My SI Stash #53 - What To Do In a B Movie World by ArcSele (HighSchoolOfTheDead)

-Gots to be the first HOTD fic I've read where the MC has such a late mental boom reaction lol/ Understandable but still eh~

Synopsis: Waking up in an unfamiliar place wasn't new to him. Being in Japan was. Finding he was in a horror manga, or what would become one, was worse.

Rated: T

Words: 65K

Posted on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12687797/1/What-To-Do-In-a-B-Movie-World/ (ArcSele)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

Dedicated to Grape-kun

[1st]

I wasn't all that surprised or uncomfortable to find myself waking up in a house that wasn't mine. This kind of thing happened, I was visiting a friend or traveling for family vacation, nothing to flip a tit over. The first sign something was wrong was when I put on my shoes and stepped outside to find a small store near me that had not an ounce of English but instead Japanese. This was unusual but I put it off as one of us moving near some local twist on Japanese cuisine. The next problem was when turned to find some joint that I could understand or enjoy only to find more of a language I didn't understand. I blinked a couple of times and looked around me, the people walking about were all Asian, Japanese I would guess if the signs were any indication and moreover some of them had what appeared to be uniforms.

Reacting like any confused individual I turned around and headed back to where I'd come out of. Looking around the place I'd woken up revealed that the house was rather small and more than that, sparse. Spartan was the first phrase that came to mind, though that left when I noticed a TV and laptop plus a few other handy things. Huh, when did I move to Japan?

It was after shaking myself of any remaining drowsiness and stupidity that I started looking into my situation a bit more. Checking my pockets found all the usual stuff I kept, albeit with some changes from the norm. Keychains, little wipe packs for my glasses, and wallet in my left pocket, which included some IDs along with some passes and cash in the form of Yen, though my first name had been changed for some reason. Pocket knife and change in the right.

Breaking out of my early morning daze had revealed that all the foreign characters that had previously meant about as much to me as screams to a deaf person were now perfectly understandable, as I'd discovered browsing the boob tube and seeing multiple channels in Japanese and finding I could easily get what I was seeing and hearing. Checking my phone showed my apps remained the same and checking the laptop showed that it was indeed mine and that I'd been just titting about on YouTube and the like recently, as well as the fact that I'd recently been hired at a local convenience store, all said and done I seemed to be living by myself rather capably for a while now. The question was, what brought me here?

The first day at work had been fine, I'd been one of only two people working that shift and had relatively few customers coming in, an intentional thing it seemed, as the owners -a lovely middle-aged couple named Satoru and Ayame Kouno- figured it'd be best not to overwhelm the newbie, which was fine considering I'd worked retail before, not that they had to know that, though they did say it'd be tougher from tomorrow on. The person working with me was a fidgety teenager by the name of Naoya Hiyama, a second year at the local high school, Fujimi Academy. All around seemingly nice people though Naoya looked ready to jump if someone sneezed too loudly.

I took off my shoes as I entered my house, after leaving work I had taken a few hours to walk around the neighborhood, trying to get a feel for the place; that, along with standing behind a counter for hours even if I didn't really do much while there led to my feet aching quite a bit by the time I arrived. Being a college age adult that hadn't really done much physically or otherwise in the time before finding myself here meant I wasn't really ready for the amount of foot travelling one did in Japan, though I found that it wasn't nearly as bad as it should've been.

I padded over to my bathroom and started the bath up, hoo boy, living here was gonna take some getting used to. Finishing that brought up something, the school Naoya had mentioned when introducing himself, something about that name tickled my brain, I'd never been to Japan or known anyone that had either, much less went to school here.

I racked my brain trying to see what I could recognize it from, a documentary? Don't think I watched one of those recently enough to have it stick. A book? Hadn't read a book with a Japanese setting in a while either, a manga or anime perhaps? Most likely but again I couldn't remember any of those with a Fujimi Academy from recent memory, I hope that didn't mean it was a bad one or something, that was really the only thing I could think of where I'd try to forget anything about it, at least enough to not remember a school, unless it wasn't one of the main locations?

I gave a quick sigh and finished cleaning up before I walked over to my towel, drying off and dressing, it was then that I looked in the mirror. Truth be told, I hadn't really looked in a mirror or seen my reflection all day, never really had a reason to. Trying to be presentable was fine and all but, honestly, while my hair was kind of curly and my longest amount of facial hair amounted to 'barely over prepubescent' at most, neither were enough of a problem at this point to worry about. Other than that, making myself look alright was rather simple and didn't require looking in the mirror.

That said, I saw that the roundness that had followed me throughout life and quite noticeable hunch from around junior high were gone, as well as most of the more obvious blemishes I'd had. Did I have surgery or something before moving here? Had I been on the run and decided to change my appearance before skedaddling away from home? Possible, in both cases though my lack of debt and the fact that I'd kept my real name on all forms of ID said otherwise for the latter, unless I was incompetent of course.

Stepping out of the bathroom I decided to shelve these thoughts for later, barring the possibility of me being on the run from some government conspiracy or something, I doubted that sleeping would put me in danger. I walked to my room and started to charge my phone before flopping onto my bed. Thankfully rather than a futon, couch or just the floor itself the me that lived here had had the grace and benevolence to get a real bed.

I closed my eyes. Hopefully some of the questions I'd had earlier would be answered in the coming future.

This wasn't good.

The next day at work I'd been busy doing my job, ringing things up, making sure the customers were all good with change and such when three friends came in. The first thing that stood out was their appearances, 2 boys and a girl, the taller one had straight gray hair and brown eyes, a nice face and frame. Not normal but definitely not something to really care about.

Then came the other two, the shorter boy had brown eyes, a lean build and spiky black hair, spiky. Huh. The girl was the shortest of them all, with orange hair that had two prominent bangs and what seemed like small antenna, as well as a figure that I could only assume would result in major back pain, all of them had uniforms on. The fact that none of the adults were all that bothered by the hair color or appearance itself meant this was normal or at least not as out of place as it should have been. Then I heard the name coming from the tallest boys' mouth from the end of his question, "-Takashi?" That made a niggling thought appear in my mind, as if this should have been important, why? It was just his name.

Takashi replied while turning to the girl, "Sounds good, wanna come over too Rei?" That sent a special kind of nausea through my body. Why did these names ring alarms in my head? What was so special about them?

"Excuse me, Vega-san?" A voice asked. I don't think I was gonna get used to that, especially the weird accent with which it was pronounced, for a while; seeing it in games or the like was one thing, hearing it was a totally different matter. I looked over to Naoya and saw him nervously looking at me.

"Hm?" I returned, still trying to puzzle out why these kid's names were bothering me.

"Are you alright? You just stumbled a bit." He looked me over while shuffling a bit. I assured him I was and turned back to the group to see them staring at me. They'd been close enough to the register to see my stumble and were looking at me with varying emotions. Ah, shoot, forgot to greet them. "Welcome," I said, bowing a bit while saying so. They quickly nodded at me and started going to different spots, presumably to get their stuff.

