Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Ai climbed up out of the debris that was once her home showing no expression whatsoever. She looked around and saw many people crying and shouting. But Ai did not care. She was used to scenes like this. When it first happened in her past life she was shocked and acted just like everyone else. But now it was all too familiar of a scene. She could not remember how many times the places she called called 'home' that had been destroyed either by humans or machina.

Her goal at this time was to find a police car. She walked down the street and walked straight to the local hardware store. Her goal here was a sledgehammer. The store was only a five minute walk from her house so it did not take her long to get there. The building structure itself was only half standing but Ai did not care. It was still early morning and no one was there yet. Most likely at home still digging through the remains of their house, trapped, or dead. She stepped through the shattered window of the store and looked around. ��Now where can I find a sledgehammer..."

She walked around the part of the store that was still holding together and after a good fifteen minutes of searching through the rubble, she found her objective. "With this, I can shatter car windows with ease. Now to find an abandoned police car or preferably one with a dead cop inside."

If there was a dead cop the chances a gun would be there too, was almost one hundred percent. It would save her a lot of time. Ai, cared not for some of the stares she received as she walked down the street with a sledgehammer resting on her shoulder. She walked quite a few streets until she finally spotted a police car crashed into a phone pole. "Hmmm? Quite a few people there..."

Now that they were in the apocalypse she no longer cared about her actions. She walked right up in front of everyone else who was standing there, raised the sledgehammer over her head, and slammed it down onto the driver side window smashing it to bits.

"Hey what are you doing!?" A man yelled and stepped forward and was tried to grab the sledgehammer in Ai's hand.

Ai's brow furrowed as she turned and swung the sledgehammer sideways into the man's gut sending him flying back a few meters, smashing into the ground. "Fuck off!" She only left two words before returning her attention to the cop car.

"What did you do to my husband!?" A lady yelled as she ran over to check on her husband.

Ai Completely ignored her. The corner of her lips were turned upwards as she saw the cop who was dead from bleeding out in the front seat. She reached in and patted the cop down taking the pistol on his side and a few extra clips from his person. She then unhooked his holster before standing back up. She hooked the holster to her pants and then checked the pistol to make sure it was in good condition. "Mmm not bad… now to check the rest of the car."

"Hey, little lady you shouldn't play with that! I will report you to the police!" A middle-aged man couldn't take the Ai's actions anymore, finally spoke up.

"What I do is none of your fucking business. If you do not want to become a practice target, then I suggest you get the fuck out of here and leave me alone." Ai coldly said. She did not want to deal with anybody right now, she just wanted to check if there was more ammunition and maybe another weapon in the trunk. She reached in and grabbed the keys to the cop car before spotting a box of bullets in the open glove box. She quickly walked around the side of the car and smashed out the window before reaching in and grabbing the bullets.

But as she rounded her way to the trunk she heard another voice yelling at her. "Stop right there and drop the weapon!"

Ai looked over to see another cop standing there pointing his gun at her. Her eyes were cold but calm. She showed no hint of fear even while a gun was trained onto her. "Oh? Gonna shoot?" Ai asked nonchalantly as she opened the trunk only to frown when she saw nothing of use inside. She closed it and tossed the keys to the cop who was pointing his gun at her.

"I said stop right there!" The cop voice was now filled with anger because Ai was completely ignoring him.

Sighing Ai turned and looked at the cop. "Since you wish to send me a gift I guess I have no choice but to take it."

The cop did not understand what she meant until he saw a sledgehammer flying towards him at a high speed. Startled he dodged to the right only to hear a loud…

*Bang!*

"Ahhh!" Screams could be heard all around as people began to flee.

Ai stood there calmly, the barrel of her gun pointing at the cop who was now lying still on the ground, blood flowed from the top of his head. A small stream of smoke floated up from the barrel of her pistol. "I said I would have no choice but to take it. Just think of this as your own bad luck for running into me. Since you came and brought an item I desperately need, by the new laws of this new age, I will take it from you even by force."

With that, she reached down and took the now dead cop's gun from his hand and searched his body finding only two more clips on him. She then took off his holster as well, picked up her sledgehammer, and then strolled her way back home.

