Chapter 87: The Meeting

The dark green paint, the intricate tracks and wheels, the tall diamond-shaped turret—one glance was enough for Kiyomi to recognize it as the main battle tank of the Ground Defense Force, even without knowing the exact model.

He had no time to wonder why a military tank would still be out here more than two months after the catastrophe began. All he knew was that he had to seize this chance to make contact.

The tank thundered past the street corner, apparently not noticing Kiyomi at all behind the trash bin.

Behind it came a vast horde of the dead, racing in close pursuit. Of course, at their speed, catching up to the tank was nothing but a fool’s dream.

Yet along both sides of the road, the dead were throwing themselves forward from balconies and yards, as though ready to die for the attempt, trying to climb onto the tank just as their fellows had done before.

Though it was somewhat difficult to clamber onto a tank moving at such speed, Kiyomi’s quick glance still caught five or six of them already on the vehicle’s body.

Without thinking, he sprang out at once.

The moment he moved, several nearby dead finally noticed him.

Three of them instantly wheeled about, brandishing their hooked claws as they tried to surround him, their faces twisted with a ferocious hunger for living flesh. They seemed to have gone far too long without tasting the living.

Ability activated.

Kiyomi would not give them what they wanted. At once he triggered one of his own powers.

Rapid Advance.

His body suddenly surged forward, bursting with a speed far beyond that of an ordinary human, leaving the three dead far behind in an instant.

Rounding the corner, he could already see the tank receding ahead in the distance.

At that moment, Kiyomi felt as though a fire were burning in his chest. The oxygen pumped rapidly through his body drove his legs to stride with fierce power. But he also knew he could not maintain such speed for long; he had to catch up to the tank ahead as quickly as possible.

He ran like the wind along the road, and one by one the dead that had been tailing the tank were left behind, only to turn toward him instead with unwilling shrieks.

Farther ahead, four dead who had fallen to the rear noticed his presence. Seeing that chasing the tank was hopeless, they turned and charged at him.

Facing the four rushing straight at him, Kiyomi showed no intention of slowing. His Rapid Advance had already consumed more than half its strength; if he hesitated any longer, he truly would not catch up.

Just as the clawed hands of the four dead were about to land on him, a plume of dark red flame suddenly erupted from his body. The whirling tongues of fire instantly swept across the lunging corpses.

Divine Flame: Unkown Fire.

Howls burst out.

The four dead, engulfed in flame, were dealt a grievous blow at once. The clothes and hair remaining on their bodies ignited, and they crashed to the ground, rolling frantically in desperate agony.

Kiyomi broke through the blockade ahead. By then, the tank that had been moving away was also slowing down, apparently having taken notice of him.

As the tank slowed, the dead pursuing behind it grew even more frantic, steadily closing the distance. More of them, however, did not turn their attention toward Kiyomi.

He let out a breath of relief. Though his flame ability seemed formidable, it too could not be sustained for long. If another large group of the dead came surging in, maintaining two abilities at once would become quite a burden.

Taking two steps at a time, Kiyomi rapidly drew near the rear of the tank. Using fire to force back the dead at his sides, he leaped up onto the vehicle in a single motion.

The dead draped over the tank’s body saw a figure of flame climbing aboard. Their natural fear of fire made them all recoil, baring their teeth as they let out low, threatening growls at him.

Kiyomi’s scalp tingled. The flames around him could still hold for a little while, but if any one of these witless corpses threw itself at him, he would have to use fire to kill again. At that point, a mere three or five of them charging together might be enough to extinguish him.

While his thoughts raced, a dull thud suddenly sounded from inside the tank below him.

Kiyomi was startled. Before he could make sense of it, seven or eight dead clinging to the hull were hurled away all at once, as if struck by some tremendous force.

The outside of the tank was suddenly cleared. Just as he was wondering what was happening, a hatch on the turret was thrown open, and when he looked over, he saw the clear face of a girl.

Seeing that she was a normal human and not some other creature, Kiyomi relaxed in relief and let the flames around his body dissipate.

Before he could say anything, the girl reached out with a pale hand and yanked him straight into the tank’s interior compartment.

Her strength was astonishing; Kiyomi did not even have time to resist before he was hauled inside.

His head struck the wall of the compartment, sending a dull ache through his skull.

Drawing in a sharp breath, ears still ringing, Kiyomi heard the girl say, “Sorry, that might have been a little rough... Hmm... What is that smell? Ugh, it’s awful!”

Under the dim light of the compartment, he saw her pinching her nose in distaste with one hand while scrubbing hard at a towel with the other, trying to wipe away the grime on it.

Kiyomi felt awkward. He knew all too well how terrible the clothes on his body smelled, and with the food he had just gathered from the trash bin that day, the foul stench mixed together in the tank’s sealed interior was enough to make even gods and ghosts recoil.

He propped himself up and bowed repeatedly with utmost panic. “I am terribly sorry for causing you all such trouble. Please, I beg your forgiveness!”

Seeing the boy bowing with his forehead nearly touching the floor, Su Yi, who had grown somewhat accustomed to the elaborate courtesies of the Land of the Rising Sun, gave a light cough and said, “All right, get up and speak.”

Kiyomi lifted his head and looked at him directly. Before him was a valiant young man, probably in his twenties. Besides him was another man seated in the driver’s position, only the back of his head visible.

The girl who had dragged him into the tank was puffing out her cheeks as she glared at him, but she no longer said a word, seeming to take her lead from the young man before her.

“My name is Kiyomi. I am... I was a second-year student at Meitoku Academy. Are you people from the Defense Force?”

The boy looked at the three of them, asking in a tone of uncertainty tinged with hope.

He thought that with such a tremendous upheaval having engulfed the world, even the Defense Force, which controlled the Land of the Rising Sun’s most powerful instrument of violence, would surely have had to change as well. Perhaps the three before him were all evolved individuals absorbed into the military system.

Then he saw the other man shake his head and say, “We are not from the Defense Force. As far as I know, the so-called Defense Force of the Land of the Rising Sun has probably been completely destroyed in this disaster.”