Why did that happen? What was- Oh.

Well, bollocks.

That's why I recognized the names.

The answers I'd received weren't very welcome.

This changes everything.

That's why I'd forgotten the name of the high school.

Generally, I wasn't the kind of person that went for horror, fanservice or not. I wasn't one for things where lots people died in a short amount of time either, but when I did stumble upon one that I would choose to read, I'd push it from my mind after finishing to not dwell on all the negative aspects of the universe so as not to feel bad for people that weren't real. That being said this was a horror manga.

I was in High School of The Dead

Realizing such a thing made my memories of the show flood back into me and I started to panic, so I'd checked the time to see if I was going to be attacked by zombies tomorrow or something. It was October 16th. I started to think about what I'd seen; Takashi and Rei didn't seem to have had their breakup yet as there was no awkwardness or tension. All of them were wearing long sleeved uniforms which meant the winter ones, this supported the fact that yes, the date on my phone wasn't wrong, or at least not completely off. Then there was the fact that they were wearing what looked to be the variations of the same uniform meaning they were all in high school, presumably. If that was true then Takashi and what had to have been Hisashi were first years. Meaning I only had a few months assuming it happened during spring, an assumption since there were cherry blossoms, and that only happened when it was spring right? God, I needed to do some research if I didn't want to die quicker than the extras.

This sucked.

That was an understatement, this was a catastrophe.

I couldn't even tell when things happened, I didn't go to school anymore and I doubt I could apply as a teacher, they had to have standards right? I mean, I guess the ghouls trying to chomp me would be a good indication that everything had gone into the gutter but I'd prefer one that didn't turn me into a side character with a bit of knowledge, thank you very much.

How did I get here? The only possible explanation I could think of was a dream or a ROB. In the case of the former, dying would do me well in getting out of it. In the case of the latter, that was very much not an option, obviously. If this was a ROB I would find my way out of this mess and beat him senseless, or die trying, though that would make my survival of this moot but hey, vengeance is cool, yeah? if this was a dream I was gonna look myself in the mirror when I woke up and punch myself as hard as I could for putting myself through this.

God. This sucked.

Chapter 2

[1st]

Kind of fitting that I was sent into this world in October.

That was the first thing I can remember thinking after my initial panic upon realizing that I had been sent to what would become an undead buffet in a few months.

The summary of my time thinking and flailing is as follows: I could die! Not if I'm prepared! How do I do that? Geh. Ah- never mind. Guess I could wing it. That's asking for death. Oh boy, oh jesus. Think back on the preparation a character has put into zombie stories, any one, something.

An altogether fruitless waste of time. I had decided to leave it for a future me to worry about and went to bed.

One month had passed since my epiphany and the panic that followed. Halloween had come and gone and in that time a plan had formed. Collect non-perishable goods, work out, learn and purchase stuff for self-defense, maybe some camping equipment, yadda yadda yadda. Definitely a work in progress. I'd even gotten to doing some of that stuff, though admittedly not much. Despite having better posture and being thinner and all around looking better I had not been blessed by the Powers That Be with incredible fitness and physique. The first few weeks of working out had been what one would describe as 'Hellish.'

Thanks to that however, I'd discovered something. The day after my first work out I woke up sore, all kinds of sore, like you wouldn't believe, making work rather difficult. What I found however was that by the next day not only was I feeling better, I felt stronger.

I'd tried working out for a bit (read, a week) back home and quickly given up, I know for a fact I hadn't felt that much stronger if at all. And seeing how long it had taken my older brother to make notable gains told me this wasn't normal. Then I remembered something, this was Highschool of The Dead; here, Takashi and the others (with the exception of Saeko and Rei kinda, seeing as they were trained in weapon use beforehand) had gone from normal people to action stars. The transition shouldn't have been as easy as it was, and yet there hadn't been any obvious problems. This brought me to a conclusion, to ease the burden of a tougher lifestyle on people wholly unprepared for it the world made physical activity easier. I could use this, I'd been worrying what to do to prepare and this give me a significant step in the right direction. If the burden of physics lightening up allowed them to pull crazy stunts, I could too, all I needed was time, dedication and knowledge. All of which were present.

It was time to start the grind.

After that I'd found myself making steady progress, seeing as it'd been only a month nothing too major had taken place. Work was fine, the only problem with taking care of myself was all the bills to pay; I could cook and clean well enough to make sure my health wasn't a problem and I hadn't had any reality shaking encounters with the cast or important people in the world and things were peaceful. I could prepare unheeded by any problems.

I decided to look into the main characters. Nothing came up for Takashi, Zeke or Shizuka. Made sense seeing as they didn't really have any relation to people of note. The details that I didn't know about the others were few, Rei's father was respected and had a few cases under his belt so his deal with Shido seemed to be just the latest in a string of corruption reveals, or at least it would've been if not for what would eventually happen. While I had known that Alice's dad had been a journalist I hadn't known what he covered, which was to say a lot. From what I saw his articles covered a wide spectrum of subjects, none of which really caught my attention. Saeko's father, Hideki Busujima was really, really good. The crazy things I'd seen Saeko do in the anime were nearly eclipsed by her father, seeing him in action made me realize just how far one could go in a world like this. In one of his demonstrations he'd shown his quick draw; I'd seen Stan Lee's Superhumans, the episode where a guy cut a pellet in two had been amazing to me, Hideki surpassed that. He cut a pellet going over 500 kph clean in half and managed to almost have his sword back in the sheath by the time it hit the wall. This guy was incredible, I could definitely see how Saeko was so good with someone like this teaching her.

More importantly this was inspiring to me. Obviously, I couldn't get quite this skilled since I didn't have that long but I could work with this. Being in this small apartment with a job at a convenience store didn't mean my chances of getting out of this were as abysmally low as I'd previously thought, he was proof of that.

That night my work out was especially intense.

"Welcome!" I greeted as the door opened and more customers walked in. It was Takashi and Hisashi. I'd discovered throughout the month that he came here often, usually with friends though sometimes without. I'd gotten to know them a bit through hearing snippets of conversation. Takashi was generally easy going, talking and laughing with whoever he was with. Hisashi seemed more calm, still nice and talkative but not as loud as Takashi. Rei was kind and caring, often making sure they didn't forget anything and easily talking to multiple people at once. I have to say, it was quite a difference from what I remembered in either version of the story, though I suppose that was due to the strained nature of her relationship with Takashi and not really being comfortable with everyone else. Last was Morita; there hadn't been much to see of him from the story, a few lines to Takashi before he died in the first chapter and a bonus chapter with exposition on the girls. Seeing him alive was odd, the bits we had seen from the manga were enough to get a picture of his personality and he stayed relatively true to that, he was The Fun One of the group, making jokes, pervy remarks and other light hearted things, though never going over the line.

