Editing My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume9 Chapter 4

Having Ayumi wait out in front of the house had kept this from being even worse.

Maybe that woman hadn’t wanted to make a lot of noise, but she had chosen not to use her car to carry the unconscious Scylla away. If Ayumi had arrived later and the woman had been able to drive her car out of the garage like normal, she could have gone more than 100 times as far.

“The closest possibility is Babbling Brook located 50m north of the Class Rep’s house,” said Maxwell. “It is called a brook, but it is really just an artificial waterway.”

“Give us three…no, five different possibilities. She couldn’t have taken Umikaze far, but she wouldn’t want to kill someone too near her house either.”

This was extremely out of the ordinary for her. Enough so that she frantically made an internet search for methods after taking that first step. None of this was well planned out. It was like she was searching blindly and unsure what to do. There was no predicting when she would suddenly change course.

“For now we have to get to that Babbling Brook place!”

This was my home, but I didn’t know all those rivers and stuff around here had actual names. I would probably recognize the place once I got there.

My bicycle wasn’t much use in the unnatural snow. It was like the tires were slipping on a soft sandy beach. Since the closest one was 50m away, it would be faster if I ran there on foot.

“Ayumi, if you can run on this snow, then go on ahead. Please!”

“There’s…there’s still hope!!”

She had 10 times the strength of a human.

So much of her stich-covered skin was exposed and the snow seemed to explode beneath her feet when she took off running.

I knew there was still hope.

It took energy to harm someone. A lot of it. It was even said murderers who attempted to dismember their victim’s corpse would often gather all the necessary tools and get started but ultimately give up partway through after finding out how troublesome and time-consuming it was.

That woman was only human.

Even carrying the unconscious Scylla would take a lot out of her, so her extreme tension was probably allowing her to push past her usual limits.

But that wouldn’t last forever.

So there was one big question: would she manage to walk all the way to the river and “do the deed” before she ran out of mental gas?

If she managed to smash open the unresisting Scylla’s skull or even just threw her into a river, that was that. A Scylla was apparently an aquatic immortal, but I didn’t know if she could actually breath underwater or if she could use such an ability while unconscious.

The brook in question ran through the residential district.

It was not even as wide across as the roads around here and it only had a small concrete bridge across it. There was nowhere to play and nowhere to fish. It looked a lot like an artificial waterway meant as a safety valve that would guide rainwater away.

The snow must have piled up on the bottom because the water filled it up to the banks despite no real increase in rain recently. The road was only a few dozen centimeters above the water level.

Ayumi had arrived ahead of me and she was leaning out over the small bridge’s railing. She was staring down at the water, but she shook her head when she noticed me.

“No, it doesn’t look like they’re here! The snow doesn’t look disturbed!!”

“We’re running short on time.”

That woman had carried a 50kg weight this far and then walked right past this river to go elsewhere. Even though it would have all been over “for the time being” if she dumped the body in the water here.

She had shaken free of the temptation. Just like someone trying to decide between stopping at a half marathon or turning back for the full marathon, and choosing the latter.

She was not going to come to her senses like this.

She was not just running on temporary tension. The needle had to still be turned all the way over to maximum. She was not going to stop partway through and she would see this through to the end once she arrived at her destination.

“Ayumi, let’s split up. Share your map with Maxwell and head for the further away rivers while I check the closer ones. You’re a lot faster than me, so please!”

“B-but then what about you?”

“Things have changed. We aren’t up against a full-power Scylla, so I don’t need an Archenemy’s strength to protect myself. So go! Hurry!”

Ayumi was still hesitant, but she must have understood that being even a second too late would bring us back the point of no return here. She finally managed to shake free of something and ran to the other side of the bridge while using her phone as a guide.

“Maxwell, where should I go!?”

“Travel 80m west from your current location. You should come across an exposed portion of Crescent Moon Creek.”

“Exposed?”

I couldn’t come to a stop.

I had to run full speed even as the snow tried to grab at my feet.

“Most of the creek is actually a culvert, so it is covered by the ground. There have been complaints about the water quality and the smell because the lack of sunlight and oxygen has caused the plankton to die, allowing only the putrefying bacteria to multiply and turning the creek into sludge.”

That was perfect for dumping a body since it would decompose more before discovery.

But this taught me there were areas so close to home I was entirely unfamiliar with. Things looked so different when viewed from an unfamiliar angle and the supposedly orderly city layout seemed like it was set up to lead me astray.

