Bloom and Scatter [Free! Zombie AU]

Welcome To Iwatobi - Part 1

This was where it all began.

Ground Zero.

For Makoto, it meant a home that was lost, an ominous fog that seemed to consume everything it touched, a family he couldn't protect. For Rin, it was so much more than that. It spoke to him of his childhood, the platform for his Olympic dreams, his triumphant relay, the swim club and memories of bitterness and joy. His father's bier was marched along the Iwatobi beach, in honour of his service to the sea. His mother and sister had remained here, in the shadow of the plague. His entire life had been shaped by the decision to come to Iwatobi when he was twelve. Would he still have gone to Australia alone if he hadn't swam with Makoto, Haruka and Nagisa? Would his family have stayed on in Iwatobi? Would his father have died?

Would he have had to come back to this?

It was the same sickly yellow-brown, stretched out across the landscape as far as the eye could see. The stench of sulphur and rotting fish was stronger than ever. He could barely make out the silhouette of cars and street lamps through the fog; it was so thick he could feel himself choke despite the newly changed filter of the gas mask. He wished he could have savoured the relatively cleaner air of Manidera Temple a few hours more, but every minute they wasted could potentially distance Rin and his family to the point that they could never meet again. That wasn't a chance he was willing to take. He'd come this far. He was going to see this through to the end.

"It's strange," Makoto murmured, looking around warily, "I know it's Iwatobi, but... it feels like I'm somewhere completely different. It's familiar, but wrong somehow."

"You're telling me," Rin said, "I want to say it looks like nothing's changed, but the fog kind of puts a damper on that."

"And we're beside the sea, so everything's rusted down too."

"Yeah," Rin eyed the welcome sign, coated in a blood-coloured rust that had also corroded through the eyes of a model in an advertising billboard just behind it. He gently nudging Makoto with his elbow, "Kind of out of a horror game, eh?"

"That's not something you needed to mention," he muttered.

"Really?" Rin said in disbelief, "We're experiencing an actual plague where you've just survived being bitten by a boss zombie and managed to escape death several times over, and you're still afraid of a video game?"

"I didn't say I wasn't afraid of our current situation," Makoto replied defensively.

"More afraid of a video game," Rin amended.

Makoto spluttered briefly before he hung his head, mumbling, "Just because I've been desensitised to zombies doesn't mean they aren't still scary. I've survived this long because I've been completely scared and run away the entire time. Anyway, Silent Hill is based on the personifications of your guilt and nightmares, and that's much scarier than zombies."

"You're surprisingly well-informed for someone who's afraid of the horror genre."

Makoto cast him a furtive glance that made him want to laugh. Rin looked back to the welcome sign as dust particles flitted past, unable to shake the feeling of being watched as those rust-darkened eyes seemed to bore into him from the billboard. Against his will, he could feel his hair stand on end. He felt foolish. There were more important, more real things to fear.

"Where do we go from here?"

Rin felt his senses return and he paused briefly to collect his thoughts.

"I came here to find my mother and sister. That hasn't changed."

He nodded, "Then we should head towards your house."