Adrian leaned against the wall, exhaustion tugging at him, but sleep wouldn't come easily. He replayed the events of the day in his mind: suddenly up in a ruined building, then encountering a bizzare situation where he got pounced by a zombie trying to bite his face off, the adrenaline and panic when fighting off the zombies in his escape, the feeling of jumping out of the window to land in a tarp ouch. The convenience store where he decided to fight those zombies, the black katana where he felt that his skin crawl, also finding the sign of Nagazora City which he isn't fully sure if he actually crossed over to the Honkai Universe because depending on which one he is in is how screwed he is, or maybe the name is just a coincidence and he just happened to hallucinate it, maybe when he wakes up he will wake on his desk still studying for his upcoming exams. No use in thinking about all of that when he doesn't even have sufficient information of where he is currently; he glanced at Ken, maybe he can get some basic information from him. the lobby, and finally, meeting Ken. Something about this kid's optimism felt off. It wasn't just that it seemed unrealistic in their current situation; it was almost forced, like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.
"Hey," Ken's voice broke through his thoughts, his voice quiet. "You think that door is secure enough, should we block it off?" He was already lying down, facing the ceiling.
"It's fine, it'll hold," Adrian mumbled, noncommittal. He shifted slightly, part of his back blocking the door, so if there's even a bit of movement he will notice.
A moment of silence passed between them - a silent acknowledgment of the dangers they faced. It wasn't trust, but it was a start.
Silence descended upon the room again, broken only by the distant sounds of the city. After a long pause, Ken spoke again, his voice a little hesitant. "How are you holding up… with all this?"
Adrian paused, considering his response. "Just Surviving," he said finally, his voice flat with a tinge of exhaustion.
"Yeah," Ken said, his voice laced with a hint of concern. "It's just… you seem pretty out of it. You okay?"
Adrian tensed, but kept his voice even. "I'm fine. Just tired." He wasn't about to pour his heart out to a guy he barely knew and trusted.
"Right," Ken said quietly.
After a few minutes of silence, Adrian spoke, his voice a little less harsh. "You?"
"It's still a lot to take in," Ken admitted, his voice barely audible. "Hard to believe it's real."
"Tell me about it," Adrian said, his voice low. "How long have you been here?"
Ken replied, "About 4 days, I've just running around getting whatever I can while trying to look for other people."
Adrian said fishing for information, "4 days?, you said you had a disagreement with some people that's why you're here."
Ken said, "I did, you remember how a week ago this all just abruptly happened?"
A week?
Adrian replied, "I dont actually," he hesitated a bit before continuing, trying to think of a plausible reason how he didn't know, "I was... In a coma for over a week I think, so I wasn't awake when this all started."
Ken said thoughtfully, "A week huh?" He continued trying to be cheerful "it's good that you've been able to wake up in time."
"Anyways, a week ago me and a lot of my schoolmates were on a school trip that was supposed to be out of the city, our bus stopped by the park so we can have our lunch when this started."
Adrian inquired a bit hopeful at the same time dreading the question, "By the way, what school are you from?, I couldn't recognize it due to your uniform being a bit of a mess right now."
Ken replied off-handedly, "Chiba Academy"
Adrian froze at that answer. His thoughts having to re-analyze that response. 'Chiba Academy... Nagazora City.... Pink light.... Zombies... It can't actually be can it? All that stuff I played online, all the things I've read... The theories, the lore... If it was all real, isn't he kinda screwed?. He took a deep breath trying to keep his composure. 'Okay maybe it's just a coincidence, a really messed up coincidence, but... if this is actually happening, then I need to figure out how to survive. He focuses his attention back on Ken, pushing aside his growing anxiety. "Okay," He said, his voice a bit neutral, "how did it start anyway?"
Ken continued on not noticing Adrian's stiff expression and empty look, "I don't really understand why or how it started, all I know is that we were suddenly blinded by a wave of pinking light enveloping everything around us, and when I opened my eyes again the sky was suddenly a tinged of purple now, some building where even starting to crumble down, we heard a lot of screaming, gunshots, and the ground rumbling. As I looked towards my classmates to ask if they were also seeking this, a bunch of them suddenly started to turn into zombies, at first these weird purple veins or lines started to run up their skins followed by paleness, some whose skin didn't go pale started decaying from the hands then they turned into zombies immediately, trying to attack the others, but some didn't turn to zombies they just had there arms or other parts turning pale white with some lines appearing. Everyone was hit with a wave of panic, too shocked to do anything," He briefly stops to catch his breath, his fist balling as he turns to face the wall.
He continued on, his tone carrying something underneath, something like envy or admiration that Adrian can't quite put his finger on, "but, just before everyone else spiralled into chaos, this.... girl; the same one that everyone calls a chunnibyo and weird suddenly kicks away a bunch of the zombies with speed and strength that we were surprised by, then jumping towards the entrance of the bus, proclaiming that the end of the world is here and as the Savior, she was here to save us from collapse, we all thought it was just another one of her strangeness and chunnibyo tendencies."
He chuckled mockingly, Adrian was unsure if he was mocking himself or the girl, "Heh, can you believe that, at the time someone actually dares to call themselves the Savior and that the apocalypse has come to the world?, at the time I thought about condemning her or making fun of her, to tell her to stop this silly stunt of hers that was starting to not be funny."
