Saeko gives me a kiss on my cheek “So now that it’s just the three of us thoughts on poor Sayas feelings?” Saeko pokes me with a smirk on her face. Saya is suddenly a lot more self-conscious no longer holding my hand with clammy fingers but instead sort of pulled back and looking embarrassed by the attention to that.

“I don’t want this to become a mistake we will both regret later though. Um Saya I understand you’ve had a crush on me for a long time now but. Well, if I’m honest I hadn’t really noticed. You’ve just been making fun of me or teasing me all these years. If we want anything more then that I feel like we need small steps before we become anything more.” Saya looks disappointed at first, but I didn’t say no. Which puts a small smile on her face.

“That being said I’m sure we can think of something to start doing to get to know each other better in a non-insulting or intimate way. You’re a genius after all I’m sure we will have to work together a lot to get all these knuckleheads to work well.” I give her a small hug and rub her head. Lighting up her face to complete redness.

“You You idiot um I mean uh Haru um don’t think I only wanted us to do well that. I mean not that I’d not want to I mean erg you’re so frustrating sometimes.” Face completely beet red “It’s a lot harder to not make fun of you then I thought. But I’ll manage, if anyone can adapt to it then its me.” She gives a bit of a shy smile looking off to the side.

“Hey, we are done~” Auntie comes walking in with Alice in tow that’s wearing a shirt that’s much too large for her.

“Now auntie needs to go talk to the nurse about something in uh private.” She looks away and starts scuttling off towards the room where her and Shizuka shared.

“So, Alice, how are you liking it here so far? I hope Auntie was nice.” I get up and smile. She goes in for a hug, but I stop her.

“hey hey now, you just got all clean I still have to wash up no reason to get you dirty again just after that.” After I say that Saya who was holding me realizes where she had been hugging and looks down at the slight dampness on her arm with horror.

“HARU YOU IDIOT WHY DIDN’T YOU REMIND ME!” she shrieks.

“Weeelllll I sort of forgot about it too until I saw little Alice here. Now Alice you hang out with Saya here while big sis here helps me get to the bathroom so I can wash up too!” Saeko holds my arm as I ease my way up. Grimacing slightly but trying to hold back as Alice stares at me somewhat blankly with a series of expressions that look like they are going through a few different ones. Saya suddenly looks worried looking between us and Alice.

“Hey um Saeko you’re not going to leave me alone with um a child, are you? I um don’t really know what to do?” She tries to hold Saeko back a bit.

“Hmm? I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You’re a genius after all.” With a smirk she breaks her grip, and we walk out into the hall. A few of the other people in our group are out here looking at me worriedly.

“Don’t worry people I’m fine just a bit overworked, I uh ran with everything I had and its done its toll on me.” I try to placate them but a few of the track people are looking at me with serious gazes.

“You ran 100 meters in about 10 seconds with obstacles. That’s the kind of speed that Olympic athletes train their lives for, but you had to dodge zombies along the way. Were you training for the Olympics or something?” A serious look comes from one of the guys. Ah damn they realized how fast I was going.

“No um I was on a grade scholarship. I’ve never really been into sports other than kendo and swordsmanship. Thanks to Saeko here” I move to hold her from behind still resting some of my weight on her but letting me cuddle a bit instead of just holding her arm.

“You’re amazing Haru!” some of the girls are looking a lot less drunk then before. Likely because of having a bit of time to rest and needing to fight a few zombies at the gate sobered them up.

“Thanks, but I need to get washed up. A bit then some rest. We fired a few shots off earlier getting Alice, so we need to have people on watch over night. Guys are you willing to go in shifts of 2 hours? I know people just started to unwind but we don’t want other people coming to raid us because they know we have weapons.” I feel the mental chime of gaining another level in planning. That’s a good sign.

“Yeah, uh sure. We can set up a basic watch? Um where should we watch from and weapons or uh what should we do if we see something?” Hirano perks up and looks to start seriously considering the watch duty a bit more. But I can’t really take him seriously when hes caressing one of the guns as he asks about weapons and what to do.

“Well first of all no guns we don’t want to attract MORE attention to us. The crossbow should be sufficient. People should watch in groups of two one person to keep an eye on the situation and the other to alert everyone else of the situation. If something arises.” Another mental chime.

I’m doing things right already. It’s helping me see the problems with just a night watch. A lot of the problems being fed into my mind are just minor ones like cold air or possibility of slacking but then there are others like making sure there are two people. Not only for the reason I gave them but also since if there are two people, they will feel pressured to not betray the group since the other person could easily yell or stop them. I trust my inner group, but a lot of these people are strangers.

