A/N: Well, this came out of a comment on the Extra Species Appreciation Forum. I originally wasn't planning to write this, but I was waiting for my beta reader to finish up editting Chapter 12 of Spokes of Life and I started on this. A week and a few extra days later and this was done. The purpose of this story is to give a solo pairing story for every girl I can. There will be no harems, though their might be a three way for one plot. Each pairing will get hopefully three Chapters of similar size to this one and they may or may not share reality elements and some will not have Kimihito as the male lead. Note that in this will not be taking over for Spokes of Life on my end, it will instead be wrote inbetween chapters when I find myself waiting for longer periods.

I started with what I think will be one of the harder arcs to write that this story will cover. Now without further ado, Kimihito x Zombina Part 1!

Disclaimer: I do not own Daily Life with Monster Girl, or any other anime that characters or references may show up from/be alluded to.

Chapter 1: Meeting and Dating with Zombie Girl

Libido Doujin was a rather popular store, though 90% of its clientele would probably die of embarrassment if anyone they knew caught them there. Even if the internet had cut into its business rather drastically the store still managed to bring in enough hard to find doujin that it attracted readers from across the city.

In fact, it had only gotten more popular since the reveal of Liminals to the world. It was a few months after the initial announcement, and the deluge of doujin related to the fact that monster girls and boys had been revealed to actually exist finally started to arrive.

One of these readers attracted by the new content was Kimihito Kurusu, a rather average looking, if rather fit, man in his early twenties. He never liked coming to the place, but with his parents gone for god knows how long, a good amount of allowance from said parents, and a general boredom between classes at the trades school had made it hard to resist the siren's call of the new material. Unfortunately he was having some trouble finding it at the moment. 'Already read, already read, don't want to read...'

Kimihito wasn't sure how it was possible that there was entire bookshelfs full of doujin comics and so many of them were dreck. Yet he kept checking in, looking for the diamonds in the rough every time he made the trip down here, so he needed at least something to show for it before he left, otherwise it would be boring as sin at his family's near empty home. Moving deeper into the store he missed hearing the door chime, not that it would have helped if he did, because Kimihito had picked a bad day to come to the store.

BAM BAM BAM

The sound of gunfire ringing through the store very quickly caught Kimihito's attention, and he darted out of the aisle he was in just in time to both see a group of large and for the most part rather imposing orcs wielding assault rifles, and to hear their leader make his opening statement.

"Sorry to cut in, fellow purveyors of the art of doujin, but this is now a hostage situation!" The orc snorted nonchalantly.

One of the other otaku in the store piped up. "W-What why are you doing this?"

"To get the voice of orcish nerds everywhere heard!" The largest orc said with a laugh, before directing his minions forward. "Now tie 'em up, boys! We got some posters to put up."

**ISoaN**

Why couldn't orcs just complain on the internet like civilised people?

Kimihito wasn't sure, but he reckoned that hostage situations weren't supposed to be about hentai. He was also fairly sure the hostage takers weren't supposed to spend most of the situation looking at porn while everyone else was tied up behind the main counter. Really it had been stressful for the first hour or so, but now it was rather surprisingly boring for him and the other four guys and clerk that had been in the store at that moment.

For some reason only the clerk had actually been gagged.

"So, what do you guys do for work?" One of the other guys asked as the boredom became too much to stand.

"Hey, don't go talking over there or we'll start using our socks to gag you guys." One of the orcs said and that very quickly shut up any potential conversation. The orcs smelled bad enough where they were, being near their socks would likely be deadly.

Unfortunately that only lasted for a little while, before one of the other otaku got bored again. "Well, what is your guys favourite monster girl?"

"Slime." Said one.

"Centaur." Said another.

"Hey! Didn't I tell you guys to shut it back there!" Came the orcs voice again and one of the large porciones walked around the counter and glared down at them, though it was rather hard to tell through the orcs ridiculous bowl cut like hairdo. Then the liminal oinked and his expression lightened as he said. "Though everyone knows mermaids are the best."

"Mermaids are cool, too." The otaku beside Kimihito nodded. Not exactly wanting to say no directly to the gun wielding orc.

"They're beautiful, but I just can't buy into any of the scenarios you can get with them."

"I thought so, too, but check out this great doujin series, 'Tears Don't Fall Under The Ocean', that deals with that amazingly. It's as touching as it is touching." He snorted cheerily. "I'm serious, go find it if you get the chance."

"Isn't the guy behind that one normally a slime girl fan?"

Kimihito, on the other hand, just kept silent. He couldn't believe the conversation around him was happening in the middle of a hostage situation for crying out loud. Still he was hoping his silence would avoid getting him pulled into the inane conversation and into the attention of the orc. Unfortunately that didn't work to well, as he felt the barrel of the gun poking his shoulder. "Hey, you a mute or something? You're the only one that hasn't given their opinion other than that guy." He jerked the gun toward the gagged clerk.

"No, I just only come here occasionally." Kimihito said with a straight tone. Then he lied through his teeth. "And I usually don't pick up monster people stuff."

"Waah-" The orc started, before being cut off.

"Stubbs, stop talking with the hostages!" Barked the leader orc. "I can smell those cops out there are planning something. They're up on the roof now but they'll be here soon enough."

The orc scarpered off at the shout of his boss, leaving Kimihito and the others to sit there again. Though the black haired young adult wasn't really feeling like just staying there silently now, and slowly shuffled to the edge of the counter so that he could see out.

It was a few minutes of watching the lead orc slowly get closer as he watched the roof, sniffing occasionally. Eventually the mohawk pig grinned and said. "There you are." Before pointing his rifle at the ceiling and fired, blowing holes in the tiles until it collapsed in a cloud of dust and an injured woman. The sight caused Kimihito to recoil and strain against his bindings a bit.

"Hey there little spy, thought you could peek in on us?" The lead orc said as he stomped closer to the downed girl.

"Uuugh, h-how did you find me?!" The downed girl said as she tried to roll over onto her back.

Pointing at his nose the orc boss said. "Guess your boss didn't tell ya we can smell anyone within a kilometer of us."

"You fucking disgusting pigs with your odour fetish!" The woman shot back as she finally finished her roll, only to get a rifle barrel pointed at her chest.

"Too bad you had to have such a foul mouth. Hate to kill such a pretty girl." The leader said, before pulling the trigger and unloading god knows how many rounds into the woman. As soon as his gun clicked dry he pulled out his phone and wandered back deeper into the store along with the rest of his gang.

The whole incident had ticked Kimihito something fierce, the bastard orc leader had just flat out murdered someone in cold blood and everyone outside and in here was useless. He had gotten so pissed was that it took him to notice that he had broken the rope that bound his arms, and none of the orcs were looking his way as he scrambled the few feet to the downed girl.

Kimihito wasn't sure what he was looking for when he got to the girl, she had dozens of bullet wounds and there was no way he could possibly help, but he felt he had to try something. "H-Hey, if you're still there hold on. The police are sure to do something soon." He muttered mostly to himself as he tried to figure if she was even still alive or not.

