Well, Constant Readers, we've all been waiting for this chapter for a long time. I've been enthusiastic about writing this chapter ever since I started the story, and to finally get to writing it is a huge relief to me. There's gonna be a lot of pay-off and development this chapter, and I really hope all of you enjoy this as much as I'm sure to.

For those of you who aren't aware, I've been back and edited everything into the first person. There are occasional lapses into the third person, but only when I need to show things from a perspective other than Paul's. There have been a few changes to the storyline, most notably in terms of the development of relationships, and while it's not essential that you read the changes, it is recommended. I apologise to those of you who reviewed the original chapter 11, as I've combined chapters in order to extend the length of certain chapters – I apologise for this because those of you who reviewed the original chapter 11 will not be able to review the new one. This does not apply to Guests, of course, so if you want to review as a Guest and just set your name as that of your username (as I have done on a couple of occasions), then you should be able to review fine.

I hope you enjoy this most anticipated chapter, Constant Readers.

Let's begin.

Shrines and Secrets

As we drove on, I noticed that the sound of the exploding dynamite combined with the new sounds of gunfire from the Takagi Estate were causing all the zombies to basically ignore the ATV as it drove past them. We made if off the grounds of the estate and onto a road, specifically the road that the initial wave of zombies attacking the estate had come from. It all seemed to be going well until we came upon the half-open blockade in the road. The school bus that Shidou and his students were in was there, crashed into the side of the blockade that wasn't open, looking pretty dead.

"That's the only way out," said Saeko-san.

I looked at the way Marikawa-sensei was driving, and with the way she was going, there was no way we were going to get through that gap. She was being too cautious, trying not to hit the wall of the blockade on the way past, but the only way we were going to get through was if the ATV scraped the walls – the gap was too narrow for anything else.

Takashi seemed to see this, too. "Got it!" he said, jumping to the front of the ATV and pushing Marikawa-sensei away.

"Komuro-kun!" Marikawa-sensei said in shock.

Takashi kept the ATV on a straight forward path. If he was off by even a centimetre, we would crash into the wall and get stuck in the gap. I found myself tensing. The adrenaline rushing through my veins by this point was nowhere near enough to take away the nervousness I felt, the feeling that we might not make it through. To my immense relief, however, the sound of scraping on the sides of the ATV reached my ears, and though we slowed slightly, the vehicle pushed its way through the gap without trouble. I felt a grin tug at the corners of my mouth.

I briefly noticed a bunch of Shidou's students fleeing the scene, some being eaten by the zombies. I saw no sign of the man himself, though.

Fuck 'em, I thought. They made their beds, now they can fucking lie in them.

"We should be okay now …" said Saya-san.

"For a while, anyway," I said, not even really noticing that I was speaking out loud.

There was a rather awkward silence for quite a while.

"Ah!" Rei said suddenly, as if realising something.

"Please don't say anything!" Saya-san said to her loudly. "Please!"

Oh … I thought. That's right … In all the commotion, all the excitement of escaping with our lives, I had completely forgotten that Saya-san had essentially left her parents to their deaths back there. They had practically ordered her to, granted, but I sincerely doubted that made it feel any better. Once again I found myself in a situation I had no idea what to do in. I would never have felt sorry if my father had died. Hell, I hoped he was dead, as horrible as that sounded. I had no idea what loving a parent was like, so I had no understanding of what Saya-san was going through in regards to leaving hers behind. I would have felt depressed about it, but not understanding the feelings of others was starting to become a normal occurrence for me.

"Takagi-san!" Kouta said suddenly. "Please keep a tight lookout!"

"Hirano, you …" Rei started to say in a warning tone.

"Fine!" said Saya-san. "Fine. Hirano's … Kouta's right!"

Then things descended into silence again.

"I know you don't want anyone to say anything," I said to Saya-san, who looked at me with a little irritation. "But, for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I can't say I understand what you're feeling, but I know it can't be easy. We're all here for you if you need us."

She seemed to think for a few moments, then sent a barely visible nod my way. "Thank you," she said.

I nodded back, but said nothing more.

There was more silence, but this one was less uncomfortable. Takashi just continued to drive the ATV through the streets. There were still a lot of zombies, but they were spaced out, so it was a simple matter to drive through without hitting any. I would have called it almost peaceful if it weren't for the constant presence of the undead moaning.

