21 Securing Supplies
When Ryo opened his eyes the following morning, he felt a weight on his chest he wasn't used to. Looking down, he found a peaceful sleeping face with a few strands of wine-colored hair falling on it. As soon as he saw Yuriko sleeping with such a peaceful expression, his mood for the day turned better.
"Good morning, sleepyhead" he said as he moved her hair from hair face, tucking it behind her ear. When Yuriko opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Ryo's warm smile and loving eyes. She felt a certain warmth spreading through her entire body that she hadn't felt before in her entire life. "Good morning, darling"
As the last word left her mouth, she went in for a good morning kiss. What she received wasn't what she expected. She thought that Ryo would be lustful and forceful, like he had been during their nightly activity. But he gave her a soft and tender kiss. A kiss that you would give to someone special. Her heart melted even more when she realized his last words were honest. In just one night and a few minutes of the morning, she had been treated better than in the last eighteen years.
"Come on, we have to get up" Ryo said as he carressed her back. "There's a lot of work to do"
*
People's mouth hung open left and right when they saw their young leader walking with none other than Yuriko grabbing his arm and acting like a little girl that had been caught with her boyfriend. Yuriko on the other hand was actually embarrassed, since Ryo was half her age and the first man she dated because she liked him. Besides, she knew how fast she had moved. She wouldn't have done that if the circumstances didn't require it, but she could clearly see how many girls were interested in him. She was afraid that, if she waited, she would lose her chance.
The strongest reaction though, came from the girls close to Ryo. Shizuka looked like she had lost a plushy. Saeko had a look of understanding and her eyes looked bereaved. Miku looked desperate, as if all meaning to her life had been lost. Hiratsuka on the other hand looked only mad and jealous. Ryo was sure that, if none of the girls made a move on him, he probably would've made a move on Hiratsuka.
"Good morning, everyone" he said, pretending to not notice the looks he and Yuriko were getting from everyone. To his surprise, things didn't go as he expected. Hiratsuka stood up and left, Miku stared at her plate without moving and Saeko acted like a robot. Ryo didn't know which one was more worrying. Shizuka... "Ryo-kun, you don't mind if I sit closer, right~?"
Somehow, the clumsy nurse was the most assertive of the girls, not caring at all about the fact that Ryo was clearly in a relationship with Yuriko. It was to the point that Yuriko and Ryo were the most surprised by her actions.
"*cough* No. I don't" he said, regaining his composure. He then looked at everyone in the table and noticed a few people missing. Shingo was probably with his mother, but he had no idea where Ayako, Misuzu, Ichiro and Kyoko had gone. Alice was with them, eating breakfast and not understanding why everyone was looking at her Ryo-niisan like he was weird.
*woof*
Zeke, who was by her side eating, tried to tell little Alice why his owner was weird. Unluckily, she didn't understand him.
"Well, I guess some people are no longer part of the gang, right?" he said half-jokingly and half-reminiscing. When you spend a few days with people doing your best to survive, you are bound to feel close to them. Still, Ryo didn't have time for that. They were safe in the Estate, so he had to worry about the Estate itself now. "Yuriko, where are the closest markets we can get supplies in?"
The woman thought about it as she chewed on a toast. Then she stood up and walked towards a drawer by the side of the dining room. From it, she took a map of the are surrounding the Estate.
"This place here is a relatively big market" she said once she had swallowed, pointing at a place around twenty kilometers away from the Estate. "It's not too far, but we don't have vehicles... or do we now?"
The last part she asked in amusement, knowing fully well that Ryo's bus surely worked, besides a few diesel based military ATV's they had in the Estate. Everything else was dead, since most vehicles worked with electric parts. Shizuka was pressing her boobs against Ryo's arm, pretending to be watching the map intently. Ryo wondered where the clutz had gone... but the next moment she fell from her chair because she was leaning against him too hard.
"*sigh*... Ok, Saeko, Miku, Shizuka, Hiratsuka and Kouta" he called the names of the people he wanted to go with him, even though Hiratsuka wasn't there, he would talk to her later. "We'll go to the market and bring as many supplies as we can from it"
As he said that, the people he called stood up and went to prepare their things. Before they could, though, he stopped Saeko, Miku and Shizuka. Kouta didn't need to know what they were talking about.
"Yuriko told me there are some actual weapons in the mansion, so you can choose any you want" he said as he looked at Shizuka and Miku. The two girls nodded, energetically and robotically respectively, and left the place. He then looked at Saeko. "As for you, Saeko, Soichiro had a Katana that you will like"
Once Saeko had left to pick up the blade from where Ryo told her it was, he looked at Yuriko and sighed. He didn't know what to do about them. He didn't want them to be like that. It hurt him seeing them in that state. He knew it was scum-like of him, but he wanted a way for the girls to be with him at the same time, since seeing any one of them hurting would be bad for him.
