Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – My Overpowered Cheat Is Crap (As I Expected)
My head throbs.
I just got out of a zombie-infested school—my school, and my head throbs.
"Takashi? Takashi, are you all right?" Rei's calling for me, lightly shaking my shoulder, but I feel too far away, and I don't even know if she's concerned or irritated.
Knowing her? It's likely both.
The dull roar of the bus' engine keeps pounding in my temples, Miss Marikawa's driving not that steady even as she keeps maneuvering and trying not to hit the roaming zombies. She said she didn't want to break something and get stuck in the middle of a horde of… them.
And… And I think Mister Shido's… talking?
Rei stiffens at my side, my childhood friend, my first crush, getting far tenser than she should at a teacher addressing the scared students crammed into this bus. At the adult authority figure trying to calm down… the scared… survivors…
This is wrong.
This is wrong, and I don't know why, but I know I—
"Komuro!" Busujima's sharp voice calling from behind me almost brings me out of it, but the pounding gets stronger, and I just know I have to—
I'm grabbing Mister Shido by the lapels of his suit, lifting him up, slamming him against the bus doors.
And I feel my mouth open, even if I don't know what I'm about to say.
"You hurt her," I growl. "You hurt Rei, my Rei, because your asshole of a corrupt politician father asked you to, and you didn't have the balls to stand up for the student you were meant to protect."
His hazel eyes widen, locked into mine, and then they dart to the side, to Rei half-standing up from her seat, frozen in place until another brusque turn that barely budges me sits her back down.
Then he looks back at me, and he affects that confident grin once more, but I know it's fake.
Because I can feel his heart pounding against my fists.
"I don't know what Miss Miyamoto has told you in a misguided attempt to earn your sympathy, but I can tell you are—"
"Shut up." I feel my jaw clenching, and I lift him up. Not entirely, just enough that he has to stand on his tiptoes, but enough that he's off-balance. Scared.
A part of me wants to grin at him, to let him know I enjoy it. Another's still disoriented, still fixated on the pounding on my temples.
"You… You want to turn this into your own little cult," I continue, speaking words that make no sense until they do. "You are preying on their fear, on their need to find something that makes sense after everything that just happened, and that would've gotten a lot of people killed. But I can't punish you for something you haven't done yet, can I?"
"Mis… Mister Komuro, unhand me right—"
"No. No, I can't, but I can—should act on what you just did. The student following you, pleading for your help, grasping your pants after he fell and sprained his ankle? The one you kicked in the face so that he would distract them while you ran away to safety? That's… what? Manslaughter? Homicide? Help me out, Saya."
The girl with pink twin tails recoils in the corner of my vision, startled at my addressing her in the middle of whatever this is.
"Why would you ask me—"
"You're the resident genius. I'm just an average guy acting on… something. Let's call it intuition."
"Voluntary manslaughter," Rei says. Not Saya. Rei. Because her father is a policeman, and I just forgot, even though I've known her forever and—"There was intent to kill, but emotional circumstances and the risk to his own life would make it not a murder."
"What the fuck are you two going on about?" Miku says. And I have a disgusting flash of the orange-haired bitch being fucked by Tsunoda inside the bus as Mister Shido gave a speech and Yamada was eaten alive in front of her, desperately pounding on the glass, thrown out for daring to doubt their 'leader' even as the rest delighted in Shido's speech. Except it hasn't happened, but it did, but it was on the other side of a screen, and it was drawn, and I chuckled at how over the top that was, how the messianic bullshit made no sense, but now I'm not laughing and—
"Komuro," Busujima's hand steadies me, just lightly touching my arm, but it's enough to bring me back to the world where she's real, where her violet hair streams behind her as she walks with assured confidence rather than contort in impossible poses, and her breasts aren't as—
…
They are still really big, truth be told.
"Takashi," Rei mutters from my other side, her eyebrow twitching in irritation.
…
Woman! You just saw your boyfriend die not even a few hours ago! How can you already be jealous of me ogling Sae—Busujima!
Wait, jealous?
'Yeah, kind of a bitchy thing to do. I always thought it just was to condense the narrative, but it looks like something else's at play.'
… Who the Hell are you?
'Right. As far as the me from about ten minutes ago knew? I'm Takashi Koburo, same as you. It turns out… we both may have been mistaken.'
