Chapter 353 - My SI Stash #53 - What To Do In a B Movie World by ArcSele (HighSchoolOfTheDead) (1/2)

-Gots to be the first HOTD fic I've read where the MC has such a late mental boom reaction lol/ Understandable but still eh~

Synopsis: Waking up in an unfamiliar place wasn't new to him. Being in Japan was. Finding he was in a horror manga, or what would become one, was worse.

Rated: T

Words: 65K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/12687797/1/What-To-Do-In-a-B-Movie-World/ (ArcSele)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

Dedicated to Gr_a_p_e-kun

[1st]

I wasn't all that surprised or uncomfortable to find myself waking up in a house that wasn't mine. This kind of thing happened, I was visiting a friend or traveling for family vacation, nothing to flip a tit over. The first sign something was wrong was when I put on my shoes and stepped outside to find a small store near me that had not an ounce of English but instead Japanese. This was unusual but I put it off as one of us moving near some local twist on Japanese cuisine. The next problem was when turned to find some joint that I could understand or enjoy only to find more of a language I didn't understand. I blinked a couple of times and looked around me, the people walking about were all Asian, Japanese I would guess if the signs were any indication and moreover some of them had what appeared to be uniforms.

Reacting like any confused individual I turned around and headed back to where I'd come out of. Looking around the place I'd woken up revealed that the house was rather small and more than that, sparse. Spartan was the first phrase that came to mind, though that left when I noticed a TV and laptop plus a few other handy things. Huh, when did I move to Japan?

It was after shaking myself of any remaining drowsiness and stupidity that I started looking into my situation a bit more. Checking my pockets found all the usual stuff I kept, albeit with some changes from the norm. Keychains, little wipe packs for my glasses, and wallet in my left pocket, which included some IDs along with some passes and cash in the form of Yen, though my first name had been changed for some reason. Pocket knife and change in the right.

Breaking out of my early morning daze had revealed that all the foreign characters that had previously meant about as much to me as screams to a deaf person were now perfectly understandable, as I'd discovered browsing the boob tube and seeing multiple channels in Japanese and finding I could easily get what I was seeing and hearing. Checking my phone showed my apps remained the same and checking the laptop showed that it was indeed mine and that I'd been just titting about on YouTube and the like recently, as well as the fact that I'd recently been hired at a local convenience store, all said and done I seemed to be living by myself rather capably for a while now. The question was, what brought me here?

The first day at work had been fine, I'd been one of only two people working that shift and had relatively few customers coming in, an intentional thing it seemed, as the owners -a lovely middle-aged couple named Satoru and Ayame Kouno- figured it'd be best not to overwhelm the newbie, which was fine considering I'd worked retail before, not that they had to know that, though they did say it'd be tougher from tomorrow on. The person working with me was a fidgety teenager by the name of Naoya Hiyama, a second year at the local high school, Fujimi Academy. All around seemingly nice people though Naoya looked ready to jump if someone sneezed too loudly.

I took off my shoes as I entered my house, after leaving work I had taken a few hours to walk around the neighborhood, trying to get a feel for the place; that, along with standing behind a counter for hours even if I didn't really do much while there led to my feet aching quite a bit by the time I arrived. Being a college age a_d_u_l_t that hadn't really done much physically or otherwise in the time before finding myself here meant I wasn't really ready for the amount of foot travelling one did in Japan, though I found that it wasn't nearly as bad as it should've been.

I padded over to my bathroom and started the bath up, hoo boy, living here was gonna take some getting used to. Finishing that brought up something, the school Naoya had mentioned when introducing himself, something about that name tickled my brain, I'd never been to Japan or known anyone that had either, much less went to school here.

I racked my brain trying to see what I could recognize it from, a doc_u_mentary? Don't think I watched one of those recently enough to have it stick. A book? Hadn't read a book with a Japanese setting in a while either, a manga or anime perhaps? Most likely but again I couldn't remember any of those with a Fujimi Academy from recent memory, I hope that didn't mean it was a bad one or something, that was really the only thing I could think of where I'd try to forget anything about it, at least enough to not remember a school, unless it wasn't one of the main locations?

