(Author's note: I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has favorited, followed, and commented on this story. It was my ambition for the longest time to write a Highschool of the Dead fanfic, and I'm glad the one I finally turned out has been so well received. Thanks to everyone who's given me the time of day.

Many of the reviews have mentioned that the epilogue leaves room for a sequel, about the further adventures of Takashi and the group minus Rei. Sadly, I have lots of other writing projects I desperately need to work on, so I don't have time to commit to a full sequel story. However, since there's been so much interest in what eventually becomes of the group, I've written you all this: a second epilogue, one which peers a little deeper into the future. I hope you enjoy.)


Himeji Castle glimmered and shone. Even under the doubtful, cloudy gray sky, its walls of alabaster white were radiant, and its many silvery-blue roofs caught even the scant scraps of daylight that poked through the stormy skies above. Huge, opulent, beautiful, exquisite, the jewel of Japan's surviving castles owed its luster to a feat of modern effort, just before the world had ended. Mere months before the Year of the Dead had begun, the castle had reopened to the public after years of extensive restoration by the Japanese government. With painstaking love and care, the government had done repair work and restoration on the more than 400 year old castle, recovering its beauty and recreating the splendor it had possessed in the glory days of the Edo period.

Himeji Castle was no less loved today, in the cruel times of the new world. Indeed, it was more beloved than ever, especially by its present inhabitants, who had lived within its walls for the past five years. They had continued to maintain and keep up the huge complex, even as they made it their home. More than that, they had developed and renovated it in ways keeping with the standards of the new world, and it was both more advanced and more luxurious than ever. This was well. For the first time in centuries, Himeji Castle had reverted to its original purpose. It once again fulfilled the dual roles of a Japanese castle: it was both estate and fortress.

Deep within one of the castle's huge wings, gray light filtered through the windows. It was early March, and a storm had swept through Hyogo Prefecture, bathing the castle in rain. The rain had stopped a few hours ago, but milky, stormy gray light still dappled through the windows, its brightness weak and its shadows heavy. Deep, heavy silence hung over the castle in the aftermath of the rainstorm—but here and there, it was broken.

"Drr, rrr, grr," mumbled a high-pitched voice. Soft, small feet staggered forward haltingly, careful not to walk in a regular way.

"Blam! Blam! Bang!" cried another high-pitched voice. Small hands gripped a carved, curved wooden popgun, rocking it back in mimicry of a recoil. "Bang! Die, zombie! You're dead!"

"Ha! Ha, hai!" Yet more small hands and feet darted forward, and this pair of small hands held a small, slender wooden katana, a bokken meant for the youngest of trainees.

"Rrgh, urgh," mumbled the smallest and most high-pitched of all the voices.

"Slash! Swish! Zoom!" cried another voice, and the bokken tapped swiftly but lightly on a small, thin body. "You're dead! Die, zombie!"

"Okay, that's enough!" said another voice. All four children straightened, and silence briefly returned to the white halls trimmed with warm dark wood.

"What is it?" asked Musashi, holding the bokken at an angle.

"We need to switch sides!" said Miyuki, putting her hands on her hips. "Itsuki and I have been the zombies way too long. We have to be fair when we play Zombies And Heroes! You and Shingen have been heroes way too much, it's your turn to be the zombies!"

"Yeah!" said Itsuki, coming up alongside his sister. "I wanna be a hero now!"

"No way!" said Shingen. "You haven't spent enough time being zombies!"

Miyuki and Itsuki stared hard at Musashi and Shingen. Musashi was the oldest of them, at seven years old; his brother, Shingen, was five. They both had black hair; this was no surprise, as both of their parents were black-haired. Musashi had brown eyes, like his father, while Shingen had his mother's vibrant blue eyes. On the other hand, Miyuki was seven years old as well, but a few months younger than Musashi; her brother, Itsuki, was four. Both Miyuki and Itsuki had blond hair like their mother. Miyuki had her mother's hazel eyes, while Itsuki's eyes were brown like his father's.

The two pairs of siblings glared at each other for a few moments longer. Finally, Miyuki surged towards Musashi, reaching for the bokken in his hand. "I want the bokken now!"

"No way!" said Musashi, jerking away from her. "This bokken belongs to my mother, and she gave it to me."

"Yeah, well, during the Year of the Dead, your mom was the only one of our family to have a sword," said Miyuki. "Girls get swords too!"

"Your mother didn't even have a weapon at all," said Shingen.