The more he looked though the more something seemed off. The fluid draining out of her onto his hands wasn't warm, infact it was cold and smelled very odd, almost noxious. Looking closer, he saw that the girl's goggles seemed to cover up stitches, very crude ones all considering. Either the girl had gone through a very large and very poor reconstruction surgery at some point, or something was up.

Then the girl gave a small grin and one eye winked at Kimihito, a quiet. "Don't worry, we got this. Now get back there and we'll have this done in a minute or two."

If Kimihito hadn't frozen up out of terror at the sudden movement from the supposed corpse, he would have given away the deception. As it was though he managed to get his calm before anyone noticed and by the time he was collected the girl was back to looking dead.

Almost wondering if he had imagined the whole thing, Kimihito quickly shuffled back behind the counter just before the orc leader came back, dragging a small girl that Kimihito thought looked very very out of place in a store like this. The orcs on the other hand seemed to be too distracted with her appearance to notice such a discrepancy.

Seeing the dead looking girl on the ground, the new girl took off like a lightning bolt and tore the curtains from the window, just a moment before she got caught by the orc leader again. Kimihito practically broke from behind the counter again when the leader started to molest the girl.

In fact, he suddenly realized that he had just run out from behind the counter with a fist raised.

Just a second before his fist made contact with the back of the closest orcs head, gunfire tore through the walls and in a shower of parts and plaster, destroyed the guns of every liminal in the building. Though before the orcs could exclaim about that, Kimihito's fist made contact with all the power he had within him.

The result was one orc being smashed hard enough that their was almost a noticeable dust cloud from the impact, and the pigman was thrown through the window of the store. Crashing to the ground with an audible thump as silence hung in the room for a minute as the orcs and the girl stared at him and he just stood there awkwardly.

Then the wall exploded and a giant came through the resulting hole and flattened two of the orcs like they were empty cardboard boxes. Then while the dust was still everywhere, the giant said turned to the captured otaku. "Let's get you guys out of here."

Kimihito on the other hand was pushed out the hole in the window and into the waiting arms of a bunch of cops by the girl the orcs had found.

**ISoaN**

It was only a few minutes later when the situation was completely finished. The orcs were getting pulled out by the giant of a woman, while the 'dead' girl from before came out of the doujin store with her top barely on for some reason. Though the barely clothed state she was in did give everyone a rather good show of the many many bullet holes in her body.

Kimihito also had to admit, that if it wasn't for all the... whatever it was... flowing out of her. The woman was definitely not someone he would mind looking at more regularly, or just getting to know. Though he really didn't feel he had the courage to go walk up to the girl as she came into the now dispersing police cordon. Luckily for him, he didn't have to.

As Kimihito sat there wrapped in a shock blanket and his punching arm in a sling, he noticed the girl was walking his way with a large grin on her face. A grin that now showed a large amount of rather pointed teeth. "Heya kid, nice arm you got there. Not many people can slug an orc and make an impact."

Kimihito wasn't exactly sure how he classified as a 'kid', given the woman didn't look that much older than him, though, judging by how she took those bullets, she might just be immortal or something. Rubbing the back of his head with his good arm, he said. "Paid for it with brain cells though. I think I did more damage to myself then the orc…"

"Heh, well it worked out but I wouldn't do that again if I was you. Amazed you didn't break half the bones in your arm with that one. Still though no need to be humble, you did more than any of the other guys in there tried to." The woman said as she slugged his good shoulder before pulling back and offering her hand. "Either way, name's Zombina, thanks for showing some concern in there."

"Kimihito Kurusu. And well, it wasn't like I could just stand by and do nothing. Though, I guess you didn't really need any help." Kimihito said as he shook the girl's hand, only just now noticing he still had a good amount of, embalming fluid if he had to take a guess based off her name, on his hand.

The girl's grin grew even wider. "It's the thought that counts. Though it might make you feel better to know that you're the first person I can actually remember doing something like that when I got hurt."

Kimihito's embarrassment grew further at that, and that only seemed to increase the girl's enjoyment as she continued. "Heh don't go looking like that. Where's the manly persona from the store? You had such a determined look on your face in there it nearly made me blush. Anyways, nice meeting you Kimihito, hope I get to see you around in the future."

With a wave the girl turned and went back to her group, and Kimihito could swear he saw a bit of a sway in her hips as she did. Writing the whole thing off as he was likely to never actually see the girl again, Kimihito shrugged and waited to be allowed to head home.

Though Kimihito didn't know how wrong he was about meeting Zombina again, he especially didn't realize he was going to be proven wrong in less than a week.

**ISoaN**

Kimihito was in his garage trying to make some repairs to his scooter. The wheels needed replacing and the handles some tuning for sharp turns. When he was finally done, he wiped some sweat from his forehead with a cloth and beamed at the finished product. He'd been working on this scooter, big enough for two, for over a week on-and-off, and after his repairs it now looked like it were fresh from the shop. The beaming smile on his face shined almost as much as the polish on the front; it'd be great to take it for a ride. He'd even added a horn to it, just for fun. When he bent over to honk it, he was thrown off by how it sounded nothing like a horn...then he realised he'd heard his doorbell instead. He had guests, it seemed! Kimihito took a minute to wipe his hands off on a cloth, but during that time the doorbell was rung loudly and childishly as if that would make him come faster., provoking a shout of "I'll be there in a moment!" to rise up through the house toward the door.

He wasn't sure if whoever was there heard him or not, but the pace of the ringing reached a speed that he was sure would cause his bell to break. Abandoning the rag, he moved quickly to the door and opened it, expectations of an pushy salesman in his mind. What he got instead was one familiar looking stitched up face, along with a similarly patterned girl attached to it.

"Took ya long enough! It's not polite to keep a lady waiting you know." Zombina said with a smirk that showed off her shark like teeth.

To say Kimihito was confused would be an understatement, and his slack jawed look of confusion was about in line with his equally non functioning mind at the moment, which is why the first words out of his mouth were an eloquent. "Uhhh….hello?"

"And now you're not even inviting me in." The zombie girl said with a teasing grin. "Maybe I was wrong about you. Thought you'd be all polite after you tried 'saving' me back in that shop."

Kimihito shook his head, clearing out the cobwebs of confusion that had taken over. "Sorry about that, just wasn't really expecting visitors today, or to ever see you again really."

"Heh, I was bored and today's my day off, decided I might as well stop by and see if you're any fun to hang around with."

Stepping to the side and waving Zombina in to his house, Kimihito took a moment to realize what Zombina said."Wait, how did you even figure out where I live?"

"I work for the government." The redhead replied like it answered everything, leaving Kimihito to hunch over in dismay for a moment before he picked himself back up.

As the redhead walked past him into the hall of his home, Kimihito couldn't resist looking just a bit. For someone who had died at some point, Zombina was looking very good, sporting large breasts, wide hips, a slim stomach, and most importantly for Kimihito, she had mile long legs only enhanced by short jean shorts she was wearing. All in all she had a well proportioned body most girls would kill for, if she wasn't already dead that is.

"Would you like some tea or something? I don't really have anything prepared."

