"How did you find me?" The girl inquired slowly, shifting the gun closer to Tatsumi's forehead after he had failed to answer her the first time and was instead looking at her shocked out of his words, he could only see this as fate throwing him a bone after giving him a difficulty level of hell in the beginning; to explain, this was the only person who had made it out of Salt Spring with him and Yukiyo in his former life, and it had been just the three of them for a long while after that before she had regrettably passed away in her sleep, as for what caused her to die; he had never figured it out. To see her this early in the initial stages felt like a blessing.
Assessing the situation silently and carefully, Teru quietly and slowly began to move away from her peripherals while she was none the wiser as her focused and slightly surprised staring at Tatsumi seemed to have caused her to have tunnel vision, she was terrified obviously, but why was she even pointing her weapon him?
“Tatsumi was finding time for eye shopping while a giant flesh eating monster was right behind us, but now he is completely frozen on the thought of a simple gun being held by a clearly inexperienced girl.” Teru thought to himself, still moving at a crippling pace and out of everyone's peripherals. “But...Then again, it's the newbs that always accidentally pull the triggers.” He silently mused as he inched closer undetected, watching as her index finger fidgeted and played with the trigger, this was definitely a disaster in the making.
"Don't make any sudden moves girl, just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Teru quietly asked behind the girl, placing the cool tip of his stained blade at the nape of her neck.
For the most part, she was unresponsive except a slight gasp.
She seemed familiar, so he was a bit hesitant to slice her up at first if she didn't back down, but he wasn't about to let his best friend die before his eyes either especially after he'd saved his life only a day earlier.
She began lowering the pistol with a shaking hand, and her ragged breathing instantly reminding them of Yukiyo's the day prior, this girl was scared, no, more than scared she was terrified shitless.
Teri slowly removed the blade with a deep exhale of relief, and he allowed her to move and then watched carefully as she backed away from the three of them and turned to look at not just him but also Yukiyo, to whom she gave a gasping stare.
"How'd you find me?"
"Well," Tatsumi stood up properly after a moment to gather his bearings and then placed his vertically descending palm in his other palm with a distinctive chop. "It started yesterday when we were waiting at the Town Hall.... While Tatsumi found words for his explanation of all the trouble they'd faced so far, Teru's mind took a detour as he saw the girl's expression change from fondness, to disgust, to irritation before settling back on fear and horror once more.
Teru found himself extremely attracted to this girl, even with the stains of light makeup on her face that showed she was crying, and her attire and posture in complete disarray, he couldn't find her anything other than beautiful. From her freckled cheeks and light tan to her dark brown cornrowed hair and eyes of a lighter shade, he couldn't stop looking at her.
He even trailed off in thoughts, going as far as thinking how this cute brunette would look in a wedding dress, he wasn't as much of an airhead as Yukiyo was, but he often dreamt up fantasies about pretty girls he'd meet, and again because this girl looked so familiar. “hmm would the kids have my blue eyes or her browns” He kept musing on with a glib smile on his face but then reality hit again and he snapped out of it when the brunette turned and looked at him then gave him a small bow.
Shaking away his irrelevant fantasy and returning to their ugly moment of despairing horror, he flashed her a small reassuring smile.
Even under the current circumstances he was distracted enough to think about such things, surprising his own self.
Teru would always be Teru he sighed, some things no matter how ridiculous would simply be we change it seemed.
The girl clumsily sat on the table behind her lifting and hugging her knees close to her breasts and then releasing a series of shivers and sobs.
"You're calling them Akugami1?" She asked as Tatsumi's explanation came to a close, hiding her mouth behind her knees to prevent them from seeing the biye marks she had left on her own lips.
"Yeah, that's what we're calling them, at least until we find out what they actually are." Tatsumi calmly responded folding his arms and tapping his index finger. "There's no way I won't find out this time." He proclaimed before going mute because of his slip of tongue.
"This time?" Yukiyo looked at him quizzically.
"You know what I mean." Tatsumi turned and began ignoring everyone.
"Well, the damn name fits the bastards." The girl snorted before wiping away her fresh running tears.
Sitting beside her Teru placed his hand on her shoulder trying to shut her up, but she surprised him when her arms snaked around his form and her head pressed against his chest while just kept on crying instead.
"You've been alone…?" Yukiyo suggestively asked, noting the condition of the office they were in, and the girl nodded slowly in more sobs against Teru.
