After the commotion in Fujimi Academy eventually died down as some of the surviving students and teachers managed to escape out of the school with their lives intact, Zeno and Kyoko, who had been waiting inside the principal's office for the chaos outside to pass, finally emerged from the office together as Kyoko was walking behind him while she was looking around for any sign of danger in the hallway.
After they looked around the empty hallway and found no sign of any danger for now, they then turned to look outside of the building through one of the hallway windows, and the first thing they saw was the trails of black smoke rising high in the sky from various places throughout the city, indicating that the apocalypse is now in full swing as mankind struggles to maintain order and survive the sudden attack from the horde of undead.
"It looks like the end of the world, doesn't it? Hayashi-san."
Zeno said nonchalantly with a small smirk on his lips, like he was just talking about the weather and not the disaster that seemed to be happening throughout the city. Kyoko, who was standing behind him in silence, doesn't respond back to Zeno as she visibly shakes with anxiety and fear at the current state of the city and the numerous zombies roaming around aimlessly on the school grounds. Her mind was racing, trying to comprehend the sudden horror that had befallen her mundane life.
"W-what in the world…? What... is this...? What are they...? What happened to them, to the city...? Am I dreaming?"
Kyoko mumbles in disbelief, her voice quivering as she stares out the window, unable to tear her gaze away from the grotesque sight of the once-familiar people now transformed into mindless cannibalistic monsters that are roaming around and feasting on the remains of what she refuses to acknowledge.
"This can't be real…"
Kyoko muttered in despair, her eyes desperately scanning the horde of undead below the building she was in, searching for any sign of humanity from the infected people she once knew, obviously with no positive result. She can't believe that the children and her colleagues that she had met just like always this morning are now shockingly turned into these incomprehensible monsters that are filled with endless hunger for human flesh.
"Uuuuh..."
Kyoko felt her stomach churning as she saw the once familiar and bustling schoolyard had now transformed into a hellscape on earth, with the cherry blossom petals fluttering down to cover the gore and blood on the ground like a morbid confetti after a party of carnage.
"Uuuuughak…!!"
Kyoko can't take it anymore as she suddenly turns away and pukes her guts out from the sight of her former students, now zombies, feasting on their fallen classmates. Her eyes are watering and her body is shaking as she sinks to her knees; the horror of the new reality she's just witnessed is just too much for her to handle anymore.
"Tsk..."
Zeno, who was trying to act cool and mysterious, clicked his tongue since his moment to show off was ruined before he turned back to see Kyoko, who ended up puking from a shocking sight of zombies being zombies. After looking at her pitiful appearance for a minute, Zeno couldn't help but feel a bit sympathetic for her since she was just a normal woman after all.
"Hah..."
Zeno sighed a little before he went to comfort her as he placed a hand on her back and stroked it lightly. Sometimes he wonders if this will be him if he doesn't have the character template of Yujiro Hanma that influenced and enhanced his mentality to be nonchalant about these kinds of things from the start.
"There, there, Hayashi-san. Are you alright? I know it's hard for you, but you have to pull yourself together, you know?"
Zeno's voice was quite soothing and gentle, his hand still rubbing circles on Kyoko's back as she gagged and coughed up the last of her breakfast. Zeno couldn't help but feel a slight bit of concern for her, a rare thing for him, who only cares about himself and his close ones. As Kyoko finished emptying her stomach and wiped her mouth with the back of her trembling hand, her teary eyes turned up to meet his calm, icy blue eyes behind the sunglasses as she looked at him with a mix of fear and desperation.
"What... what are we going to do?"
Kyoko managed to croak it out through her hoarse voice as she looked at him like a lost child. In the face of this unexpected apocalypse, she can only cling to the only semblance of safety and guidance she has left, which is a young man next to her who seems to be very composed even though the situation is very dire.
