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

"Do not misunderstand."

His words made both Honami Ichinose and Chihiro Shiranami look in his direction.

"I'm about to confess my feelings right now. Ichinose, I've always liked you, please go out with me."

Honami Ichinose's eyes widened.

That's for sure, turning the perfect tense into the progressive tense, but that's the strategy Uesugi Genshin chose.

Even Chihiro Shiraha was surprised.

She was probably shocked because he had taken away what she was going to say.

Upon hearing Uesugi Genshin's confession, Ichinose Honami was somewhat taken aback, but quickly came to the correct answer.

"sure."

"Huh?" "Huh?"

Well, two exclamations of surprise rang out simultaneously in an instant.

Chihiro Shirami's answer was easy to understand, but Genshin Uesugi didn't expect Ichinose to answer yes. He could have just used this to express that "I have no intention of dating anyone right now, and I absolutely do not intend to date anyone who confesses to me."

"Really?" So Uesugi Genshin looked at Ichinose in surprise.

"Yes," Honami Ichinose explained with a smile.

"Why did Ichinose-san accept this person's confession?!" Chihiro Shiranami shouted, completely bewildered.

Uesugi Genshin quickly nodded in agreement.

"Pfft." This made Ichinose Honami burst out laughing.

She rested her finger on her chin, looked up at the sky, and muttered, "Why?"

"Um, what exactly do you like about Ichinose-kun?"

The girl looked at Uesugi Genshin suspiciously, as if she had sensed something, or perhaps Ichinose's original method was indeed very old-fashioned.

Even after improvements, it is still not convincing.

However, Chihiro Shirami did not run away. Instead, she became obsessed, as if proving that what had just happened was a lie would make her confession successful.

Refusing to confess your feelings is a path that will inevitably hurt the other person.

However, Uesugi Genshin didn't seem to mind at all, saying, "Ichinose is like an angel."

Then, about five minutes later, the brave girl ran away from the two of them with small, quick steps, her eyes glistening with tears as she left.

"Lilies are wrong!" Uesugi Genshin thought to himself as he watched her retreating figure.

"Although she said things would be the same as usual starting tomorrow, but... can we really get along like before?"

Honami Ichinose murmured, looking in the direction where Chihiro Shiranami had left.

"Then you should be careful not to talk to her on purpose tomorrow," Uesugi Genshin reminded him. Generally, timid girls like this are sensitive, and deliberate actions might hurt her even more.

"Hmm." Ichinose Honami nodded understandingly, then quickly changed her mood, turning her head playfully to look at him, "So, Uesugi-kun, when are you planning to dump me?"

"...Let's wait a while, at least." Since Ichinose wants to avoid hurting that girl, they can't just break up tomorrow.

Uesugi Genshin slowly stretched and started walking forward. "Anyway, while I'm still the vice president, you and I will occasionally hand over work. In other words, in her eyes, it's like we're really dating."

"That's right."

As I walked into the courtyard, I unexpectedly saw a familiar face.

Wearing a brown coat, Long Yuanxiang walked towards the two with a sandwich in his mouth.

He didn't eat in the cafeteria; instead, he took a takeout sandwich, which was probably made by the cooking department from the leftover toast from the morning.

"Hey~, I think I just saw a girl running away crying." He chuckled teasingly. "Was she heartbroken?"

A failed confession and a failed relationship are pretty much the same thing.

However, Ryuen was looking at Uesugi Genshin when he said this.

"He doesn't think Chihiro Shiranami is confessing to him, does he?" Genshin Uesugi wondered.

That's true, no normal person would expect a girl to confess her feelings to another girl.

“Hmm…” Ryuen Sho shifted his gaze back and forth between Uesugi Genshin and Ichinose Honami before finally uttering a meaningful sound.

It's as if I guessed something, but my guess was slightly the opposite of the truth.

"Speaking of which, what did you talk to Shiina about yesterday?" Ryuen Sho suddenly brought up another matter.

Although he didn't know why he brought up Shiina Hiyori, Uesugi Genshin said, "I had the new secretary bring her into the publicity department, and I also arranged for her to live in the same apartment as Sakura."

Since he had brought Sakura Airi over, he felt he had to take some responsibility. So when they were discussing apartment allocation yesterday, he made a point of going to the site. He hadn't expected that Class B, who were all clustered together at the time, wouldn't have their apartments allocated properly.

