Bite To Death

"And you must be Gokudera Hayato," Kusakabe Tetsuya says, looking at the last person to show up at the border of Namimori.

Hayato nods, the helmet hiding his grimace. He's barely on time since he was hiding from Bianchi and her shitty cooking until his sister finally left for work.

There are four other Patrollers cl.u.s.tered loosely around a parked army jeep, and like Hayato, all of their uniforms are adjusted. Which means that on top of the four stripes each of them have, a DC has acknowledged their talent with the weapons they use.

The first one he can recognise as the radio host since the guy was chuckling merrily as Hayato walked up. The guy has a hand gun at his hip along with several magazines in a belt thinner than the standard. It's obvious his main weapon is the sword strapped across his back.

Frankly, the Italian has no idea how the guy is still alive. The public might love him but the DC is good enough to 'accident' the teenager.

From the helmet-muffled shouts, Hayato can place the second as the loud boxing enthusiast that's always yelling about extreme things and doing l.a.p.s. Because his voice is muffled, he clearly doesn't have the helmet's speakers on and for that, Hayato is grateful.

The boxer carries no gun and no visible weapon but the material of his uniform looks thicker, with plates of matte black hugging his forearms. The gloves he wears are also plated and thicker.

The third also has no belt, and the helmet is missing as well. The smirk on the guy's face is disturbing and the purple hair with a tuft even more so. He wears the regular boots, pants and gloves but his shirt is halfway between camouflage and psychedelic clouds. He also has a high collar jacket made of the standard uniform material, and holds a ridiculously long trident that tapers to three wickedly sharp points.

The last one, Hayato isn't sure about. He has the helmet and the standard uniform, but the chosen weapons are what look to be short swords. They're in the two t.h.i.g.h holsters so Hayato can't see more than the handle, but from the sliding mechanism, they aren't normal.

Hayato himself has a mildly thicker material with the basic belt, helmet and gun strapped across his back, but numerous pockets litter the uniform, to carry his dynamite.

"Alright," Tetsuya begins. "I've discussed everything with you beforehand, but just to be clear I'll have to summarise."

Hayato can see the others immediately start to lose focus and rolls his eyes.

"There are radios in the standard uniform pocket. If anything goes wrong or you want to step out at any time, immediately use them," Tetsuya dictates. "No, I was not lying about the numbers you'll see out there. Yes, you're the first to go on a chopper run, apart from the Chairman. No, I was not exaggerating your chances of death."

The five huff almost simultaneously. That last point had been stressed a lot.

"Yes, I knew what I was doing when I picked you, you were researched extensively. No, this does not technically make you five stripes, but you do have bragging rights. Yes, if any of you touch my Chairman in an inappropriate way, the DC will burn you alive with any corrosive substance on hand."

Hayato does a double take and then stares at the purple one and the radio host who both seem to be chuckling slyly.

"Any questions?" the DC member finishes with a completely stoic face.

"I have a lot," the one with swords comments. "But it's mostly focused on that last point."

"Well," the radio host begins cheerfully. "It first started-"

"I can very easily take you off the chopper run," Tetsuya cuts in. "Since that answer isn't necessary, we'll be skipping it. Any others?"

They shake their heads.

"Wonderful," Tetsuya deadpans and then seems to catch sight of something over the Patroller's shoulders. "Chairman, these are the recruits I told you about."

Hayato spins with the rest to get his first look of the Namimori ruler and his eyes widen behind the safety of tinted glass. That look in the Chairman's eyes makes Hayato want to run in the opposite direction but also plant his feet and take the charge head on.

Kyouya passes the recruits without a glance and gracefully vaults onto the roof of the jeep. He sits there cross-legged, and looks back down at them with an impatient stare.

Hayato abruptly snaps out of it when he catches the glare from Tetsuya.

"Chairman," Tetsuya begins. "This is Yamamoto Takeshi, Sasagawa Ryohei, Rokudo Mukuro, Bovino Lambo, and Gokudera Hayato."

Kyouya's eyes flicker from one to the next as the DC points them out. "Good morning," he greets politely. "Now get in."

Hayato takes the driver seat as the boxer slips into shotgun, and Takeshi gets squished by Lambo and Mukuro in the back seat. He's hesitant to take off, considering the passenger on the roof, but a sharp whistle makes him jolt and start up the car.

Tetsuya waves in the rear-view mirror.

The first sign of trouble begins two thirds into their drive. The jeep is fully encased in the city, weaving through skyscr.a.p.ers to reach the appointed stop. The windows are all down and air whooshes past audibly as Hayato definitely breaks the speed limit despite the Chairman up top.

On the road ahead is a group of infected, nothing large, and no need to get out of the car. However…

Ryohei knocks on the roof with two loud raps. "Come down," the boxer calls. "We're going to drive over them."

Hayato, already slowing down because hitting something going one-twenty is stupid, wonders if he should stop the car so Kyouya could get in.

There's a pause and then the teen swings through the passenger's side feet first. Kyouya twists gracefully so somehow he ends up on perched on Ryohei's l.a.p without a moment of flail.

The three stooges in the back seat applaud and Hayato rolls his eyes.

"Hold him," Hayato orders and breaks just a little more for the perfect speed.

Ryohei wraps his arms around Kyouya's waist and across his c.h.e.s.t like an actual seat belt would sit.

The Italian rams into the zombies, hard enough to do serious brain damage when the two he hit double over and splatter across the hood, but not hard enough to hurt his passengers. He jerks the wheel around in a tight u-turn before going back for more.

The occupants of the car are silent, getting jostled around by the manically smiling driver. The vehicle comes to a sudden halt facing the direction they need to go with the scattered zombies flattened behind them.

"I think that one twitched-" Mukuro murmurs.

Hayato slams into reverse and then forward again. The occupants of the car jerk back and forth from the sharp movements.

"Yep, you got it," Lambo deadpans.

Surprisingly enough, Kyouya doesn't climb back onto the roof for the rest of the drive. Instead, he opens the glove compartment for the sniper rifle inside, and stays on Ryohei's l.a.p as he picks off infected through the windows of buildings.

Eventually Mukuro pipes up with a challenge, listing a floor and then a window with a zombie inside. Kyouya almost immediately finds the infected and takes it out with a perfect shot straight through the left eye.

Then Takeshi starts using the zoomed portion of his helmet, because he doesn't have super powered vision, and joins in with requests. That gets Lambo to start and Ryohei keeps a tally.

Kyouya runs out of bullets before they arrive and everyone w.h.i.n.es like three year olds.