Several months later

“Hows the harvest Tanada?” I sit up on a fence nearby after having cleaned my part of the field. I just picked a bunch of carrots not the prettiest harvest but they should store well.

“Pretty good Haru!” Shes in the middle of picking a plum tree “Wanna try some?” She tosses me one. I catch it out of the air and rubbing it on my shirt a bit.

“Sure! How are things going for you and Hirano?” They got together a couple months ago after the shoot out on the roof. I guess they sort of bonded through guns. It helped that He didn’t mind cleaning up after her which got her parents to okay him right away. He also started dropping a lot of weight when electronics are so scarce, and he felt like he needed to do his part.

“Haa it’s been great. He stays home and helps clean up around the house and cooks while I’m out here. Since hes started working out hes been slimming down too.” She smiles to herself playing with her feet in the grass.

“That sounds great! I’m glad you two are happy.” I take a bite enjoying it a bit.

“How about you, Saya and Saeko?” She gives a mischievous smile. I choke slightly on the plumb. Things were a little rocky after the incident. Saya started getting jealous of my feelings for Saeko and it led to some problems, but time helped heal it a bit. We kept trying and it helps that we all have to depend on each other here.

“Um uh fantastic… Don’t tell them but uh I found a few rings in some of the houses a couple months ago. I plan on proposing at the bonfire on Sunday.” This got a big smile on her face. It’s a bit of an odd feeling to have the idea of a standard wedding in these times but it seems like the right way to go about things.

“Congratulations!” She runs up and gives me a hug.

“Hey, hey now I know it may seem obvious but they havnt said yes yet haha.” Patting her back trying not to get dirt in her hair.

“Ha yeah right, they have been crazy about you since day one. I’m happy for you three.” One of the villagers from the town runs up panicked. Seeing this I walk to the fence and grab my sword. It has served me well the last couple of months, I clean it after every use and take good care of it since it will be hard to replace it now. Even with careful care though it just can’t keep up with the demands small chips are whittling away at it from heavy blows.

“SIR SIR forty undead spotted to the west! We think it’s another red roaming horde!” Damn that’s the third one this month. They seem to be increasing in frequency too.

“Tanada go tell Hirano we need him to snipe some of the reds while me and Saeko take out the stragglers.” She nods and runs off. I go find Saeko shes been teaching swordsmanship class to the kids and untrained adults they all have sticks going through the sword motions. Alice is with her as her teaching assistant. Since her injury she hasn’t been able to go all out as much as shed like which has helped rain in her more aggressive appetites. But she still can’t help but practice every day even if with a gentler touch.

“We have a red horde coming wanna help me clear it dear?” I call out to her as I make my way by.

“OF COURSE!” There it is, theres the crazy smile I miss sometimes. She hasn’t been able to cut loose as much as she wants lately but I think shes starting to settle down a bit with her position here. She wraps up her lesson and puts Alice in charge much to some of the adults watching the classes embarrassment to be trusted less than a kid. Alice is taking this all very seriously though and has put in some good work into learning from Saeko. Shes growing up in an apocalypse, so she has become a bit hardcore much to Sayas disappointment she still blames Hirano for corrupting her.

“Hey guys how many are we looking at?” Hirano has changed a lot the last couple of months. Hes no longer a fat gun otaku he slimmed down from a healthier diet and more outside activity. Still sporting a messy hairstyle but hes teased a whole lot less now.

“About forty moving down the road following a couple of reds. They made it past the cars.” I’m viewing their movements using some old binoculars.

“Ah I guess that warrants a couple of rounds just for the reds. We only have a couple of mags left. Then I’ll need to start relying more on the blackpowder muskets blah.” He looks sadly at his rifle. Nearly choking out the last part with a bit of disgust.

