Chapter 177 (Patreon)

By the time dusk arrived, the setting sun had dyed the western sky a deep shade of orange.

Mihawk followed a road leading up a high hillside, with rows of cherry trees lining both sides. After cutting down zombies and continuously using the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for most of the day, even he could feel a faint strain beginning to build behind his eyes.

He intended to leave the city, but before doing so, he wanted to reach the summit and see the entire city from above.

“Hm? A school, all the way up here?”

Halfway up the mountain, an open gate caught his attention.

Mihawk had not expected anyone to build a school in such an isolated location. He stopped before the stone sign beside the entrance and quietly read the name engraved upon it.

“Private Fujimi Academy—High School Division?”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Why does that sound familiar?”

He searched through the memories of his previous life, but no matter how long he thought about it, he could not remember where he had heard the name.

Still, the feeling of familiarity would not disappear.

Curious, Mihawk walked through the gate.

He could already see zombies wandering across the campus from outside. Some staggered between the buildings, while others stood motionless on the paths as though waiting for something to disturb them.

The school had clearly fallen during the initial outbreak.

There might still be a handful of survivors hiding somewhere inside, but Mihawk doubted even five percent of the students and teachers remained alive.

As he continued deeper into the academy, the strange sense of familiarity only grew stronger.

The campus was unnaturally quiet beneath the fading evening light. Aside from the low groans and ragged breathing of the zombies, even the breeze passing through the cherry trees sounded unusually clear.

Cherry petals drifted across paths stained with blood.

Once night fell, the combination of darkness and hundreds of staggering corpses would turn the school into something resembling a nightmare.

A zombie wandered across Mihawk’s path.

The small cross-shaped blade in his hand moved once.

Its body split apart as easily as a sheet of paper standing upright. Pieces of flesh and internal organs struck the pavement with a wet, heavy sound that echoed throughout the silent campus.

“Rrgh…”

All the zombies within a hundred metres turned toward him.

Low growls rose from their throats. Their previously sluggish bodies suddenly surged forward with the explosive speed of sprinters, their arms reaching for Mihawk as they rushed toward him from every direction.

The nearest zombies crossed the final few metres almost instantly.

Mihawk responded with a simple horizontal swing.

A nearly invisible Ranged Slash extended from the small blade in a perfectly straight line and passed through several zombies at once.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then blood erupted from several places across their bodies. Heads, arms, and sections of their torsos slid apart before falling heavily to the ground.

Warm blood splashed across Mihawk’s face.

He bent forward slightly and stepped into the approaching horde.

His small blade flickered through the evening light.

Every movement was simple and precise. Zombies were cut apart one after another, while the sounds of severed flesh and collapsing bodies continued without pause.

The commotion quickly spread throughout the academy.

More zombies emerged from behind buildings and staggered out through open doors. The number gathering in the square grew with every passing second.

However, the noise attracted more than just the dead.

On the upper floor of the main building, several students cautiously emerged from the staff room and stepped into the corridor.

Saya Takagi stared down at the silver-haired young man who was advancing directly into the horde instead of fleeing from it. Her eyes widened behind her glasses.

“Who is that?”

“That’s incredible…”

Kohta Hirano leaned over the railing, barely able to believe what he was seeing.

Most people could only run from the dead. Even fighting a single one at close range carried the risk of being bitten.

The young man below was deliberately drawing dozens of them toward himself.

Saeko Busujima said nothing.

Her blue eyes narrowed as she studied every movement Mihawk made. The hand holding her wooden sword tightened almost unconsciously.

His technique was terrifying.

There were no unnecessary movements and no wild swings. Mihawk appeared to use almost no strength, yet every motion of that tiny blade severed multiple zombies as though their bodies offered no resistance at all.

Mihawk had already noticed the gazes directed at him from the corridor, but he chose to ignore them.

He slipped through the gaps between the attacking zombies, his movements light enough to resemble a butterfly passing through a storm. His long silver ponytail streamed behind him while the cross-shaped blade became little more than a blur in his hand.

