Chapter 34 - Ridden

Hearing the commotion outside the camp, people started waking up and grabbing their weapons. Hurriedly running out to help hold the defenses, they saw the Ryōzanpaku already at the front gate. Running up to help them, Hayato told them to stay back.

"If you want to help, those of you that can use a gun get on the walls!", he shouted.

Those that had some training ran up onto the walls, and saw Victor fighting with zombies that were coming out of the ground. Watching him bisect the dead with his sword, crush them like a tin can with his left hand, and use his boots to beat them back they took aim at the dead approaching him. Firing on them, they started to worry as it appeared their bullets weren't hurting them.

"Aim for the glowing areas!!", I ordered them, "That's their weak points!!"

Doing as I said, they started to do some real damage to the zombies. A few minutes later the dead were completely wiped out. Thinking that it was over, they noticed that Victor was watching the ground closely for some reason. The next moment they watched him slam his fist into the ground collapsing the area around the impact site. A split second later blood sprayed out from under the ground as they heard a shriek from under the ground as something died.

---Victor POV---

"We are clear now.", I told everyone, "That was the last one."

"What were those things?", Kenichi asked.

"They followed us from the city.", I stated, "That is why you pay attention to your surroundings. Are you okay kid?"

Shivering like a leaf in Hayato's arms she nodded her head. Instinctively she knew she had been only moments away from dying. For a small child that was a traumatic thought. When she saw me run at her she probably thought I was mad, but I was trying to get her away. That Hag would have devoured her instantly and ran off afterwards.

"I...I am sorry!", she sniffled, "I am sorry!!"

"It's not your fault.", I said taking my helmet off, "Just promise me you won't do that again. You were lucky this time, you may not be next time."

Nodding her head, she swore to listen to what I said. Giving her a smile, I said we needed to get them a bath and some food. They had been eating stale bread and stagnate water for a while now so they were in dire need of a good meal. Thanking me repeatedly for saving her daughter as she held the little girl tightly, she gave me a kiss on the cheek before leaving with Shigure to be taken to the bathroom.

"A Hero's reward is great, isn't it?", Kensei teased.

"My father is responsible for them being abandoned...he took the troops away the night before the apocalypse started.", I said tightening my grip on my sword, "That man took everything from them...how many people died because of my bastard father just on Okinawa alone!?"

"All parents don't deserve children, but all children deserve parents.", Akisame told me placing a hand on my shoulder, "You did a good thing saving those families, you can't hold this against yourself. The man who caused this isn't you, all you can do is help those in need as you did tonight."

"I know...it still frustrates me. There was a mass open grave of people out there painted with the expressions of their dying moments on their faces. Those new mutants were making a nest, they aren't like the undead we have encountered up till now.", I stated, "We will need to come up with a serum to stop them. They are being controlled and made with these things."

Pulling out a vial of Devil Worms from one of the compartments on my suit, I showed the group the specimen I had. Saying that the Ridden were full of these things, their expressions hardened.

"So we have two ways to get infected now...", Renka complained.

"I am immune, but I don't know if the others are.", I said, "Till we know who is immune and who isn't, no one leaves base without me. I don't want to have to put one of you down if you are infected by these things."

"Hmm...", Hayato muttered looking at them, "So these things are responsible for those new mutants?"

"I watched some survivors get puked on by those mutants. These worms appear to make their way to your brain, and take control there. Those people turned in a matter of minutes.", I stated.

"Do you have a plan?", Mui asked.

"I will have the Black Label scientists try to make a serum with my blood. Till they have time to investigate, all of you be careful.", I ordered.

"You don't have to tell me twice!", Kenichi said.

"Are you a man or a mouse?", Renka snapped.

"I am someone who acknowledges their limits.", Kenichi answered, "I can't fight worms with my fists."

"Haha, that is true.", Hayato laughed, "Kenichi it is time we start training you to awaken your Ki! There is high chance that learning to control that can prevent being taken over by these things! Shio, get the tire!!"

"Unfortunately we don't have car tires, but we do have tractor tires!", Shio said with a grin.

Seeing Kenichi gulp and Mui laugh as she cheered him on, I left them as I went to shower and then go to bed. Following after me, Renka and Maya wanted to ask me something. Asking them what was up, they asked me how I had detected the Ridden underground.

"Neither of us could sense them, and Hayato didn't look he could either.", Renka stated, "The life signs from them were too weak to detect anything with Ki."

"Vibrations and Ki, them moving underground makes tell tale signs of where they are. When the girl took off running, I felt something make a beeline for her.", I told her.

"Vibration?", she asked, "Through that armor?"

"Yes, if you can't do that you need to train more.", I chuckled, "Now if you will excuse me, I'd like to shower and get some rest."

