A youth story of a passerby at the end of the world

"Baseball bats are definitely more suitable for beginners."

Over here, Mai Sakurajima looked around with the knife and baseball bat in her hand, and finally decided to hand the knife over.

"If you like it, you can have the knife too," Uesugi Genshin said indifferently.

That's true... "So casual?"

"It's nothing serious, I have plenty of spares. But you'll need to practice a bit with the knife."

It was indeed very beautiful. Sakurajima Mai looked at the katana in her hand. Compared to the baseball bat, the katana was superior to the baseball bat in every aspect, except that she was not good at wielding it.

Is it the truth?

"It's not fake."

So she took the knife and baseball bat, while Uesugi Genshin put the spear she had brought in the trunk.

The two got into the car, with Uesugi Genshin in the driver's seat and Sakurajima Mai in the passenger seat.

The car started moving and began to drive away into the distance; the main task was to find the car.

"Want to eat?"

He pulled out a box of Pocky from somewhere, and Mai Sakurajima glanced at him before taking it.

Then, "snap," came the sound of Pocky breaking beside me.

"I like to eat chocolate."

Nobody asks what you like.

With another "snap," Mai Sakurajima was popping Pocky sticks, one by one, into her mouth after she had scavenged them from the supermarket.

Her slightly parted, adorable lips were tempting someone.

Of course, she may not have meant it that way, but the way she slightly sucked on the tip of the Pocky just before biting down made people's minds wander.

"How did you know that Kaori is my sister?" she asked casually.

“I saw it,” Uesugi Genshin replied. “A father brought his daughter to see another daughter, as if they were meeting for the first time. The former called the latter ‘older sister.’ They were both quite cute when they were little.”

"......" How could you remember it so clearly?

Uesugi Genshin was telling the truth; he did indeed see it.

Thanks to the goodwill she had built up from their previous interactions, Mai Sakurajima didn't suspect anything, only sighing to herself: What a small world.

There are countless connections in this world.

"It's amazing you even remembered that." One can only sigh in admiration.

“No, I was stunned for a long time and almost didn’t remember. If I hadn’t happened to see her on a TV show.” Uesugi Genshin then laughed, “My favorite actress is Sakurajima Mai.”

"Pfft... I know about that too." Clearly, this older sister is also paying attention to her younger sister.

"She's such a siscon, Miss Mai. I feel like she's a siscon too."

"Where did you get that from?"

"Huh? Isn't that the truth?"

"Hmm~" Sakurajima Mai murmured reproachfully, expressing her dissatisfaction. She might be a siscon, but it would be embarrassing to be called that by others.

I stuffed all three Pocky sticks into my mouth at once, emptying the box. I then crumpled the box into a ball and put it aside.

"My stomach is so full, but it doesn't matter if I've gained weight now," she casually remarked, savoring this small happiness.

"Just burn off the extra weight with exercise. Miss Mai would be even sexier if she gained a little more weight."

"Ah~, where are you looking?" She glared at me, but unfortunately, she wasn't scary at all; in fact, she was kind of cute.

"Don't worry, you won't see anything, and Miss Mai must be very magnanimous."

"Hmm... well, I was prepared for men my age to have lewd thoughts about me," Mai Sakurajima said quickly. "Since I didn't see it, then so be it."

She turned the steering wheel, dodging the abandoned vehicle beside her, and brushed past the zombie. "I am extremely grateful. She truly is a mature beauty."

"Praising me like that won't do me any good."

"That's true."

"Humph~"

The destination was a night bus station, from Nara to Kamakura. The price was a bit higher than the Shinkansen, but some buses even offered the same treatment as first class on an airplane and saved the cost of a night in a hotel.

They drove back the way they came, and the road was mostly accessible to buses. After discussing it with Mai Sakurajima, the two decided to go and take a look first.

only......

"What a terrible sight," Sakurajima Mai said, looking at the bus that had crashed into the wall ahead.

"Yes." She hadn't thought much of it at first, but as she got closer and saw the horde of corpses surrounding the bus, she exclaimed, "This is..."

“These are students from my school!” Mai Sakurajima looked ahead with a serious expression.

Yes, this is indeed a student from Fengyuan High School. He had seen that brown suit-style school uniform before.

As the car approached, they turned and began to move with unsteady steps.

Does “…” refer to what happened after that?

Uesugi Genshin thought of the students gathered in the gymnasium. Did they all die here after being forced to move?

No, the number might not be that small; I'm not sure.

Perhaps someone on the bus got infected while they were escaping, resulting in the entire bus being wiped out and no one escaping. Who knows the specifics?

I hope Azusagawa Sakuta is alright. He's probably not at school. Uesugi Genshin really admires his courage—the courage to not be afraid of death.

This wasn't the time to worry about others, because he saw a bus parked not far away. This bus was conveniently parked here, and what about over there...?

Mai Sakurajima pressed herself against the window, looking at her classmates outside. A vague sadness washed over her. She was all alone at school, even though she was a high school student herself. She breathed on the glass, and a brief white mist obscured the menacing faces outside.

Before the road was blocked, Uesugi Genshin accelerated and broke away from the horde of corpses, and he was not far from his destination.

"No." When they arrived at their destination, they discovered that there were no buses parked there.

In this case......

He found a secluded corner next to the bus they had encountered earlier and parked the car. "Miss Mai, do you have any reservations about attacking your own classmate?"