"Now what do we do!?" asked Marikawa-sensei.

"Sorry, but we're going to look for Rei's and my parents!" said Takashi. "First we're going to the Eastern Police Station, then Shintoko Third Elementary School! If we keep going at this rate, it shouldn't take two hours!"

Normally I would find that hard to believe. Looking at how fast the ATV could go, though, I fully believed we could get done that quickly.

"Then …" Takashi continued, "… we go to your friend, Sensei!" He seemed to check something. "We'll be reaching the highway soon!"

He was right about that, too. Barely a minute later, we were turning a corner to get onto the highway just by the river. It was after we turned that corner, however, that we saw that driving down this road was going to be a lot more difficult than any of the driving we'd done before. There were more zombies, all heading in the direction of the Takagi Estate, and there were loads of them. It was like every zombie in the city had decided to head in this direction all at once, and that made things a lot more complicated.

"… There's so many …" Alice-chan whispered out, accompanied by a few whimpers from Zeke.

"What do we do now …?" Takashi asked in a hiss, stopping the ATV before we could hit the large horde.

"No duh!" said Saya-san. It would appear she had regained the cocky attitude that came with her massive intelligence.

"What makes you say that, Takagi-san?" asked Kouta.

"You really have no abilities besides firing guns," Saya-san said to him. "Fatty! 'They' react to noise! The EMP attack removed all the loud noises from town that people and their technology make! Then my dad set off a stick of dynamite. And now this buggy's engine is making a ruckus, too! It's probably the only engine in this whole town!"

"I get it," said Saeko-san. "… But the problem right now is how we get through this place."

"This thing works on both land and water, right?" asked Rei. "That's what you said, isn't it Paul?" I nodded. " 'They' won't follow us into the water!"

"Matsudo-san said it might not float with too many people on it," I said, sighing. "It's like a plane in that way. Yeah, a plane is perfectly capable of flying, but too much weight will drag it down; it's why they have a weight limit for luggage. The same principle applies here: there are too many of us, so if we try to drive on the water, the ATV will just sink."

"So we force our way through again?" asked Marikawa-sensei.

"There are too many of 'them'," said Takashi.

"Then …" said Rei. "What are you proposing we do!?"

I already had an idea of what to do. It was crazy by all accounts, and it would lead to one of us – preferably me – being separated from the rest of the group. The plan itself was dangerous, more so for the one going off on their own than the rest of the group, but I thought it would be worth it …

"I've got an idea," I said. Everyone looked at me, curious. For once the attention didn't disturb me, and I went on talking as normal. "The sound of the buggy is what's drawing them to us, right? So if I take the ATV and drive off in another direction from the one we have planned, the rest of you could go on foot without worry. The sounds of the ATV combined with the movement of the zombies will mask basically any sounds you guys make whilst you're moving. Yeah, it'll be dangerous for all of us, but I'll be in the most danger. You guys just have to try and move quietly."

There was silence for a moment as everyone considered it. A few days ago, there may have been some arguments about the sanity of the plan, but by this point we had all become used to doing crazy things for the sake of survival.

"It could work," said Takashi, nodding. "There's just one problem: I should be the one to go."

Rei looked like she was about to protest, but I beat her to the punch. "No, Takashi," I said. "I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't willing to do it myself. It's my plan, I don't want to put someone else in danger if it fails. If I take the ATV, at least I know I'm the only one being followed."

"Paul, I really think—"

"I'm not arguing with you about this, Takashi. I'm doing it."

Takashi looked like he was about to argue again.

"He's made his choice," Saeko-san said to Takashi. "You should let him go." Takashi didn't look happy, but it seemed that he had run out of arguments. "And here's my choice: I'm going with you," she said to me.

My eyes widened in surprise. "Saeko-san, what are you—"

"Going off on your own would be practically suicide," she said to me. "At least with the two of us we can watch each other's backs."

As much as I really wanted to, I couldn't argue with her logic. It made perfect sense. And, despite the situation, the thought of spending time alone with Saeko-san was very appealing to me. "… Okay," I said, nodding. I looked at the others. "We'll meet up at Taiei Shopping Town. It's only about an hour or so down the road, but because we're going around it'll take us longer. Give us until this time tomorrow. If we're not there, just leave. If we get there and you're gone, we'll head to the police station ourselves."

