Paradoxical Composition

By: irish d' salmon luver

Author's Ramble: Might get confusing at first, but it's not AU… And the relationship of Shun and Julie is getting more intense that I need to raise the rating to T ;D

… Naah, it's because this chapter contains a bit of violence, blood and gory ;p

Disclaimer: After all those years, I still couldn't convince Sega to give the ownership of this series to me :(

XXX

Chapter 08: Of Chainsaw Massacre and Protecting

It was a chaos.

A girl with silver hair stood in the middle of wasted road. Her long, wavy hair had loosened up from her usual side ponytail. Fire blasted around the girl and her companion; a boy with pitch black hair and light brown eyes. There was no other human sighted around.

There were only "them".

"They" weren't human. Human didn't walk around after they were shot right at the heart. Or after they got their legs broken off with the bones sticking out their rotten flesh. Or had an odd crave for human brains.

Nope, "they" were not human. "They" weren't even living.

"Shun," the girl's trembled voice called out, "We're trapped."

The boy named Shun clenched his gun. A sweat dropped on his handsome face, down to his chin.

"I know that, Julie. I know."

Julie sighed heavily and unconsciously leaned back-to-back with Shun. The boy stiffed at the contact before relaxed a bit.

No one asked 'how this is happened'. They were already tired of fighting for their lives.

It was started off quite nicely. They planned to meet up, not the usual I-bump-to-you-oh-it's-a-coincidence-so-let's-just-go-together. She said she needed his help to look for a gift that a lone, quiet, and anti-social boy would like, who suspiciously resembled his characteristic. He was reluctant at first, of course, but Julie had her own way to pull him up into her bidding, which included threatening to throw away his collection of bird related accessories.

He didn't want to know how she knew about his collection or how she got her hands on his things.

They went to the mall. After wasting about three hours just for window shopping and countless opinion of what should she buy, Julie finally bought something without showing or telling him what it was. And then they went to the park. The blue sky was clear, the sun shone brightly and the weather was good. It was a perfect day to go outside. Julie treated him for an ice cream and they sat together at the fountain.

It felt almost like a perfect date. Except that Shun refused to use the term 'date'. He felt better use the term 'hang out with friend'. He didn't want to get too attached with this overly bubbly girl. They enjoyed their ice cream in silence and after they had finished they began to walk around the busy town. It was still a perfect day.

And then suddenly it turned up like this.

If only they didn't come inside that cursed building, they might be still enjoying the day with mirth and sunshine. They suddenly found themselves in this situation: trapped inside a dead city with deadly plague that turned people into zombies and to their biggest nightmare, they were the only survivor so far. Shun had found a gun while Julie got herself a chainsaw. They were lucky to survive so far, but they knew it wouldn't last long. The ammos were running out, and it was the same as the chainsaw's fuel. The young ninja was lucky enough to found some small throwing knife and a short sword around to defend himself when his ammo was finished.

His musing was disrupted as he felt something grabbed his hand. It was Julie.

"This is… the last round, isn't it?"

Her soft voice cracked into the air. Shun glanced at the sideway, caught a trace of silver tresses at his side. Suddenly his hand ached to touch it, to run his fingers through her hair, stroking it, feeling the smooth feeling on his palm to calm himself.

Shun shuddered at his own thought.

He must be getting desperate, for such thing ever dared to cross his mind. He was never really fond of this girl, why suddenly he wanted to act comfortably around her? He must have getting lenient enough to even tolerate her bubbly and loud existence at his side for hours, without having the need to stab someone for once.

"I'm… afraid… we couldn't make it alive, Shun…"

Her hand was trembling.

"I'm sorry… to drag you into this situation."

She sounded so sad, scared, and desperate.

The black haired boy breathed deeply. He leaned a bit at the girl's back and squeezed back her hand. It was his best body language to say that he was still there with her and he would stay with her throughout this hellish situation.

"I'll protect you."

Julie shifted her head to stare at the Shun's back. She couldn't see his expression, and she was itching to see his face. But their position was very comfortable and she was reluctant to let go of the warmth on her back. She turned her head again, closed her eyes and let Shun continued his words.

"I'll protect you, and I'll make sure we can get out of this situation alive."

Suddenly Julie felt the warmth gone and the weight shifted from behind her. Shun had turned his back and spun her around to stare directly into her violet eyes. Determination was evident inside his burning amber orbs.