It was interesting to say the least to see all this interaction with people I knew were gonna be dead come next spring. Like a slice of life spin off but, you know, real, I guess.

Takashi and Hisashi came up to the counter and placed their stuff on it, I rung it up and bagged it, accepting their pay and quickly bowing while giving a farewell. "Vega-san?" A voice quietly called out.

"Yes?" I glanced at Naoya and waited for him to say something.

"Why do you always stare at them?" His voice was soft, almost like he'd been afraid to ask. In the time I'd known Naoya he'd gone from extremely nervous to passable, the fact that he asked me anything at all was good as I'd been sorely lacking in ways to distract myself from boredom on the job other than occasionally staring at Takashi and his friends.

"They remind me of school, and I know one of them" I said, not quite the whole truth, but I didn't really want to tell anyone that now did I?

"How so?" He asked, seemingly gaining a little confidence from my casual speech and not rebuffing his question.

"The uniform for one thing," I started, trying to think of anything else that would warrant staring at them specifically. "The way they spoke, how happy they were, that kind of thing." I couldn't really think of anything else to say.

"Ah," he said, I guess that meant this conversation was drawing to a close. "Did you enjoy it?" he mumbled.

Guess not. "School?" I asked, turning to him, he nodded. I mulled that question over, had I? I'd never really thought about it other than the usual 'school sucks, why does this matter?' But now that I was out? "I dunno," I said, not wanting to take too long with my answer lest Naoya think I wouldn't reply. "I guess," I amended.

"Oh, how did you know them?" he asked, seeing I didn't have much to say on that and changing topics.

"I started learning karate," I said. After watching Hideki the first few weeks I'd figured it was time to get started on learning how to fight and joined a class, even if I wasn't going to use it against the spooks I figured the conditioning would help at the least and I planned on learning more than just Karate in the first place. Needless to say I was surprised to see that Hisashi was there and remembered him mentioning that when he'd refused to use a weapon in the first chapter. I'd laughed and chastised myself, I was doing something that one of the main characters' friends did, of course we would be doing it at the same place. Thankfully no one had cared about me suddenly laughing in the middle of training.

"Ah," he said again, this time not choosing to say anything else.

Neither of us said a thing after that.

[3rd]

Hirano Kohta was tired, some upperclassmen had been harassing him again, slinging the usual insults and prodding him, trying to get a rise out of him. No one had helped him of course, they never did. He was always stuck taking it whether in school or out. Once they'd let him go he'd just brushed himself off and started to head home. Thankfully he had something to look forward to. In a little over a week he'd be heading to America for some training, thinking about all the awesome stuff he'd learn over there brought a small smile to his face.

"Hey, tubbs!" The harsh tone and words he heard made that smile die a very young death. He paled and gulped while turning around, looking to what he could only assume was another person or group of people ready to pick on him. He was sadly proven right when he saw the blonde hair and muscular build of Tsunoda Hino, member of the track team and one of Kohta's top tormentors. Kohta breathed deeply and hunched in on himself, assuming an aura of submission and defeat. "Yes, senpai?" He softly asked, wanting this to be over already.

"Hah?" Tsunoda sneered, cocking his head as if trying to make sure he heard Kohta correctly, "don't you mean sir?"

"Yes sir?" Kohta quickly corrected, drawing further into himself.

"Listen to this fucking useless otaku!" Tsunoda cackled "couldn't even address me properly!" Those with Tsunoda laughed, Kohta stiffened. "Did our game earlier make you forget everything important? Or are you just that stupid?"

"No sir," Kohta said, staying completely still.

"Make sure to remember next time okay? We wouldn't want to have to make sure you remember, you couldn't pay us back for wasting our time on you if that happened." Tsunoda lectured, playing up the situation before continuing "I'm glad I caught you now, me and my buds were just thinking we wanted something to eat and who better to help us then our bud Kohta huh?"

Kohta looked out of the corner of his eye and saw everyone walking past him, playing off what was happening and going about their business. As always.

That made what he had to say all the worse.

"I don't have any money senp- sir." Kohta started to tremble, he knew what was coming next.

"What was that?" Tsunoda asked, leaning in again and feigning confusion "it almost sounded like the fatty refused."

"I don't have any money," Kohta said again, dread building the longer this went.

"What did I say about paying us for spending time on you Kohta? If you don't have anything then you're gonna hafta pay us another way, right?" Tsunoda said, voice oozing with sleaziness. The other guys started to close in on Kohta and he began to hunch over. Here it comes. "Well I'm sure I'll think of something this time," Tsunoda said, already stepping closer and loosening up. Here it comes.

As soon as he was in range, his fist lashed out.

They'd been just getting to the worst of it when one of them cried out and fell.

Kohta didn't dare look up in case one of them took the chance to kick his face, he'd made that mistake once, it was enough to not do it again. Still, it seemed as if they'd suddenly stopped hitting him though Kohta knew that couldn't have been it. Why would they?

A minute passed. Kohta heard a heavy breath followed by some spit, he flinched, he hated it when they spat on him. Still nothing came. He felt a hand shake him and he tightened up. The hand pulled back and Kohta waited for the punch that was sure to follow.

Again. Nothing.

Eventually Kohta looked up meekly and saw two people sitting by him, waiting for him, as well as his tormentors lying on the floor, groaning or out cold. He started to loosen up and sit down, though not before backing away a bit, just in case.

"You alright?" One of them said, he was tall with well kept grey hair and neutral brown eyes. A good looking face without glasses and he seemed rather lean, like a gymnast or maybe a welterweight boxer, his voice made him seem more mature, Kohta thought it somehow suited him. He got up and held a hand out to Kohta, who briefly hesitated before taking his hand and getting up.

"Yes, uh," Kohta paused, still nervous, "thank you." He started to bow before flinching at the pain that flared up.

"No problem," the boy said, smiling and waving off Kohta's thanks. They both heard shoes shuffling closer and turned to look at the figure. It was the other person Kohta had seen when he looked up, though this one appeared a bit older, plainer and foreign. His hair was brown and wavy, it swirled about kind of messily, though Kohta guessed that was from the fight. He had glasses that were crooked and droopy brown eyes, which seemed to be sizing up Kohta, something he noted with curiosity and a bit of caution. He was just as tall as the boy and broader, adding to the impression he wasn't Japanese.

"Jeez, you took quite a few hits yourself didn't you, Vega-san?" the boy asked lightheartedly, looking him over and seeing that he was indeed more banged up. The boy suddenly realized something and turned back to Kohta, making the boy flinch. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Igou Hisashi, nice to meet you, though I wish it could've been under kinder circumstances." He bowed a bit and Kohta returned it while getting out a quick 'nice to meet you.' "Hirano Kohta," he said before Hisashi turned to the other person which he took as his cue to introduce himself. "T-Vega Thomas, nice to meet you." His voice was deep but flat, as if he always tired. The name was definitely foreign. He stuck his hand out, Kohta stared at it for a second before Thomas spoke up "not too fond of bowing if it's all the same to you," he clarified. Kohta realized what he meant and shook his hand. "Thank you," he replied, bowing a bit and shuffling about.

