January 13
Hanashu had been dragged down in the fall as well, but with Kyoko's soft body breaking the impact, she had not been badly hurt.
"Kyoko!"
Caught completely off guard by the sudden accident, Hanashu cried out in alarm. But the fallen Kyoko showed no sign whatsoever of waking up.
The infected from upstairs had already smashed through the locked door and joined up with the ones from the other side. Now they surged forward toward what must have looked to them like helpless prey.
One after another, the infected crawled and staggered closer, jaws gaping wide.
In the chaos, Hanashu had no idea where her glasses had gone. Half-blind now, unable to make out how many of them were closing in, she forced herself upright through the pain and locked the door behind them.
Bang.
The moment she finished, Hanashu collapsed again.
"Ah…"
But the pain in her body was not enough to break her will.
With both her ankle and knee injured, Hanashu moved like some crawling animal, clamping her teeth into Kyoko's blood-soaked clothes and dragging her forward bit by bit. Hands and knees scraping against the floor, she crawled with all four limbs pressed to the ground.
Kyoko was much heavier than her. Hanashu gritted her teeth until her jaw ached, her delicate face smeared with blood. At that moment, she was like a she-wolf protecting her cubs, every inch of her radiating savage determination.
A distance that would normally have taken only a few steps now felt like the road to Shu—steep, impossible, endless. The door right in front of her might as well have been on the far side of the world.
Kyoko… I'll… get you somewhere… safe…
Even in this state, with both of them practically finished, she refused to stop. Takashiro Kyoko, their strongest fighter, lay completely unconscious. Their most powerful weapon had been flung aside when Kyoko fell, useless now. And Hanashu herself was already badly injured.
What would it matter even if they got inside? Either the infected would stay outside and the two of them would simply bleed out in the room… or worse, they would fail to get in and be torn apart right here at the door.
Her thick trousers had already been ground through, the cotton stuffing showing through the fabric. A straight line of blood marked her path across the floor.
"Just… a little… more…"
Her teeth, still clenched in Kyoko's clothes, were aching so badly they felt ready to fall out. Her hands, straining with all the strength they had left, were beginning to go numb. Hanashu was like a slab of beef still twitching after the cow had already died—nothing left but nerves firing on instinct.
At last, she dragged Kyoko all the way to the door.
But behind her, the infected were hammering at the iron-clad, foam-filled fire door, battering it until it shook like a ship tossed on waves.
"Open… open already… please…"
Hanashu forced herself upright, leaning against the wall, one hand clutching the fire hose cabinet for support. One hand braced on the wall, the other trembling as she fumbled for the key Kyoko had scavenged from the room's previous owner.
A door that would normally open with the simplest turn of a hand now felt like some rusted machine, old and neglected, creaking under strain.
At last, the key slid into the right lock.
The door turned.
Hanashu's eyes went wide. Her heartbeat soared, her blood pressure spiked, sweat pouring down her face like rain. Panting raggedly, she yanked the key free and resumed dragging Kyoko inside.
The infected had already smashed the fire door to ribbons. They could pour through at any second.
Hanashu quickened her pace.
Her sympathetic nervous system, driven into overdrive by pain and terror, flooded her body with adrenaline and noradrenaline. It was the very last support her body had left to give her.
At long last, she hauled Kyoko through the doorway. She locked the door behind them again, enduring the agony—and then, like a marionette whose strings had just been cut, she collapsed heavily beside Kyoko.
Outside, the infected finally broke through the last obstacle and spilled out of the ruined fire door. Some of the more frantic ones even shoved their companions straight through the windows, sending a number of them tumbling down below.
Howls and pounding merged into one chaotic, terrifying storm of sound. At least this door was a solid steel security door. It could hold for a little while longer.
For now, the hunters were outside.
But Kyoko and Hanashu were the ones trapped in the jar.
Hanashu lay there on the floor, wrapping herself around Kyoko's unmoving body.
Blood had already soaked through the carpet beneath them. Hanashu felt terribly, unbearably cold. Heat was draining from her body at frightening speed. The strength that had sustained her until now was finally gone.
Physical exhaustion. Mental agony. A stiff neck and shoulders. A splitting headache. Trembling limbs.
That was Hanashu's final state.
She was so sleepy. So desperately sleepy. She wanted to close her eyes and rest.
But not yet.
There was still one very important thing she had to do.
"I can't… go on, Kyoko… It looks like this time… we really are going to the other side. Before I die… there's something I want to tell you. Even if… you can't hear it…"
Her mind felt like it was about to burst apart, but Hanashu still forced her trembling voice toward Kyoko's ear.
