I'm so sorry once more xD. You know… I think I just kind of lost my groove with writing. I'll finish it, and keep posting chapters. Yet I guess I'll finally have to admit that I am not able to do it at a quick pace anymore, I also know fully well that this chapter will surely disappoint, since on top of having taken me so long, it is just a chapter of miscalancious trivial things before shit gets real again.

Please pardon me and don't give me any virtual slaps. That'd be much appreciated

Act 14: The dead sea.

It was indeed a calm day after the incident. Not because everyone was satisfied, no, it was quite the opposite actually. Ever since little kaname had been bitten by what seemed to be fish under the same circumstances as humanity, everyone had been down. The two different groups of survivors went to each other for comfort causing the passengers on the ship to abandon their "duties" and focus on forgetting the world and all its marvelous beauties. Team Takashi was split in two, meaning: Takashi, Rei, and Alice with her little pet dog Zeke at the deck, since he had promised to talk to her the other night. Meanwhile Hirano, Saya and Saeko found themselves sitting in the kitchen, where a strange odor of weed still hung in the air. The only person missing was Shizuka, whom was in the same room as Kaname, the Giant Jasper and his friend Sergio whom was comforting the taller of the two.

At The deck

"Well, to be honest with you Alice, I don't think you can do it." Takashi spoke monotone as he and the two girls watched the sail. Although the ship had an operating motor, the sails were still completely out and it was up to the trio to do something about it.

"I think I can." The child spoke equally monotone. Having her little hands placed on her hips she chuckled softly. "In fact, I know I can. I did so before."

"Oh did you now?" Takashi asked as he raised an eyebrow whilst looking at the girl. "Since when can toddlers do more than fully grown men like myself?" He himself added a barely noticeable chuckle behind that line as well.

"Maybe not, but I can at least do something equally good as a bratty teenager." Alice spouted out towards Takashi. Though, all in good fun.

"Ohoho… you hurt my manly feelings little m'am. All…-"

"All one of them yes…"

The boy chuckled at the kid. She was growing up quickly. Mentally that was. "Oi… that's my line."

"Yup… and mine."

"No, just mine."

"Hihi fine… it's our little secret." The little girl added. Smiling with a gleeful blush. She lowered her hands a little to pat the barking dog, whom was all too eager to let its existence be known to all.

The wind blew through their hair as they tried to focus on the task at hand, which was raising the sails. Their eyes followed the redhead whom had taken the liberty of climbing up the sails to do the heavy lifting. Why? Nobody except her knew. Komuro had insisted multiple times that he'd do it yet the girl merely scoffed at the proposal. Though in the end, she did make a good point. She was a whole lot more agile than he was, hence also a better climber. Rei had been tasked to make sure the ropes would not get knotted whilst Takashi would pull them up, which sounds a whole lot easier than it actually was, considering she stood at the very least five meters in the air. Meanwhile Alice would climb on the Cabin and make sure the sail would not wrap into strange and unrecognizable folds. None of them, except apparently Alice, had any clue of how to operate a ship like this. Hence they took no risks. Little did they know, nor care, that they were the only ones doing anything slightly intensive at this point of the day. The three younglings went to their business, and to their surprise it all went flawless. Even though that was most likely the case because this ship seemed to be well maintained, it did help with giving them a vague sort of ego boost.

About thirty minutes later they were done. Rei climbed down and took a few deep breaths when her tender feet reached the slippery wood of the deck once more. After a few coughs she regained herself and stood up straight and smiled. "That went better than expected."

Takashi raised his head as she spoke. "Yeah, you did great up there. I guess you were right after all." Their eyes remained locked for a second or two until the little girl jumped down from the cabin as well. With a loud grunt she landed on her juvenile ankles and almost tumbled over. Fortunately she was able to hold on to the railing and keep on her feet.

"You allright there? Alice-chan?" The boy asked after he heard Rei gasp.

"Y-yeah, I'm tough." The girl whispered to herself before confirming her health was not even slightly bruised.

"You sure are little one." Her leader spoke with tired eyes. Where his eyes had once been brown and fierce, they were now darker. His eyelids dropped further down and the spark had long since disappeared. Sadly, that very spark only came back at certain times. Those times where when he was with his girl, had to protect people or when he was simply alone, doing his thing. The latter was a very rare gift however.