"Ehh, I can't actually drink anything. Nothing is really moving in here." Zombina tapped her body. "And I'm not really planning to stay around here for very long either. Just wanted to drop by to get to know you a bit better."

"Well then. Umm, feel free to sit anywhere." Kimihito said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

Zombina quickly took up the entirety of the couch, and gave a whistle. "Nice place you got here, wouldn't think a bachelor could afford something like this."

Sitting down in one of the chairs in his living room, Kimihito chuckled to himself. "They couldn't, it's my parents place, they just never come home so it might as well be mine."

"Ohh? What do they just go on vacation a lot?"

"More or less, they work as high profile food critics so they end up touring all over the world. They haven't been home in two years at this point." Kimihito had to admit with some hostility in his tone. He might have been more reluctant to tell about his absentee parents, but he was still rather thrown for a loop by the sudden appearance of the zombie girl at his house.

Then a balled up piece of paper hit him square on the forehead courtesy of the only other person in the room. "Don't be so serious, ya look like you're about to think yourself into a seizure."

"Well," Kimihito rubbed his forehead. "It's just not very often that I have girls showing up at my house."

"Let me guess, not very often means 'first time ever'?" Zombina said with a sharklike grin.

The ensuing blush and stuttered argument, true ones, to the contrary from Kimihito was more than enough to answer her question and Zombina broke out into rather hearty laughter. Kimihito sported a small frown at himself but mostly the laughter only made Kimihito blush worse from embarrassment.

Once she finally calmed down a bit, she said between dying chuckles. "The look on your face was priceless. Though guess all ya gotta work with then is those doujins from the store you were at?" Zombina resettled herself onto the couch into a terrifyingly provocative pose, not helped at all by the short shorts. The tone of her voice as she continued set it all to near 'apocalyptic nosebleed' levels. "Thinking I'm going to come in here and repay you for that rescue with a bit of fun right?"

"N-Not at all! Seriously!" Kimihito got out, and immediately palmed his face at how dweebish that sounded.

Luckily, Kimihito's hands hid away how he was heading toward tomato levels when Zombina continued. "Ohh, you were! Heh, and here I thought you'd be different then those other otaku in there."

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Kimihito put everything he had into pulling himself together so that he could straight backed and say the truth. "I am being serious Zombina, nothing like that crossed my mind. I am a rare customer to places like that."

Unfortunately, that only seemed to make Zombina start laughing again after staring at him for a second. "Hahahahaha! You looked so serious saying that."

The end result of the most recent fit of laughter was the zombie girl tipping off the couch onto the floor, where she just kept laughing anyways.

It was at this point that Kimihito, for all the patience he believed he had, was beginning to feel rather put out by the whole experience. Given at this point the zombie girl had literally showed up on his doorstep out of nowhere and spent most of the last twenty minutes laughing at him. Still, his legs of patience hadn't broken yet!

Finally Zombina stopped laughing and pulled herself back onto the sofa. Her grin was still firmly in place though as she said. "Well darn, guess I'll have to scrap the plan of seducing you into a puddle right out the gate. Seriously though, I haven't managed to get a laugh like that in years. And the last time I did the person like broke down shouting at me by the halfway point."

Kimihito had to admit, he had gotten pretty close to that point himself, but he didn't bring it up. Instead he just said with a slightly strained grin. "Glad I could be entertaining at least."

"Hey don't be like that, you're good guy for putting up with me like this." Zombina said as she stood up. Stepping toward the door, and past the now starting to stand Kimihito, Zombina added, "but I gotta get going or I'm gonna be late. Nice chatting with ya, and maybe next time you can hunt me down at random instead?"

The zombie girl had a large grin on her face as Kimihito walked her to the door and saw his impromptu guest off. The redhead giving him a mock salute as she reached the edge of the property and turned the corner.

Heading back into the living room, Kimihito planned to take a few minutes to figure out just what the hell happened today, only to notice a small flash card sticking out noticeably from between the pillows of his couch.

Wondering if Zombina had forgotten something he went over to pick it up, and when he took a look at it he ended up flushing red for umptimth time that day.

'Who you going to call?

~Zombina'

On the other side of the card was a phone number and a chibi version of Zombina's face with her seemingly signature sharklike grin.

All in all, it was so absurd that Kimihito couldn't help but say to his empty house.

"I feel like I'm about to lose control of my life."

**ISoaN**

It was two weeks later when Kimihito would finally work up the courage to call the number the zombie girl left behind, and if he was being honest he almost was planning to never do so, thinking it was just a joke.

What drove Kimihito to eventually make the call was that he ended home by himself after a day of classes and was bored enough that he decided that even if it was a joke, it was still better then doing absolutely nothing. Also this way he could finally stop wondering if he was missing out on an opportunity or not.

Dialing the numbers into his phone, he waited for a few moments for the dialtones to start and took in a deep breath, fully expecting for this to go to a joke voicemail or something. Only a small part of him was actually expecting the response he got when the phone was picked up.

"Ello, Zombina here."

"Ahh," Kimihito paused for a moment as he got over his surprise. "It's Kimihito, you left a note in my couch?"

"Took ya long enough Kimihito! Here I thought you'd have called me weeks ago." The zombie girl on the other end said, a joking tone interlacing her words. "Was half thinking you weren't interested in a dead girl like me."

"No no," Kimihito's inherent politeness kicked in. "It was just...I kinda thought it was a joke."

There was a self-conscious mumble on the other end of the line, before a laugh he was starting to get familiar with came over the phone line. Though unlikely last time, it didn't last minutes before it finally stopped. "I guess I could see how it could be seen that way. Was kinda sudden afterall. Though I swear it ain't no joke."

"Well that is a relief." Kimihito said with a sigh. "Though I must admit I did not plan on you actually picking up. So I don't really have anything planned."

Zombina's voice was excited as she said "Heh, I can think of something. Meet me over in the park in half an hour!"

Before Kimihito could reply yes or no, the phone clicked dead. "Well, guess I've got plans for the evening…"

**ISoaN**

Twenty minutes later, Kimihito ended up at the only park of note in the area, figuring it'd be better to early than late. Dressed in an open button up shirt with a T-shirt underneath and jeans, Kimihito thought he looked reasonable enough to show up anywhere. Given what he knew of Zombina he figured it'd likely be best to dress casual.

His intuition proved itself very right when, after sitting beside the fountain in the center of the park for ten minutes that felt like ten hours, Zombina showed up dressed in the same tanktop and short shorts as last time. The only difference was that she had added a bomber jacket to the mix to make up for the colder weather of the encroaching evening.

Wait, did Zombina even feel the cold? Kimihito figured probably not which made the bomber jacket just a stylistic choice. It wasn't like he could say it wasn't a good one though, the jacket hanging off her frame without diminishing it in any way.

"Hey Kimihito! Left you waiting long?" The zombie said as she approached with a wave.

Kimihito shook his head and lied. "Nah, just got here. So, umm, what is the plan?"

"Well, we're going out on a date!" Zombina said without even a hint of pause. The sheer casual way the words were given proved that Zombina was still very adept at throwing Kimihito for a loop.

