Ichiro's POV
It's now 7 o'clock, and Tashio-san and I are in the basement. The strange thing is that most of us haven't eaten dinner yet, but Shu and Gen already eaten dinner an hour ago. Now they're doing this, this thing that made our hairs raise in fear.
Gen injected something into Shu's arm, and then read a note that I cannot see from a distance.
He then donned a black respirator and pulled out an Uzi submachine gun and…, much to our shock, shot Shu with it.
Rat-tat-tat!
Shu got hit while slumping against the wall. Worse, he felt that it was good. What? my mind was confused. And then, Hayate pulled down his red and dark grey camouflage balaclava with a horizontal slit for the eyes and put on his red-tinted visor. He then pulled out his dual pistols and shot Shu as well!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gen then looked at us. "This is the nighttime ritual we had kept last night. This is for his resetting of his tumultuous mind. Medicine and therapy had partially failed him, so I had come up with this one."
"Wait, so pain is a medicine to his guilt?" Tashio raised a question.
"Yes, unfortunately yes," Gen replied, before glancing at the note.
"He suffered so much and had fantasized of us torturing and hunting him so he could have peace for himself," Hayate added while checking the magazines of his dual Desert Eagle pistols as their barrels are smoking.
Gen then walked to one of the cages he used to hold zombies in his past experiments, and he released the sole zombie held in it: a zombie-infected SWAT soldier, complete with his assault rifle, a pistol on his shoulder, and a black balaclava and goggles.
"Go, shoot him and bite him," he said to it, "he needed the pain to reset his mind."
The zombie looked at Shu and approached him with his assault rifle.
Shu was not scared despite his expression, as if he was ready to endure the pain.
The zombie pulled the trigger, firing what it seemed to be half of the magazine.
Rat-tat-tat!
Blood was everywhere, and Shu was holding on while coughing blood to the floor.
And then, the zombie took off his mask, lunged at him, and bit his shoulder.
Shu looked relieved as the warm zombie blood and ooze was now in his veins.
"Keep this a secret," Gen said to me and Tashio.
Tashio was willing: if this is what causes Shu to be feeling better, then he agreed as long as it is controlled and safe. "Yes," he said to Gen, "no one should know this, if they do, they don't know the mercy of this. Plus, Kashi does not know this."
I was willing too, taking it seriously as a vow.
"Also, that serum I injected into him was Shu's On the Brink of Death serum," Gen added. "That 'freezes' his nerves and regenerate him."
"That kid was a genius…" Tashio commented.
"Indeed he is…" Hayate responded while checking the dark green flasks on his dark grey tactical vest.
"Man, I did not know that," I added, "is that why he survived a sniper shot from a zombie sniper and many times with other zombies?"
"Yes, that was true…" Shu rasped while still being held by the zombie SWAT soldier.
Now, I knew that Shu was smart for his age.
And then, Shu looked at the zombie SWAT soldier, who was putting on his mask and stroking his forehead.
"I am here because I was ordered to burn the darkness within you…" he spoke in a raspy voice.
"Sí…" Shu replied with a nod while puking more blood still.
After that, the zombie returned to its cage, and Gen closed it while promising a meal for him.
Hayate then went to the surface via the elevator, probably to get a meal for the zombified soldier.
Good thing that zombie wasn't Hoka!