Ran Over Runway - Komatsu City II

Did you see, did you see?! There was a change in cover! This one fits the current clothing of Ryo more! Of course, it is a stolen image that I edited!

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Ryo took the group to the airpot walking, clearly not wanting to show them the bus. The girls, understanding his reasoning behind the action, remained quite. There was someone though, who couldn't stand still.

"Hey, I've been wondering, where did you get your weapons?" a teenager that seemed to be around fifteen or sixteen, freshly squeezed into High School, asked excitedly before exclaiming. "They look so cool!"

"Shush it before I sew your lips together" Ryo said slowly and threateningly. Not wanting to earn the ire of the person that was basically carrying them, the kid said he was sorry and spoke lower. "But can I know?"

Before Ryo actually did good on his threat, Saeko answered, proudly explaining the origin of the weapons. She was really proud of how capable Ryo was.

"This are RH original, they are the Bladed Series" she said with a smug smile. One of the people in the group of randoms claimed that it just wasn't possible. "RH is not a reknowned gunsmith, be honest here, little girl"

"Oi, talk to her with respect, old man" Ryo said even more threateningly than to the chatterbox. Saeko just chuckled elegantly seeing his reaction. "Excuse him please, he is a bit overprotective"

"As for RH not being a reknowned name in the gunsmithing industry, I don't feel surprised at all" she said, looking even more smug than before when she pointed at Ryo with her finger. "After all RH, or Ryo Hashimoto, is him"

The group couldn't believe that such a young man made those weapons himself, but they had never seen something like that even on the internet! It looked like something taken out of fiction! They wanted to know how they could wield weapons that were clearly unbalanced or how they could aim them, but they didn't dare, lest they were left looking like idiots once again.

The only one who hadn't spoken for even a second was the kid that Ryo had praised for remaining on guard in front of him. He was constantly alert and glancing at the sides of each corridor they walked by, looking at Ryo's figure each time he slayed a zombie. He looked at him not with jealousy, but with admiration. He wanted nothing more than to reach that kind of unadulterated strength.

Ryo, who could tell what the kid was doing, felt amused. He had perhaps done the same thing when he was still innocent. Still, he kept walking while focusing mostly on the few zombies that appeared inside the airport. He wanted to check the lower floors to see if there was any kind of generator in there. Even if it was too big, they could at some point come back for it with a truck or something.

"Ryo, I don't like this place" Shizuka said as she moved closer to him, acting scared to get closer to him. The other girls deadpanned seeing this, since the only one who could pull it off so shamelessly and make it work was the bubbly nurser. "Stay close to me. Nothing will happen to you, I promise"

Ryo found how much she tried to be close to him cute, but also a bit worrying. Shizuka relied to much in skinship, something that made him wonder if she felt insecure about her personality. Still, he moved those thoughs aside for later, since he first had to deal with the airport situation.

"Seems like we spent the last hour checking this place from top to bottom for nothing" someone in the new group said, annoyed at the fact he was made to move all over the place and got nothing in return. He began sweating when he saw Ryo's face. He looked mad.

"Listen closely. I agreed to help you because I really don't like leaving people to their own fate, but I could've perfectly left you on your own back there. In fact, I could've just let you deal with the zombies yourselves" Ryo spat word after word harshly, berating the man without holding back any punches. "So, if you want to be an ungrateful bastard and complain about what my group is doing, blame yourself for being so afraid you feel the need to follow me blindly"

Those words struck all of the people present. In their heart, they knew that he was right. The problem was that admitting one's own faults is harder than it looks. Seeing that nobody said anything, Ryo continued.

"Good" he said terminantly, declaring the matter as closed and not giving anyone space for any comments, before giving a simple order. "Now we will check if there are any stray vehicles that I can take some parts from in the runways"

Saeko, Yuriko and Miku had one same thought at that moment. Ryo was so dominant and manly that they wanted to jump on him right then and there, barely managing to hold back when a zombie crossed their paths. Saya was embarrassed when she found herself breathing heavily at the sight, same as Rei. Hiratsuka just thought that she had fallen for the right one. Rika was surprised because it was the first time she saw this side of Ryo and she couldn't help but think that, perhaps, he would manage to tame her. Shizuka was cutely turning her head left and right with a finger on her lips, totally lost on what was happening.