"Well~"
Zeno took a moment to assess the situation around the school. His senses allowed him to pick out the life force signatures of the survivors from various locations; however, he ignored most of them and only focused on the locations of the main characters, which is his main objective in coming here in the first place. And currently they are still separate from each other and still in the process of getting to the faculty room where they will group up later just like in canon.
"Since we can't really stay here forever, let's not waste any more time and try to find a way to leave the school without dying, shall we?"
After a bit of what Kyoko thought was him thinking up a plan of what to do next, Zeno finally said to Kyoko with a smirk as he helped her back up to her feet.
"First, let's see if we can leave the building from the first floor."
Zeno patted Kyoko's shoulder lightly before he turned towards the stairways at the center of the hallway and then walked there while beckoning for Kyoko to follow him with his hand.
"But that…"
When Kyoko was about to question him about how they will get past the zombies that are probably roaming around the hallways of the first, second, and third floors right now, she immediately became speechless with her eyes wide in surprise as she saw Zeno suddenly pull out a pistol with a suppressor attached to the barrel from under his suit jacket.
"Eh…?"
Kyoko freezes in place as Zeno looks back at her over his shoulder with a smirk as he says to her.
"Let me show you the instrument of liberty, Hayashi-san."
÷×÷×÷
Sometimes later on the second floor of the school building, in front of the faculty room, a group of survivors consisting of the main characters of Highschool of the Dead had gathered together amidst the dead zombies around them. They were all breathing heavily, sweat beading on their faces from the exertion of fighting against the undead, as Saya Takagi, the girl with long pink hair in twintails, was being comforted by Saeko Busujima after her hysterical episode.
"...!"
And suddenly they immediately became alert as they heard footsteps coming towards them from the other side of the hallway. They tense as they look at the source of the sound, but instead of zombies, they see Zeno and the very nervous Kyoko, who had made their way to the second floor and were walking towards their group like they didn't just go through the horde of zombies that was blocking their path on their way here.
The two of them had not encountered any significant threats thanks to Zeno's very quiet pistol and his swift delivery of masterful headshots on their obstacles. Kyoko was totally in awe of his marksmanship when he casually killed a group of zombies with his gun in under a minute. She now grew very curious about who exactly Zeno is, but she held back her curiosity since this was not the time for such a thing.
"Hello there~! Can you tell me which one of you was the one who screamed like a dumbass earlier?"
After they heard Zeno speak, the atmosphere immediately became less tense as the group of students and one school nurse, the blonde-haired woman with a voluptuous body and large breasts, Shizuka Marikawa, looked at the newcomers that were obviously not zombies with visible relief. Zeno's smirk grew wider as he surveyed the group, taking in their surprised expressions and the way they relaxed the grips on their weapons.
"Well~? Who is it?"
Zeno's sudden, casual demeanor made everyone in the group exchange bewildered glances before they subconscious glanced at the girl they knew was the source of the scream, Saya. She had calmed down a bit but was still visibly distraught, clutching her skirt tightly with her hands.
"I... I did! S-so what?!"
Saya admitted through gritted teeth, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment as she realized her scream had probably alerted more zombies to their location. Zeno chuckled while walking towards her, his gun hanging casually by his side, which caught the full attention of Kouta Hirano, the spectacled chubby boy with a gun fetish, and the others, who grew a bit wary when he was close enough for them to see he had a gun.
"Little girl, did you know that your loudness is quite the zombie magnet~?"
Zeno teased her a bit as he stepped closer to Saya, who flinched a little at his close proximity. Despite his playful tone, Zeno's height and muscular build easily dwarf Saya as she has strained her neck to look up to him in shaky defiance, while the others grew a bit tense at Zeno's sudden confrontation with Saya, except for Shizuka, who just tilted her head cutely as she felt like she had met this foreign man before from somewhere.
"But it's alright; I have quite a convenient tool here that can send them straight to the afterlife after all."
Zeno said as he spun his pistol without pointing the barrel at anyone before he shoved it back beneath his suit jacket to pacify the wary kids; he doesn't want to deal with a bunch of jumpy teenagers after all.