"Yes she did!" said Itsuki. "Mom did have a gun! Uncle Kohta said so! She just got it later than the rest of the family!" Itsuki lunged for Shingen's wooden rifle. "So gimme yours!"

"No!" cried Shingen, lurching back. "You guys aren't done being zombies yet!"

"I wanna switch!" said Miyuki, lunging for Musashi's bokken.

"No!" cried Musashi, who turned and ran, his brother Shingen hot on his heels.

"Let's go!" cried Miyuki, chasing after them, her own younger brother Itsuki following in her wake.

The four of them scampered down the halls, rounding bends and barreling down corridors with the speed and swiftness of which only children are capable. They passed two servants, here and there, who had learned to pay the young masters and mistress no mind. Their parents were lax with them, more lax than some of the servants would have preferred.

But now they were in halls and corridors that had no inhabitants. They were in halls and corridors that were silent, that had glimmering monitors and screens lining the walls, that had open doors leading to rooms filled with flickers of computers and graphs and charts. Miyuki was the first to notice where they had gone, and she yelled out, "Hey!"

They all tumbled to a stop, Itsuki and Shingen toppling to their knees due to their lower centers of gravity. Musashi swung around, bokken still clenched in his right hand. "What?" he asked his half-sister.

"Where are we?" asked Miyuki. "I've never been to this part of the castle before."

"It is… weird," said Musashi, glancing around. Many of the monitors had details about ships, planes, submarines, and more flickering across their screens. His eyebrows rose as realization hit him. "Oh. Oh, no, this is the adult part of the castle, the part we're not supposed to be in." His eyes bulged huge. "We've gotta get out of here! Alice-senpai's going to kill us if she finds us here!"

"Ooh, what's in here?" asked Itsuki, wandering off to a half-open door that was larger than the rest.

"What did I just say?" asked Musashi, hurrying after him. Shingen and Miyuki followed, and the four of them all surged through the door into the dim, gray room.

There were electric lights lining the walls, but these were turned off at the moment. It was a rather large room. It had desks lining its walls, and on those desks were some computers, both laptops and desktops, all of their monitors glimmering with numbers and data. On other desks, and plastered on the walls, were charts, drawn here and there with coordinates, ordinance reports, troop numbers, and more. In the middle of the room was a huge table, on which was splayed out a vast map of the world. Another map, this one framed in wood, was plastered to the large far wall on the other side of the room from the door.

Miyuki paid a glance to this map on the wall. It was a map of the world with Asia in the middle. Japan, all of Japan, was colored red. The Korean Peninsula was also colored red, and so was all of China, all of Mongolia, and a huge swath of Russia. Taiwan was colored red as well, as were the Philippines, as were Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand, and even a chunk of eastern India. Meanwhile, there was a red arrow pointing downward towards Indonesia, and another one pointing further downward towards Australia. There was also an arrow pointing north and east towards Alaska and the western coast of Canada. The red coloring seemed to be crayon, or marker, and it seemed to have started in Japan and gradually been expanded over time.

Miyuki's eyes bulged. "Oh, this is the war room," she said. "This is where our moms and dad go when they do grown-up stuff."

"So we definitely need to get out of here," said Musashi. "We are going to be so dead if Alice-senpai catches us here. Mother will spank us for sure."

"I don't-" Shingen started, but Musashi immediately clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Shh!" hissed Musashi. "Listen!"

The four children were silent. They trained their ears. And, sure enough, they heard the sound of footsteps coming closer, and the tremor of voices in the dead, stormy air.

"… threatened, for a bit, but we're in good luck: it's moving. The storm's drifted off to the east, and out of their path."

Miyuki gasped. She would know that voice anywhere: "Mom!"

Another voice rose: "Very good. Though apparently there hasn't been much in the way of fighting so far?"

"Mother," whispered Shingen.

"They're coming this way," said Itsuki.

"We are so dead," whispered Musashi.

"Here, come on!" said Miyuki, gesturing to a side room whose door was slightly ajar. She pushed at the other three children, and together the four of them barreled for the door. They were small enough that they could fit through the gap in the door without pushing it open any more. "Get back around here," hissed Miyuki, pushing them to either side of the door. "And I will tell on all of you if you make any noise. Be quiet!"

"No," said the first voice. "No, there hasn't even been any shooting so far. Apparently the fleet's received a very warm welcome."

"That's quite nice," said the second voice, which now swelled to full volume as the door of the room was opened wider.

