Saitama, Area B, Fujimi Academy.
It is a normal morning; students are sitting in their respective classes while their homeroom teacher is taking their attendance. Some problem students are still roaming here and there in the corridor and hallway, seemingly enjoying their day like they do every day. But is it going to stay a normal day? No, and only a single student knows that. Today is the day when the order collapses and society is destroyed due to a zombie outbreak, and Haru, our MC is looking at the timer going down second by second.
(Haru POV)
As I was sitting on a chair in the kendo club while looking at the timer as well as the students in the club, there were only 3 minutes left for mana influx. I looked at Saeko and nodded to myself, 'I will protect her if things go haywire.' I thought. As Saeko somehow saw me nodding while looking at her, she threw me a confused look, at which I just shook my head and signalled her to move towards me and she did just that. Excusing herself from the group of club members, who were asking for pointers or spars, she came towards me and asked.
"What's wrong? I noticed you have been out for a while; do you need something?" she asked me with worry evident in her gentle voice, and it caused me to feel warm in my heart.
"Nothing. Can't I just call you to sit with me, because I like being with you?" I just shook my head and said with a smile.
"Oh, are you finally thinking of inviting me to your to-be harem more directly?" She asked me with a teasing smile, to which I answered directly with "Yes".
She was stunned for some seconds before realizing the meaning of my words, and just as she was about to say something with a lovely smile and a tint of blush on her cheeks. She froze, not only her everyone in the room or the whole world froze for a second because the timer had hit zero and mana was flooded in the world. I could see the mana particles in the air and started absorbing them as much as I could. Along with it, I was also trying to test one of the theories, I have thought by using mana.
"Try absorbing the energy that is coming towards you as much as you can, Saeko," I said to her just as she got out of her daze, she looked at me for a while before nodding and doing as I had told her. I also continued doing the same while counting the no. of people who were able to absorb mana.
When the mana is fused with the system of the world and the world is flooded with mana along with granting abilities and potential people are also granted body strengthening done by absorbing mana for about 1-1.5 minutes. That is also the amount of time it takes for a person who can't control mana to zombify, after the influx of mana in the world.
The world always tries to maintain balance, so, humans are strengthened so that they will be able to match with the beasts that can use mana. Animals have an innate advantage over humans in physical power in one way or another, along with that they grow stronger by eating magic crystals that are present in the body of every non-human being or the zombified human.
Magic crystals are formed by the collection of berserk mana present in their body in a single point which is the brain for most cases but sometimes it is present where it is present in the heart or the heart itself has transformed into a magic crystal which is then called mana core.
They get stronger faster when compared to humans as they ingest a large amount of mana by eating the magic crystals. On the other hand, when a human kills a creature with a magic crystal, they only get purified energy from the berserk mana that is present in the body of the creature. Even the creatures that have magic crystal in their body have their body strengthened when they consume magic crystal mana, the magic crystal is where they store their mana for using abilities.
When 1.5 minutes were over, those who could control mana could feel they had grown stronger, and they also got information about their abilities. But they didn't have time to enjoy themselves as just as the 1.5 min were over the zombified student also started attacking the normal one and the normal one started defending themselves while trying to wake them (zombies) up. I can guess they are thinking that the zombies are normal like us and just can't control their power or something. Which is normal, I guess.
"They have zombified, and they cannot be saved. It is better to kill them before they cause us harm" I said while turning towards Saeko who also turned towards me, then she asked, "Are you sure?" and replied with "Yes".
She nodded and picked up her wooden sword just like me and we both dashed towards the people who had been zombified. Out of 10 club members present in the room only four of us are not zombified including me and Saeko. It took us little to no time to kill them, and I also got 40 points from killing four normal zombies. We killed the 6 zombies ignoring the protest of the other 2 awakened students. (The people who can control mana will be called awakeners)
"Take a look outside, if you can't hear it clearly," I said while coldly looking at the guy who had been shouting for a while that it was wrong; they were friends and all.
His name is Toga Kasaru, he always tries to oppose me in the club, as he has a crush on Saeko, who only looks at me in the club. He is a boy in his second year, with a height of 5'11 feet, muscular body, light brown hair black eyes and above average face. I have seen that he has been bitten on his right arm, but I didn't say anything for now.
Then I turned towards the girl who tried to stop us when we were going for the kills and is now looking around sadly. She looked towards me, and I gestured for her to look outside, and she did just that. Her name is Kazuki Yasashi, a girl from my class, she is one of the girls in the school who really loves me, and I also have good feelings for her.
She is a beautiful, friendly and gentle girl, with red-brown medium-sized hair that is kept in a ponytail style along with two thick bangs from the top of her head tracing along the side of her face on both sides, that gives her cheerful looks. Light brown eyes that give anyone who looks into them a serene feeling. Medium-sized breasts that would fit perfectly in the hands, slim waist and nice hips.
