In the deceptively peaceful morning of Tokonosu City, where the zombie outbreak has already begun to spread across the city with the speed of a wildfire in a dry forest, a black sports car with a futuristic design and a very silent engine could be seen speeding up the hill to the front gate of Fujimi Academy, the school where the plot of Highschool of the Dead begins.
"Is that..."
The driver of the black sports car, Zeno, who was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a black suit without a necktie, narrowed his blue eyes as he had noticed what seemed to be a heavily injured man stumbling around in the middle of the road and recalled that this guy is definitely that one zombie who is missing a chunk of flesh on his back that first appeared at the start of the story.
"Uhh... ahhhh…!"
Suddenly the zombie quickly turned around towards Zeno's direction with a bestial growl as the zombie heard the car coming towards him. Zeno can see the zombie's lifeless eyes and pale skin tone distinctive to the undead as the zombie faces the speeding car mindlessly with both of his arms reaching out to grab the incoming prey.
"Ahhh-ugah...!"
Unfortunately for the zombie, Zeno decided to pull a pro-gamer move on him as he stepped hard on the accelerator and crashed the car into the zombie without hesitation, which ended up sending the zombie spinning high up in the air before he fell back on the road headfirst and broke his neck against the ground. A splendid roadkill with ten out of ten for style point.
"I'm driving here~!"
Zeno said with a stereotypical New Yorker accent while he smirked in amusement as he looked at his victim twitching on the road from the rearview mirror as he continued to drive away. Zeno wonders what will happen next now that he just got rid of the zombie that was supposed to break into the school.
He wants to see if the school will still get overrun just like in the canon's plot since he has already messed up the chain of events that started from the zombie attack at the school gate. Zeno is honestly quite curious if fate or destiny is a thing in this world and if it is, how powerful it will be in influencing reality.
As Zeno finally arrived at the gate of the Fujimi Academy, he immediately saw that the gate was left open with a pair of men and women standing around behind the gate, likely the escort waiting for him since Zeno had used the excuse of wanting to propose a business deal with the school. He told them that he would provide school buses for the students and wanted to discuss it with the principal as the pretext for him to be in the school before the zombie outbreak hit the school.
"Ah, Zavior-san, right on time!"
A spectacled man with a slightly thin hairline and thin build in a blue suit approached the car that was coming inside the school grounds and parked near them, his eyes ogling the sleek futuristic black sports car in awe. He has never seen this particular car design before and wonders what brand this car is.
"Hello, could you tell me where the parking lot is?"
Zeno lowers the window and asks the spectacled man with a polite smile, like he didn't just hit someone with his car before arriving here.
"Certainly, Zavior-san!"
The spectacled man replies respectfully, then points towards the parking lot not far away that's located next to a lush grove of cherry blossom trees, which are currently in full bloom.
"It's just down the path to your right. But before you go, may I introduce myself? I'm vice-principal Tojita Hiroshi, and this lovely lady beside me is one of our teachers, Kyoko Hayashi-san."
The vice-principal of the Fujimi Academy eagerly introduces himself, likely trying to make a connection with Zeno, and then he introduces the spectacled woman who is with him, Kyoko Hayashi, an attractive woman with long reddish-brown hair that she ties loosely in a ponytail and light brown eyes, who flashes a courteous smile at Zeno.
"Welcome to Fujimi Academy, Zavior-san. I'm sure your proposal will be quite a beneficial addition to both our school and students."
Kyoko says with a smile as she adjusts her glasses that seem to be a universal gesture amongst the Megane characters across the multiverse.
"Thank you. I'll park my car, so could you two wait for me in front of the building?"
Zeno nods politely towards them, his gaze lingering a little longer on Kyoko, who is dressed in a cream-colored, tight-fitting skirt and blouse that accentuates her ample breasts and her slender waist; her eyes are filled with curiosity as she takes in the young and handsome foreign man who is the company owner of the famous Freedom Carrier.
"Of course, Zavior-san. We'll be in front of the main building over there."
vice-principal Tojita responds, his eyes momentarily darting to Kyoko, who seems to be blushing slightly at Zeno's lingering gaze on her and feels a bit envious of Zeno's good looks.
As Tojita and Kyoko walk towards the building, Zeno puts the car into gear and heads to the parking lot that the school vice-principal told him.
The parking lot is indeed as close as the vice-principal had mentioned as he arrived and parked his car near the other cars and then stepped out while taking in the sight of the blooming cherry blossoms that seemed to dance in the gentle breeze. The beautiful scene is such a stark contrast to the impending doom he knows is about to come.
