Dead in the Water, a Highschool of the Dead Lemon Fanfiction by ClockMaker411

Standard Disclaimer: Highschool of the Dead and its characters are not my property. I do not own, nor am I affiliated with the series in any way, shape or form. The following work is derivative, non-commercial fiction. If you're offended by explicit, mature themes, then read on and let me try to change your mind. Lemon in this chapter, so 18+ only, please.

Chapter 6

Takashi jerked upright in bed at the sound of the gunshot, a sudden influx of adrenaline causing his heart to race, providing a loud thrumming counterpoint as he strained to hear. All was silent except for a quiet "Kyah!" of surprise from the figure in bed beside him. Slowly it dawned on him that his hand, propping himself up on the bed, had come down on something very warm and very squishy, and he squeezed it reflexively before looking down at what he held. Rei, splayed next to him as they slept, had her nightgown in disarray, tangled in his hand which had landed squarely on her left breast. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she gasped again, her voice faint as she said, "Takashi, what are you…?"

"Shhh, and don't move!" he cut her off sharply, turning his head toward the window and perking up his ears again. If he punctuated the words with another squeeze, surely that was coincidental. For a long moment, nothing happened, but then the sound came again - a muffled boom that rumbled loud and deep, sounding closer to the blasts of his old Ithaca compared to the sharp cracks of rifle or pistol fire. He thought he could hear a faint scream that followed the gunshot, but it may have been his imagination. "Shit," he muttered, reluctantly removing his hand and swinging his legs off the side of the bed. "You should get dressed. There might be trouble." Cloth rustled behind him and he spared a look over his shoulder at her. Rei had sat up as well, and had fixed her sleepwear, though his cursory glance lingered on the twin bumps at the tips of her breasts, poking through the gauzy material of the nightgown. He wet his lips. "Uhh… I think I should check on the house. It sounded like the shots came from the other side; we might be able to see what's going on through the windows."

"Okay. I'll be with you in a minute or two."

Finally collecting himself enough to stop staring, Takashi bent down and scooped up the Benelli from where it lay by the side of the bed, checking the chamber by habit to make sure it was loaded, then padded barefoot across the carpeted floor. He unlocked the door and opened it, but turned back toward her before leaving. "Keep your gun handy. We might need it." She nodded once, and Takashi left the room.

The hallway was dark, but there was still light enough to see by; the beginnings of morning filtered through a skylight above the stairwell. As he passed by the stairs, he paused in mid-step, cocking an ear toward the lower floor but hearing nothing. Whatever was going on, at least "they" hadn't taken notice of their hideout. At least for now.

Takashi made a beeline for the guest room, which he was supposed to have shared with Kohta for the night. Its windows looked out of the opposite side of the house as Rei's room, offering a better chance to see whatever was happening from that vantage. Before he reached it, however, the far door to the master bedroom cracked open, and a purple haired head poked out.

"Good morning, Takashi. Did it wake you as well?" Saeko asked. Dark blue eyes scanned him briefly, noting that he wore only an undershirt and boxers, then flicked to the end of the hallway where Rei's door stood halfway open. A fine dark eyebrow arched, and her expression became contemplative.

"Um, yeah." Takashi tried to ignore the rising blush in his cheeks, caused by equal parts embarrassment and guilt. Had she made the connection? Did it matter, since nothing had happened between him and Rei anyway? He shook his head to clear it, then focused on the task at hand. "Could you wake up the others? I think we're okay for now, but we might have to move fast." He turned the doorknob of the guest room and began to push it open. To his surprise, Saeko stepped into the hallway, drawing his attention to her once more. His breath caught at the sight. She was robed in nothing but a long, white linen sheet, which she held it up with one arm in front of her chest, only barely preserving her modesty.

"I would like to assess the situation for myself," she explained, moving in close and laying a hand on the middle of his back, "and the others are already up; Takagi is pulling them out of bed. None too gently in Marikawa-sensei's case, I should think."

Takashi found his mouth suddenly dry. "Well yeah, but maybe you could, uh, put something on first?" He opened the door fully and stepped inside, but Saeko, her hand still on his back, followed him in.

Kohta turned at the sound of Takashi's voice. The other boy had taken a kneeling position at the open window and was dressed similarly to Takashi in that he wore only boxers and a baggy shirt, though his suppressed MP5 hung from a strap at his shoulder. In his hands were a pair of military grade binoculars. Kohta made a choking sound when Saeko moved out from behind Takashi and treated him to the sight of her state of undress. A thin stream of blood began to run from his nose and face burned a bright red.

