9 The choice that must be made

The scarlet sky had downed upon the world, a girl around ten or eleven years old finished her activity and walked out from a school building toward a Dojo. Cricket shimmered the ambiance and wisp of air swayed the colorful flowers. The girl wore all black uniform and one extra bag hung on her back. A red cute tie clasped around her neck and fell down down to her chest. The bright purple eyes held a rare calm temperament of the girl at her age. She stopped behind a wooden slide door and fished out a key from her pocket.

*Tack!* *Tack!* *Tack!*

The girl froze her hand, her ears twitched at the familiarity of the sound. It precisely the nip of the bashed tone of a wooden sword, clashing against the training dummy. The girl's blinked her eyes in confusion, she put the key into the hole and twisted it, a click made an appearance inside her ears. Now she certain that she had not forgot locking the Dojo after the training session, how come there is someone inside? As far as she remembered, there were only two people who hold the key to the Dojo; The instructor and herself.

But even if that someone was the instructor, why he needed to lock the door again after he opened it?

She slid the door and sneaked her way into the dojo, the entrance pretty much shortly delivered her into the main part of the building, a rectangle outline room with clean shaped woods as the material of the ground. She stood before the corner and tilted her head to peek. Several meters away from her position, almost reached into the building's storage, a figure around the same height with her could be seen repeatedly attacked an object ahead of him. His one hand held a bokken and the practice made weapon struck the dummy anywhere it can. There was no pattern of his attack neither technique he bore, only plain and simple movement.

The boy had no change of his strength, even after some times had progressed, his power remain the same as ever, it was if he didn't mean what he do and simply bored with his time.

But the girl could see it, within those crimson eyes he possessed, there were loathe and denounce, unseen hatred that one unable to size its degree. The girl knew by this simple observation, the boy was a dangerous person, his attack didn't announce his boredom instead a way to vent his inner rage toward something unknown.

He was frustrated and annoyed.

The girl didn't move from her spot, simply staring at the boy from far away, watching how the egg cracked at every second.

*Splat!*

A zombie head was smashed against the stainless locker and squashed like a fresh water melon. Saeko watched Fujimura lashed out his kick to the zombie before he went ahead of the entrance. The crowd of undead that previously bothered them now had turned to a measly rock that simply laid on the floor. Saeko woke up in the instant and told the rest of the group, "Komuro-kun, you take Fujimura previous spot, Hirano-kun you take his spot, our first objective is to grab any shoes that matched own sizes, we surely don't want to walk out with just a slipper!"

No one objected against the elder sister of the group's order and they proceeded as being told. The survivor also tagged along although few of them already wore a shoe in the first place. Since Saeko didn't attend the first class, she had wore one the moment of the outbreak, but she still went to the locker.

She opened the one belong to the third year students and searched one by one, the way she behaved as if she knew the item she was looking for.

The group watched in awe at the relationship between these two senpai, for her to even knew Fujimura's size prove their closeness wasn't a joke.

"Perhaps the rumor is true after all," Rei mumbled as she found a shoe that matched hers.

"What rumor?" Takashi faced her in confusion.

Rei looked at Saeko then she leaned closer to Takashi's ear, "They said Hayate-senpai and Busujima-senpai was a couple."

"What?! They are?!" the boy's shouted then receiving a bonk on his head.

"Don't be so loud, you idiot!" Rei sent her pair of angry eyes, Takashi gulped his throat then nodding his head, "They was, because several days prior to this, they already broke up, people also speculated that's the reason of him quitting the kendo club."

"Oh, that explain everything," Takashi frowned.

Saeko finally found the right one, she briefly smiled then facing the other people in the room, "Everyone's settled?"

"Yes, senpai!"

"I am set!"

They responded in tandem which received a satisfactory nod from the purple haired woman, "Let's get out now and remembered the formation!"

"Hai!"

As soon as they passed through the double door, they noticed that most of the undead had been laying on the ground with their head split into two or smashed open. Looking at the view ahead, they saw Fujimura was fighting against the crowd of Zombie, is a remarkable view to witness but also a hurtful one as they saw Fujimura had a few close call.

