บท 3: Meeting, Planning, and Shopping
[I've got the stuff you wanted. Now, what do I need to do with it, stalker?] I read through the message Saya had sent me with a smile. Even after all the power she'd seen me throw around and subtly hint at...she's still so sharp-tongued!
People like Saya are the most fun to speak to. The kind of people who are like me - arrogant beyond belief!
Arrogance isn't a sin. Not having the ability to back up the arrogance is the sin.
That's what I've lived by throughout my life.
[I think it's time we meet. We need to plan a survival plan,] I nonchalantly replied back, knowing that a month of convincing should have been enough.
I'd spent an entire month convincing Saya of the impending doom incoming to the Earth. How? I hacked Umbrella Corp and showed her some of their experiments. Safe to say that she didn't answer me for a few days after seeing a human mutate into a ball of flesh and then explode. But she messaged me back when the curiosity got too much for her to bear.
I showed her all the information she wanted, under the promise that she wouldn't show her father or any other kind of governmental figure. I had to monitor her pretty closely and threaten to leak pictures of her in very tight pajamas to all her classmates before I knew for sure that she would spread the news. The last thing I needed was for her to start mass panic and get Umbrella Corp on my ass once she uses their test videos as evidence
Luckily, she was a genius, so she already knew not to do this. But she did give me another clause to our deal - she'd help me turn a nearby warehouse into a safe house for her and her friends and family. Which I readily agreed to - making a safe house was quite high on my list of things to do, obviously.
Who'd have guessed that I'd meet someone who could pay for the whole thing...totally a coincidence, no manipulation here~
[And let you try something weird? No thanks,] she quickly denied my request, causing me to chuckle.
I knew this would happen. Now to use my fall-proof way of getting her to do something.
[Haven't I gone over this before, Saya? I'm not into midgets with princess complexes - so you'll be fine~!] I quickly taunted back, smiling at the verbal sparring we had. It was a constant occasion and part of me knew that Saya was only so aggressive for two reasons; One, she didn't like letting people in or letting people get close to her, and two, because she probably relished the chance that she had an equal (superior, but why let her know that?) who could keep up with her wit.
Being clever or strong, it doesn't matter, unless you meet others like yourself, it gets boring.
Which is why I plan to develop the characters of this world so I'm not too alone at the top. It'd also be nice to have people who can give me good fights...Which is the primary benefit, honestly.
[...You truly have no tact, don't you?] she replied quickly and even through my screen I could feel her annoyance, but before I could reply she continued on, sending another message, [Okay, I'll meet you. But it has to be a public place and during the time when it's most busy. Otherwise I won't come.]
Smiling at her reply, I nodded while typing, [Yes, yes, that's fine~ It's just gone 10 in the morning...so, wanna meet in like an hour or two? There's a mall near us that gets pretty busy around that time.]
It took a few seconds for Saya to reply and when she did, she did in typical Saya fashion, [...It's really weird when you show off your stalker-ness when you know places near to my house, you know?] she messaged before another message appeared right after it, [Whatever, I already knew you were nearby. You almost said as much over the last month. We can meet there at 12:30 PM. Don't be late, idiot.]
With this, it showed that she'd gone offline.
Shutting my laptop off, I smiled before standing up and walking to the shower. At long last I got to meet one of the cast face-to-face~ Hopefully it's fun.
. . .
POV Change - Saya Takagi
Stepping from the car that dropped me off, I gave a huff while thinking about what I was doing. It was stupid - meeting a complete stranger who'd already shown that he was a shady character...But those videos he'd shown me...They weren't fake. The information he'd given me all checked out. He was telling the truth about what was coming.
So, right now, I had to take a risk.
Either he'd kidnap me and do all sorts of unsavory things...or nothing bad would happen. Even then, he didn't seem like the type of person to do the former. He was a bit...unstable but he didn't strike me as a pervert. Just a stalker, really.
But...How would I know who that stalker idiot is? I've never seen a picture of him. This feels..odd.
I feel like I should have brought some bodyguards. Just to be safe.
Just as I was having second thoughts about this meeting, I saw him. I don't know how I knew it was him but I just did. He was lazily sitting on a bench, looking down at his phone with a half-assed grin on his face. The first thing I noticed about him was the grey hair that was on his head. It was messy and unkempt...yet it also looked well-kept and fluffy.
The second thing I realized was that he was way too hot to be some kind of computer nerd. He was tall - about a foot taller than me - and even through his baggy clothes, I could see the bulk of muscle he had on his body. He looked like an Olympic gymnast in terms of physique.
Shouldn't he be short, fat, and ugly? What's with this bishounen-looking guy?
Then he looked up at me. His eyes. Despite being so bright, they were so...cold? No, that's not the right word. Cold is what I felt when they looked at me. Frightening is what I'd describe those metallic silver orbs as. They gave off the feeling of an animal's eyes, like some kind of predator in the wild. But all that was wiped away when I saw the slightly stiff smile on his face.
The fear I felt was gone but only because his eyes mellowed out slightly.
I reluctantly started walking toward him when he got up and started walking to me, his smile widening and showing his rather prominent canines.
What is he? A dog?
"You're even shorter in real life, Saya~" he teased me just like how he would through message but this time, I just felt embarrassed. Why did I feel like that? But he carried on, "Eh, whatever. Anyway, do you have the deed for the Warehouse? Because if you do, I'll be taking it~" his voice was deep and smooth but despite the playful tone it still sounded a bit stiff or maybe it sounded cold?
I don't know.
But ignoring that, I reached into the satchel bag I'd brought with me and brought out the deed, "Here you go, idiot," I spat this out back at him for his earlier comment but like always, he ignored it and took the deed from my hand, his smile losing some of it's stiffness and actually looking genuine.
