A/N: This is by far the longest chapter I've ever posted on here. Also, this is by the far the longest I've taken to update this story. Sorry about that. Stupid real-life problems. But anyway, I hope that this chapter's length won't be too boring to read through. Oh yeah, and I suppose this could count as a happy birthday present for Ritsu, so happy birthday!
"Onee-chan, I don't like the feel for this place…" It's not like being outside in the open felt comfortable either, but it was just so dark in the mall.
"Don't worry Ui! As long as we stick together, we'll be okay!" Yet, a certain girl's smile and words of encouragement shined in the dim atmosphere of the shopping center.
"I'm sorry, but it's just hard to keep such thoughts in the back of my head when a place that's supposed to be lively seems so…d-dead…" Indeed it was. With every store's lights cut off from any sort of electrical power and dead corpses of innocent people littered around with infected humans feasting upon their rotting carcasses, "dead" would an extreme understatement to say the least.
"Then think happier thoughts! Think about cakes and chocolate…and ice cream…and…" The Hirasawa's tummy began rumbling softly, as opposed to how serious she looked. "And tea…and cotton candy…and…cakes and…um…"
Yui groaned in a manner that would most likely cause one to faint from the overwhelming amount of cute-ness, if the accompanying expression of yearning wasn't enough.
"I'm so hungry Ui!"
The younger sister could only laugh at elder's frustration, happy that throughout this seemingly endless day, there were still traces of the care-free airhead left. However, with every laugh of enjoyment, she always seemed to stop abruptly and stare off to the side.
"Ui…is something wrong…?" Yui asked with a puzzled expression. She has that look from before…she thought. Ui, you can tell me if something's wrong…
"Oh…um, it's nothing…! I'm just worried about everybody else…" she assured, albeit glancing side to side suspiciously.
Gazing at her with a skeptical look, Yui decided to shrug it off, as she too was worried about her friends. "Yeah, I really hope we'll regroup with them too Ui…"
Still…Her eyes wandered off into the stars above. I can't help…but think…that's not what's worrying her the most…
"Onee-chan, watch out!" Activating reflexes that were long hidden unless in cases of dire need, Yui instantly ducked as Ui swung her frying pan to a zombie that was creeping silently behind the guitarist. Despite how dark and dim most of the mall appeared, the central pathway was located under sky lights, which assisted Ui in spotting the stealthy infected before it was too late.
"Ui…" Yui muttered, unable to come up with any complete sentence.
"You're welcome, Onee-chan," Ui said with a light smile.
"Oh, hehe, thanks!" I'm so thankful that Ui is a great sister to me…but I'm the older one…I should be watching out for her! I don't want her to always take care of me all the time. I've gotta return the favor. "I owe you so much Ui!"
"Oh no, you don't owe me anything…" Ui lied ever so obviously. After practically nurturing and tending to her sister's every need, Yui was in debt to her more than she could pay back.
Seeing you smile whenever I take care of you is enough…Ui thought. As long as I have you, then I'll always be happy. That's why, even though you're the older sister, I want to protect-
BAAAANG!
An explosive gunshot separated Ui from her thoughts as it resonated throughout the miasmic environment. She turned behind her to find a zombie on the floor, a fresh bullet puncture in its brain.
"And now we're even!" Yui said after lowering her side-arm. "You can't always care for me, you know! I have to protect you too!"
Wanting to embrace her sister in congratulatory fashion, Ui instead held her arms to herself, resisting the urge to break out in joy.
"Onee-chan" she began to scold. "Try to let me do most of the work! We want to conserve ammo for your handgun; only use it in dire emergencies, okay?"
"Eh? I don't get a 'thank you'?" Turning around while faking an expression of hurt, Ui couldn't hold in her euphoria any longer.
She laughed. Laughed while she felt happiness surge through her.
The laughter proved to be contagious as Yui began laughing with her. Until she started to choke from forcing the air down the wrong pipe in her throat, which in turn caused Ui to laugh even more.
"Okay, fair enough," Ui managed to say after many long minutes of giggling. "Thank you Onee-chan."
"You're welcome! But you do make a good point though…" Yui said with a contemplative face. "How about you take the gun and I'll take your pan, okay?"
Ui began looking nervous. "B-but…I don't want you to get hurt…"
"Ui, you've been taking care of me for a very long time now! Probably longer than I can remember. So now it's my turn to take care of you! It's only fair, right?"
After seeing her sister's beautiful and shiny smile under the moonlight, she agreed. That smile of yours gets me every time…
After about ten minutes of walking under the skylights while simultaneously thrusting pans into any infected in sight, Yui came across a point of interest that she believed would be exceedingly beneficial to her and Ui.
"Hey look, there's the cake shop!" Well, beneficial to her raging stomach anyway.
"C-c-c-cake...sh-sh-shop…?"
"Yeah, let's go over there and see if they have some leftover sweets for me!"
"NO! Wait!"
Halting, Yui stared at her small sister to see an expression that was undeniably one of horror. "Oh come on Ui, we're just going to stop by really quick!"
"P-p-please Onee-chan, l-l-let's keep m-moving on!" Confused about why stopping by a shop full of sweets for a measly minute was so bad, she turned her body to see Ui face to face.
"But there's not a lot of zombies around there, so it's nothing we can't handle! Besides, when we meet up with Ricchan and the rest of them, they might be hungry! And now's my chance to get them some food!"
"N-no, I st-still don't think it's s-safe!" Yui gazed at her sister's eyes. It was plainer than the night sky that Ui had a separate reason for not wanting to visit the store full of treats that begged to be eaten by their goddess Yui-chan.
