novelBloodstained Zashiki Warashi by??? (1)
| ← Ch.66 | Ch.68 → |
Part 1 (3rd person)
Time will now shift back by about half a day.
The stage returns to the old Japanese-style house partway up Mt. Boseki in Bozen City.
The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata appeared before Jinnai Shinobu and Nagisa. As an aggregation of the children who had lost their lives in infanticides during famines and the like, she had shown her new face as a zombie.
Part 2
I heard a bestial growling.
I slowly, slowly turned around and saw the Zashiki Warashi in her red yukata.
She crushed the branch cutter in her fist, tossed it aside, and stared at me.
Her hair was still a glossy black and her skin looked pure enough to repel water.
The problem was her eyes.
They had the same muddy look as the zombies scattered through the city.
Those eyes clearly viewed me as her prey.
"Ah."
That was the limit.
As soon as an instinctual tremor raced up my spine, the last bit of rationality burned away within me.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
I screamed and broke through the sliding screen to escape. I scrambled so quickly I nearly tripped, but I desperately maintained my balance and ran through the very, very large tatami-covered hall.
I heard a bursting sound directly behind me.
When I looked back, there were tears in the corners of my eyes.
She really was a wild animal. That red animal had lost all dignity as she ran after me on all fours. I felt as hopeless as someone who had run across a bear on a mountain trail. The Zashiki Warashi caught up in no time and stood up on her legs for free use of her arms.
"... !!???"
Rather than consciously dodging, my legs gave out and I fell to the tatami mats.
Nevertheless, it was effective. Something tore through the air even more intensely than a metal bat. The rectangular wooden column by the wall really did break as easily as chopsticks.
"..."
Her eyes rolled in her head to view me.
A single blow and it would all be over. I knew that, but I couldn't stand up!!
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
I crawled backwards while still looking the Zashiki Warashi's way. I broke through another sliding screen to enter the wood-floored hallway. I felt something metallic behind me blocking my way. The Zashiki Warashi took two or three steps toward me and swung her fist at me like an artillery shell.
I did not have time to carefully analyze every little thing.
I simply rolled to the side to avoid the approaching blow and live even a second longer.
As soon as she missed, something collided with her. No, it captured her. It was the bear trap that had been among the hunting tools lined up in the hallway. It was basically a giant metal cage with a guillotine-style door that closed when the animal was lured inside by the bait.
The heavy cage bounced around with intense clanking sounds. As soon as the movement lessened, I finally ran toward the bear trap. It was a box with 150 cm sides. I grabbed the top and grabbed the guillotine-style door. After shaking its rails a little, I used all my strength to force it down.
Whether she had caught on or not, the Zashiki Warashi finally faced the door and shook it with both hands, but it did not look like she could break the trap.
Thankfully it had been designed for bears rather than deer or boars. As a zombie, she could break a solid column with a running start, but she may not have been able to wield all her strength inside the cramped space of the trap.
I finally let out a heavy sigh and sat on the hallway floor.
You Good-for-Nothing Youkai. Aren't you supposed to be the Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi that protects your family's good fortune? You really are useless. Why are you turning into the worst zombie of them all!?
When I viewed her again, it really did seem that her hair and skin had not changed like with the normal(?) zombies. Did that have to do with Youkai being immune to physical attacks?
"Shinobu-chan..."
After a short delay, Kitty Nurse Nagisa walked in with her pink knit dress, white cardigan, pinned-on hat, and tail accessory. As usual, she had a thin smile on her lips and held the thick cattle cleaver named Namagusa.
"Are you hurt?"
"No..."
Despite my answer, the situation was about as bad as it could get.
"Everyone from the cellphone shop is dead. That means we don't have any adults with us and the dump truck isn't any use anymore. Not to mention the Zashiki Warashi's like this. What are we supposed to do now?"
"About that..."
Nagisa tossed something to me.
It was a perfume bottle. Namely, the one Nozaki Haru had used for the rotting smell that kept the zombies from attacking.
"I know it might be hard to use someone you know, but shouldn't we test it out now that we have a zombie safely captured? It would be scary to see if the zombie bites or not when we're actually in danger. Eh heh heh. We get to work together again..."
"You're... right."
Even if we couldn't use the dump truck, there was nothing to be afraid of if the zombies wouldn't target us. We could freely move around on foot then. Using that troublesome Zashiki Warashi to test Nozaki Haru's perfume wasn't a bad idea.
"So do we use it just like normal perfume? Let's rub some in on the blood vessels of our wrists and neck."
"Wait, ew!? It really does smell like rotting garbage! We're supposed to cover ourselves in this!?"
"Well, yes. It's supposed to make us unappetizing to the zombies."
The swarm of zombies was gone and we had captured the Zashiki Warashi alive.
With no immediate threat, we may have grown a little lax. Out of self-interest, we were happier that we had survived than we were worried about the deaths of people we knew. As we celebrated, we rubbed in the harsh smell that stung at our eyes.
"Ugh... Did Nozaki really smell like this?"
"She was surrounded by the zombies already, so who knows how she smelled."
After our preparations were complete, we turned toward the Zashiki Warashi inside the metal cage.
I just hoped she had grown a little more docile.
"Shinobu-chan..."
"What?"
"It looks to me like she's still rattling the cage like crazy. I'm pretty sure she's trying to bite us."