Eventually a rotting eggs smell reached my nose.

It was the stench of sludge.

The creek was a public property, so no one could clean it up or put a cover over it even if they knew that was the source of the stench. I could see why people were submitting complaints to city hall if it smelled like this 24/7.

But if you wanted to get rid of something and have it decompose beyond recognition, this would be the place to go.

“!?”

I quickly came to a stop as I came across the goopy-looking river and hid behind a corner of a wall there.

Someone was there.

And they were not alone.

That swaying blonde hair really did stand out. I stuck just my phone out around the corner to check with my camera.

“Search targets located,” said Maxwell. “The forehead glasses Class Rep and her mother are there, with Umikaze Speechia over the latter’s shoulder.”

“Contact Ayumi and call her back here.”

This looked more like a road than a bridge. The creek full of thick water was flowing a level below here, but the current took it underneath the ground itself. I couldn’t tell what it did after that. It really did feel like no more than a waterway.

At the intersection, I could see movement by the guardrail running alongside the road located a level above.

An adult woman carried the Scylla over her shoulder and a glasses girl was clinging to her and trying to stop her.

I had finally found her.

I had found the Class Rep!!

“Why wouldn’t she have knocked her mom over on the way here?”

“Umikaze Speechia is in no state to cushion her own landing,” said Maxwell. “She may have been worried that doing so could end up subjecting the defenseless girl to a modified belly-to back suplex.”

The woman’s other hand held a hammer…no, it looked like one, but was it actually a meat tenderizer? She may have grabbed something from the kitchen.

“Mom!!”

After coming this far, the Class Rep let out a pained cry.

But it did not reach the woman.

She casually dropped Umikaze to the ground like she was setting down a bag of cement. The long blonde hair braided together at only a few spots down its length was snaked out across the snow.

How much of the damage would the microplastic snow have absorbed?

When the mother than mercilessly raised the meat tenderizer, the Class Rep rushed straight at her. The “hostage” was now on the ground, so she no longer had to hold back out of fear of harming Umikaze.

But.

Even so.

Did you forget, Class Rep? Your mom is wielding that blunt weapon in order to kill someone. Clinging to her hips from the front will only get you hit on the exposed back or head.

So if you’re really a mother, I really hope you can recognize the very child you’re trying to protect.

“Maxwell, support me!”

“This course of action is extremely not recommended.”

“I have my doubts too, but the Class Rep is in trouble if I don’t do it!!”

At this point, I didn’t have time for anything clever like contacting the Class Rep somehow and having her distract her mom while I snuck up from behind and grabbed the weapon away.

There was nothing as fancy as “planning” here.

But if I introduced a target who was within reach and would cause more trouble than the Class Rep, she was abound to redirect her hostility that way.

Of course, I wasn’t an Archenemy. I was only human. And I didn’t have a gun or knife.

But this was the only way of making her feel danger right now.

I was wearing a mask to avoid breathing in the microplastics, so I could hide my identity by wrapping a large handkerchief around my head like a bandanna.

I couldn’t be Amatsu Satori right now.

I had to become Mystery Boy A as I popped out around the corner of the wall.

I aimed my phone toward them and produced as many bright flashes and loud artificial shutter noises as I could.

I forced my voice into a bit of a falsetto and shouted as loud as I could.

“Ah ha ha!! Holy crap! The apocalypse really has arrived in Kukyou City! I’ll get loads of view from this! Internet advertisement cash here I come!!”

Yes.

She had dragged the Scylla from her house to avoid having her home be the murder site. She wanted to dump the body in a river because she thought letting the body decompose would confuse the forensic investigation.

But.

All of that went out the window if she was photographed in the act. She would fear my phone’s camera more than a gun or knife, more than an Archenemy’s strength, and more than her daughter clinging to her.

“…”

She slowly turned her head toward me like a machine and focused her eyes on me.

I guessed we were more than 10 meters apart.

And yet.

I heard…something slicing through the air?

As it passed right by me???

“Warning: this is why I said this was not recommended!!”

She had done a windup like a baseball pitcher.

And then she threw it.

I finally realized the object that flew right past my face was the hammer-like meat tenderizer.

Wait, was that it stabbed into the concrete wall behind me!?

“This continues to not be recommended! Major warning: do not take your eyes off your opponent during such a critical situation!!”

I heard a short shriek.

When I quickly looked forward again, I saw the Class Rep’s attempt to tackle her mother had been foiled when she was tossed aside by a single arm.

