t back alive. If I chose that path, I wouldn’t even need to hang myself or throw myself from a cliff. I knew for a fact I would simply stop breathing and die on the spot.

So...

Nagisa approached ever so slowly. She looked absolutely confident in her victory, like she only had to think about how to make me give up. The tip of her sword-like cattle cleaver scraped against the wood of the hallway floor. Once it hopped up, it could chop off any part of my body she wanted. I knew that, but I could not move back any further. The cage was there. I would be in range of the zombie Zashiki Warashi’s hands reaching from between the bars. Moving forward or back would lead to my death.

In that instant, during that scorching blank period, I still rejected the one and only path that would allow me to smile and return alive.

“Yes.”

Then an oddly cheerful voice reached my ears.

With that brutal cattle cleaver in hand, Nagisa took a step – just one step – back. She moved away from me as I stood protectively in front of the cage.

It was a clear sign of parting.

But even then, my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend looked at my dirty face like it was something radiant.

Clear drops fell like traces of light.

She spoke to me as I took the Youkai’s side to the very end.

“That’s the Shinobu-chan I fell in love with.”

Part 3

I couldn’t use the dump truck and I had parted ways with Nagisa and her giant cattle cleaver.

All I had was the useless Good-for-Nothing Youkai and the bear trap that had wheels yet was as heavy as a giant rock. Its weight prevented me from carrying anything else with me, so I had left the hooked rod back in the house. And unlike Nagisa, I would only get killed if I tried to take on a zombie.

Zombies could be hiding anywhere outside, but hiding in the house forever wouldn’t help.

Despite the danger, I took the Zashiki Warashi out in her cage.

As before, our destination was the mountain peak. More accurately, the dog square up there. Finding a paraglider was our first goal. I had no idea if I could carry the Zashiki Warashi in her cage with one of those, but I had to get her out of this awful city. I wasn’t thinking about anything beyond that. The Succubus and Aoandon back home might be able to figure out the details of the zombie outbreak and I could also run crying to Hyakki Yakou.

The best option would be to search out the source of the outbreak in the city and escape with the Zashiki Warashi once she recovered, but the city was a large place and I didn’t know if the core of the Kasha Package was even in the city. Escaping would be better than searching randomly. My life wasn’t the only one at risk here, so I couldn’t assume I could do everything on my own.

“Ha ha. This is awful. Simply awful.”

I couldn’t help but speak aloud.

I may have taken a longer rest than I had thought because things were growing dark by the time I left the house. The snow had started covering the road. It was not entirely white yet, but it covered the surface like a transparent sherbet and my shoes threatened to slip if I let my guard down. Nagisa’s warmth was gone from the silent mountain road. She had left quickly in order take action in her own way.

Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi seemed entirely carefree in her cage. She was still shaking the bars of the bear trap, but it looked more like she was having fun making noise than really trying to escape.

“Gau.”

“Shut up. I don’t know when a zombie could show up, so don’t make so much noise.”

She wasn’t listening.

I felt like I was pushing a giant baby carriage.

Since she was rattling the cage, I tried distracting her with something else. When I put a handkerchief inside the cage, she grabbed it, tugged at it, smelled it, and finally bit the corner of the square cloth. She looked like a frustrated upper class girl.

But just like with the ham, she would put anything in her mouth. I couldn’t have her swallowing them, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a few things on hand. I started uselessly regretting not searching for some things to use before leaving the house.

For the time being, I pulled out my cellphone and typed “Things she can put in her mouth” in the notes app.

The Zashiki Warashi had been entirely focused on the handkerchief, but her eyes quickly turned to the phone. I slowly waved it back and forth and found her gaze was perfectly locked onto it.

“Wh-what? I’m not giving you this.”

“Gau!”

“I said no! Oh, honestly. You have an even more expensive smartphone in your cleavage, you know!? Not that I want you chewing on that!!”

“Gau gau gau!!”

“Oh, shut up!”

Speaking to her wasn’t doing any good and her yukata looked like it was going to slip off if she struggled any more. I didn’t want to be wheeling around a naked Youkai, so I tried to figure out another way to bring the smartphone to her attention.

Um, I can’t use normal phone calls or emails, but there’s a way to send data directly between phones, right? Um, Ranzono Sachi was using it during the Oomukade business. It’s the same way a phone connects wirelessly to a printer. And I was using it to speak with Kamimaki-san and the others in the dump truck. Right...

