Given a second chance to relive her life, Shizuru is more than determined to live her life and protects Natsuki in the world where there is no order and where the undead roamed. "Natsuki, if your love is all I had in this life, that would be enough till the end of time."
Even though this place was known as University Town, there was quite a number of working population and families staying here. There were job opportunities here and many had resettled here from other areas in search of better paying jobs. And Shizuru and Natsuki had no problem finding housing in the University Town, especially currently was the school holiday with most students going back to their hometown. The apartment they rented was in a prime location with a mega supermarket within walking distance, catering for both residents and students. And furthermore down the roads were the center of the University Town where the four universities are located.
U-Town's history went way back. It started off as a single University before slowly attracting other people to stay and work turning it into a bustling town. There was quite a history behind this town. More than a hundred years ago, a young female philanthropist from a rich family decided to set up a university just for the ladies and thus the first university in U- Town was built. It was known as Garderobe Academy. And subsequently about fifty years later, three other universities catered to both genders were built next to Garderobe Academy and they were known as Windbloom University, Cardair University and Aries Republic University. This place soon attracted many people to set up shops and hostels to cater to the needs of the students here. And this place grew even bigger in recent years when the universities sought collaboration with research firms and tech companies. These firms soon set up companies here to tap on the fresh pool of skilled workforce. And slowly this place grew from a University to a Town.
But things got more complex as this place grew bigger. For one, the safety of the staff and students who worked and studied here. In order to ensure that safety of the students were taken care of, the management team of each university decided to build fences and walls around the campus, restricting the unauthorised entry of people. The walls was one of the reasons why Shizuru decided to travel and seek permanent stay here. This place will be relatively easier to defend and safer compared to other places when apocalypse starts.
The supermarket they were in was quite crowded despite the fact that most universities students were still away for school holiday. Shizuru dragged Natsuki around, selecting food items with longer expiry dates such as can food, potatoes chips, cup noodles and dried fruits.
Despite being out in the supermarket, Natsuki was still preoccupied with her Mental Ability, and not looking where she was going. After bumping into three people, Shizuru finally gave up and grabbed Natsuki by the arm and whispered, "Are you still thinking about your ability?"
Natsuki only nodded her head absentmindedly.
Shizuru could sense Natsuki's preoccupation ever since Natsuki discovered her ability. Although Shizuru wasn't sure what Natsuki was worried about.
Shizuru stopped Natsuki in mid track and turned Natsuki to face her. She wanted her fullest attention.
"What are you worried about?"
Natsuki gave a bitter laugh as she combed her fingers through her hair. Now she finally understood why Shizuru was obsessed with training then, frantically trying to strengthen herself. "I am worried that I am not strong enough." Ever since the she had the power, she realized how naive she was when she tried to convince Shizuru that there wasn't anything to be scared of. She just hadn't realized how scary the reality was.
Shizuru grabbed her hand. She could fully understand how Natsuki felt. "Didn't you tell me before? That I should not be afraid? Now i will return the same words to you, we have the Earth and we have the necessary resources to last a lifetime. There is nothing to worry. What's more, you have the ability. Which means a higher chance for survival. So come on, don't worry too much!"
"But…"
Shizuru shook her head as she cup Natsuki's face. "Listen to me Natsuki. There will definitely be danger when apocalypse arrives. Danger will constantly be around us. There is no way to be perfectly safe. But what we can do now is to make sure that we do our best to survive each day together. Together we can make it."
There was a moment paused as Natsuki thought about it for a while. She knew and agreed with what Shizuru was saying. But she can't help but worried about their future.
Natsuki took a deep breath and let it and smiled, deciding that she should not worry Shizuru and waste the time worrying over such things. For now.
Yup, there is no use worrying too much over it. They are luckier than others who don't even know about the impending apocalypse.
"It's the two of them!" A shrill voice coming from the back.
Assuming that it has nothing to do with them, Natsuki and Shizuru pushed their trolley to the next shelf without looking back.
Unexpectedly, a few men moved to stand in front of them with the same female voice repeating, "Trying to run after stealing my stuff? Not so easy!"
The supermarket was already quite crowded to start with and such commotion only attracted more people to gather around them.
Shizuru and Natsuki paused in they steps and looked over, confusion evident in their faces.
"What do you mean?"
"Yes you! The two of you!" A petite young lady wearing a long winter coat stepped forward, her chin tilted up and looking down at Shizuru and Natsuki with an arrogant look on her face. "You knocked onto me just now and the next moment, my ring was missing. If it is not you, who could it be!" The young lady pointed her finger at Natsuki. "You are that pickpocket!" The lady accused.
Shizuru frowned. "We did not take your ring. Do you have any evidence that we stole it?"
The lady gave a sarcastic snort. "She was the only one who came into contact with me and my ring went missing right after that. Other than her, who could it be? Return the ring to me! Otherwise I am going to call the police!"
This time, Shizuru smiled, a cold and dangerous smile on her face. "The supermarket is so crowded, how could you claim that we stole it? And it is base on your own words, there is no concrete evidence."