That woman was looking my way.

With mechanical-looking eyes that were disturbingly lacking in emotion.

This was the same look she had given Umikaze Speechia the Scylla.

The rusty nails look coming from beyond her glasses was something the Class Rep had definitely inherited from her.

She had locked onto me.

“Tch. I missed.”

She kicked off the snowy ground and raced straight toward me.

This was not a Zombie like Ayumi or a Vampire like Erika.

She was human.

Simply human.

But.

This wasn’t about her biological specs. It wasn’t even about the actual clash. My legs had been drained of all power from the moment I heard her low voice that sounded like it came from a wrinkled witch. This was the neighbor who had protected a complete stranger like me since I was little. She may have seemed even kinder than my actual mother. She was like an absolute safe zone for me, so when I felt her directing real and merciless killer intent toward me, it really did feel like my legs were going to give out below me.

Yeah.

Home was the same as school.

There was no such thing as a truly unconditional safe place on this entire planet.

“Warning!!”

“Gah!?”

With just one arm, she grabbed at my throat and lifted my feet from the ground. And without slowing down, she slammed my back against the concrete wall behind me.

I…couldn’t breathe?

This was insane.

I was pretty sure she had never even tried out kickboxing as a form of exercise, so could she really manage this just by swinging her arms and legs around? Was this really the work of that gentle woman who looked good in glasses!?

Her mind was boiling over with anger, but this boost in strength was not just a plus for her. She had to be damaging her own body on the inside.

“Stop, mom! You need to stop this!!”

The Class Rep was shouting while still lying down on the microplastic snow a short distance away.

That pulled my mind back before I could fall unconscious.

The woman also increased her brutality.

So she could protect the Class Rep.

We both wanted the same thing, but that had taken us in very different directions.

I was starting to fear she was really going to use just her hand to crush my throat and break the thick bone within.

But…

You may be willing to go to hell for your daughter’s sake, but I don’t want to see her cry either. And to avoid that, you need to remain a part of the family you’re trying to protect! Because I know you’re not a murderer or conspirator! You’re the kind of person who comes rushing over when you hear a child crying!!

Families weren’t guaranteed to say together forever. They would break apart if you didn’t consciously work to hold them together. I knew that all too well. I still had nightmares about it.

So.

I really did respect you for constantly protecting the Class Rep’s family. Because I know how much of a miracle it is to hear ‘welcome home’ when you step through the door in the afternoon. It told me there really were people out there like the ones you saw in dramas and on movies. My family couldn’t manage it, but it taught me that all that talk about family bonds wasn’t just a complete lie. You are about half the reason I didn’t fall into despair about the world as a whole!

So.

Don’t you dare.

Don’t you dare let go of all that just because you hit a bit of a bump in the road!!

“It makes me so sad to see you like this!!”

“?”

Was she taken aback because I yelled from so close, or had she finally realized she recognized my voice?

For whatever reason, her grip on my throat weakened slightly, so I took that chance to move my empty hand behind me.

I reached for the concrete wall.

I felt around to find the hammer-like meat tenderizer stuck into the wall and I grabbed it.

“Wait…are you Satori-kun!?”

“Hello, Shoumi-san. Agh…but it’s time you came to your senses!!”

I struck with the makeshift weapon as hard as I could.

But not at the face in front of me.

At the wall behind me.

I grimaced at the dull pain from my wrist, but that wasn’t all that happened. The microplastic snow was clinging to everything out here, so the impact that ran through the concrete wall stripped the minute particles from it and sent them soaring through the air.

She was wearing glasses.

And while she had blown past her body’s limits, she was not used to getting all that much exercise. She was out of breath and her temperature was elevated. Anyone who wears glasses probably knows what that means.

Yes, the lenses were fogged up.

That was why she failed to hit my head when throwing the meat tenderizer. She had walked here carrying a 50kg weight, so of course she was out of breath and overheating. And what if the microplastic snow rushed in toward her while those lenses were faintly damp?

This time, her vision was truly reduced to zero.

“Kyah!?”

Your vision of course allowed you to see things, but it also helped a lot with keeping your balance. You can see that easily enough by shutting your eyes and seeing how much harder it is to balance on one leg. Shoumi-san began to wobble with her vision suddenly dyed white, so I swung my body to the side while still dangling from her hand. I also grabbed at her wrist with both hands and twisted it to the side with me. Both of us collapsed onto the microplastic snow.

