Since their violent and quick dispatch of just over a dozen zombies trodding around the homes nearby to Rika's maisonette, it had been a little while.
The sun and its blistering heat had given them the grace of disappearing below the horizon, leaving the whipping, chilling howl of wind mingled with the distant growls of zombies amid the faraway cacophony of chatter from the people and cars blocking the bridges.
Along the riverside road, alone, a small white dog with black droopy ears stood over the asphalt, growling at the dozens of zombies that lined its street. None of them seemed to mind it, yet it bore its fangs towards them all, threatening with sharp barks at any that approached it.
Then, turning on its heels, it scurried away.
The lights to the cohorts' maisonette illuminated with much hope and ease, offering them the rest that they all needed.
Rest that they relished in, for the most part. After all, the collapsing world around them was their reality now and within such a reality, their little group had grasped an undeniable advantage in that they quickly understood its consequences, and had begun to firm themselves for what they would have to do from now on to survive.
Steam hung in the humid air, thick and swirling, softening the edges of the bathroom's tile walls and mirrors, creating a veil over the enticing scene within. The slosh of water and the pattern of droplets falling against the floor filled the room with a gentle rhythm. In the privacy of Rika's bathroom, all four women sat together, their alluring figures revealed to one another.
Saeko sat on a small stool beside a floor drain, her tall, curvaceous and fit body leaning forward as she reached for a handheld wooden mini-tub of water. Her bust, a modest yet shapely 83cm, was covered in a thin sheen of water that trailed down her skin as she tipped the bucket over above her head, rinsing herself.
Beside her, Saya's petite yet voluptuous figure sat. Her 92cm bust was framed by her slim waist and delicate shoulders, the curves of her body emphasized by the water that streamed down her pale skin. Her pink hair clung to her neck and collarbone, framing her in an almost delicate glow as she ran her hands over her arms, wiping through the lingering lathers of soap.
Across the room, Rei sat in the bathtub, her legs closed and her knees pointing through the surface, the warm water enveloping her body. Her figure was full and shapely, with a bust of 87cm, and her curves rose gracefully from the water, the gentle waves lapping against her skin as she leaned back, letting her wet hair trail along her shoulders.
Facing Rei, Shizuka reclined in the bath with her legs spread and leaning against the sides of the tub to give Rei space, her body half-submerged in the warm water. Shizuka's figure was undeniably bodacious, her generous curves and soothing sensuality exuding without her own will. Her 108cm bust floated above the water's surface, glistening in the steam as beads of moisture clung to her skin.
Despite their relief and happiness at having finally gotten the chance to bathe, an odd weight hung between them from the topic Shizuka had just brought up.
"..."
"You know…" She muttered, "Shidou and those students made me realise something."
Shizuka sighed to herself faintly and as everyone's visages weighed down slightly, she said, "We're probably part of a small and lessening population of people that isn't in some twisted way going insane from all this already."
"..."
She motioned her hand through the waters, raising a small amount cupped in her hand and simply watching it fall back down as she continued:
"How could they not? Everyone's world...everything they've ever known - everything we've ever known - is being cursed into a congested, decaying hell of zombies right before our eyes; one that demands you to kill them before they can kill you if you want to survive," Her tone weighed down with bitter grimness as she looked at the wry smile of her rippling reflection in the water, and amid everyone's overcast expressions as they sat in silence, she went on:
"The brave do it with their own hands...the scared... either freeze up or run away from it only to tumble themselves into the next zombies' clutches.... and smarter people who are reasonably disturbed, like Shidou, will use others; and then everyone else? They will either go insane enough to become the stupidly brave or perhaps heinously shrewd, or they flounder around by luck...slowly losing themselves." Her voice trembled a little in helplessness, yet therein, a kind of resolve kept it together.
"Sil's words back in the Faculty room...even though we might not have thought of them too deeply in the moment, just hearing them gave us that little extra awareness...that little extra malleability."
Saya carried a contemplative poundage to her visage, while Rei grit her teeth, holding her knees close to her chest with a faintly dejected yet understanding expression. She almost felt her breast ache again as her heart was briefly strangled by flashbacks.
