Volume 2 Chapter 31 (1/2)

Arriving at the 3rd floor, Yusuke could already hear signs of an engagement. Pulling the hammer back and placing his finger on the trigger, he quickly walks towards the office.

In the office, faintly lit by a lantern, Yusuke can see a man looming over Mizuki’s body.  He points the pistol in the air and fires.

Hearing the gunshot, everyone stops moving.

The sound of the gunshot echos through the room, slowly fading.

While crying hysterically, Mizuki is stretching out to her collapsed brothers.  The man had been straddling her back, trying to remove her clothes.  With a surprised expression, the man looked at him.

Quickly approaching the man, Yusuke pulls back the hammer on the pistol.  The cylinder spun, loading the next bullet.

Yusuke points his pistol between the man’s eyes and the man’s body becomes rigid.  Yusuke then kicks him in the face.  As he was wearing steel toed combat boots, the man’s nose was crushed and he let out a scream like a pig, falling to the floor.

“………..”

While the man is holding his bleeding face, cringing in pain; Yusuke points the barrel of the gun at the back of his head.

Holding his nose, the man begins crawling away as if to escape.  Watching him crawl until he nears the wall, Yusuke then opens his mouth.

“Stop.”

At that cold voice, the man stops.

“Put these on your legs.”

While saying this, Yusuke takes out a pair of handcuffs from a leather pouch on his waist.

“Secure one end to your leg, and the other to the leg of the desk.”

The man looks firmly at the pair of handcuffs thrown in front of him.

The gun is once again fired.

With the bullet flying into the cabinet next to him, the man screams.

“Do it quickly…..”

Hearing that voice which sounded like he was tired of waiting, the man hurriedly picks up the handcuffs and, fumbling through the darkness, secures his right leg to the desk.

With this, he is unable to move.  There was nothing within his reach that could be used as a weapon.  Yusuke finally lowers the gun.

“Oi, you okay?”

He calls out to Mizuki, but there is no response.

When he turns around, he sees Mizuki holding Yuu’s body in her lap and not moving.

“Ah……..ah……..”

Something that was neither a cry or a sigh was coming from her.

“…….Oi.”

“Yuu is……”

Walking over to her, he looks down at Yuu from above.

His neck had been broken.

His eyes were hollow and lifeless.

“……….”

Yusuke closes his eyes and suppresses something welling up within him.

Forcing himself to swallow his anger, he opens his eyes and looks around.  The collapsed Takas.h.i.+ enters his vision.  His body is rolled up and trembling.

“You okay?”

Yusuke walks over to him and crouches down.  His leg is swollen below his pant legs, and was smeared with blood.  His leg was most likely broken.  And with him holding his stomach in pain, it would appear he took damage to his intestines.  Yusuke wasn’t sure if the boy’s life was in danger, but it was clear he received serious injuries.

(s.h.i.+t.)

Even if it was a small wound, it would turn serious if left untreated.  That is the limit of the strength of a child’s body.

(I should take him to the hospital….. no, the it’s littered with zombies.  Can I somehow make due with a improvised treatment?  If only there was a doctor…. but where would we find one…)

While Yusuke was lost in thought, his right hand was grabbed by something.  Looking up, Mizuki was trying to take the handgun from him.

“I told you it’s dangerous!”

Afraid of accidentally firing it, Yusuke tried to shake her off, but she wouldn’t let go.  Her hands were firmly gripped around it, unwilling to let go.  Reluctantly, Yusuke releases the gun.

As soon as she got the revolver in her hands, Mizuki stands in front of the man in handcuffs; and holds the gun in front of her with both hands, preparing to fire.

“Hiiii!”

The man screams and tries to fall back, but is unable to with his leg handcuffed to the desk.  He holds both of his arms in front of himself, blocking his face in fear.

