Author's Notes: Like plenty of other authors, I welcome both comments that express how readers feel about my story, and comments on what could be done better; i.e. constructive criticism. I dunno about other people, but I believe constructive criticism should be a intelligent review of things that can be done better; personal feelings may be involved and influence your review, and that's fine. Everybody had their opinions. But when you let your opinion completely override any scraps of intelligences, don't bother fucking reviewing.
I'm focusing on your review, Mr. Broken Juggernaut. There was no point to your review, and frankly, you don't like how I incorporate my original characters, then you can just fuck off, and I'd appreciate if you keep those kind of dumb-ass opinions to yourself from now on. This is all assuming you're following this fic, so if you aren't...well, I guess this could just be a rant to enlighten people a bit.
Oh, and this isn't just a TakashixSaeko fic, there will be many other parings, so of course it's not going to feel like a TakashixSaeko fic, cause that's not the one and only pairing; it's just categorized like that because that pairing's the most easily identifiable pairing of the fic.
Anyways, like I said, reviews are welcomed and encouraged, but please don't use it to insult me or my characters, or how I use them.
Chapter 15: Attention all DEAD Shoppers...
"Alright, we need to talk"
Hirano Kouta's voice echoed slightly in the restaurant the four had decided to use as a meeting place, since the cafe that they were using before had been reoccupied by the survivors of the mall. That in it's self had been a pain, since they were waiting there to try and force the teenagers to hand over their guns; it was then that they had found out a rescue mission had been pulled off during their absence, and had caused a commotion among the survivors.
Luckily, the police officer Asami's authority was still lasting, and she made the survivors back down from trying to disarm the 'violent and gun waving' teenagers, for now anyways.
Even so, the survivors refused to give up the cafe back to them, and four had ended up here, at the restaurant, with Saya, Rei, Alice and even Saeko waiting just outside the entrance; though she had been left in charge as well, she told Takashi she didn't have much to do with the rescue plan, so talking with Kaede would be the better idea.
As for the school nurse, she was absent from the restaurant completely; she was busy with back in the mattress store turned operating room, removing the inflamed appendix of the sick mall survivor.
Takashi agreed, and he, Kouta and Asami listened to his retelling of what had happened, Shimada's death, and the ammo for both the WA2000 and AR-10 had been used up, and if they planned on using them again any time soon, they'd need to get some more from the Komatsu.
That had all happened with in less than twenty minutes since the three had returned, Takashi and Asami at least were using the time to rest as Kaede reported to the leader; after that had been a silence, that was broken by Kouta in his want to make sure nothing like this happened again by having Takashi analyze and understood what had brought this outcome.
"...there's not much we need to talk about; Kaede explained what happened here pretty well, and we know what happened out there." Takashi muttered tiredly; among that, he really did not want to talk about their losses anymore than they really had too.
Too bad for him, Kouta felt this was something they really needed to do.
"No! We need to think hard about what happened today! In both cases!" Kouta's eyes turned towards Kaede and surprisingly, he was met with a fierce glare from the usually laid impartial Kaede; it was obvious that Kaede didn't want to think about what happened at his end either. "We need to understand where we went wrong!"
"Why!" Takashi snapped back, getting a bit more than a little annoyed with Kouta's persistence.
"What we need to do is go back and correct our answers on the test we just bombed for next time, so we don't make the same mistakes, get it?" Kouta said, speaking his mind in a way Takashi could hopefully understand. "We let two perfectly able people die today, when we shouldn't have let anyone die! Why!"
"There was nothing we could have-"
"No! It was a complete failure." Kouta cut Takashi off before he finished his argument, and continued before he had the chance to speak again. "We shouldn't have let you try to hold the entrance on your own; up until now, we've been following what you've wanted exactly, and there haven't been any problems. But mistakes were made at the clinic. We didn't need three people going through the whole clinic for what we needed; two would have been just fine..."
"Two? That would mean me..." Takashi started, what Kouta was saying they should have done sinking in. "And Tamaru-san or someone, could have..."
"That's exactly right; two of us could have kept guard, while the other two went inside to look for what we needed!" Kouta finished for him, before turning to Kaede. "And, in your guy's case, you shouldn't have even let that man Shimada come along; because of it, no only did you have to shoot him, we also lost a gun and some ammo. It may not seem like much, but in the long run it would have been better to have kept them!"
"Stop it! No body wants to talk about this right now!" Asami finally burst, tears welling in her eyes; it seemed the mentioning of the second death by the living's hand and not by the dead was too much for her. Asami...Asami shot someone. S-she killed Tamaru-san!"
"That's why we need to talk about it..." Kouta said, trying to keep his voice calm and level while still firm; it pained him to see Asami cry and he wished he had stepped forward back then to prevent her from having to do it, but it had been done, and more importantly, something like this happening in the future needed to be prevented at all costs. "We need to understand what made it come to that so we can prevent it from happening again, to anyone."
"Those two seem to be getting along..." Rei commented on Kouta's sudden change of attitude when it came to dealing with the police woman; she, Saya, Saeko and the child Alice were at the other end of the restaurant in the waiting area.
Although Rei was the only one really actively watching and listening in on the conversation, peaking around the wall separating the dinning area from the waiting area, Saya and Saeko could hear everything clearly from where they were at; Saya was sitting in a chair, Saeko leaned against the wall near the entrance to keep an eye out, and Alice, who wasn't paying attention to much of anything, what playing with Zeke and Yuki.
"Personality has nothing to do with it." Saya responded to Rei's observation, though, typical of Saya, didn't offer an explanation to her comment until it was asked for.
"What are you talking about? Hirano and the police woman are getting close so they need to take thing more seriously or-"
"Do you have any idea what happened to people when they're afraid?" Saya asked, cutting Rei off like usual; the brunette was use to it by now, and just kept quiet as Saya continued. "He's beginning to see how savage people have become since the Outbreak, and he also knows what it's like to kill someone first hand. The fear of death, of killing to stay alive; it doesn't matter how tough a person is, it still causes post-traumatic stress."
"But we haven't killed anybody..." Rei started off slowly at what Saya was suggesting. "It was them! They aren't human!"
"That's how we've decided to think! We need to protect our sanity after all." Saya replied with a light sigh. "Whoever decided to think of them as not human realized that we'd have to keep fighting against these things that were once people. It's easier to kill something if you don't think of it as a human being, even if it is just that, a human."
Although Rei knew this as a truth, having spent so long making herself think of the things they've been fighting as non-humans, it had an impact on her like it was something new when she realized that they were humans just like they were at one point.
"I certainly agree with you...but is that all you were getting at?" Saeko finally spoke up while Rei was silent with that little reminder.
"Of course not" Saya replied with a shake of her head, looking over to Saeko now what was to her right. "When I was with my Papa and Mama...I finally had accepted how things had changed and probably won't be going back to normal for quite some time. I'm sure there's something...or someone for you both that makes all this pain bearable?"