"Well, I still don't see the danger in it, so I'm going to go visit there," she said, determined to find out what her sister was hiding.
"No!" Ui grabbed Yui's arm with a strong grip. "Let's just focus on getting out of here and regrouping with Ritsu-san and the rest!"
"Aw, but I'm hungry, and it'll help if I get some food!" Pulling her arm free, she ran towards the shop to fill her tummy with some much needed sugar.
No, she can't reach the store! I can't let her see…what happened…Ui thought as she sprinted in the direction of Yui.
"Onee-chan, please stop!" she called out. It was useless though; Yui was bent on getting her cake. Oh, and finding out why seeing the cake shop was very worrisome for her too.
"What the…" the guitarist muttered as she set foot inside the gallery of sweets. This place had a lot of cake, that's for sure. However, most of these delightful deserts were tossed on the floor, leaving a doughy and frosty mess. This wasn't what caused Yui's speechlessness though.
What did cause the air to seem even more lifeless than it was before was the amount of deceased and chewed up corpses that lay around across each shelf. It seems the zombies had already stopped by here to get their meal. Yui couldn't help but feel pity for the poor shoppers who wanted nothing more than just a small, tasty snack and was instead ripped apart by these horrible, flesh-eating demons from Hell.
As she looked upon the bodies with grief, her eyes led her to a girl that emitted a sense of familiarity.
Is…that…
Her eyes further inspected the girl's face.
No, it can't be her…please…don't be her…
There was no doubt in the rational part of her mind. She could recognize those pair of red glasses from a mile away.
"Nodoka…chan…?"
As she kneeled on the floor to take a closer look at her dead friend, Ui could only gasp in horror at the grisly sight. Nodoka's body was severed in half, her two legs tossed onto a counter. What remained attached to her lower torso was torn to shreds, the remnants of her intestines flowing freely out of her tummy area and across the cold tile floor, the blood that spilled out of them all dried up now. Each and every one of Nodoka's major organs looked as if a zombie took a bite out of them, as if it were sampling them to see which one was the tastiest.
Luckily, her face was left untouched, only containing a few scratches around the cheeks. It was still sickening though; the top portion of her body looked spotless and in good condition but if one scrolled their eyes just a tad bit downward, they would find a gory sight that would make anybody sick to the stomach.
Ui had almost thrown up when being taught about human anatomy. With this corpse in front of her, it was obvious that she couldn't hold back the urge this time. She allowed her stomach's contents to become one with the outside once more.
"Nodoka-chan…" Yui repeated as Ui ceased her vomiting. Tears flowed from her face and onto the lenses of her best friend's glasses.
"O-Onee-chan…" Ui mumbled. "I'm…I'm so sorry…"
No response came from the guitarist. She only stayed in her kneeling position, eyes letting salty tears cascade in small rivers.
"This is…all my fault…" Ui began to cry.
"Ui…" Yui spoke softly in a dull tone her sister had never heard her use before. "Don't blame yourself. It's not like you killed her…"
"No, you don't understand!" She managed to say between sobs.
"She didn't deserve to die…Nodoka-chan…" Yui's lone body started shaking intensely, but she composed her quickly. "But then again, I don't think I've never done anything bad enough to deserve this apocalypse either. And I know for a fact that you don't deserve this either."
"Onee-chan…" Ui felt as if her heart was ripped out when she heard Yui speak.
Turning around to face her sister, the ponytailed brunette noticed Yui's sorrowful eyes.
"Life…is so unfair Ui!" She bent her head downward as if she was going to sob further. "Ugh, no tears are coming out…" she grumbled in frustration.
"Onee-chan…this is my fault though…"
"No, don't blame yourself for this Ui…"
"But…it really was my fault," she whispered grimly.
"What?" Yui lifted her head up immediately at this statement.
"You see…" she took a moment to compose herself and spoke. "Nodoka-san was supposed to be with me at home, to help me cook the hotpot for you girls. On the way home…we stopped by to buy that triple layer chocolate cake you loved so much…That's when…they attacked."
Yui's heart skipped a beat and nearly stopped. "The zombies…they did this…to her…?" she whispered while stroking Nodoka's face with her hand.
"A whole horde of them charged through the mall, and we were caught in the crowd. I told her to take my hand, and we ran out of the shop. But then, one of…them caught her with its tongue…I tried to pull her back…I really did! But the other people in the mall ran into me, and I lost my grip…The crowd was running the opposite direction of Nodoka-san, so I wasn't able to go back to help her…"
"Ui…"
"And yet…I feel as if it was all my fault!" It was now Ui's turn to cry.
"So that's why you've been so sad lately," Yui thought aloud. "Ui," she began, and then stopped. Clearly, the death of her best friend was still taking a big toll on her heart, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from comforting her sister. "…You know you tried to help Nodoka-chan…and even if you went back for her, you might have…died…and I know she wouldn't want that."
"But still, if I hadn't let her go-"
"You couldn't help it, the crowd caused you to lose your grip!" Her raise in volume caused Ui to jump in surprise. "I'm sorry Ui…just, please don't be so hard on yourself…I know wherever Nodoka-chan is, she's happy you're still alive."
"…Onee-chan…I…Th-thank you...I couldn't ask…for a better sister than you!"
"Oh, you're making me blush Ui, hehe…" Yui didn't have enough time to blush in modesty though; a loud roar echoed from down the mall.
"Onee-chan, let's go!"
As Yui was running through the small store towards the front door, she halted and looked back at Nodoka's body.
"Onee-chan, we have to get out of here!"