"Don't underestimate me!" She stubbornly raised her head, her delicate face filled with determination.

Chapter 111: What are you doing, sister?

Shame!

He kept pulling at the knife stuck in his bone, his face flushed with heat, knowing it must be red.

I originally wanted to show my reliable side, but...

Mai Sakurajima stepped on the unseeing zombie with its eyes wide open, which seemed to be still moving, but was actually shaking due to her movements.

He even had time to turn his head and look at the man blocking his way, before slaying the three zombies that came his way one by one.

One step, one strike; one turn, one strike; one step past, one strike.

It flowed as smoothly as a scene from a movie, a long take that really tests an actor's skills, and this person achieved it perfectly.

Her peripheral vision always followed the other person's swaying ponytail, because apart from that, she could hardly see anything else from behind.

"Ha..." The knife was pulled out, and the blood on it flowed around the blade, sliding down to the lowest point.

"I think we should switch to baseball bats after all." Uesugi Genshin walked over, carrying a sword.

The attack was decent, a standard straight slash, but due to the weight of the sword, the zombie's bones, and its subsequent movements, the sword couldn't be pulled out.

"That's fine then." Mai Sakurajima let out a sigh of relief.

After wiping the knife clean, sheathing it, and putting it back in the trunk, she picked up the baseball bat, determined that this time there would be no accidents.

"Then I'll attract a few more." The number attracted is uncontrollable, and it's difficult to reconcile one's intentions with the outcome of one's actions.

This time there were three. Mai Sakurajima gripped the baseball bat tightly with both hands, preparing to hit it.

A male zombie dressed in the uniform of Minegahara High School approached her with an awkwardly proportioned body.

"Hey!" Swing the bat.

A crisp sound of impact, a beautiful home run, and the zombie's body fell heavily to the ground.

The matter over there had already been resolved; the body, severed by a knife, had blood gushing from the huge wound, slowly staining the road beneath it.

A zombie whose heart has stopped beating will eventually be unable to spit out blood.

As long as you're careful, you won't get splashed, unless the fight is too intense or the way you're killed is wrong.

The two looked at each other and nodded.

Come again!

Whether it's one or two hits, Mai Sakurajima is always facing one or two zombies, and she only needs to swing her bat left and right.

The rest would be dealt with by that man. Looking at her classmate who died at her hands, she was not at peace.

With corpses covering the road, they moved to a clean spot to continue.

"Is this all the people?" Mai Sakurajima asked, knowing that Genshin Uesugi had been to his school.

"There should be more than just this many people." After all the zombies were dead, Uesugi Genshin had some free time to examine each of the zombies' faces.

He kicked aside the zombie corpse lying on the ground, then used the tip of his knife to poke at the face of another zombie, trying to see if there was anyone he recognized.

He had no impression of them at all, and couldn't expect to remember someone he had only met once, or even just glanced at.

“This person…” Uesugi Genshin muttered to himself. He felt like he had seen this boy somewhere before, staring at the face of a zombie in thought. Perhaps it was someone he had spoken to face-to-face before, but the dust on his face and the distorted features made it difficult for him to identify him; he just recognized him.

"What's wrong?" Sakurajima Mai asked, noticing his movement as he stopped.

"No." After scanning the remaining people with his big eyes and confirming that he did not recognize anyone, Uesugi Genshin turned around and said.

He had exchanged phone numbers with Futaba back then, but he had lost his phone long ago, and communication with her had been cut off. He didn't know where she was.

It's great that none of them are in this group; if it were someone he knows, he probably wouldn't be in such a good mood.

After clearing the zombies from the road, they approached the bus parked on the side of the road.

Sakurajima Mai followed closely behind Uesugi Genshin. She tugged at her collar, and the warmth inside her clothes dissipated some of the chill that emanated from within, even though there was a layer of fine sweat on her forehead from the battle.

But no matter how you adapt, you'll still feel fear and panic inside, and this feeling naturally turns into a chilling coldness.

"what......"

"What? Not used to it?" Uesugi Genshin turned around and smiled. "It's okay, you'll get used to it after a few more times."

Is this based on your own experience?

"Yes," he affirmed, adding that he would get used to everything, and the speed of it would be beyond his wildest imagination.

As they approached the bus, they discovered that its doors were open, and the two stood quietly in front of the narrow doorway, which only allowed one person to pass at a time.

"What should we do?" Mai Sakurajima asked softly.

"I guess we'll have to go up and take a look."

No sooner had they finished speaking than a commotion came from inside. The next second, a zombie's body appeared around the corner, missed a step on the stairs, and fell from the car to the ground.

The two of them had already moved away, watching as the stupid zombie's body crashed to the ground, face down.

The blade followed closely behind, embedding itself in the back of his head. The bone structure in this area is relatively thin compared to other parts of the body, with both the thickness and density of the skull being lower.

After stirring it around inside, the zombie's body twitched once and then stopped moving.

Wipe the reddish-white knife tip clean on its clothes, revealing the once pristine white back stained with blood. This man was the driver.

“I can go up by myself,” Uesugi Genshin said. He felt it would be easier for him to do things on his own, and he would be more agile in the confined space than if there were two of them.

"Hmm." Mai Sakurajima had no objection.

The bus has individual cubicles with adjustable seats where you can even sleep. There's a toilet at the far end. This bus is amazing!

Logically, there should be at least one attendant providing slippers to passengers as soon as they board the train; he saw a shoe cabinet at the door.