"Let's go Natsuki. Don't waste our time over this carzy woman." With that, Shizuru grabbed Natsuki's hand and turned to walked away. But the men who blocked their path sidestepped to prevent them from walking off.
"Feeling guilty? Planning to run off after I confronted you with the truth?" The lady smirked.
"What a joke! You didn't have any proof. You claim we are pickpockets yet everything is just based on your words. Trying to take advantage of us just because we are new to University Town?" Shizuru refuted. "If you are going to call the police? Two can play the game! Go ahead and call the police."
The lady gave an snort. "If you don't believe my words, we can check your attire to see if you hide my ring
"Ara… What rights do you have to check our attire?"
There was a smug look on her face. "Why, you must be feeling self conscious now?"
Shizuru opened her mouth to speak again but Natsuki tugged at Shizuru's hand. "There are security cameras in the supermarket. We can use the camera to verify that we are innocent."
"Check the security camera? By then, the police would be activated and things would not go that easy for u all. I will be kind to you all and let you all go if you would just return my ring and kneel down in front of me and apologise to me. How about it?"
Natsuki narrowed her eyes. "How kind!" Natsuki retorted sarcastically. "You should be the one feeling self conscious since you don't want us to view the recording. Don't waste our time. Bring out the records from the security camera. We will just look at the security camera."
Something akin to glee flashed through the lady's eyes. "Don't be so quick to say that. There are blind spots when it comes to security camera. It would be faster to check through your clothing. My time is too precious to be wasted on you." A venomous glint in her eyes.
I am going to embarrass them in the public. What can they do? They are just two silly women.
By then a crowd had gathered around them by then. Some of them had already judged Shizuru and Natsuki guilty, pointing at them and clucking their tongues, looking at them in disgust. Two young physically abled women chose to steal instead of finding proper work.
However, there was a few who pointed out that it would be unfair to judge the two women based on one side statement.
Those judgemental remarks only managed to anger Natsuki. She took a step forward, wanting to confront the petite lady who accused them of thief. But suddenly she stopped and then she smiled.
"Fine. If you want to do a body search, go ahead." Natsuki invited. But just before Natsuki finished her statement, she passed something through her fingers to Shizuru. Something flickered across Shizuru's eyes as she teleported the item into the Earth.
And then Shizuru spoke up, "You can search for all you want if you insist. But I must warn you, if you can't find what you are looking for, I want an apology from you in front of everyone."
The lady glanced at the man next to her only to see the man giving her a nod. She then smirked. "Sure! I can even kneel on the ground and apologise to you if you want." Appearing all too cooperative.
Shizuru smiled. "Sure. Make sure you kneel down on the floor and apologise later on." Shizuru emphasized on the word "kneel".
"Sure. But if my ring is found in your possession, I want the two if you to kneel down on the floor and apologise and then shout three times 'I am a pickpocket'."
You are going to embarrass yourself later on. Your fault for being a friend of Kuga Natsuki.
Satisfied with the agreement, Shizuru nodded her head. "No problem. But what if you go back on your words?"
"Ha! Who am I!? I would never go back on my words!" The lady lifted her chin.
"Sure! But just in case, everyone who are gathered here will be our witness." Shizuru said as she gestured to the crowds around her. "Of course, they are already videoing the whole process down."
Shizuru asked for the supermarket to provide two female security guard to conduct the body search and requested the search to be conducted concurrently so as to avoid speculation that Natsuki passed the ring to Shizuru when Natsuki was being searched and vice versa. This would avoid any rebuttal from the young lady.
The body search took about 10 minutes and the results were null. The two female security guards did not find any rings on them.
To be exact, the ring was in Natsuki's pocket. But she wasn't sure how the ring got into her pocket in the first place. She didn't even notice it was there at first until she accidentally touched her pocket and noticed that her pocket was heavier than usual and that was when she realized that there was something in her pocket and it was in the shape of a ring. And it happened while the young lady was accusing them of thief.
But what puzzled Natsuki the most was that this supermarket was so big with so many people here and along the way, that young lady must have bumped into many people and not just her. But why did she focus her attention solely on her? And why was she so sure that it was the two them that had stolen her ring?
Normally when someone lost an item, especially an important item, he or she would report it directly to the police or in this case alert the supervising security guard of this incident and not make a big fuss out of this and out of the blue, claiming that she was the one who stole the ring.
Furthermore the lady requested them to have a full body search in front of the public and even made unreasonable request asking them to kneel on the floor and apologise for their 'misdeeds'. It sounded suspiciously like a deliberate attempt to embarrass them in the public.
And what was most suspicious was that the young lady seemed rather adamant that they had the ring and even suggested that she would kneel down if she couldn't find the ring. Only someone who was confident about the location of the ring will do that. How likely was it to be coincidental?
Since the lady was so confident that Natsuki had her ring, the only possibility that Natsuki could think of was that the lady had deliberately set out to place the ring into Natsuki's pocket.
But Natsuki was very sure that they never knew this lady and have never seen her before. Let alone offending her.