Did it!!

I tested it out by sending a blank email to the smartphone (that technically belonged to me) held in the Zashiki Warashi’s cleavage.

It must have been on silent because all I heard was the whirring of a small motor.

And...

“Nyau!?”

Her shoulders jumped in the red yukata, but...

What? Are zombies really this stupid? Why isn’t she noticing the smartphone!?

Blank email, blank email, blank email!!

“Nyau! Gyah!? Nyau nyau!!”

She jumped each time, but she showed no sign of noticing the phone.

Hmm, that didn’t work. But wait. I think it had different settings for emails and phone calls.

I switched to making a call so it would ring.

I couldn’t remember what movie’s theme song it was, but a dull melody played from the headphones attached to the smartphone.

“Gyah! Gau gau!! Gau!!”

“Wait, why are you getting all excited!?”

When I saw her violently shaking the bars, I sent another empty email. I heard the vibration and saw her shoulders jump and her long black hair swing around as she looked around.

Hm? Is it just me or is this cellphone warming up?

I was gradually starting to enjoy it, but I couldn’t let myself laugh at this.

Maybe this was how Akehara-san felt as she tried to turn her unreachable beloved into a zombie to own him.

You can’t, Shinobu! You can’t take a video! Don’t point the phone toward the cage! Yes, it’s funny. Really funny. But this is something you can’t let yourself save!! Even if she comes back to her senses, she’ll climb into her futon and never want to come out again!!

As I was wasting time on that, I heard something.

It sounded like some snow had fallen from a tree branch behind me.

I looked back into the darkness and then I froze in place.

A swarm of zombies was approaching.

Twenty to thirty people with white hair and red and purple skin were climbing the mountain road toward us.

“...!?”

They were still a fair distance away, so they may not have actually noticed us yet.

But it was only a matter of time.

I grabbed the bear trap’s handles to increase our pace forward, but the zombies were clearly lighter and stronger. They were going to catch up. I began gasping for breath as I rushed myself. My eyes met those of the caged Zashiki Warashi. I couldn’t throw her into that group, but what was I actually supposed to do? Not even Nagisa with her sword of a cattle cleaver could handle that many, so how was I supposed to deal with them? On the other hand, hiding with that giant cage was simply unrealistic. After all, that stupid Youkai was still rattling the cage!

What was I supposed to do?

What was I supposed to do?

What was I supposed to do?

“Goddammit!!!!!”

I shouted and began to move. I lowered the stopper on the side of the cage’s wheels and jumped over the mountain road’s guardrail with the cage still on the road. I hid on what was more a cliff than a slope.

Footsteps soon filled the road.

The zombies were approaching the bear trap I had left behind.

I hadn’t been able to do anything!

I felt along the slope and grabbed a stone about the size of a baby’s head. If any of the zombies tried to destroy the cage, it didn’t matter anymore. I swore in my heart I would do whatever it took to smash their head in.

I waited for that moment.

The biting winter wind struck me and an unpleasant sweat coated my face.

But...

“...?”

The time never came.

The group with muddy eyes avoided the cage in the center of the road and continued up the slope. They vanished into the darkness without so much as glancing at the defenseless Zashiki Warashi.

...Oh, I get it.

Zombies didn’t eat each other. They only targeted living humans. The caged Zashiki Warashi was one of them, so they would ignore her.

“But...”

Could I maybe use this?

Part 4

The next problem I came across was not far from the peak.

The sun had completely set and true darkness had set in. The snow was even heavier than before and the road was entirely covered in white.

Meanwhile, a certain facility was glowing brightly, like someone had forgotten to switch off the lights.

It was a mountain gas station.

“Gau.”

“Shut up. Just be quiet.”

Zombies with dry white hair were hanging around the gas station. I didn’t know if they were the same ones that had passed us before, but there were a lot of them. It looked like enough for a soccer team. If I tried to break through them, I’d definitely be killed.

But a tractor was parked a little up the mountain road from the gas station. If its handbrake was lowered and it slid down the slope, it would take out quite a few of the zombies. If used right, it could knock them all off the cliff.

Of course, this was like finding the keys were locked in the car. I wanted to deal with that red and purple group, but I couldn’t reach the tractor when it was past the zombies.

Not normally anyway.

“Okay, okay. I’ve linked with the smartphone’s camera.”

I nodded as I saw the footage from the Zashiki Warashi’s cleavage displayed on my cellphone.

