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"Kuh! Ugh!"

Mattias woke up to a sharp pain in his head. It was throbbing and he couldn't open his eyes. He tried to speak but he was too tired to form any sort of words.

"Huh? You awake? You don't look awake. Hey can you-"

He heard a voice talking. Was it talking to him? It got cut off midway so there was no meaning in dwelling on it. No wait, it was him who got cut off in the middle. He was losing consciousness again. And after an unknown while he finally came to himself properly. There was a good scent that made its way to his nose so it helped him come back.

"Ugh!"

"Hmm? Bro you better be awake now. This is the second time. You're gonna miss the meal again!"

"Wha?"

Mattias was surprised. He quickly pushed himself away from this unknown man in front of him. He was inside a building that he had no recollection of and there was another man with him who was currently sitting in front of a camp cylinder and was cooking food. He was looking at him with a smiling face.

Mattias, knowing the consequences of trusting someone you didn't know, tried to get up immediately and leave the building. But once he got up he fell on his knee. His body was still exhausted.

"You shouldn't do that. Your body is not in a good condition. I don't know what you did to yourself but when you came here you directly fainted."

"…"

"Anyway sit down. You have to rest and eat so wait a little. The soup is almost ready."

Without the ability to leave, Mattias sat involuntarily. He started waiting and looking around. This place looked like the inside of a dojo. Was he inside the dojo he stumbled? His head was still aching a little so he didn't want to think much about anything. After a couple of minutes the man passed him a bowl.

"It is ready. C'mon eat."

But instead of taking it Mattias turned his head away. He didn't want anything he wasn't sure of, especially eat them. So he refused it. But triggered by the smell, his stomach expressed that it wanted the soup very much by growling. With a sigh and without a choice, he picked the soup bowl.

"There you go! At least you body knows what it needs!"

"…"

Mattias waited until the man ate first then started eating. There was an awkward silence and it was obvious that the man was uncomfortable by it. So he tried to speak to Mattias.

"Hey. Why won't you speak?"

"…"

"Can you understand me?"

"…"

"You look like a foreigner so that might be the case."

"…"

"Du yu! Supiiiku! Ingurishhu!" (Said in a very bad English.)

"Pfff!"

"Hey you laughed!"

"I can speak Japanese."

"Then why didn't you?"

"…"

"Oh c'mon!"

Mattias endured the never ending attempts of conversation by this guy and ate in silence. He talked about a lot of unnecessary things. Even though Mattias never asked, he was told of his story so far. His name was Kamijou Tsuyoshi, a daring name, and he was the grandson of the master of this dojo. He lived in a different city normally but came here for university. He was lucky as his grandfather lived and owned here. So he stayed with his grandfather while studying in university. He learned martial arts and helped in dojo in various ways.

He attended a university dedicated for sports and developing sportsmen. He was in his last year, meaning he was a year older than Mattias, before the voice spoke down. He was here with his grandpa, teaching and practicing Chinese martial arts. There were few survivors after the initial wave but only he was left after the first zombies attacked. So he was forced to kill everyone, including his grandfather.

"I was offering my prayers before you stumbled upon here! I thought everyone was dead down there when I took a look the other day!"

"Thank you for the soup."

"Yeah no problem. So?"

"…What?"

"What'll you do now? After you had a rest of course."

"I'll leave immediately."

"You still can't. You need rest! Your body was pushed beyond its limits! You were already gone for a day and a half!"

"What? A day and a half?!"

"Yes. Is there a problem? Hey where are you going?!"

Mattias got up and went to the door. When he opened it he was shocked. It was beyond raining. This was a full blown downpour! Even though there was almost no wind, the rain made up for its absence. You couldn't even hear your own thoughts in this rain.

"What the hell?"

"Oh that? It started yesterday so I came inside next to you. It got worse since then."

"Shit…"

Mattias closed the door and sat down without saying anything else. Tsuyoshi talked from behind him.

"You can stay here as long as you want."

"Why do you trust me?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think I will hurt you and steal from you?"

