VII
[1st]
It had finally happened.
The breakup.
2 days from White Day, Rei broke up with Takashi.
Less than a week after Valentine's, Takashi started hanging out with us more, though he was usually out of it, and more than that, Hisashi was around less.
The break up had been something that everyone had seen coming, even Takashi. Still, he couldn't work up the chutzpah to do anything and so things went exactly as they did in canon.
I felt bad, but I'd settled on this path and I'd rather spend my time thinking about our survival later than how to improve things now. I definitely wasn't confident enough to try and do both.
The only slight exception to that was a plan to take out Shido and even that was in the sense that it would help more later than the few days before Z-day. My plan wasn't even mine really, it was taken from another author.
When I was in the last two weeks of prep I would find Shido after school and see what he did regularly, after I pinned it I would wait until the last few days and then I'd shoot him, with my bow, of course, before dumping his body somewhere. I'd decide on where specifically when I found out his usual routine.
My movement had always been quiet, I had surprised family members and strangers alike in moments of peace so the sneaking part was easy enough by itself, what I was worried about was whether I would stay quiet when under such pressure and whether I could follow through with close quarters murder.
So I'd decided ranged was the best option.
I'd gotten good enough with aiming that I could even hit a moving target with relative accuracy and my arrows were sharp enough to pierce through easily.
My breath was shaky now, just thinking about this was building nerves. Six months ago the thought of murdering someone hadn't been foreign to me, I doubt it was to most people. The thing that was different was how seriously I was thinking about it now.
By this time next month, Shido would be dead.
I rubbed my eyes.
I should do myself a favor and stop thinking about this when it's not as important.
Almost made me wish I was the drinking sort.
Almost.
o0o
Despite the heavy thoughts that were starting to follow me, I was still—at the moment—living a rather cheerful life. White Day was tomorrow and I had decided to get Saeko chocolate in return for her gift last month. I'd looked up if that was the proper response and couldn't find any specifications as to whether you were only supposed to if they were romantic, while asking anyone in the group wasn't really advised. Regarding Takashi and Hisashi, it was still too soon, Kohta wouldn't know and neither would Morita, who I'm sure would say yes either way, unless he got mad at me again, especially since he knew who they would be for. So in the end I had decided to go with it just in case, if not I could just tell her I didn't really know and we would be good.
Which led to now, with me in line after work, candy in hand, behind some other nervous but happy looking guys who I saw were kind of in the same boat as me. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly depending on how you look at it I guess, the chocolates made by the Kouno's were a lot cheaper than the usual brands. Guess I'd have to thank them for that later.
Chocolates in hand, I started to leave. I'd have to give them to her when we were out for a run either tomorrow or sometime after that. I didn't really know a lot about her schedule and I'd pretty much caught up to pre-collapse levels last week so I was eager to run with her again. While I'd been hoping to do so a bit earlier this was basically as much as I had been expecting.
After doing the math on my bills and such I'd started trying to think around the extraneous stuff, you know, a really cost versus practicality approach, and in the end, it was better to just beef up my diet for better results. That wasn't to say I'd cut off a lot, thankfully I hadn't added as much fluff as I'd feared when I first sat down to do this. Small things, I guess.
As I made my way towards home I bumped into someone and had to excuse myself. I patted my pockets to make sure nothing was taken, I had never been pickpocketed but thought it was better to make sure. Then I started to wonder why they would bump into me. Usually the street wasn't very crowded so collisions had never really happened. I looked around and saw something. 5 guys were crowded around a spot, shoving someone around and jeering.
I immediately crossed the street and made my way towards them. The first time this had happened the only reason I stepped in was because of Hisashi pulling me in as I hadn't even known Kohta was the one being wailed on. I'd never gotten into a fight before that and I didn't really know if I was the heroic type, the kind of person that would step in without regards to the odds of winning. Even now I didn't really regret not immediately stepping in, especially seeing as I'd still come out of the fight with a swollen if not busted lip, bruised body and other minor injuries, even if most of said injuries were mostly faded come the next morning. I would have without a doubt been laid out if it hadn't been for Hisashi.