The owner of the second voice entered the room first: it was Saeko. At 26 years of age, Busujima Saeko was a spectacle of adult loveliness. Unusually for an older girl, she'd had a small growth spurt at the end of her teens, and now she was the same height as her fellow wife. She was immaculate, a picture of classic Japanese beauty. She was also tight and lean. With great effort and hard work she had kept her body in excellent shape following the births of her sons, and her shapely form was clean and lithe, packed with lean muscle. The only real clues that she was a mother were her breasts, which had gotten considerably larger after her two pregnancies. Her long black hair was done up beautifully in a high ponytail style, and she wore a luxurious black kimono, wrapped around her with intricate care.

"Yes," said the first voice, entering the room behind her. "As I understand it, the northern half of Indonesia is basically ours already. They've put up no resistance, and have actually invited us to take control."

The first voice, with its warmth and air of command, belonged to Shizuka. Now 35 years old, Marikawa Shizuka was still an incredible beauty. Her skin was still in pristine condition, and she had no wrinkles at all on her face. Of the two mothers, she bore more signs of her multiple pregnancies: her hips had widened, and her waist was just a little bit thicker. Additionally, her enormous breasts had gotten even bigger, swelling from their old J Cups all the way to a colossal M Cup. They were massive, titanic, prominently visible even from behind. She still wore her blond hair very long, and these days tended to keep it in a large, loose braid that hung down her back to the base of her spine. She currently wore a voluminous black skirt and a dark gray top that was very loose and open. At present, the left half of her top was pulled back, and her gigantic left breast was bulging out, huge and torpedo-shaped, naked in the open air. The reason for this was immediately obvious: a tiny blond baby was currently suckling on her big left nipple. This was Asami, Shizuka and Takashi's new daughter, born barely a month ago. Shizuka nursed her with practiced ease, holding the infant up against her breast with a single arm, leaving the other arm mostly free.

"Well, that's good," said Saeko. "It reminds me of when we took Taiwan. They were happy to see us then, too."

"Yes, it's been easy so far," said Shizuka. "Though I've heard rumors that it won't be like this for long. Apparently the remnants of the Australian Navy are prowling around the Arafura Sea. So we may get some fireworks before the job is done."

"Admiral Tanaka doesn't think they have anything like our current strength," said Saeko.

"No, they don't," said Shizuka. "But they've got enough ships to cause us some trouble. Still, all signs point to victory, probably within the month." Shizuka smiled at her fellow wife. "That's my new news. Now, tell me what you've got to say, Saeko-chan."

Saeko's blue eyes twitched a bit in the gray, dim-lit room. "His Majesty the Emperor is going to be paying us a visit in two weeks."

"Oh!" said Shizuka, taking a moment to readjust Asami as she continued to nurse. "Oh, well, His Imperial Majesty is always welcome in our home. Him above anyone else, of course."

"We got a letter from His Majesty today. He formally congratulates you on the birth of your daughter, and wishes to come and bestow his blessings on her. What's more, he has not yet paid us a visit in the new year, and so he wishes to do us the courtesy of a personal address."

"Fantastic," said Shizuka. "It's so good that he thinks of us so highly."

"I mean can you blame him, given what happened?"

"Guess not," said Shizuka. She chuckled deeply under her breath. "All these years later, I still cannot believe that the entire imperial family survived the Year of the Dead. Even the grandchildren! I mean, what are the odds?"

"It is pretty extraordinary," said Saeko. "I can't describe what it felt like when Takashi, Kohta, and I all stumbled on them, that day in Kyoto. It was one of the biggest shocks of my life." Saeko smiled wistfully. "Thank goodness for my father and all the etiquette he instills in me. I knew exactly how to behave. It left an impression, too. You know His Majesty still calls me 'granddaughter' sometimes."

"It was such good luck to find them the way we did," said Shizuka.

"Of all the good luck we've had, that was some of the best luck," said Saeko. "His Majesty was so grateful to us that he threw his full support behind us. That was ultimately one of the biggest reasons we were able to bring the SDF to heel."

"And of course we owe His Imperial Majesty infinite gratitude, for that reason," said Shizuka. "And we need to treat him with the utmost courtesy. Two weeks is more than enough time to prepare. I'll start letting the staff know this evening." Shizuka readjusted Asami at her breast, and then her hazel eyes twitched at Saeko. "Now, Saeko-chan, tell me why we're really here."

Saeko flinched backwards. "I… what?"

