V
[]
Well, even the anime pope can be wrong sometimes.
Come here! Come here Sammy! Oh, that's a good boy! Who's my beautiful boy?
What is up, my dude?
Not much, my guy.
Is that a cut? How'd I not notice that?
Who am I? Am I not unique? Maybe I'm not here at all
Hmhmhmhm blinding us with lies the hmhm of us all
That ain't a knife, this is a knife.
Yes! Yes! I did it, never playing this game again! Lingering Will? More like Lingering Pain from dying so much
That didn't even make sense
Can't all be winners
Finally, they're bringing back my man, door-kun!
o0o
[1st]
I didn't remember opening my eyes, nor looking around the room, they just were as far as my memory was concerned.
I'd only been in a hospital as a patient once, and I'd been awake at the time. I'd ended up spending the night over for them to run some tests on me, but even then I'd expected to wake up there. Now I suddenly found myself staring around the room, taking in the details. A curtain to divide the place, sink to my left and some basic conveniences.
What happened?
Did I get into an accident?
I tried rooting through my mind, attempting to pull something up but coming up blank. Worse than that, trying made me feel weak and suddenly caused my vision to sway. Thinking wasn't a good idea right now.
Why was I so cold? And weak? I didn't- what?
The door opened and in stepped a man with a coat, couldn't tell how old he was supposed to be.
"Oh, you're awake," He walked over to me. "I'm Ojima, Daisuke Ojima, do you know what's going on?"
My body fell back. My vision was blurring but I could see the man rush over as things started going dark. I. ?
o0o
What's going on?
o0o
I was still trembling, I was going to die. I couldn't do anything about it, not that I could think of anyways. Try to take a plane to America and save him? I mean me? What would I say? I mean, protecting myself and my family was definitely more important but something about the idea of going over was wrong. Every time I tried thinking about it my whole body seemed to vibrate. But how could I leave myself to die like that? Could I trust everyone to not die and protect each other? Maybe, Ian was already in high school and would be ripped by now, not to say that that meant we'd be able to live no matter what, but I'm sure it counted for something right?
Right?
I knew mom and dad would try their hardest and that dad had experience with brawls as a kid but would that be enough? Would what I'm doing now be enough?
Thinking about those that would die made me doubt it for some reason.
The only option was to live for them, if I couldn't know whether they would live or die then I would work so that I could live enough for all of us.
I needed to be stronger, to carry on for them.
I wouldn't let those mindless mockeries of life take everything.
o0o
My eyes opened again, still in the same room, though there were people here.
Who?
Oh, the Kouno's. Hello there.
"Tom-chan! What happened?" Ayame came to my side, face scrunched with worry and... sadness. I think.
"What?" I mumbled, just saying that felt like I'd just pulled a wire brush through my throat. I felt like something had sucked all the moisture out of me. Even before whatever had happened my mouth had gotten dry rather easily, a few minutes was all that was necessary, it wasn't hard to imagine this happening in anywhere from a day to a week.
Ayame cocked her head, a bit of confusion joining the worry. She turned her head to her husband, "what did he just say?"
Satoru shrugged and turned to his kids, "do any of you know what he just said?"
Suzume looked like she was about to say something when the guy I'd seen from earlier stepped back inside, "please," he started, moving to ease Ayame away from me. "He just woke up, please give him some space." Ayame relented and slowly shuffled away from me. What was going on?
"Mr. Vega," he said, stopping for a few seconds before turning to the kids. "Can any of you speak English?"
Suzume raised her hand, "A little," she pursed her lips while staring at me. "Not much though, I've only just started really learning last year."
The man nodded and waved her over, "that'll have to do until we can get a translator over, I'll just try to explain what happened and then we can expand on that, if it's alright with you, that is?" He looked to her, quirking a brow at Suzume. She stared for a few more seconds, then to her parents, who nodded. She looked to the doctor and nodded. "Good, well, let's go a sentence at time so you can take your time." She nodded again. "I am Ojima Daisuke, your doctor, you collapsed from moderate malnutrition as well as energy deficiency and have been out for 3 days."
