Volume 2 Chapter 24 (1/2)
The next morning, when Yusuke showed his face in the conference room where they usually ate, Mizuki was collapsed on the table. It appeared as if she pa.s.sed out in the middle of preparing breakfast; the tableware and tea cups were already set. The canned food remained unopened.
“Oi, what happened?”
There was no reaction to his words. Grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her head, Mizuki slightly opens her eyes and looks around as if s.p.a.cing out. Her bangs are stuck to her forehead with sweat, and her face was pale.
Mizuki speaks while coughing,
“I’m….. sorry. My… head hurt so….”
“……..a fever huh? That’s aggravating…”
Yusuke responds while clicking his tongue. You could tell Mizuki’s condition just by looking at her.
(There is no work that is really pressing at the moment, so it would be better to let her rest for today.)
“Wait a moment.”
Leaving the conference room, he walks towards the office in the back. Glancing at Mizuki’s brothers, who were asleep and wrapped in blankets, he approaches the reception area.
Moving the gla.s.s table, he connects two sofas in the center of the room. He then spreads blankets over the top of them, making a make-s.h.i.+ft bed.
Once he is finished, he turns towards the sleeping brothers,
“YOU THERE! WAKE UP!” (He uses “Omaera okiro!”. Omaera is an unpolite way of saying “You guys”.)
“!!!”
Takes.h.i.+ jolts awake while Yuu sits up, rubbing his eyes. With sleepy faces, they both look up at Yusuke. While not caring about their sleepy state, he speaks.
“You guys’ nee-chan has caught a cold. She will be sleeping on this sofa for today, so you guys nurse her back to health.”
Leaving them with those words, Yusuke returns to the conference room and hoists Mizuki on his back. Her unconscious body was heavy. He carries her to the sofa and covers her with the blankets.
(With this, it’s fine to just let her sleep right?)
Her brothers, who had just woken up, were close by and looking at her limp body with worried expressions.
“……Onee-chan, is she alright?”
“She caught a cold you know? She’ll get better if she sleeps.”
While answering the anxious Takas.h.i.+,
(No, wait…..)
Yusuke thought of something.
Mizuki’s condition is most likely due to the other night… Her body was weak from being deflowered, and she had been laying half naked in the locker room for a while. Up till now, this is why he thought she had caught a cold.
Having a fever, collapsing, if you think about it, there could be another reason. Becoming a zombie.
(……)
In Yusuke’s mind, a dreadful thought emerged.
(…..Am I a carrier?)
He had been bitten by a zombie and collapsed once. After that he had miraculously recovered but, what if the virus was still left inside him? There was the possibility that he transferred it to Mizuki through s.e.x. (TL: Zombie virus is an STD :O)
(But was coughing a symptom of the virus…..?)
He remembers the information he acquired from online. A fever and collapsing where what all of the incidents had in common, but that didn’t mean there were no exceptions.
Bleeding, swelling, numbness, various symptoms were flooding the internet. A considerable amount of information had to be rumors and misunderstandings. Whether a cough was mixed in with the symptoms or not, Yusuke couldn’t remember.
(Is it just a normal cold….?)
The possibility of him being a carrier and spreading the virus was not an entertaining thought. It was as if a time bomb were ticking away inside him. Just thinking that the virus might be inside his body made him tremble.
However, Yusuke was conscious of the fact he was an irregular existence. And Mizuki had lots of contact with him. It wouldn’t be strange for something to happen.
(…….If she did contract the virus, she’ll be dead within 24 hours.)
This was also the largest estimated time. There had been reports of death within just a few hours.
(……..)
Staring at Mizuki’s pained sleeping face, Yusuke turns and talks to her brothers beside her.