~ CHAPTER 6 ~

(The Blacksmith Workshop)

Inaba – Saturday – 10.00 AM

"Are you sure we'll be safe here?" Mako asked.

"As long as we don't make too much noise, we will be." Hisa replied.

"How many of them are there now?" Mako asked.

"I can only see four of them from here." Hisa said, turning to the others.

The group had reached the rural town of Inaba. They were hiding in an alley in the middle of the shopping district, staying out of sight from the remaining marauding creatures shuffling around. What used to be a lively town was now dead and deserted. Litters were scattered throughout the streets, few blowing in the death-scented wind. Various abandoned vehicles, some having their doors ajar, clogged up the streets of shopping district. Time around them seemed to have stood still.

"The blacksmith shop is right over there." Yuuichi said, pointing out of the alley and across the street. "If we can just sneak into the store without any of them noticing…"

"I don't think it's safe to do that now." Hisa said, peering out of the alley and looking to her right. "We have four of those things on the left side of the road. They will see us for sure if we sneak into the store. We'll have to wait a while longer. Better be safe…"

Hisa sat herself down on the ground, leaning her back against the outer wall of the pastry store behind her and sighed deeply, thinking of all the good things she would be doing at that time on a normal day. Yuuichi placed his lead pipe on the ground and sat down after Hisa, followed by the others. The group remained quiet. The only sounds they heard were the shuffling of footsteps from the distance and the occasional, mournful moaning of the ghouls. Just then, they heard that loud, distinct sound again.

B-LAAAAM!!!

The gunshot rang out and echoed through the streets. Hisa peered out of the alley, turning her head left and right. She smiled as she saw the ghouls being distracted by the sound. They had their backs turned to her direction, wandering off to find the source of the loud noise.

"Alright." Hisa turned to the others and brought up a thumb. "Now that those things are distracted, this is our chance for getting into the blacksmith shop to get what we need…"

"But we gotta make it fast." Mako said. "They might see us when we're halfway there."

"But we can't make too much noise either." Hisa said, turning her head back to the road. "I have an idea. There are two cars between the blacksmith shop and where we are now. Now, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna sneak across the street quietly and hide behind the first car for a minute and while we're hiding, I'll take a look to see if any of those things are looking into our direction and if they aren't, we'll quietly sneak behind the second car and repeat step one before finally going inside the blacksmith shop…"

"Hmm…" Mako pushed her glasses up. "Well, that sounds like a good idea, President."

"But we still to be cautious, though." Hisa said. "Just follow my lead, stick close to one another, try not making as much noise as possible and everything's gonna be alright…"

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Yuuichi stood up and held on to his lead pipe firmly.

"Alright. Let's do it." Hisa stood up and stretched. Mako and the others stood up after her. "Remember, follow my lead and stick close to one another. We should be safe…"

Hisa peered out of the alley again and looked around. She turned her head to the left. No sign of those creatures. She turned her head to the right. No sign of those creatures again.

"Guys, get behind me in a row." Hisa instructed. Mako stood behind her, followed by Yuuichi, Saki, Nodoka, Yuuki and Kyoutaro, forming a single file. "Let's get moving."

The group cautiously walked out from the alley and into the street. Quickly but quietly, they ran to the right side of the first car, a red Honda Civic, and stopped there. Placing her left hand onto the car hood, Hisa brought her head up and looked to the left side of the street. The same four ghouls were shuffling in the distance, none of them looking into her direction. She turned her head to the second car ahead of her across the street. At least four meters of distance separated the first car and the second.

"Let's go…" Hisa whispered as she made a hand gesture to the others to follow her lead. The group carefully sneaked out from the right side of the Honda Civic they were hiding behind quietly made their way to the second car across the street, a gray Mitsubishi, and hide behind it. Hisa once again brought her head up and looked to her left. The creatures were still shuffling in the distance, again with their backs facing her. Just then, she heard the others behind her gasping in distress. Puzzled, she turned to them.

"What is it?" Hisa asked. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Look…" Mako said and pointed to their right side.

Hisa turned her head to where Mako was pointing and about fifty meters from where her group was, Hisa saw eight creatures shuffling into the street from both intersections, five coming in from the left and three coming in from the right, moaning as they spotted their prey, advancing slowly towards them with their arms outstretched, gnarling their fingers into claws, their faces twisted to rage as they growled in hunger. Hisa turned her head to the left instinctively. The four creatures she saw shuffling in the distance earlier on were now shuffling towards them, being drawn by the growling of the creatures that have just entered the right side of the street. Yuuki started whimpering and huddled herself tightly against Nodoka while the others started to panic. Hisa, however, remained calm despite knowing that they have twelve creatures homing in on them.