"I can't just leave her like this…" Yui stated.
Despite wanting to give the responsible dead president a proper funeral, she knew that wouldn't be possible. Taking her body would obviously be too troublesome and could eventually lead to Yui falling behind and getting cornered, so the next best thing she did was leave a makeshift memorial for the student council president.
She set a small cupcake with a chestnut on top beside Nodoka's head. "Rest in peace…Nodoka-chan…"
After that, the two grabbed their respective weapons and sprinted out of the store and toward the exit that would lead them toward the school. Turning her head for a split second, Yui noticed the vast amount of infected tailing them. There must be hundreds of them or something! Although that was slightly an exaggeration, there certainly were a huge amount of zombies that justified her hyperbole.
"O-Onee-chan...how many of them are there…?" Ui asked while running for dear life.
"Just don't look back, okay? We're going to be alright!"
As they dashed down the seemingly endless moonlit corridor, more zombies seemed to catch onto the "EAT DOSE TOO HYUMAN BISHES!" idea and joined the rest of their infected brethren in the chase. It was moments like these that Yui wished she could have given a little more effort in increasing her stamina in P.E. lessons. Her legs were still near fatigued from running away earlier, and her tummy was still growling in discontent because she didn't eat yet. If it wasn't for the unquestionable fate of death that lie ten of fifteen feet behind her, she would have let her body collapse on the ground in exhaustion.
I have to keep going though! Nodoka-chan would want us to survive! At that point, Yui noticed a weird feeling. What is this…what am I feeling right now…? This feeling wanted to turn back and charge against these zombies head-on, despite how obviously idiotic of an idea that would be.
Is this…what they call "anger"…? She wondered. Eww, I don't like how it feels! Go away Anger; I don't like you! This angry feeling refused to leave easily. In fact, it began to take on a voice.
Don't you want to take out all of those stupid zombies though? It said. They deserve it if they hurt Nodoka-chan, right?
"Ergh…but…I…uh…" Yui was never the best at arguing, even against herself.
"Onee-chan, is something wrong?" Ui managed to say between breaths while running.
"Oh, it's nothing!" Yui assured. She almost tripped after losing her breath for a short moment. Anger, please go away! I don't like the way you make me feel!
Eventually, the sisters were able to make it outside, locking the doors by driving a board in between the steel handles. Thank God that these zombies suck at opening doors, let alone a locked one. But sadly, the Hirasawa's had more mutated company waiting for them outside too.
"Ui, watch out!" Yui pushed her sister out of the way of incoming green goo, akin to the kind that Ritsu had told her about when discussing zombie types.
"Onee-chan, that must be the 'Spitter' that Ritsu-san was talking about!" Ui pointed out.
This zombie's appearance was about as mutated and fucked up as the Tank, in its own way anyway. Along with the multiple lack of a few limbs, blood splattered across from neck to leg, its eyes didn't contain any pupils, and its whole body seemed to be stretched an extra three feet taller, with various holes in its neck and arms. Its teeth were seething with the green acid that Ritsu told them about, along with various bugs and chunks of flesh.
It kept on spitting at the girls from its spot atop an RV, with the girls almost stepping in the goo on many occasions.
"Ui, look!" Yui shouted. In front of them was a giant horde of maybe thirty infected, all of them staring at the girls.
Suddenly, a pool of acid surrounded them as the normal infected closed in on them. The Spitter trapped them in its acid while Yui pointed out the horde.
"Well Ui, I hope what Ricchan said about shooting a gun was as easy as it sounded…" Yui said while raising her pan.
Having about as much experience as Ritsu had with shooting games (she'd always play them whenever Yui went out with friends; it was a guilty pleasure of hers), she took out the handgun. Ui began shooting at the Spitter first to avoid getting burned painfully. Luckily, she had gotten a few headshots on the giant monster, effectively taking it down.
Turning around, she noticed how the normal infected could only reach their blood-stained arms at them, due to the pool of green acid that still surrounded them. The zombies that had less of a brain compared to the others ran straight at the girls but soon burned up in the intense liquid.
Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to take some of them out, Yui reached out her pan and slammed about five of them in the face, skulls most likely caving in on their zombie brains.
"Hehe, yes!" Yui exclaimed in excitement. Soon, she and Ui were taking out zombie after zombie with their weapons, this acid proving to actually save them. "We can survive the zombie apocalypse Ui, we can survive the zombie apocalypse Ui!"
Soon, the horde of zombies had been taken down after a few beatings to the head by cold and blood-stained steel. Bullet holes through the cranium helped in taking them down as well. The acid around soon faded, allowing the girls to leave that circle of hell.
"We did it!" they shouted into the sky while high-fiving each other.
"Onee-chan, you were so good out there!" Ui praised.
"Oh Ui, I'm just trying to protect my younger sister! I am your Onee-chan after all, right?"
This moment of celebration was soon ruined as the giant zombie horde inside the mall burst through the doors. Yui's earlier exaggeration proved to be true; there literally were almost a hundred of them charging at them.
When the two sisters felt they were going to have to outrun them again, they heard the sound of a car horn honk from across the corner.
Suddenly, a maroon van drove across the parking lot, the driver shooting from the inside of their seat with an assault rifle. Turning their attention towards this newcomer, the infected charged toward her car.
Their ambitions were met with a grenade. And another grenade. And another.
Yui and Ui watched in amazement as they saw about ten zombies explode into bloody messes of human chunks.
"Wait, is that…?" Yui thought out loud. "Ui, don't you recognize that van?"
"…Onee-chan…you're right, I do!"
