Hironobu Kume

“Alright. Let’s bounce, ya sons of bitches!”

Tsuyoshi hummed as he led the way across the fields. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

His uniform was unbuttoned, exposing his bulging muscles, which strained against his tank top. He was so jacked, it was hard to believe he was actually human.

Jiro and Kotaro trailed closely behind like suckerfish attached to their host.

Jiro had short hair, which he dyed red, while Kotaro sported a blonde faux hawk.

Compared to Tsuyoshi, they didn’t look threatening at all. If anything, they resembled the kind of low-ranking thugs you come across in post-apocalyptic manga.

“We are getting a girl if we take care of these monsters, right, Tsuyoshi?”

“I hope we get Fumika. Can I feel her up when she joins us?”

Even the way they talk screams typical henchmen.

Jiro and Kotaro were both pumped at the prospect of having a girl join our group.

Idiots. I highly doubted Tsukasa would keep his end of the bargain.

“No touching, ya moron. You’re gonna be nice to her like a proper gentleman. Got it?”

“S-sure thing, Tsuyoshi.”

“I’ve never talked with a girl before. I’m kinda nervous.”

The teenage gang was made up of Eiko, Tsuyoshi, Jiro, Kotaro, and Kyoya. Eiko led the group, despite Tsuyoshi being way more skilled than him when it came to street fighting.

The reason was simple enough. Tsuyoshi technically wasn’t a gang member, even though he belonged to their group.

Most of the class assumed otherwise due to his wild looks and behavior, but for the most part, he merely enjoyed throwing hands.

While Eiko tactfully employed him as his bodyguard, they were on equal footing in reality.

“Hey, Tsuyoshi. Do you have a plan?”

Kyoya asked, who’d been walking a few feet apart from the others.

With his long brown hair, Kyoya looked like a regular student at first glance. He was the level-headed one in the group and tended to act as an adviser.

“Yup. I’m gonna charge in and kill ’em all. You guys just needa finish off the ones that escape.”

“... That’s it? Shouldn’t you give it some more thought?”

“Ha. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

Kyoya looked exasperated for a second, but he seemed to resign himself and said nothing further.

“That’s our Tsuyoshi!”

“He’s got way more guts than we do. He’s my idol! I wanna be him!”

Jiro and Kotaro gushed, buttering Tsuyoshi up irresponsibly.

You’ve got to be kidding me. That hardly counted as a plan. Going to fight monsters with just the five of us without any idea of their strength or numbers was nothing but a suicide mission.

“Yo, turdage. You’re lagging behind. You better keep up with us.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll hurry.”

At Kotaro’s warning, I quickened my pace.

Damn y’all.

I’m lagging behind because I’m carrying all your stuff!

Even before we came here, I (turdage) was forced to run errands for the gang members along with Futoshi (aka XL-Yama) and Tsukasa (aka shortstache).

Why did Tsukasa remove Eiko from this group and add me instead?

And why did he assign Futoshi to Section Eight, the group that was left to die?

The three of us weren’t exactly close, but I’d felt a sense of kinship with them as fellow victims of the teenage gang members.

When Tsukasa became the class leader, part of me believed that he would protect Futoshi and me.

Instead, Tsukasa had cut us off.

I guess that was his way of saying goodbye to his old, weak self.

Rather than consider us comrades, he detested us for reminding him of his humiliating past and was trying to erase us along with the gang members who had used him.

I refuse to die here like this!

There were rumors that Futoshi had already died.

I couldn’t die a pathetic death out here like a loser.

Our unit managed to pass through the fields without encountering any creatures, and we arrived at a mountainous area with steep cliffs.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Monsters were waiting for us. I could feel it in my bones.

“Let’s get this party started, shall we?”

I couldn’t believe Tsuyoshi was still joking around in this situation.

I didn’t give a rat’s ass about looking dignified. All I cared about was not dying.

I’ll survive no matter what, even if it means throwing these guys to the wolves, I swore to myself.