly. "Orders to give, people to welcome, maps to look at… jeez." He laughed. "It was easier and simpler when it was just the seven of..." he sighed. "Poor Rei."
Shizuka scowled briefly, but she soon readjusted her face. "Easier… but I kind of like it better now."
"Oh, I'm definitely not complaining," said Takashi. "But it definitely is tiring. I'm so tired I actually forgot whether it was one of your nights or one of Saeko's."
"Well, that's one thing you never need to worry about," said Shizuka. "Saeko and I run a tight ship!" She said it cheerily, and giggled. "We're very sharp about whose turn it is. So just leave that to us."
"Saeko's convinced she'll be pregnant soon. She said she's feeling fertile these days."
Shizuka laughed huskily. "That sounds like her, all right."
"I guess you guys had to stop using birth control months ago, right?"
"Oh, yes, we all ran out. And in this new world it's relatively low on my list of priorities," said Shizuka. She loomed over him. Takashi smiled up at her. "So, Komuro-kun..."
"Takashi."
"Huh?" said Shizuka.
"Please… all those months ago… when I started to love you," her heart swelled, and her eyes grew watery, "I think it all really started… when you asked me to call you by your first name." He reached up and gently feathered her chin with his fingers. "So, now… do the same to me, okay?" He smiled warmly. "Komuro Takashi. That's my name… Shizuka."
Shizuka beamed with joy. "Okay… Takashi."
Takashi craned up and gave her a kiss.
"I love you," cooed Shizuka, gnawing on his lips. "I love you."
"I love you, too," whispered Takashi, wrapping his arms around her.
She lowered herself down onto him. "So… Takashi… let's see if I can beat Saeko to the punch."
She stared at him with love, with joy, with warmth, with passion. And yet, Takashi noticed, that coldness and hardness never fully, completely left her eyes. There were days when he missed the old Shizuka, the ditzy Shizuka, the Shizuka who, even surrounded by "them," had always radiated pure, simple happiness and joy. She had changed. But then, he supposed, all of them had.
"Oh, I'd better get these out," said Shizuka, pulling back the top of the black teddy. Her breasts, her warm, soft, enormous breasts, popped from the garment and oozed down onto him. They smothered his chest as she leaned in for another kiss, and in the haze of pleasure, Takashi knew no more.