High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World - CH 101

Chapter 101 – From within a dream

“Mapo Curry! A mixture of mapo tofu and curry! Eat up!” Mr. Hibiya Norio said.

Oh, delicious!

… But I’m getting tired of different curry types. This is already the fifth one.

I can see the fatigue on everyone’s faces though. It seems like their creativity is running out at this point.

Mr. Norio sighed, “For how much longer will we have to keep on doing this…?

“It’s not like we don’t have good ingredients available, but I simply ran out of ideas on how to make good combinations with the ingredients we have.”

“Don’t worry, it should be over soon…” I replied.

At this moment, Iroha came and told us, “I think the next wave should be the last!”

Those are some wonderful news.

“Oh, really…!?” I could see hope in Mr. Norio’s expression.

“Well, we’ll still need to burn the defeated zombies, so we’ll have to go back and forth a few more times.” I told him.

“If that’s all that’s left to do, then we can help you out.” Mr. Norio replied.

“Thank you, it will be a big help.” I nodded to his words.

It was completely dark already.

Iroha has the Mind’s Eye skill, so she has no issues fighting in the dark, but the same isn’t true for me.

Though well, it’s not like I suffer any real damage from being bitten… Still, there is something mentally disturbing about it anyways, and I don’t like having my clothes torn either.

“Enchantment. Fire.” I muttered as I readied my sword.

Instead of torches, I used Fire Magic to quickly kill and burn down the remaining zombies at the same time.

The zombies surrounding the community were almost completely wiped out.

I hummed a song as I slashed through the last few remnants.

And then, after I crushed the last one of those insects…

–Congratulations! Your level has increased!

–Congratulations! Your level has increased!

–Congratulations! Your level has increased!

–Congratulations! You earned the ‘Hope Within the Zombie Nightmare’ achievement!

–Congratulations! You earned the ‘Saviour’ achievement!

Along with the level up fanfare, I got two achievements… It’s truly been a while since I last got any of those.

Though only three levels? After killing this many zombies and making the conscious decision of helping these people?

I suppose zombies are the equivalent of slimes here. Even if we kill a lot, they just don’t give much experience.

Momoka said that the zombies were basically empty beings, vessels to bodies that once held a soul within them.

They’re annoying, but they don’t help you gain levels.

Essentially, they’re a nuisance.

***

“Hey, everyone. You’re safe now.” I climbed over the barricade and called out to the people inside.

They looked at me with a gaze that seemed to be both frightened and hopeful at the same time…

“Ah… Thank you very much.” An elementary school boy, seemingly trying to speak up for the rest, thanked me.

I looked around for a bit, and noticed that the community seemed to be entirely filled with only women, children and elderly.

“Uhn… What about the adult men?” I asked.

“They’re all gone.” The boy replied.

Ah… I see.

I don’t know what happened, but a tragedy of sorts probably occurred.

Well, then-

“What’s up?” Iroha came. She must have realized that the zombies were wiped out after getting the levels and achievements, so she reunited with me.

“Is there any leader of sorts here?” I decided to ask the boy.

The children looked at one another after hearing my question.

“A leader… I guess it has to be the Miss?” The representative boy muttered.

Oh? ‘The’ miss?

“And where is she?” I asked.

“Uhn… On the bicycle shop. Over there.” The boy pointed to it.

I looked in that direction and saw that the bicycle shop was in the center of the barricades. It was probably where this safety zone under the overpass started.

“Well then, let’s go say hello-” I started saying.

But then, “S-someone help!” I heard a scream come from within the bicycle shop.

“It’s the Miss’ voice!” The boy exclaimed.

Me and Iroha immediately rushed towards it.

We entered the deserted store, took a quick glance around, then climbed up the stairs to the second floor, where a living area existed.

There was a girl with her head down there.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“G-grandpa…” She muttered.

I looked up and saw an old man, laying on a bed, blowing bubbles from his mouth.

Right next to him, was a bottle with sleeping pills and a bottle of yogurt.

With this combination, he must have munched on it like he was eating cereal… Oh dear.

I’ve heard that suicide attempts with sleeping pills often fail though, therefore…

“Iroha, Healing Magic II.” I told her.

“Got it.” She nodded, rolled up her sleeves, and starting shining a soft light over the old man’s body.

“W-what the hell are you doing…?” The girl asked.

“Leave it to us.” I replied with the confidence of a first-class doctor.

Of course, I didn’t sit back and watch either. After contacting Tsuzuri, she temporarily gave me her Healing Magic skills, so I started casting Healing Magic together with Iroha.

It didn’t take long before the old man started coughing, seemingly regaining his consciousness.

“I-it can’t be…” The girl muttered. Her disbelief seemed to be mixed with pure happiness.

Yeah… I guess it feels nice to do good acts.

–Congratulations! You earned the ‘Life-saving Detoxification’ achievement!

And I got an achievement to boot.

“Uhn… This place is…” The old man muttered.

His complexion has improved considerably. We cast so much healing magic on him, that he was probably looking better now than he was before he took the sleeping pills.

“Grandpa!” The girl exclaimed and hugged the old man tightly.

“I-I’m… I’m still alive…?” The old man muttered.

“It’s okay! It’s alright now! Help is here!” The girl told him.

“I-is that so…? I-I’m so sorry…” The old man replied.

It was quite the moving scene.

Me and Iroha read the mood and left the place.

However, after we passed through the living area and entered the bicycle shop proper again…

“Wait a minute, Haku!” The girl from earlier caught up to us.

“… Yes?” I tilted my head to her words.

Throw up? I’m not feeling like puking right now… *

“I’m sorry, but I think you got the wrong person?” I asked the girl.

“Eh? Uhn… Did you not know your own nickname perchance?” The girl asked me back.

… Huh?

I was really confused here. I wouldn’t be surprised if question marks appeared on top of my head after hearing those strange words.

“Maybe… Do you not recognize me either?” She asked next.

At this point, I tried seriously staring at her face.

Mmmm…?

Mmmmmmmmmmm…

A-ah! “You’re Okita Rinne?” I asked.

“That I am… I mean, I kinda figured this was the case, but you really only noticed it now?” Rinne asked me.

Now that she has said it, I feel a bit stupid, but… Well, I just didn’t expect to meet one of my classmates here. And I didn’t recognize her because she was wearing plain clothes right now.

“That hurts a bit. I’m pretty sure I was kinda popular in class, you know?” Rinne smiled wryly before continuing, “There are a lot of things I want to talk to you about, but… At least for now, let me do this.” Rinne bowed to me, “Thank you very much. You really saved everyone.”

Hearing those words from Rinne, made me remember something that Kimino Asuka told me a small while back.

What was it again? The life from before the apocalypse… It feels like something that happened a really long time ago. Like events that happened within a dream.

That’s basically it.

Right now, I felt as if a character from my dream had appeared before me.

That’s how it feels.

———————

* Translator’s Note: Depending on how you write ‘Haku’, it can mean to ‘throw up’, hence why the MC made this comment… This was inevitably lost in the translation, as there is no English word that is read as ‘Haku’.