A youth story of a passerby at the end of the world

Yukino Yukinoshita slowly turned her head to look to the side. When did she start calling him by his name?

Suzune is a very pleasant-sounding name.

Eriri realized why Uesugi Genshin had changed his mind and looked at Horikita Suzune's chest with a veiled gaze.

Of course, they are a bit bigger than mine. While they may not be considered huge, they are definitely not small either.

So one important reason is that Masumi Kamuro and Ai Hayasaka were sitting on the very edge, so if anything happened, the two of them could get off the bus immediately.

With Yukino Yukinoshita not participating, the only options left are Honami Ichinose and Suzune Horikita.

This isn't exactly a sad story.

As the car drove out of the school, Yukino Yukinoshita, who had agreed beforehand that she knew the destination, took out a map and began to observe the route at all times.

Multiple contingency plans were also made on the map in case any road became impassable.

"Turn left ahead."

To find out where they were going, Eriri looked out the car window.

Soon after, the car entered the national highway and headed in the exact opposite direction from before, immediately making a 90-degree turn.

Soon they drove into the commercial district, where in addition to tall office buildings, there were also high-end hotels, upscale restaurants, exclusive clubs, and other high-end entertainment and leisure venues.

At this moment, Eriri looked back and, by the way, to be honest, lying on Horikita-san's body was quite soft.

Especially the chest area, which is soft yet elastic, with a shape that is neither too big nor too small, and a fragrance that lingers in the nose.

There's definitely a big difference between having a model and being yourself; so that's what it feels like.

"..." Oh no! I suddenly feel like drawing.

However, she quickly dismissed this "romantic" thought because...

"...Isn't this a little bad?" she asked in a low voice.

“I know,” Uesugi Genshin said calmly, glancing at the rearview mirror.

A horde of zombies was now following behind the jeep, running wildly and trying to race it.

This scene reminded him of the beginning of a marathon he once participated in.

The scene was one of people rushing forward in succession, yet proceeding in an orderly fashion. The crowd was thronging, but unfortunately, everyone had an extremely distorted expression.

This is more like the face of someone finishing a marathon, somewhat out of breath, with eyes wide open in death.

"Turn left at the traffic light ahead," Yukino Yukinoshita quickly directed.

We're about to get on the highway. Hopefully, there won't be many cars on the road, since nobody's heading out of Tokyo.

He quickly turned the steering wheel and, after hitting a zombie, drove into the highway entrance.

Having temporarily shaken off the horde of corpses, they drove forward and found that the left lane was blocked. If the lane ahead were also blocked, they didn't know if they would even be able to turn back.

After all, this is not an armored vehicle, but just a civilian vehicle with steel plates.

Carefully maneuvering around the wrecked vehicles crashing into the fences on both sides, and the zombies scattered across this side that kept being knocked away.

Some of the cars were completely burned out, and the inside and outside were pitch black. Some of the airbags had been deployed, and inside one of them was a mummified corpse that had been restrained.

After the car drove past, some of the zombies in the left lane quickly climbed over the wall, fell, got up, but could no longer see the target they were chasing. They could only blindly walk in the direction the voice had last pointed.

"It would be bad if we got stuck in traffic up ahead," Uesugi Genshin joked as he drove.

"There's a fork in the road ahead where you can get off the highway," Yukino Yukinoshita added, looking at the map.

"Doesn't that mean there's a possibility of congestion at this corner?" Uesugi Genshin said with a wry smile, slightly raising his fingers before gripping the steering wheel again.

There is still a possibility that merging vehicles may collide with the flow of traffic that was originally going straight, leading to a series of traffic accidents and ultimately completely blocking the road.

Fortunately, no place was actually blocked, even though the passageways were very narrow.

The most serious incident was that the two cars collided at an obtuse angle of 120 degrees. The people inside were obviously dead. One of the car doors was twisted and abnormally open, and could no longer be closed. It was probably deformed due to the impact. The people inside were nowhere to be seen. In their place were the zombies that had been standing in the middle of the road.

Following this expressway that encircles the city center, passing through the entire Chuo Ward, you'll find the Nihonbashi Expressway just ahead, built right on top of Nihonbashi.

"We're almost there," Yukino Yukinoshita gently reminded her.

The voice navigation throughout the entire process is very pleasant to listen to, like giving your ears a massage.

If it were nighttime, he might have just fallen asleep right there.

"It should be right here."

