John found he was sweating when he materialized back into reality, his body burning up from the progression of the virus. He leaned forward on the toilet he was sitting on, taking in a few big gulps of air, trying to get his bearings.

  Right... I was dying when I left this world. Only one thing to do then.

  "Cure! Heal!" He said, calling on his magic. It felt different, harder to use. He had to 'push' on something to get the mana to begin flowing, and when it did, it started as a trickle, then sputtered, before actually flowing normally.

  He was alone in this tiny bathroom, but he felt almost as if the world was holding its breath, watching him in anticipation. Something, he wasn't sure what, hesitantly took the magic he offered up to 'god' as he usually did in The Great Cleric.

  He felt a significant chunk of his energy vanish, his diminished mana pool losing over a fifth of it's reserves. Still, his torn up hand mended in front of his eyes, weird puss forming on top of his now unbroken skin. "Eww gross."

  What was that feeling? That didn't happen in any other world I used magic in.

  He shook his head. He didn't have a lot of time to analyse that feeling before he suspected the others would come and check that he was indeed bitten. He opened up the taps, washing himself in the sink, removing the offending detritus from his body and scrubbing his soiled face. He looked in the mirror, making sure he got most of the traces of zombie ichor from his skin. That's when he noticed it.

  "I am wearing my leathers, not my red shirt... how am I going to expin this?" He murmured, looking over himself in the mirror. Sure enough, there he stood, bck leather suit with his spikey pauldron over his left shoulder. He looked like he came straight off the set of Mad Maxx.

  On the floor beside him was his backpack, his two swords strapped to the side of it. He picked it up, and by its heft, he knew the spell tomes did in fact follow him. Small mercies. He tapped the edges of the sink with his hands thinking about what to do next.

  I should have taken a few minutes to get my thoughts in order before walking through that door. I needed to come up with some sort of game pn or an expnation that doesn't sound crazy at the very least. How do I even expin that I am healed now?

  "AHHHHH!!!!" A loud scream from somewhere outside derailed his train of thought. He would have to make an expnation up on the fly, once he figured out what that scream was about.

  His backpack on, he rushed from the room, barreling out of the empty store into the parking lot of the gas station. Standing in front of him was a crowd of people, mostly the students he rescued from the school. They were milling around his truck, focusing their attention on a man standing a dozen feet away. He was holding Rei hostage, the gangbanger pressing an knife to the busty brunettes throat.

  "Let go of her!" Shizuku said, her voice quavering.

  "Let go of her? Are you retarded? The whole world is turning into monsters, their ain't no bitches left." The man said, sounding unhinged. He was about the same size as John, albeit younger. He was wearing a bandana, a tight bck shirt and khaki pants. The knife he held was a simple pocket knife, but that was more than enough to have everyone freeze in their tracks.

  "You're insane." She replied, wringing her hands in frustration.

  "Insane? No shit!" The man yelled, gesturing towards her with his knife. John put down his bag by the door, trying to come up with a way to end the situation. He grabbed his mithril sword, not ready to try The Sword of Truth out yet. He had no idea what Alec meant by backsh, but this didn't seem like a good situation to find out.

  If I only had a gun... wait, I kind of do.

  "My whole family turned into monsters right in front of me." The man continued, holding Rei by the neck with one hand, rubbing his head with the one holding the knife. He was clearly crazed, almost looking like he forgot he was holding her hostage, squeezing her neck tighter as he monologued.

  John circled to the side, trying to get a clear ne of fire at the gangbanger. This was not how he pnned to introduce attack magic into this world, but he wasn't going to let him murder the young woman. Or worse.

  He raised his hand and focused, gathering his mana as Evie had taught him, the magic forming a ball in his hand. He tried to sharpen it, tightening the weave he was making. With Rei so close to the man, he wanted to try and limit the bst potential of the spell as much as possible.

  "I... I... BROKE ALL THEIR HEADS OPEN! MY MOM! MY POPS! My- ARGH!!!!" He shouted, John's firebolt hitting him in the side, the fmes burning underneath his raised arm. The man spasmed in pain, releasing his hold on the knife and more importantly, Rei.

