Chapter 92

Descending the stone steps, I got into the car that I had left parked when I came here. There were no zombies in sight, probably because the old men had gone out yesterday.

It seems I’ll have to check the condition of the items I received after leaving this town.

Receiving reactions from various directions as my car left the town, I decided to retrace the route that Takero and I took to get here. I would wait out the night at an unoccupied house once I found one.

During the rematch at the dojo, or rather, from the way he spoke, it seemed that the old man had sensed a glimpse of my power even from the first time I lost. Takero and Momo didn’t seem to understand the meaning of that exchange, let alone grasp it fully.

Considering his words at our parting, I think the old man might have understood my power to some extent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said that guns might not be necessary. There are limits to facing a person with a gun using just a sword.

The old man didn’t fear me as I had worried he might when I was at the police station. Perhaps this was due to the nature of someone who strives to perfect martial arts, or maybe he even felt a positive sentiment towards me. It could have been mere curiosity.

If Takero and Momo had understood this, how would they have thought of me? If I’m not an enemy, perhaps this power, when shown, might be more readily accepted than I thought.

While thinking this, however, the eyes of the men I killed kept flashing in my mind.

+++++

Oda and the old man are both good people who, even in this world, haven’t gone mad or tried to take from others, but their inner cores are vastly different.

The former does not condone killing and tries to help strangers within his means. The latter, on the other hand, doesn’t hesitate to kill and only helps his family, leaving outsiders to fend for themselves.

The old man’s community took the stance of not accepting outsiders due to the experience of being visited by looters.

In contrast, Oda’s community, though Kaede had a somewhat frightening experience, didn’t have such an experience because I secretly destroyed that semi-underground group. While they might still act with caution, not knowing that the group was destroyed, I think Oda’s stance of helping people, which he confessed to me during the early stages of the pandemic, hasn’t changed much. Even if they had a similar experience to the old man’s community, he might not stop helping people.

I can’t clearly judge which community is right. Indeed, to protect one’s family, the old man’s choice might not be wrong.

However, as I thought when I brought Takero and Momo here, is it really a good thing? To distrust all unknown people and abandon the possibility of their goodness, who can say that this is entirely correct? Such actions might even turn into something malicious.

Unknown people might be malicious, so they are not helped. But if I had the same stance as the people in that town, Takero and Momo would have died.

Furthermore, the act of turning away those seeking help, which is now just self-defense, might bring about negative changes. While it seems that supplies are sufficient and the future is secure, who knows what might happen. If supplies run out, what will happen then? The act of abandoning others to protect one’s family might eventually turn into taking from others when the time comes.

I respect Oda because he regrets his actions during the early stages of the pandemic and now tries to help unknown people. Even though he might realize that his past actions of abandoning people weren’t necessarily bad, he still tries to help now. I think this is truly amazing.

I might be able to do the same if I wanted to. But whether I would actually do it is another matter. Even if I think I can, I won’t know until I try. Especially with this power from another world, it’s laughable for me, who left Kaede, Takero, and Momo in someone else’s care, to say such a thing.

Of course, I can’t say that what he is doing is entirely correct. It’s a precarious bridge that could lead to fatal consequences.

Oda’s decision to not abandon the man I killed at the police station, based on a rational judgment, seems even less fitting for this world after seeing the old man’s community.

If I had the power to see through hidden hostility and not yield to any violence in this world, the story might be different.

“...Damn.”

Despite having such power, I am not helping people like he does. Feeling a bit of inferiority about this, I let out a sigh.