I gave a quick sigh and finished cleaning up before I walked over to my towel, drying off and dressing, it was then that I looked in the mirror. Truth be told, I hadn't really looked in a mirror or seen my reflection all day, never really had a reason to. Trying to be presentable was fine and all but, honestly, while my hair was kind of curly and my longest amount of facial hair amounted to 'barely over prepubescent' at most, neither were enough of a problem at this point to worry about. Other than that, making myself look alright was rather simple and didn't require looking in the mirror.

That said, I saw that the roundness that had followed me throughout life and quite noticeable hunch from around junior high were gone, as well as most of the more obvious blemishes I'd had. Did I have surgery or something before moving here? Had I been on the run and decided to change my appearance before skedaddling away from home? Possible, in both cases though my lack of debt and the fact that I'd kept my real name on all forms of ID said otherwise for the latter, unless I was incompetent of course.

I closed my eyes. Hopefully some of the questions I'd had earlier would be answered in the coming future.

This wasn't good.

The next day at work I'd been busy doing my job, ringing things up, making sure the customers were all good with change and such when three friends came in. The first thing that stood out was their appearances, 2 boys and a girl, the taller one had straight gray hair and brown eyes, a nice face and frame. Not normal but definitely not something to really care about.

Then came the other two, the shorter boy had brown eyes, a lean build and spiky black hair, spiky. Huh. The girl was the shortest of them all, with orange hair that had two prominent bangs and what seemed like small antenna, as well as a figure that I could only assume would result in major back pain, all of them had uniforms on. The fact that none of the a_d_u_l_ts were all that bothered by the hair color or appearance itself meant this was normal or at least not as out of place as it should have been. Then I heard the name coming from the tallest boys' mouth from the end of his question, ”-Takashi?” That made a niggling thought appear in my mind, as if this should have been important, why? It was just his name.

Takashi replied while turning to the girl, ”Sounds good, wanna come over too Rei?” That sent a special kind of nausea through my body. Why did these names ring alarms in my head? What was so special about them?

”Excuse me, Vega-san?” A voice asked. I don't think I was gonna get used to that, especially the weird accent with which it was pronounced, for a while; seeing it in games or the like was one thing, hearing it was a totally different matter. I looked over to Naoya and saw him nervously looking at me.

”Hm?” I returned, still trying to puzzle out why these kid's names were bothering me.

”Are you alright? You just stumbled a bit.” He looked me over while shuffling a bit. I assured him I was and turned back to the group to see them staring at me. They'd been close enough to the register to see my stumble and were looking at me with varying emotions. Ah, shoot, forgot to greet them. ”Welcome,” I said, bowing a bit while saying so. They quickly nodded at me and started going to different spots, presumably to get their stuff.

Why did that happen? What was- Oh.

That's why I recognized the names.

The answers I'd received weren't very welcome.

This changes everything.

That's why I'd forgotten the name of the high school.

Generally, I wasn't the kind of person that went for horror, fanservice or not. I wasn't one for things where lots people died in a short amount of time either, but when I did stumble upon one that I would choose to read, I'd push it from my mind after finishing to not dwell on all the negative aspects of the universe so as not to feel bad for people that weren't real. That being said this was a horror manga.

I was in High School of The Dead

Realizing such a thing made my memories of the show flood back into me and I started to panic, so I'd checked the time to see if I was going to be attacked by zombies tomorrow or something. It was October 16th. I started to think about what I'd seen; Takashi and Rei didn't seem to have had their breakup yet as there was no awkwardness or tension. All of them were wearing long sleeved uniforms which meant the winter ones, this supported the fact that yes, the date on my phone wasn't wrong, or at least not completely off. Then there was the fact that they were wearing what looked to be the variations of the same uniform meaning they were all in high school, presumably. If that was true then Takashi and what had to have been Hisashi were first years. Meaning I only had a few months assuming it happened during spring, an assumption since there were cherry blossoms, and that only happened when it was spring right? God, I needed to do some research if I didn't want to die quicker than the extras.