Then we rolled along the ground.

We were fighting to get on top and to be the one holding the meat tenderizer.

“If we let her live, she will try again. She will be back to attack again until she is successful! Capturing her and tying her up isn’t enough! She’ll just get away!! So!!”

“So…what? You’re going to kill her!? You’re going to smash her head in with this meat tenderizer!?”

“Yes!! She already knows where we live and my daughter is beyond my reach everyday at school! There are too many openings. Just one knife to the gut and I can’t save her!!”

“Can’t you see that decision – that kindness – is making the Class Rep cry!?”

“!?”

I couldn’t overpower her.

Shoumi-san’s mind was burning too bright with anger, so she wasn’t thinking straight but she was more powerful than me! She was going to win this struggle!

“Be a good boy, Satori-kun. Just hand over the meat tenderizer. Now!!”

“Hell no.”

“Please help me save my daughter. All you have to do is relax your grip. I don’t want to have to hit you!!”

“Each and every word you think is helping her is only tearing her life to pieces!!”

I didn’t care anymore.

She had the upper hand while leaning down on top of me, but I was going to have my say!!

“Are you insane? However they might act elsewhere, parents can’t afford to do the wrong thing in front of their kid!! They can’t destroy their child’s image of them! I thought you understood that! Isn’t that why you couldn’t bear to see the warzone next door and took in a stranger like me!?”

I must have had a dark look in my eyes back then and I’m sure I really would have rotted away if she hadn’t given me a warm blanket and some hot milk.

So now it was my turn.

You’re the one who protected these feelings burning in my heart. Instead of falling into a jaded worldview and deriding the idea of hoping for a miracle, I can actually believe there is some kindness in this world.

So.

So.

So.

I refuse to give up here.

If your heart really has gone empty and you don’t have anything left with which to save the Class Rep the right way, then I’ll return what you gave me in the past!!

This opportunity came from you originally, so hold your head high and let me save you!!

“Maxwell!!”

“Loud noise warning.”

The blast of noise was so loud I thought it would blow out my phone’s speaker.

That alone wouldn’t do any damage.

Not even a smartphone was that convenient.

But.

Shoumi-san had already been blinded by the microplastics sticking to her glasses, so what would happen if her inner ear was shaken by an ear-splitting roar?

“?”

She wobbled to the left while on top of me. And she may not have even been aware of it.

I used that to my advantage.

“Ahhhh!!”

I twisted my hips to throw her to the side. I climbed on top of her instead and used my weight to pin her down.

But even after that, she smiled thinly up at me.

With a hint of self-deprecation.

“What are you going to do now?”

“…”

“You are where I was 30 minutes ago, Satori-kun. You might have the upper hand now, but as soon as my hands are free, I will go and kill that girl. Tie me up with rope or handcuff me if you like, but I will break free. And once I break free, I will kill her. So what do you do!? Try to persuade me? Put me to sleep with a drug? Seal me up in some secret underground room? None of those are realistic! Now you know what the one and only actual answer is, don’t you!? The only way to stop a criminal who won’t listen to reason is to kill them!!”

Maybe so.

Maybe so, but still!

“Maxwell.”

“No,” she said. “I’m asking you. You’re the one that irresponsibly stopped me and is thus exposing my daughter to danger, so don’t think you can escape this by running to your machine for answers.”

“Kh.”

I was pinning her down and held the meat tenderizer, but my heart was going to be swallowed up if she kept this up!

When she lectured you, she would cut off all other options with a bunch of super reasonable arguments that even a child had to accept.

This person really was Shoumi-san.

No matter how far she had fallen!!

“And don’t try to say it would make my daughter sad. We both know this is about something more important than that. So what is it you want to do in front of that daughter? Answer me! And if you can’t, then get off of me!!”

She hopped up from below me.

She was going to throw me off of her!?

“…!!”

I clenched my teeth and raised the meat tenderizer.

By the time I held my phone toward her face with my other hand, she had almost entirely broken free.

It almost looked like a golf practicing app.

Lines indicating the ideal angle, level of force, and speed of the swing were displayed over the real image shown on the phone.

But the real image in this case was the glasses woman’s skull.

I used the meat tenderizer with a light enough touch that it was like pressing a switch on her right temple. I was pretty sure it was a light enough blow that it would cause the entire stack to collapse in a game of Daruma Otoshi.

