Sup, new chapter!
Thanks to my Patronschris blakeley, Wunderwaffles, Undefinedofs, Red_Valstrax, Gracieθρ, Danny Fowkes, Victor Gealtach, Ksj, Ken Chau, Exactingspoon, MrZoop, eric, SoraOS, Austin, Xavier Luna, Nathan Hall, LeadStar, Leroy, StriderAnarchy99, AtreusGodOfWar, Shadowflare300, Moises3names19, RedReaper, ZaweRD, random_debuff, ieatstars, Gawain, ronald.foster, A11StarReader, Fijiwater, fiddlerlee, ELLOMYGELLO, Losthero, Rayshawn Lopez, Big ToFu, Tet, Gerardo Hernández Sanchez, Andrew Bryant, Alita, Luke, joshawa brooks, bbbbbb, D J, Kharn and Brent Sears!
———-
POV Kiriko Miyamoto
Kiriko exhaled relaxedly, pulling her electricity-crackling spear out of the last of the ghouls, glancing sideways at the piles of bodies strewn across the road.
With a slow sweep of her hand, she dissipated the lightning spear and began walking toward the school gates, simultaneously ordering several of the men to bring the cars around and park them inside the school's perimeter fence.
Rei, Takashi, and Hisashi followed behind her, trailing slightly, while she saw several people in police uniforms standing at the gates—not just standing, but joyfully swinging them open.
Before her eyes was her husband, Tadashi, and beside him were Hayashi and Sayori. Both boys behind her sprinted past her and firmly hugged their parents; Rei did the same, though unlike them, she was much faster—so fast that Kiriko didn't even realize she had passed her at first.
Rei latched onto her father and hugged him tightly, and by the way he returned her embrace, his arms squeezing her back, he had missed her just as much.
Kiriko approached them with a smile but stayed a full arm's length away. She didn't particularly want to hug, even though she felt relief that her husband... and maybe ex-husband, and her friends were alive and safe.
It wasn't that she was doing it out of spite or anything; she just didn't want to hug right now or display affection. It simply... felt wrong.
"I'm so glad you're okay, Kiriko-chan." Sayori, Takashi's mother, walked up to her and took her hand with a smile. She was a "sweeter" version of her son, slightly shorter than Kiriko, with hair just a bit longer.
"I'm glad for you all, too. The fact that you reached safety before last night was wonderful." After her words, the calm faces of the nearby officers darkened slightly.
"You heard about it too? About those... mutated zombies?" They all stepped slightly to the side, watching the cars drive onto the elementary school grounds. Rei and her friends stood a bit further off, but close enough to listen.
"Heard? I talked to a woman who killed those creatures using her powers and abilities." She exhaled, recalling Yuriko-san's description of the creature they had encountered.
The police around her were stunned by her words. Then Hayashi cleared his throat, looked at her with a wry smile, and asked a question.
"About that... do you mind telling us what the hell just happened right before our eyes?" His pupils were slightly dilated, and his hands were trembling, showing just how overwhelmed he was with emotion and general nervousness.
"Let's go inside first and discuss everything there." Tadashi, who had been standing silent the whole time, spoke for the first time since she arrived, and she nodded to him. "Come on, Kiriko, we'll walk you inside. As for these men... well, they can stay here for now or walk the school grounds if they wish."
"..." She watched him in silence, then sighed and waved a hand toward the group of men who were looking at her for orders. Shrugging, they went off to attend to business known only to them. "Fine, lead the way, Tadashi." Tadashi nodded and began walking toward the school. Sayori gave a slightly awkward, apologetic smile, while Hayashi looked at his old friend with a hint of disappointment.
She simply sighed and followed him, noticing Rei, Takashi, and Hisashi trailing behind.
"Guys, I think it would be better if you found something else to do while we're busy discussing the current situation, alright?" she said, looking back at them. Both boys looked at their parents, and when they received nods, they sighed in disappointment. As for Rei... she saw Rei clenching her fists in anger, but seeing that she didn't say anything, Kiriko turned away and continued following Tadashi, who had slowed down when he saw her stop to talk to the children.
After several long minutes of walking through the long, maze-like corridors of the elementary school, they finally reached the place Tadashi was leading them to.
An awkward silence hung between them the whole time. Hayashi's junior partner—Rin-kun, if memory served—was looking at her with admiration. At first, she thought he was staring at her rear, but then she realized he was looking at her hands and smiled proudly. Of course, her powers might not be as powerful as Yuriko's, but they were still magnificent. After all, no one else in her group could boast of wielding spears made of lightning.
The room Tadashi led them to turned out to be the staff room. Chairs were scattered about, and in the center, they had pushed several tables together to create a surface for a detailed city map. Based on the red marker tracks, they seemed to be marking specific locations.
