Yui squeezed Yukino's hand as they walked through an open alleyway.
She and the rest of the group, with whom she had spent the past several days surviving, were now surrounded by a small team of JSDF soldiers. These soldiers had swooped in at the last minute to save them all from a large, mutated shark that could have eaten them. For that, Yui couldn't help but be deeply grateful to them all.
Yui turned to Haruno, who wore her usual confident expression while holding Yukino's other hand. However, Yui could tell that Haruno was putting on a brave face to appear strong for Yukino, who was still struggling to recover from the earlier attack.
After all, Haruno had come within a hair's breadth of being eaten alive.
Despite being less aware and less knowledgeable than Yukino and even Hachiman, Yui possessed something neither of them had: strong emotional intelligence and the ability to perceive unspoken feelings.
Using this skill, Yui could tell that Haruno was shaken and terrified. It was only thanks to her strong willpower that Haruno hadn't collapsed and cried after such a harrowing and traumatic experience.
"Here it is," Yuichi said from the group's right, pointing to a two-story building that had once been a bakery. "Sorry for making you kids walk for so long after what just happened."
"No, no! It's okay! I mean, we're all safe now because of you!" Yui smiled and waved her hand.
"Why did we come here?" Miura asked from beside Hayato and Hina.
"Well, we couldn't leave the others behind, could we?" Yuichi replied as everyone came to a stop in front of the building's entrance.
"About time you all got here."
Yui and the others looked up to see another soldier lowering his assault rifle from a window on the second floor. "I heard everything from over here. What the hell happened?" Takayuki asked.
"We'll tell you all about it after you let us in. Did you bake us some muffins m while you waited, or did you knit me a sweater?" Yasushi joked.
"Fuck off."
After a moment, Takayuki walked downstairs and opened the front door after removing the barricade. "Come on in," he said, glancing up at the darkening sky. "Looks like we won't be moving anywhere else today."
"Yeah, we'll rest for tonight and begin moving first thing in the morning," Hiroyuki replied after Yui and the others entered the building. "For now, everyone should go upstairs and get something to eat. You'll need your strength for tomorrow's march to the river."
"The river… So, that's where you all are heading as well," Shizuka said cautiously.
Hiroyuki turned to her in surprise, pausing as he placed the barricade back up. "You too? Isn't that a coincidence? Well, we'll have a chance to talk upstairs about everyone's next steps. Maybe you all could even join us north."
Yui looked between her homeroom teacher and Hiroyuki, sensing the heavy tension between them.
"Y-Yui-san? Let's move upstairs, shall we?" Yukino said softly, still holding onto Yui's hand. Unwilling to let go of her friend's comfort.
"Oh? Yeah, let's go!"
Leaving Shizuka and Hiroyuki behind, Yui followed Haruno and Yukino upstairs, where the smell of food filled the air, reminding them all just how hungry they were.
However, as they entered the large living area, Yui noticed several shocked expressions on her classmates' faces. She then heard Yukino's breath hitch.
"Yukinon?" Yui asked, walking around her.
As she turned to the center of the room, Yui gasped.
Standing there in front of everyone, equally shocked, was Saki. Sitting on a couch behind her were her little sister and brother, Keika and Taishi. Not too far from them was another familiar face to Yui and Yukino.
"K-Komachi-chan?" Yui whispered.
"Komachi? Senpai's sister?! Wait, Kawasaki-senpai?" Iroha was the first to snap out of her surprise. "How are you here?"
"I could say the same to you," Saki replied, relaxing her grip on her P220 pistol—a weapon that caught everyone's attention. She placed it in her thigh holster and looked at the group. Quickly, she noticed that several people from the Community Center were missing. With a low sigh, Saki concluded that they must have all died.
"Yui-San? Yukino-San?" Komachi's voice trembled, barely breaking free from her tightening throat, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "Y-You're alive..."
