Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Saying that, I was half-expecting for him to lunge at me—because I was expecting some pride and entitlement since he was the General’s son—but he just put up a frown and let the remark slide, telling me he was as “special” as he thought he was and simple provocations wouldn’t work on him. However, since Seb also kept to himself, didn’t that defeat the purpose of being special because there were already two of them in the same room that did the same thing?

At this point in time, there was still a handful of hours before it reached midnight but what better way to hit several birds with a stone was this scene that was laid out for me.

From my understanding, these three people in front of me needed a teacher where one was here solely for swordsmanship while the other two were here for god’s knows what but if we left everything to my discretion and their own understanding, they’d just learn how I deal with things on a regular basis.

Besides, I had a new-found ability that I haven’t had the chance to expand upon so in my point of view, I had three little guinea pigs I could do everything I want on… but in a more research-like and not the Lopez-like way.

And yeah, let’s not talk about the complicated relationship the other two—JP and Seb—have with each other but instead of having them beat each other up to vent their frustrations, they’d now have to find some common ground—Isaac included—so they’d survive the night I had planned just now for the three of them.

So, what better way to start our “lesson” than to call out the one that had everything handed to him on a silver platter.

On a side note, this place had several “Bastons” a.k.a. the sticks used for Arnis so the two half-brothers already had one on each hand like Isaac and I were because we didn’t have anything better. I would’ve preferred the ones Isaac brought over before but it seemed like he left everything on our last temporary residence.

I pointed to JP and beckoned him over, “You. C’mere.”

“Hmm?”

“You wanna learn from me, right?”

“I’m not exactly sure what you’re playing at—”

“You and me both, Mr. Baron… but, this thing here is the first thing that popped into my mind so I’m gonna give you a taste regardless of whether this was what your father wanted me to teach you or not.”

JP still stood in place after pondering for a bit, “What exactly are you gonna teach me though?”

I let out a chuckle, “I’m gonna hit you with this stick and if you manage to block it, we’re done.”

“…”

“Okay?”

“…”

“I’m gonna start now—”

“Wait.”

“Hmm?”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“That’s too—”

Before JP had the chance to finish his sentence, I let out a short chuckle before I flicked my wrist and right as he thought I aimed for his left shoulder—coming from a downward-right slash from his side—it actually came from an upward-left slash that lightly tapped his right shoulder.

The look on his fucking face was fucking~ indescribable and the way he had his guard on the opposite side of where my attack was supposed to be not only confused him but also the other two that would’ve done the same thing if they were in his shoes.

“What the—”

“No fucking way…”

“I was sure that—”

I chuckled at their reactions, “What? That’s just the practice swing. The next one’s the real thing.”

“Wha—”

And again, before any of them could respond or finish their sentence, I let out a gargantuan amount of killing intent and directed it to the same place, thinking only of one thing: making this blunt stick to fucking ravage and eviscerate through JP’s flesh and bones and the other two even though they weren’t involved.

I was still a fraction of a second to acting out my thoughts but before I could send out the real attack, JP had already lost color on his face and control of his body, bringing him to his knees faster than his training stick could fall. Furthermore, Isaac and Seb who were behind him looked like their entire search history was made public because they looked like their cold sweat permeated their clothes including their change of clothes for the next week.

At this moment, the quiet and lack of movement were definitely concerning so I broke the ice by awkwardly muttering, “So… that’s a little too much, huh? Wanna do basics instead?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“A-Anyone?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Umm… guys?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

I did the lap-tapping thingy before trying to say goodbye, “Okay, I think we’re done—”

Isaac was the first one to snap back to reality, “Woah! Hold up!”

Seb followed, “You gotta wait for us to recover from that!”

And finally, the Baron shakily stood up with a pale face, “Wait. We’re n-not done here…”

I chuckled as I looked at him, “You sure?”