After a moment to collect his thoughts, again, Kimihito nodded. "Okay then?" It wasn't like he was actually against the idea of a date with the zombie girl, though he had to admit he wished he had a bit more time to get to know the woman. Still, it'd be pretty rude to tell her no now, especially with how eager she seemed to be.

"Great!" Zombina grabbed Kimihito by the arm. "I got just the place in mind!"

Then her hand fell off.

Staring at the detached appendage, Kimihito's eye's glazed over as he thought. 'You know, this isn't as terrifying as I thought it would be. I think...'

Kimihito grabbed the detached hand by the wrist and lifted it up toward the annoyed looking zombie. "...You lost this?"

If anything the look of confusion on Zombina's face outdid the one on Kimihito's. "Wait, you're not freaking out?"

"No? With all those stitches I kinda figure something like this has to happen occasionally." Kimihito said, scratching the back of his neck with...Zombina's hand. "Ahh, do you have a needle and thread, I could sew this back on."

"You can sew?" Zombina said absently as she started to root through her pockets, the shock of a human not freaking out at the sight of her hand detaching still not having worn off yet.

Kimihito nodded. "Yes, I fix all my own clothes and stuff to save on costs."

A minute later, the two were sitting on one of the park benches, with Kimihito just starting the first stitch to reconnect Zombina's hand. Kimihito couldn't help but voice one thought going through his head. "You know how do you actually control your hand if it just can come off like this?"

The flat look he received from the zombie girl almost made him regret asking the question. "I'm the living dead, and you're questioning how my hand works?" Then she looked sheepish. "Though to be honest, I don't actually know. I kinda just work."

"Ahh, well you ever try moving your hand when it's not attached?"

Zombina pouted. "Yeah it doesn't work unfortunately. I can only control parts that are connected to my head. It sucks, I can't go shooting crooks in the back with a detached arm."

Kimihito worked in relative silence for a few minutes, making sure each stitch was right until finally the hand was fully reconnect. "There you go, that all back and working?"

Wiggling her fingers, Zombina had to admit, Kimihito had some skill at this, though she had to wonder if he'd be more freaked out about this if it had been something more important than her hand that had fallen off. That was something for a different time though, for now they had a date to go on.

"Yep, everything's working good, thanks for that. Now let's get going or we'll miss the showtime!"

"Ahh right, I almost forgot that was what we were going to do." Kimihito said with a hint of embarrassment before the zombie girl grabbed her with the newly stitched hand and dragged him along as she sprinted off.

**ISoaN**

'Well, this isn't surprising.' Kimihito thought to himself as he found himself sitting in the theater for a showing of some western zombie movie. They had arrived just in time for the trailers to come to a close and Zombina was sitting beside him looking like she was about to leap into the screen in anticipation.

"Ooohh, I hope this is going to be like the book. I've been waiting for it to get a movie adaption for so long." Zombina said just before the lights finished dimming and the movie began to start.

As far as movies went, Kimihito had sat through worse. He had to admit this was the first time he had ever been able to go to a movie with a girl so that helped a fair bit. Even if he tried to avoid it, he caught himself looking over at the redhead more than a few times throughout the showing, the zombie girl's golden eye practically glowing in the lighting of the theater. It's like it were competing with the movie for his attention - or was that in his head?

Add onto that the amount of skin he was getting to see thanks to Zombina shrugging off her bomber jacket as soon as they had gotten into the theater, and Kimihito was having a very hard time looking away from the entrancing profile of the girl.

His face blanked for a moment when he noticed that thought. 'Does that make me weird? Like what would my parents think? Wait, why the hell do I care what those two think at all? And yeah, she's dead, but so what? She acts like a normal girl. If it wasn't for the stitching everywhere and the fangs, I'd say it would be near impossible to tell her she was a zombie at all.'

As the movie continued, Zombina seemed to lose a bit of interest, a tinge of a disappointed frown coming to her face. Her attention waning from the film, she looked over and noticed Kimihito looking at her, the frown immediately changing into a teasing grin and a bit of an embarrassed blush.

Seeing the human hadn't noticed she'd caught on yet, she twisted a little bit, the preening movement causing Kimihito to blush himself and start to look away. The attempted turn back to the film caused him to see her looking and then he got even more flushed.

"Ahh, so-" He started to say quietly, before Zombina cut him off equally quietly.

"Don't worry 'bout it, it's flattering to have someone actually interested in me for once. Most humans are just disgusted with the whole dead thing you know." The zombie's words were sincere, before they turned teasing again. "Don't think you aren't going to have to take me out a few more times though if you want to get anywhere though."

"Hey, can you two get back to watching the movie? I think the actions about to get going again." A wolfgirl behind them said with an annoyed tone. "If you wanna make out, find another seat so you aren't as distracting to me or something!"

Sufficiently chastised, a blushing Zombina and Kimihito turned back to film, and tried to watch it through till its climax. As the film went on longer, Kimihito was trying to keep his eyes on the film again. It really wasn't that interesting to him. It really didn't help that he could practically feel the stare of the wolfgirl on his back, waiting for him to get distracted again so she could tease him. Really, what was it with monstergirls and the teasing? He didn't even know who the one behind him was and he could tell she'd be merciless if she got the chance.

Zombina was equally bored with the film. It had started off pretty good, but it deviated so far from the source material that it lost her interest fast. Only a few scattered scenes got her attention back as more parts true to the book appeared, but in general she was thinking to herself. A task that was more difficult than it had been before her zombiefication. Only her friends knew that the mild brain damage she had suffered made her usually go with a 'do first, ask questions maybe later' mindset. It was what had caused her to go randomly stop by Kimihito's house in the first place, and to bring him out on this impromptu date.

It was also that same mindset that was telling her she wouldn't mind going out with him again. Infact she would very much like to do so. He had taken her oddities more or less in stride, going along with the flow of her personality and he didn't even freak out when she lost her hand. Also he had actually tried to help her at the store, and had enough strength to lay an orc flat with a single punch. She'd still have to test him a few times more though, make sure he wasn't just really good at hiding his annoyance or disdain at her.

Finally the movie came to a close, much to the relief of both Kimihito and Zombina. The latter was especially vocal about her complaints with the film. "Damn, they had to ruin it! The book was so good and they had to throw practically it all out."

"I have to admit, fast zombies are not really my thing." Kimihito said a bit unsurely, he did always prefer the 'slow' zombie in stories, but at the same time Zombina probably fell somewhere into the fast catagory herself. "They trade tension for action."

"I know! Living dead in movies are so lively these days. It's not that action is bad, but zombie movies are supposed to be about the slow horror of an implacable, innumerable foe!" Zombina started to go on a rant about the state of the horror film genre these days, and Kimihito slipped into polite listening and nodding mode until they eventually ended up at a large apartment building not far from Kimihito's place.

"This is my stop." Zombina said as she noticed where they were. "It was fun." The teasing smirk returned in full force "Loverboy , don't wait two weeks to call again next time okay?"

With a laugh at Kimihito's stunned look at the nickname she had given him, Zombina turned and walked into the building, a genuine smile on her face as she took the elevator to her floor and settled into bed.