Suzume pointed to the doctor, "Ojima Daisuke, doctor, faint form, from ma- malr- hunger, and tired, 3 days," Oh. I guess that explained why I felt so weak.
o0o
[3rd]
Kei Ito was a nurse at Tokonosu General. His shifts usually started before 4 pm and ended after 2 and he'd fallen into a sort of routine since he first got the job about 4 months ago.
Then his newest patient came in.
Kei had been hired on account of his credentials, not just his competence in medicine but the fact he spoke multiple languages, French, English and Japenese, specifically. Everything else being equal, or at least close enough to not really matter, he'd been brought on. He hadn't really needed them to any major degree thus far other than the occasional drunk or elderly tourist. But when the man came in looking hollow and on the brink of death, he was suddenly very busy.
The patient's name was Thomas Vega, he was a foreigner that worked at a nearby store and had apparently collapsed while on a run, in front of a random bystander that called for help. Said person left after seeing that he was being taken care of.
Every time Kei had come into his room to take care of him and talk in case he woke up (though Kei had doubted it would happen soon from his apparent condition) he felt off. As if being watched, only to find that whenever he turned to the door or patient that no one was watching. What was worse was that at some point when he was taking care of the man, regardless of when he came in, he would hear him muttering, although he never responded when someone tried to talk to him.
That and other little things had added up so that Kei was always wary and hesitant to go whenever he was due to check on him.
When Kei had been called in a few minutes early for work he hadn't really minded, his life outside of work wasn't all that time consuming and anytime this happened it meant they needed the extra hands. When he got to the hospital however he was immediately called over to Thomas's room.
He squirmed uncomfortably at the thought of the room's atmosphere.
Upon arriving he found family surrounding him, though not his if the radically different features meant anything. As he looked to the bed he found him awake, staring at him. Kei wasn't sure if it was his experience with Thomas so far or not but his gaze disturbed him; his face was blank, mouth set in an almost unnoticeable frown, hair casting a slight shadow over his eyes which themselves were droopy, with little to seemingly no light bouncing off. This came together in a way he'd never seen before, as if he were still unconscious, the only thing keeping him from thinking that might be the case was that he slowly blinked at Kei.
Kei turned to the doctor, Ojima raised an eyebrow at his expression but didn't comment on it, intending to get to business. "Sorry for calling you in early, Ito-san but we needed you to translate since he has awakened and no one here speaks enough English to make him fully aware of what's going on," Ojima turned to a girl from the visitors and dipped his head "thank you for assistance until this point Kouno-san." The girl nodded back and left it at that.
"Now let us get to business," Ojima took a few steps closer to the patient and sat close to him before waiting for Kei to do the same. He followed and tried to get past his wariness in order to act professionally, nodding as he did so.
"First, I would like to know if you are okay with these people bearing witness, they were listed under emergency contacts but confirmation is still required." Kei copied his sentence with a second of delay, creating an odd 'echo' of sorts. Thomas nodded. "As I said, you have been out for few days due to malnutrition. When you got here you were in a poor state, low blood sugar as well as body temperature, reduced muscle and tissue mass, and some difficulty breathing. By themselves, they wouldn't be too bad, but you were only receiving a fraction of the energy and nutrients your body needed, so everything has just piled together and created a mess. As soon as we made sure you weren't in immediate danger from the usual suspects of collapse we found the problem and put you on a drip, although that was only for until you woke up. As such you will need to rest and eat regularly for the next couple of weeks." Everyone noticed Thomas suddenly looking stricken at that, the first sign of any of this getting through to him, they all looked curious at that, with the elders thinking about asking why he reacted so badly before Ojima continued on. "The good news is that most of the problems, minor as they are, can be taken care of at home." Thomas seemed to relax a bit at that and started to sink into the bed, his eyes showing that he was struggling to stay awake.