“I’m sure—”

So, for the last time—I hope, I tried to cover the whole area with my murderous intent but before I could think of what to do with these wet puppies that were left out in the cold, JP’s knees buckled as he vomited on the floor while the other two were just as close to doing the same thing as they fell on their asses.

But for some reason, the three figures in front of me momentarily looked like corpses—not the ones that we were supposed to take down outside, but the ones that would look like after I’m done with them.

I had to do a double-take for sure, and I doubt the three even noticed I shook my head and blinked a few times. And when things looked normal, the look of fear and confusion were on their faces but the look of morbid curiosity was starting to well up as well. However, what actually surprised me was that tears fell down Isaac’s face that he himself couldn’t explain why it was happening.

For the record, JP was the one that looked like he’d shit his pants from going through that whole ordeal but the reason for Isaac’s tears seemed to be stemming from something deeper. I’m not a shrink per se but I’m pretty sure Isaac’s tears were from pity and sadness though he started to wipe them off with his palms with a confused expression.

“W-What? I was just— ah, fuck… It’s not s-stopping— I— I t-think that—”

I cut him off as I looked at him solemnly, “Breathe.”

“H-Huh? O-Okay… Haa… Ha… Haaa… F-Fuck… This is e-embarrassing…”

I chuckled, “Really? I feel great though…”

“Uh-huh. You didn’t experience what we went through—”

“Hah! That’s where you’re wrong now. You thought I was the only one that could do this?” I said as I did it again.

“FUCKING ASSHOLE! STOP! CAN’T YOU SEE I’M THE ONLY ONE THAT COULD TALK HERE?!”

As I turned to the two, they were one sneeze away from fainting but all I could do for them was throw them a bar of chocolate each and hope for the best. But in the meantime, I dragged over Isaac so we could clean up the place we just used because let’s be real here, with the state they were on, I doubt they could do much physical activity.

But yeah, I was surprised that Isaac could help me clean—much less stand up—though there were plenty of times when I saw him almost lose his footing. However, it didn’t take long before he looked like he wanted to hear more of the subject we quickly glanced over though I was already about to head to where Kaley and the others were.

I sighed before I turned around to face him, “Alright. I’ll answer some questions that I want to but when I ask you questions of my own, you have to answer them whether you want to or not.”

“Wha—”

“I know it’s not fair, to say the least, but that’s just the way it goes and I don’t want to talk about those people to someone I just met a few days ago.”

Isaac began to scratch his head with a dejected expression, “Fine, you win. Ask me everything you want now so we don’t have this silly back-and-forth game where we try to juggle two conversations at the same time.”

“Why don’t you just split your consciousness into two?”

“HUH?! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?! BRO—”

I cackled as I snorted, “I was kidding you numbnut. Anyway, Kishin-Ryuu School of Martial Arts…”

“You talking about the place I studied kendo?”

“Yep.”

“What about it?”

𝑶𝗏𝐋xt.𝗰𝑶𝓂

“Who’s the owner?”

“Hmm? Why do you ask?”

I almost beat the shit out of this idiot, “You said you’d answer— Nevermind, I’m going to sleep—”

“Wait! Wait! I’m sorry! His name’s Kenji Sato—”

“Pfft…”

“Hmm? What?”

“No fucking way that the owner of that place’s name is Kenji Sato…”

“Wait, why?”

“Does he look like a Kenji Sato? That’s like the most common Japanese name if you Google that shit.”

“Really? Huh. I thought it was weird at first too but no one’s saying anything so I went along with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well~ First of all… he’s white—”

I almost choked on my spit and died then and there, “No fucking way…”

“Oh! For some reason, he talks in this weird accent too…”

“Uh-huh.”

“He always likes to listen to Drive, Wonderwall, and even Scars at times but I thought I disassociated when he told me that our dojo’s actually Chinese. And yeah! Can you believe that his favorite “anime” was Mulan? Ah— S-Sensei? You okay? You look— BRO! WHAT ARE YOU— SOMEONE CALL 911— 117!!!”