Kore wa Zombie desu ka?:Volume 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – There’s no Enemy We Can’t Take Down!

There was no school on Saturday. Today I had plans to meet with that survivor of the serial murders.

After all, I wanted to know what kind of person had killed me. If I could get that information, I would gladly go meet with this person.

Long hair and a long thin weapon. From my memory of what had pierced me, it might have been a sword. Well, it’s not like that gave me much to go on, but this person was probably not a normal human, and might have been a vampire ninja or something close to that. I also considered the thought that it might have been a Megalo. That’s what I had considered, but…

“Megalo don’t have weapons.”

That’s what Haruna had asserted.

When I asked “Are you sure?” she responded “Of course I’m sure!!” and got angry.

And, from what Sera had said, vampire ninjas didn’t kill normal humans. There was some “law” that prevented that.

She went so far as to say, “Those that break the law are punished severely, but I have yet to see anyone suffer that punishment.”

Well, what kind of person was it then? If they had held one weapon in both hands I could understand, but going off killing people with two swords like that required an extreme amount of strength and skill. Well, it might have been possible for a zombie. And also for a certain vampire ninja-sama somewhere.

It was evening, and I was walking along with Orito. It had been raining since the middle of the day, so it was great. Those terrible rays of sunlight couldn’t win against those clouds after all.

Orito had agreed to share his deep blue umbrella with me, and we looked just like two lovebirds walking shoulder to shoulder.

“Aikawa, what’s with that smile? That’s gross.”

“Is it?”

Good weather put people into good moods after all. My head had been getting terribly burnt before, right? It’s definitely not because I’m walking home with Orito. Don’t get me wrong.

“If you smile like that later, Kyouko will be happy too.”

Orito smiled. Why did it annoy me when boys smiled? Kyouko-chan was the survivor of the serial murders that I was now going to meet.

“Now that I think about it, how exactly does Kyouko-chan know about me?”

“Beats me. Maybe she met you at some point during junior high school?”

“Well, I was pretty popular after all.”

“Yeah right. Only people like witches would fall in love with you.”

“But you definitely said that Kyouko-chan was in love with me or something.”

“Yeah. When I went to visit her she seemed awfully keen on meeting you. I dunno, maybe she got hit in the head and suffered brain damage.”

You’re going to go that far?!

“Hey, Aikawa. Kyouko is like a second little sister to me. If you do something strange to her I’m going to kill you, alright?”

“Yeah yeah got it.”

We leisurely strolled along while talking about our bowling outing tomorrow (I had completely forgotten about that). Being able to talk to a normal person like this about normal things almost made me forget that I was in the middle of a giant whirlpool of murder and violence.

I definitely didn’t want to get him involved in all this. There were things… I didn’t want to lose. Everyone had those kinds of things…

Even zombies.

***

Room number 305. Orito entered the room with a huge “Heya!” and dispersed the reserved atmosphere caused by the particular scent and stillness that hung around hospitals. I timidly followed after him. There were a few grannies in the room, but in the middle of them there was just one girl, obviously young, who stood out. Or perhaps it would be better to say that she felt out of place. Her left arm seemed to have been wounded and was wrapped in a cast.

Now that I thought about it, shouldn’t I have brought a get-well present? I didn’t come with anything.

“Ah, Orito-sensei! … Eh? A-Aikawa-san?”

Her hair was a bit longer than shoulder length, and although she looked to be around the same age, she was taller than both Yuu and Haruna. The minute she looked in my direction, she began to get flustered. Orito casually approached her.

“Hey, Kyouko! Didn’t I tell you to make your hair into twin tails? Geez, Aikawa is really moe for twin tails!”

Since when? Well, it’s not like I don’t like them.

“Ah, yes! I didn’t think he would really come… I’ll do that right away! Ah, but I can’t use one of my hands! Sensei, help me!”

She mumbled something with a sulky expression, and began to style her hair into a twin tails with Orito’s help.

Kyouko-chan kept her eyes on the floor, her face as red as an apple. As I watched this pleasant scenery, I sat myself down in a round chair and pulled myself up to where Orito and the bed were.

To the other people in room 305: I’m really sorry for bringing such a noisy fellow with me.

I looked around, and, well… nobody was paying us any heed. I thought there would be some chatter in the room, but in the end, I guess older folks didn’t have much to say to junior high school students.

“Umm… Aikawa… san. Do you remember me?”

Kyouko spoke timidly while continuing to stare at the ground. I didn’t know whether I should lie and tell her I did remember her, but I ultimately decided to tell the truth.

“… Sorry, I don’t. I’m really sorry.”

When I apologetically lowered my head, Kyouko-chan frantically waved her hands.

“No, it’s completely fine! In fact, it’s… it’s good that you don’t remember!”

Did I do something weird to this girl in the past or something?

“Hey hey Aikawa, you went to the same junior high school, right? Alright, done! How is it, Aikawa?! Cute, isn’t she?”

“Ahh yeah, outrageously cute.”

Those were my honest feelings. She really was exceedingly cute, sitting there looking shyly down at the floor.

“Really?”

The petite Kyouko-chan looked up at me with upturned eyes, and I nodded. And then she gave me a shy smile.

Orito then took the initiative in the conversation, and began to talk about how fun high school life was.

Kyouko-chan would also be coming to our high school, right? Orito seemed to want that to happen, but ultimately that would be Kyouko-chan’s choice, wouldn’t it? Also, even though she listened to him talk with a smile, every once in a while she appeared lonely.

Orito had gone to the bathroom, so I asked.

“Did something happen? You seem a bit lonely.”

“Yes. The truth is… I’ll be going to live with my grandfather in Kyoto. And I don’t want to disappoint Orito-sensei…”

I see. Orito had been chatting under the assumption that she was coming to our high school… and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth. So she sometimes looks like that…

Alright, while Orito isn’t here, let’s get to the topic at hand.

“This might be a bit sudden, Kyouko-chan, but did you happen to see the face of the person who attacked you? Even the smallest bit of information is fine.”

