Nobu, Mei, Bronya, Kiana

THIS CHAPTER IS OVER 14K+ WORDS LONG!

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Location: Nagazora

Date: October 2013

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Red hair, blue pupils, a normal build, and a normal life. These are what describe the person known as Nobu Nakamura. He was 20 years old and worked an internship at ME corp. He moved away from his hometown in Japan because he wished for more opportunities that gave him income. His goal was simple, work hard, get rich, and live a nice comfortable life. He thought he was lucky in getting an internship at ME corp, which held a monopoly in a lot of electronical items.

Today was as normal as any other day. He wakes up, takes a shower, makes and eats breakfast. dresses up and heads to work. He lives in an apartment complex right beside the house of an old couple. He heads down the steps of the building, and begins walking towards the ME corporation building in the distance. Internally, he was reluctant, but he was also ecstatic going back to work, maybe if he does good enough, he'll actually get hired.

He has a car, but doesn't use it much, he likes to stay healthy and walk to work. So usually, his mornings are filled with encounters instead of cars on the streets. He'd meet students walking or biking to school, people getting newspaper and sometimes hear rumors. Nobu's never bored on his way to work, nor is he particularly bored at work. Ever since his first day, others interns on the same floor as him have talked and requested help from time to time.

However, what makes this particular day special is everything that occurs during it.

Nobu enters the building and has a chat with the receptionist. "Good morning." he starts the conversation with. "Good morning to you, Mr. Nakamura." She says back. "Anything happening today?" He asks." "Well, John is later than usual and the drink machine you asked for from HR has been approved. The entire floor is happy and more motivated to work now thanks to your recommendation." She says with a smile.

Nobu is happy, with this, that means he has enough importance where his recommendations at least hold some value within the corporation. "That's great, I'll head to the Intern floor now, say hi to John for me when he comes in." She nods and Nobu heads for the elevator. Upon opening the elevator opening, no one was inside, he steps in and presses the button for the 5th floor. It's been speculated that the first 5 floors are places where interns are tested in an actual work environment.

After asking a couple of his co-workers, it seemed to be true, all of them were also interns just like him. The only person who wasn't an intern was the boss of the 5th floor, who was there to sort them out and pick them out for an actual job here.

The elevator opens up, revealing the 5th floor. A bunch of cubicles each for their own person. Some people have gotten comfortable enough to put some figurines and other items at their workspace, while others have stacks of paperwork and folders covering they're area. He looks to the break room and sees it quite crowded, he looks further in and sees the drink machine he recommended. He smiles and heads straight to his cubie, boots up his computer, cracks his knuckles and begins sifting through folders, documents and emails.

His co-worker in the cubical next to him taps on his shoulder and asks, "Hey dude, I got a file here that requests a password, never gotten one like it, know what to do?" Nobu, in a bit of disbelief asks, "What? Show me..." He says as he looks over to the computer. His fellow worker double clicks on the file, and pops up a window that asks for a password. To show that it's not fake, he types a series of random numbers and letters, presses enter and it requests for another try as the bar empties out.

Nobu, scratches his head and says, "I'll head to our boss, keep watch of it and don't do anything stupid." Nobu quickly heads to his bosses office and knocks on the door twice. "Come in." He then enters the room and is greeted by his boss, who wears a classy black suit, dark eyes and combed black hair. "Is there something you need Nobu? It's not like you to enter this early in the day, it's only 9:45 am."

Nobu quickly explains the situation, "Sir, there's a file on my co-worker's computer that requests a password. We both don't know what to do, so I came here to ask for your help." His boss thinks for a few seconds, gets up and says, "I'll go to his cubical now, take this badge and head up towards Mr. Raiden's office on the highest floor and explain the situation, after doing so, show him the badge I just gave you." After saying this, he walks out of the room calmly, leaving Nobu alone and the door open.

Nobu has his mouth agape, and mumbles to himself, "G-going to the pr-presidents... office?" As he walks over to the elevator, he is very confused. Shouldn't his boss have gone instead? "Is this a test? What do I say? Keep it simple and concise? Ramble on a bit to make myself sound good? What do I do?" He continues to mutter as the elevator goes up. The only thing he could hear was the music, it was the catchy elevator tune.

After a minute of waiting with no stops, he finally reaches the top floor and takes a deep breath. The doors open there he is, Raiden Ryoma, the president of ME corp. The room has a velvet red carpet, photos of miraculous work, a sleek wooden table in the center with a tea set on top, 2 couches on parallel ends of the table and on the sides of it are armrest chairs. Farther back is another table, albeit, definitely higher than the one in the center, with a white clean computer on it, and a comfy office chair behind it. Sitting on that office chair is a man with a black suit, purple necktie, raven hair and dark blue eyes.

Raiden Ryoma, he is married, has one daughter, lives in a very expensive mansion and has a multitude of servants assisting him at home. At work, he has the entire company in his hands. On the shelf at the far end of the room, a picture of Ryoma and a small girl with similar raven hair both have a bright smile beside another women with similar features. Must be a family photo.

Nobu takes his first step into the office, Ryoma still hasn't noticed him and has been typing away at his computer. Nobu continues to take confident yet quiet footsteps towards Ryoma's desk. He stands in front of the desk, waiting. After what seems like forever, Ryoma looks up from his computer and greets Nobu.

"Hello, is there anything you need?" He asks, he had noticed Nobu earlier, but had wanted to test his patience, so he continued typing till his document was filled. To Ryoma's surprise, Nobu wasn't shaking nor was he angered for waiting for so long. Nobu was standing with confidence and a serious face.

"My boss on the 5th floor sent me here to ask for assistance regarding a matter." Nobu starts. Internally, he was screaming, he had been standing for 5 minutes, the others have probably wondered where Nobu was. Ryoma motions for him to continue speaking.

"My co-worker in the cubical next to mine received a file that required a password to open. I requested my boss for assistance and he sent me here to ask for yours." Nobu finished speaking. Ryoma sighs, opens a drawer from his desk and slides a USB towards Nobu.

"Put the file in that USB and give it back to me." Ryoma states his orders as Nobu nods in response. Afterward he asks, "Did your boss send you here for anything else?" Nobu, remembering what his boss had given him, takes out the badge he was given. Ryoma smiles and speaks once again.

"Congratulations Nobu Nakamura, your officially hired into ME corp."

Silence...

Nobu's eyes are wide open as Ryoma is chuckling at the man. "A-are you sure sir? I-I mean I-" Nobu gets cut off as Ryoma raises one of his hands to silence him and says, "That badge means you passed the test for officially getting hired, and since he sent you to me, that means he thinks really highly of you." Ryoma smiles once again and continues, "Plus, I have been hearing good things from you, the recommendation for the drink machine? I approved of that because of your input of employee motivation and break usage." Nobu's in shock, he didn't expect to have played that much of a major role in something he thought so minor.

"So, Nobu Nakamura," Ryoma stares at him seriously, "Do you accept working in ME corporation under me?" He motions his hand forward like an offer. Nobu shakes off his shock and responds in kind. "I'll gladly work for Massive Electronic, I'll always perform my best, be at beck and call whenever required, and say my piece when needed." Nobu is smiling with the biggest grin in his life. Ryoma then speaks once again.

"Then as my first request for you as an official employee under ME corp, is to go down to floor 5, move the file into that USB, pack up your items, move to floor 50, and give that USB back to me. Understood?" Ryoma says with a smile, he thinks Nobu will go far in the future. "Yes sir!" Nobu says with newly reinvigorated motivation as he quickly takes the USB and heads into the elevator. As the elevator closes, Nobu is waving bye with a smile.

As the elevator goes down towards the 5th floor, he is ecstatic, he first fist pumps in the air, then continuously saying to himself, "Let's do this, don't wanna disappoint, I got this." He calms himself as he approaches floor 5. The doors open and he could see a crowd and see his boss at the computer. He walks his way through the crowd and asks his boss, "Something happened?"

His former boss now, looks towards him and says, "Check out the other computer screens, all they're background changed." Nobu quickly looks over and sees that all of computers on the floor have all had they're background changed to the same one. An image of a green serpent swallowing a robot. Nobu then says to his boss, "President asked me to move the file into this USB, pack up my things and move to the 50th floor."

A lot of his former floormates look at him in surprise, then burst out into cheers for him, his boss included. "Congrats Nobu! Welcome to ME corp." He says with a big grin on his face. Nobu puts the USB into the computer and drags the file into the USB, he could've sword he felt some resistance from the moues but maybe the mousepad has just been overused. Nobu unplugs the USB, pockets it and looks toward his former boss.

"Thank you sir, or should I call you Senpai now?" He says with a teasing smile, the others laugh at his antics while the old man looks at him. "That would be nice, sure, whenever you visit, call me Senpai 'kid'." He said back with a smile of his own. The entire office was laughing, Nobu and his boss always had the weird comedy duo moments that always made the office more lively. It's sad that he might not see some of these people again, but Nobu gave them a farewell smile as he held his briefcase in the elevator.