Walking down to the bunker, I took a nice shower. As I was coming out of the shower, I found Yuriko and Namiyo waiting for me. Asking them what was up, they told me they had been watching the cameras in the security room when the fight broke out. Telling me that it put a smile on their faces to see me protect that little girl, the two of them wanted to reward me.

'This Hero award is much more appealing to me.', I thought taking them up on their offer.

---Next Day---

Getting up at sunrise, I went out to sit and watch the sun come up. Unsurprisingly I wasn't the only one who was up enjoying the sunrise. Glancing over to my left, the Masters were apparently meditating. Honestly I didn't practice that part of martial arts because it was unnecessary. For a normal human meditating helped hone their senses to a razor's edge, but a High Human like me had our senses already like that.

Closing my eyes, I enjoyed the warmth I was feeling from the Sun. It was nice to just relax for a moment as for the past several weeks we hadn't really had a moment to rest. Even last night wasn't really a deep rest as everyone was on edge after I saved those families. Hayato and the other Masters had voluntarily stayed up to watch the group throughout the remainder of the night, but it was really unnecessary as after removing the Nest and the Hags the only things wandering around out there were a few normal zombies. The rest of the undead on the island were on the north side of the island.

"Are you meditating?", Renka and Maya asked.

"No, I am simply enjoying the sunrise.", I remarked, "You should admire the beauty in nature every now and then. There is no problem taking time to just unwind, moments like these are going to be few and far between till the zombie numbers start to recede."

"I don't see what the big deal is.", Renka sighed giving her honest opinion.

"Haha.", I laughed getting up, "People like to take pleasure in the little things when the world around them is falling apart. Enjoying the sunrise is one of the few things people can still enjoy. There aren't malls to go to, places to eat, or even arcades to play at now."

Giving me a serious look she was trying to understand what I was saying.

"Renka, not everyone in this group is like you and Maya. People like us enjoy expressing ourselves through physical activities like sparring, training, and exercise. Most of the people here aren't warriors, fighters, or even combatants. They have only picked up weapons to defend those they love and care about.", I stated, "If given the choice they would want the world they knew back, but it's never going back to that. Everyone has seen too many deaths to ever resume a normal life. Put yourself in their place, could you go back to normal life if you had kill your mother if she turned?"

Opening her eyes wide, she understood what I was trying to say. She had been so caught up in fighting and testing her metal that she hadn't given a thought to the others. To her she thought they would simply adapt, and start to fight like the martial art fighters. Looking back at the people that were starting to stir, she understood they all wanted normalcy back and that fighting wasn't everyone's normalcy even now. Normalcy depended on the person, something she hadn't really thought about till now.

"Sorry...", she said, "I didn't think about that."

"It's okay.", I told her, "We all over look things when we are busy not trying to die. What's important for them is finding a place they can life in relative safety, and begin to rebuild. All of us will have to help rebuild the world, one brick at a time."

"Exactly we all may not have the same goals now but in the end we all want the same thing, a safe place to call home.", Maya agreed.

Motioning to the Master's, we watched Kensei try to take an upskirt picture of Shigure. The moment he got the angle right, she kicked him off the wall and into the ocean. Snickering when they heard him hit the water, the Master's got up from their seats like nothing happened.

"So what is on the docket today?", Hayato asked me.

"Please start training the people in self-defense, I am going to be focusing on modifying the ship to suit our needs. My hope is to stay here no longer than a week, the longer we stay the more attention we will attract from our undead neighbors.", I said, "I will give the Black Label team the sample I got last night, and then get to work."

"Understood, we will begin training after breakfast.", the Master's said.

"A little help please!!", Kensei shouted from down below, "A rope would be nice!"

Walking away from the edge, we heard him continue calling out for a few minutes before giving up. Letting him in the front gate, he wore an unamused look as he went to dry off and get something to eat.

---Black Label Lab---

Handing the sample over to the scientists, all of them were fascinated with the Devil Worms. Coming up with several different hypothesis on how the worms assumed control of humans, I kind of tuned them out. Walking over to Yuko, I asked her how the re-engineering of Tyrant virus was going. Telling me that progress was going well, they hoped to have a working test serum within a few days if things went well.

"Originally we were missing the necessary ingredients, but thankfully the warehouses had what we needed so we are back on track.", she said, "By the way...thank you for the massage and letting us sleep last night. I know we were planning to have fun, but getting to sleep on a real bed for the first time in weeks was too much to pass up."

"Haha, Yuriko and Namiyo kept me plenty of company.", I chuckled, "There is always tonight."

"I wondered why they looked more exhausted than usual.", she laughed, "Tonight we made a deal to set aside for just us."

"Sounds like a plan to me.", I said giving her a kiss, "You be careful with those worms, they turn people within minutes."

"I understand.", she replied.

---Battleship---

Peeling walls down like opening a can, I stowed the walls in my storage for now. With everyone busy with training or other tasks no one was going to bother me here.

