After everyone introduced themselves to one another, I followed Saya out of curiosity. For the same reasons, Kouta too.

"Glasses?" 

I subconsciously muttered when I saw Saya wearing glasses. Looking at the things in her hands, that must be her contact lenses or so I thought. So she was wearing them at school, I didn't think she had eyes problem since I had never once saw her with glasses. When I exchanged glances with the person next to me, Kouta raised his hand before showing me a thumbs up.

I was about to do the same when I feel a gaze on me, Saya turned around and glares at me before saying.

"What's wrong with glasses?"

"Nothing, really. In fact it looks good on you, you should be using them more often," I said with a smile. I don't particularly like or dislike the glasses, however, seeing her current appearance makes me feel especially strange. 

It feels like I started up an unknown game title out of curiosity, then I realized I actually enjoyed it after playing it for half an hour. Yeah, I think she's awakening something in me.

Saya's face turned crimson like a tomato, she harrumphed and walk away from the sink before finding a seat to sit. I chuckles at her reaction, I also sit comfortably on a chair then letting my sight wander freely, though it eventually stopped at the television that was turned on by Rei.

On the screen, it showed a female reporter talking to the camera when something unexpected happened behind her. The corpse that had been sealed in suddenly sit up like something out of thriller movie. This caught them completely off guard, some of the police officers panicked and begins firing their gun at them. To their horror however, a few still survived the rain of bullets. 

It was then that they saw many 'violent' people who walked out of the forest upon hearing the gunshots. It was pretty much pandemonium from then on, eventually not even the pretty female reporter was safe from harm before the channel was suddenly interrupted. It switched to another news channel where two clearly nervous male broadcasters explaining the reason behind the abrupt interruption—something about a small 'malfunction' and other bullshit.

"Why aren't they showing more?!" Komuro cried out as his face flushed with indignation. Just like everyone in the room, he wanted to know the cause of the apocalypse. And if there's the possibility of a cure, though it was highly unlikely with the way things had gone down so far.

I can kind of guess it thanks to the memory fragments from the Goddess, then the only things left was connecting the dots. 

"They don't want to cause panic, duh," Saya confidently stated while pushing her glasses slightly upward. She then explained why fear will caused people to panic, thus chaos ensues. The government were still trying their best to managed the situation despite knowing it had already spiralled out of their control, which we all could see happening in real time by switching to a different news channel, especially overseas.

"This is horrible... there's no way this is happening," Rei mumbled with her face slightly paled. She was still at her wits end after experiencing the death of her boyfriend. Noticing her unstable mental state, Komuro reached out to her by patting her in the back. She smiles a little bit at his kind gesture. If it hadn't been for him, she might have gone crazy by now.

"Unfortunately, it's very real. This is without a doubt a pandemic situation," Saya calmly said without mincing her words one bit. Even for a genius like her, the current circumstance still took quite a toll on her mind. She was also worried about her parents, even now she was holding herself back from falling down to tears.

"Like the influenza in the past?" Komuro asked with a hint of uncertainty, he doesn't know much about such subjects unfortunately. Only that it's a dangerous case of pandemic, and that it killed a lot of people.

"Except it's way worse. If you were infected with that virus, you die for good. But in this case," I said with a sigh, I don't need to continue further.

'The dead returns,' they all reached the same conclusion without anyone needing to vocalize it. Some of them recalled the scene of a student-turned-zombie biting what was once their friends to the death, then the latter too rise again as their kind to do the same to others. Thus, they continue to grow their numbers.

"So what's the big plan now?" Saeko asked while cleaning the blood off her wooden sword, some had gotten pretty sticky so she required a bit of strength to fully removed the stain on the sink. Seeing that, I wonder if I could produce a sharp mimic sword since it's technically a 'beast'. I'm still a little exhausted so I'll do the test for later.

"Marikawa Sensei's car is no good, it's only enough for two people. How about the mini bus the school used for camping?" I asked before turning my head to Kouta standing near the windows. The latter immediately understood my words so he took a quick peek outside.

"Oh it's there."

"Then the next course is decided, how about we team up? We already knew each other anyway," I smiles as I slowly stood up. Just as I begins observing them, they also did the same. At this point, they probably realized how much I have changed from the old me. It would be weird if they hadn't noticed the difference, especially Shizuka-neesan. 

"I agree. The more of us, the better we could protect ourselves," Saeko said with a nod, her wooden sword were now clean as new. She was the first to relented before it was followed by Shizuka and Kouta, eventually the rest of them.

"Alright, let me get this straight just to be sure that we are on the same wavelength—our plan is to get to the mini bus then escape from the school, did I get that right?"