The young lady's eyes widen in shock. "How could this be? Have you search them thoroughly?" She asked the security guard. She was sure she put the ring into Natsuki's pocket herself. Even her own bodyguard said Natsuki did not discover it. How could they not find the ring on her?
Natsuki narrowed her eyes, a nasty grin on her face. "Now you should believe me. I did not steal your ring. Since we are innocent, it's time for you to honor your promise."
The lady's face turned red in anger as she glanced at the crowd around her, some of them with their handphones videoing the whole process down. She clenched her fist and with a sharp turn, turned to face the man next to her and gave him a sharp slap that drew several gasps from the onlooker and attempted to strode away.
But there were a few onlookers who blocked her way.
And immediately the crowd was abuzz with comments directing at the young lady. Some even requested her to honor her promise.
With her eyes burning in anger, she pushed past the crowd and quickly disappeared.
Shizuru and Natsuki glanced at each other and Natsuki nodded her head. Natsuk already placed part of her 'mental conscious' with the lady. So no matter where she went, Natsuki could find her immediately. That was one of her ability.
The two of them paid for their items and exited the building and with Natsuki's direction, they managed to track the young lady down.
Curious, Shizuru asked, "Ne Natsuki, do you know the girl?"
Natsuki rolled her eyes at Shizuru. "We have been today almost all the time ever since we reached University Town, the people I know would also be the ones you know."
"True. But I don't remember we know this er type of people." Shizuru thought.
From what she could recall, she doubt they know of anyone who could be so arrogant and vindictive. That young lady looked like a rich Oujio-sama but the only rich Oujio-sama they knew was Tomoe. But Tomoe was never like the lady they saw just now.
"Maybe we will know after we check it out." Natsuki as she pulled Shizuru along. Natsuki used her Mental Ability to minimise their presence to zero. In other words, she used her mental strength to disrupt others' brain activity and change their perceptions so that they would not notice the two of them.
Natsuki and Shizuru stood just a few metres away from them yet none of them noticed their presence.
The lady was wearing high heels and the sound of heels walking on the concrete pavement could be heard from a distance. She was seething with anger and her body was stiff as she strode in front followed by the three bodyguards, one of them was the man who was slapped earlier on.
She walking ahead when she suddenly stopped in mid track and turned back to face the men. Her anger obviously ready to explode as she confronted the man whom she slapped earlier on. "Tell me, what did you say earlier on? You told me that that Natsuki bitch did not discover it right?" The young lady said as she pointed her finger at the man, her long nails digging into his chest. "But where did the ring go!? You tell me! Where did the ring go?!"
The man bowed his head and said, "Oujio-sama, I have been tracking Natsuki Kuga's every actions. She didn't throw away anything nor touched her pocket. I am not sure where the ring went."
The lady gave a unladylike snort. "You were watching her all the time? But my ring is missing! That was the ring Nii-sama gave me! You useless bastard!" With that, the young lady gave the bodyguard another slap.
The man could only kept his silence as the lady blasted him with her insults.
Finally the tirade ended when the lady ordered one of the men to find and retrieved her ring. "Hurry! Go and find my ring. Don't return unless you find my ring. And you two!" She pointed at remaining two men, "Go and find those bitches. I am not going to let them off that easily!"
Takeda Nii-sama is hers!
"Natsuki are you sure you don't know her or never offended her before?" Shizuru asked again. The lady looked liked she was about to tear them apart.
Natsuki could only shrugged her shoulders. "I swear I really don't know her."
"Hmmm… Then why would she want to track us down? We only arrived here recently. It is unlikely that we would offend anyone so soon." Shizuru mumbled to herself.
Rather than wondering about the reasons, Natsuki pulled Shizuru in the direction of their home.
"Wait. Hold on." Shizuru placed her hand on Natsuki's.
"What is it?"
"Look at the two of them." Shizuru pointed at the two bodyguards who were tasked to look for them. "Something is wrong with them." And at that same moment Shizuru felt something strange engulfed the whole city. It was a feeling she had, something that was hard to describe. Like something had spread, covering the whole city and this made Shizuru feel nauseous and sick.
At Shizuru's mentioned, Natsuki activated her Mental Ability. But the moment she used her ability, she felt as if there was something in her head, like thousands of needles poking at her brain. The pain was too great and too unbearable and the next thing she knew, everything turned black.
Without any warning, Natsuki collapsed in front of her and Shizuru quickly reacted and caught hold of Natsuki before she hit the floor. "Natsuki!"
But Natsuki only gave a weak moaned. Her brows set in a frown as if she was in pain.
Shizuru frown. What happen!?
Suddenly, the land they were standing on started to shake and concrete slabs started falling from the buildings as the whole place trembled.
"Earthquake!"
"Run!"
Someone shouted as people started running to open space.
Footsteps and panting everywhere. There were cries and screams everywhere. And Shizuru could only stood there, her eyes wide open as she stared at her surroundings in shock, taking in the all too familiar scene that played out in her previous life.
