Chapter 2: Distrust
The second day after becoming alone with the girl.
I went to visit the fourth floor, that is to say the roof of the shopping mall. As a desperate measure, I collected brooms and tried writing the characters “SOS” out of them.
Since this shopping mall has its parking underground, the roof is pretty compact, considering the size of the mall. A little space and a water tower…it reminds me of the roof of a high school.
(ED: Probably means that mall is tall and narrow, cause the parking is underground. Not sure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
“…it sure is bright.”
I unconsciously leak out a complaint like a mutter to the cloudless, clear sky. Leaning over and looking down the edge, the scene was definitely hell. Should I refer to them as zombies? There were some among the students who called them The Walkers. Well, either way, it doesn’t change the fact it is a phenomenon where the dead are moving.
Where there were beautiful zombies, there were also ugly zombies. The zombie whose chest is exposed is surely sexy, but when you notice the insides poking out, the excitement cools off immediately.
Excitement or no excitement, I just don’t wanna return to the third floor, which we are treating as the residential area. The girl is over there after all.
The second floor has only a game arcade and clothes shop. A large quantity of beds are present on the third floor because of the furniture section. I, nearly 30 years old, don’t have the determination to sleep on a hard floor anymore, and neither do I have the vigor to move a bed to the second floor. I should give up, get a mattress and a blanket and then decide whether I should I sleep on the fourth floor or the second floor…
“What…are you doing up here…?”
I don’t have a habit of smoking, but while I am watching the zombies and zoning out like I was on a smoke break, the girl appears. I am a bit puzzled since we hadn’t talked at all since we accidently touched hands yesterday. However, judging that since she was young and prone to changing her attitude quickly, I answer while acting tranquil.
“Just in case, I thought I would make an SOS mark.”
But my response seems to have hurt her feelings.
“We don’t need that! Makoto-kun promised me, he will certainly come back! There is no need for it!!”
Rage. She had an expression of absolute resentment on her face as she shouted out with her saliva flying everywhere. Caught along, her long raven-black hair flies through the air.
If I am not mistaken, Makoto is the name of the leader, and he is also this girl’s childhood friend.
They weren’t lovers, but it’s hardly any different. It is a similar thing. This child is a heroine and that boy is the hero. There was a story unraveling in font of me right now.
And that was also the past that I threw and ran away from. Therefore, I think that I can’t let this girl die. I must make sure she lives and let her meet Makoto-kun again.
“…Ah, that’s right isn’t it? I was careless. Sorry.”
I lower my head without arguing, and seeing that, she returns to her senses with an embarrassed face.
“Hey, now that I think about it, I don’t know your name, do I? I’m called Matoba Kazuya. And you are?”
“I’m Honjo Yumi. Yumi from the kanji for ‘bow and arrow’.”
What had been left behind was neither a sword nor a spear, but a bow and arrow. That is a very interesting story. So much so that it feels like fate.
(ED: No idea.)
“Till everybody comes back, my best regards”
She timidly grasps the hand I hold out.
A week after becoming alone with Honjo-san.
We have become close enough to chat occasionally…however, that weird sense of distance became the cause of certain incident.
Usually she would never approach me at night time. Maybe because her caution had waned, or she just had something she wanted to ask me. Whatever the case, she came looking for me at night.
I’m a man, too. I don’t intend to make a move at a high-school student, but I can’t help but release what accumulates. In other words, Honjo-san happened to meet me at my masturbation spot.
Everything after happened quickly. She screamed and ran away from me and shut herself up in the staff office on the third floor. I can’t enter because the key is on the inside. Of course, I have no intention to enter either. We finally broke the ice and yet this happened…I received a slight shock.
In this case, I can do nothing but give up. I can’t make an excuse. She who has only thought about her childhood friend Makoto all this time is probably a virgin, and she also a bit of a clean freak. I who wasn’t able to endure it was at fault. Since I am a man it can’t be helped…She surely won’t listen to such an excuse.
I am an almost 30-year-old guy worrying about leaving a good impression on a female high-school student rather than the threat of the zombies.
What a happy-go-lucky fellow. Seriously.
Since they left, almost one month has passed.
Her food is probably all gone, or very little left.
I was drinking water and thinking about what I should do, when unusually Honjo-san approached me.
“…Why, do you still have food left?”
If I had to guess, from her words, her share of food is probably already finished.
“Why? Well, cause I am saving it.”
“But usually, a man eats a lot more, right?”
“…What do you want to say?”
I ask even though I know the answer. She probably suspects me. I was the one who distributed the food after all, so it would be easy for me to cheat and get more for myself. Thinking like that in a situation like this is not unreasonable.
“Matoba-san, at that time, did you really distribute the same amount to me?”
“…Well, if you already noticed it there is no helping it. No, I didn’t. In fact, I kept three weeks’ worth of food more for myself than Honjo-san.”
“As I thought…!”
Nodding as if she is convinced, Honjo-san glares at me.
“Come now, don’t glare at me so much. Just like you said, men and women have different calorie intakes.”
“That is…!”
“Hold on, don’t get so angry. Look, I will give you the rest of my three weeks share.”
I give all my remaining food to Honjo-san without any hesitation. That was my intention from the beginning, so I have no regrets at all. But she who didn’t think I would do that is staring at me wide eyed in shock.
“You don’t want it?”
“I-I do!…But what about Matoba-san?”
To think about me in such a situation, if the world was not what it had become, she would probably have been a very thoughtful and kind girl. But living things, if they don’t have enough to eat, their spirit break.
“I’m fine. I’ll go to the basement to get some.”
Hearing those words, she looks like a lost child.
I may be wrong. Instead of living alone, maybe her happiness lies in dying together with me. But still, even if that is the case, I want her to live. Since she made a promise with that young man.