After a minute passes in the elevator, the door opens and he enters Ryoma's office. When he enters, he gets straight to the point and puts the USB on his desk quietly. Ryoma glances at it and mouths a silent 'thank you'. Nobu smiles and heads back into the elevator. The doors close and down to his new workplace he goes, the 50th floor. He greets his floormates, sets down his stuff and begins working once again.

A month then passed. Nobu's work has been satisfactory to say the least. He's currently eating breakfast while watching the news. What he sees, shocks him. "Raiden Ryoma has been shown and proven to have done Tax Evasion, Money Laundering and bribery. The police got a tip from an anonymous user, they looked into it and found records of him sending a large amount of currency overseas. He is going to be sent to trial at a further date this month."

Nobu is in disbelief. He had talked with Ryoma before and thought he had a grasp of his personality, was he really that type of guy? It just doesn't make sense to him. He quickly glances over at the clock and realized he had to rush to work. He quickly grabbed his suitcase and ran out the door. When he had arrived at the ME corp building, it was surrounded by news reporters, agencies and other citizens who stood out and protested against Ryoma. The doors of the building were blocked by security guards in black suits wearing sunglasses.

Standing behind the crowd, Nobu could see Ryoma exist the building with a microphone in hand. He attempts to listen in, but it comes on deaf ears as all the yelling from the crowd prevents him from hearing a single thing. Ryoma then enters back into the building much to the peoples protest. Nobu attempts to go through the crowd and head into the building but is bounced back by the mass amount of bodies crowding the area.

He pulls out his phone and begins calling his floor manager. After a little while of ringing, he looks to his right and sees his boss holding his phone, staring at Nobu. "Couldn't get in either huh?" He says. "Yep, way too many people here." Nobu replies. "Why don't you take the day off today, you've worked hard enough in the past month." His manager says. Nobu, seeing the crowd once again, sighs, nods his head, and begins heading back home in defeat.

A girl passes by him however, raven hair tied in a pony tail, deep blue eyes and a Chiba Academy uniform. He stretches his hand out in attempt to warn her about the crowd, but she weaves through it so seamlessly and ends up at the entrance. She talks with the guard and was let it without hesitation. Nobu sees this, then remembers that they're a back entrance for employees only. So he heads there instead.

He enters and remembers the back entrance doesn't have an elevator, but only stairs. He sighs and then begins the treacherous journey up the stairs.

He doesn't know how long he's been climbing now, but he decided now would be a good time to enter through the back door and into an office. So he does just that. Nobu then finds that this is the 41st floor. At least it isn't his floor, would've been embarrassing to go back there after being told that he has the day off. He goes to the elevator and after awhile it opens, revealing the same girl as before.

He gets in and sees that it's already heading for the highest floor, so Nobu stands next to her in silence. They occasionally glance at each other but not dare to say a word the entire way up. Internally, Nobu is wondering why a girl like her would need to see Ryoma. He slowly began to piece the dots together as the door opened up to Ryoma's office. "Oh, she's his daughter..." He says to himself as he saw the photo again.

The girl walked in first and went straight to Ryoma's desk. (Not going to use Japanese acronyms)"Father..." she started, "They wouldn't let me in the school." Ryoma's face is visibly displeased, "Don't worry Mei, I'll handle it." He said with a fake smile, fooling her. Nobu walks out of the elevator as the doors were about to close. Ryoma notices him and asks, "What are you doing here Mr. Nakamura?" In a kind tone.

Nobu, took the kind tone in a wrong way and started sweating a little. "I was told to take the day off, but had to tell you the crowd outside hasn't left yet and might imped on future work." He quickly made up, Ryoma already foresaw the fact they wouldn't leave yet and assured Nobu, "The crowd will also be taken care of by tomorrow." Ryoma, has seen Nobu's performance lately and says, "Take this week off, orders from me, don't refuse and work extra hard when you return, understood, Nobu Nakamura?"

Nobu was still nervous, very nervous, but nodded and walked back into the elevator. He waved bye with a forced smile and then went home. He then thought of what she had said. Shaking it off as business he shouldn't get involved in, he lays down and says while falling asleep, "hope nothing bad happens to her..."

And so, another month passed. It was December of 2013, Nobu was out shopping for a lonely Christmas, and maybe for someone at work. While shopping, he saw Raiden Mei, Ryoma's daughter, and another girl. The girl has white hair and clear blue eyes. It seemed that she was Mei's friend, in which Nobu sighed in relief. He was worried but it seemed nothing bad would happen after all.

He then thought to himself, "I should probably buy something for Ryoma's daughter... but what would be good for an heiress?" He continued to think while wandering a store and comes across a bamboo sword. He was always interested in Kendo as a kid, he never got the chance, Nobu did try out once and they said he had a talent for it, sadly he never pursued it. He looked at his wallet and remembered he already spent most of his money on gacha games.

With a sigh, he began heading back home. He looked toward Mei and the girl one last time with a smile on his face, then left for his home. Wearing his red scarf, brown jacket, white shirt and light blue jeans, he looked around while going home. Couples smiling happily, friends talking about recent interests, family meeting up, Nobu wishes he could have that, but also wishes for this peace to never go away. On his way home, he had a permanent smile plastered on his face.

2 months went by, a lot has happened during that time. Ryoma was arrested and moved overseas, this caused a lot of worry for Mei, the former CEO's daughter. He also still pondered on who the white haired girl was. He had the week off due to staff layoffs and due to Nobu doing an excellent job in the past months, he was giving a well deserved break. He laid on his bed playing FGO and Arknights while also pondering if he should buy a package. This went on for several minutes.

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In Chiba academy however, Raiden Mei was in a predicament. Her friend, Kiana Kaslana, went down to get the both of them some drinks from a vending machine, leaving Mei all by herself on the roof. With her are several of her bullies, they did extreme things as physical attacks and personal property being destroyed. They even threatened that Mei should die. After all this time, she's been putting up with this, the voice inside of her whispers temptations upon temptations into her mind.

*Boom.*

Lighting strikes and a massive wave of energy covers the entirety of Nagazora. The bullies skin turn pale white and the ones who weren't, were attacked by they're turned friend. Mei held a look of indifference as this unfolds in front of her. The zombies, after finishing the deed, went down stairs for more victims.

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Nobu was still playing FGO and farming the recent event (Saber Wars II and this is not a genre for this book). He had bluetooth earbuds in and couldn't hear a damned thing. After 30 minutes of being on FGO, he sighed and decided it was a good time to get some lunch. So he took out his earbuds only to hear banging on his door. he was perplexed of why someone would bang so loudly and why it was specifically him they needed, he already payed for the month so he shouldn't be getting any complaints.

With a sigh, he walked up towards the door and scratched his head. He didn't peak through the hole, and opened the door calmly. Suddenly, a pale figure with white haired jumped at him, with quick thinking and instincts, Nobu dodges. The zombie was now in his apartment, Nobu, thinking quickly, goes outside his apartment and closes the door on the zombie. Turning around and looking down towards the street, he sees that it's entirely filled to the brim with zombies.

He then enters a deep state of thought, "Why am I reacting so calmly? What caused all this? Is there any survivors?" These are the questions that ran through Nobu's mind. "What's that noise?" He then asks. "Who keeps narrating?" He says quietly to himself.

"Calm down." A voice in his head says. "Who..?" "I'm you." "I must be going insane..."

Not questioning any further nor hearing the voice again, Nobu shakes his head and investigates the other apartment rooms. The first few were still locked, which probably meant someone was inside, and that there was a zombie in there if the window wasn't broken already. Then one finally opened. He searched all over but found nothing.

Nobu was hoping to find some form of weapon so he could enter his own apartment, kill the zombie and grabs his belongings. So he continues searching and wondering, "Where is that voice coming from?" Opening another door, it makes a loud squeaking noise, in which he squints to. "The owner of this place didn't oil they're door? Seriously?" That's definitely going to lead some zombies over. "Yeah it is..."

Nobu quickens his search of apartments, sadly, only one more apartment was open other than the two he opened beforehand. He searches and then enters the bedroom, he finds a sheathed katana. "Why and who keeps something like this in their home?" Slightly unsheathing the blade, he sees his reflection in the steel. Calm blue eyes and short flowing red hair, why is he so calm? "Why am I not panicking?" He mumbles to himself again.

He then exits the apartment and sees a zombie slowly climbing the stairs. Nobu grips the hilt of the blade and grits his teeth. As the zombie is almost up the stairs, Nobu silently dashes towards the undead being and unsheathes the blade. In one swift motion, he beheads the zombie and once again sees the reflection of himself in the blade. "I'm sorry..."

Continuing onwards, Nobu makes his way back to his apartment. He slowly opens the door to peak through and sees the zombie facing away and towards the fridge. So he decides to sneak behind the zombie and behead it instantly. "Once again, why am I so calm?" He says quietly to himself while taking silent steps towards the zombie. "That voice again..."