This isn't reassuring. At all.
'Yeah, I agree. In the meantime, my name's Lee. Nice to meet you.'
I can't say I feel the same.
'Aw, bud, where's that Japanese politeness I've heard so much about? Also, it's just my luck that the moment I finally learn Japanese, I end up in the worst possible time and place to finally enjoy all those untranslated doujins.'
What doujins—
A torrent of images flashes through my mind. Rei on her knees, her face lewdly open as she licks cum off her lips, Saya crying out as rough hands take her twin tails and somebody drives into her from behind, Saeko jerking off two—
What. The. Fuck?!
'Ah… Sorry about that. It looks like the memories go both ways.'
What memories?! What was that?! Why's there a stash of pornographic manga of my friends inside your head?!
'I mean… I thought they were hot? Really, seeing them in the flesh, the character designs don't do them justice.'
You jerked off to Rei? To Saya? To Busujima getting it on with fucking zombies—
'What?! No! No, fuck, I just saw the full-color cover with her kneeling with her blouse open and a glassy eyed-look, and I had to click on it! I didn't read the tags, I swear!'
What tags are you even talking about?!
'NTR! It was NTR and corruption, but I didn't know! I swear I didn't know! I'm sorry!'
"Takashi!" Rei's shaking me and—
Shido's looking pretty terrified.
'Suits him well.'
What is that even—
'Just… let me handle this. There are too many things you don't know about the creep, and we need to settle this fast.'
I feel my mouth open, and, again, words pour out that don't make sense until they do.
"Sorry, Rei, I just… This creep makes me so fucking angry." She hesitates, unused to this crudeness coming out of us—me. Takashi's far too Japanese for this. "But really, I don't know what to do. It's not like there will be any jails working in the near future."
"What—are you talking about killing him?" Saya asks with clear panic.
I look back at her, still holding Shido against the doors, and I see everyone else looking at me with wide eyes. Hirano's trying to make himself look small by Saya's side, the gun-toting maniac clearly uncomfortable with being the center of attention of the rest of the students looking between the glasses-wearing, pink-haired, twin-tailed tsundere—
She's real. Real, not a character, not a tsundere, and she's scared and pushing herself in spite of it, so I shouldn't be a fucking asshole—
'I know she's real. What the Hell are you doing, "Lee?"'
Sorry, I… I think we can merge in and out of each other. You still feeling everything in there?
'… Yes. Yes, it's still my body, it's just… like I'm dreaming? I am doing things, but watching me doing them, if that makes sense?'
Yeah. It's the same for me. I was comfortable back there, so I hope you are as well?
'Kinda. At least, it's not as terrifying as I thought it should be. Now take care of that urgent thing so we can go back to bickering over you being a filthy perv—'
A pile of used tissues in a wastepaper bin, a framed picture of Rei and I on top of a desk, and my hand feeling disgustingly sticky—
…
'That doesn't count! I was trying to get over her getting together with another guy! It's a healthy and natural coping mechanism!'
Dude… Let's just agree to disagree.
"Saya, what do you suggest?" I finally say, half because she really is the smart one, and half because Takashi… Takashi Prime is about to freak both of us out.
'Me?! Says the zombie-fetishist—'
I closed the fucking tab when I got to that point!
"I… Resources. Resources will be scarce, and we can't incentivize criminality by keeping captives safe and fed, but the societal collapse should still be in the first stages. No, wait, this is the time for rioting and panic, but some islands of security should hold up for quite a while—enough for a functional society? I… Never mind! We don't have to make a decision right now! Just tie him up, and let's hope we can drop him off with some policemen. They have the weapons, so police stations should hold for longer, and we shouldn't take matters into our own hands before the need—"
"Have you all lost your minds?!" Shido interrupts Saya. Rude. I should slap him. "You are discussing killing me because of the ramblings of a clearly unstable child! None of you saw the 'crime' he's accusing me of!"
Everybody shuts up after he speaks, and his eyes are wild, his pupils shrunk—
"You didn't deny it," Rei says, her voice cold, barely above the rumbling of the vehicle.
"What?" Shido's eyes finally leave my own.
"That's one of the things dad always says. Culprits often don't directly deny something: they try to argue why things couldn't possibly be a certain way, but a straight lie is rarer."
