The feudal lord of Hayabusa, Ryouta, was one of the many adherents of the rulers of this world, the sages.
However, that didn't mean he was a fan of them.
He had a simple reason for harboring an aversion against them, a reason that was difficult to ignore for someone like him, who considered themselves an upstanding human being: Pretty much everyone that had to do with them was a jerk.
Although, no matter how he thought of them and their methods, the fact that they were the ones repelling the otherworldly calamities was true.
Right now, one such jerk was before him, leisurely sipping his tea. Masayuki, acolyte of Lain and captain of the Anti-Death Battalion, sat on the opposite end of the short-leg table, his legs stretched out wide in a fashion that couldn't be much more arrogant.
"Just how many tragedies did you cause on your way here!?"
Ryouta smashed his fist down on the table.
The room they were currently in was part of the building Ryouta made use of for his political duties as feudal lord; the same room he was just panicking in due to the report of a terrible tragedy occurring in his town, when suddenly the man responsible for that very tragedy leisurely walked in.
"Just doing some local resupplying, a'ight? Zombies gotta be replaced pretty frequently, y'see."
"Don't screw with me!"
The whole town had fallen into chaos because of the massacre that Masayuki and his small army had started.
Acolytes were certainly allowed to use force when meeting an obstacle that stopped them from accomplishing their tasks, but based on what had been reported to Ryouta the armored vehicles actually went out of their ways to hit as many pedestrians as they could -- their conduct was clearly motivated by pure malice.
"What in the hell did you even come here for!? I'm the one Lain tasked with governing this city, there's no reason for you to get involved, none whatsoever!"
"Why so cold, man? Didn't we survive the same battlefield, brothers in arms and all?"
"Survive, really? Didn't you die a long time ago!? Find a coffin to rot in already, damn it!"
Although one had to admit, their fates did seem entwined. Back in their days as sage candidates they both fought under Lain as their leader, and now as acolytes they were in that same boat once more.
"I'm searching for some people, just cooperate."
Not in the mood to bicker it out, Masayuki moved on to the main topic.
"I refuse!"
"Nah, this is an order from Lain, no refusing here."
Ryouta was at a loss for words. If Masayuki was telling the truth then there really was no choice but to obey.
"The people I'm after are two Japanese, both sage candidates."
"If they're candidates then just go contact the sage responsible for them!"
"No can do, they're defective goods. The system didn't install in them so we can't use Trace."
"So what? You think I know every Japanese that goes in and out of my city?"
"Hey, I know this town isn't controlling all the entering and leaving, I'm not expecting you to have any idea where they are."
"Then what was that about cooperating?"
"Basically we'll have your citizens do the cooperating, by hunting the Japanese. If they're in this town then it shouldn't be long till they're caught."
"…Wait. What's with that phrasing? Do you not know whether they're in Hayabusa right now?"
Ryouta felt a chill run down his spine. Surely, he thought, surely not even Masayuki would declare something as ridiculous as a hunt for Japanese without any evidence of their presence.
"Ah well, there was this train accident not too far from here, right? It's pretty much guaranteed they were on that train, and not like they have anywhere else to go from there but the nearest town."
"And that's all the reasoning you have for wreaking havoc in my city!?"
"Hey now, this was Lain's order, alright? 'Find Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura and deal with them,' just like that. As long as it's for the sake of my mission anything's allowed, ain't that the truth?"
"Do you actually think a bunch of civilians will be able to help you with that mission?"
"No worries there, the Anti-Death Battalion has already been dispatched. Just gotta give the signals and they'll start attacking people."
"…What?"
Ryouta froze up. Until now Masayuki had been talking about searching for two Japanese, but all of a sudden he was talking about attacking his citizens; Ryouta hoped he misheard.
"Come on man, who'd actually join the effort if we just asked 'Hey there, please help us out'? You gotta make them taste the despair of death before they really try, like by threatening total annihilation if they don't find them in time."
"Are you kidding me? Who'd worry about your dumb manhunt in such a situation!?"
"If they don't then they die, simple stuff. They just gotta do some searching on the side while fleeing from the undead. Then again, if everyone died then that'd be the end of the manhunt as well, aye?"
His playful tone couldn't be overheard, making it known that the whole talk about acting for the sake of his mission was mere pretense, that in truth he only wanted to let his battalion run wild.
Even so, Ryouta could only gnash his teeth. As long as Masayuki continued to insist that he was acting in the name of Lain Ryouta could only abide.
"Come on, hand over the key already."
"…What's Sage Lain doing right now?"
Hayabusa's barrier was raised by Lain, and the duty of controlling it was given to Ryouta. The key was indispensable in that regard, it allowed one to release the barrier, strengthen it, and even restricting the sages' blessings was possible. It certainly wasn't something one handed over just like that.
"Lain's cleaning up after Santarou right now. Wouldn't be surprised if she showed up here before long actually, Santarou's territory wasn't too far from here after all. Don't look at me like you can't hand it over without Lain's permission, I've already told you I'm here under her orders."
Masayuki wouldn't dare use Lain's name to bluff, and knowing that, Ryouta pulled out his key and reluctantly shoved it over the table towards him.
"Damn it! Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get this town to where it is now!?"