"Huh!? What's going on!?"
Nozaki Haru had used this to move freely through the zombies like a clownfish among sea anemone. Nagisa and I had sprayed the perfume on ourselves, but it wasn't working. The red yukata Youkai still had a lock on us.
"Was it more than just the perfume?"
"You mean like it has to be mixed with something else?"
If so, there was nothing we could do. We hadn't noticed anything else in her cloth pouch. It was possible we'd find some other bottle or sheet if we checked through her gruesome remains, but that wouldn't tell us what we were supposed to mix together or at what ratio. It was unlikely to simply be 1:1. It was the same as picking up an ATM card when you didn't know the PIN.
"So all we did was cover ourselves in this rotting stench?"
I threw the perfume bottle away in irritation.
We finally had no ideas left. The bear trap had small wheels and handles attached to safely transport the live bear, but walking through the mountain with that heavy cage would be too dangerous. It wasn't as bad as the flat urban area, but we already knew there were zombies wandering around here as well.
Things would have been a lot easier using the dump truck out front, but I didn't even have a driver's license for a motorcycle, not to mention a car. Trying to drive would be reckless enough under normal circumstances, but this was a large truck on a narrow, winding mountain road while it was snowing. The odds were pretty good that would end up with us falling right off a cliff.
"Shinobu-chan."
"What?"
"Let's take a short break. I want to eat while we have the chance. This is a normal house, so the contents of the fridge should be fine. Don't worry. I know how to win over my husband's stomach. Tee hee..."
"Eat? After seeing all that?"
"All what?"
Nagisa nonchalantly made her way to the kitchen. All alone, I faced the Zashiki Warashi through the cage. The Good-for-Nothing Youkai seemed to have learned she could not damage the bear trap no matter how much she pushed or pulled, so she started gnawing at its bars.
"Stop it, you idiot. Honestly, how could this happen?"
"Gau."
"Don't you gau me. I'll put a collar on you and keep you as a pet."
Meanwhile, Nagisa returned. She held a few cans of food, bottles of water, sweet breads, and packaged ham and kamaboko. By this point, I no longer cared that I was in someone else's home.
Reds and blacks covered the next room over and my clothes were covered in the stench of rotting garbage. My unease about the future weighed down on me. I was barely hungry, but I still nibbled at the edge of a ham slice. The single slice seemed to last forever. I eventually couldn't stand it anymore and threw the remaining half of the slice to the Zashiki Warashi in the cage.
She sniffed curiously at the ham, tried to bite at it while on all fours, had trouble, and finally used her fingers to bring it to her mouth. However, she seemed to be playing with it more than eating it. She sucked at the ham, bit at it, and spat it out once she was bored.
"Looks like it isn't just meat they want."
"Is what they're doing even 'eating'? It may be similar to how a baby puts everything that interests them in their mouth. It's just that the zombies pull at and bite at everything so strongly. Oh, dear. I'm talking with Shinobu-chan about babies..."
Nagisa sat in the hallway with her legs to the side and elegantly ate some stolen sweet bread. She seemed to be perfectly hungry and acting entirely normal for her.
After washing it down with some water from one of the bottles, she said more.
"Anyway, Shinobu-chan."
"Yeah?"
It was a casual suggestion.
However, I had forgotten something important. We had just walked through a hellish world filled with zombies and this was Nagisa I was talking to.
"How should we dispose of that Zashiki Warashi?"
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
I had been wrong.
I had been mistaken. A chilly draft instantly blew away the gentle warmth surrounding me. Dry reality erased the warm illusion. This was no time to be relaxing. I didn't have time to be taking a break. There were still a ton of problems to deal with and Nagisa was as much a threat as the zombies!!
"Wait, wait! Nagisa... what are you talking about?"
"Come on."
She sounded perfectly casual.
She faced the cage with a thin smile and an unreadable emotion in her eyes.
"We haven't heard anything about the zombies recovering. Why would it be any different for a Youkai?"
"... !!"
"So what are you going to do? Spend the rest of your life raising that Youkai in that cage? If you ever grew a little careless and got bitten, you could start a brand new zombie outbreak. It's true the Youkai herself suggests there's more to the spread than just biting, but it's still dangerous.... Besides, we don't even know what the zombies eat. It looks like she won't eat ham and we don't know if humans are their food or just something else they put in their mouths out of curiosity like a baby.... Hee hee. A baby. But what are you going to do after taking her back? Wait for her to wither away?"
Nagisa was as carefree as someone reading down a list in their notes, but those same words were wearing down my very soul.
"And the bear trap itself will deteriorate. You would eventually have to transfer her to a new cage, but you might have to face a full-power zombie when you do. Can you really force her into a new cage on your own?"
I get what you're saying.
I do. I really do.
But that's not it, Nagisa. This isn't about whether I understand or not! I mean... dispose of her? Take her home? Why are we even talking about this!?
She's been with me since I was born... no, maybe even before I was born.
She's always been with me.
I felt something scratching at my chest. It was some bandages.
That's right. That Good-for-Nothing actually treated my wound this morning. Is it so wrong to think that will never end!?
"Shinobu-chan."
"... No."
"Shinobu-chan."
"No!! B-besides, not even you can kill a Youkai, right? No physical attack will work on them. So even with that huge cattle cleaver..."
"True."
She admitted that almost too readily.