"That can wait," Saeko said, "and besides, I'm already here." She strode past him into the room, her hips swaying slightly as she walked. The sheet had slipped nearly to her hips, pooling at the small of her back, and Takashi could see flashes of creamy white skin as tresses of purple hair parted with motion. Saeko, cool as always, seemed perfectly unfazed by her near nakedness, ignoring Kohta's wide-eyed stare as she approached and extended a slim hand for the binoculars. He handed them over mutely. "What did you see, Hirano?" she asked, raising the binoculars to her eyes with one hand.

"Uhhh…."

Takashi smirked, glad to see he wasn't the only one reduced to unintelligibility when the girls decided to show some skin. He joined the two of them at the window, and had to pull Kohta to his feet and give him a rough shake to snap him out of it. "Well?" he asked, gesturing to the outer street. "I heard two shots - it sounded like my shotgun, but I couldn't be sure."

"Oh, right." Kohta cleared his throat and scrubbed away the trickle of blood on his upper lip. "Shotgun. Yeah, I thought that too. The first shot woke me up, and the second went off when I was digging out the binoculars. I couldn't see the shooter, but I'm pretty sure it came from the barricade a few houses down."

"What?" Takashi asked in surprise. "A barricade? How did we miss that?"

"Hm, yes, I see it," Saeko murmured. "It's six houses away, on the street in the front of the house, whereas we came in from the street at the back of this block, then cut through. When we cleared the yard, we likely couldn't see it over the walls."

"Right. But guys, there's something else." Kohta met Takashi's eyes, his expression grave. "I saw who got shot. It was a woman. She had short brown hair and wore biker leathers - I think it was the uniform of a motorcycle cop. And she was holding a spear."

"Shit," Takashi sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. "That's Mrs. Miyamoto. Rei's mom."

Kohta nodded. "I figured as much. She looked like Miyamoto, and the spear was a dead giveaway when I remembered the polearm stand downstairs. She was leaning on it pretty hard and holding her side. It didn't look good, Komuro."

"Did you see where she went?" Takashi asked, trading places with Kohta so he could look out the window, beside Saeko.

"Yeah," Kohta said, his voice resigned. "The beige house with the red gate, maybe two houses down from the barricade."

Takashi squinted, but between the steady drops of rain and the dim, predawn light, he couldn't make out any details much further than two or three houses down. Unthinking, he touched Saeko lightly on her bare back, and she let out a startled "Oh!" before turning quickly and giving him a sharp, chiding look.

"Sorry. Can I borrow those?" he asked, gesturing toward the binoculars in her hands. She passed them over with a wry smile. Raising them to his eyes, Takashi finally got a good look at the far end of the street.

He spotted the barricade right away; it was a jumbled mess of old furniture and kitchen appliances, mostly wardrobes and dressers along with the occasional refrigerator for reinforcement. Though bulky, he doubted that it would hold up against a determined onslaught of "them". And a crowd of undead bodies was indeed milling along the road, initially drawn in by the gunshots and further attracted by something else. One of "them" had fixated on the beige house, perhaps having heard Mrs. Miyamoto take shelter there, and was reaching clawing hands through the bars of the gate. As it struggled with the barrier, Takashi could hear the metallic noise of metal scraping on concrete, faint from this distance but recognizable. It was hard to tell exactly how many of "them" were on the street, the angle and the bordering walls of the houses obscuring part of the road from view, but there were easily twenty or more shambling toward the source of the sound.

"Okay," Takashi said firmly, turning back and trading glances with Kohta and Saeko. "We need a plan. I don't think she's going to last long if they start pushing at that gate. Hirano, if we went out on the street on foot, do you think you could cover us from here?"

Kohta stroked his MP5 fondly as if it were a pet kitten. "Not with this; I'd have to use the AR-10. But Komuro, if I shoot then "they" will definitely come after us."

"Hirano's right," Saeko said, crossing her arms in front of her chest to better hold up the bed sheet. "If it comes down to fighting openly, we'd have as little chance of defending this place as Mrs. Miyamoto."

"Which is why we won't bother defending it. Rei and I will go and help her mom. We can cross the street and cut through the yards by going over the walls between houses. Hirano, you cover us from here for as long as you can in case something goes wrong, but don't shoot unless you have to. Meanwhile, Saeko and the others will cross over to the Itos' house and make sure it's clear. Depending on how badly she's hurt, we might not be able to get back Itos'. If not, there's a veterinary clinic about two blocks east of that convenience store we stopped at yesterday. Saya knows where it is. We'll meet up with you there, and hope that Shizuka-sensei can do something for her wounds."