Once Masayuki's battalion started moving there was no way this matter would be settled with just a manhunt; an image of Hayabusa in ashes was already coming afloat in Ryouta's mind. All he could do now was pray that the people Masayuki was looking for would be found quickly.
Masayuki practically snatched the key from the table and stood up.
"No need for that grim look, weren't disasters also part of those SimCity games you played? Pretty sure a zombie outbreak was one of 'em! And hey, doesn't the real fun part only start once you gotta rebuild your whole town? Then again, can't use those domestic affairs cheats in a survival horror game, eh?"
The Anti-Death Battalion captain tapped Ryouta's shoulder as he leisurely walked past him.
"Never played the 2013 edition, what the hell do I know? Just… god damn it."
'Maybe it's time to give up on the ten million megacity dream,' Ryouta thought as he dropped his head in gloom.
＊＊＊＊＊
A deformed figure slowly limped through a back alley.
It might have been possible to pass by him unharmed, but Yogiri decided to get rid of him anyway, just in case.
He released his power, upon which the figure stopped moving immediately. With a dull sound it collapsed to the ground, returning to its original state of a lifeless corpse.
"Of course, why wouldn't you be able to kill a zombie, haha."
It looked like Tomochika had gotten used to Yogiri's power by now.
[Oi, aren't you a little too relaxed? Pay some more heed to your surroundings]
And unhappy with her carefree attitude, Mokomoko called for some more caution.
"Not my fault there's nothing for me to do with Takatou-kun settling everything on his own. I mean, even a zombie apocalypse doesn't seem so bad now."
"Well, with how slow these guys are it's not like they're much of a threat."
"Sure, but just defeating them from afar is a pretty big deal already if you ask me. Don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to get too close to these."
The body that just fell to the ground was already in the process of decomposition, and in a shape that made it difficult to believe it had been able to move around just a few moments ago.
"Not sure where to go from here, honestly. Getting out of this town and heading straight to the capital sounds good, but that'd be quite the distance to travel on foot."
Yogiri spoke as they walked through another back alley, using its shadow for stealth.
Fortunately the town's search hadn't made any progress so far, the citizens were too busy dealing with the sudden zombie outbreak. However, even if they didn't have to worry about being captured any time soon, there wasn't anywhere for them to go after escaping Hayabusa.
"Hmm, guess there's not point in going to the train station either, under these circumstances."
Tomochika voided her thoughts. Earlier they intended to get away from Yuuki's slaves by taking the train to the capital, but now the situation had changed completely.
"Yeah, I doubt the trains are being operated right now. Also, there's a good chance we'd really get captured if we went to a public place like that."
"Actually, why are we being treated like wanted criminals anyway?"
"Well, we did kill a sage. They probably won't leave us alone for a while."
Nonetheless, Yogiri still viewed that one time as justified self-defense and held no regrets. But whether he regretted it or not, it increased the chances of getting caught up in some annoying mess quite drastically.
Just as Yogiri was thinking about what they should do next, a new announcement was made.
[And that's it for Zombie Time! Still alive, y'all? Sure the zombies have some power, but with the whole rotting and falling apart they've got going on they're way too slow to be any real threat, aren't they? No way you died to those, right? Well you better didn't because you'll be doing a manhunt now, it's now time to hunt the Japanese! The zombies are gonna stop attacking people from now on so go hunt me some Japanese. Oh right, I should mention that you won't have to worry about their usual cheat-like blessings, we restrained those. Ain't this a great chance to finally give those smug jerks the beating they deserve? H-o-w-e-v-e-r, in another hour we'll be moving on to Skeleton Time! These guys are a hell of a lot faster than zombies, and don't get me started on their strength! Do consider this hour your final chance of surviving this day. A'ight, good luck y'all. ]
Much like the last time, the torrent of insanity ended with a crack.
"Umm…"
[ Mhm, we might have to take this situation more seriously now.]
"Sounds like we'll get targeted for real from here on out."
Yogiri and Tomochika had certainly seen several people that were clearly Japanese in this city, but they were far from common and restricting that number to only those that were around 17 years old narrowed it down quite a bit.
Unlike earlier, now they really had to be cautious of their surroundings, but before Yogiri could even relay that thought to Tomochika it was already too late.
"I've found some! We've got two Japanese here!"
A whole gang of armed men appeared in droves from around the alley's corner.
All of them were covered in blood, but based on their looks they probably couldn't tell whether it was their own or that of someone else themselves: Their eyes were bloodshot and the air around them teemed with violence.
Yogiri had been trying to avoid a scenario like this, but it appeared his efforts ended in vain; with how strong the men's killing intent was it didn't take Yogiri's power to tell what they were planning.
"Die."
Yogiri used his power and the barricade of people before them crumbled at once. However, it seemed like their presence was already picked up on by more people, based on the new people he could sense making their way to them.
"Did they think I wouldn't kill civilians? Getting kind of fed up to be honest."
Even if there was some manipulation happening, all of them made the conscious choice to attack him and Tomochika, and Yogiri didn't feel any remorse killing a would-be attacker. As far as innocent bystanders went he did try his best not to kill them.
And like that, Yogiri was starting to feel some irritation towards the person responsible for this whole mess.