And then she said it.
"We also don't even know if it's possible to actually kill a zombie. We've been chopping them up until they stop moving, but we can't prove they're really dead. And this one is based on a Youkai, so I definitely don't want to let her out of there.... I'm not taking this lightly. But if we can't kill her, we just have to find a method that doesn't require killing her."
"What are you-... ?"
"I said how to 'dispose of' her, didn't I? We could bury the entire cage in the dirt or pour cement over the top. If we were on the coast, we might have been able to borrow a boat and chuck her into the ocean. Even if we can't kill her, there are plenty of ways of keeping her from moving. While she's in the cage, she can't move her arms and legs and she can't bite anyone, so there's nothing she can do. Isn't that right, Shinobu-chan? And however they settle all this, I'm guessing they'll make some reclaimed land somewhere for it. They'll probably officially call it a cemetery or memorial park or something."
"... !?"
What the hell!?
What the hell are you talking about!? Reclaimed land? Calling it a cemetery? That won't solve anything. This isn't about not dirtying our hands because we're not directly killing her! The zombie won't die that way. Whether in concrete or the bottom of the ocean, the Zashiki Warashi will be buried alive there! Will it be for centuries? Millennia? How long would she have to continue suffocating!?
"She's different..."
"How?"
"She's the Zashiki Warashi!! We can't just decide what happens to her like that!!"
"Perhaps not."
Nagisa remained calm.
I didn't feel like a single crack had opened in her heart. It felt like my fingers were sinking into a damp sponge.
"But Shinobu-chan, can you really say that when you're the one putting her in a cage? Youkai may not have any rights, but is raising her as you see fit really the right thing to do? Can you really look me in the eye and proudly tell me that?"
"..."
"Would you keep doing that for decades? For centuries? Would you ask your children and grandchildren to look after her? Hee hee. Shinobu-chan's children... But would that really make that Youkai happy?"
I was certain Nagisa was right about this.
I couldn't rebut anything she was saying.
But that still wasn't it.
We can't just decide to keep her because it's right or decide to bury her because keeping her wouldn't be right! This Good-for-Nothing Youkai is too important to decide like that!!
"Shinobu-chan."
Nagisa spoke gently and softly as if trying to get a small child to listen to her.
"I understand how you feel, Shinobu-chan."
"How could... how could you possibly know how I feel!?"
"Do you remember the St. Bernard I used to have?"
My shoulders gave a start.
Just like the Zashiki Warashi and me, that had been Nagisa's partner since before she was born. And when that dog had grown old and lived a life of suffering, who was it that had taken its life?
"No one wants to say goodbye. We don't want to think about the end. But sometimes you have to.... Not being able to control your own life is painful. When people are telling you they're suffering and that all life comes to an end, it's irresponsible to refuse to listen. Shinobu-chan, do you think that Youkai is happy right now? Do you really believe that?"
Stop it.
"She doesn't know who she is, she's trapped in a cage, and she's baring her fangs against the person she most wanted to save, even if she always complained.... Are you going to keep that going for decades? And if you make a mistake in caring for her and get bitten, you'll become a zombie too. If she has enough of a mind left to understand that, how much despair do you think she would feel? Hurting the people you care for the most hurts more than anything else. I know that alllll too well. Do you think she might prefer saying goodbye here and suffocating for an eternity to that?"
Please stop it!!
"Shinobu-chan.... Like I said. I understand how you feel."
She reached for the thick glittering blade of the cattle cleaver named Namagusa.
"Just because it's the most logical answer doesn't mean the human heart can bear it. So Shinobu-chan... If you insist that you can't do it, then let's think up some other way that doesn't require dirtying our own hands. Maybe create a slope that will send the cage down after some amount of time passes. And digging a hole isn't difficult. It's possible we could find some other solution years or decades later and we could dig her back up."
"Just stop it!!!"
I cut her off at the top of my lungs.
My mind had gone entirely blank.
The next thing I knew, I had grabbed something from the hallway wall. It had a wooden handle like a mop, but with a beak-like piece of dark steel on the end. It was known as a hooked rod and it was an old tool meant to clear underbrush from a path or destroy the surrounding homes to prevent the spread of a fire.
And when I pointed that weapon at Nagisa, she narrowed her eyes in a horribly, horribly cold look.
"I see..."
"No, um, Nagi-..."
My attempts to explain myself did not reach the girl in front of my eyes.
Something gave a roar and the air split apart in a horizontal slash.
It was the cattle cleaver which was as long as a Japanese sword.
I raised the hooked rod, but not because I had tried to. It was more like ducking down when a ball flew toward your face. The impact reached me a moment later. I really did think my thumb had been taken out. More than just the muscle, I felt the dull pain of the bone shifting out of place.
"Ah... gh... !!"
Still, I did not drop the hooked rod.
My bones had not actually broken.
I finally moved back, dragging my aching arm with me. She had lured me into using my dominant hand to prevent me from using it anymore. She was preparing to kill me. I moved away from her. Oddly, I ended up with my back against the bear cage holding the Zashiki Warashi.
"Do you understand, Shinobu-kun?"
Nagisa opened her eyes strangely wide and let Namagusa sway loosely in her grasp.
Her movements were far removed from kendo or proper sword fighting, but they were endlessly terrifying. She looked like a hopeless wall that would only get me chopped in two no matter which direction I attacked from.