For Rei, it was easy for Kaede to be the first thing to pop into her head when Saya had mentioned someone helping her cope with things, but for Saeko, Takashi wasn't the first thing to pop up; the thrill of the battle was first, then Takashi when she got to thinking about things.
"For Kouta, that's what the police woman is doing; he's leaning on her since, before we came here, Kouta had been relying on the guns we had and the use he could provide with them" Saya said, remembering how important the guns were to him and how he wouldn't give them up back at the mansion a few days ago.
"What about Shizuka-sensei and Alice-chan?" Rei finally asked after thinking about what Saya had said and understanding her point better.
"Marikawa-sensei has many responsibilities; she;s our driver, physician, and the only adult in our group" Saeko had answered before Saya, having an understanding of what Saya was getting at before she fully explained herself, so she was able to point out a few of the group's escapes. "She leans on fulfilling those responsibilities as her escape."
"As for the munchkin..." Saya started, and just so happened to have caught the attention of Alice as she was speaking.
"Who's a munchkin, Saya-chan?" Alice asked cheerfully as she started for the genus with a smile on her face.
With the sweetest look, Saya turned to face the much younger girl.
"Oh, that would be..." once Alice was close enough, Saya caught her in her arms, and began tugging on her cheek. "You, obviously. Munchkin!"
Rei let out a light laugh at the familiar sight of Saya teasing Alice, while Saeko had looked away with a sigh; none of them had been able to tell the meeting going on inside the restaurant had come to an end, or that they could hear them just as well as they could hear their conversation earlier. The girls didn't even notice the footsteps coming to the waiting area until Asami pocked her head out from around the corner.
"Oh! You were all out here?" she asked, surprised to see almost all of Takashi's group waiting behind the wall; without a worry about the meeting of the four that hadn't been officially ended yet, she motioned them around the corner and into the restaurant with her. "C'mon in"
Asami lead the four into the restaurant with her, but it was still a long walk across to where Kouta, Takashi and Kaede were sitting quietly.
"I'm worried though..." Rei said in a quiet voice as the followed the police officer. "For all three of them; it seems like they have to deal with a lot of the stress right now."
"I know what you mean..." Saya replied with a slow nod, Rei having brought up an important point about the three males. "Takashi, Kouta and even Kaede may become dangerous themselves; they might just lose it and snap one of these days at this rate...!"
"What can we do then!" Rei asked quickly, surprised but when she considered everything, such a danger was very real and possible.
"That's easy..." Saeko was the one to answer that question as she took a few extra steps to catch up to the others, her eyes mostly focusing on Rei but did look over to Saya as well. "We just have to do everything that we can, as companions to them."
"Wh-what do you mean by that!" Rei stammered with red tinting her cheeks; she wasn't the only one who blushed at that comment, but Saya's face was hidden from the others and they weren't able to tell.
"All that I mean is that I don't intend to forget that I'm of the female sex, and you two shouldn't either..."
With that last comment, Saeko walked ahead and sat down at the table across from where the others were sitting, and Alice sat down as well; Saya and Rei caught up and took seats with the others while Asami had sat back down with at the other table with the males, and the guns.
Since they weren't allowed back to their usual meeting place, they had kept a hold of the guns instead of hiding them again, so the three rifles and the Benelli were leaning against the edge of the table, and the MP5 was laying on the table on it's own. On the floor there was also a bag of medicine that Takashi and Kouta had brought from the clinic; Shizuka had taken what she had needed and they had held onto the rest.
Since the attention had gone to the guns, Asami had assumed they were all thinking about how they would deal with the other survivors wanting to take them from them, and decided to speak up about that.
"Asami'll do everything she can, too." she said, looking towards the teenagers that had managed to survive so long with no help from anyone other than themselves. "At least until Matsushima-senpai gets back from headquarters to help us, Asami will stay here and do her best to work with everybody and to keep the others from taking what isn't theirs."
It was nice to see her so determined, but Kaede, Saeko and Saya exchanged exchanged glances with Takashi; should they tell her they had just come from the police headquarters and found it empty other than the countless undead they had fought against during their night there and that this officer had been more than likely one of them, or keep it to themselves and keep her happy?
That thought process was interrupted by Rei catching Takashi's attention by holding out a bottle in front of him.
"You look tired, Takashi; this medicine helps you sleep really well. I use to take it as a kid" she said while Takashi took the bottle and took a look at it; Saeko leaned over his should and took a look as well, reading the label carefully.
"It's a sexual stimulant..." Takashi muttered with a red tint on his cheeks.
"W-what? No, I didn't...I must have gotten the bottles mixed up!" Rei tried explaining, blushing.
"Well, it'll certainly get you sleeping nicely..." Saeko said with a small laugh, only making the two blush more and the others laugh; Saya had to push off Alice asking what a stimulant was, and Kouta had sighed at the whole mix up, only to have his own attention pulled from the others.
"Kouta-san?" Asami spoke up, continuing when she had his attention. "Asami's feeling a lot better now, thanks to you."
"Oh, uh, you're welcome, Asami-san." Kouta replied with a smile.
"Asami remembers when she was in the police academy they use to tell everybody to talk with a superior after coming back from a really bad crime scene because it would just become too much for one officer otherwise!" Asami spoke in her usual cheerful attitude; at first, Kouta wasn't sure what she was getting at, but when she looked down sadly, he was getting the idea. "Even though...you're only in high school, but even you seemed to know that already, and Asami's a full fledged police officer but she forgot. She's so useless..."
"N-no, I just happened to know that and did it before you could." Kouta quickly said to keep Asami from crying again, as it seemed she was close to tears again. "Asami-san's really an incredible police officer!"
"Kouta-san...!" was all she replied with in a dreamy tone and a smile.
Since it was all about distractions at that moment, Alice decided to point it out to Saya how Asami and Kouta were getting closer.
"Hey, hey, Saya-chan-"
"Onee-sama!" Saya quickly and firmly corrected the youngster, though it flew right over her head and she continued as if Saya hadn't said anything.
"It looks like the police lady really like Kouta-chan!" Alice said in a worried tone; she may have been a kid, but she could tell Saya had some feeling for the otaku, and figured Saya would want to know about something like that.
"Yeah, isn't that weird?" Saya replied with a laugh which confused the girl.
"But, Kouta-chan and Saya-chan-"
"Onee-sama!" Saya again corrected the child, but again it went right over the kid's head; even so, Saya left it at that. "Don't worry about it, munchkin. Let me teach you something; I always like being the best, but I can't always be the best at everything or I'd have nothing, get it?"
"But I like it when you're the best Saya-chan!" Alice replied with an innocent smile on her face, unaware she was continuously getting on Saya's nerved by adding the chan suffix to the end of her name; it inevitably lead to another round of pulling Alice's cheeks.
"Um...Kouta-san." Asami once again caught the otaku's attention; she time, she didn't wait for him to face her before speaking. "Are you going to leave?"
