Chapter 211: The Shovel-Wielding Class
Since it was already getting late, Sakurai Saki decided to scout the surroundings first.
The diary mentioned that five survivors had once stayed here, all of them female.
And when they left, they also said the frequency of defensive breaches had greatly increased.
That meant there were no small number of zombies around this academy.
"Sakurai-san, why are you holding a shovel like that?"
What Sakurai was holding wasn't a small gardening trowel, but a large iron shovel he had just found earlier on the rooftop.
"For self-defense."
The two of them were walking along the hallway.
This academy had a total of three floors, with the student council room on the top floor. The survivors in the diary had renovated it into a work area, while the adjacent archives room had become a living space.
Nakano Nino glanced out the window. Under the crimson-orange sky, a few crows could be seen perched on the electric poles outside the school.
"Sakurai-san, where are we sleeping tonight?"
"Right here."
"At the school?"
"We're here."
Sakurai Saki looked at the nameplate above—the student council room, meaning the work area.
He then glanced at the archives room next door.
Both doors were tightly shut.
"My dream is really strange," Nakano Nino murmured.
As if she would dream about staying overnight at school with the person she liked—and it wasn't even the cultural festival. Usually, during the cultural festival, the school stayed open all day, allowing students to stay overnight for preparations.
"I already told you, you're not dreaming," Sakurai Saki sighed, then pushed her a little back.
"Careful."
With that warning, Sakurai Saki pushed open the student council room door.
Creaaak~
Sakurai Saki took a deep breath, scanned the room a few times, and after confirming there was nothing unusual, he exhaled in relief.
Seeing that, Nino curiously asked, "Is there something strange inside?"
"No." Sakurai led her in.
In the center was a tea table made by pushing four school desks together. Nearby, a kettle could be seen.
Based on the diary's contents earlier—
The water here was drinkable. Normally, in zombie films, the virus couldn't survive long outside a host and couldn't spread except through close-range biting.
'Maybe this is still the early stage of the biohazard, so it hasn't evolved yet?'
When the fatality rate is high, the infection rate drops. Anyone who's played Plague Inc. would know that.
"Sakurai-san, I'm kind of hungry," Nino suddenly said as she sat down on a chair.
"Eh, how come I'm hungry even in a dream?"
'…This isn't a dream.'
Sakurai Saki looked around and spotted some canned goods and other food nearby—apparently left behind by the survivors who didn't manage to take them along.
'Should be enough for a week.'
He boiled some water and, while waiting, told Nino to stay put and not wander around. Then he left the student council room.
He checked the archives room first—nothing unusual there either.
Walking down the hallway, he noticed that several window panes had been smashed.
Perhaps when the zombie outbreak first began, many panicked students smashed the windows and jumped?
When humans are in a crisis, with their minds in chaos, they're capable of anything.
Continuing to the middle, Sakurai saw the stairwell completely blocked with various furniture and chairs, and beside it, the stairs leading down were also barricaded.
'No wonder there are no zombies here.'
With the paths blocked and no human presence to attract them, it was only natural there weren't any zombies.
Still, Sakurai did find a small gap—likely left by the previous survivors when they departed. After some rearranging, removing here and plugging there, he sealed the gap completely.
[Shinobu, wake up.]
[…Mmm~] A yawning sound echoed in his mind.
A few seconds later, the little blonde vampire girl crawled out from Sakurai's shadow.
"My Master, it's still daytime—disturbing a lady's sleep…" Shinobu had barely finished speaking when she glanced around, "Where is this?"
"Another world." Sakurai Saki answered nonchalantly.
Shinobu: ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
Shinobu tilted her head, full of question marks.
Another world? Huh?
Even for her, crossing into a parallel world consumed an enormous amount of energy, so she almost never did it.
Yet her master, while she was sleeping, suddenly went "boom" and ran off to some weird place like this.
"Zombie movie — Shinobu, have you ever seen one? Kind of like that."
"Ka Ka~ Zombie movie, of course I've seen it, isn't it the—" Shinobu started to say in a rush, then suddenly recalled she probably hadn't actually watched what they called a zombie movie, "Ah… that zombie movie."
Shinobu: (⸝⸝⸝> ▵ <⸝⸝⸝)
'What nonsense are you spouting,' Sakurai Saki cursed inwardly.
"An ambitious pharmaceutical company tries to create a virus to dominate the world, then one day the virus accidentally leaks out, and a few days later everyone gets infected and turns into flesh-eating monsters, and in the end the world is destroyed." Sakurai propped his chin on his hand, "Basically a movie like that."
"Boring." Shinobu padded over to the window; thanks to her good eyesight she hid in the darkness and observed for a while.
"The flesh rots, they move very slowly, weak and pathetic."
Like the ghoul race—the vampire's servants—but weaker, and far grosser and uglier.
"Is there a way to deal with them?"
"Yes."
Sakurai noticed Shinobu looked a bit displeased. "What's wrong?"
"Gross, I don't want to touch them." Shinobu replied.
Even when she fed before, Shinobu only targeted women—she was a bit of a clean freak.
'Truly a useless vampire…'
Does she have any use other than being cute?
"What about the sword? I don't have any weapon that fits my hand right now."
"Kokorowatari?" Shinobu turned to look at him.
"Umu, didn't you use it last time to cut that giant crab?"
"That was because I used my matter-creation ability to make it; if it leaves me too far it will disappear." Shinobu took her eyes off him, "I can lend it, but..."
Shinobu: (,,Ծ‸Ծ,, )
"3 donuts?" Sakurai tried to bargain.
"5." Shinobu haggled.
"Deal."
Shinobu: ✧｡◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜✧*｡
Sakurai Saki didn't refuse.
After that, Sakurai Saki jumped out the window and dropped to the ground to check the surroundings.
His physique was very strong; he could jump from the tenth floor without injury, so three floors wouldn't hurt him.
Ten minutes later.
On the school grounds.
"Whack!"
The shovel and the zombie's head made a rather "intimate" contact, and the male zombie's head rolled to the side like a bowling ball.
'This still feels better in the hand.' Sakurai tested both weapons and found the shovel more satisfying than the sword.
Long live the Shovel Class!
...
In the student council room.
For some reason Nakano Nino felt a little scared.
'The water's boiled already—why hasn't Sakurai-san returned yet?'
She glanced around.
After thinking for a moment, she decided to go out and check.
Out in the hallway, Nino headed for the stairs.
Pushing aside a broken windowpane, she looked down.
There were a lot of students heading home.
'Could it be summer vacation right now?'
Nakano Nino began to feel a bit dizzy.
At the stairs.
She saw a female student pinned under a pile of furniture.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Nino called out, concerned.
She cleared the debris to help her.
"Grr?"
In front of her, the female zombie's head swayed a few times.
It seemed to be wondering how there could still be such foolish survivors in times like these.
...
Note: Chapter 212 also has an error too... ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