Zander
patreon
Chapter 42 – The Men Who Claimed a Street
🕑 Added 2025-09-19 03:10:50 +0000 UTCChapter 42 – The Men Who Claimed a Street
The days after the rescue at Hoshikawa Elementary passed in a blur of work and steady progress.
The Takagi estate had changed. The big walls still stood, but now the courtyard bustled with families, students, and the scientists and doctors Gaius had brought back from the city. Trucks and old vans came and went through the gates. Gunfire no longer echoed every hour; most of the nearby districts had been cleared of the dead. Thanks to Tony Stark’s steady Delivery of ammunition, guns and supplies, patrols carried plenty of bullets, and the guards had begun to expand their routes farther each day.
Some of the vehicles were rusty and loud, patched together from scavenged parts, but they ran. Each one meant more supplies, more survivors, and a little more hope.
Late one afternoon, sunlight slanted through tall windows of an upstairs office that once served as a private study. Maps and reports covered the heavy wooden desk. Gaius sat behind it, his massive frame filling the chair. His blue-and-gold armor caught the light in soft glints. The helmet rested on the magnetic plate of his backpack, silent and still.
He worked quickly but with care, reading each sheet and writing short notes. His handwriting was neat and clear, every sentence a simple instruction or solution. Souichiro Takagi sat to his right, acting as assistant and messenger. He had learned to keep pace, taking each finished page and setting it into neat stacks for the runners who waited outside.
Across from them, Saeko Busujima sat in quiet readiness. She cleaned her katana with steady hands, the soft rasp of cloth against steel the only sound besides the scratch of Gaius’s pen.
On another table lay folders for the scientists and doctors they had rescued. In the last few days Gaius had led small teams to a university lab and to a large hospital, each mission completed without delay or loss. The specialists now worked in a converted wing of the estate, with centrifuges, microscopes, and cold storage units salvaged from the hospital. Their task was simple to state and hard to achieve: study the infection and make a vaccine for it.
Gaius had already written a plan for them, daily schedules, safety rules, and the equipment list they needed. Souichiro would deliver those instructions as soon as this meeting ended.
News from the Patrol
A firm knock broke the quiet.
“Come in,” Gaius said without looking up.
The door opened and Takashi stepped inside. His posture held new strength. His mother was recovering well, and he carried himself like a man with purpose.
“What is it, Takashi?” Gaius asked, eyes still on the page.
“Our patrol ran into a gunfight near the old police-station district,” Takashi reported. “No one was hurt. The shooters kept yelling that they rule that area. They even used loudspeakers while they fired.”
Gaius set his pen down and lifted his head. “They claim to rule the area?”
“Yes,” Takashi said. “That’s what they called out while attacking.”
Gaius rose, the chair groaning as he stood to his full height. “I will deal with it personally.”
Takashi gave a short nod, almost a salute. Days under Gaius’s direction had left their mark.
Saeko slid her cleaned blade back into its sheath and stood. “I will go as well,” she said.
Gaius met her eyes for a moment and inclined his head. “Very well.”
He knew she was ready. Stark had already made her a fitted under-suit of light armor, thin enough to hide beneath her clothes yet strong enough to stop small-caliber rounds. Only her head remained unprotected.
They gathered weapons and gear without wasted motion. Outside, a driver readied an old truck that had already survived many patrols. Its engine was noisy but reliable.
Takashi followed them out. “I’m coming too,” he said.
Gaius studied him for a second, then nodded. “Stay close to the vehicle and follow orders.”
The truck rattled through quiet streets lined with broken windows and burned-out cars. Afternoon light slanted between buildings as they drove toward the police-station district. The engine’s growl carried far in the silence.
It also carried to the men they had come to confront.
Figures appeared on rooftops and behind makeshift barricades of sandbags and furniture. A rifle shot cracked the air and sparked off the truck’s side panel.
The driver braked hard.
Gaius stepped down from the rear of the truck, the pavement shaking under his weight. The armored giant filled the street like a living wall of metal. The gunmen stared, shocked by the sight.
Thinking it was the military, and from the looks of it, they were here to take care of them, many men wanted to surrender, as it seem it was the military.
A man who seemed to be their leader recovered first, saw the situation of his men. He lifted his rifle and fired. “Shoot them!” he shouted. “We can’t be spared for what we’ve done, kill them!”
The gunmen abandoned any thought of surrender. They understood that what they had done was already enough to earn the death penalty.
Bullets whipped through the air.
Saeko leapt from the truck, moving with a speed that startled the defenders. A shot struck her side but slid off the hidden armor. She never slowed.
Gaius walked forward without hurry. Each heavy step thudded against the cracked street. Bullets hammered his chest and shoulders, sparks jumping off the blue ceramite plates. Every time a shooter aimed for his head, he tilted or sidestepped a split second before they fired, as if he already knew where the bullets would go.
Saeko reached the first gunman in a flash. Her sword cut him down in one clean motion. The sudden kill drew every eye to her.
Several men turned their rifles her way. Stone chips flew as bullets tore into the crumbled wall she dove behind. She waited, calm, for her next opening.
Gaius kept advancing. His footfalls were deep and steady, like a drumbeat in the smoke. He towered over the nearest attacker and swung once. The punch crushed the man’s chest and hurled him back into two others. Fear rippled through the line.
One shooter dropped his weapon and raised his hands, pleading. Gaius did not stop. He struck the man across the head, the neck twisting with a sharp crunch as the body fell.
Another fired wildly. Gaius brushed the rifle aside and landed a heavy blow that dropped him on the spot.
Saeko moved again, swift and silent. Her blade flashed, cutting down two more before they could aim.
Only the leader remained. His pistol shook as he emptied the magazine at Gaius’s face. Gaius tilted his head just enough for each round to hiss past, closing the distance one calm step at a time.
The gun clicked empty. The man froze, eyes wide.
Gaius raised his armored fist and brought it down. The single strike dropped the leader instantly.
Smoke drifted in thin threads through the street. The remaining guards from the estate moved forward to secure weapons and check the fallen. Saeko wiped her blade clean with a calm, practiced motion.
Takashi stepped carefully among the bodies, his face tight but steady. He had seen the dead before, but this was different, men who had chosen violence and paid for it.
Without a word, Gaius turned back toward the truck. Saeko followed, her sword resting easily at her side. Takashi came last, his eyes on the empty street as the wind carried the smell of blood and Gunpowder away.
End of Chapter 42
Comments
Nicholas Rambusch
Thanks for the chapter zander!
grim artifact
Thanks for the chapter excited for the future of this novel