I was really quite surprised by how well I had thought this out in the short amount of time I had.

"I don't really know this area well …" said Kouta.

"Don't worry," said Rei. "It's on the route me and Takashi used to take to get to elementary school."

"It should be easy for you," I said. "If all the zombies are drawn by the buggy like we want them to be, they'll be following the noise. You guys should have a straight shot to the mall if you're quiet enough."

"You sure about this, Paul?" Takashi asked me.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "You guys head to the side of the road. I'll switch the engine back on and rev it a few times to get their attention before we drive off."

They all gave varying words of assent and began to exit the buggy. All except one …

"Paul-chan … Miss Saeko …" Alice-chan muttered, looking at me with tears in her eyes.

I smiled down at her tenderly. "Don't worry about us, Alice-chan," I said. "Me and Saeko-san will be back with you guys tomorrow. Trust me, okay? I promise we'll be back."

She was quiet for a few moments. "… Okay," she said.

I smiled at her and patted her on the head, causing her to giggle lightly. I also patted Zeke, who barked in appreciation. Alice-chan got out of the ATV and immediately latched herself onto Marikawa-sensei once again. I nodded at the others and climbed into the driver's seat of the ATV. Saeko-san was stood up in the buggy, curiously enough, but I ignored it. I turned on the engine and revved it a few times, drawing the zombies toward me. The others had started moving by this point, sticking to the very edges of the road. I kept revving the engine until the zombies were relatively close, then prepared to drive off.

"… You think we attracted too many of 'them'?" asked Saeko-san. The crowd of zombies only seemed to have grown larger since I'd started revving the engine.

"Well, that was the idea," I said, shrugging.

She laughed. "You like to take the most dangerous actions, don't you, Paul-kun?" she asked.

"I try." I grinned.

"You think we should get going? I'm ready whenever you are."

"Well, then, let's not waste time."

I put the ATV in motion and, in what most would call an absolutely insane action, started to drive down the riverbank. My hope was that it would work in the way Rei had thought it would: they wouldn't be able to follow me down the slope of the riverbank. And my hopes were answered, in a sense. The zombies, in an attempt to follow us down the slope, fell and rolled down. It wasn't clean rolling, so I thought that at least a few of them might crack their heads as they went down.

"You know what's weird?" I asked suddenly. "These things are blind, yet they can navigate stairs perfectly. But a slope is too much for them."

Saeko-san's eyes narrowed. "Regardless …" she said.

I looked back at where the zombies had fallen and saw that we hadn't been as lucky as I'd hoped we'd be. The zombies that tumbled down the slopes got up just fine, and since the ATV's engine was still running, they were heading right toward us.

I groaned. "Things can never be easy for us, can they?" I asked rhetorically. I once again thought about what Rei had said earlier, and another idea occurred to me. "Okay, hang on," I said warningly, then started driving the ATV again.

We hit the water with a splash and, as expected, the ATV stayed above the water perfectly … though a surprised cry from Saeko-san got me to turn my head in concern, and …

… I froze up, my mouth agape. Our landing in the water had done two things to Saeko-san: knocked her into a seat since she had still been standing up, and soaking her through since the splash had gone right over my head. Now, the top half of her uniform was white, which, due to the amount of water that had hit her, meant I could see right through her shirt. The bra she wore underneath was black and rather lacy, which came as a bit of a surprise. My mind went into a daze for a few moments, my eyes transfixed on the sight before me.

"Uh …" The sounds coming out of my wide open mouth weren't exactly of the intelligent variety.

Saeko-san's face suddenly went redder than I even thought possible for a human. She immediately brought her arms and legs up to cover her chest area. "You don't have to stare, you know!" she exclaimed.

My head snapped back around to look out the front of the ATV. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" I kept saying frantically. I hadn't meant to stare, but I had seen her and my mind had gone completely blank.

After driving for a little while more, the feeling of awkwardness left me. I had no intention of turning my head again in case said feeling came back, but I had noticed that the zombies, for some reason, really weren't following us into the water. Maybe they could hear the buggy disturbing the water or something like that, but for some reason they merely pointed their heads in our direction and never tried to follow.

With the threat of the zombies clearly gone, I slowed the ATV somewhat, relaxing back into my chair and sighing to myself in relief.

"Come on, you can't be that tired already, can you?" Saeko-san's voice whispered surprisingly sensually into my ear.