The death metal scream that came from attached speakers on the outside of the van, along with the accompanying sound of Death Devil's song LOVE playing, confirmed their suspicions.
"YOU ALL ARE GOING TO FUCKING ZOMBIE HELL FOR THIS, BITCHES!"
"Ui, it's Sawa-chan!" Yui yelled in amazement.
It took plentiful amounts of running through multiple dark alleys, but the trio of Azusa, Tsumugi, and RItsu finally managed to lose the Tank that had been hot on their trail after the drummer had accidentally shot its eye out. However, the headband-less brunette didn't exactly pay attention as to where she was leading her small group towards and ended up in a very familiar place.
"Forest of the marathon, we meet again…" she was barely able to say between gasps of air.
"We might…have lost that thing, but Yui-senpai…and Ui…" Azusa whispered in despair, also struggling to breathe.
"Is everybody alright?" Tsumugi asked, seemingly unfazed by the amount of sprinting it took to escape.
"Oh come on Mugi, how are you not out of breath?" Ritsu exclaimed. "You didn't have this much stamina back at the marathon!"
"Oh, right! After I realized how low my stamina was at that time, I began to undergo training exercises to increase it. It seems that they were very effective, hehe…"
"Oh just forget it." The drummer then sat herself down on the grassy ground, long and unruly bangs covering her amber eyes. "It's hopeless guys…"
"Ritsu-senpai, don't say that!" the twin-tailed guitarist said loudly. "We still need to save Mio-senpai, as well as regroup with Yui-senpai and the others!"
"Azusa-chan is right!" Tsumugi joined. "If you keep an attitude like that, we really won't be able to survive through this."
"WHAT THE HELL'S THE POINT OF EVEN TRYING ANYMORE?" Her sudden outbreak caught the two off guard. "I already caused Mio to separate from us, and if it wasn't for my stupid aim, we wouldn't have gotten separated from Yui and Ui and…! And…and…"
"But senpai, those were all acci-"
"I just…I just give up. There's no point in trying if I just keep messing things up like this…"
Things became silent in the forest, apart from the slight breeze that rustled the leaves in the dark trees. Moonlight was scarce in their area, allowing any wandering infected to sneak its way onto three meals for the night. However, the zombies were the last thing on Azusa and Tsumugi's mind.
This apocalypse was slowly taking its toll on everybody. Ui had been completely silent when they arrived at her house. It wasn't long before Yui's smile would begin to crack under this catastrophe either. And now, their own Ritsu was losing her motivation.
The same Ritsu who had always been energetic, lively, and positive in the darkest of situations.
Their president who led them through every song with a powerful beat.
The stress was finally starting to throw the drummer off her rhythm.
"Ricchan…you haven't been messing things up. You're a great leader! You kept your cool even in the face of danger after we left Yui-chan's house!"
"Mugi, do you have any idea how fucking hard it is to be the leader?"
When no reply came from the stunned blonde, Ritsu continued. "Everybody always looks up to you…they expect you to lead them through anything and everything! It doesn't matter how hard or impossible it may seem, they still expect you to get them through it! Do you know how much pressure that is…? How much pressure I have to deal with…?"
"Ritsu-senpai, we're all going through a tough time right now! You're not the only one hurting!" Azusa retaliated, her mind clearly worried about her best friend and closest senpai.
"You aren't the reason Mio is not with us! You aren't the reason that Yui and Ui aren't with us! YOU AREN'T THE REASON WHY OUR GROUP FELL APART, NAKANO!" Ritsu's voice was cracking because of how loud she was yelling.
"STOP IT!" The two turned to look at the normally quiet and calm Tsumugi. "Don't yell you two…I can't stand to see…us fall apart like this…" her cerulean eyes began to shed tears onto the forest floor.
"Mugi…I'm sorry…but…I'm just done with this…"
Everything became silent for a minute.
"…Done…?" Azusa and Tsumugi questioned aloud.
"Yes…done," the drummer's voice lowered to a near inaudible voice. "Done with playing Left 4 Dead in real life…done with this stupid apocalypse…and done with trying to lead us through the impossible."
Slowly, Ritsu raised the SCAR rifle and attempted to point it at her head.
"Ricchan, don't do it!" Tsumugi shouted.
"She's right, think carefully about the consequences before doing this!"
"What consequences…? I'll finally be able to relax in peace."
"Think about how sad Mio-senpai will be…!"Ritsu flinched at the comment, but kept the gun raised.
"I just want to end all of this stress…it's too much for me…all you girls have been some of the best friends I could have ever asked for…but I guess all good things come to an end, huh?" Unfortunately, suicide by an assault rifle proved to be a bit more difficult than by a handgun. "Agh, I can't reach the trigger like this…" she said in frustration while struggling to reach her right arm further towards her death.
The keyboardist and guitarist sighed in relief. At least until they noticed that Ritsu was staring intently at both of them.
"One of you guys…do it for me."
"Ritsu-senpai," Azusa started, her eyes overflowing with tears. "You can't be serious! There's no possible way we can do it-"
She interrupted herself mid-sentence as Tsumugi stepped forward and reached her arms toward Ritsu's gun. Both the drummer and guitarist were stunned, yet the keyboardist kept her head down and her bangs to shield her eyes.
"Ricchan…" she muttered near inaudibly as her arms raised the gun at Ritsu's head.
Holy hell, what the heck am I thinking? I'm too young and scared to die! One side of the sandy-haired brunette thought. Well, this is the easiest way out! …I'll finally be released from all of this stress…
Azusa cries of protest were ignored as Tsumugi stared at her friend's forehead through the iron sights.