"Yukiyo, I'm glad to see at least one of my upperclassmen made it." She suddenly said wiping her eyes with a half smile and letting go of Teru much to his immediate displeasure.
"Thanks, but I don't remember you." Yukiyo replied mindlessly staring at the state of the girl's hands, they were bruised and scratched, like she'd been crawling a lot, and more than likely had also fallen a lot, just like herself.
"Her name is Mai Shizuki, she's a grade behind because of moving back after leaving two years ago, you're both ridiculously two of a kind when it comes to being empty-headed." Tatsumi scoffed though jokingly.
"What exactly happened to you, did you have a close encounter with one?" Tatsumi asked while being distracted by his new katana resulting in her nodding at him and receiving no reaction whatsoever.
Looking back at Mai, Teru sighed at Tatsumi's nonchalance before gesturing that the girl continue her experience.
"I did, I was at school when it happened, they just poured in and started ruining the place-"
"Hold up, shouldn't schools have been closed?" Yukiyo butted in. "Yesterday was a Saturday wasn't it?"
"I am.... I... was president of the welcoming committee, so just a small number of us were there, making last minute changes before the annual reopening ceremonies for tomorrow, but everyone else is dead- they were all eaten, there's no escaping those monsters!" She suddenly exclaimed the last part, dragging her hands across her legs and raking up skin in her fingernails leaving trickles of blood in rows on herself as trauma shook her to the core when she tried reliving the still fresh experience, Teru was quick to take her by her hands and place them against his chest before embracing her tightly, trying to create a safe space for her to calm her down.
"They ate everyone of them right before my eyes, my friends… my cousin… I only got out because of my friend but last night.." She started taking in sharp breaths. "Last night- whaaaaa~!" She screamed out in horror; and then unable to say anything else beyond those words she stopped talking.
Instead, she began to hyperventilate on spot, her beauty broke away into an unbearable sight as mucus and blood raced from her nose and she just let herself go in Teru's arms.
Unable to think of any other way to comfort her, Teru kept holding her, and Yukiyo just stood there motionless, taking in the depths of her words.
It was still unclear what had happened to her, but it was clear that her experience had made theirs seem insignificant, none of them hadn't seen their closest friends and family eaten, except for Teru who only saw piles of bodies.
Unable to comfort her any further, Teru took her head and caressed it as best he could to stop her from harming herself further. "Shh.. shhh… I'm sorry." He tried calling her like a child.
"This is a waste of time, we should be figuring a way out of this place." Tatsumi suddenly scoffed, pointing his sheathed katana to the door and signalling Mai to shut the hell up with his finger on his lip and a cool unprovoked expression.
"Don't worry Mai just stick with us, we'll protect you." Teru smiled at her.
Excluding Tatsumi who was already looking at the door with his katana at the ready, everyone's head snapped in the door's general direction as a rattling slam on the door was followed by a loud growl.
"Akugami…" Yukiyo whispered as Teru began looking around the room panicked, there was just the one door and then the many windows.
"There's only one door in here!" Mai screamed as tears sprinted down her face again. "We're gonna be eaten by those monsters!" She screamed even louder agitating the monsters on the other side, causing them to start pounding at the door and wall.
"Mai!" Tatsumi called.
His voice was movingly calm and held a wave of authority that had everyone looking at him to hear what would come next.
" Y-yes!" She stuttered, calming down considerably, everyone was calmed by it as a matter of fact.
"I won't let you be eaten, whichever Akugami, comes through there, it's gonna die." He assured her and the others at the same time unsheathing his katana from the strap he'd recently put around his waist. "Teru."
"Yes?" Teru jolted up from his sudden call.
Tatsumi took a moment gathering and releasing breaths before staring Teru dead in his eyes and then erasing all the doubt in his own mind. "Get ready."
“What's with this sudden change?” Teru thoughtfully questioned, Tatsumi's entire persona had changed, much like what had happened the day before when he attacked and killed the first Akugami that came at them.
"Yukiyo, Mai, Use the electric cords wired around this room and try making a long enough escape rope to the ground." He ordered, to which they both started working at.
"You have a plan?" Teru inquired, seeing as Tatsumi was the one calling the shots right then and there.