Yui shook her head in disbelief, her heart pounding. She released Yukino's hand and dashed to Komachi, wrapping the young girl in a desperate embrace. Relief flooded through her, but as she held Komachi tightly. "Komachi-Chan! You're okay! I'm so glad! Look, Yukinon! Hikki found Komachi-Chan!" As she turned to Yukino, however, she failed to notice Komachi's expression darken, the light fading from her eyes.
At the younger Hikigaya's expression, Yukino felt a lump in her throat, dread pooling in her stomach. Her heart tightened painfully as she faced the reality she had feared for so long. She clung to the hope that maybe she had misread Komachi, refusing to let despair settle just yet. "Komachi-San… where… where's Hikigaya-kun?" Her voice was a fragile whisper, cutting through the air and silencing the room. "I-Is he okay?"
From the corner of the room, Saki froze, her hands gripping her thighs as dread filled her. Hayato, realizing the truth looming in the tense silence, uttered a quiet "No…" His whisper ignited a chilling realization among the group.
"Yeah! Where's Hikki?" Yui's smile didn't fade, her gaze darting around the room. "Is he in the bathroom?"
Panic surged within Yukino as she pushed past Yui, grabbing Komachi by the shoulders, desperation in her eyes. "Komachi-San, where… where is he?"
Iroha, watching Saki's reaction unfold, turned to Taishi and Keika; both were crying, their faces averted as if trying to escape the reality before them. Driven by dread, she walked up to Saki and grabbed her shirt, shaking her. "It's a lie, right? This is some kind of sick joke?! Well? Where's Senpai?! Answer me, please?!"
Yui turned to Iroha, shock plastered across her face at the younger girl's sudden volatility. "Iroha! What are you doing?!"
But before Yui could move to intervene, Komachi's next words shattered the fragile air.
"Oniichan… Oniichan is dead," she managed, her voice hollow, eyes glued to the floor. "He's dead."
"…eh?" Yui's breath caught, disbelief ripping through her as she slowly turned back to Komachi. "Komachi-Chan… what did you say?"
"Yukino-Chan!" Haruno cried out as Yukino fell to her hands and knees, the weight of the truth crashing down around her. Silent tears poured down her cheeks. Haruno knelt beside her, wrapping her arms around her trembling figure. "Yukino-Chan... I'm so sorry."
Hayato grimaced, his nails digging painfully into his palms as he clenched his fists tighter, a wave of anger and despair crashing over him at the news of yet another classmate lost to their twisted reality. The weight of grief hung heavy in the air. Meguri closed her eyes and lifted her trembling hands, whispering a prayer for Hachiman.
Miura and Hina exchanged glances, their expressions twisted with uncertainty on what to do. Saika began to cry, while Yoshiteru buried his face in his hands, his body shaking as Maki gently rubbed his back, trying to offer solace amidst the chaos of their emotions.
"Hachiman," Saika cried, his voice breaking with the weight of loss.
"Partner…" Yoshiteru muttered, his words barely above a whisper. "It can't be." The denial hung in the air like a thick fog, choking them all.
From the back of the group, Kaori blinked, each second stretching into eternity as the reality of her old classmate's death settled like a heavy stone in her chest.
"I like you! Please go out with me!"
Hachiman's confession came to the forefront of her mind, filling Kaori with a dull sadness at the loss. The only thing she could do was hope that he didn't suffer when he died.
"What? No. He can't… no, he promised he'd come back. H-Hikki can't be dead," Yui said, her voice cracking as panic consumed her. She locked eyes with Komachi, whose tears streamed down her cheeks, splattering on the floor like shattered hope. Yui felt her heart race and turned to Saki, desperation etched across her face. "Kawasaki… Hikki's fine, right?"
Saki grimaced, a tortured look swimming in her eyes. "No… Hikigaya is gone, Yuigahama. He's gone." Her words hung heavy in the air, a chilling reminder of the inevitable.
"I-It can't be," Iroha whispered, her small hands trembling as she stepped away from Saki. Her voice wavered as the reality began to set in. "S-Senpai… is dead?"