Ricchan…I am so…so sorry…but…
"Mugi-senpai, what are you thinking? Don't do it!"
I can't let things go on like this…
The same hands that were used to delicately wield a teapot and kettle pulled the trigger on the assault rifle.
BANG BAAANG!
A couple of rounds fired from the assault rifle with the sounds echoing throughout the whole forest.
Not being able to handle the death of one of her closest friends, Azusa had closed her eyes and plugged her ears up with her hands. Upon opening her eyelids, she found the drummer to be unscathed and free of any bullet holes
However, a nearby zombie behind the tree Ritsu was laid back against fell onto the ground with dark scarlet blood leaking from its head.
"Ricchan, I'm sorry but…I'm not going to let you end it for yourself like this!" Tsumugi stated clearly after shooting the zombie. "I need you Ricchan…Azusa-chan needs you…all of us need you!"
"B-but…I…" Ritsu inability to come up with a complete sentence prompted the blonde to continue.
"Mio-chan needs you. She needs you to save her…she's waiting for all of us to save her. All of us Ricchan!"
"I c-can't…I've been so-"
"You're our drummer and our president! You've led us through many songs with your lively and energetic beats, and all of our concerts turn out wonderful because of you! You'd be the one that would always keep her smile in the darkest of situations! You were the one who was encouraging us to keep our spirits high when we left Yui-chan's house!"
"She's right," the twin-tailed kouhai followed. "Don't you remember your promise? After that first fight, you made us promise. Promise to give it our all! And that if we die, we die with a bang! It would be selfish of you to make us promise this, yet go against it yourself, right?"
"Azusa…Mugi…"
"If we aren't able to persist through this apocalypse and remain alive…" Tsumugi started.
"Then let's at least end our lives together, as a band," Azusa finished. "As a family…"
The pair extended both of their hands toward their president. Morale now restored, Ritsu gladly pulled herself up from the ground with their help.
"You two…are really the best. Mugi, you're right. Even if I made a few mistakes as a leader lately, I can't just break down because of it. I need to focus on the present…focus on saving Mio."
She turned toward the junior. "And Azusa, heh, I did promise that, didn't I? Thanks for reminding me about that! You know how I am, I forget things easily…" Ritsu said while rubbing her head sheepishly. "You girls are right though; if we do end up dying, we'll die together. It's conflicts and struggles like these that cause the survivor groups in zombie movies to end up…well, not surviving. Which is why, I promise that I'll try my best to lead us through this! I promise I won't break down like this ever again!"
With renewed vim and vigor, the three beamed at each other, glad that everybody was all happy again.
"Alright, now it's time to get to business!" Ritsu yelled, her signature personality shining through. A nearby inhuman growl caused the girls to pick up their respective weapons. "And I know just where to start…" Pans and assault rifle raised, the three charged at the unlucky pair of zombies that happened to be in the path of destruction that was Mugi, Azusa, and their leader Ritsu.
Zombie after zombie fell underneath the blade of the raven-color-esque-haired girl's katana. She continued her rampage of slashing, slicing, and thrusting as the other two girls in her group dealt with any undead that came at her from a blind spot. Such an instance would cause the inhuman human to be met with blunt force from a broom and metal pole.
If time had been rewinded by about half an hour, Akiyama Mio would most likely have fallen victim to the zombie apocalypse without scoring a single hit. But after a few pep talks with herself, along with the support of Kyo Amasaki and Suki Ayame, her fear of the pale and flesh-thirsty creatures that stalked the city had been resolved.
Soon, she felt slight satisfaction as the expertly crafted sword continued to puncture through the organs and limbs of zombies. Of course, her normal "scaredy-cat" personality would quickly follow through with an expression of nauseation.
"Heh, you bitch!" Kyo yelled as she gave the final infected a smack to the face with cold steel, adding further to the amount of blood already present on her uniform. "Go back to your hole in the graveyard where you belong!"
Deadpanning at first, Mio soon found herself smiling at her newfound friend's victory shout. "Oi, we're still quite a ways from Yui's house." Still far from Ritsu...
"Hey, you're lucky that I'm even coming with you to her house. If it wasn't for Suki turning on me, we would have left you to deal with this yourself. Not to mention that I'm the one whofound that awesome katana stuck in some dude's chest on the way here."
"I'm sorry, Kyo-chan," Suki said, a tinge of sadness apparent in her voice. "But...I want to help save others too. We can't just leave Mio-chan to save them herself; we have to save them too!"
"I know, I know Suki-chan! We already went over this at the school. I'm already on board with you girls! "
"Kyo, watch out!" Mio called out, staring in horror at the zombie that was about to chomp on her neck.
Kyo simply moved her right arm and made a forceful impact with her metal pole against the zombie's mouth. "It'd probably make me feel really guilty later anyway if we just left Big Boob's friends behind anyway."
She continued the conversation as if nothing happened...Mio thought. "Wait, I have a name you know!"
"Please show her some respect, Kyo-chan!"
"Yeesh, alright! It's just a joke Mio-chan! Just a joke!" Kyo smiled at her while throwing up a quick peace sign with her hand.
It was a very crude joke though. She sighed in exasperation as the group continued to press forward, despite the near overwhelming urge to bump Kyo on the head similar to how she does to Ritsu.
Mio soon found her mind wandering to her friends with that thought. "We're coming Ritsu...just, wait a bit longer..."
"But aren't we saving more than just Tainaka-san?" Suki's calm voice interrupted Mio's vocally expressed thoughts. "You want to save everybody in your club, right?"