This s_u_c_k_e_d.

That was an understatement, this was a catastrophe.

I couldn't even tell when things happened, I didn't go to school anymore and I doubt I could apply as a teacher, they had to have standards right? I mean, I guess the ghouls trying to chomp me would be a good indication that everything had gone into the gutter but I'd prefer one that didn't turn me into a side character with a bit of knowledge, thank you very much.

How did I get here? The only possible explanation I could think of was a dream or a ROB. In the case of the former, dying would do me well in getting out of it. In the case of the latter, that was very much not an option, obviously. If this was a ROB I would find my way out of this mess and beat him senseless, or die trying, though that would make my survival of this moot but hey, vengeance is cool, yeah? if this was a dream I was gonna look myself in the mirror when I woke up and punch myself as hard as I could for putting myself through this.

God. This s_u_c_k_e_d.

Chapter 2

[1st]

Kind of fitting that I was sent into this world in October.

That was the first thing I can remember thinking after my initial panic upon realizing that I had been sent to what would become an undead buffet in a few months.

The summary of my time thinking and flailing is as follows: I could die! Not if I'm prepared! How do I do that? Geh. Ah- never mind. Guess I could wing it. That's asking for death. Oh boy, oh jesus. Think back on the preparation a character has put into zombie stories, any one, something.

An altogether fruitless waste of time. I had decided to leave it for a future me to worry about and went to bed.

One month had passed since my epiphany and the panic that followed. Halloween had come and gone and in that time a plan had formed. Collect non-perishable goods, work out, learn and purchase stuff for self-defense, maybe some camping equipment, yadda yadda yadda. Definitely a work in progress. I'd even gotten to doing some of that stuff, though admittedly not much. Despite having better posture and being thinner and all around looking better I had not been blessed by the Powers That Be with incredible fitness and physique. The first few weeks of working out had been what one would describe as 'Hellish.'

Thanks to that however, I'd discovered something. The day after my first work out I woke up sore, all kinds of sore, like you wouldn't believe, making work rather difficult. What I found however was that by the next day not only was I feeling better, I felt stronger.

I'd tried working out for a bit (read, a week) back home and quickly given up, I know for a fact I hadn't felt that much stronger if at all. And seeing how long it had taken my older brother to make notable gains told me this wasn't normal. Then I remembered something, this was Highschool of The Dead; here, Takashi and the others (with the exception of Saeko and Rei kinda, seeing as they were trained in weapon use beforehand) had gone from normal people to action stars. The transition shouldn't have been as easy as it was, and yet there hadn't been any obvious problems. This brought me to a conclusion, to ease the burden of a tougher lifestyle on people wholly unprepared for it the world made physical activity easier. I could use this, I'd been worrying what to do to prepare and this give me a significant step in the right direction. If the burden of physics lightening up allowed them to pull crazy stunts, I could too, all I needed was time, dedication and knowledge. All of which were present.

It was time to start the grind.

After that I'd found myself making steady progress, seeing as it'd been only a month nothing too major had taken place. Work was fine, the only problem with taking care of myself was all the bills to pay; I could cook and clean well enough to make sure my health wasn't a problem and I hadn't had any reality shaking encounters with the cast or important people in the world and things were peaceful. I could prepare unheeded by any problems.

