30: Chaos (1)

After finishing his conversation with Yuriko, Cloud returned to his room and asked Saeko to call the others, which didn't take long.

It took, merely 5 minutes or so for the group members to gather, though Cloud noticed something strange quickly - "What about Takashi?"

"He left" - Saeko replied as she explained in detail what had happened.

Cloud frowned slightly, though he quickly nodded. This would complicate his plan to keep the protagonists safe, though it didn't change things that much.

"I understand," Cloud said calmly.

"You're not upset?" - Rei asked as she frowned.

"I'm a little hurt at how little trust Takashi has in me, but there's no time for this, not with the precarious situation we're in" - Cloud replied as he shook his head. He wasn't lying, Takashi giving him the sword was a hard blow to him, after all, he had been his friend for years.

To Cloud, this tutorial world was not a stage of a game, but rather a real world, one with living people, and not mere NPCs following their fated paths.

Those present were silent as they waited for the blond boy's next words.

"First, I want you to start training as soon as possible" - Cloud said seriously - "The situation is dangerous for us."

"You keep saying that we are in danger, but you still don't mention the reason" - said Rei with a frown.

Cloud was about to say something else, when he heard someone knocking on the door, which opened after a few seconds, revealing Ken, who quickly apologized for interrupting the meeting.

"What's wrong?" - Cloud asked, though he could more or less understand what would follow, and just as he had thought, Ken told him that he was leaving the group out of fear that the blond boy would hurt his daughter.

Cloud was silent the whole time before telling him that it was all right, that he wouldn't force him to stay.

Ken thanked the group for saving them before retreating, leaving the small group, with fewer members.

"If anyone else wants to quit, it better be now, so we won't have to suffer in the future" - Cloud said as he looked around.

"I told you I would follow you to the end of the world, and I plan to keep my promise" - replied Saeko seriously.

"I have nowhere else to go, I don't trust the people in the mansion either... no offense, Takagi-san" - said Kyoko while shaking her head.

"I already made my decision" - said Rei as she averted her gaze.

"I don't think I have the right to reproach you, not when we both live in the same world, Cloud" - replied Saya as she folded her arms - "Not to mention that I have a debt to pay for saving my life all these times"

"You have to be more honest, Saya-chan" - Miku said while poking the pink-haired girl's cheek with her finger - "You know how I am, Cloud, don't even think you'll get rid of me ~"

"You're the only one who has trusted me and accepts me with my flaws, I'm going to follow you, leader" - Kohta said seriously, after all, he trusted him with his life, just like the blond did with his.

"I don't think there's any need for me to tell you my decision ~" - smiled Shizuka as she walked to the blond and gave him a kiss on the lips, right in front of the whole group, who showed different kinds of emotions.

Miku and Saeko, were as if nothing, Kohta was also calm because he had deduced about this relationship since the incident at the nurse's friend's home.

Kyoko blushed slightly, though this was not out of embarrassment, but because she had not expected the nurse to announce her intentions so quickly. Yes, she had seen the signs, though honestly the brown-haired teacher thought she had been the second to make her move, yet it seemed she had been mistaken.

The ones who reacted for the worse were Saya and Rei, who could feel how they were about to explode with jealousy.

Cloud gave a surprised look to the nurse, who simply returned to her seat while swaying her hips seductively.

"We'd better get back to the important topic" - Cloud said while ignoring Saya and Rei's glares - "I have important information."

The group members looked at each other as they put their love problems aside, only to pay attention to the blond's next words.

"We have received information from the military, that a bomb is going to be dropped in the sea of the Japanese territory" - Cloud said seriously.

The expressions of those present changed drastically to one of terror.

"Are they out of their minds!" - Saya exclaimed as she jumped up and looked carefully at the blond - "If they do that, then we'll go to hell!"

"Saya-san is telling the truth, if a bomb explodes, then the EMP..." - Kohta added with a frown - "What I'm trying to say is that the moment the bomb explodes, all the domestic appliances in the city will be useless... It's as if they wish to sacrifice us..."

"That's why we have already started with our preparations" - Cloud replied as he looked around - "Yuriko has ordered the mechanics to modify all the vehicles, as well as the experts at the mansion to make sure we have everything we need to move our supplies, we have even ordered them to fill a bus full of spare parts to fix the machines of our new base of operations."

"New base?" - Saya repeated in surprise - "You mean we're abandoning the mansion?"

"Yes, I'm sure things are about to get worse, because we are many people gathered here compared to the rest of the area" - Cloud answered honestly - "The probability of a zombie horde is extremely high, and if so, we have to be prepared for the evacuation"

"Is this for real, or is this a hypothesis?" - Saeko asked seriously as she looked the blond directly in the eyes.

"I'm serious" - Cloud answered seriously.

The members of the group fell silent before nodding, once again demonstrating the enormous adaptive capacity of the human being.

"Do you have an exact time on the nuclear explosion?" - Kohta asked with a frown.

"Possibly, early afternoon tomorrow" - Cloud replied as he shook his head - "Although it's possible it could happen sooner."

"If so, then I'm going to talk to Rika-chan, maybe I'll manage to get more information" - Shizuka said with a frown.

"Understood, the others, I want you to prepare everything, because tomorrow we will leave when it's time" - Cloud ordered as he left the room because he still had to organize a lot of things now that there was no clear leader for the Takagi group.

The group members quickly went to do their things, worried about what would happen tomorrow.

* * * * *

Rika was silent after hearing her best friend's words, after all, even she didn't know about this.

"Do you think this information is truthful?" - asked a soldier under her command.

"It's possible, even that would explain why they are trying to postpone as much as they can the last flight" - said Rika while clenching her fists in anger - "They want to use the last plane as a sacrifice..."

The soldiers bit their lips in fury, after all, they did not expect something as cruel as this. Yes, their bosses had done many atrocities during the last few days, but nothing compared to this, after all, they were about to sacrifice hundreds, even thousands of people.

"We have to warn the plane captains" - Rika said seriously - "We can't get all those people killed."

"But if we do..." - muttered another soldier.

"Listen, our individual safety doesn't compare to that of hundreds of civilians" - said Rika as she grabbed the soldier by the collar and put him right in front of her face - "We were trained to save lives, not to sacrifice them for our safety."

"I-I'm sorry" - muttered the soldier with tears in his eyes - "B-But... I don't want to die..."

Rika was silent before letting out a sigh - "You won't die either, what we'll do is simple, we have to prepare when the time is right and try to escort them out of this place, in fact, we could start creating an escape route... Hold on, I'm going to make a call..."

The soldiers were silent as they looked at each other, though they quickly followed the orders the purple haired woman had left.

Rika walked to a corner and looked around before contacting her friend.

[Rika-chan?]

"Shizuka, I want you to go to Soichiro's" - Rika said seriously.

A deep silence invaded the other side of the phone line, only to hear a sigh.

[I'm sorry, but that's impossible, he... passed away...].

"Impossible, I know how tenacious that man is" - Rika replied with a frown, although after a quick explanation, she could only let out a sigh, after all, the death of the Takagi clan's leader was not something she expected - "I'm sorry... Although I don't think this is the time for this because I have to talk something important with the current leader of the group..."

[I understand, give me a moment]