"Did you know this was going to happen?" When both Toga and Kazuki moved towards the window, Saeko asked me in a low and gentle voice, that could only be heard by the two of us.
"Yes, and I will tell you everything to you when the time is right, so believe in me, alright?" I said gently while holding her hand and looking into her eyes. She didn't move her hand, nor did she look away from my eyes.
"I have always believed in you, I just asked out of curiosity." She said with a smile while tightening the hold with my hand. Then I let go of her hand and turned towards the window along with Saeko.
As we looked out of the window what we saw was seen of carnage. Wherever you see, you will see zombies eating each other, while some were moving towards awakeners in front of them, trying to eat them. We also saw some awakeners fighting with zombies, while some were being eaten alive.
Then we saw someone who had been bitten by the zombie, turning into a zombie herself. Someone on our side fell down, and when we turned towards them, we saw Toga, who has sitting on his butt looking towards us with horror written on his face. Me and Saeko tightened the grip on our wooden swords which caused a gripping sound to be heard in the silent room, Kazuki also picked up her wooden sword, which caused Toga to move backwards while looking at us in denial.
"I-I-I will not turn in them, believe me, please. B-b-busujima-senpai please believe me." He shuttered while desperately speaking, not realizing that his eyes had turned almost completely black and half of his face had started becoming deathly pale, along with red and blue veins bulging out on his skin.
"I-I am still a human, you can't kill me, or you will become criminals!!!" Realizing that no one was listening to his plea he started shouting while turning around and trying to run away. But his fate had already been sealed, as, the gentle Kazuki also realized the seriousness of the situation.
I took out the CM9 that was tucked into the waist of my pants and shot him in the head. No sound was heard as the gun is modified and has an attached silencer. Both the girls turned their eyes on me. I could see the surprise in the eyes of Kazuki, which caused me to be surprised, after all, I just killed someone in front of her. It seems she is different from what I had thought, or it is just that it is also a part of her ability to adapt to any situation freely.
"Where did you get that from, Haru?" Kazuki asked me, unable to suppress her curiosity. Saeko didn't show much interest in it as she already knows almost everything about me. So, she walked towards the gate of the club room which was closed and looked out of the transparent part of the gate.
"I am Saya's bodyguard in school time, so I keep it in case of emergency. Now, let's check out the situation." I said and moved towards Saeko, without giving Kazuki the time to ask any other question. I have to check the condition of others as well, so, I don't have the leisure to chat right now.
"How is it?" I asked Saeko while standing behind her.
"There are 22 of them in the hallway, from what I can see." She said without looking back. "Let's move separately, you and Kazuki move towards the infirmary to get Shizuka and the bus keys from the staff room, while I will go get my classmates." As I said this, she turned towards me and nodded.
"By the way, what abilities did both of you get?" I asked them. even though I can see it with inspection, we don't have time to waste. As I asked them both of them answered me simultaneously. showing their complete trust in me.
"I got Null sword, rank U, that can cut through anything, even magic. This is my main power along with Frenzy, rank S-, as I continue fighting it filles a gauge with energy inside my body that can be used to increase every aspect of my power for 30s and has a cooldown of 2min." Saeko said with a proud smile.
I am not surprised after all she is shown as the strongest character among the main characters, so this is a given. I just patted her head, which caused her to smile happily. This resulted in Kazuki looking at Saeko with jealousy.
"I have a Water maker and controller, rank S, which allows me to produce or create water from nothing and use it in any way possible. Then there is Speed dodge, rank B-, that allows me to increase my speed to help me dodge my opponent's attacks." She said confidently, and I could see that she was hiding something. But still, this surprised me, after all, she is an unknown character in the canon, and S-rank abilities would be very rare even for main characters, but she has it.
Maybe, she was affected by my luck, as she always stays close to me during school time. I looked at her eyes which were filled with expectation, as if asking for something. I patted her with one hand while making a grabbing motion towards the inner pocket of my jacket, with my other hand. Under the pretext of gabbing something from my pocket, I took out 3 extended clips of CM9.
"Take this and go towards the infirmary. Let's meet at the gate of the main hallway on the ground floor." I said while passing the pistol along with the 3 magazines. She just kept staring at me without even looking at the gun, with her face asking, 'What about you?' So, I answered her.
"I have another one in my bag, now take it." She nodded her head, took the clips and kept them in her pocket, then kept the pistol in one hand while the wooden sword in the other.
"Get ready, I am opening the gate now." After saying that I opened the gate and four zombies tried to get in. Two were shot in the head by Saeko, one had its head broken by my sword and the last one was pierced with a water arrow.
While running towards the stairs, I killed 10 zombies, Saeko killed 7 and Kazuki killed 5. When we reached the stairs, we looked at each other, then after nodding at each other, Saeko and Kazuki moved down the stairs and I moved straight towards the class, where I could see every one of our class and other class who awakened, running towards me, while being followed by a hoard of zombies.