Chapter Text
It’s been six months since the end of the world and Kei’s starting to wonder if there’s even a point. When things first started to fall apart he kept his focus on himself. On getting through the immediate aftermath. Of hiding he was an ajin, and who he was.
But that was it. Technically speaking he doesn’t need survival skills. He can starve to death and get right back up the next minute. He doesn’t need shelter or medicine. Early on when he ran into humans he said he’d been lucky and picked up what skills he could for the sake of cover, but weeks on packs of humans are few and far between. There’s infighting, and more than once he gets attacked.
It’s a sure sign of how bad things have gotten that he catches himself wondering just what happened to Tosaki of all people.
Did Shimomura manage to keep him safe? Or did she let him die, taking her secret with him?
He has no idea what happened to anyone. His house was empty, but showed signs of things having been packed. His mother probably escaped along with Eriko, but with no directions left behind he’s unclear of where they might have gone. Even when he went to the meeting point, Kou never showed, and after several days Kei made the logical choice and moved on.
Which leaves him with nothing.
He has no more supplies. He has no one with him. But he doesn’t need any either. He has the only skill that matters--he’s an ajin, and even if he dies he can come back.
But that doesn’t make things interesting. His chance of a quiet life is dead and buried, and the few things of interest are all gone. The prison wasn’t empty--far from it--but none of the monsters lurching towards him were Kai, even after spending several days making sure.
Which leaves him without direction. He has no idea where anyone is. He has no idea where he should go.
Kei’s spent most of his life working towards clear goals, and now he feels lost.
He lets a zombie eat him in an act of petty rebellion, but it doesn’t do anything other than hurt, and when he kicks its jaw off on revival he just feels annoyed.
He feels annoyed a lot. The end of the world has ruined every plan he ever had.
In the end he heads back towards Tokyo. It’s a long, winding route, and he stops by his home on the way back in hopes he’ll find a note, but there’s still none.
He’s working his way across the Iruma river when there’s movement--too sudden for it to be a walker--and he ducks behind a cement barrier and hopes he hasn’t been seen.
He hasn’t. The figures are easily three hundred feet away, far enough that Kei feels safe peeking from behind the structure to get his bearings. There’s five of them, all dressed in dark gear that Kei decides is military after a moment.
They also all have guns.
Not zombies, then, but some other armed group. Maybe military, or maybe not, but they’re obviously headed somewhere nearby, and after a few moments it occurs to Kei that he’s close enough to Iruma base that they’re probably heading there.
He didn’t bother to check before, and now he regrets it, because if any place in the city was still operating as a human shelter, it would be the base.
Kei makes a careful decision and then stands up, hands in the air.
“Hey!” He yells, loud enough for the men to hear him, and feels pleased when they turn. They must be military, he decides, because they’ve all got excellent response time. They turn almost all as once, prepared for the threat, with only a single one holding their own position to prevent them from being jumped if he were calling out to distract them from someone behind them.
They’re good, which gives Kei hope that someone - maybe even his family - are at the base.
“Are you from the base?” He calls, watching carefully.
There are a lot of ways that things could go wrong. They might be cultists or lunatics. There was no telling what people were like after the end of the world, and if not for the high likelihood of finding someone he knows, he likely wouldn’t have made the chance.
Things get very confusing when one of the men reaches up and pulls down the face mask, starting to trot towards him. It takes Kei a few seconds to recognize him, and when he does he reconsiders immediately.
It’s Tanaka.
“Nagai!” He calls, slowing down as he gets closer. Kei’s already weighing his options to escape, but none are appealing. He’s not close to any obvious escape routes, and there’s not much cover in the vicinity. Tanaka’s too close for him to bolt, and he has a very large gun and who knows how many bullets.
He also has backup, which Kei does not.
Kei settles for ‘standing still and watching’, waiting for Tanaka to do something that pushes him one direction or another. Despite how wary he is, Tanaka’s smile is wide and his posture is relaxed. If anything, he looks more human than the last time Kei saw him, when he was full of anger and rage at Forge.
It’s a strange contrast.
“Nagai?” Tanaka repeats, his eyebrows furrowing together as he looks him up and down.
“Yeah,” Kei finally confirms, deciding that Tanaka isn’t certain he’s got the right person. He probably looks like a complete mess, and he’s surprised that Tanaka managed to recognize him.
“Here,” Tanaka says, digging around in his backpack without even looking and pulling out a bottle of water, which he hands over. It seems like an odd gesture, considering Tanaka knows he’s an ajin, but he quickly decides it’s Tanaka’s way of disguising him.
“Come on,” Tanaka says. “We’ll get you back to base and then we can talk. We’re not supposed to spend too long in one place.”
It’s good advice, but Kei’s not going with Tanaka of all people without more information.
“Going where, exactly?”
Tanaka pauses, giving him another once over, and then gestures over his shoulder.
“I assumed you’d come to find us, but I guess not. We have a camp in Iruma base. Most of the fences are still up and secure, so it’s pretty safe there.”
Tanaka’s staring at him, but Kei still can’t make up his mind. It seems easiest to go along with Tanaka--who seems absurdly passive about the whole thing--and escape if needed.
The more information he collects, the better, and of Satou’s goons Tanaka always seemed the most level headed. Even if he was angry, he was at least angry for a good reason.
One that Kei can understand, even if he wishes he couldn’t.
“Fine,” he says. “Lets go.”