Their routine for the past 4 days are gradually thinning the number of zombies. The modus operandi starts with the only woman, Hanabi using her corpses possession to kill 60 zombies. Then, they would stealthily kill another 90 zombies by the end of the day. Within the 4 days, the ninja had killed 600 zombies. 

On the fifth day, they change their operating method to kill more zombies. 

The reason is initially there were thousands of zombies wandering between the dwellings in the villages but today they sudden vanish as if something intelligent bringing them to more hidden place. The leader's hunch is some tactical minds are at play and they try to lure them down from the roofs. However, how could mindless zombies possess such minds?

The twenty persons are divided into 4 groups, each group consists 5 persons. 

Hanabi is with the two groups that cover the forest and plain surrounding the village. 

The five men team Hanabi is in walk along the plain beside the forest when the leader suddenly stops. 

He is looking straight ahead, and seems almost as if he stops breathing. His head turns  right then left in quick motions. Has he glanced at Hanabi? No, that wasn't it. His gaze is beyond Hanabi, to where the snow is piling up in drifts. 

The second man walks to his side and says we quickly, grimly, 

"This is bad." 

An instant later, the snow seems to explode upward, prancing into the air.

"Erik?" Hanabi frightens and baffles, us thrown sideways. 

Something lodges to the centre of the group, where her body had been half a minute before. Luckily, her hand was grabbed and her body was thrown aside by her comrade. The other four men disperse to 4 different positions and the figure that attacked stands in the middle. 

Hanabi stands up.

A hideous figure is between crouching and standing. It is a zombie but their instinct tells them it is dangerous. It only wears pant, and barefooted. Its hair is white and fingers look like claws. 

Third man quickly throws a kunai (small dagger) but it dodges it and jumps towards him. The creature is too fast that he fails to dodge. He just barely blocks with his gauntlet. The creature is stronger than him. It pushes him away to the ground and try to strike him. The attack is stopped by three men who stabs his hand and body. 

"Grrroaar!" It roars and the men retreat. 

At the same time, dozens of zombies are approaching their position.

They run from the place into the forest while being pursued by the lone zombie.

Shadow after shadow after shadow after shadow rise up from the snow, casting aside snow covering them. Hideous rotten face with sluggish movement compared to the agile lone zombie. 

"This way." The leader doesn't hesitate. He gives Hanabi's hand a sharp tug and set off running like an arrow. 

"What about thinning their number?" Another man asks.

"Forfeit."

We fail. The standard response would have been to ignore the ambush, set their legs running as fast possible, shaking the zombies with sheer speed. 

The leader slams full into one of the zombies surrounding them. Before the the next zombie could respond, he has whipped out his sword and stabs its neck.

Another man stabs and kicks another blocking zombie away, never stops running.

Falling snows, roaring zombie that is chasing from behind and moaning of surrounding zombies, Hanabi doesn't know which she is reacting to.

Hearing the roar from their behind, the leader tightens his grip on her hand while his three male comrades keep slashing the necks of zombies jumping at them.

They keep running. There is no other option.

"There are those things behind the trees!" She shouts.

The leader says nothing, only faces forward and run.

Two zombies block the their way. Two comrades take all of that and slams  it into the zombies in front of her. 

A zombie suddenly rises from her left leg, but the man behind her bash the creature's face with his sharp gauntlet. Its brain spills by the gauntlet. 

"Urghh. Erghh." Hanabi forces down what threatens to come up, putting her free hand to her mouth. They hardly have any time to kneel over and retch. While being tailed by the quick crouching zombie, they had cut down thirteen zombies.

Her mind starts to wonder, about another five men group assigned to the same place as them. If they are here, they could save them from this predicament.

"Focus. Otherwise you will fall."

She is snapped back to reality from her almost escapist musings. At the same moment he spoke, there came four gruesome yells, she could even gear them over the blizzards.

Four zombies jump from their sides, practically bursting with hunger. However, she is someone who grew up trained in close combat. She instinctively bend down to evade a zombie that jumps to hug her and she cut its neck. Another three jumping zombies are killed by three men surrounding her. 