“… Honestly… yes, I saw.”

Yes, as expected. The murderer wouldn’t let his or her face be seen that easily.

…. Wait, what?

“Y-You saw? Seriously?”

Kyouko-chan nodded vigorously… would I seriously be able to get useful information this easily?

“W-What kind of person was it?”

I was somewhat excited while I asked that question. Yes, excited by this twin-tailed girl.

“She had these really beautiful blue eyes… I think she was around the same age as I am.”

I began to doubt my ears. Those particular traits brought one person to mind.

“Did she have these strange gauntlets on, and straight, flowing silver hair?”

“Y-Yes, that’s it! She definitely was like that!”

Having been able to get what she wanted to communicate through to me, Kyouko-chan was very excited.

… What the hell? What the hell… it was Yuu?

There’s nobody else who would wear that kind of outfit, right? Dammit, what the hell was going on?

“Do you know the person who did this?”

“Ah, I might know something, but I think I’m mistaking someone for someone else.”

“Please tell me! Tell me who it was!”

It never crossed my mind that I would be the one getting asked questions about these happenings. Her eyes widened with enthusiasm, and I was greatly perplexed as to how I should answer her.

“The person I know is silent and emotionless, and I don’t think she’s the kind of person who would do something so reckless. So I think I’m mistaking her for someone else.”

Her twin-tails swished back and forth, and she shook her head.

“I think it’s probably her. The criminal was also someone who had an emotionless face. She really didn’t look like she was going to try to kill me.”

Seriously…? Was it really Yuu?

And if that were the case, then the person I was looking for was also Yuu?

Or maybe what happened to Kyouko-chan was not a part of the serial murders?

And that’s why she survived?

Or maybe, on the contrary, my murder had nothing to do with the serial murders and Yuu was the serial murderer?

“Kyouko-chan, when were you attacked?”

“I was attacked late at night on May 26th.”

Wasn’t that the day I met Yuu? And I’m sure there were no survivors in the house where I was killed. The news had verified that.

So, on that day, there was another murder case? If there were, it wasn’t shown on the news at all. Could it be that the survivor was afraid the killer would come back and finish the job, so she didn’t speak publically about it? Or could it really have been a different incident?

My thoughts were in chaos. I looked around the room for something to help me change the subject. There was a lot of get-well fruit lying around, along with bags of clothing, and when I moved my body to look around a bit more I felt my foot kick something. Peeking under the bed, I found an object that seemed quite out of place in a hospital.

It was a huge wooden sword. I had never closely examined a wooden sword before, but I was really impressed by how big it was. It was to the point that I thought there might have been another small wooden sword in this one. Was this a memento left over from some of her deceased family members or something?

Kyouko-chan flushed a brilliant red and desperately tried to hide the sword from me.

“Why is there a wooden sword here?”

I suppressed a smile and asked.

“It’s a family heirloom… just kidding.”

As if to say “Hah, how’s that?” she raised both her arms in a victory pose and gave a little laugh. Pretty charming.

I broke out into a grin, and Kyouko-chan showed me a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong? Your face is red… don’t tell me you have a fever…”

That lovely face approached mine. On her body there was a captivating pair of hills with in between that I would never think a junior high school student would have. Perhaps I was sensitive to cold, but when she put her hand to my forehead, the cool sensation ended up making my head heat up instead.

“Hm, you don’t feel feverish.”

Even for someone who preferred small breasts, I couldn’t take my eyes away from them. When she removed her hand from my forehead, Kyouko-chan licked her bottom lip.

“So, please tell me about that person.”

“Hm? Are we still on that? It’s hard to explain.”

“Hm? What?” Seeming flustered, Kyouko-chan leaned her neck to the side.

“Hm?”

“No… what? Hmm? U-Umm… were we done talking about this?”

“What does Kyouko-chan want to do to the criminal if she meets her?”

“… Well… umm… I would ask her to please stop doing things like this.”

Ahh… in my mind, I realized how much of a good girl she really was.

“So, that arm… does it hurt?”

With a somewhat sad expression, Kyouko-chan nodded.

… At any rate, it appeared that she wasn’t a zombie.

Right then, the spiky-haired Orito returned from the bathroom.

“Ahh, what a nice atmosphere~. Seeing a young boy talking to a young girl at her bedside like this…”

Moving his eyeglass frames back and forth while grinning, he was the spitting image of a master of sexual harassment.

After Orito came back, the conversation once again turned to school, and to repair the atmosphere I put on my best zombie smile and joined in on the conversation.

And after the lively conversation, Kyouko-chan and I exchanged mailing addresses.

“Alright, Aikawa, shall we head back?”

Did you run out of things to talk about? Orito suddenly stood up while making that suggestion. It seemed that he wasn’t making a suggestion, but had already decided to head back. Following him, I also stood up.

“Umm!”

“Hm?”

“Umm… thank you very much. I’m really glad that I was able to talk to you.”

My heart jumped in the face of that last angelic smile.

Girls’ smiles are just the best.

If only that necromancer and that vampire ninja would follow her example.

It was nearly sunset, and the after-rain sunlight that lightly peeked through the clouds burned the sky an orange color.

After exiting the hospital, I crossed the street and began to head for a convenience store. Next to me, Orito spun his deep blue umbrella around and around.

“Thanks, Aikawa.”

Walking across the still-wet asphalt, Orito pushed his glasses up and patted down his chest.

“For what? I didn’t do anything.”

“Kyouko was satisfied enough just from seeing your face.”

A serious expression appeared on Orito’s face. Feeling a bit self-conscious, I turned my gaze away from Orito’s glasses.

“Hmph. What’s so good about this thing?”

Hm? This cute voice…

When I turned in the direction I had heard the voice from, I saw a certain bishoujo with a bouncing chestnut-colored ahoge with the usual creases in her brow. Today’s outfit consisted of a dress shirt and a pink thong. I really had to buy her some trousers or a skirt. Also, some shoes.

“H-Hey, Aikawa, what’s with this first-rate bishoujo?”