Kimihito had a smile on his face too as he walked back to his home. 'Heh, wonder what mom and dad would think if I told them I'm starting to fall for a dead girl. Probably wouldn't even pick up the damned phone but it'd be amusing if they did.'

**ISoaN**

Turned out that it wasn't his parents who Kimihito was going to end up telling about his budding relationship first. It was instead his three friends he'd known all the way through high school. Since they had all gone to gone to different cities or schools after they finished their secondary education, they hadn't all met up as much as they used to, but sometimes they liked to surprise him with random visits. These were some of Kimihito's favourite moments; it was good to keep in touch, even if he wasn't very good at it.

He had his head down in a math textbook, smoke practically pouring from his ears, when his doorbell belted out a jaunty tune that he had long ago associated with his friends arrival. His friends almost always showed up right before dinner but he didn't mind.

Slamming the math textbook shut, just happy to get away from the damned thing, he stood up and called out. "Coming. Just give me a second."

When he pulled open the portal to his house, he was greeted by two males and a single female crowding around the door. The tanned female, who stood in the lead of the trio, bore a resemblance to Zombina in the way she dressed. Shorter than Kimihito she had a rather thin body, a mechanical right arm she'd gotten from an incident a few years back, and a large grin on her face. "Good you're home. I was half worried we were going to come all this way only to miss a meal. Keitaro finally decided to get away from all his girls and remember we exist so I figured we'd get the old band back together for the night."

"Aww, come on, Paninya." The shorter of the two boys behind Paninya said while looking rather awkward. He had messy short brown hair, thick square rimmed glasses, and looked as stereotypical of a nerd as he looked dependable. "They aren't my girl's, I just run the dorm! And it's not like I forgot about you guys, but you barely check your emails and Kimihito doesn't even have a computer."

"Of course I don't. Damned things just break down all the time and that's when I can even get them to work." Kimihito groused.

The taller of the two men, called Kazuto, looked somewhat closer to Kimihito then to Keitaro. He was actually taller then Kimihito, with a somewhat more slender build and rather over greased black hair. Listening to Kimihito's complain he just sighed. "Really, I still can't believe after all my attempts to teach you how to use a computer, you managed to still be unable to figure out how the search bar works."

"Look, you want to come in and leech off my dinner or not? Cause I'm not going to feed any hyped up computer nerds." Kimihito shot back at Kazuto, a hostile look in his eyes for a few moments.

Then Paninya broke out laughing and everyone joined in a moment later. "Yeah, right! Now come on Kimihito, let us in!"

"Fine fine." Kimihito said and let the trio into his home. "All I was planning to do is a new Kraft Dinner recipe so that's what you're getting."

"Ehh, not like we'd ever turn down your cooking. You could make, like, a rock taste good." Keitaro said as he passed. The smaller man pushing his glasses up his nose as he did.

The four had all gone their separate ways after high school, with Kimihito heading to trade school as an mechanical technician, Paninya going into engineering at the local university, Kazuto went to the same university but was taking computer science, and Keitaro had tried to reach high to go to Tokyo University but ended up missing the cut and running a family owned female dorm or something a few towns over. The bespectacled man had insisted that none other than Paninya ever visit him there unless they had their health insurance paid up and Kimihito took that at face value and stayed far away from the place.

Out of the group, Kimihito was the least academically inclined, as while Keitaro had failed to even get into a school, he had only just missed the mark for the most prestigious university in the country and only wasn't in schooling because of his one minded obsession with Tokyo U. He had also left out his math homework for the coming week in plain sight.

"Ooh, let's take a look at that." Paninya's voice echo'd through the house ahead of the group, and Kimihito felt a headache already forming in his head. "Wow, this is really bad Kimi. Seriously, this is like basic stuff here."

Kazuto's voice came next as Kimihito tried to worm his way around a slow Keitaro. "Seriously man, this is atrocious, and why are you doing long division? We have calculators for that, you know."

Finally muscling his way past his diminutive friend, Kimihito practically burst into the room and slammed his hands over the opened textbook. "You guys haven't been in my house for two minutes and you already telling me I'm an idiot. Why do you think I went to trade school!"

"Ya ya, we're just teasing you." Kazuto said as he stepped away from the table. "Though you really should get yourself a calculator, it'd really help."

"I'll consider it, now how 'bout you guys get in the living room and I'll get dinner started?" Kimihito tried and succeeded in shooing his friends out of the room. Though he didn't notice his pocket was lighter than it had been when the door opened.

It would be ten or so minutes later, with the recipe set to cook, that Kimihito would head into the oddly quiet living room. It was odd because his friends usually were a talkative bunch, or at least Kazuto and Paninya were; when they were all together, not even a desire to sleep would be enough to get them to stop talking.

Unfortunately, as soon as he stepped through into the room he could immediately tell this was going to be something bad for him going by the shit eating grin the tanned girl was sporting. "Okay, why are you looking at me like that?"

Paninya wouldn't respond vocally, instead just holding his phone over her head. Prominently displayed on the phone was Zombina's contact spot in his address book. It was Kazuto who spoke up instead. "Sooo, got yourself a girlfriend? Though what's up with the odd name, she one of those really out there girls or something?"

Keitaro gave Kimihito a 'Bad luck bro' look from his own seat even as the other two stared at him with demanding eyes. Kimihito held steady for about twenty seconds before he finally broke down with an explosive sigh before he said. "Not yet."

"Our little Kimihito is finally growing up! Soon it'll just be Keitaro that's the ever-virgin of the group." Paninya said over a squawk of protest from the bespectacled friend. "So what's she like? Also, really, what's with the name?"

"Ahh, well..." Kimihito scratched the back of his neck. "She's pretty nice, very impulsive-"

"Sounds like that crush you had on Paninya back in grade 10 never really left, did it?" Kazuto chimed in.

"Ha, I knew it!" Paninya's head piqued up with a teasing interest and pointed at Kimihito.. "You were always so awkward around me that year!"

Kimihito on the other hand just continued on with only a glare at computer friend for bringing that up. "Regardless, uhh, you guys been following up with the whole Monster people stuff?"

"Yes, some of those monsterboys are real hunks, though they're always paired up already." Paninya said with a pout.

Keitaro, on the other hand, shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Yeah, there's an oni girl at the inn, she's the source of most of my repair bills."

"So it's a monstergirl that's got your eye?" Kazuto said, this time staying on target while the others got distracted. His friends eyebrows narrowed as he thought for a few moments. "With a name like that... she's an undead girl isn't she?"

Kimihito nodded, Kazuto had always been good at spotting things out with little information to go with. "Ya, she's a zombie girl."

Now it was Paninya's turn to look pensive, though she wasn't looking at Kimihito at the moment. "So wait, you want to date a dead girl? Isn't that kinda...weird?"

"Eh? If he likes her I don't see why that'd be a problem, she's up and moving and all that so she's pretty much alive." Keitaro cut in as he saw the rather terrifying look that was starting to form on Kimihito's face at Paninya's words.