A simple enough question, it put everything on the line; his growing friendship with the police officer, and his comrades, and everything they had worked together to stay as a single group.
"We need to find Takashi, Kaede, and Miyamoto-san's families." he replied as best he could, hoping she leave it at that; of course, it wouldn't be that easy.
"But not your own, right? Couldn't you just stay here, Kouta-san?" Asami's voice was barely over a whisper as she spoke to the otaku she had started falling for, her hands seeking out one of Kouta's, holding it gently in her own. "If you're worried about what Asami can do, s-she'll do anything and everything for you..."
The hint of suggestiveness in her voice wasn't lost on anyone listening in, especially not on Kouta; he completely froze up, choking on the words that tried coming from his throat. With a longing glance to Saya and the unreadable expression on her face made him make his mind up for himself.
"I...already have companions I'm with..." Kouta, a small, remorseful smile on his lips.
A look of shock fell on Asami's face before fading into sadness as she bowed her head; to everyone, it appeared as if she'd start crying, and Kouta started panicking.
"I-I'm sorry..." Kouta started in a worried tone; the police woman gulped down her sadness and surprised everyone when she looked up with a smile, though there were tears in the corners of her eyes.
"It's okay. I had a feeling you'd say something like that!" she finally replied in the best voice she could.
All at the same moment, Saya wasn't sure how she felt about Asami taking the rejection so well; it seemed to have strengthened their bond much more, and while her smart-ass side was telling her that that was good, that the otaku wouldn't look towards her for comfort anymore, but her heart. Well, her heart was aching and telling her otherwise, creating a clash of feeling inside the pink haired genius.
The heart-filled moment between the otaku and the police officer was abruptly broken when the dogs started barking at the window; nothing new, since the smell of them normally drew this reaction, and while they were in the safety of the mall, the group had started treating it like they were barking at cars(although, Kaede did keep an eye on his dog, since Yuki was more reliable and would warn them if the undead had gotten inside by chasing them down).
What had really interrupted the moment was Alice, who had drifted over with them out of boredom; she had suddenly made a sound that drew attention to her, and Rei had gone over to investigate, since Kouta and Asami, the two that were actually closer, were still in the middle of their 'moment'.
"What is it, Alice-chan?" Rei asked when she was standing behind the younger girl.
"A police lady...over there..." Alice replied, pointing out the window; Rei saw what the little girl was pointing at almost immediately, there being nothing to hide it in the parking lot now.
Kaede and Saeko, the only two who's mind were still on track about telling the police officer that they had been to the station already and what they saw, suddenly tensed up; both of them already knew it wasn't going to end well for Asami.
"D-don't tell me that's..." Kouta was the third to see, and it was indeed another police officer, a female one too; before he could say anything to Asami, the officer was already at the window.
With her legs suddenly weak and her head shaking back and forth, it was more than obvious she was trying to deny what she saw. That reaction alone already confirmed Kouta's fears; it was the Matsushima-senpai Asami was always talking about.
"She didn't make it to the police station..." Asami finally was able to say as it sunk in, her denial fading away after having repeated 'no' over and over again nearly hysterically; the tears she had fought back from moments earlier fell for a whole new reason. "She died right after leaving!"
Asami fell to her knees sobbing hard while the others stood around her; most of them had doubted the other officer's survival from the beginning, and while others had hoped she had lived, they all knew it was a doomed attempt from what they had seen and experienced at the police station themselves.
Unknown to any of them, a few of the original mall survivors had come looking for the officer for one of their meetings(an attempt to get the gun-totting teenagers out of their safe haven, no doubt) had come to the entrance of the restaurant at that very moment.
"Nobody...there's nobody..." Asami shuttered, just barely able to keep herself standing against the window, her whole body shaking. "Nobody's coming to help us!"
Asami slid to her knees after the outburst, sobbing uncontrollably while Kouta tried to calm her down; there was no point in hiding it now, so Kaede stepped up before anyone else, knowing they were putting it off or was Saeko. She was the only other that would have maned up and told her, he doubted Saeko would soften the blow at all; the police officer was already at the edge of a mental breakdown, telling her their wasn't any hope at the police station anymore was going to be bad enough, and Saeko's cold attitude wouldn't help at all.
It would be hard enough as it was to tell her without pushing her over the edge as it was.
"Officer Nakaoka...there's something else you need to know." Kaede started off, hesitating; it looked like those who were paying attention to him steeping closer to Asami had already figured out what he was about to say, but Kouta was to busy trying to get through to her. "We've...already been to the police station. The only thing we found were them, and an evacuation notice, for two days ago at Shintoko Elementary school."
That was the best Kaede could do, and for a horrible second, it almost looked like the information had really made Asami snap; at that moment, Saya noticed the sound of retreating footsteps from the waiting area. Assuming they were from the eavesdropping mall survivors, she kept it to herself for now, and adjusted her glasses, already thinking about just what that meant to them as a separate group.
"Asami-san!" Kouta yelled out, finally getting the officer to look up to him; her eyes were wide and fearful, but still there, barely. "Get a hold of yourself!"
"W-why didn't you tell me...?" she said just barely above a whisper before standing straight up, and fleeing from all of them. "This can't be happening!"
Kouta watched her go, but before he could go after her, something else caught his attention; namely, what he would be blaming for adding to Asami's break down.
Without warning, Kouta lunched himself up at Kaede, grabbing his shirt collar roughly and slammed him against the glass window; such a sudden and violent outbreak by Kouta against one of their own shocked the others to the point of not moving.
"K-Kouta! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Saya yelled, moving towards the two; the cold and nearly murderous look in Kaede's eyes stopped her though.
The fact that it was Kaede Kouta had turned on made them more fearful for Kouta than the other, and without cause; however, Kaede seemed pretty passive with the hold, even if his dog wasn't. The white Akita was about to tear up Kouta's to protect her master if it wasn't for him calling her off.
"Sit, Yuki" he said sternly, and the dog obeyed seconds from attacking, and only then did Kouta start to realize his mistake, though did not make a move to release Kaede.
"Why? Why did you have to tell her that, now of all times!" Kouta roared in Kaede's face, a vein popping in his forehead.
"We should have told her from the beginning!" Kaede shot back, still not making any move of his own to force Kouta off of him. "She needed to know, now more than ever so she...none of the other survivors try and make the same mistake! When we have information as important as that, it should be our top priority to spread the word to those who need it; we may not be able to save everyone we see, but we can help prevent a few deaths along the way!"
Kaede's words had hit Kouta more that if he had reacted to him with violence, and he let Kaede go after a moment. Before anyone could say anything, Kouta turned tail and ran after Asami, grabbing the AR-10 from where it stood on instinct as he raced to the exit.
"...you alright?" Takashi finally asked of Kaede, who was standing, well, leaning, were Kouta had pushed him against the glass window; a few of his shirt buttons were popped, but her looked alright, but Takashi wasn't exactly asking about his body.
