A few hours later the teams returned from their trip, and Itami dashed off to his room before assisting with the unloading. Having seen with my system what was in his bag, I was happy he had some figures to call his own. Getting everything inventoried, stowed away, and tied down we did one last once over before heading out to sea again. As I was doing my rounds around the ship, I noticed that Lara's room was empty as if she had left. Checking the map I saw that she was in Nathan's room, something that put a grin on my face.
Lara was hot, but she was also far more woman than I wanted to deal with. For her life was full of adventure, excitement, and action...everything that could get someone killed very quickly. Having her as a spouse would make things harder for me as she'd always want to go places. Fortunately for me Nathan and her were already acquainted, and judging by their status more than just friends. Deciding not to pry for his sake, I quickly passed by his room so I didn't disturb them.
"Should we expect any problems on our way northward?", Kyoko asked me as I returned to the wheelhouse.
"Not that I can tell, Daiyu pretty much removed the Chinese Navy for us and the Japanese Navy won't attack us.", I stated, "When we get in close to Russia we may have issues, but most of their navy was in the Atlantic when this started. Once we get Gerald and company we can check on the Yam Islands, then continue on to Alaska."
"How bad do you think Russia is on the eastern seaboard?", Sayo inquired.
"Seeing as how they are sparsely populated on this side, they may have survived or headed off the coast.", Saya answered.
"That is correct.", Red Queen advised, "The eastern seaboard is safer at this time, that said there are still pockets of enemies all over the region."
"If it's sparsely populated is there will there be enough supplies for us?", Shizuka asked with a worried face, "I know we want to preserve Victor's stash, but-"
"Shizuka, it may be sparse but there are cities. We are only a few hundred people, we will find plenty of food and supplies.", Yoko assured her, "The only problem we have is finding clothing that fits properly."
"You ladies running low?", I asked.
"The washers and dryers on the ship aren't necessarily the best for delicate things.", Namiyo said showing me a pile of destroyed bras and panties, "We may want to consider replacing the machines and clothing."
"I have some clothing, but it isn't much.", I said pulling it out of storage, "Most of what I have was for the original seven of the group, I haven't grabbed a lot of things in your sizes."
"Oh, do you know our sizes?", Rika inquired.
"Haha, you bet I fucking do!", I snickered, "Just right!"
"Good answer!", Astrid stated nodding her head as she sharpened her blades.
"So it sounds like we need to make a clothing stop then.", Renka said.
"We can do that.", I agreed, "Let me plot our course."
We had two paths we could take at this time, continue up the coast towards Russia or sail up Japan up past Hokkaido. Taking the latter route put us past better looting grounds, but also increased our travel time. All things considered, clothing was something we needed as none of us wanted to walk around naked. Opting for the Japan course I posted the course on the GPS, and set our heading.
---Several Days Later---
Waking up to see Izumo coming into view, things were looking good. Miu had officially moved into the room with us after somehow convincing her grandfather. From what I heard she threatened to never speak to him again if he hassled me. Begrudgingly he accepted it, and even shook my hand...although he did try to crush it. Accepting that she had made the decision herself, he backed off for the time being. That said, Kenichi was devastated when the day afterwards when he saw Miu come out of my bedroom. Having assumed that I had slept with her, he sort of clammed up in his room.
His posse of women stayed in the room to comfort him, during the trip he had finally given in and succumbed to temptation. I know this because there were a few complaints about loud noises coming from his room, and the fact that the women around him seemed calmer...like they knew they would be taken care of. While I frantically didn't care about his love life, the change improved the amount of work the women did so at least that improved.
"Is that Izumo?", Saori asked coming out of the bedroom behind me.
"Yep, that's where we are stopping to get supplies.", I told her, "Jeong will fly a drone in first to check it out for us before we head into the city."
Turning around to give her a kiss, I playfully grabbed her butt and pulled her towards me.
"Tonight is the night.", I whispered.
"Yes dear, I am ready now.", she replied, "I hope you are satisfied with me."
"I am more than satisfied Saori. You are my woman now and I want to give you my love.", I chuckled, "I know you are eager, you have been grinding on me the last few nights."
"I...I can't deny that.", she admitted, "It's been a long time since I have made love. Seeing you give it to the others has made me a bit...flustered."
Giving her a kiss, I promised that moving forward she wouldn't only just watch. Giggling she thanked me before stating she needed to get ready to assist with cooking breakfast. Letting her after a few kisses, I went about my morning duties as usual.
"Jeong, how's it looking out there?", I asked.
"There is group of survivors holed up in a government building that have a few thousand enemies pounding on the door.", Jeong told us, "In addition, there are several other groups of survivors holed up on rooftops. All in all we are looking at about twelve to fifteen thousand enemies."