The zombie was close to turning around, but Nobu quickly unsheathes and beheads the zombie in a clean cut. "I did have a knack for Kendo when I was still in school... but I didn't pursue it..." Sighing, he sheathes the blade and grabs some stuff from his room. He emptied his briefcase and filled it with some clothes and necessities. It's not a lot, but it's enough to keep clean at the very least. The final object he grabbed was his car keys. He never drove his car due to how close his apartment was to ME corp, but he learned how to drive due to having to travel from one side of Japan to Nagazora.

Then he wonders, "How is mom and dad?" Then the voice responds, "You haven't called them ever since you started working, do you think they've forgotten us?" An awkward silence fills the apartment as Nobu's hand is on the door handle. "This is probably for the best then... Hell, I don't even remember my Brother." He sighs as he slowly opens the door.

Closing the door behind him slowly, he notices that the number of zombies in the streets has decreased. He makes careful steps down the stairs as to not alert any of those undead. Now at the bottom, he looks around for anything to make a distraction, a few pebbles. He takes them and looks around for anything to cause noise. He then spots the small moped that the elderly coupled uses. He grips the pebbles tightly, 'I hope those two are okay... but if everyone here is infected, that is very unlikely...'

With a bit of guilt in his heart, he throws the rocks towards the moped, causing it to tilt and fall. All the zombies in the area get attracted to the noise, Nobu takes this chance and rushes down towards the parking lot. He thinks that his car would be enough to drive through and out speed most zombies, in this case, he is correct. He trips at the entrance of the parking lot(20->19hp), he quickly gets up and runs towards his car. He gets in, starts the engine, and off he goes.

Driving through the hordes of zombies, Nobu wonders when or how all this started. He then quickly catches glimpse of the ME corp building, so he turns left and goes to investigate.

The entire field is filled with the undead. Nobu luckily managed to not grab the attention of the horde, and drives off safely. He then remembers Mei, Ryoma's daughter. "Chiba Academy huh? Probably filled with undead students, but if I'm alive, that means there's still a chance." The man felt incredibly bad for the girl, she must've faced such hardships that he couldn't have imagined himself going though. "And that white-haired girl... I wonder if they're both okay?" As he says this, he drives towards Chiba Academy, in hopes of finding at least one of the two.

After running over several zombies and basically clearing the road of undead, he arrives at Chiba Academy. The place if littered with corpses of the undead, some were shot dead while others were cut neatly with a blade. The scene was gut-wrenching, but Nobu somehow held an indifferent face to all this, "I should be on the ground emptying my insides out, so why am I not?" He's once again confused, but he then refocuses his attention towards the school.

No matter where he looks, not a single zombie was spared. The fact that most to all of the zombies are dead in the area means that someone or some people have been here. Nobu doesn't want to enter the school, he might be surprise attacked or find nothing of value with using such time. Shaking his head, he has one of two options, head to the top of the school roof and look down from the view to see other survivors, or, get back in his car and drive aimlessly or towards an escape.

"Either be selfish or caring, pick one Nobu." The voice in his head says. "I..." Nobu sighs and continues, "I may not have known Ryoma's daughter for that long, but... I should take care of her when he isn't there..." He says with a determined expression. "Don't word it where it'll confuse others..." The voice says with a heaved expression. They share a silent laugh as Nobu makes his way through the school.

There were a couple zombies, but it was nothing a few well timed slashes couldn't accomplish. So he made it up to the school rooftop and man was the sight to behold. Although the city was basically in apocalypse, the entire view was something else. He checked his phone, 3:30pm. "It's gonna be dark soon and I haven't seen any other people... I only found traces." He mumbles to himself. He then catches a glimpse of something in the distance, it's all blurry, so he takes out his phone to get a clearer view.

It's still blurry on his phone, but he can make out white and purple. "Well, looks like we found them." Nobu fist pumps as the voice in his head continued to talk, "From here, if we speed all the way through, we should be able to get there in 30 minutes." They both nod going 'humu' in agreement. Having his sights set, he makes his way back down towards his car. With no resistance, he starts up the car and drives down the streets towards where he last saw the two.

20 minutes through the drive, the engine stops. Wondering what's wrong, he check the fuel gauge to find it empty. "Shit..." Nobu says as he gets out of the car. He has to walk the rest of the way. "That was obvious from the empty gauge and no gas stations nearby." He says as he continues walking. Then remembering the girls, he goes into a slight jog instead.

15 minutes pass, and he catches sight of the two fighting some zombies. The white haired girl is using dual pistols and some form of close quarter combat. While Mei is using a katana with precision and skill, definitely better than Nobu. "No need to include that last part." He mumbles. Taking a few steps towards the two who are fighting undead, he then yells out, "I'll help you two!" Which surprises the two but slightly reassures them knowing there's another survivor.

Dashing towards the girls, 4 undead jump out towards Nobu. He continues to wonder why he's so calm about this and has decided to ask the voice in his head later about it. Unsheathing his blade, he beheads one and almost gets another. He dodges one of the zombies who attempt to swing at him but gets surprised by one of the others by getting punched in the gut (19->17hp). He recovers and then slices through the one that attacked him and weaves around another one that tries to bite him.

From behind the zombie, he slices it cleanly and then focuses his attention at the last one, who is almost already dead. He calmly walks towards it and finishes the job. "Well done..." Says the voice, Nobu replies, "No need to patronize me so much, I don't see you doing anything." The voice scoffs then stays silent as the girls approach.

"A male!? Alive in this mess? How?" The white haired girl questions Nobu.

"Nakamura-San?" Mei speaks up towards him.

"Glad you remember me Raiden-Chan." He sheathes his blade as he responds with a smile.

"Hey, you still didn't respond to my questions!" The white haired suddenly yelled out. Scratching the back of his head, a tad frustrated at her antics, he sighs and replies.

"My name is Nobu Nakamura, what's yours, 'friend of Mei'?" He says the last part with a bit of sarcasm in attempt to lighten the mood. It made Mei smile a bit but Kiana a bit pouty.

"Wha-! I-! You!" She kept cutting herself off, but then finally gets a response in to Nobu. Clearing her throat and her conscious, she replies.

"I am Kiana Kaslana, Mei-Senpai's best friend!" She says with a proud smile, with her thumb pointing to herself and fist on her hip. Nobu has a soft smile on his face as she continues to look proud and brag, in which case, he continues to listen, while Mei gets even more flustered as Kiana goes on. Mei finally stops Kiana's constant gloating about herself, and then asks, "Nakamura-San, are you okay? You won't suddenly turn right?"

Mei has a worried look while Kiana's skeptical. Nobu then checks around his body, patting places and looking around. "There's nothing wrong with your body, no issues anywhere other than your reaction time being heightened." The voice suddenly speaks up, which causes Nobu to sigh in relief and reply, "Nope, pretty sure I'm clean, no infections anywhere."

Kiana is still a bit suspicious but Mei reassures her and asks, "Do you have any idea of how to get out of Nagazora with everything going on Nakamura-San?" Nobu ponders and hasn't even thought of a way to escape this zombie apocalypse! So he shakes his head and replies, "I got nothing, how about you two?" The girls lock eyes for a moment then nod.

"We were planning to head to the ME corp building to send out a signal of distress!" Kiana explains. Mei nods in agreement and Nobu asks, "Do you girls have the equipment for that?" Kiana's smile falters a bit then Mei says, "There's a radio station on the way there, we can check there for equipment." Sighing, Nobu then replies, "I'll go with you guys then, I've got nothing to do and nowhere to go."

Kiana and Mei locks eyes for a second, with Kiana shaking her head, and Mei, having a grin on her face, nodding. Kiana silently gives in and motions for Nobu to follow them as they head towards a radio station.

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"Target not found... moving onto next area." A girl with grey hair in small twin drills says.

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Nobu has been traveling with Kiana and Mei for awhile now and has a good grasp on how they are. Kiana may be rambunctious an loud, but is caring towards those she actually likes. Took awhile for him to gain her trust. Mei is sweet and gentle, she learned her swordplay from her father and a mentor named 'Master Homu'. Master Homu apparently disappeared during the same time her father was arrested.

It took them awhile to get to the ME building, mainly because there were a lot of zombies and they had to look for radio equipment to use. Nobu was at the back of the two most of the time since he didn't have, 'keen senses' like Kiana. Mei was beside Kiana because of her prowess of the blade, which made sense on paper, but was probably just a way for Kiana to have Mei with her.

"Is it just me or are we running into less and less zombies?" Nobu asks.

"That's probably because we beat them all up!" Kiana responds. Mei smiles at the girls antics, while Nobu scoffs.

*Boom*

In the direction of where the ME building is, an explosion is heard. This alerts everyone, and they all face each other an nod in confirmation. They rush towards the building, while Nobu ponders to himself, "What caused that? Is it a bombing plane? Survivors with explosives? Military?" He continued to ask questions until his inner voice spoke up again, "Dude, chill out, okay?"

Nobu hadn't been talking nor hearing the voice much when he was with Kiana and Mei, so when it spoke, it startled him a little. "When did...?" Is all Nobu says till the voice continues to speak, "Most likely a survivor, if they have explosives, then they're either very crafty or military." The voice answered Nobu's rapid questions in a concise sentence, very intuitive. "That voice again..." Nobu questions then suddenly they arrive at the open area of the ME corp building.