Hirano frowned. "If it all goes to hell and I need to shoot, then don't bother trying to make it back to us. They'll be too many of "them" to fight. We'll go to the clinic."

"While that sounds like a fine plan," Saeko said with a long look at Takashi, "I believe I should accompany you. If Mrs. Miyamoto is hurt then we may need someone to carry her, and our odds would fare better with two fighters to clear a path."

"Are you sure? It's going to be dangerous, and there's no reason for you to risk yourself over someone you don't know."

Saeko tsked. "I thought you knew me better than that, Takashi. I understand the risks, and you will need my help."

"All right," Takashi said with a tight smile and a nod, "I'll be counting on you both. Be ready in ten."

"One last thing," Kohta said hesitantly. "Are we sure that we really want to do this?" At Takashi's glare, Kohta raised his hands defensively. "I mean, yeah she's Rei's mom, but think about the situation objectively for a second. The only thing we're sure of is that someone at the barricade didn't want her getting in, and discharged his gun twice to stop it from happening. We don't know why she was shot, or even if she was - I didn't see her get hit. For all we know, she could have been bitten, and that's why they turned her away. And now we're splitting up the group to help her when she might already be dead, or the closest thing to it."

A somber silence fell between the three of them as they considered Kohta's words, and one look at Saeko confirmed that she had harbored similar thoughts. Takashi himself had tried to silence those nagging doubts in his own mind, but memories of their failed mission at the mall crept up and would not be denied. Takashi shook his head and let out a long breath. "You make a good point, and you're right in that we can't know for sure. But I know that Rei's going, regardless. And I won't let her go alone."

"Nor will I," Saeko added with a small smile for Takashi.

"All right," Kohta said resignedly. "Sorry Takashi, I'm not trying to second guess your leadership, but…."

"...It had to be said," Takashi finished. "I understand." He glanced at Saeko, and the sheet wrapped around her. "You've got ten minutes to get dressed, then meet me downstairs."

"Very well." Gathering up the sheet, Saeko walked gracefully to the door, her hips swaying in a distinctly feminine stride. Takashi had to force himself to stop staring at her backside, moving to put on his own clothes; Hirano followed suit, unslinging the submachine gun and starting to pull on a pair of pants.

And it was at that moment that the door opened, with Kohta and Takashi buckling up their belts and Saeko half naked in her bed sheet. Saya and Rei, both fully dressed, stood in the doorway with twin expressions of shock on their faces - shock that was quickly replaced by fuming anger. Saeko tossed a sly smile over her shoulder, her eyes twinkling as she said, "I'll leave the explanations to you, Takashi," and passed through the doorway between the two outraged girls.

Saya spoke up first, her voice angy. "Kohta, you'd better-"

Rei broke in on top of her. "Takashi! How could you, after-"

"Quiet, both of you!" Takashi interrupted, his voice sharp. The authoritative tone cut the two girls off abruptly, and he took advantage of their stunned silence to outline the plan. "Rei, we found your mom. She's holed up a few houses down the street. You, me, and Saeko are going to go rescue her."

At that revelation, Rei burst into the room and practically jumped into Takashi's arms, smiling in pure elation. She squeezed him tightly, and he returned her hug. "She's alive? You really saw her?"

Takashi held her shoulders and pushed her away just enough to look into her eyes. "Yeah. Kohta did. She's hurt, but we don't know how bad - she might have been shot. "They" might be coming for her. We'll have to move fast." Rei nodded, tears of hope brimming in her eyes.

He looked over Rei's shoulder at Saya, who had crossed her arms and was staring at Kohta with a miffed expression. "Saya, you're going to cross the 'bridge' to the Itos' house with Shizuka-sensei, Alice, and Zeke. Hirano will cover us from here, then leave with you once we reach Mrs. Miyamoto. If we can't make it back, we'll bring her to the vet clinic by the the convenience store. You remember it, right?"

"Of course," she said impatiently. "The one with an attached animal shelter, right? There were kennels by the window, so you could see the puppies and kittens up for adoption. I used to go there when I was a kid, since Papa wouldn't let me have a dog."

"That's the one. I doubt it's been looted, so there could be medical supplies we can use. Go tell the others what's going on and get them ready to move."

