High School of the Dead + One

「Nine Dead」

AN: First author's note at the beginning of the story. Woo~ Anyway, if you haven't read the chapter before this, Running in the Dead, which is chapter eight, then feel free to check out the external link (it'll take you directly to the missing chapter, I think) so you can read it. Due to some misunderstandings and someone reporting it, the chapter has been marked as private, which means people can't read it without the link to the chapter itself. I'm working on fixing it, but I don't know how long it's gonna take, so just click on that fun link. Now then, if you've read it (or simply don't want to click on the link), here's the next chapter~

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"So, you're coming to our high school next year?" Takashi asked the white-haired girl.

Yuki smirked, enjoying his surprise. "What? Can't believe I'm not an idiot?"

He rolled his eyes, leaning against the back of the bench to feel the sun on his face.

They were hanging out in a park near Hisashi's house, enjoying the quietness of the afternoon and basking in the sun. For the past two hours, Takashi had been trying not to think about the promise with Rei he had made in this exact park when they were kids, trying not to think about all the time he, Rei, and Hisashi all played in the park, but he hadn't been succeeding, even when Yuki Hatsune, Hisashi's neighbor and Takashi's newly-forced friend, had shown up ten minutes ago.

Takashi didn't know much about Yuki, to be honest. She stuck to Hisashi most of the time, following him wherever he went and doing whatever he said, so the three of them had hung out a few times within the last month, but this was the first time they'd been alone together. Takashi sucked at talking with people he didn't know, though (hell, he sucked at talking to people he did know), so the most conversation they've had in the last ten minutes was small talk, her next school being the deepest they'd gotten.

Yuki sighed, pulling him from his thoughts, and hopped off the bench, grabbing his wrist. "C'mon."

"What the—"

"Don't ask questions," she reprimanded lightly, sending him a cheeky grin. "Just c'mon."

He raised an eyebrow, confused, but didn't put up a fight: he wasn't in the mood to resist.

She dragged him through the park, past the beat up playhouse on the edge of the playground, to a giant, circular fountain near the entrance. There wasn't anything special about it—pretty normal fountain to him—so he shot Yuki another questioning look.

"What are we doing—?"

Before he could finish, she shoved him in. He tumbled over the short fountain wall headfirst, getting completely soaked. He splashed around, finally settling on his butt, and looked up at her bright smile, glaring. "What the hell was that for?"

"For moping," she said, hands on her hips. It was a very Rei thing to do, he thought absently, minus the strange look of consolation she seemed to have on her face. "I don't know what's wrong, but torturing yourself over things that happened in the past screws up the chance of things getting better in the future, you know. If it's something that messes with you so much you spend hours wallowing in it, maybe you should change it. If you can't change it, then you need to work on things you can change. Do anything but be hard on yourself. Others are going to do that enough for you, so instead, work on fixing it, okay?"

He blinked. That was the most she'd said to him the entire month he'd known her, and he wasn't sure what to say back. Do anything but be hard on himself because others were going to do that enough for him? It made sense, in some part of his mind, the part still processing things normally. He didn't know how to fix it, but there must be some way, right? If the solution didn't involve Rei, though, was he able to do it?