"Good...Now, wanna go shopping for some stuff for the warehouse? It pays to be prepared as early as possible, you know?" he teased, his stiffness going away with each second he spent around me. Or maybe I was just getting used to his slightly cold expressions. It kind of looked like he was...bored. Yeah, that's it - he looked bored.
Feeling annoyed, I just huffed before nodding and the two of us entered the mall. I felt even more annoyed when I realized I was probably going to be the person who payed for all this...
. . .
POV Change - Erik Kuroda (MC)
Rolling the deed up, I placed it in my backpack as we walked through the automatic doors and into the mall. Saya was a bit nervous still but seeing that I hadn't done anything too weird, she was slowly calming down.
Probably also came to the conclusion that if I wanted to kidnap her, I'd have done it when she least expected it. She was a clever person, after all.
"Well, what are we here to buy then?" Saya asked, pushing her glasses up and looking at me with her feisty yellow eyes.
First of all, Saya Takagi is a beautiful girl. Stunningly so. She's slightly below average in terms of height, being around 5'1" (hence why I call her a midget) but she still has a brilliant figure with a large bust, wide hips, and a narrow waist. She styles her hair in twintails - pretty much two long ponytails from the back of each side of her head - and with her pink hair, it looks pretty cute, honestly.
But ignoring such thoughts for a second, I got to answering her.
Looking down at her with a sidelong glance, I shrugged before giving a quick run down of what we were here for, "Bedding for your friends and family, places to store food and water, camping generators to power the things we use to store food, but mainly, we're here to get workout equipment," I shrugged, pointing toward the sports and exercise shop which was near us.
"What?" Saya incredulously asked, "Why would we need workout equipment for the," she looked around before leaning in a whispering harshly, "the goddamn zombie apocalypse!" she backed away before huffing, her eyes rolling in the opposite direction to me, "Jeez, if I knew you were such a muscle brain, I wouldn't have believed you about all this," she sighed, shaking her head slightly.
"Because," I held up a finger and pointed it at her, "Your physical condition is horrible. I doubt you could even run 100m without wearing down most of your stamina~" I taunted my eyes full of mocking.
Saya, offended by what I'd said, had an indignant look on her face, "My talent in my mind, not my body like you, you brute!" she tried to mock me back but something told me she was self-conscious about her body-state. Or maybe her body in general?
"Will the things to come care if you're clever or not, Saya? Will they let you think your way out of the situation?" I questioned, rather harshly, I'll admit. But she needed to have some sense put into her.
Seeing her look a bit stumped at what I'd said, she just looked away.
"I'm not doing this to hurt your feelings Saya. In terms of overall intelligence, you're no doubt better than me. Your mind will be a brilliant trump-card for you, but it needs to be supplemented by the body otherwise you'll be a glass cannon. Okay? I'll train you - doesn't even need to be intense training - just so you can improve yourself to an athletic level. Because I promise you - you'll be doing a lot of running in 4 months time~" I light-heartedly joked, trying to bring her mood back up.
I saw her lips quirk up a little, even as she tried to turn her head away, and I felt a smile spread across my own face. While still looking away like the little tsundere she is, Saya gave a curt reply, "Alright, I'll do it. Goddamn brute..." despite the harshness of her words, her tone sounded somewhat warm.
After a month of talking - even if it was about morbid subjects like the end of the world - we'd become pretty decent friends. Not best friends - I wasn't sure how to do that, honestly - but definite friends.
I won't say I'm friends with her without ulterior motives but I do enjoy her company. She's interesting. That's all I look for in potential friends/comrades and she fulfills that with ease.
"Good, we'll get the orders for the bedding, the generators, and storage containers and box fridges sorted out. Then we can get some sound proofing for the generators - they usually make a racket," I smiled before walking past the exercise and sports shop and toward the other shops I'd scouted out online.
Hopefully Saya has enough savings in her bank account~
"Ah, did their sensitivity to sound get higher?" Saya asked, her tone serious and without the usual bantering in it, "What about their other senses? Any improvements?"
Looking over at her, with her glasses on and looking so nerdy, I couldn't help but think she looked pretty cute when she was like this. Huh. Teenage hormones - How I've missed you~!
My inner thoughts didn't show on my face and I just shrugged, "Eh, a little bit. But their sight has degraded even further. The latest mutations have increased their sense of smell as well - it seems to be how they tell the difference between an infected and normal people," I said, with Saya going into her nerd mode as she rested her head on her hand as we walked, mumbling about things.
All the while, I swerved her out of the way of objects blocking her path.
She was a bit of a hand-full at times, you know?
. . .
"Erik...how are you gonna get all this exercise stuff to the warehouse?" Saya asked me, one of her eyebrows raised and her head tilted slightly, making her twintails flip around a little.
Smiling devilishly, I looked down at her with half-lidded eyes, "I 'borrowed' a pretty big moving van before coming here. Should be enough to fit all this stuff in," I whistled innocently while pushing two trolleys backed to the brim with exercise equipment. We'd have to make a few more trips but it was definitely worth it.
All the stuff was high-quality and if I added enough weight to the bars and equipment, I could get a great workout myself. So it was a win-win.
"...You're really shady, you know?" Saya said with a deadpan expression and tone, "My dad would pop a vein if he knew I was hanging out with such a ruffian," she seemed to be complaining but from the light-hearted tone of her voice, I could tell that she was simply bantering about again.
Though, she wouldn't be bantering about when I put her through the workout of her life later~
I had to struggle through those bone breaking training sessions when I was younger - so I'm sure she can handle a little bit of that, right~? It's totally not me putting my own torment on other people~
While smiling suspiciously, I continued to push the trolleys as Saya struggled to push her own trolley.
...It was kind of fun to hang out with a friend and go shopping, even if we are preparing for a zombie apocalypse.
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