Wazzuh, how ya doing? Wish all goodness, Merry Christmas or Good Holidays for everybody!
Thanks forreading my work.
And spexial gratitude to people below for supporting me:
LostHero, ELLOMYGELLO, Bobby Johnson, EvilTurtle321, fiddlerlee, Fijiwater, Killjoy2003!, A11StarReader, ronald.foster, Gawain, ieatstars, random_debuff, ZaweRD, RedReaper, Todd Summers, Annee1233, JackM, Artman, Moises3names19, Shadowflare300, MattJ, ginkun, Someguy34 and Zeke Ppskin!
Thank you guys!
———————————————————
3rd Person POV
The courtyard of the Takagi estate was silent; the only sounds were the howling moans of the zombie in the cage brought by Soichiro Takagi, and the quiet, hesitant shuffling of people, some of whom looked at the zombie with confusion, and others with anger.
Children clung to their parents, and the parents pressed their children close, unsure of what to do. Among some of them, you could hear them calling on some Kami to help them and keep them safe.
Souichiro Takagi, with slow but sure and commanding steps, ascended the stage that his men had erected in just a few minutes.
His face was serious, and inside, he felt rage towards the walking dead that had appeared because of some damn apocalypse. His friend, whom he'd known for half his life, had died today. The one in the cage was no longer his friend, nor a living human, and he would have to execute the creature that dared to drag his friend's body around as if it were its own.
Stepping onto the platform and feeling the uncertain gazes of the people, Souichiro knew they all needed to be inspired, and he was going to do it. Because if the people of Japan remained unsure, they would all die due to their inability to fight these zombies.
"This man was once called Doitetsu Taro! I was friends with him for over twenty-five years!" Some people flinched at Souichiro Takagi's loud and sudden shout. "He turned into this when he was saving a child! It was an incredible act of self-sacrifice, one of the greatest a person can make! But he is no longer a human! Consequently, he is no longer Doitetsu Taro! He can no longer be called that after turning into this! And now...!" His men opened the cage door and released the one who was once Taro. Some of them tried to hide their tears, accepting that the death of those you served with for so long is always hard. "I will show my friendship!" The zombie lunged at him, but he stepped aside and swung his sword, cleanly decapitating the zombie.
And as if that wasn't enough, he placed his foot on the head of the one who was once his friend and forcefully stomped on it.
"Goodbye…" He crushed his friend's head, not even giving him a decent burial. "My old friend!"
Only an aura of fear hung over the courtyard. People stood in silence, unable to even move.
"And this attitude must define our 'here and now'!" Souichiro waved his hand at the crowd, making them recoil. Children cried, hugging their parents, who merely held them tighter. Oegi, standing not far from the crowd, heard some women among them furiously praying to some Kami and smiled, a fanatical flame in his eyes. "Your best friends, loved ones, and relatives bitten by these creatures are no longer themselves! For their own dignity and happiness, you must destroy them! If you want to survive - Fight!"
The crowd only sighed in disbelief; many of them were just ordinary people—a clerk, a housewife, a regular guy who worked in a store. All these people were saved before they could save themselves, before they fought a zombie and realized the world they lived in had already changed. Now, listening to what Souichiro was saying, they thought he had gone mad, just like the other crowd of people who arrived on the bus a few hours ago.
They cast worried glances at each other, not knowing what to say. Their bodies were frozen in fear, unable to even take a few steps, while Souichiro stood on the stage.
But he didn't stand on the platform for long, beginning to descend after a few seconds, under the shocked gazes of the ordinary people. As he walked down, he somehow looked up at the roof of his house and noticed a lone crow sitting there, watching him. He merely snorted and headed towards the entrance of the estate.
Isao Tsumugi's POV, Thinking about what the fuck he saw
What the hell did I just see? Like, seriously? Why the hell did Souichiro do that? Yeah, this bunch of people have never even seen a drop of blood in their lives, and he just gave them a branch of a goddamn nightmare film.