They see a small girl with grey hair tied in small drills, a giant hole in the ME building and a cannon floating beside her. Nobu wants to sneak up on her, but Kiana has other ideas.

"Hey there!" She yells aloud for everyone to hear. Nobu facepalms as the small girl turns around. The cannon beside her dematerializes as she tilts her head at a 20 degree angle making her seem cuter. She has a blank expression on her face as she says something that cannot be heard to any of them. Kiana, Mei and Nobu are confused, but then the Cannon beside the girl rematerializes and with more.

A whole robot appears and the girl slightly floats off the ground. The cannon suddenly fires, forcing the group to dodge. Nobu is on the right with Mei and Kiana is on the left. Kiana grits her teeth and pulls out her pistols and starts firing at the girl. The robots arm blocks the shots while Mei is hesitant of hurting her. Nobu charges at the girl and attempts to slash at her legs. Mei follows up Nobu by attempting to attack the girl from behind.

Kiana clashes her fist with the robots arm while Nobu blade does hit the girls leg, but he is surprised because the blade doesn't go through, instead he's met with his blade vibrating violently in his hands and through his arms, as if clashing against steel. He looks towards the cut part of the sock and notices that there isn't any flesh, just metal. Mei attacks from behind her but the machine blocks the blow with another arm replacing the cannon.

Kiana continues trying to land a hit on the girl, while the girl just blocks with her robot. Mei grips her blade and stabilizes from the reverberation of steel clashing with steel. Nobu grits his teeth and swings his blade once more towards the girl. This time, she pulls out a knife and blocks the blade, surprising them.

The arm Kiana was fighting then shoves her a distance away, then transforms into a cannon in attempt to shoot at her. Mei tries to slash again towards her back with an arc but is met with the girl simply moving her torso a bit to dodge. Nobu clashes his sword with the girls knife, this frustrates him, he then notices the cannon aiming towards the staggered Kiana. Nobu widens his eyes, then instead of slashing towards the girl once more, he sets his sight on the cannon and hits it downward.

His plan succeeds but fails to realize that the cannon shot will now be shot downwards to the floor. Nobu then says, "Oh shi-" (17 hp -> 14 hp)

*Boom*

The blasts knocks Nobu and Mei far from the girl, while the robot protected her at the last second with it's extra arm. Nobu's blade is knocked a bit away from him while Mei still has hers but is instead knocked a bit unconscious. Kiana engages the girl once again, but the robots gets in her path and has a fist fight with her. Surprisingly, Kiana is able to hold her own with her gorilla strength, it reminds Nobu of a stand fight from Jojo.

Shaking off the ridiculous thoughts, he gets up and staggers his way towards his sword. He grabs it tightly and reminds himself to never let go of it again. He then takes a deep breath and charges towards the girl again. She once again blocks with her knife, and Nobu begins an exchange of words with her when clashing weapons.

"Who are you!?" He asks furiously with a crack in his glasses.

"Bronya Zaychik" She responds monotonously.

"I'm Nobu Nakamura!" He says as knife and katana clash once again, causing sparks to fly. As his exchange happens. Kiana is caught off guard by the robot and is knocked quite a distance away from the others. The robot then regroup with Bronya and clasps Nobu in between it's hands, slowly crushing him. (14hp->10hp)

"AHH!" Screaming in pain, Nobu has to think quickly or he'll die!

"What are you even looking for!?" Nobu screams out loud. He's confused, to him, with the explosion that just happened and the one earlier, she must be using explosives to look for something in the ME building. "But what?" he asks to himself and the narrator.

"A Herrscher." She says, glancing towards Mei. Nobu doesn't catch that glance, but notices that the grip on him has lessened a little. Not to the point where he's able to get out, but enough not to go through a lot of pain. So he decides to take a gander.

"So your looking for something inside the ME crop building! This Herrscher is probably in the bottom levels then. I-If you let me go, I can help you get inside the building without causing it to fall apart..." He takes a guess. He doesn't have the entire picture, hell, he only has a spec to work off of. Nobu is very injured, he can feel is ribs cracking and breaking. Anymore damage and he might be in the critical.

The grip around him suddenly tightens (10hp ->8hp). He can feel the cold metal slowly enclosing around his torso as he grits his teeth in pain. Kiana manages to regain her footing and charges towards Bronya, the robot continues to crush Nobu while the two engage in combat.

"This hurts so fucking much!" Nobu says as he continues to get crushed (8hp->6hp). Kiana finally manages to force Bronya to call her robot back and tag team against her. Nobu is dropped to the ground, exhausted. He can't even get up. He can only watch from the ground as he watched Kiana slowly get overpowered by Bronya and the robot attacking her. He's only a few feet away yet he can't do anything.

---------------------------------------------

Mei wakes up from he unconscious state and sees Kiana slowly getting pinned down by the robot as Bronya pulls out a pistol and aims towards her. Mei is scared, and once again, a voice whispers in her ear, Mei doesn't want to listen to the voice. She then sees Nobu, barely conscious and unable to get up. The grits her deal and makes a compromise with the voice.

*Bzzt*

*Crackle*

*Boom*

---------------------------------------------

Nobu sees Mei dash over in a streak of lighting and kicks Bronya into a nearby building. After that kick, she stops exerting energy as the robot Bronya had slowly begins to fade. Bronya's Knife and Pistol were dropped to the ground as soon as she was kicked. Other than the robot, she was pretty defenseless right now.

"So get the robot far enough from Bronya and it disappears huh..." Nobu says with a smirk while still being on the ground.

Mei slowly walks over to where Bronya was sent flying. Kiana gives Nobu a helping hand and gets him to stand. He hisses in pain a bit as he feels his sides, "Damn... I think I broke a few ribs, ouch!" He says as Kiana pokes his side. "Don't do that please..." He hisses in pain again as Kiana pokes him again.

Kiana and Nobu can't hear what Mei is saying to the injured Bronya, but after awhile, they nod at each other and begin walking towards them. Nobu is still bitter towards Bronya, but as an adult, he has to have the responsible look to not hold a grudge. Kiana on the other hand wants to pick her up and throw her till she hits the moon.

When Mei and Bronya finally meet up to Kiana and Nobu, Kiana almost blows up if it weren't for Nobu quickly covering her mouth despite his injuries. Mei then quickly explains to Kiana before she explodes like Honkai eruption. "Kiana-chan," she starts with a commanding voice, "Bronya is just a girl, so she'll be coming with us." Kiana is dumbfounded, while Nobu takes a deep sigh and asks Mei a question.

"She won't stab us in the back, right?" He's still uncertain, but he can agree that another pair of hands would be useful.

"She won't, I've talked with her and she's okay." Bronya is standing on her now visible metal prosthetics legs. Kiana knows why Nobu vibrated when slashing at them, at then says, "I still don't trust this brat Mei-Senpai!" Kiana exclaims.

"Well Kiana, I guess you'll just have to deal with it." Nobu says with a shrug, which he winces a bit at, no one seems to have noticed though.

After they all had a chat, they quickly recuperated and abandoned the plan of attempting to contact anyone via radio through the ME building. Main reason is that there is no other way up now after Bronya blew the place to bits. It's barely even standing now, it's a whole miracle that it hasn't collapsed.

Nobu, Mei, Kiana and Bronya have been walking for awhile now. Bronya doesn't seem as injured as before, and Kiana seems perfectly fine as well. Nobu still doesn't understand how any of these girls are so strong but he shakes it off as he's just glad to be alive. They come to a halt when Bronya mentions that there is a group of zombies up ahead. They decided that they would each take a set amount till Nobu suddenly speaks up while preparing his blade.

"I may have some broken ribs, but taking on a few undead again won't hurt..." The girls hear this and force Nobu to sit this out.

"What?!" Kiana yells silently, "Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" Nobu is unable to respond as Mei then speaks up.

"Nobu-San, don't push yourself too hard..." She says with a pleading look. Nobu is more hesitant to respond, but when he is about to, he is interrupted by Bronya.

"Subject Nobu has sustained internal damage when fighting against Bronya. Bronya requests subject Nobu to lay low and wait until we clear out this horde." Under the mass amount of pressure that the girls just exuded without allowing him to speak. Nobu sighs in defeat and lays against a nearby wall so the girls could take care of the rest.

Kiana leaps into the crowd, drawing all they're attention with some bullets. Bronya and her robot charges through them while they're distracted, causing a ruckus. Mei skillfully disassembles some of them and then heads in to join Kiana and Bronya.

Nobu however, didn't want to completely sit out, so he decides to assassinate some of them with Bronya's knife that he still has. Most of the zombies have some weapons as well now. Scythes and bows & arrows. So he takes the initiative and quietly begins killing the backline.

The first zombie Nobu assassinates is a clean kill, no blood splatter nor any spasming. The second zombie seemed to have a partially human color, but Nobu quietly stabs the knife through the neck and instantly kills it. The third zombie turns slightly but Nobu manages to kill it in time before it's able to completely notice.

