Highschool of the Dead: Fanfiction Darkpenn

Chapter 4.3: return to tonkonosu

Return to Tokonosu

Intending to deal with whispers from the past, Takashi and Saeko go back to the place that was once their home - and find some missing parts of themselves.

[Author's Note: This story takes place about three months after the Outbreak; about two months after the group reached the Maresato farm; and about a month after Takashi and Saeko became lovers.]

"Saeko," said Takashi as they shared breakfast in the little caravan, "there is something I need to do."

She put down her fork.

"I need to go back to Tokonosu City," he said. "I need to find out what happened to my parents. I know it has been a while, but things are going well for our group here, and I'm no longer needed to do the leader thing, at least not on a day-to-day basis. So I think I would like to deal with this unfinished business. Even if it means simply finding out that they didn't make it."

She considered. "When shall we leave?" she said.

He started. " 'We' don't leave," he said. "I leave. You stay here."

She stared at him. Eventually, she said: "Ha."

Takashi sighed. "I don't suppose ... if I told you firmly ... ?"

"You could try. But it would be a waste of your time, and mine."

"It might be dangerous."

"All the more reason that I should go with you. Basically, I am a better fighter than you."

"There is that, I suppose. Well, okay then. I'll tell the others at dinner tonight, and we'll leave tomorrow."

Saeko was quiet for a moment. "In fact," she said, "there is something that I would like to retrieve. Something personal. From Fujimi school."

"Hmm. Well, fair enough," he said. "We go together, then."

Saeko smiled her inscrutable smile. "We have been lovers for about a month," she said. "I find that I like it. Where you go, I will go. And if you were to die, who would fuck me?"

They had been driving for several days, in the convertible. The map provided by Shun Yamiashi, showing areas where there were few or no zombies, had proved very useful in planning their stops along the way, to rest and re-fuel in secure places.

"Just tell me if you want to drive for a while," said Takashi. He looked at Saeko. She seemed, by her standards, remarkably relaxed. She was wearing dark sunglasses, and she was leaning back in the seat, with her long legs stretched out and her bare feet resting on the upper edge of the door. God, she's beautiful, he thought.

"I don't know how to drive," said Saeko.

"Huh?"

"I said that I don't know how to drive," said Saeko, a bit louder.

"I heard you, I was just surprised," said Takashi.

"And I can't ride a motorbike either," she added. "The first time I had ever been on the back of one was with you, that day when we rode into a pack of zombies to help the people on that boat. I can tell you that being on the back with you is much more pleasant than being with Saya. Difficult to know where to put your hands with her. I assume that that is not a problem when she is riding with Hirano on the back. Those two can hardly keep their hands off each other at the best of times."

"You continue to surprise me," he said.

"Girl's got to have some mystery to her," she said, with a smile.

They crested a hill, and Tokonosu City came into sight. Takashi stopped the car and they got out. Saeko studied the city with the binoculars.

It had been three months since the Outbreak. The fires had gone out, although some parts of the city - especially those where the military had tried to fight the growing ranks of the undead - were not much more than fields of rubble.