Walking back towards the main building where his escort is waiting for him, Zeno's thoughts wander to Kyoko, a mob character that died uselessly in the canon. He didn't even clone her when he was on a cloning spree the first day he arrived in the city since he didn't have any impression of her character, but now he has looked closely and found out that she is quite pretty; he wants to clone her.
"Mmm~ I guess we can use a teacher in the Liberty after all..."
He smirks as he imagines various things he can play with the clone of Kyoko.
÷×÷×÷
Half an hour later, inside the principal's office, Zeno could be seen sitting comfortably on the couch across from Vice-Principal Tojita and the principal, Gota, who was a chubby old man in a black suit, while Zeno had a cup of tea in his hand that Kyoko had served him before the discussion, and Kyoko was currently sitting next to Zeno as she held his hand without noticing that she did since Zeno hypnotized all of the people in the room to ignore it while she listened to the three men's discussion.
Zeno had presented his school bus proposal to the two men with quite a generous term that the school will not have to pay for anything, pleasing both the principal and vice-principal greatly. Well, Zeno is just killing time at this point and just saying whatever sounds generous to the two of them.
As they discussed the minor details of the deal, Zeno also spread his sense out to feel the life force of the people in the 10-kilometer radius. He could feel that quite a significant number of people's life forces are getting snuffed out in the last ten minutes, and the number of deaths is also increasing in the school grounds with every passing minute.
It looks like the zombie attack at the gate is not really the only cause for the school to get overrun, but multiple sources at the same time, Zeno thought to himself with a smirk, anticipating the chaos that was about to unfold.
And then it happened.
"All students and faculty! All students and faculty! There has been an incident on the campus! Faculty, please lead the students through the emergency procedures and evacuate immediately!!"
A broadcast suddenly echoed through the halls of Fujimi Academy, the voice of the school's public address system crackling with urgency.
"Again! Faculty and students, there has been an incident on campus! W-what the...?! Hey! Stay away from me! Ahhhh! Don't...! Help...! HELP ME…!"
The panicked screams echoed through the PA system, and then the cries were abruptly cut off by a wet, tearing sound followed by the gurgle of a life being extinguished.
"..."
The room went silent, the only sound the clinking of a teacup from Zeno's hand and the heavy breathing of the principal and the expression of horror on the three people's faces other than Zeno. Zeno could feel the chaos brewing outside the office walls before it exploded all at once as everyone outside the principal's office began to run for their lives in total panic.
"W-what is happening outside…?!"
The principal abruptly stood up and then ran towards the door of the office to go out of his office to see what was going on outside while the vice-principal also regained his sense a second later from the shock and turned towards the calm Zeno and the scared Kyoko in full panic mode.
"Z-Zavior-san, please stay here! I-I need to go and see what's happening!"
Vice-Principal Tojita stuttered, his face paling as he stood up, realizing the gravity of the situation. Kyoko's grip on Zeno's hand tightened, her eyes wide with fear as they can hear the chaos growing louder outside. Fortunately, she had survived her original fate thanks to Zeno, who visited the school earlier.
"Whatever's going on outside sounds very serious; you should be careful, Hiroshi-san."
Zeno said calmly, subtly giving Tojita a warning as he leaned his back on the couch without any sign of getting up. He had already known what was going on and had no desire to go out to participate in the chaos. He'll wait for the carnage to die down before going to join up with the main characters group.
"Y-yes! I-I'll be careful!"
Tojita nodded frantically, his eyes darting from the door to the terrified Kyoko, who hadn't released her grip on Zeno's hand and stayed seated next to Zeno, with a bit of confusion as to why he didn't want to call out to her to go together with him to check on the situation outside. He then took a deep breath, ignoring his confusion, and managed to compose himself enough to sprint out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him, leaving Zeno and Kyoko in the room.
As soon as the vice-principal was out of the office, Zeno leaned closer to the visibly worried Kyoko next to him.
"Don't worry, you will be safe with me."
He said calmly to her as Kyoko nodded shakily, not quite reassured by just his word alone, which was understandable; they are just strangers to each other after all. Zeno just smirked slightly, not minding the lack of reassurance effect on the woman as he turned his face away from her and then continued to wait for the cloning process to complete while monitoring the life force of the people in the school.
"Still no sign of fate or destiny…"
Zeno muttered under his breath as he still wonder if it actually a thing.