In the room were only her, Tadashi, Hayashi, Sayori, and the junior partner, Rin. She didn't see other officers, but she knew for a fact there should be more than twenty, as Tadashi himself had mentioned that many police were here as of yesterday.
"Well, have a seat, Kiriko." She gave an ironic smirk at the tone of the man who was once her husband and sat in the chair he pointed to. The chair was directly in front of the table; he sat opposite her, Rin and Hayashi sat to the right, and Sayori to the left. "The first question on all our minds: what the hell did we see in front of the school? What was that?" He looked at her with slightly raised eyebrows, showing he was truly surprised—bordering on shocked—by what he had seen.
"That, my dear husband," his eyebrow twitched at her sarcastic tone, though the others reacted differently—Rin glanced between her and her husband, Sayori clenched her hands under the table (judging by the twitch of her shoulders), and Hayashi could only let out a disappointed sigh seeing their attitude—"are abilities we received from one person." As soon as she mentioned they received the powers from someone, interest spiked sharply in everyone's eyes.
"Th-that... wait, are you saying we can get powers like yours too?" Rin smiled uncertainly, hope lighting up in his eyes.
"Of course, though honestly, that doesn't depend on me, but on the one who gave me these powers."
"And who gave you these powers?" Tadashi looked at her intently, trying to read her expression and micro-expressions, as if she were about to lie to him—though there was no reason for that!
"Isao Tsumugi." The moment she said the name, Hayashi and Sayori choked on their own saliva and broke into a coughing fit.
"W-wait, cough..." Hayashi spoke up after coughing. "Tsumugi? The same Tsumugi who's nearly two meters tall and who all the high schoolers are terrified of?" He looked at her in disbelief.
"The very same!" she smiled, remembering the boy's look—his focused gaze, his voice, and even the way he moved was just... something else. "The kid not only saved everyone he could from his school but, as it turns out, awakened his own powers and then set out to save even more people."
"Um... who are you talking about?" Rin looked confusedly at Hayashi and Sayori, who were still trying to recover.
"Kid, you only recently moved to our city and started work, so you haven't met the Tsumugi boy. In a way, you're lucky, because meeting that guy would be a nightmare for anyone. There's a certain aura around him..."
"A rather attractive aura," Kiriko added with a smile, putting on a dreamy look just to annoy her husband sitting across from her.
"Well, I'll agree with that," Sayori chimed in, making Kiriko smile. "There's a special kind of wild... hm, maybe predatory aura around him? Like you're standing before a man who would gladly beat you up if you gave him a reason."
"Yes, yes, let me finish!" Hayashi raised his voice slightly, making Kiriko and Sayori giggle. "So, we have a high schooler in town named Isao Tsumugi. The kid is a beast—nearly two meters tall, with the strength of a damn bear and the same stamina. My point is... there used to be bullies all over the high schools in this city. After the kid beat one of those bastards at his school, they all started coming after him, thinking they'd be instant legends if they could take him down... long story short, after a while, Isao became known as the strongest high schooler in the city, and all those other guys spent a long time in recovery." Hayashi spread his hands.
"But... shouldn't he have been... I don't know, arrested for that?" Rin looked at his senior with confusion. Hayashi just chuckled.
"In a normal situation, yes, but the kid has a..." Hayashi raised his right hand above his head. "...a 'roof' from somewhere. Someone very influential is backing him, and we couldn't do a damn thing to him."
"Uh..."
"Don't overthink it, kid. What's past is past. And Isao isn't a bad guy in general; just because other punks provoked him into a fight doesn't mean he's automatically to blame." Kiriko said this with an upbeat mood, then immediately turned her gaze back to Tadashi. "Any other questions?"
"Yes. First, the uniforms of all those men you came with—they look too much like the uniforms of Takagi's people. And second, if you say the kid, Isao, saved everyone he could, where are they now?"
"Well, to your first question: I met Isao-kun only today, a little before lunch, so I don't know all the details since I wasn't there when a certain interesting event happened." She smirked, remembering how excitedly her daughter spoke about what happened at the Takagi Estate. "It turns out that after waiting out last night at a house belonging to one of the survivors, they went to the Takagi Estate this morning because their daughter was in the survivor group and the chances were higher that Soichiro Takagi would have a safer zone by then. Upon arriving, a conflict broke out between Soichiro Takagi and Isao-kun because Isao's group had firearms that Takagi's people wanted to take for themselves. Isao didn't like that one bit."
"Wait, where did they get firearms? Aren't they just high schoolers?" Hayashi looked at her inquisitively. She sighed, trying to recall what Rei had said.
"Hm, I think Rei said they found the weapons in the house they stayed at, since a friend of that survivor was some kind of soldier? I don't remember exactly; she didn't specify."