"Come on, Saeko," said Shizuka. "The news about the Emperor is very important, that's true. But it's news you could have shared with me at dinner tonight. Or it's news you could have told me earlier, when we were in the bathhouses getting our hair done. It's not news you needed to bring me here for. This is currently the emptiest and most abandoned part of the castle. You wouldn't just bring me here to tell me that." Shizuka stepped forward three paces, until she was very close to Saeko. "So, Saeko, what do you want to tell me that you don't want anyone else to overhear?"

Saeko sharply drew in a breath. Her blue eyes drifted downwards, looking at the floor. Shizuka stood there, patient but expectant, gentle yet firm. Finally, Saeko summoned her courage. "You know what day it is, right?"

"Tuesday?" said Shizuka.

"It's… eight years," said Saeko. She knotted her fingers together. "It's been eight years. Eight years to the day… since we killed her."

"Hm? Oh, her," said Shizuka, eyebrows rising in recognition. "Oh, right, I guess it has been." And one blond eyebrow rose higher. "What do you mean 'we'? You didn't kill her. I did. I'm the one who put a bullet in her head."

"Yes, but it was my idea," said Saeko. Her blue eyes shimmered at Shizuka. "Do you ever think about her?"

"No. This is the first time I've thought about her in years."

"These last few nights, I've had nightmares about her. I keep seeing her face in my sleep."

"Take five milligrams of Melatonin an hour before bedtime and that will clear right up," said Shizuka. "It's just temporary. It will pass."

"Maybe. But I can't…" Saeko wrapped her arms around herself. "I can't help but wonder. Was there some other way? Did we have to do… what we did?"

Shizuka huffed a breath. "She's eight years dead and burnt, Saeko-chan. It's a little late to be feeling regrets."

"I know, but… what if?" Saeko glanced around the war room, taking in the maps and the charts and the computers. "What if the three of us had been able to work something out, the way the two of us did? We didn't even try with her. I just immediately decided she had to die."

"And it was a good decision," said Shizuka. "Saeko, you remember how it was. If you hadn't made the decisions you did, all three of us would have killed each other, and our entire group would probably have been dead within a week. You ensured our survival."

"But what if we'd tried?" said Saeko. "I mean, I do remember how it was. I remember how much I hated both of you. I didn't hate you any less than I hated her. But now, I love you like a sister. Could it have been the same with her?"

"No," said Shizuka sharply. "You know it couldn't have. You know the two of us were different. You knew it back then, too. That's why you made a deal with me, and not with her. You knew I could accommodate in a way she never could. You know she wanted Takashi all to herself, and only to herself. She was going to get us all killed even more than I was."

"But… maybe..."

"You saved us, Saeko," said Shizuka, gently but firmly, her hazel eyes imperious, her posture and bearing queenly. "You ensured our survival and our success. And not just in the short-term, either!" Shizuka readjusted Asami at her breast, and then her free hand motioned out across the war room. "Do you think we would have achieved what we've achieved if we'd had her to deal with? If she'd been around, mewling and whining about going to college and owning a house?" Shizuka's voice took on a mocking tone when she said these last few lines. She pointed at the map on the wall, with all its red coloring. "Do you think she would ever have gone along with any of this? Do you think she'd ever have been willing to do all that we've done?"

"I could have said the same thing about you, before you changed," said Saeko. "I could have said the same thing about you before what happened to you in that old shopping mall." As Saeko said this, Shizuka subconsciously reached her free hand up and fingered her throat. "Before that happened… before you changed… you would have resisted everything we've done just as much as she would have. The old you would never have been a supporter of all of this. But these days you're more enthusiastic about all this than any of us, even more than Saya. And if you changed, why couldn't she have changed, too?"

"Because she didn't," said Shizuka, glimmering sharp steel in her voice, and suddenly all her matronly warmth was gone. "She had her chances to change. I know. Takashi tells me about the things the two of them did together, the troubles they got into alone. She had so many terrible moments, so many points of trauma. And I did see some of them! Like when she had her bayonet at Shidou's throat. All those times she could have changed, times she should have changed, times she should have realized that the old world was dead and the new world had begun. All those chances she had to change. But she didn't." Shizuka snarled, and Saeko, not for the first time, felt frightened of her, even though with her voluptuous body she should not have been intimidating. "She had so many more chances than I did to change. The difference between us is that she didn't take her chances and I took mine."

