Chapter 31: ???

"HOLD THE LINE, MEN!" Owen heard a man yell as he hopped on top of a nearby roof, catching sight of dozens of soldiers armed with steam guns holding the line. They fired their weapons at the large group of approaching Kabane, taking care not to hit the civilians that were escaping towards them.

'Lets blend with the crowd,' Owen thought simply before jumping off the roof and running with some others past the fighting guards. He, along with many others, were funneled onto the train. As he moved, he caught the whispers of soldiers discussing the fact that they did not have space for this many people and would have to attach more train cars, something that could take a lot of time, something they didn't have much of.

'Better go check it out,' Owen thought before immediately turning around to get off the train he was on. He was almost immediately stopped by a guard who attempted to dissuade him. However, this didn't last long as the guard soon gave up, not caring for Owen as he had to manage the other panicking people on the train car.

'Now, where should I start?' Owen asked himself as he walked back to the defensive line outside the station. Luckily, they seemed to be doing pretty well as they were mopping up the remaining Kabane. They left a couple of peasants to maintain the perimeter as they went back to help with the organization of civilians into groups to get on the train which they were currently working to add 3 more cars to.

"Huh, seems the anime is still playing out," Owen thought, observing the scene as this world's protagonist had the classic 'I'm not a zombie moment' with Ayame, the guard. It appeared that Mumei's argument of him being a Kabaneri, essentially a human with the powers of a Kabane, was finally being accepted. Owen followed suit as the group moved into the train, taking up a spot in a car all the way in the back.

After a while, the train was fully connected up to the cars, but when it was about to pull out, Owen caught sight of the outside through a little slit used for shooting out. To say the sight in his view was horrifying would be an understatement. There were hundreds, no thousands, of Kabane outside on the glass above the station. Soon, though he breathed a sigh of relief as the train began to move, leaving the station. Owen heard multiple heavy thuds on the roof of his train as blood splattered past the slit he was looking through, signaling the fact that Kabane had fallen and splattered on the train's top.

After a bit of travel, Owen heard a commotion coming from the cart in front, followed by the sound of something metal being pierced. Before Owen could get up to check it out, he heard a short argument followed by a gunshot, and then the sound of something hitting the ground as something fell off the train.

But as if to answer his question, Owen was able to see what had fallen. It turned out to be this world's protagonist, laid out on the ground with a bullet in his chest, as he was slowly surrounded by a small group of Kabane.

"Just in case," that's all Owen thought before quickly opening the door to the car he was on and jumping off the train. He executed a roll to mitigate the impact as he took out his spear and began to kill the Kabane moving towards Ikoma, who was still laid out on the ground, more than likely having an inner monologue about now.

"Hey, get up, dude!" Owen yelled, grabbing Ikoma by the arm as he assisted him in walking towards where the train had gone. Ikoma broke out of his inner monologue, his weak voice soon escaping his lips as he pushed Owen away. Owen let him go without a fuss, now watching Ikoma struggle to even stand, his breaths labored.

"Who are you?" Ikoma asked, causing Owen to laugh as he walked, followed by Ikoma who moved with a slight limp and labored breath. He looked at Owen, who used his spear to take down any approaching Kabane, this time only disabling their limbs as he did not want to use his inventory in front of Ikoma.(Need to get mc a cloak so he can pull shit out of his ass)

"Well, my name is Shishido Daisuke, but you can call me Daisuke, and let me say I was a bit inspired by your show of bravery back there, and I just wanted to help you," Owen said, causing Ikoma to look at him weirdly, a gaze Owen felt quite clearly with his powerful senses. However, he opted to ignore it as he instead let a few Kabane slip through to keep Ikoma busy and not able to speak, which sadly failed as Ikoma soon spoke again, his voice questioning.

"Aren't you scared I'll turn into a Kabaneri?" Ikoma asked, but Owen soon laughed. He instead pointed a spear at Ikoma's neck, causing the young man to stop as his grip fastened onto his weapon. Owen soon replied with with a tone full of amusement.

"I can deal with you as easy as the others and if i heard right your some kinda of kabaneri right?" Owen said causing ikoma to nod panicked as the soon continued there journey following the tracks behind the train the light of the distant burning city being the only thing illuminating the area as the traveled with the train soon coming into view as it was swarmed by hoards of kabane.

"We gotta help them!" Ikoma said before rushing ahead towards the lever that lowers the bridge keeping the train from leaving the station. Owen followed, making sure to stick close to Ikoma as they battled their way to the lever. It was quite hard, with Owen noticing a bunch of people inside the train staring at them. He flashed a smile as he continued fighting alongside Ikoma, who was being bitten and beaten by Kabane but continued to press forward. Eventually, Ikoma reached the lever and flipped it, with someone shouting 'he did it' in the background.

Bam

Ikoma crumbled on the floor, seemingly accepting death as he lay there idly. However, Owen would not accept that. After killing all the nearby Kabane, he wasted no time picking up Ikoma and running to the train, which was still moving pretty slow. He quickly jumped on the train, where he was met by Ikoma's tubby friend and several other people, too tired to care. Owen rested against the railing of the train, ignoring the gun pointed right at his face.

 'well fuck you to'