Volume 2 Chapter 30 (1/2)

After Yusuke had left to investigate the fire…

On the 3rd floor of the super market, Mizuki and her brothers were preparing to leave.

Mizuki makes her brothers wear jumpers to ward off the cold.  Placing a battery powered lantern on the desk, they quickly gather everything necessary for their departure.

She had divided food and clothing up and placed them in her brothers ruk-sacks, along with bottled water.  With this it would raised the likeliness of them surviving if they every got separated.

They could grab another one along the way, so Mizuki didn’t pack the rice cooker.  Besides, the generator couldn’t run very many appliances at once.  Yusuke had found some solar powered equipment, but was unsuccessful in installing it and it was left untouched.  In any case, they would have little power.

Mizuki packs various doc.u.ments and self-made notes in a bag, as well as tightly wrapped food into a cardboard box.

The bulkiest items were clothing.  So that their luggage wouldn’t become cluttered, they just brought their winter clothes (snow suits) and underwear.  Mizuki packed what her brothers couldn’t carry with their rucksacks in her bag.  She also used the field backpack Yusuke had left behind to pack towels and other cleaning supplies.

(It’s like I’m preparing to travel.)  (TL: She means go on a trip/vacation)

This thought runs across Mizuki’s mind.

About to leave the now familiar office, she felt uneasy.

However, she was looking forward to leaving this cooped up environment.  She had expectations for her life in the mountains.

Mizuki was absorbed in learning about agriculture as instructed by Yusuke.

She wasn’t all that familiar with potteries, but the thought of growing something lit a fire in her chest.

It was hope.

Right now, Mizuki and her brothers were just survivors of a broken civilization.

However, growing the food they needed in order to survive through the soil and her own power; with that action befitting humans, it would feel like things were getting back on track.

Living as a human, she felt it was something to be proud of.

(Anyway… if I follow Takemura-san, it’ll all work out, no matter where we go.)

Mizuki was smiling happily.

It was a strange sense of trust.

She carries the stuffed bag into the hall.

Rays of sunlight s.h.i.+ne through the windows along the wall in the corridor, signalling the breaking of dawn.

At that moment, she notices the elevator display flash.  The elevator was raising to her floor.

(I wonder if the fire was nothing?)

Thinking that he arrived quicker than she expected, she stops her movements.

She sets down her bags and waits for the elevator to open.

With a ding, the elevator arrives, and the doors slowly open.

“Eh…..”

Mizuki steps back.

What appeared in the elevator doors was not Yusuke.

It was a ragged, dirty, grimy, thin homeless looking person.  (TL: Laughing so hard.)

Thick beard hair was growing out of his jaw, extending all the way to his shoulders.  Sc.r.a.ps of vegetable waste were tangled the man’s hair.  His clothes looked like something that was thrown away.  Stains were scattered all over them.  A terrible stench escaped into the hallway.

She remembers seeing him before somewhere.

The man looks at her and slightly opens his eyes.

The man places his hand on the door to keep it from shutting, and with his feet trailing behind, he walks out of the elevator.

As if pushed, Mizuki takes another step back.

“A…..no……”  (TL: Searching for something to say.)

Leaking out a puzzled voice, the man’s right hand enters Mizuki’s line of sight.

In his hand was a dirty hammer.  (TL: Have you come to fix the generator?)

“…………..”

Remaining silent, she slowly steps backwards towards the office.

She has the feeling she has seen this man before.

However, she is unable to recall when they have met.

Suppressing the shaking in her voice, she speaks,

“Are you a…… survivor?  If it’s food, we have some.  We have a bunch, so help yourself……”

She removes some food from her bag and places it on the floor.  While the man’s attention is drawn to the food, Mizuki quietly falls back.

The man approaches the food and crouches down in front of it.  At that moment, Mizuki turns and flees to the office, shutting the door behind her.

She would need a barricade as there was no lock on the door to the office.

If she had fled to the locker room, she would have been able to lock herself inside; but she escaped to the office thinking of her brothers.

Then, she remembers the ident.i.ty of the man.

(……It was him……)

It was the lean looking man that was the last to leave the 3rd floor.

The man who’s gaze stuck to her, and who had banged on the locker room door late at night, trying to get her to open it.

Why was he still alive?

Where had he been until now?

At first Mizuki had been confused with his sudden appearance, but he was not the kind of opponent you could take a friendly approach with.

“Tak-kun, Ma-kun!  Get to the back of the office!”

She yells at her brothers in the office.  Surprised by her strong (threatening) att.i.tude, they take their rucksacks and run to the back room of the office.

(If I can’t protect them…..!)

Thinking she could use a desk as a barricade, she goes to move it, but is unable to with her strength.  It was the same with a nearby cabinet.  During this time, the man could enter at any moment.  Unable to compose herself, she panics.

With a confused face, she thinks,

(This won’t work!  What should I……  How can I……)

A weapon.

The hot water supply room was outside across the hallway, so she couldn’t get the kitchen knife.  However, there should be unused knives packed away in the office.  So that her brothers couldn’t get to them, she had packed them in a locked cabinet along with other tools.

Pulling open the desk drawer and searching inside using the dim light from the lantern, she was finally able to find the key.

Unlocking the cabinet with trembling hands, she shoots a look at the door to the office, confirming that the man has yet to enter.

What was inside the cabinet consisted of a gas torch, a portable stove, and cutlery.  Taking out the package containing the knives, she tears it open and grabs one.

At that moment, the door to the office opened.

Slowly, the mans face appears from the crack.  He is still holding a hammer in his right hand.

The man silently observes Mizuki as if appraising her.