"Alright, let's skip that part. What happened next?" Tadashi's interest in how the matter was resolved was quite obvious.
"And then, well... Isao-kun challenged the man to a duel, wagering practically himself as a slave."
"Wait, that's... no, that's completely stupid. Soichiro Takagi might be a hardcore traditionalist obsessed with feudalism and all that, but why would he even accept the duel? Sure, the kid can awaken powers and has one himself, but he likely would have awakened them anyway, as we've seen."
"Actually, at that time, he couldn't do it at all. He only learned how to awaken powers much later after the duel ended—after he had already won the duel." She smiled, remembering the joyful expression on Rei's face when she told her, and she was personally glad it ended that way rather than another.
When she snapped back to reality, she noticed everyone in the room had gone silent, staring at her in shock.
"What? You don't believe me?"
"..." Her husband let out a weary sigh. "So, you're telling me the Tsumugi boy went and won a duel—likely hand-to-hand—against a man with two, if not three times more close-combat experience? Did I hear that right?"
"Yep. Somehow Isao-kun turned out to be far more talented than a man with a heavy military background."
"This is just surreal..." Hayashi was still staring in shock, trying to process everything she said. She smiled; honestly, she'd had a hard time accepting it herself, but after seeing the physical strength the boy possessed? She fully believed her daughter's words. And judging by how Soichiro behaved toward Isao just half an hour ago right before her eyes... she was certain Soichiro didn't just lose that duel; he was crushed.
Because only someone who had been brutally humiliated would speak with such humility and submission to an eighteen-year-old boy handing out orders.
"This is just... fuck, what is happening to the world? What the hell?" Hayashi seemed to finish processing her words and finally spoke. His junior? He decided it was best to stay quiet altogether; judging by his expression, he didn't even understand who they were talking about. Which was suspicious—what hole did the kid crawl out of if he didn't know about Soichiro Takagi?
"You'll get used to it." She smiled at her friend. "Now, as for your second question," Kiriko turned her gaze back to her husband, with whom she had long had a cold relationship, the love and passion once there having long since scattered to the wind. "Right now, Isao-kun and the rest of the survivors are at Tokonosu Plaza. But I should also mention that besides my squad of 8 awakened people (not counting our children), there's another identical squad of 10 people, which includes Soichiro Takagi himself and his wife, Yuriko."
"And...?" He looked at her, confused. "Why are you telling us this?"
"Because it turns out there are military forces at Tokonosu International Airport sent there to save whoever possible. They likely were supposed to head into the city to pull out more survivors, but..."
"An EMP strike happened, yeah." Her husband's gaze fell to the table, which he began to study.
Silence fell between them—an uncomfortable one, but no one found the words for the situation until her husband spoke again, asking what seemed to be his final question.
"And what does this Isao plan to do now?" He looked at her wearily with a raised eyebrow.
And her? She smiled and began to speak.
POV Hisashi Igou
Hisashi had been trying to stop the trembling in his hand for some time while in the school's inner courtyard, sitting on a bench with Rei and Takashi, watching clusters of children sitting quietly here and there. Some looked incredibly tired, some just walked back and forth; none were older than 11 or 12.
But his trembling wasn't because he felt pity for them—though that was present—it was because he had finally seen his father and confirmed he was healthy.
His father was alive. There wasn't even a mark on him; he just looked incredibly exhausted.
He smiled, looking into the distance, until he felt a gaze on him and turned to lock eyes with Takashi.
"Why are you sitting there smiling?" Takashi asked with a wide grin, making Hisashi chuckle and nudge him in the shoulder.
"Why are you grinning like an idiot yourself?"
"Just because. I'm glad our parents weren't hurt." He put an arm around his best friend, who was practically a brother to him.
"Me too..."
"You two should shut up for at least a few minutes." Rei's voice from right beside them sent a chill down his spine. He turned to meet her unblinking black eyes.
Ever since they stepped away from their parents to let them discuss things, she had been tense. The reason seemed to be the strange dynamic between Aunt Kiriko and Uncle Tadashi. And yes, he called them Aunt and Uncle—why wouldn't he? He had known them since childhood, and their families had always been close. It would be strange if he didn't call them that.
She looked to the side, and following her gaze, he noticed some children sitting silently with their heads down.
That brought him back to reality sharply. The happiness he felt a second ago evaporated, replaced by guilt.
"Yeah... you're right. Let's go find Kiriko-san." Takashi stood up and headed toward an officer standing some distance from the main crowd in the courtyard.
Hisashi sat for a few more seconds, not even noticing when Rei followed Takashi, before finally snapping out of it and following Takashi at a quick pace.
———
My patreon: https://www.patreon.com/2FSukuna?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
My Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/sukuna2f