Sighing, I stood up, breaking the link with the Crow, but implanting an order in its head to keep an eye on everything and contact me immediately if anything happened.
Takashi and Hisashi walked into the room; both looked rough.
"Saya's dad is completely insane." I looked at them with the full seriousness of the situation. "I'm going to talk to him, share information, so to speak, and you two get ready in the meantime."
"Isao…" As I walked past Takashi, he called me, and I turned my head towards him. "Please, be normal and don't start any trouble."
"…" I fell silent for a few seconds, not because I didn't want to answer him—no, I was doing it for a completely different reason, namely because the Crow had shown me a very… interesting situation. "I can't promise you that, but at least I'll try."
Hisashi and Takashi nodded, looking at me slightly worriedly, and I walked down the corridor towards the stairs, glancing at the courtyard through the windows.
"Tch…" My face involuntarily twisted at what I saw, but I quickly hid it, and putting my hand in my pocket, I pretended to take out glasses—the same charismatic glasses I got yesterday—and continued walking, holding them in my hands. I'm not stupid enough to wear sunglasses indoors.
Going down the stairs and seeing how some people glanced at me, I hid all emotions, not allowing them to read even the slightest muscle movement on my face. I switched the second slot of Bountiful Harvest to Aura of Despair, because that ability will be necessary now.
Exiting the estate, putting on my new charismatic glasses, I walked towards the Humvee, where my men were surrounded by a dozen of Soichiro's people.
More than a dozen guys surrounded my six, among whom only one was an adult; the other five were ordinary high school students.
I felt myself quickly getting angry, but I calmed it down and started approaching these bastards closer and closer, and they weren't even able to notice me, an almost two-meter-tall bastard with a mass much greater than an ordinary man, and I wasn't even trying to be stealthy.
"Hand over the weapon, kid, these aren't toys." Getting close enough, I finally heard full words, not fragments of sentences.
"Kids these days are so arrogant; if I were…" One of them started talking, and the way his vein bulged indicated how angry this jerk was, but fortunately, I don't give a damn about that.
"If you were what?" I stood among them and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing tightly. "What the hell is wrong with all of you? Trying to take my weapon, which belongs to me, where did you get the balls, guys?" I looked at them, slightly baring my teeth, and released a slight dose of the Aura of Despair. Many of them instantly paled, but still managed to stand, succeeding in not fainting. But it was still a slight burst, not the full pressure of the aura. "The weapons stay with us, that's non-negotiable."
"And why is that?!" I heard a voice behind me that belonged to only one person, and with even greater force, I squeezed the bald bastard who was saying something about kids these days, turning to the one behind me, still holding this bastard.
"Because I want them to, is that explanation enough for you?" For some reason, I remembered yesterday, the day Saya cried and clung to me, asking for comfort.
"That's a stupid reason, Isao Tsumugi." Souichiro looked at me with furrowed brows, though why am I saying that, his brows were always furrowed, and his face looked like he was about to take a dump. "Firearms are not toys for you, and your subordinate might not know how to use them because he's a high schooler."
"Oh, don't worry about that, in this place, I would only trust Kota with shooting; he's the most accurate shot I know." Releasing the bald guy and pushing him away, I approached Souichiro, looking down at him; my height allowed me to do this.
"The most accurate shot you know? Ha, kid, you haven't been outside this city, what are you talking about?" Souichiro wasn't very tall, only about 182-183 centimeters, and he had to look up at me.
"Even so, I'd rather trust this weapon to my man than to your people or you, who didn't even give your own friend a good burial." Oh, he got angry.
"Do you dare?" Souichiro's voice this time was quiet, deadly quiet and serious.
"Yes, what you showed ordinary people was a mistake. Most of them don't even understand what's happening now; they won't even believe it, not to mention that instead of giving your friend a decent funeral for saving a child, you used his body like a demonstration dummy." I moved even closer to him, looking down, pressing him with the Aura of Despair. "You could have at least left his head, but no… you stomped on the head of your 'best friend,' and then crushed it. Is that the respect you showed him? Is that your friendship?" He gritted his teeth, looking at me, but right now he was unable to do anything. "The weapons will stay with us, just like our transport."