Upon hearing Yukinoshita's words, Uesugi Genshin slammed on the brakes, and the people in the car were suddenly thrown forward by inertia.

Fortunately, he immediately grabbed the knife at hand and got out of the car.

We need to deal with the zombies in the vicinity as soon as possible, before they surround the car.

Seeing this, Yukino Yukinoshita and Ai Hayasaka hurriedly got out of the car.

Faced with a zombie that had climbed over the middle fence and fallen to the ground, Uesugi Genshin took the initiative to go forward, and with a swift stroke, cut off its head.

The zombie from not far away rushed over in the blink of an eye, slashed off half of its body with a knife, and then kicked the zombie's corpse away.

On the other side, Yukino Yukinoshita and Ai Hayasaka were dealing with zombies from another direction. Yukino Yukinoshita was the one who smashed the zombies coming from the side, while Ai Hayasaka was not allowed to threaten Yukinoshita's flanks.

The two blocked off one direction of the road, preventing even a single zombie from passing through.

Horikita Suzune lay on the glass, watching the three men swinging their weapons through the gaps in the steel plate.

"So that's how it is."

She learned for the first time in her life how humans fight zombies.

Chapter 296: I Can't See Your Face

He squatted down and smeared the blood from the knife onto the corpse's clothes. Although the zombie's clothes were also covered in blood, they were mostly dry and stiff, so he was still able to wipe away some of the blood from the knife.

Then Uesugi Genshin stood up, glancing at the still-moving figures of zombies in the distance, and temporarily lowered his guard.

"That's all around here." He opened the car door, took out some tissues from inside the car, and wiped the blood off the knife as he spoke to the people inside.

"So it's safe now?" Eriri, who was sitting in the middle, asked. She had been put down when Hayasaka Ai got off the bus and was now stuck in the middle, unable to move.

"Not quite, there's still a little further on."

Upon hearing his words, Horikita Suzune looked forward from the back seat, but because the steel plate on the windshield blocked part of her view, she couldn't see where the so-called "point" was.

"Do you want to come down?" Uesugi Genshin asked, casually tossing away the blood-stained tissue.

"Forget it, it's too dangerous." Ichinose Honami gave a wry smile. She knew very well that she had no fighting ability at all, so it was better to stay in the car.

"Row."

"No, wait, I need to get out." Horikita Suzune took a deep breath, grabbed the weapon she had prepared beforehand, and got out of the car.

Seeing the corpses scattered all over the ground from outside the car was far more shocking than from inside. My legs felt inexplicably weak, but I still resolutely took the first step.

Seeing this, Masumi Kamuro also got out of the car, simply wanting to hear their subsequent discussion.

“That’s Shinomiya Bank over there.” Hayasaka Ai stood on the edge of the road and pointed to the distance to her left. “It’s right behind that building.”

"It's basically blocked, you can't see anything at all." Uesugi Genshin looked in the direction Hayasaka was pointing. To be precise, it wasn't even next to Nihonbashi, but rather on the left front side of the next intersection ahead of Nihonbashi, where the view was blocked by the building on the opposite side of the street.

“The Nihonbashi Bridge is right beneath our feet,” Yukino Yukinoshita stated in a light and melodious voice.

"Yes, and there aren't many cars." Uesugi Genshin nodded, looking at the road stretching to the horizon.

"But there are quite a few zombies." Leaning on a blood-stained iron rod, Hayasaka Ai brushed the wind-blown strands of hair behind her ear.

The zombies below were scattered in groups on both sides of the road, and there were also many zombies wandering aimlessly in the middle of the road.

Apart from a few cars that had collided, there were basically no vehicles obstructing traffic.

"Are we getting off the bus later to go to the Shinomiya Bank over there?" Horikita Suzune asked, arms crossed.

Then she looked down and saw that below the overpass were still large groups of corpses. If they had looked up, they could probably have seen them, but unfortunately they couldn't.

The zombies in the distance could be seen, but they didn't react when they were too far away; they didn't have good eyesight.

Shrugging, Uesugi Genshin retorted, "It's me, not us."

"..." Although she had some objections, Horikita Suzune pursed her lips and remained silent. She was well aware of her own abilities and had no right to say anything like "I'll help too."

"But how do you plan to get there?" Hayasaka Ai asked the crucial question. Should she just cut her way through?

There are hundreds of zombies on the road. Although not all of them can run, it is still very dangerous to be surrounded.

With such a high density of distribution, it's not easy to escape or hide.

“We still need to drive there,” Yukino Yukinoshita said.

