Chapter 23-24: Saya Takagi

[Day 2]

Earlier the same day at the Fujimi Academy.

In the classroom, a few chosen teenagers struck various ridiculous poses for their friends to capture their pictures to post on social media.

Most of the girls were lost in their own world, engaged in conversations ranging from 'Wow, did you hear she is going out with him?' to 'Did you hear about X celebrity cheating on Y celebrity with Z celebrity?'.

Meanwhile, boys talked about the hot single mom next door, pet dogs and cats, some more discussions about the cute girls at their Fujimi Academy, some political topics like the disturbance in USA's parliament, and ending it all with the typical 'World is ending in 2012' discussions.

Among these rebellious teenagers, one girl named Saya Takagi stood out with her flashy pink hair and fiery orange eyes. Resting her chin on her palm, she observed the class with a look of disinterest, at the same time listening to everyone keenly for research purposes.

Her own classroom was an authentic source of inspiration for her hobby.

'Bunch of idiots. Speaking of idiots, is Komuro skipping class again?'

Although she never admitted, she did care about her friend. The wound caused by his childhood friend, Rei, had consumed him, leaving him stuck in the past and unable to move forward in life.

'Things unrequited love does to a man…'

The sound of the door opening brought Saya back to reality. A gray-haired teenage boy entered accompanied by a girl with brownish-orange hair. They were Rei Miyamoto and Hisashi Igou, Komuro's best friends but also the people who had negatively impacted his life the most.

Saya scoffed at the sight of lovebirds. In her own words, 'I don't wish for a pot to drop on her head and kill her… but I wouldn't lend her a hand if she were to be drowning in front of me.' Despite knowing each other for almost five years now, they had been stuck in the stage of 'Hey, good morning' and 'sorry for troubling you for this.'

Rei and Hisashi stopped at Saya's desk, giving their best sincere smiles.

"Good morning, Saya."

"Morning, Takagi."

"Hmph, good morning," Saya replied with an aggressive snort, openly displaying her hostility towards the couple. Ignoring the amused look on Rei's face, Saya flipped open a novel and immersed herself in its story. While it was far from her steamy tastes, it was better than talking to the stupid couple in her classroom.

A few minutes later, the lanky teacher, Shido-sensei, arrived. Saya closed her book and glared daggers at the creepiest looking man on the planet. Shido perfectly hid his real sick, manipulative self behind the facade of a kind and caring gentleman. Still, Saya had no proof except her intuition.

And without proof her intuition may as well be the ramblings of a lunatic.

"Class, please refrain from talking during the attendance check."

At Shido's words, the noisy classroom quieted down until another round of whispering broke the silence.

"Marikawa-san is absent?"

"How could it be?"

Saya unconsciously glanced at the further back, and her eyes slightly widened in disbelief. The seat in front of Rei was vacant.

'He, who had a perfect score in attendance from kindergarten to high school, is absent...'

Truth be told, she had never talked to him before. The girls in the class were all about how handsome he looked. He was like a celebrity in their school, as if being handsome was worth a shit. Her own father had been quite handsome for as long as she remembered, yet he was also a complete and utter douchebag.

Suddenly, yesterday's events came to her mind, making her detective senses tingle.

'Is his absence related to Shiori?'

The mystery flipped a switch in her mind, and her thoughts drifted far away. She rested her chin on her palm, losing herself in the fantasy version of the 'A boy meets the mysterious girl'. Of course, the main lead in her fantasy movie looked awfully similar to Asahi, and the mysterious girl a one-to-one copy of Shiori.

Her vivid imagination conjured up a scene of the boy fighting ghosts and demons to protect the girl. His ferocious lightning-imbued katana bisected the demons with ease.

Saya couldn't help but shiver. "Hmmm, I should write it down for a future story."

*Thwack!*

The door suddenly slammed open, and Komuro made his dramatic entrance that didn't sit well with anyone in the class. Komuro's expression screamed fear as though he had seen a ghost. Shido glared at Komuro, who unflinchingly approached Rei.

Anger surged to Saya's head as she loudly slammed her fist on the table. "Komuro! What do you think you're doing?!"