The fourth zombie Nobu kills, has a wallet on them, so he got some free money. On the fifth zombie, he misses his first slice but quickly stabs and kills it instantly. He sweats a little from the fact he almost got himself caught. He managed to regain his footing and silently kill the sixth one without trouble like the first ones.

On the seventh, he killed it and managed to pocket some car keys. The eighth zombie faced him and he killed it swiftly before it made any noise. "That was close..." he silently said to himself. He then killed the ninth and tenth ones without any issues. The girls had finished killing all the other zombies, so when they went back to Nobu, they saw him sitting next to ten corpses of zombies with varying neck wounds or decapitation.

Kiana and Mei were frustrated that he didn't sit still. Bronya however put a thumbs up and said, "Subject Nobu is a natural assassin, the Bronya approves." Nobu smirks at this and stumbles a bit before getting on his feet.

"I've found some car keys on one of the zombies I've killed." He takes them out and shakes them a bit. "We can check then parking lots we pass by if the car of these keys is in there." They all ponder a bit before agreeing on gathering supplies before making they're way to nearby parking lots.

The horde of zombies was blocking a convenience store, so how... convenient. "That was terrible." Nobu says to the narrator. "Who are you talking to?" The voice in his head asks. Nobu sighs and respond with, "God I guess?" Then it's silence all the way to the convenience store.

Bronya and Mei head behind the counter to search for medicine because of Nobu's injuries. Kiana went straight to the snack isle and could be heard devouring food. Nobu decides to check the other isles for anything useful that might help him or the others. He only finds some water and a single bottle of antibiotics. Sighing, he heads to where Mei and Bronya is and while passing by Kiana, he can see empty snack bags on the ground.

Nobu sweat drops and continues on his way towards the counter. Bronya and Mei are done searching through the counter, Bronya then speaks up while holding a bottle of medicine towards Nobu.

"Subject Nobu, these pills will help you heal over time, it should take 3 weeks to heal a bit." Nobu nods in understanding, although it won't heal him fully, he'll at least won't be in deep pain.

"Take at least 4 capsules a day, 2 in the morning and 2 at night." Mei adds. Nobu then stares at the bottle, shakes it a bit, then takes out some pills and drinks them water. They have no taste, but he ca feel them drop into his stomach (8hp -> 13hp). They then regroup in front of the convenience store and notice that this place is right next to a grocery store. Which is awkward how none of them notice it, but they all decide to head to it anyways.

Surprisingly, no undead were in the store. So they all decided to take this opportunity to relax. It was going dark anyway, so they set up camp a little. With a mini gas stove, that was how they cooked their food usually. Mei being the only one to cook mainly due to her being the best. Kiana couldn't cook anything properly for some reason, Bronya hadn't shown any skill to cook nor did they want a young girl to start a fire. Nobu only knew how to cook basic dishes, he only learned how to do so in order to survive alone when working.

They only ate a quick meal as it was getting dark, Bronya and Kiana offered to keep watch as Nobu quickly drifted to sleep.

--------------------------------------------

Nobu is in a red landscape. In front of him is another him, except with inverse colors. Red hair being green, and blue pupils are orange. They stared at each other for a moment, then the other one spoke.

"You can call me alter, and I've been with you for as long as I could remember." He points to himself as he says. Nobu is still a bit confused then asks.

"So your the one I kept hearing in my head?" Alter nods in response, Nobu then continues talking. "Do you have to sound so rude though?"

"Well, tough love is the best way to learn sometimes, plus, this technically means we love ourselves to it's fine." He says as he shrugs and shakes his head at the same time. Nobu then asks a strange question.

"What about the other voice, the one that sounds like they're narrating, even now, do you hear that?" Nobu says a bit iffy on his words. Alter sighs and responds.

"No, I don't hear that, which is strange, we share the same body and the same senses..." He continues to ponder before interrupting himself. "The sun is rising, you'd best go now Nobu." He then points to a white door that formed out of nowhere.

"Where did that come from?" Nobu asked, a bit confused. Alter then suddenly ushers him towards it, saying.

"There's no more time for dilly dallying, the sun is rising and you need to wake up." He then quickly explains, "The door is the exit of our mind, I can't go through it, but you can since your the owner of our body. Think of me and mental or emotional support, that's why you haven't gone insane yet." He smirks, then opens the door for Nobu.

"Now go, your friends are stirring awake too." Nobu smiles remembering them and he takes one step into the frame and asks Alter, "You'll still be here, right?"

"I'll always be here, we've been together since you were young, I just never had a way to voice myself until the start of all this." After hearing this, Nobu steps through the door.

--------------------------------------------

INTERMISSION

This is the author speaking, thanks for reading up until this point! I am sorry for making this so long and it'll continue to get longer, so as an apology, I'll give you all a hint! It's a single word and I "Hope" You don't forget it.

Wink

-------------------------------------------

Nobu is the first one to fully awaken, he slowly gets up and quickly talks to himself, "Are you there... Alter?" Silence, then he receives a response, "Yep, I'm here." This relieves Nobu, he then sees the girls stirring awake. Kiana is still mostly asleep despite keeping watch, while Bronya fell asleep sitting up, seems like she was still keeping watch. Mei gets up with a yawn, wakes herself up a bit more and sees Nobu.

"Did you sleep well?" Nobu asks, trying to look cool.

"Yes I did Nakamura-San." Nobu still doesn't like she's calling him by his last name... but he can't exactly argue, he hasn't really called Mei... 'Mei'.

"I'll quickly scout around this place to see if anything made it in while we were all sleeping." Mei nods in response, and before he goes off, she asks him.

"How are your wounds?" Nobu flinches a bit, but responds calmly.

"They're fine, they don't feel as broken nor do they feel as sore." Nobu jokes a little, trying to lighten the mood. Then it's silent, he sighs and continues off to check the store.

He checked the store as he could smell Mei's cooking wafting through the air. He then encountered a door that was boarded shut on the other side. He attempts to lockpick it but notices there is no lock. "Well that's a bust... I don't even know how to lockpick." He then begins bashing the door. After a little while he manages to force it open. What he sees inside is disgusting.

A corpse of a human that was mauled by a zombie and a dead zombie beside him. The stench that permeated the room was so foul that Nobu almost puked if he wasn't used to it by now. Nobu left the door open a bit and waited outside so the smell dissipated at least a little. After waiting for 5 minutes, he walks back and searches the room. He finds nothing but sees that the cameras are still on. so he decides to go through the logs.

Nobu rewound the footage to when this all happened. He stopped then let the footage resume. He payed close attention to see if he could find anything. After it hit 12:30 pm a large beam of light appeared in the background. "Chiba Academy?" Afterwards, people turned into zombies, skin and hair going pale white and some were left fine. He noticed it was mostly females that were okay. Then it all escalated from there, no one was left alive or unturned after that.

Then the footage showed a single zombie heading towards this security guards door. Nobu quickly looks out and sees nothing. He continues to watch the footage and sees the zombie enter the room and the door quickly locks after that. Nobu deduces this carefully, "So the zombie went into the office, the man quickly locked the door shut and fought with the zombie in here." He looks towards the bodies and gives the corpse a salute.

Nobu hears his name being called by Kiana, "Nobu~! Mei's almost done cooking!" He then smiles and walks out of the office and recuperates with every as they sit cross legged in a circle. Mei comes in with trays holding cutlery and bowls of miso soup. There are also plates of fish and bread. It's amazing that she managed to make all that during an apocalypse, "I know right." Nobu responds.

Kiana at 5 portions, Nobu ate 2 portions, Bronya ate 3 portions and Mei ate 3 portions. Nobu said he didn't need to eat as much, the girls insisted but he sneakily only ate two, faking that he ate 4.

They walk out of the grocery store and decide to look for the car that these keys could open. Nobu occasionally presses the button every 10-20 minutes to see if it's nearby. Bronya said he could press it as much as wants because she could just scan for batteries with her robot. She also told them it was called Project Bunny, a cute name for something so destructive. "Yeah, it's capable of firing rockets, engage CQC and disappear into thin air." Nobu replies to me.

It's been 4 days, all it's been is zombie slaying, Nobu taking meds (13->18hp) and somehow not finding the car. They've passed by 2 parking lots and both of them didn't have the vehicle. They are now coming up to the 3rd parking lot, Nobu hopes it's here so they can go to some places quickly and have a vehicle to escape in for emergencies.

He presses the button and a car horn could be heard from the highest floor. Nobu sighs as he then begins the trek upwards, Mei and Kiana follow suit while Bronya slips out of sight. Bronya uses Project Bunny to either launch herself up there or hover.

Nobu, Kiana and Mei finally reach the top floor and Bronya could be seen standing next to a car waiting patiently. The man sighs and then presses the car key button again, the car Bronya is laying on beeps. She shrugs as she motions for them to get in.

