POV Isao Tsumugi
Right now, two girls were standing in front of me. Both were brunettes with black hair and matching black eyes. The one who looked younger had a bob cut, and the one who looked older had long hair down to her waist. They were pretty cute, with perky figures, but right now, there was only one thing about them that attracted me.
Their eyes, shining with an inner light of hope, as if I were their beacon, like a hero who appears and saves everyone at just the right time.
And I was going to do exactly that. Save their father, and even more people if there were any, kill the zombies, and get the people out safe and sound. All in all, nothing complicated. Finding the people would be easy thanks to the Crow I'd send ahead to scout the area, and thanks to my metal control, I could easily break through all those undead.
"Okay, do you have a picture of your father? And you know what floor his ward was on, right? It would also be good if you knew his schedule, like, where he goes, what he does, when he eats." At my questions, their eyes lit up, and the one with the bob cut took out her flip phone.
"Y-yes, Tsumugi-san…" I raised a finger.
"No need to call me -san. I don't like the formality. You can call me Isao, because we now have four Tsumugis here." Both blushed a little, while the one with the bob cut handed me her phone and showed me a picture of her father. "Hmm…"
Overall, just an ordinary man in his thirties, already starting to bald, with tired but kind eyes and a bit of a beer belly. Most likely an office worker who likes to have a drink after the last workday, just like hundreds of other men in Japan.
I memorized his appearance and beckoned with my hand to the crow that was circling in the sky, and it began to descend.
Yamada's parents, and even my mom and Rin, were watching all this in amazement, as if it were something unusual… which it was. Yeah, there aren't many things left that can surprise me after being reborn, getting a gacha system, and immediately getting thrown into the meat grinder of a zombie apocalypse right after receiving that thing.
The crow landed on my shoulder and also began to examine the man's photo, tilting its head from side to side, while the phone trembled in the surprised girl's hands.
"Memorize his face, then fly ahead. A few kilometers ahead, there will be a Hospital. Try to find this man there, and if you see any other people, show them to me."
"Order received! Received!" The crow cawed right next to my ear and was just starting to spread its wings when I had an idea.
"Wait," I stretched out my hands and began to create a thin, almost ultra-thin wire from aluminum, and then made it wrap around the crow's talons. "When you see living people in danger at the hospital or on the way there, stop somewhere and look directly at them, so I can see them too, and show me so I can kill whatever is threatening them, got it?"
"Yes! Yes!" It cawed, and this time it jumped off my shoulder and flew into the sky, heading for the hospital. Besides the verbal command, I also showed it what the hospital looked like.
Overall, this hospital was slightly smaller than medium-sized, so finding people there should be easy. And the aluminum wire…
I don't know if I can create metal at a distance, but I can easily add more to what already exists. And honestly, the wires themselves should be enough.
"Alright, everyone get on the bus. Sit down and you can pray to the Gods, the Heavens, or whoever you pray to that your father is safe."
"Thank you so much!" "Thank you for this, we will repay you!" They both bowed deeply, showing the depth of their gratitude.
"Yeah, it's nothing." I waved them off, and they got on the bus, leaving me alone on the street next to it, while those already inside watched me.
Honestly, this was all stressful. I preferred a more relaxed life, one where I could quietly draw manga, hold various events with my editor and some assistants.
Sometimes I liked to get together with those people, although most of our communication was remote through regular calls and video calls.
I just hope they're okay. Those guys were the only ones besides my family, Takashi, and Rei. And my Editor had helped me out more than once; being the middle son of some rich businessman, he decided to become an editor himself and build his career in that direction.
"Isao-chan, get on the bus!" Marikawa-san waved at me, making her badonkers tremble as she sat behind the wheel, forcing me to sigh. When will I finally be in a safe place and be able to relax just a little?
With slow steps, not rushing, I got on the bus and sat down next to Kyouko-san, thinking about my next moves as the bus started to move.
We need to get to the hospital, find any possible survivors there, pick them all up, and then head to the Takagi Estate. Takagi's father was a party leader, and a man like that would definitely have enough people, resources, and everything else to build at least a small base. I don't even care if it's temporary. Wait, does Shizuka even know where we're going?
