Takumi sat down without any difficulty, putting his phone away despite it roaring every few seconds.
He looked at the group of people gathered in front of him, taking a moment to properly register who was actually present.
The students who had approached him earlier were all here, along with Hiratsuka, who had apparently decided that she wasn't going to let them leave without making her objections known.
Yet nobody was speaking, so Takumi waited patiently for someone to break the ice.
A few seconds passed.
Then a few more.
For some reason, everyone seemed to be waiting for the ice to break, yet nobody was willing to break it themselves.
Takumi's eyebrow suddenly twitched.
...Were they expecting him to do it?
Takumi glanced around the room once more, his eyes moving from the students to the teachers before eventually settling on Hiratsuka.
She was staring at him with an expression that seemed to be asking a very obvious question.
He stared back, his face not even twitching as the awkwardness continued to increase.
Hiratsuka finally broke the silence, her eyebrow twitching.
"You're the one who called this meeting."
"Yes."
"Then aren't you going to start it?"
Takumi blinked before looking around the room again, almost as if expecting someone else to suddenly volunteer for the responsibility.
When nobody did, he finally sighed and straightened himself in his chair.
"...Tch. Where are the spokespersons when you need them?"
Saya's expression remained flat as she listened to his mumbling.
"Are you seriously joking right now?"
Hiratsuka rubbed her forehead.
"....Takumi... please."
"...Right."
The faint amusement disappeared from his face as he sat properly, his eyes moving across everyone gathered in the room.
There weren't many people here, and that was intentional.
These were the students who had approached him privately and told him that they intended to leave the school. They weren't here because Takumi wanted to convince them to stay.
They were here because before anyone stepped outside those gates, he needed to know whether they had actually considered what they were about to do.
"Hikigaya. Riko."
The two mentioned looked up, locking eyes with Takumi.
"And everyone else who approached me earlier..."
Takumi paused, looking at each of them in turn.
"...You still intend to leave?"
Nobody answered immediately.
The question itself wasn't complicated, but after everything that had happened, there was a considerable weight behind it.
They weren't discussing a trip to the shops or sneaking out of school.
They were talking about walking into a city that had already become a graveyard.
Hikigaya was the first to speak.
"Yes."
His answer was quiet, but there wasn't any hesitation behind it.
"My little sister is still at her middle school."
Riko's hands tightened around the edge of her chair.
"So is my brother."
The others followed with their own reasons.
Some wanted to find their parents, others their siblings, and a few simply wanted to find someone they had been separated from when everything collapsed.
Takumi listened to every one of them without interruption, never once attempting to argue against their reasoning.
When they were finished, he remained silent for several seconds before asking the only question he felt actually mattered.
"Are you sure?"
One by one, they nodded.
Takumi lowered his gaze for a moment before giving a small nod of his own.
"...Alright."
Hiratsuka immediately frowned.
"Alright?"
Takumi didn't reply.
They might have been expecting him to say something like, No! I'm commanding you to stop being a bitch and stay!
"You aren't going to stop them?"
"I don't think that's my decision to make."
Hiratsuka's expression hardened.
"They're students, Takumi. They're talking about walking straight into a city filled with those things. You know exactly how dangerous that is."
"I do. I'm a student myself, and I have a clearer understanding of the situation outside than most of you."
"Then you should understand why I'm against this!"
"I do, but just because I feel I'm right doesn't mean I can dictate what someone else does."
He looked at the black-haired woman.
"...That's something you taught us in class, Sensei."
His answer came so easily that Hiratsuka momentarily fell silent.
Takumi lowered his gaze toward the table.
"If they stay here, their bodies will be safe. At least for now."
The room became quieter.
"But that doesn't mean they'll be fine."
His fingers slowly intertwined as he continued, his voice remaining calm despite the weight behind his words.
"They'll keep wondering whether their families are still alive, whether they could've saved them, whether they made the wrong decision by staying here. And every time something happens outside, they'll wonder if that was the moment they should've gone."
He looked toward Hikigaya and Riko.
"Regret is a strange thing. You can survive something and still spend the rest of your life wondering about the decision you made beforehand. A person can tell themselves that they made the safest choice, that there was nothing else they could have done, but that doesn't necessarily make the question disappear."
Takumi leaned back slightly.
"What if?"
Those two words seemed to settle over the room.
"What if they're still alive? What if I had gone? What if I could have saved them? What if I had just tried?"
His expression became somewhat bitter.
"There isn't a correct answer here."
Hiratsuka's expression softened despite herself.
