25 / Human Eat Zombie World

Growing up, Sakura had been worried about three things; her family, her future, and her bad luck.

Sakura didn't know when her bad luck showed its ugly head in her life. It didn't matter what she did, it was always there, an ugly reminder that things were not going to be okay for long.

But Sakura had been optimistic; she had believed her bad luck was just things that happened. Staying at home sick after being cast for a play, happened to everyone. Missing those relay races time and time again, probably shouldn't have overextended herself. Her bikes getting destroyed, simple little accidents. And that test, the test that would see her in one of the most prestigious schools in the prefecture...well, that was Sakura's own fault for panicking.

Sakura hadn't really cared about her luck. Accidents happen. Everyone had their bad days andー

But Sakura's classmates had not cared.

The rumors had began during her first year in middle school. They called her a jinx, the bad luck magnet. They would whisper that anyone associated with Minamoto would be cursed with her bad luck.

Shiro, good ol' Shiro, she would get annoyed for Sakura most of the time. She had been one of the very few friends that had stayed around with her (and her terrible luck) since they met that day in grade school. Shiro would make faces, shake her head, grumble and insult the girls that were giggling about the "jinx". Sakura could still remember the mocking tone in which those nasty girls told Shiro, "You'll get stuck with her bad luck someday!" and would run off to go to class. Shiro would just glare at them as they left, shaking her head as Sakura stared after them with a lost look in her eyes.

The last year in middle school, just days after failing that exam (that stupid, stupid exam and her stupid, stupid bad luck), one of the smart asses in class had accidentally called her legendary. Sakura didn't know why or how, but that unleashed a whole new crown for her to wear, the "Legendary Jinx" and Sakura hated it.

Originally, Sakura had not cared for the "jinx" nickname. She figured they would get tired of it (of her) but then this idiot of a classmate misspells something and calls her legendary during lunch and it's already too late. She had been a legend and she hated it.

But by then, she had stopped caring. Her bad luck had already made her miserable enough. Those jerks could keep their stupid legend.

And then, Ai Mizuno had appeared in her life and inspired her with her words and music and Sakura decided to try again, bad luck and legend be damned...only to get hit by a truck just a year later.

She was dead and yet her bad luck followed her even in death.

And as she stared at the familiar looking face of that young man in the suit and messy brown hair, Sakura wondered if her classmates had been right about her bad luck...because seeing Renoir hit that guy again is too much of bad luck to just be a coincidence.

(maybe they had been right about her luck…)

"Are you freakin' kidding me!?" the redhead gasped, sounding more surprised than upset at seeing his friend holding unto his injured face. Glasses just stared blankly at the scene as messy hair groaned.

Sakura didn't wait for Renoir to respond before dropping the bag and grabbing his collar, pulling hard, forcing him away from the group. She turns them around and starts pulling unto his arm, and then starts running, Renoir clumsy trying to keep up. Genji stares back at the trio for a few seconds. They stare back, confused before the young man says a small "bye" and proceeds to throw the two heavy plastic bags at them, distracting them enough for him to follow after his fleeing sister and Renoir.

The trio recovered quickly and followed suit.

Yugiri couldn't help but be surprised at the small little device sitting upon Ai's lap.

Lily had explained to her what it was but Yugiri had a hard time accepting that this little "laptop"as they called it, was the same device found in their manager's room. That thing had been bigger, on a desk, and seemed to require a few extra pieces to fully function. This little thing did not. It appeared to run on it's own without any extra cables.

Ai was busy. Clicking on a few things here and there, dragging her fingers over what Lily had told her was the "touchpad", and trying to find something.

Eventually, their ever gracious leader, gave her a look and said, "What are you doing? You've been clicking at that same little globe for a while now…"

"I'm trying to connect to the internet," Ai responded, sounding a little annoyed when the globe failed to connect for the third or fourth time. "Seems like that weirdo doesn't actually have any wi-fi…" Clicking a fifth time and getting the same result made Ai glare at the computer as if it was somehow it's fault the internet was out of reach.

"Maybe the...internet is out…?" Junko offered but Ai just let out a small chuckle.

"Nah, it's definitely not out...damn it…ah, whatever. I'll check with Kotaro later...see if he has wireless..." Ai shook her head.

Saki leaned a little closer to the laptop; the wallpaper was rather lame, simple green glass and a blue sky; the icons were few, there was one for that music program Genji showed them, the internet icon, and a folder. The ex-biker squinted her eyes at the folder. It simply read "FOLDER", in all caps.

"This is Sakura's old computer, right?" Saki asked.

