Kasumi Miyahara's Story

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The morning started dark, before slowly the light filtered in from presumably the sun, and it was nice, to see the sun rise through the smoke that poisoned the city into the way that it is now. Just reality one may guess. Of course, Rei was already awake, having been on watch half-way through the night before, Rei had already been at the meeting point, though up a little higher, ensuring that she could both see the area, and remain hidden from those pesky bandits. Though as she sat, yawning slightly, she noticed Blade, with his normal supplies for the others whom would roam the world above, where humanity both died, and walk again, remaining quiet she watched, as the normal routine had taken place, packs thrown down, cigarette lit, and bum on a large rock, just like any morning for Blade. As the stillness choked the air, a little fire-starter had shown up, Sera, or as Rei called her; "Hellion", whom had been annoyed already, spouting something about hard candy, knowing Sera liked them, Rei tended to get hard candies for her, anything that'd make the girl settle down for a bit. The next one to enter, was Rei's teammate most often, Youta, or, as Rei calls him, "You", whom just came up grinning, talking about a lazy morning of some sort, Rei, being as observant as she is, honestly couldn't care about what he said after that.

While she almost secretly prepared to move out, Rei noticed another of her allies, Anders, someone whom she admittedly looked up to for his skills, and especially his weapon, she thought that his weapon was interesting, and flat out awesome when in combat, since as far as she knew, it often didn't need silencers like hers do. Though finally wrapping up the party was, surprisingly Kasumi, whom had acknowledged her lateness. And at this point, Rei nodded to herself, dropping gracefully from her perch and looking at the others, even speaking a little, to especially Blade, whom she deemed would care about a little report, "Outside of Hellion over there, quiet night, no disturbances" she said before taking her pack, and taking a breath, no good morning or any other greeting that could be heard, but Rei stood, watching her allies ready to handle anything that she may come across during the scavenge.

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Sera stared angrily at Youta, deciding to ignore the slime for the time being. She found him annoying,a pest - Kasumi was her best friend, no one else's! He didn't have the right to go and butt his head in like that. It only got worse when Anders came and taunted her about what she did to Yuka. What? Yuka deserved it for trying to steal her candy - for always trying to steal her candy. The pyromaniac glowered at the robo tech guy, regarding him with a sour expression. "Keep that up and I won't let you examine my Combustion Module later." Sera said with a scowl. She was interrupted from her bad mood when Kasumi-chan arrived and Sera spontaneously thanked her for the candy with a nice big mix between a hug and a tackle, running and wrapping her arms around her lavender-haired best friend.

"Suuuumi!" Sera giggled, enjoying Kasumi's warmth. Yeah, she'd never let anyone take her away, never ever! "Don't be late next time, it makes me worry, got it?" She tried to make a stern voice at the end, but it was hard to sound menacing when your voice was muffled by candy. Sera shrugged, figuring her message got across when Rei approached, giving her another candy. Sera grinned at the usually quiet girl, tossing her a friendly thumbs up. Hopefully Rei would talk to people more, Sera really wanted to see the woman get along with everyone and -

Oh no. Oh hell no. Kasumi might not have noticed, but Sera certainly saw Youta's over friendly glance aimed at the lavender-haired girl. She hugged Kasumi again, possessively, and shot Youta a dirty look. There was no way he was taking her best friend from her. The game was interrupted when Blade made his proclamation of the team set up - Sera was a little sad she wasn't on kill duty, but shrugged. Scavenging through the suburbs was fine too, that way she could ensure the candy stockpile went back to full.

"Gotcha, Hendrix." Sera said with an eager, excited grin. She was ready to go - and hell, if some zombies wanted to crash the party, she was more than willing to burn them up! "Oi, Anders! If Kasumi comes back with a scratch, I'll burn your electronics, okay? Keep her safe!"

With that, Sera pushed open the gates, heading in the direction of the suburbs. She tested her Combustion Module, enjoying the heat emitting from it. She waved her arm a little, making a tiny flame that danced as she moved, with a delighted little smile. She stuck her tongue out at Blade as she walked slightly ahead of the leader. "The elders say we're in need of more meat, and some of them are getting sick, so medicine's a priority. Just in case you wanted to know, boss."

"Okay, I wont be late again." Kasumi smiled at her friend.