"Fine. But I came up with something last night that might come in handy down there. See me before you go." She left the room, but not without a last glare at Kohta, as if promising a sharp conversation to come. Kohta wilted, but followed soon after, likely dreading the telling off he'd have to endure while retrieving the AR-10 that Saya had kept in the master bedroom.

When the others had gone, Takashi turned back to Rei and squeezed her shoulders. "Are you up for this?" he asked softly. It had been an emotional rollercoaster for all of them over the last few days, but Rei had been hit especially hard, between Hisashi's death, her confrontation with Shidou, and the strain of the grisly scenes they had found at the police station and here in her home.

She hugged him again, burying her face in the side of his neck. "I'll be fine, Takashi," she mumbled, "We'll save my mom, and she'll be fine too. I just know it."

"Right." Takashi stroked her hair to comfort her, while at the same time he struggled internally to quell the feeling of unease squirming in the pit of his stomach.


Kohta Hirano peered through the scope on his AR-10, which he had dialed back to 4x, the lowest magnification. It gave him the widest view of the street laid out below, and more importantly, it would allow him to quickly identify and prioritize targets should it come to a fight. And a fight seemed more likely by the minute; in the brief time it had taken for the rescue to get underway, four more of "them" had started pushing at the red gate in front of the beige house. It was now showing signs of buckling, groaning audibly even from this far away.

He judged the distance to be right around two hundred meters, so he turned the top turret of the scope counter-clockwise eight clicks. As the scope was zeroed at one hundred meters, this adjustment in elevation would compensate for the ten centimeters or so of bullet drop that his M80 Ball ammo would exhibit at that distance. Windage, he left alone; the unvarying pattern of light rain, which continued to fall straight down from the sky, told him that winds were still minimal this morning.

Kohta resumed his shooting position, tucking his left fist under the corner of the rifle's buttstock, which was pulled firmly into his right shoulder. He was lying prone on a makeshift sniper platform, amounting to bed and a desk, hastily cleared off and dragged into place by the window. It wasn't the most stable surface but the desk provided a sturdy enough perch for the rifle's bipod and his upper body, and that mattered the most.

The rifle was on "Safe" - he verified this unconsciously with a brush of his thumb - so he swung the scope's view back to Takashi and the girls, careful not to sweep them with the crosshairs. It was slow going for the three of them. They had crossed the street and slipped into the walled lot of the opposing house without issue, as most of "them" still congregated on the end of the street closest to the barricade. But the walls enclosing each yard were over two meters tall, so Takashi had to boost each of the girls up. Then Rei and Saeko, each straddling the wall, would haul Takashi up by either arm until he could swing a knee over, and the three of them would drop down to clear out any of "them" that were in the yard. This allowed them to remain mostly out of sight from the main road, and the walls helped muffle any noise made by the brief engagements in each yard. Yet it was slow.

Rei had just gained the wall between the third and fourth houses when disaster struck. The gate of the fifth house, designed more toward decoration than fortification, finally gave way to the press of undead bodies, it's hinges pulling out from their concrete anchors and the whole thing toppling forward in a crash of clanging metal. It echoed long and loud amid the otherwise quiet morning, instantly focusing the attention of "them', who surged forward toward the source of the sound.

Kohta swiveled his scope back to Rei, who was now running along the narrow top of the wall bordering the street, leaving Saeko and Takashi behind. She had made it nearly to the driveway of the fourth house when her foot slipped on the wet concrete and she fell, landing hard on the sidewalk along the base of the wall - on the side of the street, now bustling with "them". Rei must have cried out in pain when she hit, as a few of "them" broke off from the main group and began to shamble toward her.

"Well shit," Kohta breathed, though he couldn't stifle the sudden thrill that rose up inside him as he thumbed the rifle's safety selector to Fire. He had been trained to shoot with both eyes open even when using a scope, so he peripherally monitored Rei's situation as he lined up the crosshairs with the monster closest to her. It was a young woman, one who could have been pretty, wearing ripped jeans and a yellow tanktop, the front of her clothing stained a faded brown from the wound that had torn open her throat. She - no, it - was walking forward with arms outstretched, now five meters away from Rei, who lay unmoving, still stunned by the fall. Four meters. Should he shoot? Takashi was nowhere in sight; if he waited for a cue, it might be too late for Rei. Three meters. Kohta made his decision.