Bronya sits in the back beside Kiana, well, they more have a space in between them. Mei is in the front passenger seat while Nobu is driving, which makes sense since he's the only person here with a drivers license and is an adult. He even states before they got in, "I'm driving since I'm the only adult here and probably the only person with a drivers license in this group." They all couldn't exactly refuse, Kiana tried to make the argument that they're in an apocalypse but he responded, "Doesn't matter, I'll at least not crash it. My license it here to prove it."

Before they set off towards a random place, Mei asked Nobu if they could go to where she used to live. The Raiden estate. It was taken from them because of the 'economic fraud' part of the accusations. The property was taken by the bank due to this issue. All of the servants were let off with recommendation letters so they could be hired elsewhere.

The estate held a lot of dear memories to Mei, so Nobu drove there without any question. Since there was no one exactly 'alive' in this place, he didn't have to worry about stop lights or zombies on the road. he only swerved if there was a being he learned as 'Honkai Beast'. They are far stronger than the normal zombies. The zombies are just annoying because of how many there are. The Honkai Beasts pack a whole lotta power, and, if touched by someone who has no resistance, get something called a Honkai infection.

The infection slowly kills the user and turns them into a zombie. If the person has resistance, it'll just kill them. After learning all this stuff, Nobu began to wonder what the hell was 'Honkai'. All of his questions were shot down by both Bronya and Kiana. Mei knew nothing on such things and was confused as well. Then the last thing Nobu learned was something called a herrscher.

Godlike beings that could bend physical laws. Apparently a herrscher awakening or Honkai eruption, is what caused this zombie apocalypse. Nobu still hasn't seen this herrscher, nor has a wondered where they may be, he doesn't want to be killed just yet.

They finally reach the estate and the lock on the gate is still firmly keeping shut. Bronya summons Project Bunny and breaks the lock. Mei leads everyone inside and shows them around. Kiana, Nobu and Bronya weren't exactly used to rich lifestyles and certainly had never been inside a place like this. So most of this was a first to them.

Kiana, Bronya and Nobu were showed the guest rooms, which were all beside each other. Mei also pointed out that there was a bathhouse in the far end of the hallway. It takes about 5 minutes to walk there, which was very surprising. They were then showed the kitchen and then the living room. As they were looking around in it, Mei stared at a picture of her and her father that was still in the room, reminiscing of when things weren't so hard.

Kiana, who was messing around, turned a small buddha statue around and a secret entrance opened up. They were all surprised by this, especially Mei. Nobu went in first, and saw an arsenal of weapons. From old to modern guns. What really caught his attention was the finely detailed katan hung up on the wall with the sheath on. The sheath had a golden dragon imprinted onto it, and unsheathing the blade, it shined with such perfection, that it could've been mistaken as glowing.

Bronya saw weapons she was familiar with due to her past. So she picked up one of the many snipers, disassembled it and cleaned each part piece by piece on a desk nearby. Kiana switched out her old pistols with some P250s that had anti-Honkai ammunition beside it. Mei's the only one who didn't switch weapons since her katana was good enough already. Instead, she wandered deeper into the arsenal and found prototype weapons that ME was secretly working on. Nobu was behind her in awe of all of the weaponry still.

He then decides to take one of the prototype guns off the wall and attempt to fire it. He pulls the trigger and... nothing. It's like a solid brick, there is no ammo cartridge, no safety, just a trigger, barrel and body. He then thought of something, since everything involved Honkai, he thought maybe he could just give it to one of the girls, since they seem to have some type of Honkai relation. Mei used lighting earlier against Bronya, Bronya has a giant floating robot and Kiana has absurd strength no normal girl should have.

Nobu then offers the gun to Mei in the pretense of, "Putting it back where it was." He was thinking it would activate on touch, but no light or notification from the gun. It was still as dim as it was. She pulled the trigger and once again, nothing happened. Mei then put the gun back where it was, Bronya put the sniper she just tuned onto the wall and Kiana kept those P250s and her old pistols with her. They left the secret armory and closed it back with the buddha statue.

They all went to their rooms other than Mei, who said that she'd make dinner and they should all take a bath. Nobu said that'd he go in first and he'd tell the others when he'd finish. The girls wanted to argue, but since Nobu's driven them here, they'd allow it.

Nobu quickly went to his room to prepare his clothes to change into. After he exited he then talked to Alter. "Hey, do you remember where the bath was?" Nobu asks. Alter replies, "Maybe it's to the Left?" He says a bit confused. Nobu then walks to the left for 3 minutes before saying, "Yeah, maybe it's not this way..." Alter then responds by saying, "Do you remember where the kitchen is? Maybe ask Mei."

Nobu hums and then nods his head, turning around and heading for the kitchen. Little did he know, that he was a minute from walking towards the bath.

---------------------------------------------

"Kiana! Don't touch the food, it isn't done yet!" Mei complains to the girl trying to steal a bite.

"But Mei-Senpai! One bite wouldn't hurt would it?" Kiana gave a cheeky grin to her senpai.

"Well, at least wait for dinner! There would be less for you and everyone to enjoy if you ate now." Mei argued. Kiana didn't quip back because Mei did make a point. So she pouted in defeat but was then interrupted by a knock on the door.

--------------------------------------------

Nobu knocks on the kitchen doors politely and waits. The one who opened the door was Kiana and she was confused by Nobu's sudden appearance and asks, "I thought you were taking a bath by now, why are you here?" She raised an eyebrow in confusion as she asked.

"Well, I forgot the way to the bath," He laughs a bit then looks towards Mei over Kiana's shoulder, "Raiden-Chan, where's the bath again?" Her response angers him a bit.

"From where your room is facing, to the left and 5 minute walk down and you should see it." Alter then suddenly talks in Nobu's head, "You have got to be kidding me!" Nobu sighs and thanks her before leaving to the bath. He then speaks to Alter, "We walked for about three minutes... so we stopped like... just before the bath huh..." Alter is a bit angry, "You damned idiot, why didn't you just continue walking?"

"Well, I was just worried that it wasn't in the direction we were going..." Nobu says, Alter then instantly responds, "Well, that decision was almost as bad as the time you watched that crazed Mecha anime..." Nobu then stops for a second.

"You take that back, that show was my childhood!" Nobu yells at Alter. "Nope~, the writing of that show was terrible, I looked through our memories and man it had close to no story dude." Alter then continues, "What was it called again? Ah, Arahato, the only good part of that anime was the animation, it had close to no story and was kind of like a M.B. movie. Just filled with explosions and fanservice."

Nobu didn't argue, as he recalled the anime, he couldn't exactly argue that it had no story or was only explosions and fanservice. But at the same time, he couldn't just accept Alter slandering his childhood, especially how in the past, he mainly got into technology because of Arahato! "Well... if it weren't for that anime, we wouldn't be here..." Nobu says as he stops in front of the bath. "And it looks like we're here." He says before they can start another argument.

Alter scoffs at him, but Nobu just enters and puts his neatly folded clothes into one of the various bins and takes the towel from it. He then enters the bath and man was it big. It was like an indoors hot spring or sauna. Nobu slowly dips himself into the water, and then fully submerges and both him and Alter let out a breath of relaxation. They stayed in the bath for 15 minutes before getting out and washing they're hair. It's a bit surprising that the facilities of this place still works but who is he to judge, he isn't an engineer, just a regular desk worker for ME corp... well, what was left of it.

He then completely get's out of the bath and dries his hair with a towel before wrapping his crotch with the towel. He then changes into a white t-shit and black shorts and lays the towel on his shoulder. "That felt good, haven't had a bath in awhile." Nobu says aloud to himself. Alter responds saying, "Yeah, I remember seeing Mei sniff herself and looking depressed afterword." They both laughed lightly at this.

As Nobu continued to walk down the hallway, he passed by Mei who was chasing Kiana and Bronya walking behind. "Hi Bronya." Nobu starts the conversation.

"Hello Subject Nobu, how was your bath?" She tilts her head at a 15 degree angle making it cuter.

"Twas good!" He jokes around as he continues speaking, "Felt great, take your time in there, and since Mei is here does that mean she's finished cooking?" Bronya nodded and Nobu just went, "Humu humu... I see. I'll wait in the dinning room for you guys." Bronya replies, "Understood Subject Nobu, the Bronya will notify you when we're finished." They all exchanged numbers in the grocery store.

Nobu was now sitting in the dinning room playing Arknights on his phone. "Damnit, I missed the placement timing now they're gonna leak." He voices his frustrations. "Well, it's probably because you didn't set it to 1x speed and kept it on 2x." Alter reminds him. They kept up this kind of bickering until the girls finished they're bath.

Nobu receives a notification on his phone. It's from Bronya. "The Bronya and Subject Idiotka and Mei Onee-sama have finished bathing, we will arrive in 10 minutes." He then smiled as he went back to playing Arknights and saying, "I have time for one more run."

He did not have time to finish the run of Integrated Strategies, but now he's eating Mei's cooking with everyone at the table. While eating, it was silent. The flirting from Kiana to Mei occasionally breaking the silence with Bronya throwing the occasional 'playful' insult.