But because I followed the guide, the force propagated accurately into her skull and rattled it just enough for her eyes to go unfocused. I quickly stuck my thumb in her mouth because it looked like she was going to bite her tongue from the shock, but she did not react at all to having something stuck into her mouth.

She had passed out.

“Pant, pant!!”

“Just to be sure, you should remove her snowy glasses and check her pupil’s reaction when you shine your phone’s light.”

I didn’t have it in me to follow Maxwell’s advice there.

I heard someone trudging through the snow on trembling legs to approach me. I slowly looked up while still sitting on top of the woman.

“Satori…-kun? Are you okay?”

“Sorry, Class Rep. I couldn’t find an answer for anything.”

“Those questions were meaningless. She didn’t have an answer herself.”

That was true.

No one had an answer.

But Shoumi-san had hoped I would have one, even though she felt irritated by my sudden arrival while she felt pushed to the limit. So she had tried to get me to give one. If I had been able to give her an answer, I might have been able to end all this and eliminate all her concerns by telling her she didn’t have to kill Umikaze and telling her she could protect her ordinary life without any blood on her hands!!

She had been about to kill someone because she couldn’t find another answer, so she had wanted someone to stop her more than anyone, but even I had ultimately taken the easy way out and relied on violence. So it all left me with a bitter aftertaste.

“Maxwell, what can I tie her up with?”

“Your belt or zip ties would work. Plastic rope digs into the skin, so tying them too tight can cut off blood flow.”

I dug through my pockets and found a few zip ties for tying together cables. Don’t ask why I had them on me. That’s just how workshop boys are. Think of it like how dog lovers always have dog fur on their clothes. For now, I used one of those to tie unconscious Shoumi-san’s hands behind her back.

And.

This was not over yet.

“Where is Umikaze Speechia?”

The Class Rep had left everything there to come check on me.

Which meant…

“…”

I saw someone slowly walking while half dragging her heavy body along using the guardrail.

She wasn’t walking toward us.

She didn’t have that much fighting spirit left.

She had turned her shabby back on us so she could sneak away. Her long blonde hair swayed side to side like an old grandfather clock’s pendulum.

Yeah, that makes sense.

She already had venom pumping through her veins and then she was nearly killed after being caught off guard by Shoumi-san who she had underestimated for being a mere human. Now was not the time for her dignity as a JB member or as an Archenemy. She could only bite her lip and tremble in shame as she ran away.

It reminded me of the skinny young man from JB who had been shot to death in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department holding cell. The video hadn’t shown his face as he died, but I imagine it was something like this.

But.

I was sick of being tossed around by her selfishness. If it weren’t for her actions, the Class Rep and Shoumi-san never would have suffered like that.

If I let her go, she would try to strike back the first chance she got.

I still didn’t have an answer to the questions that woman had hit me with. In fact, I had instead wielded a blunt weapon against her when she was only driven by her worries.

“Satori…-kun?”

But I did know one thing: I couldn’t let her go.

This had nothing to do with being human or Archenemy.

I got up from Shoumi-san while still holding the meat tenderizer that looked like it was designed based on a hammer.

I slowly stood up.

I couldn’t let that girl get away.

No matter what.

“Satori-kun!?”

That small figure was trying to run away on shaky legs.

She was curling up her back as if to protect herself and occasionally looking back over her shoulder in the most pathetic way.

Since she was running, she had to know what she had done was wrong. She had known it was wrong, but she did it anyway. And when it didn’t turn out the way she wanted, she had tossed it all aside and run away to save her own hide.

I couldn’t just let her go.

I only had to use that conspicuous blonde hair as a guide.

“Heh.”

I hadn’t meant for it, but a breath of laughter escaped from the bottom of my gut for some reason.

I heard a dull sound from my hand.

It came from the grip of the hammer-like meat tenderizer I was squeezing tight.

Oh.

Is this what it felt like for Shoumi-san, who isn’t an Archenemy or a pro assassin, to lift me by my neck with a single hand?

Even if someone tried to stop me or more or less threatened to take away my future, I wasn’t going to listen. I had my hands full just keeping the next five seconds from falling apart.

I was vaguely glad that I hadn’t squeezed my phone in that same way.

“Don’t you run away…”

I understood now why she had thrown the meat tenderizer at me as her very first attack.

You couldn’t plan further than five seconds out in this state. You couldn’t wait long enough to lure your fleeing prey into a dead end so you could attack them there.

