Chapter 19 - Good Night
Dinner finished, and everyone began laying out their bedding to get ready for sleep.
Between the boys and girls, desks had been lined up and covered with blankets to serve as a makeshift divider.
And in the center of the meeting room stood two figures, arms crossed.
Their expressions were dead serious.
They carried an air of intensity, as if heading off to war.
“Miu-chan and Yuuki-chan are slender. Sakura-chan has a balanced figure.
Hazuki-chan and Sayo-chan are more on the glamorous side. Each has its own charm.”“Got it.”
“The girls will most likely change clothes in the kitchenette next to the meeting room. Even with a divider, it’s hard to imagine they’d change in the same room with us guys, and the broadcasting room on the other side is being used by Toru for his watch.”
“So… we go now?”
“Exactly. If we don’t hurry, showtime’ll be over.”
The two stood up and quietly slipped out of the meeting room.
In search of paradise…
“This is where we change our clothes...?”
The girls had begun changing in the room.
That said, since the supplies were originally intended for disaster relief, there were plenty of clothes, but none specifically for girls. All they had were men’s boxer shorts and plain shirts.
“Even if we’re told to change... we haven’t even had a bath,” Hazuki grumbled.
Not being able to bathe was a critical issue for the girls, so much so that she looked more miserable than when they were attacked by zombies.
They all desperately wanted a proper change of clothes as soon as possible.
“Ohh...” Sakura let out a sound that was somewhere between admiration and resignation.
“Hm? Something wrong?” Sayo asked.
Then Sayo noticed that Sakura was glancing back and forth between her own chest and Sayo’s.
“Oh, this?”
“Ugh... I’m so jealous,” Sakura said, pouting with a frustrated expression that made Sayo chuckle.
Moments like these made it almost impossible to believe the world outside was swarming with zombies.
“Hazuki-chan’s pretty impressive too…”
“But I think you’re better balanced, Sakura-chan. When you’re like this, guys really stare.”
“Hmm... Do you think the guys who are still alive are really looking at us that way?”
“Well, not the ones we’re with now. I mean… except for Kazuma-senpai, probably.”
“Yeah, he’s like a... disappointing handsome guy.”
Meanwhile, Yuuki and Miu silently watched the conversation grow more and more animated.
“……”
“……”
The two of them locked eyes—and then grasped each other’s hands firmly.
There was no doubt: a powerful alliance had just been formed.
"Listen up, Daiki."
"Yessir."
"We're going through this ventilation duct..."
"You can fit in a vent?"
"Yeah. The ducts in this school are unusually wide. The ceiling in the break room was low, so there should be enough room to crouch."
With that, Kazuma stacked some desks to reach the duct, then opened the cover.
He stuck his head in and saw two lights in the distance—one to the left, one to the right.
The right side was the broadcasting room, which meant the left was their target.
He signaled to Daiki with a hand gesture, then smoothly slid into the duct.
They crawled forward in a prone position until voices began to echo.
Girls’ voices.
They quickly shifted around to the other side of the duct, meeting face-to-face through the narrow space.
Just as predicted, there was enough room to squat.
"Alright, time to peek."
"Yessir."
They whispered to each other and peered through the duct.
In that very moment—
CLANG.
The duct swung open with a loud metallic bang.
“Huh?”
Both Daiki and Kazuma let out a dumb, stunned sound, right as a pair of rough, powerful hands grabbed their faces and yanked them down into the room.
"Uwaaah!?"
They slammed hard into the floor.
"Ow... ow..."
When they looked up, standing over them was Takumi.
“T-Tacchan…?”
More accurately, it wasn't the usual Takumi.
Standing there with arms folded and a towering, unmoving presence, he exuded an aura like a demon god, ready to annihilate anything in his path. His face had transformed into something straight out of a wrathful Asura statue.
"You two... Peeping? Classy hobby you've got there."
“Eeeek!?”
Daiki collapsed, legs giving out beneath him.
“W-Why!? The voices were definitely coming from that side… Wait, how did you know we were—!?”
Clunk.
A dark object dropped to the floor.
Kazuma’s phone.
“You were talking... using my phone...?”
“We’ve known each other for a long time. I can read your mind like a book. Any last words…”
WELL?
Even if a soulless zombie had been standing in Takumi’s place, it probably would’ve trembled in fear—or given up on unlife altogether.
But Kazuma… was a man.
He had no intention of bending his beliefs.
This was more than punishment—it was a clash of unshakable male convictions.
Even if it cost him everything, there was something he had to say.
“I JUST… WANTED TO SEE… A NAKED GIRL, DAMN ITTTTTTTTT!”
He never imagined they’d actually try that.
That’s what Tooru thought.
In truth, the broadcasting room isn’t technically a single space.
There’s a room with all the equipment used for school announcements, and a separate studio used for radio broadcasts during the school festival and such.
Tooru was in the equipment room.
The girls were in the studio.
The studio was soundproof, and once the curtains were closed, there was no way to peek inside from his side.
“I just wanted to see a naked girl, damn ittttttt!!”
As he listened to the desperate soul cry of a man who had staked everything on the art of peeping, Tooru quietly turned up the music volume.
“…Goodnight.”