Bite To Death

There is a certain responsibility that being a DC entails.

It's not like Chrome doesn't know how respected red armbands are, or how people generally look to them for guidance. However, knowing and experiencing are very different things.

People watch her, but it's not like they're waiting for Chrome to slip up. It's more like awe and curiosity. Suddenly people know her name and they chat easily with her about Namimori or their days.

It's humbling to be honest. She started this with ulterior motives in mind, and while she won't stop shipping like a Navy captain, Chrome actually wants to immerse herself in what being a DC member means.

She wants to help people and be the backbone of Namimori. The DC control the major operations all over Namimori, from director of administration to leading scouting parties overseas.

It's not quite four days after getting a red armband that she finds Kusakabe Tetsuya and asks to be trained. He stares at her for a moment, assessing, and then leads her to one Kurokawa Hana.

The woman is a force to be reckoned with and explains in detail each and every process in Namimori that the DC oversee. Which is pretty much everything, if Chrome is being honest. The lecture is concise and easy to understand and Chrome is blown away by how much actually goes into running an entire country - because that's what Namimori is.

Hibari Kyouya has rebuilt a nation and there's no sign of him slowing down.

Then Tetsuya comes by and picks her up, dropping her off with a DC girl who shows her the ropes when working with the Patroller units. Chrome learns how to trace the helmets and plot out the best course as well as work with Kyouya's chopper runs to account for how many Patrollers are needed on duty.

Tetsuya sweeps by again and ushers her to a male DC who gives her a rundown of the inside security forces and defences set up. He hammers in the information and give tests of scenarios in which Chrome is the only DC around and there's a situation that she needs to help with.

Chrome passes that with flying colours because she's always been able to think on her feet (mostly to keep up with Mukuro).

Tetsuya appears and once more she's transported to another DC. Again and again Chrome meets the people in charge and gets taught secrets that could very easily take down Namimori from the inside out.

She honestly can't explain how honoured she is.

Surely someone must be wary of her, but everyone she meets is entirely focused on teaching her in ways that she'll absorb. Their smiles are genuine and they wish her good luck and sometimes it's too much.

There's a moment in between as Tetsuya and her sit in a car heading to the next DC, that she turns to him and asks flat out why they trust her with this information and why they're bothering to actually teach her.

The teenager is quiet for a moment then all he says is that if Kyouya gave her an armband, then she deserves it. He looks into her eyes and says that they're teaching her in hope that she earns it.

Chrome powers through the rest of the DC in a week, barely getting any sleep at all and only eating when her instructor at that time does. They insist that she can slow down, that she has all the time in the world to learn.

Chrome simply replies that she wants to learn right now.

...

It's been a little under three months and a week since the outbreak, and Chrome is a fully fledged Disciplinary Committee member. The welcoming party was extravagant and loud and it seemed like half the safe zone was there to wish her well.

Mukuro looked so proud and Chikusa had to keep a steady supply of tissues for when the teenage mass murderer would get overwhelmed with tears. Kyouya handed over his private number that all DC have and told her welcome home.

She managed to hug him before he got away from the crowding -stabbing herself a little on the hedgehog hidden in the Chairman's c.h.e.s.t pocket- and that night Chrome dreamt of leading people to safety. When she woke up, she decided that reality was still better, and jumped into her new job.

Like all the rest of the red armbands, she can pick up any job sector on the fly and lead like she's spent her whole life training for it.

DC don't have set jobs, they rotate through positions in every industry from agriculture to research and development. They might have a position they like best, but each and every single one of them are more than capable for anything.

During the training period she wondered which people taught the DC in the first place, but during a board meeting with representatives from every town inside the Namimori safe zone, Kyouya swooped in and sat at the head of the table.

He rolled his eyes a lot and called everyone an herbivore at least once, but he fixed all the problems brought before him and flew off again before Chrome could pull her chin off the floor.

Hibari Kyouya is a different breed altogether.

Disregarding the rather enigmatic Chairman, Chrome's first position as a DC is one she recognises. The job she chose when she first registered in Namimori is at the communications centre, three buildings down from the radio tower.

Chrome used to take calls about disturbances in the community and put the caller through to the right people to take care of it. She was assigned to a different, higher level field a few weeks in where she mostly relayed information from other bases of Namimori; like overseas sectors that work on radio towers or getting large scale machinery working.