My mind had progressed further than that, but my body refused to listen, like it was staggering forward. I wasn’t going to stop. Because this was the correct answer straight outta the textbook!

“…from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Something caught at my right arm.

Just as I prepared to throw the meat tenderizer at the coward’s back, the Class Rep frantically grabbed at my arm with all her strength. The meat tenderizer slipped from my hand and spun off in the wrong direction.

But that was fine.

I didn’t need that weapon.

“Stop, Satori-kun.”

I could find stones to hit her with if I dug into the snow around here. And if I didn’t want to place any suspicion on the Class Rep or that woman, then it was a lot cleverer to find a weapon out here.

I had a vague idea that I could tear her leg muscles like this and then maybe she wouldn’t be able to get back up.

That sounded good to me.

And shut up, conscience. I don’t want to hear from you right now.

“Please!! Don’t you resort to violence too! Don’t leave me all alone!!”

The Class Rep shouted something while her feet were lifted from the ground and she swayed like a pendulum.

A pleasant scent tickled at the tip of my nose.

She was using both arms to cling to me, so a lot of softness and warmth was reaching me. Ignore the situation and we probably looked like a boyfriend and girlfriend pressing shoulders together.

But…

(She’s getting away.)

However…

(Class Rep, she’s getting away. Then she’ll strike back. And what about Shoumi-san? It’s all that Scylla’s fault. She’s an Archenemy. What were her good points? A transfer student. I thought she was a friend. Is there anything that will make her hesitate? JB. She was after me. It’s my fault. Because I just sat there and let it all happen!!)

The scales were shaking.

The cup sitting on the scales was beginning to spill its overfilled contents.

Would I stop here, or would I continue one? Would I let her live, or would I kill her?

Would I give up, I would I break free?

I clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would break.

And I shouted the thought on my mind at the very last moment.

“Class Rep!!”

I couldn’t have sounded more pathetic.

It must have sounded oddly distorted, like I was peeling something off of the back of my throat.

But then I felt her arms around my neck instead of my arm and we tumbled down onto the snow together.

“Ah.”

None of it felt bittersweet.

She was sobbing and wailing while clinging to my chest. Almost like she had completed her round of Russian roulette without dying.

Had it been that bad?

Had it looked that likely I was going to kill someone here?

“Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

I heard a silly fwump sound.

Umikaze Speechia must have tripped over her own feet.

She had been trying to escape while propping herself up on the guardrail, but now she had collapsed limply into the microplastic snow. Her long blonde hair trailed behind her. Itou-san’s venom must have finally caught up to her. After collapsing forward, the Scylla showed no sign of getting back up.

And.

“Fugu.”

With a dull thud, Ayumi dropped straight down on top of Umikaze with the intensity of a lightning bolt.

She must have been leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

My sister crouched down with her feet together atop the face-down Scylla and she looked over at me.

“What the heck, Onii-chan!? You tell me to rush here and I get here to find you hugging your Class Rep while ignoring the harsh reality around you? What happened to her mom!?”

“You just ended this. Although I was kind of hoping to show she wasn’t even worth killing.”

Things might look over and done with, but this was in fact not at all over.

Once I had Umikaze Speechia the Scylla’s arms bound behind her back with a zip tie, I managed to lift her up onto my shoulder.

But…

“Ghhh.”

“You’re not a trained firefighter, so why would you think you can do that, Onii-chan? Here, give her to me.”

“But Shoumi-san managed to walk through the snow carrying her… And you’re in charge of her anyway.”

“Fugu? The neighbor?”

“She’ll honestly be too much for me once she comes to, so I was hoping you could restrain her with your Zombie strength once she starts struggling.”

Yes.

We had knocked her out for now, but the Scylla would begin plotting revenge as soon as the venom left her body. And Shoumi-san would do everything she could to kill Umikaze Speechia to prevent that. It didn’t matter that this was her daughter’s classmate.

We had stopped things for the time being, but we hadn’t actually solved anything.

“Looks like our only choice is to drag them back home.”

“Fugu. Your Class Rep really looks like she wants to help.”

“No way. I want her to remain pure. I’m not getting her involved in this.”

“Wait, hold on. What about me?”

Ayumi, a very convenient girl I could summon with the tap of a button on my phone, glared at me, but I ignored it.

Our first destination was my house.

Maybe we should have left Shoumi-san with the Class Rep and let them go home, but I really didn’t think the Class Rep could handle her alone. If she woke up and still had that inhuman strength left, she would be able to tear right through a zip tie or duct tape.