"Can you talk to them?" he asked Yuriko, in hopes that the mature woman would find a way to solve the situation. Her answer was somewhere that surprised him on astronomical levels. "I can... but aren't you man enough for all of us?"
*
To everyone's surprise, Ryo was walking towards the bus with a huge weapon in his hand. It was a Fauchard, a type of polearm, similar to a spear. His in particular had a completely black shaft with a silvery blade in the shape of a perfectly oval khopesh. It was simple but beautiful.
Miku was on the other end of the specter, with two relatively big seax daggers. They both had a nordic rune engraved in the blade and a black leather grip. Shizuka carried a simple staff with what looked like the head of a mace on each end. When Saeko arrived, she was carrying a katana. It was, of course, the Murata-Tou, a Meiji Era Gunto sword. The last to arrive was Hiratsuka, still angry but in a better mood. She had a pair of Katars in each hand.
Once they were ready and armed, he told the girls and Kouta to enter the bus. They would have to load a lot of things into it once they cleaned the market up, so he asked a couple of strong men in the Estate to ho with them. Four people to carry stuff was more than enough. Before leaving though, Ryo did something so ballsy it shocked everyone. He kissed Yuriko right in front of the entire population of the Estate.
"We'll be back" he said as he entered the bus. Yuriko just smiled and nodded like a good wife. Everyone thought that, in spite of the age difference, they looked perfect for each other.
[The road to evolution is not easy to tread alone. Having people one can trust is a must. Host may want to secure the survival of the people under him.
Rewards: All Stats +3 - <Presence Sensing (Beginner)>]
While wondering what <Presence Sensing> was, Ryo revved up the engine and drove towards the market.
*
It didn't take too long to reach the market, since it wasn't far from the Estate. Once there, Ryo was the first one to get down of the bus, excited at the prospect of trying his new weapon. Fauchards had long range like every polearm, but the blade of this one was extremely good at severing because of the khopesh shape it had. When Ryo first saw it, in a short moment of chuuni he had, he named it Severing.
It was an extremely fitting name. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he swiped his weapons in a horizontal line, going through the heads of 6 zombies in one swift movement.
"This feel good..." he said as he looked at the girls using their respective weapons. He was surprised at how much they fit them.
Hiratsuka was the most experience in hand to hand combat, bar him, so the Katars were a fine choice, albeit a risky one. The same could be said about Miku. She was the most flexible, so she danced through the undead while piercing their head with her daggers. Shizuka was smart in her choice. As she clearly lacked technique and any sort of physical quality, a weapon with which she only had to smack the zombies was good for her.
Of course, the greatest change was in Saeko, who killed undead almost as fast as Ryo did with the Murata-Tou in her hands. She was a swordswoman who clearly followed the path of Kenjutsu that flowed in her veins.
In that manner, they kept going until the entire mall was cleaned up. There were only around 90 zombies in the place, so they were lucky on that end. Though Ryo did wonder where the super hordes from canon had gone, he couldn't be sure, so he didn't think about it too much. In a similar manner to the convenience store, he went to check the back of the market.
Grabbing as many boxes as possible, he used the blessing of Prosperity. Like last time, he felt the energy draining of him. Only this time it was much more drastic. After all, he had summoned ten boxes full of food. One box could last a family for a year, so he only had to do such a thing once a couple of month. In his eyes, it was worth it. Taking a a few moments to catch his breath and recover, he grabbed something he found extremely useful.
After stacking all the boxes on top of each other in a pallet, counting twenty boxes, he simply took the pallet trolley and carried it all the way to the bus. Once again, everyone's surprise when they saw the stupid amount of things he had managed to grab was worth everything to him. Behind the shock, he could see their happiness and relief.
"Help me load all of this!" he ordered the four men that had come to the market with them. Fifteen minutes later, everything they needed was on the bus. There were two boxed dedicated solely to female dailies.
Seeing that everything was in place, Ryo tied the pallet trolley to the back of the bus. Who knew when it would be useful.
*
They were received with glee when they returned to the Estate two hours later. Most of the time they had spent clearing the zombies, but a good amount was also spent on the way back, since Ryo drove slowly so as not to damage anything. Particularly the box of alcocholic drinks he had saved for later use. He also was sure he had enough cig packs for at least a year. As soon as he went down from the bus, he had a smile on his face. After all...
"Welcome back, Ryo"
Someone was waiting for him to return.
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I don't really like this chapter, but I felt like I had to write it to show in what direction everyone is heading development wise. I also needed to write the girls reactions to Yuriko appearing with Ryo being all lovey-dovey. After all, the harem needs to start somehow. This chapter is the spark.
Also, that is why I changed Kenjutsu to Spearmanship. First, I like that kind of weapon better because of their range. Second, polearms are like swords with a longer range. Third... I still have more plans for the future. If you've seen RWBY, you'll know.