Orito stood in shock, forgetting even to blink.

Well, there’s no helping that. After all, she’s that cute and she’s also in this outfit. Oh also, from his words, it seemed like he had completely forgotten about the incident with the crayfish yesterday. Thank goodness.

“Hey! Don’t look over here!”

She desperately tried to hide her panties with her dress shirt. If you’re that embarrassed by it, why the hell didn’t you put on some trousers? And is that my little brother’s shirt? That won’t actually hide your panties, you know.

“Ah. Umm… this girl is…”

If she showed up so suddenly looking like that, a Megalo is probably involved. And if that’s true, we’re going to end up wiping Orito’s memories later anyways, so there’s no point in making introductions now. So I didn’t really know how to respond to Orito.

“Ayumu! Here it comes!”

Haruna hid behind my back and tugged on my sleeve. Even if you say it’s coming, I can’t see a single sparkle in the sky. They usually fly down like a meteorite, but is this time different?

Looking up, my mouth dropped to the floor. Up there was indeed something that looked like a Megalo, replete in the usual schoolboy’s uniform.

Right above the hospital I had just come out of, there was a huge, mile long blue whale Megalo… my God that was just way too big.

Like a blimp, it was longer than it was wide, and drifted across the cloudy skies.

It advanced slowly like a cloud, and like a paraglider gradually descended. At this rate, bad things were going to happen.

“That’s a triple A rank Megalo, All Loss No Victory Shironaga!”

Oh? Her mistake this time is pretty easy to understand. There’s way too much losing in that name.

“No, that’s not right. Um… Ehhh… Umm… Demon Baron Shironaga!”

I already knew that when she was out of ideas, she would call everything a Demon Baron.

Well, right now, I was also pretty out of ideas. I’ve never fought something that freakishly huge. It’s not like I’m a Sentai hero or a three minute limit hero. I’m just a zombie.

Would my attacks even get through? No no, there’s no time to be thinking that. If that huge thing actually comes down, bad things would happen to this town.

“Haruna, please take care of Orito!”

“Hueh? Take care of who?”

“That spiky haired guy with glasses over there! Get him out of harm’s way!”

“Why does a genius like me have to do something like that? I don’t care if all the humans on this world go off and die.”

“Hey hey. What the hell is with that bombshell of an announcement? Why are you fighting then? I was sure it was for the sake of this world…”

“There is only one reason I am working to defeat Megalo! To get school credit! If I defeat enough Megalo, I can graduate even if I don’t attend enough class. This is a much more certain way to earn credits than going to that boring school!”

And while she went on and on about that she puffed out her underdeveloped chest. How the hell can she be so proud of her own laziness like that?

“What a selfish girl.”

“Don’t call me selfish! Go defeat him quickly! For me! Because it’s for me!”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t doing what I was doing for Haruna’s sake, but either way I kicked off the asphalt.

I jumped on top of a fence, scaled a telephone pole, and headed in the direction of the hospital via rooftop. Of course, the people walking down the road stared at me dumbfounded with their mouths open. They were probably thinking “What the hell, are you a ninja or something?” or something like that. Unfortunately, the ninja is at home. The one here is a zombie.

Haruna chased after me. Even though she hadn’t transformed, it seemed she could keep up with me just fine. Well, she should be the one fighting then.

That thought passed through my mind, but I knew better. Without transforming, there’s no way either of us could beat that Megalo, right?

I knew that. It wasn’t weak enough that I could beat it without transforming. After all, this was a rank AAA Megalo, even higher than the rank AA Lobster-san.

“Haruna, have you ever fought against something that huge before?”

“Naturally. That type of thing is common in my world.”

She seemed pretty smug about that.

“I see. To put it frankly, I’m not confident this time. If it was just a question of myself, that would be fine, but I can’t do this while simultaneously protecting the city.”

Even if that huge thing moved a bit, houses would be destroyed. And if the hospital were destroyed, that would be guaranteed to be disastrous, and I didn’t have enough strength to fight while protecting that building.

“I see. You can’t defend against Shironaga’s attacks by yourself. Well, it would be easy for me though.”

“Really?”

“Of course, really. When it comes to this genius bishoujo demon baroness Haruna-chan, there is not a single thing I can’t do!”

As her ahoge bounced to and fro like a puppy’s tail and she beat her smallish chest, what sounded like a horn or something echoed through the area.

A very low frequency sound echoed through the middle of town. It was the vibrations of the atmosphere that the whale had caused. Along with this bwoohhn sound, a purple wind was sent through the area.

Onomatopoeia is hard. Give me a break.

Now that I think about it, Lobster-san also had done something similar.

“Haruna, that purple wind…”

“You should know just from looking at it… that’s the Megalo releasing magical energy…”

The purple wind coiled around Haruna’s body.

And when it did that, Haruna’s shoulders suddenly jumped. Maybe she could feel a chill or something, but she quickly shook her head back and forth, and after opening her eyes wide, she hazily opened her mouth.

“Oo… aaa… aaah…”

Even though she had been so energetic up to now, Haruna crouched down into the fetal position. The same thing had happened when we were fighting with that crayfish.

“Hey, Haruna.”

“… What… is this…? What… this feeling…”

Haruna looked like a frightened puppy. She bit down on her lightly trembling lips.

“Haruna? Haruna!”

At my yells, Haruna raised her head up. Her eyes were filled with irritation.

“What should I do, Ayumu… I…”

With that trembling voice, that lonely-sounding voice, she continued to wring out her words.

“I’m… afraid of Megalo…”

That confession hit me like a ton of bricks. I had never thought I would hear her say she was afraid of anything.

Bwoohhn.

The low frequency sound once again echoed through the area. Haruna’s body had stiffened and she once again bit her lip. She was desperately trying to force down her fear.

“It’ll be alright, Haruna.”

“Alright? Are you an idiot?! I can’t do this! I’ll… be killed!”

“It’ll be alright, Haruna.”