"I will never let you die. I will protect you. I promise," he spoke softly as he tucked a strand of silver behind her ear. His voice and gesture made the girl blushed slightly. She closed her eyes; a smile spread on her weary face and she clutched her weapon.

"I trust you."

Shun smiled a little, relieved that Julie finally got some spirit back. They were almost at the end; he could feel it. Just a little more and they can get out of this deadly situation. He cocked his gun and eyed his surrounding. A horde of zombie approached them. He counted more than thirty zombies in vicinity. He predicted there would be seventy or more zombies, or maybe hundreds of "them". He counted that his ammo could only last for another fifty three shots, and then he had to rely on his short sword. Throwing knives weren't really good against zombies; it might slow "them", but it couldn't deliver a killing blow. They had to cut off "their" head, crushed "their" skull, or destroyed "their" brain. Julie had cut off uncountable heads; she could rival the beheading Red Queen.

They stood side by side with their hand still intertwined to each other. Julie gave the boy a last squeeze on his hand as she eyed the closing zombies.

"Ready?"

Shun smirked.

"Always."

They let go of each other's hand and took hold of their weapon, ready to face the doomed creatures.

XXX

The next scene was brutal.

It was terribly horrendous.

Countless body parts scattered along the road, bathing the asphalt with red color.

Shun had long discarded the gun. His sword glistened with red blood of its victim. He had thrown all of his knives. Julie still gripped the chainsaw tightly. The ninja knew that chainsaw was quite inefficient as it had slow reaction than gun or sword, yet the girl before him could handle the weapon like an expert and had delivered many killing blows to those horrid zombies.

Not that he was sorry for them, though.

They were almost done. Just one more enemy and it was all over. They could escape from this hell hole and back to their old life.

Or so they hoped.

XXX

The last enemy was… terrifying. It was the biggest zombie they've ever encountered, and one attack from "it" could be lethal. "Its" punch can hole up the ground, "its" kick could send one flying for some good feet, and once you got yourself bitten by him… well, you ended up being eaten.

It was impossible.

Shun tightened his grip on the handle of his sword until his knuckles turned white. Julie had lost the light of hope on her eyes again. They were stuck; their only chances were to go back to the town filled with only-God-knows-how-much-exactly-those-zombies-which-are-hiding-somewhere-beneath-the-dead-city… or facing the mutated zombie.

The boy took a deep breath. It had to be done now or never. He reached out for Julie's hand and held it firmly. She pursed her full lips in an attempt to smile but she couldn't. No one could smile in this state. Instead she gripped his hand hard enough to make Shun winced a bit.

"Don't worry, Julie. Like I've said before, I won't let you die. Not after we've gone this far."

She just merely nodded while hummed "yes" in a soft whisper. Maybe the sight of that creature grossed her so much she could barely talk.

"Here it comes."

The creature swung its large hand and slammed it their direction. It went with a loud bang and crash, and there was a large dent where his fist had slammed the floor. Thanks to Shun's quick reflexes of yanking Julie's hand and dodged to the back, he could prevent both of them to become a mush under the plummeting hand.

"Julie!" he shouted to the girl beside him, "I'm going to distract that monster! You try to get to his back and paralyze that thing! And then we deliver the final blow together, okay?"

Something sparkled inside those gloom purple eyes. Something that Shun didn't really like. But then she nodded and smiled her usual happy smile, making his suspicion vanished and reassured his resolve. Shun dashed to face the monster and took out his short sword while Julie ran as stealthy as she could to her pointed position. He slashed its leg, but the wound is too shallow. He cut some more of its rotten flesh, deeper this time, and blood began to gush put from the wound. He then thrust his sword to his foot and dragged the sword to make a bigger cut, and the monster howled as it began to trip over. Shun watched in horror as the creature fell with a nice, loud "THUMP" sound.

The creature fell on its back, possibly crushing his companion flat on the floor.

"JULIE!"

The boy ran to where the girl supposed to be, but to his surprise he couldn't find her. Not even any trace of her sighted near the creature. Shun eyed the surrounding, trying to find traces of silver hair or bloody chainsaw around, but zero result.

The young ninja was overly deep in his thought that he failed to notice a slight movement from the creature behind him and then the next moment he knew he was thrown away to the air and got yanked again to the ground by large hand grabbed one of his ankle. Before he could catch a breath, giant fists planted on his stomach numerous times and ruptured his ribs. Blood blurred his visions and the last thing he saw was a glint of bloody chainsaw.