I decided to look into the main characters. Nothing came up for Takashi, Zeke or Shizuka. Made sense seeing as they didn't really have any relation to people of note. The details that I didn't know about the others were few, Rei's father was respected and had a few cases under his belt so his deal with Shido seemed to be just the latest in a string of corruption reveals, or at least it would've been if not for what would eventually happen. While I had known that Alice's dad had been a journalist I hadn't known what he covered, which was to say a lot. From what I saw his articles covered a wide spectrum of subjects, none of which really caught my attention. Saeko's father, Hideki Busujima was really, really good. The crazy things I'd seen Saeko do in the anime were nearly eclipsed by her father, seeing him in action made me realize just how far one could go in a world like this. In one of his demonstrations he'd shown his quick draw; I'd seen Stan Lee's Superhumans, the episode where a guy cut a pellet in two had been amazing to me, Hideki surpassed that. He cut a pellet going over 500 kph clean in half and managed to almost have his sword back in the sheath by the time it hit the wall. This guy was incredible, I could definitely see how Saeko was so good with someone like this teaching her.

More importantly this was inspiring to me. Obviously, I couldn't get quite this skilled since I didn't have that long but I could work with this. Being in this small apartment with a job at a convenience store didn't mean my chances of getting out of this were as abysmally low as I'd previously thought, he was proof of that.

That night my work out was especially intense.

”Welcome!” I greeted as the door opened and more customers walked in. It was Takashi and Hisashi. I'd discovered throughout the month that he came here often, usually with friends though sometimes without. I'd gotten to know them a bit through hearing snippets of conversation. Takashi was generally easy going, talking and laughing with whoever he was with. Hisashi seemed more calm, still nice and talkative but not as loud as Takashi. Rei was kind and caring, often making sure they didn't forget anything and easily talking to multiple people at once. I have to say, it was quite a difference from what I remembered in either version of the story, though I suppose that was due to the strained nature of her relationship with Takashi and not really being comfortable with everyone else. Last was Morita; there hadn't been much to see of him from the story, a few lines to Takashi before he died in the first chapter and a bonus chapter with exposition on the girls. Seeing him alive was odd, the bits we had seen from the manga were enough to get a picture of his personality and he stayed relatively true to that, he was The Fun One of the group, making jokes, pervy remarks and other light hearted things, though never going over the line.

It was interesting to say the least to see all this interaction with people I knew were gonna be dead come next spring. Like a slice of life spin off but, you know, real, I guess.

Takashi and Hisashi came up to the counter and placed their stuff on it, I rung it up and bagged it, accepting their pay and quickly bowing while giving a farewell. ”Vega-san?” A voice quietly called out.

”Yes?” I glanced at Naoya and waited for him to say something.

”Why do you always stare at them?” His voice was soft, almost like he'd been afraid to ask. In the time I'd known Naoya he'd gone from extremely nervous to passable, the fact that he asked me anything at all was good as I'd been sorely lacking in ways to distract myself from boredom on the job other than occasionally staring at Takashi and his friends.

”They remind me of school, and I know one of them” I said, not quite the whole truth, but I didn't really want to tell anyone that now did I?

”How so?” He asked, seemingly gaining a little confidence from my casual speech and not rebuffing his question.

”The uniform for one thing,” I started, trying to think of anything else that would warrant staring at them specifically. ”The way they spoke, how happy they were, that kind of thing.” I couldn't really think of anything else to say.

”Ah,” he said, I guess that meant this conversation was drawing to a close. ”Did you enjoy it?” he mumbled.

Guess not. ”School?” I asked, turning to him, he nodded. I mulled that question over, had I? I'd never really thought about it other than the usual 'school sucks, why does this matter?' But now that I was out? ”I dunno,” I said, not wanting to take too long with my answer lest Naoya think I wouldn't reply. ”I guess,” I amended.

”Oh, how did you know them?” he asked, seeing I didn't have much to say on that and changing topics.

”I started learning karate,” I said. After watching Hideki the first few weeks I'd figured it was time to get started on learning how to fight and joined a class, even if I wasn't going to use it against the spooks I figured the conditioning would help at the least and I planned on learning more than just Karate in the first place. Needless to say I was surprised to see that Hisashi was there and remembered him mentioning that when he'd refused to use a weapon in the first chapter. I'd laughed and chastised myself, I was doing something that one of the main characters' friends did, of course we would be doing it at the same place. Thankfully no one had cared about me suddenly laughing in the middle of training.