“Don’t say irresponsible things! Someone like you-“

“Don’t you know? I’m strong.”

“Don’t get cocky! Someone like you will never be able to protect me!”

“That might be true. But, don’t you know? There’s not a single thing Haruna can’t do.”

“Hueh…?”

“Maybe I can’t protect Haruna. And maybe Haruna, who can’t transform into a masou shoujo, can’t do anything about that huge thing. But I’m strong. And Haruna can do anything. So what if those two people joined forces?”

For some reason, Haruna blushed and blinked in surprise. Then, the corners of her lips turned upwards, and she gave me a splendid boyish smile.

“There’s no enemy we can’t take down!”

“Right? So please help me. Please.”

“Hmph, I guess there’s no choice. Just this once.”

Looking happy for some reason, Haruna stepped out in front of me. Hey, I can see your panties, you know.

“I can’t transform so I can’t use attack magic, but I can at least set up a barrier. It’ll be fine if I just make one that protects the surrounding people and buildings, right? Making a single barrier like that is easy. Also, Shironaga uses the power of water. I’ll also do something about that with a barrier, so you don’t hold anything back and strike him dead. OK?”

“OK. That’s more than I had expected.”

I sent a kamikaze attack at the towering body in front of me. Jumping towards the hospital wall from this house’s roof, I kicked off the wall and jumped up towards Shironaga’s head.

“This is all of a sudden, but 400%!!”

With a loud Bam! I scored a critical hit to Shironaga’s stupidly huge face with a midair roundhouse kick. Receiving my attack, Shironaga’s huge body began to topple to the side.

Crap! He’s going to crush the houses! Is what I thought, but ripples appears in midair and Shironaga’s huge body stopped as if it had hit a wall.

And then, Shironaga began to be pushed back to his original position.

I see. So this is what Haruna meant by a barrier. It would be incredibly effective if Shironaga were surrounded by these barriers, right?

Shironaga’s huge fin became even huger. The air around his fin rippled like it had before in an effort to stop the expansion, but the fin easily broke through. Something showered down to the ground like broken glass and disappeared. It seemed that the strategy to surround him with barriers had failed.

“Can this guy really be taken down?”

Shironaga calmly lingered about and we exchanged stares. He slowly descended, but the moment he approached the hospital, ripples formed once again and repelled him. The strength of these ripples were in a different class as those before.

Now that I took a closer look, I could see Haruna on the roof of the hospital. She was enveloped in a ruby-colored light and both her hands were extended in Shironaga’s direction, almost as if she was holding him at bay by herself. Well, that was actually the case.

“Hurry up and transform into a masou shoujo! Didn’t I tell you I can only stop him like this four times?!”

Definitely not. Is that honestly something you should be telling me this late in the game?!

Hm? Hasn’t she already stopped him three times? First when I knocked him down, then when the fin expanded, and now while he was descending.

… So, she only could do that one more time…?

Geez… I guess I’m out of options. I didn’t want to transform though…

I went over to Haruna’s location and picked up the chainsaw that had been dropped there. I chanted the spell with a dullness that exceeded the dullness I felt when made to read from a textbook in Japanese class.

“Nomobuyo, woshi, hashitawa, dokeda, gunmiicha, dei, ribura.”

I was enveloped in a brilliant light, and my clothes ripped. And then, that skirt… I could feel the tears coming on. Battles are hard things, aren’t they…?

Having transformed into a masou shoujo, I could fly into the sky just by thinking about it. I pierced the whale’s stomach with the chainsaw and like that, ripped it apart… masou shoujo are just way too powerful.

I thought it was over, but in the end I was being optimistic, and I saw the wound gradually close up from the point at which I had first pierced his stomach. It was faster than even I would heal with my zombie body.

So, what should I do now? Did he have vital organs I could attack or something?

As I was thinking that, it happened. Shironaga finally began to do something flashy. Speaking of movements that whales were known to do…

Yes, it was that.

Like a volcano erupting, a thick spray of salt water flew up from Shironaga’s head. An absurd amount of water began to descend like a waterfall from the sky.

I ran desperately from the water, and stared at it from a long distance away.

As if a thick fog had set in, the sky became dyed with white. It was like watching a huge water fountain. Not good. If this continued, this entire city would get swallowed up, wouldn’t it? It really did seem like enough water to do that. And the whale just continued and continued and continued to spray out salt water.

Looking down at the city sprawled out below me, I saw the entire city flooded under the surging waves… or so I thought, but the city didn’t seem different at all. It looked completely normal.

Ah, I see. Haruna had defended the city against the attack. I gave her a standing ovation from the bottom of my heart, and hurriedly returned to the hospital roof.

“Ayumu! What the hell are you doing?! Take it down fast! I’m at my limit!”

She looked at me and raised what was close to a desperate shriek. Well, if I could take it down, I would have already done that…

“How exactly do I kill that thing?”

“Ughh!! If you cut off its head it’ll die, right?! Do. It. Fast!!”

I see. Wait, you want me to cut off that thing? His neck is huge.

If only there was someone else here that could fly and was just about as strong as I was…

Ah, there was.

“Hellscythe-dono told me to come to check out the situation… this city has quite a number of strange things in it, doesn’t it?”

Very conveniently, a beautiful girl clad in a black cloak flew down onto the hospital roof with a swirl of green leaves.

“That is really great timing.”

“Ayumu. That outfit is really quite disgusting… that outfit is really quite disgusting.”

Why did she have to say that twice? I could feel an aura signaling “I don’t want it to seem like we know each other, so stay away from me” coming off her in huge waves.

“Well, I’m sorry about that. But without this, I wouldn’t be able to fly.”

I felt a gaze like a sharp spear near the area of my skirt. Is she really so offended by my outfit? Well I’m really sorry.

“Ayumu. What is that?”

I don’t know if she had accepted my outfit, or if she just didn’t care anymore, but her gaze turned towards Shironaga.

“Well, for now, let’s just say it doesn’t look like a friend.”

“Ahh, certainly. An enemy, then?”

