High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World - CH 96

Chapter 96 – Hello, robber

An unpleasant, deafening sound came out from ahead of us.

“Everyone, get out of the truck!” Mr. Norio shouted.

What’s happening…?

… I think I’ve become overconfident in my Defense skill.

My reaction to it was slower than everyone else’s.

A truck was rushing straight downhill, towards us.

I caught it at the edge of my gaze.

“Orya?” As I made this weird noise, I noticed that the ground was above my head.

Ah, this is bad…

On the next moment, I was helplessly crushed by the overturned trucks.

“Hey…! You alright!?” Mr. Norio exclaimed.

“Senpai!” Kousuke exclaimed.

“Sis!” Iroha exclaimed.

Seems like all three of them escaped danger.

If I was in a movie, I would have been instantly killed by this without a doubt, but… I don’t even have a scratch on me right now.

However, there is something bothersome… I’m stuck.

The weight of the two colliding trucks was piled up on top of me, making me unable to move.

I’m confident in my defensive powers, but my physical strength isn’t really above the one of an ordinary person, so I can’t really do anything right now.

And just as I wondered what had caused this sudden crash, I heard a voice from outside, “You guys! Don’t move!”

I was barely able to peek outside from a gap in-between the trucks, and I was able to see several men armed with light machineguns.

Oh dear… My carelessness was now giving us quite the headache… We were being attacked by someone.

Well, I thought that there would be people like this out there, but as everyone near the school was polite, I ended up being caught completely off guard.

“Hey, you little lambs! The wolves are attacking!” One of the armed people gave a very interesting self-introduction, “Everyone gather in one place, and lay out what you have on the ground!”

Apparently, there were four attackers total.

All of them were covered in soot, and their clothes were not only ugly, but also ragged in a few places.

“What did you just say!?” Iroha exclaimed while swinging her arms around.

“Shut up! Silence the brat or I’ll kill you!” One of the attackers shouted.

“You wouldn’t want to shoot here, would you? Gunshots would attract zombies, and that’s not something you would want to do either, right?” Mr. Gouzou intervened.

I mean, it’s not like attracting zombies would be particularly troublesome for us…

That said, Mr. Gouzou isn’t strengthened by Slave Reinforcement, so it would be troublesome if the attackers started shooting us right now…

So I guess we should go along with what the attackers are saying for now.

“Alright! We’ll do as you say!” Mr. Norio answered on behalf of everyone.

“Oh! Ooh! So you tough old man can be smart at times too! You’re not a circus clown at least!” The attacker was… Praising (?) Mr. Norio?

“I have acted in that kind of stage too in the past.” Mr. Norio fearlessly smiled, going along with whatever it was that the attacker said.

“Well, whatever! We’ll take your women and food! If you comply, we won’t kill you!” One of the attackers exclaimed.

“We don’t mind sharing the food, but we will not give our companions away to you.” Mr. Norio replied.

“Wrong answer!” One of the attackers kicked Mr. Norio between the legs.

“Father!” Kousuke exclaimed, with murderous intent welling up in his eyes.

“It’s alright, Kousuke.” Mr. Norio said. And his eyes seemed to indicate that it was not time yet.

“… It would be a problem to take the stumpy one too, so… Just bring those two! Come on!” The attackers pointed to Ritsuko and Asuka.

As for Iroha, who was left out, “Hey, uncle, what does stumpy mean?” She asked Mr. Norio in a low voice.

“… It means small and cute.” Mr. Norio replied.

“I see… In a good way?” Iroha asked next.

“Just stop talking, for now.” Mr. Norio replied.

Before I realized it, those two seemed to have become friends. Perhaps because they have been acting together in our rescue missions.

“Come on! Hurry up!” The attackers seemed to be angry at us, who clearly lacked a sense of tension in this situation.

The man, who had just shouted, grabbed Asuka’s shoulder.

“Oh no… Help me…” Asuka replied with a voice that clearly did not fit the situation… She’s certainly no good at acting, is she?