I then looked the Good-for-Nothing Youkai in the eye and made a suggestion.

“Listen, Zashiki Warashi. The zombies won’t attack you, so climb the slope, reach the tractor, and lower the handbrake. And after that come back in the cage. Okay?”

“Gau gau!! Grrr!!”

“Yeah, I know you aren’t going to listen to me. That’s why I’ll be sending you empty emails and calling you.”

By switching between the vibrating and the dull melody from the headphones, I could get some entertaining reactions out of the sexy Youkai in the red yukata. It was the same as Nozaki Haru controlling the zombies with the cigarette butts and rotting smell. I had the gas and the brakes and I had a camera. I didn’t have a real steering wheel, but I couldn’t be picky now.

“Go, Zashiki Warashi! Pacific Zashi-... Pacific Good-for-... Dammit, I can’t come up with one that sounds good! Well, whatever. Zashiki Robo, attack!!”

I climbed up onto the cage, opened the guillotine-style door, and controlled the zombie Zashiki Warashi with the cellphone and smartphone. At first, my heart was nearly crushed from the fear of her ignoring my orders and attacking me, but for some reason she quickly grew obedient when I sent a bunch of empty emails to set the vibration going (between those giant tits of hers). In fact, she seemed a little afraid.

Once she changed direction, I triggered the ringtone and the excited Zashiki Warashi charged toward the zombies.

I probably shouldn’t be thinking this, but this is pretty fun!!

I really shouldn’t be doing this, should I!?

I watched from afar at first, but the mountain was dark at night. The light from the gas station could only do so much, so I started looking at the smartphone camera’s footage on my cellphone screen. Meanwhile, I used the gas and brakes to adjust her movements. She passed the zombies and arrived at the tractor up the slope.

Now for the handbrake.

Reach your hand in from the side and...no, no. That’s the shift lever. And that’s the steering wheel. Don’t get distracted by the strap attached to the key in the ignition!? Go for the handbrake!!

After grabbing about everything but what I wanted, her slender hand finally managed to move the handbrake.

The giant wheels began to move and the tractor started down the slope.

The white-haired zombies didn’t seem able to think, so they didn’t even try to evade. It was almost amusing how they were all hit like bowling pins. The tractor carried all those zombies with it as it rolled past the gas station, hit the guardrail, and tumbled down the cliff.

“Perfect!! That was a perfect 100, you Indoor Youkai!!”

When I called loudly to her from atop the cage, the Zashiki Warashi looked over at me as if she had just remembered there was living flesh here. She charged back with terrifying speed.

I climbed down from the cage and circled to the opposite side from the guillotine-style door.

She ran in a straight line like a cat crashing into a TV screen and threw herself right into the bear trap.

I winced at the painful-sounding crash, climbed back on top of the cage, and manually forced down the door. That settled it.

“Gau gau!!”

“Hey... I know it’s wrong to say this to a zombie...but are you an idiot?”

I was a little disturbed by how I was gradually getting used to this.

And...

“...?”

I spotted some more shadows moving in the darkness, but these were not staggering around like the zombies. Were they survivors? Some people who had been waiting around may have been showing up now that the zombies were gone.

And then I realized something important.

The Zashiki Warashi was a zombie. That meant other zombies would not attack her, but what about the human beings who feared the zombies?

The situation had entirely flipped around. If they saw her, it was all over. Her hair was black and her skin was youthful, but she was still obviously a zombie.

“Dammit. If it’s not one thing, it’s another!!”

I pushed the bear trap with both hands to hurry toward the gas station. The glass was shattered and snow had gotten in, but most of the merchandise remained. I pulled out a blue tarp and threw it over the cage.

Before long, some wild-looking men who must have studied survival magazines arrived at the gas station.

“Hey! You saved our asses there. I don’t know how you did it, but it was you, right?”

“Who are you?”

“The workers at the nearby geothermal power station that provides smart power. We were caught up in all this while those of us in an outdoors group were camping. Luckily, that put us outside of civilization when the zombie outbreak started and we had our families with us.”

The man smiled.

“We’re all hiding on the campground with our families and waiting for rescue. It’s the off-season, so there’s almost no one there and barely any zombies have shown up. The problem is the lack of fire and food. Do you want to join us?”

“No, I have something I need to do.”

“Is that so?”

The middle-aged man glanced at the blue tarp.

“Um, what is that?”

The metal bars shook in response.

You moron!!