With her piercing red eyes, Sera gazed at Shironaga.

To stop the water, Haruna had activated her barrier for the fourth time. If he rained water down like that again, the houses would be crushed to powder. We had to hurry.

“Will you help?”

“Understood. Here I go.”

Flapping her green-colored wings, Sera flew. Her retreating figure was beautiful and dependable. I took off and chased after her. Showing off everything under my skirt.

At this time, I finally came to understand how girls must feel when they wanted to hide their panties.

Telling Sera that we had to cut off his head, in order to be able to cut through faster than he could heal, we surrounded Shironaga on the left and right.

Thrusting my chainsaw violently around the collar of his school uniform, I flew along the whale’s body. Sera was probably doing working on the other side of the whale.

“Ayumu! I can’t… hold on anymore…!”

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

I felt the pressure building up.

I see it! There’s where Sera had started. The sound was gradually closing, but I was faster.

Just a bit more… Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

The wound I was carving met up with the beginning point of the wound Sera had made. With this, we had completed the circle. Sera was faster than I was so there was no mistaking it. Phew.

Hm? Shironaga’s neck didn’t move. Why? We definitely cut the complete circle.

At that point, a ringing sound, as if a bell had been broken, echoed through the area. The water fell and covered the city. The barrier that had been holding it back had shattered. It was like a dam had broken. Water ran through the streets between buildings like rivers and washed away cars. The roar of water echoed from throughout the city.

And what’s more, the wound that we had inflicted on Shironaga had disappeared. What just happened?

Then I realized it. I cursed myself for being so stupid and dimwitted.

If I cut my arm in a circle with a thin razor, there’s no reason my arm would fall off from that. There’s no way this small chainsaw blade could cut off that huge of a head.

Her green wings fluttering, Sera returned to my position. Her usually cool facial expression had cracked a bit. Seeing the flooded streets, even someone like Sera would feel a bit pressured.

“Ayumu, this is not good. The town is being washed away!”

“I know that.”

“Do you have a counter-plan?!”

“… I know, I know. I’m thinking.”

“What are you being so calm about?!”

“Sera, don’t be in such a hurry. All that’s going to do is make things worse.”

“… Ugh.”

With a bitter expression, Sera covered her mouth with her hand.

When I looked down, I saw houses being attacked by what looked almost like a tsunami. Were the people inside alright?

The water still hadn’t reached the second story of the buildings, but even then it was enough to cover the cars on the street. It was more than enough to swallow up people.

Even though I couldn’t feel pain, I felt a stinging in my heart. It was disappointment. I couldn’t protect them.

What should I do? Should I prioritize aiding the city or taking down the Megalo? Was human life the most important thing here? Sera also seemed at a loss, and clenched her fists tight.

“Ayumu! Take it down fast! The only way to stop this water is to take him down!”

Sounding out of breath, Haruna yelled at me from the hospital roof. If we defeated him, the water would disappear?

When I asked her that, she screamed back “Obviously!” Well, tell me that earlier, dammit.

“Alright. Sera, can you do another half-circle? If possible, with a sword around five times as long as last time.”

“It is possible. What do you intend to do?”

“I’m going to kick him with all my strength. Like this, I can exceed any and all of my limitations. If you cut the lower half with a longer sword, and I kick him with all my strength, it’ll definitely be torn off, right?”

“Understood. I have faith in your strength. Ahh, you might be a hentai, but I have faith in your strength.”

You didn’t have to go back and qualify the first statement, you know.

Sera quickly flew off.

Shironaga once again spewed out salt water, and it seemed like it would be difficult to approach him. But as expected from a ninja, Sera dodged the water skillfully and successfully approached the whale.

Alright.

“… 460%.” In midair, I relaxed my limbs. I closed my eyes, and slowly gathered my strength.

“… 680. As expected from a masou shoujo. I’m still not at full power.”

“Ayumu! Do it fast!”

I could hear voices. The sound of destruction and despair. Sorry everyone, just wait a little bit longer. Everything will be over soon.

“840. Is this the limit? No, I still can go a bit further.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Sera had just finished with her half-circle. Looking closely, I saw that she had descended within inches of the hospital roof.

Shall I do it? If I don’t do it quickly, the wound’s going to close.

“Ugeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh!!!”

I struck with enough speed to break the sound barrier. With all my might, I kicked Shironaga in his terribly huge jaw.

I was expecting his neck to snap like how you would split a baked sweet potato.

But Shironaga’s head exploded. From the impact of my kick.

Pieces of pulpy meat fell to the ground and disappeared, and the water also drew back. His huge body turned into white particles and scattered in all directions, returning to the sky and disappearing.

It looked like we had done it.

I joined back with Haruna and while receiving another lecture on how to manipulate memories (which I had forgotten), I healed the water-damaged city.

Yes, this time, I had to perform the memory manipulation in a very wide area. And when I did so, Sera was naturally affected as well since she was in this area. And it was difficult to control to what extent the target’s memories were manipulated. It’s fine if her memories disappeared, but it’d be nice if Sera could be aware of the situation since we were living together… Should I just tell her? Ugh, I’m so worn out…

But leaving that aside, masou shoujo are pretty amazing, aren’t they? They really might be able to do anything like Haruna had said.

“Ayumu. How long are you planning on staying in that disgusting outfit?”

As Sera stared at me with cold eyes, I took one deep breath and I explained the situation as simply as I could. “If I changed out of this, I would become naked, right? And that’s even more disgusting, right?”

But then, Haruna spoke up.

“You can just repair your clothes.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

When she explained it to me, for the first time ever, I wanted to smack Haruna.

With the magic I had used to repair the buildings, I could also restore my clothes. Normally, masou shoujo used that kind of magic to return to their normal forms. Well that’s the first time I’ve heard of that. You should have told me that after we fought Zarii. Or rather, you should have told me that when you taught me the transformation spell. There’s too much you haven’t explained. Well, whatever, she’s cute so I’ll let her off the hook.

For now, I had finished manipulating the memories, so shall we return home?

