Crimson sword-N

The next morning we began packing our things. After I told everyone what happened, I got scolded severely but they all agreed to the idea of moving out. Finding another base would be a hassle and it would be dangerous because of the zombies, but we couldn't stay here after finding that beast roaming around, not after seeing it destroy a house only with the shockwave of its movements.

We gathered some things from the town but since most things are really deteriorated, it is not much. Among the things we collected were a pair of swords, some beef jerky which is apparently very common here, a strange black fruit that Sophia found on the second floor of the house and.

A broken ring...

"I really don't know why I feel the need to take this."

I took this golden ring from the decapitated man upstairs. It has multiple cracks and there are a lot of dents so it is not really pretty anymore. It is not the kind of thing that would catch my attention but it did so I just grabbed it on a whim.

"Maybe I should throw it away."

In the end, I just put it in my pocket. Who knows maybe it could be useful in the future?. I doubt it but it is not like I lack space in my bag. I bought a really big one because I like to stuff a lot of things inside.

"moou~ I don't want to move!"

"Unless you want to get eaten by a giant dog pack your things and stop whining!"

"sure mom, I'll do as you say~"

Ah, they are fighting again. Sophia and Touji have always been like this. They do like each other, as friends, but their personalities clash a lot. Sophia is not particularly brilliant and Touji is not patient with those kinds of people. He has always been kind of a dependable asshole. I still like him too.

"Tone it down you two, there is no point in fighting each other"

Haruto intervened, but honestly it doesn't bother me. It is fun to watch their interactions. As long as they aren't swearing at each other that is. While they were at that, I decided to try sharpening my sword.

I have sharpened knives before, mainly because I found them in the trash and they needed maintenance before being usable once again. Sadly, I don't have sandpaper or a whetstone but there is a lot of rubble and some of it has a similar texture.

"The problem would be water"

Water is necessary for the process of sharpening. If I try to sharpen the sword without wetting the stone first, I could damage the blade beyond repair since it is already in a pretty bad state.

There are alternative methods which use certain types of oil but we haven't been able to find anything like that even though we did find an oil lamp.

"There aren't many liquids in general...except blood"

There is a lot of blood everywhere and weirdly enough some of it doesn't seem to dry. For example the studio on the second floor is flooded with blood that remains liquid even though days have passed since we found it, and probably years since it was spilled. It would be inefficient and if I don't clean it properly afterwards it would damage and rust the blade even more, but it is sufficient as a lubricant. It is a stupid idea but who knows, maybe it could work.

I grabbed my sword and a piece of rubble that seemed rough and porous enough and went straight to the studio. The stench was awful but it didn't bother me much. Luckily the blood was mostly in the center of the room, surrounding the body while the borders of the room were clean so after soaking the stone in blood, I went back and sat in a corner. I could go back down and do it there but I don't think any of my friends would like to see me sharpening a sword with blood.

I began sharpening the sword, carefully running the blood-soaked stone along the blade. The smell was overpowering, but I couldn't deny that the blood made for an effective lubricant. As I worked, I couldn't help but wonder what my friends would think if they saw me in this gruesome act. Well they should already be used to seeing me break zombies' heads so I don't think it would be much of a shock, but it certainly wouldn't be pleasant either.

As I kept working on the sword it slowly became sharper. Sure it wasn't as sharp as it would have been had I used a proper whetstone and water, but it wasn't that bad, at least now it could cut through more things than just old cigars.

"And that should do it."

I finished sharpening the blade and lifted the sword. It was soaked in blood but it still looked in a much better state than before. Luckily there wasn't much rust so it was easy to remove simply by scrubbing it.

"Now I just need some cloth to clean it and I'll be done-Uh?"

Suddenly the sword started to emit a crimson glow. It was faint at the start but it intensified rapidly until I had to close my eyes. I threw the sword away because it seemed dangerous but it didn't take long before the glow disappeared and I opened my eyes again. However when I did so all the blood in the room was gone, the only one that remained was the blood that was all over the corpse.

"What about my sword?"

I started searching for it but i found it quite easily, however when i did so i got quite a surprise. The handle remained the same but the upper half of the blade was tainted red. It wasn't like before when the blade was simply covered in blood, now it was as if the metal had absorbed it.

The blade which was now deep red gave me a really eerie feeling. Pretty similar to what i felt the very first time i saw blood as a kid, i swear i could almost see red colored gas emanating from it. What was even weirder was that the blade now looked incredibly sharper than before.

I touched the tip and applied a small amount of pressure and it immediately made a deep cut in my finger. However, there was something weird. Even though the wound was really small the amount of blood coming out of it was huge in comparison to the wound size and I wouldn't stop bleeding. I had to cover the wound with a small cloth fragment and tie it tight to stop the bleeding.

After what I had seen in this place, this sword wasn't all that weird and even better, it seemed useful. I feel like I could decapitate a zombie with one slash using this.

I took the sword and I was surprised by how light it felt. It was almost as if I was holding a wooden sword. Now with the sword in hand, I went back down only to see Sophia and Touji still bantering, however it seemd like they had already packed everything, Haruto was the same.

"Should we get going?"

"Sure, just-...what is that?"

Touji was the first one to notice the red sword and he was obviously curious about it. The other two noticed it right after and were just the same.

"It is kind of hard to explain and I don't really know what it is either."

I explained what happened to them but none of them seemed to be too concerned about what happened with the sword. I guess that after what we have seen something like this isnt shocking, however they were concerned about my wound even though it was small and it wasnt bleeding anymore, especially Sophia.

"Don't worry, I'll apply some rubbing alcohol later, but for now we need to get moving before night falls."

"But your wound-"

I covered her mouth with a finger with a grin as I watched her blush like a tomato. I usually do this when she is being too pushy with something and it always works because she gets really embarrassed by it.

"Nayuta is right, we need to go now. From what we have seen before the zombies are more aggressive at night."

Everyone took their bags and we headed out. It is still very sunny so we have time before night arrives, so we need to find a shelter far away from here in that time. We started walking north towards the center of the city as right now we are on the outskirts. We tried to escape this place before by going out of the city but it is completely surrounded by thick fog. Traveling through it would be too dangerous, especially after knowing of the existence of monsters like that humanoid beast.

As we walked towards the center, the architecture began to change a little. The structures on the outskirts had two floors at most but after walking for about three hours that changed. Most of the buildings had two floors and there were some that had up to four, however they were all in a pretty bad state.

Fortunately we haven't encountered any monsters other than those flying eyes which don't really try to attack us. But sadly that also means that I still haven't had a chance to use the sword.

"Maybe later..."