"Happy to help," Thomas replied, tilting his head a bit as he did so, his glasses slipping before he pushed them up.

"We should probably get out of here before they wake up," Hisashi said, to which Thomas hummed in agreement and Kohta gave a brief nod. They asked where Kohta lived and started to head there with him, chatting intermittently.

[1st]

When I'd tried heading to my lessons with Hisashi who'd come in for some snacks alone and decided to head to the dojo with me after dropping his stuff off at home and changing, I'd assumed it would be a normal affair.

Then we'd come across someone getting wailed on and Hisashi had rushed in to help him. It had turned out the victim was one Hirano Kohta, gun expert of the main group and one of the major contributing factors to their continued survival. I can remember thinking about what the odds were to come across him so soon after meeting Hisashi but pushed it aside in favor of not ending up flat on my back. After dropping him off at his house, we'd headed to the dojo to explain what had happened and try to participate anyway. The dojo master commended us for helping the defenseless but wanted us to not be so reckless next time. We were allowed to lightly go at it and went home early.

Which brought me to now. I was aching, quite so. I'd never really been in a fight before and the only reason I hadn't been laid out was Hisashi backing me up and the bit of training I had on the amateurish thugs. That along with the fact that I'd gone through with lessons anyways meant I was worse off than any other time since arriving. I was trying to alleviate some of this by soaking in a hot bath and thankfully it actually worked, even if it wouldn't prevent me from feeling it again tomorrow.

Coming out and feeling refreshed I went to the kitchen and made a sandwich, eating it while messing about on my phone. Every game I had while the same in that I owned them were different due to the fact that I'd essentially traveled back in time. A lot of the things I enjoyed presently didn't exist yet actually. Persona 5 chief among them as I'd been trying to Platinum it but the point was this: even if I had the same stuff, they weren't nearly as far along as they were back home. Which wasn't to say passing time was more difficult now, quite the opposite in fact; looking up stuff I'd meant to get to before, things that were now available to me since I could read and speak a whole different language and preparations for the apocalypse this coming spring made sure my hands were rather full.

I finished my sandwich and continued browsing for a while before stopping and going to my room. It was about 8:40, still plenty of time before sleep was required. So I picked up my laptop and started to search for things to buy. I'd started this well before starting my lessons and around the time working out had really picked up so I'd done quite a bit of looking around. The biggest problem I had was that I was a clerk in a small place, not only was space a problem but price was too. I had to worry about bills, food and lessons, finding spending money besides that was troublesome and even when I had it, there was only so much managing I could do before running out of space and one of those storage rooms would be a problem as well since it would be another drain on my funds. If I tried to keep tabs on what I wanted to buy and bought them when the time was near there was the problem of getting it all in a safe place in a timely fashion, spread too long and drain became a problem again, rush it at the end and there was a chance that what I wanted would be gone. There was the fact that I could just buy a different brand or wait for restocking but the problem with that was I wanted the best I could afford, and I would constantly doubt if what I'd gotten would be enough, though I suppose that would be a problem anyway. And throwing aside the budget plan for piling on debt brought with it more possibilities to consider.

I let out a long, suffering, sigh. This was hard, being an adult was hard, not just when it came to surviving the apocalypse either, it sucked in general. Why couldn't I just be back home? Lounging around and not worrying about anything? I looked back at the clock, 10:13. I'd found and purchased some minor things from my list while thinking about all the problems I had without even realizing it. Good job, me, seriously. I should go to sleep now, my shift started at 9:15 tomorrow and while I didn't need too long to wake up once up and about, there was the danger of oversleeping if I stayed awake for much longer, even with an alarm, or ten.

I just hoped my soreness and bruises didn't make everything a hassle.

Chapter 3

[3rd]

Busujima Saeko was running, doing it helped her stamina with an added benefit of letting her sort through muddled thoughts.

Usually doing this at night alone would be considered dangerous, were it not for the fact she had the means and knowhow to protect herself.

She steadily breathed as she bounced along the road, hair and body swaying rhythmically. Her father was planning on returning from a trip abroad in about a week. When that happened, he would most likely forbid her from doing this so she had to get all the time in that she could, though she could at least say she would be happy to see him. It had been a few months since he was last home and that was fine, as his dojo was overseas anyway so him being away was nothing new, but still, she missed him.

After that thought, Saeko stopped thinking for the next few minutes. The only sound her breath and soft steps on the pavement.

Then she turned a certain corner and heard a second set of feet. It was him.

For over the past two months, twice a week when she went out there would be someone in front of her. Partway through that would change as his pace slowed so he could catch his breath and fell behind before eventually stopping altogether and she would continue, unheeding of his pause, neither seeing nor hearing him until next week when they would inevitably cross paths again. Last week he'd almost kept pace with her for over half an hour before she heard the telltale sign of labored breathing minus the footsteps and continued on her way. She was curious as to how much progress he had made in the past few days.

5 minutes, 10, 20, 30. 40 minutes passed and he continued to relatively keep pace with her, she was even about to stop. Her inner competitiveness told her to keep going, that she had to win but the ache in her legs and the burning in her lungs brought that train of thought to a stop. As she slowed before halting completely, she looked behind to congratulate him only to see him facing the other direction, already heading back the way they came. Her words died out and she caught her breath for a minute before starting the journey back as well. She got through a good chunk of the trip before realizing she hadn't seen him at all. How odd. She looked around to make sure she hadn't missed him and continued on her way home, wondering what path he took and if he'd manage to surpass her next time.

How interesting her runs had become.

[1st]

After my run I rested for a bit before taking a quick bath and resuming my online shopping.

I was significantly farther in my preparations now. Multiple changes of clothes suitable for spring, summer and winter; some water filters and iodine tablets, a bit of protective attire for bites and such and a couple dozen MREs kept in a mini fridge so they'd last longer, to list a few things obtained just this month. Still had a ways to go before I'd consider myself satisfied with everything but I was making steady progress, and it was only December 19th so if my timeline was right I still had around 4 months... That wasn't all that comforting actually. 4 months. That was only barely over twice the time I'd already spent here. I remember when I'd graduated that much time had flown right past with little progress made in anything I'd wanted, though I'd admittedly not been working all that hard, especially compared to now. At this pace I'd have enough time to get what I wanted, not including bonuses. Especially since I didn't really have anyone I considered close enough to spend Christmas with, therefore lacking any need for presents, but still, I felt wary.