Ai nodded. "She recognized it...and well, her brother confirmed it...so it must be hers…" The idol smiled. "Besides the internet, it works pretty well despite its age."

Saki eyed the folder icon for a few seconds and turned to Ai. "You think it's got her old stuff in there, too?" At that, the other girls, who had crowded around Ai the moment Sakura and her brother left, turned towards their leader. Tae, for her part, was still fast asleep.

"...maybe," Ai starts and then gives Saki a look. "It's probably all gone now...why?"

"Eh, just curious...that's all."

"You wanna snoop around Sakura's things," Lily said dryly, glancing at her. The courtesan, standing next to her young friend, eyed the ex-biker, who had the decency to look a little guilty...just a little.

"Come on," Saki said, "You guys aren't the least bit curious?" Yugiri glanced at the other three girls, who seemed to be thinking about what to tell their leader. The courtesan, for her part, was just slightly curious about her friend's past. Sakura had not talked much about her past even when her memories fully returned. The few snippets they were able to get from her where mostly small and to the point, bad luck notwithstanding. Yugiri had been the only one Sakura had been fully honest about a few details but that's mostly because the courtesan had caught her in a few vulnerable moments. "Besides, Egghead probably won't mind...she did give it to you, so..." Ai pursed her lips.

Behind her, Lily looked a bit curious and Junko, standing next to Ai, seemed a bit unsure. Yugiri, kiseru in hand, turn her gaze away from their leader to stare at the machine.

Despite not fully understanding how this machine worked, the courtesan had figured that Genji would not have given them the laptop if he had thought it contain any private information. He certainly had not protested when Sakura passed the machine to Ai, either.

Sakura wouldn't really begrudge them for snooping around, as Lily had so bluntly put it, but Yugiri and the others had seen Sakura at her worst. If her worst came about because of her past, the courtesan feared they might be overstepping their boundaries.

Before Yugiri could point this out, Ai beats her to it with a sigh and says, "Fine. Only because I know you'll probably go behind our back and do it anyway." Saki grinned at that while Ai glanced at Junko behind her. The older idol nodded. "But...we are going to tell her when she gets here, though...no reason keeping it a secret…" Saki's grin grew wider.

"Fine by me!"

Yugiri just took a whiff of her kiseru and blew the smoke to the side; she saw Ai click on something on the screen. She glanced at the machine's screen. Ai had already opened the folder, allowing for a new window to pop up. They were three folders inside, all labelled with their own names; G. WORK, SAKURA'S, and OLD MAN, all written in capital letters. Yugiri raised an eyebrow at the third folder, wondering who this "OLD MAN" was.

The others stared at the screen for a few seconds, eyeing the folders with curiosity, only Saki seemed a bit confused by the labels before she shrugged. "Well...it's pretty obvious who 'G' stands for...but, old man...seriously?"

"Maybe that's how Genji refers to his father…?" Junko offered, a bit confused as well. Ai just shrugged at that.

Sakura might not have said it outloud to the others but when Sakura introduced her brother as Kurosawa instead of Minamoto, it had answered a few details that their friend had left behind. The others figured Sakura's parents had separated before her death and Genji just took on his mother's last name to no bother with his father's...at least, that's what Saki and Ai had agreed on.

"Did he use Sakura's computer too?" Lily wondered. Ai shrugged again and clicked the folder labeled SAKURA'S.

The girls were immediately greeted with a plethora of documents, labeled by year, month and day, all in order, starting from 2006. Saki actually took a step back, eyes widening a bit at the amount of documents inside the small folder.

"Jeez! What's all this!?"

"Her homework. Maybe," Lily remarked, eyeing the documents a bit. "Man...Sakura sure worked a lot...unless…"

"...unless Genji moved everything into a single folder," Ai finished with a nod. "Sakura bothered to label them...I'm guessing she had them in folders one time…"

"Click one," Saki told her.

Ai clicked the first document she spotted, 2007-10-4; upon opening the document it confirmed what Lily had said earlier. The document seemed to be notes for a class, math. They were neatly organized, surprising enough. A few questions were below some of the notes, the answers following after, with what appeared to be little notes made by Sakura to the side. Ai closed the first document and quickly moved to a new one, 2007-13-8. The same thing greeted them, an essay for a group project from the title. A few more clicks later, Ai found document after document, homework, notes, etc. Sakura had really been a good organizer and from what the girls had gathered just by the few documents they had seen, she was a damn good worker, too. Maybe she worked a little too much.

"Damn...Egghead...did ya even have any free time…?" Saki murmured.