Now though, it was much different. I was stronger, faster and overall stood a better chance of not getting bodied. So I made my way over quietly. Hopefully I could just knock one or two of them out before they actually responded.
As I got in range I raised my hand and just punched the closest person to me. He went down without any noise.
4 to go.
Immediately the others turned as the guy I'd just knocked out fell onto the person they were ganging up on.
The first to recover just rushed me, not really considering the fact that I'd knocked his buddy out of commission with a single hit.
He threw a sloppy punch towards my face, one that I'm pretty I could've dodged even if I was dizzy or sick. I clotheslined him and he went down just as quickly, sure hope I wasn't doing any serious damage to these guys, considering how quickly and easily they were dropping.
It was at that moment I realized that the other three had started moving to surround me already, two of them behind me with the other coming directly for me.
I hope this wasn't a mistake.
The first guy had a loose boxer's stance. That was worrying, if he was any better than a rank amateur then this could be a big problem. He closed the gap and threw a punch towards my stomach and I stepped into it, better the hit I could see coming then the two from behind me. I tensed my stomach up to take the hit and still felt it, not really sure if that was a good idea. Still, he took long enough pulling his punch for me to just grip his arm and quickly throw him behind me, hoping to hit one of the others. His stance was loose enough for me to actually do it but not enough for him to go flying as I'd wanted, though he still managed to bump into one of the guys. The other was already close and in the middle of punching me, the hit glancing my side. I flinched at the sudden pain and stumbled, letting him get another hit in to my stomach.
As he reared back for a third hit I shot forward and grabbed his collar, smashing my head into his face without any regard to where the hit landed. Being taller than him, the top of my head bludgeoned his, knocking him onto the ground while he clutched his head. The other two had started recovering by now up until I ran forward and kicked one in the stomach, at which point he dropped like a sack of rocks. The one I'd thrown was the only person left and I just started wailing on him, hoping he'd be knocked out quickly.
When I stopped I caught my breath, looking around and seeing the only one still conscious was the guy I'd head butted and he was just wordlessly suffering on the floor. Last time I'd hit someone with my head it almost bruised them, and that was an accidental tap, I couldn't imagine he would get off with almost.
I went to where the fight had started and pulled the first guy off the victim.
Only to see a cowering Kohta. Again.
When he kept his eyes tightly shut I spoke up. "We've got to stop meeting like this," when he heard my voice he cracked an eye open and looked over. That might've been in poor taste.
"Vega-san!" I could clearly hear the relief in his voice as he slowly made to get up.
After the joke fell flat I decided to cut to the chase. "Does this happen often? I thought it stopped." As I spoke his expression fell and he looked away.
"Ah, no," He slowly muttered, body shifting uncomfortably. "It doesn't happen as often since I've started hanging around Morita-san and Igou-san, but it certainly hasn't stopped."
I looked Kohta up and down. It made sense I guess, he was short, fat and an otaku, even if it was a gun nut, that much hadn't changed. The only thing that had was him having any friends to speak of.
I pushed my hands deeper into my hoodie as I contemplated what to do, when I suddenly realized it was obvious.
"Work out," I suddenly said, causing Kohta to flinch in surprise. It had worked for Tom, uh, Brody, why couldn't it work for me? I was already using his plan for Shido and I'd even told Morita, so why didn't I think to do the same for Kohta? Though admittedly I wouldn't have a squadron of buff nerds afterwards one less chunky nerd was enough for me. "Your parents are rich right? Just ask them for some workout stuff and I'm sure they'd support you. You get stronger, stop getting picked on by some randos with too much time on their hands and you could even act out some kind of military fighter thing, its a win-win-win."
As I went on I saw Kohta's face gradually brighten up before he seemed to come back down, "What if it's too hard? Or if I don't get any better?" He started to draw in on himself as he said that.
