Bio Defense ~A City Built in a World That Has Ended~ - Chapter 3-7

Chapter 3-7

“Ah, ah… Why, what have you done? You know what you’ve done!”

Shaking her voice and covering her mouth with her hands, Sachiko said this while looking at Katsuya with disbelief.

“Shut up, you see this kind of thing everywhere you go outside. I just don’t bite, that’s all.”

Katsuya replied, sounding genuinely annoyed. He added, “You’ll be like this soon too.”

Behind Sachiko, the woman who had been called Maejima was standing still, her face pale. She had been so shocked that her mouth was still open, and she was staring blankly. Eventually, she looked back and forth between Katsuya and the fallen Tanaka, took a deep breath, and tried to scream.

“M-Murderer…”

As Maejima tried to scream, Katsuya threw the wooden sword at her. He didn’t want her to scream now, and he thought a little more impact was needed for the situation.

The wooden sword hit Maejima’s face, and she crouched down, covering her face. Katsuya used this opportunity to scoop up the blood flowing from Tanaka’s wound with his hands and pressed it against Sachiko’s mouth, which was still open in shock.

“Ugh… What are you doing!”

Sachiko finally came to her senses, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and grabbed Katsuya by the collar.

“Hmph…”

Katsuya, who seemed to feel nothing, pushed her hand away, grabbed Maejima’s hair, and forced her to raise her face. He then pressed Tanaka’s blood against her mouth, just as he had done to Sachiko.

“Ugh, enough… you kid!”

Enraged by Katsuya’s bizarre behavior, Maejima stood up and tried to grab him. Sachiko also tried to catch Katsuya.

Katsuya pushed them away roughly and laughed menacingly, wondering which one to deal with next.

Feeling a sense of danger from Katsuya, the two of them tried to subdue him by attacking him together, taking advantage of the fact that he had thrown away his weapon.

“Ah. I guess it’s about time.”

Katsuya, who had been backing away and pushing them away roughly, said this and let himself be caught on purpose. He then whispered,

“The world is broken, so what’s wrong with killing?”

As he said this, the two of them grabbed and hit Katsuya, completely losing control. Katsuya’s consciousness, however, was focused on the stairs behind him, and finally, the moment he had been waiting for arrived.

Someone must have heard the noise, as they started climbing the stairs quickly from halfway up. Katsuya, pretending to resist desperately, said,

“Help me, I’m going to be bitten.”

***

After parting ways with Katsuya, Hinata carefully explored the first floor but found nothing unusual. There were several heavy iron doors that looked like old emergency exits, all of which were locked from the inside.

“Excuse me.”

Hinata opened the door quietly, saying this, but there was only an empty space inside. There was a staircase at the back, and a door at the end, but neither could be opened, as they were locked.

The other room was a bleak warehouse-like space with metal shelves, and there was another room with four lockers and a mirror on the wall, and a sink. That was all there was on the first floor.

After searching the first floor, Hinata climbed the stairs that Katsuya had gone up. There was only an office-like room, a utility room, and a linen room with sheets, covers, and washroom supplies.

“This place has a strange layout.”

Hinata stopped at the stairs, turned around, and muttered these words.

She had gone to all the places she could, but the second floor was much narrower than the first floor. This was because there was a direct passage from the first-floor parking lot to the third-floor guest rooms on the other side of the wall, but Hinata had no idea about this.

“I doubt there’s a hidden door, though.”

As she muttered this, she was about to go up to the third floor when she heard a noise coming from that very floor.

It sounded like more than one person.

“… Is there someone up there? Or…”

Hinata tightened her resolve as she muttered this and climbed the stairs to the third floor. She tried to climb quietly, but stairs tend to echo more than she expected.

As she reached the landing, she realized the noise was the sound of people struggling, and she quickly climbed the rest of the stairs. What she saw was Katsuya’s back and the two women who were attacking him.

Their mouths were covered in blood, and by the time Hinata saw them, both women had already grabbed Katsuya.

There was no time to lose. Hinata noticed that Katsuya had said something to her.

“Help me, I’m going to be bitten.”

Hinata moved unconsciously from there.

She thrust the Onimaru forcefully at the left side of Katsuya’s shoulder. Because Katsuya was in the way, she couldn’t swing it around. She didn’t have time to go around him either.

The thrust, powered by the step, cleanly entered the throat of the woman with bright hair, who was closer to Hinata.

“Kwah!”

The woman arched her back, spat out blood bubbles along with air, and stumbled backward as she tried to fall. Hinata moved at the same time, stepped in front of Katsuya, and struck the woman’s throat as she fell face up.

A disgusting “glug” sound was heard.

Then, Hinata turned around and saw the other woman, who had been thrown off by Katsuya, on her hands and knees, showing her back to Hinata.

Without thinking too much, Hinata swung the Onimaru and brought it down on the back of her head, aiming for the medulla oblongata.

The woman’s body twitched violently, and Hinata exhaled as she saw her stop moving.

“Are you okay?”