“Makes sense, even if I want to. Gunfire would just draw more attention to here from the zombies and other survivors alike. -sigh- sorry babies it looks like I’ll have to wait to put you to full use.” He starts creepily rocking the gun in his arms and talking to them. Everyone takes a short step away from him.

“Oooookay then well I need to get a wash in. I want you guys to choose pairs of people of people that don’t know each other yet. That way we can all learn a bit more about each other and you have something to talk about while on watch.” Another plan, build a trust between people.

“Eh sounds like a good idea I guess.” One of the guys starts eyeing up one of the girls.

“If I find out you use the time to force one of the girls to listen to you flirt all night, I’ll kick your ass in the morning alright? Try to be a little bit adult about all this.” I huff and start making my way towards the bathroom.

“Anyways goodnight guys.” I go inside. Saeko follows me.

“Um did Saeko just go in there with him?” guy one says as we shut the door.

Chuckling I start to strip while we are getting together. It’s been a while since we last had some time that’s just the two of us.

“Well look whos excited.” She teases me.

“I blame my amazing girlfriend besides, I really do want to soak for a bit.” I love her but also, I’m a bit of a wreck at the moment and I know we will take things a bit too far.

“hmm your safe word is Pineapple Platypus” She whispers in my ear as she moves up behind me and I hear the clothes hit the floor. -sigh- well looks like I wont be recovering for a bit longer then I thought.

The next morning

I start coming down the stairs wincing with every step. I overhear a bit of the conversation from the breakfast table.

“Man, I could hardly sleep, who knew waking up for a night watch messed with your sleep schedule so much.” Hirano speaks up.

“Gah, it doesn’t help that Haru and Saeko were so loud. Then whoever Shizuka got with was WAY loud too. I couldn’t sleep a wink it uh kept distracting me.” One of the guys speaks up. I don’t exactly know who since I still havnt learned all of their names.

“Lucky bastards I wish I found someone… It’s not like they have a lot of options now eh?” Guy two.

“Yeah, that’s if Haru doesn’t snatch them all up. I heard a couple of the girls were all trying to get with him. The assholes probably stinging them all along as the leader.” Guy 1 speaks up again.

Hmm that’s worrisome. Resentment is bad but also, I don’t blame him fully I don’t really care for all the attention, but it does feel a bit nice.

“Hey! Not all of them. Besides he doesn’t even look at us no matter how hard we try.” Miku speaking upset about me not giving in to her.

“hm just because he has standards doesn’t mean hes not getting all the attention.” One of the other guys speaks up I think his name was Yamada? Causing the start of a bit of a scuffle.

“Hey hey let’s all get along. Don’t worry I won’t get with any girl other than Saeko without her consent. So even if they have crushes on me, it won’t amount to much unless they go get her approval first.” Promptly throwing all responsibility on Saeko. I take a few steps down. I’m in just a pair of shorts at the moment.

“Gah showing off, eh?” Guy one speaks up. Hes looking at me with a bit of anger in his eyes. Short brown hair and eyes atop a slightly pudgy figure.

“Hey, I just got up. Sorry you didn’t get much sleep but cool it down alright? We need to come up with a plan for where to start searching for supplies and families.” I raise both hands to try to placate everyone. I’m not the greatest leader but I at least have the same priorities as a lot of them.

Last night I used my new skill for awhile thinking up different plans and finding the faults in them. I realized that all plans have some faults that can’t be avoided but if I minimize them or if I consider all of the usual ones the skill helps by adding ones I don’t consider. It’s gotten up to lvl 15 just by thinking through some of the situations we have already been through and considering the problems that arose in response to my actions and how to plan around them.

“Hmm fine” Guy two is placated a bit. Probably not going to actually cause a scene but no longer going to argue about stuff. But that doesn’t mean he won’t keep talking shit behind my back. Oh well that’s less important right now then finding peoples families.

“So, who has family nearby, from what I saw from the balcony the bridge has been cleared. Last night people were holding it and masses were trying to cross it, but it looks like it was over run and one of the bulldozers was used to break through the blockade.”

The first thing I did this morning was check in on the nearby bridge into the city. It looks bad. Though no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t see any zombies on the other side which is promising.

“It looks like the other side of the river is mostly devoid of zombies so we might be able to find somewhere safe over there.”

That gets a few cheers around the table.

“First though who has the closest family?” A few people have places to check nearby but most of them either don’t know where their parents would be, or they are gone on trips and wouldn’t be available.

“Alright let’s start making the rounds then. Get those that are nearby first maybe search for a few more survivors that are willing to travel with us. We can’t take too many people with us for now until we have a more stable location though. We don’t have enough room or resources.” We pull up a map of the city. Using study and planning together almost feels natural and they click together nicely. I can study the plan giving more in depth understanding of the problems presented by planning leading to much better plans.