"I..." Saeko's eyes twitched to the side, unable to meet the older woman's gaze. "Maybe you're right."

"I am right," said Shizuka. "She was a burden. We wouldn't have achieved so much, had so much success, if we'd had her to deal with. She'd have whined and complained and second-guessed us every step of the way, and Takashi would have listened to her because he always listened to her," and Shizuka rolled her eyes as she said this.

"That was… always what she did," said Saeko, her voice sounding like she was working to convince herself.

"You didn't hear her as much as I did. She confronted me so many times, towards the end. I saw into her eyes more than you did. I heard her voice more than you did. So trust me when I say: she would never have changed. She never understood. Even at the end, I don't think she ever understood." She adjusted Asami at her breast yet again. A thin dribble of milk escaped the infant's mouth and trickled down her skirt. "For all our sakes, we're better off that she's gone."

"I..."

"Hey," said Shizuka, and once again she seemed to radiate motherly love. Saeko looked intently at her, and Shizuka smiled gently. "What do I always say, Saeko-chan? 'Nostalgia...'"

"'… is for the weak,'" finished Saeko. "Yes, you do always say that. And I suppose you're right."

"I am right," said Shizuka. "Look at where we are. Look at where we were the day the Year of the Dead started, and look at where we are now. Look at how far we've come. We've done what we had to do to survive. And it's all been worth it." Saeko smiled tentatively at her. Shizuka beamed at her, in turn. "Don't look back. What's past is past. I don't look back. Just look around you, and look forward."

Saeko nodded. "Right."

"All of us have done things we aren't proud of. But it yielded good, in the end. Think on that." Shizuka poked Saeko firmly on her shoulder. "And… no more regrets, okay?"

Saeko, just for a moment, glanced painfully towards the ground. Then her eyes met Shizuka's. And Saeko smiled. "No more regrets."

"That's my girl." Shizuka leaned in and tenderly kissed Saeko on the forehead. "I always know I can count on you, Saeko-chan."

"Mrnm..."

The two women glanced downwards. Asami had pulled her mouth away from Shizuka's big nipple. The baby girl was fidgeting and squirming in Shizuka's arm, cooing and whimpering gently.

Shizuka smiled lovingly down at her daughter. She tucked her mammoth left breast back inside her loose top, and then she took up Asami in both arms, rocking her gently. "I think it's time to put this one down for a nap. Come on, we're done in here."

"Yes," said Saeko, obediently following Shizuka as she moved for the door. "Is it true that Kohta and Saya are back from China?"

"Yes," said Shizuka. "They landed this morning. They should be home before sunset." Shizuka shut the sliding door behind her as the two women exited the room. "I think Takashi wants us all to have dinner tonight. It is the first time in more than a month that all six of us will be together."

"That sounds wonderful," said Saeko. "I'll let Alice-chan know."

"I'll be interested to hear what they have to say," said Shizuka, voice growing fainter. "It seems like they had huge success."

"That's what I understand as well," said Saeko. "And what's more..."

At last, the two women's voices faded to murmurs, and then to silence. For a heartbeat, the war room was quiet once more. And then the sliding door on the far wall banged open, and the four children piled out of it. Itsuki, Miyuki, Shingen, and Musashi tumbled forward, landing in a heap on the antique flooring. Standing up, all four children exchanged huge-eyed glances.

"Whoa," said Ituski.

"That was definitely a grown-up conversation," said Musashi. "I've never heard them talk like that before."

"Eeeeee," squealed Miyuki, tugging at her blond pigtails. "My mom is so cool!"

"I wonder who they were talking about?" asked Shingen. "I wonder who 'she' is?"

"Eh, she's probably not important," said Musashi. "I mean, they didn't even say her name. How big a deal can she be?"

"Yeah," said Miyuki. "I mean both our moms have killed loads of people. Why would any one of them be important?"

"Now we really, really should go," said Musashi, heading towards the same door that their mothers had shut. "The last thing I want is for someone to find us here."

"I hope Aunt Saya brought me back something cool from China!" said Itsuki.

"You know she did," said Shingen. "Aunt Saya gives the best presents."

"Mom and Saeko-san and dad are probably gonna want us to be there for when she and Uncle Kohta get here, so we should definitely get going," said Miyuki.

"Yeah," said Musashi. "Let's go!"

The four children ran off, back down the hallways from whence they'd come. They left the war room behind, with all its maps and charts and screens standing silent, still, waiting for the next, inevitable campaign.

THE END