"Well, yeah...it's just that...Ritsu and I..." the bassist looked around, eyes scanning the area for any zombies that intended to chew their brains from out of their skulls, as well as for Kyo in case she felt like making a rude comment again. Luckily, the street they were walking on was relatively free of zombies hanging around. And Kyo was busy in front of the group, being extra vigilant for the special infected Mio had told her about.
"I know that you yelled at Tainaka-san, and you regret it...but don't you want to save your other friends too?"
"Of course I do!" Mio nodded enthusiastically. "If any of them...didn't make it...whether it be Ritsu, Mugi, Yui, Azusa, or Ui...I'd be incredibly sad."
"Oh, alright then. I'm sorry I asked, but I was just curious. Your mind seems to be focused on this Tainaka-san so much."
"Well, we have been best friends since early childhood..."
"I see… but you've also been friends with your club members for quite a while now as well. I hope we'll be able to save the entirety of the Light Music Club, despite how difficult of a task it might seem at the moment," Suki smiled reassuringly.
"Yeah, I hope so too..." Suki made a good point...I love everybody in the Light Music Club, not just that idiot Ritsu. I'd be completely devastated if I found any one of them to have...clearly, the thought of any of her friends in a deceased status unraveled the bassist.
Mio instantly turned around when a thunderous roar pierced the contrasting peaceful and clear night sky.
"Err, looks like you're going to have to cut your reminiscing short Mio-chan," Kyo spoke.
"Oh? You do actually know my name?" Mio questioned with a hint of sarcasm despite the fear of whatever monstrous mutant zombie was behind them.
"Oh, just raise your katana in a fighting stance damn it. This big guy doesn't sound like he's kidding around…"
The roar continued to resonate across the lengthy and wide street the trio was trekking, its volume increasing. The sound of buildings being crushed and cars being overturned frightened the girls, but they were able to remain vigilant.
"Um…Mio-chan," Suki suddenly said. "Shouldn't we be trying to get away from this monster…?"
"Oh come on Suki-chan, no monster can handle the power of the Occult Club!" Kyo stated with confidence.
"If you're in an Occult Club, shouldn't you have some super spell that should be able to take some of these things out?" Mio asked.
"Hey, I already said the spell book is in the graveyard with that other dead girl! We can't reverse this zombie apocalypse until we finally get that book!"
"That reminds me, you still haven't told me why you lent the book to her in the first place…"
"I already told you, it's because SHUT UP."
"Stop arguing you two, let's just run already!" With that statement, the girls followed Mio's advice and began to book it like Hell across the street.
The giant zombie's figure was now visible upon the horizon. It was on a rampage, running blindly into buildings with one arm stretched in front of it and another covering one of its eyes. All the while, it was yelling loudly in pain. Any normal infected that were in its path were instantly trampled into the pavement.
"What in Hell is that thing?" Kyo shouted while running.
"Well, it's big, and kind of killing everything in its path, so just stay away from it!" Suki replied.
All the while, the normal infected spotted these girls running away from them, so their only instinct was to follow them with their arms dangling at their sides and their jaws expanded further than human anatomy would allow.
Of course, since all the girls had were melee weapons, they couldn't slash and bash their way through these infected, especially with that monster barely resembling a real zombie closing in on them.
"Dear God…" The navy-haired girl couldn't utter any other expression between her breaths as the humongous alien-like mutant charged toward the girls in blind fury and rage.
"Just keep running!"
"Oh yeah Mio, that's certainly a helpful tip!"
"Kyo, how about you shut up!"
The brunette watched carefully through the iron sights of her assault rifle. The name of the game in most shooters was "Shoot anything that moves." Such a tactic couldn't be put to use here, since conservation of ammo was a necessity. Still, if any zombie moved in close enough to dare bite any of her friends, even so much as lay one of their dirty fingers on them…
"I'd send those bitches back to Hell where they belong…" Ritsu stated sternly as she found a few targets in front of her shuffling around uselessly, unaware of the trio's presence.
Suddenly, Ritsu heard laughter from behind. Swirling her gun around, she pointed her rifle at Tsumugi, who was giggling in as polite a manner as possible. "Mugi, what's so funny?"
"Hehe, I'm sorry Ricchan," the blonde replied. "It's just that line sounded like one of those one-liners used in action movies! It was so cool!~" Her blue eyes began to sparkle as the other two remembered how rich girls were either stuck-up or airheaded. Ritsu decided to leave the conversation at that and return to walking toward her three other targets.
"Ritsu-senpai, do you even know where you're going?"
"Why of course I do!"
"Honestly…?" Azusa gave the drummer a skeptical look.
"… Well, uh...err...no."
"Senpai, really though?"
"How about you take this gun and lead us through this forest? Oh right, you can't because you voted me to be your leader, so just follow me damn it."
"Point taken…" The junior grumbled while picking up one of the frying pans acquired at the Hirasawa's.
"Mugi, you ready?"
The blonde nodded enthusiastically with a pan of her own raised near her shoulders. "Are you ready to save Mio-chan, Ricchan?"
The brunette whose bangs had fallen over one of her eyes didn't reply with words. She replied with action.
The sound of bullets making contact with flesh of an undead victim. An undead victim who had fallen to the Houkago Tea Time's leader.
"Duh," she said with a small smirk.
"Uh…Ritsu-senpai…"
"Hm, what is it Azusa?"
"…Take your finger off the trigger."
"Oh! My bad!" Ritsu mentally face-palmed after ceasing the weapon from firing. "So much for conserving our ammo, eh?" She threw up a peace sign for consolation.
