Streamer in the Omniverse

Deserved rest.

"Explain! What was that?"

The first to recover from the shock this time was Saya, and without a doubt, she pointed her finger at me and said, shouting in an authoritative tone, one that could only come from the princess of the yakuza in this country. Funny how she acted like that; she's the furthest thing from yakuza in my mind.

If it were earlier, I would probably explain a few things, but it was already late, the sky was getting dark, and I was tired; luckily, I knew how to handle her type.

I put a finger in my ear and pretended to clean it.

"Do you want to speak a bit louder? I don't think the zombies in the next few kilometers heard the question." I just wanted to embarrass her.

It happened so quickly that I thought she might faint; she clenched her mouth shut, realizing that screaming at night, especially in the zombie apocalypse, wasn't a good idea, and she turned red, like a little tomato.

Waving my right arm, I could see that practically everyone followed it with their eyes; well, it was the arm I used the hook on, so it was normal.

"Let's find a place to stay; I'll answer some questions after I get some sleep. I'm tired and dirty; I need a shower and a bed, understand?"

Takashi opened his mouth as if to say something, but Rei elbowed him in the ribs with a bit of force, making him shrink in pain and stay quiet.

"He saved us, punched that idiot Shido in the face, and has been nothing but polite. He deserves at least that much trust."

The rest seemed to agree, especially the nurse, or rather, Shizuka and Kohta. Seeing that the group had reached a consensus, I stretched my muscles and turned around.

"Well, I'm going to look for a place to sleep; if you want to follow me, don't lag behind."

I could hear footsteps behind me; well, now I had a small group, for better or for worse, I was accompanied now.

The walk was uneventful until we turned the second corner, where there were two solitary zombies; I could feel the group tense up behind me; well, more tense than usual; something I didn't really understand; there were only two of them; there was no reason to be afraid or anything.

Walking calmly toward the two zombies, it didn't take even three steps for the first one to notice me and come running in the clumsy way zombies do towards me; the second one came right behind a few moments later.

I waited for the first zombie to be as close to me as possible, almost hugging me, to take action. Ignoring the warning shout behind me, I pushed the zombie's jaw up with my left hand, forcefully closing its mouth, and thrust the short copper sword into its right eye.

One thing I learned, the copper sword was much better for quick thrusts; it entered and exited the zombie's skull; even before it hit the ground, it was already dead, or deader than it was now at least.

The other zombie leaped to my right, trying to bite me, but before I could kill it too, the group behind me decided to act, or rather, Saeko did. With a fluid motion, the girl with purple hair, which now thinking about it, didn't make any sense, wielded her wooden katana directly at the zombie's neck, making its head fly off.

I blinked somewhat incredulously, somewhat amused by this; I could do the same thing, but with a sharp iron sword, not a wooden katana. Was that the difference between someone with technique and me?

Saeko swung the sword, splattering the zombie's blood on the asphalt. "Are you okay?" She was still on guard, as if expecting more zombies at any moment.

I waved, dismissing their concerns. "It's going to take more than just zombies to hurt me or anything like that, don't worry." The worst part was that I wasn't even showing off; it was the plain truth. These zombies were ridiculous. If they were the zombies from World War Z, it would be a different story, but these? I had lost count of how many I had killed today.

Walking over to the body on the ground, I started putting it in my inventory. I could hear a "wow" and exclamations coming from the group behind me, but I quickly brushed them off.

"Questions later, I don't want to be out on the street at night. Let's pick up the pace." The night made me uneasy. I'd prefer to have a roof over my head if I could rather than sleeping outdoors.

Walking a bit faster, the group and I encountered only a few random zombies along the way before we found a house that seemed relatively secure and large enough to accommodate the whole group.

It was a house with a small wall; right behind it, there was a backyard with a path leading to what could only be a generic Japanese house. Takashi took the lead and tried to open the door, with no success.

"It's locked! We need to see if there's a spare key-."

Ignoring his brilliant idea there, I went to the door and kicked the handle hard, making the door swing open with a thud, creating noise. I admit it wasn't the most subtle idea, but I was tired and stinking, covered in blood; there was no time for subtlety.

"Well, let's get in already." Stepping into the house, I gestured to two of the close combat fighters in the group. "Saeko and Takashi, both of you to the left, check for any zombies on that side; I'll check the right." Pointing to Kohta and Rei, I continued.

"Stay here with the rest; your spear and makeshift pistol won't be great in a fight inside the house. This room is open enough for you to do something if a zombie shows up."

Receiving a bunch of nods, I turned and went to the right side of the house. The house was divided by paper-thin drywall walls. I shivered just thinking about how cold it must get here at night.

Moving through each room, two guest bedrooms, a master bedroom, I found nothing, no zombies. It was only when I went to the backyard that I found the homeowner.

There were two zombies, a man and a woman. Judging by the trail of blood leading to the shed and the blood on the man's clothes, I'd guess the woman chased him there before managing to infect him.

Dispatching them quickly and adding them to my inventory, I continued to search for any more unwanted guests. I didn't want any surprises tonight.

"I was wondering, what do you have in there? You put a body in there, but it seems effortless, it doesn't weigh anything?" This one came from Takashi. He even seemed a bit fearful, as if I were going to say that the bag weighed a ton or something, and that I would have to have super strength to carry it.