In her previous life, this had happened before.
The sudden Earthquake followed by torrential rain and then...
The arrival of apocalypse.
Shizuru felt giddy all of a sudden.
She gathered Natsuki in her arms and teleported them into the Earth, not caring if anyone saw her. Once they were inside, Shizuru quickly placed Natsuki on the grass floor and took an Earth Crystal and put it inside Natsuki's mouth. It melted and dissolved before Natsuki's colouring return, no longer pale.
Seeing that Natsuki was recovering, Shizuru collapsed onto the ground, her legs giving in to her weight.
Why? How did this happen?
The air was fresh, there was sound of birds and streams flowing and the weather was nice all year round. Yet Shizuru felt cold in the inside.
Wasn't apocalypse supposed to be here half a year later? Why did it arrive early? Was it because she was reborn?
Shizuru sucked in a deep breath and buried her head in her arms as she curled into a ball on the floor, trembling. It took her half a day before she finally calmed down and stopped trembling. And this time round when Shizuru looked up, there was a determined glint in her eyes.
So what if apocalypse arrived early? This time round she was going to survive the apocalypse with Natsuki. They will grow old together.
Once Shizuru calmed down, she scoped Natsuki up and put her in the bed. Natsuki looked so peaceful sleeping there. Shizuru combed her fingers through Natsuki's tresses and then gently rubbed her fingers across her cheeks. How she wished life could be easy for Natsuki, that there won't be an apocalypse and Undeads.
Shizuru sighed. But regardless this was the situation they were in and they had to survive. No. They were going to thrive!
She decided to take one more look around their campsite to make sure that they had everything.
They had several yurts set up near each other. The main yurt in the center was their bedroom. Shizuru was quite proud of their bedroom as she had furnished this place on her own. The whole floor was covered with a thick carpet that their feet could sink in and her four posters wooden bed was placed in the center and flanked by two small wooden cabinets by each side. Oil lamps were placed on top to provide lights during the night time. The yurt was definitely big enough to accommodate a sofa and a small end table. It definitely offered all the comfort they looked for.
Seeing that Natsuki was still resting, Shizuru left to check on the other yurts. The remaining yurts contained clothes, food, medications and other equipment - all these necessary for their survival.
The middle yurt was their bedroom, the one on the left contained their clothes for all seasons. The weather after apocalypse was extreme. It was either scorching hot or freezing cold.
The yurt on the right contain food such as rice, noodles, spices and dried products. The yurt further on the right contained medication and other necessary equipment such as kerosene stove and lamp. They had solar powered generators. But it was always good to be prepared.
The last one contained their gym equipments. The yurt containing the medication was one of the most important one. It has medication such as cough syrup, flu medication and allergy jab. These medication may be cheap and commonly found everywhere now. But with apocalypse, people dying and viruses spreading, such simple medication was worth more than anything.
With all these resources and Natsuki's ability, Shizuru was confident of surviving. She was a greedy person. Right from the start she only wanted for Natsuki and her to survive.
She was a survivor but never a savior. She had no intention of saving everyone by teleporting every survivors into her Earth. To her, Natsuki was enough. Nothing will change in this life.
Shizuru took out a kerosene stove and wok to cook dinner herself. Natsuki was still resting and she did not want to disturb her. She will cook for Natsuki after she woke up. Shizuru went to the forest near them and took a couple of eggs from the bird nests and put them together with the instant noodles.
Shizuru let out a satisfied sigh as she finished the bowl of noodles. She felt so much better after the dinner.
After a brief calculation, Shizuru estimated that about four to five hours had passed and it was most likely midnight outside. Added that there was an earthquake earlier on, most likely she would not be detected if she exited her Earth now.
Shizuru decided to step out and take a look. Even though the Earth is good but in the long term, it would not be beneficial for the two of them to stay in the Earth forever. It might be better for them to go out and adapt themselves to the apocalypse world.
Shizuru wrapped herself in thick clothing and raincoat and stepped out. It was dark outside and the rain was pouring heavily with no sign of stopping.
Shizuru could feel the weight of the raindrops hitting her and the strong cold wind beating against her. She had some difficulty standing straight in this thunderstorm.
Everywhere in the University Town was quiet after the earthquake. There wasn't even any lighted street lamps. It seemed that the earthquake must have disrupted the electricity supply, causing citywide blackout.
No to be more exact, nationwide and likely worldwide blackout.
This earthquake and the torrential rain that followed were a nationwide phenomenon. Nobody knew what caused the earthquake or the epicenter of the earthquake. But the earthquake was so great that it created fear among many and before the government could intervene, apocalypse arrived. By then survival became a problem and slowly everyone forgot about the major earthquake that preceded the apocalypse.
Shizuru too did not have much information about the earthquake despite reliving her life again. But what she was sure of was that the epicenter was not the University Town.
Having experienced apocalypse the second time, her reactions and emotion were totally different this time round. She knew and had expected everywhere on earth to be living hell.