This type of peace is something they all cherished. Smiles, jokes and laughter, this is why they survived, because they care for each other. "Yeah..." Is all Nobu says to me.

————————————

The queen of thunder inside of Raider Mei has taken notice of Nobu's other self.

"Just like us or..." is all she asks before fading back into Mei's mind.

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And so, 2 weeks passed. They kept up that life the entire time, eventually agreed to go out and find a way to escape this apocalypse. Staying in one place is no good after all, especially in this situation where zombies could invade at anytime.

Currently, the group is resting on the 3rd floor of a building. The apartment has a massive hole leading outside downwards towards the street. Bronya is next to the door, Nobu is near her. Mei and Kiana are looking down from the hole in the wall.

"Mei-Senpai, what do you think caused this giant hole?" Kiana asks while looking around curiously like a cat.

"I don't know Kiana-Chan, most likely a Honkai Beast..." Mei takes a guess while having a thinking pose with her index finger and thumb on her chin.

Bronya is tuning her gun, which was given back to her by Nobu. She takes a long look at the weapon. She then sighs and calls out towards Nobu.

"Subject Nobu," she starts, which grabs his attention immediately, "You can hold onto the Bronya's gun. I have Project Bunny with da Bronya. Project Bunny is enough protection for Bronya."

Nobu then asks, "Are you sure?" He's hesitant, especially since this little girl was the one offering. Bronya nods which causes Nobu to sigh. He takes the gun and pockets it. I have no idea where be he pocketed it somewhere.

Kiana and Mei sit on a wall with Kiana laying on Mei's shoulder. Bronya is laying on the wall beside the entrance, holding her legs to her chest. Nobu is standing up leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. Alter then speaks in his mind.

"I have a bad feeling..." He says, which alerts Nobu. "Do you know what's causing it?" Alter can be seen shaking their head in Nobu's head. "No, but it's extremely worrying..." Nobu was about to ask another question but was interrupted when Alter suddenly yells. "The door!-"

Crash

Bronya gets sent flying to another building, Nobu was alerted by Alter but was sent out the hole in the wall and is falling to the ground. He somehow grabbed onto a ledge and lessened his fall. He lands on his feet and Kiana princess carries Mei down to the street. Mei is worried for Bronya and is also quite shaken.

Mei falls to her knees in exhaustion of the situation. Suddenly a nearby wall from the building they were in crashes open, causing debris to fly everywhere.

What they saw, was a white bipedal beast, taller than all of them, with two giant floating arms beside it. Pink lines along it's body, pulsating, showing that it was alive. It walked out of the broken wall, and stared at Nobu, Mei and Kiana. Nobu quickly looks around and sees no sign of Bronya, she was closest to the door and probably took most of the impact of that thing.

Kiana stands in front of Mei while Nobu stares down towards the beast with his hand on the hilt of the katana. Suddenly, 4 zombies surround them, each with scythes in hand. None make a move till Nobu twists his body and slashes towards one of the undead.

The zombie avoids the fatal attack barely by stepping backwards, in turn it attacks Nobu in reflex. Nobu dodges but gets sneak attacked by one of the zombies behind him, causing him to get knocked a few feet away from the two (18->15hp). Kiana is defending Mei from the other two zombies using her fighting style called Kaslana Gun Kata. She kicks one away and blasts the other, both the zombies however are not dead yet and rush back to engage her.

The beast continues to watch from afar, it appears that it's presence is empowering them. "I see..." Nobu hears this revelation and twists his back and kills one of the zombies and gets attacked by the other one again, getting a gash on his side (15->12hp). Kiana is still held up by the two zombies strange coordination, the attacks were relentless, but she manages to find an opening and knock them away from each other, halting the flurry of slashes.

Nobu quickly dashes forward and manages to cut the last zombie in two and quickly turns to face the bipedal behemoth that towers over him. He then gets smacked away by the beast, for he was too distracted to notice one of it's arms floating out of view. The arm then continues to fly and head towards Kiana as she finishes the zombies off.

Slam

Crash

Kiana gets punched by the arm and then sent flying into the wall of a building, causing a crater as she lays unconscious in the rubble. Mei gets out of her stupor and rushes to her unconscious knight's side, holding her close and checking her vitals. Nobu is left alone to face the beast and he gets up and holds his blade once again.

He then dashes forward with a burst of speed, and slashes towards the Honkai beast's 'chest'. It cuts, but is too shallow to cause any fatal damage. The beast more so looks like a monster to him now, as he gets swatted away once again, causing his healed ribs to break once more (12-> 8hp).

As he gets knocked back, he quickly implants his sword into the ground and halts all his momentum. He gets up holding his right side with his left hand and holding his blade in his right. Once again, he dashes forward and aims for it's 'eye'. The beast sees this obvious attack and slightly moves, avoiding it. Nobu stands in front of the behemoth once again and now notices it's arm is raised above him, it's going to crash downwards onto him then the concrete below him.

Nobu's eyes widen and he thinks quickly in combination with Alter, both not wanting death today nor ever. "Redirect it!" Alter yells, Nobu then raises his sword above him with both hands on the hilt. The arm comes down and Nobu forces his blade under the arm and forcing it's momentum around him and causing it to crash beside the man, he didn't come out unscathed however, the move put a lot of strain on his body however (8->5hp). The move causes a lot of dust and makes a makeshift smokescreen.

The arm is behind Nobu, blocking his silhouette from anyone outside the dust.

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Mei just witnessed someone close to her die.

She begins panting heavily as she holding Kiana in both her arms. Kiana is okay, but Nobu is not. Nobu isn't here he's dead. Nakamura-San is dead. That monster killed him.

Mei grits her teeth as she stares angrily at the dust cloud with the silhouette of the Honkai beast in it. Nobu is nowhere to be seen.

"He's gone." Her other self says. Mei doesn't reply, instead shadows cast over her eyes.

"I'll kill it."

Lightning strikes as a purple pillar of light streaks into the sky. Mei holds the unconscious Kiana in a princess carry. Crackling lightning forms electric wings on Mei, as her irises gain a dark shade of purple over them. She aimed her hand at the Honkai Beasts silhouette and fired a concentrated Honkai lighting bolt, evaporating the beast instantly.

She looked up and saw a flying ship.

"No one is allowed to be above the queen." As she says this, she instantly flies towards the ship, with Kiana in a princess carry.

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One moment Nobu was fighting the towering behemoth and catching his breath in the dust cloud caused by the attack. The next, the beast was gone in a pile of dust and he was flat on his ass. "What the hell happened...?" He mumbled to himself. "I don't know, but that attack is powerful enough to instantly kill us if it turned that beast to dust." Alter replies.

Nobu and Alter then begin to hear crackling of electricity, the walk out of the dust cloud and look up. They see Mei princess carrying Kiana very high up and going towards a flying battleship. Nobu didn't know those things existed in real life but damn they are cool!

Mei then fully goes out of view and most probably getting onto the ship. After awhile, fighting could be heard. Alter then says, "Mei is probably fighting someone up there..." Nobu replies, "That or I'm hearing things now that the adrenaline is running off." They both laugh a bit before going silent.

"Subject Nobu..." He turns towards the noise, which is on one of the higher floors of a nearby building, it's Bronya. "Bronya!" He then sighs in relief with an arm on his chest, "Glad your okay." She humu's and asks, "Subject Nobu, the Bronya requires you up here." Nobu tilts his head and asks, "Why?"

To this, Bronya simply responds, "The Bronya has a plan to send subject Nobu towards the ship."

Nobu goes a bit wide eyes at this, but then sighs and begins walking up the stairs. They meet up and Bronya then explains, "We need a higher position to launch Subject Nobu..." Nobu interrupts asking, "Why me and not you?" Bronya then has a deadpanned expression and gives exposition, "Because the Bronya cannot fire herself out of Project Bunny's cannon."

"She's going to fire US out of her cannon... That might hurt." Alter winces a bit imagining it as Nobu is silent with the thought of him, being fired out of a cannon, is repeated in his head. He stays silent as they continue up the building and reaching the roof.

Bronya summons Project Bunny with a bigger cannon. "Subject Nobu, get in." The fact she still has a straight face scares Nobu a bit. He sighs as he gets into the cannon, he then asks, "This won't hurt will it?" Bronya stares at him a bit, he looks like one of those clowns that's preparing for an act. "Nyet, Da Bronya's calculations say it won't fatally wound Nobu." He then sighs in relief a bit, Alter replay's the words in his head. "Won't fatally wound... Wait, that'll still hurt us-" He gets cut off as the cannon launches them towards the airship (5->3hp).

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On the ship, a redhead wielding a great sword is facing down Mei who is holding Kiana in her arms. The redhead's name is Murata Himeko, and she is the current captain. She is currently wearing an experimental skin tight battle suit that is using the ships energy. She has already clashed a few times against Mei and knows that she's at a severe disadvantage.

Hineko then begins charging up her blade as flames slowly envelop it. Mei holds up an arm as aims it towards Himeko, charging an orb of energy. They were both interrupted as a male crashes into the ship, skids and crashes into a wall (3->1hp).