”Ah,” he said again, this time not choosing to say anything else.

Neither of us said a thing after that.

[3rd]

Hirano Kohta was tired, some upperclassmen had been harassing him again, slinging the usual insults and prodding him, trying to get a rise out of him. No one had helped him of course, they never did. He was always stuck taking it whether in school or out. Once they'd let him go he'd just brushed himself off and started to head home. Thankfully he had something to look forward to. In a little over a week he'd be heading to America for some training, thinking about all the awesome stuff he'd learn over there brought a small smile to his face.

”Hey, tubbs!” The harsh tone and words he heard made that smile die a very young death. He paled and gulped while turning around, looking to what he could only assume was another person or group of people ready to pick on him. He was sadly proven right when he saw the blonde hair and muscular build of Tsunoda Hino, member of the track team and one of Kohta's top tormentors. Kohta breathed deeply and hunched in on himself, assuming an aura of submission and defeat. ”Yes, senpai?” He softly asked, wanting this to be over already.

”Hah?” Tsunoda sneered, c_o_c_king his head as if trying to make sure he heard Kohta correctly, ”don't you mean sir?”

”Yes sir?” Kohta quickly corrected, drawing further into himself.

”Listen to this f_u_c_k_i_n_g useless otaku!” Tsunoda cackled ”couldn't even address me properly!” Those with Tsunoda laughed, Kohta stiffened. ”Did our game earlier make you forget everything important? Or are you just that stupid?”

”No sir,” Kohta said, staying completely still.

”Make sure to remember next time okay? We wouldn't want to have to make sure you remember, you couldn't pay us back for wasting our time on you if that happened.” Tsunoda lectured, playing up the situation before continuing ”I'm glad I caught you now, me and my buds were just thinking we wanted something to eat and who better to help us then our bud Kohta huh?”

Kohta looked out of the corner of his eye and saw everyone walking past him, playing off what was happening and going about their business. As always.

That made what he had to say all the worse.

”I don't have any money senp- sir.” Kohta started to tremble, he knew what was coming next.

”What was that?” Tsunoda asked, leaning in again and feigning confusion ”it almost sounded like the fatty refused.”

”I don't have any money,” Kohta said again, dread building the longer this went.

”What did I say about paying us for spending time on you Kohta? If you don't have anything then you're gonna hafta pay us another way, right?” Tsunoda said, voice oozing with sleaziness. The other guys started to close in on Kohta and he began to hunch over. Here it comes. ”Well I'm sure I'll think of something this time,” Tsunoda said, already stepping closer and loosening up. Here it comes.

As soon as he was in range, his fist lashed out.

They'd been just getting to the worst of it when one of them cried out and fell.

Kohta didn't dare look up in case one of them took the chance to kick his face, he'd made that mistake once, it was enough to not do it again. Still, it seemed as if they'd suddenly stopped hitting him though Kohta knew that couldn't have been it. Why would they?

A minute passed. Kohta heard a heavy breath followed by some spit, he flinched, he hated it when they spat on him. Still nothing came. He felt a hand shake him and he tightened up. The hand pulled back and Kohta waited for the punch that was sure to follow.

Again. Nothing.

Eventually Kohta looked up meekly and saw two people sitting by him, waiting for him, as well as his tormentors lying on the floor, groaning or out cold. He started to loosen up and sit down, though not before backing away a bit, just in case.

”You alright?” One of them said, he was tall with well kept grey hair and neutral brown eyes. A good looking face without glasses and he seemed rather lean, like a gymnast or maybe a welterweight boxer, his voice made him seem more m_a_t_u_r_e, Kohta thought it somehow suited him. He got up and held a hand out to Kohta, who briefly hesitated before taking his hand and getting up.

”Yes, uh,” Kohta paused, still nervous, ”thank you.” He started to bow before flinching at the pain that flared up.