The shot cracked through the air and the rifle thumped against his shoulder, the recoil causing him to temporarily lose his sight picture. When he refocused on the thing that had once been a young woman, he found that it had fallen to its knees. At 4x magnification he couldn't see the bullet's entry point, but the exit wound was obvious - the top third of the far side of its skull was simply gone, and a bloody mess glistened wetly on the concrete behind it. As it toppled to one side, Kohta switched targets, resolving to hold his point of aim a little lower to hit more squarely at this distance and avoid glancing shots. He fired twice more, and two more of "them" collapsed onto the street, reduced to heaps of rags and dead flesh by a pair of 147 grain bullets.

But the gunfire had an adverse effect; the six of "them" that had toppled the gate were regaining their feet and moving not to the house, but back into the street: they were going after Rei. He centered the head of the nearest one in his crosshair and squeezed off another shot; the figure in his field of view crumpled, and the ejected brass from his rifle bounced off a wall and clinked onto the hardwood floor. Yet there were still more coming for her - always more. And despite his efforts to cover her, she had little time left. From this angle, there would soon be too many that shooting might risk overpenetration and hitting Rei with a pass through.

As if in answer to his worry, a figure of purple and white streaked across the vision of his non-dominant eye, causing him to lift his head and refocus on the scene below. Saeko had somehow leapt over the two meter wall with height to spare, tucking in at the end of the arc for a shoulder roll to cushion her landing. She came to a stop in a kneeling position and simultaneously drew her sword, slashing through the left knee of one of "them" that had turned toward her. As it fell, she rose, quickly ending it with a precise thrust backward through the base of its skull. Showing no hesitation, Saeko dashed forward into the fray, cleaving through heads and necks when possible but also maiming those that were out of killing range. She focused on speed - on reaching and defending Rei, who was finally showing signs of stirring, pushing herself to her feet with the help of her rifle.

Trusting in Saeko to cover Rei, Kohta resumed firing, picking off the remaining five targets at the gate. He fired methodically, squeezing the trigger at the end of an exhaled breath as he had been taught. Nine pieces of spent brass lay scattered on the floor, corresponding to the nine of "them" he had downed, each with a well placed shot to the head.

He felt a smug satisfaction at that. Kohta had never really been "good" at anything before. His grades had been mediocre and he was awful at sports. His parents had spent most of their time out of the country on business, and he had been content to live as a shut-in, spending his time playing computer games and binging on anime and foreign films. He had been bullied incessantly, for his appearance, for his weight, or for being an otaku supergeek. Hobbies had been his escape, with his fascination of guns and militaria the first among them. And in that, he finally found something he could excel at - with a gun in his hands, he was finally worth something. He could fight, and fight well. He could help his friends.

The boom of a gunshot not his own brought Kohta back to the moment, the sound coinciding with a sharp shriek of tearing metal. He swung the scope back to the gate of the third house and caught a glimpse of Takashi's face through the bars. The other boy was shoving a small bundle between the wall and the gate, right above the upper hinge; the lower one had been blown away by Takashi's shotgun blast, and the gate hung slightly askew as a result. Kohta dialed up the magnification on his scope to 10x and focused on the bundle. It was a pair of small cans of refillable propane along with lit butane lighter, all wrapped in a few layers of duct tape: the surprise that Saya had cobbled together.

"Huh, very smart, Takashi," Kohta said, watching as Takashi climbed up the wall, using the half broken gate to give himself a leg up, the Benelli slung over his shoulder. He walked swiftly along the top of the wall to where the two girls still fought, who now surrounded by a semicircle of "them". Takashi straddled the wall, unslung his shotgun, and started unloading into the mob of undead. Unlike Kohta's surgical precision, his shots were fast and ferocious; the buckshot rounds scythed through two or three of "them" at a time, reducing heads and torsos into chunks of bloody meat and puffs of fine red mist. Kohta took his cue and provided more covering fire, allowing them enough breathing room so that Takashi could give Rei a hand up and over the wall. Moments later, Saeko pivoted and sprinted towards Takashi, sheathing her sword and bounding off of the wall, trusting in Takashi to grab her arm and heave so that they both were carried safely over to the other side.

But it wasn't over yet. Kohta shifted the rifle back to the gate of the third house, where Takashi had shoved the makeshift explosive. His crosshairs centered over the fitful flame of the butane lighter, still flickering despite the intermittent rain. He prepared to squeeze the trigger, but a loud clanging startled him so badly that he flinched and missed the shot. Kohta looked down at the driveway directly below him; he had been so caught up in the fight down the street that he hadn't noticed that a group of "them" had started pushing at the gate to Rei's house, agitated into action by his gunshots. They had forced open the gate and were clamoring up the driveway, coming for him.