"No, no, I'm fine!" I said quickly, glancing to the side where her voice had come from, seeing that she had her face right next to mine. S-Saeko-san, you're … oh, wow, you're close right now …" My face was red, my voice was shaky, and I was struggling to think straight.

She put a gloved finger to her lips as if to shush me. "Don't you think we should try to keep it down for a while?" she asked.

I breathed out another sigh, this one to calm me down. "Okay," I said, trying to ignore the close proximity between Saeko-san and myself. I continued to drive slowly down the river for a while, then I saw a small mass of land in the middle of it. I recognised what it was immediately – it was a sandbar. An idea occurred to me. "We could use a rest. Why not stop at the sandbar for a while?"

"All right, then," she said.

I drove us over and parked the ATV on the small, sandy beach that surrounded the small sandbar. It was only then that I really noticed the orange colour of the sky. We had been driving for a lot longer than I had realised. I got out of the ATV to stretch my legs, and Saeko-san got out, too, though she chose to simply sit on the front of the buggy.

"We should take turns keeping watch," I said. "I splashed you when we went into the river, so I'll go first. Think of it as an official apology."

"Achoo!"

The sound of Saeko-san sneezing made me turn around to look at her. It was only then that I noticed she was still soaked from when we had landed in the river.

"S-Sorry," she said. "I guess I caught a little chill. But I didn't have time to bring a change of clothes, so …"

"Hang on," I said. I looked in the buggy and saw what I was looking for. It was a small bag. I rummaged through it and found what I was looking for: a black vest. "I think Takashi or Rei must've thrown some stuff in here before the shit hit the fan back there. For the trip we planned before, you know. It's not much, but it's something." I handed her the vest, smiling. "It should help."

She took the vest and smiled at me. "Thank you."

I turned away, both out of politeness and to keep watch. The temptation to turn around and look was there, but I didn't want to be rude or inconsiderate, so I resisted.

"I'm all done," she said, and I turned back around.

I froze up again. The vest was an incredibly tight fit. It hugged her body in all the right places, and I could see the curves of her body like it was an extra layer of skin. The vest combined with the torn skirt and black leggings was almost as unintentionally erotic as the apron and thong had been back at Marikawa-sensei's friend's place. She had tied her hair up in a ponytail, too, probably to keep the water from dripping down her back.

"What?" she asked me, smirking. "What is it? Do I look funny?"

"No, no!" I said quickly. "You, er, you look great, actually. Really fantastic."

She chuckled. "I always catch you looking at me like that," she said.

"Oh, uh …" I was unsure of how to respond. "Sorry?"

"It's all right. After all, I am a girl, and sometimes I like being looked at like that."

That caught me off guard. Of all the things she could have said to me, that's the one I would have expected the least. I had no chance to think straight again before the next words came tumbling out of my mouth. "What about you? Have you ever been interested in anyone?" I mentally slapped myself almost immediately. "Y-You don't have to answer that. It's just, a girl like you could get any guy you want, so I just figured there had to have been someone at some point … and I'm just gonna shut up now …"

The silence that descended after that was one of the most awkward silences I've ever had to sit through.

"I did," Saeko-san said after a while. I looked at her inquisitively. "… There was a boy I liked."

"Oh …" I said, and that was all. I felt a sudden wave of sadness come over me, but mentally berated myself for it almost immediately. I had asked the damn question, so being upset by the answer was pointless and stupid.

I didn't know why I had expected anything else.

We drove through the streets relatively quickly. We had stayed at the sandbar just long enough for Saeko-san to get dried off and dressed back into her shirt, then we had left. We were in the road again now, and while we had seen a few zombies, there weren't nearly as many as there had been back on the other road. The noise the ATV was making was still enough to draw them in, though.

"It'll be just like before we escaped to the sandbar!" said Saeko-san.

"It's getting dark, so we should find a place to spend the night," I said. "I've got a plan for drawing the zombies away from us, but we've got to get somewhere first. It should be just around the next corner!"

I turned the ATV around the corner and the sight of a children's play area came into view.

"The park?" Saeko-san asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't worry, this isn't where we're staying," I said. I drove the ATV a little faster so that we wouldn't crash into what I was driving into. The speed we picked up was just enough to drive over the small wall surrounding the fountain at the centre of the park. Unfortunately for Saeko-san, the landing in the water once again caused a splash, though this one was nowhere near as large as the one that had occurred when we landed in the river.