"I… Of course I didn't kill—"
"And I already know you're scum, Mister Shido. I already know you made me repeat a year just to hurt my father while he investigated yours."
"Re—Miss Miyamoto, your academic failings—"
She slaps him.
Good girl.
'Oi.'
Dude, it's my body too. Fuck, seeing as I remember loving her, it's my mind too.
'… Then what is mine?'
I… I don't know, Takashi. I really don't.
"Saya's right. Let's tie him up," Rei says, her eyes never leaving Shido's wide ones.
***
The other students, the ones that in the story formed the so-called 'Shido's group,' are keeping their distance. They don't know what to make of both my outburst and the others seemingly being perfectly willing to believe he would get a student killed rather than help him.
So, there are two factions inside this bus. And a prisoner. This can't go well.
'Says the demonic possession.'
For the last time, Takashi, I am—was a perfectly regular human.
'From a world where my own was a story? Pull the other one: it's got bells on it.'
I don't remember you being this snarky.
'I don't remember you existing.'
Right… Look, the whole 'story thing' aside, it's clear this is our new reality, so… Truce? Do you want to switch and chat with Rei?
'I… I don't think it really makes that much of a difference. You really have my memories, don't you?'
A bit muted, but… Yeah. Maybe some things are missing, but I don't know what I don't know.
'Yeah, likewise… So… You really died?'
Please, don't remind me. That was embarrassing.
'I didn't even know virtual reality was a thing.'
It isn't. It would've been in a few years.
'Huh. Guess Hirano would've been all over it.'
Likely.
'I should warn him not to fight virtual zombies next to a fucking window, though.'
I just told you not to bring that up!
'Heh. You may not be that bad, Lee.'
And you may be a fucking asshole.
'True. Now, let me out.'
Right.
"Hey," I whisper to the brunette sitting next to me and sulking as soon as Lee trades places.
"Hey," she answers, still looking down, her chin hidden behind crossed arms lying on her raised knee.
"You should've told me," I tell her, almost complaining.
She keeps quiet for a moment, and I let her because I know how much she likes to sulk.
"How did you know?" she finally asks. And… well, it's obvious she would, isn't it?
'Oh shit! She's onto us!'
Ha. Ha.
"I… Didn't." She shoots me a look, barely turning her head to do so. "Look, maybe we could get some… privacy?"
And now she's flushing.
…
'Told you something else's at play. In the story, she goes from spiteful to wanting to jump on your dick in about a single day.'
You… Have a way with words.
'Thanks!'
I didn't say it was a good way.
"Takashi, I…"
"Not like that! I just… I don't want people to overhear…"
I see Busujima raising a violet eyebrow that perfectly delineates—fuck. Lee's infecting me.
'Hey, I always liked Rei, proto-yandere that she is, but Saeko Busujima is the stuff wet dreams are made of.'
Please don't remember any—
Pages and pages in white and black of the swordswoman flit one after another. Victorious, defeated, clothed, or defiled. It doesn't matter: that prideful look is always there, always a reminder that no matter how bad things seem to be, they're only like that because she allows it—
… And now I've got both your lust and your crush. Great.
'Sorry…'
"Busujima… You, Saya, and Hirano also need to hear this. Let's talk with Miss Marikawa."
Her left eyebrow joins the upraised right one, and she nods.
Right, time to spill the beans.
'You know, the fanfic reader in me says this is a very bad idea.'
And I say keeping secret what little we know is suicidally stupid.
'Fine, fine, just make my out-of-context knowledge completely worthless. See if I care.'
***
Apparently, Lee doesn't care too much.
Saya, on the other hand…
"This is preposterous."
Yeah. She isn't a fan of the development.
"He… knew all about my friend," Miss Marikawa says, tone doubtful as she glances from the road to the group of huddled students right behind her.
"And about Shido," Rei adds.
"And about my training overseas," Hirano remarks. And then shies away from Saya's irate glare.
'Guess some things never change.'
"And about my mother's gun training, yes, I know, but it's still a ridiculous premise to—"
"The dead are walking," I helpfully point out.
"That's one thing! You can't expect me to believe in every other supernatural phenomenon just because of one thing."
"I'm pretty sure what Rei and Busujima do is impossible without using some kind of ki training. That's two things."
"They… They are just… very talented."
