Chapter 14

In the end Midori didn’t have the time to say anything. Tsuki was annoyed and embarrassed, so he went to pout inside the trailer. Alphonse took some blood from him in a cup before letting him go. There was no way he was letting someone else bite Tsuki. Any other zombies/humans who tried would have their teeth knocked off.

Alphonse got up and reluctantly took Midori in his arms. With a child in one hand and a cup of blood in another, he made his way into the village.Tsuki who was spying from the trailer saw this and anxiously called out, “wait! Where are you taking him?? Isn’t it dangerous in there for him? He is still technically human. Won’t they attack him?”

Alphonse turned around and said, “he wants to undergo the transformation alone. So I am taking him to a house. Don’t worry, I’ll order those fools not to bother him. They won’t dare to disobey.”

Tsuki looked at Midori and the latter weakly nodded his head to confirm. Tsuki’s eyes softened and softly said, “okay then. Just please don’t endure on your own. If at any time you need some company or support, call my name.”

Midori’s eyes misted as he nodded, “don’t worry Tsuki, I’ll be okay. I have to do this on my own. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Tsuki let out a small sound of acknowledgement and watched as Alphonse’s back disappeared into the village, ‘I hope that eveything goes okay and that it is not painful. My blood is really an enigma.’

****

The next day, Tsuki woke up in Alphonse’s arm. He slowly rubbed his eyes and asked, “did you hear something strange last night? I kept hearing some type of howling….it was disturbing.”

Alphonse gently comb his hair, “No. Must have been your imagination.”

In fact there was indeed muffled sounds yesterday. It was Midori. The pain of the change is extremely painful, specially for such a small child. The pain was so overwhelming that he could only scream and endure. He really tried to keep his screams down but it was in vain.

Tsuki hummed then suddenly asked, “wait, what about Midori? Let’s go check on him quickly!”

Alphonse quickly held him back with an arm around his stomach, “I’ll go check on him while you prepare something for him to eat and some clean clothes. He is bound to be exhausted and dirty. Being clean and having a full belly would really help him.”

Tsuki nodded, “you are right. I’ll go look for clothes and food immediately! You go make sure he is okay. Take him to the river to clean first. I’ll bring the clean clothes.”

With that said, Tsuki pushed Alphonse out of the trailer and waved at him. He then turned to prepare the necessary things for their new companion. Alphonse glanced at him before he walked into the village and made his way to the house in which he left the child yesterday.

When he reached the house, he found quite a comical scene. All the zombies surrounded the house in a neat circle, with a healthy distance between them and the house. When they heard Alphonse approach they quickly scuttled to the side to let him pass with groans of ‘dangerous zombie’.

If Tsuki was here, he would have sweatdropped at those dunderheads. Alas, said zombie was currently making his way to the river to wait for his companions.

Alphonse directly entered the house and smirked, “so you made it alive. Hmmm you are stronger than I thought.”

Midori, who as expected was filthy, looked at him, “thank you for the vouch of confidence. Anyway, I had a reason to hang on.”

Alphonse hummed non-commitally, “get up and wipe yourself with that sheet a little. Tsuki is waiting for us at the river, you can wash yourself thouroughly there. He has clean clothes ready for you. I don’t want him to see you like this. Fortunately, I don’t have to tell him that you did not survive the transformation.”

Midori nodded and did as asked. After he had wiped off most of the filthy excretions, he followed Alphonse outside. As such, he directly saw the zombies which were surrounding the house earlier. He stopped abruptly and growled at them. The zombies were curious about the tasty meat that no longer looked so tasty.

One zombie carefully came a little closer to sniff the air, “zombie..? Tiny zombie.”

The others imitated him and a chorus of ‘tiny zombie’ started. Midori ran to the zombie and kicked his leg, “Who are you calling tiny, you stinky jerk! Don’t think I forgot about how you chased me around and tried to eat me!”

The kicked zombie fell to the ground then calmly got back up. He stared at Midori and let out another ‘tiny zombie’. Midori wanted to hack his head off.

Alphonse glanced at him and disdainfully said, “what are you arguing with them for? Those are lower zombies that do not have much conscience nor intelligence. They can’t really understand you. You can’t reason with them, you fool. Stop wasting time and let’s move on.” He then turned to the zombies crowding him and growled, “And you, you are annoying. Scram! Or I’ll dismember you right here right now!”

The foolish zombies felt the danger and quickly scattered. Well, as quick as zombies can. Midori glared at the zombies’ backs and quietly followed behind Alphonse.

At the river, Tsuki had taken the chance to clean himself and his clothes. He was sitting on a nearby rock after having put on clean clothes when Alphonse and Midori arrived. He stood up and declared “you took so long!”

Alphonse walked to him and put his arm around his waist, “the fools delayed us.”

Tsuki tilted his head, “fools? You mean those zombies?”

Alphonse nodded and then demanded, “why did you wash without me?”

Tsuki sweatdropped at him, “do I have to wait for you to wash myself? Anyway, your hands are too naughty! I won’t bath with you anymore!”

Alphonse squinted his eyes slightly, “No.”

Tsuki ignored him and turned to look at Midori. He quickly took off the paws around him and walked towards the child, “Look at you! You are so cute! How do you feel? Everything went okay?”

Midori smiled shyly and nodded, “I feel great! Everything went okay.”

Tsuki: “ That’s a relief. Get into the river first. We can chat afterwards. Do you want me to help you?”

Midori didn’t even have the time to open his mouth, Alphonse immediately said ‘no’.

Tsuki look a him blankly and calmly said, “I wasn’t asking you. Why are you the one answering?”

Hearing that, Alphonse immediately turned his head to stare at Midori. Those eyes were clearly saying ‘you better refuse.’

Tsuki sighed exasperatingly and thought, ‘how can such a strong zombie be so childish.’