—Vroom~Clug!—
"This one is no good either..." Nach murmured as he gave up on trying to start a Honda Civic by hot-wiring the car.
His training as a survival nerd included hot-wiring cars, of course. However, all the cars that he and Saeko encountered as they traveled along the riverside road—heading back toward Onbetsu Bridge where Shido's bus was near—either had busted engines or were out of fuel.
"How are you doing, Saeko?"
While Nach went from car to car—smashing side windows with his sledgehammer and prying open the key box with the Swiss Army Knife he got from Rika's armory—Saeko was cutting down the undead that were being attracted by the noise Nach's ruckus was causing.
"These numbers shouldn't be a problem for me," Saeko replied without taking her eyes off the dozen undead slowly approaching her.
More like, they weren't enough for you, Nach thought, gazing at Saeko's handiwork.
She had already cut down more than a dozen undead alone at their current location, not including those they left behind on their trail. But the number wasn't all there was.
Each undead Saeko defeated was cut down differently: beheaded with a clean cut to the neck, heads split perfectly in half, the top of the skull chopped off to expose the brain, slashes straight through both eyes, and even strikes between the jaws.
Rather than practicing and honing her skill with her katana, it was more like Saeko was having fun killing the undead.
Nach didn't exactly expect anything else from Saeko, considering her background, her taste for violence, and the leer curving her lips that she didn't even seem to be aware of.
Regardless, Saeko wasn't wasting her strength, cutting down each undead skilfully with a single slash. It also proved that the katana Nach took from the madman yakuza was indeed a high-quality blade, capable of cutting through a human—or rather, undead—skull.
"You can take your time, Nach-sensei," Saeko said after cutting down the last undead within her reach, waiting for the rest to come closer.
"Maybe we should have taken the humvee after all..." Nach muttered as he gave up on hot-wiring a Toyota Corolla.
Right then, both of them heard the sound of a car approaching.
"Hide for a bit, Saeko."
At Nach's remark, Saeko concealed her presence behind a van while Nach stood at the side of the road, waiting
They both could have hidden and let the car pass, but Nach was willing to take the risk—whether to hitch a ride or take the car for themselves—just so they could reach Onbetsu Bridge before noon.
The car, a yellow Hummer H2, appeared from around the corner and drove toward Nach, ramming the remaining undead on the road before abruptly stopping a short distance past him.
The driver's door opened, and a rough-looking man wearing a bloodstained gray office suit—bearing the aura of Hiroyuki Sanada's Shogun—stepped out. He drew a revolver from beneath his coat and aimed it at Nach.
And here I thought it was going to be someone like Tallahassee, Nach thought, responding by aiming his hunting crossbow at the Shogun.
"So does that mean you didn't stop to offer me a ride?" Nach said, attempting to deceive the Shogun into thinking he was alone.
"That would depend on the last samurai who cut down all these undead," the Shogun said, seeing through Nach's deception as he examined the clean cuts on the undead heads—wounds that couldn't have been made with the axe Nach carried.
While Nach laughed internally at the pun, Saeko revealed herself.
"If you're asking for a ride, it would be polite to tone down your murderous intent, young lady."
"I'm sorry for such a rude greeting, mister," Saeko said, masking her malicious leer. She finally became aware of it after seeing her reflection in the van's window and replaced it with her usual sweet smile.
The Shogun lowered his gun—not only because Saeko toned down her murderous intent, but also because Nach failed to hide his laughter at the pun. He introduced himself as Ibaraki after Nach and Saeko gave their names, then agreed to give them a ride toward Onbetsu Bridge.
As Nach and Saeko got inside the car, they noticed another man sitting quietly in despair in the passenger seat—someone who gave off the aura of an overworked young salaryman from a black company, seemingly destined to be isekai'd into a fantasy world after dying alone in his tiny sad apartment or getting run over by a truck.
"That's not how it is," Ibaraki said in response to Nach's curious look.
Ibaraki introduced the young man as Chiba, then proceeded to give a brief recap of their backstory while driving.
"My subordinates and I got trapped in our office when the undead outbreak started. Then Chiba's girlfriend mysteriously turned into an undead despite not being bitten—a pretty strong one, too. She ripped off the head of the girl who was allergic to peanuts—the one Chiba was cheating on—and killed everyone else before the two of us managed to put her down."
"I told you, boss... sob..." Chiba said, weeping again for his dead girlfriend. "I wasn't cheating on her... sob... It was just a one-night stand."
There were a lot of concerning things about Ibaraki's story, and Nach obviously wanted to punch Chiba in his sobbing face for that reasoning—not that he was any better—but there was one thing he needed to confirm first.
"By Ibaraki and Chiba... you mean those are the places you're heading to, right?" Nach asked, assuming those weren't their real names.
"You really do have a good sense of humor, young man," Ibaraki said, grinning in delight that Nach got his reference.
"We are indeed heading to Ibaraki and Chiba, where each of us lives," he added, confirming Nach's assumption. He explained that it had only been a year since he and Chiba were assigned to their company in Tokonosu City, Shizuoka.
(Note: I'm not sure where exactly Tokonosu City is in Japan, but I decided to place it in Shizuoka.)
Of course, both of them had already seen the news about the undead outbreak spreading across all of Japan and the rest of the world.
The survival of their families was as slim as their chances of making it back home, especially considering they would have to pass through Tokyo—the most populated city, where the undead were to be expected in the greatest numbers. Still, Nach had no right to object to their plan, nor did he feel the need to warn them any further.
After driving for a while, they arrived at Onbetsu Bridge and saw the horde of undead swarming it.
Ibaraki could have simply dropped Nach and Saeko off and forced his way through the horde ahead, but after hearing that Nach wanted to check whether there were students hiding inside the cars on the bridge, Ibaraki offered one last favor.
"We'll return the favor once we see each other again, Ibaraki-san," Saeko said as she stepped out of the car and stood beside Nach.
"That's sweet of you to say, Saeko-san," Chiba replied, looking as if he had been revived by her smile—only to be smacked on the head by Ibaraki before Nach could punch him.
"She might be of legal age, but she's still a student," Ibaraki said, scolding Chiba while simultaneously warning Nach.
Nach, meanwhile, feigned ignorance under Ibaraki's questioning gaze.
"Good luck, both of you," Nach said, sending Ibaraki and Chiba off.
Ibaraki then drove ahead, ramming the undead lurking on the road and blasting the horn to draw the horde away from the bridge before slowly driving off.
That greatly reduced the number of undead at Onbetsu Bridge, allowing Nach and Saeko to safely make it to the middle of the bridge—not to check each car for trapped students or survivors as Nach had claimed, but to head straight toward a recognizable vehicle: the Tokonosu City news crew's broadcast van.
With Saeko eliminating the few undead left, Nach cautiously opened the side door of the van, expecting what he would see inside.
"I'm not intruding, am I?"