"I saw Rei lift a zombie impaled on her pole without any kind of leverage. A zombie of a guy taller than her."
Saya's eyebrow twitches.
And then she turns toward Rei, who, for some weird reason, flushes.
"I… I usually can't do that."
"Real danger must've helped you focus. Your training is advanced enough, but you won't step into the next stage until you have acknowledged your true strength," Sae—Busujima comments in a way that—
'Young Mistress. It's Young Mistress Busujima. Oh, fuck, she would look so hot in a qipao…'
Shut the fuck up—what is even a young mistress?!
'It's… OK, there are these stories about Chinese martial artists with supernatural powers centered about the cultivation of their qi, and—'
Pride, drugs, face-giving, courting of death, more drugs, spirit beasts, drugs made from spirit beasts—
I… I get the gist of it. Now stop flooding my brain with dumb things.
'At least this time it wasn't porn.'
Baby steps.
"You… You can train ki?" I ask, mostly to get my mind out of people who go around slapping each other to death.
"It's… complicated. And we don't have the time for this. Takagi, I do believe it's been well-established that supernatural and spiritual phenomena are both real and tangible. That said, Komuro's tale is one that I still find hard to believe."
'Let me.'
… Fine.
"Busujima, I understand the skepticism, but… Oh, this is Lee, by the way, just try not to—oh, come on!"
Rei's grabbing my collar. Because of course the proto-yandere would get violent after I proclaim I just took over her childhood crush's body.
"What happens to Takashi when you are here?" she asks, voice deceptively calm.
"I… The same thing that happens to me when he's the one at the wheel. He's still aware, the body feels his own, but it's like he's dreaming, watching himself act."
She looks hard into my eyes, and I feel Saeko switch her stance behind me as Miss Marikawa keeps nervously looking between us and a street blissfully empty of the walking dead.
"I'll believe you. For now," she says as she lets me go.
Saeko doesn't relax, though, which makes it very clear just how truly accepting of this whole thing Rei is.
"Right, now that that's settled… I know how outrageous this seems. Hell, Saya's right: even if all the information is correct, it's far more likely that Takashi has both gained precognitive powers and gone mad than I being from another world. Occam's razor and all that—"
"What did you just say?" The pink-haired girl almost growls.
"Occam's razor? The hypothesis that requires the least number of assumptions—"
"Right. Lee's real. That's not Takashi."
"… Come again?"
"A guy from the States knowing what Occam's razor is? Likely. Takashi? Yeah, no."
"… I feel insulted on his behalf."
"So, you weren't lying about sharing memories and emotions," she calmly notes.
"I—he reads! It's not like he's a complete—"
"I never said that he was, but that's continental philosophy. I bet Takashi knows far more about Shinto than you do—for now, at least. Until you integrate."
I pause.
Oh, right. She's the genius character.
'I still feel insulted, though.'
Just out of curiosity, do you know what Occam's—
'Now I do.'
Ah. Sorry about that.
"So, supernatural phenomena, a dead guy taking up residence inside Takashi and not emerging until the dead start walking, another world where all this was told in a story that never ended… A prophet? Somebody who dreamed of us? A plan to send someone with vital knowledge through the most convoluted means possible? I… No, no, let's just focus on what we can solve. Lee? Is there anything immediately useful or dangerous that we should know about?"
Oh, fuck. She had to ask that.
'What do you—oh. Oh, gods.'
Yeah…
***
"We can't hold—"
"This is Rei Miyamoto, the daughter of officer Tadashi Miyamoto, and I'm releasing this man under your custody after a citizen's arrest. He's accused of voluntary manslaughter of a student under his charge."
The police officer barring the bridge seems to reel at Rei's deceptively calm statement. At my side, Shido is tied and gagged, glaring hatefully at the girl he hurt.
I just wish he had resisted.
'Switch back. I don't think you're stable enough to do this,' Takashi complains.
'Not complaining, Lee, it's just… You're very emotional. I don't know why, but I can feel it. This rage isn't normal.'
I… You may be right. Maybe it's because I just found out that I died stupidly, flailing my arms around like an idiot while falling to my death, or that I'm forever separated from everyone I ever knew and loved while trapped in a zombie movie about to go Mad Max?
'… Dude, that's—'
Never mind! Let's switch; it's not like you don't have your own problems.