"Would you rather be a stress ball for a bunch of jackasses?" I asked, I'd honestly been worried about the same thing when I first started as I'd never really put in the effort before but I was rather sure that wouldn't be the case for any of the main cast.
He grimaced and I was rather sure I had my answer. I motioned for him to walk with me and we began to head home, talking about what kind of things he was least looking forward to or what Morita's reaction would be to a ripped Kohta, even if I knew that he wouldn't get that far before things went south.
Even after trying to plan through more things I still missed things that were obvious in hindsight, I wasn't really surprised but still.
I sighed.
Just more for me to think upon I guess.
o0o
[3rd]
White Day, a day that Saeko disliked almost as much as Valentine's. Regardless of those that accepted her chocolate for what it was, there were still those that hoped to make more of it when returning the favor. She had been raised to honor tradition even if only by obligation and to accept things gracefully, without distaste or scorn (unless it was an offense to her person, which something rarely was bad enough to count as). She would not embarrass herself or her father by snapping at someone for returning her gift.
Still, sometimes it drained her energy. Just another reason to enjoy tonight's run she supposed.
Saeko had been a bit busier with studying last week since finals were coming in a few weeks so she'd missed Thomas but she had no doubt that he would back soon.
There he was.
She felt her blood pumping more in anticipation. Would she finally get the match she had wanted?
She saw him turn his head slightly, he heard her. Then he sped up just a tiny bit.
Her mouth turned up a bit, this was it.
Rather than the route, she zeroed in on Thomas running, starting to pick up more details on him as her focus shifted.
The adjustments in foot placement as he turned, the billow of his pants, his hair bouncing as he ran, his clothes shifting as his body rapidly twisted to push him forward; Saeko was paying close attention to everything as they ran, choosing single minded focus over her usual freely moving train of thought in order to push herself.
Buildings bled into each other as they continually screamed past corners, hurtled through streets and bolted across sections.
As they darted past better lighting for a brief moment she saw his skin flushed and glistening, before feeling just how slick and hot her own skin was. How long had they been running for them to be this tired? 40, 50 minutes? Maybe even 60? The slight smirk that had fallen as the run continued suddenly came back stronger as a full blown grin.
She wasn't holding back and he still managed to keep pace with her. Even after all this time.
Saeko felt herself burning out and as she looked at Thomas she knew he was as well. Once she thought he was ready to collapse she would fly past him, she would pull up whatever reserves she had and do it.
Even after all his hard work she would still win.
He slowed down more and she saw her time come. Saeko bolted past Thomas, almost falling over as she skid to a stop.
Her lungs were heaving, she was red, she felt her muscles keening at how much she had overworked them and she suspected she might start heaving too.
Everything hurt.
But she had still won.
Then Thomas went tumbling past her. Stopping a few meters in front of her, limbs messily splayed out.
After she remembered to continue breathing she started to slowly shamble towards him, wanting to check on him.
"I win," she barely picked up the rasp that came from his throat. When Saeko finally got close enough to see his face again she saw that he was staring at her, as if to let her know that he had most certainly just said that.
"...pft," Saeko raised her hand to cover her mouth but failed as her laughter bubbled through. He looked ridiculous, some kind of victorious exhaustion on his face as he left his arms and legs randomly thrown out.
For a few seconds the only sound was Saeko's laughter before she cut off to continue catching her breath and silence filled the area.
Eventually Thomas got up and weakly dusted himself off. He pulled a water bottle out of a pocket and fumbled with the cap until it came off. "Gah," he exclaimed, clicking his tongue when he looked down at the spilled water on himself.
She lightly laughed again and he turned the bottle to her, shaking it as if to offer some to her. "No thank you, I have my own," Saeko reached into the bag where she kept her bokken, pulling out a sports bottle and drinking deeply. Thomas shrugged before he drained some more of his own bottle. "Again, I would like to congratulate you on a job well done," His attention was brought back to Saeko as she addressed him. "Even after falling sick and getting weaker you still caught up to me in such a short time frame." Saeko bowed to Thomas, something which he waved off.
