Dark Secret of the Purple Swordswoman
"I guess it would be nice to talk about it, helps clear the air." Saeko said.
"Don't push yourself too much if the subject becomes too uncomfortable for you." Cruz advised with a kind smile.
"(How is this boy still pure after all this time?)" Saeko thought wondered.
"I started thinking about… the fear." Saeko said.
"Fear? You mean about those zombie kids, that's what could you frozen all of a sudden?" Ranko asked, feeling confused about this.
"To tell you the truth, it wasn't about them at all." Saeko revealed which surprises everyone.
"Remember when you asked me, at the sandbar, if I've ever had a crush on someone?" Saeko recalled that question from earlier.
"Yeah, you said it was almost love or something." Ranko remembered the answer too.
"Well, everyone knows you can't get this far in your life without having a crush on someone." Saeko stated.
"Weird, my mom used to say that." Setsuna commented, remembering what her mom would use that phrase a few times whenever Setsuna would start talking about love and all.
"I've never told them how I felt. I just don't think I have the right to." Saeko proclaimed, looking down with a sad expression.
"What do you mean? Everyone deserves love, no matter how much you believe there isn't love for you in the world?" Kuchinashi stated.
"She's right, you could get anyone you want to find that love. That's how it was when me and Nene started dating." Cruz mentioned.
"…Even though I almost killed someone?" Saeko asked.
This causes Cruz to gasp upon hearing those words and the three other girls are also shocked to hear that Saeko who seems like the polite and hard but caring young woman says that she almost committed a murder probably some time before the zombie outbreak.
"What happened?" Setsuna asked.
"Four years ago, I was attacked on the street at night. I had a practice sword with me. I started hitting him and once I started… I didn't stop. I-I couldn't stop… It was… he was…" Saeko felt shaken up from the memories of that night four years ago as her voice is a little stutter.
"After I told the police what happened, they gave me a ride home in a police car." Saeko mentioned.
"Were they giving you a troubling lecture because you went on self-defense? Sounds to me like the bastard got what's coming to him for trying to pick on a girl at night." Ranko believed.
"No, I don't think it was entirely self-defense." Cruz said.
"You're right. It must've started out that way, but to be honest… I enjoyed it." Saeko revealed. That causes both Setsuna and Kuchinashi to flinch in fear.
"Just letting the rage out against someone? That was nothing but joy." Saeko said, showing her eyes starting to look faintly blank as the memories of that day came flooding in her mind again.
(Flashback, 4 Years Ago)
The scene shows a younger Saeko is being assaulted by an older highschooler, pinning her against the wall to have his way with this little cutie, but he didn't even bother to care that she was holding onto her training sword.
"When I realized I had the upper hand, I felt so calm, and I pretended I was terrified. And then when I had him…" Saeko remembered every moment, every second of that night.
The younger Saeko looked uncomfortable with the assaulter about to do whatever he wants with her, her expression changes to a darker look on her face and her eyes look serious.
"I fought back." Saeko finished that sentence.
Saeko swung her practice sword right at the bastard with a force so strong that it causes bleed to gush out from the head, splatted on the wall behind her and some on her face while the assaulter clenches onto his face in pain and on the floor.
"I fought him until there was nothing but blood and bones." Saeko said.
Now Saeko is shown with a small smile on her face and her eyes stare down at the helpless man, feeling the joy of having give this man a brutal beating because she was enjoying it.
"It was bliss. Absolute, total pleasure." Saeko revealed.
Zooms closer to Saeko's eyes show to be beaming of sadistic look to enjoy bringing great and agonizing pain to the man.
(Flashback End)
"Oh shit!" Ranko shocked to hear all that.
"Shit is right because that shit is me. Me! That's who I am! Can't you see?" Saeko said, starting to smile crazy with her eyes looking crazy too. Just like how she looked back at the water fountain.
"The feeling of power, of control over someone else's life. I loved it!" Saeko expressed while Cruz is looking on shocked.
"(Saeko, have you… been holding back this "True" self of yours this entire time?)" Cruz thought wondered.
"Does anyone like that deserve love?" Saeko asked.
"Maybe I started to feel that way too." Cruz said, shocking the other girls.
"What do you mean by that, Cruz?" Ranko asked.
"Remember, back at that gas station where we found Eve, and that guy who took Yukana's hostage? I killed him." Cruz recalled that moment merely days ago.
Ranko gasp at the realization, thinking back on that night. Of course, how could she have forgotten that time when Cruz made that kill of his own choice in order to save Yukana, there wasn't any other choice but to kill that fucking bastard and Cruz knew he had to do it.