The weight of her question echoed around the room, silence festering between them. One by one, members of the student council approached their president, trying to offer words of comfort, but Iroha broke away from them, a raw and jagged pain driving her to flee. She rushed past Shizuka, who stood frozen in the hallway, her heart racing from having overheard the heartbreaking news.
Shizuka closed her eyes and punched the wall beside her, injuring her knuckles. Once again, another of her students, a student she had grown very close to, had died. As she tried not to cry, Shizuka cursed herself for not being able to do anything again and again.
"Kaicho!" Miho and Ayaka cried, rushing after Iroha, followed closely by Eiji and Shiro, their footsteps echoing in the hall, desperate to catch up.
"I'm s-sorry," Komachi whispered, her shoulders shaking as she hugged herself tightly, memories haunting her. "Oniichan died saving my life... He pulled me up, and—he got tackled. Those things… they attacked him! They... they bit him! I-I couldn't do anything! Oniichan is dead. He's dead, and it's all my fault!"
The room fell into an oppressive silence as Komachi broke down, punctuated only by the heart-wrenching cries of those mourning the loss of Hachiman. To some, he had been a reclusive classmate or fellow student. But to the majority of them, Hachiman had been involved in some aspect of their lives, whether as a classmate, acquaintance, or friend.
Yui stood there, her expression void of life, eyes wide yet unfocused, as if she were trapped in a waking nightmare. Her body moved on its own, and she stepped towards Komachi, who was crumpling under the weight of her grief.
Without thinking, Yui pulled the younger girl into her chest, brushing her hair softly as she sobbed.
Miura, watching from the sidelines, felt a pang of concern ripple through her. "Yui," she whispered, her voice trembling as she examined her friend's vacant stare.
Yui's eyes had dulled, a haunting, unnatural smile stretching across her features as if she were trying to mask the despair that enveloped her. No tears fell from her eyes, only a mechanical repetition as she brushed Komachi's hair, trying to convey some sense of false comfort.
"It's okay, Komachi-Chan… everything is going to be okay," Yui murmured, her words hollow and drifting into the void. Her dull eyes stared into a darkness that seemed to swallow everything around her. "You'll see. This is all just one big mistake."
Komachi's arms slowly rose up and hugged Yui, desperate for any comfort from the older girl. Due to her emotional state, she had completely missed Yui's words and buried her face deeper into Yui's chest as if to escape the world around them.
Trembling on the floor, Yukino buried her face in her hands, refusing to look around her environment. The weight of her emotions felt unbearable, and tears streamed silently down her cheeks. Her heart hurt so much that she was struggling to breathe. She wanted to deny Komachi's words. To call her a liar. But why would Komachi and Saki lie? There was no point.
Yukino was crushed under the weight of an unbearable reality: Hachiman Hikigaya, her club member and the one who had wormed his way into her heart despite her most fervent attempts to keep him at arm's length, was dead.
The chill of the truth seeped into her bones, gnawing at her with every lingering reminder of their moments together. She had fought so hard to guard her feelings, but now all that remained was an aching void where her love for him had blossomed.
The world around her dulled, everything muted, as she grappled with the relentless truth: she had lost not just him, but also any possible future they might have shared. The deepest sorrow came from realizing that she would never have the chance to tell him how she truly felt, and that silence echoed louder than any words she could have spoken.
Amidst her choked sobs, Yukino whispered the name she could barely voice, "Hikigaya-kun..." Each syllable was laced with sorrow, revealing the depths of her pain as she allowed herself to be vulnerable in that moment, her words hanging in the air heavy with emotion.
Haruno knelt beside her, wrapping her arms around Yukino.
"Yukino, it's okay," Haruno murmured softly, holding Yukino tightly as her own heart ached for her sister and for the boy she couldn't help but have grown attached to slightly. "He's… he's in a better place now."
The room was filled with silence, broken only by the sounds of those who were grieving. The weight of sorrow suffocated everyone as they came to terms with the fact that another person they all knew had fallen victim to the apocalypse that had shattered their lives.