"I'll be fine after a moment..." he replied with a short nod; Takashi and the others took this as a cue to take leave themselves, and picked up their own guns on the way out, Saya grabbing the MP5 while walking with Alice, who was taking the fight pretty well.
As soon as the others were out of sight and not particularly caring about Rei being there, Kaede let his anger get the best of him. Pushing off the window and with one fluid turning motion, slammed his fist into the window as hard as he could.
Being almost five inches thick, he didn't come anywhere near breaking the glass, but blood splattered around where his fist hit; luckily, he didn't break or fracture anything, but he sure did split his knuckles in a few places.
"You know, I'd normally beat someone's face in for something like that..." Kaede commented with his back to Rei, taking a few shuttering breaths to completely calm himself; Kaede wasn't too well known for fights especially when he had gotten into high school, but there were stories of him from middle school Rei was aware of.
"But you didn't." Rei said as she moved up and hugged Kaede from behind and a smile; a moment of silence fell over them that was soon interrupted by the sound of dripping blood. "Now let's go see if Shizuka-sensei can take a look at that...but that was pretty stupid of you. You didn't break your hand, did you?"
"Better this then Kouta..." he trailed off with a light sigh, opening his fist to a short of pain up his arm before closing it again; swelling like a bitch but nothing was broken, and only shook his head in response to her question of broken bones.
He'd let the nurse say for sure if anything was broken.
The two that had been sent out to find the police woman had returned to the 'base' of the original mall survivors; it was really just the back of one of the mall's furniture outlets, and was being used as both a place where they all slept and lived out their daily lives. They didn't really go out very far into the mall, and stayed together out of basic instinct.
After overhearing everything that they had, they were quick to inform the others of what they had overheard from the other survivors and the police lady. In a few short words, no less...
"The police woman that went for help is dead!" the middle aged business man that had been one of the two(the other being the only young woman among the mall survivors) reported, getting everyone's attention, and fast.
Luckily, they had become so use to bad news and were doubting the officer's success, so their first reaction wasn't panic. Their reactions were mixed depending on their own personal hopes; surprise and sadness for those who had put their hopes on the police officer, anger for some, and fear about what they would do next, but one thing was clear now.
They couldn't trust the police with their safety anymore.
"What do we do now!" one of them shouted, breaking the silence that had settled around them
"T-the police should be protecting us!" yet another of the survivors yelled who wanted to keep believing in a higher authority, and since the two that had gone out didn't stay long enough, it lead to this: "I know! We all shout head to the police station! It's bound to be safe there!"
"Don't get your hopes up! The police these days are just a bunch of lazy asses!" the elder smoking man butt in, to crush any, in his opinion, stupid ideas.
Taking that train of thought but approaching it in a much more intelligent manner, he quickly thought of the problems they'd run into if they tried it.
"How would we get there then? Cars don't work anymore, and it would be suicide if we tried walking! Think of that police woman." he said, looking to the man who suggested the police station; expecting no answer, he continued, "Plus, we have tons of food and water here! As long as we keep the entrances sealed, those monsters outside can't get in, and then all we have to do is wait and be rescued..."
Before he could even finish his thought, the others jumped on his opinion, asking who would save them, when will they be saved, how they would be saved, until the woman finally spoke up.
"What about those kids? Let's go together with those kids until we find the police; you all saw how good they were..."
"Good at what? Murdering people!" one of the survivors spoke up against the woman's idea of going with the teenagers. "Those bastards only care about themselves; think about it. We all know we still have a chance at getting things back to normal, and even curing those people who are infected with whatever disease it is-"
While very few people among these survivors still thought that way after a full weak of dealing with with what couldn't be called anything but zombies, and knowing the truth was they were dead, the man still had a bit of a point, her soon proved.
"-they are already pointing guns at anything that move and killing them! They're just taking advantage of this disaster to do what they want, and don't care about killing anyone!" he finished, leaving everyone else to debate in their minds if they should agree with such an opinion as his; on one hand, he believed those things outside were still people, but there was no chance of that being true, and on the other hand, they did look like people, and there probably wasn't much of a different mindset to kill living people than re-killing the undead.
To top it off, he did have a point about them arming themselves and doing things they deemed unnecessary for their survival.
"Kids these days are nothing but a bunch of lazy asses anyways." the older man said as he lit up yet another cigarette, the other having disappeared over time and then completely from his hands when no one was watching.
"They did stop that one man from raping that nurse though." the woman pointed out to no one in particular, still convinced the teenagers were who they needed to be with to survive, and then attacked the man's opinion about the teens being evil. "And how can you call those things out there people still? We've all see people die and then get back up. They aren't normal people anymore, dumb-ass!"
"What did you just say, bitch!" the man roared in defense of his position, and the two started throwing hostile words back and forth, ignoring others attempts to get them to stop their bickering.
"Cut it out! The point is we can't rely on those kids to help us out!" the business man finally yelled over and stopped the fight. The most important thing we need to do is to get somewhere safe!"
"We're safe enough here as it is!" the man who had earlier mentioned staying in the mall spoke up again. "With all the food and water here, we're safe; when all that runs out, then let's talk about going somewhere else if we haven't been rescued by the Self Defense Force or something!"
More yelling came of this as opinions clashed, nearly all of them disagreeing with each other; the only ones whose opinions didn't clash with others were the ones keeping quiet, and that was only the elderly couple and a two teenagers, and one of them didn't keep quiet for long.
"You're all gonna die..." one of the teenagers said at the best moment, where everyone was momentarily quiet; the kid had shoulder length greasy hair and wore a coat and a skull-printed shirt, an all around gloomy looking kid.
Most importantly, he was armed, despite there being no real need for it, with a kitchen knife picked from one of the stores, and probably a high quality one too.
"H-hey now, what do you mean by that?" the business man, who happened to be the nearest one to the teen thumbing the sharp edge of the knife, stuttered fearfully.
"You're all gonna die." he repeated, his voice rising in volume as he spoke and a crazy look in his eye that put more and more of the survivors on edge. "Nobody's gonna come save us! There's no 'safe place'; you're all gonna die! And you're all gonna turn into monsters too!"
"Hey! Don't go bunching us all together like that! I'll do everything I can to make sure I live through this and see my wife and kids again!" one of them cried out, leading the teen on to reveal his 'source of knowledge'.
"I'm a huge fan of zombie movies, so I know everything that will happen in this situation!" he shouted, swinging the cleaver around wildly as he spoke, pointing it person to person. "Those high school kids are gonna get eaten as well! It doesn't matter if they have guns, or if you guys hide; it doesn't make any difference! Humanity is doomed!"
The teen then burst out into hysterical laughter from spreading his own words of wisdom into the panicking adults and the fear and doubt he put in their hearts despite him spewing nothing but crap from his mouth.
