58 The Reason

(Why...)

Running through the village while slashing the zombies he encountered, Eiji pondered the reasons behind his actions.

(Why am I helping Tendo Akira? This isn't like me. I'm not someone who would help others without reason. So, why?)

He knew himself well.

Indifferent, apathetic, lacking empathy and sympathy. That's Kamiki Eiji.

Now, he selflessly helps Akira and kills zombies in the village.

Eiji doesn't understand why he's doing this.

*Slash*

He easily cuts mutated zombies, stronger than others. Then, he continues slaughtering zombies.

Without activating Infinity, relying only on his physical strength, no zombie can touch him.

"Ah, so that's it... I'm impressed by Tendo Akira's determination to devoted to his parents."

Eiji stopped when he found the reason behind his irrational actions, amidst a pile of headless zombie corpses.

"Devoted to parents, huh. That's something I could never do. Maybe... I want to help make it happen because I myself never had the chance to devoted to my parents."

"Turns out I'm not entirely inhuman..."

Realizing this, Eiji took a breath, marveling at the charm of a protagonist that could influence his thoughts.

"The number of zombies hasn't decreased at all. So, there's only one explanation; they keep coming from a certain direction. If I don't close the entrance, this won't end unless I keep killing incoming zombies until none are left."

Though he could do that, Eiji doesn't want to spend his entire night killing zombies. So, he looks for where the zombies are coming from.

After a few minutes, he has cleared the zombies from the village and found a tunnel.

In the tunnel, there are scattered sandbags. Seeing this, Eiji assumes that the villagers used these sandbags to block the tunnel entrance from zombies.

Although the villagers took some preventive measures to keep zombies from entering the village, they were unaware of the dark side of humanity that emerges when the rule of law no longer applies. As a result, some trash humans destroyed the barricade and let zombies enter the village.

With just a little information, Eiji has concluded the cause and effect of the current situation.

"Taking a life is simple, but saving a life is difficult. The people the villagers saved turned around and hurt them."

Unlike the villagers who rarely interact with outsiders, Eiji has been exposed to the dark side of humanity since childhood. Plus, his original world is not a friendly place and is filled with tragedies.

"Cyan."

Raising his hand towards the tunnel entrance, the temperature around him drops rapidly as if winter has arrived. Next, an ice wall suddenly appears, closing the tunnel entrance.

"Hufttt... Mission accomplished. Now, all that's left is to extinguish the fire in the village."

Exhaling white mist from his mouth, Eiji swings the Grass Sword to flick off the blood stuck to the blade. After that, he turns towards the village.

At the village entrance, he sees Akira, Kencho, Shizuka, and Beatrix.

Since all the zombies in the village have been eradicated, they are waiting for Eiji's arrival.

"Hey, Kamiki is back."

Kencho notices Eiji's arrival and alerts the others.

"Kamiki! Oi, we're here!"

Akira waves his hand and smiles widely.

"..."

Eiji stands in front of them without his usual expression.

"We have evacuated all the village residents as you said. What's next?" Shizuka asks full of hope, eager to see the magical methods used by the others.

"My name is Beatrix Amerhauser, a student from Germany traveling to Japan with hopes of eating the best sushi ever made. Nice to meet you, Kamiki Eiji."

Beatrix reaches out her hand for a handshake. She greatly admires the sword skills demonstrated by the others. If possible, she would like to learn from him.

"Kamiki Eiji, a prospective student of Jujutsu High School Tokyo."

Seeing Beatrix's enthusiastic attitude, Eiji shakes hands with her.

"Jujutsu High School Tokyo... I've never heard of this school? Could it be a secret government education facility?"

Hearing that, Shizuka's imagination runs wild.

"So, what do you want to do next? Currently, all the village residents are gathered at the crosswalk bridge. But... the bridge has been destroyed. Fortunately, there are no more zombies left. For now, everyone doesn't need to worry about facing zombies."

Kencho explains the situation of the village residents.

"Kamiki, if you have a way to put out the fire, I beg you to help again."

Akira bows to express his sincerity.

"..."

Eiji doesn't respond, walks past them, and raises his right hand towards the village.

As Shizuka is about to ask what he's doing, her eyes widen at the scene in front of her.

Not only her, everyone witnessing feels shocked.

The houses, burning from the fire and illuminating the dark night, suddenly ice appears out of the thin air and freezes all the burning houses.

Without fire, the night becomes dark again, and the only source of light is the brightly shining moon in the sky.

"So cold."

The first one to realize is Shizuka. She can't help but shiver from the cold as her attire consists only of sportswear.

"This is colder than winter in Germany." Beatrix is no exception and shivers.

"Wow, is this real? Am I not dreaming?"

To ensure all this is real, Akira pinches Kencho next to him.

"Ouch! Hey, Akira, don't use me as your experimental subject."

"Sorry, Kencho, it was unintentional. But, this is amazing... Kamiki, who are you really."

Akira's question makes Kencho, Shizuka, and Beatrix focus their gaze on Eiji who lowers his hand.

"..."

A deafening silence ensues.

After a few moments, Eiji doesn't turn around and instead walks away.

"That's none of your business. Don't push your luck, Tendo Akira. After this, we won't meet again."

"Sorry." Akira apologizes.

"Hey, Akira, isn't the direction Kamiki is heading towards Higurashi and his friends?" Kencho reminds.

"Maybe Kamiki-kun wants to kill them. Besides, they are the main cause of this incident." Shizuka guesses.

"What?! That can't happen! Murder is a criminal act. I have to stop Kamiki!"

Without much thought, Akira runs after Eiji.

"Wait for me, Akira!" Kencho chases him.

"I still haven't learned swordsmanship from him."

Beatrix also pursues them, leaving Shizuka alone.

"These foolish people! Don't they understand Kamiki-kun's warning not to approach him?! Aaahhh... I don't want anything to happen to them."

Making an excuse for herself, Shizuka decides to chase after them as well.

Eiji arrives at where the bulldozer is, but the four main culprits are no longer visible, only leaving human hands and feet.

"They took advantage of the earlier chaos to escape, huh. I have to commend their fear of death. Even without hands and feet, they chose to crawl instead of just silently waiting for death."

He observes the bloodstains on the ground and follows them.