High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World - CH 37

Chapter 37 – Auditory Hallucination

(Kousuke’s PoV)

Me, Rintarou and Asuka were right outside the school’s back gate, seeing our friends bring in a lot of supplies from the nearby convenience store.

Mr. Asada Gozou was in charge of the operation and instructing everyone on what they needed to bring, but… It felt a bit troublesome that me, Rintarou and Asuka seemed to have gotten the easiest part of the job… We were waiting to see if any zombie came near, so that we could take care of them if needed.

I understood that it was important to have some combat-ready personnel on the area, but things seemed to be pretty safe right now, so we were actually quite idle.

“I wish I had gone with senpai…” Asuka sighed as she said that.

“Don’t complain about going to the safer place…” I told her.

I did understand her being bored here, but being near ‘Captain’ and all the zombies that must have been in that area… It’s definitely a lot more troublesome than being close to the convenience store, where we could always retreat to the school and kill the zombies from inside the safe area, even if a large number of them attacked us.

Besides, there were a lot of things that people had to bring back from the convenience store, so it was important to have the three of us here for safety… Going from dismantling shelves of the store to improve our barricades, to getting expired milk, so that we could try processing it and make it still safe to drink.

… I honestly wanted to help everyone on doing those things too, but they all declined my help, saying that me, Rintarou and Asuka were their safety line, so they wanted us to save our energy in case anything happened… I understood their point, but it was also frustrating, because I knew how much they were overworking themselves, since they wanted to make up for the fact that they were unable to fight the zombies on their own.

And well… It’s boring to stand around doing nothing.

“I wish I had brought a manga with me…” Rintarou commented. He was probably as bored as me.

“And then you’d get so caught up in the manga that you wouldn’t even notice if zombies were approaching…” I told him.

“Ah, yeah… I just… Guess I wanted to have gone with senpai too.” Rintarou commented.

“Well… I guess I also wish that we had something to do… Just don’t get careless, okay?” I guess I really shouldn’t be saying things like ‘don’t complain about going to the safer place’ when I too am bored.

“We’ll be fine. We all prepared for this kind of thing by training with senpai, right?” Asuka commented.

And then… Silence again… This duty is boring.

“Hey, wanna make a bet? Will the next zombie we see be male or female?” Rintarou suddenly said.

I sighed, then asked, “What are we even going to get if we win?”

“A kiss from senpai!” Asuka instantly replied.

“I don’t think she’d agree to that…” I told her.

“Maybe she’d give in if we asked a lot…?” Asuka said.

“She will definitely reward us if we ask her enough times.” Rintarou eagerly said.

“Definitely, definitely!” Asuka nodded as she said those words.

“… I guess the winner can give a bubblegum to the loser?” I decided to try making a sensible proposal.

“I’m in.” Rintarou instantly said, “I think it’ll be a female.”

“Then, I’ll bet on the next zombie being male, I guess?” Asuka said.

“Do you two have any reasons behind your bets?” I asked them.

“Well, men in general are stronger than women, so in our current circumstances, I think it’s safer to assume that more men will end up surviving.” Rintarou explained his line of thought.

“We have a lot of strong women in our school though.” Asuka giggled as she said that.

“That we do.” I giggled a bit too as I replied.

To think that we are having such a silly conversation on the street while being on the lookout for zombies… If it wasn’t for senpai, I doubt we’d ever be this carefree in such horrible times.

“Hey, Kousuke.” Suddenly, a voice called out to me from behind.

When I turned around, I saw Hidetoshi Nakata, a 3rd year senpai, “What is it, Hidetoshi?” I asked him.

“It’s just… Can you try telling people to like, ease up a bit? It’s being kinda hard to endure working with everyone…” He asked.

He must be talking about the fact he is often being made fun of ever since some girls openly badmouthed him a small time back.

I mean… It was actually kinda funny to see it happen though, so I understood why people were mocking him because of it… But I guess it must have been taking quite the toll on him when considering we basically spend the whole day at school now, “Maybe try understanding them a bit? Everyone is trying their best to relax in some way, so having an easy ‘thing’ to mock is probably being quite good for the others.” I tried telling him.

“I get the idea, but it’s just too much…” Nakata replied.

“Well, those jokes tend to die out in a few months.” Asuka tried telling him.

“I can’t wait a few months!” Nakata exclaimed.