She knew what was coming and yet she made no attempt to alert the public. She felt no regret for it. She feared that any attempt to alert the public would only lead to suspicious. To some extent she could be considered a cruel and selfish person. Shizuru thought to herself as she gave a bitter laugh. As long as she could survive the apocalypse with Natsuki, she was willing to let go of all her conscious. Nothing was more important than Natsuki.
The rain and darkness did not deter Shizuru's sense of direction. She determined her direction and followed the pavement back to their rental apartment.
The supermarket they visited was near their rental apartment and even though they had tailed the young lady earlier on, they really hadn't gone far. During normal time, it would take Shizuru about 10 to 15 minutes to reach their apartment. But for tonight, it took Shizuru about three times the time needed to travel the same short distance.
Even though University Town wasn't the epicenter, but the destruction wasn't small either.
Along the way, Shizuru could see the deformed roads and collapsed buildings. Soils and concrete were scattered all over the placed. Large concrete block had fallen off the building and some of these concrete was big enough to crush a car. Broken and crush cars were seen everywhere. And Shizuru could even some bodies lying beneath the falling rubbles. Even the ground she was walking on had cracks streaking across and gaps opening wide. Some of the gaps were big enough to allow cars in.
Lucky for most residents in University Town, most of the buildings here were left intact, saving many people's lives in the process. But there were a few who were unlucky and were killed by falling concrete blocks.
Shizuru took everything in, but felt little for these people. You could call her cold blooded or inhuman. But all these were common occurrences during apocalypse. She had seen things that are even more cruel than this. It was often easier to be dead than alive. Being alive during apocalypse was a torture itself.
When she reached her area, the security guard guarding her zone was nowhere in sight, no longer seated at his guard post. Shizuru walked in and some a few blocks of buildings had already collapsed. But lucky for her, their apartment block was still intact.
Shizuru breathed a sigh of relief. As long as their apartment was still intact, things would be easier. At least they would have somewhere to stay during the apocalypse and not wondering around the University Town with no proper housing.
There were many people gathered in the open space despite the late timing, for fear of possible ripple effect from the earthquake. Some of them had their camping tent set up. Others sat on chairs while using umbrellas to shelter them from the rain. There were also others who used variety of ways to keep themselves safe and dry during the downpour.
Shizuru turned away from them and walked towards the stairs. A few Obaa-san saw her walking up the stairs and tried to stop her, advising her not to go up now as it would be too dangerous, claiming the building could collapse anytime and it would be better to wait and see.
But Shizuru only smiled and declined their kind effort and climbed up the stairs.
Even as she climbed up to the second floor, she could still hear the Obaa-san comments, how ungrateful she was, trying to court death despite the helpful advice given by them.
Shizuru only smiled and shook her head. The building had survived the first and major earthquake, it would likely survive the subsequent ripple. And the main reason was because she knew that would not be any more earthquake or ripple.
The door to their apartment was slightly deformed under the pressure, but lucky for her, she could still open the door. She stood at the door and took off her raincoat and any clothing that was wet from the rain and threw it on the floor outside their apartment. Only after confirming that her body had no contact with the rain, then would she step into the apartment. She wasn't sure if the Undead virus that spread rapidly through the world was related to the torrential rain. But it would be better to be safe than sorry.
There was a layer of grey dust all over their apartment, from the crack ceiling and the after effect of the earthquake. Shizuru didn't waste her time cleaning up the whole apartment and instead went to their bedroom and clean up the mess in their bedroom. Once things were back to normal, Shizuru went into the Earth and showered before carrying Natsuki out from the Yurt and put her on the bed in their apartment.
Shizuru placed a gentle kiss on Natski's lip and sat by her side, waiting for her to wake up. At least Natsuki's breathing had slowed to the normal.
Shizuru stood up and walked to the window looking out at the street. There was complete darkness. And for some strange reason, Shizuru felt confident of confronting the apocalypse.
She had finally stepped out of her fear and insecurities.
Ever since she returned back from her previous life, she had been uncertain of the future, fearing for her future, worried that she would die, that she would be a burden to Natsuki. She had been worried even though she had the Earth and food sources to last for a lifetime. Even when they left Tokyo, she was scared.
And Natsuki noticed it and tried to talk her out of the fear and uncertainty. She pretended then that she was fine. She had suppressed it so that those feelings were deeply hidden. She had learned a lot from her previous life and one of them was to suppress one's emotion.
Natsuki was fooled by Shizuru, thinking that Shizuru had become more optimistic.
But now, when the apocalypse arrived early, that was when she felt liberated from her fears and worries. Her worst fear had arrived but Natsuki and her were still alive.
The timeline to apocalypse had changed . Even the apocalypse arrived earlier. Things changed. When major events changed, so will Natsuki and her fate. Shizuru believed it.
Just as she was contemplating their future, a pair of hands came from behind and hugged Shizuru. Natsuki leaned forward and places a kiss on her neck and rest her head on Shizuru's shoulder. "How long was I out?"
Shizuru turned her head and shared a kiss with Natsuki. "Hmm… about seven to eight hours."
