Kore wa Zombie desu ka?:Volume 1 Epilogue

Epilogue - I Don't Hate It

Sitting on top of a gravestone as a refreshing breeze blew, I stuffed my cheeks with some onigiri I had bought from the convenience store.

Dai-sensei had ended up chasing after Kyouko. But, this time, she listened to what I had to say and believed me.

The serial murders that had occurred in this world seemed to be illegal even in Virie, so Dai-sensei had set off to look for and capture Kyouko. She also had promised to keep me updated about the situation.

Well, with this, the serial murders would stop, and the lonely, boring days I was spending in this world would return, I guess. If Virie was also looking for her, it’s not like Kyouko could do anything too flashy.

Days where I placed peace and luxury above all.

To me, being able to sit here and stuff my cheeks with onigiri was supreme bliss.

Yes, before I met them… before I met Yuu… it was certainly like that.

But, what was this? There was just something missing from this situation.

I suddenly felt like going home quickly, and returning back to that noisy place.

When I got home, the living room seemed lively. Oddly enough, it seemed that Haruna and Sera were arguing.

Geez… what was it now?

When I popped into the living room to see, I saw a huge pile of soap on the table.

“Why did you end up making soap when you were supposed to make pudding?!”

“I believe that there was something wrong with the ingredients you prepared for me!”

“Huh? I definitely properly matched all the ingredients to things from this world though! Just because the cooking was bad doesn’t mean the ingredients were!”

They pushed the blame on each other. They were like two fighting, little children.

I gave out a sigh of resignation.

“Why don’t we all just make it again together?”

“… Well, if Ayumu puts it like that…” Haruna pouted.

“That’s true. Let’s put what’s already happened behind us.” Sera completely changed her attitude.

“But, there’s no way pudding can become soap…”

Yuu glanced in our direction, but her expression was as emotionless as usual, a completely undisturbed surface of water.

“Alright, Ayumu! Let’s go and work nonstop all night and make some pudding!”

Haruna grabbed me by the hand, and began to take large steps forwards.

I’ll pass on the nonstop all night part though…

“Alright, I’ll go put the milk in some Karatsu pottery…”

Wait wait. Karatsu pottery? What exactly are you planning to do with the milk?

“Sera. Go heat up the bath and come back.”

“Ayumu, exactly how much pudding are you planning on making?”

“Sorry, but for the sake of our cooking, I have to officially announce that you’re not part of our battle strategy.”

“What?! Not part of your battle…?!”

Sera glared at me, overreacting like a soccer player vigorously arguing against a referee for issuing a foul against him.

“Try to understand. Ayumu wants to cook alone with me!”

Haruna patted Sera on the shoulder. She’s not wrong there, but I get the feeling that she was wrong about something…

“Haruna, let’s get to it. Come on, let’s go.”

I squeezed Haruna’s hand back, and headed for the kitchen.

At some point, Sera and Yuu had also come into the kitchen. I sighed once.

“Sera, go heat up the bath.”

“… Fine!”

Her tone of voice almost reminded me of a pouting child, and was not a tone I would expect to come out of her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely figure out something here for you to do.”

I called out to Sera’s retreating back, and she turned just her heard around.

“Thanks,” she said, her thorn-filled words flying through the air and piercing through me. Like that, she quickly left the kitchen.

… Now that I look at it, was Sera the kind of person to let her emotions show out in the open like that? Maybe she had opened her heart a little as well.

“You know, she always has a stern expression on, but when she’s cooking she really seems to have fun. What she ends up making is definitely not food though.”

“So, you wanna let her cook?”

“Deeeeeeeeefinitely not.”

“I feel the same way.”

Haruna and I opened our mouths wide and laughed together.

Tap tap. I heard a tapping sound, and looked towards the sink. In there was one of Yuu’s memos, and on the memo the following was written:

Ayumu. The pudding? = “Oniichan, hurry up and make the pudding, please?”

Ah, yes. I’ve never made pudding before, but if I left it to Haruna we’d probably be able to whip something up.

… Hm, now that I think about it, I wonder if Yuu could cook?

“Yuu, do you know how to make pudding?”

First, put the milk in some Karatsu pottery.

I unconsciously held my head in my hands.

“Yuu, you can be in charge of the tableware then.”

Her silver hair waved, and she slowly nodded.

***

Haruna’s ahoge danced a samba as she cooked, and taken in by her incredible charm, I became distracted from the tasks she had assigned me to do.

“Agh, dammit! I told you not to whip it, didn’t I?!”

“Sorry.”

Up to this point, I would have never desired this kind of everyday life, but now that had changed.