Rintarou giggled a bit at that… Which just made Nakata even angrier, “Look, I tried my best to try not minding it, okay? But I have to deal with it at basically every single moment! It’s too much!” Nakata told us.

I guess… There really needs to be a limit to this kind of thing, doesn’t it? Even if it’s good for everyone to loosen up a bit, it’s no good if it’s at the expense of someone else.

I took a deep breath and told him, “Alright, I’ll try seeing if I can do something about it.” this is what senpai would have done if she was in my situation too, I think… I want to try being a bit as useful as she is.

“Ah, thank you, I’m saved… If the hero, Kousuke, tells people to stop it, then I’m sure it will be fine.” Nakata suddenly told me something really weird.

“I’m no hero…” I murmured that to myself before going to the convenience store and talking to everyone about how Nakata was feeling about the current situation. They seemed to understand that it was too much and promised to stop bothering him with that.

It’s a good thing everyone here has their head in the right place and have a good heart in them. Things end up working out if we talk about our issues calmly.

Then, with this done, I heaved a sigh and returned to the lookout spot… I feel like people are asking me for help more and more often these days.

… Like how some couples asked me to sneak out some condoms from the convenience store for them in the last time I had gone there.

I ended up doing it, because well… Having a teen pregnancy in the school during our current circumstances is something we should avoid at all costs. They too understood that, which is why they asked for help, after all.

***

A few minutes after I reunited with Rintarou, Asuka ended up going to the bathroom… And while she was out, we heard a scream.

It wasn’t from the direction of the convenience store though. It was from the direction where Isao should be on the lookout.

I ran towards him with all I had… And before long, I got there. Isao had fallen on the ground, and a female zombie was on top of him.

Without stopping my spring, I jumped towards the zombie and kicked her face, not caring for how I’d land after that.

As the zombie was forcefully pulled apart from Isao, Rintarou quickly approached the zombie and killed it with his survival knife. It was something we could only do due to the training we did with senpai.

“I won the bet!” Rintarou exclaimed. Even in this kind of situation, he is still as carefree as always…

Meanwhile, I fell on the ground somewhat clumsily, but did not get any injuries, so I hurriedly approached Isao and asked, “Hey, you okay!?”

All strength seemed to have left his body now that the danger had passed, but he was able to say, “Sorry, sorry…”

“Are you injured!? Were you bitten!?” It hurt me to ask him those questions, but I had to be sure of it.

“Ah… No, I’m alright… Though that was dangerous…” Isao managed to make a proper reply this time around. He seemed to be recovering his breath a bit.

His clothes were torn at some points though… He’d probably have been bitten if we were a few seconds late.

“Sorry, I’m late, what happened here!?” Asuka, who arrived just now, asked.

“I’m okay… I’m okay…” Isao muttered.

I looked around a bit and saw nobody else… Isao was alone, then?

“Hey, what’s going on in your head? Why are you being so careless while being alone!? You’re putting everyone in danger by being this reckless!” I exclaimed.

Even if we were close friends, this just wasn’t something I could let slip… How did he seriously not notice a zombie approaching while he was in such a wide, open road?

“Sorry… I’m really sorry…” He repeated… There’s something really strange about him right now.

“Did something happen?” I asked him.

“No, nothing happened, really… Just… Just… So noisy! Shut up!” He suddenly shouted that out of nowhere… I don’t remember him ever behaving like this before, “Ah, no, sorry… I’m okay…”

Rintarou and Asuka were showing obvious concern in their expressions though… And I’m sure I was too.

“You don’t… Look okay.” I told him.

“Ah, sorry… It’s just… I heard a voice.” Isao told me.

“A voice?” I asked.

“Yeah, like… An Auditory Hallucination of sorts? I don’t get it, but… I can’t hear it right now, so it’s okay.” Isao explained… Though that just made me even more worried.

Isao then sat on the asphalted ground and held his head, “I think I must be going crazy… ‘Take a weapon’, ‘Take a weapon’, ‘Take a weapon’… I kept hearing it. Over and over again…”

“You must… Be really tired.” I told him. I didn’t know what else to say.

“Ah, I guess that might…” He started saying this, but then he stopped his sentence midway, and opened his eyes wide, “Hey, Kousuke… I think I’m really going crazy.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s ‘Your level has risen’ now… I heard it loud and clear.” Isao told me.