"Jesus, do you like getting me wet or something?" she asked heatedly.

I smirked. "Phrasing, Saeko-san, phrasing," I said. I turned around and saw that she was faintly blushing, which made me smirk. "There should be some tape in that bag there. Hand me some, would you?" She did so, and I used the tape to hold the handle in place while the engine was running, making the ATV drive in a circle inside the fountain. The two of us got out of the ATV, and Saeko-san looked at me, impressed.

"You're using the sound of the buggy to draw them here," she said, nodding.

I nodded. "The fastest way out of here is the east exit," I said. "Try to be as quiet as possible. We don't wanna draw to many of them to us, otherwise doing this with the buggy is useless."

"I see …" she said. "Understood." She immediately unsheathed her sword and decapitated a zombie that had been getting too close.

I readied my crossbow, took an arrow from my quiver, and shot it into the nearest zombie. Because the zombies were relatively spread out, I had time to retrieve the arrow from the zombie's head and reuse it. I stopped fighting them relatively quickly when I saw just how efficiently Saeko-san was decimating the zombies that were being drawn toward us. Decimating isn't even an adequate word – it was a slaughter.

Then a group of zombie children came up behind Saeko-san, she turned around to slash at them with her sword … and froze up. Her eyes went wide and she just stood there, shaking.

"Saeko-san?" I said, confused. No movement. "Saeko-san!" Still no movement. "What are you doing!?"

She looked at me, seemingly trying to say something, but she couldn't.

The zombie children were dangerously close to her. Putting aside my confusion, I ran forward, pulling Saeko-san out of the way, and put an arrow right into the forehead of one of the small zombies. I was about to try and take out the others, too, but then I noticed that the zombies were coming into the park from every entrance due to the noise. Panicking, I just grabbed Saeko-san's hand and ran out of the east exit, pulling her along with me. She still wasn't saying anything.

"Shit!" I cursed loudly. After running down the street some, I saw that my plan to leave the ATV spinning in the fountain had also fucked us over somewhat. There were zombies all over the street now. "What to do … what to do …" I darted my eyes around, my hand still firmly gasping Saeko-san's. Eventually my eyes landed on a shrine. It wasn't near the street, but at the top of a nearby hill. "That'll work."

I pulled Saeko-san along with me as I carefully manoeuvred my way through the zombies in the street. After running up the stairs that were built into the hill, I pulled Saeko-san into the shrine, finally let go of her hand, and closed the door behind me. I took a few seconds to catch my breath before turning back to Saeko-san, who as sitting down.

"Saeko-san, what's wrong?" I asked. I got no response, and something was telling me that I wouldn't be getting one for quite a while. I sighed.

Instead of just waiting around for a conversation that could take hours to start, I went about making sure our temporary shelter for the night was as defensible as it could be.

"We'll stay here tonight," I said as I lit some candles in the middle of the room. It was pitch black outside, far too dangerous to go anywhere. "We'll move out again in the morning. The noise should've drawn them all off the streets by then."

"Aren't you going to ask me anything?" Saeko-san asked suddenly.

I paused for a moment, thinking. "I shouldn't," I said carefully. "You clearly have reasons for acting the way you did, but those are none of my business. If you want to tell me, you will. That's what I've always found in people."

"You need to hear this," she said. "Will you please listen to what I have to say?"

"Of course," I said, then a smile tugged the corners of my mouth. "But come warm up by the candles first. You'll catch another chill sitting over there by yourself." She did as I said and came over to sit by the candles. "Oh yeah …" I picked up a small, square inflatable that, after reading the instructions on the side, I had discovered actually got a lot bigger. "I think this is a porta-potty or something. Just in case one of us needs to 'take care of business,' you know."

She started laughing at that, which hadn't been my intention – I was being fully serious about it – but I was glad to have cheered her up, if only slightly.

"I'm being serious," I said, though I found myself laughing a little, as well.

Then things went silent again.

"My memories came back to me," Saeko-san said after a while. "Memories of fear."

"Was it because of the zombie kids?" I asked, my mind immediately jumping to the fact that she had seen them just before freezing up.

"… That wasn't it," she said. "Back in the sandbar, you asked me if there was somebody I liked."