Kasumi acknowledged Rei's appearance with a polite nod as the girl descended from somewhere along the ceiling. She often saw Rei here when she came by, but could never figure out exactly how she got up there, or where she went once she was up there. Kasumi couldn't help feeling a very slight twinge of jealousy every time she saw Rei, bitter at the fact that she could go somewhere Kasumi couldn't, but was careful not to let the feeling become anything more than a passing thought. Kasumi thought of everyone as her friend, after all. She turned her attention to Blade as he broke down the days work and told each team where they would be heading for their mission.

"A signal from the business district...?" She said mostly to herself. She had some vague memories of that district but never had a reason to venture any deeper than the outskirts, let alone memorize the city layout there. It was a blank slate to her, and an excited feeling tingled in her chest. She could finally go somewhere new, fill in one of the blanks in her mind about the city's layout. She turned her gaze to Anders, wondering if he knew the area.
"Do you think one of your machines could pick up the signal inside the district?" She asked, knowing how much he loved his machines, and how much she loved to watch his machines work. She blushed slightly as Sera threatened to burn his electronics if she came back with a scratch.

"Come on, Sera. Have I ever come back with so much as a wrinkle in my clothes?" She crossed her arms.
"But I appreciate you caring for me. We'll both come back without a scratch, right?" She grinned to her friend once more before hearing the beautiful sound of a lock clicking open. Kasumi looked to Anders expectantly before moving. Even though they were technically equals, she respected his decisions as an adult with two more years of experience than she had.
"I know the safest route there, but once were inside we cant rely on my sense of direction." She stated. She pulled her bag up, over her shoulders and glanced back inside the underground sanctuary, mentally checking things off to make sure she didn't forget anything.
"Oh, and one more thing." She held out a single finger to Anders as a thought popped into her mind.
"If we so much as even glimpse a silencer, I'm going for it. No way am I going to let you show me up as the better marksman on this squad." She declared with a small laugh.

"You don't really mean that, Sera. After all, if I don't take a look at it, how would you be able to change the color of that fire of yours?" Anders said, standing up and stretching languidly, slipping his pack on as Blade started to give each team their own assignments, with him and Sera scavenging, Youta and Rei on the ever-so-enjoyable duty of mass slaughter, and himself and Kasumi to search for survivors in the business district.

Of course, he's been there before, but he's only really familiar with those streets through the tinted glass of Kokkua's automated transport. Even after all that's happened, those skyscrapers must still look just as imposing. Perhaps more. He turned towards Kasumi, "They could. It won't be a great connection, but it'll help us get close enough to where I could pick it up myself. Of course, I couldn't do that if Sera burned everything I owned, so - er, don't do that, please." He said.

Anders took a slow breath, tugging a stray wire on his rifle, making sure everything was in place. "Once we're inside, as I said, we'll be close enough for these little scrap heaps to pick up on the signal. So don't worry about any sense of -" He said, interrupted by Kasumi's finger suddenly occupying his view, and her sudden request for dibs on any silencers they see.

"Oh, you're afraid of me showing you up? Have I gotten that good?" He said, a giggle almost hidden in his words, "Well - Kasumi, in that case, no silencer can save your rank now! Best give up, you know, it's only a matter of time!"

Running a hand through his hair, Anders' merriment sobered to a small smile as he added in a lower tone,
"Alright, though. Any silencer we find is yours - not like I could fit one on this monstrosity anyhow. Now, come on. Let's get going." He prodded her arm with his elbow, starting to walk outside the gates. "Shouldn't be a long walk - I think I can manage to get the old tram to work this time."

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Rei listened, as Youta tried to be, well, himself first. As she listened she noticed his long glance at Kasumi, it was obvious now, that Youta had interest on Kasumi, and the way he went about it in Rei's opinion, was like he was in a romance anime at the start. Yet, Rei wasn't the only one whom noticed, Sera did as well, whom as per normal from what Rei's seen, acted possessively with Kasumi, as if she were shooting down the poor fool. Moving along Blade had spoken, with the day's duties, Blade and Sera were on scavenging Duty in the suburbs, while Kasumi and Anders investigating in the business district, and her and Youta were off to try and lessen the numbers of the dead. Taking note of what Rei was doing, she switched out her munition supplies, taking up Silencers rather than gleamers and a few normal bullets. Though she looked at Sera again, whom threatened for Kasumi's safety at the cost of Anders' electronics, while Kasumi wanted a silencer for some reason, Anders was more or less skirting around their attacks, though Rei looked at Youta, her sharp, crimson, eyes looking at Youta, and spoke, a little quieter, since she wasn't a loud person in general, "To get Downtown, we'll take alleys and side streets. They're less populated than taking the main streets, and less destroyed, since there were less people there at the time." she then turned to Sera, and spoke to her, her volume not being loud again, "Sera. If I find any candy machines of some sort, I'll go on and loot it for you. I doubt I'll find anything, but, worth a shot."