Ojima pursed his lips and thought for a second, "I was thinking he should go back to sleep soon but I suppose that has been decided for us anyways. Ito-san, I've already checked his equipment so you can just go ahead and check on Oosawa," Kei nodded and started to head out, excusing himself as he passed by the family.
Back to it.
o0o
[1st]
Duct tape, the miracle item, able to do anything ranging from holding together a junker to making clothes. At the moment however, I was using it to fletch arrows, I'd started even before I'd decided to use a bow instead of arrows, figuring it would be good practice in case I ran out of ammo or found myself without a gun. I'd gotten kind of good with it in a month or so before I realized that I'd only been using feathers. Granted, I was planning on using them most of the time as they seemed to be the best of the cheap things I could get, which wasn't to say that I would always have an abundance of them.
So, I decided I was going to learn multiple ways, the one I was currently working on was duct tape. When I'd first looked up ways to fletch arrows myself I hadn't really thought of how effective it could be, which I felt rather dumb now that I thought about it.
I had started physical training first before anything else under the assumption that most of my time fighting the ghoulies would be close range, even if that was something I very much did not want.
I looked at my handiwork, decent. Into the pile it went, I would test it out later, among its 2 dozen or so brethren, then strip it so I didn't have to order hundreds of arrows.
On to the next one.
o0o
Solar cells. Check.
Saw. Check.
Soldering stuff. Check.
Board. Check.
Multimeter. Check.
Protective glasses. Check.
Now to make the panel.
o0o
I'd been getting more tired this past week or so. The fact that it was happening right when I started being more active was not lost on me so I'd started eating more as soon as I'd picked up on it, yet I was still tired. Odd, but not much of a problem, that just meant I needed more. I could take care of that; my only hope was that I wouldn't eat up my funds or have to cut back on working out.
o0o
Swipe.
Grimace.
Adjust grip and stance.
Again.
And Again. And Again.
Not good enough.
Not yet.
Only three and a half months.
Switch hands.
Swipe.
Adjust grip and stance.
Again.
o0o
I woke up again. My mind felt clearer, not completely, but it was progress.
Thoughts were swimming through my head though I latched onto a few in particular.
I'd been out for a few days, lost progress and had to rest for a few weeks. The loss of time and physicality weren't too bad, I could easily bypass that by working out. Except that I couldn't.
I'm such an idiot. How did I let this happen? How did-
"Oh! Hello there!" I turned to the voice I'd heard.
Of course.
Standing in the door way was the doctor from earlier and one of the people I'd almost been counting on meeting at some point or another.
Shizuka Marikawa bounded in, face lit up for no particular reason, "Shizuka-chan, he can't understand you." Ojima came in after her, albeit in a much more subdued manner, expression and shaking head showing a familiarity with her antics.
Shizuka toned down her excitement and came to a stop a bit too close for comfort before quickly snapping out a bow. "Shizuka Marikawa, nice to meet you!" She smiled as she looked to me, speaking in slightly accented English, I don't remember her knowing anything other than Japanese, though to be fair they never really had any reason to focus on that. "I'm studying to be a doctor and will be here for you until you check out!" I thought she was trying to become a nurse. Huh.
Behind her, Ojima cleared his throat, "Shizuka-chan, please tell him the good news."
"Oh! You've been recovering quicker than we expected and should be able to leave tomorrow or the day after, though you will still need to rest and go to your local doctor for checkups as well as discuss your diet with an advisor." She tapped her mouth repeatedly. Apparently checking to see if she forgot something. "Ah!" She clapped her hands together, "do you know what day it is?"
I blinked, when did I pass out? Come to think of it, when was the last time I looked at the date? Christmas? New Year's?
I shook my head, even if I felt better I still didn't trust myself to speak clearly. "Today is Friday, January 29th, it's been a day since you last woke up." A day?
"The people that came to see you left some stuff," She pointed to a counter next to me. Most of it was cards but there was a Gameboy SP on the corner closest to me. I reached out for it and turned it on, skipping past the logos brought me to the start up screen for Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, not that it said as such.