  "Run Rei!" John shouted, rushing forward. He pnted his foot in front of the burning man, thrusting the bde through his chest. He withdrew it smoothly, the man toppling over, the only sound to be heard was the burning of his corpse.

  "Damn that stinks." John said after a moment, then wiped his bde off on the dead guys pant leg.

  "John-San? You are still alive?" Shizuku said, holding Rei in her arms. The blonde nurse looked relieved to see him.

  "Yeah. Yeah I am. Rei are you okay? Did he hurt you at all?" John said, stepping forward to inspect her. It was hard to tell if she had been injured, the amount of ichor on her skin and clothing would hide anything but a major injury.

  "Yes... I am okay." She said, looking at him like she just saw a ghost. "You got bit. We saw it happen through the window. How are you okay?"

  Ahh... crap.

  He was considering saying that the boy... Tsunoda? Exaggerated the extent of his wounds, but that wouldn't work now.

  "Well I was, but I healed it." He replied, going with the truth... a partial truth anyways.

  "Old man. I saw your hand! It was mangled up badly! How did you just heal it? And what was that fireball thing you threw? I don't see any gss for a Molotov cocktail around, it was like you literally threw fire at him." Tsunoda said. The blond, rebellious looking teenage jock was shaking, both anger and relief evident in his voice.

  "Would you believe me if I told you it was a magic trick?" John replied, memories of the overconfident hot head coming back into his mind. He wanted to jerk his chain a little bit for putting him in the position to be bit in the first pce. He didn't hold a grudge though, and hopefully the original lesson would stick with him.

  Wait, it was his fault I almost died... why don't I feel any ire for him?

  John shook his head. They were in Japan, a peaceful country, amid a zombie apocalypse of all things. Most adults would have difficulty making decisions, good or bad, under this kind of stress. How could he expect teenagers to use their damn brains when zombies are literally running around eating people.

  Every life is precious right now, and will be going forward for quite some time.

  He would protect his people to the best of his ability.

  Wait was that my thought? Or was that the 'canon' impnting it like Alec said it would do.

  "What? Magic? Are you off your meds or something old man?" Tsunoda said, unaware of the inner battle John was fighting with himself, looked at him like he was nuts.

  John chuckled at that, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll show you ter. If I recall, we have some work left to do."

  He turned back to the group of students, all who were staring at him like he had two heads. "You all have tasks to do, so get to it." He said, racking his brain on what happened in this world before he had to escape st time.

  All he could really remember, other than being exhausted, was that they were escaping a school full of zombies, getting supplies, then heading... where?

  Saya, the short, pink haired girl, stared at him a moment, looking like she wanted to say something. "Come on everyone. Those bags won't load themselves." She said, gncing at him one st time before ushering the students into the store.

  "Miss Busujima, can you go inside and guard them please." He told the purple haired swordswoman. She just nodded, and followed his orders.

  The rest of them were still staring at him, awaiting an expnation.

  "What happened to you John-San?" Shizuku said, touching his arm. "You are clean, have new clothes, and two different weapons. When you walked in the store five minutes ago, you were hunched over and looked exhausted. You got bit, then ran to the bathroom. Now, you are standing straighter and look like you are full of energy. And that speed you moved at when you... you... killed that murderer... you didn't move that fast when dealing with the zombies earlier."

  Wasn't she an adorable airhead? How did she noticed everything?

  GRRRRAAAHHH!!!

  Saved by a zombie!

  John looked around and saw a dozen zombies shambling towards them.

  "Listen, I will expin ter, when we are not under attack. First, we need to take care of these zombies, then find somewhere safe for the night." He said, then started walking towards the zombies. "Mr. Fukuda, guard my right side. Shizuka-San, take Rei and get in the truck with Kohta please."

  "Yes, John-San." She replied, shepherding the younger woman back to the truck. Kohta, the chubby kid who made the improvised firearm with a nail gun, was hanging out of the passengers seat, watching the surroundings.

  "Just call me Tsunoda, old man. This mister stuff is for my grandfather." The blond kid said, brandishing his bokken.

  "Tsunoda then. Guard my right side, and remember, go for the head this time." John said, making his way towards the shambling attackers.

  "Right. Don't worry old man, I got this." Tsunoda said, keeping John's pace.

