Chapter 5 - Fugitive from the land of the dead


“Hmm.. I wonder where Rena and Jurina went. It seems like they went for a date by themselves..” Takamina said.

“But that’s a good thing, right Minami? We can go on a date by ourselves too.” Maeda said cutely while on the ice cream that she just bought.

Takamina gave her a warm smile. “Since nobody else is here, I guess it’s just us then.”

During that time, six familiar figures appeared in front of them.

“Oh.. There they are. Seems like they’ve already met up without us.” Maeda said.

“Jurina.. Rena.. Where did you guys go all of a sudden?” Takamina asked. Everyone remained silent while looking at Maeda innocently her ice cream. Yuko immediately snatched away Maeda’s ice cream.

“Hey.. That’s my ice cream.” Maeda complained.

“Yuko, if you want to eat ice cream so much, then ask Kojiharu to buy you one. Since she love to spoil you so much.” Takamina smiled and said jokingly. Yuko didn’t laugh. In fact, none of them laughed. This is not because Takamina failed her joke, that’s for sure. All of them are wearing a dead serious expression on their face.

“Acchan. What are you hiding from us?” Yuko initiated the conversation.

Maeda suddenly got flustered for a moment. “E-Eh? I don’t understand what do you mean.“

“Maeda-sama, we got attacked by zombies. Me and Yuko-san almost died trying to fend off these zombies.” Yuki answered.

“No. YOU almost died. I was handling them pretty well.” Yuko stated.

“Yuko enough! This is not the time to start an argument.” Rena raised her voice.

“Acchan, I thought you said that the Zombie Lord had confined all normal infected out of our reach, and yet, there they were roaming in the garden, attacking innocent civilians.” Jurina explained.

“Luckily I was there to think of a way to slow them down before Rena and Jurina come to the rescue. Or else, Yuko and Yuki would have been in trouble.” Mayu said.

“Acchan.. Please tell us and we’ll try our best to help you. We’re friends, right?” Kojiharu said.

Takamina looked at Maeda and held her hands. “Acchan, please. What’s going on actually?”

Maeda let out a long sigh before she started to explain. “Those zombies you met are known as trackers. They’re basically blind but has enhanced smelling and hearing. They react very strongly to sound and smell because that was how they were trained to track for certain objects or creatures.”

“Wow. And we actually had trouble fighting against some blind creature.” Yuki was shocked.

“No. YOU had trouble. I was fine all along.” Yuko said.

“Yuko, stop it!” Rena raised her voice again.

“So, what were they tracking for?” Takamina asked.

“As for this case….they were tracking for me. They must have tracked for me all the way to the park.” Maeda finally said.

“You mean the Zombie Lord released these zombies out into the surface just to track for you?” Rena questioned. Maeda merely nodded.

“Well? Spit it! What did you do? You must have done something REALLY big for the Zombie Lord to release these zombies out into the open just to track for you.” Yuko said.

Maeda then closed her eyes and let out a long and deep sigh again before finally speaking up. “I’m actually a fugitive.”

Everyone was literally shocked with her statement. “EH?!”

“For what reason?!” Takamina asked.

“Us zombies were not allowed to retain our memories from before our death. All our memories were basically stored in an item known as the Memory Orb. It was kept under high security directly under the care of the Zombie Lord. While other special infected don’t seem to care much about their past, I was just way too curious about my history.” Maeda explained.

“Don’t tell me you actually..” Kojiharu said

“Yes. I tried to steal it from the Zombie Lord. Any attempt to steal the Memory Orb is punishable by eternal torture.” Maeda said.

“What do you mean eternal torture?” Mayu asked.

“Once caught, we will have to spend the whole eternity locked up in a cage literally made of silver. It was the most torturous punishment.” This statement caused both Yuko and Yuki to swallow their saliva.

“That’s brutal.” Yuki said.

“I was almost caught by them, but I managed to run away. I had to fend off about 200 normal infected by myself. It’s a good thing my bite is strong enough to hurt another zombie. With my bite, I managed to create an opening for me to escape, and I ran away as far as I could. I finally lost track of them after an hour of non-stop running and end up near a hospital. That was when I first met Jurina.”

“Oh.. You were already hurt from those zombie attacks. No wonder you got knocked out with just one hit.” Jurina nodded her head, finally understanding the situation.

“You see what I was talking about, Takamina? Do you understand now? You never know what danger you will bring to yourself if you just let a zombie into your house. Those zombies were tracking for Acchan! What if they managed to track their way to your house, huh? You’ll be dead, Takamina!” Rena scolded Takamina. Maeda faced the floor, not daring to look at Rena in her eyes.

Takamina kneeled down and started crying all of a sudden.

“Takamina, what are you doing?!” Kojiharu eyes widened at Takamina’s action.

“Stand up, Takamina!” Mayu said while trying to lift Takamina up.

“Please help Acchan.. I beg of all of you.” Takamina refused to stand up while her eyes were flooded with tears, causing Maeda who was looking at her to start crying as well.

“There’s nothing we can do about this, Takamina-sama. I’m sorry. These trackers will forever be tracking for Maeda-sama.” Yuki explained.

“I hate to admit it, but I actually agree with this bat right here, Takamina-san. For your own safety, you have to leave Acchan.” Yuko said in a sorry tone.

“NO! I will not leave Acchan to suffer alone anymore! I will not leave her!” Takamina shouted, being infuriated by Yuko’s statement.