"I'm not carrying a bokken, so I haven't really beaten you yet." He dismissed her attempts to refute his claim "I'm not saying I'm not proud, just that I haven't really beaten you yet." He nodded gratefully towards her "thanks for the congratulations though, I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good, once you get past the screaming agony." Saeko nodded in agreement before Thomas seemed to remember something.
"Ah," He reached into his other pocket, face twisting a bit before settling once he pulled out a container. "Cool, it's-" his face twisted again upon spotting something, "-mostly unharmed," He held out the container to Saeko.
Saeko stared at him, then looked at the container, then back to him as she discerned what he was holding. "Thank you," She inclined her head before taking it.
"No problem," He said, seeming to just fill some time with more words.
When nothing was said he nodded as though satisfied with the silence. "I'm just gonna rest a bit more before going home, you can go ahead if you want, I guess." He plopped down onto the ground as he said this, closing his eyes.
"Actually, I was hoping to practice, um, parkour with you," As Saeko said this he cracked an eye open, sitting up to look at her.
"Since when?" He asked simply.
"Well, I had been curious since you mentioned it but only recently decided to actually get into it as I had many things to work on at the time." She explained as she sat beside Thomas, waiting for him to get up so they could go forward with their practice.
"Alrighty then," he left it at that and they simply sat a bit longer before rising up to do what they intended.
"Let's go," He said, picking up speed to start them off. "I'll try to make sure you don't crack open your head, I guess."
Saeko smirked.
o0o
[1st]
Overall things had gone better than when I'd gotten my chocolates, even with the searing pain. For one, Morita wasn't here. While he had been over multiple times I'd made sure to keep him away today. After he'd stopped screaming about my treachery he had done everything in his power to see who I got them from and proceeded to flip out all over again when he saw they were from THE Saeko Busujima. It was at that point that I told him she was one of the girls I hadn't expected to get anything from but that we were just Rivals. Morita being Morita started talking about how that was 'a classic setup' and wondering how I 'missed the flags' to which I told him life doesn't (usually, as far as I could tell) work that way.
When I got him to settle down again I convinced him that working out would help his luck with girls, especially if you added in his band. While he had still been kinda (read, extremely) sour he thankfully just dropped the conversation.
Needless to say I hadn't wanted a repeat of that, especially since he usually bugged me when he came over and I went out for a run.
Thankfully, whatever god was out there was smiling down on me today and he ended up going over to Takashi's to hang out with him and Hisashi. Takashi had even let him stay over.
Kohta meanwhile was stuck in the same spot with his parents out doing whatever, although he'd sent me messages saying he'd already managed to convince them to get him workout gear, so good on him.
With things going so well for me at the moment, that was obviously when I got a call from the from Satoru with his wife sobbing in the background.
o0o
I'd gotten closer to the Kouno's as a whole after my recovery thanks to most of the kids (with the exception of Akane, who I'd only met once) living within a 5 minute bus ride of their parents. But I had gotten especially close to the elders since they lived closest to me, their free time was more in line with mine and their personalities were kind of similar to my parents.
Nonetheless, I had been scared when I heard Satoru, whose voice was normally lighthearted and soft, sounding so somber and heavy. The feeling had gotten worse when I heard Ayame bawling her eyes out nearby.
"Tom-chan," Satoru had started, while Ayame hadn't stopped even with the mention of my name, something I'd gotten used to.
"Yes sir?" I'd answered, already nervous thinking about what could've possibly happened.
"I ask that you come over if you have the time," His words were so strangely formal that I nodded before registering that he couldn't see me.
"I'll be right over." After that I'd hung up and put my shoes on. Even if I'd only finished my shower an hour ago and I was rather tired, the sadness in his voice convinced me to push past my exhaustion and get ready.
