Chapter 179 (Patreon)

Night descended over the hillside road connecting Fujimi Academy to the city.

Now that Mihawk knew which world he had entered and had accepted Saeko Busujima as his student, he abandoned his original plan to continue toward the mountaintop.

Instead, he decided to return to the city with Saeko and find somewhere to spend the night. He could resume his search tomorrow.

It was around 7:40 p.m.

The last traces of the sunset had long since vanished beneath the curtain of night. Countless stars dotted the sky, surrounding a bright, nearly full moon.

Judging by the moon’s shape, the date in this world should have been somewhere between the fourteenth and twentieth of the month.

A lone zombie wandered onto the road ahead of them.

Mihawk casually swung his small blade.

Swish!

A silver line passed through the zombie, splitting its body in two.

Without sparing the spraying blood a glance, Mihawk continued down the hillside road.

Saeko walked half a step behind him on his right.

Watching him dispose of every zombie in their path with effortless swings, she felt a sense of security unlike anything she had experienced since the outbreak began.

Despite their explosive strength, the zombies were not particularly difficult for her to kill. If she fought seriously, she could deal with more than a dozen of them by herself.

However, if a sufficiently large horde surrounded her, she would eventually be overwhelmed.

The teacher walking beside her was entirely different.

No matter how many zombies appeared, he moved through them as though they did not exist. Every swing of that tiny blade severed their bodies without the slightest resistance.

Remembering the godlike slash that had split the school grounds and cut an entire building in half, Saeko suppressed the questions filling her mind and decided to begin with something simple.

“Sensei, where are we going now?”

“We’ll find somewhere to spend the night,” Mihawk answered calmly. “Once I’ve finished what I need to do tomorrow, I’ll begin your training.”

“Yes, Sensei.”

Saeko nodded without asking what kind of training awaited her.

Although they were now master and student, they had only met earlier that day. In every other respect, they were still strangers.

If Saeko had not possessed a nature that resonated with his own, Mihawk would never have paid much attention to her. His memories of his previous life and a sudden passing whim had also influenced his decision to accept her as his student.

Mihawk was younger than Saeko, but she did not underestimate him because of his age.

She had been raised in a traditional household and taught from childhood to respect the relationship between master and student. Now that she had acknowledged Mihawk as her teacher, she would treat him with the respect that position deserved.

More importantly, his strength was more than worthy of her respect.

The slash Mihawk had shown her was like a key that opened the door to an entirely new world.

If she wanted to obtain even a fraction of that power, she needed to listen to his guidance and fulfil her responsibilities as his student.

Saeko had already prepared herself for that.

For now, she would remain by his side, build a proper relationship with him, and help whenever the opportunity arose.

There was no need to force anything.

After walking for a little over ten minutes, the two finally reached the bottom of the hill and entered the city.

The once-bustling streets had fallen completely silent.

There were no pedestrians, no conversations, and no vehicles moving along the road. Even among the countless buildings surrounding them, only a small number still had their lights on.

If the electrical grid had already stopped functioning, the entire city would have been swallowed by darkness.

Without workers maintaining and protecting the power stations, however, that outcome was inevitable. Apart from a few places with independent sources of electricity, the modern world would eventually return to a state of near-total darkness.

The lights still shining tonight were among the last remnants of human civilisation.

If Mihawk remembered the plot correctly, an electromagnetic pulse would soon sweep across the region. Once that happened, vehicles, mobile phones, household appliances, and most other modern technology would cease functioning.

With that thought in mind, Mihawk made a decision.

He would accomplish his objective before the electromagnetic pulse struck.

Once this world lost its remaining light and the conveniences provided by modern technology disappeared, he would return to the ninja world.

For tonight, however, they needed somewhere to stay.

Breaking into private residences had already become commonplace in this collapsing world. Compared with the surrounding buildings, Mihawk naturally selected a small but elegant villa with a comfortable interior.

The doors and windows were all locked from the inside.

Mihawk’s Observation Haki swept through the building and vanished a moment later. He detected no human presence and no wandering corpses.

He glanced at Saeko, who was examining the locked entrance.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already checked,” he said. “There’s nothing inside.”

Before Saeko could respond, Mihawk wrapped one arm around her waist.

Her body stiffened in surprise.

Mihawk leapt over the outer wall with her, crossed the courtyard in a single bound, and landed lightly upon the villa’s roof.

After releasing Saeko, he drew the short blade once more and sliced through the locked rooftop door. The two entered through the opening and descended into the villa.

The lights on the second floor came on with a soft click.

Warm light immediately filled the luxurious interior, dispersing the darkness that had surrounded them since leaving the academy.

Mihawk removed the stained cloth wrapped around his head, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the living-room trash can.

Thanks to his self-cleaning kimono and the complete lack of effort required to eliminate the zombies, he had barely broken a sweat throughout the day. Even so, he wanted to wash away the lingering smell of blood and filth.

Before searching for the bathroom, he removed the sealing tags fastened around his wrists and channelled chakra into one of them.

Pop!

A small cloud of white smoke appeared, and a large storage scroll dropped onto the floor.

Mihawk opened the scroll and placed both hands against its surface.

Several more clouds of white smoke burst across the living room. Changes of clothing, a moderate supply of water, and enough preserved food to last for some time appeared before Saeko.

He selected a pair of shorts from the clothes.

“There’s food and water here,” Mihawk told her. “Eat whatever you need, or check the kitchen and see whether this house has anything you can use.”

With that, he left the living room and went in search of the bathroom.

Saeko remained where she was, staring at the supplies that had appeared from an ordinary-looking scroll.

The sword Mihawk had produced from a sealing tag had already seemed impossible. Now he had summoned clothing, water, and food out of thin air as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

After a long silence, Saeko finally recovered from her astonishment.

“Who exactly is Sensei?” she whispered to herself. “First that sword appeared out of nowhere, and now this… He’s like the protagonist of a manga.”

Her gaze fell upon the sealing tags and storage scroll.

“Could powers like these really be part of some hidden, supernatural side of this world?”

Saeko had no way of knowing that Mihawk did not belong to her world at all.

Unable to find an answer, she carefully rolled up the storage scroll and arranged the clothes, water, and preserved food neatly upon the table.

She then searched the villa’s kitchen.

Much of the food stored there was still fresh. The electricity had not stopped, and the contents of the refrigerator had yet to spoil.

Saeko tied back her long purple hair, gathered the ingredients she needed, and began preparing dinner.

The steady rhythm of chopping soon echoed from the kitchen.

By the time Mihawk emerged from the bathroom, it was already nine o’clock.

Most of his attention had gone toward thoroughly washing his face and long silver hair. With the stains and smell of the day finally gone, he appeared as composed as ever.

The icy-blue light in his eyes flickered briefly as his gaze moved toward the kitchen.

A generous dinner had already been arranged upon the table.

Mihawk looked at Saeko with a trace of appraisal in his eyes.

Her hidden darkness and violent impulses aside, she truly was an exceptionally traditional young woman. She was modest, gentle, skilled in the kitchen, and had been raised to understand how to manage a household.

Combined with an appearance and figure that countless women would envy, she possessed qualities surprisingly similar to Hinata’s.

Bright light filled the elegant living room as the two prepared to eat their first meal as master and student.