He was about to get even more exhausted when he gave Rei another few seconds of his attention. He saw her sadness and was about to sigh out in annoyance if it wasn't for her sudden chuckle. Rei sat down on her knees and toyed a bit with Alice's dark purple dress.

"We've got to keep you a pretty lady don't we." She spoke more to herself than the little girl but it didn't matter. The two young women shared a smile before both turning to Takashi to simply stare at him.

"Is something the matter?" The boy exclaimed.

"No, not really. Just having a good look at you." Rei replied, all too eager to try and be mysterious. Whilst in truth, she was just a scared little girl most of the time.

"Yeah" Alice confirmed.

Not really knowing how to react, he simply felt his cheeks turn red and tried to avoid eye contact. "Y-yeah… and why ?"

Alice's her attention had already been taken away by her pet dog, whilst Rei seemed to turn a vague colour of red as well. They both knew there were some feelings left deep inside them, and situations like this did little to forget those tugged away sensations.

"Takashi… got some time to talk now?" Her voice cracked out, catching the attention of both Alice and Takashi, the former whom pretended not to have heard it, the latter just raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, I guess I promised it last night. " This time it was Takashi whom spoke to Alice in a kind, yet undeniable firm voice. "Hey, Alice-chan, could you go below deck for a bit." He patted her head and gave her a smile yet there was something off with the way he spoke. Almost as if he had already prepared for the worst and was expecting the following exchange of words to erupt in a row unlike any others. Nevertheless, the girl obeyed like any small child would do and chuckled, hugged her dog and went inside, leaving Rei and Takashi alone on the deck only accompanied by the salty sea air and the warm feeling of the bright and white sun on their skin. It was indeed a good day if one liked sunshine.

The duo found their way to the backside of the vessel as Takashi sat down on the railing whilst Rei took up position just in front of him. She already had grabbed hold of her own arm and seemed to bite on her tongue for a bit, yet besides that there was nothing too strange about her being where she was.

"So… Rei, you wanted to talk." Takashi confirmed, anxious to know if this was about what he thought it'd be about.

"y-yes, I'm just trying to find the right words." Rei spoke. " Excuse me…" was added shortly afterwards.

"No problem, we've got the time. At least until we know what's up with kaname-chan down below." He took a deep breath and simply tasted the salt in the air. It was a nice change from the smell of rotting corpses that was for sure, yet he couldn't help but to cough it up as the salt reached his throat.

"Yeah… so, I'm sorry. "

"For what?" He knew what she meant. But despite that he wanted her to tell him directly.

"For… you know."

"Do tell, please do." Once more he took a deep breath, the salt once more filled his throat yet this time he swallowed it. "I want to hear it from you Rei."

Below deck, in the Kitchen.

"Should we bring them some drinks?" Hirano asked himself out loud and was not really expecting an answer. Yet the fact that he got a reply made him smile inside. He wasn't alone like in his dream last night. Everyone had been gone, Them, his friends, everyone was simply… gone. Albeit the world they were living in was more horrific than his dream world, it was still bad for his mood. Fortunately for the guy, sitting here with both Saeko and Saya cheered him up. Saya appeared to be her grumpy old self again, whilst Saeko was unpacking a rucksack she found whilst searching some spices in the closets. The indigo haired woman had taken the liberty to boil some beef tea for the tree of them. Saeko sat down on the almond colored chairs and unzipped the bag which was, to her surprise, filled with countless small things. Obviously it got the attention of her companions as well, saya looked at the bag over her two weeks old newspaper, and Kohta , whom was sitting next to Saya and directly opposite towards Saeko hung over the table and felt like grabbing the bag.

"Saeko-san… What did you find?" He asked, almost swallowing his words due to being afraid of Saya's reaction at that dumb question. Fortunately for him, she was wondering the same.

"Yeah, senpai, what did you find?" The pig tailed girl wondered.

Letting her oceanic eyes scan her two peers she smiled inside her head. It'd be good for her to socialize a bit with others besides Takashi. "Let me see." She answered quite cold as her hands went for the things inside of the dark blue bag. There wasn't much of use inside of it, mainly items for which your regular teenager would kill. First to reach the table was an empty Xperia phone with a broken glass and a few dark red stains. Second came a box of crayons, followed by the complete trilogy of the lord of the rings, some aftershave, an equally empty 3DS, and last but not least two sets of about 40 cards. As soon as she had laid those on the table Kohta made a few grunts that expressed his happiness and nerdiness upon seeing those things.

