Hisako launched herself up, over the melee, to the balcony Yasuda was climbing to. The walkers noticed and tried to fire on her, but she simply used the flat of her blade as a shield.
She slammed into one of the walkers and then lashed out in a wide arc, destroying all the others on the balcony. Across the road, on another balcony, more walkers fired upon her, but she blocked them with ease.
Hisako offered Yasuda a hand, and she took it, letting Hisako pull her up. She immediately got to work taking out the walkers on the other balcony, using Hisako and her sword as cover.
"Are you alright?" Hisako asked.
Yasuda, out of breath, nodded. "Yeah."
She wasn't putting much weight on her injured leg. Now that Yasuda was standing upright, Hisako could see the tear in her pants, around the curl of her left knee. It was too bloody to see the extent of the injury, but it didn't look good.
"I'll get Serizawa-san."
Before Yasuda could protest, and Hisako was sure she would, she jumped down from the balcony, slowing her descent to a manageable impact. She ended up near Serizawa, but had to cut down a few walkers pinched between them.
Serizawa was taking good care of himself. He'd had to retreat a few steps, but Stinger flew in wide arms, forming a zone of protection around him. Stinger moved faster than any attack Hisako had seen before, whipping from one side of Serizawa's range to the next in a whistle and a blink.
"Serizawa-san!"
Serizawa stepped carefully to her side, hands still flying. "Mochizuki-san," he replied, concentrating.
"Yasuda-san could use your help."
Serizawa drew Stinger back and stepped to her side. Hisako put a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to crouch as she cleared the area, warning back some and ending a few walkers around them with another wide swing of the sword.
He clambered back onto his feet, not bothering to dust off his uniform. Walkers had begun to cloud the way between them and Yasuda. Hisako knew there wasn't time to waste.
"I have an idea," Hisako said.
She threw an arm around Serizawa's torso, snaking under his arms, and activated her ability. She put her "down" skywards, and they jerked up.
Serizawa yelped, grabbing her back and nearly knocking them from the sky by surprising her. They didn't fly into the air, but rather began a slow ascent, like sliding down a rough slope. Hisako felt weightless, but Serizawa felt as heavy as he ought to be.
"I don't like this!" Serizawa cried.
"Just hold on," Hisako grit out.
She reached out, pushing harder on her ability. They sped up a little and drifted towards the balcony. When they were close enough, Hisako started their angled descent.
Serizawa screamed, squeezing her tighter as the descent proved to be far faster than their ascent. When they touched down, Serizawa launched himself from her, throwing himself to the solid ground before crawling to the wall to lean against it.
"I don't want to do that again!" he exclaimed.
Hisako nodded. "Yeah, that didn't go how I expected. Sorry about that." She turned to the balcony, where Doorwalkers had begun to climb after them. "I'll cover you. Can you heal Yasuda-san?"
Serizawa nodded. He quickly scanned Yasuda before noticing her bleeding leg. He put his hands out, and a bubble of dim light flashed out, encapsulating the injury.
Hisako cut back walkers and watched Serizawa from the corner of her eye.
The blood ran back up the leg, and the wound shrank until only unblemished flesh remained. He sat back on his heels, and Yasuda pulled at her pant leg, examining the spot.
"It's completely fixed," she breathed.
Serizawa nodded. "Yep! Just in time." He wiped his brow and stood to join Hisako. "I'm ready to get back in there."
Hisako nodded, stepping off the side of the balcony. With her ability, she dove down to the ground, crushing a few walkers and scaring back the growing crowd. She slashed out to clear space for Serizawa, who slid down the side of the building to join her.
With Yasuda unhindered and back to full strength, the pressure on Rao and Sasaki was lessened. Sasaki didn't have to make a full bubble; instead, she was making smaller half-spheres to deflect individual attacks while striking with larger attacks.
Rao's clones returned to Rao, allowing him to keep himself and Sasaki clear of immediate danger.
One of Sasaki's light lashes finally pierced a door-shielded walker, and they fell back, disintegrating. The other walkers surged forward.
They were smart, trying to overwhelm them as they found their new rhythm.
Sasaki jumped up onto a shield of light to stand above their heads, and a handful of the walkers began to climb each other to get to her. One of Rao's clones flashed out as he threw a katar to help her.
Instead of Sasaki making space for the clone on her shield, she flinched at the sudden appearance of him and nearly fell off the back of her shield, into the surging wave of walkers.
Rao's clone stood below the shield, lashing out at the walkers before they could grab Sasaki. Rao himself was nearby, working on wearing down another of the door-shield walkers and their farmer phalanx.
Hisako made her way towards them but stood between the mass of walkers and Serizawa. Each slash thinned the herd, but with the way they moved and guarded, they felt more numerous than they actually were.
Yasuda helped Rao, shooting down the walkers that broke through his defensive movements and the walkers that got close to Sasaki. Sasaki had found her footing and was launching strikes of light to widen the safe zone around Rao below her.
Serizawa's Stinger danced around Hisako. While she readied her next circular swing, the kunai would strike the closest Doorwalker to her.
She took a moment to do a quick count of their remaining enemies: two walkers with the door-shields, five in the phalanx standing by the shielded walkers, and eleven loose walkers.
Hisako shifted from her wide swings to the more calculated, controlled swings she'd practiced with Fujioka. She pursued each retreating walker, finishing them off instead of letting them back away from her as she'd done earlier.
