Chapter 12 - A Man's Pride and Honor

---Next Morning---

After having breakfast together, the two parties left the base. Kohta had a general idea where to go to look for supplies so he would take his group to the west of our base. Making sure his group was well armed, I told him to keep a sharp eye out and to listen for any potential threats. Telling him to retreat if he encountered heavy resistance, he gave me a thumbs up before leading his group of ten out.

My party consisted of Kyoko, Saeko, Rei, Mikoto, Saya, Kiriko, and Shizuka. Making sure they at least wore stab proof vests before getting in the Humvee, the women climbed in eager to set out. Wanting to give the crossing point a wide berth from the bridge, I followed Kohta's group for a bit before intending to head towards the river. As we went west we climbed a little bit, just enough to get a view of the bridge and water.

Slamming on my brakes, I flashed my headlights at Kohta to tell him to stop. Climbing out of their vehicle, they gave me a confused look. Telling my group to get out, I pointed down to the bridge so they could see what I could. Looking down at the roadways...all we could see was a sea of undead slowly approaching the bridge. Numbering well over ten thousand, everyone shrieked in horror.

"That is exactly why I didn't want to go to the bridge.", I told them, "All of them have no escape except for jumping in the river. If they can't swim it will be a death sentence whether they jump or stay. The blockade will hold for maybe half of today before that collapses too."

"Fucking hell...", Takashi gulped as everything sank in.

Hearing about large numbers didn't do justice to the actual thing. As far as he could see everything that moved down there was undead.

"I want to tell you that I am sorry I doubted you.", he told me, "I...I should have taken what you said seriously."

"It's fine, all that matters now is you see why I am having them continue work on reinforcing the defenses, That is only a small portion of what is prowling the streets of Tokyo.", I clarified putting everything into perspective for them.

Acknowledging the danger, we all loaded back up and headed out. Parting ways halfway to Kohta's destination, my group headed towards the water. Finding a path of destruction in the wake of the horde, all that greeted us was an eerie silence that made the women a bit on edge. Wading across the river as quickly as possible, we came up the other side to a relatively quiet area. The police and Souichiro's men had done a really good job clearing the area of undead so there was hardly any corpses.

Taking the long way to her home, we fortunately didn't run into any undead. Coming up to the fence they were using to keep any potential wandering undead away, I got it out of the way so we continue. Putting it back once we crossed I continued up the road till her home came into view. Seeing the large group of refugees camped on the property, I felt my stomach drop as I knew all of these people were going to die.

Pulling up to the checkpoint, I rolled down the window and waved to the men guarding it. Recognizing me from my many visits here, they greeted me and saw I had Saya with me.

"Little Miss Takagi, it is wonderful that you are alive!", they said.

'Oh boy...', I thought, 'They stepped on that landmine.'

Hearing her fume in the back, I asked them to radio up to her parents so we could meet them at the house. Acknowledging the request, they let us pass without any issues.

"What is that all about?", Rei asked.

"Saya likes people to treat her like a person, and not like her father's daughter. She wants people to recognize her for who she is, not what her father has done which is really hard at her home. All of the men her refer to her by her last name.", I told everyone.

"Oh.", they said.

"I work my butt off to show I have talent, but all I get is 'expect of Souichiro's daughter'.", Saya said bitterly, "All the men father has introduced me too call me Miss Takagi, or Little Miss Takagi. Victor was the first to call me just Saya at home, and when he did I thought my father was going to blow a gasket."

"Haha, I remember that.", I chuckled, "He told me that I could only call you that if I intended to make you my wife. I told him I would be more than happy to marry her if she'd be so inclined."

"How did Saya react?", Kiriko asked.

"She called me a freaking idiot, and stormed off on me. After that she didn't talk to me for a whole week.", I replied.

"There is a process to proposing to a girl...", Saya muttered softly, "You can't just declare it out of the blue..."

Smiling at those words, I felt bad that marriage probably wasn't going to be a thing for a long time. At this point people were going to have to settle on simply being in love with someone, and willing to have their back in this cruel world. As a concept it wouldn't work in the beginning of the new world as taking a single wife wouldn't cut it. With the numbers we were losing, men would have to take multiple wives, and have a lot of children to repopulate. I knew it wasn't in the back of everyone's mind at the moment, but it would be a topic brought up in the future.

Parking in the front of the home, Yuriko came barreling out of the house towards us. Leaping out of the car, Saya embraced her mother tightly happy to be reunited with her. Seeing her father come out, the first thing he did was scowl at me for some reason. Realizing that something was up that I didn't know about, I immediately got ready to fight him if necessary.

"Is your father with you?", Souichiro asked.

"My father disappeared the morning this all started. The last message I had from him was a note on the kitchen counter saying he was going for Okinawa.", I told him.

"Answer me honestly.", he ordered getting in my face, "Did you have anything to do with this? My informants tell me Umbrella Corp is involved with this, and your father was receiving donations from them."