I saw all of them subtly nodded their heads in affirmation, I too nod then continue.

"Then let's go with this formation," I said as I looked over the whole group. Rei and Komuro was on the right, which leave Saeko to the left. I'm standing in front of them since I know I can handle zombies just fine, so the only one left was Kouta and Saya—they were guarding our back just in case.

As for Shizuka, she obviously had to stay in the dead center of the formation since she was the weakest of the link. She is also our important piece since she was the only person who could drive the mini bus.

"Why am I in the back with this otaku?" Saya grumbled under her breath. Kouta on the other hand was single-mindedly happy at the revelation at just being able to stay close to a pretty girl like her, who knows maybe there might be some development between them? He imagined such a scene in his mind but, when he saw Saya was keeping her distance, he immediately sober up as if a cold water was poured from atop his head.

"You are the brain of the formation, so we need to make sure you're unharmed Takagi-san," I blatantly said with a smile, she glares at me for a moment before looking away. She decided to not say anything since it's fruitless at this point. She probably already knew I was lying through my teeth, however she believes my plan might be better than nothing.

Though she and the others, excluding Saeko, must have some doubts on why I willingly choose to be at the front which was the most risky of all, they were about to find that out now. 

I slowly lead them from then on, it was a pretty smooth ride for the first few minutes until we reached the staircase. There are around three zombies moving about without a direction, I immediately concluded that they must have comes from the ground floor. Rei and Komuro had used this staircase when they went down from the rooftop, so the corpses on the ground must have been killed off by them.

I exchanged eye contacts with them, they silently nodded in agreement. I turned around to face the zombies so that the others didn't see the corner of my lips curled up, I was getting evidently excited as I was about to show off my power to them—a little immature, but this is just who I am. If I can flex, I will do it!

Suddenly, I charge forward to the nearest zombie. They in turn turned around upon hearing sound of footsteps, but before they could do anything, I immediately punch one from below the chin causing its head to exploded. I abruptly twisted my body when a zombie tries to lunged at me causing it to missed me by a hairbreadth, it embraced the headless zombie instead.

Without giving it any chance to stood up, I put my entire weight into my leg and stepped on its head. The ruthless display caused quite a variety of reactions from the group, but I don't care. 

Finally, for the last one I had something to test out. When it pounced at me as I was close to it, I sidestepped at the very precise moment before swinging a hand chop toward it.

Swish!

The head was cleanly split horizontally from the ears, the upper half of the head fell down to the floor with a splat. The zombie then plummeted to the ground with a thump like a puppet having its string cut. I was happy at the result. Even without shapeshifting my arm into a sharp blade, I can still execute the same movement with just superhuman strength. 

I take it back, brute strength is very reliable to a certain extent. The zombies are just too weak!

"Damn! What was that insane movement? You just one shot them all!" Kouta gasped in amazement, he couldn't believe what he had just saw. Even the others silently nodded their head in agreement.

"That's a trade secret," I said between a smile. I could feel the stares on my back the moment I turned around, but that only empowered my vanity as I laughed internally. 

I took a small peek to the ground floor and immediately saw more than a few zombies all over the place. My group can definitely cut down their numbers, however, the fight with them would only attract more zombies to their location. The correct decision here would be—I turned my head to face Saya.

"What?" She whispered in confusion. Now that they were camping out at the staircase, they need to speak in low volume otherwise it will attract unwanted group.

"Did you figure out their weaknesses?" 

"Of course. Who do you think I am?" She replied with a confident tone before pushing her chest forward. She rearranged her glasses then continue, "From my early observation, it appears that their sight is close to null—they relied strongly on the sound."

"Are you sure?" 

Komuro doubtfully asked. He and Rei had attacked every zombies they came across up until now, so they never thought there's another way to proceed without killing them. To them, the moment one becomes a zombie, they are no longer human—they are threats to every living people on Earth.

"You don't believe me?" If she had the power to kill with her sight, he would be dead by now with the way she was glaring at him.

"Then why don't you show us?" 

When she heard Rei saying that, she nervously looked around. Saya suddenly feels small as if she was all alone lost in a jungle filled with unknown creatures. She was starting to panic when no one says anything, she bites her lower lips and was about to follow through it despite knowing how dangerous it was—she wasn't willing to put her pride down and ask someone to do it in her place. 

As much as I enjoyed watching her flustered, I didn't want her to risk her life just for the sake of a learning experience. I mean what's there to learn if she ended up dying. Although letting your pride dictated your action in a zombie apocalypse is certainly a bad thing, she was still in her teenage years.

"Let me do it."