"Takashiro Kyoko… I, Yurizono Hanashu, love you. In our next life… let's be lovers…"
In truth, the words were barely clear at all. Her voice was failing, almost entirely gone. Scalding tears spilled from her eyes, and Hanashu gathered every last scrap of strength left in her entire body into a single movement.
Then she pressed her lips to Kyoko's bloodstained red mouth.
Her long hair fell around them, hiding the image of their kiss.
After that, Hanashu remained draped over her, utterly spent, while her mind began to race through her life in flashing fragments, like a film reel spun at impossible speed.
The pounding outside still had not stopped.
Her father. Her mother. Her grandfather. Her grandmother…
Faces passed one after another through her mind.
Her brain clawed desperately through every memory she had, searching for some answer, some way to solve the nightmare in front of her.
But it found nothing.
Then, at last, her memories reached the day she first met Kyoko.
And there they stopped.
It was all Kyoko.
Every little moment they had shared.
They had known each other for less than five days—but those five days were the sort of life some people could never reach even in an entire lifetime.
They had eaten together.
Slept together.
Bandaged each other's wounds.
Told each other stupid jokes.
Scavenged supplies together.
Worked side by side to build a safehouse.
Built a home together.
And now, at the very end, they would go to the Yellow Springs together.
At the very end, Hanashu could no longer move at all. Her eyelids fell heavily shut. Her tears turned cold.
But pressed against Kyoko's face, a small smile appeared on her lips.
As though she were strangely content with this ending.
The two girls, lying in a pool of red, painted a scene of terrible beauty across the floor.
The air itself seemed to freeze.
And yet, in that frigid room, something began to stir.
A thunderous heartbeat rose like war drums, like an engine roaring to life.
Then, all at once, Takashiro Kyoko opened her eyes.
Her golden irises had narrowed into slitted pupils. Her short hair, stained with blood, rapidly turned crimson. The blood pooling on the floor began to gather around her. Her body flushed red, and her injuries began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Kyoko shot upright.
She scooped Hanashu into her arms and laid her carefully on the sofa, then began emergency treatment at once, moving with incredible speed. She cleared the blood from Hanashu's mouth, stopped the bleeding elsewhere, applied pressure, packed clean gauze with medicinal powder, and worked with frightening precision. In six or seven minutes, she had done everything she could.
But when she discovered internal bleeding—realized Hanashu's injuries were far too severe—Kyoko immediately opened the system shop.
"Is there medicine that can heal this right now? Hurry! I don't care how many points it costs. I'll go into debt if I have to!"
[Sorry. The current shop does not carry what you need. Given your current condition, you may use the virus's power to treat this lady.]
Kyoko remembered then that her system girl was still offline. What remained now was only a half-witted automated substitute.
She had no other choice.
Without hesitation, she sliced open her own wrist and fed Hanashu her blood—blood saturated with high concentrations of the virus.
After that, Kyoko didn't even spare a second to deal with her own wound. She snatched up her recurve bow and her long blade.
"You pieces of trash. You dared lay a hand on someone who belongs to me. You no longer have a future."
With that, Kyoko turned her blazing gaze toward the door.
She intended to open the interior window facing the corridor and the stairwell, and rain death on the infected outside.
She took up position by the bathroom window, where she had a clear view of the exterior corridor.
Swiftly, she plucked an arrow from the quiver, nocked it, and drew. Kyoko used a Mediterranean draw, hooking the string with three fingers.
Her body leaned slightly forward. Her left foot angled inward a little.
The first joints of her index, middle, and ring fingers held the bowstring. The arrow's nock sat between her index and middle fingers. She pulled to the absolute limit, so far the bow itself began to groan, then loosed all three fingers at once.
The arrow flew like a horse released from its reins.
Whistling through the air, it punched clean through two infected at once.
The bodies had barely hit the floor before their companions trampled them flat, and the gap they left was immediately filled by more.
The infected screamed and howled as they surged toward the narrow corridor. Some even leapt into the air, trying to jump straight across.
Although every arrow Kyoko fired turned two or more into skewered kebabs, the horde outside was still immense. And since Room 1503 held no fuel or oil, there was no way to recreate the fire tactic she had used before.
"Already out?"
Reaching back for another arrow, Kyoko's hand met empty air.
Only then did she realize she had fired the last of them.
Emotion surging like a storm, Kyoko called up the system shop and spent every last point she had—nine hundred and sixty-nine of them—on MON-50 directional anti-personnel mines.
"Six of them? Good. More than enough. Hahahaha…"
She tossed the bow aside.
Now it was time to send these infected back to the factory.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 32
Uma Musume: From Beginner 26
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