Editing The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume8 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 5===

The Zashiki Warashi and I finally arrived at the dog square at the peak.

The entire area was decorated with pure white snow.

I observed the area from a distance to make sure there were no zombies and then I shined my cellphone’s backlight around.

There was a large fenced-off area for taking dogs for a walk and a few stables and a food processing building were packed in close together. The others may have been residential buildings. There were a lot of wooden stakes sticking up from the snow, but they may have been to tie the dogs to.

However…

“Where are the paragliders?”

The units with engines may have been kept inside on days like this. With panic in my hearts, I pushed the bear trap toward the buildings.

''You’re kidding.

''This can’t be.

There were no lights on in any of the buildings and no one responded when I pounded on the doors. I peered in a few of them, but I didn’t see any people or pedigree dogs. It almost looked like the place had been abandoned for a while.

I also saw no sign of any paragliders.

Did they not rent them out? Had hobbyists simply brought their own here because the dog square wasn’t in use?

If so, what was I supposed to do? If I couldn’t use my plan to escape Bozen City by air, I would have to break through at the base of the mountain. Even if I could use the zombie Zashiki Warashi, breaking through that zombie-infested city simply wasn’t possible!

So was I supposed to just wait for help to arrive?

Would I wait for a rescue team to arrive by helicopter like those people I had met at the gas station were doing?

“I can’t…”

After thinking about it, I shook my head.

I had the zombie Zashiki Warashi with me. Whether it was the police, the firefighters, or the JSDF, no human rescue team would let me bring the Zashiki Warashi with me. Or if they did, it would be as a research sample. If she was taken from me, it was meaningless!!

I couldn’t escape on my own and I couldn’t wait for rescue.

Was this really game over? I couldn’t come up with any other ideas.

“…”

I wandered outside the building where I put the Zashiki Warashi’s cage.

With nowhere to go, I leaned back against the outer wall and slid down to sit on the snow.

I looked up at the thick clouds covering the night sky and voiced my despair.

“Why…?”

We had crushed quite a few zombies with the dump truck. All the cellphone shop workers had been wiped out. The Zashiki Warashi had turned into a zombie when she showed up to help and differences over how to handle her had led to a split with my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend Nagisa. I had knocked a bunch of zombies off the cliff with a tractor, deceived some innocent survivors, and finally arrived at the peak.

And yet this was what I found.

''What do you mean there aren’t any paragliders!?

It was true I had no actual data and was basing my decisions on mere speculation. I was assuming there were paragliders at the peak, assuming I could escape the city on one, assuming there weren’t any zombies outside the city, and most of all, assuming the zombie Zashiki Warashi could be turned back to normal. No, maybe those were more hopes than they were speculation.

But I had done everything I could to make it this far.

I had lost so much.

So couldn’t I be rewarded just a little? Could I really end up with nothing and have to start back from square one!?

“…”

My mind was spinning.

The simplest choice rose in the back of my mind.

I could give up on the Zashiki Warashi and think about escaping Bozen City on my own. That would at the very least leave me with the option of waiting for rescue.

But…

“I can’t…”

Why did I have to remember it now?

That sexy Zashiki Warashi generally acted like a big sister, but she would start crying with surprising ease. It happened when the internet was down, when I got mad and confiscated her video games, or…that time long ago when she broke my toy robot. We got into a big argument then and she ended up crying.

Thinking back, that was when we had stopped taking baths together and sleeping in the same futon.

Why had that happened?

In that argument, I had seen a side of her that went beyond being my “Nee-chan”. I had seen her as an unreachable and unshakable figure, so it had been a shock that a kid’s words were enough for her to bawl like that. It had been enough to destroy my image of her.

That said, I wasn’t disappointed or disillusioned.

In fact…

“Oh, I get it now.”

I finally remembered and I spoke the fact I had just realized.

“''You’re just a girl, aren’t you?''”

She wasn’t some formless “Nee-chan”. She was an individual who could form any kind of relationship. She could be a friend, a best friend, or even a lover. She was the girl closest to me.

It was said Zashiki Warashi were a collection of the young children killed during famines and the like.

Her sexy figure might seem out of place for that, but there may have been a reason for it.

Maybe she was a collection of those kids’ desire to grow up and be seen as an older sister.

Maybe that was why she had tried to play the part of the ideal “Nee-chan” in front of me.

But that had only been an act that would fall apart due to the smallest things.

What if deep down, she was just a normal girl?

After realizing that and understanding that, I had no longer been able to bathe with her or sleep in the same futon as her.

“Ha ha…”

My escapist thoughts were trying to keep me from viewing the reality around me.

But I felt like those thoughts had led me to an answer.

I slapped both my cheeks and listened to the pleasant sound as I focused on what I had to do.

I definitely couldn’t abandon her now. A Zashiki Warashi wasn’t a special being that could rule over everything when thrown out into the world on her own. She was nothing more than a girl who would cry and not know what to do when things got tough. If I knew that, how could I leave her in a city full of zombies?

I would save her no matter what it took.

If I couldn’t say that, how could I call myself a man?