"Shit!" Yuuichi cursed under his breath. "This wasn't quite what we've planned…"

"Let's get inside the store now!" Hisa commanded. The group dashed out from the right side of the gray Mitsubishi and headed for the blacksmith shop, which was a few meters ahead of them. Hisa was the first to reach the store, followed by Mako, Yuuichi and Saki. As Nodoka was about to reach the store, however, she tripped over a rock and fell down, landing embarrassingly on her bosoms and scraping her left knee.

"Owww…" Nodoka groaned in pain as she sat herself up, clutching her left knee.

"Nodoka-chan!" Saki gasped as she rushed over to Nodoka, helping her to get up.

"Saki-san…" Nodoka groaned. Saki helped Nodoka put her right arm onto her shoulder, and then lifted her back to her feet. Nodoka walked into the store with Saki's support.

"Are you alright, Oppai-chan?" Yuuichi asked, looking at Nodoka's left knee. A hole was torn in the middle of her left thigh high, exposing her scraped knee, which was bleeding.

"We'll worry about that later!" Hisa said, looking at the ghouls approaching them slowly. "We gotta get in the store now and seal the entrance shut! Come on, let's get moving!"

With the ghouls homing in on their presence, the group quickly entered the blacksmith shop. Yuuichi jumped up, grabbed the handle of the store's rolling shutter tightly, and pulled it all the way down. Saki sat Nodoka down on a stool next to an anvil. Kyoutaro closed the sliding door behind the shutter, and pushing a samurai armor décor against it for extra measure. Hisa walked passed the counter, looking at the vast number of swords hanging on the wall behind it. As she walked on, Hisa noticed that there was a stairway leading to the second floor of the workshop. She walked through a door to the counter's right and saw a path leading to the back exit. Hisa quickly walked to the door, locked it, and walked back to the workshop where everyone was gathering around Nodoka. Mako was checking Nodoka's wound while Saki watched on, feeling worried for her friend.

"How's her leg?" Hisa asked Mako as she walked towards them.

"It's just a scrap, nothing serious…" Mako replied reassuringly.

"Does your leg hurt?" Hisa asked, kneeling in front of Nodoka.

"Yes…" Nodoka replied and nodded.

"Can you walk on it?" Hisa asked, and gently placed her hand on Nodoka's shoulder.

"I think so…" Nodoka replied, unsure.

"Take off your stocking." Hisa said. "We'll use it as a makeshift gauze for your wound."

"O-Okay…" Nodoka said, smiling weakly.

THUMP… THUMP… THUMP… THUMP…

Loud thumping noises were heard just as Hisa started helping Nodoka remove her left shoe and pulling down her thigh high. Yuuki huddled on tightly to Mako as the ghouls outside started beating against the rolling shutter. Saki looked on as the shutter pushed inwards slightly as the combined mass of twelve ghouls converged against it. Moaning and growling, the ghouls continued beating on the shutter, trying to get to their meals.

"Don't worry…" Yuuichi said. "They won't be able to get in here anytime soon…"

"Suga-kun…" Hisa said while wrapping Nodoka's wounded knee with the latter's own thigh high. "There's a passage leading to the back door. Find whatever you can to block the door in case those things are out back as well. Yuuichi-kun, go help him out…"

"Alright." Kyoutaro and Yuuichi responded in unison before walking out to the back.

"Wait, Kyou-chan…" Yuuichi stopped and picked up something resting on the anvil.

"What is it?" Kyoutaro asked, turning back to face Yuuichi, who was approaching him.

"Here, take this…" Yuuichi replied, handing Kyoutaro a large blacksmithing hammer. "I figured you might need a weapon for yourself just in case." He added and winked an eye.

"Thanks!" Kyoutaro replied, taking the hammer from Yuuichi with his right hand and toyed around with the heavy item for a while. "Damn, this thing is heavy!" He added.

Kyoutaro and Yuuichi walked into the passage that lead to the back door, which Hisa had locked earlier. Looking around, Yuuichi spotted several boxes that contained scrap metal at the corner of the passage, right in front of the back door. Yuuichi dropped his lead pipe and walked up to the boxes. Grabbing one of the boxes with both hands, he dragged it all the way across the narrow path and pushed it against the door. He turned to Kyoutaro.