"I have no involvement in whatever is happening, and as far as I am concerned if he did help them in some way I don't have an issue putting a bullet in his face.", I retorted with a straight face looking him dead in the eyes, "They are no friends of mine, and have already tried killing people in our group twice. The first night of this nightmare they killed nearly thirty people in the building next to us for seeing their weapon test. Just the other day they used a mutant undead to attack us, and Saeko and Mikoto ended up with cracked ribs from a glancing blow."

Staring at me with anger in his eyes for a few moments, he eventually backed down.

"Good, I thought you wouldn't be involved but I had to be sure.", he remarked, "Thank you for caring for my daughter, I know you are in a relationship with her but still thank you for looking out for her."

"As a man who loves her that is only to be expected.", I retorted.

"Haha, that is right.", he said with a nod, "Come inside to talk."

Telling Saya and company to stay outside, I followed him inside and into his study. Finding a map of the city on his desk he took a seat behind it while I stood in front of him.

"I have no doubt you saw the horde of those beasts approaching our position. Before you say anything I completely recognize that we can't hold this place.", he admitted.

"I...I expected you to be more firm about holding here.", I told him, "You refer to this place as your castle, and usually say you would die before leaving."

"I never said I was leaving.", he replied.

"You can't be serious!! If you stay here you are all going to die!! You don't have the manpower, defenses, or the firepower to hold out!", I remarked, "Are you trying to commit suicide!?"

"A warrior meets his enemy head on in battle.", he said.

"You may be a warrior, but the civilians on the lawn aren't!!", I spat, "With all do respect they should all be training to defend this place, but instead I see them treating this like it's camping!! Those people need to be putting something back into this to make it work!! They are nothing, but leeches sucking your resources with no returns on investment."

"I understand, and fully acknowledge that. Those civilians aren't warriors though, training them would take time and-"

"You don't get it! They should be contributing to the group as whole in some fashion!! Right now they contribute nothing, and useless to you!!", I shouted, "If they don't want to work, you throw them out!! This isn't the world of last week, this world is a nightmare out there. Just two days ago we saved a straggler group from the high school that were being chased by raiders. They fully intended to rape those women we saved!!"

Going over every reason those people out there needed to fight, he just sat there listening to me. After a thirty minute lecture I realized he wasn't going to listen to reason. His pride as a warrior was going to lead to the deaths of valuable manpower. Those men would follow him to death without hesitation, a dangerous flaw in my opinion.

"I have made my decision to stay here, and die in my own home as a warrior.", he told me.

"Even though you could retreat now, regroup with the military, and push them back?", I questioned.

"My decision won't change.", he said.

"Your daughter is going to hate you for that. She is going to see this as you throwing your life away for nothing.", I remarked.

"I know, I can die knowing my daughter has a good man supporting her. As a father I could ask for nothing more than that.", he stated, "You know...I have known my daughter has been in love with you for over a year now. At first I was hesitant to let her date you given your father's shady background, but I can't argue that you are a good man. Now that I have gotten to know you more, I am grateful she fell in love with you over that Komuro boy. He has guts, but no brains for leading a group of people like you do. I give you my daughter's future Victor, don't let me regret giving her to you after my death."

Clenching my fist I looked him in the eyes.

"What of Yuriko? Is she going to die with you here?", I asked.

"No, my ex-wife made the decision that if Saya came here she would go with her.", he informed me, "Rather...I forced her into going."

"What..?", I inquired.

"This house was built on a WWII supply depot. Munitions were stored underground for protection against allied bombings, and after the war all records of it's existence were erased from public knowledge.", he stated looking out the window.

Putting two and two together I hung my head in disgust.

"You intend to be bait to lure them here, and blow the mansion to pieces to buy time for their retreat.", I said.

"I intend to give them a chance to flee, and before we fall the munitions will be detonated taking out this whole hillside.", he answered.

"Damn it!!", I shouted, "You could use speakers to lure them here, and then detonate them when they break in."

"I will go down with my home looking the enemy in the eye.", he said, "I don't expect you to understand this wish of mine. Take my ex-wife and daughter, and leave immediately."

"You are as stubborn as they come Souichiro. I would have liked you to have been there for Saya's wedding, and the birth of your eventual grandchildren.", I told him.

"I...I know, I would have wanted to be there for both of those occasions. Tell me, does my daughter hate me?", he asked.

"Saya doesn't hate you, she is only upset about those around her that acknowledge her as your daughter and not the strong, intelligent woman she is.", I responded.

"I see.", he said turning to give me a letter, "One day, when the time is right, I want you to give this to her. I am an excellent warrior, but have been a terrible father and husband. Give that to Saya when she is ready."

Understanding that this letter contained his true feelings for his daughter, the letter suddenly felt like it weighed a ton. Tucking it in my pocket, he sent me out of his office and back to the group. Seeing Saya and Yuriko with a bag of clothing each, Saya asked me if her father was coming.

"No, he wants to stay here and hold the fort to the last.", I answered.

"He knows that they are going to kill everyone here, and he still refuses to listen to reason!", Saya huffed, "If he wants to die, I won't shed a fucking tear over him."

'He gave up his wife to gamble on our future, and is giving up his chance to see his daughter's future. I really hope I can live up to the expectations he has placed on me.', I thought as everyone got back in the Humvee.

