"Umbrella released the T-Virus, what is that?" Tifa paced around the room, on the call with Jessie. She put it on the speaker so everyone could hear it.
"Remember that guy Spencer in the report? The guy who forgot his memory?" Jessie's voice came from the other side.
"I do. Not just from the reports," Cloud raised his eyebrows.
"Right, the other guy, the Officer Matt Addison. He had sent his sister as undercover. He deduced that Spencer was the one who stole the T-Virus and got everyone killed. He later killed Spencer. Since then, we have been working together to chip away Umbrella's control."
"Yeah, we sat it on the news," Eve frowned, "did they release Virus to save themselves?"
"No, it's worse. They always wanted to release virus, a group of rich people who want to reset the world by killing everyone that the virus can and controlling those who manage to survive. We managed to interrogate one of their executive, but that made them...you know do what they were planning to before we could stop them."
"How many casualties?" Tifa worriedly crossed her arms.
"They are going to keep spreading. We asked Shalua, she says while we might be able to make an anti-virus...it will only kill those who have turned."
"Shit..." Cloud closed his eyes, "Alice is with you?"
"She is?"
"Has she awakened?"
"No."
"Careful then. I'll come."
"Don't worry. We have Lord Aransae with us here. Don't forget, that place is a Centre of Fate too. We will deal with things here. You deal with that place!"
"She's right," Aerith took Cloud's hand, "Thank you, Jessie. Keep in touch."
Aerith stopped the call. Tifa was looking outside the window, "what are we going to do?"
"Weapons, get them from the basement," Eve looked at them three, "Cloud, Tifa. You two are most athletically able to help. Go to school, make sure our people and as many children as possible are safe. Aerith and I will only get in the way."
"No..." Tifa didn't want to say that.
"Yeah, that's good," Cloud wasn't in the mood. Their safety mattered more than their feelings right now, "you two, seal this place."
"Don't worry about us. We have saved up enough Aura," Aerith reassuringly smiled at him, "Now, go, hurry. Before any of them gets hurt."
.
.
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Fujimi Highschool,
"Oh no," Tifa whispered under her breath, seeing the student turned into zombies, searching for their prey. Cloud stopped the bike they took, getting off the bike with Tifa. She gave him the katana, while wearing knuckles and gloves herself, "let's go."
"Yeah," the two of them entered the school building when they came across a teacher. She was wearing glasses, light brown eyes and reddish-brown hair. There was a terrified look on her face as she swung the bat, followed by the shake of her large boobs.
"Cloud? Cloud!" The woman pounced on him, slamming her boobs against him. Cloud and Tifa exchanged an awkward look before he sighed and pushed her away.
"You are alive."
It was no help, she stuck to him blabbering, "I was so scared! This strange man appeared and he bit Teshima-sensei! And then Teshima-sensei tried to bite me!! I was so scared I came running back inside but then students started becoming like that! I didn't know what to do! I had to!"
"It's okay, it's okay," Tifa kindly pulled Kyoko Hayashi from Cloud, "Sensei, we are here now. We'll empty a room for you, go and hide. Don't come out until we call for you. Tell every survivor you find passing."
"Mm, mm, I'll do that. Thank you, thank you for coming for me," she tearfully nodded at them, kissing Cloud's lips.
Tifa pulled her away, "Hurry, Zombes are coming," she pushed Kyoko in the room, closing it after them. She shot a look at Cloud, "You got popular..." she shook her head and rolled her eyes, 'at the time like this...'
"She has always been like that," Cloud rubbed the back of his neck, among everyone, Kyoko Hayashi was sexually frustrated when they met, she was a different person since and who most took to Aura. Surprisingly, she was closest to birthing a Spirit Demon, which is what he called those things.
The hallway was full of bodies of zombies, or the dead, who turned to face them. Tifa clenched her fist, "I'll clear the floor here. Check on Shizuka-sensei first."
"I'll be back as quick as I can," Cloud ran up the stairs. He came across two zombies coming down the stairs. He swiped the sword, cutting their heads from a single slash as the grey veins spread like cracks over his arm and blade, providing it extra strength to cleanly behead them.
He stopped right above the stairs, expecting a hoard of zombies. Instead, he faced the bodies littered on the floor. Cloud looked at the signboard of Nurses office, making his way inside but he didn't find anyone there. He focused his gaze on the bodies, observing them, they were strange, 'multiple of them were cut by one slash? Five of them?'
'Humans don't have enough strength at the start or end of their swing to cut them, has to be Saeko,' he took the stairs to the floor above this, following the bodies along the way until the floor came into view. There was a particular group of students on this floor, students that Aerith suggested to him a few months back when he started a Self-Defence Club to rope a few talented women in. In hopes they would form a Demon of their own.