"Kyou-chan, give a hand." Yuuichi said. Kyoutaro placed his hammer on the floor, went up to Yuuichi and helped the latter lift another heavy box and placed it over the first box. The both of them lifted the third box and place it over the second box. They repeated the step with the fourth box. Yuuichi wiped the sweat off his forehead and unbuttoned the top buttons of his black uniform. He fanned himself with his right hand to cool himself down.

"Will that be enough?" Kyoutaro asked.

"If any of those things try breaking in from the back, we'll reinforce the door." Yuuichi replied. "Besides, there're still twelve of them trying to pound their way in here from the front, so we might need to use the back door if we need to get out of this workshop…"

"You made a good point." Kyoutaro said, picking up his hammer.

"Let's go back to the others." Yuuichi said, picking up his lead pipe.

Kyoutaro and Yuuichi walked out of the passage leading to the back exit and back into the workshop. Hisa had already finished bandaging Nodoka's wounded knee with Saki looking on. Yuuki was holding on tightly to Mako and the ghouls were still outside the workshop, beating and clawing on the rolling shutter, moaning and growling hungrily. Hisa turned her attention to Kyoutaro and Yuuichi as soon as she had noticed them.

"Done barricading the back door?" Hisa asked.

"Yes." Kyoutaro and Yuuichi replied in unison.

"Good." Hisa said, smiling at the both of them.

T-HUUUUD!!!

"What the shit was that sound?" Yuuichi asked.

Everyone turned their attention to the stairway leading to the second floor, where the loud noise they just heard came from. Everyone kept quiet and looked at one another, realizing that they have not checked the second floor yet. Hisa swallowed hard as she stood up and walked to the stairway to see if anything was upstairs. She could not see from where she was standing and decided to go up to take a look for herself. As Hisa was about to climb the stairs, she felt someone clamping a hand tightly onto her left shoulder. She turned and saw Mako.

"I'll go take a look." Mako said.

"Are you sure?" Hisa asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." Mako replied.

"It's dangerous…" Hisa said.

"I'll be fine, President." Mako said.

Mako slowly made her way up the wooden stairway as the others watched her and kept quiet. The only sounds heard were Mako's footsteps, as the bottom of her school shoes tapped against the wood of each step. Mako swallowed hard as she was about to reach the second floor. It was quiet upstairs, too quiet. As Mako got closer and closer to the second floor, a horrible stench hit her like a sledgehammer. The stench grew stronger with every step she took until she had to pull out her handkerchief and covered her nose and mouth with it. As she reached the top of the stairs, Mako peered to her left and saw a corridor leading to two rooms, both of which had their doors closed. She saw something lying in the corridor, between the two doors. As she stepped closer, she noticed it was a body of a man in dirty white shit and dark overalls, thus explaining the horrible stench.

"Mako? Mako?" Hisa called out from downstairs. "Mako? What did you see up there?"

Mako did not answer her friend's call and continued walking towards the corpse, with her handkerchief still covering her nose and mouth. She saw blood splattered around the man and some being smeared on the walls. Mako kept walking and noticed that the corpse was lying on belly-first on the wooden floor. After stopping about a meter away, she saw that his back had been torn open, his intestines ripped through and a section of his spine was lying to his right, not too far away from him. Mako's eyes widened with horror. She was sweating profusely as she stepped back from the corpse and felt bile rising up her throat.

"My God…" Mako thought to herself, stepping back and eyes still fixed on the corpse.

C-REEEEAK!!!

Then, she heard a loud creaking sound coming from right ahead of her. Looking straight to the direction where the sound came from, she saw the left door opening slowly but the room was dark so she could not see who it was behind the door as it slowly opened.

R-AAAAAAAARGH!!!

With a ferocious growl, a ghoul came charging out from the room and tackled Mako hard onto the floor. Mako yelled and struggled as the ghoul pinned her down and tried to take a bite off her throat. Mako tried pushing the creature off to no avail, and started pounding her right fist onto its left shoulder, but it was unrelenting. The growling of the ghoul and Mako's screaming alerted the others on the first floor.

"Mako?! Mako?!" Hisa called out and quickly ran up the stairs to the second floor.

"H-HELP ME!!!" Mako yelled as she tried struggling herself free from the creature.

"I'm going up there!" Yuuichi said, and then turned to Saki, Nodoka and Yuuki, who were frightened. "The three of you stay down here! Kyou-chan, you come with me!"

