A faint, cadenced thumping sounded on the creaking wooden flooring of the hallway leading to the door.
"15 minutes should be more than enough to get there," The young man responsible for the stationary hops done to wake up his body.
A grey, full-set tracksuit designed with black lining draped his body, tastefully complementing his honey-brown skin tone, similarly accentuated by his black running shoes.
Halting to a comfortable standstill, with a strong posture to his 168cm height.
His right hand moved to roll up his left cuff to expose the timing watch strapped to his wrist. Scrolling through the numbers he landed on 15 minutes, and he started it.
"Mother! Father! I am off!" The young man shout down the hallway into the house as he cocked his head back.
"Do not come home scraped up this time, Dion!" His mother shouts back.
"Bring me a cheesecake on your way back!" His father's reply followed soon after with an almost warning hum to it, "And don't squash it up, Sil!"
Dion could only smile wryly at this. It was only one time that he fell and the cheesecake ended up crushing under his body. It didn't burst out of the packaging luckily, but it ended up more like a sheet of cake than a slice.
He rushed himself out of the door, leaving behind the words, "No promises!"
Outside of his family's larger-than-average home, the purple of Dion's eyes came alive and a faint smile coupled with them as he set off.
In an brisk jog, he made his way around his house to the backyard.
Shuffling over the neatly cut grass and navigating his way through an obstacle course-like garden with light steps, he soon faced a wall that stood a bit taller than him.
His body leaned forward, seemingly eager to crash into it. Then in a single, swift and practised motion, with a muffled thud his dominant right foot lunged forward and his left followed close behind to plant itself just ahead of his right as he threw his arms behind himself.
His calves and thighs tensed.
His core tense and his chest and shoulder muscles tensed along with it, then his smile grew.
"Boom," He firmly murmured under his breath while looking up at the edge of the wall.
He rapidly swung his hands down and up to add momentum and his body's strength exploded forth into the jump.
"And there he goes..."
Watching the whole scene from the kitchen window was Sil's mother. A beautiful, light-skinned woman of seemingly Greek heritage.
She murmured with a slight amusement and smile decorating her countenance, "His form needs to be worked on though,"
Her eyes traced his frame as half of it cleared over the edge of the meter and a half tall wall from his jump, then with his left hand plated on it he swung the rest of his body over the right of it and disappeared to the other side.
"Do you think they'll be able to convince him to go back to school?" She spoke somberly as she turned back to look at her husband who was in the living room across from her.
"Swing! Come on, swing! It's a dusty pitch, fool!"
What greeted her was the image of a fairly tall and well-built middle-aged man with dark skin clicking away at the PS5 controller. He was playing a baseball game on their son's console shouting profanities at the game.
Her eyes squint at his back, her expression lowering to a frown and the man nearly instantly paused the game only a moment too late to avoid the balled-up kitchen towel that came flying at him.
"Shimotsuki Saitou!" Mama Sil shout, and at the same time, the balled-up towel hit him square in the face just as he turned to try finally listen to her, "I'm talking about our son's future here!"
The thud of the damp kitchen towel felt akin to dozens of ants biting on his face as it forced him to wobble his head with a groan.
"I'm shorry!"
The apology was muffled greatly as he shook the towel off and wiped his face with a hand.
His lips stretched, seemingly alluding to how he struggled to hold back a laugh and he spoke, "It'll be fiine~"
With that, he smiled at his wife who had come over to pick up the towel she had thrown at him.
"Why are you worried?"
"..."
From her earlier ferocity, her expression had once again been muted.
"It's just..." She spoke faintly, "Sometimes I wonder if it was the best decision for us to tell him the truth... Now...he doesn't feel like he-."
Saito turned and held her by the arm, pulling her back from her turning away back to the kitchen.
"Hey, don't say that, Suzume," His voice was firm yet soft.
"This is part of our responsibility as his parents, to not hide the truth from him. Otherwise, until when would we have kept it secret? When our time is up? When the time for normalcy is up? And we leave him without any preparation?"
Her lips pursed and she said, "We could have prepared him without telling what it was for."
An almost regretful yet understanding glimmer shone in her eyes.