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The morning air was chilly as it pressed against Kasumi's legs, the usual silence over the city seemed to be even more eerie because of it and she noticed a black cloud hanging in the distance, eyeing it in case it was coming their way. She could hear only their footsteps and a faint rattling from the items inside their bag, but that didn't stop her from constantly glancing around, even behind them one or two times. Something about walking along the wide open street in plain daylight made her uneasy enough to constantly walk around Anders, usually walking through the shadows when they were there.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to the silence up here. I feel like its still so abnormal for this city.." She said quietly, careful not to let her voice echo too far into the distance. The infection had been going around for a while now, but even when she was in her home at a young age, there was never an absence of sound. There was always something noisy happening above, though very muffled. Her gaze darted towards a car in the distance as she heard shuffling and raised her spear. One of the undead appeared and looked towards them but she sighed and lowered her weapon. It was just one, and it wouldn't reach them before they got to the old tram, there was no point wasting their time on just one straggler.

"Finally, we're here." She mumbled as she soundlessly sprinted for the gates that went down into the darkness. She smiled to herself as she finally felt comfortable again. She always liked the idea of the old tram better than the skyy tram, which ran over the entire city. She held up a hand to Anders, making him guard the entrance for a moment while she crept into the darkness. She glanced around the old station looking for any signs of movement. Despite it being pitch black, she could see almost perfectly once her eyes adjusted. She waited a moment until going back to get Anders.
"It looks empty." She half whispered, "Do your thing."

"Yeah. When you imagine a ghost town, you think of some rusted down old westerner town. You know, like in the desert, with cowboys and natives." Anders replied, "You don't think of a city that once held millions of loud, noisy people to be silenced like this."

Anders didn't fear the empty city like most - it awed him. Humbled him. The knowledge that something once so mighty and large as Kokkua could fall, just like any titan. Yet the infrastructure was still there, most buildings pristine, still standing tall without anyone to maintain them.

He dutifully kept watch over the entrance as Kasumi did her search. Once he got the all-clear, he fumbled his way inside, as his night vision was nowhere near as good as Kasumi's, and thus, it took him over a minute to find the doors to the tram. Pulling a half-sized crowbar from his pack, he pried at the door, making an opening just wide enough for him to slip inside. "Come on, Kasumi." He called, keeping his voice low as he crept to the cabin.

Once there, he started prying panels and tugging at wires in the low red light provided by the flashlight he held between his teeth. More than once, sparks would fly, and Anders would give a muffled swear as his silhouette was briefly surrounded with light. Of course, his mind was occupied, and he was making enough noise as it was that he easily missed more than a few more in the distance.

Eventually his efforts came to fruition. He wrenched down a rusting lever, and faint crackle could be heard above the tram as the cabin lights sprung on, illuminating aged, peeling advertisements, worn seats. and a bloody floor. Anders gave a whoop, "It's on! I got this goddamn thing to turn on!" He turned towards Kasumi, his expression beaming, "What's easily a two - no, three hour walk is going to be a thirty minute ride. This is great!" He starts flipping more switches as he talks, causing a hiss below, the doors to fully open, and for the front lights to turn on, illuminating a few infected slowly making their way towards the literal beacon of noise and light in front of them.

"Do you want to do the honors?" He asked, pointing towards a lever in the center. "Just pull it to about halfway, and we'll be able to push right through them and be on our way."