"Alright!" Kyoutaro said, following Yuuichi as he quickly ran up the stairway to the second floor. Upon reaching the second floor, they saw Hisa trying to pull the ghoul away from Mako but it was obviously much too strong for Hisa to handle by herself.

"Get your stinking hands off her you damn, dirty bastard!" Yuuichi rushed over to where Hisa, Mako and the ghoul were. Holding on to both ends of his pipe, Yuuichi wrapped it around the ghoul's body and pulled it away from Mako and stood up. Hisa helped Mako get back up to her feet and stepped back and they watched the ghoul struggling around while Yuuichi held it back with his pipe. The gray-skinned ghoul was a balding man with receding hair and thick friendly mutton chops, which were dark red. He had a white band around his head and was wearing a white shirt soaked with blood on the left shoulder and chest area. He had dirty brown pants on and was barefooted. The creature was none other than Master Daidara, a blacksmith who was well known to everyone in town. It growled ferociously as it turned its head left and right vigorously, trying to bite Yuuichi's hands, which were holding on to both ends of the pipe holding it back. Its teeth chomped loudly as its blood-caked mouth pulsed open and shut.

"Master Daidara…" Hisa mumbled as she held on to the badly shaken Mako.

"Not anymore…" Yuuichi said as he threw the ghoul face-first onto the floor.

"Kyou-chan. Smash its head with that hammer." Yuuichi said as he pinned the ghoul to the floor by pressing his lead pipe against its back. It struggled and growled ferociously, clawing on the wooden floorboards in an attempt to crawl away from Yuuichi's grip.

Kyoutaro clutched his hammer tightly and approached Yuuichi and the ghoul. With a worried look on his face, Kyoutaro gritted his teeth and raised his hammer reluctantly.

"Master Daidara was a family friend…" Kyoutaro muttered softly.

"This creature ISN'T Master Daidara!" Yuuichi yelled at Kyoutaro.

Kyoutaro raised his hammer, his childhood memories with Master Daidara flashed right before his eyes. The man who was so close to his family, the man who he had seen as an uncle was now one of those creatures. Fighting back tears forming in his eyes, Kyoutaro swiftly brought his hammer down to the head of the ghoul, which was violently trashing under Yuuichi and growling like a wild animal.

SMASH!!!

The first strike and the ghoul was still struggling.

SMASH!!!

The second strike. A resounding crack was heard.

SMASH!!!

The third strike and the ghoul's head smashed apart.

Yuuichi relaxed the force he applied on the creature. He stood up and looked at the body of the ghoul lying motionless on the floor, with a gaping hole at the back of its head and its cranial innards seeping out from the terrible wound. Yuuichi wiped the drops of blood splattered onto his face after Kyoutaro's hammer smashed the creature's head apart. His glasses were also stained so he had to wipe them with the bottom of his uniform. Yuuichi turned to Kyoutaro, walked up to him and placed his right hand onto his left shoulder to comfort him. Kyoutaro acknowledged Yuuichi's kindness and smiled weakly. He turned around, walked pass Hisa and Mako and down the stairs to the first floor. Yuuichi turned to Mako and quickly walked up to her. He clamped both hands onto her shoulders firmly.

"Someya-san… Are you alright?" Yuuichi asked, looking into Mako's eyes.

"Yes… Yes, I am…" Mako replied, looked into Yuuichi's eyes and nodded.

"Please… Don't ever do that again, okay?" Yuuichi said and embraced Mako tightly. The latter could only nod back at Yuuichi in response before embracing him tightly in return.

"Dear God…" Hisa muttered when she saw the badly mangled corpse Mako had seen before being attacked by the ghoul Daidara. The smell coming from it was terrible too.

"We better go down now…" Hisa said as she turned away from the sight of the corpse and walked down the stairs along with Mako and Yuuichi. "That sure was frightening."

"Those things shouldn't be underestimated. As mindless as those things may seem, being able to ambush a victim means they still have some intelligence left." Hisa told Mako and Yuuichi as the three of them continued walking down the stairs and back to the first floor.

"President, what happened up there?" Saki asked as soon as Hisa reached the first floor.

"Master Daidara attacked Mako…" Hisa replied. "And we were forced to destroy him."

"What used to be him, anyway." Yuuichi added. "He was about to bite Someya-san but we came just in time. Hisa tried pulling him away, but he was too strong and threw her off. I held him back with my pipe, threw him to the ground and pinned him down. I told Kyou-chan to kill him with his hammer. He was reluctant at first but eventually did it."

