Going back a few hours, before the undead outbreak inside Crossroad Academy:
Ahh...
A series of faint moans—clearly sounds of pleasure—could be heard the moment someone stepped into the empty gymnasium.
Without even following the sound, anyone could easily guess it was coming from the equipment storage room.
Even a virgin could figure out that a pair of students—a couple, perhaps—were getting intimate inside.
Mizuru, however, knew it wasn't just a pair but a threesome. She knew exactly who they were.
They were her classmates and friends, after all.
"I didn't give you the key to the gymnasium so you could do it here first thing in the morning!" she shouted, loud enough for the three students inside the equipment storage room to hear her complaint.
A few seconds later, the sliding double doors opened just wide enough for a girl with light brown hair to peek through the gap.
"Ahh~!"
"Do you want to come inside and watch us, Mizuru?" Hanae teased with a cheerful grin, her voice mixing with Kanae's moans.
Hanae slid the door open a little further, deliberately giving Mizuru a brief glimpse of Kurizu straddling and pounding Kanae. She knew Mizuru would be embarrassed—yet far too polite to interrupt them.
Mizuru quickly shut her eyes before the image could fully register in her mind. Clenching her fists, she struggled to hold back her irritation before finally snapping back at Hanae.
"Hurry up and finish before the other students arrive!" Mizuru shouted before walking outside, where she wouldn't have to hear Kanae's or Hanae's moans anymore.
***
A few moments later, as students from four classes of third- and fourth-year students began arriving, Kurizu, Kanae, and Hanae finally stepped out of the equipment storage room wearing their white P.E. jerseys.
"You three were supposed to clean and prepare the equipment for today's classes," Mizuru said, glaring at them as they approached her outside the gymnasium.
"That's exactly why we came here so early in the morning," Kurizu said confidently, while Kanae and Hanae nodded as if they had really completed the task.
"At least, that was the plan at first," he added, admitting that they had ended up getting intimate the moment they stepped inside the storage room.
In Kurizu's defense, the gymnasium barely needed cleaning anyway. All they really had to do was bring out the equipment—a task the younger third-year students who arrived early were already doing.
"Besides, since we came here so early, we missed our daily morning routine," Kurizu continued.
"I'm sure you didn't miss yours with Luel, right, Mizuru?" Hanae teased.
"Was it just the two of you? Or another foursome with Kasumi and Yhuna?" Kanae added.
Mizuru was left speechless. She pouted in annoyance while blushing in embarrassment, unable to admit that it had indeed been a foursome—and that it had lasted from night until dawn.
***
After Kanae and Hanae took their usual morning-after pill—suggesting their earlier intimacy with Kurizu had been unprotected, as usual—the three joined their classmates and began participating in the activities: volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, and combat practice for the fourth-year Self-Defense Force training.
The gymnasium was large enough to hold four full courts for each activity, along with benches capable of seating hundreds of students.
There were a hundred and forty students inside the gymnasium, along with two P.E. teachers, when suddenly several girls collapsed and began convulsing on the floor.
One had been about to serve in volleyball.
Another had just been hit by a dodgeball.
The third had just overpowered a fairly large boy with an over-the-shoulder throw.
Students quickly gathered around them while the two male P.E. teachers and a female medic trainee tried to restrain the girls, hoping to calm whatever sudden illness had struck them.
Then, just as suddenly, the girls stopped convulsing.
Their bodies went limp.
As if they had died.
The teachers and the trainee frantically checked their pulses, pressing their fingers against the girls' necks.
Their bodies were burning hot, as if suffering from an impossibly high fever—yet there was no pulse.
They couldn't tell if the girls were dead or alive.
And they desperately hoped it wasn't the former.
Until the girls made the decision for them.
Or rather—until they moved again.
Not to prove they were alive.
But to drag others into death with them.
Before the teachers and the medic trainee could pull their hands away—ROAR!
The girls' eyes snapped open.
Their mouths followed.
And in an instant, they lunged forward and sank their teeth into the arms of their first victims.
ARGHHH!
GYAHHH!
GAHHH!
Panicked screams erupted throughout the gymnasium.
Several boys rushed forward, trying to pull the girls away from the teachers and the medic trainee.
Some of them even shamelessly grabbed the girls' breasts in the chaos, but they eventually managed to drag them away—only for the next victims to appear almost immediately.
Boys whose necks were bitten.
Boys whose throats were torn open.
ARGHHH!!!
GYAHHH!!!
GAHHH!!!
Blood quickly spread across the floor as the screams grew louder and more desperate.
The two male teachers who had been bitten were badly injured but still alive as their students helped them to their feet.
But the female medic trainee suddenly began convulsing as other girls tried to assist her.
Less than a minute later, she attacked another student—biting into her cheek and tearing half her face off.
Before anyone could figure out how to stop the carnage, a dozen girls had already turned undead.
Twice as many boys had been bitten while trying to restrain them.
And the few boys who had died after their throats were ripped out soon rose again as undead.
One of the undead boys suddenly rushed toward Kanae and Hanae—ROAR!
Before it could reach them—BAM!
Kurizu threw a ball straight at its face, knocking the undead student off balance and sending him crashing to the floor.
He immediately grabbed a wooden sword from a fourth-year student practicing kendo and charged forward.
Without hesitation, he smashed the undead student's head again and again until the body—once his teammate from the baseball team—stopped moving.
It wasn't that Kurizu felt no remorse.
But if anyone tried to hurt his girlfriends, he wouldn't hesitate.
In this case—"Kill them if you don't want to die and turn like them!"
Kurizu's shout hardened the resolve of several students who wanted to protect their friends or lovers.
Even those who were more than friends but less than lovers.
Or those secretly involved in affairs.
Even the teachers couldn't stop the students from beating their already-undead classmates to death.
And those who hesitated often became the next victims when they tried to help someone who had already turned.
When the outbreak inside the gymnasium finally ended, thirty-five undead corpses—students from the third and fourth years—lay scattered across the bloodstained floor.
More than a hundred students remained alive.
Some sat trembling on the ground, their legs too weak to stand.
Others stood frozen, gripping wooden weapons with shaking hands as they struggled to accept what they had done.
They had killed their friends.
Their classmates.
Their juniors and seniors.
Even if those people had already become undead.
Then—BRRRT!~ERRRR!~WHOOOP!
[There have been reports of possible terrorist attacks across the entire city, including just outside the academy.]
The ominous emergency alarm and broadcast echoed throughout the campus.
ROOAAARRRR—!
ARGHHH—!
GYAHHH—!
GAHHH—!
Minutes later, faint screams and dying voices began echoing from the classroom buildings.
Then—BOOOMMMM!!!!
A massive explosion shook the ground, and the shockwave shattered the gymnasium's windows.
Everyone rushed outside to see what had happened.
What they saw was the fourth-year building burning and collapsing.
Everyone—including Kurizu, Kanae, and Hanae—trembled as they realized what that likely meant for their friends who had classes there.
Then they saw their Self-Defense Force instructor, Nacht, emerging from the dust cloud, running with an undead horde chasing right behind him.
"There are other students on the track field!" Nacht shouted, instructing everyone—not just Kurizu's group—to help Luel, Kasumi, Yhuna, and the others reach the gymnasium.
***
Back in the present inside the gymnasium:
"So where is Mizuru?" Luel asked after patiently listening to Kurizu's recap.
"Mizuru? Ah—she was called to the student council office even before the gym classes started," Kurizu replied, trying to reassure him that Mizuru was probably safe.
"You could've told me that from the start, you dumb bastard!"