I'd barely even stepped inside before Satoru had rushed me further in and I saw that everyone, kids included, had swollen, red eyes and leaky faces.
Despite not knowing what was going on, I was slightly used to crying people needing comfort so I did what I usually did in situations like this.
I found the person feeling the worst and went to hug them.
I wasn't all that good at comforting people, one time I'd even said 'there, there,' as a joke because it was all I could really think of doing. The extent of my ability was hugging someone and letting them squeeze me until they felt a little better and maybe stopping their trembling. So as I approached Ayame, whose face seemed to be falling in on itself with how tightly she was scrunching it up as she sat in a ring of tissues, I did just that. I walked right into her and just wrapped my arms around her. Being substantially taller and just all around bigger than her it was kinda like a big pillow comforting her. She seemed to instinctively wrap her arms back around me and squeezed as hard as she could, arms violently shuddering. Satoru came and started to give her a half hug as well.
Everyone else comforted each other, slowly coming over to the three of us for a big awkward circle-hug thingy.
A few minutes had passed before most of them pulled back to reveal a calmer Ayame, now just sniffling a bit.
I waited for someone to speak up first, hoping they'd explain but not prying.
"Tom-chan, would you mind helping me get some drinks?" Satoru turned to me, softly rubbing his wife's shoulder as he asked. I just nodded and made to follow him.
Once we got into the kitchen we started getting the drinks ready. Satoru was quiet as he seemed to gather his thoughts.
"We just got news that Ayame's childhood friend died." He softly started, pausing for a second. "They were like sisters, living next door from each other and living interchangeably at each others' houses." His words faded off as he got a bit emotional, then he continued.
"I didn't really meet her until I was a third year in senior high but it's been quite a while since then so you could imagine we all had time to get close." There was no humor in his tone or the hoarse chuckle he let out. He raised a shaking hand from the tea he was making, "Tom-chan, could you help me with this?" I just walked over and took over for him. He smiled appreciatively. "She'd never been the healthiest but we didn't think that she would-" He cut himself off, apparently deciding to not finish that sentence. "Well, I just wanted you to know what all the fuss was about." I nodded and picked up the tray of drinks.
I'd done this recently, in much lighter circumstances. It was rather disconcerting.
As we returned to the living room everyone looked to be in slightly higher spirits, which was always a good thing. When I looked around the room I felt my stomach lurch.
It felt strange to be so deeply involved in something so personal again.
o0o
By the time I got home again it was approaching 6 am, I'd been awake for over 18 hours, but I wouldn't really feel it until I hit my bed, so I was gonna put that off for a bit longer.
As was custom, my apartment felt so much emptier when I got back from any kind of get together. This time there was at least a slightly positive spin to it. Without family here I couldn't lose any of them.
At least, I wouldn't be aware of if I did.
One of the things that had always bothered me when watching shows was seeing characters, especially if they were supposed to be smart, taking a long time to realize something I considered obvious. This mattered to me less and less as I found stuff around every corner that should've been obvious hit me out of nowhere.
A really good example was death.
I'd somehow forgotten about people dying to things that weren't zombies being a thing.
Though I'd played it off well (hopefully), Ayane's death had come as a shock to me, not because I knew her but because it had happened at all. That had reminded me of the elderly couple from the mall in the latter half of the manga. While they had ended up killing themselves instead of being turned that didn't change the fact that the old woman would have died rather soon anyways. Not only that but there would be many, many more dying from lack of treatment for whatever illnesses they had, including whatever future generations came after this.
I sighed. I should just play something on the TV and go to bed, hopefully it would keep me from having any nightmares.
After walking over and putting something on repeat I walked over to the couch and flopped onto it.
Lights out.
o0oo0oo0o
Just a heads up for those wondering, next chapter should be The Beginning of The End and all that unless it seems like the lead in is too long. So for those that have been looking forward to that, yay! For those that haven't, me too honestly.