The Abandoned Town

Apparently, this nursery school had been run by an elderly director, two middle-aged female nursery teachers, and Elena. However, ever since the Aberrant Beasts had appeared, it had ceased functioning as a nursery school.

The children currently living there had all been orphaned after their parents were killed by Aberrant Beasts. Six were preschoolers, while the other four were elementary school students.

We entered the nursery school and placed the food in the kitchen.

“Elena-san, I’m going to use a special skill now, so don’t be surprised.”

Elena nodded.

I activated 【Shadow Space】 and retrieved my Shadow Bag. Elena’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“What is that?”

“It’s Shadow Space. It’s a space where I can store enormous quantities of things, as long as they’re inside a special bag.”

“If you had something so convenient, why didn’t you use it at the supermarket? Oh, I see. You didn’t trust me back then, did you?”

“That’s not it. I can’t just store anything in there. The only thing I can put inside is this black bag, the Shadow Bag.”

I took mineral water, carbonated drinks, canned beer, pasta, cooking oil, sugar, and other seasonings out of the Shadow Bag. Then I lowered the empty bag back into Shadow Space.

“Amazing! So much oil and so many seasonings…”

“Don’t tell me you were running short on oil and seasonings?”

Elena gave a little nod. Her adorable gesture made me laugh.

“Go ahead and use them.”

She seemed absolutely delighted with my gift.

Elena and I entered the office, where we decided to have a talk. Director Doi was inside.

“Oh? And who might this be?”

“This is Kojiro Maki-san. He saved me from a Goblin. And this is Director Doi.”

“I’m Takami Doi. I heard you saved Elena-sensei. Thank you very much.”

Then the director began lecturing Elena. Apparently, Elena had gone exploring in the Goblin Zone without permission. They had been obtaining food from nearby farmers and other residents, but Elena had grown worried about how much longer those people could afford to share their supplies. She had apparently decided on her own to venture out in search of food.

Elena and I explained what had happened in the Goblin Zone and told the director about the food we had brought back.

“Thank you so very much. If you have nowhere else to go, please stay here at the nursery school.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. All our nursery teachers are women, so we’ve been rather anxious. Having you here, Maki-san, would be very reassuring.”

Director Doi told me about the nursery school’s current circumstances. Apparently, they were struggling without any assistance from the authorities.

“What are the government offices doing?”

“City Hall relocated to Higashishimo Town, but there are no government offices here in Higashikami Town.”

“Then who’s running this town?”

Elena’s expression darkened. Director Doi also sighed.

“The elderly residents, including the neighborhood association chairman, died from the poison released by the Aberrant Beasts. They went to the old City Hall and were exposed to the poison there.”

Apparently, Aberrant Beasts had been appearing west of the Higashisuna River. Furthermore, the creatures seemed to dislike water and wouldn’t attempt to cross the river.

“So that’s why City Hall moved to Higashishimo Town. But couldn’t Aberrant Beasts just cross the bridges and invade Higashishimo Town?”

“Mayor Mitarai ordered every bridge spanning the Higashisuna River to be demolished, except for the railway bridge.”

That was probably the best way to prevent Aberrant Beasts from getting across. But why was Shimojo Bridge still standing? Had Higashikami Town been abandoned?

I asked Elena to explain.

“A shortage of explosives was one reason, but Mayor Mitarai also decided to abandon the residents of Higashikami Town.”

According to Elena, the mayor had gathered the employees of the Mitarai Group and their families in Higashishimo Town, while driving citizens who had no connection to the group into Higashikami Town.

The reason Mayor Mitarai had expelled everyone outside the group was the food shortage. The farmland stretching east of Higashishimo Town simply couldn’t produce enough food to sustain all the surviving citizens.

“What a terrible mayor. If Yaso City couldn’t handle the situation on its own, he should’ve appealed to the prefectural or national government.”

“That’s… not possible. Apparently, most politicians with any real political influence were elderly, and they died from the poison.”

“Whoa… That must’ve caused absolute chaos.”

The poison released by Aberrant Beasts apparently affected elderly people particularly severely. Furthermore, powerful Aberrant Beasts had appeared in densely populated areas and carried out horrific massacres.

Director Doi spoke quietly.

“I happened to run over a Bad Rat with my car and acquired the ‘Poison Resistance’ skill, which allowed me to survive. But almost all my friends and acquaintances passed away.”