I wanted to hold this life precious forevermore. That’s how I thought about it.

In the space of this week, many things had happened.

Haruna had appeared, we had been attacked by Megalo, Sera had appeared, we had been attacked by Megalo, we had been attacked by Megalo, Megalo had appeared, Kyouko had…

Hadn’t I been attacked by one too many Megalo?

Megalo were the enemy of masou shoujo. I was a zombie and a masou shoujo, so I think it was unavoidable that I would be attacked. Not that I wouldn’t mind getting attacked less.

Even so, weren’t the Megalo coming a bit too often? Granted, if they were coming because Yuu was showing emotion, then I would take them all on. If that’s what it would take to ensure these days could continue.

“So, why exactly did you suddenly decide to make pudding?”

Haruna’s ahoge jumped back and forth. She was clearly in a good mood.

“Rejoice, Ayumu! We’ve been selected for a Megalo extermination operation!”

“… But you can’t even transform yet.”

“Not me! Ayumu’s doing it!”

Why is she completely ignoring what I have to say? Also, where exactly are we going to be doing this? Don’t tell me we would be going to a different world?

“There are a loooot of masou shoujo and Megalo gathered in this world! Ahh, how exhilarating!”

She opened both her arms wide, and spun around, looking pleased. As I expected, this world was going to get involved in something unpleasant again. Hey, wait just a second. Didn’t that mean… that we would be waging war?

I know I’ve said so many times that I would take on all the Megalo, but now I wanted to take that all back.

When I looked towards Yuu, I saw a somewhat lonely-looking expression on her face. If we exterminated all the Megalo, what would happen to the underworld, where Yuu came from? Yuu was probably worried about that.

“Ugh, I’m really not suited for this kind of task. Yuu, sorry, but switch with me.”

When I half-forcibly pushed the task on her, Yuu nodded once and willingly switched with me. Yuu was more skilled at the task than I had expected, and I suddenly found myself left without something to do.

I see, so she could properly do things she was told to do.

Haruna and Yuu looked almost like sisters, cooking together like that. At the terribly charming scene, I felt my jaw slacken.

The puddings were put into the oven, and Yuu came over to me silently. Haruna watched the oven intently as her ahoge bounced around.

Yuu had on her usual emotionless expression, but to me she seemed like she was having fun.

Haruna seemed to be pleased with this type of lifestyle. I also couldn’t help but be pleased with it. Sera also seemed to have opened up a bit.

But, what about Yuu? Could she be properly enjoying herself? She couldn’t ever show emotion, and couldn’t ever put what she held dearest into words.

“Hey, Yuu. What do you think about this way of living?”

I didn’t really expect an answer from her, but…

Tap tap. When I looked down, what was written there was…

-

I don’t hate it.

-

That was written… ahah, and I was completely worrying for nothing.

But, I felt like there was still something I was forgetting here… something I forgot to ask…

Ah.

“Hey, Haruna. It turned out you had nothing to do with the serial murders this time. But what exactly was up with what you said back then?”

“What?”

“When you said things like ‘If you’re a zombie, you wouldn’t die even if you were stabbed,’ or ‘ninjas can disappear or reappear.’”

“Ahh, that. I already figured it out, so I’m not too interested anymore, but… I mean, the wizards in this world can teleport and heal themselves without even using magic. So I was always wondering what type of strange magic this was, but I figured out that it was because they were making people in this world into the undead and into ninjas. Heh, someone like me can understand that much simply just by thinking about it for a bit.”

… Were there seriously wizards in this world?

Probably, she’s talking about magicians.

Stab me to death… oh, could she be talking about illusionist magic?! And the appearing and disappearing was that too!

What a fool I was for being thrown for a loop by Haruna’s words, even if only for a bit. That makes sense… There’s no reason Haruna would have any interest in the affairs of this world.

… For some reason, that annoyed me.

“Hey, Haruna. Speaking of that stabbing magic… there are gaps they stab them through, you know.”

“Eh? Aren’t they just healing where they get stabbed?”

“The disappearing and reappearing too, that’s just them moving normally through open spaces behind or underneath them. They’re not using magic or any kind of special types of humans in any of that.”

“Wha-?!”

Haruna opened her eyes wide and her mouth hung open. That seemed to be quite a shocking announcement to her. She had really believed that there were wizards in this world.

“Could it be you seriously believed what you believed? Even though it’s pretty obvious if you just think about it for a bit, you’re really just an idiot, aren’t you?”

“U…. I… I was… tricked!!”

Hey, you! Put down that kitchen knife! Hold on! Where the hell are you planning to stick that?! It’s not like I’m the one who tri-

Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!