"Movies are not real!" the old smoke shouted over the kid's laughter, throwing a now bent and broken cigarette to the ground, still lit. "Your parents must be ashamed of you!"
The kid only continued to laugh before eventually 'calming down' and just wandered out into the store and wander around there; the old man's burning cigarette didn't go unnoticed, and on of the survivors called him out on it.
"Hey old man! That's how fires get started!" he yelled, pointing a finger at the burning butt. "The sprinkler system probably won't work, and the fire department won't come and help us, so put it out before you burn the place down!"
"I don't care...if it bothers you that much, put it out yourself!" the man yelled and started storming off.
"You must be going senile, you old fart!" the man growled as he stomped out the cigarette himself, and the man quickly whipped around.
"I heard that, you little shit!"
Like I give a damn!"
And thus started a new fight among the survivors; by this time, the elderly couple had decided on their own course of action, and were starting to walk away.
"Where are you two going?" the woman asked, noticing them start to leave while keeping out of the new argument.
"Oh, well, we just thought it would be good if we got some fresh air on the roof for a little bit." the man replied, his arm resting on his wife's shoulders; hearing no complains or reasons to stay, they started off again.
"How can you two be so level headed at a time like this...?" the woman asked herself more as she watched the two calmly leave the store on their own while the fight that had escalated and consumed the rest of the survivors.
"Asami-san!" Kouta yelled, finally having caught up with the police officer after she had ran out on them; he had calmed down after his outburst with Kaede, but and he was quick to find out Asami had not yet done the same yet. "Where are you going-?"
"Don't try to act like a good person all of a sudden, you four-eyed fat ass!" Asami's words cut Kouta deeply, leaving him stunned and still; before he could even utter a word, Asami lashed out again. "Asami just needs Asami, so leave her alone, worthless pig!"
Before he could recover from the unexpected verbal abuse, Asami ran off once more; this time, he didn't have the will to run after her again.
He stood there in disbelief for a minute or two before starting to drift off without a destination; just walking through the mall aimlessly, lost in his mind over what he just endured. He was use to those kind of harsh words being thrown at him by now from all the teasing and bullying he received all throughout his schooling from people he knew, and even on the streets by people he didn't even know; but this...
This time, it hurt like never before, because it came from someone who had shown affection to him, and they weren't meant as a joke, but for what were; a harsh insult.
He had lost time at how long he was wondering; it could have been hours or even just a few minutes, but it was really the latter, and the rest of the group, including both dogs but minus Rei, Kaede, and still missing Shizuka found him. It was Alice running up to him that pulled him out of his daze, and Takashi calling his name that had pulled his attention to the others.
"Kouta..." Takashi waited until the gun otaku had fully focused and was listening before continuing. "Tomorrow...we're leaving tomorrow."
"...that's pretty sudden, don't you think?" Kouta asked, back to his old self in no time, more or less.
"If you disagree, then say so!" Saya yelled out harshly, helping whip the otaku back into shape as well. "And by the way, the other group heard what the police woman said. You know what that means, right?"
By the look on Kouta's face, Saya could tell he understood, but she said it just to make sure he and the others knew just how important it was.
"Now they know no one's going to come help them. They know the police are useless now, and are bound to start panicking sooner or later." Saya reiterated. "We need to get out of here before that happens."
"I understand. We'll need to start packing up what we're taking with us, right?" he asked.
"That's right; we already have a good amount of things we've collected, and we're going to find Shizuka-sensei to tell her as well. Then we're going to get the rest of our stuff." Takashi spoke up, practicing taking the role of the leader, and since that was the case, he kept the most recent lesson he learned in mind. "Saya, please go and get Shizuka-sensei with Alice-chan, and Saeko, find Kaede and Rei. Then we'll all meet up at the cafe after Kouta and I go get the rest of our stuff we hid."
"I suppose..." Saya replied with a light smile. "Let's go, munchkin. We have a job to do."
With that, Saya and Alice headed out, already knowing where to start looking for their nurse, while hoping she was done with the operation on the kid. Takashi and Kouta didn't waste time either and started in the opposite direction. It was already nearing dusk, and in a few short hours it would be night where they wouldn't be able to work very well thanks to the lack of very many lights, and the fact they didn't want the other group to find out flashlights still worked, or that they were 'stealing' stuff from the mall for themselves.
Takashi and Kouta were silent on their walk to the same place where they had hidden their guns, the lingerie store on the second floor. Although the majority of the guns and ammo had been already removed from the hiding spot, there was still Saya's Luger P08 her mother had given her, as well as both Kouta's vest, and Takashi's shoulder harness to retrieve.
Walking at a brisk pace with a sense of urgency, Kouta and Takashi reached the store quite quickly and went straight for the plus size area; they went straight to the familiar sale's bin and made no effort this time to hide that they were there. They pulled the underwear from from it and didn't bother to put it back, making sure they got everything from it.
The silence continued between them while they put on their vest and harness respectively for a short while longer; after getting his vest on, Kouta had opened one of the pockets and pulled out a full magazine before loading it into the AR-10.
"I though Saya used all the bullets we had for that" Takashi commented, Kouta's action reminding him to make sure his Benelli was fully loaded.
"I keep a few extra mags with me that I forgot to mention...but at this rate, ammo's going to become a problem." Kouta replied, patting the pocket he had pulled the magazine from, and frowned noticeably as he shared the biggest problem in their near future. "We've been getting lucky and getting out hands on a lot of rifle rounds, but between me, Kaede and Miyamoto-san, I don't know how long they will last. On top of that, how many shotgun shells do you have left?"
"About thirty on me..." Takashi replied after a second, doing a quick estimate after looking into the pouch that held his ammo. "And I don't remember how many were in the truck...what should we do?"
"Well, it's obvious we need to find some more..." Kouta replied thoughtfully and then sighed. "I don't think the SDF would give us any, even if we find them, and going to the police station...well, we already know about that."
"Maybe a gun shop?" Takashi offered hopefully. "I think there's one on the south side of town."
"It's probably been looted already, so we shouldn't hope for much if we got there." Kouta replied shortly, and another silence fell over them; this time though, it was short lived.
"Hey, Kouta. I can understand why you're in a bad mood, but..."
"But what!" Kouta snapped back, turning on Takashi.
"If there's anything you want to say, say it. I don't want to be your enemy, and neither does anybody else!" Takashi replied firmly. "I'm sure we'd all rather keep our lives."
Kouta's face faltered at that and he inevitably smiled.
"You give up pretty easily, Takashi." Kouta replied with a light snicker.
"I guess I do, huh?" Takashi laughed lightly, and made a mental checklist, making sure they had everything from the sale's bin. "That's everything, right? We should start heading back now."
Kouta greed, since there was little point in them sticking around the store without it looking odd, and started back to their original meeting place; the cafe wasn't far, so they the first ones to get there. That being the case, Kouta and Takashi took it on themselves to check the things they had gathered and if the other survivors had interfered while they 'occupied' the cafe.
