Jurou, The Bringer Of Bad News

News about the fallen South Yamanashi Stronghold soon reached the border. The allegiance of the East and West Yamanashi Strongholds proved effective, and they could take down their common enemy. Because of that, they both gained the North and South Yamanashi Stronghold and decided to halve it.

There needed to be more arguments about how they'd divide the land. But in the end, they were able to settle on halving both the north and south, claiming one-half of each so they could cater to each other preferences.

However, it should be mentioned that this time was the most sensitive as they were still cautious about everything else. As such, their security became tighter. Although they had sworn allegiance to each other, there was a great chance that one might betray the other.

While other strongholds were concerned about Aberrants and Omega Zombies, these strongholds had enough leisure to attack and invade one another, juggling the stronghold residents' lives as if they were oranges.

—

A day later,

Arisu woke up to the smell of a familiar Hybrid, causing her to jerk her head sideways before she got up. As soon as she did so, she noticed Kazuichi's face right in front of her, and her face instinctively reddened as she let out a soft gasp.

The sight of Kazuichi woke her up completely, and she didn't hesitate to ruffle his hair before she got out of the tent.

It was a cool morning, with the smell of dew and rotten cadavers. The soft morning breeze disturbed the still tent, bringing with it the downwind smell of the distant mountain where the stronghold was located.

At first, Arisu thought that the breeze brought Jurou's scent from way over at Kazuichi Stronghold. However, another sniff told her that Jurou was actually nearby. His scent wasn't that fresh too, meaning that he had been lingering around them for quite some time now.

"Is he here to bring some news? Did something bad happen in the stronghold?" Arisu asked herself but she didn't smell any urgency coming from Jurou's scent. As such, she didn't panic that much. Then again, she was still genuinely curious as to why Jurou came all the way here when he could just greet them once they stepped foot inside the stronghold.

"Well, he'll talk to us on his own time," Arisu said, walking back into their huge tent and grabbing a couple of firewood.

First light soon descended while Arisu was setting up a makeshift bonfire for their early breakfast. Before she joined the group, it was Kazuichi who did all the preparations. But now, Kazuichi could sleep in a little longer and leave all of that to Arisu.

Crackle. Crackle.

It didn't take long before the fire started crackling. Satisfied by her handiwork, Arisu wore a lightened expression on her face as she brought her palms closer to the flames. It was an uneventful morning, and she hoped that their day's travel to the stronghold would be just as uneventful.

Crunch. Crunch.

The pattering of boots could be heard while Arisu started warming herself up. Although the sound was evident, Arisu didn't look up since she was expecting the person to walk up to her at that time. Without even stealing a glance, she greeted Jurou a good morning while nodding her head once.

"I brought cherry salmon." Jurou greeted back, waving around a plastic bag containing live cherry salmon. There were five of them. Since they were alive, it was clear that Jurou just caught them.

"Did we have those in the shelter?" Arisu asked out of curiosity.

"Nah, nearby," Jurou replied, setting down the plastic bag while taking a seat beside Arisu. "I've been waiting for you to wake up."

"You should've come nearer and woken us up."

"Didn't want to disturb your sleep."

While the two of them conversed, Jurou found a flat stone from somewhere and set it on top of the fire. This was going to be the grill for the cherry salmon. He set up a couple of canned goods around the fire while he placed the flat stone on top. That way, the canned goods would be warmed up while they cooked cherry salmon.

"Did you hear the news?" Jurou casually brought up. "North and South Yamanashi Strongholds are gone. The East and West allied themselves and now they're on the brink of fighting against each other. It would take just a minor attack on one end to incite another war."

"Casualties?"

"We don't know... but judging from our scouts. I think it's more than a thousand. The North and South were heavily damaged, after all, and there were a couple of trigger-happy Hybrids on both sides. Casualties couldn't be helped. Most of the deaths belonged to uninfected people to boot."

"Aside from that. You have any other news?" Arisu asked. She couldn't quite tell whether Jurou was stalling or not, but she could smell the hesitation on his end. Either he was hiding something, or he was thinking twice about telling her a report or something.

"Yeah... actually..." Jurou let out a sigh. He didn't want to give Arisu this news but now that it had become a real threat, he knew he had to tell her no matter what. This was actually one of the main reasons why he temporarily left the stronghold, just so he could deliver the news to her.

Oh, and also, he wanted to see Kazuichi— which was his priority out of all the reasons he had.

"Ice Wing Stronghold had fallen. A huge Omega Zombie flattened it. And now it's overrun by zombies. Some of the uninfected escaped, but most Hybrids including the Stronghold Leader died defending the stronghold while they evacuated the uninfected. It was a bloody disaster. An unexpected disaster."

"Rumors said that the Omega Zombie was twice the size of regular Omega Zombies... and it was as mobile as Aberrants. There's a good chance that it might target the Scarlet Blood Stronghold next... and it's a given that it would erase small shelters on its way to destruction." Jurou continued.

"Ice Wing Stronghold? What's this about the Ice Wing Stronghold?" Ayaka, who just woke up, came out of the tent and overheard their conversation. She heard Jurou mention an Omega Zombie and it bothered her a little bit. "Did something happen?" Ayaka continued, seating herself beside Arisu.