Disregarding my lack of close friends and the deadline growing closer I had another thing to think about. Warning people. So far I'd been preparing myself and only myself. Like I said, I didn't have anyone close enough that I'd feel comfortable inviting them to hang out during Christmas and I doubted anyone felt that way about me either, much less tell them about Zombies destroying a chunk of the world before the next year was even halfway done. After thinking about it for a while the only warning I could think of was leaving notes or something so they wouldn't be caught completely off guard when they started tearing through houses and people, as well as some warning on online forums, though I doubt I'd be taken seriously, it was still something I was gonna try. Though it would be sometime during February or March, it would be plenty of time for those that were gonna take it seriously to prepare.

Ever since mid-November I'd felt empathy for SI's and the things they did to make canon better, especially if they were in a series where they were working to better the whole world and not just a small group or themselves. This was taxing enough, no way did I want to be responsible for a city, let alone the world.

Another day, another headache. At least tomorrow was Sunday and I had a day off. So I could just ache and prepare in peace.

"I'm a bloody moron," I said, rubbing my eyes and cursing the weekend for the customers and rushing it brought with it. Regardless of the fact that the place I worked at (it was called Kon-Bini, a marvelous joke in my opinion) wasn't very teeming with people as say, Walmart or Costco, it was still rather active, especially in the weeks approaching Christmas. Though this place wasn't as big on the decorating as home, people were still plenty happy about buying presents and while Kon-Bini wasn't the place where they got the gifts, it was close enough for people to get snacks and what have you when leaving the nearby stores. As such the place was busy enough that they'd called me in on an unscheduled day. Even with the assurance I'd given myself by adding up my pay through the months it still didn't hurt to get extra, so I accepted.

Then I found I was the only person that came in at this time who hadn't been already here, which was a whopping 2 people. That being Mr. and Mrs. Kouno themselves.

"Sorry, Tom-chan," Mrs. Kouno said, smiling a little while inclining her head. More so than my last name, being called by my first name, regardless of the fact that it wasn't my real one, with an honorific of any kind still made me feel kinda weird, like a weeaboo roleplay or something. "We weren't expecting this many people," she went on helping the next customer while talking to me.

"Didn't you say that more people would be coming in starting this weekend?" I asked, turning briefly to both of them to pose my question.

"Well, yes, more people, but not this much. I don't think I've ever seen this many people here since my husband took over the shop," she explained, quickly serving two people while talking and moving away to take care of something.

"How long is that?" I was genuinely curious, seeing as I didn't really know much about either of them, though that wasn't all that weird considering I hadn't been here that long and that they weren't around all that often during my shifts.

"22 years," Mr. Kouno answered for her, going about his business while I wondered what the odds were that when I arrived the place suddenly got busier.

"23, dear," Mrs. Kouno corrected, walking by and restocking a shelf with cookies and chips, before returning to the counter to serve more customers.

"Ah, right," he said airily while his wife smiled and worked alongside him.

After that there was only brief talking amongst ourselves as we spent most of our time paying attention to the customers and moving around the store to solve whatever problems came up, and even that was mostly the Kounos'. It almost felt like I was intruding because of how sweet and personal they were with each other, which I suppose I was considering I wasn't supposed to be here, in any sense really.

And just like that, hours passed and my shift ended.

I changed out of the uniform and waved as I headed out.

The next day brought with it slightly warmer weather and less crowded streets. I was walking around and familiarizing myself with a new area of the city, I'd always found it easy enough to memorize directions when paying attention but the problem was I had more on my mind due to my situation and ended up drawing out the process because of frequent distractions and retracing my steps. This was the last part of the city that I wanted to memorize as I didn't really think the others would be worth it. It was peaceful, a lot more well to do than the other places I'd gone to and definitely looked the part with the larger houses and more luxurious area in general. The only reason I considered this place being of any importance was the fact that most of the people living here would probably have some stuff worth salvaging, though I doubted I'd be the only person to think of looting fancy houses. Still, even disregarding my less than good intentions for being here I found I could still greatly enjoy the cold air and relaxed atmosphere here.

I was doing it again.

I blinked and stood in place to bring myself back to my initial task. Where was I? I looked around and saw the last recognizable house about two blocks away. I sighed and started my way back.

"Bark! Bark!" I heard what sounded like a small dog barking angrily. I turned and saw the culprit running towards me before stopping when my eyes settled on it, at which point it settled for growling at me.

"Tamotsu!" I turned my head to the new voice, and I noticed the dog did too. There was a girl quickly walking towards us. She was pale, with hair the color of an apricot and dark blue eyes. She had a long cream colored coat and a fluffy hat that she had her hand on as she sped closer. When she finally reached us she grabbed the dog's collar and started to pet it for a few seconds before turning to me. "I apologize, he is not usually so hostile." she looked sorry and spoke very formally, definitely belonged here.

"It's alright," I responded, not sure what to do when addressed so politely for something that wasn't really a big deal. "Animals don't tend to like me anyways, so I'm used to it." I looked at the dog and observed him more since he wasn't showing any hostility, instead wagging his tail happily as his owner pet him.

"Still," she said, keeping her tone apologetic. "He has been trained, I thought he would be better behaved."

I remember thinking so too when our family got a dog, not that it stopped him from misbehaving.

I looked at the dog again, he seemed rather young and his collar looked rather new, though that might have been the high quality material making it seem as such.

"Is he your first dog?" I asked, trying not to come off as rude.

She blinked a bit before nodding. "How did you know?" She seemed honestly shocked that I knew.

"That's what I thought when we got our dog," I remembered being suddenly struck by the realization that I didn't know anything about them other than the fact that they were adorable and fun to be with when my parents asked me to take care of him while everyone else was out. Months later and I found myself not knowing much more as I wasn't the one taking care of him most of the time since while everyone else was away wasn't very long.

"Oh!" She perked up and brought her hands together while smiling brightly. "You have a dog too? What is his name? What does he look like?" She peppered me with questions, seemingly delighted to talk about dogs, though she didn't sound like she knew much about them either. "Ah!" She suddenly stopped and covered her mouth, looking away. "I am sorry for asking so much, that was rather unbecoming of me."

"No, it's fine," I assured her again, starting to feel rather uncomfortable with how formal she was being. "His name was Sammy," I started, deciding to answer all that I could.

"Shammee?" She asked, tilting her head and messing up his name.

"It's short for Samuel, it's English." I explained, feeling it weird to tell her that when to me it sounded as if we were already speaking it.

"Oh my, how exotic!" She exclaimed, brightening up again. English. Exotic. Heh.

"He was a mix, can't recall what kind though I remember one part was labrador." I answered another question, trying to get through the few I could at least partially answer. "He was black, kinda small for a lab with a goofy face and we had him for 6-ish months." I couldn't really remember much about him.

"Why so short?" She asked, before gasping. "I must ask for your forgiveness, my apologies for bringing up such a painful subject." She bowed and seemed more distraught than before.

"Don't be, I just moved here, I used to live in America and I meant 'had' as in, I no longer care for him since I'm not there." I quickly explained, trying to calm her down again. The dog, licked at her, seemingly sensing her mood and doing his part to keep her happy.