'… Right.'
I feel myself emerge as Lee gets shoved behind my eyes, and I…
This is going too smoothly.
If Lee's right, the other students should've been on the verge of getting Mister Shido elected as an absolute leader, and in a matter of days they would be willing to murder one of their own on his say-so, but now they are just watching from behind us as we hand the man over to the police, and not a single one of them is making a protest—
I turn around to look at them. At the girls who always looked too meek to do anything, at the bitch who would've been a public toilet for the group in—at Miku. Fuck, Lee's vocabulary's infecting me.
The thing is… they are restless, fidgeting, but… Nothing else. It's all normal, all that I would expect from traumatized students, and not a single one of them looks like a fanatic cultist on the verge of doing something stupid.
Heck, even the protesters have calmed down since we got here, and Lee was pretty sure some of them would be about to do something very stupid. Something that would get someone killed.
Something doesn't fit.
And both Lee and I are getting on edge over it.
Finally, it looks like Rei manages to shove Shido over the police line without any further protest, and she grabs my sleeve as she marches right back to the bus.
What Lee calls the original group is inside, but everyone from 'Shido's group' is outside the vehicle, looking at us as we walk toward them, an edge of fear in—
"We are staying," Miku says.
"What?" Rei asks before I can.
"You… I don't know what's going on, but you lot are going out to fight. We can see it. You just aren't going to look for a safe place to take refuge in, are you?"
I look at Rei and find her turning toward me, an almost inquisitive look in her chestnut eyes.
"You are right," she concedes, once more before I can. "I guess you want none of that?"
Miku turns to look at what, not even two hours ago, were the main antagonists of a story I would be the main character in.
And now are just scared high schoolers.
Fuck… What the Hell's going on?
"We don't," the girl with a headband says as she shakes her head and the others behind her slump in relief.
"Right. Goodbye, then," Rei says before climbing into the bus without even looking back.
… The fuck?
"I… Good luck, everyone. I really hope things turn out OK, but… Nobody get any bright ideas, please? The police will throw you off the bridge if you try to cross without permission, and those protesters could turn into a riot at a moment's notice, not to mention somebody infected could show up, or—"
"Komuro… Breathe," the girl I hated with a burning passion moments ago tells me with a soft smile before patting my shoulder. "We know, and we'll take care. Just… try not to get all of you killed, OK?"
I look at her, at the girl so different from what she should be according to Lee's story, and…
I smile back and throw her a thumbs up.
"Sure thing, Miku."
And with a grin I borrow from the other guy, I say goodbye to the group of high schoolers and walk to my team.
***
"This is it," I mutter.
'It is.'
Oh. You've been kinda… quiet.
'I'm trying to think. I fear I'm out of practice.'
Ha!
'Laugh it up, you meathead. You didn't get a gun on this timeline.'
Yeah, I guess the bat will have to do.
'… It's gonna get dented.'
And… Lee's right. Because we are right in front of Miss Marikawa's friend's house, the place where we can get all the weapons we want and more, but in front of it…
That's a lot of zombies.
We are here one day ahead of schedule, after managing not to get derailed by the various things Lee insists we would've come across otherwise, which could explain why there are so many more than he remembers, but…
Busujima's looking at them intensely, her finger tracing the edge of her wooden sword, a small grimace ghosting over her lips at each chip in the slight curve.
Rei has her eyes closed, taking deep breaths like she has for the last ten minutes, and it's almost like she's trying to… I don't know, breathe something in—
"Takashi… I don't know what I can do," Saya says from the seat behind me.
And I don't know if she's disappointed, fearful, or what it is that the prideful girl—
'Doesn't matter. Just turn around and reassure her.'
Easy for you to say.
'We could always switch—'
Yeah, no. I'm not that much of a coward.
'Good boy.'
… Just how old are you?
'Seventeen, but I'm taller and manlier, so I reserve the right to act like an experienced older brother.'
You mean an asshole.
'Precisely.'
"Saya… I just put on your shoulders the weight of handling an impending nuclear EMP. Let us handle this one thing, OK? Don't make me feel even more useless than I am."
"Useless? You just… You may have just changed the whole course of our lives! You are far from useless, Taka—wait, you're Takashi, aren't you?"
"Well, I do know what an Occam's razor is…"
"Smartass."