"That long?" Natsuki sucked in her breath. She hadn't expected herself to be out for so long!
"Yup." Shizuru turned and enveloped Natsuki in a hug. "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yup I am." There was a paused before Natsuki continued, a bit cautiously . "Shizuru, I think I might have developed a new ability."
This time it was Shizuru who sucked in a breath, her eyes widen in shock.
A double Wielder?
Natsuki let go of Shizuru and slowly spread her palm wide. Then slowly a mist appeared and solidified to form a small ice ball.
Shizuru's eyes brighten. "An Ice Wielder?" Ice Wielder was one of the Ability with attack characteristics with high damage power. The Ice Ability can also be considered to be similar to the Water Ability. When the ice melts, it could be used for consumption. A multi-purpose ability!
Natsuki nodded her head as she carefully studied Shizuru's facial expression before inwardly giving a sigh of relief when she noticed that there wasn't any sign of displeasure. Shizuru was genuinely happy for her.
She knew it was wrong of her to think that way. They practically grew up together and became lovers recently. But deep within her, she was afraid. She was scared that Shizuru would be upset with her ability, that there be negative thoughts about her because she came to this state as a Double Wielder because of the Earth Crystal given by Shizuru. And at the end of all these training and consumption of Earth Crystal, Natsuki was the only one with abilities and two abilities at that. This caused some uncertainty within Natsuki as she worried if Shizuru would be disappointed with herself and upset with Natsuki.
But it seemed that rather than worried about herself, Shizuru was overjoyed, beyond excitement in fact. To her, it didn't matter who had the ability. In fact she was glad that it was Natsuki who developed the ability. At least Natsuki had a higher chance of protecting herself and surviving in the apocalypse. And the Ice Ability could be a disguise. To let others think that Natsuki only had one ability and that was the Ice Ability. Natsuki's Mental Ability will be their trump card in times of need. Rather than preoccupied with her lack of ability, Shizuru was already planning ahead for their future.
"Natsuki, that's so great!" Shizuru said as she hugged Natsuki, squeezing her tight, overjoyed with the news. "Even though apocalypse came early but you managed to develop two abilities! That is go great!"
Natsuki returned Shizuru's hug, her eyes softened. Shizuru was genuinely happy for her. And for a moment she felt guilty for thinking that way about Shizuru. "I will protect you Shizuru."
Regardless whether you are a Wielder or not. Natsuki thought to herself silently.
Shizuru grinned. "Of course! You are going to be my prince in shining armor now! Unless you don't want me anymore now that you have newfound abilities?" Shizuru pouted. "That's not very nice of you."
Tickled by Shizuru's reply, Natsuki smiled. "Of course not! You will stay with me till the end of time!" Natsuki said as she gave Shizuru a peck on her cheeks.
The rain was getting bigger and given no further tremors, many residents who were standing at the open space decided to return to the apartment. They could not tolerate the torrential rain anymore especially when it got very cold at night.
Shizuru laid in Natsuki's arms and thought of the impending days ahead. Besides the two of them, no one knew of the impending apocalypse.
Many were in the midst of trying to repair the infrastructure while the local government managed to restore much of the electricity. Two days had past and many shops including the supermarket resumed operations and the television were broadcasting news about government's plans to restore the country and professionals' opinions and analysis of the earthquake.
Natsuki and Shizuru huddled together as they watched the news. The rain showed no sign of stopping after seven consecutive days, far beyond Shizuru's predictions. And for the past few days, many people were warded to the hospitals. Within a matter of seven days, there was a shortage of hospital beds as they were quickly filled up by incoming patients. The hospitals had difficulty meeting the ever increasing patients that were sent to them.
Shizuru decided to make another trip to the supermarket to buy some food. They still had some money left and money would be useless once apocalypse started. So it would be better to finish spending it than leaving it waste.
As the earthquake destroyed several roads and railway, food items were unable to be delivered into University Town and people with foresight had already snapped up most of the food items and stored it at home. There was rapid inflation as a pack of instant noodles rose to hundred dollar per pack. Yet it was snapped off the shelves once it was put up.
Uncertainty about the future spread through the University Town and fear was growing among the residents. And even when Shizuru was on her way to buy food from the supermarket, she already witnessed several robberies. But the police were already preoccupied with many other cases and had little time for thief and robbery cases. And so robbery and thief became rampant. That was the start of lawlessness.
The supermarket was very crowded with noise level hitting the rooftop. Especially at the cashier where there was non stop ringing of the cashier. It was even worse at the food section. Before the staff could placed the food on the shelves, people were already helping themselves with the food, taking it out from the box directly. Many were buying the items in bulk. But soon, the store owner wasn't planning on replenishing the item on the shelves.
Shizuru followed the crowd and bought some food, spending all her money on instant noodles and biscuits. Things like rice and fruits, she had no intention of buying. She already had plenty in her Earth. And even if she bought it, she would have problems carrying them home. Each bag of rice weighs about ten kilograms. And most likely she would be robbed while on her way home. A young defenseless woman with food was easy target for the desperate. It would be wiser to buy something that was filling and easy to carry.