Adrian thought, feeling a sense of foreboding, 'Why does that description feels so damn familiar.'
"However," Ken continued, his tone becoming grim and shaky, "Right as I was about to, we suddenly heard a scream from behind us coming from the entrance at the other side of the park, when we looked back we saw our homeroom teacher looking disheveled running towards us covered with these purple lines running upto his neck."
"But," his knuckles turning white and he started shaking slightly, "What truly shocked and got us running was the thing that was chasing him, it was a giant white monster with the same purple lines tracing it's whole body, it looked like one of those jousting on horseback, we watched in terror as the monster pierced him from behind before he even managed to come near us, the only reason we got out of there safely was because someone pressed the horn on the bus, and then the same girl screamed at us to get inside."
Adrian asked still processing what he just heard, "But, why aren't you with them now?"
Ken let out a sigh of frustration, "Because during our escape, we were trying to return to the school, but the main road was blocked by cars and fallen buildings so we decided to take the long route around the city, we couldn't get to our residential areas because it was surrounded by those monsters, so we ended up staying the night inside the bus, everyone was huddled together to find some warmth in that cold bus."
"When we woke up the next day, we still trying to get to the school but alot of roads where blocked, by the time we got near the shopping district our bus ran out of fuel, so our de facto "leader," He sneered at that part, "suggested that we go on foot as we can get more supplies on the way, we were supposed get to school by the morning if we where careful, but along the way we came across some other survivors so we had to take a lot of stops to rest and care for those that were injured and feed ourselves, by the time the next morning came around we had to get back to walking in order to reach the school along the way we encountered some zombies that we couldn't avoid, so a few of us decided to get some weapons to... Confront the undead in order to get the rest to safety." He sighed in regret.
"My condolences," Adrian commented, 'I'm guessing not everyone managed to arrive in one piece,' he kept that last thought to himself.
Adrian asked curiously, "By the sounds of it, you should be at the school by then right? Then what are you doing here?"
Ken sighed, turning over to face the ceiling again, "We... Had a disagreement, a big one."
"About what?"
"About what to do next," Ken said, his voice rising slightly. "We finally made it to the school, but it wasn't safe. There were too many of those things around. We had to take shelter at the old gymnasium where it was closed off, there we found some other people hiding. The girl, the one who saved us, wanted to stay there, fortify the place, and wait for help."
"And you didn't agree?" Adrian guessed, already knowing the answer.
"No!" Ken exclaimed, his voice filled with frustration. "We can't just hide and wait for someone to rescue us! We need to be proactive! We need to find other survivors, clear out the school, make it a safe haven!"
"She didn't think that was a good idea?"
"I didn't hear her reply," Ken said, his voice dropping. "Before she could say anything, a teacher of ours went up to me and said we needed to focus on securing our own survival first, that we didn't have the necessary supplies to even survive yet, much less to use in finding other people. He said I was being reckless, that I was going to get people killed."
"What did everyone else say?"
Kai sat up, glaring at the window as if looking at his previous companions, saying in annoyance, "They said nothing!" He growled, "I turned to every single one of them to ask what they think, all of them either looked away from me or walked beside our teacher!, all of them have this conflicted expression on their faces as if they're pitying me or feeling guilty!"
"Even some of my friends," his voice began to shake, "Even some of my friends - the ones I thought would have my back - went up to the teacher and said to me 'Ken, let's just stay here, we're tired, we're not Heroes, we can't save them,' I was furious at that, but I know at that point they wouldn't listen to reason."
"And you think they're wrong?" Adrian asked, his voice carefully neutral.
Ken flinched, as if struck. He looked at Adrian, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and hurt. "Yes! I know they're trying to protect everyone, but we can't just abandon those who are still out there! We have a responsibility to help them!" He added, "back at the bus, as we were leaving, I was the only one that looked back!, I saw what none of them noticed, some of the other buses didn't start, a lot of students still running around trying to run from the monsters, we could've stopped for them!, but I was scared - everyone was scared that they would be the one being crushed next so I was silent only watching everyone else panic and despair."
"A responsibility?" Adrian echoed, raising an eyebrow. "You barely know these people."
"That doesn't matter!" Ken insisted. "They're still human beings! They deserve our help!"
"And that's why you left?" Adrian pressed.
Ken nodded, his voice barely a whisper. "I couldn't stay there. I couldn't just sit around and do nothing while people were suffering. I had to try to make a difference, even if it meant going alone."
He paused, his expression softening. "Besides," he added, a hint of guilt in his voice, "I was worried about my family, the ones still at home. I wanted to find them, make sure they were okay."
Adrian closed his eyes, resisting the urge to argue. He was too tired to get into a debate about the merits of heroism. He was also starting to realize that trying to argue with him would be meaningless. So he asked, "By the way, what was that girl's name?"
He thought anticipating the answer, 'this might be the final clue if I'm really in the Honkai impact 3...please don't let it be Kiana, please don't let it be Kiana.' As much as he likes Kiana and wants to actually see her in person, he does not want to be randomly killed with a sneeze by country destroying Herrschers, with the way normal men are treated in Honkai impact.
Ken replied taking a deep breath, "Kyuushou, Houraiji Kyuushou" he asked, "Why? You know her?"
Adrian froze at that comment, his thoughts on how to survive if it was Kiana halted, his fist started trembling, 'Kyuushou... Oh shit... I'm screwed.'