Blood sprayed through the air wherever he passed.

Despite the number of zombies surrounding him, Mihawk never moved beyond an area five or six metres wide. He circled through the same limited space, allowing the dead to gather around him before cutting them apart.

The horde visibly diminished with every circuit.

Pieces of flesh scattered across the square. Intestines and other remains covered the pavement until the ground could no longer be seen beneath the spreading blood.

The bodies gradually began piling up around Mihawk.

“Is he… really human?” Rei Miyamoto whispered, covering her mouth.

“That isn’t humanly possible,” Saya said.

Takashi Komuro had remained silent from the moment the battle began. Saya’s voice finally pulled him from his shock.

“We need to move,” he said quickly. “While those things are focused on him, we can get out of the school.”

The others looked toward the path leading to the school bus.

Saeko continued watching Mihawk for several seconds before nodding.

“Takashi is right. We should leave while the path is clear.”

Even after making that decision, none of them moved immediately.

The sight below held them in place.

They had witnessed their classmates and teachers being bitten, killed, and transformed. They had fought desperately merely to reach the staff room alive.

Yet the creatures that had driven the entire school into despair were being slaughtered so easily that it hardly resembled a battle.

Several minutes later, the final zombie in the square collapsed.

Silence returned to the campus.

Mihawk stood atop the pile of dismembered bodies, still holding the small cross-shaped blade in one hand. Blood covered the square around him, creating the horrifying image of a mountain of corpses rising from a sea of red.

A breeze passed through the cherry trees.

Several petals drifted across the square and settled upon the bodies. One landed in Mihawk’s silver hair, standing out against the dark blood staining it.

Takashi and the others finally regained their senses and hurried downstairs.

To reach the school bus, they would have to cross the square and pass directly beside Mihawk.

The closer they came, the more overwhelming the scene became.

What had appeared to be a mound from the second floor was indeed a hill formed entirely from dismembered bodies. Limbs and pieces of flesh had become tangled together, while blood and entrails covered the ground around it.

Someone behind Rei gagged quietly.

Kohta swallowed hard.

“He’s wearing a kimono… and he did all this with that tiny cross-shaped knife. He definitely isn’t from our school.”

They slowed as they approached, each step becoming more cautious than the last.

Mihawk had shown no interest in them, but none of them knew whether that would change once they drew closer.

Rei glanced up at him and instinctively moved nearer to Takashi.

At that moment, Mihawk turned his head and looked down at them.

His icy-blue Mystic Eyes fell upon the group.

Everyone stopped.

The surrounding air seemed to freeze.

For a brief instant, the bodies beneath Mihawk appeared to stretch endlessly behind him. A dark red haze seemed to rise from the mountain of corpses, transforming the academy square into a vast battlefield covered in blood.

It was only an illusion created by fear, yet none of them could look away.

Takashi’s skin turned cold. Rei held her breath until her chest began to hurt, while Saya and Kohta felt their legs lose their strength beneath them.

They had the absurd sensation that Mihawk was not merely looking at their faces.

Those eyes could see straight through them.

Except for Saeko, the others nearly collapsed beneath the weight of his gaze. Sweat covered their bodies, and their trembling refused to stop.

Saeko remained standing, but she was not unaffected.

In only a few seconds, perspiration soaked the back of her uniform. Her hand tightened around her wooden sword while a powerful chill passed through her body.

And yet, beneath that fear, another emotion began to rise.

Excitement.

The feeling spread through her chest and gradually suppressed her fear. Her heartbeat quickened as she stared into Mihawk’s icy-blue eyes.

“So strong…” she whispered.

Saeko finally understood the strange emotion stirring inside her.

The darker part of herself—the side that found exhilaration in violence and had always responded to the feeling of a weapon in her hands—was reacting to the merciless precision of Mihawk’s swordsmanship.

It was more than admiration.

It was resonance.

PS: The world he is in right now is “Highschool of the Dead.“