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Rei listened to her ally, as per normal, it wasn't that shocking that she'd listen to what others had said. Though as she looked about the city, looking at the carnage, and especially the dead, how could one even imagine to survive the mess that was caused? Yet as she watched, something caught her eye, and surprised her as it did, since it was some sort of suitcase falling from the sky, with the way it tumbled, it was apparant that it was knocked from a floor of some sort, so it came from a building, as Rei scanned the ground, she saw something else, instead of the dead she noticed bandits, whom swarmed around the bag like a pack of hyenas, cackling and everything, unaware of the hidden walkers. As the bag hit the ground, with a loud thud and soon it's contents flew, from what Rei could see, it was food, this easily got weapons drawn as Rei looked to her partner, her eyes, showing her cut-throat nature when it came to food. Being where she was from, one would fight to the death for their next meal, and while the bandits almost scrambled to collect the food, Rei spoke quietly, "Those looters have food. And from the sound and how the food burst out, they have a lot of it. I don't care what Blade said we are to do, nor do I give a damn what you do. I'm going for that to ensure we have a meal." her words were quiet as normal, while she moved, going for a flank, not caring for what Youta did, so long as he stayed out of her way. Guns drawn she peered around a corner, though stealth was not something Rei was good at, and one of the bandits shot up, yelling do his allies,

"Hey, guys! We got a little rat here!" he yelled, with the other two looking up, with weapons in hand, on a quick analysis, Rei was outgunned, as they had automatic fire, though at a glance, they had no idea how to even so much as fire the weapon properly, a gun like that as Rei remembered, was best fired two handed, while it can be fired with one, it would be horribly inaccurate, and it was likely that they'd miss, that is, if it weren't for the fact that there was three of them, each with one of these now buzzing weapons as they ripped into the wall briefly. Admittedly Rei was spooked, having never been in a fight where she was outgunned like this. With a sigh, Rei picked up the communicator, and spoke into it, to hopefully awaken the hornet's nest that were her friends, something she knew over the time that was spent, Blade would come running to any woman in distress.

"This is Rei." That was the first transmission through the cackling radio, "I'm currently in a gunfight against possibly five enemies. I could use aid on Gold Street towards downtown." soon her eyes turned to Youta, whom she knew was at a disadvantage, and soon shouted at him, "Stay down or you'll get shot! Let me handle this mess!" and soon after the buzzing sound had echoed into the air, and bullets flew by Rei, whom laughed, They're better with them than I thought. she thought snickering, this was something she knew, gunfights. With that, she moved, firing at the three, causing them to duck into cover, and thus the fight began.

"Sorry, you're right. Lets just focus on the mission." Kasumi nodded. She watched Anders pull out three disks an threw them into the air in the distance. She smiled as Anders told her what they were for and followed him above ground, shutting her eyes painfully from the bright sunlight. She quickly opened them again as she heard Anders fighting and saw a small pack of zombies fumbling towards them. A smirk settled on Kasumi's lips as she braced her feet against the pavement before jumping directly into the crowd, instantly taking out three zombies. She dropped to the floor as the zombies turned to grab her, sweeping the spear across their legs before stabbing the spear through each of their foreheads. She made easy work of the small group and stood triumphantly over the pile of dead bodies.

Kasumi put a hand on her small radio as Rei's voice broke through, talking about a fight. She looked up to Anders as Serafina responded and shook her head.
"Sera, don't go overboard, we're too far away by now to come help." She said through the radio. She stepped down from the pile and began heading towards another pack of zombies that were blocking their way into the business district. Of course, she could always find a different way in - but there were only a few undead here and there. Kasumi took out a few more dead while inspecting the buildings around them. They were much taller up close and the area was covered in mostly shadows because of them. She suddenly glanced up as the sound of loud, but distant groaning came to her ears. It was coming from all directions and she saw a hoard slowly making their way towards them, backing them into a corner. Her eyes scanned the area for a safe place before they landed on a building with open doors.
"Lets go inside for now and hope the hoard passes us. Close the door behind you, but break a window or something so your droids can go in and out, I guess." She mumbled as she grabbed Anders hand and pulled him inside. Zombies were easy to take out in small groups, but much more dangerous in a large group. She paused in the lobby to spear a single dead hovering near the door before inspecting the inside.

"It looks like its... a hotel." She stated as her eyes ran over the wall of room keys behind the desk. She turned to look at Anders with a smile.
"A hotel in a business district means there could be all sorts of wonders in the rooms up there." Her eyes glittered at the thought of picking all of the door locks, like some sort of old treasure adventure quest game.
"But... maybe we should check out this floor first, work our way up. They're bound to have some kind of restaurant and medical room, right?" She asked, walking deeper into the building. It grew much darker as they walked further in and Kasumi hesitated as an undead glanced in her direction, standing perfectly still to fool it. The zombie sort of stared at her for a while before turning back around to do whatever it was doing and she smiled, changing the grip on her spear to throw it like a javelin. The zombie fell with a thump and Kasumi quickly retrieved her weapon before advancing through the building.