“Ayumu!”

Sera once again transformed a few leaves into swords and held them in both hands. Her red eyes pierced straight through mine. Don’t make such a scary face, dammit.

“What’s wrong?”

Crrkk!

Something pierced through my heart. Attacking me from the back… how cowardly. But what had pierced my heart was not a sword. And it was not a spear… what the hell was this?

I felt someone pushing my back, and I was caught by Sera. When I looked back, I saw an anteater in a schoolboy’s uniform. The second one today, then…?

“That’s the heavyweight Megalo, Muhammad Kui!”

As if matching Haruna’s words, the anteater jumped back and forth with light footwork while it stared at me. As always, the Megalo’s eyes were round, cute things.

Geez. Do I have to transform again? I just changed back.

Gripping the chainsaw tightly, I begrudgingly began to chant again, when Haruna inferred what I was trying to do and stopped me.

“You can only become a masou shoujo once every twenty-four hours! If only I could transform…”

You’re kidding me. That’s another thing you should have told me earlier.

So, what should I do if I can’t transform? And also, exactly what class is this heavy-weight Megalo? If it’s in the same class as Zarii was, then that would be bad.

Well, at least there was a reliable swordsman here. She was stronger than I was.

Sera’s green wings disappeared. She only had her black cloak and those two swords, and leaves no longer danced around her. Could it be that this was her last weapon?

“Sera.”

Let’s go. Is what I tried to say, but Sera was not there, and the anteater was. In a moment, my vision blurred and I spun around. I had been knocked very quickly off my feet.

The anteater moved his feet rhythmically and was quite an impressive sight. Were anteaters this fast? Anteaters and sloths were close relatives, weren’t they?

What looked like purple vapor emitted from his fist.

Haruna had said that this was the Megalo releasing magical energy.

Ahh, I see. When Megalo got ready to fight, they released magical energy.

I heard a sound like iron striking iron as Sera’s sword made out of leaves met with the anteater’s small fist. But even if I could see the moment they connected with each other, I couldn’t follow their movements. For a zombie like me, it was impossible to follow them when they were moving so fast.

“Haruna, can you see them?”

“O-Of course! It’s not like it’s… that big of a deal!”

Her face was flushed red, and spat out that desperate denial.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“What are you talking about?”

Haruna’s words were as reassured as ever, but her tight fists were trembling. It seemed that even now, once she was hit by that purple vapor she would become scared of Megalo. She was probably putting on a bluff right now so that Sera wouldn’t realize she was scared.

If that’s the case, I won’t push the issue.

“No, nevermind.”

As if we were watching a tennis match, our necks twisted left and right as we watched over the battle. Could I jump in and help? I can’t even follow them though…

He was much faster than Zarii had been. That heavyweight champion…

Ah, wait, I never heard if he was a champion or not.

Being able to watch Sera’s swordsmanship from the side like this really gave me a sense of how elegant and magnificent she was. Dodging her opponent’s attacks, and warding him off while slashing and slashing again. Ah, that was just a Tsubame Gaeshi, wasn’t it?

If Sera weren’t here, we probably wouldn’t be able to win.

“Ayumu. Switch with me for a while.”

She suddenly called to me, and I reluctantly came forwards. When I asked her what happened…

“My weapon disappeared. I don’t have enough blood.”

She spoke with as elegant a facial expression as always. In an instant, the sword she was holding had changed to normal tree leaves. That was a huge problem.

“OK. I’ll take over from here.”

The anteater came at me with a punch, but I somehow stood firm and took his attack. Even though I guarded with my arm, I was just struck in a different place. I was just so outclassed in terms of speed. The bones in my body broke one after the other, but because I was a zombie they soon healed. The sound of breaking bones echoed through the area a countless number of times.

Jab jab jab jab… he punched at me repeatedly.

His left jab repeatedly gouged into my cheek.

I returned some punches while trying my best to not get sent flying. Granted, I couldn’t hit him at all.

“Haruna. I have one request.”

“W-What? If it’s something weird, I’m going to kick you.”

“I want your blood.”

Haruna stiffened at Sera’s very vampire-like words. Without even waiting for a response, Sera closed in on Haruna. Sure sure, meanwhile, I’m getting punched full of holes.

“Nn?! Nn…….nn….”

For some reason, Sera locked her lips with Haruna’s. Haruna flushed red and struggled, but soon her body relaxed and she stopped resisting. Sera, when we get home, please do that to me. I beg of you.

Sera then pulled back, and bit into Haruna’s white neck. It was like a scene right out of a vampire movie. Blood oozed out of Haruna’s neck, but her face was still flushed and her eyes looked drowsy.

“Ah! … nn… ahh…”

She looked like she was in a trance, and let out what sounded like a thirsty groan. God, looking at her made my face heat up. Sera-san, please suck my blood too. If you’re fine with someone dead like me. Yes yes, I’m getting beat full of holes over here. Please don’t forget that, alright?

Even while I continued to get punched, to prevent the anteater from targeting those two, I continued to attack with punches I knew wouldn’t connect and attract his attention.

Let me just be frank about it and say that I can’t take down this anteater. How should I go about taking an enemy down that I can’t hit? It would be different if I could transform, though.

But, more importantly!

Haruna was definitely on my mind. It annoyed me to no end that I couldn’t take more than momentary glances in her direction. Hey, anteater-san, you want to watch too, don’t you? Just a little while is fine, so let’s stop fighting.

Completely unaffected by my silent request, the anteater hit me in the face with a right, straight punch. I was knocked off my feet and hit the fence, when I remembered that this was the roof of the hospital. I lost my balance, and something pierced right through my heart. It was the same attack that I had been hit with at the very beginning.

It was the anteater’s long tongue. If it were Haruna’s or Sera’s tongue, I would have welcomed it with open arms, but the anteater’s tongue was a bit…

I slowly fell to the floor. Did that anteater’s tongue have the ability to drain my strength or something?