I wonder if they'd heard when I was getting out. Either way I was going to thank them, hopefully I could say it to whoever actually left it here. I loved this game.
I hoped not being able to read anything wouldn't be a game breaker.
"That's all there is to say so I'll just take my leave now, see you in a bit!" Shizuka waved as she left, thankfully not minding that I hadn't actually said anything and Ojima had apparently left sometime after Shizuka had begun explaining things.
I looked to the Gameboy in my hands and looked at the counter to check if there was a charger included. Seeing that there was I looked at the save files available and saw a blank spot, whether that had been there or one of the Kouno's had deleted a file for me was unknown and irrelevant.
I started a new game. Letsa go.
Heh.
o0o
As it turns out, I remembered enough about the game for my lingual situation to not be a problem.
On the other hand, it was still quite the hindrance for most other things. Everything I did nowadays sans thinking was in Japanese so being unable to understand it was a problem to say the least.
Thankfully, Kei—my nurse—spoke enough English to keep the situation from being entirely unpleasant, even if he seemed to have some kind of aversion to being around me.
Nonetheless, things went as Shizuka had said, I was released 2 days later. I'd been given more meals than was the norm while there and as a result was feeling a bit better than when I'd first woken up. When I was leaving I'd thought that I would have trouble getting home as the Kouno's were most likely working, so I didn't feel comfortable asking them to bring me home. Luckily, I was saved from having to make any decisions when Shizuka told me my place was close to the school she worked at and that she wouldn't mind taking me on her way. I checked the time to make sure she wasn't actually going out of her way, 7:33. I'd learned the time that school started for Fujimi was 8:25 from Naoya when I'd tried making small talk a while ago. Something I'd been fairly jealous of at the time and still kinda was as school ever starting past 7:15 had been but a dream for me during high school, at least that meant Shizuka was genuinely heading there.
As we approached her car I saw how small it was, I remember that being mentioned in the manga but couldn't remember what it was called, not that it mattered I suppose. We got in and she started it up. "Don't worry about directions, I made sure to ask!" She pumped her free arm, the other turning the key. I just nodded. Looking around the inside brought a small smile to my face as I imagined everyone trying to squeeze inside, weapons included. The smile fell as I thought about zombies closing in on them while doing so. Then I remembered that I only had two months and some change before everything went down, and I'd erased an unknown amount of physical progress by being overzealous.
I heaved a sigh. Suddenly I was glad that I'd taken all that extra work last month, I had no doubt that I'd be almost literally eating through it.
"Vega-san?" I turned to Shizuka, her eyes were on the road, but I saw her brows slightly scrunching up. "What's wrong?"
"I have a lot of stuff to make up," I was never really the type of person to say 'nothing' when something was wrong, despite how often I heard it from others, even if the person asking was a complete stranger. I figured the worst that could happen was that it would be ignored and I would have at least vented a bit.
"Eh? I though you weren't in school?" Shizuka looked at me for a second, lidded eyes raised slightly in confusion.
"I don't" I hoped that she'd say something that would give me an idea of what to do.
"Then what are you preparing for?" She tilted her head, twisting her arms to take a turn.
"I was trying to get in shape," Saying it without the context made the problem sound a lot less, heavy I guess.
She slowed the car down and hummed for a few seconds, either trying to recall the directions or what to say. When she started moving again I realized it was the former. She looked me up and down, "your upper body is bigger, I think you should spread out the areas of your work out." It was? I looked myself over, I had never really had to worry about that. Then I let out a short laugh at the mental image of me looking like Johnny Bravo. I laughed again thinking of myself acting the way he did.
"There's a handsome guy in my house, never mind, it's only me." I resisted the urge to pose like him as I said that, figuring I was already probably gonna weird her out by saying that out of the blue, though the urge was rather strong.
Shizuka giggled, "What was that?"
"It was a line from I show I watched when I was younger," I smiled as I recalled the stuff I used to watch. I felt much better now, thankful for how easily I was entertained.