In his eyes, Shiina Hiyori was just a literary girl who lacked physical strength and probably couldn't handle any heavy labor, so she should just stick to her clerical work.

The price she paid was that she had to keep Sakura Airi company. One liked quiet, and the other had almost zero social skills. They were a perfect match, at least they could get along peacefully, and that was enough.

"Is that so..." Ryuen Sho shut his mouth, as if he had nothing more to say.

"Why don't you just go ask Shiina?" Uesugi Genshin shrugged.

"Although we were in the same class before, she's no longer under my jurisdiction." This is at most the last bit of concern from the former leader.

Ryuen Sho strode forward, and as he passed Uesugi Genshin, he grinned and teased, "So if you want to make her your own woman, it's none of my business, Captain."

Has his reputation really gotten this bad?

Uesugi Genshin turned back speechlessly to look at Ryuen's departing figure and said, "Don't be late this afternoon."

In response, Long Yuan waved his hand without turning his head.

Chapter 337: The Melee in the Shopping Mall

"Don't be late" was just a casual remark, but in reality, most people were already there when we arrived, and in the end, no one was late for the meeting time.

The operation involved a total of three light trucks and one jeep.

The light trucks used by the executive department have seats in the back. These vehicles were all found in New Harbor. The maximum number of people they can seat is eighteen, but that would be too crowded.

So the arrangement was two people in the front and ten people in the back, which is five people in each of the two rows, just right, so that they wouldn't be sitting arm to arm.

The thought of Longyuan huddled together with the others makes me inexplicably want to laugh. But if that were to happen, his group members would definitely make room for him so that their boss wouldn't be in such an awkward situation. After all, the people in Longyuan's group were all originally from Class C.

Then there's Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, who can also drive. Uesugi Genshin watched him wearing gloves and fiddling with the steering wheel, and he looked like... a killer who specializes in causing truck accidents.

"Everyone knows the plan for this operation, right?" Hayasaka Ai, sitting in the passenger seat of the Wrangler, was confirming the details with the three captains in the other three vehicles via radio.

"Let me repeat, our four teams entered the shopping mall from four different directions, mainly responsible for clearing out the zombies on the first floor. Well, that's true, the zombies on the higher floors will definitely come down too."

She paused, then solemnly reminded them, "Please be extremely careful of falling objects from heights and remind your team members."

Because in some places, zombies on the second or third floor can see living people, and when they can't find a way down, according to their peculiar thought processes, they are very likely to jump directly down from the building.

It would be best if it died from the fall, but it could also just suffer a fracture that slows its movements. Not to mention, if it happens to land on a person or another animal, there's a high chance it will be fine.

Just as Hayasaka Ai continued her work as her assistant, Amasawa Ichika, sitting on the far right of the back seat, yawned loudly.

"You weren't here this morning, were you? Why haven't you had enough sleep yet?" Kiryuin Kaede, sitting in the middle, looked at Tensawa's yawn and said with amusement.

She herself was dragged away by the minister to the dojo.

"Hmm, I'm just adjusting my biological clock recently," Tianze Yixia said, perking up.

Kiryuin Fuuka rolled her eyes at these words, as if no one was being unreasonable. However, someone offered a solution: drinking a bottle of alcohol when you can't sleep makes it easy to fall asleep. This was his suggestion for his 17-year-old self.

However, this reminded Kiryuin Fuka that the junior beside her seemed to be... only 14 years old, right?

Her own birthday is in April, while Amaze's seems to be in June. Kiryuin Fuuka happened to see them when they filled out their club application forms together yesterday.

"Speaking of which, you're stronger than me, so let me see that this time," Kiryuin Fuka said, bringing up another matter.

"It's only slightly better." Tianze Yixia gestured with his thumb and forefinger to indicate the concept of "slightly better."

Sitting to the left of Kiryuin, Horikita Suzune showed no interest in their conversation. She squinted at the road ahead through the gap in the steel plate outside the front window, while listening to Hayasaka's words in the passenger seat.

However, one thing that bothered her was that out of the six people in the car, she seemed to be the only one who had dutifully worn that set of protective gear that looked like cosplay.

The person sitting in the driver's seat was only wearing a haori (a traditional Japanese garment), probably because he didn't want to get his clothes dirty.