It was less than 200m home, but my arms were exhausted by the time I got back while dragging Umikaze Speechia by her legs. She was in her school uniform, so her underwear was fully visible the entire time. But in that situation, it didn’t even seem like a treat.

But getting home wasn’t the end.

I still had another job to do just in case.

I caught my breath and then grabbed the shovel and broom from the entranceway.

“I’m going to erase the track made while dragging her. Ayumi, you look after things here.”

The falling snow would likely cover up the track on its own, but it couldn’t hurt to manually alter the microplastics already on the ground. Anyone who didn’t know the situation would only see me as a pierce of garbage who dragged an unconscious teenage girl back home with him.

Even after the poisoning, Umikaze had showed no sign of relying on a hideout kept by another JB member.

I doubted she had any direct colleagues or subordinates, but I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of a muscular young man who got the wrong idea about what was going on. It wouldn’t be surprising to find someone using the pursuit of justice as a way of blowing off steam while the disaster kept them indoors and their frustrations built. I really didn’t want to get beaten up further after all this.

Oh, and one other thing.

“I heard you captured the Scylla, Senpai.”

“I did.”

I called my underclassman and had her join me. After completing the work outside, I went back into my house.

“Eek!?”

The venom must not have worked well on her after all because Umikaze had already woken up in the living room, but she scrambled back on her butt the instant she saw Itou-san. Her arms were still bound behind her back, so her short skirt did some interesting things there. Not that it mattered when I had already seen everything while dragging her here.

Yes.

The higher-ranked Circe Witch could physically prevent the Scylla from doing anything more. But I couldn’t have Itou-san watching over her 24/7, so this was still only a temporary solution.

My underclassman put a hand on her lovely hip and a transparent jellyfish tentacle crawled out from her lower back.

“Looks like she’s woken up already, so should I inject her with a more powerful dose of venom? Oh, but if she’s developed some weird antibodies, the second time could cause anaphylaxis.”

“That won’t be necessary. I honestly called you here in case she wasn’t waking up and I needed an antidote.”

“Um?”

She tilted her head in the cutest way and the jellyfish tentacle bent to form a giant question mark.

Umikaze must have learned a hard lesson about that venom because she was seated with her back against the wall and trembling with her hands still bound behind her back. I crouched in front of her and got down to business.

“JB.”

“!”

“You sounded pretty confident when you said that. And you did all this to apply pressure to me. Now, you know what I mean by ‘all this’, don’t you? I’m not just talking about taking over the school.”

“…”

“Let’s discuss how this all began.”

Maxwell had mentioned that the microplastic snow was almost certainly an intentional attack instead of a simple disaster.

“How much is JB involved in this? Are you the person who built their Freischutz simulator, or are you someone it’s bossing around? And how much of this will recover if I deal with you?”

That might sound powerful, but having to ask all that was an admission that I was several steps behind. I had confiscated her phone, but not even Maxwell could break into it. I had no idea how much of that was reliant on their simulator, though.

But.

Confiscate her device and she loses all that. Just like I’m a normal high school boy without my phone.

I couldn’t let her notice.

I could only hope she was caught up in the moment.

“Wh-what do I…” She gave a pale-faced glance over at my underclassman’s wriggling jellyfish tentacles. “What do I gain if I tell you any of that?”

“I can persuade her.”

I didn’t mean Itou Helen.

When Umikaze looked where I pointed my thumb, she jumped so hard she fell over onto her back. This time, her underwear really was on full display.

Yes.

Shoumi-san was lying on the sofa.

“I don’t want to make a murderer out of her either, so let’s find a good compromise here. …I can’t solve the microplastic snow issue without you. That means it will be all thanks to your help that we can save her daughter. That will be enough to stop her. So talk. Before she wakes up.”

“…”

“If you don’t, I really don’t see how I can stop the bloodshed. If it comes to that, I’ll cut your zip tie, so just run away form here as fast as you can. I’m not on your side, but like I said, I don’t want any more blood on her hands.”

I didn’t make any weird threats.

I didn’t exaggerate.

I simply told the truth. Sometimes, that was the most frightening thing. That Scylla controlled groups in a closed environment using lies and panic, so she would understand better than most how valuable the truth was.

There was no stopping that woman.

She would do whatever it took to protect someone she had found to be more important even when weighed against the rest of the world.

Umikaze had to understand at this point how frightening a parent could become when they really and truly felt the need to act.