"Hirano-kun… something the matter?" Saeko asked with a frown as she as well stared at the sets of cards.

"Y-yeah… just remembering things."

"You don't say?" The indigo haired female replied with a hidden emotion. She as well recognized the sets. In fact, the only person in the room that didn't react in the slightest was Saya.

"What are you two on about?!" The girl exclaimed a bit too enthusiastic whilst eying both the chubby boy and the athletic woman.

A short silence befell them before Kohta opened his mouth to reply.

"Well, I used to play that card game back when everything didn't go to shit.. Like, .. quite often actually." His cheeks reddened after his confession, feeling ashamed for admitting being nerdy. Not that that wasn't obvious already, but it simply was uncomfortable for him to say that about himself.

"I've never seen those before…" Saya said softly as her creamy white hand made for one of the two sets.

"Well… it was quite popular amongst my peers.." Hirano spoke as he played with his fingers.

"Hmm, that explains." Piggy tails scoffed teasingly as her eyes scanned over the cards. "Well, the artwork is pretty at least. But it doesn't look that fun to me.."

"Well… " before the boy could finish his sentence his words were already interrupted. But not by Saya nor a stranger. It was Saeko whom spoke the next words.

"Well, actually it is quite… fun." She spoke calmly and rather bland. "How about a .. duel, Kohta-kun?" Her oceanic eyes had little trouble convincing the adventurous nerd whom didn't even have to reply with words for his sheeny eyes gave away his excitement. Saya raised an eyebrow towards her senpai as she put the cards she held in front of Kohta.

"Saeko-san, did you play this as well then?" Saya asked, almost ready to slap herself for asking such a dumb question. Fortunately she was answered politely with a smile as the samurai sat down in front of Kohta and went for the second set of cards.

"Yes, a few times. Not that often, but it'll make for great distraction." Her pale hands began shuffling the cards on an enigmatic and, different, manner. At least compared to Kohta's rude and clumsy shuffling that was.

"I see, you didn't strike me as the type to play these kind of… games?" Miss piggy tails added without meaning any offence.

"I guess I gave away that vibe.. Truth is however, .." She stopped talking when she, which seemed on purpose, dropped a few cards on the ground. No questions were asked since both of them were ready.

Kohta, whom was obviously still uncomfortable felt himself struggling to talk to Saeko about this. It simply felt so wrong to him. His eyes went for Saya as well, but she did not notice him. In fact, she appeared to be a tad enthralled by the cards. Maybe, if the chubby buy was lucky, she even seemed interested in the game itself. For now however, he'd play with Busujima. Which was, considering her looks, already a dream come true.

"Well, Saeko-san, shall I began." He eventually asked as he noticed that his friend the samurai frowned upon seeing the first five cards in her hand.

"Sure, go ahead." The female replied without giving away her hand. Unknown to Kohta, he was actually playing against quite an experienced duelist whom knew exactly what the purpose of her set of cards was already.

"Right." His hand went for a sixth card, and he as well saw what he had to do. He however, lacked the element of surprise. "I'll open fiercely I suppose.." Kohta spoke as he put a card face up on the field. "Atlantean marksman, followed by two face down cards. And I end my turn." All his words were spoken softly, but he began to relax a bit when he saw Saeko give him a small smile of approval. The cherry on top however was that Saya didn't scoff at him at all.

It was now the young woman's turn. "You're just playing my game Hirano." Her small hands placed one face down monster and three face down cards on the field, leaving only two cards left in her hand.

"Hehe.. this might actually get fun."

On top of the deck

The wind blew ferociously as the two teenagers hadn't changed their position one bit.

"So, found the words yet?" Takashi asked impatiently yet equally calm.

"yeah, I guess I'll just open this conversation up fiercely." Rei whispered out with a blush as she clasped to her own left arm.

"yeah you do that, I'm actually a bit excited now." He joked, knowing all too well that he came across as a douche.

"y-yeah well, don't be. If anything, stay neutral like always." The red head coughed softly and rubbed her eyes before carrying on.

"I'll try, no worries Rei." Takashi confirmed as he took a big gasp of the salty yet refreshing sea air. "Ahh lovely isn't it?"

"Y-yeah, it's nice out here." A little frown appeared on her face. Was he mocking her? Or was it simply something on her face? "I'm here to offer my apologies."