"Have an idea?", Midna asked.

"I want to make separate spaces for people.", I said, "Having everyone share a single large room is a bit much. Couples will want to have some privacy during certain activities, and I don't want to make a room just for that. Obviously I have my own room where my lovers will sleep, but I want to accommodate more couples around the ship."

"How nice of you!", she teased.

"Hey, I just don't want to walk in on people getting it on. If people have their own places to go, it's better for all of us.", I stated, "I don't want another Rika Incident, poor Kohta apologized repeatedly to me about that."

"You are awful nice to him.", Midna said.

"He's my right hand man and he is a lot like I was back in my last life.", I chuckled, "He is like the brother I never had, and I want him to be happy."

Getting dimensions for rooms made up, I got to work making it a reality. Working into the afternoon, I came out of the ship to eat. Taking my shirt off since it was covered in metal shavings and sweat, I hung it out to dry on the ship. Walking into camp, the first to see me was Saeko and Renka. The two of them were exchange their knowledge of different martial arts when I approached them.

"You coming to join us?", Saeko asked.

"Yep, taking a break from working on the ship.", I chuckled.

Watching Renka look me over with a flushed expression, it appeared that I piqued her interest.

"You...you look different than normal. I suppose I haven't seen you without a shirt or armor.", Renka said, "You are well built."

"Thanks?", I chuckled.

"What are you doing!?", Kensei shouted, "My daughter is innocent young girl, are you trying to seduce her!?"

"You do know one of my girlfriend's is sitting next to her, right? Also, I have been working hard in the ship modifying it so people can have their own rooms so hush it. I am not trying to seduce your daughter, besides which you aren't the person who should be lecturing me. You are a peeping tom that likes to take upskirt photos.", I retorted, "I let this morning slide as Shigure is more than capable of defending herself. Don't take it as a free pass to do it to others."

"My daughter is too young to be looking at a shirtless boy!! Kenichi wasn't a problem because he-"

"Kensei!!", Kenichi shouted as he ran over to cover his mouth, "We talked about this, don't go squealing my secrets to other people!"

"This is my daughter we are talking about!", he said shaking off Kenichi, "I won't let a no good young man tempt her!"

"Shut it old man!", she snapped kicking him square in the nuts, "Like you ever gave a crap, you left us alone to go chase your fetish!! Don't act like you are a good Dad now!! If I wasn't your daughter you'd be trying to snap pictures of me too!!"

Seeing him foaming at the mouth, I knew she hadn't held anything back. She did have a point, even though he really does care about his family he has done a horrible job showing it. I mean openly admitting he left to find the perfect panty shot was a horrible way to tell his family he loved them.

'She does love her Dad, but at the end of the day she at that rebellious age and wants her family to be back together again.', I thought.

Breaking up their fight, I handed him to Hayato so he could fix him. I wasn't about to let him near Shizuka or Yuko, I was liable to kill him if I did. Apologizing for her father, she was embarrassed that he had jumped in like that. It was already bad enough having a perverted dad, having him try to act like he was an outstanding father just added insult to injury. Giving her a grin I said she had it rough with an old man like that. Going on to tell Saeko and I all the crap he did when she was younger, Kensei had to watch on in horror.

"My little girl is being tainted by that young man!", Kensei weakly said.

"Haha, I think he is a fine young man.", Hayato laughed.

"What if that was Mui?", he remarked.

"Let's not get crazy now.", Hayato said gritting his teeth.

After listening to several her stories, I parted ways with them to get back to work. Welding the walls into their new places, I made enough rooms for the couples while leaving a large area for the singles to sleep with the children. Moving doors to the exterior, I wanted people to be able to easily and safely evacuate if anything happened on the open ocean. While we were out on the ocean there was a high chance we encounter other warships that would try to sink us.

Finishing the rough ins by sunset, I would have to work on running electric to everyone along with intercom lines for the next few days. Standing on deck as I was planning on how to run it efficiently, Rei and Renka brought me something to drink. Thanking them, I asked how training was going. Telling me that the Master's were doing a great job teaching people, they said that several people were asking for me to train them in particular.

"I told them you'd teach after dinner, is that fine?", Rei asked.

"Of course, that works best for everyone.", I replied.

"Renka here was one of the people that asked.", Rei said in an unhappy tone.

"Yes I did.", Renka added with a hint of anger, "I hope you don't mind."

"That's fine, I already agreed to it anyways.", I stated.

"I know.", Renka told me, "I...I would like-"

"We are going to have an enjoyable night, right?", Rei inquired jumping on me, "Yuko and Shizuka told me they made plans with you."

"They have...", I admitted, "Rei, can I talk to you?"

"I will go let everyone know that we are good to train tonight.", Renka said running off.

Waiting for Renka to be out of ear shot, I started to talk Rei about her behavior.