She gulped and she must have realized there was no other way of escaping this situation. She finally parted her lips and moved her dry throat to push out a trembling voice.

“I-I mentioned the Charybdis, didn’t I?”

“The monster that works in a pair with the Scylla, right? The students at the school became that giant monster when their panic made them form a single aggressive mob.”

A Scylla alone was not a powerful Archenemy. The Scylla simply attacked people in secret during the panic caused by the Charybdis.

But.

“That isn’t quite accurate,” she said. “There is a monster and I do specialize in taking advantage of the panic it causes, but the panicking students were not the monster.”

“…?”

“They were the heroes tossed about aboard the ship…in other words, they were my food. I can control them, but they aren’t my equal partner.”

Then what was the monster?

Could the giant man-eating monster be the Freischutz simulator? No, that wasn’t it.

After some thought, I arrived at an answer.

“The microplastic snow is the great storm – that is, the artificially created disaster – meant to shake the large boat and send the heroes into a panic,” she said.

“You mean the giant sea monster that created that storm is…?”

“The Noble Ingot cargo ship still burning out at sea and sending out an endless supply of snow. That is the partner, the Charybdis, that JB prepared for me. But that isn’t all.”

“?”

This went beyond anything I expected. She was starting in on a different topic.

Taking some semblance of the initiative may have relaxed her tension because she laughed a little.

“Didn’t you find that cargo ship fire odd? It’s been days since the fire began and it still isn’t showing any sign of being extinguished. Even though the firefighter boats surrounding it are professional equipment. Do you really think the fire would last this long for no reason?”

“An unextinguishable fire? But how could JB create something like that? I put out a microplastic fire near Huge Camera with just an ordinary firehose.”

“That only works with the snow accumulated on the ground,” said the blonde girl. Wait, no. There’s more than one blonde here. Said the ''wicked'' blonde girl. “But the cargo ship is the source of the microplastics, so the amount in the air there is far greater. The coast guard appears to be using a foam extinguishing chemical meant for use against petroleum products, but coating the ship’s deck and floor with the stuff isn’t enough. There, it can burn in the air when the density is right. Simply put, the heavy extinguishing chemical passes right through it. Right through the air that could ignite.”

The Charybdis was a monster that created a giant whirlpool to trap a ship full of heroes.

“I can’t believe this. So the firefighters or coast guard or whoever they are won’t accomplish anything no matter how hard they try?”

“But once they correct for their mistake, the Noble Ingot’s fire will not last long. All that remains is to find a way to get word to them during this blackout.”

I finally felt like the goal was in sight.

Ocean fires are fires aboard ships, oil rigs, megafloats, and other ocean structures. The definition is vague since fires on islands or reclaimed land connected to the ground qualify as ordinary fires, but some experts insist that fires on bridges, artificial islands, and underwater tunnels qualify.

Ocean fires tend to be taken less seriously than wildfires and fires at industrial complexes because of the low risk of it spreading to residential areas on land, but they are extremely risky fires that pose a significant risk of secondary damage to the firefighting crews sent there.

With fires on large ships such as cargo ships and cruise ships (and submarines, although those are rare in Japan), searching for survivors can be difficult because the smoke fills the corridors, turning it into a smoky labyrinth, and extinguishing the fire comes with a great variety of risks such as the possible ignition of the fuel or flammable cargo, the flooding of different areas of the ship, electrical shocks from shorts in the electrical system, and even the entire ship tilting or sinking. They can be seen as some of the most difficult fires to extinguish.

Ocean fires are dangerous even when they are the result of an accident, but the risk doubles when they are set intentionally. A large ship traveling between different nations can contain weapons not found in your home country and domestic cases might not be a good reference for how often guns or explosives will be found.

That is why ocean fires tend to be handled not by the ordinary fire fighters but by the coast guard who are trained as divers and for unexpected naval combat. That might sound simple enough, but the Fire and Disaster Management Agency belongs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications while the Japan Coast Guard belongs to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, so they often fight hard to be the ones placed in charge of a case that will make them look really good on the news when they solve it. Not because everyone wants to be a hero, but because those obvious results are an excellent way of demonstrating why they deserve a larger budget in the next fiscal year. It can be hard to tell since they are paid from the people’s tax money, but government jobs are indeed jobs and they are always focused on profitability – in other words, on cost performance.

But to put it another way, ocean fires are so dangerous that they stop worrying about such things when it comes to them.