Luckily, while there was signs the shop had been searched, nothing of value had been taken or lost; the food supply that had been given to them was untouched, and many of the things they had gathered like the flashlights and batteries had been left alone. It looked like the others were still unaware of battery powered items still worked, which was a plus for them.
Rei, Kaede, and Saeko were the first to show up after Takashi and Kouta, both Rei and Kaede were armed with their M1 and WA2000 respectively; Takashi noted Kaede had a dark colored cloth wrapped around his right hand.
He refrained from bringing it up just yet, though he did make Kaede aware that he knew about it by making eye contact with him and then looking at his hand. Kouta, too, had noticed, back acted as he didn't, and made himself busy with making a mental checklist of their equipment they gathered from the mall.
Now they were waiting for Saya and Alice to come back with the nurse, if she was done with her task. While they were waiting, Rei took it upon herself to prepare refreshments again with what they had available to them at the store.
The question as to whether Shizuka was done with the operation or not was soon answered; they were able to hear Shizuka and Alice before either of them actually showed up. Alice was all over the nurse who had been absent for most of the day while Saya lead them, looking plenty annoyed with the other two; trotting along with them were the two dogs Zeke and Yuki.
"How did it go, Shizuka-sensei?" Takashi was the first to ask when they were close enough to the cafe to speak with.
"Well, the operation was successful, and things look fine for now..." Shizuka replied while making her way over to one of the tables, obviously drained, physically and probably mentally, but kept her best from letting it show, although failing anyways. "It all depends now on how well the incision and stitches are taken care of. I did leave the necessary antibiotics and directions on how to use them, but I'd like to keep an eye on him-"
"That may be impossible, Shizuka-sensei." Saya said as soon as those words were out of the nurse's mouth; before she could say anymore, Takashi rose his hand to silence her.
"Listen, Shizuka-sensei. Things are getting bad here...a lot of things happened while you were busy, let's just leave it at that for now." Takashi explained, getting to the point and leaving the details for later. "To put it simply; we're leaving the mall tomorrow."
"W-what? Why? What happened?" the nurse was shocked to hear such news when she had been under the impression everything was fine, or at least bearable between the two groups; although she partially understood the hostility between them and the other group, she never expected it to escalate to the point where one group would be pushed out, and definitely not this soon.
"The authority holding them together has crumbled, and they all know it now." Saya explained simply for Shizuka. "So now, there's nothing holding them back from taking action against us, who they resent for...various reasons. Let's just leave it at that for now."
Although there were plenty of questions Shizuka had and things she didn't understand, sh took Saya's advice and kept them inside, assuring herself that she would be filled in, but apparently they didn't have time at the moment. But there was one question she just had to ask.
"Then, if we're leaving tomorrow, what are we going to do next?" the question came from Shizuka's mouth slowly as she was unsure if she should ask the question, even if the answer was already known.
"Look for Rei's, Kaede's, and my own parents of course." Takashi replied confidently.
"And then? After that? Or what if we don't find them at your houses?"
Such a simple question from the air headed nurse had caused Takashi to go silent. That hesitation proved to raise a few problems in it's own, first and foremost being making a proper plan, instead of just having goals and working towards them.
"We need to set up a detailed plan before we go anywhere." Saeko, who had been standing off to the side alone for awhile now, was the one to address the problem verbally, and while still sounding harsh went easy on Takashi and looked upon everyone equally for a plan. "We've made plenty of short-term plans, but none of them went according to what we thought; in other words, we can't always count on things working out like we want."
"I agree with Busujima-senpai." Saya added in. "We should also make a plan B, in case things go wrong."
"Right; our current goal is to make sure Takashi's, Himoura-kun's and Miyamoto-kun's parents are all alright, but we also need to plan out stops for anything else we may need along the way...right? I'm sure ammunition for the guns will become a problem in the near future."
"Right...that can become a problem real soon." Kouta confirmed Saeko's thought. "Especially with Kaede, Miyamoto-san, and myself using the 7.62 NATO rounds; those will go fast. And we're already low on shotgun shells, and the other guns don't have much ammo to beginning."
"About the ammo..." Rei started up, raising the M1 slightly to bring attention to it. "I can use my gun like a spear, so even without ammo, I should be fine..."
"Without a gun with ammo, I'm pretty useless; I can't fight like you or Busujima-senpai." Kouta spoke with a sincere smile before Rei got ahead of herself.
"O-oh, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean-" Rei gasped, but Kouta shook his head with the same smile.
"Don't sweat the small stuff. Everyone has their limits to what they can and can't do, and I understand my own." Kouta replied. "It's no big deal really."
"So back to what we were saying..." Saya muttered under her breath, but loud enough for the other to hear. "So we'll be needing more ammo relatively soon; any idea were we'd get anymore? There's no doubt that most if not all the gun shops in Japan have been raided by now, so looking for one would be pointless."
"We might just have to stretch out our ammo until we can find someplace." Kaede said, adding in to the conversation. "It's possible the Self Defense Force will be willing to arm and supply certain civilians if they can't evacuate them, but it's not something we can count on. That, and actually running into the SDF; from what it looks like, they haven't made many attempts for evacuation missions inside the area effected by the E.M.P. yet."
"Maybe we'll find someone like Shizuka-sensei's friend, who has a small stock pile?" Rei said, hopefully.
"Not likely. Stuff like that is illegal in Japan, and the few gun owners here have to keep their registered, so there probably wouldn't be much even if we did find ammo." Kouta replied with a shake of his head; it had been extremely lucky they had stumbled upon those guns, and it was pretty much impossible for them to do it again.
"Even so, every little bit should help. We'll keep looking for ammo when we can, but we'll just have to do what Kaede mentioned, and try and make what we have last as long as we can." Takashi said, making the decision on the matter. "As for plans of what we're going to do, tomorrow as early as we can Kouta and I will check things outside from the roof, and then we'll head out the back and head back to the truck."
"The first thing we're going to do is go to your homes and see if your parents are there, right?" Saeko added, the plan slowly coming together. "But in the case that they aren't there..."
"We should do a sweep of the immediate area around the houses, and then move on to the next likely place." Kouta finished for her. "Like where they work, any nearby hotspots for survivors, places like that."
"But what if they're not there either?" Shizuka inquired; again, her simple question that had little thought behind it had a great impact, this time only on the three who's parents they were looking for.
"If that happens..." Takashi started, clenching his fists; though he knew what he was going to say, he just couldn't bring himself to say it.
"I don't really want to think about it, but if that happens..." Rei continued for him, already having the same thought process; it was painful for her to say as well, but she had already come to terms with it back at the police station. "If that happens, we'll end the search there, and we'll just do our best to stay alive."
Even Kaede had already thought about this, and agreed with the other two; they couldn't afford to risk everything while looking for someone who may already be evacuated out of the area. Though they kept themselves from thinking them as dead and part of the hordes of them already, that was also a possibility they considered.