  The two of them, covered by Kohta, started defending the gas station as the rest of the students raided the store. It was truly mindless work compared to the goblins he fought in the dungeon, let alone the mercenaries. Between the experience he gained from there, alongside the improvements to his body from DEN, he was able to keep up a reasonable pace beating down the undead.

  I need to be careful though. I can still feel it in my back and shoulder every time I catch a zombie the wrong way.

  He kept swinging though, protecting his charges from the zombies.

  It just felt right.

  Some time passed before the students finished packing up all the food they could carry. The back of the pickup was overfilled, the students sitting on top of the bags of food to make enough room.

  John kept his backpack in the cab, stuffing it under Kohta's feet in the passengers seat. He didn't want anyone to start going through it, the tomes inside some of the most valuable things on the pnet right now.

  They took off, making their way towards Shizuka's friends apartment. It was slow going, accidents and zombies blocking routes she would normally take, so they ended up doing a few circles before ending up driving along a waterfront parkway.

  They kept the conversations to simple things, John still refusing to talk about what happened to him until they stopped for the night. Saya went through a rough inventory of what they acquired at the store, and Kohta expined how the man managed to sneak up on Rei. Apparently when they saw John get bit, everyone was more focused on Tsunoda expining what happened inside, giving him the opening he needed to get a hostage.

  "Rei, how are you doing now?" John asked, concerned that the conversation might have disturbed her.

  "I am fine. I... I... just wish I had a chance to stab that man for what he did." The girl replied, the vitriol thick on her tongue. "But you set him on fire, so I am content with that."

  John had some concerns about her being content with him burning the man, but let it slide. The man was crazy and trying to kidnap her.

  Saeko remained quiet, silently watching everyone, her eyes boring into him through his rearview mirror from time to time.

  It was te in the afternoon when John finally brought the truck to a halt, a choice ying before him.

  The next turn would bring him to the neighbourhood where Shizuka said the apartment was. The bridge they would need to cross the next day was just ahead, but there was an issue. The police had a checkpoint on the bridge, and there were a lot of people lined up to get through.

  "So much for suggesting we just drive through to your pce Miss Takagi. I don't think that line is moving fast." He said, watching the scene unfold in front of him. The police had concrete and wire barriers across the bridge, and appeared to be slowly moving people through the checkpoint on foot only. He couldn't make out many details though, it was too far away.

  "I think your right Sensei, they seem to have the peninsu walled off. I wonder if the Tokonosu bridge is better?" Saya said, leaning forward from the back seat, her head between him an Shizuka in the front.

  "We can check in the morning, it is getting te and will be dark soon." He replied, then addressed the nurse. "Lead on Shizuka-San, lets get to safety for the night."

  They made their way into the neighbourhood, and the first thing John noticed was that almost every home had a walled in yard with actual gates for driveway access. The few cars he could see beyond the gates were all expensive luxury vehicles. This was obviously a community for the well off people in this area of the city.

  There was only one thing it had in common with all the other districts he had been driving through all day. Zombies.

  He shut the generator on the truck off, the vehicle now moving nearly silent through the streets. He also had Saya pass on through the rear window for everyone to remain silent unless it was an emergency. With those precautions, they managed to make it to the address Shizuka gave him without incident, only a couple of zombie's milling around nearby.

  "Miss Busujima, Miss Miyamoto. Go dispatch those two zombies quietly please. Shizuka-San, unlock the gate when they are done. The rest of you, be quiet until we are inside." He said, feeling tense.

  Not because he was worried about the zombies, but they had made it to safety and he had yet to come up with a good reason why he was still alive. At least one they would easily accept anyways.

  The two girls nodded and left the vehicle, Rei seemingly in a better state of mind despite the assault earlier. Saeko was as calm as always, stalking quietly towards her target.

  If I could choose one woman to bring with me back to The Great Cleric, or some of these other worlds from here, it would be her. She always seems so composed in these stressful situations.

  They dispatched the zombies with little effort, and the good nurse managed to open the gate after fumbling with the keys a couple times. John drove through, and parked next to the Humvee already in the driveway. The girls followed him in, locking the gate behind them.

  "Alright everyone, grab everything off the back of the truck. We are going inside." He said, unsheathing his sword.