36 Meeting and Marvelous Results

"What the fuck are you?!"

Ryo looked at the person that had asked such a question. Didn't he look like a human? Perhaps now his DNA wasn't entirely that of a human, but it should be similar enough, right? He looked at her attentively.

She had tanned skin, covered by a black combat suit and a bulletproof vest above it. Her hair was purple, styled in a high ponytail with a few loose bangs falling to the sides of her face. The two details that complemented her looks were the white choker on her neck and the shooting glasses covering her eyes. What really picked Ryo's attention though was that she was pointing at him with a sniper rifle.

"Hashimoto Ryo" he stated his name with a lax stance. He was sure that, if she were to shoot, he would be able to get out of the way. Before doing that, though, he decided to check her stats, just in case.

[Name: Minami Rika

Level: 1

Strength: 16

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 14

Dexterity: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: <Marksmanship (Expert)> <Gunsmith (Expert)> <CQC (Expert)> <Driving (Expert)> <Mechanic (Beginner)>]

He was slightly surprised by how high her stats were and the amount of skills she had at (Expert) level, but then he saw her name. He began thinking, racking his brain on why the name sounded so familiar. His memories went all the way back to Shizuka's friend's apartment. Ryo was checking some of the things in the place out of curiosity, and he bumped into a stack of papers. Reading through them he realized they were a few legal procedures under one name. Minami Rika.

"Ah, aren't you Shizuka's friend?!" he yelled when he realized who he was talking to. Since he was still thinking of going back to see how the girls were, he didn't really bother appreciating the beauty and curvaceous body she had.

"You know Shizuka?! Where is she?!" the tanned bimbo asked, happy to finally find her friend. When she went to her apartment, she saw the place had been emptied of weapons and other things, but found a note left were the weapons used to be.

The note was written by Shizuka, and it said they were moving to the area where she currently was. When she realized the kid knew her best friend and roomie, she felt elated.

"Calm down, calm down. Would you please not point at me with your rifle, please" Ryo said while he pointed with his finger at Rika's weapon. The woman just smirked when she realized just how calm he was, even when the barrel of her weapon was lined up perfectly with his head. "Sure, sorry about that but you just... didn't seem human"

When Ryo heard those words, he felt slightly offended and then confused. The girls hadn't said anything about him looking weird, so why did Rika say he didn't seem human?

"Do I look weird or something?" he asked, having no idea why the woman said that. She cleared her throat before pointing in the direction of the corpses. "*cough*... I saw you kill all of those on your own... I know for a fact a normal person can't do that unless they have a firearm"

Ryo just smiled wryly when he heard that. It would seem like there would be one more person who knew about their little secret. He began walking in the direction of the Estate.

"*sigh* Follow me, I'll guide you to our settlement" he said as he went past her.

*

Ryo had been acting all day like nothing was happening, but reality was different. He had smoked an entire package of cigarettes because he couldn't stop worrying about the girls, even if he pretended like he could. He had even slaughtered a horde of zombies he found to try and take his mind away from them, but since zombies were too easy to kill it didn't work. In the process, he was even spotted by Minami Rika, Shizuka's friend.

When he got back, the Miyamoto couple held him back for a few minutes. They greeted him and asked who the girl was, something Ryo answered shortly. "Oh, she's Shizuka's friend. We stayed at her apartment for a couple days while I worked on the bus"

"Oh yeah? So you have your eyes on her too?" Kiriko teased him, but Ryo was in a hurry so he answered off-handedly "Not yet"

Once that was done, he walked past Kouta. The fatty quickly spotted the beauty behind Ryo, but it wasn't Rika.

"Isn't that... isn't that..." when they realized where he was looking at, Ryo asked Rika if she could show the fatty her weapon. She didn't understand, but she was surprised when she heard Kouta. "A Heckler & Koch PSG-1! It's an accurized semi-automatic version of the German G3 military rifle, designed for competition, military, and police use! It's 1230mm long, weighs 7.2kg, and fires the 7.62x51mm NATO Cartridge. And the Sighting system is the Hensoldt ZF6X42PSG1!"

Ryo just grabbed Kouta by the collar and took him away from the gun, because he was standing too close to Rika.

"Nerd out later, we're in a sort of hurry" he told Kouta who looked dejected at not being able to check the weapon even more. Ryo looked at Rika apologetically. "Sorry, he is our firearms especialist"

"No problem. I'm surprised he knows this girl though" she said as she pointed at her gun. "Not been available for long"

A couple of seconds later, they were already close to the room where Ryo had left the girls. His heart had been racing every since he had returned to the Estate, not knowing full well what had happened and the fear gripping his mind tightly.

