How exactly did you all get here? Nach thought, looking at the familiar set of mob characters.
Not only the group of four high school students who seemed to be having a good time despite the chaos of the undead outbreak happening in the hotel, but also the girls with Tominaga at the elevator as well—Nach clearly remembered where he had seen them, or rather, what part of the story of Highschool of the Dead they appeared in.
The two girls who seemed to be siblings—one a middle schooler and the other a grade schooler—appeared in the story when the main cast was stuck in traffic at Onbetsu Bridge.
The young woman with the baby, and the other grade schooler along with the policeman who got devoured at the elevator, appeared when Takashi and Rei passed by Tokonosu Bridge.
As for the four high school delinquent students—who Nach now remembered to be Hide's group—they were also from Tokonosu Bridge, where they were hosed off the bridge by the authorities when they tried to cross.
They were probably lucky enough to reach Tominaga Hotel near Onbetsu Bridge from Tokonosu Bridge. Or so Nach thought.
Whatever the story behind their escape and survival, it wouldn't matter if they couldn't escape and survive again. Not that Nach would care to help them after their attempt to refuse letting his group in.
"Would you please help that boy, Nach-sensei?" Tominaga said, referring to the delinquent Yui shot with an arrow in the shoulder.
Nach had just made his commitment not to help Hide's group, but since it was the incredibly kind rich old man—who seemed to bear no hatred toward Hide for refusing to let him in, despite welcoming them to his hotel—granting Tominaga's request was the least Nach could do for welcoming his group as well.
"This is all I could do for him," Nach said as he crouched down and yanked the arrow from the shoulder of the boy named Tate, then handed it back to Yui to be reloaded into her crossbow, leaving Tate screaming in pain while squirming on the floor completely naked, causing all the girls to avert their gaze from him.
Hide's group isolated themselves inside the bedroom, thinking they would be safe in there if the door and barricade broke down from the bashing of the undead horde.
Nach, meanwhile, relaxed and calmed down, clearing his head, even though he knew they were now trapped inside the room and cornered with the undead swarming the hallway outside.
Looking at Miku holding down the cabinet barricading the door, Nach assumed they would at least be safe until Saki decided to come up from the control room on the ground floor to break the door herself with her overpowered strength.
"Is it possible to crawl through the vents and climb up to the rooftop, Mr. Tominaga?" Nach said while looking at the ceiling.
"That's possible since the vents are wide enough for a person to fit, but your group is the only one capable of that, Nach-sensei."
Such a feat would be hard even for Yui, and there was no way the little girls would be able to do it—climbing from the 28th floor past the 54th floor to the rooftop.
"We'll think of another way then," Nach said, dismissing the idea of leaving Tominaga's group.
If the little girls couldn't climb through the vents up to the 54th floor, then he could just pull them up, one by one, at least a few floors above, just so they could avoid the horde of undead swarming the 28th floor.
"Just leave it to me. I'll get you all out of here," he said, crouching down to pat the heads of the little girls, reassuring them that they wouldn't be left behind and easing their fear of the undead.
"Thank you, Oniisan," said the girls, wiping their tears.
Before beginning their plan to pry open the vent on the ceiling—or, to be accurate, destroy the ceiling to widen the opening—Nach lightened what he was carrying.
He put the already empty assault rifle inside his backpack and asked Yui to carry it for him, switching with the double-barrel shotgun stuck behind his waist and the axe in his hand.
Yui, on the other hand, switched from the crossbow to the Glock 19 pistol.
"I only fired a handgun once when I did a report on police training, though," Yui said, checking whether the pistol safety was on or off.
"I'll be taking this then, Nach-sensei, Hashimoto-san," Saeko said as she took the wakizashi to pair with her katana, leaving Miku looking like a sad puppy, begging Nach for new toys.
"We'll find something you might like once we're out of here," Nach said, consoling Miku.
"Mhm~ Let's go on a date, Nach-sama."
With Miku keeping the cabinet barricade steady against the door with her enhanced strength, Nach stepped onto the makeshift scaffolding of sofas and tables to destroy the ceiling and pry open the vent. But then, a sudden loud commotion erupted inside the bedroom where Hide's group had isolated themselves.
"GAHHH!"
"ARGHH!"
The panicked screams were immediately followed by dying screams. A moment later, the bedroom door abruptly opened and Hide came running out, completely terrified, stumbling onto the floor butt naked.
"ARGHH!—Please stop… I don't want to die…"
"Help me, please! I don't want to become undead…"
—"GYAHHH!"—
It wasn't only the sight of Tate getting devoured by their two girlfriends—one biting on his rod while the other bit into his head—that terrified the little girls. Hide himself scared them as well, in both a disgusting and terrifying way, with his rod bleeding and missing, staining the floor as he fell to his knees and begged everyone for help.
How the heck did those two become undead? They were completely fine just a moment ago.
Nach didn't bother voicing his concern, as the undead girls aggressively rushed out of the room behind Hide, leaving Tate completely dead with his head already split open.
"Saeko!" Nach shouted, and Saeko understood what she needed to do.
She drew her katana and cleanly cut through Hide's neck.
Hide wasn't even aware that he had already been beheaded and killed until Saeko kicked his body toward the undead girls to block them from exiting the bedroom, leaving his head to fall with blood splattering across the floor.
That's not exactly what I meant, but whatever, Nach thought as he threw his axe, embedding its blade straight through the head of one undead girl.
With one undead left, Miku wanted to join the fight and impress Nach to earn his praise. But even she understood that the door and barricade would collapse if she stopped pushing against it.
The last undead girl rushed out of the bedroom, aiming for Saeko.
Saeko, however, didn't bother to brandish her katana, as Nach was already beside her after jumping down from the makeshift scaffolding and was about to land a kick.
Nach kicked the undead girl in the side, slamming it into the wall-to-wall window in the living room.
Watching the undead girl get back up, Nach confirmed that it had no bite marks anywhere on its naked body.
Regardless of the mystery of how the two girls suddenly became undead, Nach didn't have time to inspect further.
—Bang!—
He fired a shot from the double-barrel shotgun, blasting the undead girl's head, the slug bullet breaking through the window and causing it to crack.
That should have ended the fight, with the undead girl leaning back and the window cracking even more.
However, Nach and Saeko didn't lower their guard. After all, they had already encountered undead that kept moving for a while even after having their heads chopped off.
Nach pulled his axe from the head of the other undead girl, grabbed it by the leg, and tossed it toward the other, causing the window to completely shatter and both undead girls to fall off the hotel.
Or so Nach thought.
—Thud!—
The loud thud finally made Nach and everyone else aware of the cables hanging outside the window.
Nach rushed to the edge of the floor, and when he looked down, he saw what he could only describe—with a grin—as another convenient plot device.
"That's our way out of here."