She relaxed, her face lightening up and mood rising again. Then she kneeled patiently, waiting for me to say more while petting the dog. "That's all I got," I said, not knowing what to say next as there wasn't anything else I knew about the dog. I settled for staring at hers. He was a cute one, what with his floppy black ears and how happy he seemed to be stroked.

After petting the dog for a few more seconds the girl made a sound and looked to me, "It just occurred to me that I was taking him for a walk when he came over here, I should be going." She stood and kept her gaze on me. "I'm sorry for not doing so until now but I would like to introduce my dog as well as myself. His name is Tamotsu and mine is Kimura Sachiko, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She finished her statement with a bow.

"Ah, I'm Vega Thomas, nice to meet you." I dipped my head a bit, forgoing a hand shake because of how formal she seemed to be.

"Before I go Vega-san, you said you have just moved here, did you mean this neighborhood?" I shook my head and she stood in silence for a second before speaking again. "What reason are you here for then? Was it to see someone?"

"Just checking out the city," I answered. "I only came here a few months ago so I wanted to take a look around to familiarize myself and because I like taking walks." She made a noise of understanding before she bowed again.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, and I hope we can continue to do so in the future. With that being said, please treat me kindly from here on out." She rose from her bow and started to lead the way home, Tamotsu trotting behind her.

I just stared at them. That was the first person I'd talked to outside of work, my martial arts classes or some of the main group and it hadn't gone bad at all. I suppose living independently for a while helped, maybe.

Now that I wasn't talking to anyone or doing much of anything else I continued my way throughout the neighberhood, observing and memorizing streets and houses. Still quite a bit to go.

[3rd]

Night came, so she was running. Saeko was hoping she'd see the boy again this time. She hadn't seen him the past few days and her father would be home by noon tomorrow so she wanted to see if he'd be able to surpass her yet. She held herself back from rushing towards where they usually met, not wanting to tire herself out even a single bit before their competition truly began. Normally, she didn't let herself get caught up in things like this. In fact, when she first encountered him, she thought he was another person trying to have his way with her, after all, no one else in town ran at the same time she did. Ever. Those that did so recreationally were either old enough to do so during working hours, playing on a playground or practicing on the track field.

So she'd prepared accordingly, making sure to be aware of her surroundings in case there were more of them and keeping her arms close so she could draw her bokken.

Then she stopped being able to hear him. After the initial spike in wariness for reinforcements she'd mellowed out through the run. She never quite fully relaxed until reaching her home but found her caution was for naught.

Even if she'd wanted him to try something.

A few days later she heard him again.

And so the cycle of running, listening, alertness and relaxation had carried on until a little after two weeks, at which point he started appearing in front of her and she gradually saw a worthy challenger for herself.

Here came the turn.

Nothing.

Saeko felt dissapointed. Incredibly so. Just another run then.

She turned another corner and was rather surprised to see him. He'd gotten good enough to get ahead, even if it was for just a few seconds.

How wonderful.

40 minutes had passed. They were so close. Unlike last time the boy had managed to keep pace with her, so that they were running side to side. He was a step or two behind and that would probably grow a bit before they stopped running in a few minutes but she still felt exhilarated.

Before she'd met him, any fields she excelled at, she dominated in. Kendo, calligraphy, swordplay in general. She either dominated or found herself in the middle of the pack. To find someone that could keep up with her, even among the track team had been impossible and he'd done so at quite the pace. Saeko could count the times she was this excited on two hands.

They had gone for almost 50 minutes before coming to a stop. They were relatively close, he was only been about a quarter of a meter behind her. Both were panting hard, though he seemed to be feeling it more. After sometime had passed Saeko rose first, this time seeking to give the congratulations that she couldn't give last time.

"I would like to congratulate you for a job well done. I have rarely seen or heard of someone growing so quickly, and certainly never here." She offered a small smile to her fellow runner, waiting for him to say something.

"Th-" A wheeze, he held his hand up before finally raising himself completely, still breathing a bit laborously. "Thanks," He stated simply, looking at her for a moment before offering a hand. "Nice one, even if it wasn't as hard on you, that's still pretty impressive, moreso I guess."

Saeko took the words and his hand with grace, "Thank you, I have worked quite hard to get to this level as well." She stared at him for a while, wondering what to say now that they'd actually managed to stay in the same area without being occupied with anything, she could see that he was struggling with what to do as well, though he looked a bit more uncomfortable than she did.

"My name is-"

"I'm-"

They both cut off and stared at one another, presumably waiting for the other to continue where they left off. He waved his hand in a 'you first' motion and Saeko nodded.

"My name is Busujima Saeko, daughter of Busujima Hideki. I am a third year at Fujimi Academy, it is nice to meet you." Saeko bowed and waited for the boy to do the same.

"I'm Vega Thomas, a clerk at a nearby store, nice to meetcha." Thomas started to stick his hand out again before bowing his head as well.

"Oh my, are you American?" Saeko asked while raising her brows. He made a noise of confirmation and nodded. She supposed it was because of the darkness but he didn't really seem all that different, thought now that she looked closer she noticed his frame was broader and he was taller than most males she'd seen. "I had no idea, your Japanese is impeccable." She meant it too, she'd met natives who didn't speak that well, even if he did speak quite informally.

Thomas blinked, "Uh, thanks. I didn't know it was that good." He seemed genuinely surprised to hear her say that.

"Did you not practice it?" Saeko was confused now and curious as well. It was comparable to if she was surprised about being placed in a match, she put many hours and quite a bit of preparation into her craft so it made sense to at least get that far.

"I, uh, didn't get any formal lessons or anything." He was starting to look uncomfortable, swaying a bit and bringing his arms closer to his sides as if the silence from before was preferable to the topic at hand.

"You are self-taught?" He nodded, Saeko was more impressed now, someone with the diligence and talent to rapidly increase his stamina and speed yet with the brains to teach himself an entirely different language.

Saeko smiled at Thomas again, who looked better now that she'd apparently stopped talking about his Japanese. "Remarkable. Well then, since we have been formally introduced I would ask that you please take care of me," Saeko bowed again, deeper this time. He returned the bow and opened his mouth to say something.

"Same here but I guess I'll get going then, I need to bathe and get some rest for work tomorrow." He started to walk away before Saeko followed after him.

"Last time, when I started to return home I noticed I missed you on the way, where did you go?" She was walking next to him now, asking this as they slowly trod along.

"I've been here for a few months and don't do much other than work, work out or take walks so I've got most of this area memorized." He answered without looking at her.

"Why choose that way then?"

"It's shorter."

"Then why do you take the longer route when running?" Once again Saeko found her curiousity and confusion peaked.

"The alternate route doesn't have just running. And it's not exactly... safe." He took a turn that Saeko did not recognize, it would be interesting to see where this would lead.

