Kisaragi Akira flew straight across the playground.
Below him lay countless dead bodies.
"Hold on tight."
After giving a brief warning, Akira suddenly plunged downward.
BOOM!!!
The ground shook violently.
Dust and debris erupted into the air.
The entire school campus seemed to tremble from the impact.
The exact landing point was hard to determine, but through vector manipulation, Akira redirected all the force straight into the earth beneath him.
The ground cracked and collapsed.
The surrounding corpses were instantly crushed.
When the dust finally settled, the two of them stood completely unharmed at the center.
"…What was that?"
The commotion on the playground drew the attention of many people inside the school.
Saeko Busujima, who was leading a small group while evading the undead, heard it clearly.
She held a sharpened katana stained dark red with blood.
Four people followed closely behind her, each wielding improvised weapons.
"What was that noise on the playground?" someone asked nervously."An earthquake?"
The pink-haired girl, Saya Takagi, pushed up her glasses, confusion written all over her face.
Nearby, the blonde school nurse with an eye-catching figure—Shizuka Marikawa—looked dazed, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"An earthquake usually doesn't end that quickly," she murmured.
At the very back, the orange-haired Rei Miyamoto looked pale and unfocused, clearly not in good condition.
As they speculated about what had happened—
A loud voice suddenly rang out from the direction of the playground.
"Saeko Busujima! Exusiai and I are waiting for you on the playground!"
"Eh?!"
The three people behind Saeko all turned to look at her in disbelief.
Someone had come looking for her?
And they made that much noise?
Were they insane? Didn't they realize how many zombies this would attract?
To everyone's surprise, Saeko Busujima's pupils gleamed with a faint red light.
A beautiful smile appeared on her lips.
"I'm going to the playground."
Leaving only those words behind, she cut down a corpse with a single, clean strike, then changed direction and headed straight toward the playground.
The remaining three exchanged confused glances.
That mysterious man had made such an enormous disturbance—it was guaranteed to draw hordes of undead.
Going there now would be no different from suicide.
They hesitated.
Finally, Saya Takagi clenched her teeth, her expression firming with resolve.
"…Forget it. I would've died long ago without Saeko-senpai. I'm going too."
With Saya Takagi taking the lead, the other two followed decisively.
...
"You're yelling way too loudly! My ears are ringing!"
In Akira's arms, Exusiai rubbed her ears, looking miserable.
"Haha, didn't I warn you?" Akira replied calmly."Alright, get down."
This was nothing more than precise manipulation of sound waves.
He set Exusiai down.
By now, more zombies had already surrounded them.
"Hmph, zombies, huh?" Exusiai snorted."Let me show you what I've got, Apulupai!"
She drew two guns at once and began firing wildly.
Perfect shots.
Every bullet pierced a skull.
Instant kills.
Seeing that Exusiai was more than capable of handling herself, Akira stopped worrying about her.
He turned toward the swarm approaching from the other side.
Palm Thunder!
Black lightning erupted from his palm, tearing through an entire group of undead in a single strike.
Exusiai clicked her tongue when she saw it.
"You can manipulate vectors and use lightning?! That's way too unfair!"
"Stay focused."
Akira raised his hand.
A powerful gust of wind blasted away a corpse that was getting too close to Exusiai.
"Oh—right!" Exusiai snapped back to attention."We really can't let our guard down! Overload mode—bullet screen!"
...
"Damn zombies!"
Saya Takagi and the others followed closely behind Saeko Busujima, hacking through the undead as they ran.
They were almost at the playground.
Saya felt a growing sense of unease.
Too many zombies were converging on this area.
If they pushed forward any farther, there would be no escape.
Suddenly—
Saeko Busujima, who was in the lead, stopped.
She stood still, staring ahead in silence.
"What's wrong?"
The others hurried forward—
And froze.
A massive circular crater marked the collapsed playground.
Corpses were piled high around the outer edge of the circle.
At the center—
A man and a woman were slaughtering the undead.
They were using entirely different methods, yet both were terrifyingly effective.
The red-haired woman.
A radiant halo hovered above her head.
Shimmering wings spread from her back.
Six, seven—no, eight guns floated around her, firing nonstop.
Like a technological angel, she unleashed a relentless barrage upon the dead.
The black-haired man.
Black lightning burst continuously from his palm, annihilating corpse after corpse.
"…Are they angels?" Shizuka Marikawa covered her mouth in shock.
"He looks more like a superhuman," Saya Takagi said calmly after regaining her composure.
Her gaze shifted to Saeko Busujima.
"Saeko… are they your friends?"
"…Friends. Yes."
Though she had been shocked when she first witnessed Kisaragi Akira's and Exusiai's abilities, Saeko quickly steadied herself.
She raised her voice.
"Akira-kun! Exusiai! I'm coming over!"
The two turned toward the sound.
"Alright, let's move. Exusiai, with me."
Northern Azure Pool!
The water-based contamination field expanded outward.
A black liquid spread across the ground, swallowing everything in its path.
Any undead that stepped into it were attacked indiscriminately.
Black lightning surged as life force was drained away.
Ignoring the obstacles formed by the undead, Akira charged forward—
With Exusiai once again in his arms.