They both stared in quite a bit of shock as the dust cloud slowly disperses.

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Nobu slowly stands up from the cloud holding his side as he winces in pain. He breathes heavily with a cracks on his glasses and foggy vision. He sees Mei, then sees the red haired women. She speaks up first, "Who are you?"

Nobu doesn't know how to respond other than just introducing himself the way he always had, "I'm Nobu Nakamura, " He then points towards Mei, "And that's my friend. Please stand down." He's a mess and continues to walk towards the girls, albeit slowly with pain in every step. The redhead then speaks up once again saying, "Murata Himeko, and I guess your one of my sisters sons..."

Nobu doesn't stop walking while Alter process the words for him. "She's our aunt?" Alter says with a bit of confusion. The same red hair, makes sense, but what doesn't is that Nobu or Alter never knew of this, well, that explains itself. Nobu didn't know anything related to his family's past, he never bothered to search either.

Nobu then sees Himeko's blade gaining more power, he widens his eyes a bit and panics, dashing with adrenaline and tripping in between the two (1->0hp). His whole life flashes in that moment, then it flashes the smiles of the kind Mei, cheery Kiana, and monotonous Bronya. He's survived this much of the apocalypse and he won't die a bullshit death like this! (0->1hp +5 temp).

He pushes himself off the ground and stands between the two. He still has his Katana as he stares at Himeko and her blade. He glances towards Mei and she has canceled her attack. "Good..." He mumbles as he fully faces Himeko.

"Nephew of mine, move." She says with resolution as she continues charging her blade. Nobu then dashes, leaving a scorch mark on the ground. Himeko sees it coming and elbows him in the gut, leaving him on the ground and the brink of falling unconscious (1hp 5->0 temp). He watches as Himeko slowly walks toward Mei with her weakened blade in hand. "At least Mei won't die..." he mumbles before falling unconscious.

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Kiana wakes up in Mei's arms, in a daze, she grabs onto the herrscher wings on the girls back and destroys them. This causes Mei to fall to the ground and Kiana to slip back into rest.

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Inside of Nobu's mind, he finally awakens, except he sees Alter. "Hey sleepyhead, good afternoon." Nobu groans a bit staring at the red sandy landscape that they're standing on. "How long have I been-" He gets cut off by Alter as he says, "3 days. It's been 3 days since that day." This shocks Nobu as his eyes widen, Alter then continues explaining, "I've been watching over you since that day, I've seen quite a lot." He stares a Nobu a bit before he nods for him to continue explaining.

"Mei was the cause of that zombie apocalypse..." Nobu was a bit shocked as Alter continues explaining, "It was because she became a herrscher, luckily Kiana came in and prevented her from going on a rampage outside of Nagazora." Nobu hums at this, Kiana, Mei's only friend, saved her quite a lot, like a knight and a princess. "Our Aunt Himeko occasionally came to visit us in this medical ward. Right now Himeko is sitting beside our bed right now as a gray-bluish haired women with red framed glasses changes our IV."

Nobu then speaks up, "How the hell are you even seeing all this?" Alter shrugs and responds, "I have no idea, maybe the influx of Honkai Energy allowed it?" He guesses, when that is the exact reason. Alter then sighs and opens the white door for him to exit his mind, "Well, it's time for you to wake up, the girls would usually visit around this time as well." Nobu then asks before leaving, "Anything I need to know before I wake up?"

Alter then gains a smirk, "Well, the girls have accepted to join this school we're in right now, our Aunt is a teacher here, the principal is a shorty, and Kiana is related to the principal." Nobu then nods as he waves towards Alter when walking through the door. "Thanks man."

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Nobu keeps his eyes shut pretending to be asleep by the doctor and Himeko. He accidentally flinches while doing so, this doesn't go unnoticed by Himeko and she says ,"I know your awake Nephew~." Nobu keeps his eyes shut, which ticks Himeko off a bit, faltering her smile. She then pinches Nobu into reacting.

"Ow,ow,ow,ow!" He holds his arm in a bit of pain. "That pinch really hurt... was the necessary?" Himeko has a smile on as she shrugs and replies, "Well, you would've refused otherwise no?" In which case she sighs afterward and asks, "You okay?" Nobu then open and closes his fist and rolls his shoulders a bit before replying, "I feel great actually..."

As he says that, the door bursts open as Kiana, Mei and Bronya could be seen through the entrance. "Aunt Hineko is Nobu awa-!" She cuts herself off as she stares at Nobu, locking eyes with each other. It's silent as Kiana quickly runs towards him and wraps her arms around him with a bright smile on her face and a few tears. "Nobu! Your finally awake!" Her wrap around him tightens.

"K-Kiana! I can't breathe!" He taps her arm as a sign of defeat. She lessens her hold a bit as Mei and Bronya walk behind her. "Are you okay Nakamura-San?" Nobu then stares at her with a soft smile, "I'm fine Mei-Chan..." Mei leaves her mouth agape for a bit before smiling brighter, this was the first time he called her by her first name. Bronya then hovers closer to the bed as she stares at Nobu, "Does Subject Nobu have any residual wounds?" She tils her head at a 15 degree angle, making it cuter. Nobu simply shakes his head in response with a smile still plastered on his face.

This touching reunion was interrupted by a small girl in a nun outfit with white hair and blue eyes like Kiana, clears her throat in the doorway. "Kiana, Mei, Bronya, can you three leave for a bit? I have something to discuss with Mr. Nakamura now that he's awake." Kiana looked like she was about to refuse but then left after looking at Nobu again.

The room now only contained Himeko, the doctor and the nun. It was silent again till the small girl spoke up, "I'm Theresa Apocalypse, the principal of this school." Nobu was dumbfounded by this. A girl, who is the size of a twelve year old, is the principal of this school?! Alter snickered in the back of his mind. The 'doctor' then introduced herself, "My name is Fu Hua, I'm the class monitor." She looks the part but has the aura of someone completely different! What is with the people in this school?! Alter covered his mouth for he was about to laugh.

Nobu then sighed as he responded, "Used to be just an ordinary office worker for ME corp., I'm Nobu Nakamura." He says with his hand on his chest. Theresa then nods and then asks, "Well, now that your jobless, do you want to work in this school?" Nobu tilts his head a bit in confusion at this, Theresa elaborates, "Okay, to be honest, the fact you survived in that apocalypse is a miracle, but my Niece Kiana, the herrscher Mei and robot Bronya gave praises to you and asked if we would accept you as a teacher here..." Nobu stayed silent at this, and then asks, "Is there any requirements or hidden strings?"

Theresa then sighs and says, "Well, we can only allow you to be a teacher here or combat instructor. If you were to accept that is, you would also need to get an Artificial Stigmata transplanted. We also need to get you a place to live, luckily we have an open dorm for that, so yes, roommates."

Alter speaks to Nobu, "Sounds like a pretty fair deal to me, I'd accept it Nobu."

Nobu hums a bit before smiling and saying, "I'll be a combat instructor, how long till I'm out of this place?" Theresa sighs in relief and smiles back, "Give or take one or two weeks. Bronya and Mei told us about your abnormal recovery speed so that's taken into account, you'll also be doing combat instruction with Himeko." The door then opens once again, revealing a machine wearing a cloak with the colors of the desert.

"You asked me to come here principal?" Theresa turns towards the robot and says, "Good, your here Scrap, this is your new roommate."

"Scrap, this is Nobu, Nobu this is Scrap, get along well you two!" They stared at each other in silence as Theresa continues speaking. "And welcome to Saint Freya, the school that trains Valkyries, Nobu Nakamura."

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After Nobu got released, he got an Artificial Stigmata that was newly acquired from a recent expedition. It was a very big stigmata and assimilated well with Nobu for some odd reason. It resembled a big egg, and had some strange markings on it. It basically covered the entirety of his back! It also allowed him to switch with Alter so he could make choices for him.

Nobu also got a battlesuit as well. It resembled Himeko's battlsuit with it's colors, but gave him some firepower too.

Nobu's gear was also adjusted, he kept Bronya's knife and gun as gifts. He was given some Anti-Honkai rounds and the knife was made to cut through some Honkai if imbued with some Energy. His Katana was discovered to already be adjust to slice through Honkai, it just needed HE in it as well.

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Nobu Nakamura's Stats before the tutorial:

Physical: 7

Strength: 1/10

Endurance: 0/10

Stamina: 2/10 (20hp)

Agility: 2/10 Passive +1

Resistance: 2/10 Passive -1

Mental: 6

Occult: 0/10

Knowledge: 3/10

Willpower: 1/10 Passive +2

Determination: 2/10 Passive +2

Mentality: 0/10

Skill: 8

Stealth: 2/10

Tech: 2/10

Survival: 0/10 Passive +2

Suave: 1/10

Combat: 3/10

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(A.N. That moment you have to proofread this and edit some mistakes here and there... Christ I hate myself. Next chapter, being Chapter 1, will take awhile to come out, so get comfy with these 4 and Chapter 0.)