Ms. Hayasaka, in the passenger seat, was wearing a black bodysuit-like outfit that looked like a cycling suit, with a yellow raincoat over it.

The two on the right were much bolder, wearing the school's red tracksuits. Even though Ming Ze wasn't a student at Advanced Nurturing High School, it was unclear where she got the tracksuits from.

Kamuro on the left wore extra elbow and knee pads over his sportswear, and also added leg wraps.

So she was the only one who went to collect and put on the black leather armor.

"..." She poked the leather on her chest with mixed feelings. It was hard and indeed very protective, and not heavy at all.

Although it wasn't made specifically for women, I didn't feel any discomfort wearing the smallest size made, and there was no noticeable pressure on my chest.

We're almost there.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Uesugi Genshin reminded the people in the car that it was originally a right angle route, and the road was quiet and peaceful. If it weren't for the fear of zombies suddenly jumping into the road, they could arrive in less than five minutes with a tap of the accelerator.

"Ah, I see it." Tianze Yixia got up from her seat and leaned forward a little, patting the back of the chair in front of her. "Is it the area surrounded by gray sheet metal?"

"Yes." Uesugi Genshin removed the hand from his shoulder and said, "Sit still."

"Good~"

After entering the corrugated iron fence, he chose to stop in the open space in front of the shopping center.

The three light trucks behind also parked at a distance.

Unlike the members in the light truck who carried their own weapons, the weapons of the men in the back seat of the jeep were stored in the trunk.

Because baseball bats wrapped with wire and studs take up a lot of space, they can easily injure someone if you're not careful.

After getting off the car, Uesugi Gensuke gestured towards the shopping center, indicating that Hayama, Hachiman, and Ayanokoji should go their own way.

The general movement routes within the shopping center were also designed by Hayasaka based on the architectural floor plan, and they all eventually converge.

The open space where only these people were present seemed quite empty, and the cloudy weather today prevented the temperature from rising.

It's already mid-May, but as long as there's no direct sunlight, it doesn't feel hot at all; it's the perfect temperature.

"Let's go now that we're ready," Uesugi Genshin said, looking at the people around the car.

"Hmm." "No problem." "Okay~"

The answers were varied and completely disorganized, but they sounded pleasant.

The guiding principle for this operation was to conduct the battle in as spacious an area as possible. This was not only for safety reasons during the battle, but also for the protection of the goods and subsequent cleaning and tidying.

The bodies that had piled up outside a few days ago have been taken away and burned by the cleaning team that arrived, leaving only patches of bloodstains on the ground.

They were going to enter through the main gate, which is why they were taking their time and didn't need to go around to the other side like the other teams.

“I’ll be in front.” Turning around, Uesugi Genshin assigned tasks, “Kiryuin is on my right, Amasawa is on my left, Suzune and Kamuro are on the sides and back, and Hayasaka is at the very back.”

The basic formation is a diamond shape. Considering that there will definitely be a lot of zombies inside, he does not plan to deliberately train his subordinates, but instead chooses to go all out to hold the front.

Hayasaka, carrying communication equipment, stood at the rear, responsible for covering the rear and providing supplementary command of the team from the position with the best field of vision.

Because of the power outage, when I approached the gate, the automatic door was not open, but the glass was broken, so it didn't prevent me from going in.

Through the two broken glass doors, you can see the bread shop on the left and the bento shop on the right.

The outermost area had been cleared out a few days prior; the zombies were lured outside and killed, so there are no zombies here.

As she passed by, Horikita Suzune picked up a loaf of bread from the wooden shelf and saw through the packaging that it had grown clumps of white fuzz and was completely inedible.

Uesugi Genshin gestured to Kiryuin with his chin, and Kiryuin Fuuka began to slam her baseball bat heavily into the ground, making a loud thud.

It was as if other sounds had appeared, yet it also seemed as if none had.

But the air seemed to freeze, like the prelude to a storm.

As they continued walking forward, the sounds kept ringing out, as if trying to lure the zombies in the corner to the wide central path before killing them.

After walking another ten meters or so, we finally heard footsteps and low growls coming from both sides.

"Ah..." "Ah..."

The voice sounded like that of a patient struggling to breathe. When they saw the figure, the figure also saw them and began to run.

The first to engage was Tianze Yixia. She gripped the handle of the stick with both hands and swung it forcefully, hitting a perfect home run that splattered blood.