"Do you really understand what it means to make an enemy of me here?"
"... !!!???"
Don't let it get to you.
Don't lose heart before the fight even begins. If you can't beat her with 100% of your strength, don't even think about trying to defeat her when your fear has weakened you to 50% or 60%!!
You can't give in on this one.
Whether she's a zombie or whatever else, I can't give up on that Zashiki Warashi!! Just because she's a Youkai and we might not be able to kill her is no reason to bury her in the dirt and leave like she's some old rotting garbage. I can't allow that. Youkai don't die and zombies are immortal, so we might be able to dig her up years or decades later? That isn't the point!! I can't bury her in the first place!!!!!!
That may have been the most logical choice.
It may have been a kind suggestion that took my feelings into consideration and hid the end result from me.
But...
"We don't know yet."
"Shinobu-chan?"
"This zombie outbreak isn't being caused by a strange curse or a mysterious pathogen. It might have to do with the Youkai known as a Kasha! If this is a Package someone set up, everyone might be freed from their zombification if we eliminate the Package!!"
I desperately tried to push back with my voice, but Nagisa took a casual step forward.
Her huge cattle cleaver swung diagonally toward me.
"Gwaahh!!"
My hand stung as it held the handle.
I couldn't think about defeating her. It was practically a miracle I was blocking her attacks at all.
"Allow me teach you some manners... This is the same as the hierarchy of dominance among animals. While family is of course important, you need to be strict with them when necessary or a lot of children will begin to see themselves at the top of a strange pyramid-shaped hierarchy."
No, it was possible she was intentionally toying with me. I wasn't blocking her attacks. I started to get the feeling she was targeting my hooked rod to punish me.
"Shinobu-chan."
"... No."
"Shinooobu-chaaan?"
"No! No!!"
The pain in my hand was also part of her setup. When I flinched back, she took action. Her tail fluttered behind her and the cattle cleaver shot up. She raised it high. She was exposing her body to danger in order to pull off a shooting star of an attack with the most weight behind it. By the time I realized that, she had already swung the cattle cleaver and almost double the impact reached me. She made more and more of the same attack. I felt like my fingers were going to break before the hooked rod. No matter what I did, I was gradually pushed back.
The bear trap was already right behind me.
The zombie in a red yukata shook the bars. If I moved back any further, she would grab my back. She would bite me and it would all be over. Nagisa was telling me to give up before that happened. A wordless pressure was telling me to realize that was a dangerous enemy rather than a woman I had to protect.
But...
But!!
I'll say it as many times as I have to: but!! She may be stupid, good-for-nothing, and useless. She may be the kind of person who ends up turning into the worst zombie of them all when she tries to save me. But!!
She still came here to save me.
If she hadn't tried to go against her character here, this wouldn't have happened.
I can't punish her for trying to help. I don't want to! How can I just abandon her here!?
The decapitated people might be a lost cause.
The people who have been devoured and had their organs dragged out might just die even if they turn back into humans.
But this Zashiki Warashi has no obvious injuries. Her eyes may be muddy, but her hair and skin are perfectly lively. If there's a way to turn the zombies back to normal, she might be able to return to her normal life as a Good-for-Nothing Youkai. Right!?
I've had enough.
I've had enough of simply giving up on all the lives around me!!
"P-pant! Pant, pant... !!"
After thinking through all that, my thoughts started wandering.
Oh, so that's it.
I looked at Nagisa's face again.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, she may have had a reason for advocating such drastic measures.
"If we found a way to turn the zombies back to normal..."
"What is it, Shinobu-chan? Do you want me to call you a good boy now?"
What would that mean for everything Nagisa had done?
Once I realized that, all sound seemed to vanish.
The nearby deaths were filled with the same stinging warmth one felt when holding ice barehanded for extended periods of time.
I had not out-and-out praised Nagisa's actions, but in our extreme situation, I had considered them acceptable. She had even saved me several times.
But that was based on the assumption that the zombies could never return to being human, so killing them was the only option.
What if there was some other way?
What if Nagisa had been killing human lives, not zombies?
What would that mean for Nagisa? It was unlikely the courts would be able to handle an unprecedented zombie outbreak. And as a minor, the law and privacy concerns might treat her favorably.
But this wasn't about what other people thought. Could Nagisa herself forgive her actions?
So she would prefer that the zombies did not return to normal.
That was why she could not stand to see me protecting the Zashiki Warashi. This was different from killing. She held no grudge or hatred toward the Zashiki Warashi. She simply wanted to put her mind at ease by going through the motions of "disposing of" that zombie. She wanted me to show everything was fine and that I accepted her point of view.
"I can't believe this..."
"?"
My expression twisted and Nagisa slowly tilted her head.
She gave me a crazed look with the giant cattle cleaver glittering in her hand.
She looked like that St. Bernard waiting for further instructions.
Nagisa had acted on her own to defeat the zombies, but did I have any right to criticize her when I had just sat there and let her rescue me? Couldn't you even say my inability to do anything had forced the role of killer onto her?
So this was a choice between extremes.
Would I choose the zombie Zashiki Warashi or the zombie-killing Nagisa?
This was my first and final choice where choosing one would mean decisively forsaking the other.
Why?
Why wasn't there a convenient way to choose everyone? Why wasn't there a way to not hurt or abandon anyone, like I was creating a cheap harem?