“Its fine we don’t need to use much and at the rate of things that should last us a couple of years.” And I only need it to last half of one before my safety is assured not that I don’t want to live a long life it’ll just be a weight off my shoulders.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He takes aim and fires. Hitting a red in the head downing it instantly the other reds stop and look around before running in our direction where the echo came from. They arnt any faster than a normal zombie and they are too dumb to take cover, so they are just rushing towards the gun fire from over 100 meters away.

“One down!” He takes another shot.

“Two down! One left!”

“I got this! Save the ammo!” Saeko moves up to take her chances at the last red I move up to support her if need be. Hirano backs off and watches as well. Shes been trying to prove herself since her injury and I’ll be there to support her for it.

Saeko’s swordsmanship has improved dramatically the last couple of months the handicap has required her to innovate and improve her skills to use less strain. Actual combat to the death has honed her skills much better than any training could have.

After the fight of the first night here some of the people thought we were some sort of chosen ones because we were the only two that werent turned by the bites. It was a bit awkward. So, we just didn’t explain we had a cure and let people believe what they want for now. With only four left we can’t risk someone trying to steal one after hearing how we survived. There is also a slight side effect Saeko seems to have a much easier time with learning various skills now. Not [skills] but her learning rate seems to have increased after receiving the cure. As far as Shizuka can tell the cures are just water. We can’t replicate them or know the process for making more. With no more survival quests these are the last four I feel will ever be on this world.

Shaking my head from my thoughts and concentrating on the task at hand. I hold my sword at the ready to support Saeko if she needs it. She hasn’t tried fighting a red alone again since that night so I’m a bit wary.

She charges in and attempts to end it in one swing, but the red manages to leap to the side out of the way before pouncing towards saeko’s legs she learned from the last time though and gracefully leaps over it learning from previous fights where we fought them together, they are fairly easy to read once you're used to them. Once behind it she cuts the achilles tendons. These things don’t care about damage, but their body's still need muscles to properly move. It attempts to stand up and move towards her again, but its feet hang uselessly losing footing from the outpour of blood flowing down its legs. However, it doesn’t seem to care about the damage done to its ankles and moves anyways. The Reds feet to become useless stumps bleeding and scraping across the ground with the sound of snaps and beating broken flesh. Dragging them over the gravel road in an unbalanced stumble towards Saeko in an almost mindless rage. Saeko takes her time as she moves around it, luring it side to side until the damage forces it to stumble. She shifts in for the killing blow cutting off its head.

Deftly slicing using her main hand as a pivot and non-dominant hand as a guide to sink the blade hooking into its spine and severing its head.

“Nice going!” I call out from the side. The tension from the worry that she might get hurt again drains from my body.

“Oh, that was only the appetizer lets go have our date now hon.” She gives me a wink back. Shes playing it off but I can tell she really is happy about doing it herself. My stats have grown even more since we last truly fought. I don’t move with as much grace as her but my bodies sheer power and speed would likely overwhelm her now. It really hurt her to acknowledge that but being able to fight a red alone shows shes still a fantastic swordswoman.

She gestures for me to follow, we end up having a nice night out killing the zombies on the road. Hirano left soon after the reds went down no longer worried about us with nothing of a real threat to us being there. Having finished our fun, we head back and tell Saya all about our day and she tells us about her time working on getting a functional watermill working. It’s a slow-going process but once we have it we can hook up some of the lights in town and have a much nicer place. Tomorrow I’ll be spending all day with her working on some of her ideas for the town. The days are good here now. Well as good as they can be given the circumstances.

Several days later I propose to both Saeko and Saya. Saeko asked why it took so long. Saya asked if I was sure looking a bit conflicted. It gave both me and Saeko a bit of a scare when she didn’t answer immediately. Eventually they both agree and hug me letting the moment of worry run its course.

half a year later.