Kohta ducked back behind his scope and again took aim at the propane IED. He took a breath to steady his shaky sight picture, exhaled, and squeezed one last time. The shot was true, and the cans erupted in a spray of fine white mist. It ignited a split second later, and the force of the explosion was enough to topple the weakened half of the gate in cloud of engulfing flame and ringing metal. Hopefully the heat and noise would distract the number of "them" that remained up the street, giving Takashi's group enough leeway to get to Mrs. Miyamoto and escape. But Kohta had done all he could; now it was time to go.

He slid off the bed, hastily grabbing his backpack and shoving his arms under the shoulder straps, then took up his AR-10. He hurried through the door and had all but ran down the hallway when a crash of twinkling glass and splintering wood signaled that "they" had broken through to the first floor. He flung open the door to Rei's bedroom, crossed the space with hardly a thought toward the novelty of being in a girl's room, then hurtled his upper body through the open window, onto the door that served as their makeshift bridge between houses.

"Kohta!" a voice hissed, pitched low but intent. He looked up and saw Saya at the window on the other side, looking pissed and holding the MP5 in a shaky grip. "Hurry up!" He thrust his rifle forward for her to take then clambered onto the bridge.

Breathing hard, Kohta scrabbled along the slippery, painted surface of the door, which groaned in protest beneath his weight. He had nearly made it across when his foot caught on something, and he jerked it back in surprise, his mind flashing with an image of one of "them" clawing at him, pulling at his foot and biting at his leg. Kohta felt no pain, no tearing of flesh beneath gnawing teeth - he felt only the sudden sinking feeling of his stomach dropping out from under him as the door, already askew on the mispositioned window ledges, began to careen inexorably to one side. In that moment of slowed time, he stared dumbfoundedly at Saya, who returned the stare in mute shock, as the back of the door skidded off of the windowsill and fell free. Kohta screwed his eyes shut, bracing himself for a two story drop that hopefully wouldn't end with his back broken on a dividing wall.

Instead, to his surprise, he slammed into the side of the house with a heavy thud. It definitely hurt, but the pain wasn't the sharp agony of broken bones, fortunately. After a moment of disorientation, he realized that he hung by the straps of his backpack, which were biting into his armpits. He glanced up groggily and found Saya hunched over the side of the window, grabbing his backpack and hanging on for all she was worth.

"Will you hurry up and help?!" she wheezed, "I can't hold on forever!" Kohta scrambled for a handhold or foothold but found little purchase against the side of the house. But apparently Saya hadn't been talking to him, as a second later, Shizuka-sensei leaned out of the window, her formidable bust bouncing as she took hold of one of the backpack straps. Together they were able to pull him up enough so he could get his arms and shoulders in, then haul him through the rest of the way. Even Alice and Zeke had helped, the former pulling onto the back of Saya's belt, and the latter biting the hem of Alice's dress.

Finally able to catch his breath, Kohta leaned against the side of the wall beneath the window, trying to settle his frayed nerves. "Thanks," he said, looking at Saya, who sat pressed up next to him, still clutching one of his arms in hers as her other wrapped around her waist. "You saved me. All of you did." He turned to Shizuka on his other side, then locked eyes with Alice, who stood solemnly in front of him, Zeke cradled in her arms. "Thank you."

Alice simply smiled and said, "You did good, Kohta onii-chan." She held out Zeke, who proceeded to give him a sloppy doggy kiss. Kohta cringed and turned his face away in mock disgust, and Alice laughed, already bubbly despite their close brush with tragedy.

Saya mumbled a quiet "Idiot…" into his shoulder. To his ears, it sounded somehow more affectionate than castigating. The cocking handle of the MP5 sandwiched between them was digging into his side, but Kohta didn't mind it in the least.

Shizuka rose to her feet, brushing off her blouse and cardigan. She studied the two teenagers still sitting together in front of the window. A faint smile curved her lips and she tapped the side of her cheek with one finger, the hand other cradling her elbow. "Ara, it must be nice to be so young," she murmured under her breath, though by the way Saya stiffened, he had no doubt she had heard.

Saya flushed a deep red, all the way to the roots of her pink hair, but still didn't pull away. "Idiot," she mumbled again, as if this were all his fault. Kohta smiled and patted her arm consolingly.

"Yeah, I know, Saya."

End Chapter 6