Shizuka noticed my mood picking up and smiled. After that we just talked a bit. I could think about what to do when I got home, for now I'd just try and enjoy talking with her.
o0o
Two days later and I found myself just as clueless as before. I'd spent some time thinking about where I stood financially, the short of it was that I wasn't in danger, at least when it came to providing for myself, and barring a massive rise in inflation I could even get most of the stuff that I still wanted; key word being most. Though I'd spent some time working extra it didn't change the fact that I'd missed more time than I'd spent trying to cover, not to mention the fact that I'd have to stay at home for at the very least a few days to recover (though I expected anytime less than two weeks to be unlikely).
On the plus side I was starting to pick things up again.
For whatever reason I hadn't really taken the time to think about why either problems that had risen recently. Both my rapid loss and retrieval of Japanese and my ungodly quick metabolism. Now seemed like as good a time as any, if not to give my mind a chance to recuperate from its plans to recover my lost muscle mass than to at the very least to make sure this didn't happen again. Collapsing in front of a bunch of zombies was bad for reasons that needn't be specified and not being able to understand what other people, while not as objectively bad was still something I absolutely did not want.
First, Japanese. Thinking about my whole time here I also lost my ability to understand when I just woke up and when I was bone tired, add that to me waking up in the hospital a few weak hits away from comatose with the same problem meant: my ability to understand Japanese in any capacity (as well as possibly other languages though I hadn't tested that out yet) was tied to my physical health with a small connection to how energetic I felt. I think. I rolled that conclusion around in my head for a bit. Was there another way I could think of that made sense when thinking about both situations? Admittedly, putting pieces of evidence together and coming up with a sound conclusion wasn't really my forte, so nothing else came to mind.
Second, My crazy metabolism. This one was easier as the problem started when I'd pushed myself; for the two odd months I'd been working out beforehand everything had been fine so that meant the problem was in fact the increased strain, meaning working out harder meant I needed to eat more. I suppose that one wasn't really a problem that needed uncovering since it was so obvious, even if the amount needed was way more than I'd expected, and I couldn't really tell if the results had reflected my needs since I was now weaker than before, I hoped so at least.
Regardless of how obvious it was I was still glad I'd taken the time to think this through.
Although that still left the workout problem.
Suddenly, I got it. I could still go for what most people considered dangerous and I'd be able to feel the effects quicker than normal, both the improvements and tiredness. That meant I could just find an amount of food and vitamins I was comfortable with buying for the duration of my time here and just cap off the increase when I started to feel weaker.
It was amazing what actually sitting down and thinking could do, it made me realize just how poor my planning up until this point had been. Back home I'd never planned through anything, and though I knew others that did that, they were all undoubtedly smarter/better at thinking on their feet than I was. The only reason I'd made it through high school was because of how laughably easy it was to do so as long as you could rub two brain cells together. I'd slept through classes, hardly bothered with notes and neglected to turn in large chunks of work. As things were, I was sure there were many improvements that could be made to my plans and now was definitely the time to do so. If I tired myself out thinking I could just work on the crafts aspect of things or watch TV, maybe at the same time if I could split my focus well enough.
I sighed in contentment. Even if there was possibly a lot of thinking ahead for the next week or so, at least I'd sorted through my thoughts on some things.
I got up from the couch I was lying on and stretched, hearing and certainly feeling pops from head to toe. I would celebrate with a meal, then I'd get to work.
I looked around the apartment, making sure that the only things in the room were those that wouldn't be too out of place. For the things that might raise questions I made sure to have excuses ready, half truths, never lies; I wasn't 100% sure I could convincingly make those. I made another trip around the house, nodding in satisfaction once I was sure nothing was out of place. The decision I'd made to not purchase everything at once was one I kind of regretted but there wasn't really much I could do for that.
There was a knock at the door.
"I hope I don't make a fool of myself," I muttered to myself as I went to the door, despite the fact I had been living by self for a few months and I'd already met my Dietary Advisor—a well-dressed man in his 30s or 40s named Shoji Tanabe—I still felt nervous. I looked through just to make sure it was my DA and unlocked the door as I confirmed it. Here goes.