Today is my 18th birthday. My quest is about to be complete. I havnt gotten any more quests since we left the city just contouring the chain quests. Mindscape and Treatment are the only skills I havn’t maxed out. Treatment is taking a lot longer to level then I thought it would. It also seems like the last level takes some sort of achievement to accomplish. I did manage to get metabolism to max though, it feels a bit weird when everyone else eats around you and you only eat for fun. Our supplies are good, but it still just feels a bit like a waste for me to eat any of them.

Thankfully, I’m immune to diseases, so I treat the sick and wounded without worry when winter comes around. The only real cautionary thing I have to worry about is keeping my clothes clean between working on patients.

Speaking of patients, I’ve also got some big news! Saeko is pregnant! So is Tanada and a few other people in the town. It seems like after people started to settle in a lot of people got a bit busy. Saya said she wants to wait a bit. We also ran out of condoms awhile back leading to a few less planned pregnancies to occur as well. Its kind of funny how that works. The first child was born in this time and that was scary, but we will be better prepared for it next time. I was mostly working from what I was reading in a book and second hand knowledge from women that had given birth before since we had no one else trained for this kind of thing.

As the time strikes 2pm of my birthday likely the time of my birth a notification appears.

[Congratulations! You have survived to the age of 18. Choose one skill to keep when you die. All others will be lost upon rebirth! Live a long life and complete as many Quests as possible to reduce the souls’ strain from the reincarnation process.]

“Oh, that’s easy enough I just have to kill even more undead and help even more people.” Looking at my available skills for carrying over I’m tempted to bring swordsmanship it has helped me survive all this time, but I feel like that would be a waste of the combined skill choice I made before. Mindscape also seems like an appropriate choice it should help the starts of my life to learn more quickly. It’s also served me well over the year I’m sure it will continue to do so. Locking in the skill choice not much else changes about my status. The only difference is the Mindscape skill has a subtext saying it has been locked in for my next life.

“Hey girls, its um it’s done!” I tell Saeko and Saya about my 18-year quest being done. They are making a lunch for us as a bit of a celebration. When I mention the specifics of the quest rewards and what it means they smile but theres also a bit of sadness in there too.

“So, if you die you are reborn. So, we won’t see each other in the afterlife…” Saeko points out a bit sadly while rubbing her stomach slowly.

“Well, that’s the thing I don’t think there is one. All that time ago the notifications said it was unable to wipe my mind appropriately for reincarnation due to the level of soul damage I’d sustained. So, I don’t think we go anywhere so much as our soul is reused and added into a pool or something? Maybe that’s whats wrong with this place? The soul cycle was broken and the undead are premature souls being ripped away or something about the cycle has been upset.

“Then what about your cure?”

“What if it strengthens your soul temporarily but only enough to combat what ever the undead stuff does to it. So, with my treatment skill it boosted the strengthened parts more then what was needed recovering.” Tapping my chin a bright look comes to Sayas eyes.

“That would mean when your soul heals it becomes more resistant to the strain! That would also explain why multiple uses have diminishing effects but also it mentions being more resistant to it the more times your exposed and use one. You’re working your soul like a muscle!” Saya exclaims!

“So, it’s not a disease. My disease resistance capstone seems to work against it though? Is it because it’s a supernatural infection?”

“That could be why? This is all magic and supernatural stuff Haru how the hell am I supposed to know how it works!” Saya just sighs exasperated but pats my head. “All I care about is that I’m glad it does.” Smiling we eat a nice late lunch. With somber thoughts about how things will go on after this.

Holding both of them in a tight embrace I look over my stats.

[Name: Haruto Ikami

Age: 18 years 0 days

Carried over skills: Rebirth,

Health status 100/100

Afflictions: Worry

Free Attribute points: 0 point

Strength: 17

Speed: 18

Endurance: 16

Resilience: 20

Thought speed: 16

Perception: 12

Current skills

Disease resistance lvl MAX (inborn skill) Mindscape lvl 99 (Retained skill) Metabolism lvl MAX Swordsmanship lvl MAX Smashing Strike lvl 55 Treatment lvl 51

Just another day its only going to go up from here.