"By the way, the Shinomiya Bank has wooden doors, no glass," Hayasaka Ai added, meaning that if you just drive around it, you can't see inside; you can only see the outside.

Whether or not to open the door and take a look is up to him to decide.

"I'll drive around to lure some of the zombies away, and then I'll get out and check on them." Uesugi Genshin didn't want to just hack his way through; the risk was too great. If he made any noise, the zombies on the neighboring road and those in the buildings on both sides of the road would come running. He shouldn't do things that were absolutely necessary.

“Speaking of which, if there’s a river below, we can use a boat to get here…” Horikita Suzune suggested. Nihonbashi (Nihonbashi Bridge) is named for being built over a river, specifically the Nihonbashi River. As for the original name of this river, she didn’t know, but it certainly wasn’t the Nihonbashi River.

"The Shinomiya Bank doesn't have a lot of gold stored, but it still has over ten tons," Hayasaka Ai reminded her, adding that ordinary fishing boats probably wouldn't be able to transport that much gold.

Nihonbashi is a low bridge, and its arches are not wide enough for large ships to pass through.

"Why is there so little?" Uesugi Genshin couldn't help but complain.

"..." Hayasaka Ai looked at him, slightly speechless, "Because most of Japan's gold is not in Japan, but in the United States."

Even these dozen or so tons of gold are worth tens of billions of yen, which is not a small amount.

“Then moving it out of the bank is also a problem,” Yukino Yukinoshita said after a moment of thought.

“We have armored trucks; one truck should be able to carry several tons without any problem, so there’s no need to worry about that,” Hayasaka Ai replied to Yukinoshita’s concerns.

"The only option is to drive to the coast first and then ship by sea," Uesugi Genshin proposed his plan, which was the most ideal solution. After all, driving alone would not only be unpleasant, but finding the way would also take a lot of effort.

"That's for later." Hayasaka Ai said, "Don't think that far ahead. Isn't the purpose of this trip to see this place?"

“That’s settled then.” Uesugi Genshin made the decision, first drawing away some of the zombies, then getting out of the car to take a look before getting back in. “Hayasaka, you’ll drive after I get out.”

“Okay, I understand,” Hayasaka Ai replied.

They then got into the car. Hayasaka Ai no longer sat on the edge of the back seat, but chose to stand in the center of the back seat so that she could quickly jump to the driver's seat, even faster than from the passenger seat, in just one second.

Just as Uesugi Genshin was starting the car and about to exit the viaduct, Hayasaka Ai suddenly remembered something, "Wait."

Uesugi Genshin slammed on the brakes at the downhill exit, where there weren't many zombies. "What's wrong?"

“The Shinomiya Bank’s surveillance system uses an independent power supply,” she said, meaning that even if the area experiences a power outage, the surveillance system will still function.

“…Then we’ll have to disguise ourselves.” Uesugi Genshin understood what she meant; it wouldn’t be good if they were caught on camera.

After all, it's gold. If someone comes here to investigate the surveillance footage and discovers that they came here and took the gold, they will definitely track them down, which could cause unnecessary trouble.

Their goal is simply the gold in the underground vault. Besides, this is just preliminary reconnaissance, not clearing out most of the building and then eliminating evidence of their presence.

Therefore, not revealing one's true identity is the most cost-effective option.

“There are also security cameras at the entrance, so cars can’t pass through the entrance,” she continued.

“Then I’ll cover my face,” Uesugi Genshin thought to himself.

“That would be best,” Hayasaka Ai agreed with his idea.

"How do we cover it up? With a mask?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked from the side, as they didn't have any masks in their car.

"I want to cover my hair as much as possible," Uesugi Genshin said, raising his hand. It would be best if his hair and such were not exposed.

"Use clothes or a towel?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked, taking a towel out of the glove box.

“No.” “That’s a bit…” Uesugi Genshin and Hayasaka Ai hesitated at the same time.

Uesugi Genshin explained, "It's not very secure; it might fall off if you move too much. If it's wrapped too tightly, it will obstruct your vision, and it would be troublesome if it came undone. It's not flexible enough."

He spread his hands and continued, "I need one that fits my face perfectly, doesn't shift easily, and covers my entire head..."

As he spoke, he blinked and glanced at Eriri in the back seat, noticing the stockings on her legs.

Most of the people on the bus were wearing pants, except for her, who was wearing a skirt, making her black pantyhose stand out.

Bank. Robber. Stockings.