First Touch With Evil

The sight of burning zombies drilled into their memory and Akito sighed in envy.

"So what's it like now?"

"311," Saeko said while in a daze.

"Wow... I'm at 318. Told you you would've caught up, heh." Akito said with a grin as he removed his gaze from burning zombies.

"I'll go clean up the surrounding zombies then." He set his sight on the zombies still lingering around the fire.

"Okay."

With that, he started smacking the remaining zombies. Saeko just watched by the side as he easily tore through the zombies.

Saeko still had a worry in her heart. Even if the quest was completed the world wouldn't get cured. She would still be living in an apocalyptic world

Worse... She felt an ominous premonition rise in her heart as if zombies were the last thing she had to worry about.

Her heart erratically thumped.

She didn't like this feeling.

...

"We're finally here," Akito said while entering Saeko's house as if it was his own. Saeko just smiled at him before entering as well.

It felt good to be able to return.

Akito stretched a bit before trying to turn the doorknob.

It didn't budge.

Akito narrowed his eyes and looked back at Saeko, she was frowning as well, "I didn't lock the inner door."

Saeko came forward and knocked on the door of her own house. Unfortunately, she didn't get a response.

Were the people inside ignoring them or...

But soon the sound of footsteps was heard.

As Akito and Saeko focused their hearing they heard more than two people were whispering to each other behind the door.

Click!

The door opened slowly opened and through the small gap, a pair of eyes emerged.

"Wh-Who are you?"

The voice was feeble and soft enough to invoke anyone's pity. Akito immediately made eye contact with Saeko, something was fishy.

The voice seemed scared, which would be normal in such circumstances but Akito who had his body cleared of impurities had his senses improved.

His eyes noticed the agitation and fear of the child weren't directed at them, but because of somethi- no someone beside her.

Saeko noticed Akito's look and didn't move, though the soft feeble voice of the child tempted her to immediately check what was going on.

Akito was the one who stepped forward and spoke with a smile, "Don't worry, I won't harm you... I'm the owner of the house."

"... Oh"

Akito inched closer to the door and the child tensed up, Akito heard another whisper and the child hurriedly said, "Big brother your bat is scary..."

"Ah," Akito nodded with a warm smile and tossed his bat aside along with the bag. Saeko just looked on silently but her stance had changed, she leaned forward. Her grip on her sword increased.

Seeing Akito toss the bat away the child didn't feel any relief but instead, Akito saw the fear in the child's eyes grow.

Akito had a vague gist of what might be happening.

The moment Akito was just outside the door it flung open and a metal pole rushed towards his head. Akito quickly sidestepped and grabbed the hand holding the pole, twisting it sideways.

"AAAAHHHHHRRRRG!!!"

Akito immediately pulled the hand back and Saeko dashed inside, stabbing her sword into the shoulder of the man holding the child by her head.

Akito slammed his palm onto the chest of the man he just pulled!

Crack!!

The sounds of cracking bones were heard and with a thud the man crashed into the wall, wheezing for breath.

Ignoring the convulsing fat man, Akito turned his eyes towards Saeko. The child was hiding behind her leg and her sword was firmly embedded into the squirming man's shoulder.

"A-Ah, Stop! S-Stop! Mis-Misunderstanding, It's a misunderstanding!" He spat out with fear.

He had a skinny frame and had sunken cheeks. His skin was mildly tanned and looked worn out, he also had bags under his eyes. His hair and eyes were black.

He looked to be middle-aged and had a slight stubble under his chin.

At the moment his shoulder was bleeding heavily and every movement caused his pain to increase. Tears formed in his eyes as he begged for Saeko to take out the sword.

Saeko only looked at him with cold eyes without moving. She could sense the fear of the trembling child who was holding her leg.

The child was about 5-6 years old. She had long dark blue hair and eyes of the same color.

Akito felt disgust well up inside his heart as he looked at the wounds on the kid's body.

"WHO are you people? And what are you doing at my house?... Were you the one who harmed the child?" Saeko immediately barraged him with questions.

"I- We," He gulped before continuing with a voice laced with pain, "We were gathered by Hizaki-san and we're just hiding in this house for the time being."

The moment he said "Hizaki" some energy returned to his eyes, "Y-You! You should let me go and r-run away immediately! Hizaki-san has a gun and if you kill me he'll shoot you to death!"

"Hmph!"

Saeko immediately twisted her sword causing him to shriek in pain, his voice was like a dog at its death. It was extremely irritating.

But his screams seem to have alerted the few people inside. Akito's eyes flashed and Saeko withdrew her sword, but the relief in the man's eyes immediately grew into terror as Saeko stabbed both his legs and took the child away.

Saeko didn't want to involve the child any further. She believed Akito could handle the rest, though she was slightly worried because of the gun this 'Hizaki' had but Akito had a gun too so it should be okay.

...

Akito immediately rushed at the door in the corner before it opened and crouched.

Bang!

The door opened and a bullet passed through the area Akito was standing, creating a hole in the wall.

Using the momentum to lift himself Akito punched the burly man in the chin.

He stumbled back and knocked the other person with him. The gun fumbled out of his hand and Akito grabbed it, pointing it towards the duo.

The burly man was wearing an undershirt and had huge tattoos on his shoulder and arms. Messy black hair and eyes.

Beside him was a woman that seemed to be dressed like a delinquent. She had wavy brown hair and eyes and a butterfly tattoo on her waist. She had a small face, she was pretty and gave off a wild charm.

"Hizaki!" She yelled in panic as she saw Hizaki's muscular body curled up on the ground.

The strike to the chin was astonishingly heavy.

But before he could get up he felt the cold surface of the gun's barrel touch his forehead. His heart jumped in fear as his eyes moved up and met Akito's emotionless eyes.

"W-Wait what d-do you want?" He couldn't help but curse god in his heart for putting him in such a situation. He felt extremely humiliated but the fear of death was overwhelming.

Akito didn't answer him but looked at the woman beside him, she was most likely with him. His gaze finally rested into the interior of the room.

When he saw the situation inside, the hand holding the gun trembled and his heartbeat rose, his eyes grew bloodshot with rage and fury.

Inside the room was a horrifying and inhumane sight.

...

No more sounds were coming from the inside after the initial gunshot.

Saeko placed the kid behind the tree in the garden and softly patted her head, "I'll be back in a bit, just hide behind the tree for the moment, okay? Don't go anywhere else..."

The child nodded softly and sat down hugging her knees. The warm gaze of Saeko gave her a sense of security.

Leaving the child behind Saeko quickly rushed towards the source of the gunshot.

It didn't even take her a minute to reach the corridor and the sight in front of her stunned her into blankness.

There were three people at the end of the dim corridor. Two unknown people and the person she was closest to, Akito. But for now, she could only see Akito's back.

Akito had a muscular man gripped by the neck against the wall. The man was whimpering and flailing his limbs, trying to tear off Akito's hand from his neck. His neck veins were growing more and more visible as if wanting to burst out as Akito's hold kept on tightening.

Saeko slowly walked over to Akito's side till she was just beside him. The only noise in the corridor was the creaking of the wood caused by her steps.

She turned to look towards his face.

"..."

Akito was a cheerful and optimistic person, he was usually always smiling besides when he was occasionally serious.

But seeing his current expression a chill went up her spine.