Hello, good to see you again, Vega-san. Are you feeling well? The words were written in English on a pad. Wasn't expecting that. When I'd first talked to him it had been through Kei, who translated for both of us, I'd just expected Shoji to bring along a translator this time. Seeing him writing made me wonder why he hadn't just done that in the first place, before realizing it might've been because it was quicker for Kei to do it.
I waved him inside before speaking "I am doing fine," I closed the door as his face registered shock at me being able to communicate with him. "When I was in the hospital I was not able to remember how to speak all that well, I do not really know how that works but I can get most simple sentences now." The shock quickly wore off and he nodded, a small smile on his face, probably because of how much easier this just became. I headed over to the table in my dining room and sat down, motioning for him to join me.
"Well then," He started, sitting down and placing his hands on the table. "Let's get started."
o0o
Contrary to what I'd expected I was cleared to work starting tomorrow, I called the Kouno's up to tell them the news and asked who had given me the Gameboy so I could thank them, they told me that Aoi had given it to me since he hadn't used it for a while and that they could thank him for me and that they wanted me to wait until Monday to come in. I knew they were already aware of my situation so I figured trying to argue about my financial state wouldn't really work and decided to let it go. At the very least that would give me some extra time to spend just relaxing or planning before I started to pick things up in order to make up for the lost time. Pushing that aside the situation made me aware of the fact that the whole health thing was apparently double edged, though I'd found the cons before the pros. As long as my body had the appropriate nutrients, any normal health problems would be quickly taken care of; definitely something to be happy about. I relaxed into the couch. Since I knew what caused my problems I just had to precede as I'd done before this whole thing started, I just had to pick up once I reached close to original conditions.
This week had helped me realize that the time I had spent thinking was vastly dwarfed by the amount of time I spent getting myself physically ready, despite the fact that all that time standing and mindlessly going about tasks was perfect for going over things, whether to add them to my list of preparations or tweak aspects that I was already working on, I had instead spent my time thinking of songs or scenarios that still wouldn't happen, continuing my long tradition of daydreaming when I should be doing other things. Nothing like sitting around without any other options than thinking to make you realize how badly you were managing your already limited time.
I wiped my face, though I was resolute on spending my time better now that I'd missed out on an indeterminate amount of time working myself half to death, I had to make sure to keep it to a certain level, something I wasn't really sure I was capable of, back home I'd either worked hard the whole time until something was done—needless to say, a bad idea at this point—or I'd work until I lost interest, whether through it being to hard or just wearing out my intrigue, at which point whatever I'd been working on would stay unfinished until the end of time.
Guess now was as good of a time as ever to learn.
o0o
Work, as it turns out, was only marginally less busy than Christmas time had been when I came back. "I guess I can see why they would want me to wait another day," I said to no one in particular.
"Ah! Vega-san, help!" I heard a weak plea for help and turned to the voice, seeing Naoya overwhelmed by the number of people here. I can only imagine how badly the poor kid had fared during the Holiday season.
Making my way through the people getting their things, I noticed a large number of them were girls. What was going on?
I made it to the counter and went to a register next to him, seeing a chunk of the people waiting in line move from his register to mine.
I was about to glance at him and ask what the situation was all about when first person in line placed their stuff on the counter in front of me. I glanced down at the stuff and took a look at it. A bag of chips, some candy and a bag of chocolates. I glanced at the date on the display to make sure I was close, February 8th. I'd forgotten about Valentine's.
Quickly doing what I needed to, I handed the bag to the girl and wished her luck, she nodded and left.
At least I kinda understood now I guess. Still didn't know why there were so many people here, I know anime wasn't really the best thing to base this on but- actually I guess it was. Regardless, I though most girls would want to give a handmade chocolate to who they liked, unless these were just friendship chocolates or whatever they were called.
