Chapter 20: Legend
“Hmm? Ah, it’s all right. It’s no problem.”
Aya-chan tugged my sleeve, and I answered.
There were no other zombies in the classrooms, and we were uninjured.
“Let’s go to the roof.”
I move the barricade aside while considering the possibility that a zombie might come from the lower floor. Because it is no good to break it too much, I make it so that a human can go through intentionally. I also will know from the sound if a zombie comes.
…The quiver is one meter longer than my bow, hindering my movement.
No, no, this is necessary trouble. I thought so.
“Oo.”
We arrived at the fourth floor somehow. Despite being full of barricades, the fourth floor can be cleaned in a hairs breath. I found a bed in the infirmary when I looked for the nearest classroom.
Besides there are also sweet rolls and drinks in a cardboard box, that means they seem to be able to shut themselves inside for several weeks. On the contrary, it can be said that they won’t survive for longer than a month.
I also checked the other classrooms, but I didn’t see the girls. They’ll be still on the roof, probably to look for that boy.
It’s very uncomfortable, telling the truth. What is better – dying with an ideal or living his life in despair?
Other humans may have other ideas, but I live in this moment now while being held by despair and with the hope that Aya-chan will be a human again.
“Aya-chan, after you.”
It is necessary to climb the ladder to go to the roof, but I can look at her beautiful buttocks from under her skirt by letting Aya go first! …It’s a joke to say so because the ladder is one meter above the ground and attached to the wall. Therefore I act slightly strong-minded when I do not lift her.
Therefore I lift Aya-chan up by her knee. It is inevitable, and I bury my face under her skirt, but because her knee is held, she can’t move. And because she will kick me as soon as she can move again, I follow Aya-chan immediately after sexually harassing her.
“Ah, emm, nice to meet you. I´m Kasai Kurumi, and this is my elder sister Kasai Shizuyo.”
The girl who noticed that I climbed the roof here… Kurumi-chan greeted us. The older sister lowered her head silently.
The younger sister is probably the active type, while the elder sister seems to be the shy type.
Kurumi-chan suits the side tail that she sports and Shizuyo´s appearance consists of glasses and braided hair. Shizuyo is like a student president or library assistant. Her eyes look down at the floor. Although they are the sisters, there are not many similarities… and contrary to my expectations, Shizuyo has a straight nose and small lips.
“This very politely. I’m Matoba Kazuya. And this――――”
“Eh!?”
When I was going to introduce Aya-chan, the older sister reacted suddenly. Does she know my name..? With such an exclamation she doesn’t seem to be my boss´s daughter, and I´m unfamiliar with the name Kasai.
When I slightly tilt my head to this girl’s reaction, Shizuyo approached me like the wind.
“A-ano… by any chance, are you an alumnus? Matoba-san from the archery club?”
“Eh? Ah, yes. Though I changed school during my first year.”
What’s the point of this question? Before asking, Shizuka-chan grabbed my hand! She grabbed it with bright eyes, before speaking.
“After all…! You, you´re Matoba-senpai who hit 100 marks 100 times, right? I´m a fan!!”
“… … …Eh?”
I don’t understand the circumstances, and I stiffen. Without worrying about my own problems, what should I say to Shizuyo?
After I bring the questioning to a conclusion, for now, I heard what Shikijo-senpai said about me hitting the mark 100 times. In reality, it is something like the relation between man and woman where I´m the superior… in other words, our positions were known.
The important shot was the one-hundredth shot, and the arrow shot before was the ninety-ninth arrow. Commonly this arrow is called patch arrow, but the probability to have it is 1% for a common person. There are also people who keep it as an important charm… but for me, it wasn’t unusual, so I didn’t bring it home.
Thus my lucky patch arrow is displayed in the clubroom for various reasons after I changed school and my legend seems to have been passed from generation to generation. Hmm, the legendary alumnus Matoba Kazuya is me.
“Hu-huh… did such a thing happen?”
Actually, I am amazed, and although I´m a pitiful man who has stopped archery, it’s exaggerated that I’m treated as a legend. For Shizuyo-chan to know such a story, she must be in the archery club… moreover, she seems to be the club president.
「――――Haa!? By any chance, this pretty young girl is the fruit of love from that time……!?”
In other words, it isn’t known why it is so, but Shikijo-senpai and I seem to have been lovers in the legend, and it seems that our hearts and bodies were tied together, thus her question.
“Yes, that’s right.”
It would be troublesome to explain everything, so I answered straight.
Aya-chan ranked up from my wife to my daughter!
…Or ranked down? I don’t understand.
“Onee-chan, your usual habit appeared again.”
“Aa! ……I-I´m sorry.”
She was reproved by Kurumi-chan and Shizuyo-chan was looking down while losing her courage. She seems to be a human whose tension goes up when she finds something interesting. Her state with brightening eyes when she talks is pretty, but I am in trouble for some reactions the chief character of the story.
“Emm, let me introduce myself again. I am Matoba Kazuya. This is my wife――――no beloved daughter Matoba Aya.”
Aya was hiding behind me and lowered her head silently.
“She is intensely shy, so don’t mind it.”
It’s followed up casually. Particularly there is no reason why I should reveal that Aya-chan is a zombie. In the worst case, I say that she can’t talk because of a mental shock from this pandemic. It’s bad then, but her mother……I have Shikijo-senpai die.
“Thanks in advance, Kazuya-san and Aya-chan. …Did both of you come here after you encountered Natsuki-kun? Is Natsuki-kun still looking for other people?”
Before worrying how to cut down, Kurumi-chan is touched. Probably Natsuki-kun will be the student corpse in front of the school gate.
After all, they cannot see his corpse because of the shadow of the wall, when they look from the roof fence.
“There is something I’d like to hear in front of you, were you two on the roof all the while?”
“……? No. I talked and studied with my older sister on the fourth floor.”
They seem to be serious children as their appearances. When I was a student, I would surely not study in such a situation.
“Was a scream heard?”
“…Because it was a common thing, we didn’t mind it. Probably I think that we don’t keep it in mind when it isn’t close.”
“I see… it is so.”
With this, it all connects. If they watched Natsuki from the roof, would they have seen Natsuki-kun? This question is irrelevant. They might hear the scream of Natsuki-kun even if they are on the fourth floor, but in this strange world, it becomes hard to recognize.
“I’m sorry, for your conclusion, but I didn’t meet Natsuki. It is accidental by chance, I have thought here at my old school, there would be a bow, and so we went to the archery ground and incidentally we were about to return when you called out to us.”
“Eemm……?”
With this information alone, Natsuki-kun is still alive but didn’t return yet. However, I think that the student corpse is Natsuki-kun.
“I say it now, I don’t know nothing about Natsuki-kun. But at the school gate was a corpse of a boy who was wearing the school uniform… it could be him, and you can’t see it from the roof because of the shadow of the wall.”
The hope leaves for the time being. It may be a different student who survived elsewhere because it is a school. Therefore I don’t assert. But these two became pale whether they sympathized with the atmosphere somehow.
“…I will help you if you want to go confirm it. Even if a zombie comes, would Shizuyo-chan, who knows my skills, be relieved?”
Two people nodded.
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