"What does it involve then?" She usually wasn't this inquisitive, and part of her was wondering why she was sticking to him this badly. Thomas, for his part, didn't really seem to care, the initial awkardness between them gone to him.

"Parkour." A simple answer, which wasn't to say she knew what that was. But when she was about to ask what that was Thomas suddenly jumped over a fence and started to sprint away, some of his energy evidently back.

Oh, Saeko thought. I wonder if that's what it is.

[1st]

Since I cleaned up I've been lying in bed thinking about how many of the characters I've met and how long it'll take for me to complete the set since I was pretty sure I'd at least meet most of the main characters before everything went down. Takashi and Rei during my first week here, Kohta sometime after signing up for karate, Saeko just now, and possibly Zeke if I was right about the dog from earlier being him. I didn't really think much about that until I started doing a headcount; Sachiko had seemed to be a good match for the image of his master from both versions and the name difference was to be expected. That just left Takagi, Shizuka and Alice.

Getting past that, regardless of the fact that Christmas was in a few days I found that my situation hadn't changed in the last few days since thinking about it and decided to continue working. Mr. and Mrs. Kouno would be the only ones in besides me for the next two days and they would keep the place open until the day of, when they would have whatever family could make it over to relax and chat.

I wonder if I should get a movie or something for then.

"Would you like to come to our house?" Mr. Kouno asked, smiling warmly at me.

"Eh?" Today they'd closed early and I'd assumed it was to prepare for their guests tomorrow so I was rather surprised they were inviting me.

"You told us you had moved to Japan alone and we thought it'd be nice to invite you over today so you could have some company, and besides that, the majority of our family aren't arriving until tomorrow. If you have other plans it's alright to say no, we were just wondering" Mrs. Kouno came in to explain as we all worked to clean up for the weekend. Mr. Kouno smiled and continued working, apparently content with letting his wife do the talking.

"Yeah, I mean yes, that would be nice, but, if I may ask: who's already there?" I would be rather nervous to meet the family of someone I barely knew and I wanted to make sure that there weren't too many people already there.

"Our eldest, Saburo and his family along with our youngest daughter, Suzume." I'd only heard about their oldest son from one of the regulars just coming in to give good wishes to the Kouno's.

"Oh, well, uh, ok then." I didn't really know what to say to such kindness, I'd known they were good people but I didn't think they'd take what was basically a stranger into their house, especially during a family get together, even if most of those people weren't there yet. "When do you want me to come over then?"

"Just come over now, no need to worry about gifts or dressing up." Mr. Kouno answered this time, having started up his car, a little thing which seemed kind of homey if that made any sense. He brought his wife over to the car and opened the door for her before doing so for me and stepping into the driver's side. I sat down and closed the door while putting my seat belt on.

It felt nice.

Their house was rather nice, not massive but not my small abode and certainly not a dump.

As we stepped inside and took off our shoes the first thing to notice was the sounds; children, one crying and the others whooping.

The second thing was what was causing those noises.

In the middle of the living room was a man, Saburo, presumably, swinging around two of his kids on his back, both hollering with a grin that seemed to exude positivity itself. Close to those two, seated at a table were a woman and a baby who was quiet now that the woman had apparently done something to appease them.

Once we were in the doorway of the living room the two boys looked over and dropped from Saburo's back to rush to their grandparents. They tried talking over each with the bigger one mostly succeeding, though not without at least a little bit of interference from the younger one.

"Kenta, Shindo, slow down for a sec and go one at a time," Saburo chastised, coming over to hold back his boys before they knocked over Satoru and Ayame in their excitement before noticing me. "Oh, hello there," he looked to his parents for a second before directing his attention back to me. His mother stopped whatever words were going to come next and waved her hand for me to introduce myself.

"Vega Thomas, nice to meet you," I bowed as I didn't know whether an informal greeting would be good or not.

At this point he'd waved his wife over so they could introduce themselves. He bowed and spoke "I am Kouno Saburo, it is good to meet you," he put his hand on the boys and continued "these are my sons, Kenta and Shindo," they bowed lightly with mumbled greetings before his wife began for herself.

"I am Kouno Mamiko, and this is our daughter Mei," she bowed while holding the baby, who was looking a bit tired by now.

"Tom-chan will be with us for a few hours since he lives here alone," Ayame explained while smiling with a hand on my back. "He's here as part of the family tonight."

My eyes widened a bit in shock, them inviting me over was nice enough but saying to treat me like family? I'd only really expect that with childhood friends, never strangers. Regardless of how I felt on the matter Saburo and his family didn't really seem to have a problem with that and waved me in.

"Where's Suzume?" Satoru asked, looking around the room for his daughter. Saburo pointed to a door to our left. Satoru nodded and turned to address his wife when the door opened and a woman stepped out.

Sometimes when reading or watching something you hear a girl being described as 'frosty', 'intimidating', or the most popular, entirely out of your league. This was one of those times. The person before me didn't really look all that similar to her parents, Saburo seemed to have his father's build and face, his mother's hair and nose, and a few other features, albeit a bit smoother and such because, you know, age and stuff, while his kids had their fair share of similar traits. The only things I could see that could have been passed down for Suzume was Satoru's height and how straight her hair was though that could've been from either parent; her hair was lighter, almost red, her eyes were sharper than either of them, her face more refined and her body of a slimmer build. It was kinda like watching a show where one or more of the children didn't match but no one really commented on it.

That being said as soon as she saw her parents her face lit up and she rushed over, dashing away the 'ice queen' image I'd briefly thought of. I suppose the, uh, energy she had seemed similar.

"Dad!" She wound her arms under his and opened her mouth to talk before she saw me behind him, I saw the smile go away as her expression became neutral. How rude, acting like that to your new brother. Oh wait. She hadn't been there to hear that. Right.

"Who's this?" Sweet, more introductions, I just hope I don't have to repeat this any more after this.

"This is Vega Thomas, he works at our store, he'll be staying with us for a few hours as he doesn't have any family nearby," Satoru said, bringing Suzume's attention back to him and the hug she was still in.

Thanks for taking that off my hands, I thought, giving a brief wave to her as she pulled out of the hug.

"Kouno Suzume," she bowed quickly to which I dipped a bit as well. She walked over to her mother to give her a hug as well and they started to chat.

With introductions out of the way, I just hoped they would start a conversation and keep it going, that kind of thing was never really my strong suit, all the times I'd pulled it off successfully so far were either luck or the me from before. Satoru put his hand on my shoulder and nodded his head towards what looked like the kitchen

"Would you mind coming with me?" He asked, I just nodded and we started to walk over as he dropped his hand. Once we got inside I saw another table with a bunch of stuff lying around. "Suzume doesn't mean anything by her actions, she just takes a bit to warm up is all." Ah, so he'd noticed too, cool.

