X-OVER: Rip and Tear

CHAPTER 5: [Highschool of the Dead]

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A/N:

Short chapter, but I'm back! School has started though, so I'm back to 2 - 3 chapters a week. Also, Tokusatsu series are amazing, by the way. Never got the Super Sentai hype until I watched King-Ohger; shit is just so good.

God, I just want to start working soon; there's so much to spend, and so little money to splurge on! But seriously, I feel like I'm the only one who wants to start working instantly in my friend group, LOL!

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"Ne, David-kun."

He's thankful that he didn't need much sleep.

Over the span of 24 hours, he had only slept for a total of 2 hours, split between four separate 30 minute naps. His 62 END was really working overtime.

And he learned a neat trick to stay awake while accompanying Shizuka. Every time he felt drowsy, he just had to activate BERSERK for a few seconds, increasing his END by five times, which completely snapped him awake. The Activate Skill does consume the cost of 1 full minute's worth of BERSERK even if he only uses the Skill for a few seconds, but it's a nice thing to know about.

They've been moving the Humvee for over 5 hours now, with the sky showing signs of the sun rising soon, and in the period, they had to refill the tank twice, which thankfully went smoothly since they were quick about it, in and out.

Sitting shotgun next to Shizuka, he briefly turned to look at her. She's a stubborn one; sleep and rest were important in this situation, but she keeps insisting on pushing through, determined to get everyone to safety.

So he stayed up to keep her company... or tried to, at least. The ride was mostly silent, with the low hum of the engine and the soft snoring from the others in the back, until Shizuka broke the silence.

"This might be an offensive question, and correct me if I'm wrong, but... Do you, perhaps, have the condition called selective mutism? It's just that you're so quiet most of the time, but you do talk every so often, though it's only in situations where you need to, so I thought..."

Hoh? That's impressive; she caught on to his mental condition. It's surprising that the analysis was formed by a school nurse, too.

He nodded to confirm her suspicion.

It's a condition he's had since he was born. Sure, it got better over the years; you wouldn't believe how the old him went about his life 5 years ago, but he'd like to think that he improved in the social aspect of life.

"It's not severe."

He explained with a soft voice as Shizuka nodded enthusiastically.

"Ah, I knew it! So it's not as severe as the cases that I've read about? That's a relief. I thought you were a robot when we first met. I'm sorry for thinking so."

He waved the apology off. At least she was nice about it; he had some rather intense situations regarding his particular condition, which led to many thrown hands and fractures back in middle school.

Good times.

"Then... can I ask another question?"

She asked, watching him. He gave a nod.

"Since you transferred in recently, I don’t know much about you. But I really do want to. So..."

She giggled.

"Let’s play a game! If I guess something right about your background, just nod. If I’m wrong, shake your head. Simple, right? And for every fact I get right, I’ll tell you something about myself too!"

Hah, that sounds pretty fun. Besides, it could distract him for a good while, so he nodded to her suggestion, watching as her smile bloomed from her face.

It took a few attempts since she knew nothing about him at all, but she got some things right, like his favorite color, the kind of food he liked, the stuff he couldn’t stand, and the simple things. Eventually, they continued this game for a whole hour until Kohta and Arisu woke up from their sleep, so they stopped their game.

[Hmmm, David, you sure do like Marikawa, huh?]

Well, after a good time spent, he could definitely say that she's a very nice person... Perhaps a little too nice, in a way. This behavior of hers will get exploited one day, something that he particularly didn't like.

It's like trying to dye a perfectly white lily black. But she's already an adult; surely she had some kind of experience or way to avoid such corruption from happening.

[Uh huh. And surely, it's not because she's hot, right?]

Hmm? What kind of question is that? Well, he's not sugarcoating it; she's hot, but he doesn't really care for these kinds of things until they're shoved directly into his face. Like what Saeko's—uh—scandalous behavior was a few hours ago.

[Uh huh, uh huh. I'll write that down for future reference.]

That doesn't seem ethical. But, for more future reference, give him more things to do, please. Babysitting the group was fine and all, but he's the kind of person that doesn't like sitting around and doing nothing; he'd like to do something till exhaustion.

Don't take that out of context, Tova.

[Hmm... I can change the cooldown of the Dungeon resets from weekly to daily, if you'd like, but the EXP gain and rewards for clearing the Dungeon will be fewer than normal.]

[So, 7 days straight of Dungeon Crawling will equate to a single weekly Dungeon session.]

That'll be great. He could spend more time refining his actual skills in fighting instead; the rewards and EXP were bonuses in his eyes.

[Wait a moment...]

[I got the okay from the people above. Changing the Dungeon time restrictions from a weekly to daily basis...]

[There we go.]

[Main Quest updated.]

[Weekly Dungeon Clears → Daily Dungeon Clears — Difficulty : Medium (LVL 20 ~ 40)]

Perfect, thanks, Tova. I'll clear one when I have the chance later.

[My pleasure, David!]

But still, looking back at the passenger side, Takashi sure is sleeping like a log even though Hirano and Arisu were on the roof of the Humvee singing their hearts out. Leaning on his shoulder was an asleep Rei, who laid her face on his chest, while Saeko was at the side, leaning by the door to rest her head as she dozed off, drooling from her mouth.