The next time someone came up with one of those packages I looked a bit more carefully, the packaging didn't look all that much like a 'here you go', general brand kind of chocolate, and they were only getting one, so I guess it was personalized? But who made them? And how long did it take to make this many?
I guess I'd ask Naoya later, hopefully he knew. Even if he didn't I could just ask whichever of the Kouno's came here first.
"Oh~?" I focused on the new speaker, seeing Rei and a friend over where the chocolates were.
I wonder who those were for, kappa.
"What else were you planning on doing?" The girl next to Rei asked teasingly, getting closer to her and poking at her sides.
"Nothing!" Rei said, trying her best to seem stern as her friend continued prodding, "I was just planning on giving him these and hanging out!"
"Heh~?" Her friend's smirk grew, "Nothing else~?" I could feel the lewd thoughts radiating off of her.
"No! Why are we talking about this? Is this why you asked to come with me?"
"Maybe," The girl stopped her teasing as they approached the counter, evidently not wanting a stranger to hear them (not that it really mattered since they were quite loud) though Rei's face when she stopped in front of me told me she though as much.
No point in humiliating her needlessly, I thought as I silently took her stuff and scanned it. "272 yen," I said neutrally, my natural expression helping in keeping her pride relatively intact. She fished the money out of her bag and handed it to me.
Exact change, what a sweetheart.
"Have a nice day," I bowed and she nodded while turning to leave, her friend seemed to take that as a cue to start talking as she breathed in to let out a string of words. "And good luck," I added, hopefully that would at least keep her friend from saying anything until they left, she started laughing as Rei scrunched up a bit and sped up to leave, her friend following after her when she was done. Good enough.
I'd already rung up the next customer's stuff by the time they were both through the door. Things had slowed down enough for Naoya and I to slow down a bit, something which I could actually hear him being immensely grateful for. "Thank you for coming when you did Vega-san," He gave a weak smile as he said that, apparently actually physically drained from the whole ordeal.
"'s no problem, it is my job after all," I said, though he still wasn't all that comfortable around me, he was at least able to loosen up and lightly joke around now.
"I've been handling that by myself for my last two shifts, so having someone to help is very much welcome." He gave a weak laugh at that and turned back to continue about his business, much more relaxed now that the worst of it was over.
With the silence that followed I started to think about Rei, the fact that she was getting chocolates and not for herself meant that the break up hadn't happened yet. I don't remember the story mentioning when that happened but her being a second year meant it had to happen soon. I couldn't really think of any way to warn them that wouldn't come off as crazy or stalker-ish since all my knowledge could be found with either looking into them as none of it was really private, just not known to the children. The other chunk required coming face to face with the zombies in the case of it not being personal info.
My meeting everyone but Shizuka—and even that was debatable if you really convinced yourself hard enough, something they would doubtlessly do to avoid the uglier truth—could be taken as a calculated action used to get closer to them, the motive would be a mystery, but it was easier to believe then 'I'm from a different dimension where I know things about you' or 'I'm a time traveler from the future where zombies tore down civilization'. This meant that I couldn't really think of any way to help them get out safely other then letting the whole thing run its course as everyone that had made it out of the main cast had done so by staying in relatively the same area before sizing things up as best they could and heading out in pairs; followed up by meeting up later, even if it wasn't on purpose.
Takashi and Rei meanwhile, had similar fiery personalities and would probably react or try to react, immediately, if they didn't outright panic and while Hisashi had a cooler head, not to mention more brains then either of them I wasn't really willing to risk them being in more danger then the original timeline. Hopefully, the similar plot points in the movie and whatever other helpful bits I could sneak in would at least give Hisashi and Kohta (plus Morita) and thus, those they were with, a better chance of survival until I could meet up with them at Shizuka's or somewhere along the way if the odds were in my favor (which I obviously wasn't really counting on).
I just had to hope it would be enough.
o0oo0oo0o
It was such a struggle to get this out. I spent half of the time just trying to finish the hospital part and the day or so right after, everything before and after came relatively easy but I'm still not all that fond of this chapter. Regardless, hope y'all enjoy, later.