Hinata asked Katsuya this.

Katsuya, who had been attacked, had a strange, unpleasant smile on his face.

“Thanks, Hinata-chan. I managed to take care of the other one, though.”

Hinata felt a sense of dread and anxiety as she looked in the direction Katsuya was pointing. There was another woman lying there.

Hinata’s heart skipped a beat as she saw this. Since she had left to look for her brother, she had fought against several infected individuals, whether she wanted to or not. While fighting, she had come up with her own strategies. She remembered that if a strong impact was delivered to the back of the head or the base of the neck, which were considered weak points, the infected individuals would stop moving. On the other hand, no matter how much damage was done to other parts of their bodies, their movements would not stop.

… She didn’t want to think about this any further. Perhaps Hinata’s reason was trying to stop her from thinking, but the answer was right in front of her, and her thoughts kept progressing despite her wishes.

The woman Katsuya had “taken care of” had what looked like stab wounds on her abdomen, and she was bleeding profusely. However, Hinata couldn’t find any other injuries on her body.

Hinata hoped it was just her imagination, and she asked Katsuya, her voice shaking and her throat feeling parched.

“Um… um, Okura-kun… about these people…”

Katsuya’s lecherous smile remained on his face.

“I was prepared for the possibility of being attacked by infected individuals or looters, but I never expected to be attacked by my classmates and their friends.”

Katsuya said this in a light tone.

Hinata couldn’t bring herself to look at Katsuya’s face. She didn’t want to see that smile, and she couldn’t take her eyes off the woman she had just killed.

“… Um, they… they got infected…”

Katsuya seemed to know what Hinata was going to ask, and he cut her off, his words ringing in her ear.

“It’s okay. In this world, it doesn’t matter if they’re infected or not.”

Hinata’s knees started shaking, and she couldn’t stand anymore, so she sat down on the spot.

“Me, one. Hinata-chan, two. We’re accomplices!”

Katsuya said this in a tone that sounded almost happy, as if two good friends had found the same thing and were saying, “We match!”

“I… I killed someone?”

Hinata’s mouth formed these words as if she were asking herself. At the same time, a “clank” sound echoed as the Onimaru fell from her hand.

Hinata tried to pick it up unconsciously, as her strength had left her, but the vivid red that covered it, different from the blood of the infected, seemed to prove that she had done this.

If this had happened in her everyday life, she wouldn’t have recovered. Even though they were attacking her, the two elderly women had no weapons, and Hinata could have taken the time to assess the situation calmly.

However, in this world, which had become a place of chaos, women were also dangerous, whether they were infected or not. Hinata couldn’t afford to be complacent.

Also, Hinata, who had seemed so calm in this abnormal world, was not entirely in a normal state of mind. Even if they had mutated, Hinata should have hesitated to attack the vital points of human-shaped beings, especially those who were still moving, with an iron pipe.

Hinata was strong, but she was still a middle school student.

Furthermore, Katsuya’s malicious guidance had taken away Hinata’s time to think and make a calm judgment.

In a way, Hinata had fallen into a trap, but she no longer had the luxury of time to think.

“I don’t want to…”

Hinata took a few steps back, muttering this. Although it had been a short period, she couldn’t bring herself to pick up the Onimaru, which had been her partner in battle.

“No one will know about this unless I tell them. And no one will know I did it unless you tell them. We’ll share this secret together.”

Katsuya, who had somehow come to stand next to Hinata, said this in a whisper.

Hinata was so shaken that she didn’t even realize when Katsuya had moved. She couldn’t even see that Katsuya was smiling with satisfaction.

After a slight hesitation, Katsuya put his arm around Hinata’s shoulder, but she didn’t react.

“It’s okay, I’m here. Let’s go. I think it’s better not to go back to our families for a while. We can go back when things have calmed down a bit.”

Hinata reacted to the word “family,” and she slowly looked at Katsuya before starting to cry.

Hinata, who had been shaken by the realization of what she had done, was now at a loss and could only cling to Katsuya’s words.

Following his guidance, she left the scene, and as she did, she caught a glimpse of the Onimaru out of the corner of her eye.

From the many pipes, Hinata had chosen the one that felt the most comfortable in terms of length and weight, and she had even named it. It had been her comrade-in-arms, but now, even though she had liked it so much, she could no longer hold it.

The girl, who was now in a state of shock and confusion, descended the stairs with her arm around the boy, who was smiling strangely.

The Onimaru, which had fought alongside Hinata and defeated many infected individuals, suddenly found itself without a purpose and lay on the floor, bearing a few scratches and a little blood, with the word “Onimaru” written on it by Hinata.

TIPS: The Setting Collection Part 6: Infected 1

The color of the infected individuals’ blood changes to a dark red over time because their bodily functions are failing. They are unable to produce fresh blood.

As for the vivid blood that Hinata sees covering the Onimaru when she drops it, please consider it a kind of shock-induced hallucination. The blood is only attached to certain parts, but it appears to have spread all over.