"The door's pretty small, and the walls are concrete, they'll have to squeeze themselves in. And the roof in here's pretty high, we can attack from two angles, the time that it'll take another to get in, the first one should be dead." Tatsumi debated loudly. "That's if we can attack them fast enough, y'feel me?"
"And if that doesn't work?" Teru asked, noting and reminding Tatsumi that the Akugami have surprised them twice already in both their encounters and that they seemed to get explosively powerful under distress or discomfort.
"It has to, it's gonna work, I'll be the distraction at the front, they'll notice me right off the bat, and when it tries to force itself inward, you will go in for the kill."
"OK." Teru murmured still doubtful, but willing to prove himself wrong, the plan sounded like it would work.
“He really is determined to kill them, It must be with what happened earlier this morning.” Teru thought, remembering how Tatsumi had almost been bitten in half, taking his place on a table placed exactly beside the door Teru stood, ready to pounce.
"Ta...Tatsumi, It's ready!" Mai yelled before screaming, and running behind a desk with Yukiyo from shock on the sudden destruction of the wooden door and an Akugami running in with a roar of power while sickening juices were the corner of its mouth filled with sword-tips for teeth, it instantly regurgitated it's gross outstretched tongue at Tatsumi.
Surprising even the monster it would seem, Tatsumi dodged the tongue skilfully, slashing it severed and causing the beast to cry out in pain before he planted his katana dead in the center of the creature's mouth, in an angle that would see the katana striking the brain as the monster fell on it while Teru jumped from the table and stabbed at the mould successfully forcing the whole blade inward sending it straight through it's head and killing it instantly.
"You put your hand in its mouth!?" Teru gawked at Tatsumi in disbelief as he jumped from the Akugami's head.
"Die monster." Tatsumi smiled coldly before pulling his katana free and wiping it on the creature's face. "Go back to hell." He murmured completely ignoring Teru right before him.
"Tatsumi." Teru said below a whisper, trying to grasp what just happened, it truly did made him shiver, he knew that Tatsumi's nice side was only exclusive to himself and Yukiyo, while everyone else saw him as a cold son of a b***h who would often get in street fights and kick ass all across salt springs and beyond.
But this was different, something about the way he did it, didn't seem like the Tatsumi he himself knew, not the nice guy, not the brawler those were the eyes of someone who'd lost their mind and gone psychotically murderous; he saw murder in Tatsumi's eyes.
"He, killed it with a Katana?" Mai questioned in disbelief. "He actually did it without losing an arm." She mused again before laughing out an exasperated "Amazing!"
This victory was short-lived as another Akugami bolted through, destroying a part of the concrete wall on entry and jumping over the dead one, the Akugami instantly lost a leg by Tatsumi's hand crashing across the office and hitting and cracking the windows.
Tatsumi chased after the beast viciously attacking and severing another limb with a roar of anger before lodging the blade of the sword in the creature's head cracking its skull open and killing it instantly, all while he screamed 'Die!' like a madman.
This plan was ineffective from the start as all the beasts had charged in and were being killed, but again, Teru's attention was averted to the door as the third entered, and turned to-
Him
's**t!'
Jumping backward and putting his arms up as guard, he defended himself from a back-handed swing that instantly nullified all feeling in his arms and knocked him across the large room.
Just as he thought he'd make it, just as he could sense the ground beneath his feet ready to catch him, Teru hit the wall hard, and all air escaped his body in that instant while his vision blurred from the intense throbbing pain that was now shooting his whole body to numbness.
White spots instantly invaded his sight.
Teru had heard a crackling sound that resembled a coconut being hit by a sledgehammer upon imoact, and he mentally noted the warm liquid running down his back when his knees hit the ground and his mouth flew open.
He felt as his insides twisted in abnormally painful ways and a sudden pool of blood forced it's way up and out his mouth.
He was struggling just to stay on his knees and all his hands could do was hold him up. “Fuck.” he mentally cursed, feeling no strength to even raise his head as it began tilting forward against his will.
His face kissed the floor shaking his nerves to a new level of pain he'd never even dreamt of as the last of his consciousness recorded a distant cry of his name from Yukiyo.
“No, she's all the family I have left, get up, get up!”
“…can't move..”
“... But I can't die here.”
“Yukiyo...”
“Tatsumi..”
“That other girl...”
“They need my help...”
“...I can't die now.”
“I....”
Aksara