Chapter 10 - Beauty and the Beast

Clatter.

The meeting room door opened, and a pair—a boy and girl—entered.

One was a quiet, beautiful girl.

The other was a tall, bear-like boy.

The odd contrast between them made him think of “Beauty and the Beast” and almost made him chuckle.

Though, the boy was his classmate, someone he talked to often, so he knew him well.

Glad he was alive.

He stood up to greet them.

“I’m Tooru Saejima. Nice to meet you.”

Daiki looked at him happily.

“Hey, Tooru! You’re alive! Man, the damage in town must be awful, huh? Since you were late today, I thought you’d already bit the dust!”

Relief showed all over his face.

So Tooru smiled back.

“Glad you’re doing well too, Daiki. And you must be Shimizu-senpai, right?”

Miu stared at him, seemingly stunned.

“Oh? How do you know my name?”

A reasonable question.

Anyone would be surprised if a stranger knew their name right off the bat.

But it wasn’t strange for Tooru to know Miu.

“Senpai’s famous for being beautiful. People often say, ‘Yamashita from first year, Shimizu from second year,’ you know.”

In fact, Shimizu was well known at school for her refined features and calm demeanor.

Though Miu herself hated being called that.

So she only replied with a cold, contemptuous look in her eyes, saying,

“I see.”

Anyone would feel uncomfortable if someone they disliked mentioned something they were sensitive about.

Especially a stranger.

Tooru felt regret inside.

Because they were going to spend quite a long time together as survivors, and he'd made a terrible first impression.

Feeling some regret and slight awkwardness, he waited for the next survivors to arrive.

Takumi opened the door of the dojo and peeked inside.

The long corridor extending from the dojo was blocked halfway by zombies gathered around a speaker.

“We can’t go straight here. We’ll have to detour right and head to the meeting room,” he whispered to Hazuki and quietly started walking.

He turned from the long corridor onto a side hallway branching to the right.

There were a few zombies and some partially eaten corpses scattered along that hallway.

Some showed exposed ribs, others had skulls visible, each telling the story of a terrified death.

“Ugh… this is…”

Hazuki couldn’t finish her sentence.

Actually, this area housed the club rooms mainly related to traditional Japanese martial arts, so many of the dead and zombies were people they knew.

Of course, some of those zombies were of people they had been talking to cheerfully just that morning.

The utterly unreal scene was so shocking that their brains tried to shut down their thoughts.

Still, they had to pass through this corridor.

They proceeded cautiously.

Hazuki’s heartbeat gradually quickened.

She struggled to keep her rough breathing under control.

Then—

Grab!

“Eek…!”

Hazuki’s foot was grabbed.

The zombie that had been lying down earlier now firmly clutched her foot.

(Why… why…?)

Unanswerable questions raced through her mind.

Because of this, Hazuki hesitated too long to think of a way out of this predicament.

The zombie pulled Hazuki’s foot forward, causing her to fall onto the hallway floor.

The zombie then loomed over her, bringing its face close.

If it bit her with that mouth, her death would be sealed.

“A-ah…”

Her mouth wouldn’t move properly from deep despair and fear.

Still, she managed to squeeze out a voice.

“Senpai!”

Takumi, hearing the call, noticed Hazuki’s peril.

But even if he hurried back, it was already too late.

“Damn it!”

Takumi started running.

The zombie’s mouth came down on Hazuki’s neck.

“Nooo—!”

Hazuki screamed.

The pain she had imagined never came.

There was a thunk sound, and the zombie collapsed.

The person who had crushed that zombie was none other than Kazuma Aso.

Behind him, Sakura Yamashita followed like a loyal attendant.

“Kazuma!”

Takumi called out as he ran over, and Kazuma answered cheerfully with a smile:

“Tacchan! Glad to see you’re doing well!”

They were saved.

The moment Hazuki understood this, big tears welled up and fell from her eyes.

“Are you okay, Hazuki-chan?”

Kazuma spread his arms wide.

Hazuki leapt toward Kazuma’s chest—

But instead, she slipped past him and clung to Takumi.

“Senpai! That was so scary~~!”

Takumi’s face flushed red as he said,

“Wha—! D-Don’t cling to me!”

He tried to shake her off.

However, there was no real force behind his hands to pull her away.

Only Kazuma wore a dissatisfied look.

“Tch! Tch! I always get stuck with roles like this! Ah! It’s unfair, it’s unfair!”

He sulked like a child.

“Kazuma-senpai was so cool!”

Sakura said, eyes shining.

At that, Kazuma’s complaints seemed to vanish as he grinned sheepishly.

“R-Really? You think so? Well, of course I am! Hahaha!”

(He really is simple-minded…)

Sakura felt a certain lack of challenge in Kazuma’s behavior.