"That guy was the second person I killed since, the first one… was my good fried Hisashi when he was about to be turned into a zombie." Cruz remembered that moment, when Hisashi asked the emerald hair boy to kill him so that he can still die as a human being.
"Thinking back on it now, I guess I really wanted to kill Shidou back then too. But I held myself back because he wasn't worth it, thinking death would be too good for him." Cruz stated.
"Shit, Cruz… I knew you were feeling on edge since this whole thing started, but that's a little deeper than I thought." Ranko shocked.
"Yeah, so I'm starting to understand how you felt when you've been like this for years." Cruz said to Saeko.
"Indeed, I was always like this." Saeko agreed on that.
"Nothing about me has changed, I realized that in front of the fountain. Almost feels like it's gotten worse." Saeko stated.
Saeko feared for the worst that she may give in to her dark side against those she has grown close to like the new friends of the Emerald Group she made, and on the very brave and kind-hearted young man she has gotten to know and has even fallen for him too.
"I think it's best for me to" Saeko was about to suggest that she leaves the group only to be suddenly hugged by Cruz.
"You're not leaving us." Cruz said.
"Cruz, wh… why are you hugging me?" Saeko asked shock.
"Like I said, you're not leaving us and I'm not going to let you leave. Period." Cruz said, wrapping his arms around her a little tighter.
"But…" Saeko confused of why Cruz is doing this.
"Saeko, ever since we started this group together, I can feel deep inside myself that you and everyone else are who I can trust the most and be proud of having everyone even if they have some dark side." Cruz stated strongly.
"I also admire how everyone is strong in their own way even what they do may seem brutal and scared to others, including you and your dark sadistic side." Cruz admitted.
"But how can you say that, I almost killed someone before those shitty zombies appeared and I could've gone to jail." Saeko pointed out.
"But you didn't because like fate wanted you to be here with us." Cruz believed.
"How can you say that a monster like me deserves to be in the warm comfort of others? How?!" Saeko demanded as she pushes Cruz off.
But Cruz pulled himself back onto Saeko and pressing his lips right onto Saeko's lips, this shocks the melee purple hair fighter to the core of having her first kiss with Cruz of all people who believes her to still be a great member of the group and now his heart too.
Setsuna gasps with her face turning red upon seeing Cruz has just kissed Saeko out of nowhere like that, even after learning everything about her past and the dark sadistic side she keeps hidden from others until now. It's like her heart is about to explode from just watching this.
Kuchinashi is also in the same shocking expression as Setsuna that causes her to drop her sketchbook and her eyes are swirling around of dizziness, her body move side to side until she fell back onto the floor.
Ranko, however, is just smiling at the scene she rolls her eyes that this sudden scene doesn't seem to bother her unlike Setsuna and Kuchinashi.
"I'll admit, I was expecting Cruz to go for her next. But not like this." Ranko chuckled.
Saeko soon give into the kiss taking Cruz's hand with her hand and kisses hm back feeling their lips pressing onto each other and their tongue making contact for a moment.
"(Cruz, you feel… I can feel you!)" Saeko thought moaned a bit in the kiss.
The two continue kissing each other for a moment or two longer before they finally separate their lips leaving only a small saliva trail between them.
"So, how do you feel now?" Cruz asked, smiling at Saeko.
"Honestly, it was unexpected, but I really loved it." Saeko smiled back and their foreheads pressing together.
"Come on, let's go outside." Cruz said as he stands up and takes her up.
"But why?" Saeko asked.
"It's time for you to let out your true self come out without having to worry about showing it in front of others." Cruz said and took the sword from the back of the shrine.
"Come on, if I'm right then there should be some zombies coming up the stairs by now." Cruz believed.
"Wait, what?" Setsuna confused.
Everyone exit the shrine temple to see that Cruz's words are true, there are zombies up here and there appears to be seven or nine of them here.
"What the fuck? But how, we didn't even make any noise?!" Setsuna freaked out.
"Maybe those zombies were already here, just not around the area." Kuchinashi guessed.
"Whatever the case, we just gotta get past them and we can be with the others again!" Ranko clutched onto her empty bolt gun.
"Hold on, let Saeko go in and handle this by herself." Cruz ordered.
"Are you sure?" Saeko asked.
"Yes, I do." Cruz nodded and handed the sword into Saeko's hands.
"Everything I said back inside the temple, I meant every word and now it's time for you to show us that darkness is something that can be used to protect us and utterly destroyed those fucking bastard while enjoying it!" Cruz pointed at the zombies with a grin.
