High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World - CH 39

Chapter 39 – Choice

That definitely was a giant pig monster alright.

“What is he doing?” Kousuke wondered.

“He seems to be… Smelling something?” Takenaka replied as the pig wandered around the school’s playground, “Isn’t that where we…”

“Bury the burnt corpses of the zombies we killed.” Kousuke finished Takenaka’s sentence.

“Could he be attracted by the smell of roasted meat?” I wondered.

“Maybe? Father said that the zombies near the camp of the defense forces were also burnt, yet that base was attacked by the pig anyways.” Kousuke replied.

And as we talked, we could see over a hundred zombies slowly moving towards the school… They must have been attracted by the noise made by the pig.

At the very least though, neither zombies nor pig seem to have noticed us yet… It’s troublesome that they seem to show no hostility to one another, however.

“I wish we could leave it alone…” Takenaka sighed as he said that.

“That’s… Unlikely to happen. Animals have a sharp intuition.” Kousuke muttered.

At that moment, as the pig moved around the playground, I felt like our eyes met, so I took my eyes off the window.

“I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think even I can beat that thing.” I told Kousuke.

Because that pig was not only twice my height, but its total body volume was probably larger than the volume of my room back at my apartment… It’s too much.

That said… Maybe I might be able to cut his head off with my enchanted sword. I did learn magic specifically to deal with those monsters, after all.

Nonetheless, it would still be best to avoid fighting. It’s safer to just pray that the pig will go somewhere far away and leave us alone.

However… “Uhn… This… This is bad.” Takenaka, who was still looking at the window, said this.

This made me look at the window again, and what I saw, was a woman walking towards the zombie horde.

“Isn’t that Ms. Mizutani?” Kousuke commented.

“Ms. Mizutani…?” I muttered. Her surname was familiar…

Ah… The zombies among the refugees. Mr. Ichirou who had already been bitten, and Mr. Kounosuke that ended up dying while trying to contain his zombified father.

The two people that I executed… The head that flew through the air… The mouth that still kept on moving even after being disconnected from its body… Those events flashed back to my mind.

That woman who was walking towards the zombies was definitely the wife of Mizutani Kounosuke,  Mizutani Tadako.

“What is she doing!?” Kousuke bit his lips as he said that.

“She’s… Trying to die.” Takenaka was crying as he said that, “Ever since she lost her husband and father-in-law, she seemed to have lost her will to live… She often wandered aimlessly during the nights, but… We should have paid more attention to her, damn it!”

“You can’t be serious… She still has her daughter… How is Rui going to handle losing her whole family…?” Kousuke muttered.

I remembered it… Rui asking me if I was strong… Back before she had lost her father…

“Hey, senpai!” Takenaka exclaimed that, but I ignored it. I jumped through the second floor’s window and landed on the playground.

Quite a few zombies were already in the area, but I quickly cut through them, “Out of the way!” I shouted as I rushed towards Ms. Mizutani.

It was pointless to yell, it might even attract more zombies, but still… I could hardly hold myself back as I ran after Ms. Mizutani, who had an open path ahead of her, leading directly towards the pig monster.

I didn’t understand why she wasn’t attacked. Maybe the way she was walking was so lifeless, that not even zombies noticed that she was there… But still… I had to stop her… Somehow… Somehow reach her…

“Ms. Mizutani! Please live! For Rui’s sake!” I exclaimed.

She stopped walking… She turned around and looked at my eyes… Her gaze was lifeless. There was no joy in the smile that she gave me. There was only the pain of the loss of her husband and father-in-law.

Then, she gave me a small nod… A single nod… It was all that it took.

… For her upper body to be blown away, scattering a red rain throughout the playground.

The pig monster roared. Having taken his first victim in this school, he raised his fangs and turned towards me next.

And the lower body of Ms. Mizutani was trampled over by the pig’s feet.

An intense emotion filled my body… “Enchantment.” I applied liquid to my sword, “Fire.” The sword was ignited.

The monster glared at me. It prepared its charge.

Enemy. Those are ‘the natural enemies of mankind’. Those words came to my mind.

It was 8pm right now… In the middle of this beautiful moonlight night… “I’ll kill you.” I said as I raised my flaming sword.