Komuro paid no attention to Saya and proceeded to grab Rei's hand. When Rei tried to stop him from dragging her against her will, he slapped Rei. A powerful slap that echoed in the classroom, leaving Rei with a red face, both from the embarrassment and the mark of the slap itself.

Komuro dragged her out of the room, followed shortly by Hisashi. The class watched Komuro's aggressiveness with shock on their faces.

Saya somewhat calmed down and returned to her seat. Something didn't feel right. No matter how crazy Komuro was, he would never slap Rei like that unless some disastrous events took place outside.

She pushed back the chair and hurried out of the class, nearly laughing at the teacher's shout. After a long dash through the corridors, she caught glimpses of their backs.

"Rei! Komuro! Stop now!"

Strangely, Rei was carrying a mop handle without its top while Komuro carried a metal bat in his hand.

"It's Takagi," Komuro said as he looked at Saya with a stern expression. "We need to get out of school."

Saya's brows knitted together as she planted her hands on her hips. "Can anybody tell me what happen—"

"Attention all students and teachers! There is a violent struggle occurring all around the school. I repeat foll-Arghhhhh!!! HELP! STOP! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!"

The announcement was abruptly cut off with painful screams.

A pin-drop silence ensued in the surroundings until the loud cries of hundreds of people shook Saya to her core. The chaos turned the academy into a stampede ground, where weak were mercilessly stomped to death in the crowd.

Saya couldn't help but shiver from imagining the students being crushed underfoot. "W-What is going on?"

"We'll tell you later," Hisashi spoke and pointed at the admin building. "We're escaping from there."

The gray-haired student didn't wait and dashed up the stairs.

"Listen to Hisashi. He is always right," Rei remarked to a confused Komuro and Saya before rushing after Hisashi.

Saya nudged Komuro. "Stupid idiot, let's go."

He clenched the metal bat with a determined expression, his thoughts but a mystery to everyone but himself.

Saya went up the stairs and found the couple on the walkway to the administrative building. Barring their path was someone they all knew.

Rei glanced at Hisashi. "Wakisaka-sensei? What happened to him?"

Hisashi remained silent, intently observing the man staggering like a drunkard. His jaw was stretched to its limits, and his eyes had become glowing red.

"Death to humanity…" Wakisaka muttered as he stumbled towards the students. "Death…"

"Is he drunk?" Saya asked with a raised brow. "He has to be, right? Why else will he spout this utter BS?"

Hisashi shook his head. "Just look at him. He is no longer even a human… Komuro was right about this. Wakisaka became one of them."

"One of what?"

"Undead," Komuro whispered. "Coming back from death because of an infection."

Saya inhaled a sharp breath. For some reason, she couldn't deny Komuro and Hisashi's viewpoints. The man before her no longer resembled a human.

Suddenly, it raised its arms and lunged at Rei, who unconsciously raised the mop handle to block, but her hands trembled in the face of superhuman strength of the abomination.

"Rei! Stab him!" Hisashi shouted. "Don't hesitate."

Rei snapped back from fear and pushed the undead. She spouted a curse and brandished the mop handle like a spear and swung it skillfully to knockback the abomination. Lastly, she let go of all hesitation and stabbed at the heart of the undead; the metal nail at the top of the mop handle pierced its heart and hoisted its body for a moment.

Saya had to praise the Sojustu skills of the fickle girl.

'I can do it too. I'm a genius, after all.'

However, in the next moment, all her haughtiness faded into oblivion. The abomination twisted its head and jerked its whole body. Rei was frightened, as a normal human would be. Fear gripped her heart, making her tremble.

The abomination didn't miss the opportunity and inched its way closer using the stick.

Rei let go of the stick in her fear, and the abomination charged at Rei, as though making a mockery out of the blood flowing from his chest. Before the teacher could attack Rei, Hisashi locked the undead in a choke hold from behind.

Saya's eyes widened, and the blood drained from her face when the abomination twisted its neck to 180 degrees and sunk its teeth into Hisashi's hands.

"Argh!!!"

Saya began to panic, her mind barely working enough to form any coherent thought. Rei, however, couldn't see her boyfriend in pain. Pulling the stick out of the undead's chest, Rei began smashing it on the undead's head. The brutal scene finally reminded Saya of her own survival.