"No way…" Souichiro sneered at me, a vein on his forehead swelling up with anger, and he himself slightly reddened from it. "You came to my house seeking shelter from the zombies, used the convenience of my home, sheltered your people in my house, and now you dare to disobey my orders." I watched him spew out goddamn nonsense from his mouth. "You have two choices, kid, either you obey me nicely, or we'll do everything the very bad way."
"…" I looked at this stupid fool, not believing my ears. Was he threatening me? Me of all people?
The Crow showed how a dozen people came out of the estate, including my people and Souichiro's, as well as Saya with her mother. The atmosphere between my people and his was tense. Most of mine were unarmed and just high school students. It also showed how Oegi was slowly and secretly taking another weapon from the Humvee's trunk while no one was looking his way.
Everyone right now was watching both of us, waiting for me to say something.
"…" I continued to look at him, and then said one thing in a deadly serious voice. "You're such an important little samurai, aren't you? Then let's settle everything in a duel, but to be fair, I won't use my ability, and you won't use any weapons." I grinned, looking at him; the atmosphere nearby became much tenser. "The loser gives the winner everything—his people, all his property, and even his life and honor will belong to the winner at the end of this duel, and only the winner will decide what to do with them."
"!" Souichiro widened his eyes, looking at me, and then he also smiled a bestial smile. I knew what he was thinking; he didn't need my people or my transport, he needed me and my abilities. "Haha! You've got guts, kid, I'll respect that. So be it, we'll meet in my family dojo in half an hour, and we'll settle everything there." His eyes blazed with fire, and he turned and walked away. His wife immediately approached him, while all my people came towards me.
[Impressed Souichiro Takagi]
[Silver Ticket]
[Impressed All People in the Estate]
[Silver Ticket]
I grinned wildly when I read the new skill I received. If my chances of winning were slightly fluctuating before, now they were one hundred percent.
[Adept Hand-to-Hand Combat]
|Rare Skill|
You are very talented in unarmed combat, on the level of a veteran martial artist. You know how to move your body to unleash powerful blows, at this level your arms and legs are lethal weapons.
[Perfect Skin]
|Common Trait|
Your skin is one any model would envy, always perfectly moist, supple and smooth, your skin also never scars or gets marred unless you want it to. Skin and superficial injuries also heal slightly faster and more seamlessly.
"What the hell, Isao?!" Takashi came up to me, Rei and Hisashi were next to him. "I told you not to start anything stupid!"
"I… I don't even know what to say, Tsumugi, you've made the biggest mistake possible." Hisashi shook his head irritably. "Souichiro Takagi served in the Japanese Army for over ten years; you won't be able to defeat him in a fair hand-to-hand fight."
"Isa…" Rei wanted to speak but was interrupted by someone else, namely…
"Isao!" Saya crashed into me with full force, hugging me. "You fool! You fool! You fool! What the hell have you done?!"
"Enough of that! Nothing bad is going to happen, everything will be fine!" I smiled, hugging Saya tighter. "In half an hour, we will have a lot of equipment and people with the right discipline, so it will be easier for us to leave the city. By evening, we will all leave the estate for the island."
"Mou, you looked so hot, Isao-chan!" Shizuka pressed against me from the right, lovingly hugging my arm, drawing circles on it with her thin, pale finger, biting her lower lip.
Most of the guys next to me blushed and looked at me as if I were an enemy, but the girls and women? They nodded at Shizuka's words. Hayashi-sensei, who realized I saw her nod a few times in agreement with Shizuka, especially stood out. She blushed heavily and quickly walked back into the estate.
Heh, despite the nervousness of everyone around me, I was confident in one thing: I'm going to get a hell of a lot of people and equipment that will be incredibly useful.
In half an hour, Soichiro Takagi will be destroyed by me.
———————————————————
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/2FSukuna?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
Sorry guys, I forgot to post it here.