About ten zombies later and fifteen minutes of going around the Airport, stealing a random package of gummies from time to time. When they left through one of the gates that was supposed to be used when boarding a plane, they found a scene that certainly belonged to an apocalyptic world.

While the randoms and the interesting kid felt panic seeing the amount of zombies, which Ryo estimated was over ten thousand, Ryo and the girls just looked around in annoyance. They weren't worried since, so long as they didn't make a sound, things would be alright. But they were annoyed since, even if there was something down there, there was no way of taking it.

*THUD*

When they heard that sound on the roof of the passage they were in, they all fell silent. Ryo signaled with his finger for everyone to remain like that. A second later, a huge hand with five claws rather than fingers pierced through the ceiling. When the hand was removed, Ryo was already aiming his weapon at the hole.

They still hadn't made a sound when the creature put its head through the hole it had made. It didn't have eyes and it looked like a twisted mass of muscle, with its brain exposed, and big mouth full of sharp teeth and a tongue so long that it would make Venom feel insecure. Ryo immediately used on it.

[Name: Licker

Level: 4

Strength: 45

Agility: 40

Intelligence: 18

Dexterity: 22

Charisma: 0

Skills: -]

The Stats were high enough for the creature to be a huge threat, so Ryo wanted to avoid fighting it if possible. That didn't stop him from further investigating the creature.

[Unstable Licker: A rushed evolution caused the virus inside this Licker variant to be unstable. Because of that, it doesn't possess the same strength that its stable variants do. Because of the unstable nature of the virus inside its body, the Crystalized form of it might be more dangerous to a normal human that wants to consume it.]

He was about done reading the information about the fucker when he heard a sound. Looking to the side, he saw the long tongue belonging to the Licker a few centimeters away from the man that had talked back to Saeko. He could see in slow motion how the yelp of the idiot was followed by the click of a trigger.

*BANG*

The passage from the gate to the plane was madde from metal, and there is only one thing that the shot's explosion could've done. Echoed all over the passage and the entire building of the airport. Ryo immediately dashed forwards and kicked the Licker's side, pushing him away just before it managed to grab the man. The entire party of randoms, bar the kid, ran away towards the airport in horror. Unluckily for them, the horde of zombies had already invaded the building and was progressively leaving the runway.

"So much for gratitude" Ryo said, fully aware that the Licker had now locked on to him. He spoke to the girls without moving his eyes from the Licker. "We're gonna have to open a way through zombies to leave this place"

"As if that was any different than what we always do" Hiratsuka said while lighting a cig. Ryo followed her example before directing his words to the kid. "Fancy you still being here, kid"

The kid just took off his hood, which he had always had on, before talking.

"The strong deserve respect and leaving someone who saved my ass to fight on their own wouldn't sit well with me"

Ryo smirked when he heard those words. He had become better at judging people's characters in the three or so weeks that had passed since the apocalypse began, and he was right about the boy. He was the one to be trusted.

Short red hair, pale mercury colored eyes and a relatively athletic build, wearing a grey and black military combat suit. Ryo could tell from how he moved that he had trained in a few different kinds of martial arts, something he could respect. Besides, the kid immediately took a knife from his combat boots.

"What's your name?" Ryo aked as he waited for the Licker to make the first move. The kid just smirked and did the longest, most unnecesary introduction ever. "Akabane Karma, fifteen years old, Capricorn and my favorite color is red"

Ryo actually chuckled a bit when he hear Karma's words. He found him quite amusing, since he was actually able to keep such a happy-go-lucky attitude in such a moment. "Good to see you got balls... you're gonna need to keep up with us"

The escape from Komatsu Airport began.

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Karma is probably going to be the most recurring character that isn't Ryo or the girls for a while. Yugo and Aki are kind of like super secondary, while Karma is cool secondary.