I raised the battered hooked rod in both hands and faced Nagisa once more. Her cattle cleaver could lop off the heads of those zombies that were as strong as bears. Depending on how I answered or how she felt, I could be chopped to pieces right here.
I tightly clenched my teeth.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
And I chose.
"Sorry, Nagisa. I just can't abandon this Good-for-Nothing Youkai!!"
I said it.
They were decisive words of parting.
But I couldn't.
It was simply not something I could do.
Call it naïve or unrealistic, but I couldn't see myself burying her alive, leaving her to suffocate for eternity, and just forgetting about it all. I wouldn't make it back alive. If I chose that path, I wouldn't even need to hang myself or throw myself from a cliff. I knew for a fact I would simply stop breathing and die on the spot.
So...
Nagisa approached ever so slowly. She looked absolutely confident in her victory, like she only had to think about how to make me give up. The tip of her sword-like cattle cleaver scraped against the wood of the hallway floor. Once it hopped up, it could chop off any part of my body she wanted. I knew that, but I could not move back any further. The cage was there. I would be in range of the zombie Zashiki Warashi's hands reaching from between the bars. Moving forward or back would lead to my death.
In that instant, during that scorching blank period, I still rejected the one and only path that would allow me to smile and return alive.
"Yes."
Then an oddly cheerful voice reached my ears.
With that brutal cattle cleaver in hand, Nagisa took a step – just one step – back. She moved away from me as I stood protectively in front of the cage.
It was a clear sign of parting.
But even then, my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend looked at my dirty face like it was something radiant.
Clear drops fell like traces of light.
She spoke to me as I took the Youkai's side to the very end.
"That's the Shinobu-chan I fell in love with."
Part 3
I couldn't use the dump truck and I had parted ways with Nagisa and her giant cattle cleaver.
All I had was the useless Good-for-Nothing Youkai and the bear trap that had wheels yet was as heavy as a giant rock. Its weight prevented me from carrying anything else with me, so I had left the hooked rod back in the house. And unlike Nagisa, I would only get killed if I tried to take on a zombie.
Zombies could be hiding anywhere outside, but hiding in the house forever wouldn't help.
Despite the danger, I took the Zashiki Warashi out in her cage.
As before, our destination was the mountain peak. More accurately, the dog square up there. Finding a paraglider was our first goal. I had no idea if I could carry the Zashiki Warashi in her cage with one of those, but I had to get her out of this awful city. I wasn't thinking about anything beyond that. The Succubus and Aoandon back home might be able to figure out the details of the zombie outbreak and I could also run crying to Hyakki Yakou.
The best option would be to search out the source of the outbreak in the city and escape with the Zashiki Warashi once she recovered, but the city was a large place and I didn't know if the core of the Kasha Package was even in the city. Escaping would be better than searching randomly. My life wasn't the only one at risk here, so I couldn't assume I could do everything on my own.
"Ha ha. This is awful. Simply awful."
I couldn't help but speak aloud.
I may have taken a longer rest than I had thought because things were growing dark by the time I left the house. The snow had started covering the road. It was not entirely white yet, but it covered the surface like a transparent sherbet and my shoes threatened to slip if I let my guard down. Nagisa's warmth was gone from the silent mountain road. She had left quickly in order take action in her own way.
Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi seemed entirely carefree in her cage. She was still shaking the bars of the bear trap, but it looked more like she was having fun making noise than really trying to escape.
"Gau."
"Shut up. I don't know when a zombie could show up, so don't make so much noise."
She wasn't listening.
I felt like I was pushing a giant baby carriage.
Since she was rattling the cage, I tried distracting her with something else. When I put a handkerchief inside the cage, she grabbed it, tugged at it, smelled it, and finally bit the corner of the square cloth. She looked like a frustrated upper class girl.
But just like with the ham, she would put anything in her mouth. I couldn't have her swallowing them, but it wouldn't hurt to have a few things on hand. I started uselessly regretting not searching for some things to use before leaving the house.
For the time being, I pulled out my cellphone and typed "Things she can put in her mouth" in the notes app.
The Zashiki Warashi had been entirely focused on the handkerchief, but her eyes quickly turned to the phone. I slowly waved it back and forth and found her gaze was perfectly locked onto it.
"Wh-what? I'm not giving you this."
"Gau!"
"I said no! Oh, honestly. You have an even more expensive smartphone in your cleavage, you know!? Not that I want you chewing on that!!"
"Gau gau gau!!"
"Oh, shut up!"
Speaking to her wasn't doing any good and her yukata looked like it was going to slip off if she struggled any more. I didn't want to be wheeling around a naked Youkai, so I tried to figure out another way to bring the smartphone to her attention.
Um, I can't use normal phone calls or emails, but there's a way to send data directly between phones, right? Um, Ranzono Sachi was using it during the Oomukade business. It's the same way a phone connects wirelessly to a printer. And I was using it to speak with Kamimaki-san and the others in the dump truck. Right...
Did it!!
I tested it out by sending a blank email to the smartphone (that technically belonged to me) held in the Zashiki Warashi's cleavage.
It must have been on silent because all I heard was the whirring of a small motor.
And...
"Nyau!?"
Her shoulders jumped in the red yukata, but...
What? Are zombies really this stupid? Why isn't she noticing the smartphone!?