Once everyone was in I drove us back down the drive, and off the property. The ride back down to the river was quiet as the women understood that was the last time they would see all those people alive. None of them knew what Souichiro had in mind, and I couldn't tell them because they would want to go back and stop him. Seeing the bridge from our crossing point, the police had fallen back and given the bridge over to the horde.

'I have people waiting back at base for me to return. I don't have the manpower, munitions, or strength to turn the tide in this situation.', I thought going across the river, 'There is nothing you can do Victor, he has made his choice to die as a warrior let him have that dignity. He gave you his wife and daughter, it is the absolute least you can do for him.'

Unable to handle the silence anymore, Yuriko asked us about the base we had. Giving her the run down of what we had going on, Saya bragged about all our hard work to her. Listening to her daughter talk, Yuriko smiled with pride as she saw how much her daughter had grown in a few short days.

"Everything okay?", Shizuka asked me.

"Yeah, it's just a lot of death is about to happen over there now.", I replied, "It may look like I don't care, but I have to put the needs of the group first. There is just too many people over there, and not enough room in our base to house them."

"That's true.", Shizuka replied, "Don't hold it against yourself though, you are doing what you think is right and that is what he is doing too."

"I know.", I chuckled giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh my, how bold of you.", Yuriko stated giving me a grin, "Is Saya not enough?"

"Mom...Victor is actually with several women.", Saya admitted.

"Oh?", Kiriko and Yuriko answered.

"He's with Rei, Saeko, Aimi, Nina, Pucca, Kyoko, Shizuka, and I.", Saya informed them.

"I am counted among you now?", Shizuka giggled, "Since when?"

"Since you started using his picture to pleasure yourself too.", Kyoko said.

"Wait what!?", I shouted, "When did this happen!?"

"Kyoko!", Shizuka pouted.

"I caught her in the women's bathroom about six months ago.", Kyoko snickered.

"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!", Shizuka whimpered.

"If you aren't going to make the move, I am going to push you.", Kyoko teased.

"I can't believe this, why didn't you tell me.", I told her.

"A teacher having illicit relations with a student is grounds for termination and jail time.", Shizuka stated, "While I like the fact you look me in the eyes, and not the chest...it wasn't worth losing my job and potentially going to jail. I fully intended to wait till you graduated then pounce on you."

"You did realize I was publicly dating him though, right?", Saeko pointed out.

"Well...I felt confident that I could win out over you in enough areas.", Shizuka said puffing her chest out causing it them to jiggle.

Keeping my eyes on the road, I still saw the bounce those heavenly pillows had.

"Well now that everything is gone to hell, might as well fess up and just take the plunge.", Kyoko told her.

"What do you say?", I asked Shizuka.

"Okay!", she giggled, "If I could potentially die at anytime, I want to do so knowing I was happy. Just so you know though, I am not on the pill so we will have to be careful."

"Jeez, that escalated quickly.", Saya stated.

"Well he is a young man, and from what I hear the others have a hard time keeping up.", Shizuka remarked.

"Rei...have you been having intercourse with-"

"Yes mother, Victor and I have been having sex.", Rei admitted, "I am on the pill so it wasn't ever an issue."

"You know that isn't a one hundred percent guarantee, right?", Kiriko asked.

"...it isn't?", Saeko, Saya, and Rei gulped.

"No, actually it's like 97% effective...depending on the pill you are on.", Shizuka stated, "For some of them it is lower."

"Did you know that?", the three girls asked me.

"I knew it wasn't a hundred percent.", I admitted, "Had anything come from it I would have taken full responsibility for it, and made sure I gave you a happy life as my wife."

"Awe.", they replied.

"Hehe, does that apply to all of us?", Shizuka said licking her lips.

"It...it does, but how about holding off on making any till we are off Japan? I don't want to get any of you pregnant here when the chances are high we will be in danger a lot.", I told them

Agreeing that now wasn't the time for family planning, they asked me what was next. Telling them that we had a few more families to make attempts to find, I said I wanted us moving on in no more than a weeks time. We were already going to need to find a second bus at this point, but I made a promise to make attempts at the very least to locate families. Once that time had expired my plan was to head to a naval base, and try to take any of the docked ships to get off the island. Preferably I wanted a nuclear powered vessel, but would take what I could get at the docks.

"Where to after that?", Rei asked.

"After that I have some allies we can pick up in China and Russia that I made in my travels.", I answered.

"They wouldn't happen to be women, would they?", Rei inquired.

"They are, they are the daughters of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Defense.", I replied honestly, "They are part of my plan to create a safe place for us to live."

"We are going to have a talk when we get back, I want to know how many other women you have slept with.", Rei told me.

"I haven't, you know all the women I have slept with. These women I never slept with, it would have cause an international incident if I had.", I retorted, "You think I wanted to start WWIII over sleeping with girls? No, I have a close relationship too them but it never got physical."

"Still we are talking about this.", Rei scolded me.

"That is fine.", I submitted knowing any resistance would cause more harm than good.