Hah…!
He was breathing hard—heavy, ragged gulps of air—as sweat dripped nonstop, splashing onto the hand braced on his thigh, still trembling.
His pupils widened slightly when he noticed the ugly bite mark on the back of his hand—those savage tooth impressions—slowly knitting back together.
So it was real.
He really was immune to the dead's virus.
Takashi Komuro laughed, and there was something twisted in that smile: the joy of surviving by a hair's breadth, and the terror of realizing he'd gotten someone killed.
Suddenly, a hand settled on his shoulder.
He flinched and whipped his head around.
The owner was a man in glasses, neat and mild-looking, the very picture of a gentle academic—Koichi Shido, a teacher from Fujimi Academy.
"Komuro," Shido said softly, soothing him like a frightened child. "You didn't do anything wrong. If anything, you did the exact opposite. The fact that you took that vial and used it is precisely why you've become humanity's hope."
"H-Humanity's hope?" Takashi echoed, dazed.
Along with the confusion, something else welled up from deep inside—an aching, shame-covering expectation. A hope that could smother his guilt. A hope that could tell him he hadn't made the wrong choice.
"Yes," Shido said. "Humanity's hope. A savior. Think about it: they said the drug wasn't complete. That means it might fail when used. If Chairman Takagi had taken it and it failed, it would've been wasted. But you used it—and you succeeded. You're immune to the dead's virus. That means your blood is hope. It means your blood carries the serum that can resist the virus…"
Shido explained it all so carefully, so gently, guiding him step by step. The panic inside Takashi began to settle. His breathing eased. His mind steadied—slowly, imperceptibly—under Shido's spell.
Yes. A spell.
That was exactly what it was.
But Shido wasn't entirely wrong. If Takashi truly had immunity, then his body was an invaluable key to developing a vaccine.
And a key like that, of course, needed to be held—by Shido.
"So don't burden yourself with guilt," Shido continued, voice warm and understanding. "I'm sure the chairman will forgive you. He'll even be relieved that you were the one who used it. When that happens, you won't have to fear his family hating you. You'll be the one who can save them. The one who can save everyone. Who knows—Saya might even start admiring you, this 'savior' of hers. You might win the young lady's heart…"
Bit by bit, Shido fed the hunger inside Takashi, coaxing it toward the surface.
When he saw the tremor in Takashi's eyes, the subtle swallow in his throat, Shido's lips curved faintly.
Good.
As for Soichiro Takagi—he was probably finished. But Shido wasn't going to leave it at that.
He brushed his fingers lightly against his neck, where a wound had been cut. If Takashi, that "good boy," hadn't rushed in and interfered, Shido's head would've been taken clean off.
So he would have revenge.
He would crush the Takagi family completely.
…
Soichiro hadn't expected himself to misjudge someone so badly.
He'd known Takashi's parents for years. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't reconcile that couple with the kind of person their son had just proven himself to be.
And yet, here he was—paying the price already.
After his team entered the hospital to gather medicine, they also rescued survivors in and around the building. Among them was Takashi's group—students and others who had escaped from the academy.
So it wasn't strange that Takashi learned about the drug that could treat the dead's virus.
Soichiro had announced it openly before they left. Everyone had heard.
He himself hadn't used the drug—not because he didn't trust it. His wife and daughter had taken it. What reason did he have to doubt it?
He kept the remaining vial for one reason only: insurance.
If something happened and they lost all samples, they'd have nothing to work from. No baseline to produce a vaccine.
That was why he kept it. He intended to deliver it to a region where the state still had real power.
A place with soldiers.
A place more stable than this city.
A place where manufacturing a vaccine might actually be possible.
They were collecting supplies normally when the dead suddenly broke through their defenses, and the entire scene turned into chaos.
Soichiro had no choice but to step in personally. If he didn't, his own people would be torn apart.
And in that confusion, he saw one figure.
Shido.
Soichiro had been tailed before. He knew what that meant. And he'd already decided: if he encountered this man, he wouldn't hesitate.
Kill him.
Because Shido's family—and the shadow behind them—were connected. One of the money pipelines. One of the hands bankrolling the filth beneath the surface.
Soichiro moved without hesitation, closing in to cut him down.
And as he advanced, he noticed something else: the breach in their line was wrong. Too clean. Too sudden. It stank.
When he strode toward Shido, the man's guilty, evasive look all but confirmed it.
Shido was likely the reason this chaos had erupted.
So there was even less reason to hold back.
For someone like him, Soichiro could take a head with a single stroke, without wasting effort or time.
Shido screamed as Soichiro's blade came down—
And a metal baseball bat slammed in, blocking the killing blow.
The one who saved Shido was Takashi.
Soichiro froze in genuine shock.
Then, a dead body dropped from above—falling from a higher floor—about to smash into Takashi.
Soichiro reacted on instinct and grabbed him. Partly because he'd known the Komuro family for a long time, and partly because, until that moment, he'd still thought Takashi was a decent kid.
So he seized Takashi and hauled him in, shoving him up and aside to get him clear.
But the accident still happened.
The falling dead clipped him. Its teeth caught his arm.
And Takashi, too, couldn't completely avoid it—another dead behind him raked him, leaving a scratch.
In that same instant, the vial on Soichiro's person was knocked loose. It fell, rolled, and skittered toward Shido.
Soichiro finished dispatching the dead that had entangled him and immediately moved to reclaim the vial—and to kill Shido.
But Shido realized what it was.
He kicked the vial away without hesitation.
In that situation, Soichiro had to prioritize the vial.
By sheer luck, it flew straight into Takashi's hands.
And that was where the real problem began.
Shido immediately told Takashi what it was: a drug that could stop someone from being infected and turning into one of the dead. And with his inflammatory, goading words—pushing and urging—Takashi's survival instinct flared like a trapped animal.
Like someone who can't swim, thrashing in deep water—when a rescuer comes close, they don't think. They grab, they climb, they shove the other person under just to keep themselves above the surface.
They don't care if the other person lives.
They only care that they do.
So in that panic, Takashi drank the drug.
Soichiro could only give a bitter, helpless smile.
When he snapped back and tried again to kill Shido—
He was already falling.
Soichiro had no choice but to use what remained of his consciousness—before it was eaten away—to arrange as much as he could.
"Commander, hold on a little longer," his confidant's voice came to his ears again. "We're almost home."
Home?
After he understood what had happened, he immediately called off the hospital run and ordered a full retreat. He had to get back. There was still a chance—if the other unit had returned, maybe they'd brought back the Earth Elixir.
His vision was a haze, but when he stared forward, it did look like they were close.
The only reason he'd lasted this long was because he'd acted decisively—severing his own arm.
And still, the virus wouldn't stop.
He didn't know how much time passed. He only knew he was at his limit.
Then he heard the familiar, heavy footsteps approaching.
"Has Saya come back yet?" he asked.
"Not yet."
"So it's too late," he murmured.
"Yes."
"Then… let me die as a man who can still see people," he said, his fading awareness making one final request.
And the last thing that reached him—before everything slipped away—was the sound of his wife's enraged, grief-stricken screaming.
(End of Chapter)
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