"No, that's your thing," I say, and then get the small yet always appreciated pleasure of seeing Saya struggle at whether to frown or to preen at the remark. "But seriously, you're a genius, Hirano is a gun wizard, Busujima is supernaturally good, and Rei is about the same. I'm the regular guy in the troupe. It sucks."
Saya's right eyebrow climbs over the frame of her glasses, and she looks at me from below the headrest of her seat. Hirano is near the door, muttering something likely relating to how to best use what few nails he has left in his improvised gun to make a difference in the brawl that's to come, so the seat beside her is vacant.
"Takashi… Even before you got someone else stuck into your head and started trying to become a prophet, there was nothing 'regular' about you," she says, and her eyes are a shade of amber that seems to almost glow in the dim light of the bus. My heart quickens as I keep staring at her, trying to take in—
'Riajuu go explode.'
What?
'She's also in love with you. I don't know how you manage, but the three of them will be in short order.'
The three—
'No big-titty nurse for you. She's a lily aficionado.'
Lee, I don't care what a mangaka with possible psychic powers says: Saya and I are just friends.
'Look at her.'
She's gorgeous.
Her glasses throw a translucent image of me gaping at her beauty over eyes that don't stray from mine, from the open-mouthed boy inside the crimson frame, and I feel myself press against the backrest, my body drawn to her—
"What are you doing?" Rei snipes to my left.
…
Shit.
'I'm not switching now.'
Coward.
'I prefer "not suicidally stupid," thank you very much.'
Says the guy who jumped out of a real window while trying to dodge an imaginary zombie.
'Aaaaaahhhh! Don't you have any mercy, you bastard?! Pull your punches, wanker-boy!'
I was heartbroken! Everybody does that!
"Are you ignoring me?" the dangerous woman whom I've just learned has actual superpowers asks with a frosty tone.
…
'… I think the answer she wants is "no."'
What would I do without your wisdom.
"Sorry, Lee was being… Lee?"
"I don't know what that means."
"Ah… Takashi was just.. reassuring me that I didn't have to fight tonight," Saya says, proving once again why childhood friends are the best and should always be treasured because they will come to your rescue no matter what.
'Rei is your childhood friend.'
I just mentally label her as an ex. It helps with the weirdness.
'Except you never dated.'
She promised she would marry me! That counts!
'You were kids!'
At least I didn't jump out of a window!
'Aaaaaahhhhh!'
"Takashi.. you're starting to creep me out," Saya says in a soft tone that stabs deep in my chest.
Rei giggles, and I slump against the backrest.
'… There, there.'
Fuck off.
***
Right. Showtime.
'You sure you want to handle combat by yourself?'
I… No. I'm not. But I've got more experience than you do.
'That will always be true if you keep me back here.'
That's… Look, thanks, Lee. But I can do this.
'Right. Don't mention it.'
I nod, knowing the sensation of the movement is enough to send him the message, and look at Miss Marikawa nervously tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.
The blonde woman is waiting for our signal to start, to finally do what she's been trying very hard not to do since we got this thing out of the school.
To drive over as many zombies as she can manage.
I look to my right and see Rei kneeling in a ready position, her pole gripped in both hands, while Hirano keeps obsessively checking the makeshift stock for the nail gun that he will hopefully replace with an actual firearm soon enough. To my left, Busujima stands, her hands lightly resting on the pommel of her bokken, the tip on the floor.
She nods.
And the engine roars to life as the bus starts accelerating down the street, and its lights wash over the horde we're about to trample.
They react to the noise, as they always do, and turn towards us, the mass of grey flesh indistinct enough that the eery synchronicity seems almost natural. Some of them manage to take a stumbling step up the street before we crash into them.
And Miss Marikawa screams as the window's splattered with brownish blood and pieces of what used to be people are tossed aside.
Something's… not right.
She keeps going, the engine protesting as something gets stuck in wheels spinning in the air, and the mass of bodies in front of us is thinner than it was, but still too numerous—
"The arrow's been cast! There's no taking it back!" Busujima exclaims something that seems non-sensical, but that stirs something inside me, and the doors open to—
A moan, a groan, a reaching, clawed hand.
And Busujima smashes a head open before jumping straight in the middle of them.
