Return

Akito had always found the color of blood attractive.

Was it the blood itself or the deep dark red color? Who knew...

One by one he dragged the bodies outside and threw them into the streets. He didn't throw them in front of the gate but instead from the backyard.

It wouldn't feel nice to have corpses rotting in front of Saeko's house, now would it?

...

It was somewhat confirmed that the zombies had no sense other than sound.

Why was that?

He couldn't figure it out.

Using his fingers he grabbed the edges of the wall and pulled himself up.

Once the street entered his field of view he focused on the corpses he just chugged from behind the wall.

Him throwing them from behind the wall had obviously arose the attention of the zombies when the corpses landed with a thud.

He curiously observed the zombies hovering around the corpses and yet not even a single one went for a bite.

"Hmm..."

A question popped up in his mind.

What was it that drove the zombies to bite humans?

He loosened his grip and picked up a random small rock before pulling himself up again. Releasing the grip of the hand holding the rock, he chucked it at the electric pole against the wall.

A 'ding' which was similar to the system's prompt but much louder spread in the surroundings and the local zombies headed towards the pole... but the discrimination was clear.

While they viciously bit any human they came across all they did against the pole was collide against it like braindead fo- Oh.

For now, it was clear that the zombies didn't have any senses aside from sound.

So how did they differentiate between the living and non-living? Why wouldn't the zombies try to chomp the pole?

Similarly, did they bite animals? He couldn't remember a single scene where the zombies were shown attacking animals or evidence of zombified animals.

And if they didn't then it was clear that the zombies were 'programmed' to bite humans.

"Pretty interesting." Akito was quite curious. What had caused this apocalypse? Was it some organization similar to Umbrella Corps from Resident Evil?

Of course, if this alleged organization had even 10% of the brains of the Umbrella Corps then Akito wouldn't have so much leisure right now.

'It would be funny but sad if this apocalypse was caused by a mistake.'

He wondered how the author of HOTD was originally going to end the story. Would he have the main cast go through constant struggles before eventually being the saviors of mankind or was HOTD going to be a slice of life?

Sadly, the author had passed away and even if he returned to his world he couldn't find him to ask about it...

Gradually the zombies separated from the pole and Akito put the matter to the back of his mind for now. Mulling over it without any conclusive evidence would result in nowhere.

He went and picked his bag up. He had filled it with a lot of canned food and since there were quite a few drinks at Rika's place he didn't pick any from here.

He returned to the main hall and found Saeko sitting there with Emi in her lap. She was softly stroking her head and talking to her.

He didn't immediately enter but silently observed from the edge of the door.

He could hear their conversation.

...

"I want my mama back..." Emi muttered with a timid voice.

Saeko who was stroking Emi's head paused for a brief second before continuing doing what she was doing.

With a low tone, she whispered, "Me too..."

This caused Emi to jerk her head up in confusion. "You lost your mama too Nee-san?"

Saeko nodded and Emi felt strangely comforted and attracted to Saeko hearing this. It was as if she truly wasn't alone.

When Akito nii-san had told her that her mom was dead she felt as if she was in a bad dream being punished for asking for too many candies and sometimes lying to mama and papa.

Her mama had told her that papa had gone somewhere far away and that she wouldn't be able to meet him for a long time.

But this made her anticipate meeting her only parent left.

"Emi feels lonely Nee-san. Do you too?" Her innocent voice tugged at Saeko's heart and she hummed in a sweet voice.

Was she lonely?

The faces of two people popped up in her mind. First was her father and the second was Akito...

"I'm not lonely at all," Hearing this caused Emi to feel dejected she didn't know what she was expecting. Saeko noticed this and let out a small laugh, "But you're not alone either. You have me and your Akito-nii, why do you feel lonely?"

Emi blinked her big innocent eyes and asked, "... R-really?"

Patting her head she said, "Yes. We'll have lots of fun together."

At this moment Akito came and interrupted them. "I'm done Saeko, let's leave."

"Akito nii!"

Saeko turned towards him, "You're done? Fine."

"Did you want to take something back with you?" Asked Akito.

Saeko thought about it but nothing really came to mind so she shook her head. Then Emi's voice was heard. "Are you both g-going somewhere?"

Akito nodded, "Yes, we're going somewhere safer."

Her eyes sparkled as she looked forward to the 'safer' place.

...

With his metal bat in one hand and Emi in the other Akito stood beside Saeko who held Muramasa.

His backpack full of food tightly hung on his back.

Saeko and Akito looked at each other before nodding together.

Saeko headed outside and started clearing the zombies in the surroundings while Akito stood there and made sure no zombies came close.

Emi was facing his chest and he had made her promise to not look forward. It would be a terrible idea to introduce a kid too so much bloodshed.

Emi nodded like an obedient puppy and lowered her head.

Akito smiled at her and looked towards Saeko who was killing the zombies one by one.

Every single wave of her sword decapitated a zombie and the surroundings gradually grew silent as the occasional growls of the zombies started fading away.

He exited the house and followed Saeko's footsteps. The thick metallic aroma of blood was overflowing the streets and since Emi had her face planted onto his chest she smelled it but at a very low amount.

Akito wasn't actually going to run with Emi in his hands, at most a light jog.

The moment he stepped outside he saw numerous corpses. Suddenly he heard some faint noises towards the right and he gazed over.

His eyes widened when he saw a zombie there. It was hard to notice among the sea of zombie corpses around it.

The zombie had no limbs and its stomach was half torn open. It was struggling on the ground, trying to desperately move.

A cold gleam flashed in his eyes.

Akito approached it and since his footsteps weren't subtle the ugly zombie turned towards him while growling.

He noticed Emi flinching upon hearing the zombie's growl.

Akito raised the metal bat in his hands and with a flick of his wrist, the bat smashed into the zombie.

Bam!

Its head caved in as blood splattered on the ground. Soon it stopped showing any signs of movement.

[3. Kill A Thousand Zombies. (327-> 328)]

"... At least you're worth something," Akito mumbled to himself.

Emi grew curious but since he had told her to not look she shrunk back into his chest.

[Saeko: What are you doing there?]

At the prompt Akito looked towards Saeko who was looking at him from afar with confusion.

[Akito: Nothing, coming.]

When Akito and Saeko were a bit far from each other they used the DCG to chat. It was more convenient.

...

It took Akito and Saeko a bit more than half an hour to reach back to Rika's house.

It was about 8 pm according to the DCG.

The sky was already shrouded by darkness but thankfully the city lamps were still working so they didn't have any problem navigating their way back.

The moment they reached belong to Rika's house Akito saw Kohta waving from the balcony.

He had a relieved expression.