A zombie, however, attached to the leader in front, it is biting his hand. Fortunately, that hand is protected by a gauntlet. While running, he crashes its head to a tree. Its head is smashed in and its brains are scattered all over the immediate vicinity. 

Just after he kills it, another zombie appear from the front but he, still holding her hand, he takes a big step forward, bringing a tree branch down from high over his head. He pummels its face. The corpse keels over, swiftly hidden from the view by the snow.

The thick branch he is holding broke. Sometimes wood is simply fragile.

"Eeeiii!" Hanabi yells when a zombie grabs her arm but before it could bite her arm, without hesitation, the leader jams the shattered wood into its eyes. The shard pierces the fragile eyeball and proceed into its brain. Death is instantaneous. The zombie somehow does a somersault, landing in the snow, where it continues to twitch.

"Thanks." She says in a vanishingly small voice, taking a fresh grip on his hand. 

"Grrrro.!" There are more spine- tingling cries. He must have noticed them long before she does.

Holding her hand, he charges forward, slicing sideways at the form that appears through the blizzard. Something dark spattered across the white snow.

The leader draws his blade again after exploiting natural weapons like tree and branch. 

"Grrrroo!" The inarticulate howl belongs to no living human. It is hideous and twisted, the voice of a zombie. 

The monster flails and struggles amid the maelstrom. A blade run through it with the chill of ice. The monster screeches once, and nothing more could be heard. 

The men look at each other and nod. They each make final killing of zombies before making weird movements.

The four men suddenly diverge to different direction, with the leader still holds Hanabi's hand. 

The most monstrous zombie that is tailing them stops in confusion, turning its head up, left and right before roaring. It then run to the left chasing after the man who turn left before. The leader and Hanabi who turned right are safe for now. 

Half an hour after that, four of them including Hanabi converge and hide behind place with many trees. It seems the man that was chased by the unusual zombie doesn't survive. 

"What is that thing?" The third man punches a tree. 

"It looks cunning. Could it be the one that bring the others away from the village, to lure us away from the roof." The leader elucidates.

"I hope there is only one of that thing " The second man prays.

"Don't be too optimistic. In life, expect worst possible outcomes." The leader firmly says. 

"No matter what mission cones first." The second man nods. There is fire in his eyes. 

"Yeah. Thinning the number of this things as much as possible. Hanabi must survive at all cost. Bring Hanabi to ojou-sama and the others. Ensure they escape from this hell." The third man says firmly while checking his left leg. 

His left leg is wounded.

"What happened?" The leader asks while furrowing his eyebrows as he notices severe bite marks on that man's thigh.

The man answers, "I was surrounded by twenty of those things. I killed them all, but I didn't come out unscathed."

The leader stands up and says,

"Then, we have to be hurry. At least, find the another 5 men group."

They slowly wander around the woods to look for others.

They walk until they meet a thick white mist. Striding carelessly across the carpet of ice and snow is a single, solitary figure - a ninja.

On his face, only his mouth is covered. Two traditional gauntlets on each his hand, swords at strange length at his hip. Stippled red and white from the blood splatters and snow, he says calmly, as if he has not taken any life, "Two hundred annihilated." 

He walks through the falling snow noiselessly. 

The leader walks to greet him and asks, "What about the others?" 

"They performed their mission excellently." 

Everyone understands that. The other 5 men group was killed in action except this man. 

This survivor looks at the wound on the leg of a man.

"I was bitten." He explains.

"How long?" The survivor interrogates.

"About half an hour ago."

"Two of us were bitten. An hour later, they started acting weird. Then, one of them turned into the freakish creature. We had to kill him. Another one, realizing he also would turn, went on rampage to kill more of those things."

The survivor reports. 

The wounded man inhale an exhales, trying to accept his imminent death.

"I'd rather died killing more of those thing, rather than turning into one." He says while taking out an explosive, made back in the hidden village. Each of the man was given an explosive to blow themselves. 

For ninja, they accept death but it is a rule that before death, a ninja must kill as many enemies as possible. 

He hugs the other four men. 

He then put his hand on Hanabi's head.

"You, alone must survive. Make it to ojou-sama." A tear flows on her cheeks.

He then walks away, disappearing into the white environment.

An half later, a powerful explosion occurs near the village.