High School Girl Warrior: How to Save an Apocalyptic World

Chapter 22 – A Buddha in hell? (Translator’s Note: “Finding a Buddha in Hell” is an idiom that means “In my hour of need I found a true friend.”)

I only felt the pain for a moment. After that, a strange disgusting feeling ran through my entire body, it was as if my whole being was being licked… It made me remember the one time that I met a molester on a train, only this was several dozen times worse.

“Hiii!” I shouted as I reflexively kicked the zombie that was biting my leg. Right now, I was going crazy from hatred and despair.

And at this moment, that annoying exaggerated loud fanfare rang.

–Congratulations! You earned the achievement: ‘Sacrifice’!

–Congratulations! You earned the achievement: ‘Deadly Disease’!

There’s nothing to congratulate here…

–Chose a reward for the ‘Sacrifice’ achievement.

“Shut up! Not now!” I yelled at the paranormal voice… By now I was already crying.

I ran. My leg hurt horribly, but I couldn’t afford to fall right now… I hate this. I don’t wanna die. I shouldn’t have done this in the first place… Just what kind of savior can I be if I can’t even protect myself!?

No. Calm down. I can’t lose my heart here. I need to find a way out of this… Let’s keep running. Let’s run while dragging this barely functional leg.

Ah, the Antidote! I have it!

I quickly took it out of my pocket and drank it all in one gulp… Damn it, this is actually delicious. Tastes like strawberry.

I threw away the empty bottle and, while still running, tried looking at the wound on my calf… It’s bad. The bite dug deep. I don’t wanna look at this again.

… I’m gonna need to change my plans. I won’t be able to escape the zombies like this. I need a place to rest.

Right now I’m in the shopping district, so maybe there’s an abandoned store available? The ‘Natural Healing (Medium)’ skill did say that a ‘moderate wound’ should be fully healed in a day, so I should be able to go back to school if I am able to find a place to recover.

Somewhere… Anywhere would be fine. A place that wasn’t taken by the zombies yet.

As I thought of that, I heard a voice shout, “Over here!”

An elderly man was waving at me from a drugstore that was only a dozen meters away. I never talked to him before, but I did remember this man. He was the manager of this drugstore that I went to from time to time to buy snacks, since he sold them for less than the supermarket did. It was a relief to see a known face at this predicament.

“Hurry up!” He shouted.

… This is what they must mean by finding a Buddha in hell.

While still dragging my leg, I rushed to the drugstore. As soon as I got there, the owner quickly closed the shutters.

“There we go.” He said.

I sat down on the spot and left out a sigh in relief, “Thank you, you saved me there.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it.” As he said that, he loosened his belt.

“Can you lend me some bandages for now?” I asked him. I was really lucky to have escaped to a drugstore of all things, he seems to have quite a few bandages here.

… Wait a minute. Did he just loosen his belt? Why does it look like he is taking of his pants?

… Eh?

“You were bitten, weren’t you?” He asked me.

“Huh…?” Was all I could say for a reply.

“You’re not gonna make it anyways. You understand it, don’t you.” He said.

I tilted my head, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean with-” Suddenly, he pushed me down. And I could see that his lower thing was out in the open now, “H-huh!?” I had a hard time believing my eyes.

“Don’t worry, it will all be over soon…” He said.

Ahahahaha, I see, I see! Right after escaping zombies, I’m now gonna get raped!? Ahahahahha! I just can’t stop laughing! Ahahahahhaah!

He was leaning over me… I just can’t keep up with things anymore… Right after escaping from certain death, I’m now going through an erotic manga development!?

No way!

I jumped out from below him with an agility that should honestly be impossible with my injury. I kept my distance from him and held out my sword.

“It’s alright, it’s alright…” The man said… He’s surely insane by now alright.

I also hadn’t realized before, but he actually had a knife in his hands.

“It’s okay to stab in this situation.” He said.

I felt a bit sad right now… I’ve met this man quite a few times before, and he shouldn’t have been an evil person. If the world didn’t take the turn it took, he probably would have never done any wrong to anyone for the rest of his life.

… And yet, I stabbed my sword through his heart. As he fell down, his blood spurted out and stained my jersey. He died with almost no resistance.

Only now did I notice, that he had a bite mark on his upper arm… Probably from a zombie.

And then, the fanfare rang.

–Congrulations! Your level has risen!

And then the louder fanfare.

–Congratulations! You earned the achievement: ‘Murderer’!

… There really is nothing worth celebrating here.