”No problem,” the boy said, smiling and waving off Kohta's thanks. They both heard shoes shuffling closer and turned to look at the figure. It was the other person Kohta had seen when he looked up, though this one appeared a bit older, plainer and foreign. His hair was brown and wavy, it swirled about kind of messily, though Kohta guessed that was from the fight. He had glasses that were crooked and droopy brown eyes, which seemed to be sizing up Kohta, something he noted with curiosity and a bit of caution. He was just as tall as the boy and broader, adding to the impression he wasn't Japanese.

”Jeez, you took quite a few hits yourself didn't you, Vega-san?” the boy asked lightheartedly, looking him over and seeing that he was indeed more banged up. The boy suddenly realized something and turned back to Kohta, making the boy flinch. ”Oh, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Igou Hisashi, nice to meet you, though I wish it could've been under kinder circ_u_mstances.” He bowed a bit and Kohta returned it while getting out a quick 'nice to meet you.' ”Hirano Kohta,” he said before Hisashi turned to the other person which he took as his cue to introduce himself. ”T-Vega Thomas, nice to meet you.” His voice was deep but flat, as if he always tired. The name was definitely foreign. He stuck his hand out, Kohta stared at it for a second before Thomas spoke up ”not too fond of bowing if it's all the same to you,” he clarified. Kohta realized what he meant and shook his hand. ”Thank you,” he replied, bowing a bit and shuffling about.

”Happy to help,” Thomas replied, tilting his head a bit as he did so, his glasses slipping before he pushed them up.

”We should probably get out of here before they wake up,” Hisashi said, to which Thomas hummed in agreement and Kohta gave a brief nod. They asked where Kohta lived and started to head there with him, chatting intermittently.

[1st]

When I'd tried heading to my lessons with Hisashi who'd come in for some snacks alone and decided to head to the dojo with me after dropping his stuff off at home and changing, I'd assumed it would be a normal affair.

Then we'd come across someone getting wailed on and Hisashi had rushed in to help him. It had turned out the victim was one Hirano Kohta, gun expert of the main group and one of the major contributing factors to their continued survival. I can remember thinking about what the odds were to come across him so soon after meeting Hisashi but pushed it aside in favor of not ending up flat on my back. After dropping him off at his house, we'd headed to the dojo to explain what had happened and try to participate anyway. The dojo master commended us for helping the defenseless but wanted us to not be so reckless next time. We were allowed to lightly go at it and went home early.

Which brought me to now. I was aching, quite so. I'd never really been in a fight before and the only reason I hadn't been laid out was Hisashi backing me up and the bit of training I had on the amateurish thugs. That along with the fact that I'd gone through with lessons anyways meant I was worse off than any other time since arriving. I was trying to alleviate some of this by soaking in a hot bath and thankfully it actually worked, even if it wouldn't prevent me from feeling it again tomorrow.

Coming out and feeling refreshed I went to the kitchen and made a sandwich, eating it while messing about on my phone. Every game I had while the same in that I owned them were different due to the fact that I'd essentially traveled back in time. A lot of the things I enjoyed presently didn't exist yet actually. Persona 5 chief among them as I'd been trying to Platinum it but the point was this: even if I had the same stuff, they weren't nearly as far along as they were back home. Which wasn't to say passing time was more difficult now, quite the opposite in fact; looking up stuff I'd meant to get to before, things that were now available to me since I could read and speak a whole different language and preparations for the apocalypse this coming spring made sure my hands were rather full.

I finished my sandwich and continued browsing for a while before stopping and going to my room. It was about 8:40, still plenty of time before sleep was required. So I picked up my laptop and started to search for things to buy. I'd started this well before starting my lessons and around the time working out had really picked up so I'd done quite a bit of looking around. The biggest problem I had was that I was a clerk in a small place, not only was space a problem but price was too. I had to worry about bills, food and lessons, finding spending money besides that was troublesome and even when I had it, there was only so much managing I could do before running out of space and one of those storage rooms would be a problem as well since it would be another drain on my funds. If I tried to keep tabs on what I wanted to buy and bought them when the time was near there was the problem of getting it all in a safe place in a timely fashion, spread too long and drain became a problem again, rush it at the end and there was a chance that what I wanted would be gone. There was the fact that I could just buy a different brand or wait for restocking but the problem with that was I wanted the best I could afford, and I would constantly doubt if what I'd gotten would be enough, though I suppose that would be a problem anyway. And throwing aside the budget plan for piling on debt brought with it more possibilities to consider.