"Marikawa-san."
"Yes, Isao-chan." It was weird hearing the -chan honorific attached to my name from another woman; usually, only Mom called me that.
"Drive to City Hospital Number Three. It's not far from here. You know where it is, right?"
"Yep, of course!" She nodded. "I completely broke a nail there once. It hurt so much, and it was the closest hospital, so I had to go there," she sighed, recalling the story.
"Well, my condolences, though I've never had to deal with anything like that."
"Oh, but I remember when you broke your arm in school!" She nodded again. "Though I don't even remember you crying back then. You just sat there like a stone-cold, emotionless person, didn't even shed a tear, although I saw your eyes watering."
"Please, don't bring that up, Marikawa-san. You almost pumped me full of painkillers."
"But you needed them!"
"No, it wasn't even really necessary. The arm was broken very cleanly, so everything was fine." I sighed as Kyouko-san, who had been listening intently to our conversation, looked at me. She was there too, so this story wasn't new to her; it was probably just my words that surprised her.
"Are you sure you don't have analgesia, Isao-chan?" Marikawa-san's voice became interested.
"What even is that?"
"Oh, it's when a person doesn't feel physical pain at all. Like, just takes it and doesn't feel it. Although... no... you probably do feel pain, but it's weakened. You most likely just have a high pain threshold."
"No, I don't have any analgesia if that's really what it means. And secondly, yeah, I probably just have a higher pain threshold."
"What about…"
We continued talking with Marikawa-san, and even Hayashi-san joined us at some point, reminiscing about how I sometimes ended up in her office due to some problems.
Until at some point, I felt a sensation from the crow. It wanted to show me something, and I accepted its "request," closing my eyes and concentrating.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in the sky, right above the hospital. For the first few minutes, I couldn't understand why the crow so desperately wanted to show me the view of the hospital from above, until I noticed a significant number of people on the hospital roof, crowded and huddled together, while zombies—a huge number of them—were advancing right toward them.
In the front rows, I saw the father of those two girls. Leaning on one crutch, he was waving the other to drive the dead back, pushing them away. Next to him stood a teenage boy also holding a crutch, and another man who was also swinging a crutch. Everyone else behind them was women, children, or elderly women.
The expressions on most of their faces were desperate and terrified, especially the children who were crying loudly. The kid shouted and struck a dead man's head with a direct hit, making it fall, after which the man next to the girls' father did the same. Their faces were full of determination, especially the kid's expression.
Together, they were somehow killing or pushing back the zombies that were already just a few meters away from them, while everyone else cowered in fear behind them.
My body tensed, and I felt Kyouko-san take my hand.
"Isao-kun?" I heard her voice, but it seemed distant, as did my own body, as if I were somewhere far away. But I answered.
"There's a bit of a problem. Don't call me or distract me, but get to the hospital as fast as you can." My voice was quiet, but full of force, enough to make them obey.
As I was saying this, the crow dived onto the small fence and landed on the high railing that served as a barrier no one could jump over. It looked straight at the crowd of zombies in front of all those people. Their voices, praying to God, distracted it a little, but it continued to watch the dead, unmoving.
And that's when I got to work. The wires slowly unwound from its legs and began to accumulate in mid-air, growing in size. At first, it was a small ball the size of a seed, but then it grew to the size of a baseball, and then a soccer ball.
At first, no one paid any attention to it, no one except that one kid who saw the crow land. But with every second that the metal grew larger, he started calling for everyone around him to look at the ball.
By the end, when the metal ball had taken the shape of a soccer ball, everyone was already staring at it in amazement. Everyone except those three.
The metal abruptly compressed, taking the form of a saw blade, and began to spin. At about the same moment, through the crow's eyes, I saw our bus appear on the road.
"Faster, Marikawa-san, step on it!" And she did exactly that.
I smiled and launched the saw forward, killing all the dead who were on the roof. The saw moved at an incredible speed and spun even faster, but at the same time, it made me strain, and for the first time all day, I felt sweat dripping from my forehead.