I couldn’t get up, but in front of me I saw fresh leaves flying about.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

I heard a cold voice. And while the sound of iron striking iron once again filled the air, I crawled back to Haruna’s location.

Haruna was flushed a brilliant apple red as always, and sat there while putting pressure on her neck.

“Don’t look at me.”

She said it softly but forcefully, so I turned my gaze back to Sera.

“Hiken, Tsubame Gaeshi!”

A two-part strike from the sword in her right hand. Afterwards, she added on another strike with the sword in her left hand. It was something only a practitioner of the two-sword style could do.

The attacks left but a scratch on the anteater, who then sent out another series of sharp jabs. A single leaf sprung up and defended against them.

Watching this back and forth, attack and defense was like watching a sports match, and I felt my chest heating up.

“Hiken, Tsubame Gaeshi!”

I saw a series of perpendicular sword flashes, and the anteater jumped backwards. This is really not going anywhere, wouldn’t you say?

And then, the anteater made a hand seal of some kind, and thrust out both his hands. A ball of energy formed in front of his palms.

There was no doubt in my mind that this was a big move. Sera, will you be alright? In the worst case scenario, if I have to protect you, I’d like to know whether that attack is going to be a light beam or a light bullet.

I glanced at Sera.

“The secret of my blade lay not in the blade that is hidden.”

Sera stared fixedly at what the anteater was doing, and the swords in both her hands vanished. In a flurry of sound, large quantities of leaves filled the surroundings.

“Blades that fly as leaves on a tree, that is…”

The leaves all turned into large swords.

“Flying Sword, Hyakkizensatsu.”

The swords all attacked the anteater at once.

“Oohh…” I raised my voice in admiration.

Maybe he realized the situation he was in, but the anteater began to run away without releasing the energy he had been building up. But swords pierced his legs, his arms, and then his entire body. With incredible speed, the anteater soon looked like a pop-up pirate.[1] But what flew off was not his head, but rather quantities of blood.

Sera turned her back to the anteater that had been immobilized by the swords that had pierced his body and walked back in our direction.

It seemed like it was over.

“Idiot! Why are you acting like it’s over?!”

Haruna screamed with a desperate expression.

Sera turned back to the anteater, but he was no longer there. From Sera’s chest, the anteater sent out a vicious uppercut.

I had forgotten. That when Megalo died, they turned into particles.

But what was sent flying by the anteater’s vicious uppercut was a log wearing a black cloak. It was the fundamental, strongest ninja skill, the body switching technique.

The anteater quickly turned around and went in pursuit of Sera. Had he managed to follow Sera with his eyes while she performed her body switching technique? For some reason, in the face of this anteater who was still so fast despite having been pierced by so many swords, Sera turned in the other direction.

At his opponent so suddenly turning her back on him, the anteater faltered for a second. That was probably what Sera was aiming for.

“Hiken, Ryuubi Gaeshi”

In an instant, the anteater had been split into two. I couldn’t even follow the sword flashes with my eyes.

She had performed an incredibly fast slash while turning around. Having faltered for just a second, the anteater couldn’t hope to dodge that.

Having been separated into two halves, the anteater fell to the ground and turned into particles, vanishing in the wind. Just like she had done before, Sera didn’t even glance in that direction and walked towards us.

I raised my hand up to around face level, and Sera, without a hint of a smile, gave me a high five.

***

In the living room, Yuu was drinking tea and watching a variety show on television as usual.

“Was everything alright today?”

Without even moving her neck, Yuu ascertained my presence with only her eyes and gave me a single nod. It was the same tiny nod that wasn’t more than a slight dip of her jaw.

Haruna had gone up to the second floor. Sera was sitting across from me under the table, fixated on the television like Yuu.

“Yuu, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

As if agreeing to my request, Yuu faced me. My voice might have sounded a bit pushy. But, I had absolutely no intention of holding that back.

“Yuu saved me that day we met, right?”

Her silver-colored hair swayed up and down. Affirmation.

“Really? You really weren’t the one who tried to kill me?”

Her silver-colored hair swayed side to side. A stronger negation than usual.

“Well, after you saved me, there was still some time before I regained consciousness, right? What were you doing during that time?”

Her gauntlet-laden hand gripped the ballpoint pen tightly.

I was by Ayumu’s side. = “I was together with oniichan, of course!”

“Really? … Someone told me that you killed a member of his family. Isn’t that strange? Who should I believe? The victim, or the one who has these strange powers? Yuu, I beg you, explain to me what really happened!”

Yuu shook her head back and forth even more strongly than before. She seemed to be insisting that she had not told a lie.

“Ayumu, isn’t your tone a bit too strong? Hellscythe-dono doesn’t seem the type to lie.”

“That’s true, I may have been too aggressive. I apologize… I’m sorry. So, Sera, you be the judge then. Why is it that the victim could identify what Yuu looked like? Come on, answer me. Whose words have more credibility?”

“Ayumu, please calm down a little.”

“I’m calm. And all I want is to calmly listen to the truth.”

I’m not lying. = “Oniichan, please believe me!”

“I really want to believe you. So, isn’t there some simple way you can prove to me that you’re speaking the truth? Proof that you haven’t been killing humans!”

Completely unconsciously, my voice had increased in volume. I think my mind was just in chaos. Before I could think about what I was saying, the words had already flown out of my mouth.

What managed to calm me down from my disturbed state were the tears that started flowing out of Yuu’s eyes.

Tears dripped ceaselessly from Yuu’s blue eyes. Proof of her sadness continued to run down her cheeks.

Once I was shown something like that, I couldn’t say anything anymore.

Dammit.

“Ayumu, I’m hungry. Let’s have dinner soon… I will prepare it this time. Ayumu, please go call Haruna down.”

Sera glared at me. Implicitly, her words were an order for me to get away from Yuu. Agreeing with her intentions, I left the living room.

Taking deep breaths, I headed for the stairs next to the entranceway when I felt a strange sense of unease.

Hm? What was it?

… Ah, the chainsaw that usually adorned the entranceway was gone.