"Why would I? You don't have a weapon from what I see and you don't look like a martial practitioner. So you can't do anything to me."

"…"

"Enough about that! Come here, there's still soup left."

"…Haah."

Mattias sat down without much choice as he was still hungry. Tsuyoshi was smiling while he ate. Mattias finished his soup and got up.

"Hm? You still wanna leave?"

"No, I'll… just take some fresh air."

"Oh okay."

Mattias then opened the door and sat on the outer corridor. He looked around, there were graves all over. They numbered around 40 from what he could see. He turned his head towards inside and asked.

"Hey, I couldn't completely follow you earlier. You said you killed all the people here right?"

"Yeah."

"So you killed everyone in these graves?"

"Yeah."

"Wha? H-How?"

"Umm… Because I'm strong? Oh I also know how to use that!"

He pointed at his bokutou on the side with a proud smile and Mattias just looked at it.

"But still… That many?"

"Yeah. Wasn't hard. Well wasn't easy but wasn't hard."

"…Haah. You also said that you killed your own grandfather. How can you be so cheerful about this?"

"Hmm. You can't live with the dead; you have to accept their departure from this world. Also it would be disrespectful to leave him in that state. You can think of it as helping them move on."

"… I… See. What will you do then? Will you keep staying here?"

"Ummm… I didn't think! But staying here all alone is pretty boring. What about you? What'll you do?"

"I'm going to find weapons, car and medicine. Also drinking water and food. After that, survive, I guess."

"So you'll leave?"

"Yes. Like I already told you."

"Okay then. I'll start packing up!"

"For… what exactly?"

"I'm coming along!"

"No!"

"Why?"

"I don't like company, that's why!"

"Then how will you survive? You don't have a weapon or a means to protect yourself. You are also weak and there are a lot of those things down there. You'll die. But I can help you survive. I can protect you. I can even teach you how to protect yourself. So I'm coming with you!"

Mattias fell silent for a moment, thinking. After a while he spoke out.

"Okay, but under one condition! My top priority is myself!"

"Don't worry, I can take care of my own."

After this conversation they went to the back. Tsuyoshi showed Mattias the storage room where all the supplies were and they took everything they could carry. They then went around the dojo, taking everything they needed. In a wide room where they practiced weapons, Tsuyoshi pointed at a wall and spoke.

"There are weapons there. Pick anything you like."

"Real… weapons?"

"Yeah! Katanas and stuff! Go on, pick!"

Mattias walked over to the wall and looked over the weapons. There were katanas, nodachis, even a couple of naginatas on the wall. These were all weapons unsuited for him. He thought about the moment where the world changed for him like the other day. What he did, how he moved. He dodged every attack aimed at him and was quick in his actions. So a light weapon would be best suited for him. He loked over the wall once more and picked to kodachis and fastened them on his belt.

When he turned he saw Tsuyoshi walk over with a katana hung on his back.

"That is?"

"My grandpa's katana. This is the best suited weapon for me. You picked?"

Mattias showed the kodachis he picked.

"Good! Let's go. We'll need fresh clothes as well."

After packing up everything, they went out to the outer corridor.

"So… Ummm… Aaaa…"

"What is it?"

"Oh just trying to remember your name."

"I never said."

"Ooooh! What is your name then?"

"Mattias."

"Mattias! Nice! What are we doing then Mattias?"

"First we'll need a car to look around. We'll need medicines as well."

"I see. Well at least we won't be needing a car."

"What? You hit your head or something? I just said, we need one!"

Tsuyoshi showed him a car key after Mattias talked.

"You didn't mention that you had a car!"

"You never asked!"

Tsuyoshi then led Mattias towards the back of the dojo, going down a small hill to reach a garage exiting to a road behind the hill. There was a white pickup truck inside. With a car this close, they went back to the dojo and picked more weapons and food with them. They put everything inside the car and started it. Tsuyoshi never learned how to drive so Mattias was behind the wheels. They waited for garage door to open before leaving.