—Player 1 Game Over—

XXX

"YES! I WON!"

Julie danced happily as she successfully finished the last stage of the arcade game "Dead City of Zombies" by beheading the last boss with a nice, clean cut with her trusty "chainsaw". Beside her, a grumpy looking boy gritted his teeth and a scowl plastered over his handsome face.

"You… just used me as decoy…"

The tanned skin girl stopped her dance and looked back at the boy, her eyes were still sparkling over her victory and she was grinning widely.

"Well, you're the one who said that you're going to distract the last boss."

"Distraction, not decoy. Distraction means I altered its attention for a while and you paralyzed it, and then we kill it together. Decoy means you sacrifice me—" he hissed, "in order to gain the victory by yourself. You should learn the difference."

Her grin just went bigger.

"And that's exactly what I did. I claimed all the victory to my own credit."

"That wasn't exactly what we planned before we started this game, right?"

"Well~~ you did say that you were going to protect me and would never let me die. And I trusted you to hold up your words, didn't I?"

"But it didn't mean to throw your friend's life just to save your own butt!"

"I thought you also meant it to be 'I won't let you die even though I have to die in order to protect you' kind of thing."

Shun balled his fists. There was no meaning on arguing with this… this… cheating, dumb, egoist, sly, sadistic betrayer!

Julie reached out to touch his arm, but he turned away and gave the girl his cold back. The silver haired girl held out her giggles to see the usual cold, aloof boy suddenly sulked childishly. He really took almost everything seriously, even competing who would get better score at this gory arcade game. But she secretly enjoyed the game, though. They really acted out of this game, as if they were inside the game and working together to slay those zombies. A blush appeared on her tan cheeks as she remembered how Shun held her hand and said that he would protect her. Even if he just said those words out of the atmosphere of the game, she was still happy.

And who knew that holding a chainsaw and beheading zombies could be a great stress reliever?

Julie smiled contently. She was truly happy that Shun were willing to go out with her, even though she needed to blackmail him. But she knew that Shun wouldn't be too angry of such little things like blackmail and cheating. Well, at least that was what she hoped.

The girl reached out to grab his broad shoulders. She moved closer until her lips were just a mere inch away from his right ear.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly into his ear. He shivered a bit.

She let go of his shoulder and walked towards her neglected shopping bags, rummaging the contents until she found what she was looking for. Shun turned his body a little to watch the girl took out a small box with beautiful wrap with pictures of phoenix birds. His eyes widen a little; recognition flashed into his eyes. It was the gift she bought before, the one she had wasted three hours to look for it. She smiled sheepishly; pink tints adorned her cheeks as she gave the box to him.

"Here, take this as my apology."

Shun hesitantly took the box from her hand and examined it carefully. He was afraid it would explode. If it was from Julie, everything was possible.

The girl chuckled at his reaction, "Don't worry, it's safe. And…"

She suddenly sauntered the boy and hugged him. Shun nearly dropped the gift because of shock.

"Happy birthday."

The boy went stiff. He almost forgot that today was his birthday. Ever since the death of his mother, he never celebrated anything, not even his own birthday. Yet this girl just took him out of his shell and managed to celebrate his birthday with her own way.

She let go of him and gazed at his eyes.

"Apology accepted?"

Shun blinked.

"Ah, well…"

He turned away from the girl so that she couldn't see him blushing. He was just too happy, even though he didn't want to admit it.

"I guess… I accept your apology for today. But as for other time…" his voice trailed off as he spun again to look back at the girl, "If you cheat again another time, it will take more than a puny gift for me to forgive you, sly girl."

She grinned at his teasing tone.

"I can't guarantee it, Shun. I love getting upper hand from you."

With that, she dashed off from the arcade with her shopping bags, leaving the boy alone. Shun watched her form disappeared between the crowds and then look back to the gift in his hand. He unwrapped the box carefully and opened it. Inside, there was a Japanese style tea mug with phoenix painting. It was one of the finest pottery ever made and the painting was beautifully done it looked like the phoenix was alive. Julie took her time picking his gift was not for nothing. She considered enough to give him a gift that he found useful and it wasn't pink. Horror spread to his face as he remembered the gifts she gave to the other Brawlers: pink scarf for Alice, pink knee socks for Runo, pink armband for Marucho, and pink goggles for Dan…

Shun grimaced at the memory before heading out to go after Julie. Outside, he found the girl to stand beside a vending machine, surrounded by four young men. Obviously she was getting hit by them. Shun gritted his teeth and balled his fists as he saw the men flirted with the girl while she just stood there with bored expression. Suddenly one of the men grabbed Julie's hand and tried to pull her with him. Julie stomped his foot with her high heeled shoe and yanked her hand free from his grasp. The other men tried to get a hold of her, but the girl managed to elbowed one man at his chest and landed a kick on another's guts. She grinned victoriously, but the glory didn't last long as the remaining one successfully grabbed her from behind, trapping both of her hands in one hand and his other hand was used to clam her mouth.