I went up the stairs and stood in front of one of the rooms on the second floor. This used to be my little brother’s room, but as a result of my parents’ and brother’s honeymoon trip of indeterminate length, it was now being used by Haruna.

By the way, on the second floor there was my room, this room, and also my parent’s room, which was being used by Sera. Yuu almost never set foot outside the living room, but she used my dad’s study on the first floor as her room.

Tap tap. While I knocked on the door I turned the doorknob.

“Who is it?!”

“It’s me. Sera wanted me to call you downstairs.”

“What?! No way! Just a… wai-!”

When I tried to open the door, I felt resistance, as if someone were pulling it from the inside, but there was no way Haruna was going to win against me in a contest of physical strength.

On the other side of the door was a naked Haruna, flushed red and with her mouth open.

“Ugyahh!” Her cry almost reminded me of a seal, and her blush reached right to her ears.

Haruna’s skin was white and looked quite soft… but more importantly, why the hell did she never have clothes on?!

“Didn’t I tell you to hold on?! You hentai! Eroamphitheater!”

Bam! She sent her heel fiercely into my shin. If I weren’t me, I would be writhing in pain, you know. From that one hit. Also, what the hell is an Eroamphitheater? Did you want to say Eroseo or something? Or maybe Eroseum?

The chainsaw was on the floor in the middle of the room. It seemed that she had been trying to transform into a masou shoujo and failing. She had it pretty tough too.

I see. Why was it that someone who reacted so strongly against ero things like Haruna was always naked? It was because she was practicing transforming. Even when she would appear in weird clothes when a Megalo showed up, she would unsuccessfully try to transform like just now, and would rush over while putting on whatever she could find.

“How long are you going to keep looking at me?! Get lost! Idiot! Amphitheater!”

Sending me flying with a kick, she slammed the door.

I mean, I was wrong for opening the door so suddenly, but this was my brother’s room, right? It was just from force of habit that I opened the door like that.

Well, what’s done is done… I gave a short apology to the probably blushing Haruna on the other side of the door, and signaled my intention to go downstairs and come back later.

Ah, now that I think about it, I completely forgot.

Did Haruna have some connection to the serial murder incidents?

At the very least, I needed to ask her how she knew I was stabbed to death.

“Haruna…”

“Hey, Ayumu. I… can’t take it anymore.”

A lonely sounding voice came from the other side of the door, and I leaned on the door.

… I’ll wait until next time to ask then.

I didn’t have a choice. After all, a girl’s voice was crying out for help on the other side of the door.

“My magical power finally came back, but it’s dried up again after I made those barriers… I can’t transform again. The minute I become a masou shoujo, I feel like I’m the strongest person in the world, and I had hunted countless Megalo.”

Ah, I understand. I understand that feeling. When I become a masou shoujo, I also feel much stronger.

“It’ll come back soon. It’s alright. Knowing you, it’ll be alright.”

“… No. It’s not that I can’t transform! But if I can’t become a masou shoujo, I become paralyzed just by the magical energy of the Megalo! That’s what I can’t take!”

Haruna’s voice gradually began to tremble.

I searched for the right thing to say, but any words I could think of sounded clichéd, so I opened the door.

“H-Hey! Don’t open the door!”

Her eyes red, the naked girl quickly covered her face. I put my hand on top of her ahoge and tried to stroke her head, but Haruna suddenly circled her arms around my waste.

She pressed her unripened chest into me, and stuck her face into my chest, hugging me more tightly.

“Like this, you can’t see my face or my body, right? This is my win…”

I see.

My hand, having lost its place, found its way in the end over Haruna’s hair.

“I’m so frustrated! Frustrated frustrated, frustrated! I want to become strong! Like Ayumu, I want to be able to fight even if I’m not a masou shoujo!”

“… From what I’ve heard, if you can cry without holding anything back, you’ll become strong.”

With her head buried into my chest, Haruna increased the tightness of her embrace.

And within my arms, the warrior began to cry.

***

Fifteen minutes later.

Sera’s homemade cooking was laid out in front of me.

What kind of cooking was it?

… Ugh, that’s what I want to ask!!

The only thing in front of me was this black, coffee-like liquid.

It was a black liquid that had so much surface tension it wouldn’t even spill out of the pot. Also, that’s a pot I’ve never seen before. Was that something Sera had brought? Was this what ninja’s ate? Better question – was this actually food?

“Well, please eat.”

Being stared at by those jade-colored eyes, I tried to avoid her gaze and glanced at Yuu. Yuu wasn’t even looking at the food. Maybe she had decided that what was on the table was not food?

Also, she’s completely ignoring me… Ugh, I’m beat.

“Hellscythe-dono. Please eat.”

“Wait just a second! I’ll eat!”

Could you really feed this stuff to a girl?!

I tried to ladle out the liquid from the pot onto my plate.

As if touched by magma, the ladle melted.

“Ayumu. You won’t be able to touch this food with that kind of weak equipment.”

How strong was this thing?! Was it a monster?!

Seriously, was this food? If you knew I couldn’t use the ladle, don’t put it on the table in the first place!

“Wait… did you season this? To flavor it.”

“Season? Do you think that kind of thing would actually have an effect on this food?”

It wouldn’t have an effect? Wasn’t this thing a bit too strong?!

Sera took out a suspicious-looking small strainer and scooped up the black liquid, dumping it with a Krchh! on the plate in front of me. Just the look of it frightened me. I couldn’t see any of the ingredients – it was just a jet black colored soup.

“Ayumu. Hurry up and eat. Look, the plate is melting.”

Is she telling me to put something in my body that is melting the tableware?

But, she had gone through so much trouble to cook for us. I had to eat it, right? Also, I’m already dead, so I’ll be alright.

Feeling as if I was making some huge decision, I poured that soup into my mouth in one go… and spit it out immediately.

My mouth was in agony. That was disgusting. Even though I couldn’t feel pain, I could feel a terrible tingling.

Ahh, I can’t hold on anymore. Looking for water, I ran into the kitchen.