I let out a long, suffering, sigh. This was hard, being an a_d_u_l_t was hard, not just when it came to surviving the apocalypse either, it s_u_c_k_e_d in general. Why couldn't I just be back home? Lounging around and not worrying about anything? I looked back at the clock, 10:13. I'd found and purchased some minor things from my list while thinking about all the problems I had without even realizing it. Good job, me, seriously. I should go to sleep now, my shift started at 9:15 tomorrow and while I didn't need too long to wake up once up and about, there was the danger of oversleeping if I stayed awake for much longer, even with an alarm, or ten.

I just hoped my soreness and bruises didn't make everything a hassle.

Chapter 3

[3rd]

Busujima Saeko was running, doing it helped her stamina with an added benefit of letting her sort through muddled thoughts.

Usually doing this at night alone would be considered dangerous, were it not for the fact she had the means and knowhow to protect herself.

She steadily breathed as she bounced along the road, hair and body swaying rhythmically. Her father was planning on returning from a trip abroad in about a week. When that happened, he would most likely forbid her from doing this so she had to get all the time in that she could, though she could at least say she would be happy to see him. It had been a few months since he was last home and that was fine, as his dojo was overseas anyway so him being away was nothing new, but still, she missed him.

After that thought, Saeko stopped thinking for the next few minutes. The only sound her breath and soft steps on the pavement.

Then she turned a certain corner and heard a second set of feet. It was him.

For over the past two months, twice a week when she went out there would be someone in front of her. Partway through that would change as his pace slowed so he could catch his breath and fell behind before eventually stopping altogether and she would continue, unheeding of his pause, neither seeing nor hearing him until next week when they would inevitably cross paths again. Last week he'd almost kept pace with her for over half an hour before she heard the telltale sign of labored breathing minus the footsteps and continued on her way. She was curious as to how much progress he had made in the past few days.

5 minutes, 10, 20, 30. 40 minutes passed and he continued to relatively keep pace with her, she was even about to stop. Her inner competitiveness told her to keep going, that she had to win but the ache in her legs and the burning in her lungs brought that train of thought to a stop. As she slowed before halting completely, she looked behind to congratulate him only to see him facing the other direction, already heading back the way they came. Her words died out and she caught her breath for a minute before starting the journey back as well. She got through a good chunk of the trip before realizing she hadn't seen him at all. How odd. She looked around to make sure she hadn't missed him and continued on her way home, wondering what path he took and if he'd manage to surpass her next time.

How interesting her runs had become.

[1st]

After my run I rested for a bit before taking a quick bath and resuming my online shopping.

I was significantly farther in my preparations now. Multiple changes of clothes suitable for spring, summer and winter; some water filters and iodine tablets, a bit of protective attire for bites and such and a couple dozen MREs kept in a mini fridge so they'd last longer, to list a few things obtained just this month. Still had a ways to go before I'd consider myself satisfied with everything but I was making steady progress, and it was only December 19th so if my timeline was right I still had around 4 months... That wasn't all that comforting actually. 4 months. That was only barely over twice the time I'd already spent here. I remember when I'd graduated that much time had flown right past with little progress made in anything I'd wanted, though I'd admittedly not been working all that hard, especially compared to now. At this pace I'd have enough time to get what I wanted, not including bonuses. Especially since I didn't really have anyone I considered close enough to spend Christmas with, therefore lacking any need for presents, but still, I felt wary.