"Cakewalk!", I chuckled, "After five million in one go, a few thousand is easy. Alright teams, I can kite this horde easily enough. Kohta, Takashi, and Hisashi I want all of you leading your teams to gather supplies. Itami, there was a JSDF base on the outskirts of the city. Take your team and take what supplies you can. If there are surviving personnel, I leave it to you to decide if they should join us. While I kite the main horde, the remaining fighters are in charge of defense. There may be some stragglers and unfriendly survivors that rush us. I know some of you won't kill innocent bystanders, but I need you to at least keep them off the ship."
"That much we can do.", Hayato assured me.
"Alright people, let's do this!", I shouted.
Putting on the Doomslayer armor, I leapt off the ship and charged forward towards the enemy. With no Prince of Hell interfering here the Undead and Demons immediately changed their attention to me. Leading them away from where my teams would be all the groups would be, once I was a safe distance away I turned the street into a kill zone.
---3rd Person POV---
Once the area was clear, the supply team disembarked along with Itami's team. Following behind them, the defense team set up a temporary perimeter to limit the area enemies could attack from. Having a large warship pull into the area didn't go unnoticed, many survivors saw what was happening, and were debating if it was worth making a run for the ship.
"Red Queen, Umbrella isn't watching us currently right?", Saya asked.
"Affirmative, they are more concerned with other threats at the moment. Victor's father has put him as a lesser threat for the moment.", Red Queen answered.
"Seems like we have people coming towards us.", Miu said looking through the binoculars.
Rushing towards them weren't survivors, they were escaped convicts that had been holed up in one of the various buildings dotting the city. Thinking that they would take the ship for themselves, they were going to blow the place to bits once they seized control. Seeing the crew from a distance, they thought they could take them...till they got close. Seeing Hayato, Apachi, Ryu, Ken, Guile, and several others standing at the front their minds suddenly changed on attacking the ship Unfortunately for them they didn't flee at that point.
Stepping the front, Hayato unleashed a hellish flurry of blows that sent the poor souls at the front flying. None of his strikes were lethal, but they certainly weren't going to walk it off. Running past him Ryu and Ken start wailing on them, beating them to within an inch of their lives. Going round them to take the women, they assumed that they would be easier to subdue.
"I am going to enjoy having you-", one of the men said leaping at Chun-Li.
With a flick of her leg the man's neck shattered causing him to flop to the ground. Shooting the men a smirk, Chun-Li taunted them.
"I don't share a bed with anyone weaker than me, sorry little boys.", she sniped.
Falling for the taunt they rushed her only to have Cammy, Ju, Lara, and her crumple them. Not sharing her husband's ideals of sparing ones enemy, Ju was ruthless with her blows. Having grown up in a country where men eyed her like a slab of meat in her youth, she learned that this world was a cruel place. It didn't treat those that showed mercy all the time very well, if you wanted to protect something you did whatever it took to do it.
Shattering a man's back before throwing him into the ocean, Ju glanced over to her daughter Renka who was also fighting. Her daughter had changed a lot since they last met, before her trip to Japan. Renka's energetic personality was mellowing out, almost to the point she was just like herself.
'It is good to see my daughter found a good man. He will need guidance.', Ju thought caving a man's face in.
Defeating the attackers, the Defense Team tossed them back down the street. Warning them not to come back again, they limped away to lick their wounds. Those that were killed had their heads destroyed to ensure that they didn't reanimate.
"I can't believe how uncivilized some people have become.", Ada said wiping the blood off her hands, "The nerve of those people."
"Agreed, they were utter disappoints and the garbage of society.", Yuriko agreed.
"Either way we kept them off the ship, that's all that matters.", Guile stated.
Having finished off the group of ruffians, several small survivor groups committed to running towards the ship. Bolting from their buildings, the people looked around in confusion as they didn't see a single Undead or Demon anywhere. Not bothering to think about it they just kept coming in case they returned. As the groups started to arrive Shizuka and Yuko lead the charge in ensuring that all of them were not actively infected before allowing them on the ship.
While they were handling the refugees, the supply teams had arrived at their first destination. Jumping out of their vehicles the teams ran into a convenience store to take what they could. Having been looted several times already by other groups, the pickings were slim but there were things to be had. Loading them up they moved on to the next stop where they encountered another group of survivors.
"Oh my who do we have here?", a blonde schoolgirl said with a smirk, "Another group of would be bandits come to steal from us?"
"Hello Karin...", Kohta sighed.
"Oh wait, is that you Kohta?", she inquired dropping the attitude.
"Hold on a second...", Takashi gasped, "You know her!?"
"Yeah, our parents are close friends.", Kohta laughed, "My mother is a fashion designer, and her mother is one of her biggest private clients."