After contemplating for awhile, Rena finally voiced out. “Alright. We’ll try to help. I think I have an idea. I will shift to your house for the moment. If they really come, I can at least kill them before they come in the house. My SPTdex here will detect their presence. Jurina here will drop by occasionally too.”

“No. Not occasionally. If Rena-chan is shifting to Takamina’s house, I’ll drop by every single day!” Jurina smiled.

“Maybe we can be of assistance too sometime. Right, Yuko-san?” Yuki asked. Yuko nodded.

“Thank you, you guys!” Takamina burst into tears as Maeda stood Takamina up from her kneeling position and hugged her.

“I’m sorry to have caused so much trouble for all of you.” Maeda said while bowing 90 degree.

“It’s ok, Acchan. We’re friends, right?” Mayu smiled at Maeda.

“F-Friends?” Maeda questioned. Everyone then smiled at her. “Yes. Friends.” Kojiharu answered.

“But just to let both of you know, we will not be able to fend off these zombies forever. This is just a temporary preventive measure. Not a permanent one. We will never know what will happen in the future.” Rena explained to Takamina and Maeda who replied with a nod.

“It’s getting late. Let’s go home, Yuki.” Mayu stated.

“I’ll go home and pack my clothes. I’ll be at your house by tomorrow after my newscasting.” Rena said.

“I’ll help you pack!” Jurina said excitingly.

“Nyan Nyan let’s go home too. I deserve some rest after some exercise.” Yuko said to Kojiharu who replied with a smile and nod.

Maeda who still wasn’t able to look at Takamina’s face, feeling guilty, said “I’m sorry, Minami. I never meant to cause any trouble to you.”

Takamina then ruffled Maeda’s hair. “What are you talking about, Acchan? You don’t have to apologize. We’re friends, right? Friends should be there for each other when they are needed.”

Finally, after a long day, everybody left home to rest.



The next evening

“Good Evening, I am Matsui Rena, your newscaster for AKB news in the supernatural segment. Just yesterday, it was reported that there had been sighting of zombies in AKB Park at 5pm. When authorities arrived at the scene, all of these so called zombies were already dead. All of them with silver bullets in their head. Where do these zombies come from? What do they want? And who was the hero who put an end to their rampage? Stay tuned for more.”

“Would you look at Rena calling herself a hero! It’s simply hilarious.” Takamina said while laughing.

Maeda just smiled at her comment and kept on staring at her.

“Nee, Minami..” Maeda started a conversation.

“What is it, Acchan?” Takamina asked.

“If I go missing, will you miss me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Answer me honestly, Minami.”

Takamina then caressed Maeda’s face. “Of course I will miss you. But that is not going to happen, ok?”

Maeda then smiled and sighed in relief. “That’s good to know..”

That night, as promised, Rena came.

“Ding! Dong!” Takamina’s doorbell rung.

Takamina rushed to her door and opened to see Rena and Jurina. “You guys really came!” but Takamina was more interested with Jurina who was standing behind Rena, carrying four huge luggages.

“Erm.. What are these supposed to be?” Takamina asked, pointing at the luggages.

“Oh, these are Rena-chan’s clothes.” Jurina smiled while struggling to keep her balance.

“I told her I wanted to carry them myself, but she insisted on carrying it for me. So I just let her.” Rena shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, don’t you think you brought way too many clothes?” Takamina sounded.

After settling down Rena’s belongings, they were greeted by Maeda in the living room who prepared hot tea for them.

“I’m really sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.” Maeda apologized again.

“Come on, Acchan. We talked about this.” Jurina said.

“That’s right. So stop apologizing and chill.” Rena said.

It was finally time for bed. In fact it was already 3am. Everyone had already gone to sleep except for Maeda. She silently sneaked out of her bed, and out of the house. After a few minutes of walking, she found herself in a dark alley.

“Acchan! You finally agreed to meet up with me. You’ve been as slippery as a snake. I was beginning to miss you.” A voice echoed in the dark alley.

“My lord.” Maeda then bowed her head in respect.

“Aw, come on, Acchan. I’ve known you for 48 years. Call me Sasshi.” The Zombie Lord finally showed herself.

“Sasshi! Those zombies you let out has hurt innocent people!” Maeda said.

“Blame your stupidity, Acchan. If you would have quietly come home, I would not have let out any of them. Those few I let out served just as a warning. I may not know how many I will let out the next time.” Sasshi warned.

“You don’t have to let any of them out anymore! I’m coming home with you!” Maeda voiced out loud.

“Why the sudden change of mind, Acchan? You were pretty stubborn before this. Ah.. It seems like you have made some good friends. You didn’t want to hurt them, so you decided to turn youself in.” Maeda remained silent at the comment.

“It seems I was right about this. Well, it’s a good thing you decided to turn yourself in though. It’s simple, isn’t it? I’m going to give you half an hour to say goodbye to your precious friends. After you’re done, meet me back here. I’ll bring you back to receive your punishment.” Sasshi explained.

Maeda went back to Takamina’s house after that. For the whole half an hour, Maeda just sat by Takamina’s bed, watching her sleep.

“Nee, Minami.. I think I’m in love with you..” Maeda said as tears rolled down her face. 

“Which is why I have to leave you. I just couldn’t bear to risk your life just for the sake of me.”

Maeda then leaned in and kissed Takamina on the forehead.

“Good bye, Minami.”



Chapter 5 - Fugitive from the land of the dead
END



Next Chapter : Chapter 6 - Rescue mission