"I understand." I couldn't really think of anything else to say, back home I'd acted kind of the same way, at least when meeting a bunch of new people. That was one of the reasons I'd hoped there wasn't many people here. Before, during family or friend parties I'd found it rather hard to feel relaxed in any capacity if there was more than 8 or so people. I liked to think I'd improved a bit since arriving here, even if only a little, but I'd still like to keep the contact with random people low.

Since arriving in the room, Satoru had walked around and grabbed a bunch of snacks, and it was now that he pointed to a cabinet above me, "hand me the plates, please, they should be on the middle shelf." I just nodded and opened it before spotting them and handing a few over. "That should be enough," he declared, putting stuff on the plates and nodding his head in satisfaction before turning back to me with two in hand. He handed them to me and grabbed one himself before motioning to the doorway with his head and heading out with it. "Normally my wife and I would do this as everyone here is family but I figure if you're here and standing by the food, it'll be an easy way for the others to approach and get to know you." He said as I followed him to the table where Mamiko had been sitting with the baby a few minutes ago. I nodded, once again thankful for how thoughtful he was.

I hope I don't screw this up.

Nothing too bad so far, accidentally sounded like I was making a pass at Suzume I think, I can't for the life of me remember what I said, just that she didn't look too impressed before excusing herself. Other than that though, smooth sailing. Hopefully.

After that Satoru had pulled me into a conversation about work and how busy it was the past few days, he'd been telling Saburo and Mamiko about it, saw me walking to the kitchen and dragged me in for a second account as Ayame was playing with the kids.

Then his other son arrived.

His name was Aoi and the strangest thing about him was just how normal he appeared. Even with Satoru and Ayame looking relatively their age (that being early fifties), you could tell they had looked good, if not beautiful when they were younger and both kids I'd seen until now were much the same. The plainness of Aoi's overall appearance was unexpected.

That just made me realize how used I'd gotten to seeing everyone being somewhere between 'noice' to 'a strong 11/10'. Regardless of that though, his personality had been a good fit for what I'd seen so far (with the exception of Suzume): welcoming and energetic, though his particular brand of bundle of energy seemed to carry more charisma with it, as his appearance made everyone suddenly convene on him.

Which led to now, the siblings doing most of the talking with either parent getting a shot in when they wanted and Mamiko and I just watching.

"You always acted so much bigger than Akane and Suzume but look at you now, you're the same height," Saburo prodded at Aoi, who pretended to puff his chest at his actions and responded in kind, though Saburo seemed immune to his attempts at tickling.

"Looks like I can't exactly call you big bro now," Suzume said dryly, a small smirk on her face as her brothers continued their duel.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm still your big bro! There's two whole centimeters between us!" Aoi turned to Suzume briefly before backing away from Saburo and putting up a defensive stance. Suzume snorted at that, which Aoi decided was worthy of another comment. "You laugh but it makes all the difference, and besides that I'll take what I can get at this point, what's up with you still growing anyways? Weren't you supposed to stop like, 3 years ago?"

They continued their routine and I turned to Mamiko, wondering how she would react to her husband acting like this. She was covering her mouth and smothering her laughter and looking at his parents they were just watching, apparently content with not stepping in for now.

"You've been in college for like, half a year right? How come I haven't heard about any boyfriends or anything yet huh? Scare them all off?" The conversation had seemingly switched tracks quite a bit, with the brothers out of their stances and facing Suzume, who suddenly seemed to be getting ganged up on.

"Isn't it my job to ask about that?" Satoru asked, putting his hand on his chin and stroking it. Suzume looked shocked and betrayed before turning to her mother.

"Mother, help, everyone's ganging up on me," She said, hurrying towards her mother and stepping behind her for protection.

"I was wondering the same thing Suzume, I'd really like more grandchildren soon." Suzume recoiled as if burned and pointed to Saburo.

"You have him for that, I'm sure he wouldn't mind making more," Saburo sputtered and looked to his kids while Mamiko's laughter suddenly stopped as her face went a bit red. Aoi was ignorant of this and just laughing at what Suzume had said, bent over a bit and starting to wheeze.

"Never too many grandkids Suzume, I just so happen to have a guy in mind for you." Satoru was completely unfazed by her joke and was starting a counterattack. He rushed over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders while shaking me, "How about Tom-chan here? He's been working for us for a while and seems like a very responsible young man," he laughed as everyone's attention suddenly turned to me.

Why. Why me.

"No thank you," Suzume rebuffed her father's attempts at setting her up as quick as a whip and just as harsh.

Aoi was quickly at my side to soothe the pain from my rejection. "Ooh, rejected before even making it out of the gate, don't worry Vega-san, I'm sure she's just shy" he grinned at and shook me just as his father had when offering me up.

My face was definitely red now, I wasn't that good with attention from more than like, 3 people and especially not with conversations like this. I just hoped no one noti- not going to finish that sentence.

Suzume went a little red as well, possibly from how rude that could have been taken, stranger or not. I suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy for romance manga characters, if they always felt this awkward a little blushing was excusable.

"No disrespect meant, Vega-san," she quickly dipped as she apologized, which made Aoi laugh.

"See what I mean? Give her time to warm up and boom, you're golden." Please just let these shenanigans end, I was starting to itch from embarrassment.

"What about you? Aoi, all I see is your arm around a guy a few years your junior with a red face-" Geh, he'd noticed. "-what about this girlfriend you've been bragging about? Or do you just spend your time harassing younger guys?" Saburo came to my rescue, oh praise the sun. Aoi quickly disengaged from me with an indignant squawk. "What did you say her name was? Shizuka? Sofue?" Saburo rubbed at his chin, practically the spitting image of his father.

"No, it was Sayaka, right?" Satoru said confidently.

"No, no, no, Shizuka's her sister, and I don't know where the other two came from. Her name's Chitoge, Marikawa Chitoge," Aoi turned on Saburo, clasping his hands and putting on a theatrical look of longing, "and as much as I begged and pleaded for her to come, it was not to be, as she was having a party with her sister," he dropped his act and shrugged his shoulders, "something about celebrating and helping her deal with a breakup, though she said she'd be over for New Year's."

He suddenly perked up, "Oh! She gave me a present for mom and pop too!" He quickly went outside and retrieved two small bags before handing them to both his parents, "she said it was alright to open them now and that she wanted to leave a good a first impression in case she ended up fumbling when she got here," he laughed a bit when he added the last part as they both unwrapped the bundles and looked at what was inside, one of those hats with the ear flaps for Satoru and a scarf for Ayame, both looking quite comfortable and soft.

"Oh-ho," Satoru said, visibly happy with his gift as he looked it over before putting it on, "nice and warm, where did she get these?"

"She made them," Aoi said, preening under the praise of his parents over his girlfriend's gift.

"Eh!" Satoru's face was one of clear shock, his mouth open and eyes wide, "she's definitely too kind for my fool of a son, are we sure you're not pulling a fast one on us?" Aoi deflated as Suzume and Saburo cracked up at the jab before turning to them and starting the back and forth anew.

It felt really nice.