Looking at him, it was a pathetic appearance.  His cheeks were sunken and his nose was broken with blood running down his face.  His clothes were stained with the blood from a cut on his arm.  He looked like a homeless person that was a victim of vagrant hunting.

(TL: I guess some j.a.panese like to hunt homeless people and beat them up.)

“How dare..!”

Mizuki calls out in a shaking voice.  Ever since she grabbed the handgun, her hands that held it were trembling.  With just a squeeze of the trigger, the bullet would be shot.

“H, help me……” (TL: “Ta, tasukete kure….”)

At the man’s words, Mizuki’s anger grew.

“How dare you, something like that..!”

“I was wrong!  I’m sorry!  Forgive me!”

“How can you say that!  Yuu was, Yuu was..!  To do something so terrible..!”

(TL: Her words are really broken and unfinished.  Sorry if it sounds incoherent.)

“I had no intention of killing him!  It somehow happened!  I was trapped by myself for so long, I became messed up!”

“I, I don’t care!  What does that matter!  You coward!  Are you scared of being killed!?”

(TL: She says this like “Are you yourself scared of being killed”.  Relating to the death of Yuu.)

“Forgive me!  Please, don’t do it……”

He cowers on the ground while covering his face.

Looking at the man, Mizuki tightens her finger on the trigger.

“I won’t forgive you…..”

“I’m sorry…. please, I don’t want to die…..”

At that begging.  (TL: This was an incomplete sentence in the raw)

No matter how much she wanted to, Mizuki couldn’t pull the trigger.

She put strength in her finger, trying to pull the trigger many times, but the gun did not fire.

Eventually.

“Why……”

Mizuki lets out a hopeless voice.

Her arms were trembling.

If it were in the midst of a fight, she may have been able to do it, but she was unable to ruthlessly take the life of a cowering human.

“Why are you begging for your life….?  Why can’t you just shut up and let me kill you……”

Listening to her talk as if she was broken, the man became frightened.

Seeing Mizuki like that, Yusuke walks over and stretches out his hand from beside her.  He pulls back the hammer on the pistol in her hands.  The gun was still clasped tightly in her hands.

“Mizuki.”

Surprised by Yusuke’s voice, she looks up at him.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he had called her by her name.

The strength leaves her body, she loosens her grip, and releases the gun to Yusuke.

With her face cast down bearing a ghostly expression, she looks at him.

“My brothers…..”

Mizuki spoke.

“They thought of Takemura-san as a hero…. they spoke about you so many times after you first came to help us….. they said they wanted to be like you when they grew up, so I thought it was dangerous and tried to escape with them.”

Hatred was floating within her eyes.

“Why….. why didn’t you protect us?”

Yusuke looks at the pistol in the palm of his hand and remains silent.

Eventually, he speaks.

“Sorry.”  (TL: He uses “Suman.”  which is more like “My bad.” xD)

At Yusuke’s words, Mizuki acts as if she had just woken up,

“Ah, ahh….. what am I saying.  I’m sorry, my head suddenly stopped working….. did I perhaps say something rude?  I’m sorry, even though it was my fault…. ahh, what should I do….. are you mad…..?”

“It’s fine.  Look over Takas.h.i.+’s injuries.”

“Okay…..”

With uneasy steps, Mizuki wanders towards Takas.h.i.+.  (TL: Takas.h.i.+, RUN!!)

“Fuu……”

Yusuke turns towards the desk and lets out a sigh.

With his elbows rested on his knees, and his hands folded to support his chin, he glares at the man while thinking of what to do next.

The sounds of fighting had disappeared, and there was a painful silence spread over the room.

Mizuki was by Takas.h.i.+’s side, staring with a blank expression.  The man was trembling in the corner of the room.

Time flowed slowly.

Everything had been ruined.

The cause of it lie with himself.

Yusuke understood that fact.

(It’s my fault huh…..)

He didn’t think he would be able to do everything perfectly, and he knew various setbacks would come up.

But…. the problems just keep getting worse and worse.