“I see… You’ve been through a lot. So what happened to the Japanese government?”

Elena and the others shook their heads helplessly.

“We don’t really know. Apparently, a landline telephone connection was installed in Higashishimo Town early on so they could communicate with the government, but they won’t share any information with Higashikami Town.”

I frowned. It had always been this way. In Yaso City, the Mitarai Group received preferential treatment in everything. People said the group accounted for seventy percent of the city’s tax revenue, but those outside the group paid taxes too.

“Hold on. If no outside assistance is coming, what are the residents of Higashikami Town supposed to do?”

“We’re trying to cultivate the farmland around the mountains to produce our own food. But with petroleum supplies exhausted, we can’t use agricultural machinery.”

Apparently, Higashishimo Town still had gasoline reserves, but they refused to allocate any to Higashikami Town. That was exactly the sort of thing the Mitarai people would do.

The residents of Higashikami Town were apparently cultivating their fields using hoes and other hand tools. The farmland around town had begun to resemble a scene from a bygone era, as though time itself had turned backward.

As I listened to Director Doi and Elena, I noticed that it was getting dark. Looking outside, I saw that the sun was about to set.

“Oh, right. The electricity’s out here too.”

Director Doi gave me a regretful look.

“Unfortunately, civilization has become a distant memory.”

I asked the director whether my childhood friend Misaki and her family might be living in this town.

“Misaki Endo-san and her parents, you say… Those names don’t sound familiar. Would you like me to ask some acquaintances around town?”

“Yes, please.”

A middle-aged woman in her forties entered the room.

“Ah, Ishigami-sensei. Let me introduce you. This is Kojiro Maki-san. He’s the man who saved Elena-sensei’s life.”

“Saved her life… That’s exactly why I told you not to go somewhere so dangerous.”

“But I managed to find food.”

Ishigami sighed.

“I found a large amount of food in the kitchen and went ahead and used some. That was all right, wasn’t it?”

I nodded and told her she was welcome to use it.

“Thank you. You’ve really helped us out.”

“Ishigami-sensei, was there something you needed?”

“Oh, that’s right. Dinner is ready.”

Apparently, everyone ate together with the children in the playroom. Dinner was savory Japanese pancakes. There had been some pancake sauce among the seasonings I brought, so they must have used that.

The children ate happily, but they looked a little cold. It was winter, and the playroom had no heating. They were wearing several layers of clothing, so the cold probably wasn’t unbearable, but I wondered if there was something I could do about it.

“Don’t you have any heating equipment here?”

I asked Elena.

“We used to heat the building with air conditioners, but as you can see, there’s no electricity.”

“And without kerosene, you can’t use a heater either. What about a wood-burning stove?”

“We don’t have anything that convenient.”

When I asked how they were cooking their meals, Elena explained that they had built an outdoor cooking hearth and were using that.

By the time dinner was over, the sun had set and everything outside was pitch-black. The children went to sleep bundled in their futons, still wearing their layers of clothing.

I stepped outside and gazed up at the starry sky. An astonishing number of stars twinkled overhead. Just six months earlier, the lights of the town would have obscured more than half of them.

“Maki-san, what are you doing?”

Elena had come outside too. We looked up at the sky together.

“I was just thinking how different the night sky looks compared to six months ago.”

“That’s because there aren’t any lights around anymore.”

I looked around the nursery school and couldn’t see a single light coming from any of the houses. When I asked Elena about it, she explained that roughly half the houses were unoccupied. Apparently, their residents had died from the poison.

“Wouldn’t it be more convenient to live in one of those empty houses instead of the nursery school?”

“Not really. The nursery school has a large yard, so we can build a cooking hearth there and prepare meals. That’s difficult to do at an ordinary house.”

Besides that, they apparently felt uncomfortable moving into someone else’s home, even if its occupants had died.

“About how many people are living in Higashikami Town?”

“I think there are around twenty-five hundred now, but I don’t know the exact number.”

The City Hall employees who had lived in Higashikami Town had either died or moved to Higashishimo Town. As a result, there was nobody left in a position to conduct a population survey.

And with most of the neighborhood association officials dead, there was apparently nobody left to organize or lead the town either.

“I can’t help worrying about the future.”

Elena spoke in a subdued voice.

This town seemed to be overflowing with problems. There was nobody trying to solve them, and the residents were apparently doing whatever they could to obtain food and somehow stay alive.