On that moment Shun stepped forward.

The next scene was filled with punches, kicks, throwing shuriken and kunai, bloody lips, and bluish eyes. The young men scurried away from the wrath of the young ninja as he helped the girl gathering her things. Shun still had his annoyed look and seeing the girl smiling and chuckling just made him scowling more.

"Why are you laughing? You're just about to get raped, you know?!" he scolded her. Her smile just went wider.

"I can take care of myself."

Shun snapped, "How can you—"

He was cut off as a hand reached out to touch his face. Shun could feel his body went stiff as her hand made contact with his pale cheek. Confused ambers stared at grayish purple orbs. Her plump lips formed a small smile; a smile that instead of annoying him, it made him blush.

"I know you will rescue me."

She let go of him and took a step behind. Shun immediately missed the lingering comfort from her touch, which, unbeknown to him, became something he accustomed to.

"You'll protect me, you said so right?" she said as she took another step backward.

"But… it's only in game—"

"I said that I trust you, right?"

Shun looked at the girl. She still had that small smile, eyes looking straight to him with apparent confidence and faith. He smirked and walked towards her, his right hand reached out to her head and ruffled the silver hair. The girl squirmed under his touched and tried to send a kick to the boy, which he easily dodged. He let go of her soon, noted how smooth her silver hair was, just like how he always imagined it to be. He leaned a little so that he could look at her vis-à-vis.

"Are you always this stupid and naïve?"

She pouted those full lips of her.

"Are you saying that you won't protect me, your dearest friend?"

He grimaced, "And who said that you are my dearest friend?"

Her lips began to quiver and her eyes began to water. This was a bad sign.

"Hey," he sighed, "I'm just joking, so please don't cry, okay?"

She just nodded meekly. Shun sighed again before he took her shopping bags into his hand and offered his other hand to the girl. She looked at his hand and then stared at him questioningly.

"Come one, I'll take you home."

She looked back to his hand and pink tints adorned her cheeks. The boy blushed too to see her reaction, feeling embarrassed himself as she just stood there, her head bowed down and she bit back her plump lips. He quickly took her hand and pulled her along with her. She yelped at the sudden act, but following him nevertheless.

They walked together in silence, hand-in-hand. Some passersby looked at them, even commenting how 'cute' they were together. Julie's face became redder in embarrassment to hear those comments while Shun just stared ahead, trying to act nonchalant yet the girl knew he was nervous and embarrassed too, judging by how his hand became sweaty and shaking.

"Shun," she called his name slowly, almost afraid to break the silence, "There's no need to hold hands if it makes you uncomfortable, you know?"

His hold tightened as he turned to face the silver haired girl.

"You trust me to protect you, right? If we are to hold hands like this, those perverted bastards won't try to get you because they thought you're already taken. So you just shut up and act like we're a couple, okay?"

He turned his head away as blush crept onto his chiseled cheeks. Julie stared at him with wide eyes before smiled happily as she grabbed his hand and moved closer to him. Shun went rigid at the close contact, too much for his comfort, but let her do as she please. After all, he already said that he would protect her from perverts by acting like her boyfriend, so acting a bit more intimate was permitted this time.

XXX

A/R: Heck, this chapter took longer than what I was planning to. It seems that the chapters are getting longer and longer, I don't know if it's getting better or worse. That zombie killing spree took up too much part… but I don't regret it. I'm always a zombie apocalypse fan :D

And since this chapter is long, I don't really bother to check the grammars or typos. If you find some mistakes please point it out to me so I can correct it.

Anyway, thanks for Winter Coma for the idea and support. Your words really push me to work harder to make more interesting stories and I wish I can live up to your expectation :)

And from now on, I'm asking you guys to give me random stuffs as the next chapter's inspiration. Just write a thing or two in review, and see what I can come up with ideas from you. Till next time…