"Um, yeah … sorry about that …"

"It's okay. I still want to live like a girl, so I can fall for boys. But … I've never told a crush how I felt about him. I don't think I have any right to ask someone out like that."

"That's ridiculous!" I said louder than I'd meant to, thoroughly baffled by what she was saying. "Why wouldn't you deserve something like that?"

"Need I remind you of how I've treated you for all three years we were in Fujimi Academy?" she asked me. Then she went silent, looking thoughtful. "… Even if I almost killed a man?"

My breath hitched in my throat out of surprise. I said nothing, though. I thought it would be best to simply listen.

"It was four years ago … I was attacked by a man on the road at night. Of course, I had my unbeatable wooden sword on me. I shattered the scapula and femur. When the police heard my story, they let me go home. I beat him within an inch of his life."

"That's it?" I asked, incredulous. "He attacked you. You shouldn't feel guilt over self defence, even if it did get a little out of hand."

"You didn't let me finish," she said. "The name of this man holds particular relevance to you. There was a court case over the whole incident, obviously, and it was only then that I learned the name of my attacker – Randall Blake."

It was like time had stopped for me after she said that. Randall Blake. That was the name of the man who had made my every waking moment in my early life hell. That was the name of my father. Suddenly this whole thing made more sense than I ever thought it would, and I realised that the old bastard had been responsible for the bad things in my life even after he went to prison.

"That's why I treated you the way I did," Saeko-san continued. "I always knew you didn't deserve it, but you … you look so much like him that it's scary. All the hatred I have for him was projected onto you, and you never deserved that."

"You don't need to feel bad," I said. "It's human nature to take out aggression on the closest thing you can find to the cause of the negativity if the cause is out of reach. And as for nearly killing him, don't feel bad about that either. That bastard attacked you, and trust me, he's had it coming for fucking years. You heard what I said back at the house."

"I never questioned whether or not he had it coming," she said. Her face twisted into that of distress and slight madness. "… I enjoyed it. It was sheer joy being faced with a real enemy for once! I already knew I had the upper hand with my wooden sword on me. So I feigned fear to elicit an attack from him … then I didn't hesitate to retaliate! I enjoyed it. It was pure ecstasy for me." She took a breath. "… That is the true nature behind Saeko Busujima. I don't even need a real reason to get intoxicated with power. Do you think I'd ever be allowed to bear the sincere heart of a young girl?"

"I don't blame you," I said again. "I quite enjoy that sort of thing, too."

"But you only got that way after all this started."

"No, I didn't," I said before she could speak again. Her eyes widened slightly. "The first time I met Kouta, when I saved him from those guys that were ganging up on him, I didn't do that out of the kindness of my heart, no matter how much I try to convince myself of that. I did it because I saw an opportunity. An opportunity to be the attacker rather than the victim for once. Honestly, I've never gotten more of a rush than I got beating the hell out of those three sons of bitches." I found myself breathing heavily, the feelings of superiority and adrenaline coming back as if it were all happening again.

And that's when I realised something.

Saeko-san … she was just as messed up and damaged as I was. She was even messed up in the same way that I was, though she seemed to be that way naturally whereas I had to go through years of abuse first. But that didn't matter. The point was that I had far more in common with the beautiful young woman sitting across from me than I ever thought I did. And as I stared into those gorgeous blue eyes, I knew on an instinctive level that the exact same thoughts were running through her head.

Time slowed to a crawl, and without even realising it I was getting closer to Saeko-san, and her to me. It felt like eternity, but when our lips came together it was like fireworks were going off inside my head. The soft moistness of her lips as they moved against my own in our loving, chaste kiss made my heart race in my chest. I just closed my eyes and enjoyed it.

When we separated again, we both breathed heavily, staring into each other's eyes with a certain intensity. I didn't even need to think about what I did next. I practically lunged forward and shoved my lips against hers, and she brought her hands up to the sides of my head, pulling me closer. I brought my hands to her hips and hugged her to me. The feeling of her clothed breasts pressing against my chest made my heart race even faster.

Saeko-san— No, I thought. Just Saeko. Saeko caught me by surprise when I felt her tongue brushing against my lips, asking permission to enter. I granted her request gladly, and our tongues began to fight a fierce battle for dominance, a battle that she quickly started to win.

