Woman-Splaining

*Splash!*

Michael grimaces slightly as blood and brain matter splatter onto his robes. The zombies weren't all that fresh anymore, so the coagulated blood and decomposing organs smelled far worse than any slaughterhouse you could name... Aside from maybe those wet markets in China...

"Huh, on that thought, I wonder if zombies could get Covid? Eh, probably not... China probably spent all their time developing the zombie virus instead." he jokes to himself as he slashes another corpse in half.

This was the third day in this zombie nightmare, or zombie vacation in his case. He'd currently been cleaning up the mess that was left behind by the military and police force at the bridge. While they'd shot themselves in the foot by attracting so many zombies to their location, for Michael it was the best-case scenario.

So, once they were out of sight, he started dealing with the undead army, the survivors left a train of them in their wake, so while he wasn't trying to follow them, he was going to end up where they'd stopped regardless.

Still, there were many homes and other businesses he hadn't yet looted, so he was taking some time out looting those places... Surprisingly, the Japanese people kept more guns in their homes than he'd expected. At least one hand-gun in every one hundred homes. Not America, but certainly not Australia.

*BOOOM!*

Michael's head zips up to an explosion occurring in the sky, a nuclear bomb detonating far away from his position. Honestly, if he said he hadn't almost shit bricks, he'd be lying... He was strong, but not strong enough to tank a nuke to the face. There weren't any abilities, besides maybe Cold Embrace, that would save him in such an instance.

*Bzzzch!*

An infinitesimal shockwave blows over the area, causing business lights and car lights to flicker out... "Thank fuck all the stuff I stole was in my inventory..." he mutters to himself as Darth snaps the neck of a zombie that was getting too close while Michael was in thought.

He shakes his head, "Whatever, only four days left until the portal opens, I'll need to be where I landed when that happens." he says, speeding up his slaughter.

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Takashi's group is surprised by the nuke that'd knocked out all electronics but wasn't swayed by this to stay in the Takagi estate... Indeed, it only made them more protective of their things, as Rika Minami's car, the one they'd taken from Shizuka's home, was the only vehicle that actually worked anymore thanks to the military-tier modification that'd been made to it.

Thankfully, Saya was somehow able to convince her parents to let her leave, as well as give the group some supplies to tide them over. This didn't mean Saya was all that happy with the group, though, her talk with Saeko had certainly put things into perspective...

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Flashback :

Saeko knocks on the door of Saya's room and waits for a response, knocking a couple more times when she doesn't get one. "It's me, Miss Takagi. Only me."

...

*Click*

Saeko enters inside and finds the room partially destroyed, the fancy wallpaper scrapped and marked with impacts from something, the expensive duck-feather pillows with their contents all over the floor, clothes tossed haphazardly around as if a tornado had blown through the laundry... Saya just lifelessly throws herself onto her bed, eyes red with the remnants of tears and throat hoarse from screaming into what was left of her pillows.

Saeko shakes her head and ignores all of this, sitting down next to the distraught girl with a neutral expression that neither conveyed contempt for her behaviour nor acceptance of it. "Would you like to talk about it? I admit, I'm not well-versed in this sort of thing but, holding it all in can't be healthy..."

Saya shakes her head, "There's nothing to say, you wouldn't understand what this feels like. You've never been abandoned, never been thrown away by everyone you care about... I feel like I just want to die, have it all end." she bitterly says.

"You make a lot of assumptions about me, Miss Takagi... I may have never been abandoned, but at least you have, or had, someone you could say cared for you. I have no friends, no family. The only person I was close to was my father, yet even that relationship with drought and torn apart by his expectations. I'm sure it was the same for your parents, they look similar to my eyes."

Saya frowns, "You lie... Everyone liked you in school, every boy wanted to be with you, and every girl wanted to be you. Our parents may be similar, but we ARE different."

Saeko lets out a solemn sigh, "My popularity of part of the reason I possessed no friends. To me, they were all like my father, wanting what they expected me to instead of just me. Not that my true self is something people would care for..." she says, whispering the last part.

"Tell me about your true self then, Saeko-san, I'll tell you whether I'd care for it or not." Saya asks, picking up on Saeko's quiet words.

...

"Then, let's make a trade of it... Tell me why you are so troubled, and I will tell you what troubles me." Saeko offers, and Saya goes silent for a minute or so, thinking about whether or not she wished to speak.

Finally though, she decides that her situation couldn't get any worse, at least she'd have a 'companion' to suffer along with. "It isn't just my parents who abandoned me, it was Takashi as well..."

"What do you mean?" Saeko asks, confused by this.

Saya scowls, "I mean, when this all start. What did Takashi do? Did he rush to his childhood friend's aid? The person who'd stuck by him and loved him even while he pined for that bitch Rei? No! Even though we'd spoken just minutes earlier, he ran for the girl who cuckolded him with his best friend! The person I LOVED, and my PARENTS both abandoned me when I actually needed them!" he exclaims, on the verge of breaking down into sobs.