Crash!
The door was violently yanked open from the outside. A handsome boy, also wearing the Fujimi Academy uniform, burst into the classroom, gasping for breath. He quickly slammed the door shut just before the "them"—the dead things—could follow.
It was none other than the protagonist of this story, Takashi Komuro.
In his hand, he gripped a metal baseball bat. His face and uniform were splattered with dark red blood and bits of... flesh. His sneakers and the cuffs of his pants were completely soaked crimson. It was clear he'd fought tooth and nail to reach this point.
After slamming the door, Takashi immediately raised his bat, assuming a combat stance. But when he turned around, he froze. There, standing in the middle of the classroom, was a boy holding a sword, and at his feet lay a grotesque spread of dismembered limbs and chunks.
Takashi stared, dumbfounded, for several seconds. Then his gaze fell upon Rei Miyamoto, standing dully in the corner. A huge sigh of relief escaped him. He ran over and grabbed her hand anxiously. "Rei! Come on, we have to go! The school's crawling with these... these man-eating monsters! We need to find a safe place to hide, now!"
But when he pulled, Rei didn't move. She just continued to stare blankly at the floor not far away.
Subconsciously, Takashi followed Rei's line of sight. His face paled slightly, and he whispered in disbelief, "Th-this is Hisashi? H-he's... dead?"
"Yeah... Hisashi is dead," Rei said, her head bowed, her voice carrying an eerie calmness.
Oblivious to the strange detachment in her tone, the slow-on-the-uptake Takashi grabbed her wrist again, urging, "We can't dwell on that now! We have to get out of here! If those things in the hallway gather, we'll be trapped!"
Smack!
A sharp slap echoed. A small, red handprint bloomed on Takashi's cheek.
Rei wrenched herself free from his grasp, her eyes glistening with tears as she screamed hysterically, "Yes! Hisashi is dead! Are you happy now?! Don't think I don't know what you're thinking! Even if Hisashi is gone, I could never like you! I hate you! I hate you the most! Get out! I never want to see you again, ever!"
Takashi, as if struck to the heart by her words, fell silent. He hung his head, his long bangs hiding his downcast eyes.
After a few moments of heavy silence, he turned and left the classroom again, leaving behind only a desolate and lonely figure.
"H-hey, Komuro-kun! Wait for us!"
The remaining few surviving students in the classroom called out to Takashi, scrambling to follow him. The sword-wielding schoolmate was clearly incredibly powerful, but he obviously had no intention of looking out for their survival. The sudden appearance of their classmate, Takashi Komuro, had naturally become their only lifeline in that moment.
"Miyamoto-san," the sword-wielding boy spoke up, "I still need to go save Ms. Marikawa. Do you intend to stay here like this?"
As he spoke, Luo Jie—for that was his name—casually and unobtrusively moved a little closer to Rei Miyamoto.
It had been a good fifteen minutes since the full-scale outbreak of the virus. Even with the two members of Team Seraphim guarding the nurse's office, Luo Jie couldn't guarantee everything was safe. If Rei continued to be so unresponsive, he'd have no choice but to use some more... direct methods to get her moving.
"I... I don't know, I really don't know!"
After her earlier outburst, a flicker of clarity had finally returned to Rei's eyes. She clutched her brown hair in her hands, shaking her head frantically in agony.
"I'm sorry about Inoue-kun," Luo Jie said gently, "but life isn't just about love. Don't you wonder how your parents are doing right now?"
In the original story, when the main characters of Fujimi Academy realized the apocalypse was upon them, their first thought was to find their families. Luo Jie was certain that mentioning her parents would elicit a reaction from Rei.
Sure enough, at the mention of her parents, the emotions Rei had been suppressing finally reached a breaking point. She suddenly crouched down, burying her face in her hands and sobbing uncontrollably.
Hmm... White. I'm talking about clouds, of course. What else did you think I meant?
If it were Shizuka Marikawa crying in front of him, Luo Jie could easily offer her a shoulder to lean on, pat her back gently, and perform a textbook-perfect display of warm-hearted consolation. However, Rei Miyamoto's favorability towards him was only at the initial 30 points, barely more than an acquaintance. If he dared to try that, he was certain that meager favorability would plummet to zero. So he could only stand there silently, waiting.
Fortunately, Rei was stronger than he'd anticipated. Before long, she wiped away her tears, stood up, picked up a wooden mop handle that had been torn from its head, and nodded at Luo Jie. "Thank you. I'm better now. We can go..."
At that very moment, a notification popped up in Luo Jie's visual display.
[Story Character Rei Miyamoto has acknowledged you. Do you wish to list her as a Protection Target?]
Luo Jie thought for a moment, then firmly selected 'No.' Even with the Ivory Mountain Chief Squad and Team Seraphim added to his own, their group was still relatively weak among all the player teams in this Illusionary Realm. Protecting Shizuka Marikawa was already a stretch; they simply didn't have the capacity for another, Rei Miyamoto. Of course, choosing to decline protection in the system only meant the system wouldn't categorize Rei as his responsibility. It didn't mean she couldn't follow him. In fact, even if a player had already designated a Protection Target, if the relationship with that target wasn't harmonious enough, the target might even choose to leave the group voluntarily.
"Miyamoto-san, ready?" Luo Jie reached out and grasped the handle of the sliding classroom door.
Rei nodded seriously, gripping the mop handle tightly.
Bang!
As the classroom door was pulled open a crack, two of the dead things wandering outside immediately swung their bloodied arms, stumbling and shoving their way in.
Before Rei could even react, a bright flash of sword light had already streaked across the necks of the two corpses. Two headless bodies tumbled to the floor at her feet in quick succession.
"S-so... so fast..." Rei gasped in astonishment. She was a member of Fujimi Academy's Kendo Club, trained in her family's "Miyamoto Style Spear Technique." Under her mother's strict tutelage, she'd also practiced sparring against kenjutsu practitioners, but she'd never seen such speed and ferocity in a sword strike.
No, calling it kenjutsu wasn't quite right. The way this boy—whether upperclassman or underclassman, she couldn't tell—held the sword and exerted force was clearly that of an amateur. His so-called "swordsmanship" was nothing more than wild, undisciplined swings. Yet, this amateur, who didn't even know proper swordsmanship, could swing strikes that would leave true masters in awe. It was utterly perplexing.