When they were reaching the door, he heard their voices talking happily and all of his anxiety disappeared. He could finally breath with ease. Opening the door, he put his head inside and, seeing the stared he was getting, smiled happily.

"I brought a surprise for you, Shizuka" he said as he fully opened the door, showing Rika behind it. Rika was surprised when she saw seven girls tied to chairs, but was extremely happy to see her friend again. "Shizuka!"

Rika moved towards her friend and hugged her, while Ryo untied the chains holding the girls. He was sure that they would be hungry and he also wanted to hug each of them. Rika was seeing from the corner of her eye how he kissed more than one and was about to ask something, but when she opened her mouth, her best friend jumped on Ryo.

"Ryo! You brough Rika with you!" she yelled in happiness while she hugged Ryo, who was holding her off the ground because of how high she had jumped. "I love you! I definitely, certainly love you!"

Everyone was a bit surprised by the bubbly nurses sudden confession, but Ryo was elated. Everyone knew that Shizuka felt attracted to him, so it wasn't that rare of a thing, but the sudden outburst did manage to surprise them a bit. After all, not everyday did you get to hear so serious words from her mouth.

There was one person though, who didn't understand anything of what was going on.

"Wait what?! Since when is this a thing?!" Rika yelled when she heard her friend's sudden confession. "And why does it look like he has a Harem?! And why were you tied up?!"

*

"So you are telling me he saved all of you and protected you?" and angry Rika asked after everyone explained their "adventures" and why they were tied up. Everyone was kneeling and answered apologetically. "Yes"

"And then he tried the... liquid virus acting as a test subject?" she asked once again, stating the facts one by one. The same answer came. "Yes"

"And all of you thought it would be smart to do it after him, because he survived?" she half asked half stated, the veins in her face bulging at her aparent anger. The answer remained the same. "Yes"

Rika clenched one fist and tried to hit Ryo in the head, but he just dodged it on instinct. It wouldn't have hurt much, but he'd rather not get hit.

"Are you all fucking idiots?!" she shouted, thinking that the group was extremely stupid for a reason. They all did a dogeza at the same time. "We're sorry!"

"I don't even want to bother anymore..." Rika said as she helplessly allowed herself to fall on the couch behind her. The girls stood up one after the other and smiled wryly seeing Rika's exhausted face. The first one to talk was Ryo.

"Well, everyone must be hungry" he said as his eyes shined slightly. He was using <Essence Reader> to check if everyone had gone through it properly. He smiled happily when he saw they all had <Perfect Host> and all their stats had gone up by ten. "Why don't we go and eat something?"

Before they could leave though, someone asked a question they didn't expect.

"Wait! Can I drink some of it too?"

"Didn't you just chastise us for it?!" everyone tsukkomied. Rika could only smile wryly at their answer and her hypocrisy. "I know but... I also want to be stronger. The idea of being protected doesn't sit well with me"

"*sigh*... fine... but you will do it after eating" Ryo said. He only allowed the girls to do it because if he told them not to, they might do it without him knowing. Rika looked at him weirdly, not understanding why he just gave an order so offhandedly. After all, she still didn't know an important piece of information. Something they had somehow not mentioned while telling her how it all happened. "And why did you make that call, huh?"

"Didn't he tell you, Rika?" Shizuka asked while making an innocent face. Rika wore a confused face as she asked. "Didn't tell me what?"

The one to explain the situation to her was Hiratsuka, who enjoyed seeing the clear disbelief in the Rika's face.

"Ryo is the leader of this settlement"

"WHAT?!" Rika screamed, shocked at the piece of news. Then she thought back on when she first saw him and how he exterminated the zombies while smoking a cigarette. "Now that I think about it, it makes sense. How he could come in and out how he pleased, everyone talked to him respectfully... it's a bit shocking though"

"When he gets serious he has this aura... it's as if he was meant to lead" Yuriko explained while she got closer to Ryo. "It makes us all so excited~"

Ryo just sighed and took a mental note to take care of Yuriko's need later that night. For the time being...

"Later... come on, let's eat something" he said calmly.

Rika was just looking at everyone's interactions with a blank stare and had one single thought go through her mind.

'I'm like... eighth wheeling here'

--------------------------

This chapter was literally me experimenting with comedy and the like, so it might be the worst chapter up to date. Still, I like it. It's something I think a bit different from the usual, but hey! I tried making it good.

Also, just for the people who somehow miss it while reading *cough*, The girls ALL have <Perfect Host> and +10 to all their stats. I'll be adding that to the auxiliary chap right now.