"My apologies, I thought you were another group of brigands that was coming to steal from us.", Karin apologized, "It's good to see you are in one piece...though why are the women behind you staring angrily at me?"
"Oh, hold on a second.", he stated.
Having a brief conversation with them, the policewomen that had been glaring at her relaxed their gaze. In the time she had known Kohta, he never once came off as a man that was a competent leader. He came from a very well off family though you'd never know that by looking at him. Seeing him now with those women made her happy that he had manned up a lot, and taken charge.
'It's good to see my childhood friend found his place, and is doing well.', Karin thought, 'He's had a rough go of it.'
"Sorry about that, I had to clear up a misconception they had.", he chuckled before changing topics, "What are you doing in Izumo? You are a long way from Tokyo."
"We got the heck out of there early on before it became a death trap.", Karin shivered, "Our school was overrun in minutes when the undead swarmed Tokyo. I made it out with my friends, Mika and Sakura."
"So it's only you three?", Kohta inquired.
"Yes, we had a larger group but one of those large Minotaur looking things attacked and we were separated from the others.", Karin told him, "Do you mind if we join your group? It's becoming a problem only having three of us."
"Absolutely.", Kohta replied.
Getting the three of them seat in the personnel carrier, the group continued on. Loading several stores and markets before heading back, they didn't encounter any other survivors on their path. When they returned to the ship, Karin and company went to see Chun-Li and Ryu. Recognizing them immediately, the two greeted them with open arms.
"Good to see one of my star pupils is alive and well.", Ryu chuckled.
"Thank you Master Ryu.", Sakura said bowing her head.
"It's good to see so many familiar faces.", Mari stated with a smile, "We weren't sure how many people survived, we hadn't seen anyone we knew in a while."
"It's good to see that the three of you survived this crap.", Cammy told them with a smirk, "We about got eaten in China."
"China?", Karin asked.
"We were asked to escort some people on a top secret mission.", Ken laughed, "Well you can see how that turned out..."
"They died?!", the three gasped.
"No...he means the mission didn't succeed.", Guile sighed.
"Oh, got it.", they replied before getting checked out by Shizuka.
After their checkup, the women asked why they were here. Stating that it was just a resupply, they said that this was the first port since South Korea that could safely dock the warship. Looking at the people that were waiting on the ship and on the dock, the three understood they were a larger group so supply stops were a frequent occurrence.
"So who are we waiting on?", Karin asked Kohta.
"A group went to the JSDF Base just outside of town and our leader is currently drawing the enemies away.", Kohta told her.
"Is that them?", Mari inquired pointing to the convoy coming down the road.
Noticing that there were a lot more people than expect, Yoko got on the radio to speak with Itami. Asking him if that was their group, he had the driver flash the headlights to visually confirm it was them. Proceeding to ask about the large caravan behind him, he let off a sigh into the mic.
"Well we got into the base pretty easily since the power we still on. We ran into a group of troops from the JSDF who were holed up there along with some police officers, civilians, some politicians, and...some Umbrella Corp staff.", Itami sighed.
"Hold on...did you say Umbrella Corp Staff?", Yoko laughed dryly, "You do understand that Umbrella is our enemy, and you are bringing them right to us right?"
"I understand that, from what the JSDF troops told us these are mainly scientists and office workers that were left behind.", Itami answered.
"That is correct.", Red Queen advised, "Due to a limited number of spots for survivors in the New World, expendable people were abandoned once their usefulness was over. The survivors should be comprised of scientists, office workers, and administrators. Soldiers would have been sent to other bases or sent to Raccoon City."
"I am still not comfortable bringing them onboard...", Yoko said glancing at Ada and company, "I still don't like them either."
"I don't like you either.", Ada replied, "You are always watching me."
"That's because you are suspicious as hell.", Mikoto spat, "You faked your identity just to escape."
Before they got any further, Maya and Saeko broke them up stating that now wasn't the time for fighting with each other. Telling Itami to bring them in, Saeko said that Black Label could determine if people would be helpful or not. Those that were could stay, and those that weren't would be left behind.
"They started this mess, they can survive in it.", Saeko stated.
"Are we really just going to abandon people?", Kikyo asked with a worried look, "Incheon was one thing, here we have time to properly allow everyone onboard."
"I disagree", Saori said with a sadden look, "They...they helped cause this nightmare. How many people have died or are dying right now because of Umbrella? The ones that can help fix this can come with us, and we will make them repent. Those that aren't useful need to be punished."
"Mom...", Kenichi whispered knowing she still blamed Umbrella for his father's death.
"I agree.", Victor said over the radio, "I am making the decision to go with Saeko's plan. If anyone has complaints speak up now, or hold your peace."
With the leader making the decision, no one argued with him.