Shaking his head, he said, "We both know we can't do that. Not to mention that he is a smart boy and would have caught on to something, it's just a plain terrible idea."
Grumbling under her breath she muttered, "I know. I know...okay? I just wish he could let himself enjoy his youth regardless."
Her gaze almost became pitiful as within it's depths glimmered a festered sorriness.
"Watching my son suffer because of what we have done...it tears me apart each moment I look at him," Her voice quivered.
Saitou's expression stilled and regretfully, he understood her all too well. He felt a similarly grating anguish after all.
Yet he gave a faint smile.
Saitou rose, crossing to her in three strides. Calloused hands framed her face. "He may not say it nowadays, but remember how, when he was small, he would always say we were better than the 'Fake Heroes' on the TV? That we should be the ones they make movies about?" His voice roughened, gravel grinding with emotion. "It may be something small to him. Even if he remembers, he was just a little boy. But that's when kids are most honest, are they not?"
His thumbs brushed Suzume's cheek, steadying her trembling. "Because of that, I can look all my decisions in the face and tell myself every day that despite their outcome, these decisions we made are the reason he can look up to us."
Suzume's breath hitched. "But what if he resents us? What if—"
"Now," Saitou interrupted, voice deepening like a vow, "they make me proud. Proud that I found a wife and mother of such devout character. Proud to be myself. Proud to have not yielded." His grip tightened, not harshly, but with the fervor of a man anchoring his soul to truth. "And proud to know that he, our son, can look anyone of them in the eye and proclaim boldly, with the skies roaring along with him, that we are his parents."
A tear slipped down Suzume's cheek. "We have burdened him."
"We've have done our best," he corrected, pressing his brow to hers. "Now let us trust him."
She nodded, the motion small but sure. "He will be fine."
"Of course!" Saitou pulled back, grin flashing. "My son is a Von Steiin. We do not go down easy." He jabbed a thumb toward the door where Dion had vanished. "And if he does faceplant again? At least the sacrifice of a cheesecake slice make for an amusing story."
She chuckled as the choked sob she held back released itself.
~~~~
The loud thud of heavy steps echoed through a dimly lit stairway leading to the rooftop of a building.
Dion, who had removed his jacket and tied it around his waist to reveal his defined yet lean upper body in a black shirt was skipping up the stairs making light work of ignoring 2-3 steps with each stride.
"I hope it's empty," He murmured to himself as he checked his watch to see that he had 4 minutes left, "Lunchtime just ended, all the stressed-out corporate slaves should have gone back to their jobs,"
Controlled huffs of breath followed his robust movements as he leapt to the final step, then while still carrying on with his next stride he burst through the door causing a room-shaking thud.
As if an angel's blessing were being cast upon the stairway, it lit up as the clear sky gazed down upon him, bringing clarity to everything that had been hidden behind the closed doors.
Dion sprinted out onto a pebbled roof littered with dozens of air conditioning package units and other forms of piping.
He squinted his eyes a little due to the sunlight, but still not daring to slow down his pace he vaulted over a thick pipe.
A few strides later, he made a tall and long jump over one of the AC fan units.
His eyes remained trained forward, unwavering as he eyed the other obstacles he had to clear.
With a series of jumps, flips and dodges, he was finally near the edge of the building, not a beat missing from his already fast pace.
The gap was nearly seven meters wide, but he was unperturbed and so, with a firm press of his right foot to the edge, he jumped.
Swinging his arms and legs in the air, as he drew closer to his landing spot, he swiftly adjusted himself to do a roll on the rough ground of the next building leaving him with only a few scratches amongst a number of healed yet still visible cuts.
Maintaining his momentum, he rose right back into his sprint, however this time, he aimed for the far-left corner edge of the building.
Beyond it was a stone balcony of the next building over and below was the alleyway leading into the streets that he was aiming for.
As soon as he cleared all the piping and obstacles on this roof, he jumped towards the balcony, catching himself on its edge using his arms with his feet planted on its wall like spiderman before looking down diagonally behind him to find a metal stairway.