Quite a few groups are dabbling with pharmaceuticals or larger agricultural areas to farm while less care for manufacturing.

She knows one of her co-workers had been assigned the 'Beserker' group that started clearing zombies from the other end of Japan, and he was constantly pulling his hair out in frustration. Something about an a.d.u.l.t Kyouya and all Hibaris being insane.

Her new DC position means she supervises the others, and even has the last say on major decisions with any high profile people. Well, 'high profile' generally means 'large ego', as the DC she's working with informs her.

Since Chrome is still new, she'll be moving across jobs every so often but always with a partner in case she gets stuck on an issue that needs immediate attention.

Chrome fields calls from other safe zones and survivors, and while sometimes they asks for aide or they just want to let Namimori know about the situation in case trouble comes unexpectedly, most are incredibly rude.

They'll ask for the Chairman just so he can clear out a compound for them to live in or they'll demand resources and people. She has no idea why these outsiders think they deserve to get help from Namimori.

The DC don't have to go out of their way to help others. It isn't a right other groups have, it's a privilege. If she get asked by a small group who don't want to leave their home, fine. The requests for help are usually filled, like with the Mafia safe zone in Italy that Namimori have been in contact with almost from the start.

It's the large half-cults that are the problem. Quite a few are religious wack jobs and the rest aren't any better with conditioning and peer pressure. There's an all women group that refuses to accept any male no matter the age, and they forcefully take females passing in the area.

Namimori has a base a few hours away from that group and set regular patrols to help any people looking to escape the fanatical group. They've stopped some abductions and there's been discussion of sending in a female to have a look on the inside and see if it's even fit for living.

The DC have had to do that before, with a rather large compound that held leaders clearly abusing their authority. Somehow zombies equalled middle ages, and the group took to it eagerly with regards to mandatory viewing at public hangings and brutal corporal punishment.

Namimori ripped that place to shreds, and once everyone was removed, set fire to the remains. That isn't a metaphor – the cream coloured armbands (to signify overseas Patrollers) literally set fire to the tents, caravans and makeshift houses.

Many of the perpetrators were all mysteriously misplaced on the way to jail. Even stranger was the thank you note the scientist Verde sent.

Occasionally Namimori will get requests for aide but most ask to be transported to the safe zone, and a team is usually sent out with a plane to pick up the newcomers. The radio has been playing over most of the world at this point, listing airports they land in on rotation and bases they've set up.

They have twenty-six teams of cream armbands, who not only grab survivors but also set up a well-structured and well protected compound. Sometimes they'll clean out zombies and expand outwards but it's entirely dependent on what the overseas Patrollers want.

It's not a priority at the moment because most of the effort is focused on Japan and making it a fully zombie free zone. (However, occasionally the Chairman can't help himself and ends up flying overseas to play with the zombies there.)

It's unfortunate, but sometimes the requests for transport are traps.

Usually when that happens, the group requesting help is a lot bigger than the intelligence received beforehand, and it turns into an ambush to get the Patroller supplies and weapons. Most attacks are avoided altogether or fended off, but one time Kyouya himself went to get back the Patrollers that were captured and held for ransom.

He left the group there, most of them with crippling injuries courtesy of an angry Chairman.

The announcement he made himself on the radio has been typed out and framed in the main DC building.

"The next time some upstart, herbivorous cult has the idiotic idea to hurt one of mine, I'll paint you across the walls. You're going to damn well wish it was the zombie apocalypse instead of just an infestation."

It has also been quoted many, many times by play writers and spoken by actors in the theatres. Children can sometimes be heard misquoting it, a lot more frequently when it first came out but it's not rare to see a little seven year old clutching plastic tonfas and hear them growl out the words.

The original message has been replayed occasionally on the radio as well, mainly just because people like hearing it. Kyouya's voice was calm but with an undercurrent of poison that stated very clearly that he was not making idle threats.

Chrome knows for a fact that Mukuro has the sound clip on his phone and listens to it sometimes.

The phone rings then and she jerks slightly, peering around the empty office and through the glass walls to the main floor where people are scattered about taking calls and scribbling hurriedly on paper. It's only been around a week since she first started as a proper DC, and yet the sight has become normal.

Her eyes lock onto the phone at one corner of the DC desk and she picks it up, falling into routine.

"Namimori here, what is the basis of your call?"