After she made her payment, she huddled into her raincoat and left the supermarket.
It was still raining cats and dogs.
She paused at the doorstep of the supermarket and shivered. It was bone chilling cold. She stared into the dark and stormy sky and wondered when the rain would stop.
The surrounding air seemed to quiver with uneasiness and restlessness. And the sound of ambulance speeding through the road only heightened the sense of uneasiness.
"Hey! Why are you biting me!" A lady screamed.
Shocked, Shizuru quickly turned to look at the source of the scream. The incident took place just a few meters away from her. It was a big supermarket and there were four to five doors and Shizuru was standing at the furthest left door while the incident took place on the furthest right.
While Shizuru was at the extreme end, she could still clearly see what was happening. An older lady threw the things she just bought onto the floor and pounced on the young lady next to her, a ferocious look on her face. There was something wrong about this older lady. Her eyes were grey and protruding out from their sockets and yellowish saliva was dripping from her mouth as she hung on tight to the flesh in her mouth.
The younger woman didn't know the implication of the bite as she struggled to get the older lady off her. "Are you crazy or what! Get off me! Stop biting me! Why did you bite people out of the blue?" The younger woman screamed. Seeing that her pleas were not working, she started to throw punches on the older woman.
The surrounding people tried to intervene and pull the older lady away. And with it, a whole chunk of flesh. Blood was gushing out from the young lady's flesh. But instead of stopping, the older lady turned and launched herself on another person.
Shizuru bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, as if debating a major decision. She took a deep breath and screamed, "It is an Undead. Whoever was bitten by it will become Undead too! Run!" And then Shizuru quickly turned and ran down the street, not caring what the others' reactions were. That was the least she could do.
The Undeads had appeared amongst the people.
Shizuru quickly rushed home and threw her raincoat outside the door, her breathing still rapid and rush.
"What happened?" Natsuki was seated on the sofa when she heard the frantic turn of the keys and saw Shizuru rushing into the house, slamming the door shut.
Shizuru took out the things she brought and busied herself by teleporting them one after another into the Earth, trying desperately to distract herself. She tried to calm herself as she spoke. She did not want to frighten Natsuki. "I was at the supermarket earlier when I saw an Undead."
"What!?" Shock and panic evident in her voice as she quickly stood up to walk over to Shizuru.
"Were you injured?" Natsuki asked as she attempted to remove Shizuru's clothes and searched through her body for signs of injury.
Shizuru stopped her and held both her hands and shook her head. "I wasn't. And no, I wasn't being attacked by the Undead. It happened a few feet away from me so I was safe."
Relief came quick when she heard that Shizuru wasn't attacked. But it was quickly followed by self-blame as Natsuki blamed herself for allowing Shizuru to go out on her own.
Natsuki's face paled. "A few feet?"
What if she was the one attacked by the Undead?
Shizuru didn't have any ability to defend herself.
If the Undead went out of control, Shizuru might not be spared. She could have been killed! Wild thoughts ran through her mind. Images of a dead and bleeding Shizuru flashed through her mind.
Natsuki struggled out of Shizuru's hold and hugged her tight. "I'm so sorry Shizuru. I should have gone out with you and not put you in danger. Gomenei Shizuru."
Surprised, Shizuru returned Natsuki's hug.
Then her eyes softened. She could feel Natsuki trembling. Natsuki must have been frightened by today's incident. Shizuru shook her head and patted Natsuki's back. "It's ok Natsuki. Nothing happened." It was impossible not to be touched by Natsuki's concern.
Shizuru led Natsuki to the sofa. And even as they walked, Natsuki refused to let go of Shizuru and they walked like siamese twin to the sofa and laid down for a while.
There was silence for a while as the two of them simple enjoyed the close contact.
"Ne Natsuki, apocalypse has indeed arrived. Half a year earlier than what was told to me by the Earth."
"It's fine Shizuru. As long as we are together." Shizuru could feel the vibration as Natsuki spoke. It had been awhile since they laid together and do nothing but listening to each other's heartbeat. They had been so busy with their preparation for the apocalypse.
Shizuru nodded her head. She felt the same way.
After spending some time on the sofa, the two of them got up to tidy up their apartment, storing most of their food in the Earth, keeping only three days worth of food in the house in case there was some emergency.
Shizuru went into the Earth to harvest some crops for their dinner and took out one pack of sealed cooked food. The two of them finished their dinner and went to bed.
But tonight promised to be a sleepless night as the sound of ambulance rang tirelessly in the far distance for the whole night.
Many people across the University Town developed weird and unknown symptoms and were warded into the hospitals. Even as temporary tentages were set up by the hospitals, they were still unable to cope with the rising patients.
It wasn't long before those patients died. With the weird symptoms, doctors were unable to diagnose the illness and propose the right treatment for them except to prescribe antibiotics. But all of these patients died within hours after developing the symptoms and despite the antibiotics, blisters spread rapidly across their skins and breathing became difficult for those people.