Kazuto also saw it, and tried to assist Keitaro in averting the coming storm. "Yeah, I've looked into all the different kinds of monsterpeople. Unless she's an early zombie she's pretty much completely alive anyways. She's just got some extra considerations to worry about."

"Ehh, I still think it's a bit creepy-wah!" Paninya found herself picked out of her chair by the shoulders and carried toward the front door. Realizing she was about to get kicked out she started flailing. "Hey wait, don't do this Kimihito! I'm sure she's not creepy or weird or anything!"

"Wrong choice of words." Kimihito said darkly, and the next moment his tanned friend would find herself sitting in the grass outside his front door. Before Kimihito could shut the door on her though the girl threw a puppydog like look at him.

"I'm sorry Kimihito! I'm sure she's a great girl! It's just hard to tell without meeting her!" Paninya said quickly. "Please don't kick me out! I'm really hungry!"

Kimihtio glared at his friend, but just like before he couldn't hold it for long. His tone wasn't terribly friendly though as he said. "Fine. Come on."

"Yay! Thanks Kimi!" Paninya lept off the ground and ran in. "Though you realize now you have to let us meet your little girlfriend, just to prove me wrong right?"

"Ya I'll get on that, as soon as I can actually work myself up to ask her." Kimihito said, the anger linking out of his tone with each word. "Now come on, dinner should be just about ready."

Thankfully the night was so merry that Kimihito wouldn't feel the need to toss anyone out again.

**ISoaN**

It was a few days after his friends visit when Kimihito would call up the zombie that was getting his heart going. The trades student even had an idea where to go, not that he told Zombina about the plan beforehand, just that she should meet him in the park again. So as it was he now found himself walking alongside one redheaded dead girl who was going on about another day at her work.

"The bastard claimed he was shooting a documentary, but he was really just taking the footage and selling it to porn studios! To add onto that, he was taking stuff like a harpy's egg and trying to sell it on the blackmarket." Zombina's voice was tinted with righteous anger at the person she only described as 'The Director' that her group had captured just yesterday.

Apparently they had received a tip from a family that had 'sold' their homestay to him because they were terrified of the arachne they had gotten assigned, though they later came to regret their decision and thus the tip. Going off that they had found the guy and busted him, and it turned out that while the Arachne hadn't been abused, she had her opinion of humans rather ruined and demanded to be sent home.

"At least he's locked away now, right?" Kimihito put in his comment into Zombina's at this point ten minute long rant.

"Yeah, and with all the stuff the judge is gonna slap him with, he's probably going to be in jail for the rest of his life, so there's that at least. Still, I can't believe someone would sell their homestay like an item. Even if they regretted it later they should have gotten a big ass fine or a bit of jail time or something!"

Kimihito had to agree there. The fact that the spider girl's hosts had gotten off scot free in the end due to the incomplete laws rankled him too. Still though, they were quickly approaching the destination he had in mind, and Zombina seemed to be catching onto that.

"Hey, where are we going anyways? You never did say and we've been walking for a while." The redhead said as she looked sidelong at Kimihito and tried to scope out a place nearby.

Kimihito grinned a bit at the look he was getting. "Yep I didn't say, thought it'd be better if it was a surprise. Don't worry, though, it's only a few minutes from here."

"Hmmm." Zombina pouted at Kimihito, before she pouted. "Come oo~on, tell me."

"You just have to wait, like, five minutes…"

The pout doubled. "Come oo~oooon."

"It's just around the corner!"

"Come ooooooooooon!"

"There, just look in front of you!" Kimihito said as the zombie girl's pout reached critical mass, grabbing her cheeks between his hands and turning her attention back to the front.

As he watched, Kimihito could practically see Zombina's eyes starting to glow at the sight of the date location. He wasn't really sure how she had missed hearing about it before, but judging by her reaction she definitely hadn't.

"Ooh my god! I thought this wasn't supposed to be coming here this year!" Zombina said as she practically jumped at the sight. "Come on, we got no time to waste!"

And so the zombie girl grabbed Kimihito by the hand and dragged him off once more, this time into the convention hall they had ended up in front of. The building sporting a large 'Zombie-con' banner over the front today.

**ISoaN**

After paying for both his own and Zombina's tickets, Kimihito found himself getting dragged throughout the large convention center. The pair passed everything from movie and book panels, to new video games, to costume contests filled with people in makeup and ragged clothes.

The entire time Zombina was practically like a kid in the proverbial candy store, focusing on one thing only long enough to drag Kimihito to it before she got distracted by something else. Each new stand that took her attention threatened to dislocate Kimihito's arm as he was jerked all over the place.

Yet despite that, he didn't mind. For one, Zombina was having a blast, and two, he actually found half the stands interesting. Especially two stands that offered 'Fit for a Zombie food.' That was actually directed at undead monster people, though he had a hard time getting Zombina to stay still long enough for him to grab a recipe book from the tables.

After that he had fun watching Zombina enter into one of the costume competitions. She nearly managed to take the victory before the judges figured she was an actual zombie and she ended up disqualified, though she got a consolation prize in the form of a Dawn of the Dead poster.

From there it was on to a near endless gallery of zombie games, with Zombina apparently having absolutely no qualms with blasting her virtual counterparts. Indeed she seemed to take to the games like a fish to water and played with obvious long practice. Kimihito on the other hand, never really one for games that weren't on the Wii, had a much more difficult time of it and served more to drag down the zombie girl then to help. Zombina didn't seem to mind though, and kept pulling him to new games every time they lost at one.

The night began to wander on, and as it went the pace they moved at slowed as they began to sit in at panels and movie showings. Even when seated, Zombina didn't let go of Kimihito's hand, either because she forgot she was doing it, that she found the warmth the living human gave off almost too good to pass up on, or some mix of both. Indeed, as the night wore on she found herself leaning more and more against the human that put up with her fangasming over the zombie-con.

Kimihito certainly wasn't going to comment on how by the fourth evening panel they had made it to, Zombina had practically molded herself to his shoulder. Though he couldn't help but yawn a bit at the panel itself. It was nearly 11 PM and he had classes in the morning, but he wasn't about to make the redhead girl stop having fun.

Zombina noticed Kimihito's yawn, and couldn't help but replicate it herself. While the panel was interesting, they'd been at the con for nearly eight hours now, and she had been moving at full pace nearly the whole time. "Hey, are you tired?" Zombina looked over with a knit eyebrow.

"Whuh? No, no." Kimihito shook himself awake, then forcefully suppressed another yawn.

"I've had a great day so far, you know. If you're tired,like you living people get, it's okay if we head some place else."

Kimihito wasn't sure how to react to that. "I won't lie, I would like to head home. I'm having a good time, but tomorrow's another day, y'know?"

"I know. Let's just wait for a pause in the talking and we can go." Kimihito replied with a nod, and in five minutes' time the two were heading out of the building and back toward Zombina's apartment. Kimihito had to admit, out in public he felt a bit more awkward about having the zombie girl practically hanging off his arm, but that was only because he got a few jealous looks from the few other guys that were out that night.