Hah, the strong Saeko had such a cute moe gap.

As the front line and first line of defense for the group, it would be foolish to say that they weren't tired after a gruesome day.

"Everyone, wake up! We're almost to the other side of the Onbetsu River."

Shizuka announced as the car, which had been in the waters for a good moment, started to drive up to the embankment that separated the river from the road. Hearing it, David got into work mode as he immediately double-checked his on-hand weapons as Saya gave the clear once she scouted the area with her binoculars.

"There's nobody nearby; we can exit safely!"

Opening the door, David quickly got out and did his own scouting to make sure that her observations were correct by walking up the embankment, stepping onto the roadside with his main hand on the hilt of his Nichirin Sword.

Looking around, he gave the signal once he determined that it was fully clear.

"Clear."

That sent a wave of relief to the whole group as they relaxed their tense bodies. Just in case, though, he told the boys to hold guard as the girls changed their clothes, while he stayed on the road with his eyes open like a hawk.

[OBSERVE activated]

[OBSERVE activated]

[OBSERVE activated]

[OBSERVE activated]

[OBSERVE activated]

Nothing at all. Not even a single Z in sight.

Weird.

Hearing the two boys laughing perversely, David looked down to see that the girls had changed their clothing with teeny bits of extra protection and accessories. His eyes instantly went to Saeko's bottom half of her body, where she now sported a black pencil skirt with a side slit.

[Ho?]

Get your mind out of the gutter. As a swordswoman, footwork was essential, especially against the dead. Very practical choice when moving around; he approves.

[Sure, buddy. Whatever helps you sleep at night!]

Ignoring Tova's teasing, he did one more scan before gesturing to Shizuka to drive the Humvee up the embankment. With a roar, the engines of the truck flared and darted up the slanted wall of stone, skidding on the road with a sharp screech.

Now that everyone's awake and ready to start the day...

"Where do we go now?"

The question made everyone pause for a second before Takashi brought up a fair point.

"Takagi, your house is still in Area Two in the East Hills, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Thinking it through, Takashi nodded.

"Then it's the closest, so we'll go to your place first... But listen—"

A somber expression dawned on Saya's face, but she still gave a smile as she nodded.

"I know. I won't hold my breath. But if they really are alright, then..."

So, it's been decided that their point of interest had changed to Saya's house to check on her family.

=

=

=

As they got closer to Area 2, the quiet atmosphere instantly changed as more and more zombies started appearing in their peripheral vision, to the point that with every corner turned, there were at least a hundred Zs lying about.

David thought that it was strange, so he got to thinking, only to reach one conclusion.

His hypothesis was that the place that they were going had so much activity; people had been going in and out of some kind of shelter so frequently, it was practically a beacon for the dead.

So, at least the chance of Saya's parents being alive was now higher?

Soon, as they got closer and closer to Area 2, the zombie herd in front of them grew so thick that the only way forward was to—

"Sensei, run through them!"

Saya shouted as Shizuka stepped on the gas. Everyone braced for impact.

(CRASH!)

The Humvee slammed into the horde of zombies with a violent shake, blood spraying everywhere as the wipers of the van did their best to clean the front window off of the blood of the dead.

"Wait, STOP!"

David's eyes widened as the windows slowly cleared off the blood that stained their view, revealing a metal wire fence that blocked off the road, with zombie body parts still hanging from the wires.

"Hit the brakes!"

Shizuka slammed on the brakes, but because of the high velocity that the Humvee was traversing to run over the zombies earlier, the 4-wheeled military vehicle would not stop in time.

"Turn so that the side of the Humvee takes the brunt of it!"

Saeko, with her fast reactions, advised Shizuka, who turned the steering wheel instantly, swerving the car to the side as the Humvee slammed into the metal wired fence, the metal-plated car crunching under the momentum and durability of the wires.

When the Humvee stopped in its tracks, Kohta yelled to get out of the area when Shizuka confusedly exclaimed.

"E-Eh? It's too slippery!"

She tried once again to step on the gas, but the wheels simply didn't gain enough traction.

"The blood and fat—it's causing the wheels to slip!"

"Sensei! Gently press on the gas instead; we need some kind of speed to gain the traction needed!"

Kohta supplied a solution as David immediately moved to the door from the passenger seat, ready to get out and slow down the horde. He did the final checks of his ammunition count of his Sawed-off Stoeger Coach Gun and his Modified HK P30L that was attached to his hips and offhand before quickly reaching up to the open roof hatch as he realized Shizuka was going to hit the brakes abruptly.

The car skids as Shizuka slams on the brakes, causing the car to suddenly stop in place. But the laws of inertia were still in motion as Rei, who was fully unprepared, hurled forward—

Only for something to catch her, halting her flight. Looking at her left foot, she noticed the familiar arm that latched onto her ankle. But it wasn't Takashi's. Instead...

"Th-Thanks, Lee."

Letting go of her ankle now that Takashi had a solid hold on Rei, David popped a knot in his neck before opening the door to the Humvee, revealing a shit ton of zombies that were heading straight towards them.

[Good luck~]

Time to get to work, then.