Saeko though seemed odd. Her countenance was overcast by what seemed to be the same weight of realisation as everyone else, yet it looked much deeper. She looked distant; unfocused and even somewhat cold, the depths of which were inscrutable.
"I told Hirano about my similar realisations. About how most likely, very soon, once people - the small population that survive this current chaos - think they've found some semblance of order and a way to survive, that's when within their communities Tsubakihara-kun's words will become a reality." Here, her visage tightened and she glared, glancing off back to Shizuka who was already looking towards her.
Rei's gaze was drawn to her as well as she continued:
"And unlike us, most people will end up on the worst end of the spectrum of possibilities. I had that bet many, like Shidou's group, are already well on their way there. So you're right, Sensei because honestly, even for me, I don't know when I would have actually started taking it all in, just how hellish of a situation we were in; maybe after one of us died? Or perhaps after I found my mom dead? I don't..."
"Don't say that..." Rei muttered, interrupting with an almost wounded frailty, glancing at her weakly.
Saya simply looked at her, almost a little pitifully even.
"It's the truth, Miyamoto. Whether we like it or not."
She then turned back to face her front with a strange amalgamation of resolve, helplessness and acceptance.
"We're all royally fucked for deciding to survive while guarding our hearts," She said faintly, yet the weight of her words was felt by them all.
"..."
"I'm afraid...that's not the worst of it for our group." Shizuka muttered bitterly as she leaned her head back, sighing as she glanced to the roof, "For the boys, I mean. They're the ones I'm worried about the most."
Saya gave an almost grim chuckle there.
"Marikawa-sensei...you're scary you know?" She muttered as she gave her a seemingly knowing glance.
Shizuka met her glimpse with a side eye and she gave her a faint, almost weak smile as she responded, "I'm just observant."
"What do you mean?" Rei asked with a worried urgency, "Why the boys? What's wrong with them?"
"Nothing...yet," Shizuka muttered as she almost darkly looked back up to the roof. "I hope…"
Her words came with such grim foreboding that Rei frowned, feeling a gnaw through her heart, more especially as she heard her next words:
"Aggression won't quell aggression, Miyamoto-san. At least not in the world we live in now. Not at the scale that its at. The external aggression they have to fight back against...it's too ravenous; too feral; too rotten."
"The unchecked use of personal aggression just won't hold up. I'm afraid soon enough...they'll start suffering in silence to not worry us - who they're protecting from external aggression for the most part - or perhaps they already are hiding their pain."
Rei's brows furrowed and her hands animated, gesturing to all of them.
"But we're all grappling with our emotions. We were all out there fighting in one way or the other. Especially Busujima-senpai. She's out front with Tsubakihara-kun all the time. It's not as if they're out there killing "them" or dealing with people who have gone insane alone," She argued.
Rei spoke a little louder and firmer, "We're going through this as a team, aren't we?"
"..." Shizuka didn't say anything as she simply released a slightly heavier breath from her nose, her eyes falling to an inscrutable, yet seemingly aware and sympathetic half close.
"That's exactly part of the reason why they wouldn't talk to us about it, Miyamoto," Saya said as she finished off the last scrubs through the soap lather made from washing her hair. "We're all in the same boat, in the worst parts of the same storm. The difference is, they've given us the cabin while they're out there making sure the boat doesn't sink or get us lost. We go out to help for a bit then head right back in, leaving them out there."
Then, she took the extendable showerhead attached to the wall and used it to rinse her hair as she continued:
"All three of them, without a word of complaint, have stepped up in one way or another for our survival. Tsubakihara-kun is self explanatory, but even that block head Komuro and the fat geek Hirano have risen to the occasion," Saya sat upright, then turned back to face Rei, glaring faintly as she said, "And all of those occasions, as bitter as it is, are against the ravenous, feral and rotten aggression of the world against our group,"
"And the storm is only going to get worse as time goes on," She heavily concluded.
The splash of water then resounded, bringing a brief end to their conversation as Saeko washed off the soap lather that had been encasing her hair, using the bucket to rinse it off.