To show he accepted ending the search for their parents if it came down to that, Kaede nodded briefly.
"Are you sure? Giving up like that so quickly?" Saya asked, speaking to all three of them.
"We're not giving up on them!" Rei corrected. "We just...have other things to worry about."
"If it comes to that, it'll just become a matter of adapting to our surroundings...we may even have to ditch the truck eventually and continue on foot." Saeko said before pausing and took a breath like she was about to say something else, but hesitated for a moment. "Hirano-kun, how should we...mobilize? I believe that's the correct military term for what I mean..."
Even though Saeko wasn't confident she was using the term right, it was all that was needed to put Kouta in his military mode.
"R.O.E.; rules of engagement!" he responded in a matter-of-fact tone with his back straight and gripping his AR-10 professionally. "The first order of business is to find and join up with Takashi, Kaede, and Miyamoto-san's parents! We need to act suitably to accomplish that! To reach our goal, we'll have to mobilize like a Special Forces unit and infiltrate the enemy's territory undetected."
"So basically, avoid them at all costs." Saya summed it all up to be understood much easier. "And if we run into them..."
"Run away!" Alice piped up cheerfully, having at least followed that train of though. "Even if you can't run-"
"You shouldn't react by screaming or shooting, since we need to conserve ammunition." Shizuka finished, also proud of following that simple thought to the end.
"It sounds difficult even if the plan is simple." Rei mumbled, looking to the floor with worry written all over her face. "I feel so bad making everyone come with us..."
"I know I've said it before, but from here on out, it's just for us three." Takashi said, referring to himself, Rei and Kaede who's parents were somewhere out there. "You guys have no reason to stay with us!"
"That's not going to work." Saya replied with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders.
"Takashi-nii-chan, you know that doesn't change anything!" Alice said as well.
"It's scary out there, but I'd rather go out there and face them then be separated from you all." Shizuka chimed in.
"Same here; there'd be no point in staying here for me" Kouta added.
"Looks like we'll be accompanying you for awhile longer" Saeko spoke with a soft tone, smiling to Takashi and silently confirmed she'd stay by his side.
The group's resolution was touching to the three, especially to Rei; she couldn't help but to tear up. Just their will to keep together let alone help them find their parents was enough to cause happiness in the three.
"I guess you guys are right, huh..." she said in a wavering voice.
"Thank you..." Takashi said with a heartfelt smile, looking to the other four that would stick with them despite there being nothing in it for them. "Thank you, everyone...!"
From there, things kind of dispersed; all they had to do now was wait for the next day when they were planning to leave. With that in mind, Kaede and Rei volunteered to take their equipment and stash it at the exit so the bags would be ready to go at any time. Shizuka decided to tag along and help too, even though there wasn't much need for her to go too; Kaede was carrying most of the stuff to begin with anyways.
While they were gone, Kouta had remembered he was still holding onto Saya's Luger, and went to return it to her, having forgotten what she had said back at the police station already.
"Takagi-er, Saya...san." Kouta quickly corrected himself before the genius could lash out at him for calling her by her last name out of habit. "Your Luger..."
"I said for you to keep a hold of it, didn't I?" she replied arrogantly, but her usual harshness that Kouta had come to expect from Saya(especially when he did something wrong or against what she wanted) was missing; Kouta hardly noticed anything but a slightly different tone of her voice. "I wouldn't be able to hit anything with it either; plus, I have this thing anyways..."
She shifted the MP5 she had slung on her shoulder to prover her point and pushed her glasses up on her nose.
"O-oh, right. But you should have a side arm too..." judging from her facial expression, Kouta guessed she was intent on having him keep hold of the Luger, and wouldn't be changing her mind so easily
So, keeping with his previous statement, set down the AR-10 and the Luger down and started taking off the under-arm hostler for the Mk-23 Kaede had salvaged from the Yakuza he had run into a few days before with the two extra unused magazines. He even took up a stronger tone with Saya to get his point across.
"I want you to keep this then; the MP5 has very limited ammo, so it'll run out soon even if you don't use it full auto. This will be your back-up weapon." he said firmly, holding the handgun in it's holster to Saya.
Thrown off guard by his confrontational tone of voice, Saya's ears were opened up to him a bit more than usual, and got the hint of worry in Kouta's voice.
"F-fine, I'll take it then..." Saya muttered as she took the hostler from Kouta and held it up; it was adjusted to fit Kouta's larger frame, so Saya frowned lightly, but kept her comments to herself and started readjusting the straps for herself.
While she did that, something pretty unexpected popped up as a question from the innocent Alice.
"Where's mine? Do I get a weapon?" the young girl asked, looking up expectantly at Kouta and Takashi.
"A-Alice-chan, you don't need one...uhh" Kouta said in a panic, waving his arms and trying to come up with an excuse to get the idea from the girl's mind. "Oh yeah! I'm your weapon! Me! Takashi and Zeke are too! You don't need to carry anything!"
"Okay!" she replied with a smile, pleased by the reply for now and then went off to pester Saya again.
"...but for how long?" Kouta muttered for Takashi to hear, as well as Saeko who was near by.
"She'll have to use a weapon eventually; we won't be able to keep an eye on her the whole time..." Saeko said in a hushed tone; even Saeko could have some delicacy when it was needed.
"We know, but for now, it's fine." Kouta replied quietly as he watched the girl in question jump on the unsuspecting Saya's back, who was busy positioning the hostler and the suspenders she was wearing and not paying attention to the others.
"For now, huh...?" Takashi muttered in thought, before shaking his head and looking over at Kouta, who was still looking remorseful, for more than one reason. "By the way...is it about Asami-san? You should try talking to her. Kaede too"
"She called me a worthless pig..." Kouta muttered in response and trailed off. "And with Kaede...I just let my anger out on him for no reason..."
"Everyone has something that can make them snap like she, and you did." Takashi said, putting his hand on Kouta's shoulder and pulling back to make the otaku look back at him. "I just don't want you to have any regrets with anyone. Okay?"
As the words sunk in, Kouta's face lit up and he nodded, turning to face Takashi completely.
"Yeah, you're right...you're right!" Kouta said louder than he had intended to. "I'll go talk to her now!"
"Hurry up and get back as quickly as you can, soldier!" Takashi shouted as Kouta turned and rushed off in the direction of the roof.
Kouta's dash to find the police officer came to a rather sudden end, a few feet away, where Saya was standing, and looking at Kouta; he came to a stop in front of her, returning her gaze with his own questioning one.
"You know, it could advantageous if we had a police officer around..." Saya said, looking away from Kouta as she spoke like she was just thinking out loud; without waiting for her to say any more or to ask her what she meant, Kouta was off again.
Saya looked back to where Kouta had been to see Takashi now looking at her from his spot.