Takashi felt his heart skip a beat upon hearing this. "Rei…" Not sure whether to be mad again, grateful or neither of those he decided to simply await her next words. "I know I can't stop my feelings for you… but I'm putting us all at risk by acting like a jealous Mary sue. Takashi, if you would allow me to make up to you properly today, it'd mean the world for me."

"R-Rei…" He stuttered again. He really didn't know what was going on, she had done nothing wrong ever since her short struggle against Busujima back in the city? Sure, one of them could have died back then but… that was in the past, and solved. Wasn't it? "Why? I mean… not to be rude… but I thought we were even?"

"yes, yes we are. But it doesn't feel that way now, does it?" Their eyes locked, and cheeks reddened. "No.. I guess not. B-but…" He stopped in his tracks, yet was pulled out of the mud.

"But what?" She asked

"I'm with Saeko-san now… we can't get too close without.. you know?" He stopped talking for about ten seconds since he already saw a hurricane forming in Rei's eyes. In the end however, he finished his sentence. "Without putting you two at odds again."

Back below deck.

"AUch…. That was a rather critical hit Saeko-san." Kohta confirmed as he scribbled the number 6400 on a little paper and removed two of his face up cards from play. The mood had somewhat lightened up as they were now simply playing a game and not much else. The samurai bit on her lips as she awaited the chubby guy's move. Saya adjusted her glasses before finally sitting down next to Kohta and relaxed her muscles. The chestnut brown chairs filled the already salty air with a faint scent of varnish. The smell of cannabis was slowly but surely being replaced by that way more enjoyable odour.

"Well… it's your turn again. Not much that I can do." Hirano spoke relatively grumpy as he simply sat there with three cards in his hand which were apparently rather useless.

"Figured. I guess my roses won't be removed after all. " Her slender pale hands drew a card from the deck and almost immediately placed it face down on the ground. "I end my turn… remove yet another plant from play and bring back phoenixian cluster amaryllis."

"Don't you ever get tired of that?" Mister hirano spoke from behind his glasses which got him a smile from Saeko and a sigh from Saya. The latter whom coughed for a bit before finally opening her mouth again.

"I didn't think you'd be losing these kind of games Kohta-kun…" The girl stared at Kohta from the corners of her eyes and found it to be rather gullible how deep he was engulfed in the game. Nevertheless, she supported her own head on her small hands and simply stared at the table, following the game.

"In Hirano-kun's defense, I have quite some experience with this here little card game." Saeko spoke equally obsessed with the duel. "Maybe not as much… but definitely quite a bit." She placed 2 cards on the table and removed one. Declared an attack, and drew two more cards. Followed up by another plant removed from play so that she could once more return that same card back to the field.

This same process went on for a few more minutes. It was then that little Alice walked in with the puppy in her thin arms. She didn't say all too much for she was sniffling back at the dog, thus her entrance went quite unnoticed. Nobody even spoke to her before she sat down next to Saeko.

"Alice-chan, want some tea?" the samurai asked without thinking all too much about it.

"No thanks, I already got some from Shizuka."

"You went to see her?"Saya then asked. "How was Kaname?!"

"All right I suppose…" The girl whispered out uncomfortably. "She didn't cry at least."

"That's something at least." The piggy tails replied quite rudely, gaining the evil eye from Saeko yet a reply from Kohta.

"Let's not interrogate little Alice though.. I'll go check on Shizuka and the others afterwards." He said as he finally seemed to have gotten a good card.

"Since when are you so responsible?" As asked by Saya.

"Well…" His head turned to the girl for a bit, though not for very long because he felt a blush right away. " Since we have an infected on board, and I feel safe here.. I want to keep it that way, for all of us." His lips curled in a little smile at his heroic speech. In fact, he felt so good about himself that he didn't even react to Saya's scoff and Saeko's smiling face.

"He's a real man isn't he Takagi?" She asked with quite a tease in her low voice. Obviously getting a shocked reaction from the tsundere whose head turned about as red as blood. In a fit of denial she almost fell off her chair backwards yet managed to catch the table in order to keep her balance . All to the amusement of Saeko, whom was wiggling her feet and giggling softly. It had been a while since she had laughed about trivial matters like this. She loved it. Her oceanic eyes turned to the little girl to her left whom had a sinister smile upon her juvenile little lips.

Saeko did not really know why she suddenly started to feel a tad worse again. Most likely she missed Takashi, and the fact that Alice was here with her now, meant that Takashi was upstairs with Rei. Alone.