For example, a zombie was missed by his attack and it freely swaggered into his position, before he managed to intercept it from being too near, another zombie came from his left and almost gave him a zombified bitch slap, luckily, he knew how to handle the situation by simply dropped onto the floor and slashed the zombie's legs. Then he stabbed the previous missed zombie through its jaw, then carried along its head, proving the force he used to stab was quite considerable.

There was also the case that Fujimura seemed lost his footing and almost got swarmed by zombies if not for him to kick the ground and made some distances with them.

Even when he was fierce again, he still human with stamina and could feel fatigue, obviously the slaughter he committed had taken the toll on his body.

True enough as the person that was feeling it himself, Fujimura's eyes started to become blurry from the sweats, his limbs started become numb and the climate really burned his body. Time to time he would have to retreat to take a breather but those zombies is truly a menace when they are come in horde.

But his objective was to buy time for the group to go to the mini bus.

Takashi and the rest almost wanted to jump in to help him out but Saeko immediately roared at them, "Stop! Don't trouble him than we already had, as soon as we get into the bus, Fujimura can also retreat!"

With a greeting teeth and clenching hands, they didn't have a choice but hearing her words. Saeko stayed on the right while Takashi on the left, Rei and Kohta assumed the position behind Saya and Shizuka, they kept swiftly moving especially Saeko as she literally flashing her way. Dodging one zombie attack, she swung her bokken and struck the back of its head, then she twisted on her feet, she jumped and hammered a zombie's head. Takashi mostly handled the one she missed and his strength on the bat quite impressive. A zombie's head managed to get destroy by one smashed from it but he spent quite stamina on doing so as he soon gasped for breath. Rei fully showed off her skill in spear technique, but she made many unnecessary movement instead of just skewer the zombie's head to kill it. Kohta was shooting everywhere but it was precise, no nail jabbed without no aim.

Looking at his combo bar that rapidly filled, in spite of his tiredness, Fujimura felt joy inside his heart, currently his combo level had reached six and soon it about to hit seven.

After hitting the level five mark, it seemed the bar he needed to reach another level is getting harder, he just kill five zombie but it barely filled less than a quarter.

But Fujimura didn't get disheartened, with the possibility of the system, he believed this slow progress soon could be get rid off.

His streak kill had been flashed red for sometimes and he actually never use the skill, Fujimura knew the longer he held up from using it, the stronger it will become, he would use it in case something dire is happen.

Thanks to the attack boost, his normal slash now not only could easily slash a zombie into two, it even held a bit of a wave that could push back them back, his kick and punch crumbled their body while throwing them far backward.

But he still lacked for the stamina to persist for too long, moreover it's a life and death situation, the pressure he had affecting his current stability.

A zombie caught Fujimura's iron sword and twisted it around, making Fujimura almost turned his arm upside down. Fujimura kicked it's feet and it got blasted out from the ground, he forcefully took back his weapon and it rip the zombie's arm along.

The fight was getting brutal, his movement is getting cranky.

But thankfully, Saeko's group had reached only several meters away from the minibus. Everything was fine, until...

"Aaaah!!!"

"Takuzo!!!"

The black haired girl's group seemed having trouble on keeping up with Saeko's, there are already several zombies on the gap between them and one of them seemed got bitten.

"H-help us! We got surrounded!"

"Takuzo, no!!!"

The boy named Takuzo was resisting the pain of getting his arms mangled by two zombies, but he stayed on his feet to protect the rest of his group from getting the same fate.

"Help! Help them! Please!" his eyes desperately begged Saeko, hoping the purple haired woman to save his friends.

Saeko was stuck between just carried along since the bus only few meter left within reach or returned back to save them but they already got surrounded, eventually she didn't have the choice to think at all...

"Come on, what we are waiting for, we had to get them!" Rei flashed out, leaving the formation in a rush.

"Rei, no! Don't leave on your accord!" Takashi chased after her which also making him leaving the group.

"Damn it, Hirano-kun protect Takagi and Dr. Marikawa!" Saeko gritted her teeth and chased the hot headed chivalry and lover boy tails.

"Busujima-senpai!" Kohta didn't have the chance to stop her as zombie already nearing them. With two people he had to protect, Kohta severely had limited option.

