The iron latch behind the door creaked softly. The narrow opening revealed half the face of a middle-aged man with gray hair tied back haphazardly. In his hand, he gripped a traditional short yari spear in a ready stance, prepared to impale anyone suspicious.
However, the moment his sharp eyes recognized Renjiro's face through the gap, the tension in the man's body suddenly melted away.
"Renjiro...?" His voice was hoarse and choked. "You're still alive?"
"Open up first, Uncle. Hurry," Renjiro cut in with a firm whisper. "The noise out on the street could draw them here at any moment."
The man immediately pulled the door wider. The three of us hurried inside, then slammed it back against the frame together. We quickly wedged three thick teak beams across the wall, securing the barricade as tightly as possible.
CLICK! SLAM!
The three of them breathed hard, their warm breath fogging the cool air inside the weapons store. The distinctive scents of sword oil, dry cedar, and cold-forged iron assaulted our noses. Lining the walls of the two-story room were dozens of authentic Japanese traditional weapons built to high combat standards: katanas of various sizes, naginata spears, wooden and composite bows, tanto daggers, and rows of traditional steel shields and armor.
The old man leaned his spear against the cashier's counter, then let out a long breath while wiping the sweat from his wrinkled forehead.
"I thought I was the only sane person left in this district," he muttered heavily. "Since yesterday afternoon, the streets have turned completely into hell. People are tearing each other apart."
"We managed to escape from Hanazono High School," Renjiro said as he set the backpack of food supplies on the wooden table. "Are you here alone, Uncle Kagemitsu?"
"The apprentices ran off when the first siren sounded, and now I have no idea where they are," Uncle Kagemitsu replied bitterly. His eyes then swept over the emergency gear strapped to our bodies: the two steel golf clubs in Renjiro's hands, Daiki's wooden baseball bat, and the American football uniform and Taekwondo foam pads tied around Kazuki's arms. "You've survived this long with nothing but sports equipment?"
"It was an emergency, Uncle," Daiki replied with a wry smile beneath his two-toned hair, yellow and black. "But this stuff won't be enough to deal with what's out there."
The moment Daiki finished speaking, the police-car siren at the far end of the intersection abruptly died. The emergency vehicle's battery had run out of power.
The silence outside lasted only a few seconds before the thunder of dragging footsteps and the hoarse roars of dozens of monsters erupted again from the front of the store!
GRRRRAAAAARRRRGH!
BAM! BAM! BAM! CRASH!
The horde of zombies that had been lured to the police car had now turned around, realizing that their true living prey was inside Kagemitsu Weapons Store. Dozens of huge, muscular bodies covered in dense two-to-three-inch fur slammed into the store's main iron security gate in unison!
The hinges of the store's iron gate began to warp under the strain, while its locking bolts came loose one by one amid splinters from the main wooden door, which was starting to crack badly.
"The front door won't last another minute!" Kazuki shouted, eyeing the main entrance as it shook violently under the monsters' assault.
Uncle Kagemitsu fixed us with a steely gaze. Without hesitation, the old man strode toward a locked glass-and-iron cabinet in the corner of the main hall, opened it with a bronze key, and gestured toward the finest weapons on the racks.
"Take whatever you need!" Uncle Kagemitsu shouted. "You know how to fight! Don't let those damned monsters defile this place!"
Renjiro, Daiki, and Kazuki's eyes flashed sharply. The moment they had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Renjiro dropped both steel golf clubs to the floor, letting the metal clang as it fell. He reached out with both hands and grabbed two matching Black Tamahagane Steel Katanas with dragon carvings on their hilts. Renjiro drew both swords from their scabbards simultaneously.
SHIIING!
The razor-sharp, precision-forged black steel caught the lamplight. Their perfectly balanced weight felt like a natural extension of the muscles in his arms. Renjiro tucked a precision-sighted hardwood slingshot and a pouch of solid-steel ammunition into his leather belt.
To the left, Daiki set down his wooden baseball bat and snatched up a pitch-black Tactical Composite Bow with extraordinary spring power. He slung a quiver filled with dozens of arrows tipped with sharp steel over his back, then tucked a pair of forged-steel chain nunchaku at his waist.
Meanwhile, Kazuki tore off the straps holding his already-ripped Taekwondo foam pads in place. His eyes settled on a large-diameter Heavy Iron Wok Shield modified with dual leather straps on the back. Kazuki strapped the thick steel wok to his left arm as a massive battering-ram shield, then fitted a pair of solid-steel Knuckle Dusters over the black leather MMA gloves covering his hands.
All three were now fully prepared to face the battle.
BRAAAAKKKKKK—CRAAASH!
The iron security gate and the wooden front door finally burst apart into splinters!
A dozen bloated, muscular zombies covered in thick fur leaped through the opening into the store's hall, unleashing savage roars that shook the wooden walls!
"Wipe them out!" Renjiro ordered coldly.
A fierce battle erupted at once!
Daiki nimbly leaped up the wooden stairs toward the second-floor balcony. From his elevated position, he drew the string of his composite bow with lightning speed.
TWANG! TWANG! TWANG!
Three steel arrows shot through the store in rapid succession, slicing through the air with deadly whistles! Each arrow struck home, punching through the foreheads and eyes of three leaping zombies at the front and dropping them to the floor before they could advance any farther!
On the ground floor, Kazuki advanced like a living steel fortress. When two huge, muscular zombies charged at him, Kazuki raised his black iron wok shield and slammed his body forward!
DHOOOMMM!
The impact of the solid iron wok crushed both monsters' ribs at once, stopping their charge dead. Using the recoil from the collision, Kazuki swung his right fist—the solid-steel spikes on his knuckle dusters slammed hard into the jaw of the zombie beside him!
CRACK! THUD!
The steel spikes crushed the opponent's jawbone and skull, sending the monster crashing lifelessly to the floor.
In the middle of the hall, Renjiro moved like a storm. With a black katana in each hand, he shot into the center of a four-zombie encirclement.
SLASH! SLASH!
The twin katana blades flashed through a deadly double-sword dance. His right sword severed a furry claw, while his left sliced through an enemy's neck with horrifying precision. Thick black blood sprayed into the air as the monsters' heads separated from their bodies and rolled across the wooden floor!
Renjiro spun, leaped over the spray of infectious blood, then drove both katanas diagonally through the heart and chest of the last zombie!
THUNK!
The fierce battle inside the store's hall ended in less than three minutes.
The hall of Kagemitsu Weapons Store was now filled with the corpses of a dozen zombies lying lifelessly across the floor. Pools of thick black blood flowed between the wooden floorboards, while the three young men stood upright without a single scratch on their bodies.
Daiki lowered his composite bow from the upper balcony, exhaling in relief as he smiled with satisfaction at the precision of his arrows. Kazuki wiped the black bloodstains from the surface of his iron shield wok with a pleased grin.
Renjiro wiped the twin katana blades with a clean cloth, then sheathed them at his waist.
CLICK!
Uncle Kagemitsu stood frozen in the corner of the room, his eyes wide with amazement as he watched the extraordinary coordination and combat prowess of the three young survivors before him.
"Incredible..." Uncle Kagemitsu whispered in awe. "You're no longer just ordinary young men. You're true survivors—tough ones."
Renjiro flashed a cold, confident grin as he looked toward the front door, now wide open onto the vast, ruined streets of Tokyo.
"Our preparations are complete," Renjiro said in a calm, steady voice. "Now we continue through the city."