As she climbed back over the rubble to her house she saw her father sitting outside the bunker entrance waiting for her. She felt warm in her heart knowing her father was worried enough to wait outside. "Dad, I'm back."

"Ai! Are you okay!? I heard a gunshot earlier." Seiji looked at Ai, worriedly checking her up and down. She paused his actions when he spotted the two guns on her hip. "Ai this?"

"Mmm… I said I was going to get a gun so I went to look for one. The gunshot you heard earlier was from me… Dad let's go in and finish what I was talking about earlier. You need to understand the rules of this new world." Ai said with a smile before handing the sledgehammer to her father and climbing down the ladder into the bunker.

Seiji felt his whole body shake knowing something must have happened for her to fire the gun. He decided now was not the time to ask such questions and quickly returned back into the bunker.

The two families sat down on the couch with Ai standing up in front of them. Ai looked them all over and let out a long sigh. "As I said before the first rule is survival of the fittest. Dad the gunshot you heard earlier was me killing a cop to get a second gun."

"What!? Ai!?" Shizune screamed out, she couldn't believe the words coming out of her daughter's mouth! She killed someone!?

"Let me finish!" Ai yelled. She did not want her mother interrupting her after every sentence.

"Nene just let Ai finish what she has to say." Seiji did not like what Ai had just said but he felt she must have had a reason for it. Shizune wanted to say more but shut her mouth after hearing Seiji.

"Survival of the fittest is that when you see something that is useful you take it. Like these two pistols here. I took this first pistol, these clips, and this box of bullets from a cop car that had crashed into a telephone pole killing the officer inside. This pistol and two clips are from the cop I killed because if I didn't he would have taken my items and tried to bring me to jail where I would have surely have died. Right now we live in a world of lawlessness. We need to protect ourselves. Blunt weapons will only go so far. Other people will also have guns as well. Unless you are a master with melee combat and know how to fight a person with a gun there is no point in even trying, the gun will always win!" Ai explained as she paused for a moment checking everyone's reactions. She was surprised to see while everyone else's expressions as strange excluding Mai and her father who would normally flip out for doing such acts was calm and composed as if what she said was not that big of a deal.

"As you can see by following the first rule we now have two pistols to protect ourselves with. Now the second rule and this is one of the more important ones. Do not trust anyone including me. Always keep your guard up. I have seen brothers and sisters become mortal enemies. Fathers and sons who kill each other over a rotten piece of fruit. Comrades that would even use the person closest to them as a shield just to protect themselves.

"Life and death will soon become a norm and only those who have the ability to will be the ones that can survive. Any questions so far?" Ai asked.

"You say trust no one, not even you, why do you say this?" Yasuhide picked up on a key point. He wondered his family would be safe in the future if they stayed with the Itos

"It is not that you can not trust but to always keep your guard up. Like I said before, I lived ten years in hell and have seen much worse and done much worse than you can imagine. But let me ask you this, why are you all so calm after I said I have killed someone?" Besides her mother, everyone else seemed to have been very calm when they heard she had killed a cop. She was curious as to why this was.

"Well, after listening to everything you had to say before and from what Mai has told us we kinda understand what is in store for us to a point until you fully explain what will be happening in the future. As for your recent killing of a cop, I do not condone it but I also know you did it in order to get some that will protect both families. " Yasuhide answered honestly.

Ai took a look at Mai and smiled. Her best friend and sister was truly there for her. "Well, I will explain more later on. Let's get to the last rule. Kill or be killed." She then turned to her mother and knew this rule was going to be the hardest one for her. "In the near future I can guarantee each and every one of you will eventually be put into a life or death struggle where if you do not kill the other person then you will be the one to end up dead. Even now I killed that cop so he would not arrest me. Because I would be locked up for a long time and by the time they appeared I would be a sitting duck. There is no point in killing just because. Bullets are precious after all. But at some point, you will be forced to pull that trigger or beat a person to death in or..."

"Ai! Stop!" Shizune yelled out. She really did not like this subject whatsoever.

"Stop? Mom, you will be the first to die out of all of us if you do not change!"