Blank email, blank email, blank email!!
"Nyau! Gyah!? Nyau nyau!!"
She jumped each time, but she showed no sign of noticing the phone.
Hmm, that didn't work. But wait. I think it had different settings for emails and phone calls.
I switched to making a call so it would ring.
I couldn't remember what movie's theme song it was, but a dull melody played from the headphones attached to the smartphone.
"Gyah! Gau gau!! Gau!!"
"Wait, why are you getting all excited!?"
When I saw her violently shaking the bars, I sent another empty email. I heard the vibration and saw her shoulders jump and her long black hair swing around as she looked around.
Hm? Is it just me or is this cellphone warming up?
I was gradually starting to enjoy it, but I couldn't let myself laugh at this.
Maybe this was how Akehara-san felt as she tried to turn her unreachable beloved into a zombie to own him.
You can't, Shinobu! You can't take a video! Don't point the phone toward the cage! Yes, it's funny. Really funny. But this is something you can't let yourself save!! Even if she comes back to her senses, she'll climb into her futon and never want to come out again!!
As I was wasting time on that, I heard something.
It sounded like some snow had fallen from a tree branch behind me.
I looked back into the darkness and then I froze in place.
A swarm of zombies was approaching.
Twenty to thirty people with white hair and red and purple skin were climbing the mountain road toward us.
"... !?"
They were still a fair distance away, so they may not have actually noticed us yet.
But it was only a matter of time.
I grabbed the bear trap's handles to increase our pace forward, but the zombies were clearly lighter and stronger. They were going to catch up. I began gasping for breath as I rushed myself. My eyes met those of the caged Zashiki Warashi. I couldn't throw her into that group, but what was I actually supposed to do? Not even Nagisa with her sword of a cattle cleaver could handle that many, so how was I supposed to deal with them? On the other hand, hiding with that giant cage was simply unrealistic. After all, that stupid Youkai was still rattling the cage!
What was I supposed to do?
What was I supposed to do?
What was I supposed to do?
"Goddammit!!!!!"
I shouted and began to move. I lowered the stopper on the side of the cage's wheels and jumped over the mountain road's guardrail with the cage still on the road. I hid on what was more a cliff than a slope.
Footsteps soon filled the road.
The zombies were approaching the bear trap I had left behind.
I hadn't been able to do anything!
I felt along the slope and grabbed a stone about the size of a baby's head. If any of the zombies tried to destroy the cage, it didn't matter anymore. I swore in my heart I would do whatever it took to smash their head in.
I waited for that moment.
The biting winter wind struck me and an unpleasant sweat coated my face.
But...
"... ?"
The time never came.
The group with muddy eyes avoided the cage in the center of the road and continued up the slope. They vanished into the darkness without so much as glancing at the defenseless Zashiki Warashi.
... Oh, I get it.
Zombies didn't eat each other. They only targeted living humans. The caged Zashiki Warashi was one of them, so they would ignore her.
"But..."
Could I maybe use this?
Part 4
The next problem I came across was not far from the peak.
The sun had completely set and true darkness had set in. The snow was even heavier than before and the road was entirely covered in white.
Meanwhile, a certain facility was glowing brightly, like someone had forgotten to switch off the lights.
It was a mountain gas station.
"Gau."
"Shut up. Just be quiet."
Zombies with dry white hair were hanging around the gas station. I didn't know if they were the same ones that had passed us before, but there were a lot of them. It looked like enough for a soccer team. If I tried to break through them, I'd definitely be killed.
But a tractor was parked a little up the mountain road from the gas station. If its handbrake was lowered and it slid down the slope, it would take out quite a few of the zombies. If used right, it could knock them all off the cliff.
Of course, this was like finding the keys were locked in the car. I wanted to deal with that red and purple group, but I couldn't reach the tractor when it was past the zombies.
Not normally anyway.
"Okay, okay. I've linked with the smartphone's camera."
I nodded as I saw the footage from the Zashiki Warashi's cleavage displayed on my cellphone.
I then looked the Good-for-Nothing Youkai in the eye and made a suggestion.
"Listen, Zashiki Warashi. The zombies won't attack you, so climb the slope, reach the tractor, and lower the handbrake. And after that come back in the cage. Okay?"
"Gau gau!! Grrr!!"
"Yeah, I know you aren't going to listen to me. That's why I'll be sending you empty emails and calling you."
By switching between the vibrating and the dull melody from the headphones, I could get some entertaining reactions out of the sexy Youkai in the red yukata. It was the same as Nozaki Haru controlling the zombies with the cigarette butts and rotting smell. I had the gas and the brakes and I had a camera. I didn't have a real steering wheel, but I couldn't be picky now.
"Go, Zashiki Warashi! Pacific Zashi-... Pacific Good-for-... Dammit, I can't come up with one that sounds good! Well, whatever. Zashiki Robo, attack!!"
I climbed up onto the cage, opened the guillotine-style door, and controlled the zombie Zashiki Warashi with the cellphone and smartphone. At first, my heart was nearly crushed from the fear of her ignoring my orders and attacking me, but for some reason she quickly grew obedient when I sent a bunch of empty emails to set the vibration going (between those giant tits of hers). In fact, she seemed a little afraid.
Once she changed direction, I triggered the ringtone and the excited Zashiki Warashi charged toward the zombies.