The bus was driving toward the hospital, and through the crow's eyes, I could see that the entrance to the hospital itself was also swamped with the dead. My eye twitched at that, but I sighed and focused on the main task at hand: killing the zombies, whose numbers were dwindling by the second, until there were none left at all.
Right at the moment when there were no dead left on the roof, the bus stopped in front of the hospital, and I opened my own eyes.
"Open the door!" I shouted to Marikawa, and when she did, I ran out of the bus, pulling the saw toward me.
The saw flew toward me from the roof, dripping blood, and I sighed, directing it at the closed gates. It instantly flew toward the gates, tore them off their hinges, and began to kill all the dead who were in front of the hospital entrance.
"Isao, what's happening?!" Takashi appeared right next to me, grabbing my shoulder, almost making me lose control of my saw.
"Nothing special, just killing the dead!" We had to shout because of the large number of moaning zombies in front of the hospital. There were a lot of them, a fuck-ton of them. The number present here was just incredible, and for some reason, it gave me a bad feeling.
A feeling that said something was wrong here, but I kept killing the dead.
"A lot of survivors are on the roof. Guard the bus, don't let the zombies get near it." And there were enough dead on the street, so they'd have work to do, too. Ah, shit… a pain pulsed right in the center of my head, for the second time, almost making me lose control of my saw, but I didn't.
The sound of tearing flesh, breaking bones, and the saw colliding with meat could probably be heard from the other end of the street. So it wasn't surprising that the survivors from the roof approached the railing and watched what I was doing with disbelief and amazement, their eyes fixed on my saw and on me as I waved my arms from side to side.
I even had to aim with my hand where the saw should move so as not to lose control, until finally, in front of the entrance, nothing remained of the dead but piles of flesh and blood. There was blood literally everywhere.
"Ha… ha…" My hands were shaking and slowly lowered as I barely regained my composure, and I just realized one thing.
Creating and controlling metal was an incredibly energy-intensive task, but I didn't feel any of it because of one thing: a single trait.
Steel Man. It had been helping me all this time. It was thanks to this trait that my ability didn't make me starve and want to sleep after every use.
Right now, I was just strained, as if I had run a marathon. But without Steel Man, I would have been lying on the ground exhausted long ago, not just strained.
[Kill over 500 zombies]
[Silver Ticket]
[Save over 10 people]
[Silver Ticket]
[Fulfill the promise made to the two girls]
[Bronze Ticket]
"Isao?" Mom was beside me, looking at me with concern, holding my hand in hers.
"E-everything's fine… ha-ah…" Right after my words, I heard the joyful cries of the people from the roof. They were cheering enthusiastically and celebrating, hugging each other, waving at me, and generally rejoicing that they had been saved.
I waved back at them, and they cheered even louder. My group, which had been fiercely killing the zombies heading toward the bus, seemed to gain even more strength and began to swing their weapons even more furiously. In Kouta's case, he started shooting even faster, taking his aim off the target the very instant the crack of his improvised rifle sounded.
"Huu, now everything is definitely fine. Wait here, Mom, I'll go save the people." My body moved toward the hospital, but not toward the entrance, just in its direction.
Concentrating, I began to create a staircase. A sturdy iron staircase was literally building itself out of thin air under my feet, one that should be able to support the weight of all those people.
I wasn't going to go inside the hospital. Even if I got more tickets, I wouldn't risk my life and the lives of others. I'd just create the staircase right here and now.
With each step, I moved forward and up, and when I took the last step, I was already level with the roof, and the final step was just a centimeter from the roof floor. The people on the other side of the railing looked at me with eyes full of disbelief and almost fanatical joy.
My hands rose, and tendrils emerged from the staircase, easily tearing the railing in two, opening a path for them, and I stepped onto the roof, pointing at the stairs.
"Please." A smile formed on my lips as I watched many of them crying tears of happiness, clutching their children in their arms. A wave of grateful words followed, but I waved my hand, silencing them all. "I accept your gratitude, but it's better if we all get off this roof right now, and after that, you can thank me if you wish." Most of them immediately began to descend the stairs, except for those men and a few of the kids.
The men started walking toward me, and when they got close, they dropped to their knees, pressing their heads to the ground. The boy followed them belatedly. The girls' father was the first, immediately setting aside his crutch, and this just surprised me. The words that followed were even more shocking.