“My family. She’s actually a pretty docile St. Bernard, but this zombie stuff has her all riled up. It was getting dangerous if I didn’t keep her in the cage.”

“I see.”

Some static reached my years.

The man seemed to have an emergency radio hanging from his neck.

“I thought getting some information might help calm our nerves, but it didn’t help. It’s complete chaos all over the place.”

“All over the place?”

I felt something heavy weighing on my stomach. What was this ominous feeling?

“Apparently the zombie outbreak is affecting ten or more cities around the country, but the news keeps saying everything’s fine and there isn’t any problem.”

“It...isn’t just here!?”

“It was a lot tenser at first. They were saying something about reporting the truth until the instant the police stormed the studio, but as time passed, the announcements grew almost overly reassuring. It’s just creeping me out. I wish this thing could record.”

The survival man sounded annoyed.

“And the overseas broadcasts that occasionally get in on a crossed line or something are telling an entirely different story. They’re talking about holding travelers back at the borders and sealing off the sea and air routes. They’re such polar opposites that I’m not sure which to believe. If only the internet would come back up.”

How far did this commotion spread?

In fact, did it ever end?

I had been picturing this like a cup so full that its surface tension was barely holding on. I had thought just one drop more would send it spilling out. Then the madness and violence filling this city would spill over to the rest of the archipelago.

But who ever said the surface tension was still holding on?

Wasn’t it possible it had broken long ago?

“...”

“Did I scare you? Either way, we just have to do what we can. If you ever change your mind, feel free to join us. Follow the river and you’ll reach the campground.”

“Hey! This might not help much, but the zombies seem to track their prey by smell. If you find a way to cover your tracks like you’re trying to escape a dog or a bear, you might have better odds of surviving.”

“Thanks. If we make it out of here alive, let’s go get a drink somewh-...no, you look like you’re in high school. Well, we can still get something to eat.”

We shook hands and parted ways.

I turned my back on the survivors as they searched through the gas station and I resumed my journey to the peak.

...I didn’t tell them about the paragliders.

I may have had an excuse. If I told them, they would have insisted on coming along. And the longer they were with me, the greater the risk of them noticing the Zashiki Warashi. Not to mention that an outsider like me would be eliminated first if it came to a fight over a limited number of paragliders. And the most obvious way of eliminating me would be to kill me.

So what I did was logical and efficient.

I faked a kind smile and turned my back while hiding the most important fact concerning their survival.

But if they were attacked and became zombies themselves, how could I possibly take responsibility?

Part 5

The Zashiki Warashi and I finally arrived at the dog square at the peak.

The entire area was decorated with pure white snow.

I observed the area from a distance to make sure there were no zombies and then I shined my cellphone’s backlight around.

There was a large fenced-off area for taking dogs for a walk and a few stables and a food processing building were packed in close together. The others may have been residential buildings. There were a lot of wooden stakes sticking up from the snow, but they may have been to tie the dogs to.

However...

“Where are the paragliders?”

The units with engines may have been kept inside on days like this. With panic in my hearts, I pushed the bear trap toward the buildings.

You’re kidding.

This can’t be.

There were no lights on in any of the buildings and no one responded when I pounded on the doors. I peered in a few of them, but I didn’t see any people or pedigree dogs. It almost looked like the place had been abandoned for a while.

I also saw no sign of any paragliders.

Did they not rent them out? Had hobbyists simply brought their own here because the dog square wasn’t in use?

If so, what was I supposed to do? If I couldn’t use my plan to escape Bozen City by air, I would have to break through at the base of the mountain. Even if I could use the zombie Zashiki Warashi, breaking through that zombie-infested city simply wasn’t possible!

So was I supposed to just wait for help to arrive?

Would I wait for a rescue team to arrive by helicopter like those people I had met at the gas station were doing?

“I can’t...”

After thinking about it, I shook my head.

I had the zombie Zashiki Warashi with me. Whether it was the police, the firefighters, or the JSDF, no human rescue team would let me bring the Zashiki Warashi with me. Or if they did, it would be as a research sample. If she was taken from me, it was meaningless!!

I couldn’t escape on my own and I couldn’t wait for rescue.

Was this really game over? I couldn’t come up with any other ideas.

“...”

I wandered outside the building where I put the Zashiki Warashi’s cage.

With nowhere to go, I leaned back against the outer wall and slid down to sit on the snow.

I looked up at the thick clouds covering the night sky and voiced my despair.