"Seems she made copies of her notes," Ai commented. "Dated them all, too...that's...a lot of work…"

"Eh, maybe she had an extra strict teacher?" Lily offered; she herself had had a particular picky teacher before she hit it big in television. Yugiri said nothing behind her, lifting the kiseru to her lips, she blew out the smoke a few seconds later.

"Maybe," Ai commented, sounding unsure. She skipped over a few documents before reaching the final one, labeled "to-do list". Hovering the mouse over it, Ai noticed with some worry that someone had updated the document long after Sakura had passed away.

Had someone else opened it?

"Hey, what's that?" Saki asked, noticing the document. "'To-do list?' Eh, even in the computer…?"

"She probably had this one saved on the desktop," Ai remarked, opening the document.

This new document seemed much more to the point, there were dates, month and day, and minimal notes, like "Need more eggs" or "Forgot the flowers! Get them today!", etc. The notes seemed rather normal but they soon noticed a repeating note like "Don't forget lunch!", "Remind Dad of…" "Forgot his lunch! Take it to him after school!" and many more. Most were made almost a day after the other.

Yugiri forgot all about her kiseru and leaned closer.

Most of the notes seemed to be simple reminders for Sakura to deliver her father's lunch and dinner. Yugiri seemed mindly confused by this and figured that Sakura's father's work kept him very busy and Sakura did everything to help him out.

A few other notes seemed trivial, but the ones that caught her attention were the ones about Sakura's father. Yugiri frowned.

It almost seemed the man wouldn't have eaten at all if it weren't for Sakura.

The notes seemed to follow a pattern; work, her father, dinner, and some other random tidbits:

"Shiro and Inue book report. Staying late!"

"Ms. Hanabi postponed test!"

"Due date! Wake up early! Take bento to offices!"

"He forgot again! Take food to offices! Remember to buy eggs and milk from Mr. Horoshi's shop!"

"Test! Test!"

"A few months! Can't wait! Buying tickets, today!"

"Forgot. Again."

"He's not coming today, either…forgot to buy…"

"Visiting mom...dropping off dinner...leaving a note…"

And it went on and on, until, finally, they noticed a small phrase and the date, 2008-6-4: "Tomorrow…wake up early!"

There seemed to be more pages in the document but it was that last sentence that caught everyone's attention. The date seemed like a cruel joke now, considering that Sakura would die a day later. Yugiri wondered, sadly, what had gotten Sakura so excited about that day. Sakura never did explain much about anything when it came to her love of idols, Iron Frill, and admiration of Ai, except that she wanted to become one before she died. Perhaps that's why she didn't talk much about her date of death.

As the girls silently reread the date and the sentence, Lily tapped Ai's shoulder and pointed. "There's more...right?"

"Hmm?" Ai moved to the next page. Empty. The other page, empty as well. Until finally, they found a small note on the very end. This one had no date, as if it had been written with no sense or purpose.

"...i couldn't…" it read.

Yugiri's eyes narrowed, while Saki and Ai leaned closer to the laptop, Junko and Lily seemed nervous.

Had...had Sakura written that?

Ai was suddenly shaking her head. "I...the computer saves up the dates...someone had opened this before we did…"

"Are you sure?" That was Saki, eyeing the little phrase. It almost seemed like a confession but of what, no one was sure.

"Y-yeah...most of the modern computers give a date and time from when they were last saved," Lily explained, sounding a bit nervous. "You think Genji wrote it?" No one said anything.

"We would have to ask Lord Genji for his...word on this," Yugiri finally said, glancing at her kiseru. She didn't feel like smoking anymore. "We are telling them, yes?" Before the girls could say anything, the door opening with a loud thud, caught them off-guard. Ai let out a squeak, and closed the laptop. Tae woke up with a groan, head twisting towards Sakura, wearing a jacket that seemed too big on her and soaking wet. Her makeup had appeared to have washed away a long time ago.

Yugiri and Saki quickly made their way towards her, while Lily, Junko and Ai, followed suit. Tae was already getting up to meet them.

"Egghead! What the hell hap-" But Saki was immediately cut off by Genji, who just like Sakura, was soaking wet. Over his shoulder, there was an unconscious young man. "What the!? What the hell!?"

"What happened?" Ai cried, sounding alarmed, staring at the stranger before staring at a nervous-looking Sakura and her brother.

"We kidnapped him, obviously," Genji said, causing his sister to hit him with her elbow for that smart-ass remark.

"We ran into trouble…" Sakura quickly explained, nodding at Renoir lying unconscious on Genji's shoulder. "And...and well, he saw...me…and...we...we just couldn't leave him there..."