In the end, Shuya still didn't give Saeko the full "reward" she was craving.
Time was tight. Satisfying her properly would've taken at least an hour or two, and they still had to head home for lunch. So the best he could do was a few quick, sweet little moments of closeness.
After spending just enough time spoiling his purple-haired beauty, the two of them climbed back onto the motorcycle and continued down the road.
Halfway there, Saeko suddenly asked, "Shuya-kouhai, where are we heading next?"
Instead of answering directly, Shuya tossed the question back at her. "Saeko-senpai, where do you think the highest concentration of people in Bedmaster City would be right now?"
Where people were most concentrated…
Which really meant: where would the biggest clusters of zombies be?
"The shopping district?" Saeko answered almost instantly, then paused and added, "The one near the train station?"
"That's a solid guess, but…" Shuya didn't shoot her down right away. "You're missing one key detail, Senpai. In normal times, yeah, the station-area shopping district would be packed. But when danger hits, an open place like that with tons of exits and escape routes? People scatter in every direction. The noise from the fleeing crowd pulls the zombies away too. So unless something really weird happened, zombie density there actually wouldn't be that high."
"Really?" Saeko rested her cheek against his back, thinking it over. It made sense when she pictured it.
She lifted her head again. "Then where do you think the zombies are thickest right now?"
"Schools and office buildings," Shuya answered without hesitation.
"Office buildings?" Saeko blinked, clearly confused.
She understood the school part perfectly—they'd lived through that nightmare yesterday. Fujimi Academy had fallen in just a few hours, turning all their classmates into mindless monsters. Last night's body count had been insane.
But office buildings? That was new territory for a girl who'd spent her whole life training swordsmanship at the family dojo.
"Why office buildings?" she asked.
"Simple," Shuya said with a grin. "Yesterday was a weekday. Office districts in any city are basically huge clusters of buildings packed together. And the outbreak hit in the afternoon—right in the middle of the workday, before anyone could clock out. All the adults were still at their desks."
"Each floor has anywhere from a few companies to twenty or more. One building alone could easily hold over a thousand people. And unlike shopping districts, office towers don't have a ton of escape routes. Usually just two stairwells at opposite ends. Elevators? Maybe eight at most, often only two. If zombies get inside and the situation goes bad fast… those people are basically trapped."
Of course, this was still just Shuya's educated guess. They'd find out for sure once they got there—he could expand his En and scan the buildings in seconds.
For now, though, he'd already started treating every school and office tower in Bedmaster City like a personal monster-farming dungeon.
"I see…" Saeko's eyes sparkled with admiration. "You're amazing, Shuya-kouhai. You really think everything through."
She didn't actually understand half the business stuff he'd said, but that didn't matter. As long as Shuya was by her side, she was happy. Even the bloodlust she used to crave most had become optional.
Saeko asked again, "So where are we actually going? Another school or an office building?"
"Neither," Shuya said with a helpless chuckle. "Gas station."
"Gas station?" Saeko tilted her head, wondering if somehow the zombies there outnumbered everything else he'd just described.
Shuya patted the fuel tank under them and sighed. "Because this thing is about to run dry. We need gas."
Between last night's long ride and this morning's detour, the motorcycle was running on fumes. If he didn't refuel soon, he'd have to waste aura using Manipulation to keep it moving—and that got expensive fast.
"Hehe…" Saeko let out a dry little laugh, suddenly embarrassed by how dramatically her brain had overcomplicated things.
Luckily, Shuya's mental map of the city was spot-on. There was a gas station just up ahead. They'd make it before the bike completely died.
But the second they rolled into the station…
Things got interesting.
A group of rough-looking punks—dyed hair in every color, bats, knives, the whole delinquent starter pack—stepped out from the shadows and corners, slowly surrounding the motorcycle.
"Jackpot today," the green-haired leader muttered, eyes lighting up as he stared at Saeko behind Shuya. "What a beauty."
He snatched a classic yakuza-style blade from one of his underlings and swaggered forward, sneering in thick street slang, "Kid, you're one lucky bastard bringing a woman like that. Leave the bike and the girl. Walk away and I won't kill you."
Saeko leaned close to Shuya's ear and whispered, "Want me to handle this?"
Neither of them took the thugs seriously for even a second.
"No need," Shuya said calmly. "I've got it."
He looked the green-haired punk dead in the eye, voice flat. "You're right—I am pretty lucky. But you? You just hit the jackpot in the worst way possible."
Up until now, Shuya had been wondering how he was going to get his hands on live test subjects to study the zombie virus—how it spread, how strong the infection really was. He had a bottom line; he didn't just attack random civilians.
But now? The perfect lab rats had delivered themselves right to his doorstep.