Third-person POV
Back in Minato City, a squad of government SWAT soldiers pointed their guns at Ichiro in front of a ruined convenience store. "Demon ninja!" one of them shrieked while his voice was muffled by his black balaclava mask.
"Put your hands in the air, biological terror monster!" another screamed at Ichiro while his pistol up.
Putting his hands in the air stoically, Ichiro replied, "I am no longer hunting the humans for the virus. I am now destroying the virus away."
"Wait, what?!" the third SWAT soldier was dumbfounded while his assault rifle was still up.
But the comms of the SWAT soldiers interrupted their confrontation with the Demon Ninja, telling them to come to Kawasaki because a zombie outbreak had breached a skyscraper there.
"Go on, go to Kawasaki," Ichiro responded to them. "I will atone for my sins by clearing the hordes."
With no other choice, the squad left the area, and Ichiro put down his hands and let a sigh of relief.
Shortly after, Shu and his two escorts encountered him in that area. "Oh, Ichiro-kun," Shu said to Ichiro. "Ah, Shu-kun, Enmei-kun, and Kaimen-kun," Ichiro replied. "How's the other areas here in Minato City?"
"We cleared a horde of zombies storming a café," Enmei responded while checking his dual pistols.
"The survivors are now in a subway train to Chiba City," Kaimen added.
"How about you, Ichiro-kun?" Shu asked back.
"I…I already did one block full of hordes right there," Ichiro replied while pointing at his right at the diced-up corpses of the undead.
Seeing that, Shu replied, "I see then. Nice."
And so, the four of them headed southeast to Shinagawa Ward for another round of clearing zombie hordes.
Along the way, one YKY sniper named Hayato Kitamura also joined the group after sniping a dozen infected from the rooftop of a derelict school.
And then, at 10:20 a.m., after another round of clearing the horde of the undead, Shu, Ichiro, and their two escorts are now walking around a block in the city. "Gen-san, one street is now cleared of zombies," Shu said to Gen through Enmei's comms backpack. "Nato-san and the rest of his squad are now escorting the survivors to one of the subway stations underground." Back at the headquarters, Gen appreciated his efforts, so he responded back, "Good work, Taro-kun, keep on scouring the area and stay vigilant on your surroundings."
Shu gets it quickly, and he and the two soldiers with him kept on scouring the area in the city while staying vigilant on any possible zombie attack. Both the area they are in and the city are as quiet as a library and chaotic like a city after a nuclear fallout. "It must be hard for you to move on from that happening, right?" Kaimen said to Shu as he and they walked together while being vigilant on their surroundings. "You know, the one with Gen-san in his personal zombie arena?"
"Yes, still," replied Shu as he looked down while walking with them, "that one is still haunting me to this day."
Ichiro and the three YKY soldiers understood that like last time, with one of them putting his hand on Shu's left shoulder while encouraging him not to be consumed by his negative emotions and thoughts.
"Yours was way worse than my strike count," added Hayate while revealing his confessing contemplation, "I still remembered how many back then: 80 people by my sniper bullets and 50 acts of infecting them with the zombie virus. The guilt so much I once wanted to be infected myself by a zombie or drink a vial of the virus and die outside in the open. But I decided not to."
Shu was in awe; he knows many of Gen's men had their own strike counts but never heard a former wish to be infected to atone for his sins.
He was still recovering from what he had done to Gen in the past.
By 10:22 a.m., Shu and the squad encountered a platoon of government soldiers. The soldiers, upon recognizing the colors of Nato's soldiers, raised their guns at them. "Put your hands in the air, bioterrorists!" one of them screamed. Shu and the escorts from Yami Kuro Yama froze and put their hands in the air to indicate peace.
Seeing that Shu was a recruit as their hostage, the platoon thinks he was their hostage, and the captain demanded the squad to hand over the student.
"Wait, I'm not their hostage!" Shu responded desperately, reading the situation with his knowledge of psychology and scenarios.
"We're not evil anymore!" Enmei added. "We're sorry for what we and Gen-san had done to Japan. We're now clearing the zombies and conduct rescue missions!"
"Wha…?" one of the government soldiers said to Shu. "Did you just develop Stockholm Syndrome, kid?"
"I bet they brainwashed you!" the captain yelled.
The atmosphere turned Swiss cold, and Shu unsheathed his katana and sliced the barrel of the captain's assault rifle, as well as another slash on the captain's vest walkie-talkie.
"I did not have Stockholm Syndrome…" Shu hissed at the platoon. "…I was guilty of a crime I had committed and regretted doing it."
He then sheathed his blade and unrolled the bandages that covered his hand that he used to punch the mirror in anger. He then showed it at the captain's face. Some of the cuts had disappeared, while others became small, permanent ones. "This one is not abuse by them…" he said to the captain coldly, "…I did that myself, and I brought that to myself. Now can you see that Gen-san and his organization are now cleaning up the mess they made? They even stopped carrying the vials and syringes of the zombie virus and are now in the process of destroying them for this. One even once wished he could be a zombie to atone for his sins…"
Ichiro and the three Yami Kuro Yama soldiers were stunned, while the platoon was scared and trembled at Shu's icy glare and aura of overprotectiveness.
In the eyes of the platoon soldiers, they saw an atonement oni floating near Shu.
Even Ichiro sworn he had seen the oni with his own eyes.
"This is my life." Shu hissed at them. "Vivo mio! Get lost!"
Because of that assumption, the captain and the platoon fled the scene in fear, thinking that Shu was possessed by that oni.
Ichiro and the three Yami Kuro Yama operatives appreciated Shu's protectiveness for them, and Shu said calmly, "I just don't want them to ruin the family we trying to make. They don't understand that there was a second chance for anyone to redeem themselves from their darkness."
And so, he and the others continued their mission against the zombies.