"A Takagi can never admit defeat," Saya whispered the quote her family lived and died by. She jerked her head back to find Komuro holding the bat defensively. "Give me the bat."

Her yelling awoke Komuro from his stupor. He didn't hand her the bat as she had hoped, but instead rushed at the undead. Without any hesitation, he smacked the aluminum bat on its head.

*Crack!*

The abomination's skull cracked open, and a rain of reddish black blood splashed over the trio. Yet, the trio stood their ground, as adrenaline coursed through them in the face of crisis.

It took them a while to recover from their first kill. Afterwards, Hisashi covered his wound with his shirt, and the four of them began running toward the admin building. They faced a horde of abominations wandering in the corridor leading to the exit gate of the admin building.

"How is that even possible!?" Rei despaired, almost breaking down. "They are all students of our academy."

Saya scrutinized the abominations, their numbers definitely looked overwhelming, but they were scattered. She also noticed that even after standing in plain sight, none attacked them, all busy reciting the same 'Death to humanity' chant.

Saya searched around, and with a stroke of good luck, she discovered a soda bottle on the ground. She tossed it on the staircase.

The wandering undead instantaneously became active as they all threw themselves in the direction of the pen.

"Bingo! I found their weakness. They only react to the noise."

The trio was amazed for a moment, making Saya smile even more widely. The world might be facing its greatest crisis in history, but Saya didn't think about that at the moment and relished their looks of surprise.

"Still, we can't go from here. How are they multiplying so fast?" Komuro inquired before he gazed into the distance with blank eyes as if reminiscing about some bad memories. "Marikawa-sensei's brother… he was cutting their heads with an ax like it was nothing."

Saya's eyebrow shot high in surprise. "It can't be Asahi Marikawa. He looks too soft to kill a fly, much less these monstrosities."

"I saw everything with my own eyes," Komuro said. "He even told me to evacuate the school as soon as possible."

Saya couldn't help but scratch her head. Why did it seem like the story in her head 'Boy meets the girl' wasn't just fiction anymore? Asahi and Shiori fighting some hidden supernatural monsters seemed more than just a plausibility.

"We only have two choices now. One, we stay in the observatory room on the roof till help arrives," Hisashi spoke. "Or we go around and exit from the main gate of the school."

"We are currently furthest from the exit," Saya commented with a frown. "Going through a horde of them is asking for death."

Rei looked at Hisashi's wounded hand with a worried expression. "I'll take the second option. I… I want to see my parents, and your injury will only get worse here."

"I'm of the same mindset," Komuro replied in a worried voice. "I—I don't want to kill them."

Saya gave a nod of affirmation. Being away from danger would allow her to check up on her mother through a phone call. "Then let's get going."

So, the group went back to the same route. This time, they tried to be as sneaky as possible.

Hisashi's situation kept getting worse. His face paled as if he was sick for days. Something black seemed to be wiggling under his body, which only Saya noticed at the moment.

Everything seemed too similar to a certain genre of movies.

Zombies.

One bite was the end.

And right now, one person in the group had 90% chances of being infected.

Saya swept her gaze over the trio, who had no idea about this threat or they knew and just averted their gaze from the cruel reality.

'This is a bullshit script for reality. Whoever wrote this deserves death by a thousand cuts.'

Their group soon arrived in an eerily silent corridor. Saya also felt something odd here as if this calmness was just a prelude to the storm.

Komuro's grip around the metal tightened as he took cautious steps, looking ready for any jumpscare event.

"Wait, everyone. I don't like this silence," Saya whispered. "We should go back."

"It just means they haven't invaded—Cough! Cough!" Hisashi clutched his chest, bent over and coughed up blood. The black veins under his face began to swell, giving him a grotesque appearance "It's… over for… Me."

*Roar!!!*

A bestial roar resounded in the corridor, making them freeze in terror. It was like the roar of a hungry carnivore but more spine-chilling.

Saya's legs started trembling against her will. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to control the innate fear rising inside her.

*Bam!*

Something came flying her way. She looked closer to find it was a gate. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw the most grotesque thing to ever exist dashed through the door.