"But wasn't he your family friend, Kyou-chan?" Saki asked, patting Kyoutaro's back.

"No, that thing wasn't Master Daidara, Saki…" Kyoutaro sighed. "I saw a bite mark on his neck. I think he turned into one of them after he was bitten. I did what I had to do…"

THUMP… THUMP… THUMP… THUMP…

The ghouls outside were beating on the rolling shutter even louder. The shutter pushed inwards tried pushing their way through it to no avail. Their moaning and growling had gotten louder. Nodoka stood up from the stool she was sitting on. Yuuki ran up to Hisa and huddled herself behind the red-headed president. Yuuichi and Kyoutaro had their weapons gripped tightly. Mako stood next to Yuuichi while Saki held on to Nodoka.

"I think the noises we made upstairs must have aroused them." Hisa said to the others.

"President, I think we better get outta her as soon as possible." Mako told Hisa.

"Then we'll have to get out by the back exit. There's too many out front…" Hisa said.

THUMP… THUMP… THUMP… THUMP…

Everyone turned their heads to where the noise came from – the doorway to the passage leading to the back exit! A bead of sweat trickled down Hisa's temple. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth upon realizing that they were completely surrounded by those creatures, with both exits of the workshop there were hiding in being blocked by ghouls. Yuuki whimpered and huddled to Hisa tighter as tears streamed down her face, shivering. Saki and Nodoka hold on to each other tightly. Mako backed away to where the four girls were. The moaning of the creatures outside grew louder. Yuuichi and Kyoutaro stood in front of the girls, holding their respective weapons tightly in their hands.

"If those things manage to break in from the back, we have no choice but to fight them." Yuuichi said, gripping his lead pipe tightly.

"The four of you are my best friends. I'll make sure those creatures will never get their filthy hands on you guys." Kyoutaro said.

"Girls, there are two rooms upstairs. Go up and hide in one of the rooms, then lock the door and bar it shut with whatever you can find." Yuuichi said. "Kyou-chan and I will keep these motherfuckers busy. And don't you come down unless we tell you girls to!"

"B-But… But…" Hisa muttered.

"JUST GO!!!" Yuuichi bellowed.

"Just be careful…" Hisa muttered.

Hisa quietly lead the four other girls to the stairway, but Mako turned to look at Yuuichi. She was very reluctant to leave him down there with Kyoutaro to fight off the ghouls by themselves. Without hesitation, Mako ran up to Yuuichi, placed her hands firmly on his shoulders, stood on her toes and kissed him on his lips. Yuuichi was caught by surprise but eventually returned the kiss and deepened it. After parting their lips, Yuuichi looked into Mako's teary eyes. Placing his hands on her cheeks, he wiped Mako's eyes dry by using his thumbs and smiled at her.

"Yuuichi-kun…" Mako sobbed. "I love you…"

"I love you too," Yuuichi said. "Someya-san."

Pulling herself away from Yuuichi, Mako slowly walked back to the bottom of the stairs, where Hisa and the other girls were standing. Hisa was smiling, obviously happy for the both of them, the corners of her eyes glistening with tears. The other girls were sobbing quietly and even though he fought it, Kyoutaro's eyes got misty as well. Hisa walked up the stairs along with the girls.

"Good luck…" Hisa said. "Just be careful, okay?"

"We will, don't worry about us." Yuuichi smiled.

"Yeah, don't worry about us, Prez." Kyoutaro said.

As they were walking up the stairs, Hisa took out her handkerchief and instructed Yuuki to tie it around her eyes. They eventually disappeared from Yuuichi and Kyoutaro's view.

"Kyou-chan, are you ready?" Yuuichi asked.

"Yes." Kyoutaro replied. "How about you?"

"I'm readier than ready…" Yuuichi replied.

The both of them held on tightly to their weapons, and prepared themselves as they heard the sound of the back door breaking down, along with the boxes of scrap metal toppling onto the floor…

Author's Notes: I apologize for the long awaited update on my fanfiction. But to my fellow readers, I hope this chapter was worth the wait!

With our heroes in a tight situation, will Yuuichi and Kyoutaro be able to fight off the living dead as they break into the workshop? Will our heroes survive the attack? Will they finally find the mysterious person they were looking for? Find out in the next chapter! Read and review! Thanks!

P.S. As I mentioned in the author's notes section of chapter two, Inaba is heavily based on the town of the same name from the RPG game, Persona 4. The blacksmith, Master Daidara, was also based on the blacksmith of the same name who appears as one of the supporting characters in the game.