"...what are you looking at?" she grumbled, looking the other way again and avoided looking at Takashi's smile for a few moments, before inevitably looking back at him. "I know it's just how you are, but that line of thinking will just get in the way. Besides...you have your own relationship to worry about; human relationships thrive on one or both of two things: money and sex, and money isn't worth a damn anymore. Just make sure you don't end up doing something that'll cause problems."
Saya spoke blatantly without worry, and even looked towards Saeko as well; it was inevitable that Takashi would blush, but some pink even tinted Saeko's cheeks from the statement. Takashi didn't even try to deny it and only nodded slowly in response, the lecture even from someone his own age only backed up and strengthened his decision from a few nights ago with Saeko.
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
The echoing scream roared almost inhumanly throughout the mall thanks to it nearly being dead silent inside; the shout made Takashi and Saya flinch, Alice whimper and Saeko was suddenly on guard, her sword already halfway from it's sheath. To make matters worse, Zeke and Yuki who were up after the shout started barking wildly moments later, and that meant only one thing...
Takashi looked over to the sound of fast approaching footsteps to see Rei, Shizuka and Kaede running towards them; they had just been coming up to the cafe when that yell had echoed though the building, encouraging them to regroup faster.
"What happened?" Kaede shouted in a hurry over the two dogs' barking; with a shake of his head, it was confirmed that they didn't know, and with the dog's barking as they were, there was no doubt what the out come had been.
Without anything having needed to be said, the group rushed to away from the cafe and out to the railing of the second floor where they had a clear view out to the first floor. Even if they were expecting it, it still filled their hearts with dread; a stead stream of the undead were stumbling into the mall.
So much for leaving the next day.
"...Asami's just useless. She always does her best, but she's still useless..." Asami was on the roof where she had run off to earlier after her confrontation with Kouta; since then, she had calmed down since then, but had now reverted to beating herself up. "Her boyfriend left her and she's a failure of a police officer, and even Kouta-san doesn't like her anymore...what the point of her living when she can't o anything right?"
While Asami was in her own little world, she wasn't completely unaware of the real world around her; it was just being alone made her lose rack for awhile, so she didn't notice when someone else had come up to the roof.
"Here we are; are you feeling alright?"
"Yes dear, I'm fine..."
This exchange of words between the elderly couple as they finally made it to the roof of the mall brought Asami's attention to them, and pulled her out of her moment of depression.
"What's wrong you two? It's dangerous over there by the ledge!" Asami called out to them; indeed, they were standing right next to the ledge of the roof, with only the knee-high wall around the edge keeping them from nearly walking right off the side.
"Oh, hello there" the woman said, giving Asami a warm smile.
"What about you, officer? Are you alright?" the husband said; it was already obvious to him there was something bothering the police officer just through her tone of voice and how she was acting.
"Oh, um, no. She's just a little tired, that's all" she replied, half lying about that being the only thing, but it was true she was tired.
"I see...well, thank you for everything you've done for us all. Truly, thank you" he said, leaving the matter alone and instead bowed gratefully to her; his wife followed suit, and bowed best she could.
"No, Asa-I mean, this officer didn't do anything special." Asami said, shaking her head. "It was everyone else that did things that helped you guys..."
"While that may be true, you also deserve thanks for what you've done" the woman explained, still smiling warmly to the officer.
"No no, even if Asami wasn't here, it wouldn't be any different." she tried convincing the elderly couple otherwise.
Before their conversation could continue any further, a different voice called out to the police officer.
"Asami-san!" the familiar voice of the gun otaku rang in Asami's ears, and she turned quickly to where the voice was coming from.
"W-what...?" Asami gasped out; Kouta was the last person she'd expect to come searching for her, but there he was, now doubled over and panting, trying to catch his breath.
It was obvious he came looking for her in a hurry, and she first thought something was wrong, but it would soon be revealed it was for a whole other reason.
"Kouta-san...?"
"Asami-san..." Kouta started before he even caught his breath; instead he pushed on, his head up and looking directly at the officer. "Come with me!"
Asami was silent for a moment; seeing as Kouta remained where he stood, he didn't mean to follow her. Then it hit her.
"B-by coming with you, you mean...? I'm glad you-ah, no, I mean, um...but Asami-" she stammered over her words, unable to make a full sentence right away from the initial shock; then, just like with the elderly couple moments before, went on trying to discourage Kouta. "Asami can't be called a real police officer, so just...I mean...Kouta-san, you...Kouta-san..."
Asami was feeling so many mixed feeling at the moment, she just couldn't get an answer out, and it hurt; she was sorry for what she had done to Kouta earlier, the horrible things she had called him, and yet, here he was, obviously forgiving her and even willing to continue their relationship. It was too much for her, and tears started falling from her eyes, trying to get her words out.
But they just wouldn't come. Half expecting Kouta to be angry with her by now, but he was still standing there, smiling and waiting for her.
"...take her with you." she was finally able to get out, smiling as she looked up at Kouta before rushing to him before leaping and hugging him tightly. "Let Asami come with you! Asami wants to stay with you, Kouta-san!"
"DON'T UNDER ESTIMATE ME!"
The scream echoed through the door and even sounded pretty loud, even to Asami and Kouta on the roof. Asami could feel Kouta tense under her, and she herself was frozen for a second. Before she could say anything, Kouta slid from her grip and started making his way back to the door.
"What was that!" Asami asked worriedly, and ran after Kouta as soon as her mind registered to follow.
"I have no idea, but it sound like trouble!" he shouted back, quickly making his way with Asami following into back into the mall as fast as they could.
Neither of them remembered that they had not been alone on the roof; the elderly couple watched them rush off in such a hurry with a light smile on their faces.
"It's so nice being young..." the wife commented, looking at the door the two had disappeared through moments before.
"We use to be like that too." the husband reminded his wife with a small smile, his arm resting on his wife's shoulder lovingly.
"I always wanted to have a daughter like her..." she said remorsefully.
"We'll be able to in heaven, dear..."
With what would be happening over the next few hours that would leave the mall abandoned to all but the undead, no one would know about the two pairs of owner-less shoes sitting near the edge of the roof, and the story of the two broken bodies on the ground below...
Chapter 15, End.
Author's Notes: Alright, so that's the end of that chapter; pretty long, I know, but it was originally going to be much longer, but I kept from making it unbearably long. Since I already have the next few chapters planned and started, I need some information before I finish and upload them; the main being what are the rules about crossovers now? I see has a separate section for crossovers, but I don't particularly want to list it in there; do I have to now, even if it's going to be such a light crossover? Or can I just keep it under the normal H.O.T.D. Category?
I'd be highly grateful to anyone who could fill me in on that. Since I'm sure you're curious, I'm going to cross it over with the anime/manga Bamboo Blade, but only in that I'm going to include two, well three...er, well, two main characters and their families, in a separate group of survivors I'm going to have develop; yes, that means I'm taking a break after the next chapter from following Takashi's group, for a few chapters. I'm not sure specifically for how long, but it shouldn't be more than four chapters, I think.