Mr. Gouzou then, with a wry smile, started speaking to the attackers, “Alright, let’s stop the violence here. I’m a man too, so I understand that you may be swayed by this kind of feeling at times, but let’s solve this problem through adult discussion.”

“Too bad, we’re eternally teens! Tough luck for you!” The attackers replied.

Ugh… For real, is this how pitiful those guys are? Even their sense of humor is bad.

“But you can’t live like this forever. Why don’t you join us instead?” Mr. Gouzou suggested.

“WhY dOn’T yOu JoIn Us InStEaD?” One of the men did humorous gestures while repeating Mr. Gouzou’s words.

“Yeah, no way!” One of the attackers exclaimed, then all four of them started bursting out laughing, “We’re having a lot of fun right now! And it’s gonna be even more fun with food!”

And at this moment, one of the attackers grabbed Asuka’s chest.

Oh… They’re signing their death sentence.

“Whoa! It doesn’t even feel that good!” The suicidal attacker said.

At this moment, I could visibly see blood vessels start appearing on Mr. Gouzou’s head… As someone who has a daughter around Asuka’s age, it is understandable that he is incredibly angry right now… Even if Asuka’s anger surely dwarfs his.

“Stop… I’m speaking to your conscience.” Mr. Gouzou told them.

“Oh? Are you stupid?” The attacker replied.

They really won’t listen, will they?

Asuka was also pleading with her eyes. Seemingly saying, ‘Can we fight back already?’

Mr. Gouzou heaved a heavy sigh.

He was trying to solve things peacefully, because he hoped that those guys could be brought to the school, but… His patience had clearly reached its limits.

“… I may look like this, but I used to be a police officer, you know?” Mr. Gouzou stated.

“Oh? And what does being of the police even matter now!?” One of the attackers exclaimed.

“To put it simply. I have the models of the guns available in Japan well-ingrained into my head… And yours? Yours are just models, aren’t they?” Mr. Gouzou told them.

“W-what?!” An attacker exclaimed.

This was a signal.

Not to the attackers though, but to everyone else in our team.

“A-Agh!?” The man that was touching Asuka was now shouting, for Asuka started crushing his hand.

The sounds of bones being crushed resounded through this area.

Suddenly, the complexion of the attackers started changing.

In the next moment, Kousuke’s straight punch, Ritsuko’s high kick, and Norio’s chop quickly knocked the other three attackers unconscious.

The only one still awake, was the one who had touched Asuka.

“W-w-what is… What are you…!?” The man exclaimed.

“That’s right, you’re a lost lamb.” Asuka wryly smiled at him.

“Do you have any other companions?” Mr. Gouzou asked him.

“N-no! It’s just us!” The man replied.

“Asuka, please.” Mr. Gouzou said.

In response, Asuka put even more strength into her grip, mercilessly crushing more of the man’s hand.

“I-I’m serious! Truly! It’s just us!” The man shouted.

“Then, do you know anyone else alive?” Mr. Gouzou asked.

“N-not as far as I know!” The man exclaimed.

“… Asuka?” Mr. Gouzou said.

The man immediately started talking after that, “O-okay! I Know one place! Under the overpass straight ahead of here! It was a bicycle parking area! We were kicked out of it!”

“How many people?” Mr. Gouzou asked.

“F-fifty… Maybe more…” The guy muttered.

“You said you belonged to the group, so you should know a bit more. Who is the leader?” Mr. Gouzou asked next.

“Old man Okita! He used to own a bicycle store!” The man replied.

“I see. You don’t seem to be lying.” Mr. Gouzou extracted information in such a way, that it made it hard to believe he was just on the general affairs section before, “Then, let me give you one last warning. If we hear that you’re doing evil deeds in the future… No matter how far you escape, we’ll hunt you down, and feed you to the zombies. You get that?”

“G-g-got it…” The man hung down his head on the spot, as if his spirit was completely crushed.

Mr. Gouzou then muttered, with a bitter expression on his face, “Then, have a good world-end life.”

***

Well… I’m glad that the situation seems to have calmed down, but…

Can you help me soon?