Fujimura watched how the group stop moving toward their destination, moreover they had broken the formation, his expression immediately became ugly. But before he managed to yell in anger, a zombie grabbed his head and pulled it toward his mouth.

"Son of a-!" he raised his sword over his head and stabbed the zombie's forehead, but sadly because he was in panic, the force he used was too big, the zombie's head was departed from its body and the sword still continued push backward, this made him losing his balance and he fell flat on his back.

"Gah!" as he groaned in pain, four zombies already pounced on him, readied to have the feast on his juicy and frest meat.

His heart went cold and he instantly shouted, "Air slash!"

*Puchi!* *Puchi!* *Puchi!*

The iron sword glowed and it moved on its own, it went to the left side of his body and swiftly created an arc to the right side of his body. An invisible air current departed from its blade and proceeded through the zombies waist all the way to the last line. Their upper body flew in the air while the bottom one lost their strength and fell to the ground. A flood of blood splashed in the area and created a large puddle of it, Fujimura didn't even spare from it.

Before he could exhale a relief breath, three zombie bodies readied to storm down on his, with a horror on his face, he forced himself to roll to the side, completely avoid the disaster of virus from the sky.

A loud dull sound along with another splash resounded in the area, many bodies had returned to the earth and now they either wiggled their body or tried to crawl which is a hard thing to do considering a crowded circumstance they in.

Because no zombie was killed in the sequence, Fujimura barely could gain a thing from the technique.

Well, he did gain a second chance to live though.

Fujimura panted, his chest heaved quite heavily, he felt like to lay on the ground, ignoring everything and just fell asleep. But he quickly bit his tongue to wake him from the delusion, the situation is not even safe yet how could he think such a way. He sat and looked around, the zombies that only had their upper bottom still tried to crawl on the ground but it seemed they won't get anywhere any time soon. The other zombie also still too far from him this mean the area should be clear for now. He looked at Saeko's group and they appeared successfully save the survivor, now they had reached into the mini bus and about to ride it.

At this moment, Saeko leave the bus vicinity and made her way toward him, he could see the worry on her face and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Fujimura, you... you ok, right? Did you... did you..." the young woman dropped onto her knee and wiped the blood from his face with her sleeve, she search on his body but he had so much blood on him, but she didn't give up searching for the 'it'.

Hearing the shaky tone she tried to hide, Fujimura felt a vibration inside, he rubbed his forehead and heavily stood up, "I am fine, let's just go."

"Thank god..." she almost explode in joy, the usual calm woman at this moment looked very fragile.

"Come, help me walk..." he supported his own body with the iron sword.

"Um!" Saeko stood and put his hand over her shoulder.

Back in the minibus, the black haired woman howling with tears at the lost of one of her friend, perhaps they are more than that. Saya was covering her own ears as she got annoyed by it. Takashi stood on the bus's gate and encouraging the both older people to hurry up. Kohta already acted as the sentry gun, killing any of them that began their assail toward the mini bus.

"We... we need to hurry... they are swarming the front..." Shizuka said in nervous tone, "I-I can't drive if they are too many..."

"So? just run over them!" Takashi said in careless tone.

"Idiot! The mini bus could get roll over if she force it!" Saya snorted.

"Don't worry, they already close, Busujima-senpai, Hayate-senpai, over here!" Rei waved her hand in joy but soon she had her face changed in ugly manner.

From the direction of both senpai, there were seven people in total that ran toward them, six students and one teacher. The figure of that teacher that made Rei expression became unseemly.

"Wait, don't leave us here!"

The voice from the back reached up to their ears, making both Saeko and Fujimura glanced over their shoulder.

"Isn't that Mr. Shido?"

"I am surprise they could still be alive..."

Looking at the quantity of zombies that huddled in front of the mini bus, Shizuka really unable to not become panic, "We... we have to go now, or we don't have the chance at all!"

"No! We can't leave them here!" Takashi slammed the back of the front seat.

"Leave it..." Rei mumbled, her body was twitching all over.

Takashi was looking at his childhood friend with surprise on his face, "Rei?"

"As soon as Hayate-senpai and Busujima-senpai arrived, we leave immediately..."