The only exception was one glare that set him on edge, from a rather ugly looking man that was out with his girlfriend. It really wasn't so much of a glare as it was a mocking and disproving looking. Zombina noticed it too, and unfortunately the pair were on the same side of the sidewalk they were on.

"Hey would you look at that? It's a rotten girl." Came the voice of the guy as they got closer. He pinched his nostrils shut as he snickered snidely. "Don't get how you can stand to be around her, bro, what with the stench the dead's got to be giving off."

"Hahaha, good one beau! Look at those stitches, she looks like a bad quilt." Said the girl, quickly proving herself to be as equally as much of an asshole as her boyfriend.

Zombina looked like she was about to pop a vein, which would be bad for everyone involved given the formaldehyde running through her bloodstream. "Hey, what the hell are you saying about me!"

"Ahh ahh ah, dead girl!" The guy said as he stepped in front of his girlfriend and waggled a finger in Zombina's face before flicking her on the forehead, ignoring the literal fangs being barred by the zombie girl. "You can't touch me, or you'd get sent back to the grave you came from."

Zombina was about to tell him how she'd likely get off with it given who she worked for, but before she even got a chance to, she felt the air displace beside her. Noticing Kimihito moving, her frown turned to a grin in a second as the black haired man's fist flew forward with all the strength he had unleashed on that orc before. The meaty thwack of fist meeting face would sound out through the street a moment before the force would actually be applied and the man's visage would practically deform for a single moment more.

Then he went back flying about five feet and took his girlfriend with him, leaving them both collapsed in an unconscious heap.

"Those two need to learn basic politeness." Kimihito said as he held his punching hand, looking as if he hadn't just punched the lights out of two people with a single thrown fist.

"Heh." Zombina started laughing at how 'normal' Kimihito made what just happen look. "Hehehehehe." A moment later the zombie girl was almost rolling on her back in laughter, only barely being able to keep walking forward as she did. "Ohh god Kimihito, that was great! The look on that guy's face as he flew away. How did you even learn to punch like that?"

"Ahh, well, I kinda got really bored a few years back, and I took up some boxing to help kill time. I figured it wasn't for me, even though the trainer said I had a mean right hand."

"Maybe I'll have to see that for myself. I haven't had a good chance to fight someone of a normal size in a while." Zombina said with a big grin, practically bouncing in her step as her energy seemingly returned after watching that scene.

Kimihito on the other hand looked a bit terrified at the possibility of getting into a boxing match with a woman that couldn't feel pain and had no restrictions on how much she could work her muscles. Even if he thought himself durable, that was a recipe for a thrashing right there. "I'd be up for it, but I think I'd have to train a bit more to have a hope to keep up with you."

"Eh, I was mostly joking." Zombina waved it off and grabbed his hand again. "Though guess I should be thanking you again for saving me from a big bad villain of the day." The way she said it left Kimihito feeling more embarrassed than proud or anything.

"I figured you could deal with it yourself but this saves you some legal trouble." Kimihito said as he tried to cover for himself a bit.

His awkwardness only caused Zombina to break down laughing once more. "Don't ever change, loverboy, I'd be disappointed if I lost out on all the laughs you give me."

Kimihito mentally gulped, steeling himself as he reached out and wrapped an arm around the zombie girl's shoulder. "D-Don't worry I won't. I'd be just as bored if I drove you off."

Zombina tried to look serious for a moment, but with a 'pfft' she broke down laughing again, even as she laughed though there was a blush on her face. When she finally calmed down though she said. "Guess that means I can look forward to another outing with you again?"

"Y-Yeah." Kimihito rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. If she was that interested, then he suddenly had a bold thought rushing from his heart to his head. One that he was afraid to follow up on...but why not?

"Hey Zombina, w-would you like to actually...actually go steady?"

Zombina's blush grew drastically at that, and she went quiet for a bit. In fact it was a fair bit longer then a 'bit' as she was silent till they finally got outside of her apartment building. Kimihito, meanwhile, spent the whole time sweating bullets as he waited for a reply, stopping himself each time he thought to blurt out that she didn't have to. Eventually that answer came in the form of a question. "You're serious? You're willing to actually have a zombie girl for a girlfriend?"

"Yah." Kimihito said, his voice serious. "Really I don't even see a zombie girl with you, Zombina. You act like a normal girl, you look like a normal girl other then the stitches, and it's not like you're trying to eat my brains. So ya, I'd like to have you as a girlfriend."

Again a bit of silence, but it was much shorter than last time. With a oddly shy smile for her, Zombina said. "Okay then, you can go tell all your friends that you're now dating a dead girl." Stepping up on her tiptoes a bit she gave Kimihito a cute kiss on the cheek. "Seeya soon then, loverboy!"

With that she darted off into her building, though just before she went inside she turned and shouted back at Kimihito. "Oh, and wash that off before you do anything, if it gets in your mouth you might become a zombie too!"

With that she disappeared inside, and left an elated Kimihito to head home and wash that cheek off before he went about planning their next date.

**ISoaN**

After the date at the zombie convention, Kimihito and Zombina met up frequently, usually for no more than an hour or two, just wandering around town or going to a new movie. Occasionally they'd meet up for a longer date, like a visit to a regular anime convention, or just a day in town doing various things. After each date the rather unusual pair got closer as couples do. On Zombina's own insistence things had been kept rather chaste between the two to avoid risking a potential zombiefication incident.

The other thing that had started to happen much more regularly was Zombina showing up at the human's house most days after her shift ended to join in on the dinners he made. Even with his prodigious cooking skills, the first time he had tried to cook from the recipe books he had picked up at the convention had been a near disaster. Mainly because cooking for a girl that only had some parts still working was a rather unusual task.

First off all the foods involved had to biodegrade easily enough, even though surprisingly enough zombies had very strong 'digestive' systems, even if they got no energy out of eating, entirely in the form of very potent bacteria that broke down just about anything they ate. The only problem was that the bacteria could not handle heavily processed foods very well. Zombies also still had functioning tastebuds, so it couldn't just be tasteless gruel.

The book stressed that zombies very much needed to persist in the practice of eating normal food, as it helped them maintain a link to their pre zombie personalities and kept them from potentially regressing into a dangerous state out of hunger. It was also why most of the recipes in the book called for things like headcheese to be included as while it rarely contained actual brains, it turned out just 'stuff from the head' worked well enough, even if it wasn't from a human.

Kimihito had to admit, he didn't think there was that many things someone could do with the odd European meat, but he had been proven very wrong ever since he had started dating Zombina seriously.

Today, though, as Kimihito was cooking a new meal in preparation for Zombina's arrival, he received a text from the zombie woman. 'Rest of team coming, throw together extras.'

"Huh, well, guess I can put some more together." Kimihito muttered to himself as he headed into the fridge and pulled out some more ingredients. Including at least a few non-zombie food items depending on the other girls tastes. He had heard from his girlfriend more then enough about the other girls to have some idea about them, and he quickly quadrupled his planned meal sizes given the ogre in the group that would be showing up.

The whole time though he had to admit he felt rather nervous, mostly because the way Zombina went on about her teammates they were practically a family to her. Infact he was fairly sure that their was a hidden underline to the dead girl's text, to be on his best behavior because he was about to be shown off to a bunch of sisters.