Once again, Azusa sighed while wondering why she and Tsumugi let her be the leader. At that moment, the cries of many normal infected echoed through the forest, gradually getting louder as both their growls and footsteps neared.
"Um, Ricchan…" Mugi said with slight hesitance. "We might have a bit of unwanted company…"
"Yeah, thanks for the reminder Mugi," Ritsu deadpanned. "Nothing's ever easy in a zombie apocalypse, huh…?"
Nothing was ever easy for Ritsu, and things certainly weren't easy for Mio, Suki, and Kyo. They had been running for Kami-sama knows how long, and their legs were beginning to tire out. They tried crossing into the alleyways, slashing up a few infected who stood in their way to clear a path.
However, the alleys somehow always led back to the main road, the same main road the Tank was causing miniature earthquakes on. Mio made a mental note to become more familiar with her own city.
To make matters worse, the number of infected behind them increased from three or so zombies to a full-blown horde of maybe thirty or so undead.
"Mio-chan, my legs are starting to get tired!" Suki whined as her pace was quickly slowing.
"Come on Suki, we can't afford to stop and rest! The horde behind us would k-kill us!"
"I don't think…I can go any longer…" The long-haired brunette dropped her pan as her legs tripped over each other. Everything happened in slow motion as her vision began to blur. The horde of zombies behind her was slowly becoming a bigger and bigger mish-mash of gray.
"NO! I'm not going to leave you behind!"
Gasping, Suki felt her body being lifted onto someone's shoulders. "K-Kyo-chan…" she was barely able to mutter from fatigue.
"I can't just leave you behind, Suki-chan…" Mio took a moment to marvel at Kyo's close friendship with Suki, before remind her of the impending doom behind them. "Right, let's get going!"
The pair speeded off with Suki resting on Kyo's shoulders. Despite the weight added to her back, Kyo kept her speed above that of the horde and Tank behind them.
Memories of Suki's childhood flashed in her mind as she felt the wind whipping through her hair.
"Kyo-chan…why are you so mean to me at school, but nice to me when it's just us? I don't quite understand."
Mio was busy in the front pushing any infected to the side with the handle of her katana, feeling slightly impressed at how well she was adapting to this weapon.
"Hey, I have an image to uphold at school! I'm known as the mean girl, and acting nice to you will ruin my reputation!"
Suki's weight was becoming a huge burden on the other girl's back.
"But…I like you when you're nice…it makes me feel…happier."
Kyo felt the girl slipping from her shoulders.
"Well yeah, we are friends, right? Just remember that under all of that mean-ness I show, I really do care for you!"
With the newfound adrenaline, she grabbed her friend's arms and grasped Suki before she fell onto the ground again.
"Thanks…for always helping me…" Suki muttered near inaudibly, yet enough for Kyo to hear.
The latter smirked at the comment. "You couldn't just leave me with Mio over there, right? Some zombie would get us while we were arguing."
Notified of Azusa, Tsumugi, and Ritsu's presence, every one of the infected shuffled their legs toward the threesome.
Ritsu, being the courageous type of leader but also the leader that makes shit up while she goes, led the other two members of the band in a random direction, shooting any of the zombies that lay in the path ahead.
Azusa kept close to her headband-less senpai, smacking any zombies that dare come close enough to harm her. Such zombies' efforts were met with a blunt blow of cold steel metal to the face, blood streaming on the ground, trees, and Azusa's uniform. Of course, such a small detail as a bloodied-up uniform could be shrugged off easily as long as she survived with her senpai's intact.
Tsumugi was beginning to grow accustomed to fighting zombies, and even found pleasure in killing them in more creative ways than just hitting them with a mere pan. Of course, she still kept her pace equal to Ritsu's and Azusa's, but she soon found herself slapping the zombie's face against the bark of a tree, elbowing one in the neck, and straight up knocking one out with a strong punch to the face.
"Nice one Mugi!" Ritsu called out after the ojou-sama crashed the cooking utensil against a zombie that had almost bitten the brunette.
Despite them being normal high school girls in every possible way, they were faring well in a zombie apocalypse so far.
"Ritsu-senpai!" While running, she turned her head around at Azusa's exclamation to find even more normal infected on their tail. Looking back in front of her, she found a large number of normal infected surrounding them.
"Eh…crap, Azusa, what do we do?" Ritsu panicked.
"How should I know, you're the leader!"
"Hey, you're the most level-headed and smartest person in the club next to Mio! Think of something!"
The zombies were rapidly closing the distance, each of them eager to acquire a tasty human meal.
Despite how much the twin-tailed guitarist strained her brain, she was too pressured to properly think of a way out of the situation. All the while, she was still arguing with Ritsu.
"Azusa-chan, Ricchan, the trees!" The two of them looked at the keyboardist and then at her index finger pointing at the treetops above. "Let's try climbing up there!"
Tsumugi made her way up first, willing to give up her weapon since she wasn't able to climb with it. She reached her hand toward Ritsu from a high branch, while the drummer's other hand held on tightly to the assault rifle.
Azusa felt extremely pressed for time as she could literally feel Death coming to drag her into its chambers of Hell. "Senpai, please hurry up!" She shouted as one of the nearer zombies grabbed her hair ties off of her, letting the junior's obsidian hair flow freely on her back.
"Azusa-chan, grab my hand!" Looking up, Azusa immediately jumped for the outstretched arm, her left hand desperately trying to make contact with Tsumugi's.
Their hands grasped each other, but not before pain suddenly erupted in Azusa's thigh. "Agh, my leg!" she screamed out in agony, dropping her own pan in the process.
