その１７１ 良い子悪い子

『ヴぉおおおおおおおおおおおおおおお』

『……おお……おおおおおお……っ』

『おおおおおおおおおおおおおおあああ……………っ』

列をなす”ゾンビ”の群れを前にして、アキラは後悔していた。

――たすけて……たすけて、ヒーローの兄ちゃん！

強く念じる。だが助けは現れない。当然だ。自分は悪い子なのだから。

悪い子は救われない。

Bad children are devoured by monsters.

Bad children... aren't worth living.

Several days had passed since he had parted ways with the young man known as Dogbite.

"Stop acting on impulse! That kind of recklessness puts our comrades in danger!"

Those were the young man's final words in his memory.

Who cares, he thought.

He wasn't a child anymore, after all.

To be honest, lately he'd also been a bit uneasy about how close Hideo and Akari had become.

Various things had been weighing heavily on his mind.

And then... Akira made the decision to run away.

To prove to his companions that he could survive on his own.

That was the result.

"Gooohhhhhhhhh... o, o, o, o, o..."

The zombie's milky, clouded eyes fixed on the throat of the young boy barely past childhood.

From the mouth, thick blood and saliva poured out uncontrollably.

No way. I don't want to die being bitten.

I have long watched countless people drown in their own blood.

That's precisely why imagining what might happen wasn't difficult.

In pain, hurting, and utterly helpless.

And so, eventually, become one of those "walking corpses."

Becoming someone who isn't oneself.

That now seemed utterly terrifying.

"Goooooo, gogogogogogo…………"

The "zombie" was now pacing just in front of Akira and the others, unable to reach them.

It seemed as though... some invisible force was at work.

But instinctively, they could sense it.

That invisible barrier... was about to vanish at any moment.

—Gotta run, gotta run, gotta run, gotta run...!

Even though my mind was desperately trying to convince me to move, my legs simply wouldn't obey.

It felt as if my body had been taken over by someone else, somewhere.

"Ah…!""No, not again… I can't take it anymore…""Damn it. Damn it…"

It seemed the adults surrounding Akira were feeling the same way.

To be honest, it had been like this for a while now.

A foggy, hazy time had settled over my thoughts.

I couldn't even figure out why.

Since I'd been lost in this place for a while now, I must have thought it was the location itself that was to blame.

...Help me... I won't do anything bad anymore... I'll listen carefully to whatever you say... Brother... please...

That was when it happened.

"...Huh?"

From a spot a little distance away, a sound unfamiliar to me reached my ears.

It was... a "thud, thud♪" — a rhythmic pounding echoing all around, shaking the world itself.

Then, I realized something was approaching.

A repeated, grating sound—*kuru kuru kuru kuru*—as if metal were being rubbed with tremendous force.

So loud it seemed even the horde of zombies had turned their attention toward it.

Through the gap between the zombies, who had turned their backs on us, I caught a glimpse of something advancing toward us.

"Is that...?"

Someone else screamed out, their voice filled with terror.

"Tank... hey, it's a tank!"

Help is here...?

"Self-Defense Force? Hey! The JSDF is here!"

Hold it, hold it, hold it! Those guys up there don't look anything like the Self-Defense Forces at all!

"What is that...?"

"Child... no, maybe some student...?"

▼

A boy and a girl are each sitting on the hull of a tank.

One of them—Hibiya Kōsuke—muttered with visible irritation.

"Seriously, who picked this song? I'm not really into it."

The girl with sun-tanned skin, named Tada Ritsuko, replied.

"…Must've been Lintarō's dumb idea."

"I don't really get Western music. Especially this kind of shouting style."

"Isn't the loudness more effective, though?"

"That's true, but..."

"Besides, this song has great luck associated with it."

"Luck?"

"Remember, senpai once saved your family, right? That time, it was this song that lured those 'zombies' here."

"...Ah. I see."

Indeed, the effect was undeniable.

We could feel the horde of 'zombies' nearby being drawn by the loud volume, surging toward us like a wave.

It was worth going out of our way to find stage speakers and mount them on the tank.

"Senior,... huh. For some reason, it feels incredibly nostalgic."

...Yeah, that's right.

She said it, her cheeks flushing.

With the impatience of someone counting each day as a thousand years, longing for their beloved.

Still, Tsuzuri-san really is a tricky one. If you were in touch with them, you could've at least told us.

...I think what they were really afraid of was information leaking....The female intermediary who stepped in seemed like a very careful person.

I see, I see.

...

At that moment, a transmission came in through the small wireless radios they had worn in their ears.

"Yeah, yeah, hey hey! It's your favorite, Hayame-chan! Everyone, how's it going?"

The communications officer for this operation is Saena Honda, from Hōjōji Temple.

As planned. We're attracting quite a number.

The first voice to respond was that of Kousei's father, Hibiya Norio.

Uh, we should be engaging the enemy in just a few minutes.

The calm, composed voice belonged to Okita Rinne, who had recently received power from Shizuri.

"Ooooh! This is the place for the festival, yesss!"

The one with unnecessary high energy is definitely the idiot Hayataro.

"Some fools couldn't hold back anymore and charged in. We're starting now!"

Oda Nobuo, who had rushed over from the "Correct Way of Living Association," was also there.

Following suit, our allies positioned around Akihabara responded one after another.

"Alright! Then I'm not saying anything more, Hayasaka-nee! Everyone will go home alive, and nobody here is getting killed!"

A voice echoed from the radio, overlapping like a chorus.

"Looks like combat has begun...?"

Ritsuko said, sighing.

"Still, there are really a lot of them around here. It's like Akihabara on weekends."

"……What? ……Are you, like, scared…?"

"Nah. If anything, I feel bad for everyone. I might actually be in the safest spot during this operation."

Kousuke knew just how dependable this friend of his, Toda Ritsuko, truly was.

Ritsuko was already exceptionally athletic, but when she held a gun, her combat effectiveness was something else entirely.

After all, this girl could blow the heads off two or more "zombies" with a single bullet.

"...Hmph. You're really praising her a lot, aren't you?"

"That's just how it is."

"...Damn it. Using such obvious tricks to ensnare that sweet Rika-chan... Damn it. May you fall into hell. Damn it."

I was just praising her honestly, yet I'm being scolded.

"Just so you know, there's still nothing between me and Rika."

"Liar. You were about to do something dirty with her."

"...W-what?...Wait, what are you talking about? Where did you even hear that...?"

Ritsuko didn't respond,

"We don't have time to talk anymore....Here we go."

Launching a charge toward the swarm of "zombies" closing in within range as if bursting forth.

The advance of those unafraid of death and monsters had begun.