"Whoa, if I didn't know any better, I say Cruz is taking a very liking to Saeko's monster side right now." Ranko smiled.
"Should we be worried about that?" Kuchinashi asked.
"Now go, show those zombies who's their downfall." Cruz smiled and pushed Saeko forward.
Saeko can feel her cheeks blushing, turning red from how Cruz accepted her darkness for both survival and love at the same time, she can feel every ounce of blood in her blood rushing and her heart beating faster than normal.
"(All this time, I always thought I could never be loved, nor do I have the right to love anyone.)" Saeko thought recalled those thoughts back then.
"(My darkness would keep me from ever experience things outside of enjoying the brutality I bring to others with my sword, never to be accepted because of that.)" Saeko thought felt her worries washing away.
Saeko took one foot out in front and grab the hilt of the sword with one hand.
"(But now, I don't have to worry about any of that ever again.)" Saeko thought smiled excitedly.
"(Because now I have found a purpose for my darkness, and it's for Cruz Schild. My beloved Emerald Savior!)" Saeko thought declared as she glares smiling at the zombies.
"Time for you fuckers to die!" Saeko announced.
Saeko unsheathe the blade and ran fast at one zombie who used to be a priest and appeared behind that zombie, then it gasps with a large and deep cut on the chest causes it to zombie.
The other zombies noticed the sound of something like the zombie priest fall on the ground and turn to that source going for Saeko, but she already thought ahead of making their final moments in this shrine.
Saeko starts slashing at the zombies with fast and precise swings of her new sword, she can feel herself being lighter and her strength feels greater too.
"(This is it!)" Saeko thought smiled crazy again.
Saeko goes at two zombies slashing them hard at once, both fell with blood suddenly burst out.
"Holy shit, look at her go!" Setsuna gasped and Kuchinashi is too shocked to put into words in her sketchbook.
"(This is the real me!)" Saeko thought smiled some more, now feeling proud of releasing this side of herself without shame.
Saeko slashes away at every zombie within the sacred ground of the shrine temple as every last one of them fell to her might.
"(YES!)" Saeko mentally shouted in her head. And believe she had wet herself too.
"Wow, I think you just made the beast come out for good." Ranko shocked with a smile.
"That's fine, I think it suits her better this way." Cruz believed as he walks towards Saeko.
"You're still gonna have to explain about this to the other girls, and how you fucked me." Ranko pointed out with a teasing smile.
"I know, just gotta be prepare." Cruz smiled.
"Now we're all ready to meet up with the others at the Takagi home." Cruz announced.
"How long will it take for us to get there from here?" Ranko asked.
"Just about twenty minutes on foot, shouldn't be long even if we run now." Cruz answered.
"Then we better get a move on." Saeko smiled, then pulled Cruz into a deep and hungry kiss.
"Better be ready for when I take you in the bed." Saeko winked at the erotic dizzy Cruz.
(Takagi Mansion)
Nene is standing over at the balcony of the mansion's front door just having a moment to herself along with Rei, Yukana, and Eve as they are all thinking about Cruz and the other two girls who are with them. Praying to the Gods for them to come back safety.
"Hey, you guys still thinking about Cruz?" Alice asked, walking up to the four girls.
"Yeah, just keeping a lookout for them. It's already been a day since we last saw them, I just hope they're okay." Rei said.
"I just hope they haven't gotten themselves into too much trouble." Nene worried.
Eve then saw something in the distance at the gate, and then her eyes widen upon seeing some familiar figures coming at the gate and one of them has great-looking green hair.
"Guys, I see Cruz! I see the others!" Even alerted and pointed at the gate.
The girls all look at the gate seeing Cruz, Ranko, Saeko, and two new girls that they figure Cruz must've stopped to help them along the way are now coming here. Saya look out the window seeing Cruz has finally return to them, she is sure going to give him a piece of her mind since they enter the mansion.
"Let them in." Saya ordered one of the servants.
Cruz and the girls see the gates are opening which instantly tells them that they are allowed in and the girls with Alice are running up to them for a welcome group hug as the girls gave Cruz some kisses on his face.
Cruz: Saeko may have darkness, but everyone does and that's okay because darkness is a part of us same as the light. And right now, we need Saeko's darkness to help us survivor this dead world and I'll be there to help her with love.
Cruz and Saeko smile at each other knowing everything is going to be okay.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Cruz was able to help Saeko embrace her inner darkness after listening to her life story about her past and has claimed her as his sixth girlfriend, now they are reunited with the Emerald Group as things will get a little intense for the group.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!