"If I tell them to stay, I might be saving their lives. If I let them leave, I might be sending them to their deaths. Either way, I don't get to guarantee that they'll be okay."
Takumi looked toward the students again.
"So all I can do is make sure they understand what they're choosing. If they don't understand the danger, then I'll tell them. If they haven't thought about what could happen, then I'll make them think about it."
He paused.
"But if they've already thought about it and they've still decided to go..."
Takumi's gaze hardened.
"...then I don't have the right to make that choice for them."
[ If life had been a place where there were simply correct and incorrect paths, then so many tragedies might have been prevented. Sometimes, there's never a correct way. ] - Takumi
Hiratsuka opened her mouth, seemingly ready to argue again, but no words came out.
His inner voice dealt an even greater blow to her.
She looked at Takumi, wondering just how much he had actually gone through in his past... or future.
Shizuka didn't agree with him.
That much was obvious. After all, she was the same person who would force students to join clubs when they wanted to be left alone if she thought it was for their own good.
But she also understood what he was saying.
Eventually, she leaned back with a frustrated sigh.
"...Fine."
Takumi nodded.
"Thank you."
He reached for the map lying across the table and pulled it toward himself, immediately shifting the atmosphere from philosophy to logistics.
"Now, if we're actually doing this, we need to figure out how we're getting there."
His finger traced one of the routes leading toward the middle school.
"We'll need transportation, supplies, weapons, and a route that doesn't force us through unnecessary crowds."
He paused.
"Yesterday, I managed to get here by running through the city, but I'm not doing that again."
Hikigaya frowned.
"Why?"
Takumi's finger stopped.
"Because yesterday I forgot to eat my daily serving of rationality or common sense. Luckily, the undead hadn't changed at the time."
"Changed?"
"Become stronger."
The answer came so naturally that Takumi didn't immediately notice the looks he received.
Hikigaya's eyebrows lowered slightly.
"What do you mean, stronger?"
Takumi finally raised his head from the map, looking around in slight confusion.
For a moment, he simply stared.
Then realization slowly settled in.
"...Ah."
His gaze moved around the room.
Nobody understood.
Not Hikigaya. Not Riko. Not the other students.
Even Hiratsuka was watching him with an expression that made it painfully obvious that she had no idea what he was talking about.
Takumi leaned back in his chair and sighed internally while running a hand through his hair.
Right.
He had forgotten.
These weren't the people from his previous life who had spent months learning how the apocalypse worked.
They hadn't encountered the things he had, nor had they spent weeks studying the behavior of the undead, learning what sounds attracted them, which areas were dangerous, or what happened when the creatures began changing.
To Takumi, this information was already common knowledge.
To everyone else, he had apparently just started speaking another language.
"...I suppose I should explain."
He placed the map aside for a moment.
"The undead aren't all the same."
Several students exchanged uneasy looks.
Takumi continued before anyone could interrupt him.
"Most of them are ordinary. They're dangerous because of their numbers, but they're relatively predictable. They wander around, react to movement and noise, and chase whatever catches their attention. If you understand that, you can usually predict what they're going to do."
He paused, letting the information settle before continuing.
"But there are other types."
Takumi picked up the pen lying beside the map and drew several rough circles across one of its empty spaces.
"We called them Alpha Types."
Hikigaya's eyes narrowed.
"Alpha Types?"
"That's what we called them. Special undead that have developed traits beyond the ordinary ones."
Takumi tapped the first circle.
"The first one you need to know about is the Tank."
The name alone seemed to make several students tense.
"The name should give you a general idea of what you're dealing with. They're massive compared to ordinary undead, and their physical strength is ridiculous."
Takumi's expression became serious.
"They're not particularly fast, but don't make the mistake of thinking that means they're slow. Once one gets close enough, its speed won't matter nearly as much as the strength behind its movements."
He continued.
"Their arms are their biggest advantage. They're strong enough to lift and throw large objects, and anything caught in their path can become a weapon."
Takumi tapped the drawing again.
"They're also extremely difficult to kill because of the amount of muscle surrounding their body, particularly around the neck."
Riko swallowed.
"So how do you kill one?"
"The skull is one option."
Takumi paused.
"...If you can reach it."
Nobody laughed.
"The neck is another possibility, but the muscle growth makes that extremely difficult. The important thing isn't how to kill one, though. It's knowing when not to fight one."
He placed another mark on the map.
"If you see a Tank, avoid it. Don't test yourself against it because you think you can handle it. Don't assume that because it's slower than you that you can outrun it forever."
Takumi's gaze hardened.
"If we encounter one, we change our route unless there's absolutely no other choice."
