Omen Of Blood

Another day was gone, the gang were loading a few supplies on the bus so they could leave with ease. The bus itself had also changed a lot from before. The inside was totally different from before. Ryo had taken the seats from their usual positions and put them side by side along the bus's wall, making them look like couches. In between them he had screwed to the floor of the bus a small table that could be used to hold drinks, snacks and a few other things. The back of the bus looked like a kitchen and bar. It had bottles and ingredients set in different places, and three portable stoves powerd with butane.

If anyone where to look inside, they'd thought it was a party bus, since Ryo had managed to even added a few LED lights after some tinkering.

"Ok everyone, we're going to be back in two days at most, again" Ryo said as he stood on the bus's front door. He was talking to Kouta, the Yamada's, Miyamoto's and Matsushima. "When I come back, this place must be just like we left it"

When Ryo saw they all nodded, he went inside and closed the bus's door. He had already given Kouta and everyone else instructions on how to behave. If an armed group appeared, don't let them in and, worst case scenario, shoot to kill. If a random group of survivors without any weapons came, check them upon entrance. If they are clean, they can stay in any of the nearby houses as non workers. They weren't allowed to work until Ryo and the girls came back.

"It's like the tenth time I ask, but is everyone ready?" Ryo asked from the drivers seat while looking at the girls. They all answered in their own unique ways with soft smiles. "Good, then we'll leave already"

*

After a few hours of driving, Ryo and the girls stopped for few minutes on a gas station. Ryo was loading the bus with new gasoline since it was already running low on it. As he was doing this, he felt four presences approaching them. He immediately got on guard, weapon ready to kill. He gave three knocks on the hood of the bus, the signal they had chosen for people approaching.

What Ryo saw was three guys and one girl. They were armed with knives, a bat and metal bars, looking very much like they did when they left the school a few weeks prior. Ryo knew form their clothes and the blood on their weapons they had been fighting not long ago. The girl looked weird, but Ryo couldn't tell why it looked like that.

"Stop right there" Ryo said when they were approaching. He then realized he had a can of fuel andthe hood opened, which meant they could tell the bus worked. 'Fuck... if they belong to a bigger settlement I have to kill them'

Ryo understood how drastic his decision was, but he couldn't risk bigger settlements knowing that he had a working vehicle. People were greedy by nature, and he knew that better than most. He decided to use <Essence Reading> in the girl, just to see why she looked so weird.

[Name: Kururu Sumeragi

Level: 1

Strength: 10

Agility: 14

Intelligence: 18

Dexerity: 20

Charisma: 14 (6)

Skills: <Dead Spirit> <Mechanic (Expert)> ]

Ryo didn't understand why her Charisma had an extra numberin between parentheses, but he was more worried about the weird Skill she had. It sounded ominous, if anything. Focusing in it, his heart stopped beating for a second, before it began furiosuly pumping blood as his body began secreting Epinephrine.

[Dead Spirit: Due to a traumatic event, the user of this skill lost their will to live. They are a shell of their past self. This happens when someone is abused in any way for too long a time, until they give up on hope. The only two ways to get rid of this skill are, either allowing it to grow stronger until personality deforms and views on reality become skewed, or death.]

Ryo didn't think much after that point. He had already made up his mind, and he would make sure to go through with it.

"Kiddo, why don't you lower that weapons and allow us to have a nice chat with y..." they weren't allowed to finish because they saw the look in Ryo's eyes. This was something unknown to him or the girls, but they had an advantage above regular humans besides their enhanced bodies.

In nature, when an animal on the top of the food chain stared down at their pray, they begin running instantly. That is what their instinct dictates them to do, after all. But in the case of humans, its different. Humans, in spite of having a fight-or-flight response that works on instinct, tend to get paralyzed when they are afraid of something they instinctively know they can't face.

That was what Ryo's gaze reminded them of. A predator on the top of the food chain.

"What did you do to that girl?" Ryo asked. He wasn't actually for an answer, because he knew he wouldn't get one, but that didn't matter. "What do you mean? We didn't do a... AAAAGH! My hand!"

Ryo had dashed towards the man that had been speaking and cut his hand off. He didn't make him suffer much though, because a second later his head was on the floor. The girls were already outside of the bus, looking at what was happening. They had caught ear of what he had said, bar Shouko. She was shaking a bit when she saw him kill an actual person, but she understood it was probably because they were bad people.