The deceased were immediately sent to the mortuary. And the vacant beds were immediately occupied by another patients with similar symptoms. It was also not long before those patients passed away and sent to the mortuary. Bodies were piling up there. Despite this quick turnover, many patients was left lying on the ground with no access to beds.
The death came as a shock to many of the family members as those patients had been healthy prior to the illness with no sign of illnesses. Everyone was in a state of shock and disbelief to hear their family members dying within a matter of hours after being warded into the hospital. It was impossible for them to accept the fact that they died so suddenly and many tried to seek redress for their deceased family members, claiming that the hospital was negligence in their conduct and requested compensation.
However, it wasn't for long when those patients who were certified as deceased quickly returned to 'life'. One after another crawled out from the mortuary, their limbs stiff and rigid, being an Undead.
A few family members blinded by the joy of their family members' revival welcomed the previously deceased members with open arms. But they were quickly bitten and soon turned into an Undead too.
Not just the hospitals but it happened at the homes too.
The rained stopped the next day.
Shizuru and Natsuki stood side by side on the balcony looking down the street as they looked intently at streets.
There were activities on the streets. But hardly created by walking on the streets were no longer humans.
They may look like humans but their bodies were soaked in blood as they wandered around the street aimlessly, limping around leaving trails of blood on the floor. Most of them chose to loiter around in the shades, avoiding the sun.
They were the Undeads.
"There is already mass appearance of the Undeads within one night." Shizuru commented as she noted the number of Undeads on the streets.
Natsuki moved to hug her. "The Undead virus is spreading so quickly."
It seemed as if the half of the town was populated with the Undeads just within one night.
No. Perhaps half the world population had turned into Undeads.
The presence of the Undeads posed a deadly threat to human. Human was no longer the apex predators, at the top of the food chain.
Many humans sensed the danger and a few brave ones chose to pack their bags and leave the University Town while the Undeads were still few and slow.
They thought that this phenomenal only happened in University Town and they would be safe once they leave the town. But what they never knew was that such phenomenon was occurring across the globe. There was not safe heaven from the Undeads.
There were of course many who did not leave and chose to stay here. And despite the threat of the Undeads, many broke into shops and stole all the food and hid in their homes waiting for government help to arrive.
Natsuki switched on the television but there was no program running and all there was was the static sound and a blank screen. Natsuki tried another channel. It was the same. It seemed that there was no TV signal at all.
Shizuru recalled in her previous life, they lost signal only on the sixth day after the earthquakes and the rain only lasted for three days. But this time round, the rain lasted for seven. Could the rapid spread of Undead be caused by the non-stopped seven days of torrential rains? What caused the change? Was it her? There were many questions Shizuru would want to ask. But there would unlikely be any answers. So there was no point in dwelling too much on these questions.
The Undeads were afraid of sunlight but this would only last for about a few days. They would evolve to not fear the Sun. Half a year later, there would be no rain. Human will never see a cloudy day anymore and it will be summer all year round in the northern and southern hemisphere. Temperature rose rapidly to unbearable level. And it was under these circumstances that the Undeads evolved rapidly.
Shizuru went into the Earth and plucked some vegetables for their lunch. But just as she was about to exit the Earth, Duran quickly jumped into her arms, bring Duran out of the Earth as well.
Once Duran was out, it jumped on Natsuki's feet and danced around her, used all its might to get Natsuki's attention.
Natsuki rubbed Duran's head. They were so busy recently that they had no time to play with Duran. It must be quite bored for him to stay in the Earth alone.
Natsuki cooked some chicken soup and salad for themselves while feeding some chicken meat to Duran. After the lunch, it was Shizuru's turn to wash the dishes. When someone cooked, the other one would wash the dishes.
Natsuki stared out the window at the Undeads again. Her attention on them as she contemplated her decision. It might be good for her to go downstairs.
In order to survive in apocalypse, they would have to face the Undeads soon. Maybe sooner or later. It would be impossible for them to avoid any contact with the Undeads. It would be better if they could go face to face with the Undeads now than later. At least the Undeads were slow now. They needed to learn how to defend themselves against the Undeads.
A/N:
Thank you so much for reading my stories. And thank you to those who commented on my stories (both Till the End of Time & Black Magic). So sorry that I may not be able to reply to all your questions. So sorry about it.
A shout out to Hookedonreading! Thank you so much for the reviews! Your reviews have always been very encouraging and it really keeps me going. I really appreciate it!
Some updates:
Pertaining to the Black Magic fanfiction, I know some of the readers are very sharp and noticed some discrepancies in Black Magic. Yup you all are right! I will make amendment to that when I have more time on my hands.
I have another chapter of Till the End of Time ready and is now reviewing it. Hopefully I can release that chapter soon. Hahah.. BUT! I must confess I am hooked on watching anime now. Currently I am watching Manaria Friends. Yup! There is hint of yuri in it. That's why I am watching it. I love the paring in this short anime.
Hope you all enjoy this chapter! See you guys around!