Hikigaya remained quiet for a moment before asking,
"And the second?"
Takumi moved his pen to the next circle.
"The Witcher."
"The Witcher?"
"That's what we called them."
Takumi shrugged slightly.
"Don't worry about the name. The important part is what it does."
His expression lost some of its previous casualness.
"The Witcher isn't dangerous because it's physically powerful. Its danger comes from its connection to the other undead."
Saya leaned forward.
"What kind of connection?"
"Think of it as a hive mind."
Takumi tapped the paper.
"If one undead connected to a Witcher notices you, the others can react to that information almost immediately."
He paused.
"You could have one zombie see you from several streets away, and before you know it, the entire group is moving in your direction."
A quiet murmur passed through the students.
"So they're basically communicating?" Hikigaya asked.
"Yes, but faster than ordinary communication would allow."
Takumi's eyes narrowed slightly.
"And that's only the first problem."
He tapped the Witcher's circle again.
"They can summon nearby undead with their screams. If one starts making that noise, you don't just have to worry about the Witcher itself. You have to worry about every ordinary undead within range responding to it."
Riko's expression became increasingly uneasy.
"But you said they can communicate with the others. How do we know whether a sound is coming from one?"
Takumi looked at her.
"I guess you wouldn't know then."
That answer made the room noticeably quieter.
"They can mimic human sounds."
He paused before continuing.
"A crying child. A woman calling for help. Someone screaming. Anything that might make a human being lower their guard and investigate."
Takumi's voice became more serious.
"So if you hear someone crying somewhere you can't see, don't immediately run toward them. You might be walking directly into a trap."
The students exchanged looks.
Even Hiratsuka looked disturbed.
Takumi understood why.
A world where the undead simply chased humans was frightening enough.
A world where they could imitate humans was something else entirely.
He moved his pen toward the third circle.
"The third type is called a Stalker."
Hikigaya looked at the rough drawing.
"What does it do?"
Takumi took a moment before answering.
"Unlike the Tank, it isn't built for brute force. Unlike the Witcher, it doesn't rely on controlling other undead. The Stalker is dangerous because it's difficult to notice until it's already close."
His finger moved across the drawing.
"They're more agile than ordinary undead and can climb. Walls, fences, buildings—if there's something they can use to reach you, assume they can find a way."
"So they're basically hunters?" one of the students asked.
"That's the closest description."
Takumi nodded.
"They don't always charge immediately either. They'll sometimes follow a target from a distance and wait for an opportunity when that person is isolated."
The room became silent again.
Takumi placed the pen down.
"That's why I keep saying that we shouldn't treat the undead like they're all the same."
He looked around the room, making sure everyone was actually listening.
"The ordinary ones are dangerous because there are so many of them. The Alpha Types are dangerous because they can change the situation around them."
Takumi leaned forward slightly.
"If we were to choose between walking through a large crowd of ordinary undead or entering an area where we suspected an Alpha Type was present, we'd take the crowd."
He let the words settle.
"That might sound ridiculous considering how dangerous a horde can be, but ordinary undead are predictable. We can see them, understand how they'll react, and plan around them."
His gaze hardened.
"An Alpha Type is different. You don't necessarily know what you're dealing with until you've already encountered it, and by then, changing your mind might no longer be an option."
Hikigaya stared at him for several seconds.
"...They're that dangerous?"
"Yes."
The answer came without hesitation.
Takumi looked down at the map again.
For a moment, he remembered the world he had known before, along with everything he had learned from it. The things he had survived had taught him those lessons, while the mistakes he had made along the way had shaped much of the knowledge he now carried with him.
But this wasn't that world anymore.
Even if the apocalypse had begun in almost the same way, the timing was already different, and the people surrounding him weren't the survivors he remembered.
The undead might not follow the same pattern either.
Takumi exhaled quietly before looking back at the group.
"That's why we're going to avoid them whenever possible. Don't think of Alpha Types as enemies we need to defeat."
He pointed toward the map.
"Think of them as hazards."
"If there's a safer route, we take it. And if we encounter something we don't understand..."
Takumi's expression hardened slightly.
"...we follow our ancestors example...."
Nobody immediately responded.
Takumi leaned back in his chair and glanced toward the route on the map again.
He had already learned that lesson once.
He had simply been fortunate enough to survive it.
[.....Fearing the unknown.....is not weaknesses, it's an instinct that human's have ingrained for a reason] - Takumi
End of chapter 15!
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Ooh my eyes burn!
My hands ache
And soul is screaming for rest
Hope you enjoyed the chapter
Side note: It's a mix of two chapters to make up for the long wait