He pushed himself off the balcony, then latched himself onto the metal stairway and repeated this sequence once more before landing in the alleyway where he resumed a casual sprint.
He only briefly glanced at his timer to see that he had nearly 2 minutes left.
"Right on time," He murmured with a faint smirk as he thrust himself into the bustling city.
He ignored the honking of horns, the chatter of the crowd and hollering of street vendors as he turned the corner with a brisk walk, making his way into a café only a dozen meters from the alley exit he took.
As he walked, even though he was breathy from the five kilometer parkour sprint he just did to make it here, he kept his posture straight and his breathing rhythmic and deep.
'The Time of Eve' The signboard that he stood in front of read.
'Home, sweet home,' He thought as he strode into the café triggering the bell that hung over the door to sing a soft chime.
It was a rather dark-styled café, with heavily shaded brown wooden furnishing, black walls and grey tiling.
At the same time, it was quite spacious, with several conventional seating areas and various couches convenient for lounging in a separate area.
Dion's eyes scanned the room as he leisurely strut in.
"Welcome." A soft voice greeted him.
"Good morning, Sophie," He gave a toothy smile, revealing his slightly sharper than usual canines.
She was a young girl who stood at 162cm. Dressed in a work uniform, a black and white ensemble, she carried a dignity along with her adorability – a dignity that naturally commanded a sense of elegance around her. A head of long, slightly wavy, raven hair descended to her lower back; her sky blue eyes glinted with a familiarity looking at him.
Before either could get another word in, he had already embraced her in a brief hug, leaving her with a faint blush as she gently pushed him away.
"I'm working!" Her hushed shout of a complaint was pillowed over even more by his chuckles.
She harumphed and adjusted herself.
"What would you like today, Dion?"
He maintained a smile and said, "Same as always, please."
Dion's voice was smooth and humming with a familiar liveliness.
"Ojii-sama's handmade?" She asked plainly.
"How about yours instead, today?"
"Right away!" Her words raced with a slightly nervousness, "Your usual seat in the lounging area is free,"
"Is Egghead in? Or is he loitering again?" Dion asked.
Sophie giggled at the way he was calling her twin brother, then she scowled and that was more than enough of an answer for Dion.
"Forget I asked," He said as he walked ahead through the cafe
She then hurried off with a skip to her step.
"Thank you," He said with a faint chuckle.
Sil made his way to the room across the cafe clearly labelled 'Lounging Area'.
The lounging area of the cafe was quite cozy, which was natural considering how it was meant to be used.
It was separate from the usual seating and dining area of the cafe where it was more conventionally designed as a cafe with tables for casual customers and the like. Here, it was decorated with couches, bean-bags and a wide bookshelf off to one side.
The room was cut-off from the main area, sound insulated.
Sil strut over to the bookshelf, running his finger along the spines of books as he read their titles. He had already been doing this for a good ten minutes. Flipping through books that he had read and skimming through the synopsis of those he had yet to honour himself with.
'What kind of mood do I want to be in today...' He wondered to himself.
He immediately ruled out anything too philosophical, today was too beautiful a day for profound pondering.
He directly ruled out any kind of romance, he didn't wish to feel quite sappy today.
Maybe a dystopian horror? Or a Mystery book?
'No, I have got to be back home soon. Mira-san and the twins are coming over for dinner. No time for puzzles or suspense,' He thought.
"Sil."
Before he could make a decision, a low, mannish voice, deep and curious, summoned his attention behind him.
"Jii-san."
He smiled at the dapper dressed, wizened man who walked in from a back room, wiping his hands with a red cloth.
His full beard of white stretched as his wrinkled smile rose at Sil revealing the white of his teeth. He carried a head of white hair, standing at a fairly tall 182cm with a ruler straight posture and firm gait.
"What kind of day is it today, Goro-jii-san?"
Goro came to stand beside him, looking over the wide bookshelf with a curious smile. His hand raised to swipe out a book as he said:
"One that feels like the clouds have forgotten where they're supposed to be,"
Dion chuckled, taking the book as he said, "What is that supposed to mean?"
He didn't read the title, simply holding the book as the Goro chuckled. They hugged briefly.