She reached the shielded walker Rao wasn't fighting, and checked that Serizawa was still safe.
She knew how to deal with shield enemies. She had the right weapon, and she had a good idea.
She swung horizontally, burying her sword into the side of the shield. With a light tug, she knew her sword was wedged in the door.
The bearer rasped angrily and glowered at her with dark eyes. Their phalanx bristled threateningly behind them.
Before the phalanx could jump her, and before the already heavy blade became too much for her to hold up, she activated her ability and pierced forward, door and all. She managed to run down the door-holding walker and two phalanx-ers, stumbling to a halt over their dusting forms and the now-split shield.
One door-man, three phalanxers, and eleven loose walkers left.
Before she could figure out what line to mow down next, a rusted axe swung her way.
She jerked her sword, blocking with the crossguard in an awkward twist of her arms. The weight of the sword made her strained muscles scream with effort in the odd pose.
The walker lurched forward, their clammy head going for a jerky headbutt.
Hisako clenched her jaw and headbutted back.
The rattling moment they met over the cross of their weapons, Hisako kicked out with a foot. The toe of her boot kicked out one leg, and she hooked her heel around the other in a measured step through them, dropping the walker.
They let out a rather unnervingly human wheeze, winded, and Hisako hurriedly swung her sword down to finish them off. As their form dusted away, she hurried to ready herself for another surprise attack.
One door-man, three phalanxers, and ten loose walkers.
The surprise attack didn't come. A few feet from her, Stinger struck down two more walkers, then she got one.
Rao, his clone, and Sasaki together brought down the last door-bearing walker, and their phalanx dispersed without protection.
Yasuda and Sasaki were quick to strike down the struggling phalanx-walkers.
Only eight loose walkers remained.
Hisako was panting, her heart was racing, and a line of blood was running from her forehead down into an eye. She used her ability to propel herself to a small troop of the remaining walkers and put her entire weight into a swinging top attack.
When she was dizzy enough and only dust remained, she straightened up, staggering out of the attack range of a nearing walker.
A spear of light pierced them, and the battle was done.
"Is anyone hurt?" Serizawa called out, coiling up Stinger and rushing to them.
He reached Sasaki, hurriedly checking for injury. She shoved him away, face twisting with fury.
"Where were you?" she snapped.
Yasuda slid down her perch to them. Her face was stormy, but she didn't say anything. She looked like she was waiting for an answer. So did Rao, who looked too worn out to be angry.
"We found a clue," Hisako said, wiping her eye. "I'm sorry. I didn't notice how far away you'd gotten."
"We need to stay together," Rao said carefully. "We all need to try harder to communicate and be open-minded."
They all stared quietly at each other for a long, uncomfortable moment–"who would complain first?"
Rao showed a long gash on his arm, going up his shoulder. It didn't look deep, but it looked painful either way.
"Could you heal this, please?"
Serizawa hurried to throw out his arms. They all watched as the wound unmade itself. It was still just as impressive as the first time Hisako saw it.
Rao blinked in surprise, flexing the arm and twisting it. "It's completely healed."
"I reversed the injury," Serizawa confirmed happily. "It's as if those last few minutes never happened."
Rao considered him thoughtfully. "Growth and damage both undone?"
Serizawa blinked. "I suppose so. It's a temporal reversion of all biological change, so, yes. I haven't thought of it that way before. Thank you."
"Oh. Um, you're welcome. Thank you for healing me."
Sasaki wagged her hands, mocking their talking. "Whatever! How are you going to fix this in the future? Some of us want to pass this exam!"
"Next time we will effectively communicate," Hisako said, forcing a polite tone through a clenched jaw.
"We're the ones who let ourselves get ambushed," Yasuda sighed woefully. "Please, tell us about the 'clue.' What clue?"
"At the start of the door, there was someone in a window, but then we got into a fight, so I didn't investigate.
"Then, a bit back there, there was a corpse. Like-like an NPC in a game, not a walker. He had a family photo on him, and I think it has something to do with that first clue at the start of the door."
Rao sighed. "It's a test. There are questions on tests, and we ignored the instructions."
"They didn't give us instructions," Sasaki argued.
"We can still pass, can't we? So we missed a clue, that can't be the end," Yasuda said. "Should we go back?"
"We can't backtrack," Sasaki sighed. "It's a course. You don't undo progress."
"That's a flimsy reason," Yasuda countered.
"It's alright! Okay, it's probably a simple fetch quest, right? A little girl in a window asks you to find her family. We find the brother, he's dead. He has a picture with the parents, so we know what to look out for," Hisako explained.
She took out the photo and showed them.
"A lanky old-fashioned guy and his pretty wife," Rao said aloud. He glanced around with a small chuckle. "Honestly, they shouldn't be too hard to recognize when the regulars look like the dead."
Yasuda nodded. "We'll all keep our eyes out for anything that may be a clue, and we'll stick together. In formation."
"May I suggest that Rao and I lead the way? Serizawa in the middle to stay safer, and you two watching from the back and firing ahead of us if we get into a fight?" Hisako said.
"I agree with that," Rao said.
Serizawa nodded.
"I'm fine with it," Yasuda said.
They glanced at Sasaki. "It's whatever. Fine."
"Okay, thank you," Hisako said. "Let's move out then, yeah?"