…

Alone. That was a word Saeko didn't like in the slightest bit. Not since she was changing into a different person.

"Busujima-senpai?" A little high pitched voice asked. "Saeko-chan? Do I have something on my nose?"

Waking up within the blink of an eye Saeko shook her head and smiled once more. "Nothing Alice-chan, your face is pretty as always."

Sharing a soft sparkle in their eyes the mood was returned to normal once more. "Alice-chan, is Taka..t.. Komuro still above with Rei?" She eventually asked quite flat out.

"Y-yeah I guess. Shouldn't be too long though. Rei-chan only wanted to talk about something." The girl stood up from her chair and started following the dogs, completely oblivious to the feelings of her group's most ferocious diva.

"I see… " She blinked a few times and returned to the card game. With a heavy heart she placed a card and ended her turn. As she looked at Kohta and Saya having yet another harmless flirt her mood dropped low once again. Yet instead of losing her composure, she simply smiled along with the next few things one of the others said. Smiling and blinking, laughing and coughing, it didn't really matter. As long as the others didn't think about her being equally jealous as Rei. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe the others hadn't even given it a thought, or maybe they were all judging her about now. Busujima Saeko, that jealous aggressive know it all. Busujima Saeko that im… No no no, she was thinking too much once more. In fact, she was thinking so much that her hands simply played the game without her brain following it. Why was she being so gullible? Takashi was hers right? He had said so… Then why did she feel so unsafe. So… betrayed. Well the answer was evident. The answer was Rei.

And how to solve the problem? Well it really was quite simple. She only had to be there with Takashi, nothing more, nothing less.

"Kohta-kun, pardon me please. Can we finish this in a bit?" She stood up gracefully and slow yet walked towards the door in a pace which left them all a bit flabbergasted. Neither Saya nor Kohta had the time to ask even a single thing or mutter a word before Saeko was already at the door.

"Saeko?! Where are you going?"Saya asked in a hurry, but she as well was too late. The steel door was shut tightly and the room was left in an eerie silence.

-At the top of the deck.-

"So it's all settled then?" The young, yet honest leader coughed out, wanting to check on the situation below deck.

"Yes… it is I suppose.." Rei replied on a blank tone, fervently trying to hide the cheeriness inside of her broken heart the girl merely nodded. Yet however, as she turned around to make her way to the kitchen she was met with the last thing she had wanted to see right now. There, from the steel door, came her competitor. Busujima saeko turned around and her feelings weren't too different from the red-head. Taking light steps towards her boyfriend the two girls passed one another without even saying as much as a word.

Upon reaching the boy whom merely looked at her with a smile it was Saeko whom spoke first. "Hi… What was that?" The woman asked in a way that made it all too clear that she was not amused in the slightest.

"Hmm… nothing? She just wanted to apologise Rei… nothing more."

"Nothing more?" Busujima replied.

"Aye… nothing more. We'll eat a bit together and get things sorted once and for all." He had spoken those words casually and without worrying all too much about it. However, when the leader saw his girl clutching her own arms and looking the other way, he merely offered his hand, pulled her closer and embraced her. Patting the girl on the back she closed his eyes and took in the scent of her indigo hair.

"I told you to not worry didn't I?" He asked, and immediately felt her nod against his chest. "Then why do you worry? I thought we closed this…" Once more, she merely nodded in his arms. Was Saeko crying? It didn't look like it. And indeed, there were no tears to be found on her face, t'was only her mind that went astray and seemingly had no feeling of purpose left. Something was about to go down, yet she could not do anything about it. She had failed as a girlfriend. And since they were merely drifting on the sea, she had no place to go with him to make up for lost time.

And what did she choose to do? The woman lifted her head, looked him in his hazel eyes and pressed her lips against his own. For how long? She had forgotten. Why? That was just as unkown. She simply needed it. A lot.

Having him against her made her feel better. Alife, happy even. T'was a different form of happiness that she was so used to when fighting them. This felt warm, reliable and ever-lasting.

A fine counterweight to this sea of dead.

And that was dead. Hmm…. How on earth will I get this story back on track. I am not even sure. I've got a massive Dark souls RP kind of story which I might upload for fun. It's nowhere near as detailed, but it';s something. Who knows! Anyways, please let me know how disappointed you are with this one haha. ( Fishing compliments!)

But nah, in all seriousness. Please review and let me know whether you'd still want me to continue. And I'll be sure to do so.

Still love you all!

Yamuch-san