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"Anything for you, Kasumi!" Sera said cheerfully, dodging another bullet and ducking as she continued her dash.

Honestly, even though she heard Rei and Blade arguing on the radio, Sera wasn't really listening. When three men are chasing you and shooting at you and you have a headache and your head feels dizzy because you've strained yourself and are overusing your fire abilities, there are more important things to worry about than listening to your boss and the new girl fight and bicker like a married couple. She wasn't too worried, whatever it was about - what Sera needed to do was keep sprinting as fast as she possibly could. She heard gunshots from another direction - Rei was coming to help now, covering the fire girl for an advantage. Though to be fair, Sera was having way too much fun with this - adrenaline was coursing through her and every nerve was primed for action. Even if the head pain was real, this was way too fun. Hells yes, this is what she lived for, even more than candy lollies in her mouth!

With Rei's covering fire, Sera managed to zip around a corner and jump up on the fire escape, panting lightly to catch her breath. One of the men stopped the chase to fire at Rei - hopefully missing - and Sera jumped from her vantage point at the last two, knocking one out with a kick and dodging a sudden knife from the other in order to shoot a burst of flames to his clothing. Screams of pain and the smell of burning flesh filled the air and Sera took out her small hand gun to finish the job, ending the man's suffering. Now it was just Rei and the last one and when Sera aimed her gun at him he suddenly spun around, fired and -

Pain exploded somewhere in Sera's torso region and she buckled to her knees letting out a grunt. The last bandit moved to escape but Sera still managed to aim and fire, hitting him in the back of the knee, toppling him over, crippled. With the battle over, Serafina examined her wound, feeling dizzy from the exertion. Her palm was bloody but it turned out the bullet hit a window and it was just glass shards in her side. She smiled slightly to herself, feeling stupid for getting hit in the first place. "Mi-mission accomplished, Rei.." The girl groaned. She knew instinctively it wasn't fatal - heck, after some bandages and a few hours she'd be completely fine, minus some pain.

Though the wound itself wasn't bad, that in conjunction with overusing her fire really took the stamina out of the girl. Her legs felt rubbery, unable to sustain her weight. With a grimace, she picked up the radio. "All hostiles down, two survivors. I'm - I probably need medical aid..."

Kasumi covered her nose as the scent of rotten food filtered out all other smells in the kitchen. She had found the restaurant, but everything she had seen so far was spoiled beyond edibility. She nudged a few things aside as she wandered around quietly, opening cabinets and any other small crevice that looked like it could hold food. She made a small 'ahh' sound as she opened a cupboard to find individually wrapped square cakes. She flipped them over to inspect them and she nodded to herself as they still looked good. She shoved all of them into her bag and continued her search.

After a few minutes of walking back and forth, Kasumi hesitantly stared at what she assumed was the meat freezer, asking herself if she was prepared for the concentrated stink of rotting meat. She thought of the first night she was alone on the surface, when she had to hide in a pile of corpses to remain undetected. She fought to hold down her stomach, shuttered at the memory and continued on her way, leaving the restaurant with nothing but the little cakes.

Kasumi glanced down as she heard static on her radio and held it up so it could get better reception, but all she heard were bits of voices - something about a mission and medical aid. She held it closer to her ear to try and pick out whose voice it was but practically threw it across the room as Anders voice broke through the static, scaring her more than a zombie ever could.
"I'm going to murder him..." Kasumi growled. She held a hand to her chest and took a deep breath to slow her rapidly beating heart as she held up the radio to respond.

"Okay, I'm going to check for any medical supplies now. I'll meet you up there." She clipped the small radio back onto her belt as she wandered to the first aid office. Kasumi made quick work of the room but sighed as she only found a few liquid bandage bottles, some pain pills, burn relief gel, and a secret stash of the same pills that she relied on for so long to stay awake. She shoved the lucidity pills into a nearby trash can and sighed angrily as dark memories threatened to resurface. Her focus was drawn away as she passed a window and glanced outside at the quickly darkening sky. She tilted her head a bit as she thought of how long they had been out for but she slowly dug out her gas mask and fastened it over her face. It was either a storm or smoke, which were both equally bad in her book, but she always thought it was better to be safe than sorry. She spun around and headed for the stairs, using the rails to pull herself up three or four steps at a time.
"I'm here, Anders. The sky looks odd outside so I have my mask on as a precaution." She said through the radio as she reached the eighth floor.