“Why...?”

We had crushed quite a few zombies with the dump truck. All the cellphone shop workers had been wiped out. The Zashiki Warashi had turned into a zombie when she showed up to help and differences over how to handle her had led to a split with my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend Nagisa. I had knocked a bunch of zombies off the cliff with a tractor, deceived some innocent survivors, and finally arrived at the peak.

And yet this was what I found.

What do you mean there aren’t any paragliders!?

It was true I had no actual data and was basing my decisions on mere speculation. I was assuming there were paragliders at the peak, assuming I could escape the city on one, assuming there weren’t any zombies outside the city, and most of all, assuming the zombie Zashiki Warashi could be turned back to normal. No, maybe those were more hopes than they were speculation.

But I had done everything I could to make it this far.

I had lost so much.

So couldn’t I be rewarded just a little? Could I really end up with nothing and have to start back from square one!?

“...”

My mind was spinning.

The simplest choice rose in the back of my mind.

I could give up on the Zashiki Warashi and think about escaping Bozen City on my own. That would at the very least leave me with the option of waiting for rescue.

But...

“I can’t...”

Why did I have to remember it now?

That sexy Zashiki Warashi generally acted like a big sister, but she would start crying with surprising ease. It happened when the internet was down, when I got mad and confiscated her video games, or...that time long ago when she broke my toy robot. We got into a big argument then and she ended up crying.

Thinking back, that was when we had stopped taking baths together and sleeping in the same futon.

Why had that happened?

In that argument, I had seen a side of her that went beyond being my “Nee-chan”. I had seen her as an unreachable and unshakable figure, so it had been a shock that a kid’s words were enough for her to bawl like that. It had been enough to destroy my image of her.

That said, I wasn’t disappointed or disillusioned.

In fact...

“Oh, I get it now.”

I finally remembered and I spoke the fact I had just realized.

“You’re just a girl, aren’t you?”

She wasn’t some formless “Nee-chan”. She was an individual who could form any kind of relationship. She could be a friend, a best friend, or even a lover. She was the girl closest to me.

It was said Zashiki Warashi were a collection of the young children killed during famines and the like.

Her sexy figure might seem out of place for that, but there may have been a reason for it.

Maybe she was a collection of those kids’ desire to grow up and be seen as an older sister.

Maybe that was why she had tried to play the part of the ideal “Nee-chan” in front of me.

But that had only been an act that would fall apart due to the smallest things.

What if deep down, she was just a normal girl?

After realizing that and understanding that, I had no longer been able to bathe with her or sleep in the same futon as her.

“Ha ha...”

My escapist thoughts were trying to keep me from viewing the reality around me.

But I felt like those thoughts had led me to an answer.

I slapped both my cheeks and listened to the pleasant sound as I focused on what I had to do.

I definitely couldn’t abandon her now. A Zashiki Warashi wasn’t a special being that could rule over everything when thrown out into the world on her own. She was nothing more than a girl who would cry and not know what to do when things got tough. If I knew that, how could I leave her in a city full of zombies?

I would save her no matter what it took.

If I couldn’t say that, how could I call myself a man?

Part 6

I couldn’t expect to find a paraglider in the long-since-abandoned dog square.

I would need to rethink our escape plan from the ground up, but I couldn’t just mope around forever. I had come this far, so I at least had to search around the dog square to see if there was anything at all I could use.

“The food processing building.”

I had no idea what was going to happen, so it was possible I would need a weapon like Nagisa had. I searched through the building with that in mind, but I only found a work bench with an attached electric tool. There was nothing small enough to carry around with me. I opened all the doors, hoping to at least find a knife or some scissors, but I found something else entirely behind one of them.

When I opened some thick metal double doors, I found a long, long stairway leading underground with a shimenawa decorating the top of the entrance.

I also saw the Hyakki Yakou emblem I had seen during the battle with the Aoandon.

The pure gold family crest had a shimenawa hanging from the very center.

“What the hell is this?”

“Gau.”

Asking the zombie Zashiki Warashi wasn’t going to help.

This was clearly suspicious, but I had a nagging feeling it wasn’t going to lead to an escape route. Finding a cave at the mountain’s peak made me think of the term Mikuchi-sama, but I had given up on doing anything on my own. If I was taken out here, what would happen to the caged Zashiki Warashi? Escaping together was my top priority. Once we reached some safe place, I could ask some big names lik-->>

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