Disregarding my lack of close friends and the deadline growing closer I had another thing to think about. Warning people. So far I'd been preparing myself and only myself. Like I said, I didn't have anyone close enough that I'd feel comfortable inviting them to hang out during Christmas and I doubted anyone felt that way about me either, much less tell them about Zombies destroying a chunk of the world before the next year was even halfway done. After thinking about it for a while the only warning I could think of was leaving notes or something so they wouldn't be caught completely off guard when they started tearing through houses and people, as well as some warning on online forums, though I doubt I'd be taken seriously, it was still something I was gonna try. Though it would be sometime during February or March, it would be plenty of time for those that were gonna take it seriously to prepare.

Ever since mid-November I'd felt empathy for SI's and the things they did to make canon better, especially if they were in a series where they were working to better the whole world and not just a small group or themselves. This was taxing enough, no way did I want to be responsible for a city, let alone the world.

Another day, another headache. At least tomorrow was Sunday and I had a day off. So I could just ache and prepare in peace.

”I'm a bloody moron,” I said, rubbing my eyes and cursing the weekend for the customers and rushing it brought with it. Regardless of the fact that the place I worked at (it was called Kon-Bini, a marvelous joke in my opinion) wasn't very teeming with people as say, Walmart or Costco, it was still rather active, especially in the weeks approaching Christmas. Though this place wasn't as big on the decorating as home, people were still plenty happy about buying presents and while Kon-Bini wasn't the place where they got the gifts, it was close enough for people to get snacks and what have you when leaving the nearby stores. As such the place was busy enough that they'd called me in on an unscheduled day. Even with the assurance I'd given myself by adding up my pay through the months it still didn't hurt to get extra, so I accepted.

Then I found I was the only person that came in at this time who hadn't been already here, which was a whopping 2 people. That being Mr. and Mrs. Kouno themselves.

”Sorry, Tom-chan,” Mrs. Kouno said, smiling a little while inclining her head. More so than my last name, being called by my first name, regardless of the fact that it wasn't my real one, with an honorific of any kind still made me feel kinda weird, like a weeaboo roleplay or something. ”We weren't expecting this many people,” she went on helping the next customer while talking to me.

”Didn't you say that more people would be coming in starting this weekend?” I asked, turning briefly to both of them to pose my question.

”Well, yes, more people, but not this much. I don't think I've ever seen this many people here since my husband took over the shop,” she explained, quickly serving two people while talking and moving away to take care of something.

”How long is that?” I was genuinely curious, seeing as I didn't really know much about either of them, though that wasn't all that weird considering I hadn't been here that long and that they weren't around all that often during my shifts.

”22 years,” Mr. Kouno answered for her, going about his business while I wondered what the odds were that when I arrived the place suddenly got busier.

”23, dear,” Mrs. Kouno corrected, walking by and restocking a shelf with cookies and ch_i_p_s, before returning to the counter to serve more customers.

”Ah, right,” he said airily while his wife smiled and worked alongside him.

After that there was only brief talking amongst ourselves as we spent most of our time paying attention to the customers and moving around the store to solve whatever problems came up, and even that was mostly the Kounos'. It almost felt like I was intruding because of how sweet and personal they were with each other, which I suppose I was considering I wasn't supposed to be here, in any sense really.

And just like that, hours passed and my shift ended.

I changed out of the uniform and waved as I headed out.

The next day brought with it slightly warmer weather and less crowded streets. I was walking around and familiarizing myself with a new area of the city, I'd always found it easy enough to memorize directions when paying attention but the problem was I had more on my mind due to my situation and ended up drawing out the process because of frequent distractions and retracing my steps. This was the last part of the city that I wanted to memorize as I didn't really think the others would be worth it. It was peaceful, a lot more well to do than the other places I'd gone to and definitely looked the part with the larger houses and more luxurious area in general. The only reason I considered this place being of any importance was the fact that most of the people living here would probably have some stuff worth salvaging, though I doubted I'd be the only person to think of looting fancy houses. Still, even disregarding my less than good intentions for being here I found I could still greatly enjoy the cold air and relaxed atmosphere here.

I was doing it again.