The purple-haired girl, Captain of Kendo Club, Saeko Busujima. The Nurse, Shizuka Marikawa. The girl with reddish brown hair, who was held back a year because of a teacher, Miyamoto Rei, and her boyfriend, Hisashi Igou. Daughter of an Investor that Eve worked with, Takagi Saya. The only boy who joined the club for his own sake and had a strong desire like Saeko, just for guns Kohta Hirano.
'Did Aerith suggest them because they would survive...? Or did they survive because I pulled them in the club?'
He didn't get the time to think by the time he was done observing them; they noticed him too. His eyes went to the last guy, who wasn't part of the Self-Defence Club. He had seen that face before, 'what was his name again?'
"Cloud! Cloud!!!" the pink-haired girl leaped into his arms, forcing Cloud to catch her. She slammed her breast into him, "Cloud!!"
"You all are fine," he stroked her hair. He raised his eyes to look at Saeko, who greeted him with a nod while the rest of the group moved towards him.
"You came to get us?" Kohta breathed out in relief, "Did you bring guns? You had guns at home, didn't you? Sir!"
"I have one on the bike," Cloud tried to push away Saeko who didn't let go when Tifa came upstairs, "Oh well, you guys survived!"
"Tifa-chan!!" Shizuka wrapped herself around Tifa, holding on to her breasts, and hugging them as if to comfort the distressed woman, "Sensei, I am happy to see you!"
"Tifa-chan! Saeko-chan is being so rude!" Shizuka puffed her cheeks, pointing at her back where Saeko had her arms crossed and face turned away, "she's such a bully!"
"She won't bully you now," Tifa chuckled, stroking Shizuka's back. It was nice to see some normalcy in such a crazy time as this, "we came to pick you up or anyone else that survived. Our house is at the edge of the city, there aren't any zombies there. Those that were, we took care of them."
"We can decide what to do once we are there," Saeko agreed.
"How are we going to escape," Hisashi Igou looked out of the window, "there are a few of them around here. It's not like we can deal with that many..."
"The bus, let's take the bus," Saya pushed her glasses in place, rubbing her eyes, "the keys should be in the office."
"Saeko," Tifa looked at the girl, who nodded going towards the teacher's office.
"You take them. I'll check upstairs for a survivor," Cloud pulled away from a reluctant Saya. He walked past them, taking the stairs to the floor above. It had more zombies than the one below, but nothing he couldn't handle.
He had only reached Apprentice Level in this world, which was a miracle that happened due to Saeko's existence, but it was enough to defeat an army of these zombies. He cleared the zombies as fast as he could, though he didn't find a living soul. He made his way back downstairs, finding a group of zombies trapped behind chairs and tables.
While the rest of the group was running towards the bus, including a group of people from the side building. One of them fell over, his leg caught by the zombie. Cloud raised the Katana to strike the zombie, cutting its head off, saving the guy, "thank you, thank you!"
The boy ran to his girlfriend who was coming back for him, both of them hugging.
"Run first, hug later," Cloud commented from behind. The two of them blushed, running to the bus as fast as they could, climbing on it. He looked around for any other survivor.
"Cloud, there are too many zombies!"
Saeko tapped on the bus, "Go first. We are going to stay a little longer."
"No! That's suicide!"
"It's okay," Cloud looked over his shoulder, "Go on. Tifa."
Tifa looked out of the window of first row seats, "Be careful! We'll be waiting outside!"
Moments later, the bus drove away. Saeko looked towards the zombies surrounding them, she stood back to back with Cloud, "tell me something. Master."
"Stop calling me that. What?"
"Now that everyone has turned into zombies, what about this Aura," Saeko narrowed her eyes, watching the world in front of her eyes covered with lingering regrets, but it was all flying towards the sky. There was a pull that kept sucking all of it away.
"I don't know where it is going, but it's for the best. That kind of Aura is dangerous...I have first had experience..." Cloud hesitated. He held the katana with both hands, both of them moved at the same time to attack the zombies. Cloud slashed them in a horizontal swish. His movements were precise, striking with his blade the crucial points, decapitating three undead in a single swift move and avoiding getting his blade tangled in their flesh.
He returned to the position, only having exchanged his position with Saeko, who stood where he did, the bodies of undead she killed were in the middle of the fall.
"Now that everyone is trying to survive, I saw their aura coming to the surface," Saeko spoke again, "Can this finally bring out their Demons?"
"Probably."
"Then mine," Saeko looked at her forearm, a single grey vein taking place of the blue, expanding from the tip of her finger to the sword she held, "Will it grow again?"
"Maybe."
The two of them moved again to kill another batch of zombies that entered the range of their blades. He breathed out, "I have an idea about what to do. Kill these first."
"Understood, Master."