12: Duality

"I can't believe it" - muttered Saya as her body trembled uncontrollably.

The reason?

While Cloud and the others had gone to get supplies, Saya and the others who had stayed on the bus heard a woman's cry for help.

As women, and knowing that the situation was dangerous for their gender in this chaotic world, they decided to go to help this woman in need, only to find themselves ambushed by men, and a woman smiling at them as she blew a kiss to who appeared to be the leader of the group.

It didn't take long to understand the reason for the trap, Saya knew perfectly well, after all, they had talked about it until recently.

The men were excited about the new prey they had gotten, especially their huge boobs and prepared to capture them, only to be defeated by Cloud and the others who arrived just in time.

Cloud yelled at the women for doing something so stupid, though not before giving the attackers a severe beating to make sure they remembered this moment for the rest of their lives. After accomplishing this, he looked at the woman, who was trembling, though she quickly began to show skin to seduce the blond into letting her join the group.

Cloud simply ignored her, not because he didn't understand the reason for the woman's actions, but because this bitch had endangered his group, so he walked towards the bus without looking back.

The woman bit her lip, though she quickly grabbed everything she could and ran away, thinking maybe she could find a safer group.

That left us with the current situation....

"I thought everyone would show a cruel attitude in this kind of situation" - Saya said as she saw how a man was escorting a group of children in the distance.

"The duality of the humans" - replied Cloud as he shook his head because he couldn't do anything to help this group, not because he didn't want to, rather because it was physically impossible. They were too far away to do anything, unless they made a lot of noise to attract the monsters, and that was impossible. He would not endanger his group, even for a group of innocent children, this had nothing to do with morality, but for simple survival.

Saya simply ducked her head because after the incident with the trap, she understood that a strong sense of morality could kill her in a world like this where chaos reigned.

"We can only pray that they reach a safe place" - Saeko said as she shook her head.

"Pray?! That won't help those poor children!" - exclaimed Rei as she bit her lip.

"It's the only thing we can do, Miyamoto-san" - Saeko stated neutrally - "Not to mention that's the only thing the weak deserve in this kind of situation."

"Weaklings?!" - Rei exclaimed angrily as she glared hostilely at the purple-haired girl.

"I know, my words are cold, but what I say is true" - Saeko said as she looked around - "Listen, I feel that some of you don't understand, but our current situation is one where it's live or die, only the strong will survive, only people who show a usefulness can get the protection to live another day, those who don't have this [value], will be treated as slaves, cannon fodder so that others can live a few more minutes."

The group sank into a deep silence as they felt that although they were cruel words, Saeko was right. The woman they encountered earlier was a clear example of this, she was weak, fragile, and that's why she sacrificed her body and her consciousness to survive.

"Take advantage of all your abilities, that's the only advice I can give you if you want to survive in this chaotic era" - Saeko said as she closed her eyes to ignore the gazes of the others.

Cloud remained silent as he nodded to the purple-haired woman's words.

As a yakuza, he perfectly understood the law of the strongest.

"Do you think so too, Cloud?" - Saya asked with a frown.

"People like us, Saya, knows better than anyone else," Cloud replied as he closed his eyes.

Saya was silent before letting out a sigh.

"What do you mean?" - Rei asked with a frown.

Miku simply shrugged her shoulders because she, by living all this time with Cloud, had learned many things about him, especially the true identities of the blond and the pink-haired girl. - "Isn't it obvious? They're very different from the rest of us."

"How?" - Takashi asked as he looked at his childhood friends.

"It's simple, one is the Oyabun (Yakuza Leader) of the Strife clan, while the other is the heiress of the Takagi group that controls almost the entire city" - Miku answered as she looked around, noticing how everyone was looking at her with surprise - "What? Didn't you see it coming? The two criminal groups are extremely famous in the city, and their last names should have given them away, especially Saya-chan who is the daughter of the owner of many companies"

Those present were embarrassed because they hadn't thought of it this way.

Saeko looked more eagerly at the blond, now understanding why he had such a cold attitude during the fight. A huge smile appeared on her face because this was thrilling, not to mention that the wife of the head of a Yakuza clan went perfectly with her character.

Just thinking about all the massacres she would perform during the gang wars made her blood start to boil.

"You're a Yakuza?" - Kyoko asked in terror as she felt her body tremble - "Th-That means you?"

"That's right, my hands have been stained with blood for a long time before this shitty situation started" - Cloud replied as he shook his head. Now that the cat was out the bag, it was best to be honest, though it wasn't like it would change things much.

He would continue to protect the group, regardless of whether they feared him now that they knew his true identity, though from the looks of three people, he noticed that it looked like there wouldn't be much change.

Kohta was a little confused, though he quickly returned to normal, after all, this meant that the blond was a better ally because his hand wouldn't shake at critical moments.

Saeko was giving him a seductive smile as she licked her lips, which wasn't far off from his description of her. Saeko was a dangerous woman, so technically she was the closest to the "type of woman" his "job" would accept.

Finally, Shizuka simply looked at him with a smile, as if nothing had happened, though Cloud could tell that underneath that smile, she seemed to be planning something.

The others were confused and didn't know what to do, so Cloud decided to give them some time, although there was someone who wasn't taking the situation well, and that was none other than Kyoko, who was pale-faced, that's why Cloud stood up and decided to move away a bit to give her space.

Kyoko let out a sigh of relief before giving him a grateful look. Don't get her wrong, she wasn't as scared of Cloud as she showed, it's just that the surprise was too big for her, and she needed some time to digest this information.

Saeko slowly stood up and walked to the blond, just to sit on his legs while hugging his neck.

Cloud raised an eyebrow at this, confused by the purple-haired girl's bold action.

"Is it fun to be Yakuza?" - Saeko asked with a huge grin - "The battles, the screaming, the blood running down your enemies' bullet-hole filled bodies?"

Cloud gave her a blank look when he heard this - "We'll talk later."

"Ok ~" - smiled Saeko as she got up and sat down next to him.

The others looked at her as if she was crazy, though after everything that had happened, it was obvious that she was, and it wasn't like Saeko was trying to hide it, not when the world was as crazy as she was.

Shizuka watched this with a slight frown, though she quickly returned to normal. This went unnoticed by everyone but Cloud who was observing the golden-haired woman closely, mostly because he could sense that something had changed inside her when Miku had revealed his true identity.

Oh, and speaking of her...

"Don't you think you really look like a real Yakuza now?" - asked Miku as she opened the blond's uniform jacket, showing off her well-trained physique thanks to the tight polo shirt, and with two beautiful girls by her side.

"I look like the protagonist of a generic harem story" - Cloud said as he gave her a blank stare.

"Oh, but you are ~" - Miku replied as she winked at him, after all, she had noticed the interest in other girls in the group.

Saeko raised an eyebrow as she looked closely at the orange-haired girl, it seemed that someone else had recognized the situation, and she didn't seem to be reluctant to the idea, which brought a small smile to her lips.