6 Going Down - Surviving Fujimi High I

After a few minutes, Ryo managed to get his bearings back. Rei was slumped beside him, sitting against the railings. He just looked up to the skies with his slightly reddened sclera.

"This is so fucked up..." he said to no one in particular. Rei, who heard him, couldn't help but agree.

They both wanted to stay there, but Ryo knew that there were more important things to do. Even if he didn't, the System reminded him.

[How can kill his first zombies to get used to the feeling.

-Kill 10 zombies

Rewards: Strength +1 - Agility +1 - <Kenjutsu (Beginner)>]

Relizing that the world would move onwards even if they remained there until they died because of hunger, Ryo took a deep breath and stood up. When he turned around, he looked at Rei seriously. She was looking up at his face and, when she saw his serious face, she couldn't help but pay attention.

"We're going to survive" he said terminantly. He wasn't asking. He wasn't just saying. He was stating a fact. Rei felt his conviction and, weakly, got up too. "Come on... we have to get out of here"

After saying that, Ryo walked towards the wall and tore off the remaining pieces of the tube. He began stomping on the tip of both pieces with strength, making them as flat as possible. Then he gave one of them to Rei. "If you have to use it, aim for the head"

She nodded, albeit reluctantly. Then, they began walking towards the door that led inside the building. As soon as they opened the door, they were greeted by a dreadful silence. The school's lights were turned off, so the place looked even more sinister than it should've been. Ryo walked in front of Rei, as they went down the stairs, paying his utmost attention for the smallest of sounds.

His alertness was rewarded when a zombie jumped on them as they turned around a corner. Acting on instinct, as if his mind was programmed to do it, Ryo moved to the side. As he did that, he pulled Rei with him and tripped the zombie. As soon as it hit the floor, Ryo plunged his improvised spear into its head. For a moment it felt unnatural how easily he took the life of the zombie, but as quickly as it came it turned into determination.

"They are no longer people. It is them or us" he said to Rei in an attempt to calm her down. She had gone through a lot in too much of a short time and she needed to remain calm, otherwise she could do something stupid that would only put them in a tough spot. Luckily for him, Rei remained calm and nodded at his words.

She still couldn't accept taking their lives, but she knew that if someone didn't do it they would end up like them, only to die at someone else's hands. They continued walking through the corridors of the school, heading towards the lower floor as best as they could. After the sixth zombie Ryo killed, they heard a scream coming from the general direction of the nurse's office.

"Let's go, we should see if there is someone alive there!" Ryo told Rei as he began walking towards the place. As they approached the place, Ryo left a trail of dead zombies. He had already grown numb to the act of killing them, since he didn't consider them as humans and his survival came first.

[Strength +1 - Agility +1 - <Kenjutsu (Beginner)>]

He didn't pay any attention whatsoever to the System's message, because they had already arrived at the place they were heading towards. The hallways seemed to be empty, bar the corpses of a few zombies. Not wanting to scare the people inside, Ryo knocked on the door.

"Hello, is there anyone there?" he asked while paying attention in case a zombie approached them. Luckily, the door opened and they went into the room without any complications.

There were many corpses inside, one of which looked human. The surprising thing where Saeko and Shizuka. Even if he already knew of her personality, he was extremely shocked when he realized how seemingly unaffected Shizuka was by all the gore. She really was an airhead. aseko was calm, as she always was. Ryo could only respect her.

"I'm..." he began saying, but he didn't have the chance to as Saeko interrupted him. "Hashimoto Ryo, the transfer student that arrived today. I'm Busujima Saeko, your classmate, and this is Marikawa Shizuka, the nurse"

After her interruption, Ryo simply stared at her and, with the most straight face he could make, said something that didn't fit the situation. "That was rude, Saeko-san"

She seemed to realize what she had done, so she bowed her head to apologize, but Ryo stopped her "Don't mind the small stuff. We need to get out of here"

After saying those words, Saeko asked Rei where they came from and how they reached the place. When Rei reached the part of how Ryo killed any zombie they came across, Saeko looked at him with surprise and, Rei could swear, a little bit of hope. Only Saeko and Ryo knew what she was hopeful about, but it didn't last for long, since she quickly went back to her self-depreciating self.

"Ne, ne, Ryo-kun, where are we going now?" asked the airheaded nurse. Ryo just looked at her and thought about what they should do. His first thought... the faculty room.

Once he relayed his plan to the three women, they began walking towards the place. Rei was walking besides Shizuka, protecting her. Ryo and Saeko were acting as the frontline, killing anything and everything that appeared on their sight. Curious about her strength, Ryo used his Essence Reading on her.

[Name: Saeko Busujima

Level: 1

Strength: 12

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 13

Dexterity: 14

Charisma: 10

Skill: <Kenjutsu (Experienced)> <Cooking (Experienced)>]

Ryo felt slightly surprised when he saw Saeko's stats. He knew she was one of the strongest females in the series, perhaps rivaling Rika Minami, but to be almost as strong as he was and that without taking into consideration her <Kenjutsu>, which was above his. He was sure that, unless he fought very carefully and smartly, he would get his ass whooped by her.

As they continued to walk down the corridors, they heard a scream. Running in that direction, they found two people. One was a fat kid shooting what looked like a nail-gun and the other was a pink-haired girl bathed in zombie blood. She had a drill in her hand and it was plunged deep into its head. Ryo could guess that, whatever was in there, was liquified. Of course, these two were Saya and Kouta

Without greeting them at all, Ryo went on to exterminate the remaining zombies in the area. When they were finally "safe", Ryo payed attention to the two.

"Are you two okay? No bites?" he asked quicky. Saya immediately retorted, showing her bad character. "If I'm okay?! Do I look like I'm okay to you?!"

Ryo looked at her. It was probably one of the weirdest things he had ever seen. He had killed all the zombies and stayed behind to see if she was okay, but she lashed out at him. He felt annoyed. "Listen here, I just fucking saved you and that kid. If you want to lash out at someone, suck it up and insult yourself, not the person who just fucking saved you!"

Probably not used to being spoken to like that, Saya's brain short-circuited for a moment. She understood that she had just done something stupid. She couldn't help it, that was her character... but he was right. If she wanted to survive she would need to learn how to control her character, lest she annoyed everyone and got left behind. She was smart, so she understood that much.

"Sorry... and I'm okay, just shocked" she said with a small, tamed voice. The strong character she had been displaying was nowhere to be seen. Ryo just chuckled and patted her head. He felt like he had just scolded his little sister for doing something stupid. "Well, so long as you understand"

After that, Ryo turned his attention to the other kid that was there.

"What about you? You okay?" he asked the fatty. He looked rather meek and socially awkward, but Ryo understood that that was who Kouta Hirano is. "I'm okay"

They then decided to barricade themselves for a short while in the Faculty Office. Ryo insisted that they stayed only for a few minutes to rest their minds. Once they had an idea, they would leave the place. Inside the faculty office, Saya and Kota introduced themselves. Rei already knew them because they were classmates, though they didn't talk too much. While they were there Ryo turned on the TV, only to find the news of the global outbreak, just like the original played out. a few minutes later, he decided it was time to leave.

"Ok, it's time to leave now" he said as he stood up an grabbed his improvised spear. Everyone stood up after him. After all, they had already recognized him as their "leader" on a subconscious level. "Shizuka-san, can you drive the school buses?"

Shizuka seemed to think about it for a while and then said she should be able to. That was more than enough for Ryo to follow the original plan of escaping on the bus. Now he only need to think of two more things. Other people who were still alive and how would they reach the bus.