Chapter Text
Day by day, Natsumi cleared out one apartment at a time, finding solace in the repetitive act. Her efforts brought her more space to inhabit, along with some of the actual residents of the building. She didn’t know any of them, but she encouraged them to band together and make the whole building safe.
There weren’t many zombies in the building. As the days passed, she was able to confidently say that the apartment building was a rather defensible base, full of many people.
She didn’t know when or why, but one day she realized that the remaining population of the apartment building viewed her as the one in charge.
A month had passed since the beginning of the end of the world. Three weeks had passed since the group lost Mitsuru and Natsumi had found the apartment building. She hadn’t seen any of the others again and honestly didn’t expect to at this point. She couldn’t get her hopes up that they were alive. Not even - not even for her beloved Otosuke. She didn’t dare to hope.
And yet, it was then that she ran into one of them again.
“You’re… Hokuto Hidaka, right?” Natsumi blinked at the man standing before her, the man that the apartment residents told her was trying to enter the apartment. He was still human. Still safe - at least somewhat. “Mashiro-san invited you.”
“Indeed,” Hokuto nodded. He looked unkempt, even more so that the apartment residents. While the building no longer had running water or electricity, they did have systems in place to keep clean. Hokuto looked like he had been sleeping in a garbage dumb for the past three weeks. Perhaps he had been.
“Come inside,” Natsumi gestured further into the building, “Tell me what’s happened to you, these past few weeks.”
“Thank you, Minami-san,” Hokuto said, and followed her into her building. Her territory.
When they’d all had to scatter, fleeing desperately from the remains of Mitsuru and Miyuki, Hokuto had tried to stay with Anzu, but that hadn’t lasted long. They’d gotten separated, stuck on separate ends of an alleyway when some other survivor had pushed a zombie out of a window, falling down between them.
They’d both run.
Hokuto had run out of food and water after a few days, and had tried to circle back around to the convenience store where they had all been camped out before. He had managed it, but apparently that idea hadn’t been a particularly common one, despite Hokuto thinking it was common sense.
Either that, or they hadn’t been alive to circle back.
However, he had found Otosuke, Suzu, and Anzu again. He’d been very glad to see them, and they very glad to see him, but a group of once-fifteen whittled down to only four had been… disheartening.
The way Natsumi sagged in relief when Hokuto told her that Otosuke was alive was - well, for a moment, she felt absolutely boneless. She practically turned into a puddle on the floor.
“We can’t leave them,” Natsumi said, when Hokuto finished his story, “Let’s bring them here. There’s plenty of room, a community to join, it’s more defensible, and organized to the point where we can wash. Plus, there are beds, rather than sleeping on ponchos and plushies.”
“The people here would be willing to accept us here?” Hokuto asked.
“I will vouch for you,” Natsumi said, and that was that.
Some of Natsumi’s people volunteered to come with, back to the now picked-over convenience store. In addition to new people, they saw it as a chance to obtain more supplies.
Otosuke flew at her the moment he realized who had arrived. A sweet kiss, a little desperate, marked the moment that staying in the convenience store really fully came to an end for them.
Anzu and Suzu, too, were happy to see her.
“Have you seen my brother?” Suzu asked, mismatched eyes wide with a hope that Natsumi didn’t want to crush, but -
“I haven’t seen anyone else. I’m sorry.”
“Oh,” Suzu deflated, but then was smiling again after only a moment. “It’s okay. I’m sure he’s just with his Oshi-san, he has to be okay! Right?”
Anzu put a hand on her girlfriend’s arm to calm her. “Suzu, everything will be fine, I’m sure. Mika’s very capable, he won’t fall.”
“Right,” Suzu drew a shuddering breath, “You’re right, Angie, I -”
“I know.”
That day, Natsumi’s contingent obtained four more people - one of whom was far better suited to be a leader than Natsumi herself. But despite that, there wasn’t much conflict as they were absorbed into the little community that Natsumi had created without meaning to. Things were peaceful - but in this new world, peace was too good to last.