"We thank you, Kami-sama."
"What? No, no, get up right now! I'm not a Kami, and definitely not some spirit!" I wanted to pull the girls' father up from the ground, but he pressed his head stubbornly against the floor.
"No, we cannot stand until you accept our gratitude." His voice was confident, as if I, standing before him, were a real Kami, a god in every sense. And all this in front of literal kids, whose mothers also didn't know what to do.
"No, man, get up from that dogeza!" But he didn't, only pressing his head harder against the floor. "I accept, goddammit, I accept your gratitude, but I'm not a Kami! Understand that I'm just a guy who accidentally got a superpower!" I couldn't even seem like a delinquent right now, because I was so fucking embarrassed.
The dogeza was only used in moments when it was truly important and significant, but it was more often used to beg for forgiveness, or when one needed to express the deepest level of gratitude, just like this, when a person is saved from certain death.
And I was embarrassed because this man was an adult, he looked over 30, his leg was broken, but he still fell to the floor and pressed his head down to express his gratitude.
The kids started to be led away, and they, along with their mothers and grandmothers, probably began to go down, while I somehow managed to start pulling this guy up from the ground. After him, the second man and the kid also began to rise from their knees.
"Thank you again for saving our lives, Kami-sama." Those were the man's words as he stood up, leaning on his crutches.
"Why the hell are you stuck on this 'Kami-sama' bullshit!" The kids were gone, so I could safely yell at this stubborn mule. "I'm not a Kami! I just got a superpower to create and control metal!"
"Hmm, I understand." He nodded, as if my words had finally gotten through to him. "So you are the Kami of metal?"
"No, I'm not a Kami at all! I'm human, old man!" My hand reached out and I grabbed his bald head. "Hu-man! I am human! I have human flesh and blood!"
"That is clear. Even in human incarnation, your body is stately and vast, as if sculpted to contain all your power!" Fuck, what is wrong with him.
"Ugh, someone, anyone, explain it to him!" I pointed at this old man, looking at the other man and the kid.
"Explain what?" The man looked at me, confused, as did the kid.
"That I'm not a Kami!"
"But…" the kid spoke up. "Aren't you a Kami?"
"Ugh…! Shut up! Quickly, go down and get to the bus!" As one, they obeyed me and began to descend the staircase, while I, blushing with anger, followed behind them.
Yeah, I'm not a Kami, goddammit! I'm just a person who, thanks to some magical, cosmic, divine joke, got a Gacha and a lucky pair of powers, but definitely not a Kami!
Every clang of the metal was like a tick right next to my ear. My head already hurt from using my powers all day, and these two with their "Kami-sama" made it hurt even more.
When we finally got down, I noticed they had all stopped and were looking at me, making me sigh.
"Why are you standing there? Go to the bus…" I couldn't finish my words.
"…aaaAAAH!" Somewhere from the depths of the hospital, a wild scream reached us, and literally seconds later, the wall was smashed open. Through the smoke and dust, I noticed the outline of something fucking huge.
"Run, fuckers, to the bus!" My body didn't tremble; I wasn't too shocked. I thrust out my hand, pulled part of the staircase toward me, simultaneously creating a shield from that part. And it seems I did it just in time, as I felt a fucking powerful impact send me flying into the security booth, which I crashed through with my body.
"F-fuck…" I heard screams of terror and worry from the direction of the bus, while all the air was knocked out of my body. My head was spinning, not to mention the shield was lying somewhere on the ground, but I was already pulling it back to me, at the same time lifting my spinning head and looking at who this goddamn bastard was.
And in front of me was an over-two-meter-tall bastard, with dark gray skin that looked incredibly tough even at a glance. Its mouth had fucking huge fangs, but the most noticeable thing about it was the two pairs of arms right below where a normal person's arms would be. And right now, this creature was staring straight at me, not looking away.
And in that moment, I remembered one thing. The dead feel heat—at least, that's what we thought. But what if they don't see heat... but life force, if such a thing exists? The situation was shitty, and the only word to describe it was…
"Fuck…"