I probably shouldn't be thinking this, but this is pretty fun!!
I really shouldn't be doing this, should I!?
I watched from afar at first, but the mountain was dark at night. The light from the gas station could only do so much, so I started looking at the smartphone camera's footage on my cellphone screen. Meanwhile, I used the gas and brakes to adjust her movements. She passed the zombies and arrived at the tractor up the slope.
Now for the handbrake.
Reach your hand in from the side and... no, no. That's the shift lever. And that's the steering wheel. Don't get distracted by the strap attached to the key in the ignition!? Go for the handbrake!!
After grabbing about everything but what I wanted, her slender hand finally managed to move the handbrake.
The giant wheels began to move and the tractor started down the slope.
The white-haired zombies didn't seem able to think, so they didn't even try to evade. It was almost amusing how they were all hit like bowling pins. The tractor carried all those zombies with it as it rolled past the gas station, hit the guardrail, and tumbled down the cliff.
"Perfect!! That was a perfect 100, you Indoor Youkai!!"
When I called loudly to her from atop the cage, the Zashiki Warashi looked over at me as if she had just remembered there was living flesh here. She charged back with terrifying speed.
I climbed down from the cage and circled to the opposite side from the guillotine-style door.
She ran in a straight line like a cat crashing into a TV screen and threw herself right into the bear trap.
I winced at the painful-sounding crash, climbed back on top of the cage, and manually forced down the door. That settled it.
"Gau gau!!"
"Hey... I know it's wrong to say this to a zombie... but are you an idiot?"
I was a little disturbed by how I was gradually getting used to this.
And...
"... ?"
I spotted some more shadows moving in the darkness, but these were not staggering around like the zombies. Were they survivors? Some people who had been waiting around may have been showing up now that the zombies were gone.
And then I realized something important.
The Zashiki Warashi was a zombie. That meant other zombies would not attack her, but what about the human beings who feared the zombies?
The situation had entirely flipped around. If they saw her, it was all over. Her hair was black and her skin was youthful, but she was still obviously a zombie.
"Dammit. If it's not one thing, it's another!!"
I pushed the bear trap with both hands to hurry toward the gas station. The glass was shattered and snow had gotten in, but most of the merchandise remained. I pulled out a blue tarp and threw it over the cage.
Before long, some wild-looking men who must have studied survival magazines arrived at the gas station.
"Hey! You saved our asses there. I don't know how you did it, but it was you, right?"
"Who are you?"
"The workers at the nearby geothermal power station that provides smart power. We were caught up in all this while those of us in an outdoors group were camping. Luckily, that put us outside of civilization when the zombie outbreak started and we had our families with us."
The man smiled.
"We're all hiding on the campground with our families and waiting for rescue. It's the off-season, so there's almost no one there and barely any zombies have shown up. The problem is the lack of fire and food. Do you want to join us?"
"No, I have something I need to do."
"Is that so?"
The middle-aged man glanced at the blue tarp.
"Um, what is that?"
The metal bars shook in response.
You moron!!
"My family. She's actually a pretty docile St. Bernard, but this zombie stuff has her all riled up. It was getting dangerous if I didn't keep her in the cage."
"I see."
Some static reached my years.
The man seemed to have an emergency radio hanging from his neck.
"I thought getting some information might help calm our nerves, but it didn't help. It's complete chaos all over the place."
"All over the place?"
I felt something heavy weighing on my stomach. What was this ominous feeling?
"Apparently the zombie outbreak is affecting ten or more cities around the country, but the news keeps saying everything's fine and there isn't any problem."
"It... isn't just here!?"
"It was a lot tenser at first. They were saying something about reporting the truth until the instant the police stormed the studio, but as time passed, the announcements grew almost overly reassuring. It's just creeping me out. I wish this thing could record."
The survival man sounded annoyed.
"And the overseas broadcasts that occasionally get in on a crossed line or something are telling an entirely different story. They're talking about holding travelers back at the borders and sealing off the sea and air routes. They're such polar opposites that I'm not sure which to believe. If only the internet would come back up."
How far did this commotion spread?
In fact, did it ever end?
I had been picturing this like a cup so full that its surface tension was barely holding on. I had thought just one drop more would send it spilling out. Then the madness and violence filling this city would spill over to the rest of the archipelago.
But who ever said the surface tension was still holding on?
Wasn't it possible it had broken long ago?
"..."
"Did I scare you? Either way, we just have to do what we can. If you ever change your mind, feel free to join us. Follow the river and you'll reach the campground."
"Hey! This might not help much, but the zombies seem to track their prey by smell. If you find a way to cover your tracks like you're trying to escape a dog or a bear, you might have better odds of surviving."
"Thanks. If we make it out of here alive, let's go get a drink somewh-... no, you look like you're in high school. Well, we can still get something to eat."
We shook hands and parted ways.
I turned my back on the survivors as they searched through the gas station and I resumed my journey to the peak.
... I didn't tell them about the paragliders.
I may have had an excuse. If I told them, they would have insisted on coming along. And the longer they were with me, the greater the risk of them noticing the Zashiki Warashi. Not to mention that an outsider like me would be eliminated first if it came to a fight over a limited number of paragliders. And the most obvious way of eliminating me would be to kill me.
So what I did was logical and efficient.
I faked a kind smile and turned my back while hiding the most important fact concerning their survival.