At the same time, hearing Saya's explanation, Rei's mind flitted through flashes of the numerous times when Takashi had already stepped up for her, and those where he put up with her absurd selfishness.
Then, she remembered how Saya had said this reason was only 'part' of why they would condemn themselves to suffering in silence.
"Why else would they hide stuff from us though?" She asked, hugging her knees a little closer.
There, instead of Saya, Shizuka spoke, "At the end of the day, as much as we are a team, we're still divided into men and women. In respect of our privacy and understanding that we are ultimately just a 'team', they'll always keep a certain distance between us."
"That's why I didn't mention Busujima-san as someone I was immediately worried about. She is out front fighting with Sil all the time. But she comes back to us, the girls who are safe at the back. In the cabin. We ground her,"
"That is true," Saeko said, glancing at them with a bit of a relieved smile, "Even now, because I am a woman, I get to relax and wash myself first along with you three. Yet Sil-kun who fought more than I did is still out there, with blood under his fingernails, keeping watch for us along with the others. They are men of immeasurable worth in a time like this,"
"But because of that..." Saya's voice came out faintly sighing to herself, "If they keep this up, they'll really crack before too long."
"…"
"Then how...do we fix this? How do we help them?" Rei asked.
Shizuka lifted her head back up to look at them, displaying a faintly shy smile and hint of a blush as slightly caressed her bosom and answered, "The men of our little civilization are already doing whatever they can for the sake of survival. If we want to survive along with them, we should do everything we as women can do. If everything beyond our little civilization it clashing its aggression against theirs to tear us all down, then we need to be the caring support they need...one way or another,"
Rei blushed furiously as she listened to Shizuka. Saya blushed as well, glancing away from the lady yet there within her eyes, an apparent understanding shone. While strangely, Saeko seemed somewhat....distant, as if she were lamenting some kind of helplessness.
"Wh-what's that supposed to mean??" The words raced off Rei's tongue.
Shizuka giggled then, watching in apparent amusement as Rei closed her legs a little tighter with her arms.
"I'm only joking," Shizuka giggled.
Then as Rei audibly sighed, she continued:
"I'm not saying you girls should go that far," She shook her head faintly and softly said, "There are plenty of other ways to support them, and you should think for yourselves on how you want to do it for the boys."
"…"
"All I wanted was to make you all aware of the truth before it was too late."
She glanced between them all, going on to say, "Often times, things have started to go wrong long before you even notice it, but when you look back on it trying to understand why, you realise the signs had always been there, they were just small and almost insignificant at the time."
"..."
"Sometimes, just being there to listen to them is enough. Be the one to ask them to be honest, truly honest, about how they're doing. Just that - an honest conversation - can go a long way." Shizuka sexplained.
The gleam within Saeko's eyes seemed to resolve itself as sa thought seemed to dart through her mind, and beyond a faint blush, she smiled a little, almost hopefully even, as she said with a firm yet suggestive delicacy, "I'm not about to just deny my own womanhood,"
Saya and Rei blushed greatly at her words, with Rei murmuring something inaudible in response while Saya remained silent, simply crossing her arms beneath her bosom.
Therein, Shizuka and Saeko shared a faintly smiling glance.
"What about you Sensei?" Saeko asked.
Shizuka adjusted herself in the water, humming in a silent moment, then she responded:
"None of the rules of civilization matter anymore so..." She glanced back, smiling faintly to Saeko and said, "I think I'm going to be a little selfish."
"..."
A silent moment lingered where they just stared at each other, both faintly smiling and then Saeko's eyes briefly fell to a close as she looked away, reaching her hand for the extendable shower head.
"Very well," She said.
Her hand had reached for the cold setting and while everyone Saya was still pondering, she opened its tap fully, aiming the head at her.
"Hyaaaahnn!!" Saya jolt out of her daze, squealing in shock as the rain of cold water came.
Saeko then giggled pleasantly, "You have a nicer voice than I thought,"
From then with none of them willing to further ruin their rest time they began a pleasant casual conversation amongst each other.