As Sosuke Kitahara stared at the phone, his fingers tapped rapidly across the screen. He soon found a photo in the gallery.
In it was a girl with soft peach-pink shoulder-length hair, tied up into a bun with a black ribbon. She wore the familiar Sobu High uniform, her smile sweet, and her features equally charming. Wasn't that Yui Yuigahama?
Standing beside her was a slightly older woman, graceful and elegant. The resemblance between them was unmistakable. The woman's slender fingers rested lightly on Yui's shoulder, like a pair of stunning sisters.
She had a slim figure and skin as white as snow. Not only was she beautiful, but her aura carried a gentle sophistication, a pure and fresh beauty like a lotus rising from clear water. She was simply captivating.
"This can't be a mother and daughter pair… Anyone would believe they're sisters."
Sosuke found his gaze drawn to the image, unable to tear himself away. He only snapped back to reality when the low battery warning popped up on screen.
Quickly, he returned to the unread ssages. Most of them were heartfelt words from Yui and her mother, expressing their concern for the man, Yui's father and begging him to co ho as the world outside spiraled into chaos.
But it was the final ssage that truly caught Sosuke's attention.
The tistamp read 3:00 a.m. on September 21st. Judging from the tone, it had been sent by Yui herself.
"Dad, I don't know if you'll ever see this, or if you're even still alive. Uncle ca to the house in the middle of the night and told us that a safe zone is being built in Yamanashi Prefecture. Mom and I are going with him to Narita Airport now. I hope you're alive… I believe we'll see each other again soday."
Sosuke finished reading the ssage and sighed quietly. If the phone had been left behind in the car, it likely ant Yui's father had fled in a panic. Even if he was still alive, Chiba was so vast he probably never saw those dozen desperate ssages.
"Looks like soone from your school. Do you know her?"
Sosuke passed the phone back to Yukino Yukinoshita, who took one glance at the photo and gasped in surprise.
"Th-That's Yuigahama! How do you have a photo of her ugh, the phone's dead…"
"Yuigahama? She your friend?" Utaha Kasumigaoka asked curiously.
Yukino hesitated, then shook her head. "I don't have friends. She once asked our club for help with sothing… Since then, she would drop by the clubroom now and then. But she never submitted a proper application, nor was she approved by the faculty. Strictly speaking, I suppose you could call her a classmate from another class."
"Sigh, little Yukino really is a lonely girl."
Utaha leaned back lazily in her seat, twirling her hair as she gazed at Sosuke's back.
"You're not much better than her," Sosuke replied flatly.
He imdiately felt a kick against the back of his seat.
Once things settled, Sosuke gave them a summary of the ssages, then casually asked, "So, what kind of person is she?"
"Yuigahama?" Yukino paused, instantly understanding the deeper aning behind his question.
After a mont's thought, she replied, "From what I know, Yuigahama often hangs around Miura Yumiko. She's good at reading people and often tries to keep Miura happy to maintain their friendship. Her family seems… pretty normal."
"No way," Haruno Yukinoshita interrupted from the driver's seat, her eyes flicking toward the rearview mirror. "Narita Airport had already stopped selling tickets by noon that day and was placed under JSDF control. My mother told in our last call that military lockdown had begun, and even my father hadn't secured tickets yet. He just told us to return to Chiba as fast as we could."
"In other words, even if her family was ordinary, her uncle definitely wasn't. Forget whether he could get them to the airport just knowing about a gathering point being built in Yamanashi Prefecture isn't sothing an average person would know."
Sosuke nodded in agreent. Yamanashi Prefecture… It left a deep impression on him. Eighty-six percent of its land was mountainous, covered in forests perfect for building defensive strongholds. But its proximity to Tokyo, only 120 kiloters away, made it vulnerable to corpse hordes. Most survivors eventually gave up on it.
In his past life, powerful scavenger teams would use Yamanashi as a rest stop before venturing into Tokyo, almost like a contested frontier.
What he rembered most was that it was in Yamanashi where he t Saeko Busujima.
It was there, in that overgrown province, that Sosuke Kitahara once just another faceless pawn ready to die first gained a foothold in the new world. He awakened, and everything changed. He even t Sayuri Sawamura there… and their story began.
That gathering point in Yamanashi? It was a turning point in his past life. Without it, he'd never have beco the person he was. Never t Sayuri. Never mattered.
It was his birthplace as an awakened.
"Too bad it's all a little late now. If only I'd moved sooner…"
Sosuke sighed softly. Still, this was a new life and he wasn't about to drown in nostalgia.
Sayuri was part of the past. Now, there were other won who needed him.
In this life, he'd outpaced nearly everyone else, becoming a second-tier awakened in record ti. An achievent few could dream of. His rise could only be described as teoric.
But he constantly reminded himself he was no longer alone. Arrogance would get people killed.
The mont he left Tokyo, he had stepped onto a new battlefield.
This ti, he wouldn't just be fighting for himself. He needed to gather strength in the shadows and prepare for the battles to co.
Any mistake now… would undo everything.
And now, his own fate was intertwined with the three girls traveling with him. Any misstep any mont of carelessness could have catastrophic consequences. It was a heavy burden, but also… a purpose.
"Sosuke, you okay?"
Haruno caught the subtle shift in his mood and turned her head in curiosity.
Sosuke shook his head and changed the subject. "Let's avoid main roads with tall buildings."
…
What should've taken just one hour ended up dragging to three.
The Nissan finally descended from the elevated expressway and turned onto the coastal highway in Ichihara City. Behind them lay Chuo Ward, and farther still, Mihama District ho of Sobu High School.
But they weren't heading toward the school. Quite the opposite.
It was nearly noon, yet the roads were eerily empty. Not even zombies were in sight. Sosuke's expression grew grim.
If this wasn't the result of cleanup operations… then sothing was gathering the zombies elsewhere.
And when enough of them gathered in one place, it could only an one thing a corpse tide.
At their current strength, a corpse tide would be too much. All they could do… was run.
Was it Narita Airport?
Sosuke rubbed his chin. Anywhere under military control would have weapons. Truthfully, he had been eyeing Narita Airport for a while now. It was the best place to get his hands on firearms.
But there was one condition.
The JSDF had to have already pulled out.
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