I began to lightly push Saeko onto her back, still kissing her passionately. I rubbed her sides with my hands, wanting to place them in other places but not quite thinking it is a good idea this soon. We broke the kiss once in order to get air in our lungs, but we were back to it almost instantly.

Our kiss lasted a long time. We ended up falling asleep in each other's arms.

When we woke up the next morning, we spoke very little. We simply felt comfortable in each other's presence. We knew what we had to do and where we had to go, so we decided to leave early to get it all done as quickly as possible.

"We can get back on the road through the back," I said as we prepared to leave. "From where we are now, it should take us about twenty minutes to get to the mall."

We stepped out the back door of the shrine, and …

"What the fuck!?" I said loudly, so frustrated and confused that I really didn't care about the noise. It didn't matter, anyway. There was a large group of zombies approaching the shrine from the back. By all accounts, we were lucky we left when we did, otherwise we might have been trapped in there. "What the fuck attracted them here, the God damn leaves? Why aren't they headed to the park?" I raised my crossbow. "Okay, we need to make a break for it. Saeko, get ready to …"

And that's when I noticed it. Saeko had frozen up again, just like she had the day before.

"Saeko!" I shouted at her.

She gave no response.

Gritting my teeth, I did something I had never imagined myself doing before. I got behind her and wrapped an arm around her neck. It wasn't enough to choke, but just enough to make sure she couldn't move.

"Paul …" she gasped out in surprise.

"Just fucking listen to me," I said firmly. "My bastard of a father deserved every single fucking hit that you gave him! And you know what? Hearing you say you enjoyed it so much made me happier than you can believe, because that means you're at the very least as messed up as me, and I never thought I'd find someone like that! I've admired you for so long, Saeko, and damn it, I don't care if it seems too early to say something like this, but I love you, sadism and all! And if you plan on dying here, then book the train to hell for two, because I'll happily die with you!"

For a few moments I didn't even register the sounds the dead were making. All was quiet.

"Understood," Saeko said quietly. "You can let go now. I'm fine."

I released her from my grip and, almost immediately, she unsheathed her sword and charged forward. She took her sword to the zombies, chopping off heads where she could but not discriminating. Severed heads and other limbs flew everywhere. Zombies were chopped up in every way they could be chopped up, and it was an absolute bloodbath.

"It's almost too much!" Saeko yelled from within the carnage. There was definitely a note of bliss in her voice.

It took less than ten minutes in all. She had killed every single one of them in one of the bloodiest fights I had ever seen, and not one of them ever got the chance to lay so much as a hand on her.

"Holy shit …" I said. I was in awe of how many of them she had killed in so brutal a fashion … and even slightly aroused, to tell you the truth.

I shook that thought out of my head. Now really wasn't the time. "Come on," I said, walking forward. "Let's go."

"Paul," she said, and I turned back around to face her. She stood right in front of me, a small smile on her face. "You … you meant what you said, right?" She sounded oddly insecure.

I smiled at her. I placed a hand under her chin, lifted her head, and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Why would I lie?" I asked when we separated.

And from then on, all we had to do was walk. The zombies that came to the shrine seemed to be a lone group, because we encountered very few on the way to Taiei Shopping Town. As a matter of fact, there were so few that we were able to just walk there with no troubles.

When we finally reached the tall, imposing building that was the local mall, I had an arm around Saeko's shoulder and she had an arm around my waist.

Despite the end of the world, I was happy.

Well, Constant Readers, it's been almost a year since you've seen a new chapter for this, so I am very happy to have finished this. I'm extraordinarily happy that I've finally written out this chapter because I've had the entire shrine sequence in my head since I started writing the story – hell, even before that, when I was merely in the planning stages. I do apologise if the events seem almost exactly like what happened in canon, but it was necessary to reach the really juicy part of the chapter. I did my best to have Paul make things as different as I could.

Now, this'll be the last you see of this story for a while. I'm going to work on another chapter of my Persona story after this, then I'm releasing a whole new story for Sword Art Online. I'm doing the editing for my stories, releasing a new chapter for each of them to show they're not dead, releasing a chapter of my Persona story since it's my main project, and then release a new story. When all the stories are edited and updated, and all the new stories are released, the results of the poll on my profile page will dictate what story I focus on alongside my Persona story, so please vote if you haven't already.

Once again, I apologise to those of you who can't review. I would suggest doing what I suggested in the beginning Author's Note.

See ya!