—Swish!—
—Thud!—
The sharp sounds that cut through the air, followed by a series of heavy thuds, came from Nach, who was performing baseball bat tricks to hype himself up for the upcoming fight against the undead.
He swung the bat and let it go midway, making it spin rapidly in midair before catching it again for a sharp, powerful strike. Then, spinning it in his hand, he tossed it behind his back so it bounced off the floor, catching it with his other hand. For his final trick, he kicked a standing baseball bat, making it spin in front of him, then caught it and swung sharply—as if to say he was ready to go.
—"Woah!"—
—Clap!—
The praise and applause came from the students and teachers—especially Saeko—who were impressed by Nach's performance.
"Tsk… What a show-off."
The annoyed, irritated remark came from Takashi, and it didn't go unnoticed by Nach. Or rather, Takashi said it intending for Nach to hear it.
Was the MC of the story supposed to be this annoying? Nach thought, secretly glancing at Takashi's direction.
Takashi's character was supposed to be an easy-going high school student struggling with his feelings for Rei, who broke their childhood pinky promise to marry him and instead started dating his friend Hisashi.
He was supposed to be someone who easily gave up and always backed down in difficult situations—at least according to Rei. He was insecure about constantly being compared to Hisashi, especially by Rei. Not to mention, he had violent tendencies. After all, he slapped Rei in the face at the beginning of the story.
Well, that's common among teenagers… Still, I hate him for that, Nach thought, making no effort to defend a guy who would slap a girl in the face—even if a zombie outbreak was about to hit the school.
A pervert kissing a girl to calm her down from her emotional outburst was far better—or so Nach thought, to praise himself.
Bringing his thoughts back to why Takashi seemed to hate him, Nach could only think of one possible reason.
Did I just erase all his chances for character development?
Since Hisashi didn't die, Takashi never had the chance to man up and take the lead. His tendency to give up easily remained. Rei also continued to rely on Hisashi and stayed as his girlfriend, which only made Takashi's insecurities grow as the new plot of the story unfolded.
To put it simply…
This brat is lashing out at me to relieve his stress... I mean mental stress, not any other kind.
Despite feeling sorry for him—Nope. Nach wasn't feeling sorry at all.
"Do you also teach competitive combat sports, Sensei?"
Saeko's voice brought Nach's attention back from his annoyance toward Takashi.
"It's a bit sad to say, but I didn't get the chance to study any sport such as kendo."
Nach's expertise with weapons, as a survival nerd and apocalypse enthusiast, was limited to baseball bats, fireman's axes, sledgehammers, and other kinds of blunt weapons suited for a muscular berserker-type guy like him—and of course, guns.
He never had the chance to fully study or master kendo, or any sword-breathing technique, for one simple reason—he wasn't Japanese.
Huh?
At that thought, a sudden realization struck Nach.
Why does everyone seem to be speaking English? Is their language being translated by READER'S VIEWPOINT for my convenience? Is mine being translated into Nihongo as well?
"Then can you please teach me those moves you did earlier?"
Once again, Saeko's voice snapped Nach out of his thoughts, and he responded to her request.
"Only if you teach me a bit of kendo as well, Saeko—ouch!"
"Stop that perverted grin of yours and let's go."
At Kyoko's remark, as she dragged Nach by pulling on his ear, Takayama, Imamura, Ishi, and Morita—who had been holding the barricade—dashed away from the door.
The barricade of tables and chairs collapsed, and a dozen undead slowly filed through the now-open doorway, one after another.
—Swish!—
—Thud!—
The sharp sounds that cut through the air were followed by a series of heavy thuds as Nach bashed the heads of the undead with his baseball bat—needing only one strike to either smash their skulls or break their necks.
Blackened blood, brain matter, red eyeballs, and broken teeth scattered across the floor before the undead even fell.
With Kyoko behind him for safety, Nach pushed through the swarm, leaving a gruesome trail in his wake.
The moment the two of them passed through the open door and Nach began fighting the undead down the staircase to the fourth floor, the students quickly started barricading the door again.
"Please be careful, Nach, Kyoko!" Shizuka shouted, voicing everyone's concern. But Nach and Kyoko's safety wasn't their only worry.
"Now let's talk about who'll go next if Pervert-sensei and Hayashi-sensei fail their task and turn undead," Saya said bluntly—saying what everyone else didn't want to talk about.
---
While the students and teachers at the rooftop discussed who would volunteer to go down to the faculty room and get the bus keys in the morning if Nach and Kyoko failed, the pair easily pushed through the undead still lurking inside the school.
It wasn't just because of Nach's trained combat skills. Most of the undead students and teachers were already at the ground floor or outside the building—with those who didn't follow Kyoko's instructions from the second broadcast and tried to escape instead of heading to the rooftop.
Since the undead only responded to sound, it was a simple choice between stealth or combat. Nach, of course, wanted to show off to Kyoko, but keeping her safe was far more important.
However, even if reaching the faculty room on the second floor wasn't physically difficult, it was still horrifying—or rather, heartbreaking—especially for Kyoko.
As they snuck past classrooms full of undead students—students who had obeyed her instructions to stay put inside their classroom but ended up cornered and devoured by the undead—Kyoko trembled.
"It wasn't your fault, Kyoko," Nach said, consoling her as he embraced her tightly, letting her bury her face in his chest to muffle her cries so the undead wouldn't hear.