The girls weren't worried about him getting hurt, since he was more than capable of handling a few idiots. They needed to gang up on him if they wanted to actually beat him, after all. Just a few seconds later, only one of the fuckers was left alive.

To deal with him, Ryo didn't bother using his weapon. After all, he had a few questions for the man. As such, he retracted the shaft and held it as if it was a Khopesh. The man had no way to run, so he did what he thought smartest. Attack Ryo.

"Really? Scum" Ryo said as he kicked the piece of trash's hand away, breaking his wrist. He wasn't holding his strength back at all. "AGH! It's broken! It's fucking brokGUH!"

*THUD*

The man hadhit the ground hard. So hard in fact his head was bleeding from the impact. Ryo was hopeful to not have killed him, since in his moment of anger he forgot he had questions to ask. Luckily for him, the man was trying to get up.

"I'd recommend you to stay down..." Ryo said while squatting in front of the downed guy. "Unless you want to suffer more, that is"

Getting the memo, he simply stayed on the floor. At least the cold asphalt helped with the pain in his head. Ryo asked Miku for her gun for a bit. She didn't know why exactly he wanted it, but gave it to him anyways. Ryo grabbed the man's hand and put the blade right beside his pinky.

"Now, you will answer my questions" Ryo said as he looked at him coldly. "If you don't answer or lie, you lose a finger"

The man nodded his head rapidly, not caring about the pain it brought him. While Ryo dealt with him, the girls tried to talk with the woman that travelled with them. They understood the reason why Ryo did what he did when they saw her blank eyes, lacking any emotion. Whatever they tried, it didn't work.

Miku even tried to bring her to their side, making her another Ryo devotee, but it was pointless. She didn't answer to any kind of word. They heard the man screaming and looked over, missing the glint of life that passed through the girl's eyes for a short moment.

"I told you not to lie, didn't I?" Ryo said as he cleaned the blood off of Miku's weapon in the man's clothes. "So, who is your leader, and how strong is he?"

"I-I'll tell you just don't kill me!" the man cried in a begging tone. His face pathetically covered in tears and snot. "His name is Masao Murasako! He is strong but I think not as strong as you! And he's crazy! Totally crazy!"

Ryo smiled coldly when the man said those words. The man didn't notice the coldness in Ryo's face, relieved by the fact he didn't lose another finger.

"Thank you for you cooperation, you can go now..." Ryo said. But the man didn't move. After all he had a blade piercing right through his head. "You can go to hell, I mean"

He then turned to the girls, but went specifically to the one the men had been traveling with. He moved slowly and he had a warm smile on his face, laced with a hint of worry.

"Hi, I'm Hashimoto Ryo" he introduced himself after squatting a few steps away from her. That way she could look at him from an upper position. He was trying to make her comfortable. "What's your name if you don't mind me asking?"

The girl was looking at him intently. She had long pink hair that reached her mid-back, left to flow wildly. In her head she had a black beanie. She wore black hightops, brown and white stripped socks and a black, leather overall overa white, long sleeves tee. The overall was decorated with brown leather belts and pockets. On her back she carried a huge spanner.

"Kururu Sumeragi" she answered in an emotionless voice, causing Ryo to sigh. He was about to speak, but she beat him to it. "Would you... please kill me?"

Everyone felt their heart clench when they heard her words. They could see in her arms a few marks and scars of beating and abuse. Even her neck had a hand print on it. Ryo's heart beat furiously, both in pain and anger.

"No can do, sorry" he said as he looked at her seriosuly. "But I can kill the one who did this to you"

He looked at her with hope. If she accepted, she might still be brought back to who she was before.

"Ok" was all they got as an answer after a suspenseful silence. Ryo smiled warmly at her, before heading back to the bus. "Then you are coming with us for now"

As soon as the girls went back into the bus, Ryo stopped Yuriko for a minute to inform her of something.

"Change of plans" he said while he revved up the engine. Yuriko looked at him seriously. She knew that whatever he said would be important. "We're going to go to their settlement"

She could hear it in his voice. This was the same Ryo that had fought Soichiro. It was the same Ryo that had massacred that Shido guy the other's told her about. This was the Ryo that could probably scare death.

"I think I might need to sharpen my blade after this"

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Hehehehe... Things will get bloody