"Azusa!" Ritsu called out, and let her rage release itself in one giant flurry of bullets. With skill that she never knew she had, the drummer took out many of the infected with well placed headshots.
As soon as all of them were high up in the trees and safe from their predators, Tsumugi and Ritsu took the time to inspect Azusa's leg wound.
"Oh my…" Tsumugi mouthed as she and Ritsu gaped at the wound. Three noticeably large scratch marks had been etched across the junior's leg, blood seeping out onto the branch and coloring it a sickly red. "Azusa-chan, can you move?"
"I-It burns…but I should be able to move…"
"Ergh, a stupid Hunter must have got her," Ritsu said bluntly. "Doesn't look like a bite mark, but it must have been able to graze her leg with its claws."
While they were inspecting the wound, the growls below reminded them how they needed to get out of there for any help.
"Azusa, you think you'll be okay?" Concern was etched all over Ritsu's face. "You can move, right?"
"Don't worry senpai, I'm injured, not near death." The guitarist smiled back at her leader in assurance.
"We should be able to jump across these branches and get out, right Ricchan?" Tsumugi stated, followed by Ritsu nodding.
"Yeah. Alright Azusa, if you need any help, ask me or Mugi to carry you on our backs, okay?"
"Thank you two…but I think I'll be just fine.
It was pure luck; absolute pure luck that the girls were able to shake off the gigantic horde that accumulated behind them, along with the Tank.
They had come across an extremely narrow alley. While they were running through it, Mio kicked a garbage container across the alley and into the zombies, effectively knocking them back.
Eventually, they managed to lose the undead army without losing any blood or limbs, which was quite an accomplishment for the high school girls.
"Heh, when I apply for a college…" Kyo said between breaths. "I'll be damn sure to put this on my resume…"
Now on the floor and gaining a little strength back, Suki replied "Just tell me what college that is, and I'll be sure to follow you there all the way."
Again, Mio admired their close friendship, yet it made her yearn to be reunited with her own best friend.
"It'd be delightful if Mio-chan could join us as well, right?" Suki grinned at the bassist, in which the latter returned the gesture.
"For Suki, of course. Kyo might be a deal breaker though." The three began laughing at Mio's joke, happy that they were able to survive through such a situation.
Unexpectedly, the trio heard multiple explosions erupting not too far from their currently location. In fact, from the alley way they were currently residing in, Mio could see a few corpses fly past them.
It was then that the bassist heard a familiar song play.
A song that was played at a certain wedding reception.
A song that a certain teacher played in a certain band.
"LOVE…" Mio whispered. "That can't possibly be…"
The death metal voice that sang along with the song confirmed her suspicions. "It's her!" the raven-haired girl suddenly yelled.
"What? I can't hear you, some idiot is playing death metal too loudly."
"No Kyo, that's her!" The pair of best friends only looked at Mio in confusion. She felt like face-palming at them even though it was completely reasonable that she wasn't being clear enough.
"It's Sawako-sensei, my homeroom teacher!"
"Really?" Suki and Kyo questioned simultaneously.
"Trust me, I know the voice of the woman who has gotten me into many cosplay outfits. Hurry, let's get over there!"
A misunderstanding expression took on their faces for a second, but they soon followed Mio in suit.
If Sawako-sensei's here…maybe Ritsu's there with her!
"HAHA! Forest of the Marathon, you have been conquered!"
Azusa didn't even feel like deadpanning at the victory comment; she joined both seniors in celebrating the fact that they were to escape the forest of undead death and back outside where they could finally see the night sky clearly.
Unfortunately, Ritsu had lost her SCAR assault rifle while traversing the various trees, but she found living unarmed to be much more preferable than living without an arm.
"Azusa-chan, are you still okay?" Tsumugi asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. My leg is still burning intensely, but it's nothing life-threatening." Azusa couldn't help but beam brightly, feeling that all of the girls were going to make it out alive.
"Alright, before we move on troop," Ritsu began. "I just wanted to say thanks for the encouragement back there again. Without that, I would have been zombie dinner, hehe. Really though, thanks so mu-"
Before she brunette had a chance to finish, a chain of explosions sounded nearby.
"Argh, that completely ruined my mood!" Ritsu complained.
"It's okay Ricchan, we're just thankful that we're all still together!" Tsumugi's smile instantly calmed the drummer's nerves.
However, such nerves were soon excited after hearing a familiar metal song play in the distance.
"Ricchan, isn't that…Sawako-sensei's song LOVE…?"
A recognizable scream pierced their ears, rattling their brains up and down in their skulls.
"Yes Mugi-senpai, there's no mistaking it!"
"That must be Sawa-chan! I completely forgot about her! Maybe Mio's with her! Come on girls, stop standing around, hurry up already!"
Before they had a chance to fathom the fact that their teacher was alive and that Mio could possibly be with her, Ritsu had taken off at full speed toward the direction of the guitar shredding.
"Mio…I'll finally get to see you again! And apologize for how much of an idiot I've been!"
A/N: Majestic mucus has been out of commission for reasons I honestly don't know, so I was also desperately searching for a replacement beta-reader. Surprisingly, my friend in real life agreed to beta for me, and I'm very grateful for her help. She wanted me to credit her as "VD", so thank you VD.
Anyway, reviews and criticisms are appreciated but of course, not demanded.
NEXT CHAPTER: the members of the Light Music Club finally reunite, Sawako explains how she's one of the freaks who have long awaited a zombie apocalypse, and all of the girls somehow squish into the teacher's tiny mini-van and anger her to the point of wanting to brutally murder all of them with an assortment of weapons she inexplicably wields to make her even more badass.