Kimihito just managed to put on the finishing touches for the veritable feast he had thrown together when he heard the doorbell ring, multiple times, in quick succession. A sure sign as any about the presence that the rather excitable zombie was on the other side of the doorway.

"Hold your horses, Zombina, I'm coming!" He shouted as he headed for the door and was shortly thereafter given his first sight of the rest of the 'MON' team in a more casual setting. In the case of the one human among the group and what looked to be a small girl that was hiding behind a large hat even though it was evening it was his first time seeing them ever.

"Took ya long enough!" Zombina said with a large grin on her face as she slipped in through the door and leaned on Kimihito's shoulder. "Kimihito," She waved toward the rest of the group at the entryway. Starting with the large one, then to a tanned girl he had briefly seen at the store, then to the small girl and finally to the human. "Tio, Dopple, Manako, and Ms. Smith. Everyone, this is Kimihito."

"Ahh, this is the guy that's trying to restart our Zombina's heart?" Ms Smith said as she sized him up over the sunglasses she was wearing, at night. "Not too bad. Bit average looking though."

"I think they look adorable together." Tio said as she bent down to look through the doorway.

The tanned girl looked utterly uncaring about the human male. "Can we get to the food now? I'm hungry."

Meanwhile the girl with the hat only gave a barely hearable. "Nice to meet you." Before hiding behind Ms. Smith.

All in all Kimihito thought it was an okay first impression. "Nice to meet you all. Dinner's ready, so if you all come in, I'll show you to the table and we can get started in just a moment."

"Don't worry, I can show them to the table." Zombina said, then gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Just go and start bringing in food, before Dopple decides to go all Cthulhu horror on us."

"Heh, will do." Kimihito said with a grin and turned to head into the kitchen while he heard Zombina attempt to herd the others into the dining room. It seemed Tio was causing a blockage as she apparently squeed over the little scene there if the noises coming from the hallway were anything to go by. By the time he had gotten washed up a bit and started bringing out the food everyone had finally made it to the table, Tio had to drag the couch over but at least she wasn't breaking it so it was fine.

It seemed Zombina wasn't kidding about her friend though, because as soon as Kimihito set the first plate down he was nearly stabbed by Dopple's fork, apparently the girl hadn't ate recently or something given the way she was attacking the food before he could even get it all set up. Everyone else was quick to get in on it too as they tried to get their shares before it was all gone, and by the time he finally sat at the table he was practically taking the leftover scraps.

"Don't worry, saved you some extras." Zombina grinned at him as she saw his crestfallen face at the prospect of barely getting to eat. A moment later the zombie girl pushed a quarter of her overfilled and untouched plate onto his and gave him a wink. "Just don't let any of the others steal it from you okay?"

After that, everyone quietly tucked into their meals. Though as the piled high plates dwindled to nothing, the conversation began to restart. Mostly in the form of Ms Smith sending questions his way.

"So what do you do for a living?"

"Where do you go to school?"

"How do you afford a house this big?"

Easy enough questions to answer really. Then came one that was a bit harder.

"Aren't you a bit old to still be living with your parents?"

"Hey!" Kimihito shot back defensively, unable to let that one slide.. "I don't really live with my parents, given they haven't even been home in so long. Really it's like I own the house at this point. I just don't pay rent or taxes."

"So you live with your parents still." The coordinator said with a teasing smirk and Kimihito quickly stopped talking as he realized he would only dig himself a bigger hole.

The really awkward question though came from Tio, well not so much awkward as very embarrassing to answer in front of everyone.

"What made you end up falling for our little zombie?"

Kimihito had just been starting to stutter out his answer when Zombina clamped a hand over his mouth. "That's a bit too personal, Tio!"

"Aww, but I want to know! You two looked adorable at the door and I want to know how it happened!"

"Not a chance," Zombina said as she stood up from the table and struck a pose. "If you want to get that answer you at least got to take us out somewhere first!"

A small sigh came from Kimihito, not that it was heard by anyone. It seemed Zombina's urge to get free stuff extended to her interactions with her other friends too. Still he couldn't find the stance the dead girl had taken anything but adorable, given she was pointing a finger across the table and practically touching the ogre's nose.

"Fine." Tio said with a pout, and from there the conversation got less inquisitive. General tale telling taking over most of the night until eventually long after the table had been cleaned off, everyone started to leave, though for some reason Zombina was looking rather shy as only she and Ms Smith stayed behind while the rest of the girls went to put on their shoes.

For the second time that night Kimihito felt like he was being summed up in a few seconds by the long haired woman. Though while the last time she had been somewhat teasing, this time she seemed very serious. "Hmm, Kimihito? You seem good enough for Zombina here, but there's a big question hanging here that I don't know if you even know about."

Kimihito wracked his brain for a moment, before sparking onto what he thought might be what she was talking about. "You mean about Zombina potentially moving in in the future if this keeps up?"

"Not." Zombina said, her voice subdued and she poked her fingers together. "In the future, umm I was going to ask today but then everyone else jumped on when I told them I was going to do it. Would you mind?"

Kimihito's response was almost automatic, not even missing a beat. "Of course I wouldn't mind." He meant it, as while they had only been dating for nearly two months he had to admit he had never had as much fun as he had with the zombie girl.

"Good." Ms Smith cut back in, her tone still completely serious. "Then we'll send some documentation over and we can get you set up as an official homestay." Then the aura of seriousness around her dissipated in an instant and was replaced with teasing. "We'll even let Zombina stay here tonight. Though I don't want to hear you two got up to anything funny in the morning, you might be practically safe from legal trouble Zombina but it'd look bad if M.O.N. played fast and loose with the laws."

The blush from the implications nearly turned Kimihito bright red, and Zombina wouldn't be too far behind. It was the latter though that responded first. "Don't worry Kuroko, don't think we're that far along yet anyways."

"Heh. Well then, I'll see you and loverboy over there tomorrow." Smith smirked and left without further words, leaving the still luminescent Kimihito and the less so Zombina behind. A few moments later the door shut and the two were left alone.

"U-Umm. I have m-m-multiple rooms if you want one." Kimihito stuttered out, his courage failing him at the new dynamic.

It really wasn't helped when Zombina practically latched onto him. Her own teasing coming back at the sight of the rather stunned human. "Not a chance I'm missing out on the chance to sleep in a warm bed! Come on, upstairs with you!"

Ten minutes later, and the newly moved in couple were sleeping soundly in Kimihito's bed. Kimihito's slumber was never the better now that he had a girl to hold onto, and Zombina had the first sleep of her unlife where she actually felt like she was alive again. The warmth coming from Kimihito, through both their clothes and being trapped by the blanket, gently sent her to the best sleep she'd had in years.

A/N 2: Thank you for reading to the bottom of the first chapter of this new story. If you feel like contributing to the continuation of this story, feel free to stop by my Profile and vote in the polls (one for 'Easy' to write arc's, one for 'Hard' to write ones) I have put up there for which girl shall be the focus of the next arc.