But if they were attacked and became zombies themselves, how could I possibly take responsibility?
Part 5
The Zashiki Warashi and I finally arrived at the dog square at the peak.
The entire area was decorated with pure white snow.
I observed the area from a distance to make sure there were no zombies and then I shined my cellphone's backlight around.
There was a large fenced-off area for taking dogs for a walk and a few stables and a food processing building were packed in close together. The others may have been residential buildings. There were a lot of wooden stakes sticking up from the snow, but they may have been to tie the dogs to.
However...
"Where are the paragliders?"
The units with engines may have been kept inside on days like this. With panic in my hearts, I pushed the bear trap toward the buildings.
You're kidding.
This can't be.
There were no lights on in any of the buildings and no one responded when I pounded on the doors. I peered in a few of them, but I didn't see any people or pedigree dogs. It almost looked like the place had been abandoned for a while.
I also saw no sign of any paragliders.
Did they not rent them out? Had hobbyists simply brought their own here because the dog square wasn't in use?
If so, what was I supposed to do? If I couldn't use my plan to escape Bozen City by air, I would have to break through at the base of the mountain. Even if I could use the zombie Zashiki Warashi, breaking through that zombie-infested city simply wasn't possible!
So was I supposed to just wait for help to arrive?
Would I wait for a rescue team to arrive by helicopter like those people I had met at the gas station were doing?
"I can't..."
After thinking about it, I shook my head.
I had the zombie Zashiki Warashi with me. Whether it was the police, the firefighters, or the JSDF, no human rescue team would let me bring the Zashiki Warashi with me. Or if they did, it would be as a research sample. If she was taken from me, it was meaningless!!
I couldn't escape on my own and I couldn't wait for rescue.
Was this really game over? I couldn't come up with any other ideas.
"..."
I wandered outside the building where I put the Zashiki Warashi's cage.
With nowhere to go, I leaned back against the outer wall and slid down to sit on the snow.
I looked up at the thick clouds covering the night sky and voiced my despair.
"Why... ?"
We had crushed quite a few zombies with the dump truck. All the cellphone shop workers had been wiped out. The Zashiki Warashi had turned into a zombie when she showed up to help and differences over how to handle her had led to a split with my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend Nagisa. I had knocked a bunch of zombies off the cliff with a tractor, deceived some innocent survivors, and finally arrived at the peak.
And yet this was what I found.
What do you mean there aren't any paragliders!?
It was true I had no actual data and was basing my decisions on mere speculation. I was assuming there were paragliders at the peak, assuming I could escape the city on one, assuming there weren't any zombies outside the city, and most of all, assuming the zombie Zashiki Warashi could be turned back to normal. No, maybe those were more hopes than they were speculation.
But I had done everything I could to make it this far.
I had lost so much.
So couldn't I be rewarded just a little? Could I really end up with nothing and have to start back from square one!?
"..."
My mind was spinning.
The simplest choice rose in the back of my mind.
I could give up on the Zashiki Warashi and think about escaping Bozen City on my own. That would at the very least leave me with the option of waiting for rescue.
But...
"I can't..."
Why did I have to remember it now?
That sexy Zashiki Warashi generally acted like a big sister, but she would start crying with surprising ease. It happened when the internet was down, when I got mad and confiscated her video games, or... that time long ago when she broke my toy robot. We got into a big argument then and she ended up crying.
Thinking back, that was when we had stopped taking baths together and sleeping in the same futon.
Why had that happened?
In that argument, I had seen a side of her that went beyond being my "Nee-chan". I had seen her as an unreachable and unshakable figure, so it had been a shock that a kid's words were enough for her to bawl like that. It had been enough to destroy my image of her.
That said, I wasn't disappointed or disillusioned.
In fact...
"Oh, I get it now."
I finally remembered and I spoke the fact I had just realized.
"You're just a girl, aren't you?"
She wasn't some formless "Nee-chan". She was an individual who could form any kind of relationship. She could be a friend, a best friend, or even a lover. She was the girl closest to me.
It was said Zashiki Warashi were a collection of the young children killed during famines and the like.
Her sexy figure might seem out of place for that, but there may have been a reason for it.
Maybe she was a collection of those kids' desire to grow up and be seen as an older sister.
Maybe that was why she had tried to play the part of the ideal "Nee-chan" in front of me.
But that had only been an act that would fall apart due to the smallest things.
What if deep down, she was just a normal girl?
After realizing that and understanding that, I had no longer been able to bathe with her or sleep in the same futon as her.
"Ha ha..."
My escapist thoughts were trying to keep me from viewing the reality around me.
But I felt like those thoughts had led me to an answer.
I slapped both my cheeks and listened to the pleasant sound as I focused on what I had to do.
I definitely couldn't abandon her now. A Zashiki Warashi wasn't a special being that could rule over everything when thrown out into the world on her own. She was nothing more than a girl who would cry and not know what to do when things got tough. If I knew that, how could I leave her in a city full of zombies?
I would save her no matter what it took.
If I couldn't say that, how could I call myself a man?
Part 6
I couldn't expect to find a paraglider in the long-since-abandoned dog square.
I would need to rethink our escape plan from the ground up, but I couldn't just mope around forever. I had come this far, so I at least had to search around the dog square to see if there was anything at all I could use.
"The food processing building."
| ← Ch. 66 | Ch. 68 → |