I hear bursts of compressed air being violently released, and one more falls to Hirano's absurd accuracy before Rei leaps forward, her pole flashing first left and then right, caving one man's temples in and then tossing a small woman aside with a blow to the middle of the torso.
I clench the handle of my bat and follow them.
I can't move like them. I'm not as fast, as strong, as skilled. I don't have their accuracy, their awareness. I can't do the things they do.
But I can do what I do.
So I smash one knee as I run after Rei, the zombie collapsing and crawling after me before Hirano puts it down with a nail that goes straight through its nape, and then I turn back when I reach Rei, covering her back even as Busujima turns into a flashing whirlwind ahead of us, the bokken hitting with unerring, bone-shattering strength with each of her refined movements.
I could fall for her just like this.
'Left!'
The bat rises and catches one man wearing a leather jacket on his chin—
'Not enough! Follow up!'
Lee's right, because he sees what I see, but sees it from his own perspective, and so I feel the strain on my shoulders as I forcefully stop my upward swing and turn it downward, smashing through temples that burst in a shower of blood—
Not. Right.
'Focus!'
I take half a step toward Rei and drag the bat back with my body before turning and swinging it into the elbow of a thing lunging toward her. It stumbles, the body circling around, and I manage an aimed strike at the back of its head that finishes—
Breathing. Breathing burns.
'Switch with me!'
Not yet! Protect her!
'You fool—'
The world fades to red, and my palms throb in hot anger shaped like the handle of a bat.
I know I strike, keep striking over and over, Lee's warnings always in time to make me react to an incoming menace, but my chest heats up with every one of them I kill, my pulse pounding and drowning everything other than Lee's voice. I see flashes of light brown hair trailing after graceful lunges and of violet hair streaming along sweeping strikes like a comet's tail, and that calms me even as the heat grows, because they are safe. The ones I mean to protect are safe.
So I can keep killing.
And I do.
I know I'm tired. Fatigued. That my arms can't keep this up.
But the heat doesn't care. The heat just wants to protect, to keep them close, to destroy anything that threatens them.
And, finally, after what seems like a new, entire life, there are no more of them, Lee stops crying out, and the Heat settles.
"Takashi?" Rei asks, chestnut, reddish eyes appearing in front of me.
And the Heat burns.
The bat clatters over the pavement, and my fingers sink into her flesh, her ass giving beneath my touch almost as much as her breast.
She moans, half in surprise.
And I lean down and take her open mouth with mine, my tongue diving in after hers.
Her muffled noises never reach the point of a protest before her arms encircle me and, with strength she shouldn't have, crushes me against her, her chest flattening against mine, her leg circling around my waist.
The hand grabbing her ass shifts, and I take her beneath her thigh, pulling her against me before my fingers reach down below, and I feel wet fabric that I pull aside before filling the emptiness that calls out to the Heat.
The noises that leave her mouth to enter mine intensify, and I feel the Heat flow from my hand to her body as she shakes and shivers, as my own hardness is trapped down my pants' leg, and I struggle to rub against her body while I keep groping her chest and plunging my fingers in and out of her.
Then the Heat leaves—not all of it, just a part—and my mind clears just enough that I can watch as Rei throws her head back and howls up to the night sky above.
I… I just… What?
She slumps against me, her body sweaty and her breathing ragged.
'What. The. Fuck.'
"The noise will draw them here," Busujima calmly states from behind me.
Incredulous, I turn my head back and—
Oh.
Not that calmly.
She's blushing hard enough that I can't see a trace of pale skin on her face, and Saya's behind her, staring open-mouthed at Rei and me while Hirano tries very hard to pretend he wasn't doing much the same.
And Miss Marikawa is grinning from ear to ear and shooting me a thumbs up.
'Yeah. That checks out.'
"Takashi…" a raspy voice breathes out against my chest.
Dreading what I will find, I turn around to see Rei staring up at me, her eyes as glassy as in one of Lee's doujin covers, and—
"You just… Help me walk, and maybe I won't kill you."
I nervously nod at her and get an arm around her shoulders before turning toward Miss Marikawa's friend's home, where we should be able to at least arm ourselves—
"Today," Rei rasps out, sending a chill down my spine. "I may not kill you today."
It's… More reassuring than I think it should be.
'Yeah. Proto-yandere. I called it.'
Shut up, Lee.
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