Once they reached the other edge of the forest, the group found themselves on the outskirts of a city, or rather, the remnants of what it once was. Compared to the other city they’d been to, this city was even more destroyed, as if a full-blown war had taken place.

Fortunately, there weren’t any dead bodies around... just a couple of lifeless infected who were already rotting. It was a normal sight everywhere so no one felt nauseated even when they saw

"What happened here?" Kazuichi muttered to himself, contemplating whether he should cover Amaya’s eyes or not.

Then again, Amaya had been through multiple scouting missions during his stay in the stronghold. She wasn’t a foreigner when it comes to gory scenes like this. Heck, she might’ve already seen a dead body or two while she was out there.

Shaking his head, Kazuichi continued to lead the group. Once they entered the city, Kazuichi would signal at Arisu from time to time. Since she was the one with the sensitive scent, she could alert the group of anything without needing to reconnoiter around the area.

"This city takes at least a couple of hours walk. We can spend the night here, or we can hop onto Yamanashi Prefecture and get some rest there instead."

"However, there might already be trouble in the Yamanashi Prefecture so it would be safer if we stayed here, then cross Yamanashi Prefecture as fast as we could the next day," Arisu explained.

In a way, Arisu was letting Kazuichi decide what they’d do from now on. Even though she was well aware that he wasn’t familiar with these kinds of settings, she didn’t want to take over the group.

Also, she greatly respected Kazuichi so she would leave all the decision-making to him. That didn’t mean she won’t suggest a couple of things here and there though.

"Then, let’s take a small walk to the other side of the city. Once we get there, we can rest for half a day or something, then we can clear Yamanashi Prefecture once we’re fully rejuvenated."

Arisu and the Karuizawa sisters nodded their heads as Kazuichi slowed down his pace. Now that they have plenty of time to get to the other side of the city, he opted not to rush. This would ultimately prepare them for their journey through Yamanashi Prefecture.

"Let’s rest as much as we can, then we’ll jog through Yamanashi Prefecture and into Tokyo." Kazuichi continued. " We’re right on schedule."

"Right on schedule for what?" Tris asked out of curiosity. This was the first time Kazuichi mentioned something about a schedule which was certainly suspicious.

"Nothing much," Kazuichi muttered to himself, maintaining a straight gaze to the front which could easily be interpreted as him avoiding eye contact.

Fwoosh~!

Despite the utter destruction that befell the city, there was a certain peace and tranquility in the atmosphere as the day wore on. For some reason, there were no mindless infected in the city, nor were there any signs of life anywhere.

Even Arisu felt weird after taking a whiff of the surroundings. When she passed through here a couple of days ago, there were still survivors and a couple of shelters here. There weren’t any notable strongholds, but the place was teeming with life nonetheless.

However, right now, she couldn’t smell anything. Aside from the rotting scent of the dead mindless infected, as well as the scent of dead people, there was nothing else that could prove life.

"There’s no one here. This place is a literal ghost town." Arisu commented, then she went on to explain that there were still inhabitants in the city when she passed by back then.

"That’s really weird..." Kazuichi muttered to himself, trying to figure out what happened to the city.

Wait...

..?!

Suddenly, Kazuichi stopped short in his tracks and his pupils dilated as he finally realized what happened to the city. If what Arisu said was true, and there weren’t any notable events aside from ’that’... then that means ’that’ was the reason why the city was destroyed.

And by ’that’, Kazuichi was referring to the extremely giant Omega Zombie that passed by them one rainy day. It was the only thing Kazuichi could think of that could cause such wide-scale destruction.

’Fortunately, it missed our presence thanks to the heavy rain. Then again, I’m worried for Scarlet Blood and Ice Wing Stronghold. There’s a good chance they’d engage that Omega Zombie.

Half an hour had passed, and the group found themselves in the middle of the city. As usual, they could tell that not a single soul was present in the vicinity, so they decided to grab a quick meal before continuing their journey.

"We’re lucky there wasn’t anyone here. But the Yamanashi Prefecture is different. From what I heard from Jurou, the war had already affected the edge of it." Arisu repeated. She had already talked about it many times, but Kazuichi and the Karuizawa sisters didn’t stop her.

It was, after all, a great reminder for them since they were bound to enter that territory by tomorrow.

"Here you go," Kazuichi tossed a blood bag at Arisu which contained the blood of a Hound Hybrid.

For a moment, Amaya thought that Kazuichi was handing out the juice, but when she saw the all-too-familiar blood bag, she stopped herself from asking for her share. Although still young, Amaya was already aware of the importance of blood when it comes to Hybrid.

After all, it was all the difference between a Hybrid and a mindless infected.

...

The journey lasted for another hour, and by the time midday closed in, they were already on the far reaches of the city, bordering Yamanashi Prefecture.

They haven’t stepped foot into the prefecture just yet, but they could already hear the distant screams and warfare that transpired in the middle of it— or rather, it was only Arisu and Kazuichi who heard it.

Seeing a house that only had its front porch dilapidated, Kazuichi signaled for everyone to follow him inside. This was going to be their campsite for the rest of the day.

"We’ll stay here, and then we’ll move into the Yamanashi Prefecture the next day." Kazuichi told everyone. "Arisu, Tris, we’ll take turns night watching since someone might sneak up on us again."

Receiving nods from the two ladies, Kazuichi proceeded to set up camp. This time, they didn’t set up fire for fear that it might garner unnecessary attention.