"Nah, the weight is practically negligible, and I have a bunch of junk, you know, the apocalypse and all that. I pretty much grabbed whatever was in front of me."

The nurse, who had been silent, spoke up for the first time. "Wouldn't that be theft? You know, when all this is over and people return to the stores, they won't want everything back?"

I shook my head. I don't think the world will return to normal, and even if it did, I'm sure I've killed most of the owners of these stores, but I'm not going to say anything; I don't want to ruin dinner.

"Let's do this: if I find out that the people from these stores want everything back, I'll give it to them, okay?" She brightened up at that answer and nodded.

After finishing my meal, I leaned back in my chair and gestured to Rei. She was the only one who hadn't asked me a question. "Nothing to ask? Everyone has already asked one or two, except you."

She shook her head. "I was thinking, but most of the questions I had in mind have already been asked." She paused for a second and raised a finger.

"A question, the bodies you put in there, wouldn't they make everything dirty inside?" If it were before I updated the inventory, yes, but now everything was neatly organized.

I dispelled her concerns: "The bag organizes itself, so the bodies don't make a mess of anything I put inside." I yawned, damn, I was tired. "Well, let that be the last question; I need to sleep. Have you decided on the rooms?"

Seeing them shaking their heads in denial, I sighed. Damn teenagers and their terrible organization, as always. Getting up, I took my plate to the sink and started washing it as I spoke.

"The master bedroom is the largest; let the girls sleep there, since it has a double bed, they should be able to sleep without problems." I yawned again. "I'll take one of the guest rooms; you two can take the other one, what do you think?" I pointed to Takashi and Kohta, who nodded in agreement.

The girls didn't seem to have any problem with this sleeping arrangement; I think they would prefer to be together, and even the boys didn't complain about having to share a room, safety in numbers and all that. Yawning, I finished washing the dishes, and I practically dragged myself to the guest room while the group followed behind me.

In front of the room where I was going to sleep, I turned around. "Well, if you want to take a shower or something else, just be careful not to make too much noise." I yawned again. "Having said that, good night, go to sleep; we need to plan what we're going to do tomorrow."

Receiving several "good nights" back and nods, I entered the room, but before closing the door, Saya grabbed the sleeve of my shirt, stopping me.

Turning, I looked at her. "What? Do you need something?" With the hand that wasn't holding my sleeve, she was still holding Milton.

She hesitated for a moment but asked softly, "Can I keep this?" While pointing at Milton. She really liked the plushie, didn't she? Well, everyone has a hobby, maybe she collects them or something.

I agreed, "Of course you can, just take care of Milton, okay?" She nodded quickly and practically ran to the master bedroom with the other girls.

Finishing that little episode, I set my phone to wake up early tomorrow and collapsed on the bed, finally peace! I just wanted to sleep.

Before my body even reached the mattress, I was already asleep, more peaceful than a baby, a sweet dreamless night.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POV: Rei Miyamoto.

I was looking for some pajamas that would fit me when Saya came running into the room. She looked embarrassed, but she had a smile on her face as she hugged the strange cockroach plushie that Devas had left on the chair.

I couldn't help but laugh softly; the scene was quite funny, especially since the plushie was a cockroach named Milton. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I went back to looking for something that would fit me. I managed to find a leopard-print pajama; it was a bit tight, but it would have to do.

The girls and I decided not to take a shower today; it was already late, so we decided to go to sleep and wake up early to do that, or at least that was the excuse we gave ourselves.

The bathroom was small, so it could fit at most one, maybe two people, but it would be tight. None of us wanted to be alone; I think the only one who was okay was Sen- Saeko-san.

No matter how short the shower could be, none of us wanted to be alone. Today was a horrible experience, and being alone in a strange house at night was too much. I think Devas realized that because he arranged the rooms so that everyone would have company... except him.

It must be lonely for him, even scary, to sleep alone knowing that there are those monsters out there wanting to eat human flesh. I'm glad I have company to sleep with tonight; I don't think I could sleep alone.

A small smile crept onto my face. I'm glad I yelled for him to get on the bus; everyone was suspicious of him, not that I could blame anyone. Devas looked terrifying covered in blood, his tall stature and armor only made it more impactful; he seemed like a Tengu in that moment.

The punch he gave that worm Shido was also memorable; I don't think I'll forget that for a long time. And after that was when we realized how reliable he was. On the way, while looking for a place to spend the night, everyone was tense, on edge, except Devas.

It seemed like he was just taking a walk in the park; it became even more obvious that he was calm when he dealt with that first zombie. When someone from our group deals with a zombie, we always try to stay as far away from it as possible, using our range. Not Devas; he practically held the zombie's jaw and killed it easily.

I don't think anyone else noticed, but everyone became more relaxed when he was around. Is this what it's like to have an adult you can trust? What would it be like if he were our school teacher before all this happened?

Shaking my head, I cleared my thoughts. I needed to sleep; tomorrow would be a busy day. We needed to see what we were going to do, whether we would look for someone's family in the group. I'll ask Devas if he has any ideas.

Going to the large double bed, I lay down on it, next to Saya. Saeko-san had already fallen asleep with Shizuka-sensei hugging her; it was a cute scene.

Without saying anything, Saya and I held hands and looked at each other, as if to confirm that neither of us would leave during the night. I must have been more tired than I thought because I only realized that I had fallen asleep when I woke up the next morning.