"It's good to see you, son," He said, "How are you?"
"Spectacular," Sil said, "I made it here in 14 minutes and 21 seconds, you know?"
"Shocking," Goro chuckled to himself, "for someone as heavy footed as you despite your size."
"Huh?! Were you not the one that said I was like a cat? What happened to 'nimble and agile, maybe a little fickle'?"
"That was when you were barely reaching my waist," Goro said as he patted Sil's head, "You are as rigid as stone now,"
They moved over to a couch, chuckling together.
"Whatever," Sil shook his head with a huff.
"I bet even Sophia could out-maneouver you," Goro said, "Not to mention myself, even as old as I am,"
"N-"
"Here's your order, Dion,"
Sophia came hurrying in just as he was about to reply. A wide, anticipating smile on her face as she showed off the items she was carrying on her tray. Over it was a hot cup of coffee and a panna cotta with blueberry made dressing and strawberries to decorate.
"Lucky old man," Dion murmured.
Goro himself merely shrugged.
Then, strangely, Dion's vision - his world was devoured by a bestial maw of darkness with sharp, red eyes.
~~~~~~~~
Mic test, 1, 2
Mic test, Hello, Ola, Buongiorno
Mister Author; 7th purloiner speaking
Before I begin the story's canon, I believe I should give this forewarning.
I'm in no particular hurry to begin the 'original' stuff that i've got in mind. In fact, technically, it will only begin a little later into the canon(there isn't much canon to this story either way soooo.)
This is for a couple of reasons.
I'm doing this out of my own awkward, nonsensical kind of respect for the Author of H.O.T.D - Daisuke Sato. I want to maintain most or at least some of the essence he had in mind for his story, at least for a little while. It wasn't anything outrageously supernatural. It is an honest-to-goodness zombie story with regular people. Now, of course, even when the apocalypse begins, they won't be entirely 'regular' but they won't be juiced up superhuman all of a sudden...for the most part.
So, yeah.
This fanfic was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. I have so many fanfic ideas that it often leaves me dizzy and undecided, but this idea seduced me like 2 weeks ago I guess, so here I am writing about it.
I don't want to try to write out multiple of my ideas at one go. I won't. At least, I will not publish them and put the expectation of my posting regularly out there. Maybe I will do a Discord or Patreon thing where you guys will get to interact with my creation process for those other kinds of fanfictions. idk.
Basically, what I'm saying is that taking my time with the original plot is giving me a good chunk of very much appreciated time to plan out anything I need or want.
Mind you this is a fanfiction so I will be taking a lot of liberty with my inspirations from other novels, manga, franchises or anything for that matter.
Moving on; this part is simple.
Like I said, I'm just quite literally in no rush to hurry through the story.
I enjoy writing it. And at the end of the day, it is a story. Not a one-shot. The process is what we're here for, isn't it? So expect this to be a long story. Hundreds of chapters… Wow. Saying it out loud sounds rather daunting now that I think about it. Remember though, life isn't very kind in allowing you to follow your plans exactly as you wish so I wont say there wont be ups and downs as a result of what I have going on in real life (I'm a student and I work part-time)
Anyway, that's enough of that.
If there's anything else that I'd like to say it's that please ask me questions about the context of my writing. The whys, how's and whos of the things that are happening in the story.
A lot of the time, I find myself wanting to write an explanation, but it'd just make the reading flow awkward and choppy, so I end up not including it. It pains me. After all, one of the points to being a writer is to let your readers in on the story I have concocted in my mind in as much of its entirety as I can.
For the sake of your familiarity and immersion with the story, your questions will help me flesh out characters, locations, and anything. Think of it like how One Piece SBS works, if you have any idea what those are like.
So ask!!
As long as it does not compromise future plot, I will happily, while giggling profusely, sipping on coke with the AC on in my room with NY school notebooks on the side and work stuff on the other side, answer. (Heh. Perhaps, am I a workaholic?)
(Insert image of shocked chibi panda) - I just looked at the word count and realised that I used so many words to say all this. (The chapter is now like 3.4k words long.)
See ya, my new readers.